And they look absurdly young to modern eyes. After his extraordinary acting in Performance - you see his half-smile and hooded eyes in every British gangster flick to this day - Fox had some sort of breakdown-cum-religious-experience and disappeared from films for a decade. Today he is the father and uncle of an acting dynasty and father-in-law to Billie Piper and Richard Ayoade.
In the last few months I've worked with Quilliam to produce and promote the following powerful counter-extremism film:
Never mind the increase in tuition fees: more students than ever from poor backgrounds are going to university. Or are they? Peter Horrocks says think again. Duncan Campbell tells the story of a life spent unmasking Britain's eavesdroppers. Andy Boddington reports a breakthrough in the battle for affordable housing in Shropshire and other rural areas. Africa has half as many lions as 20 years ago, but don't blame trophy hunting say Lochran Traill and Norman Owen-Smith. "When the lights are dipped, Macgowan actually seems to be Savile. God knows how, but he even captures the bulging eyes, the indulgent slouch, ...
An explanation of the principles of the Liberal Democrats in terms of a few basic values and assumptions about human nature and society. Then a quick summary of our approach to certain policy areas. A party's philosophy or ideology is a combination of its basic principles, which change little, and, based on these, particular approaches... More Liberal Democrats Philosophy
I used to be an extremely good, effective, political campaigner. Now I'm a liability. I want to change that. In 2010, during the General Election, I delivered so many leaflets that I amazed even several of the hardier campaigner — for several years, one of our then-councillors would talk about how "we gave him a [...]
I attended the public exhibition put on by Coriolis Energy at Lydiate Village Centre today. [IMG: Coriolis Consultation at LVC 05 08 15] Dealing with this matter is tough as surely we all want to support renewable energy such as solar or wind power, unless that is you happen to be a climate change denier. For me the big issue is the fact that the developer wants to build the turbines on high grade agricultural land. I oppose this scarce resource being compromised because only around 2% of England's land mass is of such high quality. [IMG: The stars on ...
Avon and Somerset Police recently arrested five people and seized seventy stolen bikes after a year long investigation. As of 29th July, twenty eight of these had no known owners and photographs have been posted here: If you think one of the bikes might be yours, call 101. You can read more on the story here.
[IMG: Newspapers. FreeImages.com/Nandet] Straight out of the Ronseal school of website naming, it aggregates political news... providing you with the latest stories from a range of the most important and best media outlets and blogs. It's at aggregator.markpack.org.uk. Happy reading!
Wed 5th
16:19
The endless ingenuity of cold callers to try to talk themselves out of the Telephone Preference Serv...
I was cold called by Xxxxxx from the "Energy Efficiency Centre" this afternoon (I won't say the guy's name as he has a living to earn even though he has been misdirected by his superiors). That by the way, is the well established entity called the "Energy Efficiency Centre" which doesn't come up on a Google search. I said straight away that we're on the Telephone Preference Service. He replied that they contacted me through machine dialling on their computer which is not covered by the TPS, which only covers manually dialled calls. I then wished him "good afternoon". He ...
Have you run a great campaign? If so ALDC want to hear from you! The ALDC Campaigner Award winners highlight the best ideas and practice of Liberal Democrat activists across the Country and we are still looking for entries to this year's Campaigner Awards. We have already had some great examples from Focus teams at ALDC HQ and will be sharing these more widely after Conference but we still want to hear from you. The awards include prizes for the Best Ward Campaign, for engaging with your local members, the best literature and examples of digital campaigning well as community ...
City cycle hire scheme goes from strength to strength Bath & North East Somerset Council's Nextbike in Bath cycle hire scheme has seen substantial growth since its introduction last year by the Liberal Democrats. It has proved a great success with residents and visitors alike. The success of this scheme is in marked contrast to the complete failure of a scheme put in place by the previous Conservative administration. A key difference is that whereas the Tory scheme only had 4 stations The Next bike scene started with 'stations' located at nine key points around the city, the bikes have ...
Wed 5th
14:15
"Opportunity, community, sustainability and an open mind." Willie Rennie's liberal values for today'...
On Sunday night, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie made a speech in St John's Church in Edinburgh. He talked about his vision of liberalism and what it means for today's world. He looked at the consistency of liberal values in practice through the ages and quoted Charles Kennedy on finding the way forward from the history books. There's nothing particularly new in there, and I'm not sure about this "militant for the reasonable person" phrase. Reasonable, is, after all, a very subjective phrase. I'm sure Nigel Farage thinks he's being reasonable, but generally liberals find what he says deeply ...
New leader, new members, wins in the Lords – the fightback is on. But Liberal Democrats shouldn't ditch the crucial debate about what the party is for. A values-driven blueprint for opposition is essential, but doesn't answer the killer question. If the Lib Dems didn't exist, why invent them? The party cannot simply become a vessel for virtue signalling. I believe that a bold, liberal vision should rest on a progressive case for a smaller central state. This ambition is usually framed negatively – but a smaller state is a positive ideal. I once joined a group exercise involving best-case ...
[IMG: York Liberal Democrat Council Group] Since the elections in May Liberal Democrats in York have been faced with ongoing questions surrounding devolution. The recent Summer Budget announcements on devolution pose us with many challenges however they also gives us a welcome opportunity to ensure that decisions can be taken closer to the communities they affect, rather than in Whitehall. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has paved the way for devolution in England with Nick Clegg announcing their City Deal in March 2012. They will hold the first elections for a directly elected metro-mayor in 2017. Authorities across the country ...
I felt compelled to put into words my thoughts on the situation in Calais following David Cameron's intervention, describing those seeking refuge in the United Kingdom, as 'swarming' over the border. To invoke the language of the BNP, UKIP, the National Front, and the English Defence League is irresponsible and inflammatory. Similar language was used by the Daily Mail in the 1930s when describing Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. My family are refugees; my grandparents and their three young daughters were forced to flee their homes following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974. This issue is therefore very close to ...
UPDATED DETAILS Green seat. Cause:Resignation. LD Candidate- Will Millinship.
UPDATED DETAILS SNP seat. Cause:Resignation. LD Candidate- Isabel Nelson.
SNP seat. Cause:Resignation (now MP). LD Candidate- Chris Young.
UPDATED DETAILS SNP seat. Cause:Resignation (now MP). LD Candidate- Matthew Cockburn.
Years ago, I was having lunch with my then American publisher who asked me - as American publishers tend to do - what I wanted to do with my life from then on. I said I wanted to write as many books as I possibly could. I thought he would be pleased by this, but he wasn't. "Why quantity?" he asked. It was a good question. I mention this because a number of people have mentioned to me over the past week (thank you, Simon!) that they were surprised at the range of subjects I was writing about. I know ...
It has now been confirmed that Whitefield Ambulance Station is closing. As we understand the 'HQ function' (offices) that have been there are going to Bolton. One ambulance will be based at to Whitefield Fire Station, in Bury New Road, while the other will now be based at Bury Ambulance Station in Birch Street. The changes will happen in the next few weeks. There are plans by North West Ambulance Station to close the building by the end of the year and sell it. They say: "Whitefield Ambulance Station is a 1950s building and the structure is showing extensive signs ...
The bus company Arriva has announced changed to the X13 bus route in Blyth . From Sunday 6th September the bus will no longer serve Sandringham Drive, and the time "saved" will be used to take the bus along Broadway, Renwick Road and Waterloo Road. There was a public consultation on this, and Arriva say that there was overwhelming support for the change. But I argue that the consultation was flawed, the two choices were not dependent but separate. I could have supported returning the route along Broadway and Waterloo Road , but not at the expense of the many ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that many local authorities are currently not meeting their statutory obligations to ensure that they meet the demand for Welsh medium education. Local authorities have statutory obligations to comply with guidance relating to the implementation of Welsh in Education Strategic Plans (WESPs). The WESPs are intended to be a means of assessing and meeting demand for Welsh-medium education. They also require local authorities to provide action plans on how to meet demand. Some council are not meeting these requirements. For instance, many parents in Wrexham have been struggling for years to find places for their ...
I've always thought of the split between conservatives and liberals (which I think is the essential divide in all politics, everywhere in the world, regardless of what's actually on offer) through a simple analogy. Go back to the Palaeolithic era of our development as a species and imagine that there must have been a constant fight between those who felt that staying in one place, no matter the risks that might pose long term, was the right thing to do. "Why should we leave? Everything we have is right here. Let's stay by the fire where it's warm." This is ...
Bury Council has been celebrating this week that in the last six months the amount of rubbish we are putting in our grey bins has reduced by 3,923 tonnes. On the face of it, this is great news: less waste to landfill or incineration is VERY good for the environment; less rubbish in our grey bins means less charges the Council has to pay to dispose of the rubbish (the Council has to pay £308 a tonne to dispose of grey bin waste.) Bury's recycling rate is now 57.5% of waste. Interestingly this is significantly below Lib-Dem run Stockport who ...
A number of residents have been in touch about the Prestwich Farmers (or 'Artisan') markets that have, for a number of years, taken place quarterly in the Longfield area. The most recent market was held on 22 February 2015. The market was to be held in conjunction with the newly appointed Vintage Market but disappointingly this market at short notice. [IMG: farmers-market-23809-1] Bury Council is now tendering for a Prestwich market provided who will be expected to hold a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 10 markets in the year. The franchise opportunity is looking for a food and ...
As I'm sure you are all aware since May 7th many local parties have experienced a giant surge in new members and the great news is that loads of those members are students! There's never been a better time to engage young people in the party and the effort and enthusiasm that they can put into helping out with a range of activities in your local party, will be incredibly beneficial. So, how do we engage young people I hear you ask?! The answer; Freshers' fairs! Freshers fairs are a great way to recruit and engage young members. The timing ...
A number of residents have been in touch over many months around parking restrictions at the 'top' end of Nursery Road (and round into Lilac Grove) with concerns around safety issues since the 'Kid's Planet' nursery was built on Bury Old Road. The planning permission for the nursery included a condition of no waiting restrictions, but it has clearly taken some time for this to be implemented. The Council has now received and considered the necessary application and the work has now been scheduled. Please get in touch if you require any further information. Mary and Tim
[IMG: Lunar customs form from Buzz Aldrin] Yes, Apollo 11 astronauts completed customs forms for their moon trip You can fly to the moon, but you still can't escape paperwork. Over the last week, astronaut Buzz Aldrin — the second man to set foot on the moon in 1969 — has been tweeting some of the mundane forms from his historic Apollo 11 journey. Aldrin shared the below customs declaration form that he, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins signed upon arriving in Honolulu following their Pacific splashdown. Like responsible travelers, they declared that they were bringing samples of "moon rock" ...
The final 2015 Sunday Bandstand Concert of 2015 on the Magdalen Green Bandstand takes place this coming Sunday at 2pm. The Forfar Instrumental Band will be playing. More details are available here.
Wed 5th
08:25
Does it scale? The key question for online campaigning - and Labour's advertising didn't
Back in 2013 I gave this unexpectedly slide-free talk about the importance of scale in online campaigning: the smartest communication techniques aren't much good if they aren't reaching enough people to have a decent chance of altering the outcome. The question of scale applies also of course to offline campaigning, and it's the question on which Labour's online advertising in 2015 failed. In an otherwise interesting account of how Labour ran highly targeted adverts for the 2015 general election there is this statistic: In the end, DSPolitical was able to reach more than 150,000 voters in key targeted constituencies with ...
Fake Windows 10 Upgrade Emails Hide Ransomware In case it happens to you. (tags: internet hacking ) British Ambassador's farewell to Lebanon Beautiful. (tags: diplomacy middleeast ) Would Brexit leave the UK better placed to tackle the Calais crisis? Er, no. (tags: ukpolitics eu migration )
Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name Women solicitors paid up to 42% less than men The real reason some men still can't handle the all-female 'Ghostbusters' 2014 - Most Popular Music for Funerals - OMG #4 We can only secure the best future for the people of Yorkshire by working together as Yorkshire How to sell off the NHS - in nine easy steps Andrew Rawnsley bang on the money again The Internet Acts Different When It Thinks You're a Woman [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
