A regular feature of the political landscape is the Parliamentary by-election. These are almost always triggered in the sad circumstances of an MPs death (MPs very rarely resign) which have become rarer over the last decades as life-expectancy has increased.
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This is a good time to be a Liberal Democrat in Shepway.
A huge crown of over 160 angry Lyminge residents crammed into the village car park on Saturday morning. They had gathered to present a massive 1700 name petition against recently introduced parking charges in the car park. Since these charges have been introduced, trade in the village Coffee shop is reported to be down a massive 40%, the hardware store is down by 35% and the number of visitors to the library has collapsed by 50%.
A Friends of the Earth on-line poll puts the Liberal Democrats far ahead of the other main parties in caring about climate change.
Shepway's bid to be considered for one of the 8 new "large" or "small" casinos that will be licenced nationwide has failed. The shortlist for potential sites has been announced today, and the Folkestone Seafront site has lost out to bids from competing authorities including Hastings and Dartford.
The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team today applied to renew their passports to prevent their details from being added to the ID cards database. Locally, Shepway Lib Dem Chair and Treasurer and Anti-ID Card campaigners, Tim Prater & Darren Briddock, have also applied to renew their passport in protest at the new ID card scheme.
Four prisoners are walking out of prisons without authorisation every day, new figures revealed today by the Liberal Democrats show. Over 13,500 prisoners have escaped, absconded or disappeared while on temporary release in the last 10 years.
Anti-ID Card campaigners have highlighted two separate issues this week which increase fears for the forthcoming Identity Card scheme. The identities of 13,000 civil servants have been stolen from Department of Work and Pensions databases by organised criminals, and around 600,000 documents have been reported lost or stolen by the Identity and Passport Service.
Sandgate Conservative Councillor Joy Macmillan has resigned from the Party in Shepway. Joy Macmillan announced she was to become an Independent councillor on Tuesday night following a Conservative group meeting. Shepway Liberal Democrat Councillors backed Joy Macmillan in her bid to remain as Deputy Chair of the Council for a second year, and praised her courage.
The Conservative MP and former minister for Bromley and Chislehurst, Eric Forth, has died having been recently diagnosed with cancer.
A report proposing the merger of Harcourt and Morehall Primary Schools and closure of Selsted CE Primary School has been presented to the School Organisation Advisory Board (SOAB) by the Area Education officer today. SOAB members have voted to put the report out to public consultation.
