Fairness First: Why Wealth Taxes Are a Natural Fit for the Liberal DemocratsWhy are wealth taxes relevant in 2026? Billionaire wealth in the UK has skyrocketed since 1990. It represented 4% of GDP back then, growing to 22% of GDP in 2026. The trends of rising wealth accumulation for the super-rich and worsening living standards for working families is stark. Consecutive governments have pointed at GDP as proof of economic success and neglected the decline in living standards for the majority. Where families could once live off a single income, families can now struggle with two. Growing anger at the cost-of-living crisis is fuelled by the perception that government is not addressing ... (more) |
Day 9304: So Farewell Then, Kier StarmerMonday Time for some more fluffiness. Did you miss me? Anyway, Mr Sir Kier Starmer has resigned. Great Britain will have another new Prime Monster. We are seeing a lot of people saying: "oh no, not another one," and talk of how many Prime Monsters we have had in the last decade, and is Britain UNGOVERNABLE. But it is actually a GOOD THING that a boss who is not performing can be asked to step down by people lower down the organisation. Something a LOT of British businesses might want to think about. So, Mr Andy "Crash and" Burnham - ... (more) |
Personality matters in politics: Starmer's lack of one did for himJohn Harris's Guardian article on the resignation of Keir Starmer contains a key paragraph: So there it was: as well as a modern tendency to loathe politicians that regularly seems arbitrary, whipped-up and way over the top, a sense that Starmer's sheer blankness - his painful lack of clarity and the absence of a halfway coherent story about his own government - was making a lot of people dislike and mistrust him all the more. Harris is obviously a good judge, because that was very much what I was saying on Bluesky at about the same time. The fall of ... (more) |
Starmer goes, and the uncertainty returns...And so, another Prime Minister is gone. Admittedly, it isn't entirely clear yet in terms of what will change apart from the personnel, even if we can be pretty confident who will be in 10 Downing Street at the end of the transition. The first question is, how long will this take? An effective coronation would allow the new Leader to take their place before the Summer Recess, whilst a contest might take us into, or close to, Conference season. But Government will falter whilst new ministers get a handle on their briefs and priorities adjust. From a personal perspective, ... (more) |
Concerns over therapy ferrets used to kill rats at UK's largest children's prisonThe Guardian wins our coveted Headline of the Day Award, but it took a concerted effort to convince the judges that the story beneath it is true. Britain in 2026, eh? (more) |
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?Given how popular (and lengthy!) my list of Reform councillor departures after the May 2025 elections turned out to be, here is a new list, this time for councillors elected under the Reform banner on 7 May 2026, or in by-elections after that date, who have already departed the party for one reason or another. Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax and then resigned from the party (May 2026). Stuart Prior, Essex: expelled by Reform and resigned as a councillor after "he was accused the week before the ... (more) |
Why Kenneth Williams wanted to be serviced by Terence RattiganHaving recently posted a video of Fergus McClelland with Leo McKern in Brecht's Gallileo, yesterday I had a look in the British Newspaper Archive to see if he had gone on acting for long. He did for a while, because here's a report from the Coventry Evening Telegraph for 14 March 1966, when he would have been 15: Duke of Edinburgh Introduces 'Nelson' Duke of Edinburgh has recorded an introduction for ATV's specially commissioned play by Terence Rattigan: 'Nelson: A Study in Miniature,' to be screened at 9.25 tonight. The play has a strong cast headed by Michael Bryant and ... (more) |
Why did the Welsh Liberal Democrats underperform?It has been frustrating to me, as a politics student from Wales, to see that coverage of the Senedd elections has been nationally overlooked in favour of local elections in England and the Holyrood elections. This is especially true for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, whose modest outcome of holding our only seat has hardly been discussed at all, both by leadership and its members. The poor performance is the latest stage in a two-decade pattern of contraction that the party has consistently failed to fix. At devolution in 1999, the Welsh Liberal Democrats won six seats and entered government as ... (more) |
National politicians should keep their noses out of the decision-making processes of local councillorsA statue of Queen Victoria stands before the Council House (1879) on Victoria Square in Birmingham, England. As someone who has had a minor interest in political developments in Birmingham over the past couple of months, I have been appalled at the way that national politicians in some parties have issued instructions to their local counterparts as to how to vote and what to do. I have been equally appalled that some local politicians have kowtowed to these bully boy tactics. The background is that the Labour Party went into the local elections with 61 seats out of 101 and ... (more) |
The next General Election Manifesto should commit to joining the EULast week Ed Davey gave a well received keynote speech advocating a new Growth and Defence Partnership ('Partnership') with the European Union (EU) at the European Movement UK's event marking the tenth anniversary of the 2016 Brexit referendum. For many members, having and making a clear overarching national message to complement our local strengths is long overdue. This became apparent in the 7 May local elections. Although we gained more council seats for the eighth time in a row, our national vote share was 2% down on last year's 16%. In my part of the world and elsewhere, it was ... (more) |