Elections to be held in Northern Ireland on 2nd March

Snap elections are to be held on 2nd March in Northern Ireland after Sinn Féin brought down the government by refusing to nominate a Deputy First Minister.

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness - a convicted IRA terrorist - resigned a week ago supposedly over a botched renewable heating scheme that is costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement either the First Minister or Deputy First Minister's party can bring down the Northern Irish government simply by refusing to nominate a candidate for either post.

Sinn Féin won't have done this if they don't think they stand to gain. Reliable opinion polling is scarce in Northern Ireland so presumably they've got access to some private polling data that looks favourable.

Convicted terrorist and IRA Council member turned politician, Martin McGuinness

Labour MP John Healey has a go at grieving UKIP councillor

Labour MP for Wentworth & Deane, John Healey, has been called on to apologise after claiming that a UKIP councillor in Rotherham "walked away from [his] job".

The offending tweet is referring to former UKIP councillor, Ian Finnie, who recently resigned from the council because he refused to take public money when he couldn't put in the hours. He lost two of his brothers last year and another has serious health problems which has itself brought on health problems of his own.

Numerous people have told Healey the circumstances around Ian Finnie's understandable and entirely honourable decision to stand down but he has yet to apologise.

EU rules that uninsured drivers must be compensated if they have accidents

A ruling by the EU means that uninsured motorists will have to be paid compensation if they are involved in a car accident.

The ruling is likely to push up insurance premiums for law abiding drivers who will now be paying to insure the vehicles of those who don't bother.

UKIP Transport spokesman, Jill Seymour MEP, said:

This scheme is using the money of honest premium-paying motorists to compensate those who are blatantly breaking the law – everything about it is totally wrong.

Donald Trump says UK trade deal is his priority

Donald Trump has told the Times that a trade deal with the UK will be a priority when he takes office this week.

He said that the UK is "doing great" after the referendum and that we are "smart" to be getting out of the EU. He went on to say that whilst Barack Obama had said that the UK would be at the "back of the queue" we would, in fact, be at the "front of the line". Obama's statement was believed to have been requested by Project Fear as an American would say "back of the line".

Trump's promise that the UK will be a priority for a trade deal has prompted a swift response from the EU who have said that they won't allow negotiations to even start until after we leave.

What are they going to do? Chuck us out?

A pro-Brexit general strike would bring the country to its knees

Left wing author, Guardian writer, luvvie and owner of his own £18k a year liberal arts university, AC Grayling, has called for a general strike in opposition to Brexit.

This is a fantastic idea because the 52% can also hold a general strike in favour of Brexit.

As sneering Remoaners delight in telling us, your average Brexit supporter is a poorly educated low earner - in other words, the working class who do all the menial jobs that keep the lights on, the streets free of litter and the country's production lines going. Your average Project Fear supporter is either a higher earner, a luvvie or a snowflake student - in other words, the kind of people who would struggle to change a light bulb.

Let the Remoaners call a general strike to oppose Brexit, the workers will bring the country to its knees with their own.

Chief Exec of Bolton Council admits £300k grant was a mistake

The chief executive of Bolton Council has admitted that it was a mistake to allow the leader of the council to use emergency powers to make a £300k grant to a law firm.

Cllr Clifford Morris, the Labour leader of Bolton Council, angrily defended his decision to bypass councillors and use emergency powers to give taxpayers' money to ambulance chasers, Asons Solicitors, to refurbish their brand new offices.

Coincidentally, Asons have a disputed £300k tax bill in their accounts although there is no evidence of a link between the tax bill and the amount given to the firm for refurbishment of their offices.

Bolton's UKIP councillors have been leading calls for Cllr Morris to stand down and for an inquiry into what has happened.

Plymouth Labour election hopeful is a professional dominatrix

A 37 year old professional dominatrix in Plymouth is planning to stand in next year's local elections for the Labour Party.

Margaret Corvid - or Mistress Magpie to her friends - is horrified by Brexit and Donald Trump so she wants to get elected to Plymouth City Council to oust the Tory-UKIP coalition that runs the city.

Well, the Labour Party are well known for whipping their councillors ...

Ryanair introduces 9 new routes from Stansted despite making Project Fear pledge to cut them back

Irish budget airline, Ryanair, has announced 9 new routes flying out of Stansted.

Ryanair joined Project Fear for the EU referendum, threatening to scale back its UK operations if we voted for Brexit. In fact, a month after the referendum Ryanair said it would be concentrating on growing operations in the EU at the expense of the UK. They said that this winter they would "cut capacity and frequency on many London Stansted routes".

Cllr Colin Aldred has passed away

UKIP councillor Colin Aldred has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Cllr Aldred represented Great Yarmouth on Norfolk County Council since 2013. He had been ill for 18 months but continued to work for the local community until he became bed-ridden.

The leader of the UKIP group on Norfolk County Council, Toby Coke, said:

He will be sorely missed by all members, especially in the Ukip group. From my point of view I’m happy to say he survived long enough to see Brexit.

Tristram Hunt resigns in one of UKIP's strongest areas

Tristram Hunt MP is resigning to become head of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, triggering a by-election in one of UKIP's strongest areas.

In the last general election UKIP's vote share jumped 18.3% to finish in second place. Former Labour campaigner and now UKIP Stoke branch chairman, Mick Harold, finished 5,179 votes behind the Labour MP.

This is probably the most important by-election for UKIP since Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless successfully defended their seats after defecting from the Conservatives. A victory in Stoke-on-Trent would be a watershed moment for the party, winning a new seat rather than retaining one held by an incumbent.

In the EU referendum, Stoke-on-Trent voted Leave by a massive 69% and are now losing their Remain-supporting MP. Tribal voting is no less a problem in Stoke as elsewhere in the country but Jeremy Corbyn is driving members and MPs away from the Labour Party.

This one is going to be close.

Nick Clegg admits he lied about the Queen supporting Brexit

Nick Clegg has admitted lying about the Queen's criticism of the EU in the run-up to the referendum.

The Sun ran a story during the referendum campaign saying that the Queen had expressed support for Brexit in a meeting with Nick Clegg when he was Deputy Prime Minister. She reportedly complained that the EU had overshadowed the Commonwealth and didn't know why we couldn't just leave.

Clegg initially said he couldn't remember if it was true but then changed his mind overnight and categorically denied the claim, describing it as nonsense and "A-grade, 24-carat bilge". The Palace even made a complaint to IPSO who said that the Sun shouldn't have used the headline they did but didn't rule that the story was inaccurate. BBC political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, backed up the story after the referendum.

Now Clegg has admitted to the New Statesman that the Queen did, in fact, get "grumpy" about the EU and regretted the way the EU was eclipsing the Commonwealth. This is the second time he's changed his mind and the Lib Dems are still in damage limitation mode, denying that Clegg referred to the queen as grumpy.

Scottish Labour councillor charged with child abuse porn charges

A Labour councillor in Scotland has been charged with possession of child abuse images.

Cllr Sean Morton was bailed on Christmas Eve after appearing in private at Elgin Sheriff Court. He didn't enter a plea on the charges of taking, making, being in possession of, showing and distributing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child and possession of obscene material. But he did jet off to Portugal for a holiday.

There is no mention of the story on the BBC News website - not even in the politics or Scotland sections. In fact, the last time the BBC mentioned Cllr Morton was 4 days before his court appearance where they reported his comments about a piece of art he considered to be "cultural vomit".

Morton flew out to New Hampshire last year with Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale MSP, to campaign for Hilary Clinton in the US presidential elections.

FTSE 100 breaks two records in one day

The FTSE 100 finished up 15 points today to secure a record breaking 12th day of consecutive rises.

This is the longest uninterrupted run of growth in the flagship share index in its 33 year history and leaves the FTSE at its highest ever level.

The markets have been buoyed by some better than expected results from mining companies, strong Christmas trading figures and the Bank of England's governor and one of Project Fear's chief propagandists repeating his assessment that the EU has more to lose by making Brexit difficult than we do.

That global economic apocalypse that Brexit is going to cause is taking its time to materialise!

Norwich UKIP campaigner, Steve Emmens, passes away

Veteran UKIP campaigner and two times general election candidate, Steve Emmens, has passed away.

Steve was diagnosed with cancer a short time ago and lost the fight on Monday morning. He leaves behind his wife of 15 years.

Tributes have been paid to his hard work and likability by both his colleagues and political rivals.

Beppe Grillo's 5 Star Movement rejoins EFDD group

The Italian 5 Star Movement's MEPs have rejoined the EFDD group they co-founded with UKIP just 48 hours after leaving to attempt to join the federalist ALDE group led by Guy Verhofstadt.

The ALDE group rejected Beppe Grillo's application to join their pro-EU, anti-democracy alliance which would have meant the 5 Star Movement's MEPs sitting with the non-inscrits ("independent" MEPs) with little in the way of funding to do their jobs.

Reports suggest that some changes have been made to how the group is run to get Grillo and his colleagues back on board but they don't say what. Details will no doubt come out in the media soon enough once the UKIP-hating left wing press have got over their disappointment that the EFDD group hasn't folded and lost Nigel Farage his front seat and speaking rights.