View image | gettyimages.com Back in November 2007 I wrote an article about Moura Budberg, Nick Clegg's great great aunt, for the New Statesman website. I wrote: Part of Moura's mystique was that throughout her career it was equally possible to imagine her working for either side. The Allies or the Germans. The Whites or the Reds. The British or the Soviets. The enigma had not been solved by the time of her death in 1974, but there is a remarkable postscript to her story. A few years ago a batch of secret service files was released. They revealed that ...
Patrick McLoughlin was struggling on the Today programme this morning. He was asked why the train operating companies are allowed to get away with operating ticket machines that do not offer customers the cheapest fare for their journey. For some odd reason - he is a politician in election year, after all - he was unwilling to offer any sort of populist attack on these companies and just floundered. Then he thought of a clinching argument and you could hear the confidence return to his voice. You can't just turn up at an airport and buy a ticket on the ...
The post A Field Guide To Happiness appeared first on James Taylor.
Ever since my diagnosis with lymphoma last summer, I've tried to stay away from press coverage about cancer. This is because most of the time it's pretty poorly reported and I've found it far more helpful to refer to the information provided by my consultant, specialist charities and peer-reviewed science. However, a couple of press stories have caught my attention over the holiday period. The first of these was the reporting of Dr Richard Smith's views on death, from a BMJ blog article published on new year's eve. I'd encourage you to read the article, rather than some of the ...
The Open University celebrates it's 50th anniversary this year since it was conceived in 1965. Congratulations for the OU and everyone who has been involved in making it happen and supporting it's continuing success. Lord Young had the idea, it was Harold Wilson who promised to make it happen. It took several years of planning from 1965 to 1971 when it opened its doors. At. The time it started with 25,000 new students at at time when UK universities only had 130,000 students. It has gone from strength to strength with currently 250,000 students and combine alumni of close to ...
Blyth Town Council meetings for January are:- Tuesday 6th January , Planning & Development Committee (*) Thursday 8th January , Finance Committee Monday 12th January , Planning & Development Committee Tuesday 13th January , Allotments Committee Thursday 22nd January, Full Council (**) Tuesday 27th January, Events Committee Thursday 29th January , Planning & Development Committee All meetings are at Arms Evertyne House, and start at 6:30 pm (*) I think that this meeting is cancelled, but it still appears on the council's website. Please contact the council to confirm (**) This will be preceded by Public Question time , outside ...
Pop Sugar 2015 Reading Challenge: ✓ A book with non-human characters ✓A book based entirely on its cover ✓A book by an author you've never read before The trouble with deciding to do the stupid reading challenge is figuring out, if each book is to only count once, what to tick off with each book. For example, the first book finished could be three different ticks on the chart – which one do I pick? So let's put three ticks. I'm not a voracious reader – the chances of me reading fifty books in a year is pretty slim. [IMG: ...
Last one in this series. A classic from Father Ted, with great appreciation to the late great Dermot Morgan and Ardal O'Hanlon.
Subtle, very clever – and 'merely' what someone does in their spare time to entertain:
I love it when Richard Wilson takes his cap off and starts hitting Father Ted with it! Father Ted – I Don't Believe It!! by DSlevin
View image | gettyimages.com In August, the referendum got serious, but if it's a laugh you want, skip to the 4th post. It'll make you squeal. The SNP and Yes saw the writing on the wall so started using desperate tactics saying the NHS, which is completely devolved to Scotland anyway, was under threat, using a much depended upon institution as a political weapon. Some Liberal Democrats supported independence, though, as Denis Mollison wrote: Crucially for Liberal Democrats, how will the prospects for further devolution look on 19th September if we vote No? Any progress will depend on Tory or ...
Councillors are calling for Upper Bangor to become a Business Improvement District following the implementation of the scheme on the High Street. A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax (or levy) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. The BID is often funded primarily [...]
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Fri 2nd
15:12
Just how messed up is the continuity of the Terminator films going to be by the end of Genisys?
So this is funny. Someone's remixed the the trailer for Terminator: Genisys (sic) to draw attention to how strained the continuity of the franchise is likely to become. And it's only trying to account for the films. If it tried to factor in the Sarah Connor Chronicles it would be even more convoluted! To be fair, continuity was never one of the [...]
So 2014 is in the rear view mirror. I'm not sure it will be missed too much but I'm sure I can find some positives as well so why not have a look back at what happened in 2014 and how I feel going into 2015. One of the bigger stories of my life in 2014 was the end (either temporarily or permanently) of me being involved in radio. I won't close the door on returning to it at some point in the future wherever I end up but it was a disappointing end. There had been some great points ...
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... We should support Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz in the face of death threats – Stephen Tall | Tue 21st January 2014 The Archbishop Cranmer blog has a good account of Maajid's motivations: The fact that the BBC chose to censor a T-shirt depicting this cartoon rather upset Muslim Maajid Nawaz, who was a guest on the show. He proceeded to tweet out the image to his followers with the message: "This is not offensive & I'm sure ...
A cup of tea, that will help... I see that the Shadow Chancellor has written another piece for the Guardian explaining why George Osborne's austerity is bad but Labour's will be so much nicer - the axe will look pretty, as I understand it. So far, however, the actuality of what Labour might do to reduce the deficit to nil has been, to put it kindly, noticeable only by its lack of content, with the honourable exception of Rachel Reeves, who has proposed a range of changes to the social security system which are not really of the kind that ...
Fri 2nd
13:21
Malcolm Bruce: People will realise the positive impact Lib Dems have made in Government and will wan...
Lib Dem Deputy Leader Sir Malcolm Bruce told the Herald recently that Nick Clegg is "strong and resilient" and that the Liberal Democrats have achieved much in government. When people reflected on the last five years, he said, they would want to see us in Government again: The MP for Gordon said voters would in the next few months have to "think very hard" about what outcome they wanted on May 8. "At the moment, people are in protest, they don't like the fact we've had a really hard economic time and, therefore, they are not prepared at the moment ...
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Fri 2nd
11:59Charles Kennedy MP writes...Our challenge for 2015 is to make positive case for UK political reform
View image | gettyimages.com As the BBC Radio Scotland self-promotional message has been reminding us at regular intervals throughout the holiday period 2014 certainly was "Scotland's Year." The best of times, the worst of times. From the sporting triumphs of the outstandingly successful Commonwealth Games and the hosting of the victorious Ryder Cup through to the referendum and ending on the tragedy of the Glasgow bin lorry crash we have never been out of the news. The ever-perceptive journalist and commentator Iain MacWhirter (like myself, essentially, a federalist – unlike myself a Yes voter) reckons that the referendum represented the ...
View image | gettyimages.com The Times [£] first reported: Staff in Labour's Brewer's Green headquarters are furious at the creation of Labour People, a private company offering political consultancy services that claims to have the backing of Iain McNicol, the party's general secretary... This has led staff at Labour HQ to claim that Mr McNicol does not trust them. They also fear that the consultancy, which they allege has been handed confidential briefings written for Labour MPs, will charge fees for services already provided in-house, depriving the party of revenue... The letter [of complaint from party staff], copied to Mr ...
Fri 2nd
10:51
Comedy bits which crack me up - No 4 - I normally don't make castle calls in the middle of the night...
The dentist scene with the nitrous oxide from "The Pink Panther strikes again". Two fantastically funny performances from Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. "Rearranging the furniture in order to give you the full effect of the anaesthetic...." is the bit that kills me. Especially the way Sellers says "anaes-the-tic".
This clip is made by the fact that the director kept the camera on the car, rather than following Basil Fawlty as he gets a branch....
Oh. This one is Morecambe and Wise as well.....showing my age. Andre Previn's bit with them. "All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order" gets me every time. Even now I am in tears of laughter just typing that!
Penelope Keith on the MOrecambe & Wise show. It's the bit where Eric Morecambe says "Dignity at all times" that cracks me up...
So we get to July. Time for a long, hot Summer unwinding by the beach? Not a chance. Not with a referendum on... But first, there was emergency legislation to cover internet data loopholes. In a mammoth post, we looked at the pros, cons and dangers for our party. The papers covered the promotion of some Tory women by comparing their outfits rather than their competence. Nick Clegg mocked them on Twitter. He did that quite a few times over the year, being random and funny and getting talked about. There was a change of heart from the party on ...
View image | gettyimages.com Journalist Alan Cochrane's bombastic diaries cover the Scottish independence referendum, starting with the long run up from January 2012. Although the title echoes that of Spike Milligan's famous Adolf Hitler: my part in his downfall his wit does not rise to the allusion and much of the bombast is simple, standard insulting fare short of originality or panache and with a touch of sexist language about female politicians he doesn't like (as when one gets dismissed as a "Fife wifie"). [IMG: Alex Salmond - my part in his downfall by Alan Cochrane] To be fair, he ...
The piece in front of you was inspired in part by a great FT article by Kiran Stacey and Jim Pickard yesterday. It's called "Ukip's tilt to the left upsets traditionalists" and it details the tensions within UKIP as it tries to rid itself of the, as the article puts it, "More Tories than the Tories" image. The whole, shall we say, softening of UKIP's ultra-libertarian economic policy began in earnest last summer. It thus far has reached its surreal pinnacle in the leaflet put round by the party during the Heywood and Middleton by-election this past October, one which ...
Call me quirky if you will, but I rather liked the video marking the fact that Latvia will hold the Presidency of the European Council for the first half of 2015 - Luxembourg are next - and so, having discovered the follow up, I thought that I ought to bring it to your attention...
Miscarriage of justice victims will find it harder to get compensation as MoJ betray their name AGAIN (tags: ) Sarah Ditum wants you to stop being so mean to Leelah Alcorn's parents (tags: ) The Open-Office Trap - why open offices are bad on pretty much every measurable level (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: Cadan ap Thomas] Welsh Liberal Democrat Cadan ap Tomos has been selected to fight the seat of Cardiff West at the General Election. Wales Online has the details: Fluent Welsh speaker Cadan grew up in Ceredigion and now works in the National Assembly for the party. The University of York graduate said: "I'm delighted to have been selected to fight Cardiff West for the Welsh Lib Dems. Labour has been taking our communities for granted for far too long, and I look forward to running a strong campaign in the run up to next May." Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader ...
I have posted about this building before – see link below:- [IMG: rsz_st_monicas_bootle] The reason I return to it now is because of a book by Hugh Hollinghurst called 'Bootle Through Time' which I came across recently. This is what Hugh says about the church:- St Monica's church in the modernist style of 1936, designed by the distinguished architect Valarde, is noted particularly for its fine windows. It is praised by Pevsner as an 'epoch-making church for England' in South Lancashire and is given the accolade of illustrating the front cover of Pollard's updated edition of Pevsner Lancashire: Liverpool ...
Fri 2nd
08:19
Wlitshire Council's solar panels saving money – we have known this for years in Maghull & ...
Solar panels to save £7,000 a year Wiltshire Council has installed new solar panels on three council-owned buildings which it says will save £7,000 a year. The authority expects its annual energy bills to be reduced by £7,343 and the sites to generate £11,000 a year by selling energy back to the national grid. BBC News recently carried this story. But this is far from being new news as both Maghull Town Hall (run by Maghull Town Council) and Lydiate Village Centre (run by Lydiate Parish Council) have been generating both power and income in the thousands of £'s for ...
View image | gettyimages.com R.I.P Mario Cuomo 1932 – 2015 This is the fantastic speech Mario Cuomo made to the 1984 Democratic Convention. It is a fitting tribute to a great man.
The Independent highlights this advert which until recently was on the Visit Britain website: Visit Britain is the tourism agency responsible for promoting Britain worldwide, however it has been using an image of the Lake District to advertise Wales. The photograph encouraging US tourists to take a day trip out of Cardiff to the Brecon Beacons is actually of Skiddaw near Keswick. Perhaps the Welsh Minister responsible for tourism should give them a geography lesson.
Fri 2nd
05:30Meanwhile on a political discussion forum, a debate gets under way on the difference between censors...
View image | gettyimages.com
View image | gettyimages.com
