"If Morgan can beat the BNP in Barking, goes the argument, then surely he can do the same for Reform in Britain too. Yet in all the coverage of McSweeney's supposedly unique ability to slay the far right, through deploying tough messages on crime and immigration, almost nobody has actually bothered to check whether it's true."Adam Bienkov explodes the founding myth of Morgan McSweeney. Nandi Msezane says migrant workers prop up the UK's social care system, but are now being forced out. Cameron Joseph argues that Donald Trump is borrowing a playbook from other elected leaders who have used the ...
"George Smiley! Oh, but you lovely, darling man!" Down in London on Thursday, I came across St Paul's, Covent Garden, which is known as 'The Actors' Church'. I found some interesting figures remembered in the dedications on the churchyard benches.
The first things I can remember, as a child, reading with pleasure in an adult newspaper are Brian Glanville's football reports for the Sunday Times. He was still teaching me new words when I was 16. I can recall his writing about England's 3-2 victory over Italy in the USA's Bicentennial tournament. England fielded two young debutants: Gordon Hill, a left wing from Tommy Docherty's exciting Manchester United side, and Ray Wilkins (often called Butch Wilkins in those days), the 19-year-old Chelsea captain. He described Hill as an "urchin" figure and Wilkins - in a new word for me - ...
The recent Supreme Court judgement on the definition of a women by "biological sex", a concept described by BMA resident doctors as "scientifically illiterate" has caused real anxiety amongst trans people whilst not making women any safer. In fact, with the current media focus on toilets and changing rooms, it's likely to lead to all women being less safe and subject to challenge if they don't conform to gender stereotypes. It's a lose-lose if ever there was one. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued interim guidance regarding the use of single sex facilities which is about as extreme ...
Editor's Note: This first appeared on the party website: As we mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia this year, I am sadly reminded of how much more still needs to be done. The past few years have been difficult and worrying, particularly for trans people. They have been targeted by divisive culture wars, too often stoked by the Conservatives and right-wing media. It's more important than ever that the Liberal Democrats stand up for trans people – including by pushing the Government to ensure the Supreme Court ruling doesn't lead to a roll back of trans rights. Today ...
Sat 17th
11:30
IDAHOBIT: Jamie Greene MSP: If SNP won't ban conversion practices, they should let me do it
Our newest MSP Jamie Greene has hit the ground running since he joined us last month. Since being appointed as Economy and Finance spokesperson by Alex Cole-Hamilton, he has been holding the SNP to account on such issues as their spectacular ferry failures. He knocked it out of the park on Debate Night (BBC Scotland Question Time equivalent which, unlike its UK counterpart, you can often watch without losing the will to live) on Wednesday. Here he is challenging Labour's Melanie Ward about Keir Starmer's disgraceful language on immigration: "This is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to a very ...
The sun is shining, it's Brussels Pride (where Lib Dem Women chair Donna Harris is today), Doctor Who Eurovision (the Interstellar Song Contest featuring Rylan) and Actual Eurovision from Basel and it's IDAHOBIT, the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Could a day be any more fabulous? The LGBT community needs a moment of respite. Life for them, particularly our trans colleagues, is fairly unremittingly awful at the moment. I don't know a trans person who isn't scared about doing something as fundamental as going to the loo when they are out. The UK is sliding down the international ...
The Middle East has been called Byzantine, a snake pit and a political cesspit. It is a land where there are said to be no national interests, only interests. Where today's enemy is tomorrow's bedfellow and vice versa. The region's many leaders have changed horses so many times that the horses are dizzy. All the above is especially true today when the region's faraway overlord—the President of the United States—is likely to change his mind at the drop of a bitcoin, especially if the coin drops into his account. This week Donald Trump has been touring the region and it ...
Dementia specialist Admiral Nurses will host clinics at Nationwide's city centre branch to offer tailored support and guidance to anyone affected by the condition. Nationwide and Dementia UK are bringing free face-to-face specialist dementia care to : 59 Reform Street, DD1 1TF - 20th, 21st and 22nd May - see If you are unable to book online you can send a text message with the word APPOINTMENT to 07478 724000, and you will be called to help you make a booking. The clinics will be hosted by Dementia UK's Admiral Nurses to support anyone impacted by dementia in Nationwide's ...
Not enough women are commemorated with statues or blue plaques, so it is encouraging that there is now a plaque in Mumbles honouring the heroisim of two sisters back on the morning of the 'Great Storm' of January 1883. Swansea Counci's website tells us that the sisters were the daughters of Mumbles lighthouse keeper, Abraham Ace. It says that the sisters were two 'ordinary' yet 'extraordinary' young women, who, in 1883, heroically risked their lives, in attempting to save members of the crew of the Mumbles lifeboat, Wolverhampton: The lifeboat had gone out during the early morning of the 'Great ...