Now I'm back on the more familiar ground of indie, Dylan-influenced music that I think of as the sort of thing I listen to. Despite the moniker, the Pernice Brothers are really a vehicle for Joe Pernice, a songwriter who has previously recorded as a solo artist and as the Scud Mountain Boys and Chappaquick Skyline (an album under the latter name being described by one critic as 'terminally-depressed orchestral pop musings', which sums it up quite nicely). The fact that he wrote a song about BS Johnson made me take to Pernice immediately, whatever he happened to be calling ...
Josh Reynolds MP repeatedly attempts to get Amazon boss Jennifer Kearney to answer his question about why so many of her staff have chosen to go on strike. He is the youngest Liberal Democrat MP, sitting for Maidenhead. Slightly mysteriously, Wikipedia says he was born in 1998 or 1999.
I wrote hurriedly last week about how US growth outperformance cannot all be explained by tech. Here is an even more hurried analysis using KLEMS data to dive into some of the decompositions of growth between UK and US. [A decomposition, in very crude terms: we know that output can be expressed as a function of how much labour; the quality (education) of that labour; the capital stock (tangible, intangible, ICT and not) used to produce the output, and finally the "magic residual", Total Factor Productivity, which is by definition whatever variable you need to make the inputs achieve the ...
"The international community has failed to rise to the occasion. Western governments have largely confined their responses to handwringing statements of "concern" over the violence, and the introduction of travel restrictions on a few government officials. The EU's hands have been tied by Hungary and Slovakia, who have threatened to veto any effort to introduce tougher measures, such as sanctions."Alexandra Hall Hall says the West will regret abandoning the Georgian people to the clutches of Russia. Gilo dissects the culture that prevents Church of England bishops from speaking out on abuse in the Church of England. Jonathan Liew finds that ...
Mark Hofman's interesting critique of the recent English Devolution White Paper is, effectively, a plea to retain decision making closer to communities. And, of course, devolving powers to a body further removed from the people it serves is in danger of resembling an oxymoron – larger councils, covering relatively vast geographic areas, are less likely to understand the needs of less homogeneous, less visible communities. From the perspective of a Parish Council Chair though, what is most depressing about the White Paper is the way in which it completely disregards an entire tier of local government, the Town and Parish ...
Augustus Carp finds that 84 councillors have changed allegiance since his last report. The last time I reviewed the state of political defections by councillors was in October, so a brief update is probably in order. The rate of change seems to have picked up since the autumn - 84 councillors on first-tier authorities have changed allegiances in the last three months. The significant beneficiary has been Reform UK, which has picked up 16 councillors from the Conservatives and the Independents. There are some examples of 'slow burn' defections, with councillors going Independent before joining Reform. It will be interesting ...
The Guardian reports that the Electoral Commission, amid rising concerns about Elon Musk's plans to donate millions of pounds to Reform UK, has called on the government to strengthen the rules around political donations to protect the electoral system from foreign interference. The paper says that Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the elections watchdog, has said that linking donations to political parties to the UK profits of companies owned by foreigners was one of the urgent changes needed to retain the trust of voters: The move, which the Guardian understands is being considered by the government, could cap the amount ...
Happy Christmas and New Year Once again, we end the year with more Liberal Democrat MPs, more Liberal Democrat council leaders and more Liberal Democrat councillors than we started the year. We also have in Ed Davey the main party leader who consistently comes out best in the polls. You have already heard many statistics from myself and others about that progress, so this time I will simply share perhaps my favourite. There are now 25 Liberal Democrat MPs with a majority over 10,000... and just 5 (!) Conservatives. That is a huge tribute to the personal vote built up ...
Michael's surgeries take place today and 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! These are Michael's final weekly surgeries before the school Christmas holidays. His surgeries return on Thursday 9th January 2025.
