‘Everything under the sun, and a good deal else besides’
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, a blog which has been through many regenerations…
I feel that the current title, Commonplace, is another step closer to what the blog has evolved over time to be, whether I wanted it or not. The previous title Warrington to Washington was nothing more than a placeholder, quite literally, reflecting my move from the UK to the USA. Previous titles Work in Progress and Notes from a Northern Liberal reflect my attempts to try and straddle my multiple interests and identities as an educator, a politician of sorts and a would-be writer.
The latest rebranding hasn’t changed anything else. You can find my latest blog posts, together with all the others than went before them here. You can also find links to some reads which I have found interesting here.
What follows are my previous efforts to explain blog titles, which I’ve retained for some hubristic sense of posterity:
In the summer of 2022, I made the transition from state-school teacher in Warrington, UK to international school teacher in Washington DC, USA. I’m hoping this journey sparks many an interesting blog post which you will enjoy reading.
Notes from a Northern Liberal?
My website was at one point called Notes from a Northern Liberal…
The Northern bit probably needs the least explaining. I was born and bred in Warrington, one of those northern towns with an amazing industrial heritage which is now trying to find its future amidst a shifting landscape of devolution, city regions and the Northern Powerhouse. Sandwiched between Merseyside and Greater Manchester, it will be interesting how Warrington plots its path trying to draw on the strengths of its major neighbours whilst not falling into the trap of being a satellite settlement which serves those cities at the expense of its own success and identity.
As for the liberal, I am politically a liberal. It most obviously translates into my being a Liberal Democrat, but is deeper than that. I believe liberalism is fundamentally about recognising the human individual and human potentially and ensuring that everybody can flourish and fulfil that potential.
Being a Northern Liberal is not simply a random assortment of identities though, it is an important combination. At a time when the ‘metropolitan liberal elite’ (the words of comedian Stewart Lee, amongst others) seems to have been routed and rejected, I am particularly interested in how liberalism is actually relevant to the people and challenges faced by places like Warrington and the north of England.
Commonplace 