Sanne spoke yesterday in the debate on Scotland's energy.
The Herald wins our coveted Headline of the Day Award.
It's been an eventful week with Lord Bonkers, but let me recover my breath and acknowledge a couple of debts. The idea of Andy Burnham employing a sealed tram came from Andrew Crowther on Bluesky. The list of Labour grandees recalled by Starmer also comes from Bluesky. It was involuntarily contributed by Brynley Heaven, who once wrote a guest post here. I had intended to use the idea but substitute my own choice of names. When it came to it I couldn't improve on his list. Bad writers borrow, darling, but good writers steal. Sunday News reaches me that Labour ...
Apologies – this post has been removed for further editing by the writer. * Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and founder of the Jenkinsite Policy Network, a party political group rooted in the liberal social democratic tradition of Roy Jenkins. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and the Morning Star.
[IMG: Beth Rowe leaflet] One of Beth Rowe's leaflets from Swansea. Only the one principal authority council by-elections this week but it extends the Liberal Democrat winning start to this new cycle of by-elections. It came in Fairwood ward on Swansea Council: Fairwood (Swansea) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 29.3% (+19.9) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 22.6% (-9.3) [IMG: âž¡] RFM: 17.0% (New) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 11.5% (New) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 10.3% (-30.3)No PLC (-18.1) as previous.Lib Dem GAIN from Conservative.Changes w/ 2022. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-05-28T23:04:15.672Z Many congratulations to Beth Rowe and the Swansea Liberal Democrat team on ...
The Independent reports that Labour has challenged Nigel Farage to disclose which authorities are investigating an alleged Russian hack linked to a £5 million gift he reportedly received. The paper says that Anna Turley, Labour's chairwoman, has written to the Clacton MP, urging him to publicly confirm whether he has reported the suspected cyber-attack to either the police or the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). She has said that if Farage fails to respond, then the Labour Party intends to make a report itself "in the public and national interest": Farage received £5 million from Thailand-based crypto-entrepreneur Christopher Harborne in ...
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2026 and the May 2027 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con – – -1 (0/-1) – – – – +1 (+1/0) 0 Lab – – – – – – – – 0 Lib Dem +1 (+1/0) – [1] – – – – +1 (+1/0) +2 Grn – – – [1] – – – – 0 Ref – – – – – – – – 0 SNP – – – – – – – – 0 Plaid ...
This video takes us to Thringstone in west Leicestershire to walk the disused Charnwood Forest Railway, which once terminated at Loughborough Derby Road station. It's a walk I've thought of doing myself. There are glimpses of the short-lived Charnwood Forest Canal, which also ran towards Loughborough, though not quite far enough to reach the River Soar, so it was connected the wider canal system by a wagonway. And then we reach the ruins of Grace Dieu Priory. The Friends of Grace Dieu will tell you all about them. The poet Wordsworth writes:Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,Rugged and high, ...
From the latest Popbitch email: Patrick Radden Keefe's new book, London Falling, is the buzziest read of the summer so far. (In case you've missed all the column inches, it's the one about the mysterious death of a 19-year-old whose pretence of being the son of an oligarch entangled him in a dangerous underworld.) Akbar Shamji, the baddie on the run who might know what happened to Zac Brettler, has another claim to fame, we're told. He starred in panto at Cambridge Footlights with Mel and Sue, of Great British Bake Off fame. My advice to the police, if they ...
Thu 28th
14:25
Sting is right when he talks about employment issues causing male toxicity. We need dirty and danger...
Thirty five years ago, I spent a lot of time working as a regeneration adviser in Hull, Barnsley, and Doncaster. At the time, all three areas were experiencing elevated levels of male unemployment and particularly young male unemployment. Now Sting has suggested that the lack of manual jobs is one of the causes of disaffected young men becoming toxic for the rest society. I think he has the nail on the head. Of course, there are a lot of causes of toxic young and, to a lesser extent, young girls but the lack of suitable employment, which is hard, physical, ...
Every election, millions of people in Britain vote knowing their ballot probably will not matter. If you live in a "safe seat", your vote can feel irrelevant before you even enter the polling station. If you support a smaller party, you are constantly told you are "wasting" your vote. And if you back the winning party nationally, there is a good chance they will gain enormous power without anything close to majority public support. This is not healthy democracy. It is managed frustration. Britain's First Past the Post voting system was designed for a different era — an era before ...
The Lib Dems in Newcastle have reached agreement with the Green Party to run the council as a minority administration. Lib Dem Leader Colin Ferguson was sworn in as the new Council Leader yesterday. The Greens will serve as a "co-operative opposition", thereby ensuring all cabinet members are Lib Dems.No single party was close to a majority in Newcastle after the local elections on 7th May. The
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: King's Game: the 2004 Danish movie The latest episode of Political Fictions is out: In a scheduling choice completely unconnected to any contemporary political events, Mark and Cory talk about the 2004 Danish film full of leadership plotting, King's Game. This is a proper conspiracy thriller, where even the children are Machiavellian geniuses. They question whether ...
Three new policy working groups have been set up by the Federal Policy Committee, and they are seeking members. The working groups will take evidence and prepare policy proposals to submit to Autumn Conference 2027. The deadline for applications to join one of the groups is 8th June. Click here for more information about how policy is developed in the Liberal Democrats. The new groups are: Victims of Crime Victims of crime have been let down for too long. Many wait hours for a police response; many never see their crime investigated or the perpetrator charged; many wait years for ...
This review appears in the new Liberator - issue 435. You can download it free of charge from the magazine's website. Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity Sami Timimi Vintage, 2026, £12.99 Many years ago, through my then day job, I encountered the ideas of professionals who challenged the dominant account of serious mental health problems. It was wrong, they argued, to see these problems as caused by one or more of a collection of discrete mental illnesses. The term "schizophrenia", for instance, now describes a quite different set of symptoms from those ...
It was a very opportune telegram for the old boy. I'll say no more than that. When I was on holiday in Scotland years ago there was a story on the local TV news about a man who had gone for a walk in the hills and dropped dead. It ended with the words "... and the Procurator Fiscal at Dingwall has been informed." I have always remembered what an august personage he sounded. Saturday Two weeks have passed since that Friday's Unfortunate Events. It happened that I received a telegram the next morning that begged me to lend my ...
The Independent reports that Andy Burnham has hit out at Sir Tony Blair suggesting the former Labour prime minister is out of touch and partly to blame for the rise of politicians like Nigel Farage. The paper says that Burnham's rebuke comes after Sir Tony warned that Labour was "playing with fire" on the future of the country, as he urged the party not to move further to the left, saying it should instead occupy the "radical centre": In an interview with the Observer, Mr Burnham, who is fighting to win a parliamentary by-election to return to Westminster, a prerequisite ...