One of the big problems with Labour's Representation of the People Bill is the number of loopholes it leaves for big political donations to unduly influence British politics. I've talked before about how the plans would not even stop Donald Trump pouring in money. There are some useful improvements that could be made – and hopefully will be made – to the Bill to improve its financial defences. But fundamentally such patch and mend only gets you so far up against those armed with imaginative lawyers and expert accountants. The key missing protection is an across-the-board donation cap. Byline Times ...
Lib Dem Conference this September will be back in Brighton on 19th to 22nd September. In addition, on Friday 18th there will be a training conference. I have signed up for both. All I have to do now is book a hotel.
Another triumph for Reform UK's vetting of its candidates. NN Journal reports: The Reform UK chairman of North Northamptonshire Council has today stood down in response to an NN Journal investigation into his social media activity. Cllr Maurice Eglin, who was appointed as chairman last month, has resigned this morning ahead of our investigation being published, saying he had in the past been guilty of being a "keyboard warrior". He has also apologised for his posts and said the language he used was "wrong". We had uncovered a series of offensive tweets which include Islamphobia, support for far right groups ...
My recent prediction that Lindsay Atkinson would be the Reform candidate for the High Fell by-election in Gateshead turned out to be spot on. Mr Atkinson stood in my ward in the local elections last month. He came fifth, about 600 votes behind Jonathan Mohammed, my ward colleague. Jonathan was elected as the 3rd councillor in Whickham South and Sunniside. (Marilynn Ord was first and I was second.
A network of Russian far-right extremists steeped in neo-Nazi antisemitism - created under the umbrella of a sanctioned oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and now openly promoted by Tommy Robinson - has been driving White Lives Matter propaganda over the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, reports Nafeez Ahmed. "In a decisive summer for government, you can view the 'doubling' agenda as microcosm of the wider story. Some big decisions have been made and some vital groundwork put in place. Ministers now need to build on this with bolder, faster action if the impact is to be visible by the ...
A rare sight indeed! The Conservatives barely exist in Gateshead but unexpected electoral contests can produce some surprising outcomes. High Fell ward is host to a completely unnecessary council by-election. The cause of this return to the polls is a Reform councillor who managed 11 days in the post before chucking in the towel. The Conservatives have chosen a candidate. Good luck (he'll
BBC News wins our Headline of the Day award with the tale from the West Somerset Railway. The judges have declined to sign petitions calling for the banning of cider and trains.
William Hague wrote in The Times this week that the key new phrase in politics is "recursive self-improvement" — AI systems that autonomously design their own successors. He is right that politics must catch up. He is wrong to imply it hasn't started yet. In some quarters it has. The Liberal Democrats, if we are paying attention, have the intellectual architecture already in place. There are three arguments. Each has prior form in Lib Dem thinking. Each has been transformed by AI into something urgent rather than merely desirable. Universal Basic Income is no longer a utopian gesture. When I ...
Thu 11th
08:55
The chaos dividend: Why the ultra-rich thrive on an unstable world, and why that's rational in the s...
The richest people in the world have more to lose from disorder than anyone. They have the most property, the most complex legal structures protecting it, the deepest interest in enforceable contracts and functioning courts. By any straightforward logic, they should be the most committed defenders of stable institutions and predictable governance. They are not. The reason isn't greed, or not primarily. It is something both more mundane and more intractable: it is how the system is built. Extreme wealth, at the levels we are discussing, is not really a quantity. It is a capability: the capability to move fast, ...
This week is all about red lines. Labour already ditched one of their manifesto pledges when they increased empoyer's national insurance contributions. Despite that they are adamant that the commonsense step of rejoining the single market is a step too far. Now Chancellor Reeves is starting to lay down the ground work for tax increases. a necessary breach of her party's manifesto promises. The Times reports that she has warned that the government will have to consider further tax rises to help fund defence in future because "borrowing can't be the only answer", thus raising the prospect of further tax ...
Embed from Getty ImagesMichael Meadowcroft, who wrote so many obituaries himself, is remembered in the Guardian by Martin Wainwright, the son of a fellow Yorkshire Liberal MP: Michael Meadowcroft, who has died aged 84 after a short illness, was a Yorkshire Liberal politician and activist of great resource and flair. He constantly wrong-footed Labour in its former heartlands in Leeds as a nimble source of new ideas, closely in touch with voters and patient at working with them to get local problems solved. He served as a Liberal party member of Leeds city council from 1968 to 1983, and then ...
I spoke at the launch this week of What could future electoral systems ;look like?, an excellent report from Make Votes Matter. I'm of course an STV stalwart (having counted my first STV election around 30 years ago). But it's right to recognise that there are other forms of PR which are also superior to first past the post, and indeed that the variety of other systems which we have in place in the UK are better than first past the post. Which is why in Parliament I tried (and failed!) to get the government to go for the alternative ...
This was released as a single in 1989 but did not become a hit until it was featured in David Lynch's film Wild at Heart the following year.
Rutland County Council is consulting residents on plans for a new cycling route connecting Oakham town centre with Rutland Water.. The council, which is run by a minority Liberal Democrat administration, says the scheme would improve accessibility for residents and visitors, support tourism and local businesses, and reduce reliance on cars. Oliver Hemsley, the council's portfolio holder for environment and transport, told BBC News: Rutland Water is one of the county's most valued destinations for both residents and visitors, and these proposals are about making it easier and safer for people to travel there by bike or on foot. There's ...
The nation waits for the people of Makerfield to decide whether Keir Starmer will face a challenge from his most plausible and electable Labour critic. Were Andy Burnham to emerge victorious and to challenge for the party leadership, this would signal a shift to what is being called the 'soft left'. One of the most deeply held convictions of those in this political space is that the government is being held back from more 'progressive' policies by unduly restrictive fiscal rules which exist to reassure 'the bond markets' that the UK is a trustworthy, reliable borrower. Andy Burnham's position on ...
Many Liberal Democrats feel an instinctive unease when confronted with the idea of directly-elected regional mayors. This hesitation is understandable. These roles concentrate a significant degree of executive authority in a single individual, while the combined authorities designed to support and scrutinise them often lack the strength and visibility of more established democratic institutions. Concerns about accountability, checks and balances, and the potential for over-centralisation at a regional level are therefore entirely legitimate. However, focusing solely on these risks carries the separate risk of overlooking the substantial benefits that regional mayors can bring. While the model is not without its ...
Alex Cole-Hamilton has announced the Scottish Liberal Democrats new spokesperson team, declaring that they are "ready to roll up their sleeves and get things done". And the party's social media gurus clearly had the World Cup in mind when they did their comms on this: The spokesperson line-up will be as follows: • Andrew Baxter - Rural Affairs • Yi-pei Chou Turvey - Justice • Sanne Dijkstra-Downie - Climate, Environment & Energy • Duncan Dunlop - Education, Children & Young People • David Green - Public Service Reform, Europe, External Affairs & Culture • Adam Harley - Health & Care ...
The Independent reports that an official has warned that British travellers heading to the European Union could face significant delays for up to two years, as the bloc's new Entry Exit System (EES) continues to cause disruption at borders. The paper says that Uku Sarekanno, deputy executive director of EU border agency Frontex, stated that some member states are "struggling" to implement the new digital checks, which require fingerprints and photographs from non-EU citizens entering the Schengen Area: British travellers heading to the European Union could face significant delays for up to two years, an official has warned, as the ...