HFM News reports that the Conservatives have seized control of Harborough District Council this evening: A motion to remove Liberal Democrat leader Phil Knowles and replace him with Tory group leader Simon Whelband was approved by 17 votes to 16 at an extraordinary council meeting tonight. Councillor Knowles had led a 16-strong coalition of Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green and independent councillors since 2023, although that number fell to 15 last week following the death of Labour councillor David Gair, who represented Lutterworth. As Phil Knowles has been saying in recent weeks, with investment in leisure centres and a community grant ...
Mon 20th
17:45
Mathew on Monday: is Keir Starmer the most incurious Prime Minister in British history?
There is something increasingly puzzling – and politically dangerous – about the way that Keir Starmer governs. It is not simply that things go wrong on his watch; every Prime Minister faces crisis, missteps, and the odd unforced error. It is that, time and again, Starmer appears oddly detached from the very events shaping his premiership. As if politics and government are things that happen to him, rather than things he actively directs. That sense of detachment is beginning to harden into something more troubling: a complete lack of curiosity. Effective leadership demands an almost relentless inquisitiveness – a desire ...
With the progation of Parliament approaching fast, it's something of a "hanging around" week for those on the red benches, waiting for the Commons to respond to Lords amendments, either by rejecting them outright, accepting them in part, or negotiating a settlement. You can never be entirely certain how it might all work out, and with the Government distracted by events elsewhere... Bills As it was last week, the week is dominated by "ping pong", starting on Monday with what is described as "consideration of Commons amendment and/or reasons" on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Children's Wellbeing and Schools ...
Governments don't just underestimate culture, media and sport, they depend on them, while systematically failing to sustain them. In the UK, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport stands as a formal acknowledgement that these sectors matter. In practice, it has become a symbol of something else: a gap between rhetoric and reality that has gone unchallenged for too long. That gap is indefensible. The creative industries contribute £145.8bn to the economy, around 5.5% of GDP and the wider DCMS sectors account for close to a tenth of all economic output. They employ millions, grow faster than the wider economy, ...
More reflections while still off-line. Peter Mandelson This afternoon (written Monday 20th April) Sir Keir Starmer is to explain to the House of Commons he Government's mis-handling of the appointment of Lord (I think he's still a lord) Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the US. Somewhere in Bagehot's famous account of the British Constitution he writes, in justification of the Monarchy, that the people "love a marriage more than a ministry." That is probably still true today. What is certainly true is that the British media much refer to titillate the public, and therefore promote their profits or viability, with ...
I appreciated Gareth McAleer's article in Lib Dem Voice on the economic power-up to be had from rejoining the EU, but while I support his desire to rejoin I think a different approach will be more effective. Economic arguments are always difficult and precision hard to achieve. As the saying goes, an economist is someone who if you ask for a telephone number gives you an estimate. It would be better to say that rejoining the single market will be of obvious economic benefit and leave others to fill in the billions. The alternative view, the Boris Johnson idea that ...
James Sherr, the former head of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, is a very distinguished analyst who understands the condition of Russia better than almost all the commentators on that subject. Over the years I have learned that his views of Russia ring more and more true. One idea that I find particularly compelling is the idea that Russia is in many ways an unreformed absolutist state, more similar to the time of the early Stuarts in Britain than to any modern political system. Furthermore, far from modernizing Russia, the Soviet period set back Russian political reform ...
I have written today to written to the Chief Constable and Leader of the Council asking them to desist from the use of classical music blasted out in Whitechapel to try and control street gangs. The use of music in this way is a Stalinist approach to dealing with a problem which is based on an inverted snobbery which will perpetuate a 'them and us' attitude to classical music. Other totalitarian regimes that use music are this way is China and North Korea. Do we really want to follow the appalling example of regimes like those? I have instead asked ...
Last week, the government forced through parliament the controversial "cumulative disruption" power, which enables police to ban protests on the grounds that they take place repeatedly. This attack on the fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression has been strongly criticised by the UN and human rights organisations. Introduced by the Lords as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, this legislation was not subject to full debate and scrutiny in parliament, MPs were denied a separate vote on the cumulative disruption amendment, and the vote on the bill was pushed through before the conclusions of the independent review. This ...
It's coming to that time when nobody wants to leave anything to chance, when the pressure is on. Yes, I'm talking about the end of the football season, with titles, promotion and relegation still to be decided. I spent part of yesterday at Portman Road, as Ipswich Town fought out a rather nervy 2-2 draw with promotion rivals Middlesbrough, in front of nearly 30,000 spectators, and was struck by the similarities with a political campaign. You bring together the best team you can muster, prepare as best you can, determine the appropriate strategy to defeat your opponent and hope that ...
Cole-Hamilton urges voters to postal vote for Scot Lib Dems on peach ballot paper Cut the rural cost of living and help farmers to flourish Reid hits out as ministers drop fines for poor ferry performance Cole-Hamilton urges voters to postal vote for Scot Lib Dems on peach ballot paper Alex Cole-Hamilton has today used a visit to a climbing wall in Edinburgh to urge voters voting by post to reach for the Scottish Liberal Democrats on the peach regional ballot paper, saying that more Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs will get more good things done in the next session of ...
"A project that ought to be broad, open and compassionate has come to be dominated by a narrow set of ideological demands which leave little room for genuine diversity of political perspective." Vlad Vexler and Rupert Read argue that if the climate movement does not embrace pluralism it risks handing the future to the far right. Laura López-Aybar reminds us of the way society can turn a blind eye to the human rights violations involved in psychiatry. Melinda Wenner Moyer on studies that suggest young people are in many ways doing better than previous generations: "In addition to their interest ...
This week, the government suffered its latest humiliation when Lord George Robertson, a former NATO Secretary-General, ex-Labour Defence Secretary and chair of the government's 2025 Strategic Defence Review accused the government of "corrosive complacency" in risking the country's security by dragging his heels on how the government will fund rebuilding its military in the face of the growing threat from Russia. A rising crescendo of articles and speeches by ex-military, defence correspondents and experts - and our very own Lib Dem defence spokesperson James MacCleary MP – have been highlighting that the government's Strategic Defence Review remains little more than ...
Earlier in the week I appeared on The Spectator's podcast, Coffee House Shots, alongside Lib Dem MP Al Pinkerton and discussing the party's prospects and ambitions in the local elections. Somehow we cooked up an analogy about the merits of broccoli in politics: Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
China The invisible hand of Beijing has been busily pulling the backstage strings to try and organise Iran War peace talks. Pakistan—which has been the lead country in mediation country—is a close ally of China and is clearly coordinating Its honest broker activities with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi who prefers to remain in the shadows. Economically China desperately needs an end to Trump's War. Ninety percent of its oil comes from Iran and, as the world's second largest economy, China needs global stability to maintain growth. At the same time, Chinese President Xi Jinping must be smiling to himself ...
I think this from Gibraltar counts as "technology that didn't work as intended": [IMG: Healy's Mortar, Gibraltar] Photo taken in Gibraltar. If only it didn't also feel like the forerunner of military procurement problems in the succeeding centuries too. UPDATE: For a more positive account of Healy's Mortar, see this account from the government of Gibraltar.
Theatre? Breaking Tunes explains: Hailing from the city of Limerick, Theatre are a rock band formed at the end of 2022 who have made a name for themselves throughout 2023 with their understated and ethereal sound, one which epitomises the guitar melodies of early '90s shoegaze and alternative rock, fused with their own style of unapologetic folk-laden sensibility. With similar sounds to the likes of Lankum, Just Mustard, and Sinead O'Connor, Theatre have spent their time cutting their teeth and making waves as a standout name in Limerick's thriving underground, more recently gaining more attention in Ireland's stronghold Dublin music ...
As Liberal Democrats we like to think of ourselves as champions of liberty and the equal dignity of every person. That is why we should be uneasy with the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament. It is not just a carving in stone. It is a symbol of honour placed at the threshold of our democracy by a state that still chooses to celebrate a man whose rule was built on conquest, massacre and the systematic displacement of entire peoples across Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. If we take our values seriously, that statue should not be ...
Nation Cymru tells us that a recent report has found that voters are more likely to support openly advocating for the UK to rejoin the EU than any "halfway house" deal. The news site adds that the findings come in response to the planned UK-EU reset legislation set to be part of the King's Speech package set out by the Prime Minister on May 13 involving a new law to allow single market rules to be adopted through secondary legislation: The Best for Britain report has used recent YouGov polling to establish that the Government's current plan has broad but ...