Council to help people 'correctly identify' potholesBBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this tale from Yorkshire, where a Sheffield City Council reports claims there is "confusion around what qualifies as a pothole" (more) |
'Over me beat the invisible wings'- Ireland, Churchill and Lloyd GeorgeThe author, Charles Stephenson, has kindly agreed that we can publish a recent article that he has written. Although far from conventionally religious, Churchill had long considered himself under the protection of Providence. He was certainly physically fearless and sought to put himself 'in harm's way', as the phrase has it. Whilst campaigning in northern India in 1897 he had written to his mother, telling her: "Bullets . . . are not worth considering. Besides I am so conceited I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending." Indeed, his ... (more) |
New issue of Liberator outLiberator 437 is out for conference and can be downloaded free here. You can sign up to be emailed when each new issue comes out here. What's in this issue? There's Commentary, Lord Bonkers' Diary and find out in Radical Bulletin, among lots more, about an attempt to scrap spring conference, a panic over corporate donations and a row concerning one internal election. BEYOND THE HEARTLANDS. The Social Liberal Forum is relaunching with a strategy to get the party out of its comfort zone. John Shreeve and Roger Hayes explain CORPORATE DONATIONS: HOW TO PUT THIS RIGHT The party establishment ... (more) |
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?Given how popular (and lengthy!) my list of Reform councillor departures after the May 2025 elections turned out to be, here is a new list, this time for councillors on principal authorities elected under the Reform banner on 7 May 2026, or in by-elections after that date, who have already departed the party for one reason or another. Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax and then resigned from the party (May 2026). Stuart Prior, Essex: expelled by Reform and resigned as a councillor after "he was accused the ... (more) |
Are the men of violence back in British politics?The brutal killing of Ann Widdecombe earlier this year has given us all cause to pause about the state of our politics. We do not yet know why she was killed, and it would be wrong to speculate. But Britain already knows where political violence can lead: Jo Cox. David Amess. Still others whose plots were mercifully foiled by the police. In a previous era of political murder and intimidation, Margaret Thatcher said after the Brighton bombing: "We must never never never be stopped; never be stopped from going among the people by a few men of violence, because that ... (more) |
London needs more social homes - and Liberal Democrat boroughs are determined to deliverThe housing crisis in London needs little introduction. One in 50 Londoners are homeless and living in temporary accommodation organised by their local borough. More than 336,000 households languish on waiting lists for social housing in the capital. Many of London's 2.7 million private renters face spiralling rents they can barely afford. Young people in our communities find themselves priced out of the places they call home. London is struggling - but Liberal Democrat boroughs are determined to tackle this crisis. Housing is about creating sustainable communities, improving lives, and ensuring that local people can continue to live in the ... (more) |
Andy Burnham's devolution reforms go only half-wayNone of us who remember the terrible time local government endured in the 1980s as budgets were sliced and powers reduced can be unhappy to see greater powers given to local government now. In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's government looked across the Thames at the unemployment figures draped over the side of the Greater London Council building, and to her it might as well have been the flag of a foreign power raised over her homeland (reminding her after the Falklands episode that there were 'enemies within'). Away went the GLC and the metropolitan county councils. In practice it was ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers' Diary: Wah-wah brass and boings on the timpaniThe new issue of Liberator has dropped. Download it free of charge from the magazine's website. And that, whether we like it or not, means it's time to set out on another week with Rutland's most popular fictional peer. Monday A productive morning at PieTown studios in Melton Mowbray. Having heard rumours (I do miss Freddie and Fiona giving me the inside track on the party) that Ed Davey is determined to spend the next election campaign as he spent the last - falling off paddle boards and wrestling gorillas in custard - I hit upon the idea of providing ... (more) |
Elvis Costello: The Other Side of SummerElvis on the beach, and we're not talking Blue Hawaii here. (more) |
Government must do more to help people onto the housing ladderWith Labour Ministers all but admitting that their ambitious house-building target will not be met, the need for a more varied approach to the housing crisis has become urgent. This article in the Guardian therefore, is not just timely, but illustrates what can be done when politicians think outside the box. The paper reports on the outcome of a government review, which concluded that George Osborne's scheme to reduce costs for first-time buyers represented "very high value for money". They say that an official audit of the help-to-buy programme has calculated it provided £25bn of social value to the UK ... (more) |