High Fell leaflet watch (2)In the last few weeks, since the by-election was called in High Fell in Gateshead, residents of the ward must be feeling that they have received more leaflets than in the previous 25 years! And not only have the Conservatives produced a leaflet, out pops a second one.Conservative candidate Mr Flux reports in this latest edition that he is still cleaning road signs. But what is of more interest is (more) |
No, Leave didn't win the Brexit referendum because of Northern working class votersThere are so many myths, and so much snobbery, surrounding the result of the 2016 referendum that I've a good mind to post this every week. (more) |
Actually, this Summer of Strategy could be quite good...Party President Josh Babarinde wrote to all members and on this site this week inviting us to share our views on the development of the party strategy which will be debated at our Brighton Conference in September. The consultation process involves a Typeform which has to be completed by this Thursday and 3 online consultation sessions over this weekend. The final one is tomorrow night at 5:30pm and I can promise you that if you go to it, you will retain your will to live and will feel that your time has been well spent. This is not usually the ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers: "Something less terrible than the truth"G.K. Chesterton was a brilliant literary critic and there's an observation of his on Dickens that I've quoted more than once in print:It seems almost as if these grisly figures, Mrs. Chadband and Mrs. Clennam, Miss Havisham, and Miss Flite, Nemo and Sally Brass, were keeping something back from the author as well as from the reader. When the book closes we do not know their real secret. They soothed the optimistic Dickens with something less terrible than the truth.I have an uneasy feeling that Lord Bonkers sometimes soothes me with something less terrible than the truth. (more) |
The most Lib Dem question ever?It's 2070 and at a Royal Mail sorting depot in London, staff gather to wish a very special person a Happy 100th Birthday. Mark Pack (no longer a Lord since he helped ensure the abolition of the House of Lords in the late 2040s during the first majority Lib Dem administration in 140 years led by Eleanor Kelly) had become something of a hero to the Royal Mail workers over the years. Back in June 2026, Mark Pack had asked the most Lib Dem of questions in the House of Lords, on one of the party's key obsessions: When the ... (more) |
Aidan O'Rourke: Mangersta BeachI loved the Outer Hebrides and this music - Mangersta Beach is on the west coast of Lewis - captures the feel of a landscape that somehow feels half Scottish and half Irish. So it's no surprise to find Aidan O'Rourke saying in an interview:My dad plays banjo - he had immersed himself in the Glasgow folk scene of the late 1960s, which was a hotbed of political fervour as well as music. When he left Glasgow and moved to Oban, he brought with him that interest in Irish and Scottish music, and a lot of the political affiliation within ... (more) |
Accountability and international lawIsrael's increasingly brazen conduct in Lebanon and the wider region should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. A government that has faced few meaningful consequences for its conduct in Gaza was never likely to become more restrained elsewhere. From repeatedly violating US-brokered ceasefires to advancing the 'doomsday' E1 settlement project despite near-universal international opposition, recent Israeli actions all point to the same conclusion: its leaders have become convinced they can violate international law with impunity. The uncomfortable truth is that, to a large extent, the international community has taught them exactly that. For two and ... (more) |
Two new Makerfield by-election polls gives Burnham 5 and 12 point leadsSo far we've had polls giving Andy Burnham a three, ten and five point lead, all from established pollsters. We now also have a new poll from a newer polling firm, Convergent, who are a member of the British Polling Council. It has been published in The Sunday Times: [IMG: Convergent poll for the Makerfield by-election] I have not yet seen the data tables for this poll, but other polls from Convergent were carried out online. (Update: thank for to the firm for getting in touch. It was a mix of online and face-to-face.) Convergent was founded by Fintan Smith ... (more) |
Reform under waterThe Independent reports that eight out of ten of the most flood-prone constituencies are projected to vote in a Reform MP at the next general election, but the party remains sceptical about the climate crisis and net zero policies. The paper says that since its conception in 2021, Reform UK has established itself as the anti-climate change party, with its leader Nigel Farage consistently vowing to scrap net zero targets, describing wind energy as "economic insanity" and calling for renewed drilling in the North Sea oil and gas fields. But that coulc be a major problem for them: Experts have ... (more) |
Good luck Scotland and EnglandIn less than 6 hours' time, Scotland will play their first World Cup match against Haiti in Boston. I'll be honest. I struggle to care about football unless it involves Inverness Caledonian Thistle or Ross County, and even then I don't actually have to watch it. I knew so little about this World Cup that it was only last night that I realised that the Scotland game was in the middle of tonight. I'd previously assumed that because the Scottish Government had made Monday a bank holiday (which only 6 of the 32 Scottish local authorities are taking) that the ... (more) |