For the first time in over twenty years, the Scottish Liberal Democrats can approach the Holyrood elections with a degree of optimism. Our Conference this weekend was buzzing. Held in Dynamic Earth, a tourist attraction overlooking the Holyrood Parliament (well worth a visit if you are in Edinburgh), there was a real feeling that this was our time. Introduced by two recent by-election winners, leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said that we were on the cusp of a huge Liberal Democrat revival and the presence of a large number of Lib Dem MSPs would mean that we would get things done. He ...
I really liked Queen when they first appeared. They were inventive, clever, witty... Everything that Mud, Sweet and most of the singles chart in 1974 weren't. Killer Queen is a good example of them in this period. Then came global stardom and stadium rock, which is rarely inventive, clever and witty. Laibach's satirical reworking of One Vision as a Nazi anthem tells us something important about the genre. Maybe I was just the right age for early Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody has never sounded as impressive as it did when I first heard it, aged 15, just as I liked Seven ...
Russia Russia is a petro-state. Its economy. Its ability to feed its people and, most important of all, its ability to wage war, is tied to the price of a barrel of oil. Twenty percent of government revenues come from the oil and gas industries. Back at the start of the Ukraine War the price of oil peaked at $120 a barrel. Vladimir Putin was able to wage war, pay pensions and maintain social services while keeping inflation under control and fending off sanctions. This week oil prices dipped to $62 a barrel. And to persuade the likes of China, ...
The Guardian reports on new data that has found that one in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding. The paper says that the figures show the number of homes being built in risky areas is on the rise, with a previous analysis showing that between 2013 and 2022, one in 13 new homes were in potential flooding zones: The research comes with the government under huge pressure to deliver new affordable housing, amid signs that the climate breakdown is accelerating. Data published by the ...
Here is a list of the councillors which Reform has shed from the May 2025 local elections and from those elections in by-elections since. The latest updates are the pair of departures in Leicestershire. Donna Edmunds (Shropshire, suspended by Reform UK and then quit the party) Luke Shingler (Warwickshire, now an independent) Desmond Clarke (Nottinghamshire, resigned as councillor) Andrew Kilburn (Durham, resigned as a councillor) Wayne Titley (Staffordshire, resigned as a councillor) Mark Broadhurst (Doncaster, expelled by Reform) Adam Smith (West Northamptonshire, suspended by Reform and then expelled) John Bailey (Durham, resigned as a councillor) Daniel Taylor (Kent, suspended by ...
"In a sense, Clegg is right: politicians are more focused on narratives than data. But it's data they use to justify their policies these days. Indeed, far from modern politics being a vibrant competition of ideas in the way Clegg suggests, modern anglophone politics has been dominated by just one since the 1980s: There Is No Alternative."James Graham takes apart Nick Clegg's book How to Save the Internet. Sam Bright is puzzled by the contradictions of right-wing journalists: "These journalists are neoliberals - they preach the free market gospel. You can't get them to shut up about the Industrial Revolution ...
Britain is caught betwixt and between emerging international power lines. It supports Ukraine against Russia and Denmark against America. Whitehall is all for a European defense build-up. It wants free trade and hates tariff. MAGA, the cult of Trump and the American swing to authoritarianism is extremely distasteful. Mark Carney's middle countries bloc appeals, and the UK is likely to sign up to a Carney-proposed trading bloc that includes Canada, the EU, Britain, and the Pacific Rim countries and excludes the US. But the British "Establishment" can't bring itself to break with the US. Britain and America's economies are too ...
Thanks to Lion and Unicorn for publishing a piece from me on British films about children and bombsites, and on the film Innocent Sinners (1958) in particular: So dangerous did bombsites become for boy actors that Jon Whiteley ventured on to them twice and got caught up with a murderer both times. In Hunted (1952) he comes across Dirk Bogarde dumping the body of his wife's lover, while in The Weapon (1956) he finds a gun, accidentally shoots a playmate and, thinking he has killed him, goes on the run. In reality, it's not the police Whiteley needs to worry ...
Welcome 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 16% (-3) 16% (nc) 10% (-1) 18% (nc) 28% (-1) -12% (3rd, vs Ref) 18/2 GB ...
For those interested in the history of Mumbles, the Story of Mumbles website has a walking trail dating back to 2006 which is well worth following. The only caveat is that a lot has changed in twenty years, not least that a number of pub closures mean that the infamous 'Mumbles Mile' of my student days is a mere shadow of its former self. The walk has twenty points of interest, and stirred memories of a walking tour I helped write back in the 1980s. It starts with Clement's Quarry, one of a number of limestone quarries in Mumbles between ...
