Another myth exploded: Queen Victoria and the lesbiansThe Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 outlawed "gross indecency" between but made no mention of relations between women. There's a story that Queen Victoria insisted that a provision about women was taken out of the act after parliament had passed it because "women could not do such things". But the story is obvious nonsense. British monarchs have never been able to go through laws passed by parliament and strike out anything they don't like. In theory they have the power to refuse to sign a whole act, but no monarch has done that since Queen Anne. There's another version ... (more) |
"Everyone carried a shopping bag": Muriel Spark on London, 1945This is from Muriel Spark's novel The Girls of Slender Means, which was published in 1963 and set in 1945: These upper bedrooms looked down on the opposite pavement on the park side of the street, and on the tiny people who moved along in neat looking singles and couples, pushing little prams loaded with pin-head babies and provisions, or carrying little dots of shopping bags. Everyone carried a shopping bag in case they should be lucky enough to pass a shop that had a sudden stock of something off the rations. (more) |
Defining our future in Burnham BritainBritish politics has been reshaped. Andy Burnham has consolidated the centre left, pushed Reform to the margins and made a progressive coalition government the new baseline. The right is fragmented and unable to command a majority. In this new landscape, the Liberal Democrats face a simple but brutal question: will we be the kingmakers who define the next era, or the footnote that history barely records? Current polling points to three possible futures. The difference between them is not fate. It is choice. The first future is collapse. If we enter the next general election without bold, memorable policies, with ... (more) |
Lloyd George Society Chair - Welsh Lib Dem Peers face extinctionProfessor Russell Deacon Martin Shipton, friend of the Lloyd George Society and our recent after-dinner speaker, has written an article for Nation.Cymru, highlighting the decline in the number of Welsh Liberal Democrat peers. The outgoing Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, nominated five Liberal Democrats in his resignation honours list. However, for the 13th year in a row, no Welsh Liberal Democrats have been elevated to the House of Lords. The article also highlights that with the proposals that an age limit of 80 be phased in, the remaining four Welsh Liberal Democrat peers could be forced to retire. The ages ... (more) |
Saving the curlew from extinction in ShropshireForty-eight young curlews are being released back into their natural habitat in the Shropshire hills as part of efforts to protect the species. The scheme, which is run by the non-profit organisation Curlew Country, has seen eggs taken from wild nests and incubated, with the hatched chicks then raised in specially-constructed pens. Amanda Perkins discussed this 'headstarting' process with BBC News: "Our monitoring showed that no chick survived to fledging from any of the nests we looked at," she said, adding that the team "needed a desperate measure to try and hold the situation". Perkins described the process, which is ... (more) |
The cinema in a church that became a curry houseA lot of churches fall into disuse or are repurposed, but the many lives of St Paul's Church on St Helen's Road in Swansea must be unique. As Swansea Scoop reports, this church, opposite Joe's Ice Cream Parlour, was originally built in 1880 and remained a place of worship until at least 1972. They say that after the church's closure, a veteran of the cinema scene in South Wales, Lynn Thomas, bought the building and converted it into Studio Cinemas, which opened in 1977: Studio Cinemas originally had two screens, but when a third was added, the cinema changed its ... (more) |
Tackling flooding in SunnisideSunniside has, for decades, been suffering localised flooding. Before the village was built in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was agricultural land (much of it was my grandfather's farm). Most of the village has been built on a slope and given the increasing incidents of heavy rainfall and the increase in hard standing, the drains are no longer capable of dealing with the amount of water (more) |
The coronation of King AndyThe announcement today that Andy Burnham has been elected as Labour leader comes as no surprise. He was, after all, in a one horse race. So he therefore undergoes a coronation rather than a contest. I remain to be convinced that this is the right approach. We barely know anything about what he plans for the country. A contest would have brought our his policies and put them in the (more) |
Congratulations DaveThe news story that caught my eye today was the appointment of 5 new Lib Dem peers. Among them is Dave McCobb. I have to confess I don't know the other 4. Dave is a former colleague of mine from the days I worked for Lib Dem HQ. He went on to be head of campaigns and oversaw the 2024 general election campaign which saw the Lib Dems grow from 11 to 72 MPs. So congratulations Dave, well done. The (more) |
East Midlands Railway cancels 20 fast services a day because of problems with its new trainsEast Midlands Railways has admitted that its problems with its new trains have not all been caused by the recent hot weather. BBC News reports: A number of Intercity services, which run to and from London St Pancras, will be cancelled from Monday, while other services will have fewer carriages. Will Rogers, managing director of EMR, said the performance of the Class 810 fleet had "fallen below the levels we and our customers expect" and that the timetable change was "necessary". The Intercity services run between London and destinations including Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby and Sheffield. EMR did not say ... (more) |