To paraphrase Shakespeare' 'something is rotten in the state of Britain'In Hamlet, the Prince memorably says, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". When looking at the economic mess we are in, I think we can safely say that about how much of big business and finance operates in the UK today. Corporate life and responsibility - or the lack of it We have seen, for decades now, a string of scandals which can only undermine our faith in how public and private corporations operate in our country. One of the most egregious examples is that of the, publicly-owned, Post Office, which saw ordinary people go to prison for ... (more) |
How Bodhana Sivanandan became British women's chess champion at the age of 11Not only does Britain have a 17-year-old chess champion, it also has an 11-year-old women's champion. Yesterday Bodhana Sivanandan won a play-off with 14-year-old Trisha Kanyamarala to claim this crown. The women's title goes to the highest placed woman in the British championship, which is open to all. The two had tied, so a play-off was needed to separate them. You can see Bohdana win the tense decisive second game in the video above. The first had ended in a draw. Bodhana is a positional player, with a wonderful instinct for where each piece belongs. Shreyas Royal, who won the ... (more) |
Lib Dems fight to save independent scrutiny of the NHSEmbed from Getty ImagesThe Liberals Democrats are fighting government proposals to reduce independent scrutiny of the National Health Service. Some of them were opposed by Andy Burnham as recently as last November, when he was still mayor of Manchester. A press release from the party explains our concerns about its new Health Bill: The Government's Bill will remove the duty for the NHS to cooperate with the Care Quality Commission and provide key safety data, will remove automatic 'safe space' protections for whistleblowers, and result in the closure of local healthwatch organisations, which provide independent advocacy for patients and uncover ... (more) |
Born to be a Refugee...As a geoscientist, I spent years writing technical reports about sedimentary rocks, each one telling a story of millions of years old. My imagination travelled through time, reconstructing glaciers, seas, channels, deserts, and floodplains to understand how landscapes evolved. Yet nothing in my scientific work prepared me for writing a far more personal story, the story of my friend Iyad from Gaza, and the cause I have carried in my heart since childhood, across countries and continents. I met Iyad more than twenty-five years ago in Paris at the Cité Universitaire Internationale, a beautiful residence where students from around the ... (more) |
Good start but....It seems that Andy Burnham has got off to a good start. I had previously thought of him as something of a lightweight but his performance since becoming PM has made me revisit my opinions on him. This is of course the honeymoon stage of his premiership. We saw with Starmer and Brown that honeymoons can be shortlived. It will be interesting to see how long Burnham's last. Nevertheless I get the (more) |
Reform figures in Wales linked to far-right social media networksIn the least-surprising news of the week, Nation Cymru has conducted an investigation, which has found that Reform politicians in Wales are regularly interacting with far-right social media accounts, including amplifying disturbing content and posts that target a prominent female Plaid Cymru figure with abuse. The news website says that their investigation examined the online activity of senior Reform figures in Wales, including their interactions with prominent extremist groups and individuals, finding that a significant number of Reform Members of the Senedd followed Facebook groups that shared racist content: The investigation also found that some official Welsh Reform branch accounts, ... (more) |
Councillor Martin Allen joins Liberal Democrats from the GreensA local Liberal Democrat news release reports: The Liberal Democrats have welcomed Councillor Martin Allen to the party after he announced he was leaving the Green Party following ten years of service. Councillor Allen, who represents residents on both Worcestershire County Council and Malvern Hills District Council, said he had reached the difficult decision after concluding that the Liberal Democrats now better reflected his values and his commitment to putting local communities first. Explaining his decision, Martin Allen said: After ten years of service, I have concluded that I can no longer remain a member of the Green Party. Since ... (more) |
Why you should read old election manualsIf I had to do my history PhD over again, I would definitely pick a study of election manuals. Through this and the previous two centuries, they tell the story of what people at the grassroots frontline in politics – candidates, agents and then more recently campaign managers – thought they needed to know, what they thought worked and what they thought mattered. Of course, the self-professed experts in an endeavour are not always right. Sometimes data and evidence, or the arrival of a new talent, shows up that habit and time has ossified erroneous beliefs into holy writ. But ... (more) |
Boy the home office tried to deport at 9 wins British chess championship at 17Embed from Getty ImagesShreyas Royal today won the British chess championship aged only 17. By my calculation that makes him the youngest holder of the title - he breaks Michael Adams's record by a couple of months, just as he broke David Howell's record to become Britain's youngest ever grandmaster at 15. I first wrote about Shreyas in 2018, under the headline The government is forcing Britain's best chess prospect to leave the country There I said:Nine-year-old Shreyas Royal has variously been described as "the greatest British chess prospect in a generation" (Malcolm Pein) and "the best prospect the country ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1559"Violence has prevailed against the freedom of the press. I was denied the right to report on the disgraceful acts which later unfolded after I left for my own safety - and that is wrong. Violence against anyone should be condemned, that's a fact. But violence against a person simply trying to report is an obstruction of truth."Henry Durand tries to report on the mob violence in Thetford. Carole Cadwalladr introduces a timeline of The Nerve's investigation of Nigel Farage's biggest funder, Christopher Harborne, and argues that Farage is a symptom, not a cause, of forces reshaping politics across the ... (more) |