"In a sense, Clegg is right: politicians are more focused on narratives than data. But it's data they use to justify their policies these days. Indeed, far from modern politics being a vibrant competition of ideas in the way Clegg suggests, modern anglophone politics has been dominated by just one since the 1980s: There Is No Alternative."James Graham takes apart Nick Clegg's book How to Save the Internet. Sam Bright is puzzled by the contradictions of right-wing journalists: "These journalists are neoliberals - they preach the free market gospel. You can't get them to shut up about the Industrial Revolution ...
Britain is caught betwixt and between emerging international power lines. It supports Ukraine against Russia and Denmark against America. Whitehall is all for a European defense build-up. It wants free trade and hates tariff. MAGA, the cult of Trump and the American swing to authoritarianism is extremely distasteful. Mark Carney's middle countries bloc appeals, and the UK is likely to sign up to a Carney-proposed trading bloc that includes Canada, the EU, Britain, and the Pacific Rim countries and excludes the US. But the British "Establishment" can't bring itself to break with the US. Britain and America's economies are too ...
Thanks to Lion and Unicorn for publishing a piece from me on British films about children and bombsites, and on the film Innocent Sinners (1958) in particular: So dangerous did bombsites become for boy actors that Jon Whiteley ventured on to them twice and got caught up with a murderer both times. In Hunted (1952) he comes across Dirk Bogarde dumping the body of his wife's lover, while in The Weapon (1956) he finds a gun, accidentally shoots a playmate and, thinking he has killed him, goes on the run. In reality, it's not the police Whiteley needs to worry ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Find Out Now 16% (-3) 16% (nc) 10% (-1) 18% (nc) 28% (-1) -12% (3rd, vs Ref) 18/2 GB ...
For those interested in the history of Mumbles, the Story of Mumbles website has a walking trail dating back to 2006 which is well worth following. The only caveat is that a lot has changed in twenty years, not least that a number of pub closures mean that the infamous 'Mumbles Mile' of my student days is a mere shadow of its former self. The walk has twenty points of interest, and stirred memories of a walking tour I helped write back in the 1980s. It starts with Clement's Quarry, one of a number of limestone quarries in Mumbles between ...
