The Independent carries an interesting opinion piece in which they quote Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, as saying that if Trump invaded Greenland it would make Vladimir Putin the "happiest man on earth". They report that the EU and the UK are in emergency talks on how to face Trump's latest threat of a 10 per cent tariff on goods from eight countries unless Greenland is sold to the US, with the tariffs set to rise to 25 per cent on 1st June. What Trump doesn't appear to understand is that if he smashes Nato, the US will be vulnerable ...
Embed from Getty ImagesSignificant numbers of Liberal Democrat MPs are becoming frustrated by Ed Davey's cautious leadership and the party's failure to spell out a national message to voters, according to an article posted on the Guardian website this afternoon: Peter Walker quotes one MP as telling him: "Morale is low. No one is saying get rid of Ed. But what they are saying is that those around him need to move with significant pace towards the development of a national story for the party to tell. We need to be a bit more serious about being the third party." ...
Britain should stand with Iran's protesters, not the regime. That means targeted pressure, democratic solidarity, and practical steps that actually bite. Here's what those practical steps should look like: Proscribe the IRGC We must treat the Revolutionary Guard as the terrorist apparatus it is. This means proscribing the group and closing loopholes that allow intimidation and fundraising networks to operate in Britain. Expand targeted sanctions and sanction evasion Britain must pursue the asset freezes and travel bans of regime officials, security leaders, and enablers of the regime. To ensure these sanctions hit, greater emphasis must be placed on cracking down ...
I spotted this while out and about. It speaks for itself.
Another Gateshead Lib Dem action day was held yesterday, this time in my ward of Whickham South and Sunniside. I am pleased to report that all patches in the Whickham part of the ward were either delivered or taken by people who will deliver them this coming week. The Sunniside edition will also be delivered this week.Photo above: my ward colleague Cllr Marilynn Ord with a bundle of Focuses
Europe is accustomed to Kings and Queens but over the centuries their power has been taken away, and they have become influential and neutral figureheads for their Country. In the case of our Country that process started in 1215 with Magna Carta. This was not a great movement for democracy and the rights of ordinary people but was a decree which changed the relationship of the King to the Barons and feudal overlords. Piece by piece and little by little more rights were granted not to ordinary people but the point was reached in the Great Reform Act of 1832 ...
BBC Radio 3's Late Junction is a treasure, so of course the station's controllers can't stop cutting it. It once ran for two hours, three time a week: now it's only 90 minutes and only on Fridays. As Wikipedia says: The programme has a wide musical scope. It is not uncommon to hear medieval ballads juxtaposed with 21st-century electronica, or jazz followed by international folk music followed by an ambient track. It was on Late Junction that I heard Carl Orff's Trees and Flowers, which is surely taken from the soundtrack of a lost folk horror classic. And I remember ...
Nuclear weapons In a few weeks—on 5 February 2026, to be exact—the 2010 New START Treaty will expire. For the first time since the early days of the Cold War, the world will be without a binding agreement limiting the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. The main reason for the treaty's impending expiration is that neither the US nor Russia trusts the other. All such treaties rely on inspections to verify that signatories are upholding their end of the bargain. START inspections have ceased. Washington and Moscow agreed to a mutual suspension of inspections in March 2020 during the COVID-19 ...
Someone asked: how was it? Sometimes it is difficult to find a clear answer to such simple questions. Honour? Joy? Pride? Or perhaps embarrassment, because the opportunity to meet the President of Poland does not come often. Do we often see eye to eye on key political matters? No, most definitely not. Despite his very busy schedule, I am glad that President Karol Nawrocki found a few hours to meet with the Polish community on Monday evening. It is a great honour to be able to participate in such an event, although I know that many more invitations could have ...
Liam McArthur (Photo: Orkney Liberal Democrats) It's the end of another week in which the main news stories have been about Reform UK. Zahawi's jump to Reform: principles for sale? Nadhim Zahawi's defection to Reform UK is being sold by his new party as a grand ideological awakening. In reality, it looks far more like a careerist pivot dressed up as conviction. This is the same politician who previously attacked Nigel Farage in strikingly moral terms — reportedly calling him "deeply racist" and even saying he'd be "frightened" to live in a country run by him — only to now ...
The Guardian reports that tech companies have been meeting government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day, enjoying high-level political access that dwarfs that of child safety and copyright campaigners, who called the pattern "shocking" and "disturbing". The paper says that its investigation has found that Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk's X, whose Grok AI image generator has sparked outrage with its sexualised images of women and children, were among the US tech companies holding hundreds of meetings with people at the heart of government: Google, the $4tn California company, had the greatest access, with ...