A rumble and a shriek of steels across the shallow plate girders; bright movement passes north to south flashing behind the shelter belt... Caught in a constant pressure wave, two centuries of impetus rush by this point – this stream of points connected, signalled clear ahead – through vast relentless enterprise and all playing their part, for all
It looks as though Labour have hit upon a promising new strategy - and the Guardian has certainly won our Headline of the Day Award:Senior Labour figures tell Keir Starmer to stop making mistakesThis sudden intellectual breakthrough reminds me of Monty Python's Piranah brothers:When the Piranhas left school, they were called up, but were found by an army board to be too mentally unstable, even for national service. Denied the opportunity to use their talents in the service of their country, they began to operate what they called The Operation. They would select a victim, and then threaten to beat ...
There's been a lot going on this week. I mean not one, but two government resets, the second caused by the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. I like Angela Rayner. She is funny, doesn't mince her words and was one of the Labour Government's best communicators. While there was no way she could stay after the ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus said she had broken the Ministerial Code, he delivered his verdict with "deep regret" saying: I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service. I get that it ...
There are just 22.5 hours to get your questions and amendments in for Federal Conference. You can question Ed, the parliamentary parties in the Commons and the Lords or Federal Committees, and the Campaign for Gender Balance and the Racial Diversity campaign. Their reports are here. Keep an eye out on social media for people looking for signatures for amendments, too. It's not unknown for someone to write one the night before, so if there is anything in the agenda you think needs amending, have a look at the agenda and put something together. You'll need to find 10 party ...
It is time. The country, in fact the world, is in a state of political flux. As the loud minority gets louder, it's time for the quiet majority to speak up, and stand up. For too long now the extremists in politics, be it Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, or Donald Trump, have been dominating the headlines, the waves and our screens. Tweets, soundbites, provocation, division. It is clearly effective. But the politics they stand for are dangerous. They take away dignity, liberty, and humanity. You needn't look far to see examples of this. ICE in America, Reform's copycat mass ...
Yes, it's that Jimmy Young. The Fifties crooner, turned Sixties DJ. turned public affairs broadcaster, whose Radio 2 show lasted 30 years and attracted an audience of five million. Chain Gang was released as a single in March 1956, before Heartbreak Hotel reached the UK. And I think it's rather wonderful. Thanks to Andy Lewis, who played Chain Gang on his Soho Radio show last Sunday, for posting about this record on Bluesky. He said it's "a contender for the first proper British rock & roll record".
[IMG: Picture of Subidar Major Choudry Sikander Khan] My grandfather my Nana Subidar Major Choudry Sikander Khan, was born in 1925 in a small village called Kotha Gujjaran, in what was then British India. Our family belong to the Gujjar community, a community known for two things: dairy farming and joining the army. For generations, these paths defined who we were: tending buffalo in the fields, or carrying a rifle on the front lines. My Nana embodied that tradition. He served in the army with courage and discipline, fighting not just in the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, but ...
China The received diplomatic thinking for some years was that the United States represented the secure and stable post-war order. China represented radical—bordering on revolutionary– change. This is changing. Trump's America First policy coupled with tariffs and an ill-defined isolationism, is projecting America as the chief agent of change. Meanwhile, China's growing dependence on international trade, is transforming it into an advocate of globalisation and the international institutions that protect it. This was apparent at this past week's meeting of the 20-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin. In his opening address, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that countries should ...
With thanks to Ray Coyle and Real Dundonian History, the old McLeans Nethergate Garage, the site of what is now DCA.
As Angela Rayner resigns due to underpaying stamp duty on a second home, isn't it time that the media on Farage's tax affairs? The Guardian, at least, have started to focus in on the issue. They reveal that the Reform leader is using a private company to reduce his tax bill on his GB News media appearances and other outside employment in a television star-style arrangement that has in recent years become frowned on by major broadcasters. The effect of this is that Farage diverts money from his prime-time TV show into his company, which means that he paid only ...
