They do things differently there. So wrote A.P. Hartley in the opening lines of The Go-Between. But when we see photos of the past in colour, it helps bridge the gap of otherness that separates us from the world before 1960. I love old photographs nearly as much as flags and maps, and have seen some collections of coloured (colourized?) black-and-white photos before, but another popped up
In a brilliant post, David Boyle lists the ten most disastrous decisions by UK governments since 1945: "5. The Iraq War (2003): A flawed project, paid for largely by the Chinese, which resulted in a million dead in Iraq alone and seemed to reveal the western powers as powerless and duplicitous." Andrew Page selects 50 Lib Dems you must follow on Twitter. Five Leaves Bookshop is coming to Nottingham, reports Strange Alliances. Talking through my fingers looks at the history of telephone use and public health in Britain. "I felt like we were intruding on Mr C. As if we'd ...
Prospective Candidate: Bryony Davies.
It's Our County seat. Resignation. Prospective Candidate: Duncan Charles Fraser Returning officer: Herefordshire
Lab seat. Resignation Prospective Candidate: Julie Grant
Lab seat. Death. Prospective Candidate: David English.
Lab seat. Resignation.
Lab seat. Resignation.
Lab seat. Resignation.
Labour seat. Death. Prospective Candidate: Andrew Crick
The Shropshire Star reports: Members of Longden Parish Council voted unanimously last night to reject plans submitted to Shropshire Council ... to demolish Spring Cottage. The home was built by Mary Webb and her husband Henry in 1926. But under submitted plans, it would be replaced with a six-bedroom home, housing a swimming pool, studio, cinema and orangery. Residents last night attended the meeting, held at Longden Village Hall, to voice their concerns over the plans.But the parish council is not the planning authority, so the battle is not won yet. The Star goes on to say that plans to ...
Earlier today at the Dundee Federation of Tenants' Association's offices in the city centre, I took part in the latest meeting of the Anti-social Behaviour Strategic Development Group. The group hears updates on the work of the Anti-Social Behaviour Team, the Housing Support Team, Community Mediation and the Dundee Families Project and discusses current issues. It was a hugely positive meeting and good to hear of the work of the teams concerned. The Anti-Social Behaviour Team has helped a number of West End constituents and you can find out more about the team's work here.
[IMG: GCHQ Building at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire] The police had received a request from the security services to make the stop seem as routine as possible Jason Beer QC at the hearing into the detention of David Miranda. Well, that went well, didn't it? photo by: Defence Images [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Kinsgway Sports Club generally does a fantastic job, with hundreds enjoying playing cricket, lacrosse, tennis and bowls. But over the last few months we've had a number of complaints about noise – particularly from late-night events with a marquee where loud music has carried, in at least one case, right across Gatley! We pressed the Council's environmental health team to act. They contacted the club and spoke with the secretary. The Environmental Health Officer arranged to visit and set the levels for the music through a noise limiter. This was all completed a few weeks ago and in addition they ...
Great to see the Christmas trees at Seabraes (see above) and West Port are now in place!
I just posted the following on the Lib Dem voice thread that can be found here, and it was deleted by moderator Andy Boddington, who has also banned me from commenting on the site, because "there must be a bingo card for this somewhere, and I suspect you'd have got a full house by now" [...]
The Lib Dems had a decent result in last week's only by-election with the party leaping from fourth to second in Newport's Pillgwenlly ward. But this week the party is facing a much bigger challenge with another bumper crop of ten by-elections. Seven of the ten are in the north and midlands which might explain why there are no Lib Dem defences among them. In a continuation of a very positive recent trend the Lib Dems are again standing more candidates than UKIP with eight candidates to the kipper's seven. The interesting contests this week should be in the London ...
I'm not sure whether it is their internal polling, but the Conservatives seem to have decided to become a bit worried about Cornwall. Today saw a media blitz on our area with David Cameron conducting a range of interviews with local journalists and former Deputy Prime Minister Lord (Michael) Heseltine visiting Falmouth. The Prime Minister got a grilling from Laurence Reed at lunchtime during which he tried to claim that Cornwall was not being hard done by in terms of government funding. He used the term 'spending power' a lot. This is a formula which virtually nobody understands and the ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton, together with FOCUS Editor Jo Barton, are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 9th November, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at Cafe Moo Moo on ...
This afternoon I joined some of my cabinet colleagues on a tour of the Ginsters factory in Callington. We all know that Ginsters pasties aren't the same as those our mum makes or our favourite high street bakery (for me it's Barnecutts). But there is a heck of a lot to be proud of about the brand and their products. Ginsters is a nationally known brand, one of the few we have in Cornwall, employing over 800 people at their Callington factory. When you add in the sister companies of Tamar Foods (also in Callington) and Kensey Foods in Launceston, ...
Thu 7th
18:47
SNP Councillor calls Alistair Carmichael a "supposed Scot" as furious debate over shipyards continue...
It's been a fairly depressing couple of days for anyone watching the independence referendum campaign north of the border. Both sides would do well to remember that people are losing their jobs in Portsmouth, Glasgow and Rosyth after the BAE Systems announcement yesterday. It would have been appropriate, I think, for the main focus to have been on support for the people who were going to be out of work, but, no. Sadly and predictably, there's been a big row about what would happen if Scotland votes for independence next year. It stands to reason that if Scotland votes to ...
Page 8 of today's Barnet Press includes a round-up of comments made by readers on the paper's website, one of which (attributed to "Matthew Harris") is: "Brian (Coleman) really must try harder to overcome the temptation to behave like Hyacinth Bucket." In the microverse that is Barnet and its local politics (a microverse in which, as one colleague used often to reiterate, "No-one knows who any of us are"), there might be someone who thinks that I made this comment - I didn't, and nor would I ever say anything like that about Cllr Coleman or anybody else. The comment ...
482 Wilbraham Road Last month I blogged about an application by Ladbrokes to convert 482 Wilbraham Road into a betting shop. Residents raised concerns with me about this application. This is the response I sent to the Licensing Department: "I am writing to object to the above application from Ladbrokes for a new betting shop located in premises at 482 Wilbraham Rd. If granted, this would be the sixth betting shop in Chorlton. This is far more than is required in one district and would be detrimental to Chorlton's reputation as an area of high quality independent shops. An additional ...
I have seen this campaign referred to in very sniffy and dismissive terms by various MSM outlets. And yet, over the last few days the number of friends and lovers I have spoken to with totally unjustified anxieties over their physical appearance has gone far beyond what I am comfortable with. Let me give you a flavour:"Who's going to fancy a fat balding little hobbit like me?" - this guy has a beautiful expressive face, and his smile lights up a room like a sunrise. "I did it with [new boyfriend] with the lights on! And SOBER!" - a girl ...
On July 20th 2012, a young man walked into a midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado. He released tear gas and open fire on the audience. 12 people died and 70 were injured. This grissly confluence of Batman and firearms led New Yorker journalist Jill Lepore to explore [...]
To me the thing that is clear is that the council does not seem to care about the impact on Omar of their legal threats. I am trying to get the council to respond sensibly, but they don't seem able to.
[IMG: Summer Sanders] IfOnly is a website that lets anyone (well, anyone with enough cash) buy celeb activity direct - e.g. if you've got $80 to spare and you know who Summer Sanders is* you can pay her to send a personalised tweet to someone you know. (You can of course also do this if you don't know who she is, but even by the standards of paying strangers money online to do stuff, that would be weird.) If you're tempted, click here and spend away. There's also plenty of more traditional celeb activity available via the site, such as ...
This is not, however, the end of the process to get Stechford Railway Station's access issues resolved. It is, however, an important first step.
Nick Clegg made an important speech to the Green Alliance this morning, making the case that what seemed like a cross-party consensus on the issue of climate change has now crumbled, leaving the Liberal Democrats as the only major party still committed to preventing the catastrophic warming of the planet: Labour have undermined what was their one and only green pledge - a decarbonisation target - with a policy that would damage the very industry needed to deliver it. They're abandoning the environment to score a few populist points. It's utterly Janus-faced. Senior members of the Conservative party now openly ...
I see in the UK that the arch-inquisitor of Politicians, Jeremy Paxman, has said that he too is rather disillusioned with British Politics. Paxman treats politicians as self serving creeps who are only in it for themselves. His view seems to be that if they are not actually criminals, they are fools. Paxman is paid a £1,000,000, plus generous expenses, a year- a back bench MP earns £66,396 a year and has to account for every penny of their expenses, from which they are also expected to employ several staff. The fact is it is not politics or politicians we ...
John Hemming, the Lib Dem MP for Birmingham Yardley, has put down an early day motion on the imprisonment of Stuart Syvret. You can read early day motion 685 on the Parliament website and you might like to encourage your MP to sign it.
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... We could all stock up on cup noodles and corned beef and join Russell Brand's revolution... if it wasn't for the man himself – Comment – Voices – The Independent Best take down yet of Russell Brand's vacuous revolution talk http://ind.pn/1hk8JIw by @gracedent first ever televised prime ministers questions – YouTube 1st ever televised PMQs. Maggie sitting next to Alan Clark. Tim Yeo asks 1st Q. http://bit.ly/1fjoOtD (Overall much less stage-managed)
Thursday: Age: 1999 Stories: 1 Awesomeness: Killed the Doctor Cuddles: Snogged the Doctor. And the Master. AKA: Perfection, Captain Ruth Matheson, Melora Pazlar, divine Daphne Ashbrooke
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has attacked Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman for making his money from politics, and sneering at politicians. Politicians have longed to get the hit back at Paxman, and today Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg landed his punch. He told LBC: "Of course it is sometime unedifying but this idea that you can [...]
One of the things I love most about being a parent is being asked questions that make me think about the world in a new way. Why, my toddler daughter wants to know, don't we have dessert after breakfast? And why there is a moon? And where the people we can see from the bus window are going? In my household we call in 'Whying'. I am quite convincing on the first of these questions, and can make a stab at the second. And for the third, about the people on the bus, I make up answers and that does ...
I was at a funeral the other day. A group of us were sharing memories of the deceased. Talking about her laugh, how mean she could be, how we never told her that we loved her. Suddenly, a stranger walked over to us in the graveyard and said, "Friends, have you tried the great taste of the Big Kahuna Burger? With its mouthwatering blend of herbs and spices, you're sure to have a Big Kahuna Day! High-five me if you agree!" Needless to say, we each gave him a high-five in the face and spent the rest of the week ...
Our very own Stephen Tall has been moonlighting again for the lucky people over at Conservative Home. For this edition Stephen has unpacked his crystal ball and programmed it to Spring 2015, where he finds several possible scenarios confronting Messrs Clegg and Cameron. Here's a sample: Conventional wisdom suggests David Cameron will have to win outright to be sure of continuing as Conservative leader. After all, the last Conservative leader to fail to win two successive elections outright - Edward Heath in 1974 - is not a happy precedent. Yet if the Conservatives were to emerge as the largest single ...
Is it just me, or can I see a certain spring in the step of Britain's national politicians? Ever since the party conference season last September they have been focusing on one thing above all: winning the General Election due in May 2015. The perplexing state of the country is now simply a source of ammunition to batter the other side. Actually solving the problems can be left until afterwards. What a relief! The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is having the better of it, if the relentlessly superficial media chatter is to be believed. This is quite a turnaround, since ...
I hope this doesn't come off as trite. But I think its a marvellous thing that Boden have not only used a model with a disability in their new advertising campaign, but that they have done so in such a positive way, and without even referencing it or (as far as I can tell) using that story to promote themselves. Indeed the shot is done in such a beautiful way I suspect most will not even register it as an issue. I hope they get all the kudos they deserve.
Just when it looked like maybe, just maybe, Labour had something to offer, they have gone and proved otherwise. The Labour party have released this pathetic attempt at a US style attack ad on YouTube, declaring, once again, that "you can't trust David Cameron on the NHS". I thought the NHS bill was a mistake [...]
This is what happens if you follow the district council's request in relation to cardboard: [IMG: IMG_0186] Members at the Internal Services Scrutiny committee, meeting on Tuesday, were scathing about the new arrangements, feeling that they would discourage recycling and cause environmental damage as trucks were sent to make special collections. Neither the councillor nor the official in charge of recycling were present to answer criticisms. If a councillor can't get his cardboard collected, what hope is there for the rest of the population?
As the Home Office flings out more and more peculiar gimmicks - poster vans, bonds for foreign visitors, doctors as immigration officers - I have been musing over the weekend what the ten worst decisions by the UK government have been since the Second World War. Let me say straight away that these are decisions with a serious long-term impact, which means that it may go too easy on the coalition - the fact is that, since they have only been in office three years, it is hard to see which decisions will really resonate down the years (personally, I ...
[IMG: Google Lexus Driverless Car. Some rights reserved Some technologies seem to be perpetually touted as the 'next big thing' which will improve life if only politicians took investing in it seriously. Fusion and magnetic levitation trains are two that come to mind. Yet other technological change rolls round remarkably quickly, leaving those same politicians scrabbling to catch up with its implications. The world wide web is the poster child for such changes. That leaves me with mixed feelings about the ideas being touted to improve our public transport which I've been sifting through as party of my membership ...
patronising feminism needs to die (especially because the term patronising is so appropriate to a thing infected with patriarchal ideas) (tags: ) Considerable gender, racial, sexuality differences in attitudes toward bisexuality Not surprising but pretty depressing. (tags: ) Grand Theft Auto 5? Sorry, I'm just a bit too Guardian Oh this made me laugh. FWIW I still play original GTA occasionally, and my favourite bit is running over a line of Hare Krishnas in one go for the million dollar gouranga bonus #badjennie Well that and stealing the tank and going on a proper rampage... modern GTA is nowhere near ...
It is a tradition for LDV to bring its readers copies of our new MPs' and Peers' first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Last Thursday, Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on housing. Her words are reproduced below. My Lords, it is a privilege to be able to address your Lordships' House on a subject so dear to my heart, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady ...
As I see it, open letters take one of two forms. The first one is possibly useful: Dear (insert name of recipient), Hey, I've lost all your contact details, and as you've got a pretty common name, googling you isn't helping me find them. I'm hoping that you look at this site and remember me, and if you do, would you send me your details so we can get back in touch? Thanks, and hope to talk to you again soon, Open Letter Writer (Note, that I said possibly useful – done wrong, or for the wrong reasons, and it'll ...
Having marketing the old toilet block in Massie Street Car Park, the Council has now accepted an offer to buy it, opening the way for the site to be redeveloped as office or retail space. The details are confidential, but I'm sure we'll find out soon. Iain
Con seat. Death. Prospective Candidate: Susan Vincent Contact: Ian Beardsmore, 01932 782031 ian.beardsmore@btinternet.com
You can read more about Christmas Light Night here.
Yesterday I questioned the Welsh Government's decision to award the tender for a survey on the use of Welsh by businesses in Wales to a London company, resulting in Welsh speakers being unable to participate in the survey without being rung at a later date by a researcher who could speak Welsh. This is a ridiculous state of affairs where a survey into the use of Welsh by businesses was not available through the medium of Welsh from the outset. It lays bare any suggestion that the current Welsh Labour Government deals with both languages on an equal basis. One ...
Former Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan has told a House of Lords Constitution Committee that MPs and Assembly Members must work together to make devolution work better. She wants a new way of exchanging information that goes 'beyond the "dispute-settling" systems already in place': Mrs Gillan said: "I've always thought the Welsh Grand Committee, for example, and the Scottish Grand Committee, could be used much better... And for example there could be joint meetings between the MPs in Wales and the AMs in Wales under the auspices of something like the Welsh Grand Committee. Well yes, but for ...
Having been challenged by Robert Webb to "read some fucking Orwell," Russell Brand responds by showing that he's either not read or not understood Orwell. I'm not sure quite how we have got to the stage where the politics of Russell Brand apparently merit not only an interview by Jeremy Paxman but also a follow [...]
Randy Newman was probably destined to become a musician. Three of his uncles were film composers, and between them won ten Academy Awards. He was classmates in High School with Bruce Johnston, Jan and Dean, Nancy Sinatra, and Kim Fowley. And his best friend, Lenny Waronker, was the son of the chairman of Liberty Records. [...]
