Polls Apart: The dehumanisation of PalestiniansI wrote this as Israel went to the polls. It could be weeks before any result because Israeli elections are extremely complicated and depend on coalitions. The one certainty is that little will change for the Palestinians. No candidates are interested in Palestinian self-determination, and all support the illegal settlements. The West Bank was locked down to ensure free movement and security for Israelis to vote. That prevents the Palestinians from moving from their Israeli designated areas for school, work, medical aid, anything. Israel locks the West Bank down for various reasons at will. The West Bank including East Jerusalem ... (more) |
Christina Coleman joins Lib Dem from the Green Party[IMG: Christina Coleman] Christina Coleman Following the news earlier this week from West Berkshire of a councillor joining the Liberal Democrats, now there is also news of Christina Coleman in Sussex doing the same thing. Here is the local press release: Cllr Christina Coleman has announced that she is leaving the Green Party and will join the Liberal Democrats. Cllr Coleman, a county and district councillor and former parliamentary candidate, said the decision follows concerns about the party's direction under Zack Polanski's leadership and the recent conference motion on Zionism. While stressing her continued commitment to environmental protection, nature recovery, ... (more) |
Beavers chew down sign warning walkers about beavers in PolandEuro Weekly News wins our Headline of the Day Award. A beaver writes exclusively for Liberal England: I says to Reg, I says: "You know what that sign means? No more Kendal Mint Cake, that's what it means." So Reg says "Then it's got to go." And you know Reg: he gnawed right through the post" (more) |
How reliable is public consultation in the age of AI?Testing out policy changes with stakeholders and the public is always a challenge. It can be time-consuming and expensive, not only does it have to be done, but if councils and national governments want to avoid legal challenges, then it is compulsory. In many ways the dawn of an online society has made this process much easier, though there is the unresolved issue of the technically-challenged and those who do not have access to computers to contend with, something that nobody appears to have got to grips with yet. However, just how reliable is this sort of consultation? The Mirror ... (more) |
On romanticising nationalised railways...I am currently reading Ghost stations: essays and branchlines by Patrick McLoughlin. I am enjoying the book and why would I not? I am most interested in ghosts, stations, ghost stations, essays and branchlines. The author has an engaging tone and interesting back story with the author being an Oxford academic but having his roots in post-industrial Belgium. Even though not yet halfway through, I would not hesitate to recommend it. Yet early on I started bristling at a point that I find typical of this genre of book, literary non-fiction about place and landscape. That is a tendency to ... (more) |
Ed Davey on the Budget: British people need real change and fastYou can watch Ed Davey's response to the Budget statement here. The full text is below. He wants to see more radical action to encourage growth and the most important thing is try to repair the damage brought about by Brexit. His main message is that we need some jam today and can't wait another 5-10 years for it. Here is his response in full: It is always a pleasure to follow the Chair of the Treasury Committee, the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier). I am glad she committed to looking at the devil in ... (more) |
Vince Cable writes: A budget of small thingsThe Chancellor hasn't crashed the economy by reckless unfunded commitments. Perhaps we should be grateful for small mercies (of which Liz Truss's new book helpfully reminds us). Nor were there any damaging measures like Rachel Reeves' big hike in employers' national insurance contributions. There were lots of small, uncontroversial reliefs for consumers and business which are being paid for by raiding the banks (as I previewed in my last Substack article: The Endless Search for Painless Taxes). But as Kemi Badenoch asked, in her rather effective reply to the Budget, 'Is that It?' Much of the budget had been trailed ... (more) |
Farewell to another legend... John Shipley retires...It is occasionally odd to think that, as I've been married to Ros for more than eighteen years now - a fact which astonishes me as much now as it did when I saw her walk up the aisle towards me on that April afternoon - I've been an observer of the Parliamentary Party in the Lords for just as long. In the early years, especially whilst I was still working in London, I would regularly meet Ros after work and attend social events hosted by her colleagues - birthday parties or Christmas gatherings - and so I met some ... (more) |
How George Santos bet on himself and lostEmbed from Getty ImagesHere's the opening of Geoff Mann's essay on prediction markets in the current London Review of Books: In​ the days leading up to Donald Trump's State of the Union address in February, the prediction market Kalshi set up a trade, a wager in all but name, on the Yes/No proposition that the disgraced Republican ex-congressman George Santos would attend. The larger the number of people who bet 'Yes' (or, in the language the prediction markets prefer, bought 'Yes' contracts), the more the value of the bet would rise; if they bet 'No', it would fall. Santos saw ... (more) |
A night at the AGMIn truth, I haven't really engaged with my current Local Party - Ipswich - as much as I perhaps have done in the past. I've attended the odd meeting, delivered leaflets when asked and vaguely offered my services as required. So far, so good, especially as my services haven't been required. But I do take an interest and, when I received an invitation to the Local Party Annual General Meeting, I checked my diary and concluded that I might turn up, if only to see what was happening. Ipswich Liberal Democrats do remind me of many of the Local Parties ... (more) |