A film report made in the days when this Shropshire town was unsuccessfully defending its status as England's smallest borough. Click on the image to view it on the British Film Institute site.
Mourning the closure of the town's magistrates court in 2011, the Harborough Mail described my hero J.W. Logan thus: When the Doddridge Road court opened in Harborough, seven magistrates would sit together as a single bench, instead of the modern three. In 1911, JW Logan, MP for Harborough, took the chair: an exemplary employer, if controversial and sometimes pugilistic as a politician, he was a JP for 40 years. No MP could ask for a better epitaph.
For the past three years I have claimed that there is no need to build on our parks and green spaces because there is already enough room in the city to build homes for 70,000+ people. I have always found ... Continue reading →
From the Leicester Mercury: Rail campaigners are calling for action on plans to improve access for disabled people at a county railway station. They want Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to ensure an early start to proposed upgrades at Market Harborough station. They fear the planned improvements may be delayed until 2019 at the earliest following the mothballing of track electrification.Knowing the two people quoted by the Mercury, I am confident this campaign,it is in good hands.
Here is Harriet Harman reported by BBC News today: Harriet Harman has said 3,000 alleged "cheats" have so far been excluded from voting in the Labour leadership contest, with more expected. The acting Labour leader said: "It is not funny or clever for people from other parties to try to cheat their way into our system." And only people who supported the "aims and values" of the Labour Party would be allowed to take part.But she adopted a different tone back in May. A Labour Party press release quoted her as follows: "The public - not just Labour members - ...
A rather useful little touch this, and rather more professional than my highlighting: [IMG: Lib Dem email footer] Among the options this leads to are: [IMG: Lib Dem email options]
Yet another history-of-Doctor-Who book, but one with a difference: rather than analysing the stories for content or cultural context, Kirkley tells the story from the production point of view, including inside details of how each Doctor was hired and how each departed, and what the background mood music was like in the production team. I knew some of this but by no means all, and the full gory details of the friction between Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner really made my jaw drop. The whole is written in a breezy style, with invented conversations jostling with real interview material (the ...
I met a traveler from the manosphere Who said: "Two vast and pointless walls of text Stand on a website. near them there appears, An author promo photograph, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that the camera well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The [...]
Tue 25th
17:29
4 photographs of an MP in one edition of a local newspaper but who is holding our MP's to account?
This posting came to mind when I read the 19th August edition of the Champion newspaper. You see in that edition were 4 photos of the Sefton Central MP doing his constituency business backing this, raising concerns about that, etc. etc. All well and good as this is what all MP's do, or should do, within their constituency whatever their political colour. But how often do we read about what our MP's have done in Parliament apart from when they issue a press release when they think they have done something folks will like? And crucially who is tracking how ...
Readers of my postings will recall that I raised concerns about the state of some Council maintained hedges in Eastway and on the A59 in Maghull a couple of days ago following a partially sighted person walking into an overgrown hawthorn hedge. Here is a response to my representations from the Town Clerk of Maghull Town Council:- [IMG: MTC's KGV hedge 22 08 15] I'm sorry to hear someone had difficulty walking past one of our parks. As you know the team prune the hedges late in the summer to avoid disturbing any nesting inhabitants and give wildlife an opportunity ...
The "crowded centre-left" may seem an odd phrase to use when the Labour Party appears to be about to lurch off to the hard left, but there is some context here for both the self-indulgence of Corbynism, and for some of the decisions we will have to make as a party in the coming months. Many, notably David Howarth and Mark Pack, have argued, in an otherwise very good paper, that the socially liberal, economic right is a desert, and we must be pitching our tent economically on the centre left. The evidence for this comes from the British Election ...
For those of us who believe that a country is best served by a vibrant democracy, especially those of us who believe internal party democracy is key, the unfolding nightmare that is Labour's leadership contest is a cause of some sadness. The events of the past week have not been pretty, although there are some lessons we might all benefit from. Messing about in the affairs of a party you don't support is still stupid Oh yes, it's been highly amusing as various non-Labour supporters have waved their ballot papers in front of cameras or on social media. That doesn't ...
As we announced here, Agenda 2020 is the name given to a project of the Federal Policy Committee to re-examine our timeless values. They have now published quite an interesting collection of essays (pdf here) to set the ball rolling, and are inviting further essays by the 5th October. You might miss the essay collection if you have gone for one of the greener options for the conference agenda, or if you aren't going to conference, but I must say they are interesting enough to put my natural cynicism for the project on hold for a while. Rather than attempt ...
For a while we've been saying that the owners of the Tatton Cinema site were bringing forward development proposals, but it was taking time. They are finally here! We have not seen the proposals in detail, so we put them here for everyone – including ourselves – to take a look at and come back with comments. The planning application is here. Not all the documents are online yet – they will be added over the next few days. The summary of the proposed development is: Demolition of existing buildings at the site; Construction of a new mixed use building ...
I'm sorry to say that this late Iain Banks work didn't really grab me. The idea of people with access to different parallel universes trying to pull off politically convenient changes to their timeline is not original to him, and has been done better by others (most recently in The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, which we shortlisted for the Clarke Award). A lot of the characters are simply nasty without the redeeming virtues of depth or reflecting our own lived reality. One of my favourite writers, but really not one of my favourite books of his.
It was bad enough watching Ed Miliband rather out of his depth as leader of the Labour party. He seemed to sit back in his study quite a lot, talking with his inner circle. He did quite well at PMQs sometimes. But you got the impression that he wasn't really fully in charge. This was made worse by unfortunate (and somewhat irrelevant) incidents such as the bacon sandwich episode. I don't for a moment wish to patronize Labour supporters and members who are supporting Jeremy Corbyn. I also realize that I should be knocking the Tories – not Labour. But ...
According to a news item in Family Law News today, an adoption has been revoked after a child applied successfully to return to their biological mother. Things have certainly come on a long way since I was adopted, when even a request for information about my mother (whom my adoptive parents had actually met) was [...]
Jamie Bartlett wrote an interesting article on the modern trend for "victimhood". A number of people are tweeting about it and commenting on it thoughtfully. However to me, it missed the point a bit. Within the "Karpman Drama Triangle" it is considered better to refer to a person who is feeling dominated, put upon, oppressed or otherwise subjected to another's agenda or demands, as "vulnerable" rather than a "victim". This is regarded as the Empowerment Dynamic. If we go with vulnerable rather than victim, we do not remove a person's agency, which as Jamie alludes to, is primarily the right-wing ...
Another reminder that you only have 2 days left to participate in ALDC's awards for 2015 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 ...
Mike Glyer over at File 770 has a tremendous assembly of reaction to the Hugo Awards, including some truly epic whining from the Sad Puppies (and my own post from Sunday morning). The votes were clearly cast against the slates on principle (apart from BDP) rather than on the quality of the work - there is no other way to read the figures. I'm sure that voters were motivated in this by 1) a general reaction against slates, 2) dislike of the politics of the slatemongers and 3) disgust at the poor quality of some of the slated candidates, in ...
The idea that we need to encourage more women in politics is not an uncommon one and it's certainly not one I disagree with. As a woman interested in politics myself there are very few women in politics whom I can look up to. This is not because there's a lack of talented women, it's that for some reason they're turned off to the idea. However, all-woman shortlists are - in my opinion - not the way to solve this issue. It's said that since Labour implemented all-woman shortlists that a female candidate has never won against a male candidate ...
If you live in Bluebell Meadow or Primrose Lane, SSE will be digging up the road at some point in the next few weeks, starting 7th September, which will mean there will be a brief interruption to the electricity supply. [IMG: LVUG 25004-Bluebell MeadowFOR WEB PAGE(Aug2015)]
Up for debate at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth is a motion to change the party's Deputy Leader from being just the Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, elected by and from the party's MPs, to being a Deputy Leader of the whole party, open to all members and elected by all members. This is compatible with some of the reforms calls there have already been in the party, such as the support expressed by both Tim Farron and Norman Lamb during the leadership contest for changing the rules so that the Deputy Leader ...
It seems that no good idea goes un-scammed! We've had reports of elderly people being called up by someone claiming to be from the Telephone Preference Service (that opts you out of nuisance calls – or would do if the callers observed it). The caller says that there's an £84 fee to renew TPS membership and pressures the person to pay up. This is of course complete nonsense – the TPS is free. Please warn elderly friends and relatives to be on the look-out. If someone calls you asking for money to renew TPS listing, hang up and report it ...
We're entering another phase of the 'future of the left' debate, whether or not Jeremy Corbyn emerges as Labour's next leader. So it's worth remembering previous cycles of this debate, what they revolved around, and how Liberals and Social Democrats responded to them. There are some lessons to learn, and warnings about what to avoid. Richard Rose's book, Must Labour Lose?, after the third consecutive Conservative victory, in 1959, set out the issues that Labour struggled with in the early 1960s: a gradual decline in working-class solidarity, a younger generation with aspirations to join the middle class, trade unions torn ...
As Jeremy Corbyn prepares to become leader of the Labour Party, a position that I'm sure at no point in his sixty-six years prior to a few weeks ago he ever thought he'd achieve, his rivals on the centre-left console themselves with this analgesic: this will allow everyone to see the far-left for what it is, finally. After the Corbyn experiment runs its course, whatever the damage to the Labour Party done, at least everyone will be able to agree, post-83 election style, a "return to sanity" is required. Britain was never going to elect a far-left government. Ever. At ...
Botanic Gardens Victorian Gala event is on Sunday 6th September at 10.30am - 4pm, at Botanic Gardens, Churchtown, Southport. The event is free to enter, a fun day out and much more! The event is organised by Botanic Gardens Community Association. All proceeds will be ploughed back into the gardens.
I have had complaints from residents in parts of the West End about the growth of roadside weeds in some residential streets/. I contacted the Director of Environment at the City Council who has advised : "We are aware that there are a number of areas across the city where we are noting similar concerns with weed growth. Unfortunately the weather conditions this year have exacerbated this problem. We commenced the second round of herbicide treatment and street spraying a few weeks ago. ... After treatment it will normally take around 10 days for the weeds to die back."
The language of collaboration has become much more common amongst Labour politicians following the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, so we should not be surprised that some are questioning why former Home Secretary Jack Straw is helping the Tories dismantle the Freedom of Information Act. The Independent say that the Labour Party has turned on Mr. Straw, accusing him of conniving with the Tories to dismantle the Freedom of Information Act. Party sources have apparently told them that Mr Straw had been asked not to join a committee set up last month by the Cabinet Office to review the workings of ...
Exactly 10 years ago today I arrived in Heathrow to have an adventure in the UK. I was 16, already in love with England and with a place at Oxford & Cherwell college. Many things happened since and my adventure is still going. Here are 10 things that I experienced on the journey to get [...]
The map above divides up global GDP between countries and how those national economies break down by sector. My main observation are that: Wow, the American segment of that graph is big! While Asia may be rising but it has not yet risen. A similar observation can be made about Europe's decline. Medium sized European countries like France, [...]
I thought I had escaped the Labour leadership battle at the end of July when I headed off to the USA for a couple of weeks. News in American hotels reports American news. Nothing much about the latest from the UK. In the US, they are not free of leadership elections. Whilst in Washington DC, the key political story was which 6 of the 16 candidates for the Republican nomination would not make it
