Hospitality bosses have told Rachel Reeves her changes to National Insurance are “regressive in their impact on lower earners”, it has been reported. Signatories to the letter organised by UK Hospitality, and seen by The Sunday Times, have said that “some jobs on minimum wage will become unviable” as a result of the new threshold […]

Last Saturday we found out who had become the new leader of the Conservative Party. The question is, should the media pay any attention to the Conservatives now? Kemi Badenoch comes from a long line of Tory leaders devoted to an ideology that has been tried, tested and failed; small government – the idea that […]

People who use the bus to commute to work across Walsall could be hit by the equivalent of a 1p income tax rise due to the government’s decision to raise the bus fare cap from £2 to £3 which Walsall’s Lib Dems have labelled the ‘bus tax’. Analysis by the Party shows that the average […]

All Councils in England are required by law to set a balanced budget each year. Walsall Council is no different. Former Cllrs Dan Barker and Ian Shires Over the past 15 years the Council has had to make savings of around £285 million. Partly because of reductions in the grant funding they received off central […]

5 hours to go until we get to know exactly what the Autumn Budget has in store for us. At around 12.30pm today Rachel Reeves will stand at the dispatch box in the House of Commons and deliver the Labour Government’s Budget Statement. It will be the first from a Labour Chancellor for 14 years. […]

Since the election, our MPs have been working tirelessly to stand up for the public’s concerns and be local champions for their constituencies. We’ve opposed cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance and pushed the Government to act faster and bolder on issues neglected by the Conservative Government. On sewage, our recent analysis revealed an increase in water […]

Parliament has been in full swing since the Conference recess, and our MPs have been busy delivering on our mandate. With 72 MPs filling the green benches, our presence is clear. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen more Lib Dems leading debates, and we had our first opposition day. In this first Parliamentary briefing […]

There was an interesting article on BBC NEWS recently by Brian Wheeler, “Why are we building homes when so many are standing empty?” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g518le0r5o the author makes the point far better than I could as to why this may not be as easy as it looks. One thing is for sure, getting the right sort of homes […]

The Conservatives have picked their final two leadership contenders: two failed former ministers who will take the Conservatives even further to the right. On one side, Kemi Badenoch, who thinks maternity pay is excessive and that some civil servants should be thrown in prison. On the other, Robert Jenrick, who said he would vote for […]

Water companies continue to get away with dumping filthy sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas. Shockingly, our Freedom of Information request reveals Ofwat, the regulator, hasn’t fined any of them since 2021 – and their investigation team is just over 8 full-time staff! After years of Conservative inaction, we need urgent steps to fix this. Since 2021, […]