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 ...
Gateshead Lib Dems held another meeting on Sunday to work on the manifesto for the local elections next May. We already had a first draft as a result of our manifesto meeting held in the summer. The meeting yesterday saw us go through the draft in fine detail. Some additions were made, some sections were revised or removed. We had 30 members at the meeting, held at Sunniside Social Club. We
I'll start with a little confession: there was a time when I thought I was a socialist. I was the type who didn't actually join a party, I just sold the paper... but I was active in groups associated with these left-wing parties. I was involved in campaigns related to the NHS, anti-racism, LGBTQ+ inclusion and, later, opposition to the Iraq War. Inevitably this brought me into contact with many on the left of politics. I was also a trade unionist, which again inevitably led to encountering certain types of people - many of whom I retain a lot of ...
Put your titters away, because I'm talking about Shakespeare. In 1957 Frankie Howerd was invited to appear as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Old Vic. And very good he was to, at least according to Francis Wyndham in The Queen (7 January 1958): Some members of the audience may have feared that his gift for gagging might interfere with the sacred text; others, that his comic genius might be constrained within the limitations of a classic. On the first night he struck a happy medium, under-acting in the rehearsal and Titania scenes but bursting out with hilarious ...
The segregation of the classes is back, and it's not done only by price. Here's a report by Jessica Murray and Michael Goodier from the Guardian: The homes of people in Nunsthorpe, a postwar former council housing estate known locally as "The Nunny", sit only a few metres away from their more affluent neighbours in Scartho with their conservatories and driveways. Walking between the two is almost impossible because of a 1.8-metre-high (6ft) barricade between them, which blocks off roads and walkways that link the two areas in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Journeys that should only take a few seconds become a ...
Mon 1st
18:00
Mathew on Monday: Why the Lib Dems must be the credible alternative in a chaotic political landscape
The launch of "Your Party" over the weekend – the Jeremy Corbyn/Zarah Sultana-backed left-wing challenger to Labour – was hyped as being a show of unity, clarity, and a bold new politics. Instead, it descended into exactly the sort of chaotic spectacle that leaves most voters even more weary: factional infighting, activists and organisers being banned within hours, claim and counterclaim splashed across social media, and a level of internal turmoil that normally takes years, not mere minutes, to ferment. For a party that's mere days old, and that hasn't contested a single election yet, it was an extraordinary, almost ...
Rachel Reeves' second budget has some things which we should like plus some things we should dislike. Ed Davey shouldn't attack the government for increasing the tax burden. We as a party should accept that people want better public services and this means that the tax burden has to increase. We should welcome the ending of the two-child benefit cap which has been our party policy for years. Ed has welcomed the changes to fund three-quarters of the cost of the increased use of renewable energy from the government rather than consumers, which will reduce energy bills. We should welcome ...
There was much in Rachel Reeves' Budget last week for Liberal Democrats to criticise. The freezing of the income tax bands is a stealth tax. It will gradually push many people over time into higher tax bands, something that will especially hurt low income earners. The new tax on electric vehicles is a retrograde step when we are facing a climate crisis and we need more car owners to go green. In addition, Labour failed to implement a windfall tax on the big banks, something that we have been calling for. However, it was not all bad news for Liberal ...
"Companies that have collaborated with immigration enforcement agencies in various ways to aid Trump's mass deportation initiative - whether through allowing ICE to raid their parking lots, taking on contracts with DHS, or a variety of other actions - are starting to feel the rumblings of a consumer revolt." Adrian Carrasquillo says a backlash Is brewing against companies that help Trumps's ICE. Rowena Mason maps the depressing journey of Motability cuts from right-wing social media to Rachel Reeves' budget. Matt Simon finds that urban farms and gardens ease food insecurity, boost mental health and create communities. "Getting Franklin's story right ...
And so another week at Bonkers Hall draws to a close. It looks like Keir Starmer is in the clear for a while, but I still wouldn't accept any invitations to stay on mysterious islands off the Devon coast if I were in his shoes. Sunday These days every television celebrity thinks he's Dame Agatha Mousetrap, but there's more to the whodunnit-writing game than meets the eye. I once had a shot at it myself; all went well until I sat down to pen the final chapter, only to find I had not included a butler among the cast of ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 1 DECEMBER 2025 Old Hawkhill - road closed from approximately 50m south of Hunter Street (building defect) fom 9 October 2025 for approximately 3 - 6 months. Peddie Street - give and take traffic control from Monday 1 December 2025 for 3 weeks for lighting works. Forthcoming Roadworks Perth Road (near Ninewells Avenue) - temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 9 December (9.00am to 4.00pm) for Scottish Water work. Hawkhill (at Tait's Lane) - overnight (9.00pm to 6.00am) temporary traffic lights on Thursday 11 ...
The Mirror reports on research by their journalists that has found that Nigel Farage has made £140,000 from filming up to 2,000 personal Cameo videos, but has spoken in Parliament just 22 times and mentioned his Clacton constituents on only three occassions. The paper says that the Brexit MP has trousered more than £140,000 from selling personal messages on the US-based Cameo platform since December last year. They add that last year he even got up before the rest of his family on Christmas morning to log on and send a message: His speaking records show he stood up in ...