What should the Liberal Democrats say about compulsory voting?Last week, Andy Burnham became Labour leader and thus Prime Minister. Labour hope that his leadership will reverse the party's political misfortunes and poor polling under Keir Starmer, while many hope that his new policy priorities and governing style would bring about vital change. Electoral reform advocates hope that such change will include Proportional Representation, given his past and recent vocal support for it and the proposal of an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill calling for a National Commission on Electoral Reform. However, the latest speculated change, as reported by several outcomes, may come in the form ... (more) |
Reform UK's opaque finances: Now the Lib Dems raise questionsLisa Smart, the Liberal Democrat cabinet office spokesperson, has referred Richard Tice to the parliamentary standards commissioner over an undeclared loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage's aide George Cottrell. The Guardian reports that Tice, the Reform UK MP for Boston and Skegness, received a loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage's aide George Cottrell some months after he was elected parliament. This transaction, says the newspaper's report, caused bankers to raise concerns with authorities. In her letter to the commissioner, Lisa Smart wrote: "Mr Cottrell is not merely a private acquaintance of Mr Tice, he is an official adviser ... (more) |
Ed Davey and Andy Burnham are right to try to work together to solve the adult care crisisIt is quite clear that if we carry on the way we are doing at present the problems of adult care, especially for the elderly, will continue to grow to a point where the finances to support them will no longer be sustainable. That is why I'm delighted to see both that Andy Burnham has issued an invitation to Ed Davey and Kemi Badenoch to join with him to try and deal with this crisis and that Ed Davey immediately agreed to such talks. As Ed Davey himself put it, "There have been 22 failed attempts at reforming social care ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1554"The idea that England has always been governed from a single political centre is surprisingly recent. Westminster may now appear almost inseparable from the state, but for much of English history, government was far more mobile."Stephanie Brown says Andy Burnham's No 10 North has a precedent in medieval York. Nafeez Ahmed examines the links between George Cottrell's Reform UK network in Montenegro and sanctioned Russian oligarchs."When social workers become involved with a family, the focus is often on parenting, safeguarding concerns or family relationships. But new research suggests that one of the strongest drivers of repeated involvement with children's services ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers' Diary: He would sit there like a stuffed haddockProof, I think. that Lord Bonkers reads this blog. The theory that Starmer was never meant to be prime minister, but was put in place as a move in Labour's civil war, comes from a Guardian article by Neal Lawson, and I have referred to it here more than once. Friday That Starmer fellow didn't amount to much, did he? Cook, with her generous heart, always thought the best of him and refused to "listen to incinerations"; for myself, there's an old Gypsy saying that holds... To be honest, I can't remember what it holds, but I know it would ... (more) |
Cliff Richard and the Drifters: Move ItJohn Lennon once said: "I think the first English record that was anywhere near anything was Move It by Cliff Richard, and before that there'd been nothing." It takes an American podcast to take Cliff and the Shadows (as they soon became) seriously: We Say Yeah! (more) |
Burnham disses the Blair vision of a nation of graduatesThe Independent reports that Andy Burnham is set to unveil the biggest overhaul in education in England in 15 years with an end to a system which prioritises preparing children for university at the expense of technical training. The paper says that the changes are part of a new drive to tackle "a lost generation" with 1 million young people unemployed or trapped outside education: It comes after he revealed to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that he plans to bring down the welfare bill by making benefits conditional on people finding work, especially ones linked to mental health issues such ... (more) |
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?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. Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax and then resigned from the party (May 2026). Stuart Prior, Essex: expelled by Reform and resigned as a councillor after "he was accused the week before the ... (more) |
Jonathan Meades: Remember the Future (1997)The news that the Jodrell Bank telescope may soon be no more sent me back to a piece by Jonathan Meades: Concorde was seen in the sky over West London for the first time in late June 1969. Less than a month later Neil Armstrong stepped from Apollo 11 onto the moon. The future had arrived. It was tangible, it was thrilling, it was now. We came to believe that we were all part of an adventure without end. This was just the beginning, the new beginning. What we didn't realise was that this was it. A peak had been ... (more) |
Our universities aren't just managerialist: they're authoritarianBritain's universities aren't just getting rid of the arts and humanities: they're getting rid of collegiate governance too. Here's Krzysztof Nawratek, senior lecturer in humanities and architecture at the University of Sheffield, writing in Times Higher Education: I started my university career in Poland in 1988, a year before communism collapsed. I joined an underground anti-communist student association, went on strike and saw my hierarchical, conservative university slowly crumble. However, even within the oppressive communist regime, Polish universities held on to one core belief: the university belonged to its academic community. Rectors and deans were elected. Senates and faculty councils ... (more) |