Embed from Getty ImagesI've heard stories about Steve Winwood, as a young teenager, had played with the some of the American blues greats when they visited the UK. Now I've found some detailed information in an interview with him from 1982 - it's on his own website. In the first extract here he talks about his involvement in those years with Jamaican musicians in Birmingham As for Chris [Blackwell], I met him in 1964 at Digbeth Civic Hall in Birmingham, which has always been a big center for Jamaicans in England; they used to hold their dances there, and naturally ...
Today, Saturday May 8th, is international Women's Day and on Monday, 10th May, it is Commonwealth Day so I was very pleased today to attend 2 events in Liverpool where the Liverpool Commonwealth Association celebrated both events by making the International Women's Day activities a major part of its day's activity It is a long time since I wrote in my blog about the Commonwealth Association, and it's ten years since I established it and became, for three years, its founder chair. It does what you might think it would do! It works with all the Commonwealth diaspora communities in ...
On this International Women's Day, I want to celebrate the greatest hero in my life — my mother, Amtal. My mother is a woman of extraordinary strength, resilience, and unwavering principles. She may stand at just 4'11", but her presence is far greater. She carries herself with dignity, pride, and courage that inspires everyone who knows her. Today, my mother lives a peaceful and independent life in a small village called Kotha, in the Gujrat district of Punjab, Pakistan. She spends her days tending to her small plot of land, growing her own food, nurturing her beautiful flowers, and caring ...
[IMG: Image of Paddy Ashdown with words "What would Paddy do?"] Bringing the party's first leader back to life - in a modern-day cause Six years after his premature death at age 77, Paddy Ashdown is making a comeback in the interests of the party's immediate future. Well, not really. But Paddy's name does adorn a new publication from the Yorkists, a group of party activists keen for the Lib Dems to have a stronger public identity. What would Paddy do? is ostensibly a submission to the party's policy review, the one chaired by Ed Davey and Eleanor Kelly that ...
When people think of the priorities of the Liberal Democrats, they may not immediately think of employment rights, compared to the focus on health and care, or on Europe. But reading last year's manifesto, the degree of attention paid to this issue would surprise many. The manifesto that delivered such a resounding result for the party included a commitment to ensure "the highest possible standards" of labour protection, alongside individual measures on zero hours contracts, sick pay, and more. Such language isn't a surprise to me or to the trade union I lead. As a politically independent union, Prospect has ...
Today is International Women's Day, a day to celebrate the inspirational women we know and to recognise that we still have a long way to go to achieve equality for half the population in almost every aspect of our national and international life. This year's theme is For ALL women and girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment. With women's rights under threat across the world from Afghanistan to the USA, that could not be more appropriate. When I think of inspirational women, if I didn't mention my sister, Honor, who celebrates her 50th birthday this week, she would kill me. You can ...
There is an outside, long shot chance of saving Ukraine and the Western Alliance—Buy American. I don't mean American cars or cereal. I mean something which really costs—American weaponry, American satellite links and American intelligence. The money is there, $300-plus billion in frozen Russian assets that was being held back for Ukrainian reconstruction. There is not much point in saving it for reconstruction purposes if there is no country to reconstruct. On top of that the normally frugal Germans are about to remove the EU debt brake and leap into a defense spending spree. And across Europe taxes are set ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Welcome to the 150th edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP) which returns to the story of GenZ and that speech by Channel 4's Chief Executive, Alex Mahon. Then it is a summary of the latest national voting intention polls and a round-up of party leader ratings, followed by, for paid-for subscribers, 10 insights from the last week's polling and analysis. This time, those ten include new analysis of voters who switched from the Conservatives to Lib Dem at the 2024 general ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with party leadership ratings. 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 PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Opinium 20% (-1) 28% (nc) 12% (nc) 8% (nc) 27% (+1) 1% (vs. Ref) 5-7/3 GB Techne 21% (-1) 28% (+2) 13% (nc) 7% ...
The City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership earlier this week published its proposed roads and footpaths resurfacing and improvements programme for the new financial year and the West End proposed work included : Adopted Footway Programme 2025-26• Lochee Road - Mitchell Street to Tullideph Road• Perth Road - Westfield Place to Greenfield Place• Tay Square - north west - replacement slabbing• Annfield Street - south side full length• Jedburgh Road - north side from Blackness Road to Kelso Street Non-adopted programme 2025-26• Balgay Cemetery - roads Carriageway Resurfacing Programme 2025-26• Roseangle - improvements to the setts - this work is actually ...
Nigel Farage's party may well be giving everybody else a run for their money in the polls but it seems that he has problems of his own keeping his members in check. The Guardian reports that Reform UK has erupted into open civil war after the party said its MP Rupert Lowe had received complaints about bullying and had made threats against the party chair, a day after Lowe criticised Nigel Farage for being "messianic". The paper says that Lowe responded with anger, saying there was no evidence to back up the bullying claims, and that it was "entirely untrue" ...
