I'm no fan of the Lib Dems but I have to give Davey credit for being willing to acknowledge the US are a hostile power out loud, while Starmer continues to do his appeasement act.

End of the line - Steam loco Ashington No.5 has taken it's train to the end of the North Tyneside Railway on a bright cold autumnal day and passengers await the return journey to Middle Engine Lane.

This also sadly shows that parents often want their children to be a mirror image of themselves i.e. carry the same prejudices rather than encouraging them to be free thinkers.

Fixing Brexit’s damage isn’t ‘betrayal’ yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/brexit/... @suewilson91.bsky.social @bremaininspain.com @yorkshirebylines.co.uk @grassrootsforeurope.org

the children's homes and foster care business; reforming public inquiries; misusing AI in the classroom; the enslaved woman who fled Virginia for the North East of England; Christmas in the Victorian era; when Oxfordshire had its own road signs

December 22nd. Thank you for being #ThereForME, Sir Ed Davey & the Lib Dems @libdems.org.uk! This year the LibDems have been key players championing the need for improved support for people with ME in parliament. Nominated by Jonah Weisz @weiszguy.bsky.social#ThereForME✨

The West should assume that anything Putin agrees to is worthless as when he regroups he'll attack Ukraine (or any of Russia's neighbours) again. Now is not the time to show weakness to Putin.

A bigger question is why are any MP's, outside of Reform and Conservative ones obviously, still on X?

The issue is one for the Council to agree with its trade unions. So long as services are not negatively impacted then why does Government need to feel the need to pitch in? Indeed, I'm guessing that a happier workforce will hopefully deliver a better serice.

Keep at this and our demographic collapse comes earlier than expected

Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service has released photos of the breach at Whitchurch. #canals #whitchurch

Reform UK have repeatedly said that Kent is their "flagship" council and "the shop window" for how they intend to run things. When they are exposed as planning to slash social care for old people, in order to hire their cronies as advisors at £150k a pop, I think people should believe them. ~AA

Building in time for Merseyrail's oh so regular cacellations. So true, this once reliable Liverpool City Region Metro network is now shambolic:-( - richardkemp.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/i...

The UK will celebrate net emigration and depopulation come 2027. And by 2028 it will start to realise, with an ageing society and low growth, what a really silly thing it has done. The right will go "pro-natalist", the centre-left will be completely stuck.

England water company CEO says long-term water security is under threat. Customers already paid, companies didn't build reservoirs, dumped sewage in rivers, neglected investment, paid dividends Now want to charge customers again, not raising capital from shareholders. End the scam. Nationalise.

I'm old enough to remember being told technology advances would bring a world of plenty for everyone instead of a few billionaires with gated mansions, private jets & luxury yachts and millions living in poverty ravaged by war & climate change meme via Truth Against Hate

Interesting, of course we should rejoin the EU's Customs Union. However, this stunt is more about regime change at the top of the Labour Party. Expect Burnham to try his own stunts. Streeting is pretty much in open warfare with Starmer but he's also mired in Starmer's policy errors too.

Happy Christmas from the Frank Hornby Heritage Centre - Maghull, Liverpool, UK #bsmuseums

Tom Latham (137 & 101) & Devon Conway (227 & 100) are the first opening batters to score centuries in both innings of a Test match. Additionally, Conway is the 10th batter in Test history to score a double hundred & a ton in the same Test match. Well done. #cricketcounts #NZvWI

Fox hunting is a revolting sport. It's only survived in any form because it's done by ghastly, entitled, influential and aristocratic people who feel it's the God given right to charge about the place in silly costumes tearing animals apart for no good reason.

It’s all so pathetic isn’t it

Day 2151 of #Brexit: ‘UK manufacturers are to be hit with mountains of Brexit-style paperwork in January on £7bn worth of exports to the EU after the government failed to secure an expected exemption from new green taxes.’ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Green correct/blue wrong - TB2. Odd, non-show liveries peppered the Meccano Factory output of Gerry/Sylvia Anderson Dinky Toys in the 1960's/70's. Both these Dinky Toys are on public display at the free to visit Frank Hornby Heritage Centre, Maghull, Merseyside, UK. #bsmuseums

The ‘People’s Reform Party’ pissed £16k up the wall on helicopter joyrides and £5k on a chauffeur for Anne Widdecombe in 2024. 2025’ll be worse. Donate if you like being mugged off by posh hate tourists from Dubai cosplaying as “working people."

The UK Government is unlikely to see most of the £148m it is owed by a faulty PPE supplier linked to Baroness Michelle Mone after the company was wound up. Who saw that coming? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This year has brought not only new teaching, but also a few new publications. My chapter in "When We Speak of Freedom" (on the Radical Liberalism of Jo Grimond) was an absolute joy to write. It was deeply moving to learn that the chapter was later passed on to Jo's son. 🧡

The government's plan to protect domestic abuse survivors has big gaps buff.ly/xGbQ7eh @marisharay.bsky.social @wendychambld.bsky.social @libdemwomen.bsky.social One in eight women in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the last year alone

Reform UK’s Flagship Council Kent ⬆️ Increasing Council Tax ⬇️ Cutting services From the party that won the council after a local election campaign that criticised councils for raising tax and cutting services, they really are Hypocrites UK. www.northern-scot.co.uk/news/nationa...

Well worth watching - www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXXI...

Far right scum have been out harrassing the homeless on the streets & they are proud of it. The folks at @calaisappeal.bsky.social are doing everything they can to stand up to the hate 🙏 please stand with us 🙏 www.youtube.com/shorts/bxFVG...

Kookaburra cricket ball - English County sides had to play using it for a number of matches in 2025. The Aussies use it all the time, yet the English Test players didn't play in those games despite going Down Under this winter. Is there any wonder our Test team is performing poorly.

UK politics is a mess. Conservatives copying Reform's far right agenda. Labour creeping right over human rights etc. to track Reform too. Greens going populist left with an economic agenda to bankrupt us. Davey saying and doing all the right progressive things but not cutting through much at all.

Why the current attempts to pretend Kemi Badenoch's leadership of the Conservative Party has been anything other than an unmitigated disaster simply won't wash www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/kemi-baden...

Pitch perfect, sadly.

Keir Starmer - a former human rights lawyer- now has an opportunity to end the shocking, cruel & monumentally unjust IPP scandal - will he take it? youtu.be/O1gkY3gByHg

The worst, most dishonest prime minister we’ve ever had, rocks back and forth in his Daily Mail cubbyhole spewing out idiotic bilge to kid himself that he and his disastrous Brexit weren’t an almighty national fuck-up. A deeply pathetic threat from an abject failure of a man.

My new post celebrates the life and work of Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, an important regional architect and designer of some of the finest council housing in the land. There's a free access article that you can download and a new book by Adam Voelker: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/s...

Human rights are universal - politicians may not always find them politically convenient but it shouldn’t fall to any government to say who those rights should & should not apply to. Because none of us then has rights, just privileges that can be taken away by those in power youtu.be/bl0Lm7v_T18?...

2025 comes to an end…Lib Dems top the number of by-elections victories 🔶 It’s also the first time since the 80s that the Lib Dems have beaten both Lab and Con in terms of victories in the NW region in the same year 🗓️ Excited for the year to come 💪

Lord Rothermere's wife has donated £50,000 to Reform UK. I wonder which party the Daily Mail will endorse at the next election.

Christmas at Nostell, a National Trust property near Wakefield, Yorkshire, UK

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Liberal Democrats have won more local by-elections than any other party in 2025. In real elections up and down the country, only the Lib Dems are taking on Reform and winning.

Putin tells BBC the West is 'making Russia the enemy'. Well at least Putin is right over this.

I genuinely think this is one of the most interesting things about politics in England. The polls and actual elections all tell us 'Labour are super-unpopular and shedding votes to another challenger in their bloc' but they tell us different things about which challenger that actually *is*.

One could see this as Starmer looking at the media and blaming it for his poor ratings.....

When there is political will, Europe can lead. Rumours of the EU's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Don't believe the MAGA. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Putin has started his annual four-hour long end of year address. His aim: to show Russians everything is just fine despite a collapsing economy, failing infrastructure and rising prices.

Since David Frost has NEVER been right about anything at any point when it comes to Brexit, this feels like a strong endorsement for our participation in Erasmus.

As someone who has worked in domestic abuse education for 7 years and as an ambassador for a number of organisations set up to combat the underlying sexism and misogyny that leads to DA and VAWG,I'm appalled by this ignorant, racist and myopic post from Badenoch.

What does M&S want for Christmas? A UK-EU food deal to undo damage from Brexit www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...