Brechtian television: Leo McKern in Galileo (1964)"Has anyone ever produced Brechtian television?" I asked when writing about The Exorcism. To an extent, they have. Because here are the first eight minutes of a 1964 television production of Brecht's play Galileo, and it begins with a shot of the cast arriving with a microphone boom and its operator purposely in shot. This production was shown on BBC1 on Wednesday 29 April 1964 and the translation of the play is by Charles Laughton. It's a shame that only this short section of this production is to be found online, because Leo McKern's performance looks very promising. The boy ... (more) |
Protecting children shouldn't mean abolishing their right to privacyAn alarming shift has been taking place within the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party over the last few months. Spearheaded by MPs such as Munira Wilson, Danny Chambers, and, most alarmingly for me, Vikki Slade, we are apparently now back to advocating for a ban on social media for children and supporting a ban on images depicting nudity being stored on their devices. I am very worried that the Party has not thought about how this could plausibly be implemented. I fear that once this dam breaks, once we move past a "think of the children" argument over a moral panic, ... (more) |
Good news on political donations?One of the big problems with Labour's Representation of the People Bill is the number of loopholes it leaves for big political donations to unduly influence British politics. I've talked before about how the plans would not even stop Donald Trump pouring in money. There are some useful improvements that could be made – and hopefully will be made – to the Bill to improve its financial defences. But fundamentally such patch and mend only gets you so far up against those armed with imaginative lawyers and expert accountants. The key missing protection is an across-the-board donation cap. Byline Times ... (more) |
Conference bookedLib Dem Conference this September will be back in Brighton on 19th to 22nd September. In addition, on Friday 18th there will be a training conference. I have signed up for both. All I have to do now is book a hotel. (more) |
New chair of North Northamptonshire Council stands down over social media postsAnother triumph for Reform UK's vetting of its candidates. NN Journal reports: The Reform UK chairman of North Northamptonshire Council has today stood down in response to an NN Journal investigation into his social media activity. Cllr Maurice Eglin, who was appointed as chairman last month, has resigned this morning ahead of our investigation being published, saying he had in the past been guilty of being a "keyboard warrior". He has also apologised for his posts and said the language he used was "wrong". We had uncovered a series of offensive tweets which include Islamphobia, support for far right groups ... (more) |
Moving on from Whickham South and SunnisideMy recent prediction that Lindsay Atkinson would be the Reform candidate for the High Fell by-election in Gateshead turned out to be spot on. Mr Atkinson stood in my ward in the local elections last month. He came fifth, about 600 votes behind Jonathan Mohammed, my ward colleague. Jonathan was elected as the 3rd councillor in Whickham South and Sunniside. (Marilynn Ord was first and I was second. (more) |
The Joy of Six 1531A network of Russian far-right extremists steeped in neo-Nazi antisemitism - created under the umbrella of a sanctioned oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and now openly promoted by Tommy Robinson - has been driving White Lives Matter propaganda over the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, reports Nafeez Ahmed. "In a decisive summer for government, you can view the 'doubling' agenda as microcosm of the wider story. Some big decisions have been made and some vital groundwork put in place. Ministers now need to build on this with bolder, faster action if the impact is to be visible by the ... (more) |
Give us a sign!A rare sight indeed! The Conservatives barely exist in Gateshead but unexpected electoral contests can produce some surprising outcomes. High Fell ward is host to a completely unnecessary council by-election. The cause of this return to the polls is a Reform councillor who managed 11 days in the post before chucking in the towel. The Conservatives have chosen a candidate. Good luck (he'll (more) |
Child mannequin found on train with can of ciderBBC News wins our Headline of the Day award with the tale from the West Somerset Railway. The judges have declined to sign petitions calling for the banning of cider and trains. (more) |
AI and Liberal DemocracyWilliam Hague wrote in The Times this week that the key new phrase in politics is "recursive self-improvement" — AI systems that autonomously design their own successors. He is right that politics must catch up. He is wrong to imply it hasn't started yet. In some quarters it has. The Liberal Democrats, if we are paying attention, have the intellectual architecture already in place. There are three arguments. Each has prior form in Lib Dem thinking. Each has been transformed by AI into something urgent rather than merely desirable. Universal Basic Income is no longer a utopian gesture. When I ... (more) |