Sun 11th
15:46

A Week in Politics #2

This has been a bleak and unsettling week - not simply because of the events themselves, but because of how quickly tragedy, technology and geopolitics are being distorted to serve power and grievance. From the exploitation of a young woman's unnecessary death in the United States to bad-faith claims of censorship and terrifying rhetoric about Greenland, the common thread is a growing contempt for restraint, truth, and international law. For liberals, this is precisely the moment to insist on clarity, proportion, and principle. The Renee Nicole Good Incident: Tragedy Turned Into a Culture War Weapon The killing of Renee Nicole ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

Embed from Getty ImagesThe Yorkshire Evening Post (or "Eenie Po!" as the newspaper sellers used to shout in York) wins our Headline of the Day Award. One of the crustier judges was heard to remark: "You mark my words, Colonel, this is a very slippery slope. Allow the children to wear coats in winter, and before you know it you're abolishing the school leopard."

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Sun 11th
13:11

Gypsy: Changes Coming

The two best bands to emerge from Leicester in the Sixties were Family and Gypsy. Family are the more celebrated today, but I've been told by someone who was on the scene in those days that there was a view in Leicester that Gypsy were the better band live. We've already hear Gypsy on this blog under their earlier name Legay. Changes Coming was released as a single in August 1971 and the band appeared on Top of the Pops. But the song was then removed from BBC playlists because some suit decided it was too political, with the result ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Back in 2008 when I first joined, Twitter was a lifeline for me. I had Glandular Fever which knocked me out for months and it was incredibly isolating. But here was a community of people I could communicate with in real time, many of whom became friends in real life. There was the Formula 1 crowd. My life was made when then Brawn driver Rubens Barrichello replied to me. Of course there were the growing community of Lib Dems – and Jo Swinson was quickly recognised for her authentic use of the platform not just as a broadcast mechanism, but ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Independent reports that rebel Kingston upon Hull MP, Karl Turner, is absolutely confident that the plan to scrap jury trials will be defeated. Turner told the paper that MPs would be "going stark raving mad" if the Tories had proposed the much-criticised plans and called for a meeting with the prime minister: "We are absolutely seething with the government, with the prime minister and with David Lammy and I've said to the prime minister I want to see him face to face on this single issue and I expect him to instruct Lammy to stop and think again," told ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black
Sun 11th
09:38

Tom Arms' World Review

USA – Minneapolis The shooting of young mother Renee Good this week in Minneapolis has further exposed the divisions in a fractured American society and President Trump's determination to exacerbate rather than heal them. Anyone who watches one of the many videos—or reads the eyewitness accounts—can only conclude that Ms Good was murdered by an ICE agent. She was clearly driving away from a confrontation with the agents who were in Minneapolis as part of a politically motivated round-up of ethnic Somalis. As she was turning away from the armed agents, one of them fired through the car window and ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice

I was interested to read in Peter Lidsky's book of the known behaviour of parasites in extending the life (if not the quality of life) of their hosts from time to time and I thought I would read up on this. I do recommend buying Peter's Book Aging: Why Does Evolution Kill. I have given the link to Amazon. I have, therefore, asked three LLMs to produce a summary of this behaviour and I copy

Posted by John Hemming on John Hemming's Web Log