Lib Dems gain another councillor seat in Geoffrey Cox's constituencyThe principal authority council by-elections this week started off with a rare Tuesday contest: Long Eaton North (Derbyshire) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 28.1% (-7.7) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 27.2% (+4.2) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 21.8% (-2.7) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 11.8% (+4.5) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 5.8% (-3.6) [IMG: 🏘] DCP: 5.3% (New)Reform HOLD.Changes w/ 2025. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-12-02T23:57:31.335Z Thank you to Simon Roche for being the Lib Dem here. One result to come from Exmouth Halsdon (Lib Dem Fran McElhone). For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, ... (more) |
West End Christmas Fortnight - weekend activities! #dundeewestendSaturday 6th December From 10am - Land O'Spex Christmas Family Workshops at Gallery 48, West Port - Festive crafts with Cara Findlay and Sooz Gordon. Your workshop hosts will guide you in creating seasonal mark making and paper-based crafts. Easy activities for all the family to enjoy. Booking is essential - please visit https://landospex.com to get your free tickets (limit to 4 per person). Choose from one of three sessions - 10am to 10.45am/11am to 11.45am/12noon to 12.45pm. 10am to 12 noon - Harris Academy Christmas Fayre - including stalls - all welcome! 10am to 12 noon - Festive Crafts ... (more) |
Labour's march towards authoritarianismThere is a pattern developing here. The Guardian reports that UK Labour Ministers are seeking to ramp up police use of facial recognition to fight crime and are asking people how it should be used to form new laws. They are proposing a 10-week consultation that will ask for views on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people's privacy, as well as creating a regulator to oversee police use of facial recognition, biometrics and other tools: Policing minister Sarah Jones described facial recognition as the "biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching" saying that it ... (more) |
StatisticsI've just been looking at the statistics for my blog. In November, there were 46,742 viewings. Overall, there have been 1,780,942 viewings of the blog and posts since I first set up the blog in February 2006. By next year I hope to have exceeded 2 million though possibly not by the blog's 20th birthday in February. Finally, I have produced 3802 posts so hopefully I should go over 4000 in 2026. (more) |
A minute's silence for ColinSunniside History Society met last night for the first time since our former chair, Colin Douglas (pictured above), passed away. We held a minutes silence in his memory before starting the meeting proper.As this was the December meeting, we had our Christmas quiz and a buffet. As is now our normal practice, I wrote the history quiz. There were four rounds: soap operas, British Prime Ministers, (more) |
Elvis Costello and The Attractions: Watch Your StepThis is immaculate. And doesn't he know it? It's a live performance on American TV in 1981, introduced by someone who's been specially flown in from 1961. (more) |
Folk horror, Saxons and the workhouse: Brixworth on a sunny winter's afternoonI went to Brixworth yesterday afternoon. It's a large village between Market Harborough and Northampton famous for its Saxon church. (The spire is a 14th-century addition.) A low winter sun and bare tree branches always make for shadows that look like they are out of a folk horror film. There is a horrible irony about the village. It's workhouse was notorious: Soon after the Workhouse had opened the Secretary of State had to send a Bow Street Runner to Brixworth to investigate the strict policy being adopted by the Guardians regarding the payment of "out relief" to the poor and ... (more) |
A public demonstration of Russian state terrorThe Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, conducted by The Rt Hon Lord Hughes of Ombersley, has concluded that Vladimir Putin, along with "all those who sent them (the Russian agents who delivered the poison in Salisbury)", is responsible for Dawn Sturgess' death. This is a conclusion that many in Britain had already reached long before the Inquiry reported. It is not the first time the Russian state has used chemical or radioactive agents on British soil, nor is it the first time Putin's regime has assassinated those it deems inconvenient. In 2006, former Russian intelligence official Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-21. ... (more) |
Man sought over trousering of hedgehog statueBBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award. The judges were also impressed by the photograph provided by Lincolnshire Police. (more) |
Write a guest post for Liberal EnglandThe nights are drawing in. There's nothing to watch on any of the 94 TV channels. Doom scrolling is all you have left for fun. Don't despair! You could cheer your evenings by writing a guest post for Liberal England. It could be on the Liberal Democrats, politics more generally or... anything really. Why not something on a local campaign or quirky piece of history? Please drop me an email if you want to discuss your idea first: I'd hate you to spend time on a piece I wouldn't want to publish. Here are the 10 most recent guest posts ... (more) |