Grim Jim and his disembodied hands are new to me, but this is a good video. Though he talks mostly about Garner and his first two books, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, there are passing insights into other fantasy writers too.
I was impressed by Andy Burnham's speech to the Labour Conference and I hope the Liberal Democrats will sound warmer about his talk of electoral reform, return to the European Union and improvements to social care than they have so far. But that isn't going to stop me the final verse of a song written to celebrate the acquittal of five Tollesbury men charged with piracy in 1894: The Tollesbury men and Mersea men Know how to stand together; The Burnhamites will not hurt them, For they are tough as leather. That comes from an article by Helen Matten in ...
Liberal Democrat Newswire #214 came out last week and you can now 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: Welcome to Lib Dem Newswire #214, which takes a look at the geography of Lib Dem support, includes advice on how to react to stories about hung Parliaments, explains why "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" is bad political advice, and more. First, though, congratulations to the new Lib Dem councillors since last time – Tim Murray, Fred Hulls, James Hartley, Mark Stephenson, ...
The Labour Party has had a successful Conference, burnished by a very successful speech from Andy Burnham. Next week we shall endure the Tories tarnishing the shine with predictable scorn and cries of unaffordability, unjustified optimism and Death Taxes, with no mention that it is largely their 14 years of misrule that has brought the country to this sorry pass (along with 40 years of multi-party acquiescence to misguided neo-liberal policies . I hope we Liberal Democrats will confine ourselves to constructive suggestions rather than knee-jerk opposition for the sake of opposition. It is refreshing to have a prime minister ...
Now that the Prime Minister is back from his trip to see Donald Trump and has enjoyed the emotional warm bath of his party conference, he rejoins the world of hard choices. The budget looms. A more immediate question is to decide on whether to proceed with drilling for gas and oil in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields in the North Sea. The politics are awful. Environmentalists regard the issue as central to the government's credibility on climate change. The Labour v Green battle in Camden provides context. On the other hand, rejection of the developments will send a negative ...
"The judge told him he did not qualify for asylum and asked the 13-year-old to make a choice: a promise of a $3,000 stipend from the Department of Homeland Security to return to Honduras without his mother and family, or a deportation order. 'I don't know,' Angel said before beginning to cry. 'I have no one. I have nothing.'Julia Conley reports on monstrous US deportation hearings where children are given no legal representation. Steven Beschloss thinks the Republican mid-term candidates now deserting Donald Trump have left it too late. "Feltham was described as the most violent YOI at the time ...
I heard this late one long ago night on Radio 3's Late Junction and thought I had discovered an obscure band to like. Then I discovered they were the most fashionable new band in the world.
[IMG: Picture of Southwark Lib Dems surrounded by diamonds and placards with achievements] Last week at Liberal Democrat Conference, I was delighted to pass an amendment to our party strategy making clear that, if we are serious about growing our party, we must become more relevant to people living in urban areas, diverse communities and younger generations. Our recent electoral successes give us an extraordinary platform. But we cannot be satisfied with consolidating our support only where we are already strong. We should be ambitious about winning and governing in cities and diverse communities across Britain too. For Southwark Liberal ...
Wed 30th
08:05
Andy Burnham's speech was good: Here's how Lib Dems can make the implementation better
Chris Bowers talked about the lack of a "Yesss" moment at our Conference yesterday. Well, like buses, if you wait long enough, several come along at once – the problem is that they were in the speech of the leader of another party. Andy Burnham's speech yesterday was quite simply one of the best I have ever heard from a UK politician. It had heart and soul and ideas and emotion and mission. I had goosebumps and it's a long time since a speech has done that to me. I'd have to go back to Obama for that. A speech ...
If there is one thing we should expect from a future Prime Minister it is that s/he can keep their head in a crisis, that they should be able to assess a situation, gather all the evidence, and then draw up a plan of action, not jump to conclusions on the basis of rumour and incomplete information. When it comes to Nigel Farage's reaction to the arrest of five men on suspicion of terror offences near RAF Fairford, Marina Hyde in the Guardian hits the nail on the head. She says that for a guy who supposedly valorises the wartime ...
Andy Burnham (Photo: politics.co.uk) For Liberal Democrats, Andy Burnham's announcement of a National Commission on Electoral Reform deserves a welcome that is both enthusiastic and demanding. Enthusiastic because a sitting Labour prime minister has publicly challenged the electoral system that delivered his party its parliamentary majority. Demanding because we know how easily promises of reform can become commissions, reports and eventual silence. Burnham's warning about a divisive government entering Downing Street on less than 30% of the vote identifies a fundamental democratic danger. We know exactly what he is referring to and that risk is real. His proposed commission, invitation ...
If Andy Burnham really has no intention to call a General Election as he says, then this Conference speech has not made a very convincing show of it, there were a lot of policy announcements for, "The next Manifesto." or 2030. (A year past the next scheduled election.) If he really is going to sit the full mandate Labour were elected on in 2024 then these policy announcements for what will be almost three years in the future ring like hollow attempts to keep his polling in place while in reality continuing the path of not doing nearly enough to ...
Embed from Getty ImagesRussia's spy agency has opened a criminal case against a Liberal Democrat councillor, accusing her of being part of a terrorist organisation. Ksenia Maximova, who was born in Russia, is a Lib Dem member of Ealing Borough Council. She is also the founder of the Russian Democratic Society, an organisation that works to counter authoritarianism and war by empowering democratic voices from Russia. It is designated "undesirable" under Russian law. She told Sky News that being put on Russia's list of terrorists comes as no surprise: "For years everyone was saying it's a bit random that I ...
Photo: Institute for Government Andy Burnham's promise to "fix social care" is welcome. His ambition for a system built on NHS principles, in which "everyone contributes, everyone is covered", speaks to a failure that successive governments have acknowledged and then left unresolved. At last, a Prime Minister appears willing to say that England's arrangements are unfair and that a lasting solution will require difficult choices. That is a significant step, but a promise is easier to make than a service is to build. Social care is often discussed as though it were chiefly a question of protecting older people from ...
Tue 29th
12:31
Sir Ranulph Fiennes admits he narrowly avoided prison after blowing up Dr Doolittle movie dam
This headline dates from 2018, so I'm not putting it to the judges, but the story below it is worth repeating because Sir Ranulph is in the news. SomersetLive reported on the address he gave when he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law at University of Bristol that year:The explorer said: "Unfortunately, while on leave back in the UK in the mid-1960s, I got phoned up by an old Eton friend. "He had moved to a place called Castle Combe in Wiltshire, which had just been voted Britain's prettiest village. "And this beautiful village was being attacked by 20th ...
[IMG: Anton Georgiou speaks at Conference Rally] Photo credit: John Russell More than 50 years ago, my grandparents, mother and aunts came to Britain as refugees from Cyprus. They arrived in London with just £20. My grandfather took whatever job he could find. My grandmother spent long days in front of a sewing machine. They worked, saved, bought a home and raised their daughters. Britain gave my family something they could not take for granted: the chance to be safe and build a future. That history is personal to me. It also shapes how I think about the debate around ...
I love publishing guest posts here on Liberal England. Have you thought of writing one yourself? It could be on where the Liberal Democrats should go from here, on politics more generally or... anything really. Why not an article about a local campaign or quirky piece of history? Please drop me an email if you'd like to discuss your idea first. I'd hate you to spend time on a piece I really wouldn't want to publish. Here are the last 10 guest posts on this blog:Political lessons from science fiction- Peter ChambersCouncillor defection scores on the eve of polling day- ...
The past week has been marked by plenty of people asking what I made of Conference. My general answer has been that it was OK, but we still need to feel from our most prominent representatives that Liberalism is inspiring. I don't want to hark back to a golden era that may never have existed, but a feature of the Paddy Ashdown years - and to a large extent the Steel and Kennedy leaderships - was that, whatever our electoral fortunes happened to be, you tended to leave conference feeling "Yesss, I will go out and deliver some more leaflets!" ...
As we move closer to John Healey and Andy Burnham's first budget, it is worth revisiting this article in Prospect magazine from December last year. The article refers to home secretary, Shabana Mahmood's immigration strategy which has restricted the rights of asylum seekers to stay in the UK and extended the time that legal migrants would have to wait for permanent residency. It argues that this policy is undermining the drive for economic growth, in this case for Rachel Reeves, but now Healey: Here is the unpalatable truth for Labour strategists. In 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which ...