The AI world and some fallacies about itAI will, we keep being told, take over the world. "Jump on now or be forever left behind and made obsolete", we get told, in every form of knowledge work. The advent of GPT-6 Astra and its solving (which has not yet been confirmed by the mathematical community, and which may have involved them accessing a scholar's unpublished materials) of some of the very complex proofs of fluid dynamic turbulence are prompting, pun depressingly intended, the latest round of yelling that we've reached AGI, a statement which is becoming a little bit like Elon Musk's repeated assertions that we're about ... (more) |
Yet another government makes a mess of local government reformIn 1973 I took part in the first set of local elections which completely changed the way that local government was run. Thousands of small urban and rural district councils were abolished, and some county boroughs became cities whilst the number of counties was reduced. These reforms were indeed needed and came about because of an independent review of local government on the ways and levels in which it worked and which was independent of politicians until, quite rightly, they took the final decision on the recommendations. At that stage I can well remember having to take information into a ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1574Liz David-Barrett argues that, by making rule-breaking a selling point, Reform UK is signalling it's open for influence trading: "It is no coincidence that some of Reform's biggest donations have come from individuals in cryptocurrency, keen to ward off the threat of regulation." "Our findings lay bare the reality of an industry that operates without regulation. Some companies are run by people with no previous experience in care work: directors are security bosses, or come from the music business or the military. One company in our dataset is owned by an overseas private equity firm."Tom Wall reveals the vast scale ... (more) |
Front Street looking greatVolunteers from Planting Up Sunniside have been hard at work on Sunniside Front Street. The flower beds look great. Well done everyone. (more) |
Bryan Ferry: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna FallBob Dylan glammed up sounds good. This is on Ferry's 1973 debut album These Foolish Things, and it reached no. 10 in the singles chart the same year. (more) |
Lib Dem Women chair Donna Harris writes to Reform over violent ejection of woman protesterThere's not going to be anything to please liberals or progressives at a Reform conference, but what happened to a woman protester should disgust everyone, not matter their politics. From LBC: One woman who stood up to disrupt the speech can be seen in video footage being removed from the room. While several security guards remove her, members of the crowd appear to grab at her face and hair, and hit her with a walking stick. The woman told LBC: "Yesterday I was hit and grabbed by the hair and by my jaw by attendees at the Reform UK conference ... (more) |
Should the Reform UK leadership take responsibility for violence at their conference?One would have thought that a national politician, a member of the Privy Council and a former cabinet minister, would condemn violence in whatever form it might take, however that does not appear to be how the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick works. The Times reports that climate protesters who were attacked while disrupting Nigel Farage's speech at the Reform UK conference have called on Robert Jenrick to apologise for "trivialising" the violence. The paper says that the protesters, who interrupted the party leader's address on Friday to ask him about the £5 million gift he received from the crypto billionaire ... (more) |
8 September 2026 - today's press releasesDunlop responds to embargoed PISA report Scottish Lib Dems seek urgent meeting with Justice Secretary over violence against women PISA shows almost two thirds of pupils suffering from lack of assisting staff Harley: A&E waits are totally unacceptable Chou Turvey comments on 14% rise in domestic abuse charges reported to Crown Office Dunlop responds to embargoed PISA report Responding to the embargoed news that Scotland has recorded its worst ever results for reading and maths in the PISA international comparison of 91 countries' education systems, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Duncan Dunlop MSP said: Once the best in the world, ... (more) |
Printing againWith the summer break now behind us, we are back to campaigning. I was in our print room this morning the result of which was 1000 leaflets ready for delivery this weekend. (more) |
Six month absence and he stands againThis is the first time that I have ever come across an ex-councillor standing in a ward where he caused the election by not attending any meetings. If a councillor fails to attend a meeting for six months, they are off the council and a by-election is called. Most of those former councillors disappear never to be seen again. Not so ex-councillor John Allen, elected for Reform in Hirst ward of (more) |