In which I go on a guided walk round DesfordThis is The Old White Cottage in Desford, a village west of Leicester that I visited today. Having found myself agreeing to do so at a heritage fair held at the University of Leicester a few weeks ago, I went on a guided walk of the place. I'm glad I did, because there were several exceptional buildings to see and a lot of interesting history to hear. Visit the Desford Heritage website to see more. (more) |
Are we now a nasty nation?Way back in 2002 Conservative politician Theresa May warned hge Tories that they should be careful not to be seen as "the nasty party," Sadly , eleven years later, as Home Secretary, she was the one to hire lorries to tour areas of high immigration with posters threatening people who might not be legally here to "Go Home of Face Arrest." Under May the Home Office deliberately tied to create a Hostile Environment. " It was officially intended to deter those whose legal presence might be questionable, but in practice tends to create hostility towards and uncertainty within all those ... (more) |
A stream of consciousness on the Scottish electionsNow that I have had some sleep, and before I have some more, I'm going to just quickly jot down a few thoughts about yesterday's elections, what happens next and what I think our party needs to do going forward. Scotland Going up from 4 MSPs elected in 2021 to 10 in 2026 is undeniably a good result. The journey uphill is always slower and more laborious than the rapid descent downhill that we experienced in 2011. We are on our way back, though, and the Highlands are coloured gold again in their entirety. Not so the islands, though. The ... (more) |
Slow and steady growthMany of us are imagining what it might be like to experience a major surge in support like that being enjoyed by Reform UK at the moment, and to a lesser extent by the Greens. However I have always argued that slow steady growth is much more sustainable, especially for a centrist party based on strong values rather than populism, and there are some good examples from this week. I am looking at East Surrey and West Surrey, where the councillors have been elected to set up the new unitaries in 2027 to replace Surrey County Council. The last full ... (more) |
Observations of an ex-pat: War's end?The Gulf region is on the cusp of peace. That is according to President Donald Trump who issues more lies and obfuscations than my dog Bear barks in any given day. Having said that, both Axios and Reuters report that there is now a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which indicates Iranian willingness to discuss suspending uranium enrichment, a partial lifting of US sanctions against Iran and unfreezing of assets and some sort of return to normality in the Strait of Hormuz. It should be stressed, however, that an MOU is not a peace deal. It is merely an agreement on ... (more) |
So we got a Highlands and Islands list MSP after all![IMG: Morven-May MacCallum MSP on a highland beach] Well, my last post last night has not aged well. That first sentence: There's just the Highlands and Islands list left to count now but the Liberal Democrats will not win anything on that because we won 3 constituency seats. was, not to be overly dramatic, bollocks. And I have never been more delighted to have egg on my face. In the middle of the night, when they finally finished counting in Inverness, our Morven-May MacCallum took the fifth of seven seats. She is currently the Councillor for my favourite place on ... (more) |
The Mumbles oyster industryI have mentioned in a previous local history post that Oystermouth in Mumbles is not named after the oyster trade that briefly flourished in that area, and once attracted Gladstone to sample its wares, but from the Welsh name for the area, Ystumllwynarth, which appears in early Medieval Welsh literature and derives from Ystum Lluarth, meaning a "place of entrenchment on a hill". The story of Mumbles website picks up on the history of the now defuunct oyster trade there. They say that the Horsepool was a natural harbour encompassed on most of its seaward side by a sandbank, bordered ... (more) |
Scotland update: 5 more MSPs and a narrow missThere's just the Highlands and Islands list left to count now but the Liberal Democrats will not win anything on that because we won 3 constituency seats. So we end the day with 9 MSPs, more than double hte 4 elected in 2021. Since 5:30, we have seen David Green take Caithness, Sutherland and Ross with a staggering 48% of the vote. Then Andrew Baxter won Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch by just around 1000 votes. There was heartbreak when Neil Alexander missed out on Inverness and Nairn by just over 400 votes. He had run a brilliant campaign to come ... (more) |
"Oligarchs" all live in countries we don't likeA footnote from Sami Timimi's Searching for Normal: There is a habit of referring to oligarchs as the super-rich in countries we don't like, but not to extend a similar label to such a stratum in our own countries; on the contrary, individuals like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are often seen in more heroic terms as great innovators. I'm not sure about the gramar, but the point is a good one. (more) |
Friday late afternoon update:Well, I'm back from my count where I saved my deposit and came within a couple of hundred votes of beating the Conservatives. I am beyond exhausted, but I will try and pull together what we know so far. Scotland The bad news is that we have lost Shetland. It will seem like a big shock to everyone to lose a seat that we have represented in Westminster for 75 years and in Holyrood since devolution. I feel for Emma Macdonald, who ran a busy and beautiful campaign. I think there was some worry about Shetland at the start of ... (more) |