An ATV report from 1972.
If my husband has any complaints that I've transported myself back to 1980 and have been listening to ABBA all afternoon, he has only himself to blame. He broke all the rules on what books to buy for me for ... Continue reading →
From the Guardian obituary of Jeremy Lloyd: His career could have been different had he listened to the director Joseph Losey. When Losey was looking for an aristocrat to play opposite Dirk Bogarde in the Harold Pinter-scripted movie The Servant (1963), he sought Lloyd, who was playing a twit opposite Kenneth More in a film called We Joined the Navy (1963). "Ever played a homosexual?" asked Losey. "You'd be good."Lloyd declined and James Fox got the part.A clear winner for our Trivial Fact of the Day Award.
A desperately moving post by Kate Gross, who died on Christmas morning. Nick Sparrow asks how reliable online polling is: "pollsters are not innocent observers of public opinion, but active participants in the political process; not only reporting public opinion but helping to shape it. Participation that, the British Population Survey suggests, may rest on some very shaky foundations." Living on Words Alone has videos of David Steel talking about the closure and reopening of the Waverley route, How did roasting vegetables become a thing? J. Bryan Lowder explains. "At a children's birthday party,,, I inadvertently caused a ruckus when ...
It's been reported that Parcel delivery company City Link, who have offices at Fengate, has gone into administration. Sadly this will mean redundancies locally? As always there are several questions already about how the company have gone about things. For example, it was only 6 months ago that the company were press releasing the fact [...]
With the end of the year looming, I thought I'd do what I usually do at this time of the year and see which my most read posts written during the year were. Looking back on 2014 is personally quite challenging. Five of the most read posts are about a topic that I wouldn't have dreamed I'd be writing about this time last year – being diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma. 1. It's lymphoma – My initial diagnosis of nHL in August. 5. Overcoming my fear – "... if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even ...
I was listening to the Guardian Tech Weekly podcast last night while everyone else was watching the Christmas Dr Who. The first item discussed whether, with the rise of Serial in particular, podcasting was one of the tech and social media highlights of 2014. The conclusion was that podcasting continues to grow in popularity, but there was nothing particularly notable about 2014. But 2014 very much was the year when I started listening to podcasts in a big way. In part that was because I started making my own, very intermittent, podcast and was interested in what was possible and ...
Throughout the 12 days of Christmas, we're bringing you the 12 most-read posts on this site of 2014. Here's today's offering... Time for Nick Clegg to ditch the "Great Britain not Little England" line – Stephen Tall | Sun 30th March 2014 I realise that what Nick Clegg refers to as 'Little England' is a catch-all term for the right's "inward-looking and defensive agenda". But, to many voters listening, it will more likely appear that their identity is simply being belittled by one of those Westminster elite politicians they feel so detached from. It's the kind of language that fuels ...
About this time last year, we asked you to name your Liberal Democrat Stars of 2013. Little did we know that what we thought might be an interesting comments thread for a day or two would turn into a six part Liberal Democrat Roll of Honour with some really lovely tributes to some fabulous people. This year has been pretty a gruelling time to be a Liberal Democrat, I'm not going to lie about that. What's kept me going, though, is the camaraderie, inspiration and sheer dedication of so many people in this party. This coming year is not going ...
Fri 26th
11:15
Call Clegg Christmas Special - bullying, learning support for children in hospital, jungles and jump...
I think it must have been about 12:05 yesterday when I realised that there actually was no hope for me. I mean, it was Christmas Day and there I was not only listening to the Call Clegg Christmas Special, but tweeting about it as well. In my defence, the people who were re-tweeting what I was saying were probably worse. My intention was to listen to the show while peeling the turnips and tatties (the latter being auto-corrected to tattoos on Twitter, to much hilarity) for dinner. I did get them done, eventually, but I guess my tweets were making ...
Having said that my last posting on the First World Ward War had been done unless someone gave me another photo............ Well I have that photo, taken in the last few days by Jen Robertson, and it is a great one too:- [IMG: rsz_img_6149] In the famous bombed out church at the top of Liverpool's Bold Street – St Lukes, which I have posted about previously, this new memorial was temporarily placed. It celebrates that time on Christmas Day when opposing armies played football together in no mans land. A truly fitting end to my postings about World War One ...
The old bridge across the railway from Shire Way to Wapley Common (Sergeant's Farm Bridge) was craned out this morning (Boxing Day) in a spectacular operation by Network Rail's contractors Murphy and crane operators James Jack. The 1900s structure was stubborn to the last - it took a man with a sladgehammer to free it from its masonry supports.
Fri 26th
10:25
How political leaflets used to look: when there were two Edward Heaths on the ballot paper
Prior to the 1970 general election, only candidate names appeared on the ballot paper. Harold Wilson's Labour government changed the law* to allow a party name to be included alongside that of the candidate, sensibly so given that knowing which party a candidate belongs to is in practice a key piece of information for most voters even if the democratic theory was about choosing individuals purely on their own merits. However, there was nothing to stop unofficial candidates trying to pass themselves off with plausible-looking party names. One even went further, changing their name by deed poll to that of ...
When I listen to Ministers talk about deregulating planning I wonder if any of them have ever sat on a planning committee. It is never as black and white as they like to pretend. That is not to say that the planning process could not be improved or even that planners could not be a bit more relaxed in their approach to certain restricted areas with the objective of helping people onto the housing ladder for example. Clearly, that change in approach is desirable. This story in the Times though is one that all those calling for change should note. ...
The Western Mail and Echo reports on new statistics that show the number of people commuting out of Wales for work has hit a record high. They say that every day, 88,700 people travel from their homes in Wales to workplaces in Bristol, Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire. Overall, 6.6% of the population commutes out of Wales to work, the highest proportion for as far back as records go in 2001. And twice as many people now commute out of Wales for work than those who commute in, with 42,100 arriving to work in Wales. Peter Black, the Liberal Democrat AM ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention this week... Why a year of little change felt like one of sustained crisis | Rafael Behr | Comment is free | The Guardian Brilliant as ever from Rafael Behr: "The paradoxical instability of British politics in 2014: standing still faster." http://bit.ly/1CCQQy9 BBC News – Victorian Strangeness: Four Christmas incidents Tales of festive terrorism, murder, violence and first-degree burns, all told with a jaunty tone. You're welcome http://bbc.in/1vaZ2wZ Lords a leaping: how some in the upper house jump ahead of defecting MPs Canny seasonal headline > Lords a leaping: how ...
Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty - how Facebook can hurt without meaning to some of the comments under this post are breathtaking in their insensitivity (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
