I meant this to be a happy post a few weeks ago when Curiosity landed on Mars. Instead it's going to be a melancholy post now that Neil Armstrong is no longer with us. "Onward to Mars!" is a phrase I first heard at ThinkCon, a part of the Cambridge Science Festival organised by stand-up ...
Getting to the moon was, of course, a communal effort. It couldn't have been done without the work of thousands of engineers and support staff, without the political will of the whole USA, and without the inspiration of dreamers throughout the ages. It wasn't just Neil Armstrong's achievement. But he was still the one who ...
August 5 1930 – August 25 2012 Neil Armostrong steps onto the Moon (official restored NASA footage)
As someone who quite often writes obituaries (for the Guardian, amongst others) I always have my eye out for death notices (these days more likely to be found on twitter than in the columns of The Times), so of course I spotted news today of the demise of Neil Armstrong, the US astronaut, at the ...
I was quite a serious bump when on 20 July 1969 at 20:17:39 UTC Neil Armstrong commanded the Landing Module for Apollo 11 on the surface of the moon. With the famous words "The Eagle has landed". There was an announcement that he and Buzz Aldrin would not be stepping outside the capsule for a number of hours so my father felt he could go to sleep. It was part of the official flight plan. But Armstrong requested that the extra vehicular activity commence earlier so it would be in the evening Houston Time so at 2:56 UTC July 21, ...
UK unemployment continued its recent decline, falling by 46,000 in the three months to June 2012, while employment grew by 201,000 in the same period. Meanwhile the July seasonally adjusted claimant count figures show this section of unemployment fell by 5,900 in the UK in the month to 1.593m. In Birmingham it fell by 507 to 50,119. Meanwhile in Aoccks Green the unadjusted claimant count (which normally rises in July) rose by 5 to 1,183. The mystery of how employment rose so strongly in the second quarter, when the economy is supposed to have shrunk, was lessened slightly when the ...
Naturally, I went to Greyfriars today to look for the archaeological dig trying to find Richard III. There wasn't a lot to see - just a mechanical digger opening a trench and no bones sticking out of the ground. Still, I wasn't the only person whose curiosity had been piqued.
Nouse, the University of York student newspaper, interviews Jenny Tonge: "Yes, I think Nick is right to say he will not go along with the Boundary changes when the Tories have stitched us up on AV and House of Lords reform. I wish he had behaved similarly on other issues too. Perhaps he is waking up at last!" Mike Smithson at Political Betting finds that disenchanted Liberal Democrat voters in Corby are overwhelmingly turning to Labour and concludes: "Those in the blue team who think that appeasing the right is the route to electoral success are fools - but my ...
Because Monday is a Bank Holiday, the council will collect rubbish and recycling one day later than usual this week. Monday 27 August –> Tuesday 28 August Tuesday 28 August –> Wednesday 29 August Wednesday 29 August –> Thursday 30 August Thursday 30 August –> Friday 31 August Friday 31 August –> Saturday 1 September Back to normal on Monday 3 September. You can find out more about the refuse and recycling service in Epping Forest at the recycling and waste section of the council's website including details of standard collection dates.
I thought this was a particularly good New Adventure, a partial (though independent) sequel to the much earlier Warhead, taking the Doctor, Ace and Benny to very near-future England and America to deal with a peculiar new drug and a truly horrible animal experimentation centre. I was hooked, and felt that Cartmel managed to control the plot and characters in a very grownup Who story. Looking through my records I can see some of the themes from this and Warhead cropping up in Cartmel's later Who work, but not as well co-ordinated as they are here. Really very impressed.
Today, the "Better Together" came to Ayr High Street and various other high streets up and down Scotland to campaign against independence. I popped down to see which activists turned up and from which parties. I also went to snag a leaflet and to see what arguments the "Better Together" campaign think will win Scotland ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... Here's Lib Dem foreign minister Jeremy Browne enjoying a good old game of ping-pong (aka wiff waff, if you're Boris Johnson). What do you think might be being said or thought here? And the winner of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Nick Clegg & Tinchy Stryder "Cool Guy" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by George Potter: "Now if I can only find David Laws ...
After two years, I've had enough; I have been using my loathed Android HTC Desire for videos and ebooks, and that's OK, but I think I may as well sell it on to anyone who wants to try out the Android way for themselves, and use the profits (if any) for something like a Nexus 7 which is actually designed for videos and ebooks. After all, the Blackberry is still perfectly usable for phone and email, and not too bad for social media. Offering it here for $100 or local equivalent; I have tried and failed to root it, so ...
It is, I suppose, my fault. It was with my encouragement that she first began to blog in 2008, under the title 'Because Baronesses Are People Too...', as I thought that her commentary would be of interest, both as part of her campaign for the Party Presidency, and as a window on what she does. I had, perhaps, not thought out the consequences... So, when things became a bit tense, some people thought that her blog offered an opportunity for a public dissection of the events of the day. In truth, that wasn't particularly viable, as Ros is not the ...
Despite dodgy weather, the work to expand the slip road from the M60 onto Kingsway continues apace. At various times there will be closures of the sliproads on and off the M60 overnight, plus lane closures during the day. To see the latest information on restrictions and closures, see the Highways Agency impact on your journey page. The work will see an additional running lane on the M60 from junctions 4 to 2 (anti-clockwise) and expansion of the slip road from J3 to the A34 to three lanes. More information on the works here.
This week Caron Lindsay over on Liberal Democrat Voice has had two posts reviewing two talks by Paddy Ashdown at the Edinburgh Book Festival. The second of these is Paddy plugging his new book, A Brilliant Little Operation, which does sound fascinating. The first was Paddy discussing global power shifts which sounds very similar to his TED talk that I wrote about in February. This saw another outing for Ashdown's Third Law — which I believe is worth frequent repeating: "In the modern age when everything is connected to everything, the most important thing about what you can do is ...
Over the past week we've seen the hands of Michael Gove and David Willetts reach out and twist the fate students who had sat for A Levels and GCSEs. There is a name for this twisting action. It is called 'grade inflation' and along with it goes the deflation of hopes and dreams for young people. It is very neoliberalistic. The Government has manipulated the result indicators to produce top results. It is very artificial. Teachers who followed the set patterns of previous years are now faced with a redesign of the exam system after the game has been played. ...
Following the closure of the British Aerospace site at Woodford a while back, Harrow Estates are proposing to build "Woodford Garden Village" on the site – a development of 950 houses. Because the site has previously been developed, any owner has the right to build something there, but the question is what and how. The Council is launching a consultation on what's called the "Supplementary Planning Document" or SPD for the site. This essentially says "Given the proposals on the table and the Council's planning policy, here's what could be developed on the site and how it could be done." ...
As my LibDemVoice colleague Caron Lindsay noted here, our poll asking when Lib Dem members want Nick Clegg to stand down has attracted a fair bit of coverage this week (including in the Daily Mail: I've showered three times since reading it, I still feel unclean). Over at his essential UK Polling Report blog, the best online guide to British polling, Anthony Wells has taken a closer look at this survey — and at the validity of LibDemVoice surveys in general — and here's an excerpt of what he says: Stephen Tall and Mark Pack don't make huge claims about ...
Completely by chance, the next in the random selection of Lovejoy books I have picked up recently takes place immediately after Jade Woman, which I read earlier this month. Lovejoy has escaped Hong Kong and arrives penniless in New York, where he soon gets sucked into a group of sinister plutocrats involved with raising questionable money as their stake in the Great California Game. The first half of the book, in which Lovejoy tries to grasp the reality of New York and also gets entangled in the conspiracy, is very well portrayed - both the richness of the setting and ...
Reshuffle speculation has reached fever-pitch with Liberal Democrat Voice publishing the outcome of their poll of party members as to which Lib Dem MP should be promoted. The top three in that poll are Jo Swinson, Julian Huppert and David Laws. Which interestingly coincides almost exactly with the two Liberal Democrats that the Guardian have highlighted as part of their ten rising stars of the coalition article in today's paper. Only Julian Huppert is missing from their profile and I suspect that is because he has made a bigger impact with the Liberal Democrat geeks than with the hardened journos ...
Survey living Chav's author Owens Jones has gone transatlantic. He manage to ruffle some feathers on Fox News, as they did a five minute segment on an op-ed Jones did for the Indy. They even managed to get a joke ... Continue reading →
... that there is a party curbing the excesses of the Tories Because of the Liberal Democrats being in Government, we have:introduced additional funding for the poorest school pupilstaken hundreds of thousands of people out of taxcut the tax bill for millions of low earnersintroduced a billion pound scheme to help young people get to work and trainingdelivered the biggest pension increase everembarked on the largest investment in railways since the Victorian eracut the defecit by 25%saved the British economy from the worst consequences of worldwide recessiontaking action to sort out the banks where Labour admit they failed to, and ...
Sat 25th
11:25
Three interesting reads for the weekend: on the Lib Dem mission, campaigning and Coalition
Here are three articles about the Lib Dems well worth a read this Bank Holiday weekend... Enjoy! The Lib Dems don't need a new leader. They need a point (Ian Birrell) After two torrid years in office, a fundamental question hangs heavy over the Liberal Democrats: what is the point of them these days? The party has long been ill-defined, split between social democrats on the left and market liberals on the right. In many ways, their brilliance as they grew under successive leaders over the past four decades was this blurred brand, ensuring disgruntled voters of any persuasion could ...
I happen to believe that Prince Harry did nothing seriously wrong during his Las Vegas frolics. I suspect that he has endeared himself further to the British public as a result of the latest revelations. However, I do believe that the British people have a right to see publicly available evidence concerning his behaviour. Even in private, he has some duty to behave above a certain threshold of decency. The British people have a right to see publicy available evidence to decide whether he has breached that threshold. He is third in line to be Head of State of the ...
Liam Clarke of the Belfast Telegraph yesterday did a follow up editorial on the Magherafelt Council unionists stance and words used during the gay marriage debate. It was of course time for another unionist politician to use a phrase that shows how out of touch they are not just with reality and their electorate but modern day law. Councillor Paul McLean the chair of the DUP group on the council when asked to clarify his party's use of biblical tracts and language in the debate said: "We are now under the laws of today. "I believe it should be against ...
Why do the Lib Dems love leaflets so much? » Spectator Blogs (tags: ) BBC News - Watchdog publishes list of biggest health and safety 'myths' (tags: ) Julian Huppert MP writes... Britain deserves an affordable railway (tags: ) BBC News - Rambler Stephen Gough: Sheriff orders mental assessment (tags: ) On Prince Harry's Balls (tags: ) Can Pinkification Be Subversive? « Feminist Philosophers (tags: ) Women in motorsport: 'We don't fit the old engineering stereotypes' | Corrinne Burns | Science | guardian.co.uk (tags: ) Mo Farah Running Away From Things (tags: ) The Honourable Lady Mark in Smug Mode ...
Blogging has been pretty light here for a while - I had almost no net access for my three weeks in Ireland, and last week has been spent catching up on other stuff. So I have missed my chance to write on the various controversies of the interim, and I will skip things like royal bums that do not interest me. But I have been following the Assange affair with great interest. One thing that strikes me is that there has been a vast amount of excellent legal blogging explaining exactly how we have reached where we are from the ...
[IMG: Cashless parking in Stockport] You can now pay for your parking in any Stockport Council car park – or on street parking – without needing to have any change on you at all – and you can easily extend your stay without having to go back to your car. Stockport has introduced cashless parking. You'll still be able to use pay & display – putting coins into the machine and getting a ticket out. Partnering with Ringgo, Stockport Council now allows you to Call 0203 046 0010 from your phone to pay Send a text message to pay for ...
Overheard today: People say you should worry about how your tattoos will look when you are older, but when I am incontinent, unable to walk and being fed by someone, the last thing I will worry about is how my tattoos look. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 500 party members have responded, and we've been publishing the full results. The final parts are being published this weekend. Three-quarters say Coalition will be bad for Lib Dem prospects in 2015 LDV asked: Do you think the Coalition Government will be good or bad for the Lib Dems' electoral prospects at the next general election? 9% – Good 77% – Bad 11% – Neither good nor bad 4% – Don't ...
I've been tracking press speculation about the cabinet reshuffle since May and providing regular updates (the latest is below). In all that time, at various junctures, most cabinet ministers have at some point been mentioned as 'safe in their jobs' or 'being left in place'. But 5 haven't, as far as I can tell, not anywhere, suggesting they may be the most vulnerable. Can you guess who? The obvious candidates ar e people like Ken Clarke (too Liberal), Jeremy Hunt (too tainted), Cheryl Gillan (the bookies favourite to be fired) or Lansley/Spelman (a tad useless). But you'd be wrong. All ...
As reported in the Evening Telegraph last night, the Courier and on local radio and TV, there was a significant and concerning blaze at Victor's Fish and Chip shop and at surrounding flats in Blackness Road in the early hours of yesterday morning. I visited the scene yesterday morning and talked with constituents, being most concerned for the 26 constituents who were forced to flee their homes. This was a serious fire and I am just relieved that no-one was hurt. I've been in touch with Tayside Fire and Rescue to thank them for their sterling efforts and professionalism. Obviously ...
UPDATE! My radio show, which was pre-recorded, didn't go out as planned today. I will post a new note when it will be broadcast as soon as possible. TEXT OF ORIGINAL NOTE Tune in online to Sounds of Urban London radio today, ... Continue reading →
Some disruption because of holidays, but I'll hopefully get back to posting these weekly from now on. 120944: Conversion of storage area to dwelling, Rosebery Avenue. 120962: Listed building consent for 120944. 121400: Change of use from shop to mixed use shop/cafe, Culver Street West. 121459: Removal or variation of conditions relating to application 091004, Culver Street West. 121533 and 121534: Advertisement consent for Council Informational Panels, Osborne Street. Please note that I am a member of the Council's Planning Committee for the next municipal year. This means that I'm required to act in a 'quasi-judicial' manner with regard to ...
As part of the Council's routine resurfacing programme for busier roads, Park Road in Gatley is having the surface of the road relaid. The aim is to repair the main roads before they deteriorate too far – which is a lot cheaper than waiting for roads to get really bad and doing a full resurface. The challenge for the Council is working out how to make best use of the limited amount of money we have available, and it's not always easy, but we're very glad to see Park Road's inclusion in the programme for this year. Park Road in ...
I'm not going to Lib Dem conference this year in Brighton. I love conference. And I love Brighton. But I'm going to give conference a miss this year and it seems many others are too. Part of the attraction of conference, for me at least, is the opportunity that it presents for meeting and interacting with fellow liberals. Connecting with others in a way that ordinarily I wouldn't be able to is something I value highly, and I've met many of my friends at conference while for some of my other friends conference provides a rare chance to get together. ...
