© Stephen Craven From English Buildings back in 2008: Launde Abbey was originally an Augustinian priory founded in the 12th century. Beautifully sited in this dip, it must have looked inviting with its church and group of stone buildings. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's minister who organized the survey of England's monasteries that eventually led to the dissolution, certainly thought so. When the religious houses closed in the 1530s, of all the monasteries in England, Cromwell bagged Launde for himself. 'Myself for Launde,' he wrote in his journal. The Cromwell family built themselves a house at Launde, incorporating the priory's church ...
Earl Shilton is a fairly nondescript village in Leicestershre ... But in 1959 and 1960, suggests this startling film from the British Pathé collection, it was in the headlines ... This film ... shows the return home to Earl Shilton of 12-year-old Tony Stephens after having been kidnapped and kept on the Continent for 15 months. The commentary says that the boy's father, a milkman, gave up his job and searched Europe for him and the film shows an art master, Kevin Tracey, being taken off to Hinckley to be questioned.So I blogged about this case after discovering the film ...
Back in 2007, I wrote a short article about Moura Budberg for the New Statesman website. Moura may or may not have been a Soviet spy: she was certainly Nick Clegg's great great aunt. Now comes news that a biography of her is on its way. A Very Dangerous Woman by Deborah McDonald and Jeremy Dronfield will be published in May. On her website, Deborah McDonald writes: This is the first book to make use of the Freedom of Information Act to evaluate the woman who was Moura. MI5 files, Lockhart's unpublished diary, letters and extensive interviews with those who ...
The neighbouring village of Stowupland forms about 88% of my District ward, the one I gallantly fought and lost in 2011. Had I won then, I would now be faced with what appears to be a highly unpopular planning application to build new houses on the eastern edge of the village, on what is currently agricultural land. There is no doubt that the planned development is quite substantial, proportionately at least. 190 homes equates to about 22% of the existing housing stock, and would have a sizeable impact on local infrastructure. The village has no doctor's surgery and poor public ...
... and the results are in. In yesterday's by-election the results were; Con Harford 787 (Elected) UKIP Hale 251 LD Whelan 238 Lab Smith 235 Green Roland 200 The turnout was a very low 23.64%.
[IMG: Zoe O'Connell - equalities speech at Lib Dem conference] Congratulations Zoe: Trans activist Zoe O'Connell has been selected as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Liberal Democrats. Ms O'Connell - who is Secretary of the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats - has been selected to stand for the party in the constituency of Maldon. She told PinkNews: "It's where I grew up. It's an area I spent a lot of time in. "I know it well, and I'm very keen to represent it. I'm ready to fight!"
Up at 06.15 this morning. and after a quick cup of tea and a piece of toast, Lindsay drove me to St. Thomas's for an 07.30 appointment to have a cataract removed from my right eye. After some delay while the administrator searched for the list, I waa first up. The operation isn't painful, just a bit uncomfortable. You have to stay completely still. looking into a very bright light for about half an hour, while the surgeon removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a plastic one, under a local anaesthetic. We were on the way home by ...
Kurds from all over Europe — including many who had matched long distances — converged in Strasbourg today to mark the handover to the Council of Europe of a petition signed by more than 10 million people calling for the release of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the banned PKK, who has been in prison on [...]
Everyone knows that we need to get on the doorstep and talk to to voters. But by using Connect you can be more efficient and effective. Targeting who we talk to saves critical time and effort. Clever Contact Use Connect to target who you speak to at each point in the campaign. Groups such as : Supporters Squeeze, Switch, Stay at home, postal voters and frequent /infrequent voters contacts for recruiting helpers, delivers etc can all be identified for phone or foot canvassing Remove the backlog of canvass card data entry Use the MiniVan mobile phone app – . replacing ...
Cornwall's Youth Parliament representatives are announced and we can be very proud of our local secondary school! A student of Cape Cornwall secondary school, Owen Davies, has become the member of Youth Parliament for West Cornwall. It maybe a small school but its achievements are big and I hope you too are proud that they supported the students in taking part in this democratic election. [IMG: Youth Parliament Cornwall 2015] Youth Parliament Cornwall 2015 More than 5,500 young people from 27 schools, 2 colleges and a number of youth projects across Cornwall took part in this year's election and chose ...
Southwark Labour have decided to curtail food waste collections by no longer providing free biodegradeable bags to residents. They say that normal carrier bags can be used or bio bags can be bought from supermarkets or that residents can wrap food waste in sheets of newspaper. These may be true but what what will happen is food waste collections will plummet. If Southwark Council don't take food waste collections seriously why should residents. But generally Southwark Labour have failed to hit their own recycling target by 2014 of 44% by a whopping unrecyclable 10% (they reached 34%). They are going ...
[IMG: UK Driverless Car trial] Sky reported this week on that favourite topic of mine: Driverless Car Trials Begin Across Britain... Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The UK is at the cutting edge of automotive technology – from the all-electric cars built in Sunderland to the Formula One expertise in the Midlands. "It's important for jobs, growth and society that we keep at the forefront of innovation, that's why I launched a competition to research and develop driverless cars. "The projects we are now funding will help to ensure we are world leaders in this field and able to benefit ...
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Fri 13th
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Not the Whitesnake many of my generation and European love (the Ready n Willing years) - but in rece...
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Fri 13th
16:46Never a great fan of the Deep Rainbow abomination line-up - but there were a couple of good tunes
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Fri 13th
16:39A failure of young people as far as I am concerned, how are the drinks industry in this country of o...
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[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] Three principal council by-election were held yesterday. In Cambridgeshire (CC), the Conservatives comfortably held their seat in Bar Hill ward, polling 46% of the vote to finish 536 votes ahead of the UKIP candidate. Fiona Whelan finished a close third with 13.9%, an improvement on the party's vote share in the ward's previous election in 2013 of 5.4%. The contest in Oswestry East ward in Shropshire (UA) once again saw the Conservatives secure an easy hold, with their candidate finish 411 votes ahead of second place Labour with 47.5% of the vote. Lib Dem ...
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DBTWeek Two Week OneObserve: Describe: Participate Autopilot: we all function on autopilot; our bodies do it all the time, how many times in the day do you find yourself thinking about your breathing? We do it without thought, it is an inbuilt function of our evolution, as is blinking, and we just do it. The reflections of my past are always present and they swiftly pass through my conscious and unconscious mind. A therapist once told me that I have control over the speed of these thoughts, I can she said: comparing my whirlpool contemplations to a high-speed train; "Get ...
Mark Hunter MP has organised a public meeting so you can have your say, and put forward your ideas, on improving the Kingsway junction. The meeting will take place at 7pm on Friday 20th February at Cheadle (Kingsway) Sports Club, 225 Kingsway, Cheadle, SK8 1LA, hosted by Mark Hunter MP and Cllr Iain Roberts. Mark has also invited representatives from the Highways Agency, TfGM and Stockport Council.
My letter to today's Medway Messenger regarding the anti-social behaviour and policing in Gillingham. This is the letter in its original format. There is growing anger in the Residential areas of Gillingham where residents are feeling abandoned by the local police. Time and again there is antisocial behaviour on Sturdee Avenue, Valley road, Franklin road and on the High street. Alleyways are haunted by youths smoking and under aged drinking and sometimes worse.The Forrester's hall on Sturdee Avenue was broken into and vandalised regularly and this has been reported to the Police on more than one occasion including by myself ...
[IMG: cf hero jon stewart] Jon Stewart Presenter of US Comedy Central's satirical The Daily Show Reason: for promoting sane political discourse. Jon Stewart, presenter of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (he really was born to present it), this week announced his retirement after 16 years at the helm. To US liberals, he's something of a hero; to conservatives he'd be a bête noire if they could stomach the use of the foreign label. A Democrat sympathiser, he rose to fame during the Bush II presidency, skewering the Administration's response to 9/11 and the conduct of the second Iraq ...
From Network Rail You may or may not be aware that Network Rail has called off the Feb closures as a result of a 350,000 tonne landslide at Harbury, which is blocking the Chiltern line into London Marylebone. As part of the February closures, the industry was advising passengers to use alternative routes into London. [...]
In a never-ending drive to invade every part of our privacy, latest guidelines from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to family doctors is to prescribe, amongst other things, more sex to patients who are deemed to require more exercise. Ew! And it get's worse, the guidelines suggest that patients could then be called or texted by their doctor to make sure they are sticking to the advice. Really? What planet are these people from? Bad enough that you go to visit your local GP and get asked how much you drink and how many cigarettes you smoke, you may ...
Imagine that health professionals had the time to make everyone feel valued and cared for personally. Imagine there was an infinite resource to provide the kind of informal care that keeps people healthy. Imagine there was enough time. Well, the peculiar thing - if you set the questions out like that - is that there is enough time, if you have the infrastructure and institutions that can use NHS patients, their time and experience, and that of their family and neighbours, as a resource. That is becoming a familiar idea and the NHS is embracing the co-production agenda, even if ...
[IMG: Chicago] Kelsey Grammer? Brilliant. The rest of The Boss? Frustratingly close. The TV series The Boss never made it to the big time – it only got to its second season before being cancelled and only managed a late night screening on a lesser channel on British TV. But the tale of a fictional Chicago Mayor, played brilliantly by Kelsey Grammer, is oh so close to being a classic. [IMG: The Boss - Kelsey Grammer] At its best, Grammer powers the show to a cross between The West Wing and House of Cards. At its worst, implausible characters and ...
Not so long ago I reproduced some old photos of Exchange Station from the National Railway Museum's collection in York and a link to some photos on the BBC's web site – see the links below:- I subsequently came across a greetings card that had a painting of the station on the front of it and a lovely painting it is too by Philip Welsh. Click on the painting to enlarge it:- [IMG: Exchange Station Liverpool 1950's from a painting by Philip Welsh] The cards are being sold to fund raise for the Friends of the 502 Group ...
One of the glories of being British (and English) is the inveterate enthusiasm for some of its inhabitants for voluntarily running otherwise defunct branch-lines and restoring old steam trains. [IMG: lionheart_painting_small.jpg] And not to mention the mild inconvenience of a large second-hand bookshop being opened in the original station in Alnwick! Anyway, it is encouraging such projects of this nature should be at least partially helped by the 'EU' and 'Defra', although, with a little more funding and imagination it would surely have been possible to build a bridge or a tunnel under the A1 and thus make this railway ...
I have had so much correspondence on this issue over the past few days that I thought it would be useful to pen a post to set out some of my thoughts. And they are thoughts only, because working locally in frontline mental health care, on a public sector salary, I don't have much personal [...]
Over the past couple of years or more I have received reasonably regular electronic communications from folk who, on checking the electoral register, don't seem to exist at all. The common denominator is that they are often responding to a blog posting of mine. Readers may recall that I was for a while seemingly getting communications from people within the Ford Motor company. My previous posting refers:- It seems some people have plenty of time on their hands and want to contact me but in doing so they wish to conceal their identity. Why? I am always happy to ...
A little known thing about me, is that before politics and before the Council and way back in the annals of time (see 2008) I was involved in a Channel 4 education TV show. The show followed the lives on 15 young people across a year where we each had really clear goals. One member of the team was a Labour PPC, one was starting what has become a fantastic poetry collective in Nottingham called Mouthy Poets. My 'big dream' was to submit a song to the Eurovision Song Contest, and it's an aim that I achieved, in a round ...
I have made a promise of spending every Friday out on the doorstep, I thought I would update you all on some of my recent experiences out campaigning. The other week I had another inspiring day on the campaign trail, this time with Jasper Gerrard and his team. The age of the team ranged from 22 to 78! Who says we can't generate commitment! Jasper is clearly neck and neck here with the unpopular Tory incumbent. The perfect antidote to those who are paying too much attention to the national polls. [IMG: TCJ Maidstone] I had another brilliant day in ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. Just who thought this was a good idea? The reactions to it seem to be unsurprisingly very negative.
Three principal council by-election were held yesterday. In Cambridgeshire (CC), the Conservatives comfortably held their seat in Bar Hill ward, polling 46% of the vote to finish 536 votes ahead of the UKIP candidate. Fiona Whelan finished a close third with 13.9%, an improvement on the party's vote share in the ward's previous election in 2013 of 5.4%. The contest in Oswestry East ward in Shropshire (UA) once again saw the Conservatives secure an easy hold, with their candidate finish 411 votes ahead of second place Labour with 47.5% of the vote. Lib Dem candidate Amanda Woof registered 16.5% to ...
I receive a daily e-mail from the European Parliament, of my own free will, it might surprise readers to know. Generally, they're all a bit... well, dull and far too vast to read. However, occasionally, there is something that catches my eye... The European Parliament as a whole voted on Thursday to set up a special parliamentary committee to look into EU member states' "tax rulings and other measures similar in nature or effect" and make recommendations for the future. The committee will have 45 members and is established for an initial period of six months.Result of the vote: 612 ...
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For over two years I have been fighting plans to opencast a site in my ward to the south of Marley Hill village. UK Coal (now Harworth Estates) had wanted to extract a million tonnes of coal from the former colliery site and surrounding countryside. Last June, Labour in Gateshead backed the plans and voted them through. That was not, however, the end of the story. The proposed site crossed into
Jeremy Browne has used an interview with the Independent to continue his love-in with Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. The headline says he called Nick Clegg "insipid" but he didn't use that word directly about the leader. However, he did say something that will probably find some sympathy across the whole party. I've often said that we need to be passionate about who we are and not define ourselves by who we are not so that we're just pushing ourselves as moderating influence on the other parties. I don't like it when a speech is memorable for its mention ...
Edition #57 of Liberal Democrat Newswire came out last week, looking at why the TV debates will be on the wrong dates, who should you bet on to be next party leader and more. You can also read it below, but if you'd like the convenience of getting it direct by email in future, just sign up here. It's free! Welcome to the 57th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire which this time kicks off with the 10 key people for the Liberal Democrats in a hung Parliament who no-one is currently talking about, takes a look at possible next leaders ...
South Glos is now offering people living in flats with communal recycling facilities an improved standardised service. Following the changes, waste will be collected from four types of bin stored in the communal areas: Paper and cardboardPlastic, cans, aerosols and foilGlass bottles and jarsBlack residual bins will still be available for those materials that cannot be recycled.These changes do not affect flats that receive the normal household collection service. The current bins used in communal waste facilities will be changed over to the new bins during the weeks beginning 2 and 9 March. The new bins are actually recycled themselves ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention this week... Lib Dems remain a vital option for the British electorate, despite the body-blows – Editorials – Voices – The Independent Indy editorial: "if the [Lib Dems] hold their nerve, there is a promising future ahead" http://ind.pn/1KRgaAr Channel 4 News Reprimands Cathy Newman After False Claim She Was "Ushered" From A Mosque – BuzzFeed News Incl exchange of letters > C4 News Issues Warning To Cathy Newman After False Claim She Was "Ushered" From A Mosque http://bzfd.it/1J0l9mL Faith schools are not brimming with unqualified teachers Interesting – state-funded Roman ...
Yesterday, UKIP officially launched its general election campaign. Predictably, Farage gave a speech in a target seat in Essex. He described his party as "the challenger in virtually every seat from Birmingham to Hadrian's Wall" and later described both Labour and the Conservative parties as "regional" ones, with the Conservatives only able to get seats in the south, Labour the north, whereas UKIP are a "truly national party". Okay, lots to get through here so I'd better start. First of all to call yourself a national party, presumably a party that can win anywhere in the country, and then describe ...
Interesting quotes from Clegg on #pinkbus - still assuming that women's main focus is childcare thô :( (tags: ) Terrible books for ruining children's health by @garwboy - Who Can Lick Most Numberplates LMAO (tags: ) Harriet Harman's Mumsnet webchat did not go well (tags: ) Hung parliaments could break Labour-Tory stranglehold on drug policy (tags: ) Liberal England: That Liberal Democrat manifesto front page in full (tags: ) Opinion: Pubs matter so why not protect them in planning law? (tags: ) Alex Salmond Played A Ghost In A Bollywood Soap Opera And We Found The Video (tags: ) Surge ...
[IMG: Screen Shot 2015-02-12 at 16.45.55] One of the first things Liberal Democrats in government did was to scrap the UK wide National Identity Scheme. It would have been all to easy then for NO2ID to pack up, say job done and go home. Thankfully that didn't happen and the remnants of the campaign instead carried on keeping watchful eye on developments of what has been coined the database state. The database state is the term we now use to describe the tendency of governments to try and use computers to manage and control society. Another attribute of this database ...
Some time ago, I asked the City Council to tidy the overgrown, litter-strewn area at the top of Ford's Lane, south of the Pennycook Lane car park. I am pleased to say it has since been nicely tidied - see below :
I am starting to feel sorry for Harriet Harman. She does not appear to be able to do anything right. First of all we have the patronising saga of the pink van, chasing women's votes and which promises to offer new and embarrassing headlines for Labour every day up to the General Election and now we have 'prettygate', where she is accused of suggesting to a prospective Labour candidate that she was too pretty for politics. Dan Hodges in the Telegraph has been particularly scathing about the pink van: Harriet Harman, who proudly unveiled the strategy, was challenged on the ...
The Post Office at 369 Lordship Lane is proposed to move to 394-395 Lordship Lane during May/June 2015 A 6 week consultation will start shortly – comments to comments@postoffice.co.uk – before 24 March 2015. Ideally any comments to post office please copy me cllrjamesbarber@gmail.com 369 Lordship Lane Post Office Consultation The new post office will be open for business 7am-11pm Mon-Sat & Sun 8am-11pm vs. current 9am-17.30 MOn-Fri, Sat 9am-1pm & Sun closed. The new Post Office won't be able to do Transcash without barcode, NS&I Premium Savings Bonds, On demand travel insurance, payment by cheque. My feedback will be ...
Cardiff's Liberal Democrats have welcomed the decision by Cardiff Council to reverse its planned cuts to the city's libraries. Following strong grassroots campaigns supported by Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners, libraries at Radyr, Whitchurch, Rhiwbina, Rhydypennau, Rumney, Cathays and Roath have been saved from Labour's cuts. Reacting to the announcement, Jenny Willott, the Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central said: "It's brilliant that thanks to the determination of Cardiff's campaigners, our libraries won't be facing Labour's axe this time. Hundreds of residents signed local Lib Dem petitions against these closures, and I wouldn't be surprised if such strong campaigns ...
[IMG: Pakistan border] Blogging the great flowchart Should you vaccinate your child? reminded me to follow up on the tragic anti-vaccination experiment being carried out reluctantly in Pakistan. The vaccination drive in that country has run into major violent opposition, a proximate cause for which was the role of a doctor involved in vaccinations in the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, though this was only a trigger for longer-running desires to oppose the government and foreign aid combined with a contempt for science and a disregard for the health of fellow Muslims on the part of extremists in Pakistan. The ...
Referral to treatment time figures released yesterday show that 21,226 patients in Wales have been waiting over 36 weeks to start their treatment. This is the highest figure since September 2011. Referral to treatment time is the period of time from referral by a GP or other medical practitioner to hospital for treatment in the NHS in Wales. The Welsh Labour Government target is that not a single patient should wait over 36 weeks. The Welsh Labour Government says it wants to tackle long term waiting lists, yet these figures are the highest they have been since 2011. It is ...
Today was a first in more ways than one. It was my first interview by students as candidate for Blaydon. And it was the first time I have met up with people to discuss politics in a Pret a Manger! The two students I met were from St Thomas More School in the constituency and they are putting together an article about the various candidates and parties for a school publication. There is no
