Political history points against early general electionsPerhaps my piece of political punditry that has aged best is the set of reasons I gave in early 2017 as to why Theresa May would not call an early election. The reasoning has aged brilliantly in all but one respect. I was wrong. So it may be foolish of me to venture into further early election speculation just ahead of a new Prime Minister taking office. But I am struck both by the historical record on early elections and also by how rarely it is cited in such speculation. Let's take a look at all the early elections (which ... (more) |
Working 9 to 5At full council in Gateshead last week, the ruling Reform group put forward a motion calling for meetings to start at 4.30pm and be limited to a maximum of two hours. The aim of the changes is to make it easier for people to become councillors and attend meetings. So let's look at this in detail.In days gone by, most people would have worked standard 9 to 5 shifts. Daytime council meetings (more) |
An early win for affordable housing - now let councils buildLess than two months into Southwark's new Liberal Democrat-Green Joint Administration, we've secured an encouraging early win. One of our first decisions was to support the legal challenge against the Mayor of London's proposal to reduce the affordable housing threshold from 35% to 20%. That proposal has now been dropped. It is welcome news for everyone who believes London's housing crisis will not be solved by making fewer homes affordable. For us, this was about more than planning policy. It was about what kind of politics we want to practise. Southwark faces one of the most acute housing crises in ... (more) |
Django Django: CameosThis is perhaps typical of the sort of track I hear on BBC Radio 6 Music and like. It's a little bit retro, stronger on melody than rhythm and involves white boys and guitars. Could it be that I'm getting old? Still, Song Bar likes it too: A crisp, catchy, acoustic sound with orchestral strings and their distinctive vocal harmony style sees a welcome return from the London-based art-rock quartet of David Maclean, Vincent Neff, James Dixon and Thomas Grace, heralding their upcoming sixth LP Doveland, out in November via Clouds Hill. Produced by Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand), the title ... (more) |
Is Farage set to lose Clacton?With 34 candidates lined up to fight the Clacton by-election next month and with Nigel Farage the only one representing a party currently topping the opinion polls, it looks like the Reform UK leader will be back in the House of Commons in short order, all ready to face the music with the Standards Commissioner. But is it that straightforward? The Independent reports that Farage has, in the words of one constituent in Clacton, "gone full conspiracy theory" in explaining to voters there why he has called his surprise by-election: A look at the local Facebook pages and other forums ... (more) |
Citizenship ceremonyA citizenship ceremony was held in Gateshead Civic Centre earlier this month. People from about 40 countries who had come to the UK as legally recognised migrants received their citizenship at the ceremony. Two of the new citizens are constituents of mine. (more) |
Welsh Lib Dems are short of peers and the Lords is weighted towards London and the South East of EnglandIt's not just Shropshire's curlews who are facing extinction. Professor Russell Deacon, author of history of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat parties in Wales, has told Nation Cymru: "The Liberal Democrats are a federal party with equality meant to be spread between England, Wales and Scotland but this seems to have been forgotten and in the House of Lords it's very much an English Party! "Not long ago there were six Welsh peers from Wales representing the Liberal Democrats; after the next general election because they can no longer attend after the age of 80 they will become extinct. This ... (more) |
Another myth exploded: Queen Victoria and the lesbiansThe Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 outlawed "gross indecency" between but made no mention of relations between women. There's a story that Queen Victoria insisted that a provision about women was taken out of the act after parliament had passed it because "women could not do such things". But the story is obvious nonsense. British monarchs have never been able to go through laws passed by parliament and strike out anything they don't like. In theory they have the power to refuse to sign a whole act, but no monarch has done that since Queen Anne. There's another version ... (more) |
"Everyone carried a shopping bag": Muriel Spark on London, 1945This is from Muriel Spark's novel The Girls of Slender Means, which was published in 1963 and set in 1945: These upper bedrooms looked down on the opposite pavement on the park side of the street, and on the tiny people who moved along in neat looking singles and couples, pushing little prams loaded with pin-head babies and provisions, or carrying little dots of shopping bags. Everyone carried a shopping bag in case they should be lucky enough to pass a shop that had a sudden stock of something off the rations. (more) |
Defining our future in Burnham BritainBritish politics has been reshaped. Andy Burnham has consolidated the centre left, pushed Reform to the margins and made a progressive coalition government the new baseline. The right is fragmented and unable to command a majority. In this new landscape, the Liberal Democrats face a simple but brutal question: will we be the kingmakers who define the next era, or the footnote that history barely records? Current polling points to three possible futures. The difference between them is not fate. It is choice. The first future is collapse. If we enter the next general election without bold, memorable policies, with ... (more) |