Tag Archives: political activism

Celebrating Progress – Leading with Pride

This recent cross-party weekend organised by the Local Government Association brought together councillors from the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative groups from across the country. While it was encouraging to see such a broad geographic spread, it was disappointing that no other parties were represented and that the South of England was noticeably under-represented. Even so, the diversity of experience in the room made for a rich and thoughtful programme.

The theme of the weekend was Leading with Pride — and how that sits alongside both your role as a councillor and your identity as a member of the LGBT+ community. …

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Welcome to my day: 22 January 2024 – so, about those Presidential primaries…

Well, that was unexpected. Ron DeSantis is gone, and has endorsed Donald Trump. And, unless Nikki Haley gets a respectable showing in New Hampshire, it’s surely all over in the absence of any other opponent. Biden versus Trump it is then…

Meanwhile, nearer to home, the Post Office Horizon scandal continues to unfold. For what it’s worth, I do wonder whether or not the various ministers involved were persuaded that there was nothing wrong by the evidently unwise presumption that public officials will tell you the truth when pressed. After all, the Civil Service Code has at its core the values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality and, in my personal experience, most of us live up to that every day – we tend to take a dim view of those that are found to have fallen short. And politicians should be able to take that for granted – they need civil servants to provide them with a picture of what’s going on in their departments and of the impacts of political decisions, both before and after the event, and should be able to rely upon the advice they give, even if they don’t accept it.

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  • Judy Abel
    @John Indeed. At the very least we need to develop policies/guardrails on foreign investment in essential UK utilities to protect consumers and the viability of...
  • John Hann
    Foreign investment in the utilities like the water companies may mean that their interests do not correspond with UK consumers' interests. Foreign takeover o...
  • Judy Abel
    @Trevor - to answer just a few of the points you raise: - Windfall tax on oil and gas profits - agree - and that we need to transition to renewables fast! - N...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Judy, " Norway created a sovereign wealth fund from its oil revenues which could have been done in the UK to support public services – but no the mo...
  • Peter Chambers
    > Do you think these developments may cause India to move closer to Russia and China? India and Russia have long been close. Since the 1962 Sino-Indian War ...