The Joy of Six 1309

"The proposals increase the number of directly elected executive mayors, whether local people want one or not. (West Yorkshire didn't, but got one anyway).  This system, borrowed from the US, places the emphasis on personalities rather than policies.  The personality may be  good at both publicity and policy (Andy Burnham?) or maybe just good at publicity (Boris Johnson.)  Government by councillors elected to implement policies may sound dull bit is likely to be more effective." Peter Wrigley is critical of Labour's plans for local government.

Alistair Carmichael says Labour's dissembling to win power was a gift to the Farages and Trumps of this world.

"At the very least, health-care privatisation has almost never had a positive effect on the quality of care. But outsourcing is not benign either, as it can reduce costs, but seems to do so at the expense of quality of care. Overall, our Review provides evidence challenging the justifications for health-care privatisation and concludes that the scientific support for further privatisation of health-care services is weak." A study by Benjamin Goodair and Aaron Reeves, published in The Lancet Public Health, suggests hospital privatisation is linked with worse patient care.

"As industrial, productive capitalism is abandoned and Britain embraces an economic model based on finance and rentierism rather than making things, graduates and non-graduates will soon end up working alongside one another in call centres, Amazon warehouses or hospitality." Dan Evans argues that its graduates without a future that politicians need to woo.

Gladys Mitchell, one of the major figures of the golden age of crime writing, was interviewed about her work and her favourite authors by B.A. Pike in 1976: "I find every book difficult to write, partly because, even if I make a plan, I seldom keep to it. Then I am apt to get new ideas as I go along, and this often necessitates a certain amount of rewriting."

"Eventually we got to New Mills where we had to pull the canoe out to get past the weir. The kestrel took the opportunity to hop out but then looked unsure what to do next. I encouraged it onto my paddle and then it jumped on to my arm and then flew across the water and perched on the railings. The whole thing was quite magical." Liam Calvert shares a canoe trip through Norwich with a hitch-hiking kestrel.

GUEST POST Old Carp's Almanack: Councillor defections in 2024

Augustus Carp, our man with the Local Government Chronicle and a slide rule, looks back on a year packed with defecting councillors.

As a start to the New Year, here’s a handy cut-out-'n-keep souvenir edition of all the defections by local government councillors we are aware of in 2024. The net changes are 

• Conservatives -186
• Labour -192
• Lib Dems -69 
• Greens +8
• Nationalists -20
• Reform UK +58 

The balancing figure consists of 401 Independents, broadly defined, as not all changes are directly from one party to another. 

I freely confess that when I started this exercise a couple of years ago I had no idea of the numbers involved, but for 445 elected representatives to change their party allegiance in just one year strikes me as rather high.

Nevertheless, for sensible analysis of local politics we need to rely on the experts – people like Andrew Teale, Mark Pack, Britain Elects and the others, who examine the by elections, calculate the swings and thence extrapolate into the future.

They provide us with solid sustenance, whereas the defections summarised above are perhaps more like herbs and spices – they might add something to the dish, but can be somewhat repulsive if relied on too much, so please use them with caution.  

“But what”, I hear you cry, “about the mass Labour defections in Broxtowe? And that unusual Conservative resignation in Oldham?”  

Well, the thing is, they all happened in 2025, so you will have to wait a while before they are tallied and collated – perhaps until late April, when I will look at the situation again, just before the (cancelled?) local elections in May.

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

Ed Davey: Summon the US ambassador over Musk comments

@libdems

People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain. It’s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown.

♬ original sound - Liberal Democrats

Well said, Ed.

There's also a party press release on this:

Responding to Elon Musk’s latest post on X in which he suggested that America should “liberate the people of Britain” and overthrow the government, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

"People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain. It’s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown.

"This dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric is further proof that the UK can’t rely on the Trump administration, and it’s in our national interest to rebuild trade and security ties with our allies in Europe."

‘Fairy porn’: Is this booming erotica genre an insult to Wales?

For the second day in a row, the Guardian wins Headline of the Day.

Central Line to Richmond, Bakerloo Line to Ealing

 

Jago Hazzard on two schemes proposed in a 1989 report but never built. One would really have put Turnham Green on the map.

You can support Jago Hazzard's videos via his Patreon page.

Mystery of bananas on Nottinghamshire road has residents a-peeling for answers

The judges were heard to grumble about "trying too hard," but the Guardian still wins our coveted Headline of the Day Award.

David Laws and Jim Wallace on Lib-Lab cooperation 1903-2019

The Liberal Democrat History Group website is a goldmine. With my pick and my mule, I have found this video of a fringe meeting the group held during the Lib Dem Conference last September.

Its title was Friends or Enemies, Allies or Competitors? Liberals and Labour 1903–2019, and the speakers were David Laws and Jim Wallace. Wendy Chamberlain was in the chair.

You can also hear David Laws speaking on the subject on a recent edition of Never Mind the Bar Charts - I endorse David's condemnation of Lloyd George, but am slightly mystified by the parallel Mark Pack draws between him and Boris Johnson. 

David's book Serpents, Goats and Turkeys: 100 years of Liberal–Labour relations is published by Politicos.

Labour tries to entice the most popular Lib Dem in the Commons

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The Mail give the story one of its multideck online headlines:

EXCLUSIVE A day in the life of Britain's most famous guide dog: Watch how Jennie the golden retriever went from a horror XL Bully attack to the Lib Dem's secret weapon at MP Steve Darling's side

And the meat of the story is here:

'I got approached last night when we were in the Chamber and asked to defect to the Labour Party,' Liberal Democrat Steve Darling tells me, a laugh playing across his face in his too-warm office, deep in the maze of Westminster.

After 30 years as a councillor and leader of the local authority in his native Torbay, the MP's fierce loyalty to his constituents would make him a thrilling scalp for any political campaign.

And with cherry red Doc Martins, he is as cool as any of the government's fresh-faced front bench.

'Strangely enough I said no,' he answers himself with a delighted laugh – because everyone in the room knows the real reason that Starmer wants Mr Darling on his side.

The object of their envy lies next to him, sprawled out on the green-patterned carpet, absentmindedly alternating between a red dinosaur toy and searching looks for attention.

Yes, it's Jennie, who as the Mail goes on to say:

has captivated the public with her long naps in PMQs and eagerness to get some love from nearby politicians – sparking fun-filled viewing for even the most yawn-inducing of debates.

The Joy of Six 1308

Outraged by the January 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell family or friends. The one person he told was the ProPublica reporter Joshua Kaplan.

Miranda Pirch reminds us: "There are so many Jewish people, both within Israel and outside it, who are committed to fighting against the oppression of the Palestinian people, regardless of what pro-Israelis would have you believe."

"The oddly intrusive feeling of each viewing being mediated - by a business standing between oneself and the viewing, the listening, the reading - bears a chill of surveillance. That’s not the case when one holds in one’s lap a book that one owns, pops a disk into a player, or lays a needle on a record." Richard Brody counsels against throwing away your DVDs.

Hannah Williams goes in search of London's oldest pub.

"Lodge’s highly-praised campus novels were major representations of university life across the 1970s and 1980s: Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975); Small World: An Academic Romance (1984); Nice Work (1988) - all better, because funnier and wider-ranging, than Lodge’s friend Malcolm Bradbury’s sour The History Man (1975).": Adam Roberts pays tribute to David Lodge.

Casmilus identifies a new genre of children's television: Glam Smiley. These were drama series with a very Seventies aesthetic in which children got caught up with high espionage.

Lou Donaldson: Good Gracious!

I've chosen this not so much for Lou Donaldson saxophone as for John Patton's Hammond organ.

Good Gracious! is the title track from a 1963 Donaldson album, and Patton's playing is just the sort of Hammond work that must have inspired the young Steve Winwood.

It is worth emphasising, though, that Winwood was a guitarist and jazz pianist before be became known for playing the organ.

It is said that when Keep On Running topped the charts at the start of 1966, Spencer Davis bought a house and Steve Winwood bought a Hammond.

Conservative group leader on Oldham Council resigns after police called to meeting

Let's see how Oldham Conservatives are getting on. Here's a report on BBC News:

The leader of Oldham Council's Conservative group has resigned after police were called following a heated council meeting.

The meeting on 18 December had to be adjourned after members of the public and councillors hurled abuse at each other following a debate about housing and planning.

Councillor Graham Sheldon, who has stepped down both as leader and as a member of the Conservative group, said he believed "the actions of two members of my group caused the mayhem and deterioration of the meeting".

Further down the page, we read that:

After the meeting was adjourned, a riot van and police cars were pictured outside the council building.

Greater Manchester Police said an investigation into what happened was "still ongoing".

And:

Sheldon said that while he supported debate and discussion during council meetings, "this should never accelerate into aggression aimed at individuals".

In his resignation letter to the Conservative group, he wrote: "The aggressive bawling and shouting at officials and the foolish name calling is behaviour I cannot accept.

"At the request of the mayor, I asked the two members to apologise for their actions and this was declined.

"I feel my position has been undermined and will be unable to gain the respect I deserve."

All of which reinforces my impression that Conservative councillors aren't what they used to be and that the party is close to ungovernable.

A Suffolk hauntology: John Rogers walks from Felixstowe to the River Orwell

From the blurb on YouTube:

A Suffolk walk through the town of Felixstowe and along the coast path past the pier to Landguard point and Landguard fort. We see the enormous container port - the largest in the UK and the Harwich Haven. From here we pick up the Orwell and Stour walk around the dock and along the River Orwell and around Trimley Marshes.

The walk was inspired by the writing of Felixstowe resident Mark Fisher who popularised the term 'Hauntology' and wrote about this coastline on his influential blog k-punk as well as in the books, Ghosts of My Life, and The Weird and the Eerie.

John has a Patreon account to support his videos and blogs at The Lost Byway.

An official inquiry into 'child rape gangs' reported in October 2022 but the Tories showed no interest

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Elon Musk has demanded an inquiry into 'child rape gangs',  now his acolytes in Reform and the Conservative Party have followed suit.

This demand ignores the fact that one of the streams of the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse was into "Child sexual exploitation by organised networks" and covered just this ground.

The report from this stream was published in October 2022. You can read its executive summary on the IICSA webpage. It includes the following recommendations:

We recommend the strengthening of the response of the criminal justice system by the government amending the Sentencing Act 2020 to provide a mandatory aggravating factor in sentencing those convicted of offences relating to the sexual exploitation of children.

The government should publish an enhanced version of its Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit as soon as possible. We recommend that the Department for Education and the Welsh Government should update guidance on child sexual exploitation. This should include the identification and response to child sexual exploitation perpetrated by networks or groups and improve the categorisation of risk and harm by local authorities and other institutions. The toolkit and guidance should specify that the core element of the definition of child sexual exploitation is that a child was controlled, coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity.

We recommend that the Department for Education should, without delay, ban the placement in semi-independent and independent settings of children aged 16 and 17 who have experienced, or are at heightened risk of experiencing, sexual exploitation.

We recommend that police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect specific data – disaggregated by sex, ethnicity and disability – on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation, including by networks.

But having set up the IICSA after pressure from all sides of the Commons, the Conservative government proceeded to ignore its conclusions. Notably, there was no progress with bringing a legal duty to report suspicions of child abuse.

And you will recall that Boris Johnson, a few months before becaming prime minister, described this inquiry as "£60m spaffed up the wall".

The Joy of Six 1307

'Graham', a victim of John Smyth, explains why the attitude of the Church of England means that he cannot move on: "victims have no closure. We do not yet have the truth. We do not yet have personal apology. We do not yet have justice. We do not feel that anything has changed."

"Cottesmore Hunt were about to be forensically challenged - and in real time.  Along with Chris and Megan was Fabian who, armed with a live broadcast camera, captured all the action as it happened and shared it via a live social media stream. The only veil of secrecy the Cottesmore could call upon was the thick mist which shrouded the killing fields."  Northants Hunt Saboteurs are joined for a day by Chris Packham and Chris Packham and the zoologist Megan McCubbin.

Will Tavlin on the strange economics of streaming services: "For a century, the business of running a Hollywood studio was straightforward. The more people watched films, the more money the studios made. With Netflix, however, audiences don’t pay for individual films. They pay a subscription to watch everything, and this has enabled a strange phenomenon to take root. Netflix’s movies don’t have to abide by any of the norms established over the history of cinema: they don’t have to be profitable, pretty, sexy, intelligent, funny, well-made, or anything else that pulls audiences into theatre seats."

J.J. Jackson explores East Anglia's hidden man-made and explosive dangers.

A tour of some of the grandest interwar public houses of East and South London in the company of Modernism in Metroland.

"Coming away from a light-hearted festive flick often feels like being sloshed on a cocktail of capitalism and corporate greed. Can’t connect with your children? Just buy their affection with an expensive toy, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way. Want a turkey but there’s hardly any left in stock? Fight with a rival shopper, as per Jamie Lee Curtis in Christmas with the Kranks." Sam Quarton suggests a Christmas horror flick for the anti-festive film lover: The Legend of Hell House.

Well done to Charlotte Cane for being an officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Classics

When I posted a short blog supporting the teaching of Latin in state schools, I ended it:

A few weeks ago, Liberal Democrat MPs were posting about their belief in choice in education as a way of justifying their opposition to VAT on school fees. If choice is good for those who can afford private education, then it is good for everyone.

So I hope to see them posting in favour of giving state schools the freedom to offer a diverse curriculum - including natural history and Latin.

One of those Lib Dem MPs I noticed making such posts was Charlotte Cane, the newly elected MP for Ely and East Cambridgeshire.

So I was pleased to learn today that Charlotte became an officer of the new All-Party Parliamentary Group for Classics back in October.

I learnt it from an article in the Guardian where Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson from Durham University writes about her mission to ensure that all children in the UK have equal access to classical education.

Nick Clegg gets the push from Meta for being too sane

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The British media now have the story, but the American website Semafor claims this as a scoop:

Meta is revamping its global policy team, with President Nick Clegg stepping down and being replaced by Joel Kaplan, his deputy and the company’s most prominent Republican, people familiar with the matter said.

Kaplan, who was White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, has been one of the most forceful voices inside Meta against restrictions on political speech, arguing internally that such policies would disproportionately mute conservative voices. Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister and ex-leader of the country’s Liberal Democrats, joined Meta in 2018 to lead its policy and lobbying efforts and was named president in 2022.

The shift, three weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration, comes as US companies are embracing the president-elect, courting his inner circle, and backing away from progressive stances many had embraced in recent years. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — whom Trump previously threatened to jail — dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November and congratulated the president-elect on his win, one of many big tech executives to do so.

Poor Nick. He's now too sane to be a tech-bro.

Labour loses control of Broxtowe as 20 councillors leave the party

Twenty Labour members of Broxtowe District Council in Nottinghamshire have resigned from the party.

The Guardian report says:

In a statement, the councillors – who will now sit as part of a new Broxtowe Independents party – said: "It is with a heavy heart that we can no longer be in a party that has abandoned traditional Labour values under Keir Starmer's leadership."

They were particularly critical of the cut to the winter fuel allowance, the bus fare increase and Labour’s plans to scrap two-tier county and district councils, which are to be merged to create large unitary authorities.

Radulovic said: "I believe the concentration of power in the hands of fewer people, and the abolition of local democracy through the current proposals of super councils, is nothing short of a dictatorship, where local elected members, local people, local residents will have no say over the type and level of service provided in their area.

"I have therefore been left with no alternative. I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal."

It may be significant that the person the Guardian found to speak in favour of the Labour Party was Anna Soubry, the former Conservative MP for Broxtowe. Readers may also recall her as a leading member of the failed centre party Change UK, even if they couldn't remember which of its several names that party ended up using.

I am pleased to see that Labour's proposals for local government are meeting with opposition, at least within the party itself. 

Major breach in the Bridgewater Canal at Dunham Massey

The Bridgewater Canal has suffered a major embankment collapse at Dunham Massey in Cheshire. You can see the damage caused in the video above.

With the inland waterways under financial pressure since the scrapping of British Waterways by the Coalition, there are fears that some canals could be lost to navigation.

The Bridgewater, certainly, will be closed for months while repairs are undertaken.

Later. I'm told that the Bridgewater was never owned by British Waterways. It's currently owned by the company that also owns the Manchester Ship Canal,

Liberal Democrat History Group meeting on our performance at last year's general election

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These days the Liberal Democrats don't just talk about history: we make it.

The outcome of the general election on 4 July 2024 was extraordinary. Compared to the 2019 election, our share of the vote rose by less than 1 per cent, to 12.2 per cent, but our number of MPs jumped from 11 (plus 4 by-election gains) to 72, the highest number since 1923.

The Lib Dem History Group is holding a meeting to discuss this remarkable performance at the National Liberal Club, London SW1, on Monday 27 January.

You can find full details of the meeting on the group's website - you don't have to be a member to attend and you can watch it on Zoom too.

The panel for the meeting will be Professor Paula Surridge (Bristol University) and Dave McCobb (director of field campaigns for the  Lib Dems), with Lord Wallace of Saltaire in the chair.

The Joy of Six 1306

"Some strategists are agonising about us reaching a peak, because we’re only first or second in 99 seats - I’d say that’s a nice problem to have, considering where we were in 2015." Matthew Pennell looks at how the Liberal Democrat fared in 2024.

Maria Kuchapska says Russia is reviving Soviet-era punitive psychiatry in occupied Ukraine: "In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Pavlo Lysianskyi, the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, stated that 31 minors had been sent to forced psychiatric detention this year alone. Echoing the 1971-5 Five Year Plan, new psychiatric penal institutions are being erected in the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions."

Why were so many of last summer's rioters in their 40s and 50s? Sara H. Wilford studies the overlooked phenomenon of middle-aged radicalisation.

In 1968, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were the world’s most famous teens. In 2023, they sued Paramount for abuse. Lila Shapiro on the ethics of filming young actors.

Colin Speakman makes the case for reopening the railway from Skipton to Colne: "A youngster living in Colne or Nelson wanting to go to Leeds or Bradford University, or for a job in Skipton at Skipton Building Society, has exactly the same need for a fast, frequent train service as a kid in Ealing or Woking."

Rosemary Hill reviews a field guide to stone circles: "Prehistory moves constantly in dialogue with archaeology, which, until about 2000, was primarily concerned with excavations undertaken by bearded men with monosyllabic forenames who courted publicity."

Happy New Year to all our readers

Last 1 January it was Martin Carthy's recording of January Man, so I've given him the night off this time round.