Golders Green: A milestone in the history of the tube and suburbiaJago Hazzard sets out the history of Golders Green station, and tells us about the history of the London Underground and of London suburbia in the process. You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page. And why not subscribe to his YouTube channel? (more) |
Labour drops plan to cancel local electionsI was on Sky News soon after news broke about Labour abandoning its plans to cancel council elections: Prior to the u-turn, I wrote about the issue over on my newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View: We discussed in the House of Lords the latest round of election cancellations announced by the government, cancellations that mean in some cases councillors elected for four years will get three unelected years on top, serving seven years in post. To make matters worse, the Secretary of State suggested that it is a choice between democracy or getting potholes fixed, "They ... (more) |
All aboard the status quo: We don't need a department for growth; we need a department for beyond growth.Let me make this clear: GDP is not an accurate measure of prosperity. Nor is it an adequate measure of wealth. As Robert U. Ayres argues in "The Economic Growth Engine", it is a measure of economic activity. It only accounts for capital that is generated as a result of the depletion of "natural capital" (i.e the environment). It does not account for societal wellbeing; nor does it account for the losses of wealth (i.e pollution) resulting from the depletion of "natural capital" resulting from economic activity. So with all of these limitations, why on earth are policymakers, politicians, and ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1476Chris Dillow argues that if government wants to foster economic growth, it will have to fight for it: "Right now, the social transformation needed to raise growth requires the government to face down the powerful interests of, if not capital in general, then at least the more regressive elements of it such as rentiers, monopolists and media barons." Virginia Heffernan investigates Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon, Edge. She finds that it infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science. "'Free School Meals' and 'Free School Clothing' were an absolute lifeline for us ... That support meant I could walk ... (more) |
Mathew on MondayOn NATO, the extremes are a risk Britain cannot afford For once, Keir Starmer is right. When he says that Reform UK on the Hard Right and the Greens on the Hard Left pose risks to NATO and, by extension, Britain's national security, he is identifying something serious. From opposite ideological poles, both parties advance instincts that would weaken the alliance that has underpinned European security for over seventy years. That should concern all of us. Reform's worldview is, from what I can tell, rooted in a kind of muscular unilateralism. Alliances are treated with suspicion. Multilateral commitments are portrayed ... (more) |
Are Bank Account Rules the Answer?By any measure, opening a bank account in the United Kingdom is a serious business. You prove who you are, where you live, and pass security checks designed to stop fraud and protect the public. Yet on social media—platforms that shape elections, fuel abuse, and influence our children—anyone can appear with a fake name, no identity, and no accountability. It's an absurd imbalance, and rather than ban people from social media, it's time we corrected it. If we were to apply the same identity-verification rules used by UK banks to the creation of social media accounts it would be a ... (more) |
Bridges action dayGateshead Lib Dems had yet another action day on Sunday. The aim was to deliver the latest Focus newsletters across a fair chunk of Bridges ward. This was achieved. I had only 2 conversations with residents while I was out delivering. The first was with someone who had voted Labour at the last general election, is not interested in Reform and was thinking of voting Lib Dem. Our task is to (more) |
Envelope stuffingGateshead Lib Dems recently held what could be called an envelope stuffing event. We had 25,000 letters to stuff into envelopes and then label them. We never expected to complete the task on the day so we arranged for our Gateshead West branch meeting last week in Winlaton to stuff another ward's envelopes. So Ryton had 3500 envelopes stuffed and labelled at the meeting. The task was not finished (more) |
A village green for SunnisideIn our latest Focus newsletter we put forward a suggestion that we apply for village green status for the grassed area next to Sun Hill on Sunniside Front Street. The areas was home to the Sunniside Christmas tree in November and December. Go back further in time to the 1970s and there were plans for a library on the site. It never happened as austerity (under the Labour government) put an end to (more) |
The political effect of our "silent epidemic of loneliness"The Liberal Democrats have proposed a network of "Hobby Hubs" to combat what they call a "silent epidemic of loneliness", as a lack of community spaces is forcing people to find human interaction online. These hubs could libraries, community centres and pubs where groups could meet for activities. The network would be integrated the into NHS social prescribing programmes, giving GPs additional options when recommending activities for their patients. The BBC News report on this plan says the party estimates that £42m of funding per year could help hobby hubs in England stay open for an additional 300,000 hours. It ... (more) |