Embed from Getty ImagesI suggested a couple of days ago that: Becoming very knowledgeable about a niche subject is worrying, because you find much that has been published about it is wrong. And then it become more worrying, because you suspect this is true of every subject if only you knew. A reader kindly sent me a link to an old Wikipedia page on the Gell-Mann amnesia effect: The Gell-Mann amnesia effect is a claimed cognitive bias describing the tendency of individuals to critically assess media reports in a domain they are knowledgeable about, yet continue to trust reporting in ...
Oh, for the days of the British Empire. A protectorate in Egypt and Sudan. British troops at both ends of the Red Sea — Egypt and Suez in the west, Aden and Somaliland in the east. Trade flowed relatively freely between Europe and Asia. Today's picture is less simple. The immediate problem is the conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis on one side and the internationally recognised Yemeni government and its Saudi allies on the other. But it is far more complicated than that. The Iran War has increased the importance of the Red Sea as an alternative outlet for Gulf ...
John Rogers takes us on a tour through the history of Tottenham in North London, partly in search of St Loy's Well. The walk's blurb on YouTube says: Starting at Bruce Castle one of the two largest Tudor houses in Greater London making Tottenham an important centre of London history. Our Tottenham history walk then takes in All Hallows Church, Lordship Lane Rec and talk about Tottenham resident Luke Howard and his classification of clouds. We then visit Luke Howard's home in Bruce Grove. Walking down the ancient High Road Tottenham we talk about the various royal associations as we ...
Historically, culturally and geographically, the Gower peninsula is a story in two parts. The southern part has most of the beaches, a lot of fertile land and its churches tend to be mainstream Church-in-Wales, politically it is quite Conservative. The north tends to have more sheep and traditional employment, is home to the area's cockle industry, non-conformist chapels and tends to vote Labour. Of course, these are generalisations but ones that help us to understand the various religious buildings that we can find there. Mumbles, which sits on the south-eastern edge of the peninsula contains All Saints, a major Church-in-Wales ...
Embed from Getty ImagesThere have been whispers about discontent with the party's leadership among Liberal Democrat MPs for some time. Now some of those MPs are talking, some more openly than others, to the media about their concerns. This is from BBC News yesterday: One frontbench Lib Dem MP told the BBC after Burnham's Labour conference speech: "Lots of us [are] struggling tonight with [a] Labour leader articulating Lib Dem values better than we do." They pointed to Burnham's promises on electoral reform, social care, the water industry, and relations with Europe - all Lib Dem campaign points in recent ...
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 17% (-2) 27% (+3) 9% (-3) 12% (-1) 23% (nc) 4% (vs Ref) 30/9 GB Survation ...
I pleaded the case of BBC News and its Car crashes into viral shop shutters where gran was hoisted into the air but the judges were stern. Bewigged. Implacable. So our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Lancashire Telegraph for:Blackburn Reform councillor accused of farting at rivalI'm not happy. As the headmaster says in Alan Bennett's Forty Years On: "Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall." Still, I suppose you have to admire the Telegraph's front page. (The winning headline appears on the paper's ...
[IMG: 4 parallel white vertical lines on orange background ALDC logo] Six principal authority by-elections took place across Scotland and England on Thursday 1st October. Reform UK were defending two seats in Northumberland (Amble and Hirst), the Conservatives were defending two seats (in Stirling and North West Leicestershire), Labour defended one seat in Blackpool, and an Independent seat was contested in Highland. The headline story of the week was a sensational Scottish Liberal Democrat gain in Highland Council, where Julie Calder stormed to victory with over 50% of first-preference votes in the SNP Council Leader's own ward. Across the border ...
The latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: Get the books As well as covering some books in the podcast, we also mention others in the newsletter's bonus content. You can browse all the books mentioned and get them for yourself via my Bookshop.org page (affiliate link). State of Play, episode 1 [IMG: Montage of the main actors in State of Play] We're heading ...
There's been a lot of noise recently about applying international law. What exactly does this mean? Statutes on human rights were formalised as international law following the atrocities committed during the Holocaust in which at least twelve million were killed, six million of them Jews. But over the years these laws have seemingly been applied indiscriminately with Western powers left off the hook time and again. Questions around British and American actions in places like Iraq linger, but in recent years the heat has been turned up. Israel, traditional ally to many Western powers, has been the subject of case ...
Six principal authority council by-elections this week and all back to being on a Thursday. One thing remains the same with by-elections though, a steady flow of Liberal Democrat gains – with this week's gain once again coming on Highland Council: [IMG: Julie Calder by election image 2026] Wick & East Caithness (Highland) Council By-Election Result [1st Prefs]: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 50.4% (+20.6) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 23.6% (New) [IMG: 🎗] SNP: 14.0% (-11.3) [IMG: âž¡] RFM: 9.4% (New) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 2.6% (-12.5)No Inds (-12.8, -10.5) as previous.Liberal Democrat 'Gain' from Independent – Stage 1.Changes w/ 2022. — Election Maps ...
In his conference speech this week, Andy Burnham made a brave political decision to reform the triple lock on the state pension. The reformed triple lock will increase the state pension by either inflation or 2.5% every year. If there is sustained growth in average wages over several years - enough to outpace the inflation and 2.5% locks - then the pension will rise to match that wage growth. This ensures that every year the state pension will be protected, or increase, in real terms, and it retains its value relative to wages. This is a sensible reform; similar proposals ...
Since September 3, Uber and Wayve have been operating a small number of self-driving cars in London. Passengers can travel in electric Ford Mustang Mach-Es equipped with Wayve's AI driving system. For now, these are supervised autonomous journeys: a trained, TfL-licensed private-hire driver remains in the vehicle to monitor the system and intervene if necessary — which, incidentally, seems to defeat the point of a driverless vehicle. The initial service operates across the capital, excluding airports, and is being expanded gradually. The UK government forecasts a self-driving market worth up to £42 billion, creating up to 38,000 jobs by 2035. ...
"Burnham's speech was, in some ways, an exercise in calling the electorate's bluff. 'I have given you what you often say is missing from politics,' Burnham concluded. "Honesty, ideas and a clear direction for the country we all love.' The message was thus: You say you want change and are sick of politicians who dodge difficult decisions and offer little beyond managerialism. So here are some difficult decisions — will you back me?"Zoe Grunewald was in Liverpool for Andy Burnham's speech. Chris Grey looks at the the speech's effect on the Brexit debate: "In personal life, we rarely regard terrible ...
The Mirror reports that the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Tom Gordon has clashed with his own party leader in defence of Andy Burnham's plans to overhaul the pensions triple lock to fund a National Care Service. The paper says that Tom Gordon said he thought Sir Ed Davey had "missed the point" and that it was "for the birds" that the state pension trip lock helps millennials: Lib Dem leader Sir Ed earlier today said changing the triple lock would mean millennials, those aged 30 to 45, would have a "very poor pension" when they retire. In ...