Latest voting intention and leadership ratings opinion pollsWelcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Find Out Now 17% (nc) 16% (+1) 11% (nc) 19% (-2) 25% (-1) -9% (4th, vs Ref) 18/3 GB ... (more) |
President Bola Tinubu 's state visit to the United Kingdom, a Nigerian Liberal Democrat's take on it.President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria came to the United Kingdom for a State visit from 18th to 19th March. This is a historic event as it is the first state visit by a Nigerian leader since 1989, when then military head of state Ibrahim Babangida was received by late Queen Elizabeth II. President Tinubu is the first Nigerian president to receive a state visit since the return of democracy to Nigerian in 1999. Considering the historic relationship of Nigerian and United Kingdom as Nigeria is a former colony, and Nigeria itself as a key player in the African continent and ... (more) |
Rape cannot depend on politics - a liberal lesson from 7th OctoberLiberal Democrats believe in universal human rights. The response to evidence of sexual violence on 7th October should be straightforward. Yet too often, when the victims are Israelis, the instinct to "believe survivors" suddenly becomes contested. If rape is used as a weapon of war, liberals should have no difficulty condemning it. That should be true whether the victims are in Bosnia, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo – or Israel. And yet, in the aftermath of the 7th October attacks, a disturbing double standard has appeared in parts of Western political debate. Evidence that women were sexually assaulted during ... (more) |
The tragic link between Mumbles and ChileSwansea is often referred to as Copperopolis because of its 18th and 19th-century role as the world's leading copper smelting center, producing up to 90% of the world's copper at its peak. It was this connection that forged an unlikely link between the city and Santiago in Chile. The Swansea Scoop website takes up the story: On December 8th, 1863, over 3,000 worshippers packed into the church of La Compañía de Jesús in Santiago, Chile, for a religious festival. The church was filled with thousands of candles, oil lamps, and other flammable decorations. When a ceremonial candles accidentally ignited the ... (more) |
Father of the HouseYesterday, at the full council meeting, tributes were paid to Jim Turnbull, Gateshead's longest serving councillor who passed away earlier this month. Jim was also the oldest member. He was 85 when he died. I paid tribute to Jim at the meeting on behalf of the Lib Dem group. I was the one who had served the longest with him. He had first been elected in 1982. I was first elected in 1987. It was (more) |
The conference shopLast photos from conference (I promise). In the olden days when we had only 11 MPs, getting a full set of MP mugs was affordable. Now, with 72 MPs, the cost if a bit more challenging if buying the full set!Guaranteed to be seen from a considerable distance (and probably from low earth orbit, Lib Dem must have fashion accessories were on sale at the conference shop. Put on one of those sweat (more) |
Meet the kids at the LibraryTomorrow, Whickham Voluntary Library will be holding their Easter fair and I will be there with Nettle, one of our nanny goats, and one of her babies. They will be there to raise funds for the Library. At the last fair, they raised £119. (more) |
We would all wallow in affluence if we shared more equitably.In the early 1950s the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Richard Austin Butler (arguably the best conservative prime minister we never had) told us that if the British economy grew at an annual rate of 3% we would double our standard of living in 25 years. In other words, be twice as rich. Butler didn't spell it out, but if we continued that rate for another 25 we would double it again, thus becoming four times as rich as in the early 50s. Well, we never quite made a steady rate of 3%. Other countries did, some by much more, ... (more) |
The last episode of Shoestring: The Dangerous GameThis post is written for the 12th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon on Terence Towles Canote's blog A Shroud of Thoughts. Click on the image above to go to a video of The Dangerous Game.Shoestring was different. Both the character and the programme were different. A rare BBC show built around a private detective, it ran for two seasons and was screened in 1979 and 1980. Eddie Shoestring, Radio West's "private ear", was a modern hero - so modern that he had suffered a breakdown after working with computers - and his eccentricities immediately cohered to form a believable ... (more) |
First canvass teamTuesday wasn't just used by Gateshead Lib Dems to deliver leaflets. It was also used to send out our first canvass team. The Pelaw and Heworth Team - Councillors Paul Diston, Amanda Wintcher and Ian Patterson - headed out to canvass in their ward. The results were in line with expectations. In other words, we were happy with the returns. (more) |