Watch 10cc laying down The Dean And I in the studioI gather you're allowed to like 10cc again. I loved them in the Seventies, though I'm Not in Love was played to death at the time and I much prefer I'm Mandy Fly Me. (more) |
Reform candidate who appeared to have done a Nazi salute quitsThe BBC reports that Corey Edwards's time as a Reform election candidate is over only days after it started: A leading Reform candidate who appeared to perform a Nazi salute in a photo has quit ahead of the Welsh Parliament election. Corey Edwards, a former Conservative special adviser, was only announced as his party's lead candidate in the constituency of Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg on Wednesday... Nigel Farage told ITV News on Thursday: "It was a Fawlty Towers impression. Maybe we should ban the BBC, I don't know". Corey Edwards is the third Reform candidate to have gone in recent days, ... (more) |
The Party President reports back... February/March 2026Here at Liberal Democrat Towers, we know that Party President, Josh Babarinde MP exists – we're on his constituency mailing list bringing us news of his campaigns in sunny Eastbourne – nice place, pity that Sussex County Cricket Club dropped Saffrons Week more than two decades ago... But, if you'd been wondering what he's been doing since he was passed a copy of "On Liberty" by his predecessor, Baron Pack of Crouch Hill (you did let him have it, didn't you, Mark?), we can report that he's allowed something to be placed on the Party website. And yes, it's a ... (more) |
ALDC by-election report, 26th MarchThere were four principal council by-elections this week, of which all had a Liberal Democrat candidate on the ballot. One council seat was being defended by us. Disappointingly, we lost this Oxfordshire seat to the Conservatives. It appeared to be down to a collapse in our own share of the vote, rather than any substantial uplift in the Conservative vote. The silver lining is that we managed to hold back Reform, who finished in third place, setting the Liberal Democrats up as the main challenger next time. Commiserations to Alan Bettridge and the local Liberal Democrat team. Vale of White ... (more) |
May local election prediction shows Lib Dems overtaking ConservativesStephen Fisher's latest annual predictions for how the parties will do in the May local elections are out, and they predict that the Liberal Democrats will overtake the Conservatives as the second party of local government. Stephen Fisher is an elections expert who is one of the brains behind the BBC exit poll and the annual projected national vote share calculations done for each set of local elections. Taking as a starting point the latest councillor number totals from Open Council Data (which will change slightly between now and the first Thursday in May), then the result after Stephen Fisher's ... (more) |
New pilot schemes aim to make voting easier but...I don't know about you, but the news that the Government had announced four pilot schemes to make voting "easier and more convenient" during this year's local elections had rather passed me by. To quote the release from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government; In Milton Keynes, voters can have their say in the city's main shopping centre – Midsummer Place – rather than being restricted to a single designated polling station. This could eventually be rolled out across the country in future elections along high streets and in town centres. People in Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells and North ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers' Diary: Today even their gaunt ruins have been razedAs it happens, I really did have tea at Betty's and then go to Evensong in the Minster when I arrived in York for the conference. I used to listen to Choral Evensong on Radio 3 while I was washing up after cooking for my mother on Sundays, and formed the opinion that no vicar ever got sacked for choosing something from Isaiah and Paul for the two readings. So I was pleased that the Old Testament reading I heard in the Minster came from Numbers, though it made no mention of badgers. Friday Much as I love York, the ... (more) |
We need to do more to sell the story of a Liberal BritainI know that I'm not alone in contemplating what our next steps as a party are. We see the Greens and Reforms cut through on the media circuit and their memberships have seen stark rises as a result. Whilst each of these parties have almost diametrically opposed platforms, they do have one thing in common: having a vision for the country they want to see. Reform is selling a "return" to a rose-tinted view of the past, where Britain stood alone and strong and where their interpretation of traditional values made the world less confusing. As Liberals, we understand that ... (more) |
Two seats change hands in council by-electionsFour principal authority council by-elections this week, all with a Lib Dem candidate. That full slate is up one on the last time these seats were up (and here is why that is good news). However, after a Lib Dem gain in the Vale of White Horse two weeks ago, this week brings: Stanford (Vale of White Horse) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌳] CON: 45.9% (+2.5) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 27.2% (-17.0) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 18.0% (New) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 7.9% (-4.5) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 1.0% (New)Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrat.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-03-27T00:32:25.173Z The Lib ... (more) |
Reform's Senedd campaign in chaosNation Cymru reports that members of Reform UK have warned of growing "chaos" behind the scenes in Wales as infighting erupts over candidate selections for the Senedd election. Farage's party has just announced all its candidates for the election on 7th May, but the process appears to have thrown up the usual problems of insufficient vetting and infighting, a problem that also haunted the UKIP group in the 2016-2021 Welsh Assembly: One senior Reform UK source said: "The selections have been disastrous from the moment they began - all of the promises Zia Yusuf made when Farage put him in ... (more) |