I love blogging. A couple of months ago I wrote about my discovery that there really was an Earl Russell's Big Band - or at least an Earl Russell Orchestra. Now the daughter of one of its members has left a comment on that post: I was surprised to find this image on your blog. My dad played in the Earl Russell Orchestra (he's in the front row, playing sax, on the right). From what I understand (and this is only from oral history), they just came up with the name "Earl Russell" out of the blue. There never was ...
Please click on the image below for the latest Focus update for Castle Ward, it's been a busy couple of months as you can see!
From the Guardian: This is the kind of film to get the blood boiling and the steam hissing out of your ears. Campaigning journalist Mark Donne has constructed an ambitious and admirably clear assault on the UK's lamentable record in the tax avoidance industry, zeroing in on the unsavoury role played by the City of London and its institutions - not just in this country, but in far more desperate international territories too. In fact, one of the more sinister allegations of this film concerns TheCityUK, a body set up by our own Square Mile, which is using its clout ...
Last year, I made some observations about Remembrance Sunday - taking into consideration the experiences of several generations of my family who have served in the armed forces. I have in recent years been particularly affected by my brother's descriptions of his time in the Balkans, and his attitudes and outlooks that stem from them. It is telling that he rejects the easy accolade of "hero" in spite of having been decorated for his services, and with it the cloying sentimentality that generally accompanies it. Soldiers are no more heroic than any other professionals providing a vital service, he believes. ...
Stockport's annual Fairtrade Fair is at Stockport College on 16th November – always worth a visit.
I am probably the last person in the party to have read Paddy Ashdown's autobiography, but at least it is fresh in my mind. So the conviction of a Royal Marine for murdering an Afghan prisoner reminded me of a profound passage from it. Ashdown is writing about his time as a young officer in Sarawak: On one occasion, after returning from a short patrol, I discovered one of our Marines hitting one of these detainees who had been captured a few days earlier. I have a furious temper, and on this occasion, to my shame, lost it completely, knocking ...
I have been mulling the contents of the David Miranda judicial review hearing, and should have a blog post on it soon, but in the interim I came across this judgment, Elosta v Commissioner of the Met, which was handed down on Wednesday. Essentially, it affirms the right of someone being detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to consult a solicitor before being interviewed,
I keep hearing that if the speed limit is 50, then you shouldn't drive at anything less. Well, that's nonsense. And if its 20mph, where something bright at night, or some idiot will knock you down. Further Comment of Facebook, Drive With Rob: Or add your comment below.
Behind the cut are photos of a 32 year old woman, a UK size 16, with a BMI of 28, right in the middle of the 'overweight' category according to the NHS calculator. I have put these pictures behind a cut because some people might not want to look at a body of those dimensions, but also because I am going to accompany these pictures with talk about body image, health and dieting, which some people might find upsetting, or even outright triggering. [IMG: threeway] Okay, so. Debenhams recently launched some mannequins for their stores that fit into their size ...
Sat 9th
16:48
Saturday suggestions - Diana, yelling at kids, British and American friendships, and Star Wars consp...
Our weekly series sharing some of the more interesting things I've read this week This week we have extracts from posts or articles about: Diana, yelling at kids, British and American friendships, and Star Wars conspiracy theories. Naomi Watts Takes On the Insufferable Cult of Diana by Victoria Beale (New Republic) Part of what is [...]
Saturday: Age: Over 900 years Stories: 101 Awesomeness: Weather You Like It Or Not Cuddles: Makes Auntie Jennie Swoon AKA: Commander Maxil, Bayban the Butcher, Paul Merroney, of course it's the unforgettable Colin Baker
Labour in Gateshead occupies a strange little world. If it's not proposed by them, they will vote against it, no matter how good an idea. It's petty, it's silly, it's completely unnecessary. But it's Labour to the core in Gateshead. An interesting example of this can be found in the machinations of Thursday's council meeting. Labour's Paul Foy moved a motion calling for restrictions on payday
Sutton Council is supporting Small Business Saturday by organising an event on 7th December for small traders and social enterprises to showcase their businesses to residents and shoppers in Sutton. The event will be held in the St Nicholas Centre, Sutton High Street running from 10am to 15:00pm. What is Small Business Saturday? In the UK, Small [...]
So I put my default spotify playlist on. For your edification, here is a list of tracks I have had to hurriedly press skip on: Fuck Her Gently - Tenacious D Last Resort - Papa Roach Fuck You - Lily Allen Big Dumb Sex - Soundgarden Of course, I'm paying for it now. Douglas's choice this afternoon. Pick of the Pops on Radio 2... * makes the sign of the evil eye at Tony Blackburn * [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Bus Changes: A week where local conversations have been dominated by the changing bus routes. Whilst people in St Just do not seem too concerned at the reduction of service (perhaps the ability to get to Hayle shopping is a compensation) those in Pendeen are hopping mad! Those who live between Boscaswell and Portherras Cross have bus stops but no buses. Those with buses now have to go to Penzance via Botallack and St Just, adding to their journey time. On Monday I will receive a copy of a petition being sent to First bus and will forward it to ...
Sat 9th
13:10
UEFA stick their middle finger up to UK Football fans as BT wins Champions League rights
Head of UEFA Michel Platini is no doubt cackling to himself this morning. He is probably the happiest person in the world that UK football fans have been screwed over apart from Jake Humphrey. This morning they announced that after a long and profitable business relationship with Sky Sports and ITV, UEFA have walked away and gone with the biggest bidder, the company who know they've paid money that they can't afford to get the rights to broadcast all Champions League and Europa League matches from August 2015 to May 2018. BT Sport are paying £299m a year for the ...
Continuing our look at superheros, we see how Superman has evolved from his Jewish origins in the 1930s to his most recent onscreen outing being marketed to churches as a Christian allegory. While Clarke Kent/Superman/Kal-El have always been nominally a Christian his roots are really Jewish: When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created their iconic [...]
...not Terance, Terrence, Terrance, Terense, Tarance, or any other variation. "Terence" is spelt with one T, a thrice of Es, and a single R, N, and C. The letter A should be conspicuous by its absence. The letter R is an only child. The letter S has no place in my name. Those people caught transgressing these very simple rules with be placed on The List. FFS! My name is on the email I sent you, I sign off with it, it's there on my work pass, at the top of my blog, etc. Do I actually need to get ...
Every time I think kindly about Stonewall, they do something to annoy me. Way back in 2010, their opposition to equal marriage reached the fringes of our Liverpool Conference. That came just a few months after Ed Fordham wrote on here that he was no longer able to support Stonewall over its treatment of David Laws. Happily, Stonewall did eventually come around to supporting equal marriage and attended the vigils outside Parliament which Ed organised when the Bill was being debated. They are also just about to start a brilliant campaign on homophobic bullying to run in anti-bullying week. They ...
I really should have got one of these:
A genius bureaucratic answer from Haringey Council this week. Genius because it is superficially so reasonable yet, when you apply one tiny morsel of knowledge, impressively eccentric. I have been chasing up why it had taken Haringey Council the best part of a year to fix a damaged road sign which I had reported. Part of the explanation was that I had wrongly reported the sign as an unlit one rather than a lit one, which meant it went into the wrong system. Sounds reasonable that if I make a mistake something may take longer. However... as I pointed out ...
[IMG: Julian Huppert Sherlock Holmes] Writing in the Guardian yesterday, Julian Huppert called for greater public scrutiny of national security. It was not just the work of the intelligence services that was scrutinised in parliament last Thursday, he says, but secretive intelligence and security committee which oversees the services. This sort of public scrutiny is exactly what we need to restore confidence in our intelligence service, whose work keeps us safe. It does make you wonder why this should have been such a massive event: shouldn't public scrutiny be at the heart of the way our intelligence and security service ...
posted The Blood is The Life 08-11-2013 http://t.co/gn6yWzQATM on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) http://toys.usvsth3m.com/north-o-meter/ I'm 80% NORTHERN according to the North-o-Meter! That's somewhere around York. http://t.co/W5gLdsKXKb (tags: (from twitter) ) http://open.spotify.com/track/496hB37SP9VFHcFmQg4Iar Songs that mention polaroids: rare and only getting rarer as time goes on http://t.co/DmjBxkJq43 (tags: (from twitter) ) Men posing like motorcycle models, in the same clothes Or, as it is known in this house, porn (tags: ) http://ldv.org.uk/37113 RT @libdemvoice: Headline of the week: "Elton move over for Huppert the Rocket Man" http://t.co/yqu5ZecQqJ (tags: (from twitter) ) http://open.spotify.com/track/60D6xokLERFpsLMW6RwIKy After an afternoon of staind, NiN & ...
[IMG: Richmond Hill] If you were entertaining any idea that changes to property and land taxes could help to curb the volatility of the UK housing market then just stop it. That is the message of a new report Taxing Issues? released by the Policy Exchange this week. This is a highly political document, and fascinating as a result. The think tank offers a host of reasons why property and land taxes just won't do the trick. The report starts from the premise, based on OECD figures, that the UK already has the most highly taxed property in the developed ...
I have previously mentioned the timebanking initiative for the West End, now named Time2Give. Yesterday, I attended the latest meeting of the Time2Give that took place at Blackness Library. Timebanking is a means of exchange used to organise people and organisations around a purpose, where time is the principal currency. For every hour participants 'deposit' in a timebank, perhaps by giving practical help and support to others, they are able to 'withdraw' equivalent support in time when they themselves are in need. In each case the participant decides what they can offer. It is a great, community-based, concept and there ...
The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams has announced that Peter Black AM will lead on policy and manifesto development for the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the run up to the 2016 elections. Working with the party's Policy Committee, he will oversee policy development and the production of the Welsh Assembly Election Manifesto for 2016. Peter Black AM said: "The Welsh Liberal Democrats have a very open and democratic manner of forming party policy and I am pleased to be closely involved in this process. My role will be to ensure that we have a comprehensive and well ...
The Guardian reports that Britain is holding up an agreement on internet freedom among the 47 members of Europe's human rights watchdog after objecting to a probe into the gathering of "vast amounts of electronic data" by intelligence agencies. They say that Britain intervened during a Council of Europe ministerial conference on Friday in Belgrade, Freedom of Expression and Democracy in the Digital Age, where a 14-page document was due to be signed by the 47 members of the body which established the European Convention on Human Rights: The document, entitled Political Declaration and Resolutions, says that the Council of ...
