Patrick Duff: Foolish PeopleStranglelove were my favourite slightly obscure Nineties band, so they have featured here three times: Time For the Rest of Your Life, Elin's Photograph and Beautiful Alone. Patrick Duff was the band's lead singer. Wikipedia records that after they split: Between 2000 and 2004 Duff went on to travel the world as a solo artist with WOMAD Festival, collaborating with a number of artists, most notably the then 81-year-old veteran African master storyteller and musician Madosini, with whom he lived and worked in the township of Langa, in Cape Town.Then: The following year [2006] Duff was commissioned by Bristol City ... (more) |
Stand aside in Makerfield, but make Burnham earn itJosh Simons resigned his Makerfield seat this week. Andy Burnham confirmed within hours he would seek the NEC's permission to stand, and the NEC has now cleared him to do so. A constituency most people couldn't have placed on a map last week has become the most consequential by-election in a generation. The question now is whether the Liberal Democrats should stand a candidate. My answer is no, but not as an act of charity toward Labour. As a conditional offer, grounded in a straightforward calculation about what is most likely to advance the things we actually care about. What ... (more) |
Why are we so timid?The Liberal Party I joined in 1964 was not a timid party. Under Grimond's leadership, it wanted major changes to the UK. It wanted devolution, voting and parliamentary reform, sexual and racial equality, supported joining the EEC, wanted nuclear disarmament and wanted more cooperatives amongst many other things. And it wasn't afraid to say so. Fast forward to today and we seem afraid of our own shadow. We say little or nothing on controversial issues for fear of offending anybody. Dig a little deeper and you find we probably support the same things that we did before but you'd never ... (more) |
Promises, promisesThe BBC reports on a promise by one of Plaid Cymru's new ministers that the arts in Wales can expect "increased funding year-on-year", after years of being "in crisis". They add that Plaid Cymru's Heledd Fychan told them that the arts, culture and heritage sector did not get adequate support from the previous Labour Welsh government.She is promising to reverse that trend and that this is "clearly a priority" for new First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, with her being given a seat around the cabinet table to represent it: "We can't promise huge investment overnight, but I will clearly put ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1519Roderick Lynch says the Liberal Democrats have a serious problem in urban Britain and pretending otherwise will only make it worse. "A few months after winning the 2024 general election, Keir Starmer pledged to stop 'powerful people using ... Slapps to intimidate journalists away from their pursuit of the public interest'. But in February this year, anti-Slapp measures were shelved from a civil justice and courts bill, reportedly following interventions from Downing Street." Peter Geoghegan and Jenna Corderoy on the government's abandonment of libel law reform - Slapps are "strategic lawsuits against public participation". "A child living in an illegal ... (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. Glenn Gibbins, Sunderland: suspended by Reform following allegations of racism (May 2026). 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 ... (more) |
Welsh Liberal Democrats need more than "stop" politicsIn many ways, the 2026 Senedd election was historic. Wales is the first country in Great Britain to adopt proportional representation, utilising the D'Hondt voting system over a Mixed Member voting system. Its parliament has expanded from 60 to 96 members. For the first time in over a century, Labour is no longer the dominant party in Wales. Plaid is now the largest party, with its leader, Rhun ap Iorweth, becoming the new First Minister of Wales. Reform UK is the official opposition, and the Greens have made their Senedd debut. But for all that has changed, one thing has ... (more) |
Should we even be considering contesting Makerfield?With Josh Simons' resignation on Thursday, the starting gun on the 2026 Labour leadership election was (sort of) finally fired. There is now a theoretical, if muddy, path for Andy Burnham to re-enter parliament and become the next Prime Minister. The Greater Manchester Mayor, a vocal critic of Keir Starmer, has announced he plans to apply to stand in the by-election. Reform UK, buoyed by a second set of astonishing local election results, including across most of Greater Manchester, have responded in kind to say they plan to throw everything they can at the seat. The question being raised internally, ... (more) |
What did the Greens have that we didn't?In the elections on May 7th, Salford Lib Dems suffered an unexpected setback. We lost one of our two councillors (I'm the one who remains), and we came third and fourth out of five in our two target wards. In all three cases, we lost to the Greens. The story was similar elsewhere in Greater Manchester. In only one of the three wards did we face an active Green Party campaign - the other two wards (including mine, where we lost my co-councillor) were won by pretty much paper candidates. The councillor we lost was a fantastically hard working and ... (more) |
The world's first passenger railwayIf you happen to wander into Dylan Thomas Square in Swansea's Marina the first thing you might see is a statue of the poet himself, looking more like Max Boyce than anybody else, but turn around and there is a part of a tram displayed behind glass in a large building. Apart from a few tracks built into the square as a feature, this is all that remains of the world's first passenger railway. As Wikipedia recalls, originally built under an act of Parliament, the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Act 1804, to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles to ... (more) |