People keep tweeting their Wordle scores so I'm going to do this. Born in 1837, Paul Morphy was already acknowledged as the strongest American player when he came to Europe at the age of 21. There he beat most of the strongest players, often with some ease, and was often hailed as the strongest player in the world. But he failed to obtain the match with the Englishman Howard Staunton that would have allowed him to prove this beyond doubt. Morpby returned to American in 1859 and gave up competitive chess to work as a lawyer in New Orleans. Troubled ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog It is a little terrifying to think that thee general election of 1997, which brought with it such a sea change in our politics, was now 25 years ago this week. I remember it as much for the extraordinary turn in fortunes for the Lib Dems, more than doubling the size of their parliamentary party to 46 seats in one leap, as I do for bringing the Blair-Brown show to power. I was editor of Lib Dem News in those days, the party's weekly paper, and I had spent much of ...
Wed 4th
13:34
Nottinghamshire's Tory police and crime commissioner caught speeding five times in four months
Caroline Henry, the Conservative police and crime commissioner for Nottinghamshire, has admitted breaking the 30mph speed limit five times between March and June of last year. The offences took place at four different locations across the county. She is due to be sentenced in July. BBC News reports that: Magistrates were told Henry, who is the wife of Broxtowe MP Darren Henry, had written a letter to the court saying she was "very sorry, embarrassed and ashamed". And goes on to tell us: On her official PCC website, Henry listed ensuring an "effective and efficient" police response to speeding as ...
When the Chancellor raises National Insurance, are the effects the same everywhere? We don't know. But we ought to — regional inequality in the UK is so stark that comparisons to reunified Germany bear out. If fiscal policy plays a role in this, we need to know 'how much' and 'where'[1]. There's very good reason to ask for answers: long-established economic theory holds that governments will create poverty through taxation on economic activity: All economic principles must be tried and proved at the margin. On marginal land there is no surplus above non-land costs, hence there is no taxable capacity ...
Tue, 12:56: RT @JolyonMaugham: Devastating to wake up to the draft majority Opinion on Roe v Wade. Access to an abortion, like all healthcare, is (usua... Tue, 13:54: Beautiful! https://t.co/og961cuFna Tue, 16:05: RT @equalityAlec: The Supreme Court's draft opinion tonight would create a world in which Republicans could pass a nationwide ban on aborti... Tue, 19:14: Herg�, Son of Tintin, by Beno�t Peeters https://t.co/gdFoQD5R0I https://t.co/YXntFLBlO4 Tue, 20:48: RT @Popehat: Saying "the leak is the issue" is one dumb thing. Saying "this is worse than January 6" is stupendously dumb on a quantum leve... Wed, 07:07: Daily Quordle 100 8️⃣6️⃣ 7️⃣4️⃣ ...
My colleague Mark Valladares regularly entertains us with his "Welcome to my day" posts. So today I want to share with you my Eve of Poll day. I have been campaigning for the Lib Dems (and Liberals and SDP before that) since the mid 1970s. I was asked to stand as a paper candidate in 1978 in the ward where I lived. I declined but I doubt whether I would have made much difference to the 6% vote. Only 8 years later we won the ward with 58% and after a further 8 years we reached an astonishing 76%. (I ...
Yesterday evening, Tanc Barratt responding to article two days ago. who is proposing to convert 50 Broad Street into a town house leading to the closure of Golden Moments. The long established and popular business has not been able to find alternative location. And why should a business have to move because the new owner of the freehold doesn't want it next door to him? Mr Barratt says in his response: "This planning application is not about closing a business, it is about adapting with the times." The times are for more places to eat, drink and relax in town ...
A Parliamentary by-election in Windsor has been a possibility for a while given the stories about the incumbent MP's financial difficulties and how they might result in them being disqualified from Parliament. Here's the latest from the early morning Politico email newsletter: A Tory MP facing bankruptcy proceedings has been given time to sell his house worth a cool £3 million, to save himself from insolvency. A judge approved a plan for Adam Afriyie, MP for Windsor since 2005, to be given time to sell his house to raise funds in an effort to prevent HMRC from declaring him bankrupt ...
As if it were not bad enough that energy companies like BP are posting record profits on the back of huge price-hikes, and families struggling to pay for electricity and gas, the Times reports that many of these suppliers are facing "substantial fines" as regulators begin an urgent investigation into claims they are ripping off customers by inflating direct debits to ease cashflow problems. The paper says that companies hve been given three weeks by business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, to respond to allegations of "completely unacceptable behaviour" relating to unjustified direct debit increases: Boris Johnson came under increasing pressure on ...
My colleague Michael Crichton and I would like to take this opportunity in advance of tomorrow's City Council election to thank everyone across the West End for their support and warm reception on the doorsteps - it is really appreciated. We would kindly ask residents to vote FRASER MACPHERSON "NUMBER 1" and MICHAEL CRICHTON "NUMBER 2" to allow us to continue to work hard for everyone in our local area - many thanks!
New figures reveal 77,300 car thefts and 63,500 bike thefts went unsolved last year Only 3.9% of car thefts lead to someone being charged, down from 6.8% five years ago Conservatives accused of allowing criminals to steal vehicles on "an industrial scale" Shocking new figures have revealed a "vehicle crime epidemic," with over 140,000 car and bike thefts going unsolved by police last year. More than three quarters of car theft cases (77,318) and nine in ten bike thefts (63,481) were closed without a suspect being identified. The Liberal Democrats said the figures showed the Conservatives were soft on crime ...
