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Alexandra Hall Hall writes the big reset speech she wishes Keir Starmer had made after Labour’s local elections defeats: "I know that much of what I have said today will be controversial or unpopular. But good leadership requires the courage to say the hard things. What I took from last week’s election results is that I – we all – need to raise our game. We need to be more honest, more forthright, and more willing to take the hard choices."

"Lowe was educated at Radley. He built a career in financial services. He owns substantial agricultural land. He was chairman of Southampton Football Club. He speaks in the measured cadences of a man who has chaired many meetings and expects to chair many more. When he stands on a stage and talks about mass deportation, he sounds like he is presenting a business case. That is the innovation. Not the policy. The presentation." Simon Pearson warns of the threat posed by Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain.

"The real danger that artificial intelligence poses to work is not just job loss – it is the growing divide between people who use AI to extend their skills and those whose working lives are increasingly shaped by opaque, AI-powered systems of surveillance and control." Nazrul Islam on real threat that AI poses to workers.

Jon Rainford and Alex Blower set out their research on what working-class boys need to succeed at school.

Helen Kingstone says the 19th-century novelist Margaret Oliphant has much to teach us about our attitude to ageing: "Her novels (100 of them!) were largely forgotten in the twentieth century, but are now being celebrated by scholars and fellow-novelists. She wrote astutely and sometimes bitterly about society’s failure to recognise women’s capabilities. And she had surprisingly prescient views on ageing, which can offer valuable tools for contemporary campaigners."

"Flowing with an engaging warmth throughout, this wholesome evening not only showcases evidence of Tikaram's timeless talent as a songwriter and sound ability to orchestrate a band of incredible musicians, but it also seems to offer a beautifully open celebration of her queer identity; each song bringing with it its own unique sense of joy and pride." Mari Lane celebrates the music of Tanita Tikaram.

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"Millions of teenagers would lose the freedom to enjoy games and social interaction in the name of 'safety'. Even complaining on family WhatsApp would be impossible, as they would be banned from that too. Such a restriction would severely impact not just young people’s ability to play games or socialise, but also access support services, or engage in or discuss political content or ideas." James Baker argues that Liberal Democrats should not support Baroness Benjamin's amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Sophia Alexandra Hall explains why care leavers need better access to childhood records: "Among the papers was a photocopy of a photograph of Jackie and her sister. The council initially refused to give her the original, saying it belonged to them. She persisted. When she finally received it, she discovered a date and time written on the back. Those details had never appeared in the copy."

Anglican Ink has an anonymous post by an anonymous retired Church of England that paints an unflattering portrait of the young Justin Welby.

We hear a lot about making cities child friendly, but Max Western and Afroditi Stathi remind us that the modern urban landscape isn't kind to old people either.

"The public story of Google Maps is that it passively reflects 'what people like'. More stars, more reviews, better food. But that framing obscures how the platform actually operates. Google Maps is not just indexing demand – it is actively organising it through a ranking system built on a small number of core signals that Google itself has publicly acknowledged: relevance, distance, and prominence." Lauren Leek on how Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants and how she built a dashboard to see through it.

Scott Shea chooses six songs that tell the story of Sam Cooke.

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Callum Miller, the party's foreign affairs spokesperson, sets out a Liberal Democrat approach to foreign policy: "Our economy is stronger and our security greater when we work with other nations. As an open economy, the UK is a beneficiary when all nations work together and abide by shared rules."

"Gibb’s allies say he’s trying to save the BBC from itself. To me, though, his behavior resembles less a tree surgeon trying to prune an oak for stronger growth than a lumberjack sizing it into planks of wood." Jem Bartholomew dissects the right-wing plan to bring down the BBC.

An investigation by openDemocracy and the Children Rights International Network reveals the shocking extent of the bullying, harassment, self-harm, sexual offences and safeguarding failures that teenagers who join the British Army are subject to.

Fiona Daly says we have grown too comfortable with the exclusion of older people from the digital world.

Alan Tyler tells the story of the remarkable Isokon flats in Belsize Park: "Along with the Bauhaus refugees came many notable residents through the coming years – crime novelist Agatha Christie being the most famous and Soviet spymaster Arnold Deutsch probably the most notorious."

"From the start he has the air of a man who’s seen it all, little of it good. His reaction to a source being gunned down in front of him at Checkpoint Charlie is so restrained as to make it seem routine." Sara Batkie on Richard Burton's performance in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

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"We don’t have a political system, more like the US, where people are more empowered to act for their area, to act independently. I think the British political system and MPs individually would rise in the public’s esteem if they were able to act with more independence on an everyday basis and say what they really feel. Maybe we’d have a more vibrant political debate if people went into interviews and said what they were feeling, as opposed to what they’ve been told to say." Andy Burnham talks to Hardeep Matharu from Byline Times.

Stewart Lee once described Twitter as "a state surveillance agency staffed by gullible volunteers". Jason Koebler and Matthew Gault come to much the same conclusion about more recent developments: "The CEO seemingly having an affair with the head of HR at his company at the Coldplay concert is a viral video for the ages, but it is also, unfortunately, emblematic of our current private surveillance and social media hellscape."

Gary T. Gunnels reviews Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian: "Slobodian’s central thesis is that Hayek’s intellectual edifice, rooted in his arguments for spontaneous order and market mechanisms, has been warped by a group of unwanted 'bastards' into a justification for a racially hierarchical social order."

Kate Moore argues that, for many people, ageing means lost independence in a digital online world built without them in mind."

"I first heard of Baron from Iain Sinclair's description of him (and Gerald Kersh) as being amongst 'the Reforgotten' – British writers brought back in and out of fashion over the decades." Discontinued Notes on Alexander Baron.

Kelefa Sanneh considers the strange persistence of prog rock: "The genre’s bad reputation has been remarkably durable, even though its musical legacy keeps growing. Twenty years ago, Radiohead released 'OK Computer,' a landmark album that was profoundly prog: grand and dystopian, with a lead single that was more than six minutes long. But when a reporter asked one of the members whether Radiohead had been influenced by Genesis and Pink Floyd, the answer was swift and categorical: 'No. We all hate progressive rock music.'"

“Historically, no one lived past age 35”: The myth that won't die

Thanks to Dr Jenn Dowd for spelling it out so clearly:

I’ve heard *so* many versions of this claim over the years, including recently from a prominent menopause doctor/influencer (implying that menopause is not “natural” because no one lived long enough to go through it). Every time someone states this “fact,” a demographer loses a piece of their soul.

What’s the truth?

When life expectancy was in the 30s, you were more likely to die in your 70s than in your 30s.

Why?

• Life expectancy is an average
• Mortality under age 5 was extremely high historically
• If you survived to age 5 your chances of living to old age were decent.

I’m sure if you think about this for a minute it this will be obvious. But a picture is worth a thousand words...

Go to the full post for graphs that make the truth clear.

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James Crouch argues that the greatest challenge the Conservative Party faces is a lack of unity among both its members and its remaining voters.

"In their speeches to this week’s Labour Party conference, Rachel Reeves mentioned it only briefly and in passing, and Keir Starmer not at all. It’s absurd, especially as the guiding theme of both speeches, as of the government’s entire incoming communications message, is that of the dire inheritance bequeathed by its Tory predecessors. Brexit can hardly be excluded from that reckoning." Chris Grey says there’s still little sign Britain has accommodated itself to Brexit or has any idea how to do so.

"It’s night. I’m trying to sleep. I’m so tired. But a voice says, 'What time is it?'. It’s half two, Mum, go to sleep. Half an hour later again, 'What time is it?'. Mum, it’s night, that’s why it’s dark. Please be quiet and let me sleep. 'Oh, okay.' Ten minutes later, 'Mick, put the light on for me'. My brother Mick hasn’t lived in this house for over 40 years! Again, I calm her down. But it only lasts for a bit, and finally at quarter to four I give up on this night, get out of bed and start the day." Anna Schurer talked to a carer and describes her life in her own words.

Andrew Anthony reviews a new book on Elon Musk's destruction of Twitter.

"It was a seminal moment in chess history, comparable to the 1945 USA v USSR radio match when the Americans, quadruple Olympiad gold winners in the 1930s, were crushed 15.5-4.5 to launch 45 years of Soviet supremacy, interrupted only by Bobby Fischer." Leonard Barden on India's dominant performance in the chess Olympiad.

Jon Hotten remembers Graham Thorpe: "His professional life was stellar, but other parts were hard, perhaps impossibly so, and there’s a deep and abiding sadness to that."

On not being convinced by the case for axing winter fuel payments

I've seen many tweets in favour of Rachel Reeves's decision to stop making winter fuel payments to pensioners unless they are on welfare benefits. Most include a statement along the lines of "it's wrong for public money to go to people who don't need it".

Leaving aside the facts that our state pensions are on the low side by European standards and that its arguable some of the people who will no longer receive these payments do need them, I distrust arguments that make things sound so simple.

Because I don't believe we arrive at our political views so logically. We don't carry around a neat set of principles that we can apply to any question in the news: it's more that we have an instinctive reaction to a new policy, then cast around for a general principle we can use to justify it.

And I don't think the principle that people have come up with is as reasonable as it sounds. It could, for instance, be used to justify anyone with a decent private pension being denied one from the state.

Under it, any encounter with the state would be an unpleasant affair of means tests and the accompanying threats of prosecution if you make a mistake on a form.

The reality is that an effective and civilised welfare system will include a mix of universal and means-tested benefits. Where you draw the line between them is not a question of simple principle, more one of practical judgement that will be influenced by how much government can afford and a general desire not to discourage people from seeking help at all by making it too demeaning.

But maybe some of these tweeters do want to discourage people from claiming benefits. I have not seen one of them go on, after welcoming Rachel Reeves's decision, to set out a way of spending the money saved that will be of more benefit to the poor. At least Reeves said "This was not a decision I wanted to make."

GUEST POST In old age a shared past is rich and comforting

The Secret Support Worker discusses what older people in care homes need to thrive - and what they are given.

Well, gentle reader, I did it. I walked away from the most amazing and most magical (and most badly paid) of jobs.

I don’t really know how it happened, but for the last few months I have been in a different world, working in a care home remembering the Britain of the 1940s to the 1970s with a group of my most elderly fellow citizens. 

It was a bit like being Dominic Sandbrook but without the podcast and the Daily Mail rants. We walked back to happiness, we had never had it so good, we were so cheerful it kept us going and, most of all, we laughed in the face of dementia and we cocked a snook at the grim reaper.

The home is kind and warm, but with me gone it loses its last member of staff with any British heritage of any kind. It loses the Beatles, the rationing, the 1966 World Cup and the nostalgia which is a vital anchor for those with dementia.

If you have Alzheimer’s the short term is hard, but a shared past becomes ever more rich and comforting.

The retro noticeboard featuring the Grand National, D-Day, homemade lavender bags and silly snaps has been replaced with corporate photographic prints and a cheesy hotel lounge vibe. 

On the wall behind some of the frailest residents, the new slogan reads: It's a Good Day to be Happy.

Homes Under the Hammer flickers on to the omnipresent telly as I leave. What are they are all going to do all day now? 

The Secret Support Worker, a Liberal Democrat member, was paid £11 an hour and had a budget per activity session per resident of 3p. The home has an annual turnover of a million pounds and the proprietor a flash car with personalised number plates.

Ed Davey will have to be more ambitious on carers if he wants to move votes

When he stood for the Liberal Democrat leadership Ed Davey chose to concentrate on two issues: the climate emergency and carers.

The former is about the most importance issues we face, while the latter has certainly received too little attention, so they were understandable choices.

Yet it's hard to resist the conclusion that they were principally chosen because they enabled Ed to talk about the qualities he believed would appeal to party members in the election: his experience as a cabinet minister and his own life story.

Now that Ed is Lib Dem leader, we have to ask if these two issues have the potential to drive the party forward.

If they are to do so they must chime with the public and we must have attractive things to say on them that cannot easily be stolen by the larger parties.

So far the jury is out.

Go to the Liberal Democrats' website and you will find an article by Ed:

Unpaid carers are doing a remarkable and important job in very difficult circumstances. They deserve our support.

But many carers are facing extreme financial hardship.

900,000 full-time unpaid carers rely on Carer’s Allowance – but at just £67.25 a week, it’s just not nearly enough.

Carer's Allowance is just £67 a week. It's just not nearly enough.

It is the lowest benefit of its kind – another example of how carers are too often an afterthought for many politicians.

Many unpaid carers have been struggling for months, often relying on foodbanks to feed themselves and the people they care for.

We've got to do better

Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to immediately raise Carer’s Allowance by £1,000 a year, the same as the uplift in Universal Credit

An increase of £1,000 a year sounds impressive, but not so much if you express it as less than £20 a week, particularly if you are simultaneously arguing that £67 a week isn't nearly enough.

This increase would certainly be welcomed by those receiving only £67, but it does not feel like a policy that will shift lots of votes.

Yet there are deeper questions in this field that we Lib Dems could be asking. 

The very existence of child carers for parents who are ill looks like a sign that our system of social care is broken, and someone should query the privatisation of care for older people and, increasingly, of care for children being looked after away from home.

Above all, people want to be confident that their elderly parents will be well looked after if they go into residential care, and we need to find ways of funding it that do not turn your inheritance into a lottery depending on what your parents die of. 

So far, no government has had the courage to do this, in case someone cries "Death tax!" The Coalition did produce a policy statement on the subject, but nothing came of it. 

The 2019 Conservatives manifesto promised that no one would have to sell their home to pay for social care, but nothing has come of that yet either.

Care could move votes, but I suspect it will take more than a moderate increase to a dismally low benefit for it to do so.