From the Grantham Journal, Saturday 16 December 1922. Medbourne Re-Opening Railway Station Wanted. - At a meeting of the Parish Council, steps were decided upon with a view to inducing the G.N.R. Company to re-open Medbourne Station, which was closed during the war,, and the train service from Leicester to Peterborough, via Seaton Junction, suspended. Medbourne station was open for only 33 years. It and the short line through it opened in 1883, the line was singled in 1905 and the station was closed as a wartime economy measure in 1916. After that the line was used chiefly for storing ...
Spring Statement When Herbert Morrison, deputy leader of the Labour Party during the Attlee Post War government (and grandfather of Peter Mandelson) was asked to define socialism he loftily replied "Socialism is What a Labour Government Does." It is hard to apply that description to the actions of the present government which could better be described as "Toryism continued," and not even all that "lite." Given the present run down condition of just about every public service you can think of, and not least the prison service, it is absolute madness for this rich country to be talking about even ...
I'm reading An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden - it's for a thing - and have come across another early celebration of multiracial London. The previous one, by Marjorie Allingham, dated from 1965: this one from Rumer Godden dates from 1956: The ugly accents of the Street children were unmistakably English, but the older people could have belonged anywhere; a great many had come from somewhere else, all tongues were spoken in Catford Street, faces were all colours, but even the people who had been born there and lived and died in it were like any people anywhere. It ...
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves (Photo: Getty Images) I don't know about you, but I'm really not sure what the point of the Labour government in Westminster is. I was reasonably happy when Labour won the General Election in 2024, although admittedly my feelings were probably more of relief at the Conservatives being ousted. I may not have been overly pleased at how disproportionate the outcome was, with Labour securing 411 seats with 33.7% of the vote, but I couldn't really argue with voters returning just 121 Conservative MPs - the party's worst performance since the emergence of party politics ...
The quality of my life dramatically improved when I realised i didn't actually have to sit through the rally. I could go and have a quiet dinner out with friends and then watch it on You Tube later. Here is Friday night's event which had a real live member of the Tracy Family from Thunderbirds. Honest. It wasn't Wokingham MP Clive Jones dressed up, honest. Enjoy. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
It's now more than a week (but feels so much longer) since I chaired the recent Mid Suffolk Forum of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils. And, unsurprisingly, the main item on the agenda was moves to abolish the current Borough, County and District Councils and replace them with some sort of Unitary arrangement. In Suffolk, previous attempts have run aground on the inability of the parties to agree. The County Council always wants a Unitary County, whilst the Districts don't, and Ipswich wants the biggest unit that Labour can reliably control, some sort of "Greater Ipswich". In 2009, when ...
BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this tale of life at the University of Leicester.
I type this with several trays of compost-filled pots balanced precariously on the window sill beside me. They contain the first seed sowings of the year for my flower and vegetable garden, namely tomatoes and sweet peas. They'll be followed, in due course, by peas, beetroot, lettuce, spinach, zinnia, sunflowers and much more. Over the course of the next few months, these seeds will sprout and their seedlings will emerge slowly from the soil. They'll unfurl their tiny leaves and soak up their first rays of sunlight. As they grow, I'll transplant them to larger pots in the greenhouse or ...
Reading the Financial Times is not for the easily troubled. At once the news it is mission-bound to report is confusing, intimidating, and depressing when the reader becomes aware of just how much money we don't have and trivialities on which the rest of it is being spent. However, amidst the gloom of flicking through the pink 'un these days, there is the occasional flicker of light, such as the recent article featuring Sir Ed Davey in which the Lib Dem leader endorsed a great idea - a closer working relationship between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and our own United ...
For a long time, I simply considered myself a liberal. I believed in personal freedom, a strong but fair economy, and the power of government to create opportunity. I wanted a system that worked for everyone, but I also thought markets, when properly regulated, could be a force for good. But over the years, I've come to realise that these values of equality, fairness, and a society that serves all its people are not just liberal values. They are socialist ones too. This isn't about abandoning liberalism. My liberal resolve has never been stronger. But, I have been forced to ...
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 or call us on Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
Layla Moran appeared on the Peston programme last night to talk about, amongst other things, the Spring statement. Watch here: She made the point that it is going to be much harder for disabled people to get into work because of the increase in employers' National Insurance contribution and confirmed that the Lib Dems would oppose changes which adversely affected disabled people and carers. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
The Independent reports that as predicted, Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her spring budget to implement a further squeeze on the welfare budget, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month, with the package now expected to save £4.8 billion rather than the more than £5 billion in 2029/30 hoped for by ministers. The paper says that in a damning revelation, the government's own impact assessment said after the announcement that an estimated quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, would be pushed into relative poverty by the end of the decade as a ...
