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Simon Nixon reviews Hettie O'Brien's The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself: "This is an industry that takes the private part of its name with deadly seriousness. It usually exercises total control over its operations, deploying financial muscle rather than charm to enforce submission and cloaking almost every aspect of its business – the provenance of its money, the performance of its companies – in secrecy. Yet over recent decades, private equity has quietly captured vast swathes of the economy and accumulated political power for which it is rarely held publicly accountable."

"For a long time, peatlands were treated as marginal, soggy places at the edge of more useful land. Peatlands are now becoming central to climate regulation, water security, biodiversity and the livelihoods of many people who live on and around them." Alice Milner on her research into peatlands and tackling climate change.

Norman Baker explains why buses in central London are slower than their horse-drawn counterparts were more than a century ago. He also has suggestions for speeding them up.

Danny Chambers is campaigning against the cruelty often involved in breeding what are, to my eye, ugly animals. "Across the UK, more and more dogs and cats are being bred to look fashionable or cute. But this can come at a serious cost to their health and welfare."

"The film encompasses many influences – neorealist working-class documentary in its early Belfast set street scenes; poetic realism in its studio-bound aspects and fatalism; noir thriller; and expressionist reimagining of Greek myth, as a fatally wounded Johnny is left behind in the botched escape and a rogue’s gallery of the city’s denizens alternately help and hinder his path through the Underworld entries, bars and rain-slicked slums of a darkened, almost Dickensian city." Tim Pelan sings the praises of Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).

"As time went on, I felt more in control of the thing, and stopped fearing that I was going to show myself – and all womenkind – up, by passing out from the heat, more relaxed and more appreciative of the experience. The engine is indeed a star. There were waving people on every bridge, and we passed a campsite with lots more waving people. I got so keen on waving back to them that I almost forgot my job." Stephanie Gaunt learns to drive a steam locomotive.

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"It’s what happens when the NHS has run out of room. It means intimate conversations about cancer, stroke, or dementia in earshot of strangers. It means delays to assessment and treatment, including pain relief, become more likely – dignity stripped away through lack of capacity." Danny Chambers says corridor care will continue for another three years – and that’s not good enough.

Nick Bowes reckons political fragmentation could lead to the most interesting London election results since the 32 boroughs were formed.

"When e-cigarettes first appeared around 2010, they were hailed as a breakthrough: nicotine delivery without the toxic tar and combustion byproducts of traditional cigarettes. Public health bodies cautiously endorsed them as a tool for adult smokers to quit, often citing early claims that vaping was 95 per cent less harmful than smoking. More than a decade later, with millions now vaping regularly, the picture is less clear." Vikram Niranjan reports on warning signs that vaping may not be as benign as we thought.

Black female footballers are praised for their strength, white female footballers are praised for their intelligence. Paul Ian Campbell and Allison Thompson discuss the findings of their research.

Jude Rogers chooses her 10 best folk albums of 2025.

Ray Newman follows in the footsteps of Henry VII, who made a pilgrimage to the holy well of St Anne  near Bristol in 1486: "If you want to stick to something like Henry’s route, you have to push past rows of signs and columns cones, squeeze between temporary fences, evade robotic security sentinels that shout at you if you linger too long, and leap muddy puddles in a road surface turned into no-man’s-land by the constant passing of concrete mixers."

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Peter Jukes argues that Peter Thiel’s name "now sits at the centre of a transatlantic web stretching from Epstein to Boris Johnson’s Downing Street, through the NHS’s largest ever data contract, and into Labour leader Keir Starmer’s recent trip to Washington".

"Federal Council turned out to be the worst committee that I've ever served on. And remember, I've been doing this for the best part of forty years." Mark Valladares has found the first three years of the Liberal Democrats' Federal Council to be an exercise in futility.

"It's easy to condemn anti-migrant protests on moral grounds. What such condemnation misses, however, is that there's also an intellectual error here – an excessive focus on individuals and insufficient attention to structural societal problems." Chris Dillow says we should spend less time looking for scapegoats and more time thinking about socio-economic failure.

Danny Chambers discusses how his varied veterinary career now shapes his work in politics: "I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t look after animals – or other people – unless you look after yourself first. Whether you’re a vet or an MP, it’s incredibly easy to let your own wellbeing slide, to say yes to everything, and to push yourself to the point of burnout."

"'If you love cider, this is cider to the power of 10,' says Barny Butterfield, speaking about the flavours packed by some of this year’s 'special' apples. Indeed Butterfield, the owner of Sandford Orchards, near Exeter, is buying extra tanks to increase cider production after the UK’s hottest summer on record resulted in an abundance of fruit." Zoe Wood reports on the prospects of a vintage year for English cider.

Andrew Hickey celebrates Jethro Tull and Living in the Past.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: "It’s just given a tremendous sneeze"

The second day of Christmas at Bonkers Hall is quite as much fun as the first. Danny Chambers' phone call was inspired by a news story that broke at Christmas:

Russian scientists have unveiled the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth found in thawing permafrost in the remote Yakutia region of Siberia during the summer. They say "Yana" - who has been named after the river basin where she was discovered - is the world's best-preserved mammoth carcass.

More fun with Cook and her malapropisms another day, no doubt. 

Boxing Day

When I thank Cook for her sterling work yesterday, she expresses a wish that I will entertain the current prime minister here one day so that she can meet him – “He used to be Director of Public Persecutions, you know.” 

That pleasurable duty done, today is a day for talking with old friends – perhaps waving a cold turkey drumstick to emphasise a point – and strolls about my Estate. I take a party of new MPs to meet the Rutland Water Monster (‘Ruttie’ to her friends, among whom I am proud to number myself). Later, the more intrepid spirits leave for the legendary Boxing Night party at the Convent of Our Lady of the Ballot Boxes.

I am dozing by my Library fire when the telephone is brought to me. “Hi, this is Danny Chambers. They found a frozen baby mammoth in Siberia and I’ve had it by my fire all Christmas, and given it a rub with a towel now and then. It’s just given a tremendous sneeze, so all the signs are encouraging. I was wondering if you had a spare field where it could….” Politely but firmly, I replace the receiver.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week...

• Two Well-Behaved Orphans with their faces stained green
• Hoping it might be so
• Resourceful orphans, elves and the like

Face-down restraint of patients still widely used in NHS

Danny Chambers MP, the Liberal Democrats' mental health spokesperson in the Commons, is alarmed by new NHS figures on face-down restraint of patients obtained by the party, reports the Guardian

The figures show that the controversial technique was used in England 5,247 times during 2023 and 3,732 times in the first 10 months of this year.

Danny told the Guardian:

"Physical restraint can cause significant distress for vulnerable patients and leave staff with severe injuries. That some institutions are physically restraining mental health patients far more than others shows that our NHS services have been neglected and overlooked for too long."

He added that it is is "particularly worrying" to see restraint being used so persistently despite the implementation of 'Seni’s law' - the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act - in 2021. 

Danny urged ministers to launch an investigation into the situation, which has arisen because the last Tory government failed to improve mental health care and "some of the most vulnerable people in our society are now paying the price".

The figures, says the Guardian, were also condemned by the Centre for Mental Health thinktank and by the mental health charity Mind.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Pimped with underglow lights and belting out Hildegard of Bingen at full volume

With Lord Bonkers taking such an interest in the animal kingdom - whether it's farming it, conversing with it or eating it - it was inevitable that he would be drawn to the new MP for Winchester, who practised as a vet for 16 years before his election. 

And attentive readers of this blog will remember the story about the penguins at the Sea Life London Aquarium.

Tuesday

“No,” I told Danny Chambers on the phone. “It’s out of the question. I’ve only just got rid of a colony of Hegelian beavers. I’m not taking in seventeen penguins.” “But if you could only see their sad little faces,” Chambers returned. “They’re living with no daylight, no fresh air and a pitifully shallow pool.” 

I was about to say it was no good setting them lose in the Frozen North of Rutland – they would get confused, walk round in circles and annoy the polar bears – when I had a brainwave. Which is why your diarist, Chambers and the above-mentioned flightless seabirds are crouched in a ditch just off the Great North Road. 

Sure enough, a familiar minibus – pimped with underglow lights and belting out Hildegard of Bingen at full volume – hoves into view. In no time, the Mother Superior has the penguins on board and is speeding to the convent of Our Lady of the Ballot Boxes. No one, as I observe to Chambers, will notice them among the nuns.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary

• ‘The Defenestration of Ming Campbell’

Danny Chambers calls for penguins to be moved from “dark and cramped basement”

Danny Chambers has backed the call for a colony of penguins to be moved from the Sea Life London Aquarium.

The Liberal Democrat MP, who practised as a vet for 16 years before being elected for Winchester at the general election, is the focus of an article in today's Express. The paper prints the statement he issued after seeing the way the gentoo penguins were being kept:

In the heart of London, I witnessed grown penguins confined to dark and cramped conditions underground.

Little freedom to roam and no glimpse of sunlight. I thought to myself, is this really befitting of a country of animal lovers?

This is what I encountered at Sea Life, London’s Aquarium. Gentoo penguins, glum looking, behind a misty screen in a cramped basement-style room.

I applaud the likes of Chris Packham and Feargal Sharkey who have campaigned to get these penguins freed. Now, as a Member of Parliament, I join that cause. It is time to free the penguins.

You can read more about the campaign in a BBC News story. Sea Life London Aquarium is quoted in the Express story as saying the penguins' habitat was designed with the help of specialist vets.

Max Wilkinson and Roz Savage come second and third in ballot for private members' bills

Congratulations to the Liberal Democrat MPs Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) and Roz Savage (South Cotswolds) who finished second and third in this session's ballot for private members' bills. With such high placings, they do have a realistic chance to getting a bill through parliament.

Further down the list, you will also find Danny Chambers (Winchester) in 17th place and Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) in 19th.

The 20 places in the ballot were filled by 15 Labour MPs, these 4 Liberal Democrats and 1 Traditional Unionist Voice. Remarkably, no Conservatives were drawn out of the hat.

My Tory MP, who once put up a creditable fight against the anti-Covid-vaccination nutters, seems to have taken this badly.

I may well be about to embarass myself here - so please do put me right - but if we assumed all 121 Conservative MPs put in, and exclude Sinn Fein and government ministers, then isn't the probability of no Conservatives in the top 20 for the PMB ballot less than 1% ? https://t.co/jLo47WhHBJ

— Neil O'Brien (@NeilDotObrien) September 5, 2024

When Jennie met Larry: It's the picture everyone was waiting for

And it was taken by Danny Chambers, who is now the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester.

When @rthonjennie clocked @Number10cat

Hoping not to have to put my veterinary training to use. pic.twitter.com/a5zknvyjjr

— Danny Chambers MP 🔸🩺 (@DannyVet) July 24, 2024

Incidentally, Danny has announced he will no longer practise as a vet now's he's in parliament.

Which will come as a disappointment to Lord Bonkers:

I have always rather envied my setters when I take them to our local vet. He doesn’t ask them lots of damn-fool questions or tell them they're drinking too much. If this fellow gets in, I shall see if he will take me on to his books.

Big Chum? More on Danny Chambers and Bobi the world's oldest ever dog that wasn't

Remember my post about Danny Chambers and the world's oldest ever dog that wasn't?

It concerned a press story about Bobi, a Portuguese mastiff who died last year, supposedly at the age 31 years and five months. Bobi was briefly listed as the world's oldest ever dog by the Guinness World Records, but it has now withdrawn that recognition.

Danny, who is a vet and a council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, was quoted as saying he didn't believe the claim about Bobi and he didn't know any vet who did.

Well, the story has made the new Fortean Times:

Bobi's owner Leonel Costa, 38, blamed the withdrawal of his records on "a veterinary elite with a vested interest in the dog food industry" who are in denial about the virtues of Bobi's diet of natural food".

Our Danny in the pay of Big Chum? I refuse to believe it.

This story does give me the chance of positing another video involving Danny, who is one of a roster of impressive Liberal Democrat candidates who will be standing in winnable seats at the next election. In his case it's Winchester.

Here he talks to James O'Brien about the roots of people's resistance to having their children vaccinated.

Danny Chambers and Bobi, the world's oldest ever dog that wasn't

Danny Chambers is the Liberal Democrat PPC for Winchester, where we finished less than a thousand votes behind the winning Conservative at the last election.

He turns up in today's Guardian in a story about Bobi, a Portuguese mastiff who died last year, supposedly at the age 31 years and five months. He was briefly listed as the world's oldest ever dog, but Guinness World Records has now withdrawn its recognition.

As the Guardian story reveals, some people always had their doubts:

Just days after Bobi's demise, Danny Chambers, a vet and council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, suggested that claims the dog had lived more than three decades were false.

Chambers said that, of the 18,000 members of the Veterinary Voices group he runs, "not a single one" of his colleagues believed Bobi was actually 31 years old.

"This is the equivalent of a human living to over 200 years old which, given our current medical capabilities, is completely implausible. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no concrete evidence has been provided to prove his age," he said.

I'm not convinced this story will have an impact on the contest in Winchester, but it does give me the chance to post this notably green campaign video from Danny.