Saturday, May 31, 2025
Hymns and Arias in Mumbles
I first became curious very early on in my Swansea residency when walking down to Caswell Bay I came across Havergal House and the plaque commemorating her contribution to religious verse. This Mumbles history site takes up her story:
In the village of Newton, at the top of the hill that leads down to Caswell, a plaque in the wall of the house on the right states that the Christian poetess and hymn-writer Frances Ridley Havergal lived and died there. Frances was in her early forties when she joined her elder sister Maria there in 1878, after the family home in Worcester had been sold following their step-mother’s death.
The family had visited Langland while on holiday, and rented from the Tuckers a new house then called Park Villa. A fine musician and the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, Frances wrote seventy hymns (including one in French), and devotional books for children and adults. In her study where the west window looked over Caswell Bay stood her harp, piano and her American typewriter, for she was constantly writing articles and checking proofs of verse and music. She enjoyed walking on the cliffs, going onto Caswell beach at low tide to explore the rock pools, watching the ships with all sails up entering Swansea harbour, and was interested to visit Mumbles Lighthouse and speak with the lighthouse keeper. She became involved in temperance work, encouraging the young people to ‘sign the pledge’. As St Peter’s church in Newton was not built until after her death, Frances would attend Paraclete congregational chapel to play the organ and assist with the children’s work.
She declined several proposals of marriage, and after a short illness died of peritonitis in June 1879, being buried in the family grave at Astley in Worcestershire, within sight of the Rectory where she had been born 42 years earlier. Her hymns such as ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’ and ‘Like a river glorious’ are still sung today, especially ‘Take my life, and let it be’, which she preferred to be sung to a tune composed by her father, instead of the usual Mozart tune! The house Park Villa was re-named Havergal, and the plaque outside was unveiled in 1937 on the centenary of her birth, while nearby a street is named Havergal Close.
A list of many of Frances works can be found here in Wikipedia.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Widening the definition of national security
The paper says that with the defence budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – and an ambition to reach 3%, the government is being urged to broaden its definition of what constitutes “national security” to include food, energy and water security as well as measures to protect communities from flooding, extreme heat and sea level rises:
There are also calls to counter the possible “weaponisation of geoengineering” – hostile actors using geoengineering techniques to manipulate weather patterns to cause extreme conditions.
Retired R Adm Neil Morisetti said that while there was “most definitely a pressing requirement” to invest in military capability to deter the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the UK’s approach to national security had to be more sophisticated to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“National security needs to be seen more broadly,” said Morisetti, who is now a professor of climate and resource security at University College London. “We need to think about a lot of factors beyond just military capability – including food security, energy security, land security, health security, all of which are impacted by the consequences of a changing climate. I recognise that none of this is without cost, but governments need to level with society about the risks that we face today.”
Some other European countries have already taken climate security issues into their revamped defence plans. In Germany, the Green party managed to squeeze climate action into a radical defence and infrastructure spending plan. In Spain, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced that 17% of this year’s €23bn ($26.2bn) military spending would go to climate resilience programs.
Lt Gen Richard Nugee, a retired army officer who held several key posts during his 36-year military career, said the UK should be thinking along similar lines.
He argued that although there was a need for more military spending in light of the threat from Russia and the perceived weakening of US support for Europe, the discussion about the UK’s security in the 21st century needed to be much broader.
Alongside direct military spending, Nugee said there were “five and a half other securities” that the government should consider as it looks to spend billions to protect the UK: energy security and resilience; water security and resilience to floods and drought as well as sea level rises; food security, capacity and resilience; health security; and border security as we enter an era of mass population displacements.
Nugee argued that another “half security” was the potential weaponisation of geoengineering – hostile actors using the latest geoengineering technology to manipulate weather patterns.
He said all these matters were intrinsic to the country’s security in an era of climate crisis, but was concerned they were not part of the conversation about how best to protect the UK.
“I think there’s a very real chance that what I’m talking about just gets ignored … as the pull for increased security spending will focus solely on direct military spending, rather than the wider issue of national security, threatened also by the effects of climate change.”
He said the government needed something like a climate security centre to feed these arguments into the decision-making process around security matters rather than delegating them to other departments such as Defra.
“What we need is a centre or a body of people to be looking at national security in the round and how it is being profoundly affected by the changing world that we are seeing as a result of climate change.”
If anything, this intervention underlines the need for a holistic approach to defence. Pushback against climate change measures by the likes of Reform and the abandonment of soft power through cuts to overseas aid, all serve to undermine our national security. Let's hope that the defence review recognises that and addresses it.
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Time to fix Brexit
The paper says that she is writing a new book urging the prime minister to go much further in his Brexit reset mission and build closer relations with Brussels, adding that the new book, titled A More Perfect Union, will call on political leaders to admit that “Europe is once again central to Britain’s future” and argue that Britain should “build a union” with the bloc again:
Sir Keir – who has made a Brexit reset a centrepiece of his administration – said last week’s UK-EU summit marks a “new era” of relations with the bloc, adding that it is about “moving on from stale old debates” and “looking forward, not backwards”.
The deal - which was the first serious attempt to fix the harms caused by Brexit after Boris Johnson’s flawed deal in late 2019 - was seen as a major coup for the prime minister, despite his failure to get concrete details agreed on defence and youth mobility.
Ms Wheeler’s publisher, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, said her book would compare her ex-husband’s Brexit deal to a divorce settlement.
“Like a court order in a divorce, the Brexit deal contains our bare legal obligations”, they said.
“Yet as dangerous forces gather and global technologies stoke animosity, we have a wider duty. If Britain and Europe can’t work together, what chance do democracy and the rule of law have?”, the publisher said.
Ms Wheeler added: “Nearly 10 years after Britain voted to leave the EU, the unstable state of the world is clear to us all. Less obvious is the extraordinary opportunity this presents to put right what went wrong before and build a Europe we can together defend."
The human rights barrister was married to Mr Johnson for 25 years, separating in 2018 after having four children.
The book’s synopsis reads: “Labour aims for a ‘reset’. Barrister and mediator Marina Wheeler proposes something more radical: a roadmap towards a meaningful rapprochement.
“In A More Perfect Union, she tackles the political anxieties and identity crises on both sides of the Channel, and makes the case that transforming this relationship is now critical if our fundamental political liberties are to survive another generation.
“Concise, forensic, devastating, it is essential reading no matter which side you were on.”
This book sounds very sensible.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Reform facing a reality check
The Guardian reports that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said Reform UK’s plans to raise the threshold for paying income tax to £20,000 would cost between £50bn and £80bn:
PA Media reports Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the research institute, said the announcements on winter fuel and the two-child benefit cap were “dwarfed” by the tax policy.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Those are all significant things, and they are high-profile new public announcements, but actually they are all still dwarfed by some of the big policies that were in the manifesto last year, and today Nigel Farage recommitted to increasing the income tax allowance to £20,000, which depending on details might cost £50bn, £60bn, £70bn, £80bn.”
Meanwhile, the Independent tells us that Labour has called on Nigel Farage to take action after an image emerged from a Reform local election stunt depicting female cabinet ministers as cows in an abattoir:
The roadside setup in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, shows deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves and education secretary Bridget Phillipson depicted as cows waiting to be slaughtered.
The stunt, pictured by a passerby and passed to The Independent, was damned as “dehumanising” and “misogynistic”.
It has shocked political parties in Westminster, where MPs, including Mr Farage, are having to take extra security measures to protect themselves from potential attacks.
The imagery of a slaughterhouse has brought back memories of attacks on MPs, including the deaths of Labour’s Jo Cox and the later Tory MP David Amess.
Other MPs have been attacked, including Labour minister Stephen Timms, who was stabbed. And the danger faced by politicians was underlined last week when homes linked to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer were set on fire.
A Labour spokesperson said: “This is a dehumanising and misogynistic portrayal of hardworking female cabinet members who are delivering change for our country on behalf of the British people.
“If Nigel Farage wants his party to be in any way seen as remotely professional, he should start by condemning this ‘stunt’ and confirming nothing like this will happen again.”
A Lib Dem spokesperson added: “This is horrifically misogynistic and, after seeing politicians murdered in recent years, inferring that some should also be sent to an abattoir cannot be dressed up as anything other than an attack on democracy.
“Nigel Farage needs to step in and launch a full investigation, and anyone associated with this vile stunt must be expelled from Reform.”
With Reform now in charge of numerous local councils this may just be the start of the embarrassing blunders, revealing the reality of Farage's party, while the uncosted promises continue to flow. The only question is whether these revelations will actually dent Reform's poll `ratings.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Mary Trump at Hay
Trump’s crass and demeaning remarks about his enemies — calling them pigs, ugly, fat and losers — is rooted in his upbringing, according to his niece Mary L. Trump, who has written a new memoir, “Who Could Ever Love You.” This is the third book she has published since 2020, all of them critical of her uncle.
It’s safe to say that Donald Trump won’t be thrilled with his niece’s new book, which expands on themes she has explored before: the Trump family’s callousness, arrogance and win-at-all-costs credo. Now she offers vivid new detail about how those family values harmed her and her father.
⁸Mary and Donald Trump have been at odds for years. He was furious when she gave the New York Times tax documents and information about the family real estate empire, leading to embarrassing stories about controversial financial practices and tax avoidance schemes.
He tried to undercut her credibility when she published her first book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” in 2020. That book, which was a bestseller, explored the dynamics of the Trump family and offered personal insights into Donald Trump’s upbringing and behavior. (Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist.)
In an interview with Fox News, President Donald Trump said Mary Trump was “a scarred person,” called her book “stupid and so vicious it’s a lie,” and said she is “not a person that I spent very much time with.”
Now, in her new book, Mary Trump elaborates with stories based on what she says are eyewitness observations of the Trump family dysfunction.
Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump’s older brother, Fred Trump Jr., describes the former president’s mother as “seriously ill and psychologically unstable” and his father as “a sociopath.” She says that Fred Trump, Sr., was hard-hearted, and so craved publicity that he devoted a room to news clippings about the real estate empire he founded and felt zero empathy for tenants in his cockroach-infested New York apartments. She says her Uncle Donald became just like him.
As a child, Donald Trump was a bully who had no friends and developed a “widening cruel streak,” his niece writes. When her uncle became one of the most famous people in the world, his lack of empathy and disrespect to others made her ashamed to even use her credit card bearing her last name. In 2021, she sank into a depression so severe that she tried ketamine therapy.
Several of this memoir’s most vivid scenes revolve around Mary’s father, who struggled with alcoholism and died at age 42. Donald Trump has said his older brother’s alcoholism is why he never drank, for fear he would not stop.
“Dad’s embarrassed by you,” Donald told his brother, according to Mary Trump. “He tells everybody you’re just a glorified bus driver.”
Mary Trump recalls other gratuitously hurtful comments by Donald Trump, who became president of the family business in his mid-20s. While she was away at school in 1981, her seriously ill father was rushed to the emergency room in New York. Her grandfather informed Donald, then in his 30s, but he “went to the movies,” she writes, adding that her father died alone that night.
This session will be worth attending.
Monday, May 26, 2025
Vulnerable critical systems
This is a particular problem with those systems designed to enable the delivery of public services as not only are they critical, but they are also large scale and therefore expensive, while the organisations who run them tend not to have a lot of cash to spare.
This could explain why the Legal Aid Agency is under fire after a major cyber attack saw potentially millions of pieces of personal data stolen, including criminal records.
The Independent reports that the Agency's IT system is antiquated and therefore vulnerable to this sort of attack. The repercussions are serious:
A “significant amount of personal data” of people who applied to the agency since 2010 was accessed and downloaded in a cyber attack in April this year, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said.
Those eligible to apply for legal aid include domestic violence and modern slavery victims, people involved in cases in the family court, as well as those accused of criminal offences.
Lawyers are also concerned wealthy individuals who used a duty solicitor when questioned by police but were not later charged could end up at risk of being blackmailed.
The group that carried out the attack has claimed it accessed 2.1 million pieces of data but the MoJ has not verified that figure.
Richard Atkinson, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, a professional body that represents solicitors, said: “It is extremely concerning that members of the public have had their personal data compromised in this cyber security incident and the LAA must get a grip on the situation immediately.
“The incident once again demonstrates the need for sustained investment to bring the LAA’s antiquated IT system up to date and ensure the public have continued trust in the justice system.
“The fragility of the IT system has prevented vital reforms, including updates to the means test that could help millions more access legal aid, and interim payments for firms whose cash flow is being decimated by the backlogs in the courts, through no fault of their own.
“If it is now also proving vulnerable to cyber attack, further delay is untenable.
“Legal aid firms are small businesses providing an important public service and are operating on the margins of financial viability. Given that vulnerability, these financial security concerns are the last thing they need.”
Other recent cyber attacks have targeted Marks and Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods but you expect public services to have a higher level of security, if only they had the money to invest.
This could explain why the Legal Aid Agency is under fire after a major cyber attack saw potentially millions of pieces of personal data stolen, including criminal records.
The Independent reports that the Agency's IT system is antiquated and therefore vulnerable to this sort of attack. The repercussions are serious:
A “significant amount of personal data” of people who applied to the agency since 2010 was accessed and downloaded in a cyber attack in April this year, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said.
Those eligible to apply for legal aid include domestic violence and modern slavery victims, people involved in cases in the family court, as well as those accused of criminal offences.
Lawyers are also concerned wealthy individuals who used a duty solicitor when questioned by police but were not later charged could end up at risk of being blackmailed.
The group that carried out the attack has claimed it accessed 2.1 million pieces of data but the MoJ has not verified that figure.
Richard Atkinson, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, a professional body that represents solicitors, said: “It is extremely concerning that members of the public have had their personal data compromised in this cyber security incident and the LAA must get a grip on the situation immediately.
“The incident once again demonstrates the need for sustained investment to bring the LAA’s antiquated IT system up to date and ensure the public have continued trust in the justice system.
“The fragility of the IT system has prevented vital reforms, including updates to the means test that could help millions more access legal aid, and interim payments for firms whose cash flow is being decimated by the backlogs in the courts, through no fault of their own.
“If it is now also proving vulnerable to cyber attack, further delay is untenable.
“Legal aid firms are small businesses providing an important public service and are operating on the margins of financial viability. Given that vulnerability, these financial security concerns are the last thing they need.”
Other recent cyber attacks have targeted Marks and Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods but you expect public services to have a higher level of security, if only they had the money to invest.
Sunday, May 25, 2025
A real gambling problem
The paper says that the number of slot machine shops has risen by 7% since 2022, as companies -friendly planning and licensing laws to flood Britain’s high streets with new “adult gaming centres” (AGCs), most of which are open 24 hours a day:
Venues are disproportionately concentrated in Britain’s most-deprived areas, according to analysis by the Guardian, prompting concern from a leading addiction expert and calls from politicians – including Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester – for councils to be given powers to stop new sites opening.
Of 1,452 AGCs analysed, a third were in the poorest 10% of British neighbourhoods, while more than half served customers in the most-deprived 20%.
Figures show that the pattern of targeting the least well-off areas continued during a recent surge of new shop openings, as market leaders Admiral and Merkur expanded their high street footprint.
Seaside towns, many of which are economically deprived and also known for their amusement arcades, feature heavily among the areas with the highest concentration of AGCs, topped by Great Yarmouth.
But other coastal areas that do not feature resorts are also heavily represented.
Between them, Middlesbrough and Hull – the fourth and fifth most-deprived local councils – had 28 AGCs, according to the analysis, serving 424,592 people.
In contrast, 14 local authorities, in which 1.7 million people live, don’t have a single AGC. All but one of them are in the top 50% wealthiest council areas and eight are in the top 20%.
MPs and addiction experts raised concerns that the spread of shops offering 24-hour access to slot machines – consistently ranked among the most-addictive gambling products in health surveys – risked exploiting vulnerable people.
Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones, the national clinical adviser on gambling harms at NHS England, said: “Slot machine venues, particularly those open 24/7, deploy addictive products to keep vulnerable people playing for hours on end, against their own interests.
“The Guardian’s findings indicate that the result of this is simply to channel funds from the pockets of the poorest into the pockets of the richest. This comes as the NHS is supporting record numbers who have had their lives destroyed by gambling, with 15 clinics now up and running across England.”
AGCs, which feature machines offering spins of up to £2 and jackpots of up to £500, took more than £530m from gamblers in the last year for which figures are available.
Burnham said: “It’s time we were honest about what [AGCs] really are,.” He warned that AGCs were “targeting some of the most vulnerable in our communities”.
“It’s unacceptable that councils have so little power to regulate them despite repeated concerns from charities and local residents.
“We must reclassify these venues in law, give local authorities stronger licensing powers, and hold operators accountable.”
Andy Burnham is absolutely right, there must be proper regulation to stop this exploitation, let's hope that the pressure he and others are applying will force the government to act soon.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Pure heart
They report that pupils have helped to choose the name of a new 350-place special school in Swansea as Ysgol Calon Lan, in recognition of the Welsh hymn penned by Daniel James in the 1890s and set to the music of John Hughes, both of whom lived in Swansea. Calon Lan translates as Pure Heart, which seems an entirely appropriate name for this school.
As the Calon Lan Centre website relates, Daniel James was born on 23rd January 1848 and was one of five children born to Daniel and Mary who were married at Mynyddbach Chapel (pictured) in 1844. The family lived in Llangyfelach Road, Treboeth, Swansea:
Living conditions at this time would not have been easy for a large family living in a small cottage. This was the case for so many families in the industrial and mining communities of 19th Century Wales. Daniel’s childhood was cut short and he started work at aged 13 as a labourer. Through experience and hard work he became a puddler and was employed at Landore Tinplate Works until it closed around 1894.
Alongside this demanding physical work Daniel mastered the intricacies of Welsh poetry. He was taught by D.W. Thomas, an elder at Mynyddbach Chapel and began to write verse under the pseudonym “Dafydd Mynyddbach, but he later assumed the Bardic name “Gwyrosydd”.
Daniel married Ann Hopkins in 1871 and lived in a thatched cottage at Plas-y-Coed Terrace, Treboeth. Together they had four children and Ann died in 1887 aged just 38. In 1888 he married Gwenllian (Morgan) Parry who had returned from Russia following the death of her husband. Gwenllian had five children of her own and she and Daniel went on to have a further three children together.
Following the closure of Landore tinplate works in 1889 he needed to find other employment to support his large family. The family moved to Blaengarw where he worked at Ocean Colliery and Nixon Colliery. The family moved to Blaengarw in the Cynon Valley where he worked as a miner for twenty years. Six years later he lost his second wife. Mining took its toll on his health and in 1916, at the age of 68, he was given a job as a cemetery caretaker in Mountain Ash.
Daniel’s son, William Hopkin died following an injury to his foot whilst he was working in International Colliery. His foot had become infected with horse manure off a rope and through this he became infected with lockjaw and died within a few days of the accident. His body was taken to Blaengarw Workingmen’s Club where an inquest was held and then he was taken back to Swansea and is buried at Mynyddbach in the family tomb.
Physical work took its toll on Daniel’s health but despite this he worked until the age of 68 when he took the job of a cemetery caretaker at Mountain Ash where he stayed until his return to Morriston. He ended his days in Swansea and died on March 11 1920 and is buried at his beloved Mynyddbach.
Daniel was a hard working man who supported his large family by working in difficult and often dangerous jobs. Daniel was a sociable man who also wrote verses for friends and neighbours to celebrate special events in their lives. During his time in Swansea he was often to be found sitting in his special chair in the snug of the King’s Head, Treboeth, composing verses for anyone who would buy him a beer. His chair is now housed at Mynyddbach.
In contrast the artistic side to his character was in writing beautiful poetry and he was so prolific that there were three books of his work published. These were:
Caneuon Gwyrosydd [1885]
Caniadau Gwyrosydd [1892]
Aeron Awen Gwyrosydd [1898]
It was in Caniadau Gwyrosydd that Calon Lân was published but it is not known where it was actually written. It has been suggested that Daniel wrote the words on the back of a cigarette packet in Blaengarw. This story may have some truth in it but unfortunately this does not prove or disprove where the poem was composed. The Blaengarw Hotel is rumoured to have been the site of the song’s first public performance and words to Calon Lân have been sung over the years to four different tunes, but the most well known is by the composer, John Hughes (1872 – 1914).
Calon Lân was one of the most popular hymns sung during the Revival of 1904-5. It remains an important part of Wales’ culture today and is often referred to as the country’s second national anthem. Its sentiments echo the finest Christian principles – that a pure heart is finer than any material wealth.
This will be the third school in the Mynyddbach ward to be named in honour of Daniel James, one of the others being Gwyrosydd School.
Daniel James Comprehensive School, which housed the chair used by the poet when he frequented the Kings Head, closed some years ago and is to be demolished, to be replaced with a brand new Catholic Comprehensive School in a few years time.
Friday, May 23, 2025
Consequences
The paper says that the Office for National Statistics said 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024, with 519,000 leaving in the year to December 2024:
Net migration to the UK almost halved last year, new figures have revealed, sparking concerns over a worker shortage in the UK.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said 948,000 people came to Britain in 2024, with 519,000 leaving in the year to December 2024.
The 431,000 net migration figure is around half the 860,000 level seen a year earlier, driven by a fall in non-EU workers and students coming to the UK, and marks the largest fall on record.
The Tories have claimed credit for the drop under measures they introduced shortly before losing the election, but it comes just a week after Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial speech about reducing migration even further, claiming the UK had become an “island of strangers”.
Despite both Labour and the Conservatives celebrating the figures, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank warned Sir Keir must balance cutting migration numbers with the need to support Britain’s ailing public services, with particular concern about exacerbating the shortage of workers in the health and social care - many of whom come from overseas.
The construction and care industries are already warning of shortages thanks to the new measures Labour has introduced, today claiming that the sharp fall in net migration reveals those changes “could not have come at a worse time”.
Daniel Austin, chief executive and co-founder at ASK Partners, an independent property lender, said: “The government’s tightening of immigration rules risks deepening the UK’s housing crisis at precisely the wrong moment. The construction sector is already under intense pressure, from spiralling build costs and the impact of regulatory changes like the Building Safety Act, to planning bottlenecks and a chronic shortage of skilled labour. Limiting access to foreign workers threatens to compound these issues, further stalling progress on desperately needed housing.”
Care providers have warned that Sir Keir’s fresh crackdown on visas for the sector, which will see care homes banned from employing overseas workers, will shut down services and leave older and disabled people without access to safe care.
The latest government data shows 26,100 people between April last year and April 2025 came to the UK on a health and care worker visa. This is down from 143,900 on figures for March 2023 to March 2024.
Dr Jane Townson OBE, chief executive of the Homecare Association, which represents home care providers, told The Independent this month that the prime minister’s measures will “force more homecare providers to shut their doors”.
The government may well believe that cutting migration is a good news story but there are consequences for public services. They need to be careful what they wish for.
Thursday, May 22, 2025
A slow u-turn
The paper says that Starmer indicated in the Commons that he would look again at the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance, in an attempt to win back public support and quell a growing Labour backbench rebellion over benefit cuts.
The problem is that No 10 has been unable to confirm whether the winter fuel U-turn will come into effect by this winter if announced in the autumn budget – or how many of the approximately 10 million pensioners who lost it will have it restored.
As they point out ,the decision to means test the previously universal payment was one of the first announcements by Rachel Reeves after Labour’s landslide election victory last year and has been widely blamed for the party’s collapse in public support.
I suppose it was inevitable after Labour's drubbing at the local elections that there would be a change in this policy, and yet nobody in the government is actually admitting they got it wrong, just that the fiscal position has changed.
Together with the uncertainty about this very slow, almost glacial u-turn, that lack of contrition is not going to do Labour much good and if those pensioners who need the money and lost out on the change do not get the payment this year, there may well be further electoral repercussions.
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Ping pong over Artificial Intelligence
The paper says that peers voted 287 to 118, a majority of 169, to amend the Data (Use and Access) Bill, echoing concerns raised by prominent artists like Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney about AI companies using copyrighted material without consent:
The amendment mandates transparency requirements, ensuring copyright holders can identify when and by whom their work is utilised.
Peers backed independent crossbencher Baroness Beeban Kidron’s transparency amendments at report stage of the Bill, which were later voted down by MPs.
The unelected house supported her again during the first round of so-called ping-pong and now again in the second round of ping-pong, with the majority increasing each time.
The Government has said it will address copyright issues as a whole after the more than 11,500 responses to its consultation on the impact of AI have been reviewed, rather than in what it has branded “piecemeal” legislation.
Lady Kidron, who directed the second film in the Bridget Jones series, rounded on the Government, accusing them of being “turned by the sweet whisperings of Silicon Valley”.
She said: “The Government have got it wrong. They have been turned by the sweet whisperings of Silicon Valley, who have stolen – and continue to steal every day we take no action – the UK’s extraordinary, beautiful and valuable creative output.
“Silicon Valley have persuaded the Government that it is easier for them to redefine theft than make them pay for what they stole.
“If the Government continues on its current intransigent path, we will begin to see the corrosion of our powerful industry, fundamental to country and democracy. It will be a tragedy and it’s entirely avoidable.”
The online safety campaigner explained that her new amendment accepts that the Government’s consultation and report will be the mechanism by which transparency measures will be introduced, and gives the Government free rein on enforcement procedures.
However, it does require the Government to ensure clear, relevant and accessible information is provided to copyright holders so they can identify the use of their copyrighted work, and that legislation is to be brought forward within six months of the Government’s report being published, 18 months from the Bill’s passing.
Lady Kidron told peers: “If the Government is not willing to accept a time-limited outcome of its own report, we must ask again if the report is simply a political gesture to push tackling widespread theft of UK copyright into the long grass.
“Because failing to accept a timeline in the real world means starving UK industries of the transparency they need to survive.”
She insisted that UK copyright law as it stands is unenforceable, because “what you can’t see you can’t enforce”, and that without her amendment it will be years before the issue is legislated on, by which time the creative industry will be “in tatters”.
This is an important issue and clearly the House of Lords feel strongly enough to take things all the way. Surely it is time for the government to come up with some sort of compromise.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Progress at last
According to the Guardian, Number 10 Downing Street believe that this deal will add £9bn to the UK economy and lower food prices. That will have to be seen of course, but irrespective of the final impact, the deal does achieve some important changes to the way we interact with our neighbours.
Starmer claims that the deal will pave the way for the removal of checks on British food exports, allowing everything from the “great British burger to shellfish” to be sold again with ease in the EU:
The deal also holds out hope for a return of the UK to the Erasmus university exchange programme, and the creation of a youth mobility scheme that would allow young people to experience the EU through work, study, au pairing or travel.
The two sides will begin talks on the “youth experience scheme”, first reported in the Guardian, which could mirror existing schemes the UK has with countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
The UK said it would be “capped and time-limited”, though there is no agreement yet from the EU on the details.
Central to the agreement is the new agrifoods deal, known as an SPS agreement, which removes red tape on food and drink exports, removing some routine checks on animal and plant products completely. In return, the UK will accept some dynamic alignment on EU food standards and a role for the European court of justice in policing the deal.
...
Another agreement reached before the Lancaster House summit will be on linking emissions trading, which the UK said would avoid businesses being hit by the EU’s carbon tax due to come in next year.
The deal also protects British steel imports from new EU tariffs through a bespoke arrangement, saving about £25m a year.
British holidaymakers will also be able to use European gates at airports, ending long holiday queues to use the gates for non-European citizens, and pet passports will be introduced to eliminate the need for animal health checks on each trip.
The UK will also now enter formal talks on a number of key topics, including a youth mobility deal, to grant visas for younger Britons and Europeans as well as re-entry to the Erasmus scheme.
There will be future talks, too, on access to the EU facial recognition data, a key ask of Starmer as a way of tackling cross-border crime and people-trafficking gangs.
But there will be no immediate entry for the UK to the EU’s €150bn (£126bn) defence fund to allow UK arms companies to bid for contracts – though the UK said the deal struck on Monday would pave the way for that to happen in the coming months.
Importantly, this agreement will better regularise the movement of goods between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, effectively removing most of the messy restrictions imposed as part of Boris Johnson's negotiated deal and helping to strengthen the Good Friday Agreement.
The only problem with this deal is that it does not go far enough in repairing the damage caused by Farage and his Brexit fellow travellers. The deal adds just £9bn to UK national income by 2040, or around 0.2% of GDP, this compares with the loss to GDP caused by Brexit estimated at 20 times that, or 4% of GDP, by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Update: there is a useful summary of the deal here.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Care homes under threat after Labour policy change
The warning comes after a new UK government white paper proposed care workers on sponsored visas would need to remain in the UK for 10 years before gaining the right to live and work here indefinitely - double the current requirement of five years:
According to Social Care Cymru, around 88,000 people work in Wales' care sector, with approximately 15% to 20% coming from overseas.
Oakville Care Homes, which operates four homes across south Wales, employs more than 200 staff - 65% of whom are from overseas.
"It's going to have a drastic effect," according to Mahesh Patel, one of the company's general managers.
"I wouldn't be surprised if many care homes eventually close. It will have a huge impact on local health boards and local authorities.
"We've had lots of meetings with staff - it's been quite upsetting for them. Some managers have been in tears."
Mr Patel said he has had meetings with companies this week to arrange recruitment banners to display outside its homes.
"We have to act now, given the number of staff we could potentially lose in the next 12 months," he added.
Caron Group, which runs 18 homes, said more than 50% of its workforce are on sponsorship visas.
At Ely Court Care Home in Cardiff fears are shared, with staff concerned about the impact on the services they provide to residents.
General manager Rebecca Roberts said the proposal would have a "huge impact on the whole industry".
"Changing the employment route makes it harder for us to recruit and retain the staff needed to provide high-quality care," Ms Roberts said.
"It's not just about numbers - it's about the expertise we're losing.
"More and more homes will struggle to find staff, and that will have a knock-on effect across the entire care sector in Wales."
The wider ramifications of Starmers Enoch-Powell-tribute-Act are just beginning to be understood, but what is already clear is that the clampdown on immigration will badly hit the care and health sector, who are already struggling to attract and retain staff.
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Are the lobbyists taking over again?
The paper says that ahead of new regulations banning junk food promotions from October, the Department of Health and Social Care issued advice to thousands of shops, supermarkets, online retailers and other businesses to help them comply with the law, but the healthy food push was dropped after the Food and Drink Federation, which represents corporations including Nestlé, Mondelēz, Coca-Cola, Mars and Unilever repeatedly demanded the government ditch it:
The guidance said: “The aim of this policy is to shift the balance of promotions towards healthier options – such as minimally processed and nutritious food.” This might include, for example, two-for-one deals, discounts or extra loyalty points on fruit, vegetables, whole grains, fresh meat and fish.
Promotions on minimally processed and nutritious food would be gamechanging, making it more affordable for families and improving the diets of millions.
...
Now the new regulations coming into force in England still limit the promotion of food and drink that is high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS), but guidance issued to retailers no longer urges them to switch their deals to minimally processed and nutritious food.
Instead, it simply encourages promotions of “healthier options”. Experts say this is “flawed” advice because many ultra-processed foods still meet the definition of “healthier”, including some energy drinks, crisps, snacks, cereal bars, pizzas, burgers and ice-creams.
The U-turn, revealed for the first time, occurred on 1 June 2023 under Rishi Sunak’s government, the Guardian found. The change remains in the current government’s guidance being issued to retailers ahead of the law change in October.
It came after the FDF waged a campaign to put pressure on the DHSC to rewrite its nutrition policy, lobbying officials to remove the push to minimally processed food in the guidance issued to retailers, according to documents and emails reviewed by the Guardian.
In response to a freedom of information request, the government released a cache of emails between the FDF and the DHSC.
Most of the correspondence was heavily redacted. The government cited section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, “which provides for the protection of personal information”, and section 35(1)(a), “which provides protection for the information that relates to the formulation or development of government policy”.
The emails, sent between October 2022 and April 2023, reveal how the FDF, which represents firms with a combined annual turnover of more than £112bn, lobbied the DHSC to drop the guidance pushing retailers to promote minimally processed food.
Although these lobbyists got their own way under the previous Tory government, the fact that Labour ministers didn't reverse the decision must cast doubt about their commitment to the promotion of healthy food.
Saturday, May 17, 2025
The Women of Mumbles Head
Swansea Counci's website tells us that the sisters were the daughters of Mumbles lighthouse keeper, Abraham Ace. It says that the sisters were two 'ordinary' yet 'extraordinary' young women, who, in 1883, heroically risked their lives, in attempting to save members of the crew of the Mumbles lifeboat, Wolverhampton:
The lifeboat had gone out during the early morning of the 'Great Storm' of Saturday January 27th 1883, to assist the 885 ton barque, Admiral Prinz Adalbert of Danzig, Germany, when she drifted onto the outer island of Mumbles Head and was wrecked below the lighthouse.
The two women subsequently became known and admired worldwide when a dramatic sketch appeared on the front page of the respected and influential British weekly illustrated newspaper, The Graphic for Saturday 24th February 1883.
Their bravery became the inspiration for the epic, if not totally accurate poem, 'The Women of Mumbles Head' by the influential Daily Telegraph theatre critic, Clement Scott (1841-1904). In recent years, poet, Maura Dooley, has written her own beautiful poem, bearing the same title. The original poem was recited by generations of children in Mumbles, Swansea and further afield.
The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, holds a set of seven hand-coloured 'Magic Lantern' slides of a photographic re-enactment of the actions of the Ace sisters, used to 'accompany' public recitations of the poem.
One-time Mumbles Lifeboat crew member, now Surrey-based writer and maritime historian, Carl Smith, was 'raised' on that epic poem, handed down by his father's story-telling and by the fact his grandmother had been with villagers, watching the tragedy unfold. He has fully researched 'The Cambrian' and 'Cambria Daily Leader', Swansea's newspapers, in 1883, covering every angle of this tragedy and his "The Men of Mumbles Head' (Gomer Press 1977) gives us the most detailed account of what happened. He includes the statement from Coxswain Jenkins, the day after the event:
"Two daughters of Mr. Ace went to where I saw the men in the water. I was told that Mr. Ace seemed afraid lest his daughters should get drowned. Maggie cried out, 'I will lose my life rather than let these men drown' and she and her sister tied two shawls together and both of them threw them into the water. By this means they saved two men, William Rosser and John Thomas". Rosser testified how "Mr. Ace's daughters hauled me up". He refers to a soldier (Gunner Hutchings) and the sisters throwing him a rope."
Carl Smith confirms that "The RNLI reports did not mention the actions of the women".
"The coxswain received a silver medal from the RNLI and £50: Gunner Hutchings received its thanks on vellum. The action of the two women was not recognised by the RNLI, but both received gold brooches from the Empress of Germany for looking after the barque's crew".
Clement Scott's rather pedestrian verse can be read here. The text of Maura Dooley's poem doesn't appear to be online, but you can apparently be read it in her collection 'Sound barrier: poems, 1982-2002'.
I also reference the event in my poem 'Mumbles', which can be read in my collection: 'The Statues of Ghosts: Selected Poems'.
Friday, May 16, 2025
Are tax rises inevitable?
The paper says that Nick Williams, who left Number 10 last month, said Labour’s current public spending plans were “not credible” and would have to be reconsidered, with tax rises being unavoidable:
Mr Williams’s departure from Downing Street raised eyebrows in Westminster and came as part of a clear out that also included Tom Webb, the prime minister's health adviser.
He had been with the party since their time in Opposition, when he was Labour’s head of economic policy, before becoming Sir Keir’s adviser on planning, infrastructure and housing.
In an article for The Times he warns that Ms Reeves’s next budget will be “the last opportunity to make a meaningful change that the public has time to feel before the next election”.
He said: “While the government builds momentum behind growth, the path of public spending is just not credible.
“Not to mend creaking local government. Not to tackle rampant crime. Not to meet the modern demands for defence. And certainly not to fill the fiscal hole from sharply cutting immigration.
“The bottom line is that taxes will have to go up. There are ways this can be done which are fair and respect manifesto promises.
“The next opportunity to do so is the autumn budget. This is also realistically the last opportunity to make a meaningful change that the public has time to feel before the next election.”
Reeves created nearly £10bn of ‘headroom’ with her first set of cuts in office, but that was wiped out within months amid low growth and higher borrowing costs.
In response, she gave herself another £9.9 billion of headroom at the last budget, but has faced mounting warnings for weeks that it will not be enough and that she will have to come back either with more cuts, which would be difficult in the current climate as Labour MPs increasing worry over her plans to slash benefits, or tax rises.
The situation has been made harder by Donald Trump’s across the board 10 per cent tariffs on British goods entering the UK, even after Sir Keir agreed a deal with the US President to cut the levies on cars and steel last week.
Reeves has already made it harder for herself with the increase in Employers National Insurance contributions. That was a clear breach of her manifesto promise but it was the wrong choice as it added additional burdens onto businesses and the public sector as well as threatening jobs.
The right choice then would have been higher taxes on the wealthy and that is what the chancellor should do at her next budget.
Thursday, May 15, 2025
A coward and a viper?
Nation Cymru reports that Farage's hope that the police would help to make his problems with Lowe go away was dashed when it was decided that no criminal charges will be brought against the Great Yarmouth MP. Lowe had been accused of making verbal threats against party chairman Zia Yusuf.
The website say that the Crown Prosecution Service have found that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against “a sitting MP” over an alleged incident at the Palace of Westminster in December:
Mr Lowe, who now sits in the Commons as an independent, accused Reform’s leader, Mr Farage, of being a “coward and a viper”.
He said: “This was not normal political infighting.
“It was a sinister attempt to weaponise the criminal justice system against me, putting not just my political future but my liberty at risk.
“All because I dared to raise constructive criticisms of Nigel Farage, stood firm on deporting illegal migrants, and pushed for Reform to be run democratically – not as a vehicle to stroke one man’s ego.”
This one is going to run and run.
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Starmer's race to the bottom
The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer is facing severe opposition from Labour MPs and employers over his immigration shift, while social media feeds are burning with the indignation of many Labour members and supporters who are incredulous and despairing at the fact that the Labour Party is now positioning itself on the Farage wing of UK politics:
Announcing his new immigration policies on Monday, Starmer warned that the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers” without a tougher approach, and said the government would “take back control of our borders” and close the book on a “squalid chapter” of rising inward migration.
For those who believe that he has already pitched too far to the right in response to the rise in support for Reform UK, his rhetoric on immigration will bite.
Sarah Owen, the Labour MP for Luton North who is on the soft left of the party, said the best way to avoid the UK becoming an “island of strangers” was to invest in communities so that they thrived.
“I’ve said it before and will say it again: chasing the tail of the right risks taking our country down a very dark path,” she warned, urging the government not to risk pitting people against each other.
Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: “The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.
“Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family. To suggest that Britain risks becoming ‘an island of strangers’ because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far right.”
Others went further. Zarah Sultana, an independent MP since she was suspended from Labour for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, accused Starmer of imitating Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood” speech.
Labour are even prepared to question the orthodox view of sensible economists that immigration is good for the economy as it helps us to fill important jobs and keeps things moving. The paper says that Starmer explicitly made the case that higher levels of immigration – particularly by low-skilled workers – were not in fact contributing to economic growth.
No 10 officials are expected to ask the Office for Budget Responsibility, which now regards migration as a net positive to the economy over a five-year period, to look again at how it reaches its conclusions.
At least there is one sensible view being expessed by a senior politician. My thanks to Liberal England for highlighting this post by Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, He says:
I fear that Labour is falling into the same trap that the Tories did - leaning on hostile rhetoric around immigration and damaging our public services and our economy in the process.
We should not pander to the far right but instead fix the problems that enable them. If you feed that wolf eventually it will eat you.
We need a flexible, dynamic legal migration system that works for our country and our economy, while treating everyone with dignity and respect.
We should have no truck with the demonisation of desperate people fleeing persecution, war or starvation, nor indeed of those who are on the frontline of our health and social care sectors. The last thing we need is to do more harm to our fragile public services.
There will always be a need for integration and fair play in our immigration system, but we should not ignore the enormous benefits that immigration has brought to our country. These are our friends and neighbours, people who enrich our cultural fabric and help drive our economy across the UK.
I agree.
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Lib Dems set up 'Reform watch'
The Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats have set up an internal “Reform watch” system to monitor Nigel Farage’s party in local government, with Ed Davey saying Labour and the Conservatives are too scared of the threat from Reform to hold it to account.
The paper says that as well as gaining more than 160 councillors and taking control of three new councils, the Lib Dems are the biggest party in three others, and in four areas came second to Reform – which will be the core of the monitoring project, intended to scrutinise Reform’s mayors as well as councils:
It is being spearheaded by Amanda Hopgood, the leader of the opposition group in the Reform-run County Durham, along with Antony Hook, who performs the same role in Kent, and Mike Ross, the leader of Hull city council, who came second to Reform’s Luke Campbell to be mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire.
A key part of the monitoring will be to see if and how Reform-run councils try to cut services, Davey said. Many families had been “alarmed” by Farage’s comments saying too many people were being diagnosed with special needs or mental illnesses, he said.
Other areas would include culture war battles, such as Reform barring councils from flying the Ukraine flag as a show of solidarity, and trying to cut back on climate and net zero-related work.
Davey said: “When you look at what councils do on climate change, the vast bulk of the work is insulating people’s homes. So is Nigel Farage essentially going to say to less well-off people: ‘We’re not insulating your home, you can pay higher energy bills, and that we’re pleased about that because that can make climate change worse.’ Is that the Reform position?”
Davey aims to present his party as “the antidote to Reform”, an extension of its bullish stance on opposing Donald Trump, where Labour and the Conservatives are more cautious.
He said: “We’re going to take the fight to them, whether it’s exposing the fact that Farage is a huge cheerleader for Donald Trump and wants money from Elon Musk, all those sorts of things.”
While the Lib Dems performed well in the local elections, they lost out to Reform in some key areas, for example the Hull and East Yorkshire mayoralty. Similarly, while they achieved their target of removing Warwickshire council from Tory control, this involved finishing a fairly distant second to Reform.
Davey said this did not mean they had underperformed. “We were expecting to do very well in south Warwickshire, which we did. In North Yorkshire, we weren’t expecting to do that well. It was Labour and Tories’ failures that let Reform in. They didn’t make any progress in our areas. Where we were really active, Reform were put in their place.”
Another complication, he said, was the fragmentation from very close multiparty contests, which in one instance meant the Lib Dems won a council seat on less than 19% of the total vote.
It is absolutely essential that Reform are properly held to account for the way they are running the councils they gained earlier this month. With the media apparently too afraid to do the job, it falls to the Lib Dems to take up the cudgel.
Monday, May 12, 2025
Another blow for care services
The paper says that the immigration white paper, to be published today, includes measures to ban new recruitment from abroad for care roles, as part of a wider effort to reduce legal migration and prioritise UK-based workers, but the decision has triggered an angry backlash from industry leaders and trade unions, who say the sector is already stretched to breaking point and still relies heavily on international staff to keep services running:
Prof Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, said the government was “kicking us while we’re already down”.
“For years, the sector has been propping itself up with dwindling resources, rising costs, and mounting vacancies,” he said.
“International recruitment wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was a lifeline. Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding, and no alternative, is not just shortsighted – it’s cruel.”
Unison, the UK’s biggest union representing health and care workers, also criticised the decision and called for urgent clarity on what the changes meant for those already working in the UK.
Christina McAnea, Unison’s general secretary, said: “The NHS and the care sector would have collapsed long ago without the thousands of workers who’ve come to the UK from overseas.
“Migrant health and care staff already here will now be understandably anxious about what’s to happen to them. The government must reassure these overseas workers they’ll be allowed to stay and continue with their indispensable work.”
She urged ministers to stop describing care jobs as “low skilled” and said the government must “get on with making its fair pay agreement a reality”.
In 2023, more than 58,000 overseas care workers came to the UK on skilled worker visas – nearly half of all new entrants to the social care workforce.
There is of course, nothing worng with populating this workforce with care workers already in the UK, but this needs to be properly planned, including adequate remuneration. Pulling the rug away like this could plunge social care into an even deeper crisis that it is in at present.
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Can Reform hold onto all their newly elected councillors?
It is no surprise therefore that already there have been one or two casualties. The BBC, for example reports that the newly-elected Reform councillor for Newark West, Desmond Clarke, has resigned from Nottinghamshire County Council following election on May 1st, triggering a by-election.
His resignation has been criticised by Conservative group leader and former council leader Sam Smith who said: "Seven days after fighting an election on a promise to cut spending and waste, the Reform County Councillor for Newark West has resigned which will result in the triggering of a by-election that will cost taxpayers thousands of pounds."
Meanwhile, Donna Edmunds, who was elected in Hodnet in Shropshire, has quit Reform UK after she was suspended over a social media post just days after being elected. As the Independent reports, she was suspended for writing on Twitter that she was planning to defect from the party after the local elections:
Ms Edmunds on Sunday had written on the platform that she had been suspended from the party “pending an investigation”.
She had previously posted about waiting for the party’s ousted MP Rupert Lowe to set up a challenger party “and then I will defect”.
When trying to quit the party, Ms Edmund found that her only option was to cancel the auto-renewal of her payment, so she technically will remain a member until the year is up.
But she launched a tirade against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, declaring that he “must never be prime minister” and is a “terrible leader”.
She said: “A good leader knows that you bring your team with you, that you champion their successes as the team’s successes.
“A bad leader claims personal credit for every win and stabs people in the back.”
Ms Edmunds also said she no longer has to “watch what I say” and so called for the jailed far right activist Tommy Robinson to be freed from jail, describing him as a “political prisoner”.
Her suspension and decision to quit the party just days after the local elections marks a chaotic start to Reform’s life as a party of government, having won control of ten councils as well as the mayoralties of Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.
The party also came under fire on Monday for vowing to ban all flags from council buildings except the Union Jack and St George’s flag, meaning Ukraine and pride flags would be barred from being flown by public authorities. Reform was later forced to clarify that county flags would also be allowed.
It also came as The Independent revealed Reform mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns’ vow to get rid of council diversity officers as one of her first acts in Lincolnshire has fallen flat as the county council doesn’t employ any.
And it emerged the party offers home working despite having vowed to put an end to working from home in local authorities it controls.
It's popcorn season.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
The story of Violet's Leap
One cold night in January 1909 an expensive Belgian car was found hanging over the edge of the sea wall at this location, some 50 metres above the sea. The windscreen was smashed. A Tam o’ Shanter hat was found nearby along with a diary belonging to the hat’s owner, Violet Gordon Charlesworth (pictured right). She was an elegant young lady who lived some 33km away in the Rhyl area.
On the night in question, her sister had run to a nearby pub and tearfully explained that the car had crashed into the wall along the edge of the road, throwing Violet into the sea below.
It soon emerged that all was not as it first appeared. In fact Violet had tried to fake her own death to extricate herself from a dire position of her own making. She and her mother had said she was going to inherit vast sums of money when she was 25. With this tale, and several aliases, they defrauded doctors, widows and stockbrokers of more than £2m in present money. While the average wage at the time was no more than a £1 a week, Violet was spending £4,000 per year on borrowed money without paying a penny back.
Old postcard showing site of Violet's leapThe hunt for her was on, and Britain was gripped by the affair known as “the Welsh Cliff Mystery”. Postcards (such as the one on the left) were sold, some titled “Violet’s Leap”. Red cloaks were fashionable at the time, but sales plummeted once it was known that police were hunting this lady who was likely to be wearing a crimson cloak. The story was even reported in the New York Times. Violet had known her 25th birthday was looming and her creditors would be knocking on her door for their money.
There were numerous reports from across Britain of women supposedly matching Violet’s description. Eventually a newspaper reporter in Oban tracked her down. She was imprisoned in Aylesbury. When she was released she returned to Scotland. Her final resting place is not known. Did she emigrate, or did she change her name again and live a peaceful life?
It's always good to learn the stories behind these names.
Friday, May 09, 2025
Labour's revolting backbenchers
The paper says that the letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, has set Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month:
There has already been widespread concern among Labour MPs about proposed changes including a significant tightening of eligibility for personal independent payments (Pips), saving about £5bn annually.
They would also involve cuts or freezes to incapacity benefits for people who apply for universal credit but are judged unfit to work.
According to internal Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forecasts, the planned disability benefit cuts would affect 700,000 families who are already in poverty.
A vote on the proposals is expected in June, and a number of MPs are concerned they are being asked to approve the plans without proper knowledge of the consequences.
The letter has so far been signed by 42 Labour MPs, putting the government on course for its biggest rebellion yet.
The proposals, set out in a government green paper, have “caused a huge amount of anxiety and concern among disabled people and their families”, according to the letter.
“The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected,” it says.
“Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”
The letter calls on ministers to delay any decisions until they see full assessments on the impact of any cuts, and for “a genuine dialogue with disabled people’s organisations to redesign something that is less complex and offers greater support, alongside tackling the barriers that disabled people face when trying to find and maintain employment”.
It goes on: “We also need to invest in creating job opportunities and ensure the law is robust enough to provide employment protections against discrimination. Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support.”
Among the signatories are some MPs on the left of the party such as Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson, but also a series of more centrist backbenchers, and there are 14 from the 2024 intake, including Lorraine Beavers, Cat Eccles, Terry Jermy, Peter Lamb and Simon Opher.
Starmer could brazen it out of course with his huge majority, but it's a big risk. We will have to see what he decides to do.
Thursday, May 08, 2025
Reeves under fire
They add that there is also speculation that the prime minister could soon be forced to reshuffle his cabinet, with question marks over whether Rachel Reeves can survive as chancellor. I would have thought that moving Reeves to another job would be a prerequisite for any u-turn on winter fuel payments and benefit cuts:
One Labour source suggested: “Rachel is running out of friends. It is just not working.”
Others have suggested that if Sir Keir is to reverse the decision on winter fuel cuts, Ms Reeves “would need to be replaced first”.
Questions remain over who would be a viable candidate to replace her in the Treasury, as another MP noted that Sir Keir has promised Ms Reeves will be chancellor until the next election. Meanwhile, Downing Street has continued to stand by the chancellor.
It comes as new polling from The Times and Sky News – conducted by YouGov – put Reform UK at its highest recorded vote share, sitting seven points ahead of Labour.
Mr Farage’s party was on 29 points, while Labour was on 22. Lagging behind were the Tories on just 17 points, while the Liberal Democrats were on 16.
The anger over the local election results and the fear of Reform seizing power at the next election has brought despair to many MPs.
One MP told The Independent: “I’m not exactly experiencing the sunny uplands at the moment.”
Another darkly added: “It feels very Weimar Republic at the moment. Post hyperinflation, but pre Nazi.”
Meanwhile, the red wall group of Labour MPs, made up of around 45 MPs from red wall constituencies, warned that Sir Keir’s response that he would “go further and faster” in delivering his plans had “fallen on deaf ears”.
They warned that voters across the UK had told the Labour Party “loudly and clearly that we have not met their expectations”.
“Responding to the issues raised by our constituents, including on winter fuel, isn’t weak – it takes us to a position of strength,” a statement added, urging the prime minister to “break the disconnect between Westminster and the red wall areas”.
The red wall is made up of areas in the Midlands and northern England which have typically supported the Labour Party.
One of the red wall MPs, Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Gareth Snell, came out publicly about his concerns. Raising issues of factories in his constituency closing, he told the BBC that his faith in the government “is dwindling.”
On Tuesday, the prime minister acknowledged his government needed to “explain the decisions that we’ve taken” after a “disappointing” set of election results, but his press secretary said the government will not be “blown off course”.
While there were reports that the government was considering whether to increase the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance, the prime minister’s official spokesperson ruled out such a move, saying there will “not be a change to the government’s policy”.
The spokesperson added that the decision “was one that we had to take to ensure economic stability and repair the public finances following the £22bn black hole left by the previous government”.
But there is mounting pressure from within his own party – and from the opposition benches – for Downing Street to U-turn on the issue.
Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott urged the government to restore the winter fuel allowance in full, saying a review of the policy alone wouldn’t be enough for pensioners, nor would it be enough to “restore Labour’s battered reputation”.
Meanwhile, Labour peer and Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan warned she is “losing patience” with UK Labour, urging the government to have a rethink.
And former transport secretary Louise Haigh said Labour’s “unpopular decisions are overshadowing the good ones”, calling for the party to explore a wealth tax to win back voters following Reform UK’s success in the local elections.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the MP for Sheffield Heeley said: “I don’t think we can underestimate how catastrophic those results were last week for the Labour Party. I think the unpopular decisions are overshadowing the good ones.”
Labour MP for Leeds West, Richard Burgon, told Times Radio Labour cannot be “stubborn” on winter fuel payments, saying the policy was both “deeply unpopular” and wrong.
“If the government wants to show that it actually gets it, in the words of the prime minister, then the government must fully reinstate the winter fuel allowance, not just tinker around the edges. And we can’t be dragged, kicking and screaming, into rethinking on this policy,” he said.
There is clearly unrest in the ranks of the Parliamentary Labour Party. How Starmer reacts to that could define his premiership.
