The National Trust has launched a £300,000 appeall to buy the land surrounding the Cerne Abbas Giant, reports BBC News. The site it hopes to acquire amounts to 341 acres, but size isn't everything. The Guardian says it has already exchanged contracts on the site and will use funds, grants and bequests to cover £2.2m of the asking price. Presumably the £300,000 is needed on top of that. Its report also says: The planned purchase is expected to clear the way for more archaeological investigations around Britain's largest chalk hill figure, which looms over the rolling Dorset landscape. It would ...
I am just quickly posting this now in between appointments and I will do some commentary later. The Federal Returning Officer Crispin Allard sent this email out giving the results of the Federal Committee elections: I can confirm that today we have completed the count for the internal federal elections, following an initial delay. The results can be found below: Federal Board: Hannah Kitching; Janey Little; Prue Bray Federal Board – Councillor Rep: Lucy Nethsingha Federal Council: Adrain Hyyrylainen-Trett; Aiden Van de Weyer; April Preston; Candy Piercy; Caroline Leaver; Caron Lindsay; Charley Hasted; Dominic Martin; Donna Harris; Gareth Roberts; Hannah ...
[IMG: Large billboard expressing solidarity Ukraine] From last Wednesday to Sunday, I visited Berlin with my girlfriend. From the museums and Christmas markets to the people and the general atmosphere, I loved it, reminding me why we must seek to rejoin the EU as soon as possible. But one thing that struck me, almost immediately, was the continued and vocal support for Ukraine in its fight to defend itself against Russian imperialism. From the moment I stepped out of my hotel, which was only a stone's throw away from the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the support was evident. A huge Ukrainian ...
Dogs, cats and ferrets across the world have cause to be grateful to Lib Dem MP Danny Chambers. His Bill preventing puppy smuggling and trafficking of heavily pregnant animals received Royal Assent from the King yesterday and is now the law of the land. "Britain will no longer be a market for animal cruelty" said Danny to Lib Dem Conference in September. Here's his whole speech where he was completely upstaged by Vikki Slade's gorgeous dog Todd. Speaking as his Bill received Royal Assent, Danny said: I am incredibly proud to see this Bill receive Royal Assent and become law. ...
"The mansion tax will impact less than the top 0.7 per cent of households. At a time when Britain's public services are stretched to breaking point and taxes will inevitably have to increase, it is only right that we asked the wealthiest property owners to contribute more. Asking the wealthiest to pay more to lift children out of poverty or to invest more in the NHS and social care is the fair thing to do. In fact, it is the Liberal Democrat thing to do, or at least it was up until a few days ago."Paul Hindley says Ed Davey ...
[IMG: Chelsea Whyte selection graphic] On being selected for Runnymede & Weybridge, Chelsea Whyte said: I am delighted and honoured to have been selected as the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Runnymede and Weybridge. With my team, I'll be speaking to voters across the constituency over the coming months, so if you want to get involved, please get in touch! See here all the Liberal Democrat PPCs for the next general election selected and publicly announced so far. Keep up with news about Lib Dem selections If you'd like to hear about future selections, just sign up for my monthly ...
For over 20 years, I have stood in cramped cells and worn-out courtrooms, watching the state line up against the individual. I've seen frightened teenagers, exhausted mothers, people who made bad choices and people who were wrongly accused. Throughout it all, one thing has kept our justice system feeling fair: when it really mattered, ordinary people had the final say. Twelve strangers, chosen from the community, sitting together as a jury. Now, a Labour Government that claims to be "on the side of the many" is quietly pushing that safeguard towards the exit. Last week, more than 100 lawyers warned ...
After a three week delay, the counts for the Federal elections will get underway at 10 am. By the end of the day, we should know who has been elected to the Federal Board, Federal Conference Committee, Federal Policy Committee, Federal International Relations Committee, ALDE delegation, Federal Council and the Councillor representatives to FPC, FCC and FC. The counts were delayed in the wake of the decision of the Returning Officer to change the ways the diversity quotas operated just one day before the ballots opened. This was successfully challenged to Federal Appeals Panel which led to the results being ...
Ninewells Community Garden has excellent Practical Plants sessions that all residents are welcome to attend. These take place on the first Friday and third Tuesday of each month from 2pm to 4pm Come and get hands on working in the medicinal garden and learn how to identify and harvest plants that will have uses in supporting your health and wellbeing. The gardening session for all abilities.
The Guardian reports that the Office for Budget Responsibility complained to senior Treasury officials in the run-up to the budget about a flurry of leaks that it said spread "misconceptions" about its forecasts. The paper says that Professor David Miles of the OBR's budget responsibility committee told MPs on the Treasury select committee on Tuesday that the watchdog had raised the issue of leaks with the department before the chancellor's statement last week. Rather ironic considering the OBR then leaked the whole budget, but still a valid criticism despite that faux pas: "I think it was clear that there was ...
One of the national newspapers is reporting that Farage is open to some kind of electoral pact at the next general election between Reform and the Conservatives. The suggestion is that each side would stand down in constituencies where they are weaker than the other. I suspect this will never happen. Reform is a coalition. Part of that coalition is a grouping made up of former Labour voters who
A pile up of Christmas fairs, two sets of Christmas lights switch on ceremonies and a day long manifesto meeting meant my weekly by-election analysis is a bit late (well actually very late!) So let's start with the results.Hunstanton ward in Kings Lynne and West NorfolkAnother Reform gain, this time from the Independents. Reform had not previously stood.Lib Dems came in second, only 46 behind
There was a great deal of comedy coming out of Liverpool over the weekend. Boycotted on the first day to avoid ranting comrade Corbyn's speech to the Your Party, Zarah Sultana made her appearance on Sunday instead. It seems that the Sultana and Corbyn show has had its plug pulled even before they had both agreed to be in the same room as each other. Instead, a politburo of worthies will run the
There will be a special screening of the film documentary Boarding on Insanity at Westminster on 19 January. The evening will be hosted by Simon Opher MP and feature a panel of speakers including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Alex Renton. A page about the event emphasises that the prevalence of boarding education is not a niche or historical issue, but a "public interest issue affecting safeguarding, social mobility, governance, mental and physical health across generations". You can see Piers Cross making that case in the video above. Attendance is by invitation only. MPs and members of the media can apply ...
Leicester Gazette is one of a new generation of local news outlets born out of the collapse of local newspapers and the right-wing bias of most national ones. It began almost three years ago as a website - Reece Stafferton wrote a guest post for this blog outlining the Gazette's plans a few months before it launched. Now comes news that the Gazette is to launch a print edition. An article on the Gazette site says it will have 32 pages and be a unique "half Berliner" size - slightly larger than a magazine but with the feel and look ...
Good news from the BBC News Shropshire pages: A historic Shropshire pub has reopened under new ownership, five months after it shut and was branded by locals as an "embarrassment". The Three Tuns Inn in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, closed on 11 July due to "unforeseen circumstances", former owner Heineken Star Pubs said at the time. Now its doors are open again under the management of The Shed, a Shropshire-based events and hospitality business. I visited Bishop's Castle this summer and found the Three Tuns closed and the town, partly as a result, rather depressed. As Darren Dixon, one of the ...
The party has had a long standing policy, at least since 2021, on the Digital Services Tax (DST), whereby it has backed its use starting from Autumn 2021 through the "Towards a Fair Global Corporation Tax System" motion passed. Since then we've gone into the 2024 general election to triple it from 2% to 6% to fund mental health support in schools, and since then we have wanted to raise to 10% to fund our increases to defence spending in this critical time. All well and good but next fiscal year it's projected to bring in £1.1billion, so an extra ...
About a month ago I wrote a piece on my blog examining the rhetoric coming from Ed Davey about appealing to One-Nation Conservatives, and found that his words didn't actually align with our current position electorally at all. This created a bit of a splash with it being featured on Liberal England, and even earned a response from political analyst William Lane detailing where we should go next. So imagine my annoyance when after the latest budget was unveiled by Labour Ed began speaking out against tax increases in a Tory-like fashion, most shockingly targeting the Mansion Tax of all ...
Our joint weekly ward surgeries take place tonight. This week they are as follows : Blackness Library (Tuesdays 5pm - every week during school term time) Ancrum Road Primary School (1st Tuesday of each month at 5.45pm during school term time) All welcome - no appointment necessary!
The BBC reports on comments by Welsh auditor general, Adrian Crompton, that "One or two" of Wales' councils are close to going bust. The auditor general told Radio Wales that councils face a "real squeeze" as costs spiral for children's care and other services, while at the same time local authorities have reacted with concern after the Welsh government announced an extra £169m in funding for next year, less than a third of what they said they need. The settlement could mean major cuts if a council failed to balance the books: There have been warnings for years that some ...