First Bus say: Due to the closure of Wickwar Road in Chipping Sodbury service 342 and X42 will terminate at the end of St Johns Way and will operate back down St Johns Way instead of Broad Street and Horse Street.As a result we will not be able to serve the bus stops on Wickwar Road, Broad Street or Horse Street.
The railways of the region seen in 1962.
[IMG: shutterstock_151488752] Confused yet? The popular browser extension AdBlock for Chrome/Chromium and Safari has launched a new crowdsourced campaign - to buy up internet advertising space inviting people to download AdBlock, so they can block ads. Additionally, if they raise enough, they'd like to get additional space for a billboard at Times Square, a full page spread in the New York Times, and even a TV slot at the Superbowl (although the target for this is $4.2M, so I'm not entirely confident they'll make it.) However, this does raise an interesting question, which has been under debate for some time. ...
Miley Cyrus' performance at the recent MTV awards has been criticised because of its suggestive nature. The Sun, a major British newspaper had this to say: Miley's Performance may well go down in history as the moment pop became too ... Continue reading →
By Jack Satterthwaite Mr Gove's position on education has never been something that has made me very happy with the government. Today has added another level to my, and every other GCSE student's anguish. For the second year running the amount of students getting higher grades has dropped. I can't help but wonder [...]
In the post below I was critical of the Labour party and it's lack of........well anything. It was not another 'Ed's rubbish' post, but just highlighting that as of right now we don't whether Ed's Labour is New Labourish (right of centre) or traditional Labour (left of centre) or is it still an authoritarian party with all its ID card, DNA storing, children's database and anti terror law
On 22 June 2013 The New York Review held a free conference at Wadham College, Oxford, to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary and to honour the lives, work, and legacy of Isaiah Berlin, Stuart Hampshire and Bernard Williams. Co-sponsored by The New York Review of Books Foundation, Fritt Ord, All Souls College, The Europaeum, Wadham College and Wolfson College, the event included remarks by Avishai Margalit, Alan Ryan, Mary Warnock, John Gray, Helena Kennedy, Mark Lilla, Naomi Eilan, Edward Skidelsky, Jerome Bruner, Samuel Scheffler, Jeremy Waldron, Timothy Garton Ash, and Marc Stears. The sessions were chaired by Robert Silvers, John Vickers, ...
Would you like to gain a qualification?improve your job skills?help your children's learning?South Gloucestershire Community Learning are offering courses in English and Maths to Level 1 and 2 (Level 2 is equivalent to GCSE at A-C grade) If English is not your first language, there are also short ESOL courses for people who need to improve their language skills for life in the community or for job seeking and work. There are also IT courses that concentrate on building people's skills for the workplace and help them to search and apply for jobs online. Other courses cover CV writing and ...
Cllr Jean Swanson (LD, Queen Ediths) The following text came from Cambridge's twinned City, Heidelberg. If you wish to sign the petition, before 9 September, the link is at the end. Select the Union Jack for the English version. Water is a public good, not a commodity. We invite the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. The EU legislation should require governments to ensure and to provide all citizens with sufficient and clean ...
I have written before about Dennis O'Neill, a boy whose death scandalised the country in 1945. He was starved and beaten to death by the couple with whom he and his brother had been placed after being taken into public care. One reason that their suffering was not identified was that the O'Neill brothers had been taken into care by Newport council in South Wales and placed with a couple in Shropshire. And Shropshire County Council did not seem to have much concern for the welfare of children for whom another authority was responsible. You might have hoped that things ...
As residents are aware the work on Paradise Nature Reserve will start at the end of September. Ward Councillors thought it would be useful for residents to see the proposals that will be undertaken as part of the scheme (see here). The work will take up to ten weeks and will involve the closure of Driftway, Lammas Land car park and the recycling centre located in Lammas Land Car Park. An alternative route for cyclists and pedestrians will be established via Lammas Land. Original article available here.
Last week we identified a total of 46 schools which, in their sex and relationships education policies, still either replicated the controversial section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which forbade local authorities from promoting homosexuality in schools, or stated that the law (which was repealed in 2003) is still in force. Section 28 stated that a local authority 'shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality' or 'promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. In practice, the effect of this meant that ...
Cllr Susan van de Ven A community liaison group in Meldreth has been set up to help local businesses and residents work together to discuss and resolve any issues around commercial activities in the station area. At a public meeting on Thursday (22 August) to discuss noise generated from Eden Farm Ltd's food distribution centre in Station Yard, company bosses, South Cambridgeshire District Council representatives, local councillors and residents agreed to set up the regular forum. The forum is expected to help the parties discuss planning and environmental health issues - especially noise and traffic - and agree voluntary action ...
Mr Tumble, Postman Pat and Bob the Builder have been called into action to help people visiting South Cambridgeshire District Council's offices. Children's TV is one of the features available on four new kiosks in the Council's Cambourne offices which have been installed so residents have more access to online services. Just days after the self service kiosks were installed and the first users have praised the new system which is helping them apply for housing, pay bills and keep children entertained while speaking to Council staff. The kiosks are part of the Council's plans to improve the service it ...
Nick Clegg says, "We will not stand idly by when chemical weapons are used in complete breach of international law". It's a good point – respect for international law means not just following it yourself, it also means enforcing it when others break it.
Tue 27th
19:15
Nick Clegg on Syria: Government "is not going to act outside the remit of international law"
Here's Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg commenting on the Government's actions on Syria:
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 340th 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 (18-24 August, 2013), 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. Has Nick Clegg ...
Liberal Democrat conference goers are shaping up to a confrontation in three weeks' time over economic policy. On the one hand the leadership wants to defend the current coalition government's record; on the other many activists feel that this policy has been a dismal failure. This confrontation has been brewing for some years. It reflects a wider controversy in the country at large, though one senses that most people are now moving on. In this argument it does not usually take long before the government's critics refer to the experience of the 1930s recession, or Depression, to back up their ...
[IMG: liberaldemocratsdogod] Mainstream Christianity often does battle with mainstream liberal values, be that over women in the church, LGBT rights or contraception and abortion. So when I learned that there was a Liberal Democrat Christian Forum and they'd embarked on a new publication entitled "Liberal Democrats do God" my interest was piqued. At £6.67 on Amazon, I was somewhat surprised when it arrived at its rather lightweight look and feel. At just 70-80 pages, this is no War and Peace. My first impression of the book upon opening was the number of high profile writers from Tim Farron, Duncan Hames, ...
A few months ago Liberal Democrats celebrated a landmark achievement for equalities, with the passage of the Same Sex Marriage Act. Starting with a motion three years ago at our conference, introduced and championed by Lynne Featherstone as Equalities Minister,...Read more ›
[IMG: defence] The Liberal Democrat Working Group on Defence came out last month with its policy paper "Defending the Future: UK Defence in the 21st Century". Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrats made a detailed submission - praised by members of the working group – which also shows some alternative paths for the party's defence policy. We suggest it is well worth a read before the party's new defence policy motion comes up for debate at this Autumn's party conference. The Brussels and Europe Liberal Democrats' paper calls for a more thought-through, long-term and realistic strategic approach by the Government, including ...
Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Council have welcomed the news that over 500 jobs were created in the sub region in July 2013.Lib Dems are particularly pleased that most of the new jobs are in engineering, technology and manufacturing, including a forecast of 40 new posts with CPI in Redcar.Also welcome is the news that unemployment in the area fell during July and is now at its lowest rate since autumn 2011.Lib Dem Council Group Leader Glyn Nightingale said:"This is excellent news and shows that the similarly good figures for April, May and June were no flash in the ...
I've just discovered the amazing 3D Fossils site of the British Geological Survey. The GB3D Type Fossils Online project, funded by JISC, aims to develop a single database of the type specimens, held in British collections, of macrofossil species and subspecies found in the UK, including links to photographs (including 'anaglyph' stereo pairs) and a selection of 3D digital models. What that means is that they have thousands of British fossils available as freely downloadable 3D models! Even better, all the models are Creative Commons (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3). So, I decided to experiment with printing out a Fossil on the 3D ...
Several planning applications have been submitted for the site of the old Wapley Court Elderly Persons Home, in Kelston Close - the other side of the Rodford Way dual carriageway from Abbotswood shops. Originally there was one planning application for the demolition and for a mixture of flats and houses. This was then withdrawn, and a "prior notice of demolition" was submitted instead. We anticipate that another housing application will be submitted in due course. Dodington Parish Council objected to the first application, which was for 16 houses and a block of 9 flats. Kelston Close is the access road ...
At the moment the yield on the UK's five year government gilts is 1.65%. What this means in plain English is that if our government wanted to borrow £1,000 it would have to pay back £1,083 in five years. In contrast, if you or I or a business went to the bank and ask to borrow the same amount for five years we'd be looking at paying back well over £1,500 by the end of the loan. What this tells us is that our government can borrow money very, very cheaply. It can borrow it at less than the rate ...
I don't have a lot of time for Jamie Oliver. I don't like his shrill moralising and the way he is feeding into the zeitgeist of demonising poor and working class communities. (What they eat and drink, who they sleep with, how they pass their spare time is all fair game for middle class lovvies) Even when he is right (after all, even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day) he can't help but couch it in terms that demonise the less well off. Which brings me to this piece in the Guardian. Apparently he "doesn't understand ...
From the Shropshire Star: A large black panther-like creature has made a reappearance in Shropshire. Jack Humphrey, 20, was driving home from work at the William Withering pub in Wellington in the early hours when he says the creature leapt in front of his car. He said: "I was driving past the new houses in Trench Lock, where the roofing centre is, when it ran across the road. It was huge. "It must have been three times the size of a fox and it was jet black. "Its tail was thin and long, it was definitely a panther."
Tuesday: One day, I would hope, people will stop thinking that the solution to a problem is to throw ordinance at it. But apparently that's not today. No, today we are talking about curing cows by shooting badgers and curing a civil war by lobbing bombs into Syria. Since being dead means they don't have TB any more this is supposed to be "better for the badgers too"; presumably Lord Blairimort - hmm, "TB" - will pop up shortly to make the same argument about Syrians. In either case, we're in danger of making the cure worse than the disease. ...
I am always keen to read about new schemes intended to solve the problem of trouble on city centre streets at the end of nights. It is a problem which [...]
I am really struggling with the question of what to do in Syria. On one hand, you have an evil and brutal regime who has no problem with gassing its own people. It didn't just get evil after the Arab spring, though. It's Amnesty report from 2007 tells of torture, imprisonment on political grounds and other human rights abuses. There is no doubt that repression has gone off the scale in the last two years, though, from the murder and destruction in Homs to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime last week. As well as the ...
Don't forget Faith, Pride, and Chat, our informal social evening, is taking place on Friday, 30 July at 7 p.m in St George's Church on High Street. More detail....
During the week I got a message from The Gathering, a gay men's spiritual group. The Gathering was formed in 2005 and since this time we have contributed widely to the LGBT Community and in particular the faith and spiritual aspects of the Community. Since The Gathering formed, the range of opportunities for gay Christians to [...]
I wasn't going to blog about this, because "man wants to generate publicity for his TV programme" is not news, but honestly, the naked bigotry on display by Jamie Oliver today takes some beating. So I'm going to go through a few of his "points" and try to explain why he needs to pull his head out of his arse. Why can poor people afford big TVs but not good food? A TV is something you purchase once. Food is something you purchase every day. Perhaps the people with the big telly had a reasonable income until recently, maybe someone ...
[IMG: House of Lords. Photo: Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament] Tim Farron, our Party President has long championed concerns about how democratic the Lib Dems really are and how can we do better. Federal Executive has now set up the Democratic Reform Group which I chair. Our first task has been to take a hard look at the Interim Peers List and we have published a consultation paper on this together with organising a meeting at Glasgow to consult members about improvements to the process. The Interim Peers list is an group of people elected ...
The American healthcare system is – to use public policy jargon – a mess. Such a mess in fact that this supposedly free market system costs taxpayers more than Britain's uber-statist model. The World Bank estimates that the US spends 8.2% of its GDP on public healthcare, while in the UK the figure is 7.7%. This [...]
Britain's armed forces are preparing themselves for an armed strike against Syria, following the recent use of chemical weapons inside the country, probably by the Assad regime's forces. As I said in a live interview on the al-Etejah (Iraqi Arab) TV channel last night, the justification for the UK, US, France and maybe Germany taking [...]
I've been away for the weekend and was astonished to discover myself quoted in Folklore magazine about the strange disappearance of the Fairy Investigation Society. Folklore is the academic journal attached to the Folklore Society and the article is by the historian Simon Young, who has carried out the most amazing detective work about the peculiar and, ultimately, underground organisation. A naval officer and telecoms inventor called Quentin Crauford founded the Society around 1927, designed to promote serious study. Over the years, it managed to attract a number of prominent supporters, including Walt Disney and the Battle of Britain supremo ...
It has finally happened. When we recieved confirmation a year ago we have patiently been pressing Transport for London and the Mayor of London to get a move on! A lot of hard work took place since the campaign was taken up by the Southfield Liberal Democrats but here is a "how to" guide so you can get to the consultation and know what the key questions are. Questions 1 to 6 - these are to ask for your current use of the transport system include the tubeQuestion 7 - a key question asking "Would you like the Piccadilly line ...
The Western Mail reports that the Institute of Directors (IoD) has joined those calling for high-speed rail project HS2 to be scrapped, branding the £50bn scheme "a grand folly": Robert Lloyd Griffiths, director of the Institute of Directors in Wales said if the rail project vastly exceeded its budget it "would not send the right message" to businesses across the UK. The results of a survey of IoD members released today found just 27% feel HS2 represents good value for money and 70% say the scheme will have no impact on the productivity of their business. The survey also showed ...
[IMG: nuclear-power-station] Liberal Democrats should vote to support nuclear power at the 2013 conference. I say this after 20 years campaigning against nuclear power, including five years as head of Greenpeace UK. Nuclear is not perfect. But it is better than fossil fuels. The best form of energy is energy efficiency. Next best are renewables. But however efficient we get, and however fast we expand wind, it will take many decades before we can be entirely reliant on renewables. Denmark has set itself a target of 2050 for this. The EU has a target of 20% by 2020. If the ...
Yesterday was as wonderful as it's possible for a day to be. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot, as our Silver Wedding day journey took us from the heart of vegetarian Edinburgh, to revisiting the scene of the wedding reception in South Queensferry to Carnivore Central, otherwise known as the Champany Inn near Linlithgow. We had thought we might take in a show on the last day of the Festival, but neither of us wanted to be inside on what might be the last scorcher of the year. We did, however, stop off at the scene of our first ...
posted The Blood is The Life 26-08-2013 http://t.co/3kXPpTgKwS on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) "@Broomrider295: RT"@DrBrianMay's petition against the cull has over 265,000 signatures http://t.co/yjI6Te4Lr8 Please keep sharing"" (tags: (from twitter) ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Here they are: You can download this document here (PDF, 1.53MB) You can download this document here (PDF, 6.32MB) You can download this document here (PDF, 754KB) The next edition of my monthly Liberal Democrat Newswire, out later this week, looks at party conference in more detail. Sign up here to make sure you don't miss out on it.
On Politics Home, Paul Waugh refers to an interview with the Liberal Democrats MP for Cardiff Central and party whip, Jenny Willott in which she recounts her experience as a new mother in the House of Commons. The Ad Lib magazine article to which he refers suggests that the Liberal Democrats Chief Whip, Alistair Carmichael may be a bit more hands-on than previously thought: "When Toby was six months old, Carmichael was looking after him in the Whips' Office while Willott was in the House of Commons chamber. Carmichael was halfway through changing the baby's nappy when the Permanent Secretary ...
If recent news reports are to be believed, we are now edging closer and closer some form of military conflict with Syria. It is a fast moving situation; indeed, one that could escalate drastically within a matter of days. But with MPs on their summer holidays, there has been a worrying lack of proper debate about the issue. A few months ago, an 87-year-old woman died and Parliament was recalled so that people could talk about it, at no small expense to the taxpayer. I have no wish to go through that particular debate again, but it is difficult to ...
Yesterday, along with representatives of the Friends of Balgay, two of my ward colleagues and a City Council Environment Department officer, I attended the latest Balgay Stakeholders' Group meeting that took place in the pavilion at Lochee Park. This group discusses projects and issues at Balgay Park, the Hill, Cemetery and Victoria Park and we had a very productive discussion on a number of issues including repairing the wall damage at the Jewish Section of Balgay Cemetery, proposals to replace the goalposts in Lochee Park and repairing damage to the hedging at the Victoria Park Bowling Green. There was excellent ...
[IMG: Q&Cfrontcover] In the Name Of... from innerbrat on 8tracks Radio. 1. Rule Britannia - the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves Britons never never never shall be slaves 2. Killing in the Name – Rage Against the Machine Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites 3. Blood on My Hands – Keren Ann I was the darling no one could defeat Grand hotel suites were my home Men at my feet, limousines in the street First class ...
