Sir Ranulph Fiennes admits he narrowly avoided prison after blowing up Dr Doolittle movie damThis headline dates from 2018, so I'm not putting it to the judges, but the story below it is worth repeating because Sir Ranulph is in the news. SomersetLive reported on the address he gave when he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law at University of Bristol that year:The explorer said: "Unfortunately, while on leave back in the UK in the mid-1960s, I got phoned up by an old Eton friend. "He had moved to a place called Castle Combe in Wiltshire, which had just been voted Britain's prettiest village. "And this beautiful village was being attacked by 20th ... (more) |
Britain should be proud, but never afraid of the strangerBritain should be proud, but never afraid of the stranger More than 50 years ago, my grandparents, mother and aunts came to Britain as refugees from Cyprus. They arrived in London with just £20. My grandfather took whatever job he could find. My grandmother spent long days in front of a sewing machine. They worked, saved, bought a home and raised their daughters. Britain gave my family something they could not take for granted: the chance to be safe and build a future. That history is personal to me. It also shapes how I think about the debate around refugees ... (more) |
Write a guest post for Liberal EnglandI love publishing guest posts here on Liberal England. Have you thought of writing one yourself? It could be on where the Liberal Democrats should go from here, on politics more generally or... anything really. Why not an article about a local campaign or quirky piece of history? Please drop me an email if you'd like to discuss your idea first. I'd hate you to spend time on a piece I really wouldn't want to publish. Here are the last 10 guest posts on this blog:Political lessons from science fiction- Peter ChambersCouncillor defection scores on the eve of polling day- ... (more) |
Where is that 'Yesss' moment going to come from?The past week has been marked by plenty of people asking what I made of Conference. My general answer has been that it was OK, but we still need to feel from our most prominent representatives that Liberalism is inspiring. I don't want to hark back to a golden era that may never have existed, but a feature of the Paddy Ashdown years - and to a large extent the Steel and Kennedy leaderships - was that, whatever our electoral fortunes happened to be, you tended to leave conference feeling "Yesss, I will go out and deliver some more leaflets!" ... (more) |
Is Labour's success in curbing immigration harming the economy?As we move closer to John Healey and Andy Burnham's first budget, it is worth revisiting this article in Prospect magazine from December last year. The article refers to home secretary, Shabana Mahmood's immigration strategy which has restricted the rights of asylum seekers to stay in the UK and extended the time that legal migrants would have to wait for permanent residency. It argues that this policy is undermining the drive for economic growth, in this case for Rachel Reeves, but now Healey: Here is the unpalatable truth for Labour strategists. In 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which ... (more) |
Should the Grimond Society Become an Associated Organisation?Yesterday I received an email in my inbox asking whether the Grimond Society, a pressure group supporting cooperatives within the Liberal Democrats, should become an Associated Organisation to the Party. I had presumed this had been a long-term goal anyway based on meetings held, but I appreciate it has been put to vote to let us have our say, which feels very much in the spirit of co-operative organisation, and as such I felt it would only be fair to make clear my own thoughts on the matter. The benefits of becoming an Associated Organisation are perhaps somewhat obvious; the ... (more) |
An interview with Bodhana Sivanandan, the youngest woman grandmaster of all timeBecause of her performance as top board for the England women's team at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand - she played all 11 rounds, recording six wins, four draws and one loss - Bodhana Sivanandan has qualified as the youngest ever holder of the women grandmaster title. This video lists her many other achievements, except one: she is now two-thirds of the way to the full international master title, which is open to both men and women. This is the grade below grandmaster status. There is already talk of how soon she will play for the open England team at ... (more) |
Mathew on MondayBrighton was wonderful but I'm still left asking: what are the Liberal Democrats for? There is much I love about Lib Dem Conference. Brighton last week reminded me why. Seeing friends and colleagues from across the country, some of whom I only ever see at Conference, was wonderful. There were fascinating fringe meetings, including the one on Assisted Dying that I was honoured to chair on behalf of Dignity in Dying, passionate debates and the reassuring experience of spending a few days among people who, whatever part of the party they're from, share a belief in liberalism, internationalism and social ... (more) |
GUEST POST Is Isaac Asimov's psychohistory fiction or reality?Peter Chambers mixes science fiction with computer games, the numerical simulation of history, computer games and a take on political warfare. The term 'psychohistory' originated in the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. He started writing this in the 1940s, and after a long gap following the first three books continued to the end of his life. They sold very well. Psychohistory is the concept that the future of societies can be predicted - in outline - given a lot of data and a lot of computer power. At the time in which Book 1 was set, a Galactic Empire existed ... (more) |
You can't elect a Community Champion without a communityAs Liberal Democrats, we pride ourselves as being "local champions". It's on every Focus leaflet, in every direct mail. Our spatulas, fitbits and our friends and family who are oft abandoned in favour of doorknocking on a Saturday morning can attest to the fact that we are community people who believe in community politics. But how can you be a champion of a community that doesn't exist? This is the question that has been running around my head after speaking to hundreds of residents in my ward of Waterloo and South Bank, the most central ward in London, in the ... (more) |