Living in a small village does little for the concept of spontaneity. Indeed, I began to make the case for the benefits of having to plan things in advance, something I didn't really do much of as a Londoner, back in the day. But, having now reverted to urban living, I've begun to realise just how nice it is to have things on your doorstep. Today, a lampshade was purchased for the lamp in the living room, one a bit larger than we'd previously had. As a result, it needed a support, and the wonderful lighting store on Butter Market ...
This is the one I've been waiting for. I've not watched it yet, but if they leave Richard III alone in the interview room with Barlow, he'll get a confession out of him in no tome. It's an odd programme: Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor investigate historical crimes in the roles of Charlie Barlow and John Watt that they played in Z Cars, Softly Softly and Softly Softly: Task Force. This device was first used in a six-part investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders screened in 1973. It was notable because the writer, Elwyn Jones, introduced the conspiracy theory ...
Search for a podcast on a subject you like, and the odds are it'll begin with protracted banter between people you don't know. I once had to fast forward for 30 minutes to get past it. The words you should really fear are: "Before we start..." And when they do finally start, more often than not the discussion isn't worth the wait. This was my experience of searching for a podcast on the Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale the other night. The consensus of the ones I found was that there weren't enough superheroes or helicopter crashes. But ...
Welcome to 2024, which will almost certainly see a general election. If you want to promote a policy or make your predictions, why not write a guest post for Liberal England? As you can see from the list below, I'm happy to cover subjects far beyond the Liberal Democrats and British politics. I don't have to agree with every word in a guest post, but I'd hate you to spend your time writing something I really wouldn't want to publish. So do please get in touch first. These were the last 10 guest posts on Liberal England:Liberalism, transport and the ...
The 4 Day Week Campaign has published a mini-manifesto for the general election. It calls for: A reduction to the maximum working week from 48 hours per week to 32 hours per week by 2030;An amendment to official flexible working guidance to include the right for workers to request a four-day, 32-hour working week with no loss of pay;A £100 million fund to support companies in the private sector to move to a four-day, 32-hour working week;A fully funded four-day week pilot in the public sector;A Working Time Council bringing together trade unions, industry leaders and business leaders to coordinate ...
We continued our amazing start to the year in this week's by-elections. Across 6 contests we won in 3 (including a superb gain in Richmond). We stood a candidate in all 6 by-elections. There were two by-elections on Richmond on Thames LBC this week and both saw excellent Lib Dem wins. We gained Hampton North ward from the Conservatives, and in doing so wiped the Conservatives out on the Council. A remarkable achievement by the Lib Dem team in Richmond. As recently as 2018 the Conservatives were running the Council! Congratulations to Councillor Carey Bishop on a brilliant win that ...
This blog is taken in full from the Independent newspaper and the authorship of Chris Finnigan is acknowledged. It echoes so clearly my thoughts that I though it better to reprint this than write a less informed piece of my ... Continue reading →
The world is suffering one of its worst post-war food crises. Before the Hamas attack on October 7, 333 million people in the 78 countries covered by the World Food Programme were suffering what food gurus call "acute levels of food insecurity." The WFP's latest figures do not cover the 26 million North Koreans, half of whom are said to be suffering from malnutrition. Neither do they include Gaza where 2.2 million people are literally starving to death. Another 129,000 are facing a thin coffin in an early grave in Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, and Sudan. Feeding these people. Providing ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRUKCon leadFieldwork WeThink 23% (nc) 48% (+3) 9% (-2) 5% (nc) 10% (-1) -25% 18-19/1 Techne 25% (+1) 43% (-1) 11% (+1) 6% (nc) 9% (-1) -18% 17-18/1 YouGov ...
Just Bee Productions is holding a Burns charity lunch next Thursday - 25th January - at 2pm, in Meadowside St Paul's Church - all welcome!
I am happy to admit that when Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and the other architects of Brexit promising that environmental protections would be strengthened after the vote to leave the EU, I didn't believe them, but what could I do about it other than wait to see if they delivered on their promises? It is with regret that I record that my scepticism was justified. The Guardian contains a major feature in which its environment reporter, Helena Horton details the scale of the changes in the law which mean that environmental legislation in Britain is facing death by a thousand ...
