I’ve worked within walking distance of the New Wolsey Theatre pretty much since I moved to Suffolk and yet, for no particular reason, I’d never been into it, let alone seen a performance (and it does apparently have a decent café). But we’d had a strong recommendation to go and see the touring production of “Little Shop of Horrors” and, as we were free last night, and tickets (although not many) were available, we thought, “why not?”. And I’m glad that we did, because we would otherwise have missed an incredibly spirited and utterly enjoyable show. It's a joint production by the New Wols ..read more

One of my less onerous responsibilities is being Chair of the Mid Suffolk South branch of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils. Let's rephrase that. The chairing is easy, although the rest of the role is quite responsible, intellectually challenging and engages my intellect in a way that I might not have expected at the outset. My primary function as Chair is to manage/lead two out of the four branch forums which take place each year - the Chair of the Mid Suffolk North branch, Julie Bell, deals with the others - and tonight was my turn. We had a guest speaker from Suffolk County Counc ..read more

In all honesty, the prospects for being called to speak in a forty minute debate on the crisis in local government finance were always pretty slim, especially in a Party whose strength in local government is very much on the up. But, given that I’d prepared a short intervention, and that nobody really touched upon the aspect I was going to, here it is… Good morning, Conference, from one of the more unlikely Cinderellas you’ll ever encounter. I’m here to remind my fellow Liberal Democrats of the bit of local government overlooked by the motion in front of you today. For those of you whose k ..read more

Having touched upon the subject of the Jewish community in Ipswich yesterday, and given that I've been studying the history of Ipswich at the Ipswich Institute for the past ten weeks or so, I thought that I ought to find out a bit more about the history of Judaism in the town, given the prominence of Ipswich as a trading hub in medieval times. And sure enough, Ipswich has had a Jewish community at various points in the past, dating back to at least the twelfth century, during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189). But the initial community didn't last - there was a pogrom in Bury St Edmunds in 119 ..read more

In apologising for attacking an innocent student on X, Baroness Foster introduced me to a concept that I had previously been utterly unaware of, that a blue octopus is a known antisemitic trope. Now, I have to admit that, as a non-practicing Catholic, living in the county town of rural Suffolk with its very small Jewish population (there is a Suffolk Liberal Jewish Community, formed comparatively recently), this might well have passed me by. I did attend synagogue for a number of years, and perhaps it came up and I forgot about it. But one of the things about Ipswich is that we have a very pr ..read more

Ros and I took the short walk to St Mary-le-Tower last night, for a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion. Not a piece that I’d actually heard before, but I do enjoy his St Matthew Passion, so what could be the harm, right? The Choir of St Mary-le-Tower were joined by the Tower Sinfonia and, whilst the acoustics seem somewhat flawed, it was enjoyable enough to reward the attention of a decent enough audience. Daniel Joy, appearing as The Evangelist, as well as the odd additional aria, held things together rather well in what is an arduous role, and his placement above and beh ..read more

I did promise in my manifesto for Federal Council that I would report back, and so I offer some personal thoughts on Wednesday night’s meeting.   Our agenda revolved around three key items - a briefing on General Election planning and organisation, a review of the Federal Board’s decision making on the fate of Autumn Conference, and a briefing on the revisions to the Party’s disciplinary processes. Bearing in mind that I’m really not a campaigner, and perhaps don’t match the classic definition of activist these days, I thought that Neil Fawcett explained the strategy with a level ..read more

It’s said that those who ignore history are destined to repeat it, and whilst it would be difficult to compare the current crisis in Gaza with previous ones, if only because of the scale of the resulting deaths, those who have observed events there over decades will have shuddered at the prospect of an Israeli response of the type we have seen since 7 October. But I am reminded that I wrote the following fifteen years ago… To be blunt, most of those who entirely support the rights of the Israeli people to live in peace and security within recognised borders within our Party are rightfully unco ..read more

It is perhaps a sign that a number of senior figures in the Conservative Party are looking towards a future out of office where their particular world view defines where it goes from here. And today’s launch of “Popular Conservatism” suggests that, if you are enthused by the idea of a sensible conservative political force, you may have to wait a while for one to emerge from the expected electoral wreckage. A group led by Liz Truss, managed by Mark Littlewood and with Lee Anderson and Jacob Rees-Mogg as key figures is likely to be pretty disruptive as the Conservative Party seeks to recover i ..read more

I’ll be honest. When I hear that a Government Minister has made a speech on Civil Service reform and modernisation, in my heart I expect not to like what they’ve got to say. More often than not, I don’t. There’s a tendency for politicians to see us bureaucrats as being an obstacle to change, a barrier between the world they want and where we are now. Accordingly, reform and modernisation are a shorthand for giving the Civil Service a bloody good kicking. Don’t get me wrong. As a bloodied veteran of the public sector trenches, I would be the last to suggest that all is well. But, living th ..read more