Sat 7th
10:21

The Joy of Six 1603

"More than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and up to ten thousand are missing under the rubble. More than a hundred thousand Palestinians have managed to leave. The survivors are corralled into a concentration area along the coast, living in dense tent encampments among ruined buildings, mountains of rubbish and rivers of sewage, under the constant hum of drones."Eyal Weizman reviews Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's film Naza. Gaby Hinsliff says the Russell Brand verdict is a landmark in the history of the judicial system's understanding of consent: "For too long, ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England | Mute

The confetti has settled, the champagne is flat and the celebratory balloons have floated to the ground. The midterm elections are over. MAGA and Trump have been well and truly trounced. Now is the time to worry about what Donald J. Trump will do in the next two months while he still has a sycophantic Republican Congress for the next two months—especially in Iran. The new Democrat-controlled Congress does not start business until January 3rd. One of its first orders of business will be to start circumscribing the president's war-making capabilities. The Constitution gives Trump considerable leeway in foreign and ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice | Mute

Horton is a very pretty little village in South Gower, set on a steep hill that stretches down to the beautiful beach. It shares the bay with Port Eynon which is located at the Western end. Like many Gower villages its roots are mainly agricultural, but Horton also has a long connection with the lifeboat and Methodism. In the centre of the bay are two orange buoys that mark the remains of the Prince Ivanhoe. The Prince Ivanhoe was used a pleasure craft, but on the 3rd August 1981 it hit something just off the edge of Port Eynon Point. ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black | Mute

Judging by the electrification work taking place on the West Coast Main Line at Roade, this film dates from 1965 or thereabouts. Northampton town centre is made to look rather more prosperous in it than it does today. Much else has changed: there is no longer a convent and school in Abington Street, for instance, though the convent's graveyard is still there if you know where to look. I have some photographs of it and will post them one day.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England | Mute

This week there was just one principal authority by-election. The Liberal Democrats were defending the seat of Penn Hill on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. An eight-way contest in a seat that was Conservative until 2023, in which all major parties stood, makes a useful test of how our councillors in power are holding up against both a Conservative comeback and the challenge from Reform UK. The answer in BCP was emphatic! Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Penn Hill - 5 November 2026 The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Jo Clements, who was first elected in ...

Posted by Charles Quinn on Liberal Democrat Voice | Mute

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 21% (nc) 28% (nc) 8% (-2) 13% (+2) 20% (nc) 75 (vs Con) 4/11 GB YouGov ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack | Mute

In the exit polls, 73% of American 18- to 29-year-olds backed Democrats. Not a freak result but rather confirmation of an emerging global pattern - after nearly two years of well-organised student protests, Serbia's Student List took 140 of 250 seats in October and almost two-thirds of Hungary's under-30s backed the winning party, Tisza, in pre-election polling, whilst in Brazil, a self-organised 'Lula's army' of young voters helped the 80-year-old incumbent to a come-from-behind win. India's Cockroach Janta Party, named after a Chief Justice's jibe at activist unemployed youth, has drawn millions of young Indian followers online, helped force out ...

Posted by Rupinder Singh on Liberal Democrat Voice | Mute

Five Christmas, birthday, wedding, graduation, driving test pass, citizenship acquisition or candidate selection victory gift ideas for that special person you know. (And more tasteful than some festive options.) A Parliamentary murder mystery [IMG: UK Houses of Parliament] Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay. Ellen Wilkinson was the first female Minister of Education and also wrote a murder mystery set in the worlds of politics and in the Palace of Westminster. The place being what it is, those familiar with the Palace will recognise many of the detailed locations and are likely to have noticed what turns out to be a ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack | Mute

Just the one principal authority council by-election this week and it brought a comprehensive Liberal Democrat win: Penn Hill (Bournemouth, Christchurch, & Poole) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 43.6% (+0.9) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 26.1% (+1.0) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 17.8% (New) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 4.6% (-6.7) [IMG: ◼] RES: 3.6% (New) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 2.2% (-6.5) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 1.9% (New) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 0.2% (New)No PE (-12.2) as previous.Liberal Democrat HOLD.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-11-06T12:48:07.774Z Many congratulations to new councillor Amanda Jellicoe and the team. The result was rather different from what the Conservatives had ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack | Mute

Like other "advanced economies", we suffer "deadweight loss" from dysfunctional taxes. Why, when we could get up to 30% more economic growth from tax revenue by taxing wealth extractors, such as landowners, rather than wealth creators: workers and entrepreneurs? Deadweight Burden is real and now under review by the Labour Government—a potential game changer for sustainable growth. HM Treasury's Marginal Cost of Public Funds (MCPF) officially acknowledges that 30p in every pound allocated to government capital projects is "lost" through tax inefficiencies. Just 15 years ago, I was told Treasury estimated 20%. No wonder it's under review. Treasury does not ...

Posted by Tony Vickers on Liberal Democrat Voice | Mute

Paul Hindley from The Grimond Society on the ideas of the Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond and its ambition to put cooperatives and mutuals back at the heart of Liberal Democrat politics. One of the more eye-catching policies to come out of this year's Liberal Democrat autumn federal conference in Brighton concerned addressing the apparent malpractice of the water companies. Following a passionate debate, conference-goers overwhelmingly backed a policy motion entitled Restoring our waters: Britain's water company crisis. It commits the party to converting failing privatised water companies (such as Thames Water) into mutually owned companies, where water customers own ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England | Mute

The Guardian reports that the government is considering placing restrictions on smart glasses amid concerns the technology is being used to surreptitiously film women. The paper says that the safeguarding minister, Satvir Kaur, hinted at a ban on selling the technology "to certain users" in the House of Commons: Kaur said: "The benefits of smart glasses must be weighed against the harms they can cause. The government is already looking into options to restrict smart glasses in certain settings and restricting the sale to certain users." The minister said people who used smart glasses for filming already risked breaking the ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black | Mute