Taking the biscuitLast night I chaired the meeting of Sunniside History Society at Sunniside Social Club. The speaker was Dr Paul Stott who used to work as a naval architect in the shipbuilding industry in the North East before moving into the world of academia where he lectured on the industry of which he had lots of practical experience.Paul's presentation looked at the decline of UK shipbuilding from its (more) |
Poppies on displayLarge Remembrance poppies have started to appear in Sunniside. Thank you to the volunteers from Planting Up Sunniside who have been hard at work placing the poppies around the village. (more) |
Planting Up Sunniside meetingPlanting Up Sunniside held their monthly meeting on Tuesday and I was invited to come along and discuss a number of issues with them. Most of them was about the Christmas tree switch on event on Wednesday 26th November. Most of the details are now sorted. There will be live music and the mayor will do the switch on at 5.30pm. I've also arranged for three donkeys to be there (my links to farming (more) |
How can I stand in the rain leafleting for a party that does this?I canvassed seventy-five doors for the Liberal Democrats last Saturday. I know it's not a massive number by many politicos' standards — I mean, I did seven hundred and sixty-nine across the short campaign period last year — but it's still a decent amount to do on one casualish action day, I think. And yet, when I watch my partner (our local candidate) trawling through the local rag's website for things we can use as Focus stories, I can't help but wonder what I'm doing here. I am (as far as I'm aware) the only trans member of our local ... (more) |
Be careful who you vote forThe Guardian reports on one Reform voter in Lancashire, who is learning the price of supporting Nigel Farage's party. They tell us about Phil Price, whose mother is in Grove House in Adlington, one of the homes earmarked for closure by the Reform-run council: He said: "My mum is 93. If she finds out about this, it'll kill her." He said he was disgusted at what he fears is a conflict of interest involving Reform's cabinet member for adult social care, Graham Dalton, who owns a private care company in Lancashire. "I'm a paid-up member of Reform and I'm disgusted ... (more) |
Our West End street surgery tonight #dundeewestendWe are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks. (more) |
One-Nation Conservatives Are Not Our Support BaseThe Liberal Democrats are not the Conservative Party. This statement may seem quite obvious to you or I, but it seems to elude our current leadership; in the Autumn 2025 Conference, Ed Davey would state in his closing speech, "Come, Conservative friends. Help us save our country." Now on the surface level, this makes sense to ask for, under the 2023 Seat Redistribution, we held only 8 Seats, and of the whopping 64 Seats we gained in 2024, 60 came from former Tory Constiuencies, and only 4 were from SNP Constituencies. Clearly, the disaffected moderate Tories had come to the ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1431"Nine of the groups are being run from Sri Lanka, three have admins in Nigeria, and the admins of six other groups appear to be located in Mexico, the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Kosovo. The remaining eleven have hidden their locations, but conform to the same pattern of fake address - AI memes - gaming video creator, suggesting they are similarly moderated."Katherine Denkinson explains how foreign entrepreneurs are monetising the clicks of British racists. Rebecca Hamer on the common thread that links abusers, from grooming gangs to Jeffrey Epstein and his friends. "His speech on Monday was a ... (more) |
US election results are a huge relief - but it's still the economy stupidOne of the strange things about US democracy (and there are many – as there are in the UK) is that when a party is defeated in a Presidential election it immediately ceases to have a recognised leader and wanders through the political wilderness like thousands of headless chickens. No party has better demonstrated the above more than the Democratic party since the morning of November 6th 2024. They seem to have gone through a soul-searching exercise that has come up with very little in the way of answers as to why they lost, for a second time, to Trump. ... (more) |
Lib Dem Donna Harris leads Lambeth Council in rejecting committee seat for sex-charge councillor[IMG: Headshot of Cllr Donna Harris] When a review of Lambeth Council's committee structure proposed putting a councillor who had been arrested on charges of sexual assault, exposure and controlling and coercive behaviour on a committee that investigates wrongdoing, Lib Dem leader of the opposition Cllr Donna Harris was having none of it. Donna, who is the chair of Lib Dem Women, the official body in the Lib Dems representing women, led the efforts to get this stopped. For a week she tried, unsuccessfully, to block the move behind the scenes. However, when the appointments came to Council recently, she ... (more) |