Tarjei J. Svensen reports an extraordinary achievement for British chess: British chess sensation WCM Bodhana Sivanandan made history today, scoring 10/10 to become England's first world youth champion in 25 years and complete a historic triple crown. The eight-year-old prodigy is dominating the Girls Under 8 category of the World Cadet Championship in Egypt and clinched the title today with a round to spare. And the story just gets more extraordinary. Bodhana already holds the rapid and blitz titles (for games played at faster speeds than in the tournament she has just won) in her age group, and in gaining ...
With every month that passes, the prospect of a Keir Starmer government grows a little less enticing. The latest radical policy to be jettisoned is a right to roam in England along the lines of the one that has operated in Scotland for 20 years. This is reported - sorry, 'revealed' - by the Guardian today. The paper quotes the former Labour shadow nature minister Alex Sobel speaking in the Commons earlier this year: "Labour's approach, like in Scotland, will be that Labour's right to roam will offer access to high-quality green and blue space in the rest of Britain. ...
At an academic conference some years ago, I heard a speaker say that the good thing about being a historian is that one's role is to interpret the past not to predict the future - a comment I found useful to remember when rereading my last post on this blog, a mere 11-and-a-bit years ago. I remember some people took it as an argument that the Liberal Democrats' prospects in the 2015 general election were not as bleak as was generally thought. But that wasn't my point. It was intended as a challenge to a misinterpretation of history - namely ...
(Photo: BBC) I have previously written of my horror at the events of 7th October and the need for calm heads rather than emotive responses (We Need Calls For Calm, Not War) but in a short time the situation has - both regrettably and predictably - escalated significantly. And so I turn my attentions to a slightly different question that perhaps isn't being asked sufficiently as opinion on complex historical, political, religious and social questions descends into simple binary thinking. It is not enough to "stand" with one side or the other, amplifying prejudices and grievances. Instead, anyone who desires ...
As trailed here, the team who gave us the Green Book some 10 years ago is launching a new podcast series, starting with an episode on the economy. This is hugely important as concerns about the economy, be they low paid jobs, insecurity or our apparent inability to fund decent public services and infrastructure, are at the top of most people's concerns. We're all well aware of the lack of investment in this country, both public and private which has led to this situation. However, the standard answer from most of our politicians has been 'but there is no money' ...
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Most Liberal Democrats care passionately about electoral reform. Most voters don't begin to understand what it's all about. So how do we catch their attention, let alone their support? Let me make some suggestions about how to gain public attention. First, don't talk about 'proportional representation' or 'electoral reform'. Say 'fair votes', and 'a more democratic system'. If we mention the choice between STV (the Single Transferable Vote) and the Additional Member System (AMS) eyes will glaze over. Tell them that Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic use more democratic systems. The choice for fairer voting lies between ...
It's awful to see such horrendous damage caused by Storm Babet from north east Scotland to Wales. But it's particularly frustrating that some of it could have been avoided, as Welsh Lib Dem Leader Jane Dodds has observed. Jane has expressed her concerns on the recent flooding in Trevalyn and the apparent misuse of flood defence equipment. Extreme weather conditions brought on by Storm Babet over the weekend caused the nearby River Alyn to breach its banks, flooding the village located just North of Wrexham. According to an article from BBC Wales, both Natural Resources Wales and residents stated that ...
Let's play a political game: You are Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, facing one of the worse cost-of-living crises for decades, people are suffering from an abnormally high tax burden due to your policies, so much so that even state pensioners with no other form of income could find themselves in the higher tax bracket in a few years' time, and because of your ideological insistence on not giving concessions to the EU, the economy is struggling to grow. But, you have some room for manoeuvre. How is the best way to use it to help the maximum number ...
Following a number of Dundee City Council tenants in Pentland asking about possible home insulation improvements for the council housing in the area, we took this up with the City Council. The council's Head of Housing and Construction Services has responded as follows : "I can confirm that all of the flats in Saggar Street fall into City Road 2nd development which was built in 1960 and has a brick/blockwork cavity. Therefore, it falls on our list of cavity areas. There are 57 Council flats left out of the total of 136 (60% owners) in the development. As you know ...
