[IMG: Land surveyors] We are used to thinking of NIMBYism as a parameter of the housing policy debate. The survey evidence suggests that anti-development sentiment is deep rooted and hard to shift. It is a constraint that we must work within – something to work around – rather than something to be challenged. It is increasingly clear that NIMBYism is taken as a brute fact within the political sphere. Last month we heard that, despite apparent earlier enthusiasm, the Conservatives have gone cold on the idea of a new generation of new towns. Eric Pickles is reported to have poured ...
The BBC shop in Leicester is a dangerous place. It is hard to visit without coming away with armfuls of DVDs from your youth. Months ago I bought a boxed set of the corporation's Ghost Stories for Christmas. With some modern extras, it is made up of the M.R. James adaptations that were a feature of the festive season in the 1970s. I had not summoned up the courage to watch any of them, so when Christmas Eve came along I thought it was time to be a man. I watched Lost Hearts from 1973, reasoning that it must be ...
We are frequently told we should remember the true meaning of Christmas. But the Nativity story, for all its charm, does not point much of a moral to modern readers. Fast forward to the crucifixion and, in many hands, you read of a human sacrifice to appease an angry god. More and more, it seems to me, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with its message of redemption in this life, provides the morality of this season. Dickens was a devout Christian himself and his faith was the grounding for his belief in social reform. Yet strip away the very pagan ...
[IMG: 4606109469_226d7918ce] I enjoy Paul Waugh's writings on PoliticsHome. But occasionally he visits a strange planet inhabited by one other person called Jeremy Browne. On that planet there is the prevailing thought that anyone other than Jeremy Browne would support Jeremy Browne to be leader or deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats. Recently, Mr Waugh wrote that there was a Twitter campaign to make Jeremy Browne Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. I can't say that I can find a Twitter Storm with #teamjezza hashtags. Tellingly, the same hashtag is used by fans of Jeremy Clarkson and Jeremy Kyle. The ...
George Carey disappoints me. As archbishop he was quite decent. He supported the move to ordain women, and he piloted the church through a time of global internal division (the incumbent archbishop has had as difficult a job in that respect as the leader of the conservative party in the last twenty years - any attempt to lead in a particular direction would leave half the organisation stubbornly behind). Just recently though, Carey seems to have been pitching for the post of old religious curmudgeon with intemperate outbursts about how put upon Christians in this country are. He was at ...
[IMG: Corby-MAIN] East Midlands Euro candidate Issan Ghazni said he was delighted to have been asked to address the congregation at a Mosque in Corby ahead of Friday prayers. He spoke to around 100 worshippers about the civic duty of all voters to have their say on the future of Britain in Europe. Afterwards the Imam and Chair of the Corby Muslim Association presented Ghazni with flowers. "I was given a very warm welcome", he said, "And I was really honoured to have been invited to speak before prayers as this is normally reserved for special announcements and is very ...
[IMG: Nhampton-Homeless-MAIN] East Midlands Euro candidate Issan Ghazni visited a centre providing meals to the homeless on Christmas Day. Ghazni shared a meal with homeless people at the Northampton Bangladeshi Association at an all-day event. Food was donated by local restaurants. Speaking to the organisers afterwards he said this was a great initiative to build community relations. Ghazni added that it was important Liberal Democrats engaged with all communities, including those that do not normally vote Lib Dem, in order to get Bill Newton Dunn re-elected as East Midlands MEP. He said: "Some of the homeless people I met said ...
Thu 26th
13:37
Here be many spoilers, so if you haven't watched The Time of the Doctor, do not read any further
I've watched it twice now. And I think I probably need to watch it a few more times before I properly understand it. I can't come out and say that I loved last night's Doctor Who Christmas special. That was never going to be on the cards, though. I've loved Matt Smith as the Doctor, however much I've occasionally been annoyed at the directions his character has taken. That's not his fault, though. He acted the scripts the writers gave him with more flair, quirkiness and originality than even they could possibly have imagined. His last show was always going ...
In a significant development the Western Mail has secured a long-overdue apology from the Labour Education Minister for the Welsh Government's failure to reverse sliding school standards. The paper says that the apology comes in the wake of the damning assessment of Wales' education system by the OECD, which ranked Welsh teenagers well below those in the rest of the UK on key skills. Wales came 36th for science, 41st for reading and 43rd for maths in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) study. They add that the results were a serious blow for the Welsh Government and ...
Today's Western Mail contains a feature on the faces who have defined Welsh politics in 2013, amongst them are two Welsh Liberal Democrats: THE HOME PROTECTOR PETER BLACK, Liberal Democrat South Wales West MP Mr Black successfully piloted the Assembly's very first Private Member's Bill which established clear rights for mobile home residents. Speaking shortly before AMs backed the Bill, he said: "Under the current law there is little protection for residents from unscrupulous park homes site owners; a minority of whom may exploit their position for personal gain. My Bill will stop this unfairness." NOT SAYING NEVER KIRSTY WILLIAMS, ...
Well contrary to what I imagined aged eight, absolutely nothing apparently. However, nobody really knows how today gained its name. Theories include: A 'Christmas Box' in Britain is a name for a Christmas present. Boxing Day was a day off for servants and when they received a 'Christmas Box' from the master. The servants would [...]
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 750 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. Support for HS2 gathers steam among Lib Dem members There are plans to build a new high speed rail link (called HS2) between London and Birmingham, and then on to Manchester and Leeds. This is currently expected to cost around £42 billion. Do you support or oppose these plans? 67% (+12%) – Support 26% (-5%) – Oppose ...
My curiosity piqued by Mark Gatiss's excellent documentary on Montague Rhodes James, I looked up the late Robert Rhodes James. He was Conservative MP for Cambridge from 1976 to 1992. And it turns out that they are related. M.R. James was the uncle of Robert Rhodes James.
posted The Blood is The Life 25-12-2013 http://t.co/1edZjg37hO on #dreamwidth (tags: dreamwidth (from twitter) ) Swans swim through flood water following heavy rain In case missed earlier: Swanageddon or Severn swans a swimming in flooded Worcester street http://t.co/t3zIo9LRpt http://t.co/pXlTB7bfXK (tags: (from twitter) ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Hope everyone had a great day yesterday, and continues to have a great day today. Today is my presents-and-food day so I will be entertaining niblings all day, between continuing to read Yuletide stories. Yes, this is the only time of year I seriously read and talk fanfiction, but it's also the only time of year I seriously write fanfiction. So on that note, who wants to play a game? I have written three of the stories in this collection. And I'm willing to give a prize – probably something small and creative, like icons or a drabble, but it ...
[IMG: Blue bird tweets and sings on smartphone] Given a relatively trouble-free IPO only a month ago and Twitter's plans to broaden its services in future, it might perhaps seem a bit perverse to reflect on whether its time as the social media channel we know and love is passing. But I wonder. No technology is forever. Most will eventually be rendered obsolete. The half-life of web-based technologies would appear shorter than most. But there are more specific reasons for reflecting on the fate of Twitter. A few days ago Puffles' Bestest Buddy blogged raising questions about the future of ...
As a trustee of the Dundee University Student Trading and Innovative Enterprise (DUSTIE, now branded as DRIVE) I was delighted to hear of the project's success in the recent Keep Scotland Beautiful Climate Challenge Fund - Round 16 awards. The award is as follows : "Dundee University Student Trading and Innovative Enterprise (DUSTIE) will work with the local community to increase energy efficiency and decrease car use through their 'Carbon Crushers' project. Energy efficiency advice will be provided through a Green Advice Centre and by trained student advisers who will visit homes. The move away from cars towards lower carbon ...
It has been a wonderful Christmas Day which has been only slightly spoiled by people reading reports on Twitter, fearing the worst, demanding to be told, and forgetting that in the bad old days of the Northern Irish Troubles we heard in the morning. 24 hours a day news has spoilt us. As I have...
