#51245858 / gettyimages.com Continuing our occasional series on key figures in 1960s British cinema on Getty Images.
Mark Pack has the first leaflets from the candidates hoping to be the next president of the Liberal Democrats. "We were taken off the plane and bundled into cars. Hoods were pulled over my parents' heads. Libyans forced my mother, sister and I into one car, my brothers and father another. The convoy drove to a secret prison outside Tripoli, where I was certain we were all going to be executed." The CIA must tell the truth about my rendition at 12 years old, says Khadija al-Saadi on Gawker. Londonist explains how London rivers got their names. "On a summer's ...
Last month the Mirror told us that: A Labour peer facing more than 20 allegations of historical child abuse looks set to avoid prosecution after doctors said he was unfit to be quizzed because he has dementia.Today's Daily Mail confirms that the peer in question is Lord Janner, who as Greville Janner was for many years a Labour MP in Leicester. Lord Janner has strongly denied such allegations whenever they have been put to him. The Mail tells us that: It is believed that the Labour peer's poor health, he suffers advanced dementia, has prevented officers from speaking to him.This ...
OK. Thieves steal £8.3 million of fuel from under Nick Clegg's (official half) residence, Chevening House – above. From the Press Association: Police have launched an investigation after thieves siphoned fuel from a pipeline running under Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's official country residence. Police said initial indications were that it had been "a well organised crime". A gang drilled their way into the pipeline, which passes through Chevening House estate, shared by the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. The fuel was funnelled along a 1,600 foot pipe to an area just outside the 3,500 acre estate near Sevenoaks, ...
Pictured above is Ghulam Qadir who has a recycling business in Pakistan I have to admit that I am not an easy person to buy things for at Christmas and birthdays. I am lucky that I can afford to buy ... Continue reading →
Three of the four candidates in the running to succeed Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron have now published their first leaflet of the election campaign. They are reproduced below, listed in alphabetic order and you can also still read the Q+A I did with them in Liberal Democrat Newswire #49. (The fourth candidate, Pauline Pearce, has not supplied me with a copy of a leaflet as yet and I've not seen one. If you have one, by all means email a scan over to me.) Click the download options below to see higher quality versions of the leaflets (especially if ...
[IMG: image] We're now back from our holidays in Scotland and Northumberland. As well as the great excitement of twice attending Hampden Park for the Commonwealth Games athletics, including seeing Usain Bolt run, we had a great time and saw some fantastic places: Loch Lomond Fort William The foothills of Ben Nevis Glencoe in fantastic sunshine, which was awesome Loch Fyne and the Kyles of Bute Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland Farne Islands Holy Island, Northumberland Grace Darling's memorial, Bamburgh Those were all wonderful places. It all goes to show that as a nation we ought to at least ...
The American magazine Foreign Affairs has some claim to be the world's leading foreign-policy journal and its readable, accessible style reminds me of The Economist at its best. I'm signed up to a free weekly email offering links to its best articles, and yesterday that email took me to the two (short, non-academic) pieces below. Amid the horrendous din of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian comment, argument and propaganda by which we are all currently being so painfully overwhelmed, the two pieces below are an objective breath of fresh air, and I strongly urge you to read them:
Such was the question from a Facebook friend yesterday, to which I replied: I assume we are talking about the latest air strikes here. "The West" is about 50 countries. They haven't intervened militarily in Iraq. The USA has. NATO hasn't. The EU hasn't. The UN hasn't. The UK is just helping with food drops, but it does that in Syria also. The UK has poured a great deal of aid into Syria. So the question isn't for "the West", it is for Barack Obama and perhaps also for George W Bush and his psychiatrist, as Dubya started the whole ...
The Cambridge News reports: [IMG: Colin Rosenstiel] Ex-Liberal Democrat councillor Colin Rosenstiel has been found responsible of bringing the party into disrepute at a hearing of executive members of the party. The Lib Dems released a statement saying: "It has been agreed that he will not stand again for public office on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. "Mr Rosenstiel faced two charges of bringing the party into disrepute – namely not informing the party of an impending court case until after city council election nominations had closed, and subsequently having been convicted in Cambridge Magistrates Court of assault against a ...
[IMG: image] We're now back from holiday. We travelled back yesterday on the M1. I was very impressed with the signage along the various road works on that road. There were a few different signs along the lines of "My daddy works here". It's a great way to remind people that there aren't just "Men at work", these are people with families. Well done Costain, who seem to be behind the initiative.
Look I love Buzzfeed as much as the next millennial, and not just for the 'Which Superhero are You?' quiz (Green Lantern as you asked) and the like but also for some serious journalism. But it's business model bodes ill for the future of journalism. As the latest video from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight [...]
[IMG: members forum wordle] LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you're reading now. The second is our private members' forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access. If you're a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that's on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you'll be included in our regular surveys' of party members' views. Here's some of the most active discussions this past 7 days: David Ward again; More Rennard; Cut band A council tax and add new bands at the high ...
[IMG: Lynne featherstone by paul walter] Many Lib Dems will have read with sadness of the resignation of Sam Phripp from Somerset County Council owing to "hostility, intimidation and bullying" – including "being referred to as 'that dirty bloody homosexual'" – from activists from other parties. Here's what the Lib Dems' international development minister Lynne Featherstone has had to say about it: "I was horrified to hear of the treatment of the local Lib Dem Councillor in Somerset," Ms Featherstone, the Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green told PinkNews.co.uk. We've come such a long way in this country ...
[IMG: 86arsenalcomposite1313] Tomorrow is the event which unofficially (or is it officially?) kicks off the football season, the Community Shield. It used to be called the Charity Shield, which made a lot more sense. For a few years after it stopped being called the Charity Shield, it was entitled the Poulan Weed Eater Garden Shield, before settling on its current moniker. So yes, the game itself. With Arsenal, a club that challenged for the title early on before fading like a lightweight on a bender when the clock strikes half nine, facing Manchester City, the club that won the league ...
Several of my favourite bands and entertainers turn out to be Canadian. I've written previously about my wish for Rush's "Spirit of radio" to be played as the last item at my funeral. (And it must be the album version). Rush are from Toronto, Ontario. Barenaked Ladies are another Canadian outfit. They are from Scarborough, Ontario. I actually hear them about a dozen times a week – not because I play them on my generic MP3 player, but because they sing the theme tune of the "Big Bang Theory". – That's a programme which is on our TV on a ...
BBC fails to sort fact from opinion | Full Fact (tags: ) In celebration of world cat day, here are the best cats on the internet Oh the one with the moustache 3 (tags: ) What happened to the OTHER kids who who a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's factory? (tags: ) Forcing Kids To Stick To Gender Roles Can Be Harmful To Their Health Every school should be sent a copy of this, especially the type of school that does this on purpose *sideeye school my daughter attended until v recently* (tags: ) Great comic about street harassment etc ...
[IMG: Dictionary - XYZ. Photo courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/photo/9888 - some rights reserved] I've recently been updating the main Liberal Democrat election law book, and been faced with what to do about this text found up near the front: Throughout this book, "he" is used as a generic term to encompass both female and male. It is tempting to just leave this as it is for the frank reason that changing the approach means quite a lot of editing through the book, even with some search and replace to make the easier changes. (I do wonder how much that simple inertia ...
This story on BBC News: A councillor has admitted receiving housing benefit while failing to declare his earnings. Windsor and Maidenhead councillor Peter Lawless was caught after an anonymous tip-off from a resident to the council's Beat the Cheat hotline.has won Peter Lawless two Liberal England awards: Name of the Day and Councillor of the Day. Well done, Pete.
Quite right too: @andershanson @LibDems @KathPinnock Will be fighting to make sure I am abolished asap and a fully elected 2nd Chamber — Paul Scriven (@Paulscriven) August 8, 2014 Paul is one of six new Liberal Democrat peers, four of whom are regular Twitter users. You can follow them all in one place via this Twitter list that I curate, and don't forget also my list for Liberal Democrat MPs.
Yesterday was the end of the consultation period on the 'addition sites' for Sefton's now notorious Local Plan. The 'additional sites', put forward by land owners and developers who want to build on Green Belt and high grade agricultural land, have been known about for some time now, in fact ample time for Maghull Town Council to make representations. The Labour-run Council has said nothing and the matter has not appeared on a Council agenda, yet yesterday at 11.06am an e-mail was sent around some of the opposition councillors asking them to agree a draft response put together by someone ...
[IMG: IMG-20131226-00110] Almost 1,000 properties were affected by flooding from rivers across Kent earlier this year. However, against this backdrop there were small glimmers of hope. A local success story involves the River Len, a small and heavily urbanised tributary of the River Medway in Maidstone. In autumn 2000, under similar rainfall conditions, the Len had flooded commercial and residential property in Maidstone town centre. In 2002, the acquisition of 2.5 hectares of the River Len corridor was negotiated by Maidstone Council as environmental mitigation for a new supermarket and business park extension. Much of this land was then shrouded ...
Further to the good news of the extensive refurbishment and modernisation of Perth Road Post Office, both the Dundee City Council Chief Executive David Dorward and I have written to Post Office limited to request they consider a temporary facility during the September closure period when work is being carried out. There are many elderly and infirm residents nearby including folk from four sheltered housing complexes for whom a visit to Blackness Road or Meadowside - the alternative Post Offices cited by Post Office Limited - would be a real challenge. During the Blackness Library refurbishment last year, the City ...
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(No pun intended). I'm exhausted and unwell today, and have been trying for the last hour to write something and can't, but I stumbled across this story I posted last year which no-one seemed to notice, and which I think stands up pretty well, so go and read Guys And Dholes, my Lovecraft-in-the-style-of-Runyon story. I [...]
The black American playwright, cultural commentator and journalist Bonnie Greer grew up in Chicago's poor south side at a time when one's skin colour defined one's identity — and for many people, one's role in life. But it clear from her 400-page memoir of the first 30 years of her life, A Parallel Life (Arcadia Books, £14.99) [...]
