The Joy of Six 1425

"The Cabinet Office, Lord Gove and Ciga Healthcare were approached for comment but did not respond by time of publication." Byline Times has news of another alleged scandal in government procurement during the Covid pandemic.

Max Sullivan on his experiences of introducing on-street bicycle hangars in the London Borough of Westminster: "Make decisions on merit. Objections that don't have merit can be listened to, but not indulged, if you want to move faster. Officers need to have the confidence in the need for the scheme (lack of space to park a bike is a major barrier to cycling) to give their politicians good advice. Politicians must be prepared to respectfully disagree with their residents, to deliver for their other residents. Who are many in number, waiting for somewhere safe to keep a bike."

"A spooky convergence is happening in media. Everything that is not already television is turning into television." Derek Thompson explains his theory.

James Coverley draws an important lesson from the death of the Roman Emperor Domitian: "Caesar, of course, was betrayed by someone close to him. Mussolini ended up hanging from a streetlamp. You can only bully people into liking you for so long until someone, one day, realises that you’re the problem and that your grip on power is, actually, paper-thin and depends on the illusion of fear."

Koraljka Suton takes us deep into David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001): "Some of these narrative threads appear superfluous at first glance because we seemingly never get back to them. Others take us down rabbit holes that leave us feeling dazed, confused and disoriented. But all of them have their rightful place in Lynch’s surrealist picture that stubbornly defies genre categorization."

"A few clubs have boreholes, able to provide clean water on their wickets which then filters back into the aquifer in a virtuous circle. This was interesting and unexpected, revealing how certain clubs can benefit from their local geology, whereas others rely on ageing infrastructure and water companies." Dan Looney recently walked the Kennet & Avon Canal from Reading to Bath, then onwards via the River Avon to Bristol, visiting 11 cricket grounds along the way to see how they are adapting to climate change.

The Joy of Six 1331

Heidi Siegmund Cuda and Dmitrii Kovegin discuss where the anti-Putin resistance in Russia goes from here: "Putin killed Navalny. There is no other way to look at it. Putin along with Russian intelligence kills anyone who opposes him and the regime and who is influential. Anna Politkovskaya, Nemtsov etc. I believe Navalny went back to Russia knowing he would be imprisoned and likely die because he was courageous and believed in his purpose."

J. Mckenzie Alexander asks if Popper's 'Open Society' can survive the information age: "In the book I question if, in looking for likes or retweets, we’re actually chasing the sugar rush rather than the truly nutritious, substantive meal. My concern is that, in a number of senses, people are using these proxies as a way to satisfy very real and justified human needs - but these proxies just aren’t adequate to doing the job right,"

Georgia is descending into a pro-Putin Mafia state, reports Will Neal.

Felicity McWilliams explores the disproportionate impact of a small group of West Berkshire Commoners on the US-USSR nuclear arms race in the 1980s.

"What we have, then, is an omniscient narrator. Except, in a twist that seems to make no sense, where he does pop up to make a comment in his own person, it’s often to admit uncertainty, or to explain that what he’s saying is close to speculation." Daniel Soar on Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamzov.

"The collective angst of the motherless von Trapp children is vaguely written and blandly performed. The film urgently needs the stakes-raising intrusion of the Nazis in its second half; the breath-held tension of its climactic escape sequence may be drafted in from another movie altogether, but necessarily so." Guy Lodge celebrates the flawed but enduring film The Sound of Music.

Rallings & Thrasher: Conservatives set to lose half the council seats they defend in May

Writing in the Local Government Chronicle, Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher forecast a bad  night for the Conservatives in May's local elections:

"If the Conservatives repeat their poor performance of 2023, when the NEV [national equivalent vote] put them below 30%, they stand to lose up to 500 seats - half their councillors facing election.

"Labour may make about 300 gains, with the Liberal Democrats and Greens both likely to advance. We will not know the extent of any Reform party challenge until nominations close, but it cannot be completely discounted."

One reason the Tories stand to make such large losses is that the seats being contested on 2 May were last fought in 2021 (postponed from 2020 because of Covid lockdown), when the Johnson government was still quite popular.

As key contests for the Liberal Democrats, Rallings and Thrasher nominate Wokingham:

The Liberal Democrats are only just shy of a majority on Wokingham, and their performance against the Conservatives will be seen as indicative of opinion in the so-called ‘blue wall’ – normally Conservative and affluent parts of the south of England which voted Remain in 2016 and tend to take a more liberal view on social issues. 

though it's worth remembering that large parts of affluent Southern England voted Leave.

They also mention Hull, where we have control and Labour are the challengers, and Brentwood:

In Brentwood BC, where the Conservatives are the largest party, the Liberal Democrats will be hoping to take majority control for the first time since 2003. A repeat of last year’s results would be sufficient.

And if you would like more encouragement, John Curtice - answering questions after a public lecture at the University of Strathclyde last night - has said that Labour has a 99 per cent chance of winning the coming general election.

Mirror publishes list of 14 seats where Labour supporters can help defeat the Tories by voting Lib Dem

From today's Mirror:

The Compass campaign group has published details of 14 constituencies where the Lib Dems are best placed to topple the Conservatives - and urged Labour supporters to switch allegiance

Tactical voting campaigners have revealed how Labour supporters switching their loyalty in 14 'unwinnable' seats could help oust the Tories.

So the Mirror isn't yet backing such tactical voting, just putting the idea out there, you understand.

The Mirror is remembered as having influenced Labour supporters to vote tactically in the 1997 general election, but its readership was higher then and there were fewer sources of information and 'alternative facts'. 

Still it's good to see the paper is making moves in that direction again, though I can't find anything about this on the Compass website.

But you want to know the list of 14 seats, don't you?

• Carshalton and Wallington
• Cheadle
• Cheltenham
• Esher and Walton
• Guildford
• Hazel Grove
• Lewes
• St Ives
• South Cambridgeshire
• Sutton and Cheam
• Wimbledon
• Winchester
• Woking
• Wokingham