Labour have got into a bit of a tantrum about our claim that Gateshead Lib Dems are better placed than Labour to beat Reform at the local elections in May. Labour's vote has collapsed. Everyone knows that.
We have heard on the grapevine that the Conservatives in Gateshead have imploded on the eve of the local elections. Perhaps we should not get too carried away as there was little to implode anyway. The last time a Conservative councillor was elected in Gateshead was in 1992 and much of that was the result of the Conservatives doing well nationally - they had just pulled off a surprise general
Our Trivial Facts of the Day both come from a post by Richard James, who was my captain when I played chess for Richmond & Twickenham long ago. He is writing about the annual Varsity chess match: Aleister Crowley, "the wickedest man in the world", ... played for Cambridge in 1896 and 1897, while Harold Davidson, "the rector who was eaten by a lion" (he was actually mauled rather than eaten, but that's jumping ahead), represented Oxford between 1901 and 1903. As I've said before, it's great fun on my Trivia Desk, but you have to work weekends. Both Aleister ...
Julia Lurie collates accounts of conditions inside ICE's only family detention centre: "My younger son does not eat the food here; he is hungry all the time. He will only accept breast milk and it is not enough for him. He is growing. He is 2 and a half, and he needs to eat. I often worry that I will stop being able to produce breast milk for him. I hardly sleep and I am anxious all the time; I don't know what we would do. My toddler is losing weight very quickly." Hannah Aldridge explains why having a decent ...
On Wednesday I will be chairing the next meeting of Sunniside History Society. The speaker is Dr Richard Pears and he will be talking about Dunston Hill, the home of the Carr-Ellison family.
This photo was doing the rounds of Gateshead Lib Dems yesterday. Marilynn Ord and I in 1987 at a party to celebrate the election of myself and Ione Rippeth to Gateshead Council. We were immediately dubbed the Kylie and Jason of Gateshead Lib Dems! Marilynn was elected councillor in 1998.I am pleased to report that I have since found a decent hairdresser! Alas, I am no longer the brunette
Sad news. On Friday we learnt of the passing of Noel Rippeth, former Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Leader of the Opposition on Gateshead Council. He was a founder member of the SDP in 1981 and had been a Lib Dem campaigner ever since. He was elected to Gateshead Council in 1992 and became Leader in 1994, holding the position until 2010. Unfortunately, poor health forced Noel's
Yesterday, Together Alliance, a coalition of civil society groups aimed at standing up to the far right held a march in London at which our Leader in the London Assembly, Hina Bokhari, spoke. Watch her speech here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hina Bokhari OBE AM (@hinabokharild) Hina has written before for us about her own experience of racism and Islamophobia. Nobody should have to put up with that.
And so another week with Rutland's most celebrated fictional peer draws to a close. I also found the The Blue Bell that weekend and can heartily recommend it. York remains a wonderful city. Sunday What with the badgers and the nuclear warheads, I give the leader's speech a miss and spend my time in The Blue Bell, Fossgate, instead. I am told Ed Davey had those alpacas he met the other day sitting in the front row. Poor empty-headed creatures, they will vote for anyone who admires their hairstyles. Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10. Earlier ...
Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime was a hit for the Korgis in 1980. The two founder members of that band, Andy Davis and James Warren, had previously been members of the Seventies prog and folk rock band Stackridge. Stackridge had the distinction of being the opening and closing act at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970. Beck recorded his version of the song for the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I heard it again on the radio recently because it's the title track of a new compilation of Beck covers.
As the Scottish elections get underway, we know that one of our five MSPs will definitely not be returning to Holyrood. Elected in a 2019 by-election, Beatrice Wishart announced some time ago that she would be standing down at this election. Since then, she has been Shetland's voice in Holyrood, standing up for the islands and for women's rights and safety. This week, she made her final speech at Holyrood summing up the problems that islanders face with transport, affordable housing and connectivity. She finished by urging future MSPs to work together constructively across party. Enjoy. The full text is ...
Our current economic models are not fit for purpose. They fail to tackle the social-ecological crisis. And people know this. Since 2008, a pattern has emerged. From Brexit in 2016, to Boris' victory in 2019, to Labour's victory in 2024, the Greens and Reform's ongoing political boom, all these political phenomena share one common thread. Frustration. Anger. Resentment towards the status quo. And rightly so. Our political leaders, regardless of political party (excluding the Greens), all talk about "going for growth". We blindly chase economic growth, but we never seem to ask the question: at what cost? Who does economic ...
Anybody who thinks that the USA's Immigration Compliance and Enforcement officers is unique to that country should take note of the UK's equivalent force, though there are no shootings here and they are much better behaved. Earlier this week, the Guardian carried a detailed feature on how the Home Office enforces its policies. They said that officers have searched thousand of businesses in search of illegal workers, reporting on one raid at Mandira's Kitchen in Guildford last year: The raid is one of more than 17,400 on businesses carried out since Labour came to power in July 2024 - a ...