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"Basic Income was proposed by Paddy Ashdown as a fundamental component of his Radical Agenda for the 1990s, a book published in the late 1980s. It is liberal because it recognises the agency of the individual and their contribution to society. A Basic Income, he said, 'gives security to each individual', and will also 'liberate power in the hands of the citizen'." Jane Dodds is encouraged by the success of a Basic Income in Wales and dismayed by Liberal Democrat backsliding on the policy.

Richard Sanders on the way the 2017 general election has been written out of Labour Party history because it does not fit into the narrative promoted by the party's current leadership.

"A very senior insider told me that there ‘has never been any proper management and accountability of the project. There have been constant changes to the specification with no understanding of the cost implications’. Remarkably, there is no overall budget, the business case has not been reviewed despite the changes in specification and rises in costs and the accounting is carried out, bizarrely, in '2019 prices’ - a subterfuge to disguise the soaring expenditure." Christian Wolmar explains why HS2 is costing so much.

Sarah Bakewell recommends five book on existentialism.

"Last year, I joined a group of intrepid plant hunters descending into the depths of the last remaining bomb site in the City of London. We climbed all the way down into the hole until we reached the level of the platforms of what was formerly part of Aldgate East Station, until a V2 bomb dropped nearby in the Second World War." That was The Gentle Author blogging in 2018.

"Typically set in a sprawling country house and populated by a cast drawn from the landed gentry and the well-to-do, 'Golden Age' detective fiction is not the most obvious genre in which to find two of the country’s leading socialist intellectuals." The Society for the Study of Labour History recalls G.D.H. and Margaret Cole, whose 28 detective fiction novels and four collections of short stories helped the publisher Collins achieve great success with its Crime Club imprint.

Poverty isn't a lack of character: it's a lack of cash

Rutger Bregman begins his TED talk like this:

I'd like to start with a simple question: Why do the poor make so many poor decisions? I know it's a harsh question, but take a look at the data. The poor borrow more, save less, smoke more, exercise less, drink more and eat less healthfully. Why? 

Well, the standard explanation was once summed up by the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. And she called poverty "a personality defect." 

[Laughter] 

A lack of character, basically.

I'm suspicious of quotations that are so convenient for the speakers' argument, but Thatch really did say this. It was in a 1978 interview with the Catholic Herald.

But then large parts of the Labour Party are more interested in reforming the working class than liberating it too.

As I said of Blair's new government in a letter to the Guardian in 1997 (which I later found quoted in a book I had bought):

Labour is effectively recasting unemployment as a form of individual delinquency.

And Labour is still at it. Today Darren Rodwell, who is apparently a rising star of the party, was threatening to evict families from council accommodation if their children don't inform on people who commit knife crime.

So it's important that Liberals continue to discuss utopian ideas like basic income and a reduced working week. Most will probably prove to be unworkable, but where there is no vision the people perish.

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"The second Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, and has reigned over Britain since 1952. She was six weeks older than Marilyn Monroe, three years older than Anne Frank, nine years older than Elvis Presley - all figures of the unreachable past. She was older than nylon, Scotch tape, and The Hobbit. She was old enough to have trained as an army driver and mechanic in the last months of the Second World War." Helen Lewis on the end of the second Elizabethan Age.

Max Ghenis, Nikhil Woodruff and Charles Bauman make the case for bringing the taxation of land values and universal basic income together.

Tom Ravenscroft looks at 20 significant buildings opened by the Queen during her 70-year reign.

"We read to prepare for life. It follows, then, that we are raising our boys to dismiss other people’s experiences, and to see their needs and concerns as the centre of things. We are raising our boys to lack empathy." Caroline Paul says boys should read books with female protagonists.

"Harold was in high spirits, and read to us his favourite lines about cricket, from Francis Thompson’s poem 'At Lord’s', with added relish: 'For the field is full of shades as I near the shadowy coast,/ And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,/ And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host/As the run stealers flicker to and fro...'" Shomit Dutta remembers playing cricket with Harold Pinter.

David Cantwell senses a Creedence Clearwater Revival revival.

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"We cannot, under any circumstances, repeat the catastrophic mistakes of Thatcher and the Conservatives where whole communities in Wales were destroyed by the closing of industries with no plan to replace them and no plans to reskill the workers who lost their jobs." Jane Dodds is calling on the Welsh government to consider extending its current basic income pilot to workers employed in heavy industries who will be impacted by the transition to a net-zero carbon economy.

Alastair Driver says the government must not water down its funding for Environmental Land Management schemes: "There is absolutely not a 'food crisis' here in the UK. There is, however, a biodiversity crisis and a climate emergency. If we do not take action to tackle them, to use our land for the wider public good, we certainly risk creating a food security crisis for future generations."

Maja Korica offers her manifesto for a more humane academia.

A Twitter thread from Nathan Williams suggests that many who refer to Karl Popper's "Paradox of Tolerance" do not understand his philosophy.

"It might be an overstatement to say that Britain was 'reborn' through a hippy festival in a Somerset field, but in terms of the counterculture realising an 'alternative', the festival has undoubtedly become part of Britain’s cultural make-up. It is now ubiquitous, placing the once rebellious artform of rock music central to mainstream culture." Ben Finlay celebrates the countercultural roots of the Glastonbury Festival.

David Mitchell on why he finds the north coast of Ireland depressing: "With so many abandoned houses, hotels, residential homes and guest houses, the north coast really should be a Hollywood for crime TV ('Protestant noir'?) and low-budget horror movies." 

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Basic Income Conversation and Compass have published new research modelling a fiscally neutral basic income that could reverse the poverty and inequality rises of the last 45 years.

Maxim Osipov describes the journey of those, like him, who chose exile rather than remaining as their country invaded Ukraine: "On the way to the airport, you drove through Moscow. Although this is where you were born, where you studied and lived, it has long been enemy territory. Parting with people is hard, nearly impossible; parting with Moscow is easy." 

"You might imagine that more conventional forms of modern therapy as delivered by a psychologist, counsellor or clinical social worker cannot be harmful because the treatments involve ‘just talking’. Regrettably, this is not the case." Yevgeny Botanovis, Alexander Williams and John Sakalukis on the drive to identify psychotherapeutic approaches that are not only ineffective but actively harmful.

The brainchild of Orkney-born musician Merlyn Driver, Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds is a multi-artist album inspired by the Eurasian curlew. Such celebrations inspire us to protect what we have, says Karen Lloyd.

Paul English reports on the search for the Glasgow Garden Festival: "A team of archaeologists is beginning an excavation in the only remaining part of the 120-acre site in search of touchstones evoking memories of the six-month festival that ran between spring and autumn in 1988." 

We all know  Margaret Rutherford's father murdered his own father (who was Tony Benn's great-grandfather) by banging him repeatedly on the head with a chamber-pot in Matlock. Matthew Sweet dives deep into the case.

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Jane Dodds argues that Wales can thrive with a basic income: "A basic income has five core characteristics: It’s paid in cash, so it’s money you can spend on whatever you want. It’s paid regularly, so you know the next payment is coming. It’s for individuals, with each person getting their own basic income, paid to the individual not the household. It’s unconditional, so you don’t have to work or make any promises to get it. It’s universal, so everyone gets it."

The single transferable vote breaks open one-party fiefdoms. Don't take my word for it: listen to Scottish Conservative councillor Dave Dempsey.

Becca Massey-Chase says making local public transport free at the point of use isn't a fantasy, it's a popular way to help communities and the climate – and it's already a reality in cities around the world.

"If the decline of the UK regional press since 2008 instead had happened to schools, police, fire stations or hospitals there would rightly be national outrage bordering on revolt." Dominic Ponsford on an overlooked tragedy.

"Martin was on a mission to bring down the unjust from their perches to the level of the populace." Max Adam looks at the art of the 19th-century painter John Martin and how in his epic landscapes of apocalyptic scale reflected his revolutionary leanings.

Dan Thompson visits Arlington House, the futuristic tower block that marked the start of 1960s redevelopment in Margate.

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"Lib Dems in cities (and remember, a lot of politically active centre-left folk live in cities) see municipal Labour as unimaginative, entitled, tribal, machine-based and sometimes corrupt. Labour people see local Lib Dems as unprincipled, incoherent opportunists and dirty campaigners." Lewis Baston looks at the prospects for inter-party cooperation against the Conservatives.

"Few political parties around the world have endorsed UBI as the Liberal Democrats have, and in releasing this discussion paper with specific policies, they have taken that endorsement to an unprecedented level of seriousness." UBI Center praises our policy paper on universal basic income.

William Francis makes the Liberal case for the mass ownership of property.

Andy Kroll says the Forever Trump movement has captured the Republican Party.

"As far as facilitating inclusion and diversity is concerned, it is better to support employees in dealing with past behaviours than it is to 'name and shame' them in the national press. The ECB could have done more to protect their players and show that it is serious about challenging prejudice, but it has shown itself unable to do either." Andrew Page on the Ollie Robinson affair.

Samuel E Pheby-McGarvey examines the tensions between modernity and folk horror communities in Children of the Stones.

Lib Dems promise universal basic income trial in Wales

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have promised to undertake a trial of universal basic Income.

The party's 2020 Senedd manifesto says:

Our economy must support secure, well-paid work and good public services. It must recognise that work is not a guaranteed route out of poverty. We want to see an economy that ensures that work pays and that there is meaningful support for those that are unable to work, working with the UK Government to create a genuine social security system based on values of dignity and compassion.

Jane Dodds, the party's leader, told Nation Cymru:

"The Welsh Liberal Democrats will put recovery first which will mean; an economic recovery, a green recovery and a recovery for mental health that will benefit everyone in Wales,

"The past year has been tough, life as we know it has changed, but I know Wales is a resilient country and we have the chance to build a better future for our children and our children’s children."

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"Many Liberal Democrats don’t know that the late great Paddy Ashdown leaned heavily on the concept of a Basic Income as a fundamental component of his 'Citizens' Britain', arguing that 'every step we take towards a basic income liberates power in the hands of the citizen.'" Daniel Mermelstein believes universal basic income is a fundamentally liberal policy and a vote winner.

Shane Burke says the status quo in undercover policing threatens political rights.

"It seemed obvious to me that despite what everyone said, schools were not primarily about education. Formal learning made up a minimal fraction of the activity there (and the part adults later find the least memorable). The real purpose and priority of the school system was to instil the habit of obedience, of deference to our superiors. Learning was to be discouraged if it interfered with this end." Lorna Finlayson explains why she walked out of school at 13.

Henry Grabar looks at what New York could do if it took a quarter of its roads away from cars.

"Upon arrival in Scotland, Heron was thrown in for his debut against Morton in a League Cup tie; the Jamaican adding Celtic’s second goal in a 2-0 win with a 20-yard first-half strike." Did you know Gil Scott-Heron's father played for Celtic? Craig Stephen will tell you all about him.

Stefan Sagrott looks at Edinburgh's Innocent Railway.

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Jack Haines says that as we see the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic hit our society harder than ever before, it is essential for Liberal Democrats to be pioneering and spearheading the charge towards making basic income a reality.

"The reason the Department hasn’t done the simplest, cheapest thing and just give parents a bit of extra cash is because they don’t trust them to spend it properly. Or rather they are scared of the public perception that, as Tory MP Ben Bradley luridly put it last year, the money would be spent in crack dens and brothels." Sam Freedman says myths about poverty must be refuted so that parents are trusted with £20 and not half a pepper.

Christian Kerr asks if the appointment of Josh MacAlister as chair of the independent review of children’s social care in England means its conclusions are a foregone conclusion.

"This is a story about secrecy, obfuscation and political embarrassment at the heart of government. It revolves around an attempt by the Home Office to withhold vital research evidence about the causes of serious violence - a decision the department clung to, even though it undermined the credibility of its flagship plan to tackle the problem. It ended in a three-year legal battle that cost taxpayers thousands of pounds." Danny Shaw takes on the Home Office.

"James in his letters is a real human being, we see him go from a small boy of seven to a junior schoolboy, to Eton and then Kings College Cambridge and all of his life in between and after it is wonderful and very humbling, to be privy to this." Jane Mainley-Piddock is interviewed about her forthcoming book, Casting the Runes: The Letters of M. R. James.

Mark Shirley introduces us to the Leicester variant of table skittles.

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"After 40 years in politics I am convinced that Universal Basic Income is the only real solution to poverty. Politicians, who oppose UBI whilst hiding behind a lack of willingness to find a way to fund it, are actually saying we will not be doing anything useful about poverty and are leaving those who can’t survive via our mean spirited benefits system for charities, volunteers and churches to look after." Tony Robertson believes the level of poverty in Britain should shame us all.

Philippa Borrowman argues that local authorities have a vital role to play in combating climate change but most be properly resourced.

"The lockdown has brought about a seismic shift in the way we think about space in the city. It became obvious that a lot of our urban environment is not green or accessible enough and we have seen the negative effects on our health and wellbeing, particularly in more deprived areas of our cities." Cristina Monteiro says Covid-19 should inspire us to rewild our cities.

James Hawes finds the rots of the divide between the North and South of England deep in history.

"It was an insular existence. I had no contact with anybody outside the Family; my whole world was inhabited by people I had always known. I was homeschooled and never saw a doctor." Guinevere Turner on growing up in a cult.

David Evans-Powell takes a look at the 1972 anthology series Dead of Night and its particular delight in terrorising the middle-class.

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Francesca Borri visits the Hyde Park neighbourhood in Leeds, and finds a community abandoned by government and ravaged by deprivation as much as Covid-19.

A Canadian research project gave homeless people $7,500 each. Bridgette Watson finds the results were "beautifully surprising",

"It’s possible that the first MP from what we might consider an ethnic minority background today was elected as early as 1767. James Townshend, Whig MP for West Looe in Cornwall, had a British grandfather who worked for the Royal African Company, a mercantile trading company that also traded enslaved people. His grandmother, a prominent businesswoman who also owned enslaved people, was of African and Dutch descent." Rebecca Lees discovers the first MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Colin Horgan on a study of 'little men' in 1930s Germany that shows how people allow tyranny to spread.

Michael Seely looks back on Alan Plater’s Beiderbecke trilogy.

As a treat for Halloween, David Castleton selects the London Underground's seven most haunted stations. Expect "tales of 'black nuns' with a fondness for harassing banking establishments, screams that still echo from World-War-II air-raids, crypts converted into ticket offices, prehistoric elephants with axes in their heads and attempts to explain why the Underground has acquired such a reputation for being a haven of spooks."

Christine Jardine makes the case for universal basic income

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Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West and the party's Treasury spokesperson, took part in a Westminster Hall debate on universal basic income.

The Lib Dems adopted the introduction of a UBI as party policy at their conference last month.

Here is part of what Christine said:

Coronavirus has changed everything. It has changed everything in much the same way—this metaphor has been used a lot—as the second world war changed everything for this society. When Beveridge put together his report in 1942, a lot of people said that it simply could not work, that it was not sensible and that the country could not afford it. What on earth was he thinking about? And yet, immediately post-war, the Labour Government set about putting that Beveridge report into action. 

What I say today is that what this country needs now is that kind of vision, and that kind of willingness to take on a challenge and to change society for the better for the next generation. It is not an opportunity that we asked for; it has come in the form of a challenge—probably the biggest challenge that any of us will face in our lifetimes. But we also have to see it as an opportunity to make progress.

Why UBI? The reason I became a convert, frankly, has been the number of phone calls and the number of people who have come to me since March this year—every day, every phone call, every person who thought they were financially secure, every person who spent decades building up a company, every person who was self-employed but now finds that they are without the support they need for the future: all that has convinced me that the only way to tackle the issue fully and to make sure that everyone gets the support they need is through a universal basic income.

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"A basic income will be the best, fairest and simplest way to safeguard the most vulnerable in society and care for those who need it." Christine Jardine writes for the Daily Mirror.

Stephen Bush reviews two books on Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

"I’ve been threatened numerous times during the course of my career but now face a daily barrage of abuse - from being threatened with rape to personal attacks on my appearance. I live in the community I work in, as do many of our reporters. Yet we do not feel safe." Behind Local News reveals the onslaught of online abuse journalists now face.

Rachel Aldred and Anna Goodman find that the low-traffic neighbourhoods scheme implemented in outer London has led to decreased car ownership and use and to increased active travel.

"The most remarkable features of the ‘vision’, apart from a failure to mention the original purpose of the National Trust and the reasons for more than a century of bequests to it, are an insulting assessment of its public, a blithe confidence in its powers of clairvoyance, and a slick, obfuscatory jargon." Nicholas Penny is not impressed by the National Trust's new vision.

"So Andrey Tarkovsky loved Star Wars?" The director's son talks to Max Dax.

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"I will never forget the relentless anxiety of living hand to mouth. When you're in that position, you go through every possible emotion. Shame. Panic. Fear. Ultimately everything becomes about survival." Liz Jarvis makes the case for a basic income.

David Henig explains the fundamental problem with Brexit now: "The problem is not the UK, whether Labour or Conservative, wanting a deal. It is that the deal that the UK seems to want, of privileged non-membership access without cost, it not available, has not been available since 2016, and that neither Labour or Conservative Party is prepared to admit this."

Karen Shalev Greene says that children transitioning from care to adult life are being badly let down and falling prey to criminal gangs.

"Extraordinarily, we now live in a world in which the best evidence that Royal College of Psychiatrists has been able to muster for the real-world effectiveness of ECT exactly parallels the claims for homeopathy," claims Peter Kinderman.

Gareth Dennis investigates the role that capital from slave owners played in the development of the railways.

William Blake saw angels and ghosts and the Hallelujah sunrise, even on the darkest day. We need to foster his state of mind, argues Mark Vernon.

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"The Liberal Democrats have a poor quality of internal democracy because there are no well-organised factions acting as intermediaries between the membership and the internal elected bodies. If they’re even aware that they exist, most members have no real idea what the internal party bodies do because no one is explaining it to them in practical terms that make sense to them." Nick Barlow argues that the Lib Dems need to understand and embrace factions.

Jane Dodds says it's time for the Lib Dems to back a universal basic income.

"As more and more Englishmen landed on the Caribbean, cut down the trees, ploughed the land and began sugar production, the countryside back home in England also began to change. The slave traders and colonialists were making quick money in the Caribbean and heading home to translate this wealth into landed property." Nick Hayes explains how the English countryside was taken from the public using profits from slavery.

Nonie Coulthard makes the case for the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland.

"Women don’t attend cricket matches as an accessory to their male associates; they go because they want to watch cricket. Women watch cricket. Women understand and enjoy cricket." Abbie Rhodes discusses the sexist and anachronistic attitudes prevalent at every level of English cricket and what this means for female cricket fans.

Helen Lewis says Sherlock was the first drama series to recognise the implications of smartphones.

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"As the coronavirus rips through Europe and the world, Britain’s response to the pandemic has shown it’s suffering from another dangerous disease: unshakeable belief in its own exceptionalism," argues Otto English.

David Hendy looks at how the BBC reported VE Day in 1945.

"The world’s most robust study of universal basic income has concluded that it boosts recipients’ mental and financial well-being, as well as modestly improving employment," reports Donna Lu in the New Scientist.

Paul Magrath reviews a former judge’s analysis of the challenge of opening up the family courts to better public scrutiny.

"The benefits of experiencing nature may be far greater than is commonly appreciated; scientists are only now starting to understand the hidden mechanisms that could explain why a woodland walk or a wild swim can boost mental and physical well-being, why a leafy view from your hospital bed may aid recovery, why even showing inmates nature videos seems to reduce violence in prisons." Scientists are only beginning to grasp how the natural world helps us make sense of our own lives says Sophie McBain.

"'They changed trains at Shrewsbury.' Now how do you not read on after that. So many questions, so few answers that it drags you in." Who's this singing the praises of Malcolm Saville? It's only World of Blyton!

Layla Moran: After Covid-19 we must build a fairer country

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Layla Moran has written an article for Left Foot Forward setting out the measures she wants government to take so that we emerge from the current crisis as "a more equal and compassionate country".

She repeats the call she made a few days ago for the introduction of a universal basic income, better wages and benefits for key workers and investment in public services.

And adds:

To rebuild a progressive, liberal society, the measures above would need to form part of a more extensive package. We also need radical changes to the education system to create equal access to high-quality teaching. We need to ensure that all talents – academic and non-academic – are nurtured and encouraged.

I repeat my welcome for her views from the post I wrote those few day ago because they "reflect what we have learnt about British society from the Covid-19 pandemic".

Layla Moran backs universal basic income

As a start:
Introduce UBI
Decent wages & benefits for key workers
Proper investment in public services

— Layla Moran 🔶 (@LaylaMoran) May 1, 2020

Layla Moran, who will be a candidate when the Liberal Democrat leadership election is eventually held, sent these tweets yesterday.

I welcome them, not just for their radicalism, but because they reflect what we have learnt about British society from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This agenda, or something like it, may well form the long-term challenge to Conservative thinking. So the sooner the Lib Dems identify themselves with it the better.

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"There’s a good case to be made for a UBI based on the importance of individual freedom. Indeed, the foundations of that case have already been laid by none other than the renowned champion of economic and personal liberty, Friedrich Hayek." Matt Zwolinski on Hayek, republican freedom and the universal basic income.

Tom Jacobs on the case for more trees in town: "Researchers report that living in areas where 30 percent or more of the outdoor space is dominated by tree canopy was associated with 31 percent lower odds of psychological distress."

Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman introduce four women who brought philosophy into everyday life: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch.

"The three-day season of Hallowtide - Hallowe'en, All Saints, All Souls - is medieval in origin, as a time for remembering the dead both known and unknown." Clerk of Oxford examines a strange revival.

Jill Rennie tells us more about Bishop's Castle's poetry pharmacy.

"As for booksellers, in 1921 they voted him the most significant contemporary American writer." Robert Gottlieb on the rise and fall of Booth Tarkington.