This blog has long taken an interest in the career of the Yorkshire leg spinner Adil Rashid. He will either make his England test debut against Pakistan in Sharjah later this year or never make it at all. So it may be time to start talking up the next prospect: Hampshire's Mason Crane. Cricinfo described his impact on a game earlier this year: Mason Crane bamboozled Warwickshire to become the youngest Hampshire player to take a County Championship five wicket haul on Day Two at the Ageas Bowl. Leg spinner Crane, who is 18 and 171 days, beat Alex Kennedy's ...
Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Prophecies, by Christopher Golden Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Dark Times, by Christopher Golden Buffy: The Lost Slayer: King of the Dead, by Christopher Golden Buffy: The Lost Slayer: Original Sins, by Christopher Golden I remain a huge fan of Buffy - we've just finished re-watching up to the end of Season Three, the one with the Mayor - but I had never read any of the books, and so approached this four-part novel with interest. (I had previously read, but not been hugely impressed by, a spinoff novel of a BBC webcast series co-written by Golden ...
We have another mini-holiday coming up, two days in Richmond, a very kind present from Kina, Victoria and Lyulph. Today has been the nicest day so far this summer, glorious sunshine all day, temperature at 19.00 still 25C. Tomorrow and Monday will be a bit cooler with possible thunderstorms and on Tuesday we come home, to welcome Daniel, a former research assistant, who has a day in London on his way from Kazakhstan to Washington, Photos 11.00 this morning: my office, bedroom window.
A classic selection of non-fiction by Woolf, in four sections: writing about literature, writing about life and death, writing about women, and observational pieces. It's all very good, and each section has a standout piece. "Character in Fiction" has a very entertaining passage comparing British, French and Russian writers. Her obituary of her father is moving and lucid. Her essay on "Women and Fiction" hopes for better days to come. And the observational pieces are all great, with the best being "Street Haunting", which converts buying a new pencil into an epiphany. All recommended.
[IMG: 7134884983_5301865c77_z] Much of the political commentariat is currently obsessed with the soap opera of the Labour leadership election. The peculiar dynamics of the contest itself are fascinating. It is easy to forget how quickly we've moved from the prospect of a continuity Blairite Labour party to a party reshaped in the image of the Corbynistas. The prominence of the language of purge and putsch is remarkable. Commentators seek to frame proceedings in a particularly unfavourable light by seeing unflattering historical resonance with the grisly history of socialism. Beyond the unfolding drama of the process everyone is seeking to grapple ...
Sat 22nd
14:55
Britain at the Polls, 1979: A study of the general election - and a set of lessons for contemporary ...
The question of how Margaret Thatcher won power in 1979 has become rather topical again as supporters of Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn argue that her victory shows you don't need to tack to the centre ground to win elections. [IMG: Britain at the Polls 1979 - Howard Penniman] How Margaret Thatcher really won in 1979 - and why it isn't a role model for a Corbyn-led Labour Party1979 is now a long time ago. But like 1945 its political lessons - or supposed lessons - still echo, feeling relevant to very contemporary questions. more That is, however, a misreading of ...
For millions of parents on both sides of the Atlantic Dr Benjamin Spock's handbook, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, was a kind of Bible. Indeed, for half a century it reportedly sold more copies round the world than any other book except for the actual Bible. Its central [...]
So, I was watching the 10 o'clock News last night and saw our Stephen Tall flaunting his Labour leadership ballot paper. As he explains, he wasn't out to do a Toby Young and vote for Jeremy Corbyn: I was ambivalent whether I would actually exercise my vote, but decided that, if I did, it wouldn't be to troll Labour by choosing Jeremy Corbyn: I would vote for the candidate the other parties would least like to face. Assuming, that is, Labour gave me a vote. After all, the party assures us they have "rigorous due diligence" processes in place to ...
The post Creatives: Don't Quit Your Day Job – Yet! appeared first on James Taylor.
The question this asks is why removing babies at birth in England is "necessary" when it isn't in France. This relates to Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights which only authorises intervention in a family when it is "necessary" for the interests of the child. Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life 1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above Ashworth is not the subject of the amount media attention that it once was in the 1980's/1990's but it seems that industrial relations troubles are brewing up again. If memory serves correctly poor industrial relations were at the heart of many of the Hospital's troubles in previous times. I recall being contacted by Dave Preece of the POA in my early days as a Maghull councillor because of staff concerns. Back then there was a huge inquiry into the running of the Hospital which I participated in. Let's hope ...
During the leadership campaign, Tim Farron made a number of videos. They mostly involved him sitting down and just talking about the issues closest to his heart. We thought we would repeat them here so people outside the party could see what makes this man tick. Housing is one of his key priorities. He famously got into politics after watching the heartbreaking Cathy Come Home. Here he is talking about the importance of building more houses and opposing the Tories' plans to give Housing Association tenants the right to buy. Watch out for more TimTalks on subjects such as foreign ...
It's a problem that's been going on for at least a century. Seagulls, seagulls and more seagulls in towns. In some places, such as St Ives, Cornwall, the local seagulls seem to have evolved to be particularly skilfull at nicking sandwiches out of "emmets'" tourists' hands just as they leave the baker's shop. They swoop from, apparently nowhere, and snatch food. Icecreams are a seagull speciality. The gulls know where the icecream shops are, they know which roofs to sit on, poised. They know exactly when to swoop to grab some poor unsuspecting child's icecream. (And it is quite a ...
I've been in the Liberal party/Liberal Democrats for 25 years. I am happy to say that I have great friends and colleagues in the party and it is a pleasure to work alongside them. 99.99999 recurring % of Lib Dems are unfailingly joyous to deal with. But I feel I ought to observe that there is a minuscule number of people who have hearts of gold, have the noblest of intentions, but don't seem to realize that they are not observing basic politeness. I'm talking about "topping and tailing" contact. Whether it be by email, phone or in person, I ...
In the run-up to Autumn Conference in Bournemouth, we'll be looking ahead to examine the highlights in the debating hall, the fringe and training rooms. You can find the papers here. You can find all the posts in the series here. For those of you who haven't been to Conference before, I thought it might be useful to run through how Conference debates work. Local parties, groups of Conference representatives and organisations (SAOs) like Liberal Youth and Lib Dem Women can submit motions to Conference. They are then circulated and are open to amendment. This year's deadline for amendments is ...
The farce that is the Labour leadership contest continues apace as rows break out over those who are being allowed to vote and the apparently arbitrary process that has been adopted to exclude infiltrators. Some well-known Labour supporters, such as the actor Douglas Henshall and comedians Francesca Martinez and Jeremy Hardy have been effectively branded as infiltrators and told that they cannot cast a ballot. According to the Daily Mirror, they are in good company with many other genuine Labour voters being black-balled. Meanwhile, Lib Dem Voice editor and former Lib Dem Councillor, Stephen Tall was sent a ballot paper. ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
I was engaged in a discussion on social media this past week with someone who was passionately pro-Corbyn. When we got into voting for Labour as a topic, he told me he'd never voted for Labour before. In fact, at the last election he voted UKIP. I probed him further on this and he said that Corbyn reminded him of what he liked about Farage: here was a guy that spoke that all important thing in modern politics, the vaunted "truth". To start with, I know I'm not Jeremy's greatest fan, but at the same time I want to stress ...
I have had a number of residents' concerns recently about pedestrian safety near the Roseangle playpark since the playpark was improved as the footfall is very significantly increased. The following comment from a resident is typical : "I want to draw your attention to my concerns of the road safety around the new fantastic Roseangle play park specifically the crossing from the play park to Magdalen Green (Riverside Approach). There are two issues as I see it. One of parked cars around that crossing and secondly of the speed of cars on the road around the crossing." I have contacted ...
A friend of mine took his elderly mother to Preston to catch a train to Glasgow not long ago. They went from Maghull Station, changed at Ormskirk and arrived in Preston. [IMG: A train from Preston pulling into Ormskirk Station. ] A train from Preston pulling into Ormskirk Station. His mother's train to Glasgow was 20 minutes after the Ormskirk train arrived in Preston and as a consequence he missed the return trip to Ormskirk. He got the next train to Ormskirk, then one back to Maghull. His mother arrived in Glasgow at the same time he got back to ...
Welcome to this week's update for the 210 of you who've joined the 2015-16 LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League. Congratulations to Paul Revell, whose Sock Monsters lead the league after Week 2. His 120 points place him in the top 1% of the 3.2 million global players. It is, of course, early days though (thankfully for some of us... I'm languishing near the foot of the table, paying the price of having built my defence around Chelsea and Southampton). Plenty of time to join and to catch up. Let's also hear it for one player outside the top 10: David Walker's ...
Victory Points, or, Xanatos Was a Punk Jim Henley rates Hugo outcomes. (tags: sf ) And The Hugo Goes To... Matt Foster calls the possible Hugo outcomes. (tags: sf )
Banksy's Dismaland: 'amusements and anarchism' & the Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit Labour should have seen this membership debacle coming (I know, Helen Lewis. But it's a good article) Awful visitor attractions rebranding as Banksy exhibits Malala totally aced her GCSEs Why Al Jazeera will not say Mediterranean 'migrants' - *applause* Eter9 social network learns your personality so it can post as you when you're dead - BBC Newsbeat *shudder* Re that immortality social network: of COURSE one of my friends came up with the idea first Côte staff miss out as entire service charge goes to company - unsurprising ...
I still love Rocky Horror, despite the age now showing, especially with the gender politics stuff (it was radical and progressive at the time). Going through my archives[1] I found the video I posted 5 years ago has succumbed to bitrot and a takedown notice, so I had a quick look and found two alternative versions: That one's just a different fan edit of clips from all the films referenced, I think it's fairly well done but for some of the clips I prefer this one: Which claims to be close to what O'Brian wanted for the film before test ...
Here are Aussie Beatles tribute band Beatnix performing Led Zep's 'Stairway to Heaven' as if it were 1962. It's absolute genius...
