Scooch, Engelbert and other Great British Eurovision disastersEmbed from Getty ImagesThe Guardian has a survey of recent United Kingdom Eurovision disasters. It leads you to conclude that the reason we now regularly finish last is not Brexit or Blair's enthusiasm for the Iraq War, but our habit of choosing inexperienced artists with awful songs. I have two observations. The first is that Flying the Flag was rather fun and would have done much better if only Scooch could have sung it in tune. The second is an exclusive revelation. In 2012 Engelbert Humperdinck sang our entry and finished 25th out of 26, but it could have been ... (more) |
Our political timidity has to endOur party is gripped by political timidity. At a time when new parties are gaining traction on the left and the right, we appear to be afraid to explore our historic radicalism. We even seem to be afraid to even engage with the major political arguments of our day. For an example of our political timidity, look at our responses to three of Labour's flag ship pieces of legislation: the Employment Rights Bill, Great British Energy and taking the railways into public ownership. On each of these pieces of legislation, the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons abstained on ... (more) |
The saga of Farage's £1.4m houseThe Guardian reports that Nigel Farage is facing fresh scrutiny over his claim that he paid for his £1.4m house from a reality show fee rather than the millions gifted to him by a crypto billionaire. The paper says that accounts for the Reform leader's personal media company, Thorn in the Side Ltd, suggest that money was not withdrawn from the firm at the time of the house purchase: The apparent discrepancy raises fresh questions about Farage's transparency with regard to his finances. He is currently being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner over his failure to declare a £5m ... (more) |
East Brixton: A once and future station?Opened in 1866, East Brixton was a station on the South London line - now part of the London Overground's Windrush Line - served by trains from London Victoria to London Bridge. All went well until the opening of Brixton Underground station opened in 1971, when it lost many of its passengers. Then a fire at the station in 1975 destroyed its buildings and it was closed by British Rail in January 1976. Jago Hazzard tells us more about this history, looks for the scant remains of East Brixton station and discusses the possibility that it will be reopened. At ... (more) |
The Lib Dems made a net loss of council seats outside the Westminster constituencies they holdIn this month's local elections the Liberal Democrats made a net gain of 175 seats where they hold the parliamentary constituency and a net loss of 20 where they don't. That stat comes from Nick Barlow on Bluesky. He doesn't give a source, but as he's a former Lib Dem blogger I trust him implicitly. It strengthens my impression that, however highly you rate Ed Davey's leadership, the party's current strategy has reached the end of its useful life. We never talk about it, but I can't be the only one to have noticed how low the Lib Dem vote ... (more) |
Farewell to M.J.K. Smith, the Harborough District's England captainThe former England cricket captain M.J.K. "Mike" Smith died yesterday at the age of 92. He was a middle-order batsman with Leicestershire and then Warwickshire, and also a rugby union player. He won a single England cap was at fly half against Wales in 1956, making him the last man to play both sports for England. His Guardian obituary says: His even-tempered approach was one of the keys to his success as a skipper not just with England, whom he led between 1964 and 1966, but with his county, which he captained from 1957 to 1967. Although the product of ... (more) |
Paying for by-electionsBy-elections can be something of an unpredictable business. A death, a career change, ill health are the typical causes. But this is the first time I've seen a by-election caused by someone standing down in favour of a candidate on a mission to become Prime Minister. The Makerfield by-election will cost over £100,000. Let's suppose Andy Burnham wins. He will then step down from his role of (more) |
First Reform resignation in GatesheadIt didn't take long! Today we have the first resignation from Gateshead Council of a Reform Councillor. Danielle Cavanagh served a whopping 11 days before she handed in her resignation. Number of official council meetings attended: zero. She made no appearance in Reform campaign literature in High Fell. She could have turned up at the Civic Centre and no one on the opposition side would have any (more) |
Mathew on Monday: Swirling unease among urban Lib DemsThe celebratory yellow smoke from the 2024 general election may have cleared, but inside the local party branches of some of our major cities a very different kind of atmosphere is settling in. It is a thick, unmistakable sense of urban unease. Whilst the national narrative remains focused on the "Blue Wall" breakthroughs, a growing contingent of activists and councillors in our urban heartlands are beginning to ask a difficult but very necessary question: at what cost? As others have intimated on this website over the past week, in the wake of recent local election results the mood among urban ... (more) |
Andy Burnham is not the long-awaited Messiah - he's quite a naughty boy!The above headline has been pinched without hesitation from Monty Python where an angry Mum pulled her son down a peg or two with the above comment. However, it is what I have thought continually as I have seen Andy Burnham and his mates plotting, intriguing and It is not often that I disagree with Labour MP Ian Byrne, we agree on more than we would want our Leaders to understand but he is totally wrong in his belief that Andy Burnham is the answer to either problems of the Labour Party or the problems of the country. Let us ... (more) |