Odd Down Community Hub secures £141,403 from sporting legacy fund The Odd Down Community Hub, being developed by Bath & North East Somerset Council, has secured Olympic legacy funding from Sport England's Inspired Facilities Fund. The Inspired Facilities fund is part of the £150million Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country. Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark - celebrating the link to the Games. Bath & North East Somerset Council is receiving £141,403 of National Lottery funding to ...
I learnt of the death of the African history scholar Professor Tony Martin last week. Dr Martin was a renowned authority on Hon Marcus Mosiah Garvey - who was famously honoured by the immortal Burning ...
This is from the other main polish language media operation in the UK.
Here. It is what Sir Humphrey on "Yes Minister" refers to euphemistically as "the perpendicular pronoun". [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
[IMG: Tom Daley diving - Some rights reserved by werdsmyth_2000] ITV's "Splash" is an excellent programme. It is very entertaining. It is very professionally produced. Gabby Logan and Vernon Kaye are very sure-footed presenters. Tom Daley does Plymouth proud every week. I don't quite understand the panning the series has come in for. It was a very risky enterprise in the first place – on several levels. A live diving programme! Just all that water in close proximity with all that electrical equipment is a massive risk from day one! So well done "Splash" team! [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet ...
Charlie Morgan is the Swansea ball boy who decided to go against his principles and hold on to the ball when Chelsea's Edin Hazard wanted it back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd38KUjmOho It is fairly obvious that ball boys should not keep hold of the ball and it is also fairly clear that ball boys should not be kicked. However Charlie has also been criticised by Pat Nevin who said "I'm very, very disappointed with how the ball boy acted. I say acted, he must have watched footballers the way he rolled around pretending to be more injured," My view is that Charlie could ...
It has been, I admit, a rather testing twenty-four hours or so, for reasons which will be understood by readers of Liberal Democrat Voice. Apparently, that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Trust me, that may be true in the long-term, but it doesn't feel like that right now. Writing instant response pieces has never been a personal strong suit, and I have received a reminder as to why that might be so. A valuable lesson learned, I guess. It is also a reminder, both for myself, and for others, that one is often better served by reflection ...
Young parents are invited to fun, free sessions at Radstock Children's Centre, run by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Parents and parents-to-be who are aged 21 and under are welcome to attend the weekly sessions where practical advice, information and support is available. During the sessions you can also discover how babies and children develop and learn through play. The group meets at Radstock Children's Centre every Wednesday between 1.30pm and 3pm, and parents are welcome to drop in anytime to benefit from a wide range of services at the centre. The first sessions of 2013 have already proved ...
Southside Youth Hub offers young people free gym qualification. Young people have the chance to gain a Level 2 gym qualification for free at Bath & North East Somerset Council's Southside Youth Hub in Bath. The sessions are open to 16 - 18 year olds and require no previous entry requirements to sign up. The course begins on Monday 11 February and will last 15 working days. Assessments will take place the following week, between Monday 4 and Wednesday 6 March. Those who are successful will then be qualified to work in a gym environment or potentially gain a place ...
It might not scan as well as How do you solve a problem like Maria? but the BBC have a problem and they know it. The news today from the BBC that they have dropped Colin Murray as host of MOTD2 and replaced him with Mark Chapman shows that they are ready to tinker with the franchise in an attempt to restore it to its former glory. The problem though isn't just with the Sunday version which has never been the same since Adrian Chiles but the flagship Saturday show is now lagging behind Sky in terms of quality analysis. ...
The Liberal Democrat Cabinet in Bath and NE Somerset takes economic vitality of the area very seriously. So it is great news that again this month Bath is performing better than most of the country. Key facts The number of unemployed claimants in Bath constituency in December 2012 was 1,310. This represents a rate of 2.8% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64, the 513th highest of the 650 UK constituencies. (1st = highest rate of unemployment, 650th = lowest rate of unemployment.) The number of claimants is 55 lower than in December 2011 and 62 lower than ...
Good evening, welcome to another Saturday Six... This time brought to you by my new iPad... (Honestly, I do promise not to bang on about it too much!) First this week, Caron reports on President Obama's second Inauguration and a depressing aspect of the American Dream: the unspoken assumption that there will always be poverty to be climbed out of. Even though I'm an atheist, I am interested in faith issues. This piece on Buddhism piqued my interest, as it analyses the darker side to what is an often idealised religion. Cameron made his BIG SPEECH on Europe this week ...
[IMG: David Ward] Earlier this evening, David Ward MP, on his website, issued the following apology and clarification regarding his remarks on Friday. This is very welcome. My criticisms of actions since 1948 in the Palestinian territories in the name of the State of Israel remain as strong as ever. In my comments this week I was trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. I never for a moment intended to criticise or offend the Jewish people as a whole, either as a race or as a people of faith, and apologise sincerely ...
A selection of the finest: There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace. We've got work to do. 7th Doctor, Survival. Last words of Classic Who on tv in 1989Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away...and I'm dead. 10th Doctor talks poignantly on his impending death.You're Scottish, fry something. 11 gets away ...
[IMG: Isle of Iona Post Office, Scotland - Some rights reserved by Freddie H.] A typical Saturday morning in the Thorpe household typically involves me meandering, in my usual untidy fashion, to one of the menagerie of corner shops which cosset Hammersmith high street from the unkempt collection of bookmakers, pawnbrokers and fast food joints which seem to be the fate of most urban centres. From the shop, I will descend to the most desolate corner of a quiet bar and languidly let the tensions of the week be traduced by the temerity of the Times crossword. A potential constraint ...
Well done David Ward MP for this apology, published on his website an hour ago: January 26, 2013 4:50 PM My criticisms of actions since 1948 in the Palestinian territories in the name of the State of Israel remain as strong as ever. In my comments this week I was trying to make clear that everybody needs to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. I never for a moment intended to criticise or offend the Jewish people as a whole, either as a race or as a people of faith, and apologise sincerely for the unintended offence which my words ...
Have been running a massive temperature and having headache. Have been incapable of much at all other than lying in bed listening to radio 4. Still, I'm not dead. So that's a good thing. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Nick Clegg now admits that the cuts in the coalition's investment expenditure may have been too severe, a Tory MP on BBC 1's "Question Time" agrees with him, Boris Johnson calls for an end to the "austerity rhetoric" and the figures show that for the last quarter of 2012 the UK economy shrank. In any sane world this would now lead to an urgent reversal of economic policy. Keynesians, from this humble blog to distinguished Nobel prizewinners, have been saying for the last two and a half years that the austerity programme would lead to economic stagnation or worse, others, ...
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We carried the news yesterday that David Ward MP had, while marking Holocaust Memorial Day, made comments linking the holocaust to Israeli policy in the occupied territories. Paul David Evans, who has worked for the Holocaust Educational Trust, examines this commonly-made comparison. "... is it possible to criticise Israel without being accused of antisemitism, some activists mused on Lib Dem Voice? The answer is that, yes, it's remarkably easy to criticise Israel without being accused of being a racist. The trick is not to frame your criticism in terms of glaringly obvious centuries old antisemitic tropes, or deliberately provocative false ...
The idea of the meme making the rounds these days is to use the Up-Goer 5 Text editor to describe one's job, i.e. using the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English Language. I am a doctor: not the kind of doctor who helps people, but the kind of doctor who knows a great deal about a kind of animal. The animals I know about lived a long time ago, but are all dead now. They are like some flying animals that are living now, but not very like those animals. I studied how these animals walk and run. ...
My blog may seem rather boring to you at the moment, and I just wanted to explain what's going on. I'm currently working on three books simultaneously — the Beach Boys one, one on Doctor Who, and a novel I can't talk about publicly yet but which will be published by a traditional publisher this ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Cooperation isn't coming to Washington - it's already arrived | Anatole Kaletsky Anatole Kaletsky forecasts an orderly resolution of all US fiscal matters http://reut.rs/14dR0t5
Pleased to see this letter from Lib Dem Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael to the Holocaust Educational Trust about David Ward's appalling comments about "the Jews" and the Holocaust. Hearing Mr Ward's later comments on Sky News, I wonder if I am one of the Jews who do it, or one of the Jews who don't do it? Mr Ward says: I'm accusing the Jews who did it, so if you're a Jew and you did not do it I'm not accusing you. I'm saying that those Jews who did that and continue to do it have not learned those lessons. ...
[IMG: bouquet] It's always the smallest things that seem to end up creating the biggest noise. Take the current debate over marriage: I know it seems like a big issue, but if you really look, it's a debate about semantics and contracts that's become complicated by the fact that history is so unclear about its origins. The Church thinks that marriage is theirs and that therefore they have a right to dictate who gets to do it. I used to be partly persuaded by the fact that marriage was the Church's brand and that those of us who don't believe ...
In looking at the predictable furore that erupted when David Ward criticised the indefensible goings-on in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, it is tempting to invoke Lady Bracknell. (To read David's statement – very slightly revised – see David is guilty of carelessness. With the degree of scrutiny of language from the many organisations and individuals that devote themselves to defending the indefensible actions of the Government of Israel, he should have known better than to refer to the perpetrators as "Jews". However, among the puerile and ignorant comments of the last 24 hours, not even the serial defenders ...
Although Parliament has been voting this week, the debate on benefit reduced increases/decreases has been raging all month and demonstrated all that I hate about politics. On the Conservative side of the debate we've had comments like 'strivers vs skivers' and 'workers vs shirkers'. Of course such comments have been used before by Labour (see the video below), but it doesn't make it any less
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the longest running science fiction show in the world I am taking a weekly look at some of my favourite Dr Who episodes focusing on one Doctor a month. This month it's the first Doctors turn. This week. The Romans. (or carry on Doctor) Whilst visiting Rome in AD 64, Ian and Barbara are kidnapped and sold as slaves. Ian ends up on a galley ship, while Barbara becomes a handmaiden in Nero's palace. Meanwhile, unaware of Ian & Barbara's situation, the Doctor and Vicki become caught up in the events culminating in the ...
Opponents of LGBT liberty love to try to scare off the general population from allowing greater freedom due to the fear that it might lead to teachers being sacked. Given teachers aren't usually flavour of the month (just look at all the moaning from media talking heads over teachers getting the day off during school closures due to the snow) it seems an unusual strategy but they use it anyway. It is a position Catholic spokespeople advance quite often. I've pointed out the hypocrisy of this stance before. But now the Catholic Church has only gone and given us even ...
So the Coalition has not listened (mainly because nobody has been listening to the concerns of LGBT people whilst the Church in Wales and the Church of England were bleating on about irrelevant constitutional concerns) and the bill that has now been published legalising same-sex marriage is more "same-same but different" than about equal marriage. I hate being negative (as always) but sometimes one does have to be true to ones self and not cheer progress just because it is heading in the right direction. And, yes, this plays right into the hands of those anti-LGBT folks who love to ...
[IMG: A candle being lit. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1383155] I mentioned during the week how Julia Cambridge has become the new Liberal Democrat prospective candidate for Chesterfield. She wowed party members in the hustings, in particular with her great explanation of why she is a Liberal Democrat. She told a story of being frightened of the dark during the power cuts caused by the early '70s miners' strike, and her sister getting scorched on a candle. She asked her parents why they were sitting in the dark. "The government", said one. "The unions", said the other. "I think I decided ...
I was lucky enough to be able to get along to the London Assembly Transport Committee's hosted seminar on new river crossings in east London recently. It was very well attended by members of the public and expertly chaired by our very own Caroline Pidgeon ably assisted by Val Shawcross. For those of you unable ...
Yesterday the Westminster Government announced their proposals for Equal Marriage legislation in England and Wales. Unfortunately for displaced Northern Irish LGBT persons such as I have been for most of my adult live should we get married in England or Wales and then return to Northern Ireland that marriage will only be recognised as a Civil Partnership even if the couple had never been civil partnered. Therefore I have turned to Prince for the music to sum up my feelings about this. When Hubs Cry Dig if you will the pictureOf you and I engaged in a kissThe minister pronounced ...
Sat 26th
09:39
Why the Welsh Lib Dems are right to campaign for an innovative technologies fund for the NHS
This morning's Western Mail underlines once more why the Welsh Liberal Democrats secured a Welsh Government promise that they would set up an innovative technologies fund for the Welsh NHS and why they have been so disappointed that Labour have failed to grasp the purpose of that fund. The paper highlights the fact that men in Wales are having to pay £15,000 for state-of-the-art prostate cancer operations that they could get for nothing if they lived in England: Using a da Vinci "robot", it is possible to carry out significantly more precise surgical procedures that remove cancerous cells but make ...
[IMG: "Demsbury" - Bekonscot Model Village and Railway - London - Some rights reserved by bortescristian] On Wednesday, I got back on the last train to Demsbury and was strolling homeward through the icy streets. The town centre is a fairly safe and usually free of drunks and ruffians on a midweek night. I half thought of popping in to the Market Tavern for last orders, but it's Dry January and I was heartily fed up with drinking glasses of orange. A few seconds later he was in front of me, swinging his arms wildly, obstructing my way. He glared ...
One of the first books I read this year was Drew Westen's The Political Brain, which I've found absolutely fascinating. Westen is a clinical psychologist and a supporter of the Democrats in the US, who had been progressively frustrated over a period of years by the party's inability to fight back against the Republican method of doing politics. In The Political Brain, he sets out to examine politics and political communications from a psychological perspective, and to propose ways in which Democrats can fight back. Westen's main hypothesis (as reflected in the book's subtitle) is that emotion is a key ...
Apparently there is a burst pipe in Madingley and Bar Hill and Longstantion (i imagine amongst others) are both without water this morning. Just in case you're trying to get through to Cambridge water ... UPDATE: the situation now seems to have been resolved, at least for residents in Bar Hill. The Cambridge News has the full story;
Judge Dredd comic writers say that he 'could be gay' - PinkNews.co.uk LMAO desperate marketing strategy is desperate. Still, won't stop me buying it. (tags: ) MPs to plan for gay royals marrying same-sex partners and their children becoming king or queen - PinkNews.co.uk (tags: ) 6 Reasons You Should Sleep Naked Linked purely for amusing USian euphemisms for genitals. (tags: ) 'Cool' kids in middle school bully more, psychologists report (tags: ) No Willy No Woman's Hour On how even Woman's Hour replaces female speakers with male ones, even on the topic of women in tech. (tags: ) Holocaust ...
Note from Safer community Partnership St Albans City and District Community Safety Partnership want to hear residents' views on how to make St Albans City and District even safer. We can then make sure that we tackle the most important issues for residents in the year ahead. The Community Safety Partnership includes St Albans City and District Council, the police, the fire service and other agencies. It was set up to help reduce crime and disorder across the District. Each year we consult with local groups and residents on our plans and priorities for the coming year. Residents' feedback is ...
[Originally posted at the Guardian Housing Network, 25/01/13] [IMG: Typical english residential estate] The most striking change in the British housing market over the last decade is the growth of private renting. Last week, Mark Prisk, the housing minister, indicated in the Spectator that further growth is desirable. He wants to make the sector "bigger and better". But alongside growth is an increasing recognition that we cannot talk about a single private rented sector. Private rented housing plays different roles in different local housing markets. Thirty years ago, we thought of private renting as accommodating a few distinct groups: those ...
It was good to hear Green MP Caroline Lucas making the case for land value taxation on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning (at 07:32). A pity it wasn't a Liberal Democrat MP making this case. After all, Liberals have supported this policy for rather a long time.
Southwark's Planning Committee meet this coming Tuesday 29 January to decide on Herne Hill Velodrome's future. Two planning applications. 12-AP-3195 This application is to install track lighting so that cycling can go on into the mid evening. 55 x 5.5 posts holding 150W halide lights. Lots of design effort has gone into avoiding light going anywhere but directly down onto the tracks. The designers state that away from the track it will feel like bright moonlight. 12-AP-3196 This application is to build a 250m flat junior track into the main 400m banked track. Plus a multi use games area - ...
Has a passenger ever landed a plane after the pilot was incapacitated? Kind-of, yes, once or twice. (tags: flying ) Opinion: Cameron is wishing for an EU that already exists "...the speech is either ignorant or disingenuous about the reality of the EU on several counts... Cameron calls for a council of ministers to deal with the Single Market, but ignores the existing Competitiveness Council, which does just this... in terms of flexibility, Britain already has various opt-outs on the euro, border controls, justice, policing and working time rules." (tags: eu ukpolitics ) @Telegraph fakes a plot by the EU ...
Fire in a Fireplace (Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons) The following article is reproduced from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service as advice to home owners with Chimneys and Open Fires; "An open fire in your home is a hazardous area. The variety of fuels that can be burned and the way that sparks and embers can find themselves thrown beyond the hearth means that home owners with open fires need to be especially vigilant. Whatever fuel you burn, it is important that the chimney is kept clean and you do not allow soot or ash to build up. Follow the steps ...
And now for something completely different. (By which I mean; OMG NOT ABOUT RUNNING) Earlier this week I decided that I needed to go to the opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival's Women in Film mini-Festival. Why? Because they were showing the new movie Hannah Arendt. And, because I have a not so slight obsession with Eichmann in Jerusalem left over from grad school. What? Not everyone used a quote from Eichmann as the title of their dissertation? The rest of you aren't enthralled with Arendt's description of the stateless person as "an anomaly for whom there is ...
According to the Western Mail, the Government has backed down on its decision to legally prevent the Church in Wales to make its own mind up as to whether it will conduct gay marriages or not. The paper says that the Church will now be able to overturn the ban on carrying out gay marriage ceremonies without having to bring forward new legislation: The Church in Wales and Church of England were both banned from carrying out the ceremonies under a "quadruple lock" system designed to protect churches from legal challenges if they refused to carry them out. Other religious ...
A new constituent I met yesterday Over the past few days, I've assisted numerous constituents regarding winter maintenance issues. One issue that a number of residents have raised is the priority given to getting pathways and pavements cleared in sheltered housing areas. I feel this should be given priority, having been very concerned during the really bad winter in 2010 of the number of elderly folk who found it really difficult to negotiate snowy and icy paths. Having highlighted the issue with the Roads Maintenance Partnership Manager at Tayside Contracts as a result of queries in the Blackness area earlier ...
The next Bar Hill Community Market takes place one week from today (2nd February). The market is from 10:30am to 2pm and is located in the Octagon next to the Church (a map, courtesy of OpenStreetView.org, is below). Stalls include Fruit and vegetables, Homemade cakes, Jewellery, Cards, Confectionery, Jams, Knitted items, Patchwork, Bags, Wooden crafts, Beauty products as well as stalls raising funds for local projects. There will also be refreshments and, weather permitting, a BBQ. If you wish to be part of this, or future, markets please contact us. Karen Austen 01954 781085 or Sue Gadsby 01954 200875 Please ...
This cash would have allowed Sefton to collect cardboard and plastic for recycling from every house with the green box collection each week. The Council did apply for the money and were all ready to go ahead with the recycling plan, but Eric Pickles turned it down. Instead, the Conservative Minister has supported a very limited scheme to collect plastic and cardboard from just 16,000 houses - all of them in Bootle.
We have been informed that Sefton Council are planning to plant around 15 new trees along Preston New Road. The cost of planting the trees is coming from a small amount of money left over from a fund paid by developers for improvement of the local environment. The planting is due to take place by the end of February.
