As is traditional in a dry summer, Our History Underfoot has been to Ladybower Reservoir to see what remains of Derwent village have been revealed by the receding waters. In a second video, he wonders at the many people who claim to have seen the steeple of Derwent church standing proud above the waves when they are not old enough to have done so. It was dynamited in 1947, partly because visitors had taken to swimming out to reach it. Proof that the historical record is wrong? No, just another reminder of the fallibility of human memory.
The weekend's Guardian (Saturday 19th September) contains a review by Daniel Trilling of a book by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor called "End Times Fascism." According to Trilling the purpose of the book is to warn us of a convergence of three interests which are in effect encouraging the climate crisis rather than working to prevent it. The book focusses chiefly on the United States and identifies the three interest as the "Religious Fanatics" ( the Christian Right who look forward to the Rapture and the end of the World, when the righteous will be "caught up to meet the ...
For too long, student finance has been the subject our party would rather avoid. I understand why. It is uncomfortable territory. The scars of the coalition run deep, and many of us have heard about them on doorsteps ever since. But we cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Millions of graduates are paying the price. If we want to win back the trust of my generation – the graduates who signed up to Plan 2 loans between 2012 and 2023, and the growing cohort on the new Plan 5 loans – we have to offer them a solution. ...
Greetings from somewhere close to Brighton Beach. Admittedly, the Brighton Beach at the end of the B Line from the Bronx, through Manhattan to Queens, but close nonetheless. There has been a lot of talk about the impact of large donors in recent weeks, with increasing calls for strict limits on the maximum size of donations and tighter eligibility criteria for donors. And there is much to said for it. The problem is that political parties have become increasingly dependent on a small number of large donors as membership numbers have declined and the obligations on political parties increase. Raising ...
Were Freddie and Fiona burnt alive in a giant wicker rabbit on the village green at Beltane or not? It looks as though the Sisters know more than they're letting on. Friday One does meet the most interesting people in Westminster. This morning it is the man who puts up the shelves at 10 Downing Street. With our new prime minister shelving so many of the plans he once boasted of, business has never been better for him. He is so flush that he stands me a drink, which I think very sporting of him. Being in Westminster, I think ...
Conference kicks off with two brief policy debates on making recruitment fairer and regulating abusive use of the legal system. Then GP services in England before a keynote speech by Max Wilkinson. After a three hour lunch break for fringes, there's a debate on supporting people to age well in England, a keynote speech by Jane Dodds and a motion on stopping violence against women and girls in the digital age from Lib Dem Women and Marie Goldman, our Women and Equalities spokesperson. The day ends with the parliamentary parties' report and two emergency motions. One is from YL on ...
Somehow I managed to drag myself into the main hall for the early doors "Making music matter" motion. Jennie Rigg neatly summarised the whole thing saying that copyright law is not being enforced so that LLMs (Large Language Models) copy existing music and it is churned out as "AI slop". She added that AI2 should be used to support musicians but instead it is being used to rip off composers and musicians. I then went to my go-to quiet spot to write a speech. I have an idea for the strategy debate later. Mind you, it's been ten years since ...
We've all enjoyed the regular resignations, defections and disgrace of Reform UK councillors, but the party actually gained councillors from by-election victories and defections, between May 2025 and May 2026. But now, as the latest post from the indefatigable Augustus Carp shows, the tide has turned for them. The kaleidoscope of local government has continued to twist since the local elections in May, and with it a number of political allegiances have changed. Sometimes a councillor's defection has little impact, but clustering in some authorities has led to significant weakening in control. For the first time since I started paying ...
The Independent reports on comments by Lib Dem Leader, Ed Davey, that the Conservatives and Reform UK are planning to turn Britain into a "Trump satellite state". He told the conference that the Liberal Democrat's "orange wall" will stop Reform UK's rise to power and "setting communities against each other": Sir Ed warned an "unholy alliance" between Mr Farage and Kemi Badenoch is "the only way either can get into power". "Together, they want to turn Britain into a Trump satellite state which would trash our NHS, turn our communities against each other, cause untold damage to our environment, and ...
I thought I had finished blogging for today, but this video is too good not to share with you tonight. It's a BBC2 discussion from 1968 with Lady Asquith (better known as Violet Bonham Carter) and Lady Stocks. A young Joan Bakewell is in the chair. They are talking about a television film about how women got the vote, and both take the view that it exaggerated the importance of the militant tactics of the Suffragettes at the expense of the role played by the wider Suffrage movement. And Lady Asquith remembers defending her father, the Liberal prime minister, from ...
I am in Brighton for the Lib Dem conference and yesterday I got to meet a political hero of mine: Lynne (now Baroness) Featherstone. As home office minister in the coalition government (2010-15), Lynne was instrumental in passing the legislation that legalised same sex marriage. It is because of her that I now wear a wedding ring. As she was able to pass the same sex legislation, David and
Dawn Butler lays bare the abuse that a Black female MP faces: "Followers of my social media know how bad it can be. I have a regular "block of the month" feature to raise awareness of the disgusting racist abuse sent to me every day - the N-word, "monkey" and "ape" are common insults. The deluge of abuse has a detrimental impact on my mental health, and on those around me." "There is no reindustrialisation beyond heavily Government-directed industries such as defence and even pharmaceuticals without reversing Brexit. That will not be sufficient, but it is absolutely necessary. And yet, ...
Education spokesperson Munira Wilson gave her keynote speech to Conference yesterday. Enjoy:
Watch Al Pinkerton talk about our vision for closer ties to Europe:
Taking part in Lib Dem Conference online (I cannot make it to Brighton, so watching and voting online) it was good to see the first policy motion was about homeless children, although tragic that we have to discuss the subject at all You can see below more about it, but it covered the awful issues there are for children, as well of course as their parents and other adults. Shocking to hear that There are over 176,000 children living in temporary accommodation across England, and that Since 2019, 104 children have died with temporary accommodation listed as a contributing factor ...
I'm settling in to day 2 of watching Conference. I've already spent more time "in the hall" than I have in the past 3 in person conferences. I'm uaually to be found on the Lib Dem Women or LGBT+ Lib Dem stalls, or flitting about the place from meeting to meeting. And how gorgeous is this stage set? When I saw the purple, I wondered at first if our Jennie Rigg had had a hand in it. But, seriously, if she had, it would have had a lot more purple and Libby would have been turned into a bat. What ...
The Oxford Mail wins our Headline of the Day Award. Far be it from me to criticise the judges, but is this such a surprising story?
The Falklands The Falklands are back in the news. Argentine President Javier Milei has restated claims to "Las Islas Malvinas" and support from America and Chile—which was vital in 1982—is now doubtful. But 2026 is not 1982. In 1982 there were about 100 Royal Marines at Port Stanley to protect the islands and the Royal Navy ice patrol ship HMS Endurance was facing withdrawal. After the Falklands War the government decided that deterrence was the best strategy. There are now roughly 1,200-1,500 British military and supporting personnel in the South Atlantic, centred on the Mount Pleasant Complex, where the Royal ...
I used to wonder why the Liberal Party had never talked about Wallace Lawler, Read the comments on this post and you will see why. I haven't dared raise the subject with Lord Bonkers. The old boy is more on the ball with golf courses and terrorism. This is from the Guardian last month: "Seven people charged with vandalising Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland have been accused of malicious damage 'having a terrorist connection'." Thursday Dusk finds me wending my way to the palatial sett beneath the triumphal arch I had erected to celebrate the victory of Wallace ...
I wrote this in 2008 about a memory that was already more than a dozen years old: Much Wenlock is not just the spiritual home of the Olympics. It also the venue for Festival at the Edge, which I attended a couple of times back in the 1990s. Although it is chiefly a storytelling festival, my chief memories of it are musical. I heard a young Eliza Carthy play (with Nancy Kerr) and, best of all, I heard the Polly Bolton Band. That year everything was running hopelessly late, and it was after midnight when the band (Polly Bolton, John ...
The Guardian reports that British politics is increasingly being funded by individual billionaires with a wave of mega-donations having flooded into UK political parties over the past two parliaments. The paper says that research has found that a total of £179m has been donated by wealthy individuals since 2019: The figures from the IPPR thinktank show how big money is playing an ever more influential role in Westminster, with a particular rise in mega-donations of more than £1m. The research found that contributions from individual donors have accelerated since the Brexit party received £10m from the Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne ...
First up today is a wide-ranging motion on music covering things like AI, planning around music venues, support for music and the right to education in music. That last is so important. Playing an instrument or singing is such a good way of getting out of your own head and the links between musical tuition and attainment are clear. Then it's on to active travel – walking, wheeling and cycling with three amendments, one from the Lib Dem Disability Association looking at making active travel safe and accessible for disabled people from the start, one from Lib Dem Women looking ...