Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would 'undermine national energy security' Helen Maguire: Not enough has been done to address abuse against women in our Armed Forces Children's Bill: Labour vote against free school meals "deeply disappointing" Scotland's disease burden forecast to increase by more than half Badenoch speech: Scrapping net zero would 'undermine national energy security' Responding to Kemi Badenoch's speech today claiming that Net Zero by 2050 is 'impossible', Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper said: Kemi Badenoch is taking a leaf straight out of Nigel Farage's playbook while turning her back on the millions of former Conservative voters ...
Something different from the Trekking Exploration YouTube account: drone footage of the mighty Welland Viaduct. This stands on the line between Corby and Manton Junction, which was built in the late 19th century as part of a quicker route from London to Nottingham. Today the line is chiefly used for freight, though there is one passenger journey each way between Melton Mowbray and Kettering on weekdays. This is chiefly so drivers can learn the route - it's also used for diversions on the St Pancras main line if there's a pressing need to avoid Market Harborough. This footage was shot ...
Chaminda Jayanetti examines the hidden impact of Labour's disability benefit cuts - from carer's allowance to railcards. "When they receive the annual service charge statements, they find costs that bear no relation to the services they receive - street lighting for a block of flats, access to facilities they are not allowed to use, or simple paint jobs costing tens of thousands of pounds with no say over who carries out the work or how it is done." Labour MP Kate Osborne says the end of the feudal leasehold system cannot come soon enough. Seventy years before congestion pricing landed ...
Liberal Democrat Newswire #194 is one of my special extra editions, this time due to an important vote coming up at Lib Dem Federal Conference. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, just sign up now: On my ordinary schedule, the March Liberal Democrat Newswire would not come out until after our Harrogate Federal Conference. But I wanted to slip one of my special editions ahead of then as, among the other important issues on the agenda, there is a significant debate coming up on Saturday afternoon about how ...
Wed 19th
17:54
Why do Government politicians believe that big local government is better than small local governmen...
I do not suppose that there many people left in active local government positions who remember the big, big, big bang of local government reorganisation in 1973. But gentle reader I was there not as a councillor but as an active campaigner for what was then the Liberal Party. I did not become a councillor until 1975 when I became a City Councillor in Liverpool. Those elections were for new councils to replace the plethora of councils which existed before then. Hundreds of councils disappeared, largely the old urban and rural district councils. County boundaries were reshaped in places like ...
LGBT+ Lib Dems co-chairs Charley Hasted and Luke Allan have issued a statement concerning distressing incidents that took place at Federal Conference in Brighton. At the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Autumn 2024, a volunteer for Liberal Voice for Women harassed two members of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on two separate occasions. The volunteer in question admitted waiting until our members, one of whom was an autistic woman less than half his age, were alone on our exhibition stall to target them. We are pleased that a disciplinary panel recognised his behaviour for what it was and upheld a complaint against ...
Leicester Cathedral is running an oral history project to capture the story of the discovery, identification, and reinterment of Richard III in 2015. Here are a few snippets from the project's site: Richard Buckley, former director of University of Leicester Archaeological Services, talking about Philippa Langley's powers of persuasion "The site was occupied by Social Services department, but Philippa managed to get the ear of the then Chief Executive, Sheila Locke, who was attracted by the idea, which I thought, you know, if I'd gone to them and said, 'I want to destroy your car park on this wild goose ...
Wed 19th
13:48
Making the cement for the yellow wall - how candidate selection reform will make us stronger
On May 22nd last year, I watched Rishi Sunak announce the general election. Little did I know that a few hectic weeks later, we'd be celebrating having 72 MPs, an enormous achievement that is a testament to the hard work of volunteers and staff across the party. However, we did not achieve that success by continuing to do what we had always done; we did it by ruthlessly introspecting and improving. Just because we have won does not mean we should stop our self-reflection. By my calculations, if we introspect as hard as we did last time, we should end ...
Bad as Liz Kendall's announcement was - and it was awful - the Conservative response from Helen Whately was worse: Where is the fit note reform crucial to stem the flow of people on to benefits? Where is the action on people being signed off sick for the everyday ups and downs of life? Why is the right hon. Lady planning to save only £5 billion when the bill is forecast to rise to over £100 billion? ... Fundamentally, this is too little, too late. The fact is that £5 billion just does not cut it with a bill so ...
At this time of crisis, the Lib Dems must seize back the `Reform UK' initiative from Nigel Farage and his ramshackle party. Freedom is at stake. Voting intentions (polling data from 10 March) are 15% for the Lib Dems and 23% for Reform UK (from 11% and 25% last December). Here's how to build on this poll hike. Farage's stated belief in electoral reform contains an inherent contradiction: while he ostensibly champions PR, his dream of being PM in 2029 hinges on First Past The Post being maintained. To be recognised as the real party of reform, the Lib Dems ...
Well, now we know. The Guardian reports that up to 1.2 million people with disabilities will lose thousands of pounds under the government's welfare overhaul, as campaigners warn that the plan will exacerbate the country's mental health crisis and push more children into poverty. Building on the failure to abolish the two-child benefit cap and forcing thousands of pensioners to choose between heating and eating with the abolition of the winter fuel allowance, yesterday the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, laid out her long-awaited changes to the benefits system, announcing a set of measures that will save £5bn by ...
[IMG: Save Encryption Practice safe text next to speech bubble in progress pride flag colours] Last Friday, journalists and civil liberties organisations waited outside London's High Court while inside a secret court hearing took place. Despite efforts to petition the court, they were denied access even though the outcome impacts people in the UK and around the world. Leaks to the press suggest that Apple may have been appealing a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) issued under the Investigatory Powers Act — often dubbed the Snoopers' Charter. The TCN is believed to have instructed Apple to introduce a capability that would ...
