The ruins of Derwent church emerge from Ladybower ReservoirAs is traditional in a dry summer, Our History Underfoot has been to Ladybower Reservoir to see what remains of Derwent village have been revealed by the receding waters. In a second video, he wonders at the many people who claim to have seen the steeple of Derwent church standing proud above the waves when they are not old enough to have done so. It was dynamited in 1947, partly because visitors had taken to swimming out to reach it. Proof that the historical record is wrong? No, just another reminder of the fallibility of human memory. (more) |
Fascism?The weekend's Guardian (Saturday 19th September) contains a review by Daniel Trilling of a book by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor called "End Times Fascism." According to Trilling the purpose of the book is to warn us of a convergence of three interests which are in effect encouraging the climate crisis rather than working to prevent it. The book focusses chiefly on the United States and identifies the three interest as the "Religious Fanatics" ( the Christian Right who look forward to the Rapture and the end of the World, when the righteous will be "caught up to meet the ... (more) |
Winning back a generation starts with fixing the broken student loan systemFor too long, student finance has been the subject our party would rather avoid. I understand why. It is uncomfortable territory. The scars of the coalition run deep, and many of us have heard about them on doorsteps ever since. But we cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Millions of graduates are paying the price. If we want to win back the trust of my generation – the graduates who signed up to Plan 2 loans between 2012 and 2023, and the growing cohort on the new Plan 5 loans – we have to offer them a solution. ... (more) |
Welcome to my day: 21 September 2026 - time to clean up our politics?Greetings from somewhere close to Brighton Beach. Admittedly, the Brighton Beach at the end of the B Line from the Bronx, through Manhattan to Queens, but close nonetheless. There has been a lot of talk about the impact of large donors in recent weeks, with increasing calls for strict limits on the maximum size of donations and tighter eligibility criteria for donors. And there is much to said for it. The problem is that political parties have become increasingly dependent on a small number of large donors as membership numbers have declined and the obligations on political parties increase. Raising ... (more) |
Lord Bonkers' Diary: You're unlikely to be there when you get thereWere Freddie and Fiona burnt alive in a giant wicker rabbit on the village green at Beltane or not? It looks as though the Sisters know more than they're letting on. Friday One does meet the most interesting people in Westminster. This morning it is the man who puts up the shelves at 10 Downing Street. With our new prime minister shelving so many of the plans he once boasted of, business has never been better for him. He is so flush that he stands me a drink, which I think very sporting of him. Being in Westminster, I think ... (more) |
What's on at Conference today?Conference kicks off with two brief policy debates on making recruitment fairer and regulating abusive use of the legal system. Then GP services in England before a keynote speech by Max Wilkinson. After a three hour lunch break for fringes, there's a debate on supporting people to age well in England, a keynote speech by Jane Dodds and a motion on stopping violence against women and girls in the digital age from Lib Dem Women and Marie Goldman, our Women and Equalities spokesperson. The day ends with the parliamentary parties' report and two emergency motions. One is from YL on ... (more) |
Paul's conference diary (3) - frog box interview and my new AI girlfriendSomehow I managed to drag myself into the main hall for the early doors "Making music matter" motion. Jennie Rigg neatly summarised the whole thing saying that copyright law is not being enforced so that LLMs (Large Language Models) copy existing music and it is churned out as "AI slop". She added that AI2 should be used to support musicians but instead it is being used to rip off composers and musicians. I then went to my go-to quiet spot to write a speech. I have an idea for the strategy debate later. Mind you, it's been ten years since ... (more) |
GUEST POST Reform and Labour are losing councillors fastWe've all enjoyed the regular resignations, defections and disgrace of Reform UK councillors, but the party actually gained councillors from by-election victories and defections, between May 2025 and May 2026. But now, as the latest post from the indefatigable Augustus Carp shows, the tide has turned for them. The kaleidoscope of local government has continued to twist since the local elections in May, and with it a number of political allegiances have changed. Sometimes a councillor's defection has little impact, but clustering in some authorities has led to significant weakening in control. For the first time since I started paying ... (more) |
Farage's plan for a Trump satellite state?The Independent reports on comments by Lib Dem Leader, Ed Davey, that the Conservatives and Reform UK are planning to turn Britain into a "Trump satellite state". He told the conference that the Liberal Democrat's "orange wall" will stop Reform UK's rise to power and "setting communities against each other": Sir Ed warned an "unholy alliance" between Mr Farage and Kemi Badenoch is "the only way either can get into power". "Together, they want to turn Britain into a Trump satellite state which would trash our NHS, turn our communities against each other, cause untold damage to our environment, and ... (more) |
Violet Bonham Carter and Mary Stocks remember the struggle for women's suffrageI thought I had finished blogging for today, but this video is too good not to share with you tonight. It's a BBC2 discussion from 1968 with Lady Asquith (better known as Violet Bonham Carter) and Lady Stocks. A young Joan Bakewell is in the chair. They are talking about a television film about how women got the vote, and both take the view that it exaggerated the importance of the militant tactics of the Suffragettes at the expense of the role played by the wider Suffrage movement. And Lady Asquith remembers defending her father, the Liberal prime minister, from ... (more) |