Money can't buy you love (or votes it would appear!)Apart from the absolutely incredible swing to the Democrats which we saw in the midterm elections in the USA last week one other fact absolutely stunned me when I read on the website of one of the respected national newspapers of America the fact that $9.6 billion had been spent by all the parties put together on the election campaigns. This sum which is roughly £8 billion is almost infinitesimally greater than is spent by all the parties put together in the whole of the United Kingdom at a general election. Proportionately, given the number of voters the UK would ... (more) |
ALDC by-election report - 5 NovemberALDC by-election report - 5 November 2026 This week there was just one principal authority by-election. The Liberal Democrats were defending the seat of Penn Hill on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. An eight-way contest in a seat that was Conservative until 2023, in which all major parties stood, makes a useful test of how our councillors in power are holding up against both a Conservative comeback and the challenge from Reform UK. The answer in BCP was emphatic! Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Penn Hill - 5 November 2026 The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor ... (more) |
Tom Arms' World ReviewIsrael The Arab parties within Israel are now the kingmakers in the country's parliament. They have power, but the tale of the Israeli Palestinians has been a long and bitter battle to deny them representation. For the first 18 years of modern Israel's existence, the Palestinians remaining in the new state's borders were subject to military rule. Villages were razed. Palestinians were penned in camps behind barbed wire. There were sporadic massacres. Gradually, however, the Palestinians clawed back their rights and they learned to use those rights to protect and advance their cause. Rather than fight the system they decided ... (more) |
Madra Salach: Ribbon FactoryMadra Salach - Dirty Dog in English - are a contemporary Irish folk band and Ribbon Factory, released as a single last month, will be on their debut album when it comes out in January. The Guardian says they bring a feral, snarling energy to the country's latest folk revival. Their sound builds ably on some of the architects of that resurgence - the eerie shruti box droning and carefully layered instrumentation of Lankum, the shimmering wails of Lisa O'Neill. Add a hint of Liam Gallagher to the mix - frontman Paul Banks's voice has an astonishing force and clarity, ... (more) |
Labour asked to bring democracy to the Lords: what did the minister say?The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, 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: Welcome to my latest update on work in the House of Lords, which returns to the question of House of Lords reform. The 1911 Parliament Act was meant to be an interim solution pending the introduction of democracy, but we are still waiting for that to happen. Will Labour make the Lords democratic? ... (more) |
Reform's shrinking local government baseThe Independent reports that Reform has lost more councillors in five months than any other party. The paper says that September and October, in particular, saw a flurry of Reform councillor resignations, suspensions and defections - some in the wake of the ITV Exposure documentary, which revealed party members making racist and sexually explicit comments: According to Open Council Data UK, Reform has lost 41 councillors since 1 June, down 1.8 per cent from 2,342 to 2,301. That is more than any other major party. Labour lost 35, but from a starting point of 4,616 councillors in June, down 0.8 ... (more) |
First at the Chowdene action dayI was the first to arrive at the Gateshead Lib Dem action day this morning in Chowdene ward. That meant I had the first choice on which patch I was to deliver. Somehow I ended up with the biggest patch which also contained a huge number of houses with long flights of steps just to get to front doors. The good news is that I managed to get the whole patch delivered. (more) |
The by-election tea leavesThere was a by-election in Penn Hill in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole on Thursday. The result was:Lib Dem - 1,278, 43.6% (+0.9)Con - 764, 26.1% (+1.0)Reform - 521, 17.8% (new)Labour - 135, 4.6% (-6.7)Restore - 106, 3.6% (new)Green - 65, 2.2% (-6.5)Ind1 - 55, 1.9% (new)Ind2 - 7, 0.2% (new)So what do the by-election tea leaves have to say?The Conservatives seemed rather excited about this (more) |
Do we have Elizabeth Anscombe to thank for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?When it comes to famous clashes of philosophers, Cambridge has Wittgenstein's poker and Oxford has the night that Elizabeth Anscombe bested C.S. Lewis in debate. Reviewing A.N. Wilson's biography for the London Review of Books back in 1990, C.H. Sisson took seriously the idea that this rout had much to do with Lewis's turn to writing for children:Lewis was unpopular 'in the English Faculty in Oxford, and indeed in the University at large'. 'He disliked his colleagues at Magdalen.' 'Even colleagues who were Christians ... noticed that his variety of Christianity did not extend to meekness, or even necessarily to ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1603"More than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and up to ten thousand are missing under the rubble. More than a hundred thousand Palestinians have managed to leave. The survivors are corralled into a concentration area along the coast, living in dense tent encampments among ruined buildings, mountains of rubbish and rivers of sewage, under the constant hum of drones."Eyal Weizman reviews Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's film Naza. Gaby Hinsliff says the Russell Brand verdict is a landmark in the judicial system's understanding of consent: "For too long, cases involving young ... (more) |