How to spot a RacistI don't know about you, but I find it rather irritating when some 'patriot' (sic) with a flag tells me what it means to be English. I find it similarly galling to have explained to me what Zionism means and how it relates to my Judaism. These helpful Greens give me their definition of Zionism and tell me that it's racist – but it's ok, because there are plenty of 'good' Jews who are anti-Zionists. But I still choose to call myself a Zionist. And because Zionism, while not meaning the same as Judaism is deeply entwined with Judaism, I ... (more) |
Spread it aroundTaxing inheritances. I understand the Tories are about to discuss inheritance tax today Many years ago I heard a suggestion, I can't remember from whom, but probably the Liberal Party, which I found it very attractive. The proposal was that inheritance tax should be charged not on the estate leaving the bequest but on the recipients receiving the bequests (note the plural.) The recipients would be able to inherit modest amounts tax free, but pay tax on big bonanza inheritances, or a multitude of modest ones. Thus, if we define a "modest amount" as, say, £50 000 (though that's beyond ... (more) |
Plans resubmitted for controversial 'state-of-the-art' crematorium next to Northampton secondary schoolThere's nothing sinister about this. Nothing sinister at all. Our Headline of the Day Award travels down the A508 to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo. (more) |
Cleaners From Venus: Illya Kuryakin Looked at MeA wonderful homage to the Sixties as they were or should have been. Rita Tushingham. Harold Wilson. David Hemmings. David Bailey. The Avengers. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (more) |
Shambolic, careless Reform and their disappearing councillorsThe Mirror reports on an online tracker by Best For Britain which reveals that 51 Reform UK councillors have quit, defected or been suspended since May amid questions about Nigel Farage's leadership. They say that Nigel Farage's party is losing a member of the 2026 intake every three days on average due to resignations, defections and suspensions: Julia Meadon, the group's director of digital, told The Mirror: "We've been closely monitoring Reform UK's shambolic approach to local government - and surprise, surprise, their councillors are quitting and being turfed out in their droves. "While Farage slurps oysters and sips champagne ... (more) |
A portrait of the last days of independent PengeA film made by the Penge Rotary Club in 1964. It provides a useful corrective to the view, widespread on Bluesky, that we all lived in shoeboxes and ate gravel until about 20 years ago, while showing us why the Sixties had to happen. The former canal mentioned is the Croydon Canal; note too the children playing cricket without being organised by adults and an unexpected appearance by the Crystal Palace dinosaurs. As to the palace itself, my father remember being woken as a small boy in Horsham, West Sussex, in 1936 to see the glow on the northern horizon ... (more) |
How John Prescott blocked the full redevelopment of Ellesmere canal basinI last visited Ellesmere canal basin getting on for 30 years ago, when I recall it being quite derelict. I was there again this summer and found it changed. But not as changed as it might have been. There was a new supermarket, a derelict canal warehouse with a top ghost sign (someone told me there had been plans to convert it into a restaurant but they had fallen through) and lots of empty space. If you want to know why it hasn't been more comprehensively redeveloped, and a BBC News feature from 2004 is enlightening: For 15 years there ... (more) |
Councils must help music - so music can help their communities flourishIf we believe in giving everyone the platform to flourish and live their unique version of a best life, then enabling music, and musicians, to thrive in our local areas is an unmissable part of that platform. Does a day go by when you don't listen to music? On your phone? In a movie? In a bar or coffee shop? In your place of worship? We use music to celebrate milestones, commemorate lost loved ones, pump ourselves up, and to find ourselves when we're lost. But the dedicated geniuses who make all that possible are seeing their income streams disappear ... (more) |
Welcome to the Brexit argument, Prime Minister!This week Andy Burnham told the Labour conference in Liverpool that Brexit has done 'more harm than good'. In a broadcast interview the next day he said that an in-out referendum on membership of the European Union (EU) in Labour's next manifesto is 'possible', as The Times reports. For Labour that is a dramatic shift. For Liberal Democrats it is something more familiar as here we see a Prime Minister arriving, a decade late, at an argument we have been making since at least the summer of 2016. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. In Brighton in September ... (more) |
Pensions, care and the liberal vision we needI am a Liberal Democrat because I believe in freedom, fairness, compassion and giving people the power to shape their lives. Those values remain deeply important to me. Yet, after our recent conference in Brighton, I wanted to hear a clearer, more ambitious account of how we would put those values into practice. Tax cuts have their place, but people also need decent housing, reliable public services and security when illness or old age makes them vulnerable. Andy Burnham's speech raised questions that deserve serious consideration. Welcoming a worthwhile proposal from another party does not weaken our liberal principles. We ... (more) |