Even now, the Conservatives have not understood that Ed Davey is a far bigger danger to their majority than Nigel Farage. So says Martin Kettle in today's Guardian, and he's right. The Conservatives' obsession with the voters they have lost to Reform has always been bad politics. It's also bad arithmetic. In seats where the Liberal Democrats are the challengers to the Tories, every voter they lose to us reduces their majority by two. A voter lost to Reform reduces it by only one. The Reform obsession, I suspect, arises because most Tory members now have little idea what Conservatism ...
He has been building bug houses! Not as eye-catching as falling into water, but still a good ploy to talk about housing. Over in The Guardian he is seen wearing a halo. Martin Kettle writes: "The Tories are fixating on Reform. They should be focused on a far bigger threat" – meaning the Lib Dems. If wartime analogies are your thing, you could say that the Conservatives have a Singapore problem. Before the second world war, the British empire armed Singapore to fight naval battles against Japan. Famously, most of Singapore's heavy artillery faced out to sea. But in 1942, ...
This May the Liberal Democrats made remarkable gains in local elections across England. From winning the second highest number of seats in councils up for election (pushing the Conservatives into third place) to returning to third place in the London mayoral election and winning our first ever London Assembly constituency seat, the Liberal Democrats are on the cusp of regaining our place as Westminster's third largest party come 4 July. That rise is a major story of the 2024 local elections, one deserving more media attention. But the story of how the elections were skewed by First Past the Post ...
The latest edition of the Writers on Film podcast is well worth a listen: Roger Lewis comes back to the pod to talk about his small masterpiece of biographical investigation, and fitting testament to a comic genius whose place in British cultural history is now assured. Charles Hawtrey, the skinny one with the granny glasses, was everybody's favourite in the Carry Ons - but who exactly was he? Up to now the man has remained a mystery. Examining Hawtrey's origins as a child star and performer in revue and the Will Hay films, this wonderful little book looks at his ...
In 1912 Britain was a surprisingly shabby place. Despite the country's immense foreign possessions and vast export trade, the UK was suffering the enfeebling effects of a drastic readjustment of global trade. In the decades to come, these economic tides would cause the British Empire to recede into the history books. But for the Edwardians, these future chimes of doom were felt first as industrial sluggishness and mass hardship. The grand Imperial centre was witnessing an explosion of poverty, malnutrition, and ill-health, decaying infrastructure and insecure work. E.M. Forster memorably dramatized this national condition in his 1913 novel Maurice through ...
As we end our week at Bonkers Hall, his lordship turns his mind from the general election to the thorny question of what to do about Earl Russell's Big Band. This is an opportunity to say that Meadowcroft, Lord Bonkers' besmocked gardener, has long since ceased to be a portrait of Michael Meadowcroft. Muttering away in his potting shed, the gardener has acquired a character of his own. As to Clarence 'Frogman' Wilcock, he appears to be a combination of Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, the American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, and Clarence Harry Willcock, the Liberal who declined to ...
With two weeks to go until polling day, it's a tossup between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in South Shropshire. A new MRP poll for Sky News shows the Conservatives on 31% and the Lib Dems on 30%. Labour is trailing well behind at 17%, polling worse than Reform which is on 19%. The Green Party is in danger of losing its deposit with just 4% of the vote. These results reflect what the Lib Dem team is hearing on doorsteps. Disillusionment with the Tories is high, especially with a gaffe prone prime minister who is out of touch with ...
Michael's ward surgeries take place today and every Thursday during school term time. They are as follows : Thursdays at 5.45pm prompt - West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC and Victoria Park Primary Schools) Thursdays at 6.30pm prompt - Harris Academy reception area All welcome - no appointment necessary!
If there is one good reason to condemn the Tories to electoral oblivion it is their insane and cruel policy towards England's badger population. The Mirror reports that Rishi Sunak has vowed to keep killing badgers to prevent cattle from catching disease from them. The fact that this meaningless slaughter does not work in suppressing bovine TB appears not to concern him. This is a plan that is not working and which is being implemented in defiance of the science. Let's hope that any incoming Labour government puts an end to this nonsense.
