"Any real 'change' promised in Labour's manifesto has been betrayed by a continuity with tired and damaging tropes of deserving and undeserving people. This is contributing to the sense, a year in, that this Labour government is merely repeating past government failures rather than striking out in a new direction."George Newth identifies the paradox at the heart of Keir Starmer's first year in power. Aisha K. Gill sets out how we can make sure that the new grooming gangs inquiry is the last. Andrea Pitzer on why we shouldn't talk about 'Alligator Alcatraz': "It's not just a new prison, Alcatraz ...
Embed from Getty ImagesOne of the best things about subscribing to the London Review of Books is that it grants you access to the magazine's archives. So it was that I was reading a book review by Jonathan Meades from 2018. I've not read the book he is discussing - The Tiger in the Smoke: Art and Culture in Postwar Britain by Lynda Nead - a lot of caveats apply to this post. And I'm pleased to see it has a photograph of St Saviour's Road, Leicester, on its dust wrapper. It's the same photo you see above. Meades writes: ...
A variation from the usual stories of Reform UK shedding councillors as now the party has shed an MP, James McMurdock. The Times reports: A Reform MP has suspended himself from the party after a Sunday Times investigation into £70,000 of loans he took out during the pandemic. James McMurdock, the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, took the decision after this newspaper approached him with allegations he borrowed tens of thousands of pounds under the government's Bounce Back loans scheme in 2020... McMurdock first came to national prominence after his election when it emerged that he had been ...
Here are the scores on the doors for the latest quarter of principal authority council by-elections:
JD Vance is the bookie's choice to be the next president of the United States. Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is the all-important money man behind JD Vance. But just as important as the money behind the cash are ideas. Vance may be the political cart wagon. Money from Thiel and other Silicon Valley Billionaires provide the dogged mule to pull it. But the wagon needs to filled with ideas if the journey is to have any meaning. And the fresher the better. The ideas are coming from 51-year-old American Curtis Yarvin and 63-year-old British Academic Nick Land. Their political plans ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - SATURDAY 5 AND SUNDAY 6 JULY 2025 Strawberrybank (at Perth Road) - closed for one week for Scottish Water work. [Note from Fraser and Michael - we have queried this as we are aware of what appears to be Scottish Water emergency work but residents are asking the need for this length of closure as there was no work on-site parts of Thursday and Friday. Scottish Water has advised it will prioritise the work today - sett reinstatement - and hopefully the closure will therefore be ...
I'm hoping to do one of these local historical posts every Saturday. This week I am focussing on Swansea's very own 'Big Apple'. As this website states, Mumbles' distinctive Big Apple has been one of the village's most recognisable landmarks for generations - it has appeared on postcards, been painted by local artist Nick Holly and has even earned a mention on TripAdviser. The building, which originally had a long stalk attached to its top, was built in the 1930s by the company Cidatone: It promoted its apple drink with the slogan "Drink your apple a day!" There were several ...