"First past the post brings stability" "Coalitions bring chaos" Tell that to the 6 Prime Ministers we have had in 10 years Meanwhile the last government that lasted 5 years without changing leader was a coalition The arguments against proportional systems do not stack up

Actions have foreseeable consequences for anyone with a brain.

Aggregate Result of the 4 Council By-Elections Since the 2026 Local Elections: LDM: 2 (+1) | 28.1% (+6.3) CON: 1 (+1) | 22.5% (+4.1) GRN: 1 (-) | 20.6% (-2.2) RFM: 0 (-) | 21.8% (+21.8) LAB: 0 (-) | 3.2% (-11.6) Ind: 0 (-1) | 3.0% (-8.0) Loc: 0 (-1) | 0.0% (-11.0) electionmaps.uk/council-by-e...

This result sees the Liberal Democrats REGAIN their majority on Dorset Council.

There are days when I miss being an editor. I loved writing headlines. Whoever did this, I hope they took the rest of the day off.

So for those struggling to keep up, the Green Party’s preferred candidate who wasn’t selected because of her antisemitic posts was replaced by a guy who has now stood down because of his antisemitic posts. The Greens have so much work to do. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I know it’s exhausting to do this endlessly but do write to your Labour MP opposing Labour’s bathroom ban. The party does this because it thinks it’s making the problem go away.

This is unworkable and a huge step backwards for human rights. I will be calling on the Government to urgently rethink this before it's too late.

The Lib Dems have been clear that Thames Water does not have a future. The rescue deal should be rejected, and the company should be rebuilt as a company for public benefit. Thames Water must work in the public interest and stop charging exorbitant fees for a terrible service.

Trump & Vance need to stop meddling in British politics and sort out the mess they have created in their own country. Here’s a message back: we don’t want your division, conspiracy politics or MAGA culture wars. And we don’t want unarmed civilians shot in our streets. Britain is better than that.

But perception and big numbers confuse. On BBC R4 Today Nick Robinson pointed out that Tesco profits went up 8.5% last year. True, it made a pre-tax profit of £2.4bn but Tesco has active 24mn Clubcard users. Distribute that out equally and it's just £100 each, or £2 a week.

Once again, “AI” cannot perform the functions we are told that it can. Stop pushing out bad software and demanding we all adopt it.

Nice!

The most effective way of bringing down food costs is to decarbonise the grid.

I think fixing prices in the supermarket is a bad idea and if we are concerned that people don't have enough money to buy essentials that is what the benefits system is for

Liberal Democrats will always fight for Proportional Representation, to make sure politics works for everyone. We may have every councillor on some councils, but we don't have every vote. Everyone's voice deserves to be heard and represented.

I hope the Lib Dems will take the opportunity of this by-election to run an honest issues based campaign. We aren’t going to win so we might as well tell people what we believe and want to achieve. Maybe we can shape the debate a bit!

lmao the head of moldova's public broadcaster resigned because the moldovan jury didn't give romania 12 points at eurovision

They’ve ditched the equestrian statue btw.

Ok can I just say that the UK has an incredibly simple and efficient way of getting rid of a PM. It’s a confidence motion in the House of Commons. Vote against the government and you get a new PM overnight. Instead we are doomed to spend our lives in quasi legalistic factional party BS procedure

You know that seaside town that everybody makes fun of for being run-down? Book a night in a B&B there this summer. Go and spend money there. Have fish and chips and an ice cream. Have a pint in a descent pub and spend an hour losing money in the arcade. But a bucket and spade and enjoy the beach

Ok the British Eurovision entry was a really bad song. just terrible. Every year there seems to be some discourse about picking the “right Eurovision song” but it’s nonsense. The winners are often wildly different. You just need to pick a good song! Have they tried that?

This person proudly declared she wasn’t a feminist and that she was happy to be funded by the American Christian right wing but she was paraded around Britain as a simple women’s rights activist with some concerns. Will anybody take responsibility now?

Ok I’m voting for Bulgaria. What a banger 😉 Honourable mentions to Malta, Finland and Sweden #Eurovision

Nigel Farage insisting "I cannot be bought," after being exposed for secretly trousering £5 million from a crypto billionaire, buying a house with the money, and then immediately launching a lobbying campaign for the crypto industry, is quite something

Excellent by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social: the idea that the United Kingdom is “ungovernable” is just excuse-making around the catastrophic failures of the last government and the poor planning of this one in how and when to fix those failures:

Yeah if you're only counting scandals where there's personal enrichment (Ecclestone and Cash for Peerages for instance both involved payments to the parties and were significantly bigger in size)

"I need the most on the nose statement of populism you have"

We won every seat on Richmond upon Thames Council last week. But that doesn’t mean we’ve changed our mind on electoral reform. It’s time the Government stopped defending a broken system out of self-interest and backed proportional representation.

Farage says his £5 million gift was a “reward” for Brexit. The rest of us were rewarded with higher bills and years of chaos. This grifter must not become prime minister.

I’m done with Lab peeps telling me we can’t have PR cos it means not all of their manifesto can be implemented! You didn’t persuade enough people! It’s democracy! Also, no one else can tell me FPTP delivers stability, whereas PR would deliver chaos! Where the fuck have u been the last 10 years? 🤣

Perhaps now we'll get a Health Secretary who will take on social care, rather than dodge it because it's hard. Who will end corridor care, not preside over its worst ever year. Labour needs to get a grip.

Oh what a tangled web they weave... Farage now admits he bought the Clacton house, having told everyone last year that his partner Laure Ferrari bought the house.

Maybe that 17 minute meeting was actually Starmer telling Streeting he was about to be sacked and replaced by somebody who doesn’t hate trans people 🤞

Variolation was a really good idea at the time but it is not vaccination. It was less effective and dangerous. Jenner’s discovery, proving and popularisation of vaccination is probably the single greatest scientific achievement in history and pretending otherwise doesn’t make you a better person.

Watch: New Lib Dem MSP Yi-Pei Chou Turvey, who was born in Taiwan and raised in Belgium, gives her oath in three languages as she is sworn in at Holyrood.

I covered that march. Here's the first paragraph of the story I wrote about it: www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...

I totally get why it is usually considered homophobic to do the “maybe they’re secretly attracted to men and ashamed” bit But I wish people would also remember that Kinsey found that nearly half of men have some degree of same sex attraction and a 3rd have at least one sexual experience with men.

I confess that in my weaker moments I have invoked my (not particularly noteworthy) military service as a signifier of public service and diligence. The idea of using it to brag about how steely I am makes me want to shrivel up in embarrassment

Sex Matters and their fellow transphobes want to see trans and non-binary individuals entirely excluded from society. Fortunately most people don't. Overwhelming majority of people who use these ponds want them to be trans-inclusive. It is great they are remaining so. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My feed is now full of posts saying “it wasn’t Labour’s fault, the Tories just beat the Lib Dems” and while that is basically true, perhaps they should reflect on how Labour’s behaviour to the LDs in coalition fuelled that result? A Tory government was their reward.

This is why we join together the letters L, G, B, T, Q, I, A - because an attack on one ALWAYS ends up being an attack on all.

Americans espousing heresies is one of my favourite genres of take these days.

"In Twickenham and Richmond Park, we now have every single councillor, but we don't have every single vote. We'd welcome electoral reform in our councils, where we are overrepresented." Lib Dem leader @eddavey.libdems.org.uk calls for a fair voting system in his response to the King's Speech:

I’ll tell you what might help keep the British steel industry afloat: a British shipbuilding industry

In our approval tracker. Ed Davey, saw a bump in approvals to reach the top spot this week at -5. Badenoch down a notch at -8, Farage up at -11. Polanski up from last week’s dip at -22 but still below his highs. Starmer ticks down slightly again at -46.

In our first Westminster VI after the local elections, Reform’s lead increases to 9pts over Labour ➡️ REF UK 30% (+2) 🌹 LAB 21% (nc) 🌳 CON 19% (-1) 🌍 GREEN 11% (-1) 🔶 LIB DEM 14% (+2) ❓OTH 2% (-3) 🟡 SNP 3% (+1) N = 3,070 | Fieldwork 9-12 May | Changes w/ 4 May

The @ec.europa.eu is PROUD🌈 Pride week is a celebration of love, identity, courage and community. And every day of the year, we work hard to make Europe a space where everyone can live freely, openly, authentically.