A mini Lib Dem reshuffleFollowing Charlie Maynard's resignation as the Lib Dem Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Davey has now done a mini-reshuffle of the Liberal Democrat spokesperson team in the House of Commons: Bobby Dean takes over Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lee Dillon replaces him as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Manuela Perteghella replaces him as a Parliamentary Whip Paul Kohler is the party's new Immigration and Asylum Spokesperson, adding this to his Northern Ireland brief Ian Roome is the party's new Veterans and Service Personnel Spokesperson Sign up to get the latest news and analysis (more) |
Michael Moorcock and Iain Sinclair in conversationFrom The Morecambe Fringe Festival Podcast: In this episode writer and filmmaker Iain Sinclair catches up with Sci-Fi author and Hawkwind collaborator Michael Moorcock in an exclusive Morecambe Fringe Podcast interview. Click on the image above to listen to it. (more) |
Remembrance parade arrives at Whickham War MemorialFilmed on Sunday 8th November as the Remembrance parade arrives at the Whickham war memorial. (more) |
The letter on Russell Brand that the Guardian declined to publishYesterday's Joy of Six included a post by Lucy Siegle about the Guardian's long and close involvement with Russell Brand in . In it Siegle, a former Guardian journalist herself, referred to a letter she had written to the newspaper. As she expected, that letter has not been published, so she has included it in a new post on her blog: The Guardian must examine its own role in enabling Russell Brand Your editorial on Russell Brand's conviction (The Guardian view on Russell Brand: his conviction sends a powerful message, Friday 6th November) rightly challenges the media culture that enabled ... (more) |
Remembrance Sunday video - the parade forms upOn Sunday we held the Remembrance Sunday parade in Whickham. I've made a number of videos of the event. This is the first - the parade forms up ready to head to the War Memorial. (more) |
LibLink: Nick Clegg on "near total failure" of Silicon Valley cosying up to TrumpOver on The Atlantic, Nick Clegg has written an excoriating critique of Silicon Valley's cosying up to Donald Trump after his 2024 re-election: Over the past week, following MAGA's significant losses in the midterms, I have been asked the same questions again and again: How could Silicon Valley have gotten it so wrong? Why did tech leaders not anticipate the consequences of joining themselves at the hip to MAGA straight after Donald Trump won reelection in 2024?" What follows is not a critique of the individual tech leaders themselves—some were more restrained than others—nor is it a personal commentary on ... (more) |
North Cornwall MP refuses to apologise for banging on about...er...North CornwallBen Maguire MP was interviewed on LBC by our old friend Iain Dale. Iain summed up the interview saying: "You've done very well – you've got "North Cornwall" in five times. Do you get media training to do that?" – To which Ben replied: "It's only because it's the best constituency that I have to keep banging on about it". * Newspasty only contains skirt steak, potato, turnip, onion, salt and pepper. (more) |
Charlotte Cane, Malcolm Saville and the floods of 1947Charlotte Cane, the Liberal Democrat MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire, has been elected chair of the all-party parliamentary group for sustainable flood and drought management, reports the Ely Standard. And it's no wonder that she takes an interest in such matters. As Cambridgeshire Live once described, the freezing winter of 1946/7 was followed by something worse: Swollen by torrential rain, the onset of a rapid thaw, and unusually high spring tides, all the major rivers burst their banks, inundating farmland, roads and homes. A vast area of land was swamped, half of it prime arable land desperately needed to ... (more) |
Lib Dems set Burnham end-of-year deadline on water - as Defra Sec sits on her handsThe Liberal Democrats have set Andy Burnham a deadline of the end of the year to publish a full plan to fix Britain's broken water industry - or explain to Parliament why his new Environment Secretary has made so little progress since taking office. The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Prime Minister to publish a full plan for the water industry by 31st December. If no plan is forthcoming, Burnham must come to Parliament and explain why Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has made so little progress in more than 100 days in post. This comes as regulators confirmed water ... (more) |
Are Labour taking lessons from Trump?The Guardian reports that Shabana Mahmood's ICE-style raid agency has been accused of engaging in "fishing expeditions" after figures disclosed that almost two-thirds of enforcement visits result in no arrests and nearly three-quarters are conducted without a warrant. The paper says that the home secretary has hailed the expanded use of immigration enforcement teams, and claimed they will help to secure the UK's borders by removing a key incentive for irregular migration. She has sent these teams to targeted establishments associated with informal "black market" work such as nail bars, car washes, barbers, takeaways, construction sites and warehouses, as well ... (more) |