GUEST POST Councillor defection scores on the eve of polling day

Augustus Carp offers something to whet your appetite – a curtain-raiser, a short not-too-dramatic offering before the Grand-Guignol horror show that awaits us as the results start to trickle in from late on Thursday night until the following evening.

In the first four months of 2026, the procession of councillors resigning from the political parties that helped them to get elected has continued apace. So far, 299 "events" have occurred; not just defections, but also a few expulsions and suspensions. "Double-hatted" councillors who change their affiliation have been counted twice, as have councillors who resigned and then re-joined (48 hours later, in one celebrated case in North Northamptonshire.)

That’s an average of nearly 18 a week, or 2.5 every day. I doubt if most political pundits realise that the figure is quite so high, which might explain why the subject does not get the attention given to the half-a-dozen local council by elections held every week. An exception is Mark Pack’s regular update of Reform UK defections, but those resignations are indeed worthy of serious inspection because of the novelty value, fuss and general hoop-la associated with the new insurgent populist party.

From an objective perspective, defecting councillors are a significant indicator of a change in local party morale. When they go, they take valuable resources with them, such as knowledge of their wards, help with campaigning and general goodwill towards their former party. Worse still, they might be taking their families and friends with them – perhaps into a rival organisation. They may only constitute a handful of votes, but they could represent hundreds of hours of solid campaigning at a future election, against the former party’s new candidate.

Big parties, big losers

Reasons for defections can be many and various, and can range from the principled to the ridiculous, but the damage can still be significant, regardless of the circumstances which cause it. 

The main losers so far this year have been the Labour party (down 59 councillors) and the Conservatives (down 52). The Labour figure seems to have been exacerbated by the impending London Borough elections, where reselection processes have put some noses and egos out of joint. As one might expect, excluding councillors who have opted for Independent status, most Labour councillors have gone to the Greens, with Conservatives tending towards Reform UK.

The Greens have acquired an additional 21 councillors via defections, with the Reform UK tally rising by 32. On balance, the Lib Dems have lost 13 and the Nationalists are down 2. The balancing figure in the equation is 73, representing various "Independents" (loosely described).

Straight swaps

Three Reform UK councillors have moved to the Conservatives – but 33 have gone the other way. One Tory has joined the Lib Dems, whilst one Lib Dem has travelled in the opposite direction. Four Lib Dems have joined the Greens, with one going against the tide. Eight Labour councillors left for the Greens, two for the Lib Dems, and one (in Hartlepool) for Reform UK.

Although not (yet) counted as a separate party in my system, it is worth noting that Restore Britain has attracted 21 councillors, from the independents and Reform UK. This includes a bulk membership event on Kent County Council in February. Similarly, there has been a handful of moves to Advance UK, mainly from Independents but also one from the Workers Party. (No, I don’t understand it either.)

If the local elections on Thursday pan out according to the pundits, with a large number of Reform UK and Green Party successes, then I confidently forecast that there will be many more resignations and defections over the summer, once the new councillors realise that theirs is a thankless task, with lots of work but little chance of changing anything to do with small boats or Gaza.

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

The Joy of Six 1511

"Opinion polls consistently suggest that after the elections on 7 May, England will be flanked by countries run by restless centre-left nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, the Scottish National party in Edinburgh and, in Belfast, Sinn Féin, which shares power with the Democratic Unionists." Severin Carrell and Bethan McKernan say next week's elections could reshape UK.

"Real names becomes a tool for bullies online – and will force victims either to accept the bullying or avoid using the internet. This, of course, is not just true for bullies, but for overbearing parents, sadistic teachers and much worse. It is really important not to just think about good parents and protective teachers. For the vulnerable children, parents and teachers can be exactly the people they need to avoid." Paul Bernal argues that children need anonymity and encryption online. 

Catherine Heseltine asks if we can build crisis care outside the mental health system: "Being violently locked away and forcibly drugged made my mental health crisis many times worse – an experience shared by far too many people who have been subjected to standard NHS crisis 'care'.  Yet the mental health system seems to resist change like a train with no brakes."

Emma Peplow, with the help of the History of Parliament blog's oral history archive reminds us that Hannah Spencer is not the first new MP to remark on Westminster's drinking culture disapprovingly.

"Football Focus lasted almost two decades after its mothership Grandstand finally came off the air in 2007. The falling number of top flight 3pm kick offs certainly didn’t help though, and that trend might in time make it harder for even Final Score to endure, too." Richard Jones discusses what the BBC's axeing of Football Focus tells us about trends in sports broadcasting.

Londonist takes us to North Korea's London embassy, which stands just off the North Circular in Ealing

Alex Cole-Hamilton names three Highland seats the Lib Dems can win back in Holyrood election

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says his party can “win back the Highlands” from the SNP at the 2026 election, and such a victory would be the “story of the night”.

That's a report from the website Ireland Live. (I know, me too.) And Alex went on to name three individual seats:

He said Lib Dem analysis of the general election results showed these three seats – Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch; Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, and Inverness and Nairn – all falling to the Lib Dems.

Referring to the incumbent MSPs, he said: “Kate Forbes, Maree Todd, Fergus Ewing. Three current and former SNP ministers.

“We are coming. We can win those seats.

“And conference, that would be the story of the night – Scottish Liberal Democrats winning back the Highlands.”

He also told the conference that other Conservative MSPs are set to follow Jamie Greene in crossing the floor - or "moving around the arc", as Andy Maciver terms it in the Spectator - to join the Lib Dems.

This is a development that wouldn't surprise Maciver either.

SNP 'held hostage' by Liberal Democrats in budget negotiations

I fear it may be an exaggeration, but that's the headline on the Alba Party press release on the Holyrood budget negotiations.

The release quotes that party's acting leader, Kenny MacAskill:

"Without a strong independence party in opposition at Holyrood, the SNP will continue to be held hostage in negotiations with the Liberal Democrats and other unionist parties. Thus keeping Independence firmly on the back burner.

"This emphasises the need for Independence supporters to use the list ballot at the next Scottish Parliament election to rally behind the Alba Party.

"A strong contingent of Alba MSPs will ensure Independence will always be at the forefront of the Government’s agenda."

If we're forcing the SNP to concentrate on delivering services for a while, we're probably doing it a favour. It's recent record in government is not impressive.

But one of the things that unites Lib Dems is the belief that constitutional questions do matter. We can't keep pushing the line that people don't want Independence but better public services for ever.

Not only is it reminiscent of the No campaign in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, it also aims to deny people the possibility of debating something that will always be an issue in Scottish politics.

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.

Lib Dems want more spending on mental health and education in return for backing SNP's Holyrood budget

Talks have been held between the Liberal Democrats and the SNP over a deal that could end first minister John Swinney's reliance on the Greens to get his spending plans through Holyrood, reports the Daily Record.

A Scottish government source confirms the story:

"There is a long way to go but yes talks are ongoing with the Lib Dems and we are open to working constructively with them. Something could still be agreed with the Greens but when people are constantly laying out red lines in public rather than talking through what are going to be tough financial decisions, it does erode working relationships."

And a Lib Dem source says:

“One area we are keen to see more public spending increased is for mental health services, there are also various infrastructure projects we believe should be prioritised and we want to see a greater emphasis on education."

It's worth remembering that the Labour/Lib Dem coalition in Holyrood's early years seemed popular with Lib Dem voters because it delivered the sort of policies they were voting for.

The Record suggests this year’s Scottish budget will be difficult because of the impact of inflation and public pay deals. But it goes on to say that changes to borrowing rules made by Rachel Reeves in her budget have increased the money Scotland will receive in block grant payments.

GUEST POST No sign of an end to defections in local government

Thanks to Augustus Carp for his latest bulletin on local councillors changing parties, though I'll have him know that I lived in Hemel Hempstead between the ages of 3 and 13.

Well, it's been three months now since the General Election, and in Parliament we have seen several expulsions from the Labour Party together with a rather sudden resignation. In my innocence I had assumed that people would have left their political parties before the election, rather than in the immediate aftermath, but the evidence shows that resignations have continued apace amongst our local councillors.

Since July, there have been 17 defections from the Conservative Party, 13 from Labour, 17 from the Lib Dems and 6 from the Nationalists. The net beneficiaries have been the Greens (up 3) and Reform UK (up 12). The balancing figure is described, perhaps not accurately enough, as 'Independents', who have picked up the remaining 37.  

If I had more time and patience I would no doubt try to do a bit of analysis of the various independents. I am using the category to cover ratepayers, residents associations, localists, single-issue hobbyhorse jockeys and people who are incapable of working within any sort of group structure, and many more besides.  

Some councils have one or more competing groups who fall into the Independent category. Note that councillors sometimes become Independent as a sort of casualty clearing station, where they reside after resigning from A before seeing the light and joining Party B.  

Of the 103 defections, only five councillors have made a direct swap between parties - 2 from Labour to Green, 1 from Tory to Green, 1 from Lib Dem to Labour and 1 from Labour to Lib Dem.  

One trend that seems prevalent at the moment is a disproportionately high number of defections in Wales. Since July, 14 councillors have changed their colours – 5 from Labour, 4 from the Conservatives, 3 Independents (who have transmogrified into a Reform group in Torfaen) and a Liberal Democrat.  The situation is similar in Scotland – 4 each from the Tories and the Nationalists, 3 from Labour and 1 Independent. 

The dramatic move for the Lib Dems was the mass defection of eight female councillors in Dacorum, over allegations of sexism and bullying. 

It's a matter of conjecture whether personal grievances or political ideologies are the main reason for councillor defections – there might be a doctoral thesis in it for someone with a high pain threshold.  

Incidentally, the reason the local authority is called Dacorum is to prevent the residents of Berkhamsted from having to say that they live in Hemel Hempstead.

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

The Lib Dems now have a local councillor in the Western Isles

The Liberal Democrats, says the Stornoway Gazette, have their first councillor on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the local authority that covers the Outer Hebrides.

Malcolm Macdonald, who represents the Stornoway North ward on Lewis, was elected as an Independent in the 2022 council election but has now adopted the Lib Dem label.

He told the newspaper:

“I am absolutely delighted to be representing the Western Isles as a Liberal Democrat councillor. As a party that champions communities and puts their needs first, they are a very natural fit for my own values.

“Whether it’s ferries, connectivity, health or population decline, people in the Western Isles feel that no one in government cares about the challenges in front of them. The SNP claim to be strong for Scotland, but they repeatedly ignore the issues that matter to people here.

“It doesn’t have to be like this. Liberal Democrats have a proud and long-standing tradition of standing up for rural communities. We are all about listening to people, understanding what they need and doing everything we can to make a difference for them. That’s exactly where my focus is as a Western Isles councillor."

Bit of a cock-up on the counting front in Dingwall: Lib Dems wait for their 72nd win to be declared

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BREAKING... Drew Hendry has conceded that the Lib Dems will win the seat after the recount, so 72 it is.

One general election result remains to be announced: it's the one from the Scottish Highland constituency of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire. A second recount will be held there tomorrow morning.

The delay does not appear to be caused by an exceptionally close result, but we are still having to wait for what sounds as though it will be a 72nd seat for the Liberal Democrats.

The Press & Journal describes what  went on at the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall in the small hours of this morning:

Jamie Stone held on to his seat for the Lib Dems around 5am and a result in the neighbouring constituency was expected to follow shortly after.

However, election count officials were seen looking exasperated shaking their head as the delay wore on.

The candidates for the election were also left in the dark, unable to say what exactly was the problem.

Counters were left twiddling their thumbs and to grow increasingly frustrated as speculation about the next step filled the air. ...

At 6.30am a recount was announced.

That was due to take around 90 minutes but shortly before 10am, returning officer Derek Brown announced that another recount was needed.

The reason given was a “discrepancy between the number of verified votes totalled and provisional counted votes”.

A fresh recount will now take place at 10.30am on Saturday.

The Press & Journal says the Lib Dems, whose candidate is Angus MacDonald, are confident of victory - is closest challenger is Drew Hendry from the SNP.

And the Inverness Courier report suggests why:

Count agents have widely credited Liberal Democrat Angus MacDonald with having pulled off a major upset and secured the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat ahead of the SNP’s Drew Hendry. ...

The calculus is quite simple as by the end of the night Mr MacDonald had between three and four more boxes than Mr Hendry – in each box there are 500 ballots so the margin of victory was likely between 1500 and 2000 votes.

Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire covers much of the area that was represented by Charles Kennedy. It would be good to reclaim it, just as we took back Paddy Ashdown's Yeovil yesterday.

How the Lib Dems will stand in the Commons after the election is not in our hands

It would mean a lot to the Liberal Democrats to be the third party in the Commons. again. Our leader would get two questions at every PMQs: our spokespeople would get called more and earlier in debates. And all that would mean more media coverage and more clips on social media.

But there's no likely Lib Dem performance at the next election which would leave the reclaiming of this status entirely in our hands.

Have a look at this opinion poll and the resultant forecast of how many seats each party will win by Stats for Lefties.

🗳️ Labour lead by 23pts (356-seat majority)

🔴 LAB 47% (+3)
🔵 CON 24% (=)
🟣 REF 10% (-3)
🟠 LD 9% (+1)
🟢 GRN 6% (=)
🟡 SNP 2% (=)

Via @wethinkpolling, 9-10 May (+/- vs 2-3 May)

I enjoy these forecasts of a Tory wipe out, but I don't take them too seriously. Besides, what interests me here are the Lib Dem and SNP totals.

A total of 38 Lib Dem MPs feels like a realistic idea of what a good election will look like for the Lib Dems. But note that we would only be the third party in the Commons because Labour had taken seats of the SNP in Scotland.

So just how things will stand for us at Westminster after the election is, to a significant degree, our of our comtrol.

GUEST POST Councillor defections: The scores on the doors at the end of 2023

Augustus Carp with an end-of-year update on the number of councillors who have left the party under whose flag they were elected.

The end of the year is probably as good a time as any to consider recent changes of political allegiances amongst our elected councillors. For divers reasons, numerous individuals have decided to re-align themselves away from the political party whose views they espoused when elected.  

What this might mean is for you to decide – maybe it’s irrelevant, perhaps it’s just the manifestation of personal vanity, or it might be evidence of impending political change, either locally or nationally.  

In any event, I would suggest that any councillor jumping ship means the loss of a formerly dedicated party worker (and perhaps some of their family and friends) on whom their erstwhile parties might have been relying for the impending General Election. Have the parties kept centralised canvassing records, or will they disappear with the resigning councillor? Who will deliver the leaflets in that ward now? Who will run the poling stations on election day?

In headline terms, the net change in councillor defections since the last council elections in May 2023 is Conservatives down 48, the Lib Dems down 15 and the Nationalists down 12, with the Greens flat. The Labour tally of 100 defections elegantly mirrors the Conservative figure when I wrote my first guest post on this subject in February.  

Without a doubt, the biggest surprise of the year has been the series of mass defections from Labour, caused by events in Palestine. 

It’s difficult to ensure absolute accuracy, because a number of factors might have been in play, but over 60 Labour councillors have said that they have resigned because of these events; there have also been a handful of suspensions for the same reason.  

Mass resignations in Burnley (12 councillors) Oxford (11) Blackburn (10) and Walsall (9) have led to changes in the running of the council. Other mass resignations in Sheffield (8) and Hastings (10) do not appear to have the same cause, but it might be a factor in the latter case.  

It will be interesting to see if the Labour Party nationally is able to devise a face-saving mechanism to entice most of the defectors back into the fold, but perhaps the damage is done.  

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have lost on average 1.4 councillors every week. Let’s see what happens in 2024 when the local elections will be largely a replay of 2021, when the Conservatives made significant gains. It could be that, rather than defect or resign, more Conservative Councillors will retire early, in order for the vacancies to fit in with the May timetable.    

Postscript: Probably in an attempt to confuse my arithmetic, the Liberal Democrats have just announced half a defection to them – the Leader of Shetland Council has joined the Party, but will continue to sit as an Independent councillor.

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

GUEST POST Councillor defections: emergency update

Augustus Carp keeps us up to date with the rapidly developing story about councillors changing allegiance.

My online Dictionary gives 'Defection: From the Latin defectionem (nominative defectio), desertion, revolt, failure.'  It seems that we are now well into the 'revolt' category when it comes to local government councillors leaving the party under whose flag they were first elected.

My intention had been to provide readers with a Christmas special on councillor defections sometime next month.  The thinking had been that there wasn’t going to be nearly enough movement since May 2023 to warrant anything before then.

But events 2500 miles away have changed all that. The rate of defections by Labour councillors has accelerated dramatically and they may not have stopped yet.

In bald terms, the net change in councillor defections in the six months since May 2023 is Conservatives down 38, Labour down 55, the Lib Dems down 11, Nationalists down 12 and the Greens down 1.  

For a rough-and-ready comparison, the figures from June 2022 to April 2023 were Conservatives –142, Labour -93, Lib Dems -8, Nationalists -4 and Greens +7.  (That’s roughly a year, leaving out May when the local elections disguise the movements.)

Defections from the Conservatives have been slow but steady, across 42 different councils. There have been Labour defections in 40 authorities, but 42 councillors in 20 Councils have resigned since 7 October because of the national party’s stance on Israel and Palestine.  

Some may have moved to pre-empt expulsions, and others may be considering their position pending new developments in the Middle East or the shadow cabinet. There have been 10 Labour defections in both Oxford and Blackburn with Darwen, and eight former Labour councillors in Sheffield have formed a Community Councillors group.

How many of these councillors are going to campaign (or even vote) for the Labour Party at the next General Election? The inner workings of the Labour Party are a mystery to most people, but if anyone has any knowledge about whether these defections might be short term rather than long term it would be useful to have your comments below.  

It has not yet been possible to identify any councillors resigning their seats over the issue - maybe that will come. It’s interesting to note that the main website for the Labour Party has a link titled 'Are you thinking of leaving the Labour Party?'

Incidentally, for comparison, the Lib Dem defections have been in 12 authorities - the arithmetic is confused by some defections to the party. Eight of the Nationalist defections have been in North Lanarkshire, as the result of a dispute with the Group leader. But who knows, there may be more resignations north of the Border soon.

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

Postscript: A few minutes after this article was published, the resignations of the Labour Party Group Leader and ten more Labour councillors in Burnley was announced. Also, the resignation of a Labour County Councillor in the same area.

Read Augustus Carp's earlier guest posts on councillors who change allegiance:

• 100 signs that Conservative morale is low
• Defections, ratting and re-ratting: a final scorecard
• 61 councillors have changed their allegiance since May's local elections

The Joy of Six 1168

Andrew Page thinks the media be overestimating the importance of Labour's victory in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

"When a child arrives in need of a placement it is a rush to the phones to find somewhere that can provide for the needs of that child and the net is cast far and wide across the country. As smaller providers are closing or being bought by larger concerns this very bespoke pool reduces and the sector can become a bidding war for any remaining places available." Chris Carubia, deputy leader of the Lib Dem group on Wirral Council, makes the case for government regulation of childcare placement costs.

Euan McColm on the Tory nonsense over 15-minute cities: "Andrew Bowie entered the House of Commons as a politician of the moderate centre ground, a man regarded even by opponents as an honest broker. I wonder if he ever imagined he'd one day be reduced to peddling conspiracy theories in order to win the support of reactionary right-wingers."

Why are true stories about active police investigations going untold in the media? Charlotte Tobitt explains.

"This inability to make pro-active decisions for the good of the game, because they may upset or disturb the privileges of an elite minority, is typical of the game’s administration over the last century. Moreover, this behaviour explains why the recommendations of previous reports ... have never been enacted." Duncan Stone doubts that the England and Wales Cricket Board's ambition to make cricket Britain's 'most inclusive sport' will be fulfilled.

Philip Concannon takes us inside the restoration of Michael Powell's 1960 film Peeping Tom.

GUEST POST: 61 councillors have changed their allegiance since May's local elections

Augustus Carp look at the latest figures on councillors who change their political allegiance.

It’s been just over four months since the last round of local elections in England, so it’s probably time to have a quick look at the list of defections, expulsions, ratting and re-ratting going on amongst our elected councillors.  

My thesis is a simple one: local government by elections tell us a lot about real votes cast by real voters, and are the subject of considerable (over?) analysis.  However, councillors changing their political allegiances might be able to tell us a lot more about morale and local realpolitik, which can have a significant effect on local campaigning.  

Councillors provide the bulk of canvassing, leafletting and polling day manpower at General Elections, as well as being the political antennae for parliamentary candidates.  If they leave - for reasons of political principle, ego, or perceived personal slights they might have suffered - then as a consequence their old political party will lose their campaigning abilities in their ward.  

Since May this year it’s been comparatively quiet – there has been a net loss of 28 Conservative councillors, including three from the group in Peterborough.  Fifteen have left the Labour Party, including at least two arising from the Jamie Driscoll affair in North Tyneside.  

The Lib Dems are down nine (thirteen left, four joined) with three having gone in Sunderland, citing the pressures put on them by the local party.  

The Scottish Nationalists have lost 10, almost all in North Lanarkshire.  So, 61 active politicians have, for one reason or another, left the political party they were members of when they were elected.  

Only six have moved directly from one political party to another – the rest have moved to some form of notional independence.  Let’s see if the Defection Rate increases the closer we get to a General Election.

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

Read Augustus Carp's earlier guest posts on councillors who change allegiance:

• 100 signs that Conservative morale is low
• Defections, ratting and re-ratting: a final scorecard

If we really are seeing a Lib Dem revival, what would a good general election result look like?

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Writing for The House, Sean Kemp gives an amusing account of recent Liberal Democrat history:

At one point as a party spinner I found myself trudging round the lobby explaining our performance in the South Shields by-election (seventh place, behind the BNP and edging out the Monster Raving Loonies by 150 votes) and was reduced to gags like “we always said it was a seven horse race” to preserve some dignity.

before daring to hope that we are seeing a secure revival in the party's fortunes.

If we are really are, what would be a good result for the Lib Dems at next year's general election?

Sean writes:

Ed Davey isn’t about to be making up all the ground lost in the 2015 wipeout, but one of the many indignities of that result was the SNP becoming the third largest party in Westminster, taking over all the advantages that position gives you. 

It may be too much of a reach for the Lib Dems to turn it around at the next election, but if they come out of it having narrowed the gap and with a block of MPs that hold some legislative influence then the party can feel it is finally on an upward trajectory.

That is a realistic take, and it also emphasises that the Lib Dems' future will be strongly influenced by
something - the battle between the SNP and Labour in Scotland - that is wholly outside our control.

The Joy of Six 1157

"The never-not-mentioned 'slick campaigning machine' of the SNP was true in about 2006-11, but after the landslide 2011 election and especially after the referendum, complacency allowed it to dwindle." And that's just one of the Scottish Nationalist Party's problems, according to Robert McAlpine.

Matthew Pennell says an overarching health and wellness policy for children must include play.

"[Devon Malcolm] and his England colleague Phil DeFreitas - who received death threats from the Nazi National Front - successfully sued Wisden Cricket Magazine in 1995 for an article titled 'Is It In The Blood?', which accused England’s foreign-born and black players of being insufficiently committed." Andrew Stone goes deeper into the recent finding that racism, sexism and elitism are "baked into the structures" of cricket.

"In 2013 the late Labour MP Paul Flynn told the Commons that a Brethren campaign for charitable status was 'the most egregious example of intensive, million-pound lobbying by hundreds of people that I have experienced in my 25 years in the House'." Pippa Bailey takes us inside the Exclusive Brethren sect.

Travis Elborough watches No Two The Same, a 1970 film essay on Pimlico by the architectural writer Ian Nairn.

Howard Williams considers the Saxon church at Brixworth in Northamptonshire as a 'landscape of memory': "The later medieval sculptural fragments (many from tombs) are given no pride of place and stacked out of the way without heritage interpretation in a side-chapel at the east end of the south aisle."

Lib Dems set their sights on retaking Charles Kennedy's seat

Writing in the Herald, Kathleen Nutt says the Liberal Democrats is seeking to take back Charles Kennedy's old seat of Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

Kennedy lost the seat to the SNP's Ian Blackford in 2015 after a bitter local campaign. Blackford has recently announced he will be standing down as an MP at the next election.

Lib Dem ambitions are boosted by the strength of the candidate they have in place, the prominent entrepreneur and local councillor Angus MacDonald:

The businessman opened Fort William’s first cinema in 15 as a gift to his home town and also runs a bookstore while his son, Archie MacDonald jointly runs The Highland Soap Company, which opened a multi-million base in 2020.

Cllr MacDonald was named Scottish and UK Entrepreneur of the year in 2017 and founded The Caledonian Challenge endurance walk, which has raised £13million for local charities. He is also a published author.

And there is plenty for the Lib Dems to campaign on. The SNP's centralising tendencies - Scotland now has a single national police force, for instance - look less benign when viewed from the Highlands than when viewed in Edinburgh:

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will be campaigning in Fort William today with Highland councillor Angus MacDonald.

Ahead of the visit to the town Mr Cole-Hamilton accused the SNP of overseeing "a complete dearth of infrastructure spend" and making do with an ageing ferry fleet.

"For years, the SNP have removed autonomy from Highland communities, cut council budgets and singularly failed to stand up for rural issues," Mr Cole-Hamilton said.

"Ian Blackford and the SNP have overseen a complete dearth of infrastructure spend and the north and west Highlands have had to make do with an ageing, creaking ferry fleet while new vessels fall ever further behind schedule and budget. ...

""Angus will protect jobs, create opportunities and secure a better deal for people right across the region.

"He is already campaigning tirelessly on the issues that matter, such as replacing the Belford Hospital, rejuvenating local high streets and improving the A82.

"The residents of Ross, Skye and Lochaber deserve so much better than a centralising SNP and years of nationalist neglect."

After all, it was the Tories who promised to 'Stop the Boats' and not the SNP.

Lib Dems score best opinion poll rating the 2019 general election

You won't catch Liberal England making too much of a single opinion poll, but it's hard not to be encouraged by Redfield & Wilton Strategies’ latest.

Labour 41% (-4)

Conservative 29% (+1)

Liberal Democrat 16% (+4)

Reform UK 5% (-2)

Green 4% (–)

Scottish National Party 3% (+1)

Other 1% (–)

The figure in brackets is the percentage change since the company's 30 April poll.

This is the Lib Dems highest rating in an opinion poll since the 2019 general election. I can't see exactly when the groundwork for this poll was carried out, but it must have been last week.

As this was a week of great Lib Dem activity and favourable publicity for the party, it would have been a disappointment if we hadn't gone up in the polls,

One swallow doesn't make a silk purse, but this poll may point to the end of an odd period when the Conservative vote has collapsed yet the Lib Dem vote has barely risen.

The Joy of Six 1111

Neither Scottish nationalism not unionism is strong enough to vanquish the other, argues Tom McTague.

Mark Hooper looks at recent developments on Dartmoor and asks if England’s right of way laws are fit for purpose: "The government and the rich landowners that prop them up would prefer it if we define this issue along typical, easily ridiculed lines: a 'Crusties vs The Rule of Law' dichotomy. But the truth is far more nuanced.

Owen Whooley analyses psychiatry’s cycle of ignorance and reinvention: "There is no overarching narrative of progress here. What you see is the cyclical replaying of the same problems over and over. We see this with treatments and with theories around mental distress."

"It was going to school that I slowly started to absorb the fact of who my father was, and then later on who my mother was. And of course it’s only in the last few years that it’s really accelerated. And the fact that the importance of my mother is now coming to the surface, because she was very important; she was very important to my father." An interview with Richard Blair, who was adopted as a baby by George Orwell and his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

"His present-day vocal sound has been called many things, most of them unflattering. 'A consumptive death rattle' being just one of the kinder descriptions.  His new way of singing alienated many older die-hard fans and, whether they admitted it or not, some young converts found it heavy going, too." Stuart Penney no longer listens to Bob Dylan.

Dottie Tales visits Thomas More's Hertfordshire estate.

Lib Dems choose candidate for Charles Kennedy's old seat

Angus MacDonald has been chosen as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

This is the seat represented between 1983 and 2010 by Charles Kennedy, and currently held by Ian Blackfordm who recently stood down as the SNP's leader at Westminster.

Angus MacDonald told the Ross-shire Journal that his decision to stand stems from a deep sense of frustration at the lack of infrastructure in the Highlands and the centralised system of government:

"We get absolutely nothing up here, compared to the central belt where they have had trams, roads and countless infrastructure projects.

"Whereas up here all we have seen is the CalMac Ferries, which have not gone according to plan."

The paper describes Angus, who is a member of Highland Council, as a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist.