This session was recorded in 2012, three years before Ron Moody died. As well as Moody, who played Fagin in the 1968 film of Oliver! having first created the role on stage, it features Kenneth Cranham, who was Noah Claypole, and Mark Lester, who was Oliver himself. As Kenneth Cranham says, it was Moody's reinvention of Fagin that made the film's worldwide success possible by moving the story away from the medieval antisemitism that Dickens drew upon. I wrote about this aspect of the novel in a book chapter a few years ago - there a short extract in another ...
The simple answer to the question of who is to blame is that their murder was the one to blame. Rudakubana was not an immigrant, terrorist, or Moslem. He was born in this Country, educated in this Country and his parents were regular attenders at a Christian Church. So, the people who created havoc throughout the Country can be confirmed as racist bigots who just wanted a riot. However, is he the only one to blame? Well, the report from the Inquiry chair, Adrian Fulford made clear that there were many people and organisations who should have intervened, or should ...
Over on PoliticsHome there's a full interview with Ed Davey. It covers the wide swathe of politics in the run-up to the May elections: Davey revealed that he had a "long chat" with the former US secretary of state when she spoke at a business reception in the capital late last year. "We talked about how we need to fight Reform in the way they need to fight Donald Trump, and she gave me some choice advice, which I'm not going to repeat because that would be unfair on her," he said. When pressed, he added: "She said you have ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, 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: There were two steps forward but also two missed opportunities in Parliament last night to improve how our democracy works, one on voting systems and one on holding elections in the first place. Read on for details. Helpful but insufficient: the government's moves to improve our democracy On voting systems, Labour is going ...
It was a huge privilege and pleasure to spend an extended weekend in the Highlands. Blue letter delivery rarely comes with such a vast helping of scenic delights. We were very fortunate to have very sunny weather as we delivered in Fort Augustus – a fine tourism centre for Loch Ness (above) visitors. A stiff breeze on Saturday made our Isle of Skye (below) outing even more photogenic – with white horses on the surrounding sea. My heartfelt thanks go to the MacDonald family who gave us a very warm Highland welcome – the highlight of which was an enormous, ...
Tuesday 12th May 2026, 5pm to 6pm at Temple Church, London, EC4Y 7BB David Lloyd George knew Fleet Street well throughout his adult life. He took his exams at the Law Society building, at the Fleet Street end of Chancery Lane, and as a politician would cultivate the support of the editors and proprietors whose newspapers dominated its landscape. Lloyd George knew Fleet Street and Fleet Street knew Lloyd George. On Tuesday 12th May, Lloyd George will return to Fleet Street for the second Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words, where we'll be discussing his unique qualities as a leader ...
If the UK economy were permanently £180 billion larger every year, and that translated into around £54 billion of extra tax receipts annually, the real‑world impact would not be abstract. It would be measured in hospitals built, nurses hired, waiting lists cut, teachers recruited and classrooms made smaller. This is where the story moves from macroeconomics to people's lives and to the choices a government can make with new, sustainable revenue. The NHS: more staff, shorter waits Take the NHS first. Recent estimates suggest that one additional NHS doctor costs the public sector roughly £100,000 per year when salaries, training ...
Why did John Major win the 1992 election when most pundits expected Neil Kinnock's Labour Party to be the victors? Immediately after the contest, a consensus developed that the reason was the effectiveness of the Conservatives' campaign against Labour's economic policies. This view was certainly advanced by the Tories themselves, as its acceptance would make Labour more timid about challenging Thatcherite economics in future. And it was advanced by the head of the Tory campaign, Chris Patten, perhaps as a way of burnishing his reputation and consoling himself after he lost his own seat of Bath to the Liberal Democrats. ...
I was on editorial duty at Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday and, as part of that, I try to promote each published article using our Bluesky account. My first comment began, "The work week starts here...", I posted it and thought little more about it. Until, that is, I did think about it. I've been employed by the same organisation for nearly forty years now, working in offices on, effectively, a 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. I am, you might say, somewhat institutionalised. When I started, in the mid-eighties, if you wanted to talk to a professional, or purchase a service, ...
In Britain, the USA and across Europe an active cultural war is being fought between liberalism and nationalistic reactionaries. I regret that British Liberal Democrats are playing so small a part in this conflict - fought through the intellectual media and think tank world, within Christian churches (and within Judaism) and across university campuses. Anti-liberal tracts and articles spill out from well-funded think tanks and newspapers in the USA, Britain and elsewhere. Liberal rebuttals are fewer. But Allen Lane/Penguin have just published one full-length rebuttal: 'Centrists of the World Unite: the lost genius of Liberalism', by Adrian Wooldridge, who has ...
This week, greyhound advocates and adopters assembled at a parliamentary reception hosted by Neil Duncan-Jordan MP. Our organisation, international greyhound protection group GREY2K USA Worldwide, jointly released a report entitled Reaching the Finish Line, alongside the League Against Cruel Sports. It is the most comprehensive policy argument in favour of phasing out greyhound racing in the UK ever assembled. The timing of this release coincides with reporting that there are Labour MPs, as well as sympathetic Labour Ministers, urging Keir Starmer to follow Scotland and Wales and call time on greyhound racing. It is our belief that it is now ...
DevonLive wins today's Headline of the Day Award. The judges remarked that if the sub writing this headline is that fond of scare quotes - and the story below is even worse - they should get a job at BBC News. And after reading: A Plymouth adult entertainment venue, housed in a former bank, has become the focus of a chilling paranormal investigation. The "alternative" establishment, which features a well-appointed bar and a bondage "dungeon", is reported to have a "horrible" atmosphere in certain areas, a sensation that has intensified since recent renovation work commenced. they suggested the owners move ...
Tue 14th
06:00
Founder of Starmer's legal chambers spells out opposition to plan to abolish jury trials
The Guardian reports that the founder of Keir Starmer's barristers' chambers has condemned the planned restriction of jury trials in England and Wales as "a betrayal of the values for which Labour purports to stand". The paper says that Geoffrey Robertson KC, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, where the attorney general, Richard Hermer KC, and the justice secretary, David Lammy, also had their professional homes, has written a more than 9,000-word polemic to coincide with the committee stage of the courts and tribunals bill: In the document, published on the Bar Council's website on Monday night, Robertson questions the ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Inverclyde, Jamie Greene, has called for Reform UK's Malcom Offord to come clean on whether he would make Scots pay for medicine. In 2025, Lord Offord wrote in a Centre for Policy Studies paper that "dialogue" was needed on making people in Scotland pay prescription charges. Mr Greene claimed that it was Offord's responsibility to tell the Scottish people exactly what the consequences of voting for Reform UK would be for hard-pressed Scots. Reform's UK boss Nigel Farage has a history of flirting with NHS charging and privatisation, once advocating that the health service moves ...
Mon 13th
22:50
A TV mast on the Stiperstones? What horrors would it have broadcast into people's homes?
The transmitting station on top of the Wrekin, which broadcasts television and radio to much of Shropshire and parts of the West Midlands beyond, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. But if the county's planners had got their way it would have been built on the Stiperstones instead. An article on BBC News- and they should know - says the BBC had tested transmissions from the Wrekin as far back as 1964. But in 1970, the Wellington Journal reported:Salop County Council's planning committee is in favour of putting the proposed BBC TV mast on the Stiperstones. It has rejected the ...
For years, Victor Orban's Hungary has been held up – by admirers and critics alike – as proof that the populist Right, once entrenched, is almost impossible to dislodge. A self-described "illiberal state," tight media control, constitutional engineering, and a politics built on division and grievance all seemed to point in one direction: permanence. And yet – politics has a habit of reminding us that nothing is permanent. Yesterday's election result in Hungary has sent a jolt through that assumption. After more than a decade and a half dominating Hungarian politics, Orban's grip has been broke by a broad, pro-European ...
Péter Magyar (Photo: Márton Mónus/Reuters) Yesterday's Hungarian parliamentary election has delivered what, until very recently, seemed improbable: the defeat of Viktor Orbán and his long-dominant Fidesz party. For over a decade, Hungary has stood as the clearest example within the European Union of how the structures of democracy can be steadily eroded by those in power. That this system has now been challenged—and decisively so—marks a turning point not only for Hungary, but for liberal democracy across Europe. Péter Magyar and TISZA didn't just win - with over 98% of votes counted it is clear that they have won comfortably, ...
it looks like a relatively gentle week in the Lords, although there will be an opportunity for the Lords to ask the Commons to think again... again... on the Victims and Courts Bill and the Crime and Policing Bill. Yes, it's ping-pong time in the Lords... Bills Today sees Day 3 of the Report stage of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. Kath Pinnock has two amendments down promoting the Town and Parish Council sector, whilst John Shipley and Shaffaq Mohammed are attempting to persuade the Government that there are alternatives to the "strong leader" model of local government ...
English football likes to think of itself as the most competitive, compelling league system in the world. And in many ways, the Premier League still delivers on that promise every weekend. But financially, the game is drifting into something far less credible: a system where losses are disguised, rules are gamed, and profit increasingly exists only on paper. The rise of intragroup sales is not a clever innovation. It is a symptom of a broken model. When clubs such as Newcastle United or Chelsea can transform massive losses into tidy profits by selling assets to companies owned by the same ...
You really could not make this up. The Vice President of America goes to take part in a General Election in Hungary and then complains about foreign interference in that country's election. Did he not know what he was saying or did he believe that God had sent him to save Hungary from Satan's spawn. What happened in Hungary yesterday was utterly amazing not only for the people of Hungary but also for the rest of the free world. You could only envy the huge celebrations of the young people of the Country as they looked forward to a new ...
Marcus Hughes on the many problems the Welsh government must overcome in achieving its laudable aim of removing private profit from the care system. "The anxiety inducing question from those working in the sector is what happens if local authority and not-for-profit provision can't replace that offered by the private sector in time? Finding places for some young people is already a challenge even with the current options available." "Could the bellicose, belligerent and braying Hegseth - with his Crusader tattoos, his disdain for diplomacy, and his evident taste for violent domination - have convinced Trump to start a war ...
Imagine the UK economy suddenly becoming £180 billion richer every single year - not as a one‑off sugar rush, but as a permanent, compounding uplift. That is what rejoining the European Union could mean: a structural transformation that boosts national income, raises living standards, strengthens public finances and restores Britain's economic confidence. It would mark a deliberate, strategic shift away from managed decline and towards a confident, outward‑looking economic future. An economy on turbo Britain's economy today is worth around £2.7 trillion. Add £180 billion more in real GDP each year and you get a 6-7 per cent permanent uplift - a lasting improvement that ...
This leaflet for independent candidate Nick Picton comes from Cambridge, and note the pledge not to canvass any voters. [IMG: Nick Picton election leaflet 2026 front] [IMG: Nick Picton election leaflet 2026 back] Nick Picton election leaflet. The leaflet comes from ElectionLeaflets.org and hat-tip to Phil Rodgers for spotting it. You can add to the site any leaflets that come through your door with a simple upload. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
Agnes Bowker, the Market Harborough woman who claimed on 16 January 1569 that she had given birth to a cat, is the subject of the latest short podcast in the BBC's Secret Leicestershire series. The photograph shows the ruined church of St Mary in Arden by Market Harborough railway station, where the story begins.
For years, our political opponent, especially the hypocritical Labour party, have lambasted us for our role in tuition fees during the coalition, conveniently overlooking Labour's role of introducing them in the first place after saying they wouldn't and then introducing top-up fees when they said they wouldn't. This ham-fisted government has messed about with student fees ever since getting back into power, first raising the interest rate and then capping it. Saying they would reintroduce maintenance grants and then not doing so. Now a group of mainly poor working-class students are being told that the people responsible for student loans ...
I'm in a good mood this morning, following the glorious victory for the Hatters over... the Hatters... I've been doing European politics with the Liberal Democrats on and off since 1989, long enough to know that it's always worth waiting a little before declaring that a change of government is good news or not. Indeed, I've been around so long that I remember when FIDESZ were a welcome part of the liberal family – and Viktor Orban was its leader in those days too. But the news that FIDESZ have suffered what looks like a pretty crushing defeat, despite controlling ...
I am reading and enjoying the fourth (?) volume of Alan Bennet's "Diaries," published last month. Here are two highly prescient entries: 7 January 2019: When Trump destroys the world those who are left will look at one another and wonder why nobody stopped him." And, a few days later: 16th January, 2019: ". . .Jacob Rees -Mogg . . .Boris Johnson, 'Sir' John Redwood . . .gentlemen who have never been in two minds about anything except where their own self-interest lies."
The Guardian reports that Ministers are planning to fundamentally reshape Britain's relationship with the European Union, with new legislation that could result in the UK signing up to EU single market rules without a normal parliamentary vote. The paper says that they understand that ministers are bracing to face down opposition to a "dynamic alignment" with the EU from those who "scream treason" over the powers in a new EU-UK reset bill. After weeks of Donald Trump's war with Iran that have exposed the fragility of the UK's damaged special relationship with the US, ministers argue the move will add ...