Prince Harry visits hospital as brother William plays crazy golf and King Charles examines a penguinThis effort from Sky News, in which the Royal Family plays a starring role, wins it our Headline of the Day Award. Norman Baker will not be happy with the judges. (more) |
Lib Dems come from third to gain seat from GreensThe principal authority council by-elections this week started with a pair on Tuesday: Haslemere (Surrey) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 47.8% (-2.2) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 32.3% (-10.7) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 11.3% (New) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 8.6% (New)No LAB (-7.0) as previous.Liberal Democrat HOLD.Changes w/ 2021. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-07-08T15:35:05.631Z The thanks for being the Lib Dem here go to Rhys Husband. More results to come – North Norfolk (Tyler Wragg), Port Talbot (Hayley Davies), Pembrokeshire (Lee Herring), South Lanarkshire (no Lib Dem) and Flintshire (one no-show). For what all this means for the running total of council ... (more) |
Ex-Labour MP tells of being sidelined to enable Starmer parachutistSwansea Bay News reports that former Swansea West MP Geraint Davies has gone public with an account of how his 22-year parliamentary career ended, telling Swansea residents he was "unfairly and unjustly prevented" from standing for re-election. The news site says that in a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the ex-Labour MP said he wanted to set the record straight "in case there remains any misunderstanding" about his departure from the party after more than 40 years of membership: Mr Davies represented Swansea West from 2010 until 2024, winning four elections, and previously served as MP for Croydon Central. ... (more) |
Reform hold High Fell by 5 votesThe High Fell by-election in Gateshead is a hold for Reform. The results have just come through and, after a recount, Reform clung on by just 5 votes. The overall results are:Reform 564Labour 559Lib Dem 98Conservative 79Green 71TUSC 36High Fell was previously a strong Labour ward. It had been Labour throughout the entire existence of Gateshead Council. Reform took all 3 seats in May. One of the (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 [6] – +1 (+3/-2) -1 (0/-1) -2 (+2/-4) -1 (0/-1) – 0 (+1/-1) -3 Lab – [6] – 0 (+2/-2) -4 (0/-4) – – +1 (+1/0) -3 Lib Dem -1 (+2/-3) – [12] +1 (+1/0) – -1 (0/-1) – +1 (+1/0) 0 Grn +1 (+1/0) 0 (+2/-2) -1 (0/-1) [6] – – – – 0 Ref +2 (+4/-2) +4 (+4/0) – – [4] – -1 ... (more) |
Cromford Moor Mine and the legend of the Black RocksAssailed by hay fever, flying insects and stinging nettles, Gareth Icke is our guide for a walk in the hills above the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire/ With that setting, disused lead mines, white spoil heaps and unlikely-sounding local folklore, this video ticks a lot of Liberal England boxes. For more like it, subscribe to The Walk on YouTube. (more) |
Gilbert Adair and when Jacques Derrida came to LoughboroughToday I thought of the writer Gilbert Adair, looked up his Guardian obituary from 2011 and found this gem: He once told us on the arts desk of what had happened when he rang one of his publishers. "You aren't by any chance Red Adair," asked a secretary to whom his name clearly meant nothing. "No," he snapped back, "I'm unread Adair." After I'd shared that on Bluesky, I dug out his book Myths & Memories, a collection of essays about and memories of British culture. In one of the essays, 'Derrida Didn't Come', he writes about a conference at ... (more) |
Offside: politics meets football in IranThe 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: Offside: the 2006 Iranian movie [IMG: white and gray Adidas soccerball on lawn grass] Photo by Peter Glaser on Unsplash Continuing our shameless coincidental timetabling, Cory and I have turned to football for our latest podcast episode: To coincide with the men's football World Cup, Mark and Cory talk about the 2006 Iranian film Offside, about ... (more) |
Autumn Conference 2026: Agenda Selection ReportThe Federal Conference Committee (FCC) met on Saturday to review motion submissions and begin finalising the agenda for Autumn Conference 2026, which will take place in Brighton from 19 to 22 September 2026. We are very much looking forward to returning to Brighton for what promises to be a busy and engaging Conference. This Conferences comes roughly midway through the Parliament but very early in the premiership of Andy Burnham. He will spend the summer setting out his agenda and trying to maintain a sense of change and momentum. There are already some (small) signs of a Labour bounce and ... (more) |
Tory fury at VAT on school fees is all about social classThere was a story the other day about dozens of Labour MPs failing to mention the private schools they had attended in their Who's Who entries. I wasn't surprised by this: if I find it difficult to discover which schools a Labour MP attended, I generally assume they were privately educated. But what was striking was the accusation by the Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake that "Their hypocrisy knows no limits. While they plot around the Cabinet table to impose this spiteful tax on education, many Labour MPs have been busy covering up their own private school educations. They have ... (more) |