Last updated Tuesday 22nd October 2024 22:00 BST
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From the Guardian: He has been one of the UK's favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear - official name Paddington Brown - has been granted a British passport. The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the specimen document to the fictional Peruvian-born character - listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear. Aw, innit cute? Ten years ago, as the first Paddington film was due for release, I quoted Free Movement blog: Paddington stows away and deliberately avoids the immigration authorities on ...
James Graham (the television writer not the former Liberal Democrat blogger) has joined calls for the preservation of the cooling towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which was Britain's last working coal-fired station before it shut down at the end of September. BBC News quotes him as saying: "Some might think they're ugly. I think they're majestic. Concrete cathedrals. "I got to stand inside one, filming Sherwood series two. I've never stood anywhere like it on Earth. "I'd love future generations to stand in them too. But they are inexplicably all going - all of them." There are various online petitions ...
In his parliamentary sketch for The Critic, Robert Hutton catches up with Ric Holden, whom he finds displaying a new-found enthusiasm for pie-and-mash shops: A few months ago, Holden was the chairman of the greatest election-winning machine in history, the British Conservative Party. Now he is just a humble opposition backbencher. Some might say his demotion was deserved. He did after all oversee a campaign that set a number of records, including lowest Conservative share ever and most seats lost by a government ever. But those people miss a very important point: although Holden waved goodbye to 250 colleagues in ...
A long while ago I found myself in a lecture theatre listening to a speaker arguing that lowering drug prices was a foolish policy objective. When it comes to industrial strategy, what companies need are high margins! After all, this is how you get a high quantity of gross value added, and accumulating GVA is the goal. It is little wonder that orthodox economists can express a mixture of fear and bewilderment towards industrial strategy. The UK government has unveiled a Green Paper on its new Industrial Strategy, based initially on eight sectors. Here is my welcoming comment - subject ...
Following the return of the schools yesterday, Fraser's weekly ward surgeries return later today and take place every Tuesday during school term time. They are as follows : Tuesdays at 5pm prompt - Blackness Library Tuesdays at 5.45pm prompt - Ancrum Road Primary School All residents welcome - no appointment necessary.
If anybody was wondering how it is that we have a £22 billion black hole in he UK government finances. then look no further than here. The Independent reports that Keir Starmer has come under pressure to publish the true costs of Brexit after a minister confirmed Britain has spent £24bn alone withdrawing from the EU - with a further £6.4bn still to pay. Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq replied to a parliamentary question to say that Britain has paid the EU £23.8bn as part of its "financial settlement" agreement. Naturally this has created waves, even though I think we all ...
The video of Jimmy Page playing skiffle as a 13-year-old is well known, but here he is six years later being interviewed about his work as a session guitarist. It was tweeted by Nikki Kreuzer. Jimmy Page, age 19, still completely unknown, June 1963, interviewed in Guernsey, Channel Islands, about his session guitar work. He had only been playing guitar for 4 yrs and hoped to one day become an accomplished visual artist, financing his artwork with his guitar playing. pic.twitter.com/0XTl1gWdJk — Nikki Kreuzer (@NikkiKreuzer) September 25, 2018
We hardly ever use our landline. We've actually turned the ringer off, because so many of the calls we get on it are scams and it became a real annoyance even just to go to the phone check the number of caller ID, say, I don't recognise that number, and leave it. To test whether this was just a perception, or based in reality, I took the numbers off our call list which has a maximum of 80. The calls were in the period February to March this year. 61 of the 80 calls logged were from numbers I didn't ...
More good news for the Liberal Democrats in Bromsgrove, following the by-election win from Labour with a 27% swing. This time it's about a councillor joining the party: Bromsgrove Liberal Democrats look set to become the biggest opposition party on the district council after Coun Sam Ammar joins their ranks. The former Labour and independent councillor, and current chairman, has made the switch which means the Lib Dems are the authority's second biggest party behind the Conservatives. Councillor Ammar, who represents Charford ward, said: "I am delighted to join the hard working team that has been an effective and constructive ...
Judging by my Twitter feed, British liberal opinion is unanimous in the view that Donald Trump, as well as exhibiting increasing signs of senility and having an unpleasant smell about him, is bound to lose next month's election. As a corrective to this unwarranted optimism, here's a link to a piece by Nate Silver giving 24 reasons why he may win:This election remains extremely close, but Donald Trump has been gaining ground. One of my pet peeves is with the idea that this is Kamala Harris's election to lose. I could articulate some critiques of her campaign, but if you ...
Volunteers from Planting Up Whickham yesterday stripped clear all the flowerbeds on Church Green, despite the weather being against us. My job was to supply lots of empty animal feed sacks and then take away all the sacks, by then filled with garden waste, to my farm. It took two journeys to transport everything. The waste will remain in the sacks to let it rot down and convert into compost
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 21 OCTOBER 2024 Seafield Road, Dundee - closed from its westmost end (in cul-de-sac) extending for a distance of no more than 20 metres in an easterly direction to facilitate a site access for a new housing development until November 2025. Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed until December 2024 for construction works. Douglas Street (Blinshall Street to Brown Street) - temporary traffic lights until December 2024 for construction works. Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until ...
The Independent reports on a warning by a senior MP that ministers and AI developers are locked in an "arms race" with criminals and rogue states attempting to use the technology for harm. They say that Chi Onwurah, who chairs the science, innovation and technology committee, has told the paper that the "creativity and focus of criminal enterprises on adopting technology is unimaginable". They add that the Labour MP has stressed that AI should not simply be seen as a force for harm, saying when used correctly it can be a "transformative technology that can really improve people's lives: It ...
