The shocking attack overnight on a Jewish volunteer ambulance service in London should horrify anyone who believes in a decent, civilised society. Four vehicles belonging to Hatzola, an organisation providing lifesaving emergency care, were deliberately set on fire in what police are treating as an antisemitic hate crime. Let us be absolutely clear about what this represents. This was not just vandalism. It was not just criminal damage. This was an attack on a community, on people trying to save lives, on the very idea that we can live together in mutual respect. It must be condemned without hesitation or ...
Elizabeth Shields was born back in 1928 (1928!), and when elected as a Liberal MP in the 1986 Ryedale Parliamentary by-election she became the first female Liberal MP since Megan Lloyd George. So it was lovely to see her get a special award at the party's Federal Spring Conference in York: [IMG: Josh Babarinde and Elizabeth Shields] Josh Babarinde and Elizabeth Shields. Photo copyright John Russell johnrussell.zenfolio.com. Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
Ealing News reports: Kate Crawford, who has been a councillor for East Acton ward since first being elected in 1998, has resigned from the Labour Party and joined the Ealing Liberal Democrats. The move follows discussions with the party's local group leader, Gary Malcolm, and comes ahead of May's local elections... Councillor Malcolm said: "We are delighted to welcome Councillor Kate Crawford as a member of the Liberal Democrats. I have known Kate for more than two decades as a hard-working and conscientious councillor and a consistent carers' champion. She has always advocated for the people of Acton." Sign up ...
A social media ban for under-16s is a controversial topic, it's a measure many consider authoritarian, but some see the potential value; after all, social media has been linked to declining mental health in children. But a ban would be the worst solution, not only due to the fact it could disconnect vulnerable children from their communities as others have already warned, but because it is in fact a potential national security risk. Banning Social Media for under-16s could only work in one way; through the establishment of mass-surveillance. As we have already seen with the need for ID to ...
I arrived in York late on Friday night after a long drive up from Devon, tired but excited. By Saturday morning, that excitement had to do some heavy lifting, the journey had taken its toll. But a gentle drive through the Yorkshire countryside, past Selby and into the city, was enough to reset my energy. Conference weekend had begun. Walking into the Barbican, I was immediately struck by the scale. Having attended Welsh conferences before, I thought I knew what to expect, but this was something else entirely. Busier, louder, and full of excitement. I started in the exhibition hall, ...
We're getting close to the end of the Parliamentary cycle now, as the Labour Government strives to get as much of its legislation through as it can before the House rises in anticipation of a King's Speech in early May. And there's much to keep Peers busy this week. Bills Today sees Day 3 of the Report Stage of the Pension Schemes Bill. Monroe Palmer will seek an amendment requiring the Government to report on the impact of market consolidation on competition and new market entrants within a year. Also, John Thurso seeks to make provision for lump sum payments ...
Ed Davey has chosen his favourite books for This Week. I don't know what the precise brief was, but he came up with a list of six novels. Middlemarch by George EliotEnduring Love by Ian McEwanWaterland by Graham SwiftThere Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif ShafakThe Name of the Rose by Umberto EcoWild Swans by Jung ChangTony Blair would have had a team working on his choices for weeks to make sure he didn't sound too posh or display any biases, but this looks like an honest list for a man of Ed's generation. I've read three of them ...
A good news story at last. West Northamptonshire Council has installed a blue plaque outside Stanley Unwin's old bungalow on Long Buckby's High Street, reports BBC News. Unwin lived there for decades, having worked at at the Borough Hill transmitting station in Daventry during the war along with another hero of the English nonsense tradition. After the war he joined the BBC as a sound recordist, until illness among the cast of a show led him to do his doing his party piece in front of the microphone. His act involved speaking nonsense in a way that made it sound ...
Imagine a classroom where every student is learning something different, guided by technology that adapts instantly to their needs. Some collaborate with peers across the world, while others receive tailored support from artificial intelligence tutors. The teacher is no longer delivering a single lesson to the whole class, but acting as a mentor, supporting creativity, discussion, and critical thinking. This is not a distant fantasy, but a realistic picture of education in 2050. The schools of the future will look very different from those many of us remember. Traditional models: rows of desks, fixed timetables, and a heavy reliance on ...
It's been a long time since I last wrote one of these. In truth, I've not been entirely in the right frame of mind to do so, not quite as engaged as I might be. But there's a lot happening in the world, and Liberal Democrat Voice is the place for Liberal Democrats and others of similar mind to discuss them, so here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on a springtime Monday morning. I guess that the most pressing order of business is whether or not the United Kingdom is being drawn irrevocably into a war not of our making. ...
Alan Rusbridger in the New World magazine writes that GB News has essentially become Reform TV with the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, more or less giving up the ghost and Nigel Farage laughing all the way to the bank. He says these are the only conclusions one can reasonably draw from the first-ever exercise in commissioning experienced professional journalists to watch multiple hours of output from GB News: Most of our 20 reviewers had never watched GB News before. Most of them came away appalled - not by the political views that dominate the station's output, but by the way the ...
Long ago, I wrote the entry on Karl Popper for Duncan Brack and Malcolm Baines's Dictionary of Liberal Biography. The BBC Radio 4 In Our Time programme on Karl Popper from 2007 makes a good introduction to his thought, both in the philosophy of science and in politics. In the former he challenged the idea that science involved the accumulation of observations: rather, it involves making bold conjectures and then devising experiments that test their validity. If I were studying philosophy today I would be interested in the implications of Popper's ideas for our everyday reasoning, rather than for hard ...
Over the past four days I have been out and about along Allerton Road where there have been some appalling scenes from gangs of teenagers since KFC opened earlier this year. Let me put the numbers into context. There seem to be about 50-60 kids causing the problem. Fortunately, the maximum that have been spotted there is about 35 at any one time. Within easy walking or cycling of Allerton Road there are about 25,000 young teenagers. So, the number of kids causing problems is tiny compared to the total relevant population. I know that a few of those nuisance ...
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter making our Headline of the Day Award to the Guardian, the judges added a rider saying the obvious thing to do is to hand Botham's peerage to Mike Brearley.
Who are Le Tigre? Le Tigre (Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman) formed as an obstinately hopeful, even joyous, post-riot grrrl project in New York City in 1999 - when Rudy Giuliani was mayor and regressive hipster irony (à la VICE Magazine) ruled. Abandoning traditional punk instrumentation, the band paired drum-machine beats and looped 8-bit samples with the simplest, serrated guitar riffs and call-and-response vocals to write the songs on their first, self-titled album. Released late that year, they conceived of it as music "for the party after the protest." Deceptacon was the first track on that album. What's ...
The Guardian reports that a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in the heart of Westminster used by "anti-woke" and rightwing activists. The paper says that Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, has given support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right - while also connecting with mainstream figures including the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove: Delo, an Oxford graduate who moved to Hong Kong in 2012 ...
