One hundred years ago Tommy Sopwith opened an aircraft factory in Kingston - in a converted ice skating rink. Later he moved to new larger premises on Canbury Park Road a few minutes from the railway station - now converted into flats. Tommy, of course became famous for his first world war fighter plane - the Camel. Sopwiths later merged with Hawker and in the second world war Kingston produced the Hawker Hurricane - the aircraft that won the Battle of Britain. Hawkers later became part of BAe, but not before their engineers had designed and built the Harrier jump ...
North Olympic Discovery Marathon: 5:00:13 & I'm very, very happy!
Tonight the people of Launceston came together in Coronation Park for an evening of music and fireworks. Organised by the Rotary Club, the event was a real community one with around more than a thousand people in the park. BBC Radio Cornwall's Duncan Warren and Tracey Wilson were also there broadcasting from the event as part of the evening programme. Many thanks to them for coming along and being so interested in our community. The culmination of the evening was a firework display. Many thanks and congratulations to Eric Chapman, Tony Sandercock and Dave Gordon - as well as the ...
Ok gather round kiddies because I am (for the first time) going to publicly write about my (very real) UFO encounter and my possible alien abduction. I cannot believe that it has been over ten years since the events that I am about to blog about. A bit of background information first that it was during my gap-year between sixth form and university. I say gap-year but I had no plans to actually go to university but it turned into a gap year when I realised the Isle of Wight was rather limited as to how I could kick start ...
The news that dissident republicans caused a minor detour to the Olympic torch today near the Guildhall in Derry is a sad indication of a few still holding to the past. Especially as the Torch is actually traveling to Dublin on Wednesday as a reflection that team Northern Ireland athletes will be taking part under two flags in 54v days time. Although maybe it is just their way of honouring the first Olympic protest in the 1906 Intercalated Games. Cumberland born Peter O'Connor who was raised in Wicklow. He won gold in the hop, step and jump. But didn't want ...
This morning, I read the Daily Telegraph for the first time in ages. I'd spent the previous evening away from home at a late birthday / graduation treat, courtesy of my wife. Incidentally, if anyone fancies a gastronomic evening away from it all in the heart of Derbyshire, you could do much, much worse than Fischer's Baslow Hall. I can't speak highly enough of the hotel, the staff and the dining experience in the restaurant – and no, this isn't a sponsored post! Anyway, back to the Daily Telegraph. On pages 32-33 there is an advertisement for Citi, who claim ...
The Harborough Mail has an interesting local angle for the Jubilee holiday: On several occasions from the 1920s to the 1970s, the royal family were informal visitors to Thorpe Lubenham Hall, as guests of the Wernher and, later, the Phillips families. Crowds would gather to watch as they walked to and from services at All Saints Church in Lubenham. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visited in June 1949, three years before she became Queen. There was another visit in March 1956, with a young Princess Anne and Prince Charles in tow.The full story has some photographs too.
After his death at Bosworth Field, Richard III's body was taken to Leicester, exhibited naked to the populace and then buried at the church of the Greyfriars monastery in the city. There is a local tradition that, at the dissolution of the monasteries, Richard's body was thrown into the River Soar. But there is no contemporary source for that story and strong evidence that the site was still marked in the early 17th century. According to a BBC article about Richard: Here in 1612 Christopher Wren (future dean of Windsor and father of the architect of St Paul's Cathedral) who ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton are holding their next monthly advice centre on Saturday 9th June, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month at St John's School.
How interesting! The Town Council is to hold a behind closed doors emergency meeting this week. I wonder what it is about? Why the urgency and secrecy? The stated business is "Future of Aberystwyth Town Council - See enclosed confidential report" I started getting excited! This could cover all sorts of things - abolition, seccession of Penparcau, massive transfer of functions from Ceredigion.... Update: I now understand the meeting is to do with some opportunity secure a home for the Town Council. This comes up from time to time. I have posted about it before, there are pros and cons. ...
Sometimes after an election candidates not only sensibly take a holiday but then go to ground with all their talk about how they want to help build up the party over the long-run crunching to a halt once the results come out. So good to see Enfield & Haringey GLA candidate Dawn Barnes still very much stuck in to local campaigning, and out with a couple of us in Wood Green today. She's even improved her casework photography technique on last time:
For many years Adrian Slade has interviewed prominent Liberal Democrats. To mark his recent decision to make his archive of the interview recordings available to researchers and other interested parties, Lib Dem Voice is running a selection of his write-ups of interviews from over the years. The latest is with Tony Greaves, dating from 2004. There is something a little incongruous about the notion of the Liberal Democrats' oldest angry young man donning the ermine of a peer of the realm. For those with long party memories Tony Greaves has always seemed to be at the forefront of the vociferously ...
This is when a great weight landed on Lembit Opik and broke his ribs, two minutes after he entered the wrestling ring in Welshpool. Lembit's poor judgement and lust for publicity, which cost him his seat in Montgomeryshire, continue to dog his life. After the match, he commented, "I think I need to think about what I am doing in future, because I think I may have gone a step too far this
As a dedicated Liberal, rationalist and egalitarian I should be a republican and deplore an occasion with celebrates hereditary privilege and ostentatious wealth. My excuse for supporting our monarchy is that, in the unlikely event of my doing something brave and getting a medal, I should prefer to receive it from the queen or one of her family rather than from a politician or David Beckham, and were it to be presented by Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair or even Charles Kennedy I should refuse it. So I regret not being physically present at yesterday's river pageant, but did watch most ...
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
[IMG: Posted by Picasa]
So I got a bit behind on the tie collection photography, but started again – and today this one is actually on. Filed under: Blogging Tagged: clothing, fashion, photography, style, tie collection
Yesterday, Chris Williamson MP tweeted:Lib Dem membership in freefall. I'd urge all Lib Dems who want progressive social change to back #LabourNow, I know that some of you reading this have left the Lib Dems. At least one of those has joined the Greens, and several have joined the Pirates. Maybe some of you have joined Labour, and you know what? I'm a Liberal, and I am happy to see the exercising of personal choice even if it's not a decision I would make myself. But the idea that Liberals should leave the Lib Dems en masse and join Labour ...
Reblogged from Faith and Pride: Recently Julian Clary spoke out in favour of marriage equality, likening it to the struggle for women's suffrage one hundred years ago. In doing so he has made the vital link that these are both matters of civil and human rights and freedoms, not of religious opinions. The same link ...
Brilliant afternoon on Saturday. Hats off to all who organised
St Mary's Church, on St Mary's Road in Garston is holding an Olympic Flower and Arts Festival later this month. Running from 21st June through to June 24th, the event includes exhibitions by the South Liverpool Arts Group, the Garston Historical Society and the Merseyside Woodturners Assocation. The times are 10 am to 6 on 21st, 22nd and 23rd and 2pm to 4pm on the 24th. On the 21st there is also a performance by the Liverpool Harmonic Gospel Choir at 7 30.
On Saturday just gone I joined in the annual "litter picking" event in Garston. Despite the rain, a group of us picked up litter on Garston Park and in the Long Lane and Woolton Road areas. This was made a bit easier by the breakfast provided by Long Lane Church. Well done to everyone who helped organise the event.
And so the build up to my baby becoming a teenager continued yesterday. The special event of yesterday wasn't specifically birthday related so I didn't want it to be absorbed into the celebrations, but it's still a good excuse for making the event last as long as possible. Remember last year when author Keris Stainton set up Authors for Japan, which raised over £13,000 to help those affected by the earthquake there? Well, my contribution went towards this marvellous prize from children's author Kate Maryon. Not only were their two copies of her first two books, but a character name ...
I'm not being seen by that! Businessman's shocking rant at Muslim airport worker | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk Ugh. What a horrible man. I approve of the behaviour of the airport collegues. (tags: ) Pub Tokens - Pub Tokens - Gift Vouchers for Pubs, Bars and Inns Interesting idea... (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I'm over half way through a masters in renewable energy. I keep reading or hearing comments like: "Wind farms are NOT the answer to our energy needs." And I think, "Yes you're right". No serious proponent is suggesting wind power can in the near future supply all our energy needs. It is theoretically possible for ...
The rain has stopped and I am looking forward to listening to Jeanette Winterson this afternoon, followed later by Jo Caulfield. Salmam Rushdie yesterday was outstanding. All we need now is for O2 to get it's act together and give us some phone coverage.
I love Android, I really do. I'm chuffed to bits with the Galaxy Nexus I won recently. I've had a dozen Android phones before that – stretching all the way back to the HTC Magic. But it's getting obvious that Android has a serious design problem – even with the gorgeous new "Holo" theme for ICS. The issue is one of consistency. Users have limited cognitive surplus and often rely on muscle memory to perform tasks. So anything which forces applications to behave in a similar way is often highly appreciated. One thing which is bugging me about the Galaxy ...
Because of the public holiday today, my usual surgeries at Harris Academy and the Mitchell Street Centre do not take place but I can be contacted at any time on 459378 or at surgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk. My Thursday surgery at 6.15pm at Blackness Primary School will take place as normal later this week.
A very good question indeed, and one that I and others were asked for this report from Cicero Consulting: How can retail banks rebuild their reputation?
When you go abroad, it's common to see Nestle infant formula in the supermarkets, but it's not sold here. Sadly, the controversial company has now acquired Wyeth who manufacture the SMA brand. That company has been sending out e-mails to mothers of 4 week old babies which are clearly designed to market their products. The Baby Feeding Law Group has identified three key areas where it believes that the law on marketing breast milk substitutes has been broken. They also have the cheek to suggest that a new fat in their milk is closer to breastmilk. That's like saying a ...
As well as the Jubilee, this weekend is also the annual Charles Causley festival in Launceston. The festival has been going for three years and attracts a wide variety of artists but always as poetry at its core. The most well known name at this year's event is undoubtedly the former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion who will be reading from his new book Silver later today. But yesterday saw a writing workshop and performance by Mark Grist, the former teacher who left the profession to become a battle rapper and performer. (If you want to know what battle rapping is, ...
Since the advent of the One Dimensional Man's collision with so-called sexual liberation of women, the Madonna whore dichotomy has never been more prevalent in society. From Jerry Hall's now ubiquitous statement; "to keep a man; you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the ...
Shine needs Runners! DEADLINE for Entries: 29th June 2012 Shine is the only charity representing babies, children and adults living with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and is currently looking to fill our last few places in the 2012 Great North Run! They need YOUR help to find some KIND-HEARTED people who can HELP make this a reality. Do YOU know someone who might be "up for the challenge?" Last year 27 runners completed the race for Shine raising a total of £9694 to ensure that the 75,000 people connected with the charity receive the support they need. These invaluable funds ...
You can download this poster as a higher-quality PDF here.
Further to my article yesterday about the WestFest Royal Twisted Tea Party that we all enjoyed on Saturday, and with thanks to Ed Thompson for the photos, here's the finalists for the Best Queen competition! But the winner just had to be Graham McAulay-Sillars!
Back in April this blog reported that Lembit Opik would make his wrestling debut at Welshpool Town Hall on 2 June. You are no doubt wondering how he got on. The Daily Express enlightens us: Former MP Lembit Opik's latest bid for stardom got off to a bruising start - after he was stretchered out of a wrestling ring by paramedics. The attention-seeking Liberal Democrat hoped to launch a new career as a professional wrestler following previous forays as a stand-up comedian, reality TV star, music video dancer and consort to a Cheeky Girl. But yet again his dreams of ...
Now, before this seems like I am making excuses for a drop in membership by painting a picture of all thinks bright and rosey like the very rose garden the Prime Minister and Nick Clegg stood in on that historic ... Continue reading →
One of Boris Johnson's achievements as mayor has been to make a bicycle hire scheme - long a radical dream - work in London, even if those in the know will tell you this scheme was developed under Ken Livingstone. Now Leicester's mayor is consulting over bringing the idea to the city. The Leicester Mercury quotes deputy mayor Rory Palmer: "We want as many people has possible to give their views on the scheme, to help us decide whether it would be suitable for Leicester. "Encouraging cycling in Leicester is a major part of our transport policy. "The reduction in ...
