It's almost four years since my mother died. A strong memory from her last days is the magnolia at the end of the street. I saw it every time I went out on an errand. As it was so sunny today, I went to see if the tree is still thriving. And it is.
On Wednesday night, ten thousand people filled OVO Arena Wembley for Trans Mission: A Solidarity Concert. It was a four-hour, star-studded declaration that trans people in this country are not alone – and that the hostility directed at them is not going unanswered. Olly Alexander, the Sugababes, Wolf Alice, Adam Lambert, Ian McKellen reading Shakespeare. A mother speaking about her daughter Alice, who is no longer alive, asking the crowd to dance for those who can no longer dance for themselves. A standing ovation that shook the building. One politician was on that stage. Zack Polanski, leader of the Green ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: I am hoping to trigger a debate in Parliament on the state of parcel delivery services and would like your views. Read on to find out more. Did someone share this with you? If so, sign up here to get future pieces sent directly to you: What's your experience of parcel delivery services? ...
Stefan Collini has reviewed the latest volume of T.S. Eliot's letters for the London Review of Books. It covers the years 1942-4, and the most striking thing about the review is the revelation of how little time Eliot spent writing poetry and how much he devoted to his duties for the publishers Faber & Faber. One advantage that firm had over other publishers was that it was based in Russel Square rather than the traditional book-trade quarter of Pasternoster Row, which stood in the shadow of St Paul's and was heavily bombed in the London Blitz. Collini also writes about ...
Photo © BadgerHero Early last week I sent off my latest piece for Central Bylines. In it I praised Ed Davey's willingness to challenge the right's claims to patriotism: People on the left tend to be uneasy about patriotism - the last refuge of the scoundrel and all that - but it's remarkable how many right-wing politicians and commentators give every impression of disliking their own country. They hanker after the fake past they see online in AI images, but have little love for the country as it really was or is. By the time it appeared, Ed Davey had ...
Across the United Kingdom, the role of the local high street is changing. Many of the civic buildings that once anchored communities, such as local police stations, small health centres, and council offices, are gradually disappearing as services modernise and budgets tighten. While change is inevitable, it raises an important question: how can we keep public services visible, accessible, and connected to the communities they serve? One promising answer is the Integrated Community Hub. This would be a shared public building where Community Minor Injury Units (MIUs) and Neighbourhood Police Teams operate under the same roof. Rather than maintaining separate ...
The Mirror reports that Reform UK's deputy leader is under pressure to "urgently" explain himself over reports he avoided paying nearly £600,000 in corporation tax. The paper says that Richard Tice reportedly avoided paying corporation tax on his property company Quidnet Reit Ltd over a three-year period after gaining a rare legal status for his firm: The Reform MP is accused of avoiding hundreds of thousands in corporation tax by listing his firm on the Guernsey stock exchange and applying for it to become a real estate investment trust (REIT), according to the Sunday Times. Mr Tice's firm reportedly did ...
When I was a student in York the corner shops in the backstreets all had advertising John Smith's Magnet Ales. The shops have mostly closed and, while the name Magnet still survives, the beer is no longer brewed at John Smith's Tadcaster brewery but produced under licence by Cameron's in Hartlepool. I did find a couple of relics of Magnet advertising when I went hunting for the blue plaque on Frankie Howerd's childhood home in York.
Mon 16th
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Mathew on Monday: Serious Times Demand Serious Leadership - Ed Davey needs to stop with the clowning...
These are not normal political times. These are not easy times. And they are certainly not times when large swathes of the electorate is crying out for gimmicks, distractions, or anything that looks remotely unserious. They are times of international instability, economic uncertainty, pressure on public services, and a deep distrust in politics. In moments like these, what voters are looking for above all else is seriousness, serious ideas. Serious tone, serious leadership. Which is why, for many of us watching Ed Davey's speech at Spring Conference in York yesterday, there was such deep frustration. Because there were good things ...
Wide gunmetal skies. Plans reach an end. Nemesis falls in flakes like snow.
The next issue of Liberator - "The magazine for all Liberals"- will drop in a couple of weeks. If you'd like to be notified as soon as it's posted on the magazine's website, then add your email address to the magazine's mailing list. Liberator publishes six issues a year. Once you're on the list you will receive an email each time a new one appears. You can download issues from the magazine's website as a pdf free of charge. There's also a large archive of back numbers of Liberator to explore there. See the recent issues and the archive of ...
It's the wrong time for any serious party leader to advocate getting rid of our nuclear weapons. Yesterday, Ed probably said the most sensible thing anyone could say. If we're going to keep nuclear weapons, there is now a pressing need for them to be British. It's been said that it might be possible to jailbreak an F35. It's also been said it doesn't work like that. I don't know if you can jailbreak a nuclear missile, but maybe we should have somebody working on it.* But there is a substantial argument that our nuclear weapons will soon be useless ...
The local elections in May will elect an entirely new Council. If you are going away on Thursday, 7th May and don't have a Postal Vote, your voice will not be heard. You can apply for a Postal Vote here: really important that everyone has a chance to have their say so if you are going to be away please do apply for a
Over the weekend, Lib Dem spring conference was held in York. 5 of us from Gateshead attended: me, David Randall, Daniel Duggan, Amanda Wintcher and Jamie Rickelton. Amanda and Jamie attended as stewards but were given time off to take part in debates (Jamie made his maiden speech) and to meet up with us for a Gateshead Lib Dem dinner. Here are the first photos. Some more to follow
Six years after Britain left the European Union, the promise that we would "take back control" rings hollow. The truth is painful: Brexit has weakened our country. It has diminished our prosperity, our standing, and our confidence. What was sold as liberation has instead become a slow estrangement from our closest allies and from the European identity that once helped define us as an open, confident nation. For Liberal Democrats, the damage goes deeper than trade or economics. Brexit was a rejection of something essential: our belief that Britain's strength lies in cooperation and shared purpose. It narrowed our horizons ...
Searchlight has the measure of Reform UK's leader: "It's a script Nigel Farage knows well. Candidates or causes closely linked to him, perhaps even bearing his name and his photograph, make large, attention-grabbing promises. Votes are won on the strength of them. Then, once the votes are counted the promises are declared - with an air of wounded innocence - to have never been made, and certainly not by him." AI fakes spread disinformation but, asks Anna Merlan, is the distrust they create even worse? "Julie Critchlow, one of the mums involved, told The Times in 2006 that much of ...
Ed Davey's speech to Conference yesterday is already proving controversial within the party. His announcement that we are now calling for the country to develop its own independent nuclear deterrent had one member in tears and others mystified. Given that we will be debating a paper on international security in Autumn, people were wondering why that proposal could not have been properly announced as part of that process. Anything to do with nuclear weapons has long been an emotive issue for the party. Over dinner the other night, we were talking about the (before my time) leadership defeat on its ...
Following on from yesterday's post about the limited funds that might be available to the next Welsh Government with which to effect change, the BBC report on other aspects of the IFS analysis that suggests that spending more may not be the answer anyway. The broadcaster says that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded that Wales' health and education systems are underperforming compared with England despite significant increases in spending. The IFS report concludes that despite recent falls waiting lists remain far higher than before Covid struck, and school absences remain 50% higher than in 2019: David Phillips of ...