I remember Fyfe Robertson from the 1960s. He often gave the impression that he was surprised to find himself on television, as though he had been having a quiet drink when someone pointed the camera at him. In face he was a notable journalist and, before he turned his hand to television, had been with Picture Post in its glory years. Click on the image above to go the BBC Rewind site and see him report on the imminent closure of the Forth and Clyde Canal on Tonight in 1962. It did indeed close the following year, but the good ...
"Short-form social content is great for punchy superficial gesture, but just terrible at containing any form of complex nuanced context. The volatile nature of the provocative issues embedded in this conflict are barely containable even face to face among close others with whom we disagree. Exchanging with strangers online is not only impossible, but tends to result in the hardening of positions and may even contribute to radicalisation." Aaron Balick explains why social media amplifies hatred in a time of unspeakable horror. "There is too much emphasis on what connects with 'Middle England', and the blue wall in particular. How ...
On top of the major parliamentary by-elections this week there have also been some big council by-elections for the Lib Dems. Results were good overall. We secured some brilliant increases in our vote share and one amazing gain from the Conservatives. The Conservatives lost all four council seats they were defending this week with some drastic falls in their share of vote. A truly disastrous week for them. We start our round up on Shropshire Council where we took Alveley and Claverley ward from the Conservatives with a stunning 36.2% increase in our share of the vote! Congratulations to Councillor ...
We hear a lot about the rules of war. The conventions that dictate what is acceptable behaviour in conflict situations and what is not. But what are these rules? How are they defined? And can we really have such a thing as 'rules' of war in today's troubled world? It's a matter of debate whether war is a fundamental and inevitable aspect of human nature or the result of specific economic, social or other circumstances. What is certain, though, is that the notion of war has been around for pretty much as long as we have. And it doesn't look ...
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse has got another bill successfully through Parliament, this time on workplace harassment. Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse's Worker Protection Bill has cleared its final legislative hurdle today and will become law. The Bill will give protections to employees from sexual harassment in the workplace, with a new duty on employers to proactively prevent/stop workplace harassment — Josiah Mortimer (@josiahmortimer) October 20, 2023
This is a very difficult post to write. Yet again Palestine & Israel are at war and thousands on both sides have already or possibly will die. After the attack by Hamas on Simchat Torah (October 7th), understandably, Israel is hurting, grieving and many there are angrily demanding action against the murderous terrorists who kill so many, kidnapped nearly 200 and wounded thousands. But as we all know, it is not always possible to make good decision when you are angry, hurting, grieving, a cooler head is needed. Hamas is not Palestine. It has held Gaza in a destructive dictatorship ...
I'm not going to lie. I'm disappointed this morning. Like many of you reading this, I wanted to wake up to Emma Holland-Lindsay becoming our 16th MP. As a party we've put a huge amount of effort in to Mid Bedfordshire and we didn't do it to become third. It's a decent, double-our-vote third, not a squeezed till our pips squeak third, but even so, we're allowed to feel a bit gutted. Part of the reason I am so sad is that Emma is a huge talent and has been a magnificent candidate. I've heard of so many doorstep encounters ...
Fri 20th
08:52
Alveley and Claverley landslide win for Lib Dems: The Blue Remembered Hills are turning gold
Wow. What a win! Congratulations to Colin Taylor on winning the Lib Dems 17th seat on Shropshire Council on a massive swing from the Conservatives of 36%. It's the third by-election in South Shropshire in two years. As Colin said after his victory: "The Blue Remembered Hills are turning gold." Across the county, the Lib Dems are the biggest opposition party on Shropshire Council with 17 councillors. The Conservatives had 54 seats on the 73-seat council in 2009. Since then, they have lost 15 seats as they have become increasingly unpopular in the county and nationally. They command a majority ...
The Guardian reports that Rishi Sunak's controversial fund to support startups during the Covid pandemic invested nearly £2m in companies linked to his wife. The paper says that Carousel Ventures, a company part-owned by Akshata Murty's venture capital firm, got an investment of £250,000 from the Future Fund to help fund its ownership of a luxury underwear business called Heist Studios: It is the fourth business linked to Murty revealed to have received an investment from the fund set up by Sunak to support startups when he was chancellor during the Covid pandemic. None of Murty's investments that benefited from ...
Following residents mentioning to us that the foliage at the junction of of Glenagnes Road and Scott Street was very overgrown and reducing the width of the pavement/path there (see photo), we asked Home Group who has responsibility here to have this cut back. We thereafter received this update from Home Group's Operations Manager : "Our maintenance surveyor attended the site several times and can advise the whole of Glenagnes Road and Scott St have all been faced off back beyond trip fence." The foliage had also been encroaching onto some back gardens in Logie Gardens and we were assured ...
The results are in and it's another day not to be the Conservative spokesperson, as Labour have won both of yesterday's by-elections. In Mid Bedfordshire, Alistair Strathern will go down in the record books as having overturned a near 25,000 majority: Labour 13,872 (34.1%, +12.4%) Conservatives 12,680 (31.1%, -28.6%) Liberal Democrats 9,420 (23.1%, 10.5%) It's the first by-election of this Parliament in which voters had a choice between three alternatives with a credible chance of winning but it appears at first glance that, on the day, wavering voters opted for Labour rather than us as the means to defeat Nadine ...
