Posted in CommunityEnvironmentSalford Yesterday (Saturday 21st July) marked the start of Love Parks Week and for the next seven days in the run up to the start of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Salford City Council is calling on the people of Salford to show how much they love their local parks. I live barely a two minute walk from my local park and I visit it each day. I love my local park. Salford is celebrating Love Parks Week with six free family events and activities in Clifton and Blackleach Country parks, Victoria and Winton Park and Peel ...
A New Adventure with an impressively imagined setting, a possibly living cylindrical structure containing madly mutating mosses, monkeys, and massive trees, into which the Doctor, Benny and Ace arrive and get tangled up with terminal mayhem. I found it a bit of a slow read but have a feeling that may be my fault rather than the author's. The science of the setting may not be completely sound but I was able to suspend my disbelief.
Even though Elan Homes have mostly finished their work at Kensey Valley Meadow in Launceston, residents are still being left in the lurch with grass cutting not being done. As part of the handover to Cornwall Council, Elan are still maintaining the open spaces on the estate until the end of the summer. Or at least they are meant to be. Grass cutting on the top square of the estate - a very popular play area - hasn't been done for many months and the grass is now at least 2 feet tall. Other open spaces on the estate have ...
Readers of this blog will know of my fascination with the abandoned lead mines at Snailbeach in Shropshire. This afternoon, thanks to one of the volunteer guides from the Shropshire Mines Trust, I was enter into them a little way. I once did the same thing with some of my more dashing fellow members of the Malcolm Saville Society a mile or two down the road, but don't try this at home, kids. It is no reflection on the guide that, as a lover of the League of Gentlemen, I was reminded of this...
Not a military tattoo, you understand, but the sort with ink and needles. A report on the Daily Mail website this evening tells us: The wife of former Lib Dem leader Lord Steel has revealed she got a tattoo of a pink jaguar when she turned 70. Lady Judy Steel, 72, revealed how she treated herself to the inking two years ago to mark her milestone birthday. Not wanting to be convinced out of it, she quietly slipped off to a tattoo shop in Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, where she showed the artist exactly what she wanted.The paper says ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 283rd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (15-21 July, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. The Cabinet Reshuffle: ...
If you want a say over who your next Greenwich councillor is and you live almost anywhere in the borough, electoral logic would suggest you join the Labour party pronto. Based on the current boundaries that advice probably applies to your choice of MP if you live in Greenwich & Woolwich and Erith & Thamesmead constituencies. ...
Shoppers visiting Acocks Green Farmers Market on Saturday This weekend's better weather was good news for the Farmers Market which took place yesterday morning. When I visited it was busy and the stallholders seemed to be doing a good trade, as the photo above shows. I came away with a delicious beef and ale pie, some rhubarb and loaf of granary bread. I also bought a copy of 'Beatrice The Cadbury Heiress Who Gave Away Her Fortune' by local author, Fiona Joseph, which I'm looking forward to reading over the summer. The next Acocks Green Farmers Market will be on ...
A Waterstones shelf organised in alphabetic order I trust: Given that choice, which book would you buy? (Hint: the correct answer is this one.)
The latest national unemployment figures continue to show a steady three month decline that is completely at odds with current growth figures, which indicate we are in a recession. In the last three months unemployment fell by 65,000 to 2.58m or 8.1% of the workforce. The number employed grew by 181,000, in the three months, to 29.35m; unemployment fell by a lower amount because the workforce grew by 116,000. Further encouragement comes from analysis which shows the vast majority of the new jobs (133,000) were full time and just 48,000 were part time. Moreover in the 9 months since last ...
Here's a round-up of stories we haven't had time to cover on the site this past few days... Coalition set for new split on cut-price Trident plan (Scotsman) COALITION splits over Britain's nuclear deterrent are set to be reopened after an internal Ministry of Defence review suggested a slimmed-down version of the £25 billion Trident replacement could be an option. ... The report, led by Lib Dem armed forces minister Nick Harvey, looks set to reopen coalition divisions with many Tory back-benchers concerned that Britain's replacement for Trident could end up being sacrificed for political reasons. However, with final decisions ...
Your 2012 Champion Well the script for this tour didn't have any twists in the tail. With a little over 10km to go there was a group of three with a 20 seconds lead over the peleton, but slowly but surely they got pulled back. At times Chris Froome the man who is second in the GC was leading the peleton to pull it back. As we crossed by the finish line on the other side of the Champs Élysées they were captured and Team Sky were riding back at the front of this Tour. Under the tunnel it was ...
As some of you may know the Islamic month of Ramadhan started on 20th July 2012 for many Muslims. Ramadhan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is most well known by people as the month in which Muslims fast. According to Islam Ramadhan is the most religious month of the year and God increases the rewards people receive for good deeds. For Muslims fasting during the month of Ramadhan is compulsory as long you are sane and mature. This means that Muslims will stop eating before dawn and will only start eating again after sunset. Fasting in ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... (Picture by PaperMaven.) Here's Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg with star of Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winner of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Nick Harvey "Pleased to see me?" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by Andreas Christodoulou: "Handling a man's massive weapon? I can see why you didn't ...
Where are modern economists most at sea? Some may think it is their over-reliance on GDP to represent the welfare of an economy. But economists are quite comfortable with the theory of all that, even if they often fail to put it into practice. No, the real problem is money supply. It used to be a central concept, but now it is useless. Economistsused to be very confident about it all, even while I was taking my Economics degree in the mid 2000s. Their ideas had been developed most famously by Milton Friedman, the 100th anniversary of whose birth is ...
I've now managed to get a first, very rough version of I.L.Powell's 1979 Triton Tiny BASIC 'Star Trek' game to work in Python on my Raspberry Pi. Most of my effort has been spent in understanding how the original game worked – not easy, even for someone who learned to program in BASIC at about the time the original article was published. As I wrote in an earlier post, I wanted to try to remain reasonably faithful to the way the original game worked, even to the point of preserving the original data structures and codes. I have however made ...
I've been watching this year's Tour de France almost in disbelief. Could it really be that we have British riders in first and second place in the yellow jersey race with another, the cycling world champion no less, winning two stages and going for a third of this race on the Champs Elysees later today? His audacious attack on Friday from quite a long way out provided a thrilling end to the stage. I don't need to pinch myself, because it is in fact all true. Let's just hope that the procession to Paris is traditionally uneventful. I don't want ...
The kind folk in Haringey let me inflict a new idea or two on the campaign day yesterday, with a different approach to doorstep canvassing and a strong emphasis on gathering in key pieces of data. To add a touch of summer fun and frolic, there was a prize provided for the star data gatherer. Step forward, prize winner Dawn Barnes who even recruited a new member too: (Alas, the lure of chocolate was not enough to lift me out of the also ran stakes this time. Next time, next time...)
The Mail on Sunday reports: One of the Tory party's biggest donors has been ordered to pay back millions of pounds in tax after a judge ruled against an offshore scheme he had used to slash his bills. The judge said a Guernsey-based trust set up by hedge fund boss George Robinson, one of the City's highest-paid financiers, was 'cosmetic' and told him and three colleagues to pay the taxman £13 million. Mr Robinson, who is facing a personal bill of more than £2 million, used an arrangement favoured by top footballers and City banks such as Goldman Sachs after being advised ...
Today's Observer suggests that security company G4S's disastrous Olympics may well have reputational consequences for it but that the security group makes so much money in the private sector and developing world that it will hardly notice. They say that before the Olympics catastrophe, G4S had already announced that it saw a future away from the UK and the apparent cash cow of Whitehall contracts, stating that it planned to earn half its worldwide revenues from emerging markets in Africa and Asia. They add that the company already makes more money from developing countries (£1.84bn in 2011) than it does ...
From today's YouGov poll:
The City Council's announced that "...a number of important roadwork schemes will be taking place during the school summer holidays to keep disruption to motorists to a minimum...." with the work taking place from July to September 2012. The works include: * Oundle Road bridge (southbound only), which carries the A1260 Nene parkway over Oundle Road, is to undergo improvement works to prolong the life of the bridge. Due to start Friday 28 July 2012 and will last for approximately six weeks. * London Road railway bridge, which carries the A15 London Road over the railway line adjacent to Phorpres ...
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has made it clear that he's already broken his election pledge of only a few weeks ago. The following table of his plans was obtained by Labour GLA Assembly Member Val Shawcross during mayor's question time 4 July. AMELIA STREET 2-16 – C SOUTHWARK LIGHTINDUSTRIAL Exit in 2012 BELLENDEN ROAD RETAIL PARK UNIT 1 – A SOUTHWARK SAFER NEIGHBOUR Operational use BRANDON HOUSE GROUND FLR – (C IN 2013) SOUTHWARK OFFICE Exit in 2013 CAMBERWELL POLICE STATION – A SOUTHWARK POLICE STATION Operational use CHAPLIN CENTRE GROUND FLOOR PART – A SOUTHWARK SAFER NEIGHBOUR ...
CONSILIUM - Bloggers meet Cyprus Presidency #cy2012eublogs next Thursday. (tags: ) Georgia: Authorities must stop violence against opposition ahead of elections Latest Amnesty International statement (tags: georgia ) Global Warming's Terrifying New Math May 2012 was "the 327th consecutive month in which the temperature of the entire globe exceeded the 20th-century average". Read. (tags: climatechange )
It was good to see Norwood Ward in fine fettle yesterday at Ronnie Fearn's Afternoon Tea. There was an excellent turn out of supporters including one of Southport's Olympic torch bearers. Mike Booth has also reported on the even here
And so it all comes to an end for another year. For once, the final time trial wasn't critical to the final result, merely a final exclamation mark added on the end of what's been a pretty emphatic victory. Wiggins has continually referenced Miguel Indurain as his hero, and this has been a very Indurain-esque victory. Wiggins has blown away the competition in the time trials, and then dared them to try and attack him in the mountains, riding down anyone who tried. It's been a Tour of brutal efficiency rather than style and panache, but there are many ways ...
News from Barnet: Helen Michael has had two visits from the police regarding a poster displayed by Barnet traders to highlight the unfairness of the parking charge regime. She's also been grilled for two hours by two officers from Scotland Yard. It is also clear from the transcript Helen took that a senior Barrister had been engaged to give a legal view on the subject. The "crime" Helen is alleged to have committed? Not putting an imprint on the posters.
This survey just out makes it very clear who the public favour as an alternative to Gideon h/t to @timmontgomerie Let's hope Dave's listening...
Visiting the National Rail Museum last week reminded me of this track. Originally recorded by Sidney Bechet, it was a big hit for Chris Barber in 1959. In my student days the museum used to run slide shows about railway history, with a musical accompaniment of brass bands and jazz tunes to give a period feel. This tune, in fact this very version of it, was one of those used. All of which makes me feel all nostalgic when I hear 'Petite Fleur'. I even think I remember if from the day I went for my interview at York - ...
The Hansard Society this week published part two of its annual Audit of Political Engagement, focusing on the media and politics. Three graphs in particular stood out for me... 63% of public say tabloids "look for any excuse" to tarnish politicians ... tabloid newspapers are consistently identified by two-thirds of the public as displaying negative traits in their coverage of politics and politicians. ... Tabloids are three times more likely to be perceived to be negative in their approach to the coverage of politics than are the other forms of media. ... Perhaps the most notable finding, however, is that ...
The close of another week at Bonkers Hall. But why not visit the famous Bonkers Hall Maze this summer? (A small fee may be charged for guiding those unable to find their way out.) Sunday Wishing to avoid those Guardian angels (they were not receptive to my idea for a maximum price for alcohol), I eschew Divine Service for once and go for a walk by the shores of Rutland Water. Clegg's hair-shirt tour, I surmise, is intended by the clever children in his office to make it clear whether he has a chance of appealing to voters at the ...
No chance of doing daily posts this week I'm afraid. Apart from the meeting of EARA on Monday, there were meetings of Stockton Council committees and partnerships looking into the problem of long-term empty properties, fuel poverty and conserving the environment while providing housing which people are willing and able to live in; meetings of the Parish Council and its Recreation Committee,
Is it really that time of year again that me and Nick Barlow (amongst others) give you our last look at what lies in the day ahead on the road of France (an any other country) as part of the Tour de France. First up let's short out what happened yesterday. The man the Dutch call the "Banana with sideburns" showed why he is the man who have spent 7 days in yellow in Paris-Nice, five in the Tour of Romandie, seven in the Critérium du Dauphiné and now 13 days in Le Tour. Let us not forget he was ...
Chris White has queried what has happened to one of the ticket machines at St Albans City Station on the Ridgmont Road side. Chris said: 'This is a major entrance to the station serving much of the town centre – especially people arriving on foot. There have been three machines there as long as I can remember. One has now been removed without warning or explanation. Given the fact that these machines break down frequently, it means that there can sometimes be only a single machine selling tickets to large numbers of people arriving for the morning rush hour. 'A ...
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the very well-attended Summer Meeting of Friends of Balgay at Mills Observatory, at which City Archivist Iain Flett gave a very informative talk of 'The poor in Victorian Dundee.' Iain is always a hugely interesting and entertaining and his address yesterday was excellent. There was a social event thereafter, with a rather fabulous Friends of Balgay cake - see right! With support from the Dundee Historic Environment Trust, the Friends of Balgay have published a new edition of "A visitor's guide to the Treasures of Balgay" - it is an excellent publication costing ...
From Andrew Rawnsley on London in the run-up to the Olympics: It is like stepping into a dystopian future in which Britain is run by a military junta headed by Ronald McDonald. And here's some bonus quotes from the excellent "olympiphobic" article: Limousines swooshing along Soviet-style "Zil" lanes will whisk the Olympic nomenklatura across the city through traffic lights phased to green while working Londoners fume. For all the blunders during the build-up, I have a hunch that the actual event will be largely successful. I hope so. Even an Olympiphobe doesn't want to give to the French the satisfaction ...
Yesterday, the Courier covered the on-going issue of the gap in bus services in the western part of Perth Road and at the east end of the Technology Park, caused by the re-routing of the National Express Dundee Service 5. I was also on Wave 102 news about the issue yesterday - click 'play' below to listen:
I find the Olympics has afforded some good ammunition to back up the idea and feasibility of a private law society. Libertarian political philosopher Robert Nozick could not bring himself to believe true anarchy was possible because he thought that a free market in security and protection services would produce local monopolies that would then be able to operate in much the same way as a coercive state does. Clearly he hadn't witnessed the fiasco that has seen G4S unable even to enforce a state granted monopoly over security on a few square kilometres of sports venues. G4S is the ...
The first 2011 census results from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been released. The results for St Albans City and District show that the local population has grown to 140,600 – an overall growth since 2001 of 8.8%. This compares to an East of England rise of 8%, a Hertfordshire rise of 7.9% and an England and Wales rise of 7.1%. Welwyn and Hatfield has the biggest increase in Hertfordshire with a rise of 13.2%. There are officially 56,100 occupied households in the district. Between each census, ONS provides annual estimates of population growth, and these figures are ...
