A Liberal answer to artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence promises unprecedented prosperity. But that prosperity is becoming concentrated in remarkably few hands. A new generation of robber barons has emerged, prompting warnings of techno-feudalism: an economy in which a handful of firms own the digital infrastructure on which everyone else depends. A defining political question of the AI age is, therefore, not whether wealth will be created, but who will own it. The history of liberalism is, in many ways, the history of widening ownership. Nineteenth-century liberals challenged the concentration of land ownership because they understood that whoever owned the dominant asset of the age exercised disproportionate ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1549Aveek Bhattacharya argues that Andy Burnham is Labour's Boris Johnson: "The two men share a tendency to be led by instinct over doctrine, a talent for building coalitions, and a rare capacity to resonate emotionally with an audience. They also share a common vulnerability: a reluctance to bring their own side bad news. Both are men for the big picture rather than nitty-gritty details, happiest channeling grievance and hope into a broad political story." A disproportionate number of children and young people growing up in care in Scotland are dying prematurely, Yet, despite Scottish government policy, almost two-thirds of such ... (more) |
You can't defend your way to a World Cup... or No. 10On Wednesday night England went 1-0 up against Argentina, retreated to protect the lead, and lost 2-1. We invited the pressure, the pressure kept coming, and eventually it went in. Twice. On Saturday England play France for third place, the fixture nobody dreams about. I couldn't stop thinking about our party. We are 1-0 up. Seventy-two seats, our best result in a century, net gains in eight straight rounds of local elections. And the draft party strategy now heading to conference reads like a team protecting a lead. It even talks about consolidating our "fortresses". Parties that think in fortresses ... (more) |
Reform hypocrisy on 'hurty words'An article in the Times by Hugo Rifkind hits the nail on the head about some of the language being utilised by Reform spokespeople following the tragic murder of Ann Widdicombe. He talks about his own experience as the son of a former cabinet minister and the protection officers who dominated his formative years, with emergency buttons everywhere and discusses the response of Reform politicians in particular, who, rightly or wrongly, believe that they are all targets and that nobody cares: Frightened people say foolish things but it's hard not to notice how closely Reform UK's response to Widdecombe's death ... (more) |
Council by-election results scorecard 2026-2027Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2026 and the May 2027 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [7] +1 (+1/0) +1 (+3/-2) -1 (0/-1) -2 (+2/-4) -1 (0/-1) – +1 (+2/-1) -1 Lab -1 (0,-1) [8] – -1 (+2/-3) -5 (0/-5) – – +1 (+1/0) -5 Lib Dem -1 (+2/-3) – [14] +1 (+1/0) – -1 (0/-1) – +1 (+1/0) -1 Grn +1 (+1/0) +1 (+3/-2) -1 (0/-1) [6] – – – – +1 Ref +2 (+4/-2) +5 (+5/0) – – [5] ... (more) |
Rock Family Trees: The British R&B boom of the SixtiesAn old BBC documentary on a well-studied subject, but the talking heads here are of a high quality. I've not heard Manfred Mann interviewed before, for instance. (more) |
A steam locomotive leaving Loughborough CentralIn Loughborough today in connection with a thing, I didn't have time to visit the preserved Great Central Railway. But I did strike lucky when I crossed a bridge just south of Loughborough Central station. (more) |
The financing timebomb in Sub-Saharan Africa: What Britain should do — and isn'tThe IMF recently highlighted a 25% cut in aid to Sub-Saharan Africa — largely, but not solely, driven by Trump's dismantling of USAID. The UK's own cuts echo a wider trend: aid is being redirected, relabelled under different expenditure lines or simply eliminated as defence spending and domestic social security demands crowd it out. Some of those cuts exposed genuine waste. But the scale is not sustainable — particularly for fragile low-income states where aid accounted for up to 6% of GDP. For them, this is potentially brutal. Aid remains a fiscal lifeline for millions. It is also in our ... (more) |
Labour's weakening of local government will do nothing for voters' confidence in the political systemSo Harborough District Council is to disappear, subsumed into a single authority for the whole of the county outside the city of Leicestershire. And Leicester is to be expanded to make the hole in the doughnut bigger. City boundaries have to be expanded from time to time, but I'm not sure the areas Leicester is taking will be delighted. For some years there has been criticism that its elected mayor Peter Soulsby, now in his fourth term, is keen on prestige projects in the city centre, but less interested in bread-and-butter issues like litter and the state of the pavements ... (more) |
Congratulations to five new peersThe Liberal Democrats have today announced the names of five new members of the House of Lords. They are: Julia Aglionby, Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land, Professor of Practice at the University of Cumbria, and agricultural valuer Hannah Kitching, former NHS physiotherapist, Mayor of Penistone, and former Leader of the Opposition on Barnsley Council Tim Leunig, Chief Economist at Nesta, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Government, Director of Economics at Public First, and former senior civil servant Dave McCobb, Liberal Democrat Director of Campaigns who masterminded the party's best ever election results, and former Hull ... (more) |