The latest edition of the email newsletter for my podcast, Political Fictions, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: Get the books As well as covering some books in the podcast, we also mention others in the newsletter's bonus content. You can browse all the books mentioned and get them for yourself via my Bookshop.org page (affiliate link). Bonus content: tactical voting in Celebrity Traitors, when the Downing Street door was green and more Welcome ...
The prospect of another hung parliament is higher than it has been for years. For Liberal Democrats that raises a familiar question: how do we maximise our influence without repeating the electoral damage of 2010-15? Full coalition is one answer. It is not the only one. I want to set out a competing model: the Reserved Time Confidence Agreement. How it works Under a Reserved Time Confidence Agreement a larger party forms a single-party government. A smaller party (or parties) agrees to support that government on all confidence motions and on supply. In return it receives two things: 1. Thirty ...
I first blogged about this book a few years ago after having relocated my own copy. It is still the stand out best book title on my shelves, or yours: [IMG: The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry by George Scott] Yes, this is real. The Art Of Faking Exhibition Poultry, which I discovered courtesy of my niche book collection, is appositely dedicated to "All poultry judges and exhibitors in the interests of the poultry fancy". Much as I have a soft spot for the title used by another Mark Pack, this one is the winner in the best book title ...
Lucy Siegle is not impressed by the Guardian's attempt to play down its long and close involvement with Russell Brand: "My favourite evidence suggesting a deeper relationship ... is the stuff on its own website including photographic evidence of young Russell perched next to former editor Alan Rushbridger at Guardian conference. This is framed as one of Alan Rushbridger's highlights on leaving in 2015." "As I started to step outside of the MAGA media bubble, I started to gradually realise that so much of what I believed turned out to be false. I spent a lot of nights in solitude ...
Everyone makes mistakes, says Matthew Lawrenson. Most are discovered fairly quickly and put right. But sometimes, they drag on for years and years with nobody bothering to correct them, despite all the evidence being available to do so. Glenda Collins was a 1960s female singer with an ill-starred career. A contemporary of fellow London Jewish vocalist Helen Shapiro (though her recording career started a few months earlier), she released three singles on Decca in 1960-61 which flopped. Released from her contract, she had to find alternative arrangements. Luckily, independent producer Joe Meek was on the lookout for new talent and ...
The Independent reports that new details have emerged of how a close Brexiteer ally of Nigel Farage is using private investigators to snoop on his business rivals as well as journalists. They say that the recent Reform UK candidate Arron Banks, who is setting up a pro-Brexit campaign with Mr Farage, has hired a company called Precision Risk and Intelligence (PRI) to spy on two companies he is currently locked in a seven-year dispute with. They add that tactics include using private investigators to snoop into the lives and business of his targets, including creating a whistleblowing cooperation against insurance ...
