The real lesson to take from Gorton and Denton is for the future of UK democracy | Institute for Government Westminster is dangerously underprepared for a multi-party future.

Everyone is analysing the implications of the byelection for Keir Starmer and Labour but the most important lessons are for democracy - my latest for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gort...

With first past the post we run the risk that Reform will squeeze through the middle and win with barely more than a quarter of the votes.
With any form of proportional representation the left of centre majority will choose (and deserve to get) either the Labour or the Green candidate.

An excellent, thought-provoking, article.
And all is not lost! I keep entry tickets and use them as bookmarks; here are three recent ones, from the Musee Basque in Bayonne, Kronborg Castle, Denmark, and the National Museum of Qatar.

Well done Tony Slater

Hear hear to the latter point! The Treasury is causing needless worry with the six months rule.

Next time you run the question could you do a further breakdown (beyond place of residence, age, gender, etc) and ask when respondents last visited London? I suspect that most of those who think London unsafe have not visited in the last year, even last five years.

He is. Thank you.

I have a middling bad cold and wouldn't normally consider that Covid might be to blame except that we took our baby grandson into A&E several nights ago and they confirmed that he had it. Our grandson probably appears in the stats; the rest of the family won't.

Delighted with the price I got for my 2015 reg Renault Clio through ‪@motorwayuk.bsky.social‬ - £1,936 more than the offer from We Buy Any Car.

Have you tried Thames Water's Water Saving Calculator? It recommended me to boil the kettle only twice a day; the bot behind it can clearly do basic arithmetic but isn't so strong on how to get human beings to change their behaviour. TW ignored my comments a year ago & still publish this nonsense.

A poor show, ‪@eurostarnews.bsky.social‬, that there's no food on the current train to London, just crisps and a few tinned drinks. My grandchildren, 5 and 3, will be hungry by the time they get to London. My family will fly next time.

I, too, have a relative buried there: Pte William Aitken. What would his Mum, cited as his next of kin by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, have thought of this thoughtful piece? “Died in vain”?