Liberal England

Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year 2014

"Well written, funny and wistful" - Paul Linford; "He is indeed the Lib Dem blogfather" - Stephen Tall
"Jonathan Calder holds his end up well in the competitive world of the blogosphere" - New Statesman
"A prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" - BBC Radio 4 Today; "One of my favourite blogs" - Stumbling
and Mumbling; "Charming and younger than I expected" - Wartime Housewife

Monday, June 15, 2026

1963: London's summer of the Hoverbus

Jago Hazzard looks back to a short-lived transport experiment that took place in London in the summer of 1963. From 1 July to 31 October, a ...

Violent Bonham Carter features on Fake or Fortune?

The notorious gender-fluid London gang boss of the Sixties gets a mention in a post from last year on the Herstmonceux Castle website. BBC’...

The Joy of Six 1533

James Ball argues that Labour's social media ban for teenagers is an admission of total and utter failure to govern online spaces: ...

Sunday, June 14, 2026

No, Leave didn't win the Brexit referendum because of Northern working class voters

There are so many myths, and so much snobbery, surrounding the result of the 2016 referendum that I've a good mind to post this every we...

Lord Bonkers: "Something less terrible than the truth"

G.K. Chesterton was a brilliant literary critic and there's an observation of his on Dickens that I've quoted more than once in prin...

Aidan O'Rourke: Mangersta Beach

I loved the Outer Hebrides and this music – Mangersta Beach is on the west coast of Lewis – captures the feel of a landscape that somehow fe...

Saturday, June 13, 2026

The Joy of Six 1532

About 1 million 16- to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training – and the obstacles they face are bigger than ever. Sammy G...

Sighcology: The Snake Pit, Out of True and Nellie Bly

It's time to post another of the Sighcology columns I write for the Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy. It us...

Friday, June 12, 2026

District council backs a parish council for Market Harborough

An extraordinary meeting of Harborough District Council has voted unanimously in favour of a parish council for Market Harborough, reports B...

Bobby Charlton and Arnie Sidebottom at Stamford Bridge

Embed from Getty Images Bobby Charlton played his last game for Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on 2 April 1973. Thanks to a rather flu...

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Brechtian television: Leo McKern in Galileo (1964)

"Has anyone ever produced Brechtian television?" I asked when writing about The Exorcism . To an extent, they have. Because here a...

New chair of North Northamptonshire Council stands down over social media posts

Another triumph for Reform UK's vetting of its candidates. NN Journal reports: The Reform UK chairman of North Northamptonshire Council...

The Joy of Six 1531

A network of Russian far-right extremists steeped in neo-Nazi antisemitism – created under the umbrella of a sanctioned oligarch close to Vl...

Child mannequin found on train with can of cider

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day award with the tale from the West Somerset Railway . The judges have declined to sign petitions calli...

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Martin Wainwright's Guardian obituary of Michael Meadowcroft

Embed from Getty Images Michael Meadowcroft, who wrote so many obituaries himself, is remembered in the Guardian by Martin Wainwright, the ...

Chris Isaak: Wicked Game

This was released as a single in 1989 but did not become a hit until it was featured in David Lynch's film Wild at Heart the following y...

Lib Dem Rutland plans cycle-path from Oakham to Rutland Water

Rutland County Council is consulting residents on plans for a new cycling route connecting Oakham town centre with Rutland Water.. The counc...

Tuesday, June 09, 2026

The pine martens of Shropshire

Here's Quentin Shaw writing in the London Review of Books in November 2022: In September a camera trap monitoring hedgehogs in Kingston...

The Joy of Six 1530

"The big red 'stop nudes' button is appealing because it’s a lot easier than investing in proper services to protect children a...

Monday, June 08, 2026

Arriving at one of East Finchley's ghost platforms

Geoff Marshall is our guide to the charms of East Finchley station before he contrives to arrive at one of a pair of little-used platforms ...

In which D.H. Lawrence visits Snailbeach

On Friday we saw D.H. Lawrence getting all Lawrentian about the Stiperstones : "It was one of those places where the spirit of aborigin...

Lib Dem energy guarantee would cut prices for all households

BBC News reports today's announcement by Daisy Cooper of new Liberal Democrat proposals for reducing consumer energy prices: Under the ...

Green and Lib Dem Southwark brings government closer to voters

Community councils, which last operated in Southwark in 2016, are to be restored by the Green and Liberal Democrat coalition that took contr...

Sunday, June 07, 2026

The mysterious mole men of New York caught on video

Adam Gabbatt reports from New York for the Guardian: The first sewer episode happened on 5 May, at 2am. Three people, wearing hip waders an...

The Joy of Six 1529

Chris Dillow on Labour's mistaken strategy: "All good businesspeople know that it’s easier to keep a customer than to win a new on...

Blondie: Sunday Girl

Here's something I didn't know: this chart-topping Blondie single from 1978 is an elegy to a lost cat. Sunday Girl was written by th...

Saturday, June 06, 2026

Knaptoft: The very heart of England

The passage below is from W.G. Hoskins' Midland England. Published as part of Batsford's The Face of Britain series, that book captu...

Remembering Liz Truss and her dogs that barked at drones

A news story on the Shropshire Live website has put me in mind of one of Liz Truss's early triumphs in the House of Commons. That story...

Lib Dems are reviewing policy and strategy says PoliticsHome

Embed from Getty Images The Liberal Democrats are undergoing an overhaul of strategy and policy, "with key areas of discussion includin...

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