Twenty years ago today, I and many many Lib Dems took to the streets of Dunfermline at the crack of dawn to deliver our Good Mornings. We were quietly hopeful that we would be able to "Send Willie to Westminster" which was a bit of a miracle given the pickle the party found itself in at the time. Our leader Charles Kennedy had just resigned after a bit of a psychodrama and many of us felt pretty bloody annoyed about that. During the by-election campaign itself, there were multiple tabloid stories about potential replacements. But when we are under the ...
The past week has shown British politics and the appetites of the British public as mirrored by the media in a shameful light. Acres and acres on the antics of the rich elite, including a prince of the blood, have flooded the prints and airwaves, with very little on the conditions that enable that elite to prance around ignoring common decency and even less on the policies that might put those conditions right. The Israeli government and its IDF continue to kill Palestinians in Gaza and steal the lands and interfere with the liberties of residents of the West Bank: ...
Mon 9th
17:59
Nouvelle Vague - The blog post does not describe the film: the film bends towards the blog post
I saw Nouvelle Vague at the Phoenix in Leicester this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. The film tells the story of the shooting of Jean-Luc Godard's first feature Au Bout de Souffle in 1959 and recreates a whole era: the black-and-white cinematography, the fashion, the music. It manages both to laugh at and to laugh with Godard's pretensions and eccentricities, making him a compelling figure despite everything. Do not be surprised if you find me wearing dark glasses, smoking Gitanes and issuing gnomic, Godardesque pronouncements. The blog post does not describe the film: the film bends towards the blog post. ...
Watching the unfolding political drama in Westminster over recent days, you could be forgiven for wondering if the British public have been dropped into an episode of 'Yes, Prime Minister' rather than living real lives under a Labour government. Instead of focusing on the pressing challenges facing everyday Britons – from the cost of living to the NHS crisis – the spotlight has been firmly fixed on internal Labour turmoil, bitter factional rows and the fate of its own leadership. The resignation on Sunday of Sir Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney, amid the controversy over Peter Mandelson's appointment ...
There's too much sadness around at the moment. We are losing too many good people. I was really sad to see this morning that former Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman had died. She had that role during the pandemic and had also been a Special Adviser to Labour First Minster Jack McConnell. I remember saying to her when I congratulated her on her appointment that it was clear that Nicola Sturgeon was giving her most difficult job to her most competent Minister. She had previously been responsible for setting up Social Security Scotland which she did pretty well. I was ...
[IMG: Steam train on the coast at Dawlish] The train line along the coast through Dawlish. Photo credit: Steam at Dawlish by Stuart Wilding is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0. Congratulations to Pat Hackett, a former Labour council leader who has just been elected unopposed in a by-election for Dawlish Town Council. The Mid-Devon Advertiser reports: Pat, who moved to Dawlish a few years ago, brings with him a distinguished political background as a former leader of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council, where he led a minority Labour administration, and also as a former Mayor of The Wirral. He now takes the ...
This recent cross-party weekend organised by the Local Government Association brought together councillors from the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservative groups from across the country. While it was encouraging to see such a broad geographic spread, it was disappointing that no other parties were represented and that the South of England was noticeably under-represented. Even so, the diversity of experience in the room made for a rich and thoughtful programme. The theme of the weekend was Leading with Pride — and how that sits alongside both your role as a councillor and your identity as a member of the LGBT+ ...
Over the weekend, Gateshead Lib Dems held another two action days, this time in Birtley South and Birtley North and Lamesley wards. Sadly, I was unable to attend. Instead, on Saturday I was tied up printing 25,000 address labels for our next mailing to voters. On Sunday I was at a training event. The two Birtley wards are interesting as far as the May local elections are concerned. Birtley South
Political activists are treated by their leaders as a stage army to be marched on and berated when they want to show the media how tough they are. I wrote that in a recent article for Lion & Unicorn. It strikes me that Keir Starmer and the people around him now treat Labour voters in much the same way. The views reported in this tweet from yesterday afternoon shows what I have in mind. Because Net Zero and Rejoin are both popular with Labour voters. Maybe the disappearance of Morgan McSweeney will see a change, but Starmer has little background ...
Julia Baird says there are many questions that the people in Epstein's web of connections have never answered, but this one perplexes her most: "Why is it that so many of Epstein's circle of male friends - inner, outer, bestie, acquaintance - have never decried or confessed to seeing something suspicious or concerning in his conduct or environment, while the few women who have spoken, thought it was blatantly obvious he was an 'abhorrent' creep?" "For decades, Mandelson was both an irritant for the press and a reliable source of leaks, gossip, and backbiting. The part missing from many of ...
Where exact;y does the leader of Reform UK in Wales live and will he be eligible to stand for the Senedd? Nation Cymru claims that the Farage's parachutist hasn't moved back to his home town in the Valleys, but has bought a £1m house near Bath. They say that Dan Thomas, the former Conservative leader of Barnet council in London, was introduced on February 5 by Nigel Farage as his handpicked leader in Wales but there is speculation has as to whether the claim that he is living in Islwyn is correct: Thomas resigned at the end of last year ...
Sun 8th
21:25A picture of the Sisters at the Convent of Our Lady of the Ballot Boxes, High Leicestershire
Another illustration from the Lord Bonkers universe reaches us. I wouldn't like to tangle with this lot in a closely contested by-election. Now read about an early encounter with these redoubtable nuns.
A ghost from the SDP is haunting the Guardian Politics Live this evening. The blog quotes Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, as welcoming Morgan McSweeney's resignation but saying more needs to be done to tackle factionalism within the party: "It is a start, but we need to know how decisions have been made in the Labour party, including the role of Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney's 'kitchen cabinet', and how this whole culture will turn away from the factionalism to an inclusive culture which seeks to listen and engage MPs and prevent future errors over policy." And ...
It's less than five weeks to York Spring Conference. Many of us will be looking forward to returning to the beautiful city to debate, be trained and to learn from exhibitors and discuss issues at fringe meetings. The agenda has now been published. This is your chance to go through it now and work out what motions you might like to amend, to plan out your diary for the weekend and not to just leave it till you're actually on the train to York. You can go to debates on access to driving lessons, preserving trial by jury, revitalising town ...
Bat for Lashes is the stage name of Natasha Khan, who wrote this beautiful song with Justin Parker. To prove that there's no justice in this world, it reached only number 144 in the UK singles chart in the summer of 2012. I didn't know there was a number 144. But cheer up, because Natasha Khan also provides us with out Trivial Fact of the Day. In the Seventies, when there was an upsurge of interest in the game of squash, we heard a great deal about the "Khan squash dynasty" from Pakistan, and it turns out that Natasha is ...
The combined agenda and directory for the forthcoming Lib Dem Spring Conference 2026 in York are now out. Taking a look through, I was glad to see that a change I introduced as President has stuck. We used to do Party Awards only every other conference, and I changed that to having awards at every one instead. That is continuing in York. Good news – and good luck to everyone who gets nominated for one. You can download the agenda and directory booklet here. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
The website Democracy for Sales reports that the organisation Labour Together paid a controversial PR firm at least £30,000 to investigate journalists that were digging into how its undeclared funding bankrolled Keir Starmer's successful Labour leadership campaign. They say that according to documents they have seen, the influential Starmerite think tank, once run by Morgan McSweeney and then by Josh Simons, now a minister in Starmer's government, hired APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists from the Sunday Times, the Guardian and other outlets and to identify their sources: ACPO was hired in 2023, when Simons ran Labour Together. Sources close to ...