There's a plethora of hot takes about this week's by election out there. I'm going to throw my hat into the ring, hopefully with a few observations you won't see anywhere else. Gorton and Denton was hyped up as something historic - there are exceptional aspects to it - the first time since 1945 that neither Labour or Conservatives have finished in the first two in a by election, and the first ever win for the Greens. The result confirms what we've known for a while - two party politics is a thing of the past and we have a ...
This week, there was one principal council by-election down on the South Coast. With national attention staring north at the parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton, it offered a straightforward snapshot of how voters are moving locally. In Southampton, we were defending the seat and held on in a close finish, staying just ahead of Labour. While the margin tightened, the seat stayed in our hands. The Greens made a clear step forward and Reform UK registered a noticeable first outing, yet neither was enough to shift the overall picture. Congratulations are due to Councillor Chris Shank and the local ...
You may already be aware of the grifting phenomenon known as Crypto Treasury Companies, described in the link as "businesses that hold substantial reserves of cryptocurrencies — most often Bitcoin — as core balance sheet assets." It appears to work this way. Suckers.Inc, who may or may not have had a real business going on, but certainly have a share price, issue equity and use the money raised to buy, say, Bitcoin. To all extents and purposes, they are just a pot of virtual money*. If the no-arbitrage condition held, there would be nothing of interest here. If a company ...
In the 1970s David Steel told us to go back to our constituencies and prepare for Government! It has not quite happened yet. I wish Greens happiness today but do not think they should prepare for Government tomorrow! I have been an active Liberal and then Liberal Democrat politician for 59 years. In that time, I have seen repeated surges for my Party and projections of an imminent break through. I have been the organiser of a Parliamentary by-election in Ripon where we gained a seat from the Tories on the same day that we took the Isle of Ely ...
"Other guests at the party included Mandelson's good friend Nathaniel (Nat) Rothschild, a financier and heir to the Rothschild fortune (Mandelson often stayed at his villa in Corfu), and Rothschild's old schoolmate, the then shadow chancellor George Osborne." Tamsin Shaw looks back to the Yachtgate scandal of 2008 and argues that we misread it at the time. "Across the country, thousands of children are quietly lingering in ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] facilities, unable to reunite with parents or relatives because of new Trump administration policies limiting who can sponsor them. According to a class action lawsuit filed by immigration ...
It would be very churlish not to congratulate Hannah Spencer and the Greens this morning. It's a good feeling to win a by-election. Having another young, progressive woman in Parliament is so much better a result than it could have been. The Greens did pretty much our playbook and took a seat that, in other times, we would have grabbed and we have to ask ourselves whether the strategy that allowed that to happen is one that we wish to continue. The result was: Green Party – 14,980 40.7%. +28% Reform UK – 10,578 28.7% +15% Labour Party – 9,364 ...
It has already been a week in which the Liberal Democrats picked up five councillors, in Flintshire, Swansea and Huntingdonshire. Only the one principal authority council by-elections this week, in a ward that saw a spectacular Lib Dem by-election gain the year before last, coming from third to beat Labour. Andrew Teale explains the circumstances of the by-election: The 2024 by-election winner George Percival served for just fifteen months on Southampton council before he tendered his resignation in January. He has been promoted at work, and his new role – which presumably pays more than being a councillor – is ...
The Independent reports that a year after Keir Starmer announced that Britain's aid budget would be slashed by up to 40 per cent, the leaders of dozens of charities have warned the "devastating" consequences of the cuts are being felt in some of the world's most fragile corners: Last February, the prime minister confirmed that the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) would fall from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent by the end of 2027 - in a move justified as helping fund higher defence spending in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But in ...
Here's the tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held between the May 2025 and the May 2026 local elections: Con Lab Lib Dem Green Reform SNP Plaid Ind/ Other Net Con [15] +2 (+2/0) -10 (+2/-12) +2 (+2/0) -20 (+2/-22) -1 (0/-1) – +1 (+2/-1) -26 Lab -2 (0/-2) [16] -5 (0/-4) -7 (0/-7) -29 (0/-28) – -2 (0/-2) -7 (0/-7) -52 Lib Dem +10 (+12/-2) +5 (+5/0) [33] +2 (+3/-1) -1 (+2/-3) +2 (+2/0) – +3 (+3/0) +21 Grn -2 (0/-2) +7 (+7/0) -2 (+1/-3) [7] +1 (+1/0) – – -1 (0/-1) +3 Ref +20 ...
[IMG: Tom Sanderson and Ann Blackwell] Tom Sanderson and Ann Blackwell Huntingdonshire Liberal Democrats report: Widely respected District Councillors Tom Sanderson and Ann Blackwell (The Stukeleys ward) have joined the Liberal Democrats. The two previously independent councillors announced that they have joined the Lib Dems on Thursday, highlighting the values they share with the party and their priority to get things done for their residents in The Stukeleys... Cllr Sanderson and Cllr Blackwell are the fourth and fifth councillors in Huntingdonshire to join the Liberal Democrats this year, joining Cllr Cath Gleadow (St Ives South), Cllr Sally Howell (Yaxley), and ...
Years ago, I was on a rare passenger working through Toton. The ranks of stored wagons and locomotives made it feel like an elephants' graveyard, As Our History Underfoot- the new name for the old Trekking Exploration account - discovers here, the vast yards and loco depot Toton are largely derelict today. This was to have been the site of the East Midlands Hub for HS2, but that won't happen now. Besides Toton, we see the River Erewash and some of the tangle of lines that makes Long Eaton a railway labyrinth.
Following a Labour councillor joining the Lib Dems earlier this week, now two independent councillors have also joined the party: Two Swansea councillors have joined the Liberal Democrats in their second switch since being elected four years ago. Former maths teachers Sandra Joy and Allan Jeffery said they felt the party had momentum and they could have more impact with a Liberal Democrat team behind them. The two Uplands councillors were unveiled at an event alongside Cllr Sam Bennett, who is seeking election to the Senedd in May... Cllrs Joy and Jeffery were elected as Uplands Party candidates in 2022. ...
It was a relatively early start with letter delivery this morning. 200 letters to deliver in to my constituents in Sunniside. It took me about an hour and a half. The letters were the same as those I delivered elsewhere in Sunniside yesterday. I would have liked to get more delivered today but I had Gateshead Council's budget setting meeting to attend instead.At current rate of progress, delivery
Thu 26th
18:53
The Chagos Agreement will secure the Chagossians' right of return. The Liberal Democrats must suppor...
The agreement between Britain and Mauritius over control of the Chagos Islands has become one of the most controversial topics of this Parliament. This is a sorry reflection on the state of UK politics. In more normal times, the Chagos deal would be viewed as a diplomatic success story - an example of two states working together to uphold the rules-based international order for the benefit of all concerned. But these are not normal times. Ever since the government of Liz Truss announced in November 2022 (with the backing of the Biden administration) that it was opening negotiations with Mauritius, ...
The absurd headlines it gives to Alister Heath's opinion pieces are one of the most florid symptoms of the Telegraph's sad descent into madness. Now, thanks to The New World, you can generate Alister Heath headlines yourself. But be warned: it's hard to replicate the craziness of the originals.
For four years I worked in His Majesty's Prison Service. Most of my time was spent with two groups: vulnerable prisoners, often those convicted of sexual offences who couldn't safely be located on normal wings, and men struggling with addiction. What I learned there shaped my view on drugs more than any political argument ever could. The truth is uncomfortable. If you are born with a tough set of circumstances, poverty, unstable housing, parents battling substance misuse, you are statistically far more likely to face those same issues yourself. The data backs this up. Around 46% of people in prison ...
This took Jackie Trent to number one in May 1965 - she wrote it with Tony Hatch, to whom she was married for many years. Their suburban take on Bacharach and David is very effective here. The song owed part of its success to its use in the television series It's Dark Outside, which featured Oliver Reed among its cast. But the footage in the video does not come from that but the film Four in the Morning. This ominous downbeat piece of late kitchen-sink suggested it could be grim in London too - Billy Liar might have been no ...
Thu 26th
10:19
My latest article for Central Bylines... Paddy Logan: Harborough's radical Liberal hero
I've had another piece published on Central Bylines this morning. It looks at the career of J.W. "Paddy" Logan, who was Liberal MP for Harborough from 1891 to 1904 and 1910 to 1916. Here he is speaking in the Commons in 1897: In the Board Schools the children were not taught to curtsey to the squire or to the parson. In the Church Schools the children were taught to fall down and worship the great god of the Clerical party - the landowner. Hon. Gentlemen might laugh, but he knew what he was talking about. He saw it too frequently. ...
Labour started all this off, when they introduced a market economy into higher education, and now they are reaping the fallout from the way the Tories managed that system and their own failure to address the issue earlier in their administration, while making the situation worse by freezing the salary threshold for loan repayments. The Guardian reports that angry backbench Labour MPs have attacked ministers over the student loans crisis, saying graduates are being "outrageously scammed". The paper adds that during a Commons Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday, several Labour MPs joined calls for an urgent shake-up of the "unfair" ...