This was just published today, though not for the first time: Tolkien's treatment of the Kullervo story from the Kalevala, Finland's national epic, was previously published in the Journal of Tolkien Studies, so is not (as I at first hoped it might be) eligible for next year's Hugos (probably in the Best Short Story category). To be honest, even if today were its first publication, it would be a tough sell to Hugo voters because Tolkien neglected to finish it back in 1914 (the most likely date of composition). I was very interested in this anyway, as a fan of ...
At the end of last month Stephen Tall posted an essay entitled A liberal approach to evidence-based policy making on his blog. The essay had originally been submitted for last year's CentreForum essay competition on The Challenges Facing Contemporary Liberalism but, for whatever reason, hadn't appeared. I keep meaning to write a response to Stephen's post, but I don't seen to have managed it yet. More to the point, I submitted an essay to the CentreForum competition but it wasn't ever going to be published in that form. There is the possibility that I might develop a longer version of ...
Alastair Darling was given a peerage today, so it is time to remember how far this particular Lord has come. Time, indeed, to wheel out my favourite George Galloway quote: When I first met him 35 years ago Darling was pressing Trotskyite tracts on bewildered railwaymen at Waverley Station in Edinburgh. He was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, whose publication was entitled the Black Dwarf. Later, in preparation for his current role he became the treasurer of what was always termed the rebel Lothian Regional Council. Faced with swinging government spending cuts which would have decimated the council ...
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett My rating: 4 of 5 stars It could have been a lot worse.As Rob Wilkins explains in the afterword, Terry Pratchett hadn't actually finished writing this when he died. Pratchett's working methods, as described by Wilkins, involved writing scenes and piecing them together, finding the story, and then rewriting [...]
Thu 27th
21:28
Tim Farron in Scotland: Scotland's parties can embarrass Tories into action on migrant crisis
Tim Farron was up in Scotland today, on his first visit since becoming leader.. He hosted a roundtable session in Edinburgh with the Scottish Refugee Council, Amnesty and the Refugee Women's Strategy Group. Issues discussed included devolution and refugees, making asylum work for women and what political parties could do in the UK and Scotland to campaign for fairer treatment of vulnerable refugees. Here they are having their discussions: .@willie_rennie & @timfarron meeting with @scotrefcouncil & @AmnestyScotland to talk about the Calais crisis. pic.twitter.com/oStSFNGT5c — Scot Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) August 27, 2015 Amnesty's Scottish Director welcomed the meeting: Great to ...
Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week) 11/22/63, by Stephen King Letters to Tiptree, eds Alissa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce Elric of Melniboné and Other Stories, by Michael Moorcock Last books finished Space Helmet for a Cow, by Paul Kirkley Naamah's Kiss, by Jacqueline Carey Penric's Demon, by Lois McMaster Bujold Land of Green Plums, by Herta Muller The Story of Kullervo, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger Next books The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbø The Twenty-Two Letters, by Clive King Books acquired in last week The End of All Things, by John ScalzI Jews vs Aliens, ...
[IMG: House of Lords. Image courtesy of Parliament - CC BY-NC 2.0] Each individual in the new list of Liberal Democrat peers (see below) is a worthy addition to the House of Lords. However, just as I've often argued for Parliamentary selections, you can't just judge each person on their own – they are also part of a wider team, and the makeup of the overall team matters too. On which note, the following points come to mind: 1. It's right for Lib Dems to say yes to getting more peers Amused at number of people very happy for their ...
Congratulations to all of the new Liberal Democrat Peers announced today. They will strengthen our existing excellent team in the Lords, fighting for a democratically elected second chamber while in the meantime using their power to provide a check on the government and its worrying assaults on the poor, on our civil liberties, and on the environment. It's also good to see recognition for those in our party who have served our communities and our country so well – Sir Vince Cable, Dame Annette Brooke, Ben Williams OBE and others. What is depressing and wearily familiar, however, is the missing ...
The narrative around the migration crisis has been shocking to many of us. The language used by the UK foreign secretary is eerily reminiscent of the 'cockroaches' language of Rwanda. The only positive is that it's been shocking enough to cause a backlash. An article from Al Jazeera refusing the use the term 'migrant' because of it's negative connotations has been widely shared - it's depressing that it's come to this (it should be a simple descriptive term), but at least people who object to this kind of dehumanising are starting to speak up. In parallel, today we see that ...
With grateful acknowledgements to the author, Professor Kwesi deGraft-Hanson'The Weeping Time': The story of the largest slave auction and a descendant's homecoming journey August 3, 2015, 5:05 pm/0 Comments In this column, members of Georgia Humanities and their colleagues take turns discussing Georgia's history and culture, and other topics that matter. Through different voices, we hear different stories.This week guest contributor Kwesi J. DeGraft-Hanson, a landscape architect in Atlanta, unearths the place and the people of the nation's largest slave auction.By Kwesi J. DeGraft-Hanson [IMG: Kwesi DeGraft-Hanson] To recoup losses suffered in gambling and stock market speculation, Pierce Mease Butlerauctioned ...
[IMG: The 2015 Liberal Democrat autumn conference takes place in Bournemouth from 19-23 September] The ALDC team will be in Bournemouth throughout Autumn Conference, here is a brief summary of what we'll be up to. If you're in Bournemouth as well, please come over to the stand and say hi! Training At Bournemouth this year, we'll be providing 20 training sessions, covering all aspects of campaigning catering for every [...]
Greater Manchester Liberal Democrats are calling for TfGM, First and Stagecoach to work together and launch an Oyster-style travel smartcard by Christmas. "Get Me There could be rolled out to everyone on buses and trams by Christmas. Almost every bus and every tram stop in Greater Manchester already has the equipment needed to run a smartcard." said Cllr Iain Roberts, leader of the Lib Dem group on TfGM. "Elsewhere in the country people are taking just a few months to get this type of system up and running. Yet in Greater Manchester, where we talk about about the Northern Powerhouse, ...
Thu 27th
14:23Dame Annette Brooke, Hilary Stephenson, Matt Hanney and Ben Williams OBE and the rest of the Lib Dem...
The dissolution honours have been published in full. When Vince Cable publishes his new book next month, he will do so as Sir Vince. There's also a knighthood for Danny Alexander. Nick Clegg has also rewarded Margaret Binks, his constituency office manager, Andy Sangar, his election agent and Ian Sherwood, a volunteer in his Commons office who had also served Ming Campbell and Charles Kennedy. The list in full has been published here. The Lib Dems are as follows: Knights Rt Hon Daniel Alexander - Lately Chief Secretary to the Treasury. For political and public service Rt Hon Vincent Cable ...
Eleven new Liberal Democrat peers have been announced in the Dissolution Honours. Congratulations to them. I will admit to being slightly annoyed at the fact that there are a majority of men – 6 men and 5 women. Surprisingly, there is no peerage for Fiona Hall, the former group leader of our MEPs, nor for Annette Brooke former MP for Mid Dorset and Poole North. We may find out that they had been offered a peerage and turned it down. Most of the list is as we expected with peerages for the longest serving MPs Sir Alan Beith, Sir Malcolm ...
Harthill Lodge which may be threatened by development proposals My last blog pointed out that on the planning department of the council's own figures there is no need to build on green land in the city to meet either the ... Continue reading →
According to Guido Fawkes: Sir Alan Beith - former MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed and former Chair of the Justice Select CommitteeSharon Bowles - former MEP for South East EnglandSir Malcolm Bruce - former MP for Gordon, and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal DemocratsLorley Burt - former MP for Solihull and former Chair of the Liberal Democrats Rt Hon Sir Menzies 'Ming' Campbell CH, CBE, QC - former MP for North East Fife and former Leader of the Liberal Democrats Lynne Featherstone - former MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and held several ministerial positions Don Foster - former MP for ...
Thu 27th
12:10
Vetting supporters with canvass data: the latest bad idea from the Labour leadership election
Every day, we think Labour's leadership election can't get sillier, then every day they find some way to prove us wrong. With two weeks still to go, I'm expecting a denouement in which Jeremy Corbyn meets a mad scientist, is blown up to be 100 metres tall and the only way to save the country from Corbynzilla is for Copper, Burnham and Kendall to fight him in a similarly-sized hastily built robotic Clement Attlee. But for now, we'll just deal with the decision that the party will be vetting new supporters against canvassing data they have on them in order ...
I've seen a number of comments recently about the financial cost of being a candidate. That is particularly sharp with people standing for parliament, but not limited to them. As a party, we try to take diversity seriously. This is about justice and Liberal Democrat values. It's pragmatic, in that we're all diminished if we casually discard the talents of people from disadvantaged groups. There is also a bigger challenge: the changes we push for in society have to be made within the party and in our choice of candidates. Addressing problems this creates may not be easy, but is ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34060453 The BBC has the story – see link above Well PCS is my trade union, the one I worked for over many years and via its previous names as well. I had to scratch my head a bit about Mark Serwatka though as thought he was a socialist who would not have anything to do with the (Red Tory) Labour Party. Surely he can't be surprised that someone as high profile as him has been smoked out by Labour's panicked election organisers? I am begging to wonder though about Mark Serwatka's judgement as I had a run-in with him ...
Yesterday I posted about the last gasp attempt to get Arriva Buses to think again about ceasing the 311 bus route which runs from Liverpool through Aintree, Maghull & Lydiate and on to Ormskirk and Skelmersdale. [IMG: 5477199654_4c00e42669_m] I have also been contacted by another local resident, one who knows a great deal about the local bus industry. He raised one pertinent question and made a suggestion which I have followed up. His question was why have Arriva, who withdrew buses from the east of Maghull not that long ago, now increased the bus services in that area? When they ...
Travelling up from London I got 'detrained' at Northampton due to a shortage of crew. It was the day that Northants were playing Australia but due to the downpour the game was off for the day. I asked around about the where abouts of the statue of the town's Radical MP Charles Bradlaugh. I was mostly met with blank looks and offered to the directions to the pub named after him Finally, at the tourist information office-and after some research, I was directed to a small traffic island close to the cricket ground where the yellow statue stands. Bradlaugh's battles ...
Thu 27th
10:25
Hacking the Electorate: Eitan Hersh reveals the hype, and the reality, of data in politics
[IMG: What data do election campaigns really use and where does it come from?] What data do election campaigns really use and where does it come from? "Most of what campaigns know about voters comes from a core set of public records" – that's one of the key messages from Eitan Hersh's pathbreaking study of what data American political campaigns really use, how good it is and where it comes from. [IMG: Hacking the electorate by Eitan Hersh] Or in other words, the big data, grassroots-fired war of microtargeting isn't so much about super accurate data on voters linking cereal ...
In a speech to the Scottish Council for Development and Industry in Aberdeen yesterday, Willie Rennie claimed the radical centre ground for the Liberal Democrats, talking about Labour and the SNP fighting it out on the left, while the Conservatives move further to the right. He outlined a position that championed social justice while making sure that we lived within our means. Willie now finds himself as the oldest political leader in Scotland at just 47 years old. Nicola Sturgeon is 46, Ruth Davidson 36, Patrick Harvie 42 and Kezia Dugdale 33. It's certainly different from when I was growing ...
There have been three general elections since the Iraq war. Turnout has gone up at each of them. It doesn't get mentioned because it is an inconvenient fact. It doesn't fit the habit of pro-democracy campaigners who, in the UK, spend nearly all of their time knocking the state of democracy as if pessimism is the required qualification to join their club. It doesn't fit the story left wingers like to tell about the Iraq war and political disillusion. And something that's been happening for three elections in a row is still a little too new for political scientists and ...
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Death. No LD Candidate.
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. No LD Candidate.
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. No LD Candidate.
Jeremy Corbyn is a stranger to responsibility and will loathe leadership What lies ahead. (tags: ukpolitics ) Kosovo and Serbia sign 'landmark' agreements Great news. (And cadastral records?) (tags: serbia kosovo ) Whoa, Hugo: Women and Minorities Aren't New to Sci-Fi From Playboy. Really. (tags: sf ) German entrepreneurs use business to fight hostility to refugees Another side to the narrative. (tags: germany migration ) Russia briefly bans Wikipedia ...and then doesn't. (tags: russia freespeech ) Thoughts on Pratchett Patrick Rothfuss reminisces. (tags: sf ) Why your cat sticks its bum in your face Because it loves you. (tags: biology ...
Last week the Social Liberal Forum hosted a three part series of blogs by"heterodox" economist Simon Radford, "Shouldn't we listen to those who predicted the crash?". In it he excoriated orthodox economics, and urged British Liberal Democrats to engage with heterodox economics. His advice is fine as far as it goes, but Lib Dems will find heterodox economics promises much and delivers little. Now let me make my position clear. I think that orthodox economics has gone seriously awry, and I don't want to defend it. Also I think that economics has become so central to the political debate that ...
Thu 27th
09:11
Anyone remember Ross Perot? The women-only carriages storm is minor compared to what's coming Jeremy...
A social media hurricane was unleashed in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn's suggestion yesterday that the solution to women being harassed on public transport was women-only carriages. Let's look at what Jeremy had to say before going any further: "My intention would be to make public transport safer for everyone from the train platform, to the bus stop to on the mode of transport itself. However, I would consult with women and open it up to hear their views on whether women-only carriages would be welcome – and also if piloting this at times and modes of transport where harassment ...
This starts promisingly: @CoopEnergy Sorry, was very busy today. Happy to take a call over the weekend or one evening next week. Do you have my number on file? — Mark Pack (@markpack) August 21, 2015 But since then? [IMG: Tumbleweed - photo courtes of Freeimages.com] Another example of poor customer service from The Co-operative Energy, another reason to steer clear of being a customer of The Co-operative Energy.
Two weeks' tonight, I will be getting my glad rags on and heading off to Glasgow for an evening of fun and glamour at the first ever Scottish LGBTI Awards. Voting in them closes today at noon, but I wanted ... Continue reading →
I mentioned last month that I had raised with the City Council the fact that the lighting on the steps that run down from the side of the Queen's Hotel in Nethergate was not working. The council had promised an inspection and necessary repairs. I am pleased to advise that I have since been updated as follows : "(The City Council) undertook remedial works to the electrics serving the stair lighting. They are now operational."
Over in Caerphilly, a UKIP council by-election candidate has been dropped like a stone after posting on his Facebook page that immigrants should be gassed. The BBC say that Bobby Douglas also suggested an American woman refused entry to the UK should have "painted herself black" and pretended she could not speak English to obtain benefits. The remarks, on Facebook, were made in 2014 and UKIP claim that they were not aware of them when he was selected. This is despite the fact that after the general election campaign, during which there were several negative stories about the party's candidates, ...
