Is "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" good advice or not?The latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, 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: Get the books As well as covering some books in the podcast, we also mention others in the newsletter's bonus content. You can browse all the books mentioned and get them for yourself via my Bookshop.org page (affiliate link). The West Wing: Let Bartlet Be Bartlet [IMG: A handwritten note from the TV episode: Let Barlet ... (more) |
Why Liberals must take power away from the media billionairesIn a guest post for Liberal England, Donnachadh McCarthy argues that its time for another Reform Act - one that would remove the power of the billionaire owners who dominate our media. Radical liberalism has always been in the vanguard of the centuries long march from rule by aristocratic elites toward greater democracy. Whether that was the great Reform Acts of the 19th century or the Universal Suffrage Acts of the 20th century. But the final transfer of real power to the people has yet to be completed. Because for as long as the billionaire class own our media, they ... (more) |
Can Britain build a sovereign military AI?On Monday evening, during our APPG AI meeting in the House of Lords, we discussed whether Britain could develop its own sovereign artificial-intelligence language models for military use. One speaker with expertise in military AI suggested that this would not be feasible, at least initially, given the cost involved. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, said that Project ASGARD is helping British soldiers make faster decisions and save time in combat operations through AI agents and targeted large language models (LLMs), with the capability being developed and tested by soldiers in Estonia. The Army ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers' Diary: Meeting Count Binface in WestminsterI don't know if Nick Clegg does have a Dutch uncle, but there must be every chance. Tuesday Who should I meet in Westminster but Count Binface? Having long wished to talk to him like a Dutch uncle - Nick Clegg, incidentally, has a literal Dutch uncle - I invite him to lunch at my club. There I tell him I have been through the Almanach de Gotha twice and can find no mention of a Binface family. I realise that inventing an aristocratic title for yourself makes it easier to cash a cheque, but if an Oxbridge comedian's career ... (more) |
Greens lose two seats in council by-electionsThis week's principal authority council by-elections kicked off with a rare Tuesday contest: East Markham (Bassetlaw) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 49.6% (New) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 28.4% (-37.6) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 17.2% (-4.1) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 4.8% (New)No LDM (-12.8) as previous.Reform UK GAIN from Conservative.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-09-15T22:32:53.359Z This contest also had a Lib Dem after the party previously not being on the ballot. Here it was due to Murray Sinclair – thank you. For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see ... (more) |
The abuse that threatens democracyThe Independent reports that more than half of all candidates standing in this year's local elections suffered abuse and harassment, triggering growing alarm over the safety of democratic representatives. The paper says that following the findings, the Electoral Commission cautioned that escalating hostility risks discouraging individuals from seeking public office, while calling on social media platforms to speed up the removal of offensive posts: According to a watchdog report analysing England's local contests, 55 per cent of candidates encountered intimidation or abuse during their campaigns, marking an increase from 47 per cent in the previous year. Online harassment was the ... (more) |
Whatever happened to Connie Converse?Connie Converse provided my music choice on Sunday. YouTube being YouTube, there are any number of videos about her disappearance in 1974 and what may have become of her afterwards. I've chosen one of the gentler ones, which has been made by a contemporary woman musician, Victoria Shell, and is in part a response to her music. She has included some links to other resources on Connie Converse. (more) |
Council to help people 'correctly identify' potholesBBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this tale from Yorkshire, where a Sheffield City Council reports claims there is "confusion around what qualifies as a pothole" (more) |
'Over me beat the invisible wings'- Ireland, Churchill and Lloyd GeorgeThe author, Charles Stephenson, has kindly agreed that we can publish a recent article that he has written. Although far from conventionally religious, Churchill had long considered himself under the protection of Providence. He was certainly physically fearless and sought to put himself 'in harm's way', as the phrase has it. Whilst campaigning in northern India in 1897 he had written to his mother, telling her: "Bullets . . . are not worth considering. Besides I am so conceited I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending." Indeed, his ... (more) |
New issue of Liberator outLiberator 437 is out for conference and can be downloaded free here. You can sign up to be emailed when each new issue comes out here. What's in this issue? There's Commentary, Lord Bonkers' Diary and find out in Radical Bulletin, among lots more, about an attempt to scrap spring conference, a panic over corporate donations and a row concerning one internal election. BEYOND THE HEARTLANDS. The Social Liberal Forum is relaunching with a strategy to get the party out of its comfort zone. John Shreeve and Roger Hayes explain CORPORATE DONATIONS: HOW TO PUT THIS RIGHT The party establishment ... (more) |