The Guardian reports that tech companies have been meeting government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day, enjoying high-level political access that dwarfs that of child safety and copyright campaigners, who called the pattern "shocking" and "disturbing". The paper says that its investigation has found that Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk's X, whose Grok AI image generator has sparked outrage with its sexualised images of women and children, were among the US tech companies holding hundreds of meetings with people at the heart of government: Google, the $4tn California company, had the greatest access, with ...
"America has become a place where it is no longer entirely safe to speak freely. Where criticizing the Government can get you into trouble, perhaps even cause you to be fired from your job, or deported. Where engaging in public protest can get you arrested. Where every day you wake up with a clenching stomach, wondering what new Government outrage has happened overnight."Alexandra Hall Hall on living in the US today. Thomas Lockwood says Robert Jenrick's Newark constituency "is now is now a live laboratory test for the future of the British right - and for the fragmentation and reinvention ...
Britain faces the grave threat of a Reform-led Trumpist Government in a hung parliament after the next election. Lord William Wallace recently discussed a Labour / Lib Dem / Green Coalition as a potential winning alternative. Many commenters on LDV supported the idea, while recognising substantial difficulties. Coalition won't happen unless it is meticulously debated, planned, and wargamed in advance. Here, I seek to start this ball rolling. A first question: If a larger Party offers a smaller Party the Deputy Premiership, plus a key "Quad" Coalition Governing Committee with 2 members from each Party, is that fair? The answer ...
Across Iran, brave men and women are once again risking their freedom - and their lives - to protest against one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Their demands are clear and unambiguous: basic liberty, accountability, and an end to rule by fear. These aspirations should resonate deeply with liberals everywhere. They also have far-reaching implications beyond Iran's borders, including for the prospects of peace in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not simply a domestic authoritarian state. It is a dangerous and insidious Islamist actor whose ideology and actions have destabilised the region for ...
How an employment tribunal turned prejudice into principle and left trans workers with nowhere to go. Friday's employment tribunal judgment in Hutchison v County Durham NHS Trust should concern anyone who cares about liberty and equality. The tribunal found that allowing a trans woman to use the women's changing room at work constituted harassment of her cisgender colleagues. The reasoning is sophisticated. The implications are dangerous. Rose Henderson, a trans woman working as an NHS practitioner, used the women's changing room in line with her employer's policy. Eight nurses objected. The tribunal ruled the policy unlawful – not because Rose ...
For the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts I talked with Paul Webb about the report "Britain's Party Members" which has new data on who joins political parties in Britain and what they get up to. Are Lib Dems the keenest campaigners? Is the emerging two-bloc pattern of British politics reflected in party membership? We talk about these and many more such illuminating questions, revealing some of the basic bedrock on which British politics is built. Our discussion also includes the report's analysis of political psychology, based on both the big five traits and the dark triad models ...
Sat 17th
10:07
Will Neolithic stones in garden of James Corden's former £8.5 million mansion be returned to J...
Embed from Getty ImagesIt's the question everyone's asking and it's our Headline of the Day too. Well done ITV News. Because they were in a good mood (they're allowed an extra bottle of port on Fridays), the judges also named two highly commended entries. The Guardian for: 'Bigger and lower': bull in Dutch painting once had much larger testicles Cambridgeshire Live for: Next stage of Fens Reservoir project delayed as questions remain over how to fill it with water
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) reckons that since the start of the year 2,500 protesters have been killed in Iran. Most of them have been shot on the street. Others have been dragged to hastily convened special courts and sentenced to hang. In 2024, a relatively quiet year for Iranian protests, the regime strung up 1,000-plus people for the crime of vociferously expressing their views. Iran is only second behind China (several thousand) in the world execution stakes. US President Donald Trump has promised action against the regime if the killings continue. He refuses to specify what ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Techne 20% 19% 15% 13% 28% -9% (3rd, vs Ref) 14-15/1 GB Find Out Now 19% (+1) 15% (nc) ...
It is not often that these little pieces about local history come up against new finds, so I thought it might be worth talking about the large Roman villa that has just been unearthed in Margam Park. The footprint of the villa is 572 square metres, surrounded by fortifications, and according to the BBC, has been described by Dr Alex Langlands. the co-director of Swansea University's Centre for Heritage Research and Training, as a "really impressive and prestigious" building, likely to have been finely decorated with statues and mosaic floors: The location, in a historical deer park, is significant because ...