Brexit: The Uncivil War - the BBC drama with Benedict CumberbatchThe latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: [IMG: Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings] Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings in Brexit: The Uncivil War. This time, it's back to one of our favourite creators of political fiction, James Graham. Having previously done his stage play, This House, the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum is a great excuse to take a look at his ... (more) |
A power vacuum?The Times reports that, although it may be three weeks or so before Andy Burnham ascends to the highest political office, the uncertainty has created a vacuum in Westminster with MPs vying for position. The paper says that for all Keir Starmer's call for unity, the rancour is everywhere, Burnham is now inevitable: he will become prime minister on July 20, the day after the World Cup final: The scale of his win in the Makerfield by-election, where he crushed Reform UK and won more than 50 per cent of the vote, was enough to make the case for him. ... (more) |
HMO plan for Market Harborough's Bottom ClubStop sniggering at this story from HFM News there. I shall explain. Market Harborough used to have two working men's clubs in the town centre. The one that stood towards the top of the High Street was known as "Top Club" and the one on The Square was "Bottom Club". Top Club is now a branch of Zizzi, while Bottom Club now houses a Waterstones and a Pret a Manger. They don't call Harborough "the Notswolds" for nothing. The white building in the photo above was also part of Bottom Club. Its ground floor was where the club's snooker tables ... (more) |
Observations of an Expat: GazaWhile the world's attention has been fixed on Iran, Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz, Gaza has quietly slipped from the headlines. That is unfortunate, because the territory is settling into a dangerous and potentially permanent limbo. Except for the occasional exchange of fire, fighting between Hamas and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has stopped. What has replaced conflict is an armed truce with a deep mutual distrust preventing any progress on last autumn's peace plan. The IDF still occupies more than 60 percent of Gaza with orders from Benjamin Netanyahu to increase that slice to 70 percent. The two ... (more) |
I am liberal, woke and proud of it. We should all accept such descriptions with prideIn a recent posting on one of the social media channels I use, Twitter I think, this post was added to a comment that I had made, "Why should we take any notice of you, you're just a woke liberal." I am accustomed to being insulted by both far left and far right, so I do not take much notice of things. But in this case, I accepted the description as a badge of honour because it is 100% right. When I said this in brought in loads of similar comments from people who often could not spell and had ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1539Roz Savage says our electoral system is not just unfair but dangerous: "Manifestos are written for floating voters in constituencies that might change hands - not for the country as a whole. And when governments make spending decisions, the incentive structure pulls them in exactly the same direction. The Towns Fund, which directed 40 of 45 allocations to Conservative-held seats, was not an aberration. It was the system working as designed." "Some schools have glass atriums, which were a common feature of those constructed during the government's Building Schools for the Future programme in the early 2000s, but which now ... (more) |
When the GIs came to SwanseaToday, Singleton Park is a large green space on the seafront in Swansea used for a huge number of activities ranging from dog walking and park runs to outdoor concerts and car shows. It was bought from the Vivian family by the County Borough Council in 1919 for use as a public park and was transformed by Daniel Bliss, who was trained at Kew Gardens, to include a botanical gardens and boating lake amongst other features. As you can see from the map below, large areas of the park have since been sacrificed to accommodate the university campus and a ... (more) |