Councils pursuing a four-day working week are not providing value for taxpayers and should "cease immediately", the government has said.
The first local authority to trial the pattern was South Cambridgeshire District Council, which said it helped to improve recruitment and retention.
But the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the scheme should not be adopted elsewhere.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67232583.amp
I used to live in South Cambs - reliably Tory, even during the Blair years, which is why I was surprised by this. I see since Brexit it has gone Lib Dem, falling from 36 Tory councillors in 2016 to 8 in 2022. I wonder if that will translate into a first parliamentary electoral loss for the Tories since 1945.
I'm in Henley, Tory since the 1920's (and that was a one off win by the Liberals) but even I have some hope next time.
The previous 4 posts show a hollowing out of the Tory vote, even in its heartland.
And consistent with what I saw with my friends in the South East.
I do think that Starmer's support is a bit fragile though
I'm next door in Wokingham, and the council there recently went from Tory to no overall control, with the LibDems having the largest number of seats, and my ward is Labour. Redwood had a majority of less than 8,000 at the last General Election. It wouldn't take a huge swing for the LibDems to win. https://members.parliament.uk/member/14/electionresult
Meanwhile, my constituency is the High Peak.
|year|Con|Lab| Lib Dem|UKip/Brexit|
|1987|45.7|28.8|25.6||
|1992|46.0|37.9|14.8||
|1997|35.5|50.8|11.2||
|2001|37.3|46.6|16.1||
|2005|39.6|38.2|20.0|2.2|
|2010|40.9|31.6|21.8|3.4|
|2015|45.0|35.3|4.7|11.0|
|2017|45.4|49.7|5.0||
|2019|45.9|44.8|5.1|2.2|
So pretty good bellwether
I have only ever voted once in a non-safe seat (Croydon, 2017, when May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell was ousted by Labour). Do you feel more listened to by your MP being in a marginal?
I did, but in the last year, I think Robert Largan has resigned himself to losing so DGAF anymore.
The previous 4 posts show a hollowing out of the Tory vote, even in its heartland.
And consistent with what I saw with my friends in the South East.
I do think that Starmer's support is a bit fragile though
Good grief some people in the Labour party really hate the idea of winning. What on earth is the point of demahding Keir Starmer call for a ceasefire in Gaza? What exactly would that achieve except to allow certain media outlets to claim it is evidence that Labour is antisemitic. Call for respect of international law and allowing aid to reach the ordinary people, and even that is likely to be completely ignored.
I'm in the Monmouth constituency. Sadly our Tory MP is certain to be re-elected.![]()
Because a) some people believe you should do the right thing, not the expedient thing thing and b) mindlessly supporting Israel isn't all that popular in the UK.
Our MP seems to be disliked by everyone, Joy Morrissey, but she'll be voted back in because she has a blue ribbon.
In Henley a turnip with blue rosette would be elected. Unfortunately many of the recent candidates haven't been as good a representative as the turnip would have been.