First Clacton by-election opinion poll releasedWe have had some national polling pitting Nigel Farage against Count Binface already, but now we have the first constituency poll for the Clacton by-election. As The Times reports: Constituency polling by Survation, for Mandate Research, found that Farage could win the seat with as much as 73 per cent of the vote on a very low turnout. However, opposition to Farage has crystallised around support for the joke candidate Count Binface, who is polling at about 20 per cent. In a direct head-to-head between Farage and Binface, support for the Reform leader falls to 69 per cent while Binface's ... (more) |
Prince Philip sent 12th-century font to Charles' boarding school in the 1960sThe Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award. Apparently the font wasn't academically gifted, but it had character and played in the front row for the first XV. It later became a management consultant. Our photograph shows this very font, now to be found back at Upton Cressett in Shropshire. (more) |
Welcome to my day: 3 August 2026 - some thoughts on migration...I read the piece by Oliver Jacques earlier this week with some interest. As a second-generation migrant myself, you might not be surprised to find that my views on migration are relatively liberal. I tend to the view that migration can be a good thing, which in turn tends to put me amongst that group that right-wing campaigners describe mockingly as "open door liberals". But migration is like free markets, in that nobody really believes in an unfettered free market in the same way that nobody really believes in open borders – there have to be rules and limits. Indeed, ... (more) |
The funding fog surrounding Nigel Farage and Reform UKThe Times reports that Nigel Farage struck a secret deal to return as leader of Reform UK months before the general election. The paper says that Farage negotiated the pact with Richard Tice, then the leader, in March and April 2024. George Cottrell, the convicted fraudster who had been secretly bankrolling Farage, supervised the discussions. They add that under the terms of the deal, once Farage became leader Reform would repay or write off more than £1 million in outstanding loans it had received from Tice's company: The deal was first presented by Farage and Cottrell to the party's treasurer ... (more) |
BBC Radio Leicester's Secret Leicestershire on Oakham CastleIt's not in Leicestershire and it's no secret, but Oakham Castle is the subject of the latest short programme in BBC Radio Leicester's Secret Leicestershire series. The programme talks about the wider castle site, not just the wonderful Norman great hall you see above. If you want to know more about the archaeology of this fascinating site, you can listen to an online lecture by Matthew Morris from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, who has led digs there. (more) |
The Joy of Six 1556"Dartford Warblers skim across the heather before diving into the vegetation, defying all but the quickest observers. At dusk Nightjars churr from the isolated trees or fly overhead, the males clapping their wings in display flight."David Jobbins mourns what has been lost to the fire at Dunwich Heath. Sam Power explains why Reform UK will find it hard to shake off questions about its donors: "An important thing to note is that the legal onus rests almost entirely on the donor. The party in receipt of the donation simply needs to show that it has conducted a permissibility check on ... (more) |
Tom Arms' World ReviewDonald Trump Trump loves a winner. He is less keen on anyone blocking his objectives. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used to be the former and is now the latter. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky used to the be latter and is now the former. This was apparent to anyone watching the visits to Washington this week of Zelensky and Netanyahu. Zelensky and Trump were all smiles. Zelensky described the talks as "a good meeting" and the White House used the term "cordial." The bilateral summit was in stark contract to the February 2025 Oval Office showdown when Trump and Vice ... (more) |
Buzzcocks: PromisesSteve Diggle, Buzzcocks' guitarist, described the birth of this song in an interview he gave to Malcolm Wyatt:"Promises was my song, but I left the verses at home! There's a demo where we're having a bit of fun and I'm making the verse up as I go along. As I was doing that, Pete was by the mixing desk, so it was just me, John (Maher, drums) and Steve (Garvey, bass). "We were working out which songs we had, and Pete [Shelley] said, 'I think I've got some verses for that melody.'"The difference was that it was going to be ... (more) |
Westminister needs to tackle its drinking cultureThe Guardian reports on a report by the Institute of Alcohol Studies that argues that Parliament is "Britain's last alcohol-soaked workplace" where MPs are offered free drinks as early as midday despite alcohol-related scandals. The paper says that drinking is commonplace and some MPs have had their stomachs pumped after consuming so much alcohol that they ended up in hospital, one disclosed: The IAS report also found that: * 42% of the MPs interviewed had been offered an alcoholic drink at a work meeting or event on a weekly basis during the previous six months; 13% said that occurred daily. ... (more) |