On Saturday 15th February, Marilynn Ord, Jonathan Mohammed and I, as the three Whickham South and Sunniside councillors, held our latest street surgery outside Sun Hill on Sunniside Front Street. Lots of conversations held and we managed to avoid the rain!
If you thought yesterday's quotation from Charles Masterman on July 2014 was bad, you won't want to read Mike Martin in The Big Issue. Here's the opening of the magazine's interview with the Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells: "I've been sitting in private committee briefings with senior officials, and they say there's a good chance we'll be in a war before the next election. I think that's right, that's my view," Mike Martin, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, elected to parliament in the 2024 election, tells me. "There's certainly more than a 50 per cent chance we'll ...
Huey Long, who was governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and one of its senators until his assassination in 1935, was mentioned here the other day. He was a populist Democrat, but unlike Donald Trump he really did care for the people of the state and was prepared to take on big business. Comparison to Lyndon Baines Johnson, another who used the political dark arts to progress a laudable agenda, might be more enlightening. This video takes you through Long's career and the cases for and against him.
The need for a new alliance As the world faces increasing geopolitical uncertainty, the nations of the North Atlantic find themselves at a crossroads. With Donald Trump's isolationist rhetoric and ambitions to bring Canada and Greenland into the US sphere, and with post-Brexit Britain seeking new global partnerships, a strategic realignment is necessary. A North Atlantic Union (NAU)—consisting of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and the UK (with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland having their own independent voice within the union)—could offer an economic and security framework tailored to the unique needs of these nations. By pooling resources and influence, the ...
I have always favoured unitary authorities - provided they are the right unitaries, of course. It is disheartening, though unsurprising, to see Labour reforming English local government in a way that undermines a structure I think should be embraced. Equally disheartening, for me, is the response from some Liberal Democrats. Alongside the call for unitary authorities, the government's devolution proposals also include Mayoral Strategic Authorities (or Combined Authorities), ultimately encompassing all of England, which I will cover in more detail in part two of this article. Replacing two-tier local government with unitaries streamlines governance. Why anyone would want Highways and ...
There are whispers that Nigel Farage intends to row back from his support for Donald Trump. So here's a reminder of the slavish adoration he has for years poured upon that grotesque figure. You may also remember that Farage was once very keen on being filmed and photographed with British veterans of the second world war. But it seems none of them was as brave as Donald Trump.
The Independent reports that top Tory Richard Holden has accidentally exposed his own party's shocking record on increasing prison capacity, revealing that the Conservatives increased jail spaces by just 455 places in fourteen years. The paper says that, in what appears to have been an attempt to dig up information on Labour's record, the shadow paymaster general used a written parliamentary question to ask how many new prison places were built under the previous Labour administration, between May 1997 and May 2010, and the previous Tory administration, between May 2010 and July 2024. Unfortunately for him, the response from justice ...
Last December, the Conservative peer Charlotte Owen introduced the Non-Consensual Sexually Explicit Images and Videos (Offences) Bill, which has made its way through the House of Lords. This followed the 2023 Online Safety Act, which not only made it a criminal offence to share, or threaten to share, images or videos of someone in an intimate state, but also included digitally manipulated ones, known as deepfakes, appearing to show someone in such a state. I am entirely on her side, but I would also like to see it cover content of a non-sexual nature, audio as well as video, which ...
As part of our revised West End ward surgery arrangements, we are holding a street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
