Our Ironic Film of the Day. This was Cliff Richard's first film appearance. He has only a small role, but he and Andrew Ray are about the only interesting things in the film. For the most part Serious Charge shows the inability of a certain kind of 1950s Britishness to cope with the emergence of the teenager.
South Glos Council has to produce something called a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). This sets out how local people are involved in preparing planning documents and how they are consulted on planning applications. The first SCI was adopted in May 2008, since when both laws and the council's internal processes have changed. The council now needs to update its SCI to reflect this and wants to hear your views. The Draft SCI is available to view at http://www.southglos.gov.uk/planningSCI. Printed copies of the Draft SCI 2014 are available for inspection, 8.45am - 5pm Mondays to Wednesdays and 8.45am - 4.30pm ...
[IMG: fantasy football team] Here is my starting fantasy football team. I'm popping it up here as I'm curious to see how many, if any, of my 15 will still be there come May 2015. Oh, and if you're a LibDemVoice reader why not join our league and compete against 100+ ? Simply click here.
[IMG: rsz_fire_as12_1] This was the scene on land between Green Lane, Maghull and Bells Lane, Lydiate earlier this evening as Merseyside Firefighters were trying to put out a crop that had been set on fire.
I was in touch with Network Rail today following concerns about youths getting onto the rail track yesterday near the rail bridge, just before 6pm. This resulted in trains being halted and I asked Network Rail to thoroughly investigate any possible insecurity in the boundary fencing at the rail track in the area. My office was updated late this afternoon as follows : "The British Transport Police and Network Rail's Track Services have been aware of this incident since yesterday and have been patrolling the area and searching for a hole in the fence since then. They eventually found a ...
So, who wants to bid for a slot in my Liberal Youth Election Sweepstakes? How long will it be before one of the elected officers resigns in a fit of pique? One week slots are available from the announcement of results. We're playing for pride only here, folks, I don't encourage gambling. I reckon it'll be about 6 months, so I'm claiming week 26. Any other takers? I'll edit you in to a list below Week Taker Before result declared Nick Barlow 1 Lucy 2 Sarah Noble 3 James Moore 4 Minnsy 5 Matt Downey 6 7 Josh Dixon 8 ...
You may have seen the news that Christian rock singer-songwriter Vicky Beeching came out the other day. In her interview with Patrick Strudwick in The Independent you can see the harrowing measures that Vicky went to to pray away the gay, get rid of her attraction to people of the same-sex and even though , as she says, it wasn't something that was directly taught, it was something that somehow as a Christian she felt she had to be ashamed of and hid away. There is even the harrowing tale of the meeting where she feels the need to go ...
I loved this mock campaign video and not just because it had Anthony Head in it! Watch some of Holywood's leading character actors demand lead roles in Blockbusters! Filed under: Uncategorized
A minor complication in renovating our house has been that we are a bat roost. Our bats needs come first, by law. In fact, there is only one bat — a male pipistrelle who uses our loft as a roost during the breeding season, away from the wife and kiddies. The mating season has just started, [...]
As if the news from Lincolnshire wasn't exciting enough, it's now all go in London: "Local News" maybe, but it could have GLOBAL repercussions I suspect... http://t.co/WrBqzGPkhm (via @scaryduck) pic.twitter.com/57wRIJoDfs — The Media Blog (@TheMediaTweets) August 13, 2014 Thankfully, London has not yet reached last year's excitement levels in Mali and praise be that no sumo wrestler suits are involved.
[IMG: Lab_animal_testing] Norman Baker has stated he wants to ban animal research in the UK. Recently, the first successful Ebola treatment to be used on humans was developed thanks to research in monkeys by combining three monoclonal antibodies which had been harvested from mice. With 1,000 people dead, 2,000 sick, four countries affected, and tens of thousands at risk, this treatment could become a game changer. But Norman Baker wants to ban animal research in the UK. Thanks to animal research conducted in the UK, we have discovered the benefits of penicillin (mice), IVF to help infertile women (mice), and ...
We've decided not to put solar panels on the roof. We had decided to go ahead with them because of the profits from the FIT, but then we were driving back from Bude over the moor and seeing our house from a distance below us, we realised that we can't bear to cover up our [...]
[IMG: clegglowtax] A Liberal Democrat government will make further cuts in Income Tax and reduce National Insurance for millions of workers under manifesto plans announced yesterday. The party plans to raise the personal allowance to at least £12,500 by the end of next Parliament. This move would cut income tax for 30m workers and be worth £400 per year to a typical basic rate taxpayer. Pensioners have not benefitted from the previous increases in the personal allowance, but the increase to £12,500 will benefit more than 6m pensioners. And in a new proposal announced today, Liberal Democrats will seek to ...
[IMG: Forth Railway Bridge. Photo courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1368540 - some rights reserved] As issued by the Electoral Commission: Download this file
[IMG: Noose, Old Austin County Jail, Bellville, Texas 0130101348BW] This week marks half a century since the last executions in England. Around the world, the death penalty has been reduced to a minority practice. Only 58 countries mow use capital punishment. Asia is its last redoubt, where ninety per cent of executions take place there. It may well be connected that the continent in which democracy is least prevalent is where execution is most common. Many new democracies created in the last 50 years abolished the death penalty when they threw off the yokes of military dictatorship, communism or apartheid. ...
Anyone recognise these dudes? 1972 Liberal Party Open Their Assembly (Found at http://t.co/0BYZicsIqG) pic.twitter.com/oiXChqcuHQ — Stephen Tall (@stephentall) August 8, 2014 (All photographs above currently on sale via eBay, if that's your thing.)
Cllr Paul Hulbert and bike with Cllr Claire Young and petition forms. The existing cycle path ends abruptly at the junction of Westerleigh Road and Kidney Hill. Liberal Democrat Focus councillors have launched a petition to gather support for a project to close the "missing link" on the cycle path from Yate and Westerleigh to Bristol and Bath. At the moment there is a link from the Bristol-Bath Railway Path - the "M1" of the national cycling network - but it stops south of Westerleigh. South Glos has been awarded some government money from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. The ...
[IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL] The English Premier League kicks off tomorrow and LibDemVoice has revived its Fantasy Football League to mark the occasion. So if you fancy pitting your soccer selection skills against 100+ fellow party supporters, here's your chance. To enter all you have to do is click on this link. Simply register your details, pick your team, and away you go. And for those who don't feel they have the insider knowledge to compete, you can always choose the 'auto-complete' option so your team is picked for you – just imagine how smug you'll then feel when you ...
[IMG: £20 pound note in the firing line] Edition #50 of Liberal Democrat Newswire came out last week, looking in particular at how the party's tax and spend policies are shaping up for 2015. As you can read in the newsletter (available available online here) there's real concern over what the knock-on effect will be on areas such as local government spending from the tax and spending decisions announced already. Promising extra spending, or no cuts, in some areas, added to talk of tax cuts and removing the deficit means something is going to have to take a hit. As ...
I have recently been raising the issue of pollutants from diesel engines and whilst the thrust of most concerns about such engines is associated with cars and lorries it has to be remembered that here on Merseyside we also have to consider the effects of pollutants from ships visiting the Mersey. [IMG: The Mersey - Looking from Bootle over the River to the Wirral] The Mersey – Looking from Bootle over the River to the Wirral A local environmental campaigner of my acquaintance has been looking in detail at pollutants from ships and he took the matter up with the ...
Westminister Council is considering a lollipop woman to make the iconic Abbey Road zebra crossing safer, due to Beatles-loving tourists making the area hazardous by taking photos in the middle of the road. This story jumped out at me, a bit like it seems the tourists are doing to vehicle drivers!
The start of another week at the Hall finds Rutland's most popular fictional peer in contemplative mood. Monday It is high summer in Rutland. The meadows are alive with hamwees (or are they wheways?), Meadowcroft is patrolling his herbaceous borders lest an insect so much as look at one of his blooms and I hear the sound of music and laughter from one of my coverts. I had been about to send dogs in, assuming the local teenagers were up to no good in there with a transistor radio, but it may just be the Elves of Rockingham Forest and ...
Friday 15 – Sunday 17th August Flamstead Scarecrow Festival Annual 3-day event, come and vote for your favourites Event website: www.flamstead-herts.co.uk Event start Date/Time: 15 Aug 2014 12:00 noon – 17 Aug 2014 6:00 PM Event category: Festival Target audience: Family Admission charges: FREE Disabled access available Venue details: Flamstead Village AL3 8DS Parking available Contact Information: paul@flamstead-herts.co.uk Saturday 16th August 10.30am Dacorum Electric Bike Tour with Cream Tea Join us this summer on a 'Tea Ride' from Berkhamsted Cricket Club. Our guided bike ride visits the beautiful Chilterns and you can enjoy a cream tea at Frithsden Vineyard. Event ...
The death of Robin Williams is another tragic loss that at first assumptions has its roots in depression. He joins other illustrious public figures who took their own lives due in no small part to the Black Dog: Tony Hancock; Kurt Cobain; Stuart Adamson; Lord Sutch and Alexander McQueen. If it were not for a last minute change of mind, Stephen Fry in 1995: though it was again a narrow escape in 2012, when he downed pills and vodka, to be saved by the producer of the production he was filming. The Black Dog has little or no regard of ...
What is a library for these days? Well to be honest with you I am not sure. I am even less certain what it should be used for in 10 years time given the tremendous advance in e-media and ... Continue reading →
Who Stole the Four-Hour Workday? – How we lost our dreams of more leisure and less work. America Is Not For Black People – "They — we — are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that any single one could be a threat to a trained police officer in a bulletproof vest. There are reasons why white gun's rights activists can walk into a Chipotle restaurant with assault rifles and be seen as gauche nuisances while unarmed black men are killed for reaching for their wallets or cell phones, or carrying children's toys. ...
[IMG: Unemployment falls once again] I've brought together "claimant count" statistics for Folkestone & Hythe and Dover constituencies for 2014, 2013 & 2012 in the chart below. [Update 15 August 2014] To the end of 2013, I'd used the BBC website economy tracker at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117 but that source now seems to have disappeared. I have therefore changed to using the raw statistics from the ONS website monthly "Regional Labour Market: JSA01 - Claimant Count for Local and Unitary Authorities" releases. There were some marginal differences in figures (mainly percentage claimant counts rather than the number) between that and the BBC ...
This column appeared in the Advertiser yesterday. For some reason, they left the words in Bold out of the column, even though I was under the word limit for the [...]
[IMG: rally paddy ashdown 3] Three years ago, when the world obsessed about President Assad, some of us warned that Syria was only one frontline in a wider sectarian war between Sunni and Shia; that the spread of militant jihadism among the Sunni community, funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was a preparation for this. And that before long this movement, like the 30 years' religious war of 17th-century Europe, would threaten to engulf the entire Muslim world Paddy goes on to describe three options for dealing with the humanitarian crisis that is IS. There are three. The first is ...
Ayoub Khan (ayoub.khan@westmidslidbems.org.uk) is the Liberal Democrat candidate. www.westmidslibdems.org.uk
The Guardian reports on the view by one of of the world's top economists that an independent Scotland's economy would crash within seven years if it tried to use sterling. They quote Professor Ronald MacDonald, a currency expert who advises the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, who believes that the Scottish government's plans to use sterling after a yes vote are fundamentally flawed, even if Alex Salmond's proposals for a currency union were accepted by the UK. He believes that in these circumstances, the Scottish economy would shrink by up to £100bn by 2023: MacDonald, the Adam ...
[IMG: Egon] Robert Berthune came to Paris in 1890, moving from his hometown of Cassel in the Pays Du Nord in hopes of becoming a world famous magician. His first year in Paris was a difficult one; he approached the Moulin Rouge as a showcase for his talents but was roundly rebuffed, literally kicked out the door. Robert soon found himself standing near the bottom of the recently built Eiffel Tower most afternoons, trying to convince passers-by to throw him a centime or two for his card tricks or ability to produce an animal from some article of clothing or ...
Politics isn't broken, but the political system is - I think Nick has it spot on here (tags: ) Two-thirds of Britons with depression get no treatment (tags: ) Mobile firm EE introduces queue jumping charge - one more reason to jump ship when my contract is up (tags: ) The 'transgender tipping point': how and why attitudes are changing (tags: ) Ferguson is a perfect illustration of why Net Neutrality Matters to us all Because if it's filtered and prepackaged, it can easily be (even inadvertently) censored. (tags: ) 38 Things Men Can Do To Make Themselves More Attractive ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention in the past couple of days... Liberal England: Charles Masterman's war Fascinating from @lordbonkers on Charles Masterman, reforming Liberal MP and WWI propagandist http://bit.ly/1t06q0W BBC Radio 4 Extra – I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, Series 1, Episode 2 My fave ever comedy show, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, is over 50 years old. Ep 2 not at its peak but still funny http://bbc.in/1Aif8Kq UK magazines ranked by total paid-for circulation in the first half of 2014 | Press Gazette Private Eye best-selling news and current affairs magazine. Is ...
[IMG: Robin Williams by Eva Rinaldi] The death of Robin Williams is another tragic loss that at first assumptions has its roots in depression. He joins other illustrious public figures who took their own lives due in no small part to the Black Dog: Tony Hancock; Kurt Cobain; Stuart Adamson; Lord Sutch and Alexander McQueen. If it were not for a last minute change of mind, Stephen Fry in 1995: though it was again a narrow escape in 2012, when he downed pills and vodka, to be saved by the producer of the production he was filming. The Black Dog ...
The best public art manages to be widely accessible without being superficial or trite. It is a difficult combination to pull off – and by that very difficulty is the mark of a more skilled artist than one who simply produces something obscure to all except the expert. Paul Cummins's ceramic poppies at the Tower of London, installed to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, manages to be both accessible and meaningful brilliantly. Designed to evoke an image of blood flowing out from and around the Tower of London, the installation is gradually being expanded ...
As residents are aware, I have campaigned over a long period for more free to use cash machines and to have fewer - and hopefully in the future - no ATMs that charge local people for the pleasure of obtaining their own money. A couple of years ago, I was pleased that the Co-operative Group agreed to my request to covert the ATM at their store at the junction of Polepark Road/Edward Street/Brook Street to a free to use machine. Constituents have complained to me that the ATM at Dundee's bus station in Seagate charges for cash withdrawals so I ...
Yesterday evening, I was pleased to attend a preview at the University of Abertay of Living Room for the City, the exhibition of the V&A Museum of Design Dundee's first community engagement programme. The exhibition features the work of photographer Ross Fraser McLean with communities across the city, along with images contributed by the public, and lighting created at the Living Room Drop In and Design community workshops. It is really well worth a visit - open from 16th to 29th August 2014 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm / Sat-Sun 12-4pm) at the Hannah Maclure Centre in the Abertay Student Centre, 1-3 Bell ...
RSI's playing up a bit tonight, so you get links rather than a full post: The cost of getting a green card — immigration's hard everywhere... More from Scalzi on the Amazon/Hachette battle Malcolm Gladwell on organised crime, and how better policing and data retention actually make it harder for criminals to leave crime behind [...]
