Because of her performance as top board for the England women's team at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand - she played all 11 rounds, recording six wins, four draws and one loss - Bodhana Sivanandan has qualified as the youngest ever holder of the women grandmaster title. This video lists her many other achievements, except one: she is now two-thirds of the way to the full international master title, which is open to both men and women. This is the grade below grandmaster status. There is already talk of how soon she will play for the open England team at ...
Brighton was wonderful but I'm still left asking: what are the Liberal Democrats for? There is much I love about Lib Dem Conference. Brighton last week reminded me why. Seeing friends and colleagues from across the country, some of whom I only ever see at Conference, was wonderful. There were fascinating fringe meetings, including the one on Assisted Dying that I was honoured to chair on behalf of Dignity in Dying, passionate debates and the reassuring experience of spending a few days among people who, whatever part of the party they're from, share a belief in liberalism, internationalism and social ...
Peter Chambers mixes science fiction with computer games, the numerical simulation of history, computer games and a take on political warfare. The term 'psychohistory' originated in the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. He started writing this in the 1940s, and after a long gap following the first three books continued to the end of his life. They sold very well. Psychohistory is the concept that the future of societies can be predicted - in outline - given a lot of data and a lot of computer power. At the time in which Book 1 was set, a Galactic Empire existed ...
As Liberal Democrats, we pride ourselves as being "local champions". It's on every Focus leaflet, in every direct mail. Our spatulas, fitbits and our friends and family who are oft abandoned in favour of doorknocking on a Saturday morning can attest to the fact that we are community people who believe in community politics. But how can you be a champion of a community that doesn't exist? This is the question that has been running around my head after speaking to hundreds of residents in my ward of Waterloo and South Bank, the most central ward in London, in the ...
There are any number of slogans linked to the Palestine / Israel conflict that mean different things to different people. Accordingly we must be incredibly careful in how we speak. Our words can have a different meaning for those who hear them from the meaning we intended to convey. Some well known examples spring to mind. Those who shout "Free Palestine" at demonstrations, marches or concert stages may well mean a free Palestine alongside a secure Israel. However, to many Jewish Israelis and British Jews these words are heard as a call for an attack on all Jewish residents between ...
I have been reading in today's papers that the Republican Party are about to spend $880 million to try and win back the support that they are obviously using in the US midterm elections. This dwarfs the £72 million which two offshore crypto business people have put into Reform UK in recent weeks in the United Kingdom. As I have read these announcements I have been amazed at two things. Firstly, that vast amounts of money can buy votes, and secondly, that in neither the United states nor United Kingdom There are few mechanisms in place to adequate adequately control ...
The New World warns that Rupert Lowe is coming for your parents: "Lowe's success exemplifies how Facebook has weaponised the anxieties and concerns of millions of Britons to drive its increasingly older, isolated users into unreality." "Monday's judgment ... means that unless the client agrees to release the material, those private conversations are now beyond the regulator's reach. This is particularly bad news for the SRA's ongoing attempts to tackle SLAPPs, the abusive legal actions used by the rich and powerful to shut down scrutiny."Nathaniel Peutherer analyses a judicial ruling that threatens efforts to curb Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. ...
Whickham Library is currently being refurbished. On Saturday I was able to see inside. It's looking great. Doors reopen on 30th September.
On Friday, Sunniside hosted 2 MacMillan coffee mornings, at the Pharmacy and at the Social Club. I went to both!
On Saturday we (ie the Whickham Lib Dem Councillors) held our monthly advice surgery outside Whickham Library. The reason we were outside rather than inside is because the Library is undergoing refurbishment. We were given the opportunity to have a look around. The work is nearly finished and the Library is looking great. It reopens on 30th September.
The Independent reports that Angela Rayner has hit out at Shabana Mahmood's plans to make it harder for migrant workers to claim settled status in the UK, warning it would "change the goalposts". The paper says that in an interview with The Times on the eve of Labour's party conference in Liverpool, the communities secretary and former deputy prime minister stood by her previous description of the home secretary's plans as "un-British": The reforms will increase the timeline for permanent residence from five years to 15 years for foreign social care workers, and will apply to all those who have ...
Andytoknow introduces us to New Holland, a railway village on the south bank of the Humber, and in particular to New Holland Pier station, where trains met the ferry that made the crossing to and from Hull.
Embed from Getty ImagesI missed seeing the Old Etonian David Goodhart as one of the leading Trots on campus at York by a couple of years, but time moves on. Having spent the Blair years in very Blairite jobs, he is now an increasingly right-wing social and political commentator. He took part in the latest edition of BBC Radio 4's Free Thinking last week, and his award-winning effort came in a contribution bemoaning the number of social science and humanities academics that begins at 21:36: "What is 40 percent of 250,000? It's more than 100,000."Goodhart also appeared convinced that Jean ...
Canada and Europe Liberal Democrats around the world cheered when Mark Carney and Ursula Von der Leyen announced that Canada would become an associate member of the European Union. It was the first substantive circle in Carney's Venn Diagram diplomacy. And it made sense. Canada is a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law, international norms and respect for human rights and individual liberties. The EU is the same. The problem is that Europe is in danger of changing dramatically. The populist right is on the rise across Europe and it is especially dangerous on Europe's two key states—nuclear ...
Embed from Getty ImagesYesterday evening Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, published a statement saying she would not be the party's candidate in the seat next time. Liberal Democrat Voice published the full text: I have written to my local party to let them know I shall not be standing as the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh West at the next election, following the recent decision by some of the local party. I have informed them that although I am able to request a ballot of the membership, it is with a heavy heart I have ...
As Lord Bonkers mentioned, or tried to mention, this track in his foreword to the latest Liberator Songbook, I thought I would investigate a little. Olivia Rodrigo turns out to have followed the well-worn path from Disney child star to adult performer. Fairly or not, that always raises questions about whether the artist has that intangible quality, "authenticity". Even Steve Marriott worried that his evenings on stage as the Dodger in Oliver! somehow counted against him as an adult. But Rodrigo co-wrote Brutal when she was 17 and is has said she is more interested in being a songwriter than ...
[IMG: Donna Harris speaking at Autumn Conference 2026] I've just about emerged from the mayhem of Brighton — and I'm most definitely ready for a break! But now I've had a chance to catch my breath, it has really struck me just how much Lib Dem Women, the official organisation representing women in the Lib Dems, achieved over the course of conference. From motions and amendments to our childcare campaign, new bursaries, fringes, campaigning and celebrating the achievements of women in our party, the voice and representation of women was truly amplified throughout conference. And I'm incredibly proud of what ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, 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: No records, no notice: the Home Office's hidden way of changing immigration rules [IMG: The Home Office in Westminster] The Home Office in Westminster. This Marsham Street photograph is by Steve Cadman and used under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license. The Home Secretary has the power to alter rules over who is allowed ...
Nation Cymru reports that Reform UK's Newport and Islwyn branch has been mocked for using an AI-generated "slop" advert featuring an English transporter bridge to urge locals to stand as candidates in the upcoming council elections. The website says that the AI image shared on Facebook called for "passionate and committed" Reform UK supporters in Newport to "step forward" and become a candidate at the 2027 council elections. However, instead of using an image of Newport's iconic Transporter Bridge, the advertisement featured Middlesborough's famous Tees Transporter Bridge which connects the industrial town on the south bank of the River Tees ...
Christine Jardine MP (Photo: The Scotsman) Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West has confirmed she will not stand as a Liberal Democrat at the next General Election. This is what Christine has shared on her social media channels: Note that she says "I'm said I won't be there". The decision is clearly not one she wanted to make. In a fuller statement, she says: "I have written to my local party to let them know I shall not be standing as the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh West at the next election, following the recent decision ...