ME study shows it is not a ‘made-up disease' says Lib Dem MP
We asked her for her reaction to what the Edinburgh academics are saying they've found.
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Wales Online
2 days ago
- Wales Online
Reform UK has a councillor in Swansea for the first time
Reform UK has a councillor in Swansea for the first time Councillor Francesca O'Brien has defected from the Welsh Conservatives Francesca O'Brien, who has joined Reform UK from the Welsh Conservatives after being elected as a Swansea councillor in 2022 (Image: Richard Youle ) Swansea has its first Reform UK councillor after councillor Francesca O'Brien, who represents Mumbles, joined the party. The former Welsh Conservative was first elected to the council in 2022 and described Reform UK as the only chance to break the 'Labour-Plaid consensus in Cardiff Bay and create a government in Wales that understands the concerns of ordinary people'. Councillor O'Brien had stood as a prospective Conservative MP for Gower in the 2019 general election, finishing second behind Labour's Tonia Antoniazzi. 'I'm proud to be announcing that I am joining Reform UK,' she said. "Reform UK is our only chance to finally break up the Labour/Plaid consensus in Cardiff Bay and create a government in Wales that understands the concerns of ordinary people.' Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here Councillor O'Brien said Reform UK was committed to ending 'the bleeding of millions of taxpayer pounds on things like empty Welsh Government buildings and pointless overseas offices' and would redirect that money back into Wales. She added: 'I continue to remain dedicated to my role as a councillor, determined to make our communities thrive, businesses boom and deliver a safe and vibrant community for our families to live and work.' Article continues below Reform UK said it now had 16 councillors in Wales, including two in Carmarthenshire. Councillor O'Brien has been an officer with the Royal Air Force air cadets for over 17 years and is a member of the Mumbles and South Gower Royal British Legion. She is also a Mumbles community councillor. A mother to two young boys, she said she also worked for 12 years in the motor industry and was involved in the farming sector for a time, working on a 'farm to fork' business in Gower. She is also the former deputy leader of the Welsh Conservatives in Swansea. Article continues below Councillor O'Brien's father, Richard Lewis, has served as councillor for Gower for decades as a Conservative, Independent and Liberal Democrat, and also sought the Gower parliamentary seat in 2005 on a UK Independence Party ticket. Mumbles has two other councillors – both Conservative – Will Thomas and Angela O'Connor.
Spectator
2 days ago
- Spectator
How do we get more working class people into politics?
Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, joins James Heale to discuss his campaign to improve working class representation in politics. Tom, newly elected in 2024, explains how getting his mum involved in local politics in West Yorkshire led him to think about the structural issues that exist preventing more people from getting involved in politics. Plus, with both the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK challenging the traditional Labour and Conservative duopoly, what lessons can both parties learn from each other? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson. Photo credit: House of Commons.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Cutting North West Relief Road "a missed opportunity", Shropshire HGV driver says
After decades of talking about a bypass to complete a ring of A roads around Shrewsbury, the project is over, or "dead in the water", according to Shropshire Council's new Kidd said the council could not afford to pay for the road after the Labour government insisted that it was not willing to meet a funding shortfall of £ the route was far from universally popular, the latest news has been met with disappointment and frustration from some residents, who have said the North West Relief Road (NWRR) was desperately needed to solve some of the town's traffic driver Kyle Longmuir said the bypass would have taken some of the heavy goods vehicles off the existing A roads, which are already too congested. "It can be quite dangerous and you try not to get frustrated when people overtake you," said Mr Longmuir, from Shawbury."When it's busy it's slow and people make silly mistakes when there's more traffic around because people are impatient."If we could have a better flow of traffic, then people would make less questionable decisions and we wouldn't have as many accidents." Residents living in villages north of Shrewsbury were hoping that the NWRR would have stopped drivers using the area as a cut-through, or "rat run".Tamarin Bibow, who lives in Ruyton-XI-Towns with her husband and young family, addressed Shropshire councillors last month and asked the new administration to outline plans to tackle the problem."We suffer personally, as do may local residents, from serious pollution, both noise and air quality, resulting from traffic forced to come through our village," she said."Most of these vehicles use the rat run only because drivers see no practical alternative."The council said it would continue to assess the weight, width and speed restrictions in the area. What now for Shrewsbury's traffic woes? Both Shropshire Council and Shrewsbury's Labour MP Julia Buckley have co-signed a letter to the government to say that the council can no longer afford to build the road, which was estimated earlier this year at £ council is waiting to find out if it has to pay the government back the £54.4m it was awarded in 2019 to contribute towards the project, then valued at £ than £20m of the Department for Transport funding has already been spent, largely on design engineer consultancy fees. Shropshire Council hopes the debt is written off and that it can keep the remaining money to spend on improving congestion elsewhere in the council's Liberal Democrat leader Heather Kidd said Shrewsbury could not afford to wait years for improvements to get under said the council was willing to contribute capital funding towards improvements to the existing A roads around the town, which are managed by National Highways. "I have met with National Highways and Midlands Connect because the Dobbies island is a significant problem for the whole area and it stacks up traffic in either direction," she said."My concern is that their schemes take a long time to come to fruition, so we need to lobby further and use our MPs to make sure it's speeded up."There are things that can be done in the short-term, which will get people on and off that road quicker."Ms Kidd would also like to see improvements to the roundabout where Welshpool Road joins the A5, to the west of Shrewsbury, and the Battlefield roundabout, which links the A53 with the A49 north of the town."We also need to encourage traffic out of the town centre, but until we've done much more around the inner ring-road and A5 and so on, it's going to be difficult," she leader admitted that there was no quick fix and that significant improvements would take years to happen. Shropshire Council is being supported by Shrewsbury's Labour MP, who said she wanted the local authority to keep hold of some of the remaining government grant so it could be reinvested in traffic improvement schemes elsewhere in the Buckley said: "My dream investment with that cash is the roundabout at Battlefield where we've got the enterprise park."She said the roundabout was too small for the volume of traffic."The field next to it is up for sale and I would love to double the size of the roundabout, open up access, and then double the size of the business park," she plans to improve travel and traffic in Shrewsbury have been outlined in the Shrewsbury Moves include improvements to park and ride services, public transport and the pedestrianisation of large parts of the town those plans, Shrewsbury would be divided into three "loops" and the road layout would restrict general traffic passing through the town via the Welsh, English and Kingsland bridges or past the railway station. That would put more traffic on the inner and outer ring roads, but Paul Carvell from the Shrewsbury Business Improvement District said he believed there was enough capacity on those to cope. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
