After a few weeks of serious illness I'm... well, still seriously ill, actually, but fighting through it, and so here's my first proper blog post in weeks. I've posted a new Batpost to Patreon, on Bookworm and the postmodernism of the hack writer, and on Mindless Ones on the Riddler and 60s US foreign policy. [...]
Earlier videos in this series: Devon, Bedfordshire, North Lincolnshire, East Sussex, Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Hampshire, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Rutland. Northumberland, Shropshire, Suffolk, East Riding of Yorkshire, Norfolk and Wiltshire.
Coin spillage optional, courtesy of Edmonton, Canada.
[IMG: gmp logo] Keith Holloway and the Lib Dems are campaigning against Tory plans to deliver big cuts to the police and close local courts. "At a time when violent crime is on the rise in Greater Manchester, the Conservatives want to cut up to 1,500 more police officers and close our local courts," Keith said. "The Police themselves say that, if these Tory cuts come in, we could have no police on the beat in three or four years time. None. That's simply not acceptable – it's madness. We have to make a stand as a community and tell ...
Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week) Naamah's Kiss, by Jacqueline Carey Space Helmet for a Cow, by Paul Kirkley Last books finished Mean Streets, by Terrance Dicks Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Prophecies, by Christopher Golden Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Dark Times, by Christopher Golden The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lampiri The Tragedy of the Goats, by Francis Hamit Buffy: The Lost Slayer: King of the Dead, by Christopher Golden History, by Elsa Morante Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Original Sins, by Christopher Golden Erimem: The Last Pharaoh, by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett Transition, by Iain Banks Next ...
A recipe by Mitzie Wilson from Delicious Magazine, which I must obviously look at more often. The claim is that you can prep this meal for four in twenty minutes. I didn't quite manage it that fast. Ingredients 600g new potatoes, scrubbed and halved, if large 15g butter 25g fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped 4 x 150g lamb steaks 300g cherry tomatoes on the vine 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp white wine 2 tbsp white wine vinegar 2 tsp caster sugar 200g fresh or frozen peas Method 1. Cook the new potatoes in boiling, lightly salted water for 15 ...
At the last General Election, the IFS calculated that the difference in public spending implied by Labour and Conservative economic plans was £40 billion. That's about the size of the entire economy of Croatia. Despite this it's not unusual to hear the view expressed that there just aren't that many differences between Labour and the [...]
UKIP seat. Cause: Resignation.
UPDATED DETAILS UKIP seat. Cause: Resignation LD Candidate- Nathan Billings Contact Details to help: 07752 434 070, nathan4pendarves@gmail.com.
Thu 20th
15:36
Switch Island – Thornton Link Road finally opens but did the original campaigners who fought f...
The Southport Visiter ran a story story on the 19th August opening ceremony – see link above. Well there's no mention of Thornton Parish Council or anyone else from the Thornton community in the Visiter article and don't you think that is more than a little odd? [IMG: Link Road works back in Jan 2015] I have said many times before the reason this new road has been built at all is because around the year 2000 the good folk of Thornton and their Parish Council had just about had their fill of traffic jams. So they took to ...
In Co-operative Energy: why you shouldn't be a customer of theirs I highlighted the main reasons why, even if you're a great fan of mutuals, it's a wise idea to give The Co-operative Energy a very wide berth given their customer service failures, poor management and weak IT security. There's a small but telling exchange over on the Money Saving Expert forums which illustrate some of their problems: Customer: I also replied to one of their messages on the 7th August ... Co-op Energy: ... Can you confirm the date your email was sent? ... Customer: ... 7th August It's ...
Building Confidence in Peace, by Erol Kaymak, Alexandros Lordos and Nathalie Tocci Resolving the Cyprus Conflict: Negotiating History, by Michális Stavrou Michael I got both of these books during my 2007-10 work on Cyprus, when I was advising the then Turkish Cypriot resident, Mehmet Ali Talat, but never got around to reading them at the time. But things are looking up in Cyprus at present - it's a bit below the radar screen, given what else is happening in the immediate vicinity, but since the election of Mustafa Akıncı as TRNC president earlier this year, the pace of talks has ...
Thu 20th
13:25
SNP Scottish Parliament selections - 2 MSPs deselected so far as Salmond endorses one challenger
The SNP is currently choosing its candidates for the Scottish Parliament. Like the Liberal Democrats, they allow challenges of sitting parliamentarians. Two MSPs have been deselected so far. Of greatest interest to Liberal Democrat fortunes is the deselection of Colin Keir in Edinburgh Western. The seat will now be fought by Toni Giulani who had the backing of former SNP leader and first minister Alex Salmond. In our party it would simply not be permitted for a senior, powerful party figure to take such an influential public stance in a selection. SNP parliamentarians already have a fairly draconian disciplinary code ...
With only one week left to go, ALDC are still looking for nominations for the best Liberal Democrat campaigners to be recognised at our Awards event in September. It's a great opportunity for ALDC to highlight the best campaigning teams in our party and give them the recognition they deserve. Last year's overall winners were Kirklees whose campaign for 2014 started as soon as the results were announced in 2012. Each year, ALDC recognises the outstanding work of local Focus teams through our Campaigner Awards. This year, our categories are: Best Member engagement campaign Best Literature Best Community Campaign Best ...
Lots of people in the Lib Dems are talking about what we should do after the Labour leadership election, especially if Corbyn wins. Many of them are very excited about the prospect. I am not so sure and not so ... Continue reading →
Far from regognising that elected police and crime commissioners are a failed experiment, it appears that the government is proposing to give these people control over fire authorities. A consultation is expected to be slipped out next week in advance of elections next May. Police and Crime Commissioners were created three and a half years ago to replace police authorities. The government's vision was a single person to over see the work of each police force. But the first elections showed that the public didn't understand or were not enthused by the posts and only 15% bothered to vote. Since ...
Note from the district council We have finally received consent from the Planning Inspectorate to carry out work on Sandpit Lane between Walton Street and Lemsford Road. This will allow us to construct the final link in the scheme and complete the entire loop around the City centre. The work in question is in two [...]
[IMG: RAF Museum London - Colindale - main hanger] From the sticker before you even enter the building warning against climbing, past a blizzard of other admonishing signs whose monotony is broken up by the plethora of apologies for things being broken, first impressions of the RAF Museum London in Colindale are not hugely welcoming or promising. And that's before you get to the many roped off half-repaired areas or collections of buckets located under leaks. For much of this, it's certainly possible that sympathy rather than criticism is due as I don't know the finances of the RAF Museum ...
If the political right and left can agree on one thing, it is the centrality of conventional economics – the quest for economic growth and rising productivity. For a few moments after the great crash of 2008/09 people suggested that conventional economics had had its day. But it just bounces back. And it fails to address the real needs of 21st Century society. The right, the centre-right and even the centre-left remain entranced by economic liberalism, which the left refers to sneeringly as neoliberalism. This focuses on markets as the most efficient way of processing information on human wants, and ...
A month ago today, I registered as a Labour supporter, paid my £3, and was swiftly thanked by the party's general secretary. I was partly driven by curiosity — kind of a mystery shopper excursion to see, having just witnessed the LibDems' leadership election, how Labour would handle theirs. I was partly driven by nostalgia — I joined Labour in 1994, voted for Tony Blair (and, God help me, John Prescott) in the leadership contest, before quitting in 1999 as I realised New Labour was just as centralising as Old Labour (though a lot more effective). And I was mostly ...
UPDATED DETAILS. Seat: Conservative (sitting as an Independent). Cause:Resignation. LD Candidate- Diane West.
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Death. LD Candidate- Michael Anderson. Agent: Andrew Tibbs contact details: 07968 940 450. email : andrewtibbs@gmail.com
It may not have done Labour much good, but Ed Miliband's biggest achievement of the whole election in my mind came when he managed to secure an endorsement from Russell Brand. Not that I'm saying having Russell Brand back you is that great, but it's an achievement. Why? Because he is a figure that many young people look up to and pay attention to and – regardless of whether we think that's a good idea or not – we have to respect that. The BBC news website reported the other day that vloggers (Video Bloggers) had been given advertising guidelines. ...
As I wrote yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn being the next leader of the Labour Party, barring some strange unforeseen event, can now be taken as a given. With this in mind, what effect will this have on the Liberal Democrats? There are two distinct strains of thought on this. The first is that Labour veering to the hard-left will create political space for the Lib Dems. Jack Straw has written about the Lazarus-like effect a Corbyn leadership may well have on the party, and Progress did a handy article espousing the same line yesterday that's worth a read. The idea is ...
Whatever happened to evidence-based policy making? At one time it was a rallying cry for Welsh Ministers. Now, however, they prefer to legislate to regulate how we behave. It can only be a matter of time before they start to tell us what to think. Oh, wait... Any thoughts that the Welsh Government might actually have some evidence for banning the use of e-cigarettes in public places were decisively dispelled by the very strong recommendations of Public Health England yesterday who went as far as suggesting that vapers should be prescribed on the NHS as they help smokers quit smoking ...
Back in October 2012, St Joseph's Primary School moved from its old building (pictured right) to the new West End Campus and ownership transferred to the Al-Maktoum Foundation. The building has since remained unoccupied and over time the playground has become overgrown with also some repairs required - see below : Following concerns raised by residents about its deteriorating state, I have spoken with the Director of Operations at the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education who has assured me that the long-term future of the building is being actively considered. Meantime, it has has been agreed that a tidy-up of ...
From Sheena Wellington of the Friends of Wighton : Come and Try! Saturday 22nd August : 11am - 3pm at the Central Library Always wanted to play the fiddle, whistle, harp but not sure which would suit? Like to know a few more Scottish songs? The Friends of Wighton tutors and friends will be at the Central Library Lending Library floor) this Saturday - 22nd August - 11am - 3pm - so you can 'Come and Try' fiddle, whistle, harp and/or song - for free! Scots song class restarts on Tuesday 25th August at 2pm. Fiddle and whistle classes restart ...
The trade union movement is, I fear, slowly slipping away and becoming irrelevant to modern day life and I say that as a committed trade unionist. It was taken into a nursing home a few years ago but is now slowly day by day slipping away. The modern world is all about individual freedoms far more than it is about collectivism. It probably started in the 1980's and Thatcher probably started it. But the mistake trade unions make is to assume that individual freedoms are always trumped by collectivism – they aren't and until unions can really grasp this they ...
Google loses data as lightning strikes Belgian weather defeats Big Data. (tags: internet belgium ) The IAEA-Kazakhstan nuclear fuel bank: nuclear gamechanger Anti-proliferation initiative, part-funded by Warren Buffet. (tags: nuclearpower kazakhstan ) Dublin In 2019 Promo Bringing Worldcon to Ireland! (tags: worldcon ireland )
Roller derby doesn't enforce gender separation and women still rule the sport Don't Post Your Labour Ballot Online Unless You Want People To Steal Your Vote [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Thu 20th
06:52
Latest figures reveal Welsh Government failed to meet their target of 500 extra PCSOs as numbers dec...
The latest policing statistics published by the UK Government have shown that claims by the Welsh Government that they achieved their manifesto pledge of 500 additional Police Community Support Officers around Wales are wide of the mark. The number of PCSOs have been declining since September 2013 to the point whereby the Welsh Government is effectively using their budget to offset cuts being implemented by Westminster. Figures for 31 March 2015 show that Welsh Police forces employ 986 PCSOs. That is a reduction of 114 since March 2014 and 142 fewer than when numbers were at their peak in September ...
