The Joy of Six 1518Alexandra Hall Hall writes the big reset speech she wishes Keir Starmer had made after Labour's local elections defeats: "I know that much of what I have said today will be controversial or unpopular. But good leadership requires the courage to say the hard things. What I took from last week's election results is that I - we all - need to raise our game. We need to be more honest, more forthright, and more willing to take the hard choices." "Lowe was educated at Radley. He built a career in financial services. He owns substantial agricultural land. He was ... (more) |
Zack Polanski in a Yes to AV campaign videoI remember very little of the Alternative Vote referendum campaign except that it turned out to be a referendum on Nick Clegg instead. The only party that much liked AV was the Labour Party, and it campaigned against it. So thanks to Josiah Mortimer for posting this video from the Yes side, which turns out to feature a young Zack Polanski in the days before he joined the Liberal Democrats. Presumably he turned up here because he was still working as an actor. I don't imagine this video converted many people. Though it sets out to show that AV is ... (more) |
What last Thursday tells us about beating Reform (and where we still need to do the work)The headlines from last Thursday have largely been written around Reform's gains. Understandably so. 1,453 seats, 14 councils, a projected 284 Westminster seats if those numbers were applied to a general election. The narrative writes itself. But buried inside those same results is a different story, one that matters rather a lot for Liberal Democrats. It is not a story of comfortable reassurance. It is, if anything, a more useful thing: a reasonably clear picture of what works against Reform, where it works, and where we are still exposed. The short version is that incumbency beats protest. Almost every time. ... (more) |
What really happened in Gorton and DentonI've heard the calls a few times now, "if only we'd fought Gorton and Denton", or "the local party got screwed over by HQ", but as someone who was there coordinating the local party's activity in the by-election, some things are a bit overstated. Not fighting Gorton & Denton was a symptom of the problem that culminated with disappointing results in urban areas (including in my own ward in Manchester) last week, but it wasn't the cause. The Greens aren't doing well nationally because of the momentum of the Gorton & Denton win, they won Gorton & Denton because of ... (more) |
A podcast about a controversial, country-changing referendum (but it's not Brexit)The latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, is out and you can also read it in full below. It's about a film I previously reviewed. If you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: When General Pinochet held a referendum The latest episode of Political Fictions is out: Cory and Mark talk about the political film that's probably most likely to be accidentally bought on Amazon: Pablo Larrain's No. It's about a referendum, and one with several parallels with the Brexit vote. Mark fact ... (more) |
Local elections 2026 - A view from North East EnglandEnough has been written by more experienced observers than me to make it worthwhile to rehash the arguments already made about this year's local election results. It is clear that the overall headline is positive, and we should be proud to have made our eighth successive year of local election gains. It is equally clear that in many parts of the country, the hard work of our candidates and campaigners did not pay off. We are right to have a frank internal debate about that. We are up against powerful populist machines, in Reform UK and the Green Party. The ... (more) |
"The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate"Embed from Getty ImagesJames Hawse's The Shortest History of Ireland reveals that the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful, with its notorious verse The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And ordered their estate. was written by Cecil Frances Alexander, the wife of the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, in Donegal at the height of the Irish famine. At one of my first meetings as a councillor, Harborough was asked to make its response to the Thatcher government's proposed Community Charge, which was to be universally called the Poll Tax. ... (more) |
How to be a better Prime MinisterAs I start writing this (11h15 on Thursday 14th May) no Labour MP has yet triggered a leadership contest. Whether they do or don't, here is some advice to Sir Keir Starmer or whoever replaces him. Look at the careers of the five previous prime-ministers: Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, and Sunak. They have each been crashing failures and ousted in ignominy. One if the reasons why is they have tried to do too much, be centre stage, and made the job an impossible one beyond the resources of one person. (The possible exception is Johnson, who thought he didn't need ... (more) |
Liberal Democrats cannot afford to be absent from Britain's citiesThe Liberal Democrats have a growing urban problem and pretending otherwise will only make it worse. Last week's local election results exposed something many campaigners in cities have felt for some time: our local organisation is often far stronger than our national political message. In too many urban areas, particularly diverse cities, voters simply do not hear a compelling Liberal Democrat case for why we matter to modern Britain. Politics today is increasingly shaped nationally, even in local elections. Voters consume politics through social media, online debate, podcasts and national narratives. Parties that succeed understand this and communicate with clarity ... (more) |
There is a fundamental break down of trust between elected representatives and the electorate in many Western democraciesLast night, at Liverpool City Council's AGM on behalf of Liverpool's Liberal Democrat Group I moved a motion to create 13 new District Committees within the City. This was as the first part of an attempt to involve people more in the running of the city by dealing with local issues at a level where the council and other partners can involve local residents and local businesses in not only jointly understanding better the problems but also helping co-create solutions. This was the motion: Creation of District Committees Council requests that the Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods and Housing provide a ... (more) |