Dr Nick Cott

Associate Lecturer in History @OpenUniversity & @univofstandrews; Former Opposition Leader in Newcastle; Honorary Alderman; Chair of Northumberland LibDems.

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

Fairwood (Swansea) Council By-Election Result:

🔶 LDM: 29.3% (+19.9)
🌹 LAB: 22.6% (-9.3)
➡️ RFM: 17.0% (New)
🙋 Ind: 11.5% (New)
🌳 CON: 10.3% (-30.3)

No PLC (-18.1) as previous.

Lib Dem GAIN from Conservative.
Changes w/ 2022.

[Meanwhile in Ukraine @MeanwhileInUA]

Putin didn't invade Ukraine because of NATO. He invaded because Ukrainians were proving democracy works.

Historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum puts it plainly: Putin looked at Ukraine's democratic movement and thought, "If they can do it in Ukraine, then people could do it in Russia. So I need to crush this."

That's the real threat Ukraine posed. Not missiles. Not borders. A working democracy next door.

Applebaum frames the war as a fault line between the democratic and autocratic worlds. Russia isn't just trying to take territory. It's trying to erase Ukraine as a nation, reduce it to a colony, and send a message to every country that the post-1945 rules of Europe no longer apply.

Those rules were simple: no invasions, no wars, borders don't change by force. Russia understood exactly what it was breaking when it crossed into Ukraine.

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

This result sees the Liberal Democrats REGAIN their majority on Dorset Council.

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

Bridport (Dorset) Council By-Election Result:

🔶 LDM: 43.6% (+8.2)
➡️ RFM: 23.2% (New)
🌍 GRN: 20.1% (-11.9)
🌳 CON: 13.1% (-4.0)

No LAB (-15.6) as previous.

Liberal Democrat HOLD.
Changes w/ 2024.

[Paul Jack @jac61941964]

Five Swans sculpture at the Newcastle Civic Centre.
The swans represent the five Scandanavian countries of Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and reflect Newcastle and Tyneside's historic llinks with Scandanavia.

[Alex Cole-Hamilton🔶🇺🇦 @agcolehamilton]

Scottish Liberal Democrats are absolutely soaring at this election.

In 10 constituencies we've got the beating of the SNP, but wherever you are you can elect a Liberal Democrat MSP on the peach-coloured regional ballot.

[Dr Nick Cott @cott_nick]

Tomorrow is the start of my latest lecture series for
@WeareExplore. My lectures address questions about the development of the British empire in its early phase. Tomorrow's lecture looks at the development of the United Kingdom.

[Liberal Democrats @LibDems]

Nigel Farage wants every police officer in the UK to carry a gun.

Don't let him turn Britain into his version of Trump's America.

[Lib Dem Peers @LibDemPeers]

The Lib Dem group in the Lords is devastated this evening following the death of our own Jim Wallace.

Jim was a towering figure in Scottish and UK politics and will be deeply missed by all of us who were lucky enough to know him and work with him.

Salutes, Jim. Rest well.

[Rob Blackie 🔶 @robblackie]

Nigel Farage here falsely saying that asylum seekers jump the housing queue in front of veterans.

In fact veterans have a special scheme that gets them close to the top of the list.

Asylum seekers are legally banned from joining the list.

[LBC @LBC]

‘His greatest achievement in life is a disaster.’

Nick Clegg claims Nigel Farage is the ‘author of a lost decade’ and must be ‘held to account’ for Brexit.

[Rob Blackie 🔶 @robblackie]

A straight out lie from Danny Krueger MP at Reform's event today.

He said that asylum seekers go straight to the top of the council housing list.

In fact they are *banned by law* from accessing council housing.

Further details on Shelter's website here: https://t.co/pFYFMbz8pn

[Liberal Democrats @LibDems]

Reform: The Conservatives broke the country

Also Reform: Welcome to another failed Conservative minister who broke the country

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

Mass protests in Crimea against Russia's occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula. The local population was not even scared by Russian soldiers standing nearby...

[Luke Tryl @LukeTryl]

No doubt Zahawi a big name for Reform & helps with momentum. But his resignation was on what the public see as a clear ‘one rule for them’ type scandal they hate - so a risk this, more than previous switches, could blunt Reform’s appeal as ‘different to usual political class’.

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

The Liberal Democrats held 82% of seats they defended in Council By-Elections in 2025 #ByElectionsWrapped

1) LDM (82%)
2) GRN (67%)
3) RFM (60%)
4) CON (32%)
5) LAB (28%)

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

Seats & Votes won in Council By-Elections in 2025:

🔶 LDM: 106 (+21), 20.2%
➡️ RFM: 104 (+94), 24.2%
🌳 CON: 45 (-24), 18.2%
🌹 LAB: 36 (-89), 16.3%
🌍 GRN: 24 (+6), 9.9%
⚫ Oth: 39 (-8), 11.3%

[Ed Davey @EdwardJDavey]

Trump is coming after our BBC. He’s suing it for $10 billion, and the Conservatives and Reform are cheering him on.

The BBC must not pay Trump a penny. Instead of rolling over, it should sue Trump back for the lies he’s telling about it.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

I really don’t understand all this sabre rattling rhetoric, with some junior UK defence minister claiming the UK is “rapidly developing” plans to prepare the entire country for the possible outbreak of war, because “the shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door.”
If the government really believed that why on earth has it funded only a 0.2% rise in military spending as a share of GDP?
Its ridiculous.

[Mike Martin MP 🔸 @ThreshedThought]

This is something historians will write about in a chapter called the March to War in Europe.

The UK government promised a national conversation on defence and security … and instead we’ve had silence and cuts.

It’s a total dereliction of duty.