The Cascades: I Bet You Won't StayThe Cascades were a clean-cut American vocal group who had an international hit in 1962 with Rhythm of the Rain and were later influenced by the Beach Boys. I Bet You Won't Stay is a Ray Davies song that, as far as I can tell, The Kinks never recorded. It turned up on the B-side of an unsuccessful Cascades single in 1965. It's easy to imagine Davies singing this himself. The poster on Bluesky who alerted me to the song described it as a "fantastic link between See My Friends and Tired of Waiting". It's the best Kinks single that ... (more) |
Lib Dem Friends of Israel respond to Andrew George MPAndrew George MP frames his recent article on Lib Dem Voice ("Israel/Palestine: Complicity") around laudable principles—respect for law, opposition to hatred, and concern for civilian life. However, those principles are undermined when language departs from legal definitions, evidence is selectively presented, and allegations of the gravest crimes in international law are asserted as settled fact when they are not. This matters not only for accuracy, but because such rhetoric risks feeding narratives that blur into antisemitism under the guise of moral critique. The most serious flaw in the article is the repeated assertion that Israel is committing "genocide." Genocide is ... (more) |
A football themed election leaflet from 1951A Conservative leaflet from the 1951 general election, housed at the People's History Museum in Manchester: [IMG: 1951 general election Conservative leaflet looking like the football pools] Information about the leaflet from the museum (see number 5 in the list): [IMG: 1951 general election Conservative leaflet looking like the football pools - museum explanation] Football-themed leaflets were quite the thing in 1951 and you can watch a short video about that election here. For more gems from past election leaflets, see my collection How leaflets used to look. (more) |
Cap needed on political donationsThe £9 million donation that Reform received from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur is continuing to make waves with nineteen civil organisations calling on ministers to legislate to cap political donations in an effort to "rebuild voter confidence" in democracy. The Guardian reports that these organisations have urged the government to show more ambition as it prepares to publish legislation early next year that will extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds: In a letter sent this week to Steve Reed, the communities secretary, and Samantha Dixon, the democracy minister, 19 civil organisations said "a donations cap is ... (more) |
Dennis Mallard: The boy who ran away to Ealing to be a film starIf an American child dreamed of being a star, they would run away to Hollywood. In the Britain of 1958, children had to make do with Ealing. Here's a story from the Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer for 17 January of that year that came up when I was searching for something else: The boy who ran away to be a film star His adventure proves to be far from glamorous Twelve years old Dennis Mallard, who appears very briefly in the new Harry Secombe film "Davy," thought his film career was not developing fast enough. He ran away from ... (more) |
Reporting on Israel and Palestine.In his second mock "Annual Awards" in his "Strike" newsletter commentator Ian Dunt names "Unholy" as Podcast of the year and comments on the . . ." grotesque trend" in the UK's reporting of the Israel Palestine conflict in that: "... Israeli lives are personalised. They are made real. But Palestinian lives are anonymised, turned into rubble along with their homes." Equally of note to me is the disproportionate quantity of time and space devoted to the suffering of Israelis compared to that of the Palestinians. Last week, after the shooting on Bondi Beach in Australia, in which 15 people ... (more) |
Sweeney Todd: Scenes from the Making of a MusicalHere's a holiday treat: a South Bank Show documentary from 1980 that follows Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince as they rehearse the first West End production of Sweeney Todd. It had opened on Broadway the year before. Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovat are Denis Quilley and Sheila Hancock - look out for wine expert Oz Clarke and Michael Staniforth (Timothy Claypole from Rentaghost) in supporting roles. (more) |
AwayI was away from home last weekend. Sadly, it was for another family funeral. This time it was David's aunt Mollie who passed away. The funeral was near Evesham, close to Mollie's smallholding. Getting there on time was the big challenge of the day. A train journey last Friday that started at 8.30am in Newcastle got us to Evesham spot on time, despite having to catch two connections. And then the (more) |
Latest voting intention and leadership ratings opinion pollsWelcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and 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 Find Out Now 18% (nc) 14% (nc) 12% (+1) 17% (nc) 30% (-3) -16% (4th, vs Ref) 24/12 GB ... (more) |
Why Liberal Democrats need a principled position on Farm Inheritance TaxLabour's capitulation this week- raising the Agricultural Property Relief threshold from £1 million to £2.5 million after fourteen months of pressure – reveals the weakness of defending arbitrary numbers rather than principles. This should matter to Liberal Democrats. We've opposed Labour's reforms without offering an alternative. "Scrap the tax" isn't liberal – it's opposing for opposition's sake. We're ceding ground to Labour's incoherent incrementalism and Conservative privilege defence. The opportunity Labour has created Labour doesn't know what problem they're solving. The threshold they inherited was unlimited. They proposed £1 million. Now it's £2.5 million. They claim to protect "ordinary family ... (more) |