Much altered in the 19th and 20th centuries, Normanton's little Georgian church was originally condemned to be drowned when Rutland Water was constructed. The authorities relented and today, with its floor level substantially raised as part of the work to save it from the flood, it is one of the little county's best known landmarks. I was there this afternoon with Disgruntled Radical.
[IMG: job centre plus police] On Thursday I blogged about the weak foundations underpinning some of the Coalition government's policies. On lobbying, on Universal Credit, and on Legal Aid the policy has run into serious trouble. I might return to the lobbying issue again soon, because you could read it in different ways. But that's for another day. Two days ago I wrote: A common thread in all these cases is the apparent lack of sufficient thought at the outset: thought about what the policy is trying to achieve and thought about whether the proposed mechanisms are, even in principle, ...
I always think of the Last Night of the Proms as the official end of summer. A great way to round off a wonderful day visiting Rutland Water with Jonathan Calder and a splendid lunch in Uppingham and... a double rainbow at the Finches at Upper Hambleton.
Sat 7th
22:22
Never Let it be said that I Don't Respond to Complaints! In which I highlight my highlights.
I received a complaint today from a regular reader that although she enjoys my links posts, and often finds interesting things to read in them, because they are so regular it makes it hard for her to find and reread my substantive posts. Now, there are ways to solve this with tags and so on, but as a temporary fix until I decide what I am going to do, I thought the best thing would be to offer her... a links post! So I hereby present a Year in the Life of my blog. Sept 2012 featured a post in ...
Just read tomorrow's Observer about Sarah Teather giving up. Reacted intemperately thus: "So bloody typical of the woman. Who ever said politics was easy ? Buggering off will not help and doing it just before conference is just egotistical and very unhelpful. Too much easy early success. Some of us have been fighting our corner for decades and won't be giving up." If she had a
I could never quite make Sarah Teather out. When I first came across her on the party's federal policy committee she was a Kennedy loyalist, agreeing with the official line on every question. But she later became one of the first MPs to turn against him. Then she became very close to Nick Clegg. At the first hustings of the 2006 leadership campaign Nick would not let Ming Campbell, the candidate he was promoting, out of his sight and Sarah would not let Nick out of hers. Nick Clegg soured the relationship first by sacking her as a minister. Now ...
So we are off to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. Here is the final presentation video. They have a very compact vision for the Games with 85% of all venues being with 8km of the Olympic village located in the old harbour area of Tokyo Bay. Even the sailing will have the novelty of being close to the heart of the Olympics. With cycling taking place within the Imperial Palace Gardens and the 1964 Olympic Stadium being renovated to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup as well as the Opening and Closing ceremonies as well as Track and ...
[IMG: Sarah Teather, MP for Brent Central] Sarah Teather, MP for Brent Central Tomorrow's Observer carries an interview with Sarah Teather in which she says that she will not defend her Brent Central seat in 2015, citing concerns about immigration policy. It says: In a blow to Clegg a week before his party gathers for its annual conference in Glasgow, Teather said his tougher approach to immigration - including a plan for some immigrants to pay a £1,000 deposit when applying for visas - left her feeling so "desolate" and "catastrophically depressed" that she was unable even to confront him ...
The Guardian this week published a feature on how black voters can swing the 2015 general election. The piece, written by Hugh Muir, is sparked by research by Operation Black Vote which I authored. I am [...]
Mallard broke the world speed record for steam locomotives on Stoke Bank, south of Grantham on the King's Cross line, 75 years ago. This weekend she is on display at Grantham station as the centrepiece of an exhibition to mark this anniversary. This video shows Mallard on her way to Grantham and Mallard 75 along with the Deltic Royal Highland Fusilier (55 019), hauled by a modern freight loco. Imagine idling beside the railway and seeing this little lot hammer past.
Today was my first ever visit to the Gorsedh ceremony (born and bred in Cornwall, and still so many things I haven't seen). It was a colourful occasion – held this year in Penryn on the site of the historic Glasney College – celebrating the Cornish culture, language and heritage. There was traditional [...]
And not before time. Bill Walker, who was the MSP for Dunfermline, was convicted sixteen days ago on 23 counts of domestic violence over nearly three decades. That it has taken him so long to finally tender his resignation is not altogether surprising. Like many bullies, Walker has consistently presented as arrogant with a disregard and blatant disrespect for the concerns of others. He is not stepping down as "the decent thing"; rather the bully himself has now apparently been bullied into taking the only logical course of action available to him. Defiant and deluded until the end, Walker predictable ...
Labour have responded to a study by Operation Black Vote into the Power of the Black Vote by selecting a new cohort of black and Asian candidates in marginal seats where the BAME electorate is [...]
Visits to the UK by the legendary civil rights leader Rev'd Jesse Jackson are always inspiring and this year was no exception. I saw him on Thursday at a large community event at the Bernie [...]
Wales Online wins our Headline of the Day Award. Thanks to Nick Davies on Twitter.
WATCH THIS SPACE TOKYO Voting is about to get under way. After a tie in round one Istanbul secured 48 to 46 by Madrid to proceed to the final round against Tokyo. The votes have been counted and we are now just awaiting the official announcement on the hour.
16 days after his conviction for 23 charges of domestic violence against 3 former wives over a 28 year period, Dunfermline MSP has resigned his seat in Holyrood. Typically, he blamed the media pressure rather than his own actions. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: Good Bill Walker should have understood immediately the gravity of his situation but it has taken sixteen days for the penny to drop. It is sad that he continues to blame others instead of taking responsibility himself for his own actions. It would have been wrong for someone convicted of so many counts of ...
The Independent reports: [IMG: Angela Merkel. Photo courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AM_Juli_2010_-_3zu4.jpg Some rights reserved] An augmented reality app that appears to make outdoor billboard posters speak directly to voters has been launched by Angela Merkel's campaign team. The state-of-the-art app recognises the German Chancellor through a camera when pointed at large campaign posters of her face. A video then plays with Merkel appearing as a pop-up talking head on the camera screen. It's certainly a cute use of technology to garner media coverage. I'm rather less convinced by its direct stated purpose. How often do members of the public look at ...
Boris Johnson: The Mayor of London, Old Oak Vision Consultation, Greater London Authority, City Hall, The Queens Walk, London SE1 2AA. Thursday 5th September 2013 Dear Mr Johnson, OLD OAK VISION CONSULTATION I object strongly to the proposed [...]
To me what is interesting about This report by the BBC about the withdrawal of allegations about Labour Party activities in Falkirk is that the current MP Eric Joyce said: "As happens in Sicily from time to time a number of people seem to have withdrawn their evidence and said they never had a complaint in the first place. It comes across as something much more murky than it started out as.
Yesterday's Guardian makes a big thing over fairly cautious comments by Tim Farron about party funding in the wake of John Denham's call for state funding of political parties and a £5000 donation cap. Senior Liberal Democrats are pressing Nick Clegg to reopen talks withLabour on the funding of political parties after Ed Miliband's chief negotiator in cross-party talks called for a radical rethink on large scale donations. They believe that statements by John Denham MP, in which he said Labour could consider imposing a £5,000 cap on donations to political parties and raising state funding, indicate there could be ...
Citizens of other European countries who come to live in England are often perplexed by the hysterically anti-EU tone of much of the tabloid Press. It's been going on for years and continues unabated, lately supplemented by the propaganda drive for a "Brexit": leaving the European Union as a result of what proponents hope would [...]
For decades in the UK, successive Governments have failed to back light rail schemes when local authorities have proposed them as solutions to their local transport needs. As a [...]
Liberal Democrats head to the beautiful city of York next March for Spring Conference. Recently, our Council Group leader there set out a strong case for the Council to make the city the greenest in England. Writing for local website YorkMix, Cllr Keith Aspden said: I recently asked City of York Council to back an ambitious vision to make York the greenest city in the North of England. A city with the highest recycling rates amongst comparable councils. A city with a food waste recycling scheme in place. A city which is seriously and ambitiously looking at renewable energy and ...
A week today, I'll be in Glasgow for the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference. Prior to that, though, I'll be in Fort William on Friday. Well, I say in Fort William... I mean on Ben Nevis - the peak of which is highlighted in white* in the picture above, taken back in March. The aim of the climb - dubbed "Lib Dem Nevis" and being undertaken by me and a number of other Lib Dems - was originally two-fold: to raise awareness of the issues surrounding paying interns and to raise funds towards a bursary that would help fund a paid ...
OK, the new lobbying bill is almost certainly wrongheaded, from what I can tell — but even more wrongheaded has been some of the reaction to it. You expect hysterical fact-free scaremongering from 38Degrees — that's what they do, the whole purpose of their existence is to be wrong about everything and make things worse [...]
[IMG: A gnome on a 'phone] As seen on a bench in Lee, Devon. I'm not sure where he managed to get a signal from however.
The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are only a week away. At 10 pm on Saturday 14 September, in Castle 2 of the Crowne Plaza, with cash bar on hand, and an imaginative dress code, the best in blogging, campaigning, social media and politics in general will be feted in a ceremony filled with razzmatazz, glitz and glamour. In years past, all the shortlists have been released at once. That's because the Divine Ms Duffett is kind to you. I on the other hand, am happy to mess with your heads a bit more. So, in the style of the announcement ...
Nick Clegg has taken the unusual step of deciding to sum up in the debate on the economy motion at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow next week, in which he will attempt to convince the party and country that the coalition's economic policy has been a howling success and needs only minor tweaks. Or not as the case may be. But who will draw the short straw of having to propose this nonsense? Liberator's bookmakers suggest the following: Duncan Hames: 2-1. Wide-eyed young colt, keen to impress. But he is Clegg's PPS, so may not get a choice.Stephen Gilbert: ...
In January 2013 there were 435 commercial reactors in the world operating in 30 countries supplying 13% of total global electricity. This note is an abbreviated version of Understanding Nuclear Energy. It covers the history; attempts to put the safety concerns into context; and argues that nuclear can play an important part of the UK's intention to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.ALDNuclearPower913
More than 100 Lib Dem Conference representatives have signed up to support amendments on the economy moved by SLF. As a show of support for a statement Party policy as opposed to opposition to a Government action, this is...Read more ›
As the moon circles the Earth and the Earth circles the sun, the gravitational attractions pull the Earth's water across oceans where it can be funnelled and elevated up estuaries such as the Severn and also accelerated around headlands and narrows. This moving water has energy which can be exploited. This note reviews progress in the most promising of the marine technologies. ALDTidal913
I've ranted before on here about my dislike for self checkout machines in shops. But when I went on holiday to Canada a few weeks ago I noticed another form of these sort of machines and there was a telling twist. We flew from Terminal 5 at Heathrow which I guess is the most modern of them having been built only a few years back. We were checking in at the BA counters. Well I say counters but that is where the computer side of it kicked in. Because we were not allowed to check in at the actual desks, ...
As a feminist, I support the selective abortion of girl babies.
http://t.co/7oM1sr6keO UKIP candidate "I only forged signatures because people are disengaged." Not the best argument... via @demsoc (tags: (from twitter) ) How not to be a head teacher: http://t.co/jtg0qGEelg (tags: (from twitter) ) posted The Blood is The Life 06-09-2013 http://t.co/9oNfjg8X8L on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) today's xkcd really made me laugh (tags: ) What's it like to eat nothing by Soylent for a week? cannibals! (tags: ) Tone policing: a tool for protecting male power (tags: ) Does pressing the button on the pedestrian crossing actually do anything The ones in Bradford drive me ...
It is a truism that, when running a collaborative, interactive website such as Liberal Democrat Voice, you are bound to upset someone at some point. After all, you're dealing with people who have views, often rather firmly held ones. Passions run high, articles are published which generate, how shall I put it, a less than entirely supportive response. At the moment, Liberal Democrat Voice relies on the integrity of its authors and other participants, backed up by a published, signposted comments policy, to ensure that abuse is kept to a minimum, in the hope that this will encourage participation by ...
[IMG: reflections of sydney] This tweet from Kevin Rudd caught my attention: In 2010 about 1 million Australians didn't vote. If you aren't voting, tweet me why & I will try to convince you to vote & vote Labor. KRudd — Kevin Rudd (@KRuddMP) September 7, 2013 A quick google found a report on InsideStory on the 2010 general election which revealed that almost 3,252,000 eligible Australians didn't cast a valid vote. ...an estimated 21 per cent of eligible adults, or over one-in-five, didn't fill in a ballot paper that could be entered into the count. This includes people who ...
"Nothing was ever promised me that was not given; nothing ever threatened me that was not inflicted." So said the great art critic John Ruskin about his own dysfunctional upbringing. There are people who think diplomacy must be conducted. Among them is Henry Kissinger. More about him in a minute. But I find myself increasingly irritated with the true believers on both sides of the Syria debate. I particularly find the smug pronouncements, usually on the left, that - because Winston Churchill used chemical weapons against the Soviets in 1919, or because the Americans held back from punishing Iraq for ...
The Independent reports that the reinstatement of two Labour Party members following allegations of vote-rigging by the Unite union in a parliamentary selection contest in Falkirk has forced Ed Miliband to make an embarrassing retreat. They say claims that union members were signed up in the Scottish constituency without their knowledge in order to support Unite's favoured candidate, Karie Murphy, have been withdrawn after complainants changed their evidence: In a major climbdown by Labour, Ms Murphy was allowed back into the party last night, along with Stevie Deans, chairman of the local party in Falkirk and Unite in Scotland. They ...
[IMG: Lynne Reatherstone FGM] Conference Committee is meeting today to discuss amendments to be taken at the Glasgow conference. An amendment to the motion on Domestic and Sexual violence concerns Female Genital Mutilation. Yesterday international development undersecretary Lynne Featherstone told the Guardian that ending female genital mutilation is a priority for the British government. She said that Africa's success in outlawing the centuries-old practice means the world now has the opportunity of a lifetime to consign it to history within a generation. Click here for the video. Also yesterday, the Evening Standard reported on FGM in the capital: More than ...
The BBC reports the views of Powys GP Dr James Wrench, who leads the South Wales Cardiac Network that patients are dying waiting for heart surgery in Wales. He points out that those who need operations are supposed to be treated within 26 weeks but some cannot wait that long and are going private while others are being treated in England instead: The University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and Morriston Hospital in Swansea are the two centres in Wales where heart patients who need specialist treatment and cardiac surgery are referred. But they are struggling to cope with the ...
Oh dear. It's a verb, so it should be 'practise'. We need to bring back subeditors, but at least we know why the teacher prefers to remain secret.
Photopolis is a major photographic resource in Dundee City Council's ownership that I have, with the permission of the Leisure & Communities Department, featured photographs from in the past. I'm now featuring some more West End historic photographs over the next few days:This undated photograph shows the north side of Perth Road, Dundee, looking west and left from the south end of Springfield. The hairdressing and shampooing rooms at No. 37 belonged to John Fisher & Son, listed as 'hairdresser and perfumer' specialising in ornamental hair. He lived at No. 56 Magdalen Yard Road. No. 41 was William Moffatt, bookseller, ...
I should probably declare a moratorium on further posts about suicide lest this blog becomes too morbid. However, this Freakeconomics podcast has too many noteworthy facts to not get a mention. It leads with the paradox that we have already noted that while suicides are considerably more common than homicides, they receive much less attention. [...]
BBC Radio 6 are apparently running a competition to find songs that mention Scottish football teams - so here's my contribution. The Proclaimers 'Joyful Kilmarnock Blues' which gives you two for the price of one...
