The Liberal Democrats made history last night. Overturning the biggest majority at a by-election. Ever. Breaking a 100-year Conservative grasp on this constituency. Many congratulations to Richard Foord in obtaing a 30% swing to defeat the Conservatives.

This result is huge. Richard Foord will be joining us as our 14th MP. He's going to be a brilliant local champion for the people of Devon.

The local organisation is holding a quiz at Meeting Places in Darwen on Wednesday 23 March at 7pm.

Meeting Places can be found opposite Greggs in Darwen. 15-19 Croft, BB3 1BG.

Teams of up to six can enter at £5 per person. This includes refreshments of potato or cheese pie with tea and coffee also.

No alcohol will be served but you are welcome to bring your own!

Darwen Liberal Democrat Councillors will be holding a surgery at Darwen Library on Saturday 12th March from 11am till12noon,

Come along and meet your local councillors, John East, Paul Browne and Mark Davies.

Liberal Democrats won a stunning victory in North Shropshire, taking one of the Conservatives' safest seats.

Liberal Democrat candidate Helen Morgan received 17,957 votes, representing a swing of 34% from the Conservatives and giving her a majority of 5,925.

North Shropshire was the 58th safest Conservative seat in the country, with former Conservative MP Owen Paterson having a majority of almost 23,000 votes in 2019. This represents the second biggest majority overcome in a modern by-election, after Christchurch in 1993.

Blackburn with Darwen Council are hosting a Christmas Light Switch on event on Darwen Market Square on Saturday 20^th November. The event is also receiving sponsorship from Darwen Town Council.

This will take place alongside a two day Christmas Market being organised by Crafty Vintage on Saturday 20^th & Sunday 21^st November. The events on both days will start at 11am and will end at 8pm on the Saturday and 4pm on the Sunday. There will be a stage that will be programmed with a range of performances from local dance and music schools, to a professional Christmas Theatre show and a headline act who will switch the lights on and perform afterwards.

The Good Law Project has been pursuing the government through the courts to try and uncover the misuse of public money by the current administration. The government has only released many of the documents because they were ordered to by the judge.

Here is the latest shocking revelations from the Good Law Project

Local Liberal Democrats suffered the sad loss of their colleague and former councillor, Roy Davies. Roy was a councillor for 16 years representing the old Sudell Ward in Darwen. He was a doughty fighter and campaigned tirelessly for the area. He would be seen regularly out and about cleaning the area. Roy campaigned on housing, health and services for young people as well as encouraging people to take a pride in their area.

A document seen by the BBC shows that a failure of the government's Test and Trace system contributed to the recent spike in local Covid19 cases in Blackburn with Darwen, particularly those associated with the "Indian Variant". For 3 weeks in April and May the local authority did not receive full details of those testing positive. This meant they could not be followed up by local officials. In Blackburn with Darwen this involved almost 300 people.

One of the successes of the Liberal Democrats in coalition was the introduction of the Pupil Premium in 2011. Recent research shows that it has had an impact on "levelling up" disadvantaged students.

Here is a quote from their report "After 2010, the segregation of long-term disadvantaged pupils and their peers reduced in Years 1 and 6, and their attainment improved relative to their peers at ages 7 and 11. However, assessments changed after 2014 and this complicates the pattern. A regression model suggests that relative attainment for poor pupils improved markedly in the Pupil Premium era, even in regions like the North of England which have faced criticism for apparently "failing" their poor pupils. We argue for retaining the Pupil Premium policy."

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced yesterday (Friday 14 May) that the army were to be deployed in local hotspot areas suffering from a rise in COVID 19 infections this includes Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen.

From Tuesday residents and those working or going to school in these postcode areas: BB1 6, BB1 7, BB1 8, and BB2 6 are being urged to take a test.