Full council last week experienced some disruption. A bunch of Reform supporters were in the public gallery and, rather oddly, also in the well of the council chamber. This area is reserved for councillors, officers and press. The only members of the public allowed to sit in the well (on the edge of it) are those with disabilities which make it difficult to access the public gallery.
The latest news on East Midlands Rail's unsatisfactory new trains is that the largest railway trade union has called three one-day strikes over its concern that they are unsafe. As BBC News puts it: A union that represents railway staff has announced plans for its members at East Midlands Railway (EMR) to take strike action over "growing safety concerns the company has failed to address". The RMT union said it had been in dispute with EMR since April following the rollout of the 810 fleet (Aurora), which it said had been operating with a "significant number" of faults. It said ...
The BBC and The Guardian have both recently reported that Sir Keir Starmer was the first serving British PM to receive the French Legion of Honour. Both are wrong. The Times 15 January 1920 David Lloyd George was invested as Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour in 1920. Grand Cordon was the secularist Third republic's name for the Legion's highest grade, today's Grand Cross. The investiture was carried out by Richard-William Martin, the French Chef du Protocol and Olympic silver medallist. Richard-William Martin The post The first serving PM to receive the Legion of Honour? appeared first on Cymdeithas ...
Being a DJ? Turns out it's a less than poptastic business. Aided by heavy rotation on Radio 1, with whose DJs it must have struck a chord, this reached no. 34 in the UK singles chart in 1973. Harry Chapin, a talented singer-songwriter, died in a car crash at the age of 38.
'Idiot' or assorted synonyms for 'stupid' have been used to criticise those who do not vote. 'Idiot' itself is derived from the Greek 'ἰδιώτης' referring to anything personal or 'private' individuals who were not political officeholders or professionals, being retroactively applied to those who forwent public engagement in Athenian democracy. In this sense, the first 'non-voters' were considered 'idiots'. However, in our current political climate, we must question this assertion. We are living in a time where faith in democracy and trust in institutions is at record lows, manifesting itself in low voter turnout and increased support for populist disruptor ...
Speculation about a general election was one of the most expected outcomes of the change of Prime Minister. I can't however see an early election happening. Burnham inherits a Parliamentary party of over 400 MPs. The current Parliament has run for only 2 years and has 3 years left to go. Burnham has committed to following the key points of the Labour general election manifesto. Labour's poll
Extending the school day represents far more than an educational reform; it constitutes a strategic economic investment capable of substantially increasing national productivity. In modern economies, where dual-income households have become the norm rather than the exception, the traditional school timetable – often ending between 3:00 and 3:30 p.m. – is increasingly incongruent with standard working hours. This temporal mismatch imposes significant constraints upon parents, particularly mothers, who disproportionately bear responsibility for childcare. Consequently, extending the school day would not merely improve educational opportunities for pupils but would also liberate human capital currently underutilised due to caregiving obligations. By enabling ...
BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this story from Korea. The judges decided to have the trifle.
Something has changed in Wales. The 2026 Senedd election saw the end of Welsh Labour's uninterrupted rule since 1999, Plaid Cymru take over the reins of power, Reform settle into its position as the official opposition, and a brand new voting system, to boot. But while so much has changed, there remains one constant: the Liberal Democrats still have only one MS. We could be forgiven for keeping our heads down to focus on "rebuilding" the Welsh Liberal Democrat base, but I believe this would be a mistake. While Welsh nationalists run the government, British nationalists are at the gate. ...
Andy Burnham may have hit the ground running with a revamped cabinet and an announcement that he will be getting rid of VAT on electricity bills, but he can't claim to be properly settled in place until he has received the approval of number ten's most famous resident. As the Independent reports, Andy Burnham will be Larry the cats seventh Prime Minister: At 19 years old, the venerable Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office has become a beloved fixture of British public life. During his 15-year tenure, he has frequently appeared outside the Prime Minister's central London residence, often providing ...
Embed from Getty ImagesHere's a remarkable quotation from a judge that I found in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette (24 July 1940). After a defendant had been found not guilty of manslaughter and of dangerous driving, Mr Justice Stable said: "I hope this will be a warning to him and I hope that he and other members of the public will appreciate that during June the whole forces of the German Empire succeeded in killing exactly 100 fewer people in this island with bombs than were killed by motorists by accidents."
With the Leicester Mercury reporting a new push to restore passenger services to the railway line from Leicester to Burton upon Trent, it's time to visit it again with Our History Underfoot. In May we saw the line between Burton and Coalville, which hasn't carried any goods traffic for two years and is already showing signs of decay. This time we go east from Coalville about half the way to Leicester. Matt sees, or at least hears, more quarry traffic than he expected and comes across relics of the district's early railway history. A third video will complete his journey ...
Dear Andy, Like you, I'm an advocate of taxing differently, so as to stimulate economic growth in a fair and sustainable way. We shouldn't be taxing workers and businesses more. Every Lib Dem Conference I'm there with colleagues promoting "Action on Land-value Tax and Economic Reform (ALTER ). Along with the late Dave Wetzel, chair of Labour Land Campaign, ALTER helped found the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ ) in 2004. CEJ was Secretariat to the APPG on Land Value Capture , chaired by Vince Cable from 2017 and then by John McDonnell. The mantra: "Let us keep what we ...
When people talk about London and London politics, they more often than not immediately think of the Mayor of London. And over the years we have had some high profile characters such as Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. However the Greater London Authority (GLA) is unique in the UK, in that it is made up of a Mayor and the London Assembly, the body that holds the Mayor and their agencies to account and represents Londoners at City Hall. The next elections will be in May 2028, so London Region is already planning ahead to get our team in place! ...
Robert Lloyd George's play Winston and David, a sell-out hit at Edinburgh in 2022, will have a limited run at London's Tabard Theatre in Chiswick this August. The play is performed by Maverick Theatre and directed by award-winning Fringe regular, Maverick's Nick Hennegan (Henry V, A Christmas Carol, Hamlet-Horatio's Tale with Sir Derek Jacobi, Romeo and Juliet, and P.A.L.S.). Drawing on family documents, Winston and David is an intriguing insight into the relationship between two of Britain's most famous Prime Ministers. Tickets are available from Tabard Theatre at https://tabard.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173681058 The post "Winston and David" on stage appeared first on Cymdeithas ...
Embed from Getty ImagesWe have a new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who has successfully pulled off a bloodless coup more akin to the Glorious than the French Revolution. However, now he is in office, he cannot escape the reality of four core issues that he will need to fearlessly take on if he is going to get economic growth going again. Bringing Investment into the UK In 2025, we had a trade deficit of about £39 billion, this is principally because we import more in goods and services than we export (mainly a deficit in goods and a surplus in ...
Vince Cable makes the case for building more council houses: "The most compelling argument for councils becoming developers is that the private developer model, however valid for most housebuilding most of the time, depends on a set of circumstances - the ability to earn a profit margin above rising land and property prices - which may not exist. Public sector developers can build through economic cycles and where market conditions are unattractive for private developers." "Changes in public spaces (including increased provision of green parks, lakes and water fountains) enable easy public access to cooling. Everyday heat adaptation is not ...
It has been a big week for me, personally. On Thursday 16 July, the government announced 26 new members of the House of Lords – and I am one of them: I am to be Lord Leunig. Since it is His Majesty's Government, the official announcement read "The King has been graciously pleased to signify His intention of conferring Peerages of the United Kingdom for Life upon the undermentioned:" Sixteen new peers will be Labour, five Liberal Democrat (including me), and three Conservative. These twenty four were nominated by their political parties. The remaining two will be "crossbenchers", that is, ...
The Guardian reports that a Reform UK MP has complained that the standards system investigating Nigel Farage over undeclared gifts is a "kangaroo court". The paper says that Sarah Pochin, the Runcorn MP, said Farage had called a byelection in his Clacton seat so voters could decide whether they backed him or not, and argued that "the media, the British state and the old parties have mounted a vicious and desperate campaign to stop Reform UK": She posted on X: "We can't call a general election, so rather than submit to a kangaroo court in parliament, Nigel Farage has handed ...