Central Bylines

There are political campaigns. There are protest campaigns. And then some campaigns begin with a man wearing a bin on his head, announcing that he has come to save democracy from itself in Clacton. Nigel Farage's apparent stunt, which some have described as a ploy to avoid parliamentary scrutiny over his financial affairs, was quickly scuppered when all the major parties announced they would not stand in the byelection.

Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain on July 13 1955. Her execution was a national event. A crowd, reported to be 1,000-strong, gathered outside Holloway Prison in London that morning. Anti-death penalty protesters held signs, some people prayed and some wept. Ellis's story had deeply moved the public.

A council could be set to condemn Staffordshire County Council over the controversial decision to remove LGBTQ+ materials from libraries. A motion which is set to be presented to Lichfield District Council next week will warn the decision risks fostering prejudice and restricting freedom of expression. Last month during Pride month the Reform UK-led county council announced it would no longer feature LGBTQ+ displays.

George Finch, leader of Warwickshire County Council and a member of Reform UK recently issued this statement (Quoted material here includes characterisations of LGBTQ+ people which some readers may find distressing, and which do not represent the views of the Bylines Network.) : Safeguarding children and ensuring the neutrality of Warwickshire's libraries.

Rutland and Stamford MP Alicia Kearns recently spoke out in Parliament about the danger of pulmonary embolisms, a year after being rushed to hospital because she had "at least" five of the blood clots on her lungs. "It's taken me a year to talk about it, but I'm now determined to tackle this issue," Mrs Kearns told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. "Blood clots are the number one cause of death in women who are pregnant in this country, yet I don't think any woman could tell you that.

The leader of North East Lincolnshire Council has retracted a social media post implying a Grimsby woman intended to cause harm to a seagull. A video has gone viral on social media, showing a woman, wearing a hijab, using a sheet to capture a juvenile seagull in a Grimsby front garden in West Marsh. It was a rescue but the rescuer was accused of planning to harm the bird Many have wrongly jumped to the conclusion that the woman meant harm to the bird.

H L Mencken (a 20th century American political journalist famous for withering commentaries laced with scathing wit) once observed that "There is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible and wrong". There is no better illustration of this than Reform UK's policy on climate change, energy and net zero.

Coventry City Council voted to end its contract with US technology giant Palantir following a Green Party motion backed by councillors. The motion asked the authority to publish the findings of a review of Palantir tech and set out the current and future intended uses of the firm's software. It also urged the authority to come up with alternative options.

The UK government has announced plans to introduce a ban on social media use for children under the age of 16. This follows a consultation on the impact of social media on young people's mental health, wellbeing and safety. It represents one of the most significant interventions in children's online lives since the Online Safety Act. The announcement has generated strong reactions.

Upon seeing a recent Facebook post about my old pro-EU group, Stratford4Europe, organising a Big Red Bus of Brexit Truths tour to mark the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, I was hooked and couldn't wait to join my friends in driving the bus around Stratford-upon-Avon. The bus's design was such that it highlighted both the broken promises and damaging consequences of Brexit over the last 10 years.