This review appears in the new Liberator - issue 435. You can download it free of charge from the magazine's website. The Shortest History of Ireland James Hawes Old Street, 2026, £15 Teachers tried to tell you many things when you weren't listening properly, but here's some history they really didn't teach you at school. James Hawes tells the story of Ireland from the earliest times to the present day in a way that is constantly surprising and enlightening. I shall first urge you to read this book and then share a few of its most startling insights. One of ...
My previous comments on the Makerfield by-election were made public recently. It seemed that the by-election was a gift to Reform. They had won every ward in the constituency in the recent local elections. People don't take well to unnecessary by-elections. Reform were chucking everything at it. But after a week of campaigning, it is becoming less of a Reform certainty. Doubts have crept into my
Yesterday, along with my Lib Dem councillor colleagues from the Whickham area, we held our first advice surgery for residents outside Whickham Library. Our thanks to the people who stopped to speak to us and especially to those who congratulated us on our re-election. Here are a few photos of the event.
The Thucydides Trap There has been much talk recently about the "Thucydides Trap". China's President Xi Jinping is reported to have warned Donald Trump during his recent trip to Beijing that China and America were heading straight for the "Thucydides Trap." So what is it? It is a term coined by the diplomatic historian Graham Alison in his book "Destined for War." Allison uses Thucydides' history of the disastrous Peloponnesian War between Sparta (the established power) and Athens (the rising power) to argue that when one power becomes to challenge the hegemony of an existing power then war is inevitable. ...
Another day with Lord Bonkers. Do I detect The Plot here? Tuesday In answer to an appeal for material for the Beltane bonfire, I call at a publisher's warehouse that is simply choked with hardback copies of Boris Johnson's memoirs. They are only too pleased for me to take them off their hands - in return for a chunky donation to the Home for Distressed Canvassers at Herne Bay, of course. I shall add them to the usual Liberal Democrat policy papers and some Morello trees that have been felled in my orchards. That should make a jolly blaze! The ...
Here's Steve Winwood in 1973 playing what came to be called "world music" more than a decade later. "Aiye-Keta" (which means "the third world" or "the third life" in Yoruba) was a collaborative project between Winwood, who plays guitar and keyboards, the percussionist Remi Kabaka and Abdul Lasisi Amao, who plays saxophone and flute. Remi Kabaka, who died last year, played with John Martyn, Hugh Masekela and, on Rhythm of the Saints, Paul Simon. He is the father of Remi Kabaka Jr, the drummer and producer of Gorillaz. Abdul Lasisi Amao died back in 1988. He was a founder member ...
Events this week has had me thinking about Jeremy Corbyn's call for A kinder gentler politics ten years ago. A noble aim, sadly not followed by many of his own supporters. ( ask many Labour members to the right of his supporters) The first event was some posts on David (son of John) Prescott's Facebook page. David stood for the Greens this year in Hull, got a respectable amount of votes, and arguably split the vote to allow a reform member to unseat the sitting Lib Dem Councillor. David, who ran a very good social media campaign during the election, ...
Flensburg lies at the head of an long inlet of the Baltic Sea, just south of the Danish border with Germany, and is probably most famous for two things - rum, and for being where the Third Reich took its formal dying breath. It's probably less famous for being twinned with Carlisle, but that's how the cookie crumbles, I guess. I had about three hours to look around - I had a train to catch, oddly enough - and so I set off into the bright sunshine of a lovely day to walk around the harbour and take in some ...
Survation has given us the first constituency opinion poll for the Makerfield Parliamentary by-election, published in The Sunday Times: [IMG: Survation opinion poll for the Makerfield by-election] The Green candidate, Chris Kennedy, has since pulled out following media coverage of his social media activities. That sample size is a little on the low side but constituency polling is tough and it's large enough to give reasonable confidence that if there is something off with the poll, it isn't due to the sample being too small. Survation's press release about the poll adds that: On a generic Westminster ballot, with no ...
Richard R. O'Brien, friend of the Lloyd George Society, will be continuing his series of talks on Margaret Lloyd George, the subject of his two acclaimed books The Woman Who Helped Win the War and The Campaigns of Margaret Lloyd George. Richard will be making a personal appearance at the National Museum of Wales in Cathays, Cardiff. The talk is entitled The Campaigns of Margaret Lloyd George. The talk will take place on: Saturday 6th June 2026 at 10.30am Reardon Smith Lecture Theatre, NMW, Cathays Park, Cardiff 'Richard will bring to life the remarkable achievements of Margaret Lloyd George during ...
Yesterday I discovered another park in Desborough. A couple of years ago it was Millennium Green: this time it was the town's Pocket Park. It lies beside the Rothwell Road, but there are a couple of other entrances. I found one of them by wandering some back streets. You never know what you will find if you do that in London suburbs or small Midland towns.
Local government is about competence, stability and delivering reliable public services — not simply making headlines or winning protest votes. That is why the growing instability surrounding Reform UK councillors should concern voters across England. Reform UK's breakthrough in the May 2025 local elections was undeniably dramatic. According to the House of Commons Library, the party won 677 council seats, 41% of all seats contested, and took control of ten councils. But what has happened since raises serious questions about whether Reform was prepared for the responsibilities of local government. Liberal Democrats Political analyst, Lord Mark Pack, documented that by ...
I, like many in the LGBT+ community am scared right now. I cried yesterday and today about the uncertainty of my future and my friends' futures. If you are cis or trans it doesn't really matter, it's clear that the guidance from the EHRC is ultimately unenforceable, however it doesn't need to be enforced to make life uncomfortable for many people. You see, this doesn't just make public life hostile to trans women, it erodes all women's rights; trans and cis women alike. If we are not "performing womanhood" to someone else's satisfaction, you can now be called trans – ...
The new Liberator is out! It's issue 435 and you can download it free of charge from the magazine's website. In it you'll find the usual mix of article, reviews and Radical Bulletin - the section that tells you what's really going on in the Liberal Democrats. And that means it's time to spend another week with Lord Bonkers. It's happens to be Beltane week, which has always been a big deal in the Church of Rutland. Monday "They're back," says a fellow patron of the Bonkers Arms, "I've seen them." "What I don't understand," says another, "is whether they're ...
Its attitude towards electoral reform symbolises Keir Starmer's government more widely. Labour has recognised that the previous Conservative government got it wrong when it introduced first-past-the-post for elections for Mayor or Police and Crime Commissioner. But its response has been a timid restoration of the supplementary vote rather than the introduction of a proper preferential voting system. Fun side note: when it comes to their own internal elections for posts in Parliament, both the Commons and the Lords use the alternative vote and even STV. What's good enough for us Parliamentarians apparently isn't good enough for the public. But at ...
Liberator 435 is out and can be downloaded free here: https://liberatormagazine.org.uk/ where you can also sign up to be emailed when each new issue of Liberator comes out. This time in addition to Commentary, Radical Bulletin and Lord Bonkers' Diary, Liberator looks at why concern at the May election results is echoing from every corner of the party despite these being spun as progress. In this issue: HOLLOWED OUT AND IN A HOLE James Graham says the Liberal Democrats are losing touch with all but a narrow slice of the electorate and should reconnect with the rest of the country ...
In the wake of his Beijing sojourn, Donald Trump is embarking on a dangerous and complex game of diplomatic chess with Taiwan as the piece most likely to be sacrificed for the greater American good. While in China, Trump became convinced what the rest of the world has known for some time. China cannot be bullied. Threats of escalating tariffs and civilisational extinction just roll off the Chinese political back. They have been around a long time and have seen it all. Next, China is as much of a superpower as the United States. And, if he is going to ...
Hazel Grove Liberal Democrats brings the news: Cllr Joe Barratt has now joined the Lib Dem team running Stockport Council, after leaving the Labour party last September, when he criticised Keir Starmer for "sleepwalking into a Reform government". In the latest elections, Cllr Barratt campaigned for the Liberal Democrat candidate, Cllr Niki Meerman in his ward in the local election, which saw the Labour party crash to just 5% of the vote down from 47% in 2024. He has formally joined the Liberal Democrats, as the best antidote to "divisive and simplistic politics", whilst also criticising the failure of the ...
The Mill continues to demonstrate what an important part email newsletters have in a modern healthy local news environment with an update on its scoop about the local elections in Tameside: Four men and a woman aged between 23 and 47 were arrested this morning in the Ashton-under-Lyne area, as a result of what the police are calling 'illegality and criminality' in the run up to the St Peter's ward election on May 7th. The arrests were made on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, and police investigations are ongoing. Our investigation heard that internal messages had been circulated in Labour ...
Given how popular (and lengthy!) my list of Reform councillor departures after the May 2025 elections turned out to be, here is a new list, this time for councillors elected under the Reform banner on 7 May 2026, or in by-elections after that date, who have already departed the party for one reason or another. Please note the slight correction to #1 in the list. Glenn Gibbins, Sunderland: suspended by Reform following allegations of racism and, so far, has not signed his declaration of office in order to take up his seat (May 2026). Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" ...
When I first came to Swansea in 1978 to attend university the legend that was Mumbles was on everybody's lips, and in particular the infamous Mumbles Mile. As this article in Wales-on-Line says, for a lot of people of a certain age, the Mumbles Mile was a legendary night out. The idea was to walk for a mile and drink a pint in each of the ten pubs on the mile before ending up in Cinderellas' night club: The Swansea seafront pub crawl was a long-standing tradition, a coming-of-age ritual, and a rite of passage which was not for the ...