Councillor defies council to install hedgehog sign

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The councillor is Christian Vassie, a Liberal Democrat member of City of York Council, and the sign has gone up in the village of Wheldrake.

Britain's hedgehogs salute him.

The Joy of Six 1580

"Later he announced that the party are now in favour of cutting fuel duty by 10p, a policy that has not been agreed by conference and one that flies in the face of our commitment to tackling climate change. The Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper also launched a new economic policy in her speech, which, once I had got hold of it, appears to be largely sensible, however, that too has not been approved by conference and it also talks about tax cuts." Peter Black reports from the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference in Brighton.

George Monbiot asks why lawbreaking on our roads isn't just visible, but designed to be seen.

"It had been intended that Lloyd George would go with Lord Kitchener to Russia in order to 'see in what way the Ministry of Munitions could best help' to remedy Russia's shortages. Had he done so, then he would have been aboard the armoured cruiser Hampshire, which on 5 June 1916 struck a recently-laid mine off the Orkney Islands. The weather was foul, and she went down in twenty minutes, taking 749 men with her." Charles Stephenson writes on Ireland, Churchill and Lloyd George.

"For more than seventy years after the war ended, the town elected only left-wing mayors. And yet, ever since 1957, when Rachele reclaimed her husband’s corpse, Predappio has relied on Mussolini for its living." Dani Garavelli visits the village where the Italian fascist dictator was born.

"I wanted to understand why so many people read her, and why they stopped. But I also knew that her life story was like a bonkers telenovela – with suicides, plane-crashes, wartime heroism and royal intrigue – and that during her lifetime she had presented it in a carefully curated way, which could now be interrogated." Matthew Sweet is interviewed about his biography of Barbara Cartland – and an ill-advised attempt to watch 700 episodes of Crossroads.

Rebecca Hutcheon discusses why the places we love in books – the Brontës’ Haworth, Jane Austen’s Bath, Thomas Hardy’s Wessex – can never quite be found in real life. 

GUEST POST Reform and Labour are losing councillors fast

We’ve all enjoyed the regular resignations, defections and disgrace of Reform UK councillors, but the party actually gained councillors from by-election victories and defections, between May 2025 and May 2026. But now, as the latest post from the indefatigable Augustus Carp shows, the tide has turned for them.

The kaleidoscope of local government has continued to twist since the local elections in May, and with it a number of political allegiances have changed. Sometimes a councillor’s defection has little impact, but clustering in some authorities has led to significant weakening in control. For the first time since I started paying any attention to this phenomenon, all political parties have suffered a net loss of councillors, to the benefit of Independents and a number of new Localist groups.

Mark Pack’s website, which diligently catalogues the various defections, expulsions, resignations and arrests of Reform UK councillors, provides a lot of entertainment value, particularly for the type of person who likes watching slow-motion car crashes. But why isn’t anyone paying the same sort of attention to the Labour Party? In terms of defections, ReformUK has lost 48 councillors since the local elections in May. Labour has lost 42 – a similar number, which has received almost no publicity whatsoever. In both cases, there have been a number of councillors in the same political group who have gone at the same time, presumably for ideological rather than just personal reasons.

Seven Labour councillors have gone in Luton, four in Neath, four in Colchester and three in North Tyneside. In Luton, it’s reasonable to assume that the losses from the Labour group were significant in allowing the Lib Dems to form a new minority administration. (But to be fair, the situation there is complex, and the resignation of a senior Lib Dem complicates matters further.)

Four Independents have joined forces with the Conservatives in Braintree, but one has gone the other way. Four of the councillors in Sevenoaks who left the fold in May 2025 to form the West Kent Independent Group have now drifted back. Three others have left the party in Fife

The big losses for Reform UK have been in Durham (8, or maybe 9 councillors, including a suspension) and Plymouth (6) but four have joined in North East Derbyshire and three in Flintshire 

For councillors flying off in all sorts of different directions, have a look at Worcestershire. The Conservatives are unchanged, with two coming and two going, taking at face value their assertion that the national suspension of one of their number doesn’t apply locally. Likewise the Lib Dems are unchanged – one in and one out – but ReformUK are down three. The situation is similarly unclear in some of the District Councils covered by the County.

Across the nation, in the 18 weeks since the local elections in May, the net changes for the number of councillors defecting or getting themselves suspended is:

Conservatives       -6

Labour                 -44

Lib Dem               -15

Greens                  -4

Nationalists           -1  

ReformUK           -48

Independents   +118 

Let’s see if conference season causes any more movement.

Augustus Carp is the pen name of someone who has been a member of the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats since 1976.

Why Liberals must take power away from the media billionaires

In a guest post for Liberal England, Donnachadh McCarthy argues that its time for another Reform Act - one that would remove the power of the billionaire owners who dominate our media.

Radical liberalism has always been in the vanguard of the centuries long march from rule by aristocratic elites toward greater democracy. Whether that was the great Reform Acts of the 19th century or the Universal Suffrage Acts of the 20th century. 

But the final transfer of real power to the people has yet to be completed. Because for as long as the billionaire class own our media, they retain enormous power and control over our body politic. 

When invited to address the George Soros Foundation, as director of the Climate Media Coalition, I stated that there was a fundamental flaw in liberal democracy. 

That flaw is that we allow billionaires the freedom to buy up and dominate our media. You simply cannot have a free and fair democracy if the Fourth Estate is captured by the 0.001 per cent.

Liberalism has always sought to improve on the fairness of our democratic structures. Hence our commitment to written constitutions, institutional checks and balances and proportional representation. 

But with fascism knocking at the door, there is now an added urgency for liberalism to free media ownership from the hands of the tiny illiberal billionaire clique. 

Almost every aspect of our media in the UK is dominated by these illiberal media billionaires. 

Indeed, many politicians have been afraid to even discuss the issue, due to the fear of their propaganda power, which can destroy almost any political career instantly. Almost every prime minister of the last half-century has been backed by the US/Australian media billionaire Rupert Murdoch. 

When a newly elected member of the Liberal Democrats' Federal Executive in the early 1990’s, I was frustrated that the party never campaigned on European issues in European elections. So, when the 1994 EU elections arose, I asked if we could do so. 

Back came the response from that we could not as Murdoch would trash the party, if we did so. I said if the most pro-European party was afraid to campaign on European issues in European elections, then if there ever was a referendum, we had already lost.

Since Brexit, the media billionaires replaced their war on the EU with a 24/7 war on climate protection and the ECHR. They wiped out what was left of the One Nation Tories, after switching their backing to Reform about five years ago and bullied Badenoch to becoming a Reform 2.0 party. 

Their endless attacks on climate action have destroyed the cross-party consensus on climate. And their endless propaganda for Reform, fuelled their polling surge and won their first seats in parliament, where the billionaire media now treats them as the Official Opposition, whilst ignoring the LibDems. 

Our estimate of the monetary value of these non-declarable propaganda donations is well over £200m.

Thus, we now have not one but two major parties in parliament, representing up to 50 per cent of the population in some opinion polls, which are far-right. Up from a tiny 3 per cent just five years ago.  

If they win a majority in the next parliament, everything the climate movement and liberals have worked for over decades would be under threat.

So how should liberals act to end this existential threat to liberal democracy? 

We need to complete the Great Reform Acts and legislate for the transfer of power from the media billionaires to the general public by passing a Media Freedom (Sovereignty) Act. 

The Media Sovereignty Campaign has drawn up a proposed act that would do five things:

• ban foreign media ownership;
• restrict anybody from owning more than 20% of a national media outlet and no corporation can own more than one national media outlet;
• fund independent and local media with a social media levy on the tech billionaires;
• require national media to join a complaints authority that is independent of government and media owners;
• require dark-money funded think-tanks to declare donations in real time.

The Act already has been endorsed by Peter Oborne, Zack Polanski, Clive Lewis MP, Jonathan Porritt, Prof. Bill McGuire, Sir David King, Prof. Richard Betts, Sir Mark Rylance, George Monbiot and Prof. Hugh Montgomery. 

The Campaign is hopeful that the Green Party Conference in October will adopt all five measures in the Act. 

Our hope is that the Act will then be passed by the Liberal Democrats' Spring Conference in light of the urgent threat the billionaire-media’s promotion of far-right parties poses to liberal democracy. We are looking for Lib Dem constituency parties to submit the Act to the conference committee for selection to be debated. 

This Act will enable the greatest transfer of real political power from the billionaire ruling cabal to the people, since the adoption of women’s suffrage. Liberals should be at the forefront of another Great Reform Act. 

Donnachadh McCarthy is a Director of the Climate Media Coalition, co-founder of the Media Sovereignty Campaign and a former climate columnist for The Independent. He is the author of The Prostitute State: How Britain’s Democracy Was Bought. He is a former Deputy Chair of the Liberal Democrats Federal Executive.

The Media Sovereignty Campaign can be contacted via its website, Bluesky or email.

Work, play and creativity: Another column for the JCPCP

This is another of the quarterly 'Sighcology' columns I contribute to the  Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Work, play and creativity

An overexcited website selling business courses tells us:

It’s easy to play it safe. To follow the rules and optimise what already exists. In a world of constant change, sensible can feel smart. Until it stops working. You see, logic will get you to the starting line – but only creativity will win you the race.

 That's why we believe creativity is the most valuable capability for growth. And it’s something that you can learn, practise and embed in every area of life. 

And another devoted to resources for creativity says:

We learn when we play as children, in fact this accounts for most of our early learning. Play acts as a learning laboratory for trying out different internal models on an external world. This is not dissimilar to our traditional brainstorming sessions.

Does this mean that we can all regress into childhood and that making mistakes or behaving foolishly does not matter? Of course not. What we mean in this context is that a certain degree of chaos, learning from mistakes and not playing by the rules is acceptable.

The link between creativity and childhood play in adulthood has indeed been studied by psychologists, with Sandra Russ publishing a book confidently titled Pretend Play in Childhood: Foundation of Adult Creativity. But I wonder if children’s play is as anarchic as the business world makes it sound?

There are philosophers who saw play differently. Michel de Montaigne wrote that “it should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.” Nietzsche agreed, saying man’s maturity is “to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play”.

And if you don’t trust philosophy, listen to the young protagonists of Richard Jefferies’ Bevis: The Story of a Boy, which appeared in 1882 as a three-volume adult novel but was later repurposed as a children’s classic. The two boys explore the farms and reservoir around their homes with heads full of adventure stories, and everything they see or do has to be reimagined in the light of them. They even have to reimagine themselves:

“We ought to be something,” said Mark discontentedly.

“Of course we ought,” said Bevis. “Things are very stupid unless you are something.”

*****

W.H. Auden displayed a map of Alston Moor in the study of his home on Fire Island, near New York. The landscape of decaying lead mines it pictured had haunted his early poetry, and before that his childhood imaginings. Between the ages of six and twelve, he recalled, he devoted much of his waking thought to “the construction and elaboration of a private sacred world, the basic elements of which were a landscape, northern and limestone, and an industry, lead mining”.

There were, however, rules. His was a Meccano world, not a Minecraft one:

I decided, or rather, without conscious decision, I instinctively felt that I must impose two restrictions upon my freedom of fantasy. In choosing what objects were to be included, I was free to select this and reject that, on condition that both were real objects in the primary world, to choose, for example, between two kinds of water turbine ... I was not allowed to invent one.

He was faced with just such a choice between machines:

One type I found more sacred or “beautiful”, but the other type was, as I knew from my reading, the more efficient. At this point I realised that it was my moral duty to sacrifice my aesthetic preference to reality or truth.

The child was father to the poet, because you can see the same morality at work in Auden’s growing dissatisfaction with one of his most celebrated poems, “September 1, 1939”. He omitted two stanzas from its first publication and became increasingly dissatisfied with its conclusion that “We must love one another or die.” 

"Between you and me,” he wrote to a critic in 1957, “I loathe that poem.” He found it too flattering both to him and to his readers, and changed its final line in later printings to “We must love one another and die,” but mostly he refused permission for it to appear at all.

******

So maybe children’s play is not the free-for-all its enthusiasts in the world of business courses assume but has rules that adults are too busy or sentimental to notice. And maybe they have got creativity wrong too.

The classic way of measuring creativity is the Alternative Uses Test which presents the subject with a simple object – a brick is a favourite choice – and asks them to think of as many uses for it as possible in a set time. But this seems a limited view of what creativity consists in. Isn’t it more social than that? As far as brainstorming works in business – and there seems a consensus that it’s not far at all – it’s not because someone in the room says something brilliant: it works because they say something silly, someone else turns it on its head and a third person realises that there might be something useful here.

Solitariness can be the enemy of creativity. In the days when my political party published a weekly newspaper, I would often find myself at our annual conference and being asked to write a column for it in a couple of hours, only to find that I didn’t have an idea in my head. The secret was not to sit there and think harder: it was to get away from the screen for half an hour and go for a wander around the trade stands and the stalls run by party groups. 

I would have a chat with someone, pick up a piece of gossip from an old friend and a handful of leaflets about good causes. I might end up using little of what I had gleaned, but when I got back to the newspaper’s office the gears were whirring again and the column wrote itself.

The Grimond Society and economic democracy

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The Grimond Society, a Liberal Democrat group that aims to build support for economic democracy and a more cooperative and mutualistic economy, gets a good write up on the Co-op News website.

It quotes the society's founder, Jack Meredith:

"The Liberal Democrats have always stood for the idea of liberty and freedom from poverty, from homelessness, from what Beveridge called the evils of society. And why would we stop at the ballot box? Clearly it makes sense that if we want to try and enrich people’s lives, and help them find meaning, why aren’t we supporting co-operatives more and being more vocal about them?"

The Grimond Society has a website, and you can also read about its ambitions in an article on Lib Dem Voice.

The Liberal Party's support for economic democracy was one of the things that first attracted me to it. That support dwindled over the Alliance years, when the most you heard was support for employee shareholding. 

This is a questionable idea – if things go wrong you can lose both your job and your capital – and behind it, I suspected at the time, was little more than a desire to make people work harder.

Since merger, we have heard little from the Lib Dems on the subject, so all power to the Grimond Society.

Good news about the Family Farm Tax

Farmers have been complaining for some time that the price of farmland has lost any connection with the income that be derived from farming it. And The Agri Brigade column in the new Private Eye suggests they have a strong case:

Average UK farmland prices have more than quadrupled this century, from just under £2,000 an acre to well over £8,000 an acre, according to statistics from land agents Savills. 

Over that time, farm profitability has remained poor, but farmland's IHT-free status drew many ultra-high-net-worth individuals into buying land as a convenient way of minimising their tax liabilities – the so-called "Jeremy Clarkson effect". 

By doing so, these buyers pushed up the price of farmland way beyond what many ordinary farmers can afford to pay for it (UK farmland prices are four times higher than those in France, for example).

For this reason, I argued back in January that it was the lack of inheritance tax on farmland that had caused causing farmers' problems.

But now, from the same Eye column, comes good news:

Evidence is emerging that the controversial withdrawal of 100 per cent Inheritance tax [IHT] relief on farmland is having the intended effects of cooling a previously overheated market and deterring those who are more interested in minimising their tax bill than producing food. ...

In 2025, the proportion of farmland bought by what Strutt & Parker describes as "lifestyle buyers" fell to 11 per cent down from 16 per cent the year before. At the same time, the proportion of farms bought by farmers rose to a seven-year high of 59 per cent. 

During 2025, the Knight Frank Farmland Index showed that bare agricultural land sold in England and Wales fell by an average of 5 per cent, the first time since 2017 that prices had fallen this much over a 12 month period.

The Eye speculates that, because they tend to represent the interests of their wealthier members, the National Farmers Union and the Country Land and Business Association (formerly the Country Landowners Association) will continue to campaign against inheritance tax on farmland.

But I hope we Liberal Democrats will quietly drop our campaign against what, strangely, we called the "Family Farm Tax".

The Joy of Six 1573

Who are the goons in balaclavas who turned up in Dover and Portsmouth? Hope Not Hate explains: "In 2016, he [Danny Tommo] pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to two years in prison after taking part in an armed attempt to abduct a man during a drugs-related dispute."

Rosemary Runswick argues that the Liberal Democrats should fight the Holborn and St Pancras by-election hard and answers her critics in the comments.

Cathy Young pays tribute to Gloria Steinem: "The vision Steinem shared in 1971 of a humanist and egalitarian future may have been simplistic in its idealism. But in 2026, it’s a far more humane vision, and better for it, than what her right-wing detractors have to offer."

"During the 1868 election his opponent suggested that McLagan was 'not a Scotchman' and a racist cartoon was circulated in the constituency depicting McLagan as a slavedriver with a blackened face, flogging a topless man in a kilt. The cartoon played on the status of McLagan’s father as an enslaver, local perceptions of McLagan's racial identity and statements McLagan made during the 1868 election in support of flogging in the military." Martin Spychal has researched the career of Peter McLagan, whom he calls "Scotland’s first Black MP".

"She was multifaceted in a way that few are: she was a popular, well-respected, beloved iconoclast, a true original, and she also radiated the self-referential camp of a celebrity impersonator. She operated both as a person and as an idea: Dolly seemed to consciously 'do' Dolly. A songwriter, musician, actress, philanthropist, advocate, mogul and more, she was always pivoting between different aspects of herself, and twirling those impressive embellished skirts and dresses all the while." Niela Orr celebrates the life and music of Dolly Parton.

The Secret Cricket Coach asks where the hell Rob Key is: "For years he was paid to tell us what was right and wrong with English cricket. Now he is responsible for much of it, but recently we haven’t heard much from him. England have had a difficult period, questions are being asked about behaviour, standards and leadership, and it is Joe Root who seems to be answering them. I find that quite strange."

Lib Dem policy is light on politics not on outside expertise

The Liberal Democrats are getting a new think tank, reports Politico.

The Britain Project, though it will not be formally affiliated to the party, will be launched at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference later this month:

Tim Leunig, the group’s policy director, who recently became a Liberal Democrat peer in Britain’s unelected House of Lords, said: "We are here to help them."

"But we’re also here to ask them tough questions because: who knows? They might be a minister one day, and then the civil service will ask them tough questions."

And Lord Leunig does sound a little like a cross between a regimental sergeant major and a dyspeptic Oxbridge admissions tutor throughout the piece.

You are probably wondering who is funding The Britain Project. Politico says the names of the individual donors will not be revealed, but I wonder if that arrangement is wise or tenable.

My experience on the party's federal policy committee (FPC) led me to conclude that the Lib Dems were not short of expert input into their policy – or at least outside input, as much of it was from campaign groups – but short of political input.

What happened was that reports written by a working party and then brought to FPC. Much as happened at Conference, there would be a debate on one controversial idea, but the rest of it would be nodded through.

I remember questioning one recommendation and being told by the chair of the working party that the RSPCA would condemn us if we said anything different. It sometimes felt as though we did not so much make policy as buy it in.

There was sometimes talk of an alternative model, a select committee model, where a small group of FPC members would take evidence from outside bodies and then write the final policy themselves. #

This still seems to me a better model, because it offers the possibility of policy that is at once informed by outside expertise and Liberal in its effect.

Politico says many Lib Dem MPs are interested in being involved with the new think tank, which may be a reflection of the thinness of the party's policy offer in recent years, but it's still encouraging, given how little engagement they had with FPC when I was on it.

I hope, however, that The Britain Project will contribute to party policy and not write it.

Former Reform UK councillor joins the Lib Dem group on West Northamptonshire

Jonathan Harris (left) and Kathryn Shaw. Photo: West Northants Lib Dems  

NN Journal reports some unexpected news from Northamptonshire:

A former Reform UK cabinet member on West Northamptonshire Council has now joined the Liberal Democrat group.

Cllr Kathryn Shaw previously stepped down from her role as portfolio holder for children, families and education at the start of 2026. In March, she later quit the Reform UK group completely, becoming an independent.

Cllr Shaw told NN Journal:

"Over the past eight months, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on what matters most to me, both as a councillor and as a person. For me, it has always been about people before politics, with children, families and our communities at the forefront of everything I do.

"Joining the Liberal Democrats feels like the right next step, alongside a group who share that strong community focus and who understand the importance of putting residents first.

"I have also been consistently impressed by the calibre of the Liberal Democrat group. There is a depth of knowledge, intellect, experience and thoughtful challenge within the team that I genuinely believe has a great deal to offer West Northamptonshire.

"I will continue to ask challenging questions, push boundaries and make a bit of noise when it’s needed but always with the same purpose: to make a genuine difference to the people I represent."

Back in March, she explained her resignation from Reform UK to BBC News:

"My decision is grounded in professional judgement and principle. I believe I can more effectively advocate for strong safeguarding systems, accountable governance and the removal of unnecessary bureaucracy affecting children and vulnerable people outside of a party structure.

"My commitment to protecting children, strengthening safeguarding culture and demanding accountability remains unwavering. The work continues, and it must continue with integrity, consciousness and courage."

Jonathan Harris, leader of the Lib Dem group on West Northamptonshire told NN Journal today:

"We are delighted that Kathryn has decided to join the Liberal Democrats. It is clear that Kathryn is passionate about making a difference to the people of West Northants.

"We welcome her energy, enthusiasm, commitment and experience to the team and we are looking forward to supporting her in her work.

"She joins our group as another community-focused councillor; Lib Dem Councillors work hard to support their communities and have a strong desire to make a difference to people’s lives."

God adds:

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

h/t Mark Pack.

Gareth Epps and the quiet lanes of Oxfordshire

Liberator's Gareth Epps has made the BBC News Oxfordshire pages because the Liberal Democrat run authority is about to approve its first 'quiet lane' at Stanton St John, a village to the north east of the city of Oxford.

Quiet lanes are closed to almost all through motor traffic, with exceptions made for residents and emergency services, to create safer and more pleasant routes for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. 

I was hoping to add a killer quote here from Gareth, the council's cabinet member for place, environment and climate action, but BBC News, true to form, is more interested in the scheme's critics than its advantages. It does at least call him the county's "transport boss" though.

So for an account of the many advantages of quiet lanes, download the guide produced by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The Joy of Six 1569

Matt Gallagher reports that "the UK quietly sent one of its most senior security officials to a Trump administration summit which proposed to turn global counter-terrorism infrastructure against the political left."

"The values that translate to a modern Liberal success in terms of voting demographics are not simply responsible economics, but a commitment to individualism, social justice and equality; values that when communicated clearly can drive the support of those they affect most, alongside the conscientious urban populations, all of whom now flock to the Greens for these same reasons." Rose Runswick argues that the Liberal Democrats should stand for more than "business".

Josiah Mortimer on the problems with the government announcement that domestic plug-in solar panels are now allowed in the UK.

Samir Jeraj says cuts to council spending, including on adventure playgrounds, are jeopardising Leicester's recovery from the riots of 2022: "Staff, supporters and the local community are campaigning against the cuts and there are city-wide elections next year, which could reverse decades of Labour domination in the city. Opposition parties ranging from the Conservatives to the Greens are opposing the cuts to the adventure playgrounds and they could become a symbolic issue in the campaign."

"The digital sources barely scratch the surface of what exists in big archives, in tiny archives, in people’s attics. So save yourself the bother, save the planet, save the erosion of your cognitive faculties and learn to do it properly." Sophie Michell sees no role for AI in family history.

"There are six publicly known positive DNA results that match the leopard (Panthera pardus), two from recent years: from Gloucestershire in 2022, from a hair snagged on a barbed-wire fence in the vicinity of a sheep kill; and from Cumbria in 2023, when DNA was found on a carcass – again, of a sheep." Rick Minter makes the case that there are big cats living in the British countryside.

North Lancashire Lib Dems call for county police to reveal dealings with Palantir

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Here's a heartening story from the Lancaster Guardian:

The North Lancashire Liberal Democrats are calling for Lancashire Police to reveal the full extent of its dealings with controversial US tech firm Palantir.

It comes after an investigation by Computer Weekly and the Good Law Project revealed the force is one of six across the country testing Palantir’s AI tools in contracts worth a total of £7.8m.

Reportedly, no minutes were kept from Lancashire Police meetings about the procurement of Palantir AI tools.

The newspaper reports comments by Rowan Fitton, a Lib Dem campaigner from Morecambe, who has written to the county's police and crime commissioner Clive Grunshaw, demanding answers over the procurement process:

"In the UK, our right to privacy is sacred and we won’t stand idly by whilst a shady American tech firm could be harvesting our data and making millions in the process. 

"Lancashire Police need to be crystal clear about why Palantir was chosen as a supplier, given the growing number of concerns around privacy and effectiveness. 

"The public also has a right to know what their data may be used for, where it’s being taken from, and why it’s being shared.” "

Alarm bells, says the Lancaster Guardian, were set off when it was reported that no minutes were taken at Lancashire Police meetings about a potential partnership with Palantir.

North Lancashire Lib Dems say this leaves questions around why the decision to work with Palantir was made and whether Lancashire Police is being honest with the public.

Happy 20th birthday to Liberal Democrat Voice

Congratulations to Liberal Democrat Voice, which is celebrating its 20th birthday today. And hello to Mary Reid, a fellow York philosophy graduate.

I find that I first mentioned Lib Dem Voice here on 14 September 2006:

Welcome and congratulations to Liberal Democrat Voice, which already seems to be establishing itself as the place for Lib Dem discussion on the net. Natural selection operates pretty ruthlessly there, so it is obviously doing a lot right.

I recommend in particular Alex Wilcock's dissection of Trust in People: Make Britain Free, Fair and Green and the debate in the comments on Rob Fenwick's posting on the 50p top tax rate amendment.

The Joy of Six 1567

"Profound isolation contributed to the deaths of more than 100 care leavers in England in a year, with a dramatic drop-off in support from social services at 18 leading to catastrophic consequences, a review has found. A government-commissioned report into the early deaths of young people who left care described the problem as a national tragedy and said many were left on their own 'at the height of vulnerability' before they died." Jessica Murray reports on the continuing scandal of Britain's care system for children.

William Lane tells it like it is: "Liberalism in Britain has been and always will be a centre-left tendency, and British history is littered with the corpses of right-Liberal projects. Any successful Liberal government or coalition in Britain must come through the centre-left, and a Lib Dem shift to the right would alienate the very voters it needs to be reaching out to if the party is to expand over 100-odd seats."

Justine Pedussel and Jim Dickinson argue that the Treasury is bankrupting universities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"Despite being diagnosed with ADHD in 2020, I remain somewhat agnostic about the disorder. Many friends have since been diagnosed. When I was in America in 2023, it seemed that most of the young people I spoke to had been diagnosed with it. Procuring Adderall was about as easy as buying a packet of cigarettes. But that does not mean that ADHD isn't real, and Pemberton’s documentary seemed to elide this distinction throughout." James Bloodworth reviews The Great ADHD Myth?

"What is the future for the Tower of Power? No-one knows. It’s not listed, and you know what people are like about postwar buildings. These places frighten them for the different ways of living they suggest, and the ambition of an age we no longer feel directly connected to." John Grindrod celebrates the tower that houses the offices of Buckinghamshire County Council in Aylesbury.

Candice Bailey collates of collection of reviews of the 25 best folk horror films of the 2020s (so far).

The Joy of Six 1566

"Our promise should be: We don’t want power so we can run your life. We want power in order to give it back to you." Roz Savage asks what has happened to Liberalism and what would make it relevant again.

Simon Pearson rightly says that the online left has lost sight of issues like class, ownership and material power: "The left needs to recover the harder ambition that once defined it: taking people divided by culture, race, sex, nationality and countless other experiences and building a common politics around material interests without pretending those differences do not exist. That requires organisation rather than recognition, explanation rather than denunciation and a serious account of ownership and power."

Nathan Ley explains why our streets may flood this winter, and why it won't be because of the council's 'blocked drains': "Dry clay shrinks, cracks, and forms a crust that sheds water instead of taking it in. Soil hydrophobicity is the technical term. The first heavy rain after a long drought doesn't soak away. It runs, quickly, and reaches the drainage network all at once rather than seeping through over several hours."

"A rash wartime policy ordered the detention of hundreds of Manchester Italians in a prison camp in Bury, and sent many to their deaths on a camouflaged military vessel in the Atlantic. Amongst them were ice-cream sellers, bakers, shopkeepers and a priest. Why were they there at all?" Ethan Penny uncovers a forgotten wartime injustice.

"Nuts In May was an accurate and excruciating reflection of the human condition when it was first broadcast in 1976, was still relevant to us students in the 90s, and even today in 2026, has lost none of its power over the viewer. This is a film with tension, outrage and tragedy. That so much perfectly fits into 81 minutes is a tribute to the brilliance of its director, the taut script structure and flawless cast." Adelle Stripe revisit Mike Leigh's 1976 cult classic.

Mike Nevell takes us to Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the world’s first iron-framed building (built 1796-7), and thus the forerunner to the modern-day skyscraper.

David Campanale seeks £788,740.75 compensation from Lib Dems

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David Campanale, the former prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam who was deselected in 2023, and the national party are oceans apart when it comes to the compensation he deserves for suffering religious discrimination.

The Guardian reports:

Campanale's schedule of loss, seen by the Guardian, puts his claim at £788,740.75, including interest. It seeks compensation for injury to feelings, aggravated damages, past and future earnings, the loss of an MP's pension, counselling costs and the "loss of a chance", or "loss of political capital".

But in a counter-schedule filed on Friday, the Lib Dems described Campanale's claim as "grossly inflated and egregious". Their lawyers say £14,000 should be awarded for injury to feelings, and as a volunteer political party member, Campanale could have been expected to withstand “rigorous political debate and criticism”. They put aggravated damages, past and future loss of earnings, an MP’s pension and the loss of political capital at £0.

The Lib Dems have admitted to direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of religion or belief under the Equality Act in connection with the affair.

Helen Morgan on the importance of external scrutiny of the NHS

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Helen Morgan has been interviewed by Healthcare Management about the Liberal Democrats' concern at government plans to reduce external scrutiny of the National Health Service.

She says:

"We know from polling back in 2024 there are people who feel their care has been poor, but they don't want to report that back into the NHS because they are dependent on that care, and they think it might impact on the care that they're receiving, and that's the value of Healthwatch because it's so independent of the NHS."

There are a number of changes involved, so it's all rather technical and involves a lot of acronyms, but this is certainly one of the most important current Lib Dem campaigns.

Lib Dems fight to save independent scrutiny of the NHS

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The Liberals Democrats are fighting government proposals to reduce independent scrutiny of the National Health Service. Some of them were opposed by Andy Burnham as recently as last November, when he was still mayor of Manchester.

A press release from the party explains our concerns about its new Health Bill:

The Government’s Bill will remove the duty for the NHS to cooperate with the Care Quality Commission and provide key safety data, will remove automatic 'safe space' protections for whistleblowers, and result in the closure of local healthwatch organisations, which provide independent advocacy for patients and uncover failings. 

The Liberal Democrats have tabled amendments to the Health Bill that would cancel these changes and are urging the new Burnham administration to adopt them. They have vowed to robustly fight the Government in the House of Lords, where Labour doesn’t have a majority.

This comes as the NHS in England recorded 403 'never events' (serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if appropriate safeguards are in place) between April 2025 and March 2026. 

Many patient protections currently at risk, including Healthwatch and key whistleblower safeguards, were established following the major NHS hospital scandals in Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, and Basildon and Thurrock that took place during Andy Burnham’s tenure as Health Secretary and before that a Minister of Health.

Oversight by the healthcare regulator, the CQC, is under threat as the changes would remove the NHS’ "duty to cooperate". The CQC has warned this will restrict its access to safety-critical information, such as patient safety incident reports. 

NHS whistleblowers could lose key legal protections under the planned Bill. Currently, staff who raise safety concerns with the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) are guaranteed anonymity. But HSSIB is losing its independence, meaning cases will move to the Care Quality Commission, which offers no such guarantee.

Labour has previous on such moves. Tony Blair's government scrapped the community health councils that had been the main vehicle for public and patient involvement in the NHS since they were introduced under legislation passed by Ted Heath's Conservative government in 1973.

But a hierarchical organisation like the NHS needs whistleblowers and external scrutiny, because passing bad news up to your superiors is rarely the way to prosper there. The result is a world where senior NHS figures, and the health ministers they brief, are left with too rosy a picture of their organisation.

As the journalist Simon Carr once said:

It's not that politicians lie, it's that they don't know if they are telling the truth. They perceive the world through statistics that have been processed by collaborators who are more or less "subconsciously influenced" to manufacture the required facts. Everything from the inflation index to waiting lists is derived from data ontologically perverted by the political process.

Inside Southwark's Green/Lib Dem coalition council

BBC News has posted a positive write up by Susana Mendonca of the Green/Lib Dem administration that has run the London Borough of Southwark since May's local elections.

At those elections, the Green Party won 22 seats and the Lib Dems 12, then used their combined majority to take control. Southwark is the only London borough currently being run by such a coalition.

The Lib Dems secured three posts in the leadership team, including that of deputy council leader which is filled by their group leader Victor Chamberlain.

Chamberlain told BBC News: 

"The more we started talking, the more we realised that we had a lot in common, that we shared similar values and aspirations for our borough, and actually we wanted to build a borough that is more affordable, that is safer and that is greener.

"I think we found it really very constructive to work as two parties that both bring great ideas to the table."

The article also quotes the deputy leader of the opposition Labour group, who seems rather fixated on process:

"Apart from a number of meetings being cancelled, we've had two proposed cuts, one being the Nest which is a free mental health support for young people and a dementia service being cut, but it's been reversed because the Labour group, along with residents have pushed back.

"It's quite clear that they don't know what they're doing and actually this [coalition] was done in a rush."