From the Telegraph, 1 June 2009: Speaking on GMTV Mr Brown said he watched the final on Saturday night and described the winning dance group as "absolutely wonderful". But he said: "I hope Susan Boyle is OK because she is a really, really nice person and I think she will do well. "I spoke to Simon Cowell last night and to Piers Morgan and wanted to be sure that she was OK."How long ago all that now seems!
It's been too long since I last wrote one of these. All Saints Parish Church, in the tiny village of Kirby Underdale, is too perfect an offering to not resume them. The church sits nestled in a hollow of the Yorkshire Wolds, just above a stream, surrounded by trees and hedges. It is a remarkable little church, and its tranquil and beautiful setting only emphasises its qualities. Within, the church is predominantly "early"; that is to say, much of the substantial fabric dates from between the Norman Conquest and the end of the 13th Century. The Victorians have been here, ...
Sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed by this volume, the first of a new presentation of Elric in internal chronological order. About half of the book is the script of an Elric-before-he-was-King graphic novel, which is OK but I'd have preferred to get the real thing. There are some interesting essays and short pieces front and back, but I think it's really one for the Elric or Moorcock completist, and I am not one.
This is yet more evidence of the Australian surge in feminist sf commentary (which, let's be very clear, is a Good Thing) spearheaded by the Galactic Suburbia team, two of whom have assembled this volume of (mostly) letters in tribute to James Tiptree jr / Alice Sheldon who was born 100 years ago this month. The first half has literally dozens of letters written to Tiptree / Sheldon by today's writers, reflecting on what she means for them. They are mostly very short, but long enough to make an impression: I now want to get hold of more work by ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 429th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23-29 August, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. 8 points about the Lib Dem honours ...
Thank you to Julie Hesmondhalgh - an excellent actress but perhaps less of a political strategist - for laying bare the weakness of Corbynism. A move to the left may help shore up Labour's vote against the threat of the Greens and the Farronite Liberal Democrats. It may even stave off the threat of Ukip, as that party's voters are notably left-wing on the economy. I doubt, though, that they will take kindly to Islington-style social policies. But a Corbyn-led Labour Party will have little change of winning over Conservative voters - the sort of Conservative voters who liked Tony ...
"Immigration is a positive for the country – we must remember that" says Lib Dem @thomasbrake http://t.co/Zg0uhkAR7Q — Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) August 27, 2015
I am one of those people who, until this year, let the Hugo nominations guide my reading of short SF rather than the other way round. Clearly that was one of the factors that allowed the recent unpleasantness to develop, so I'm going to make a serious effort to remedy that and read more (ie any) sf short stories published this year before the deadline, which will presumably be in the early spring of 2016. The problem is, where to start? There is so much of it. Well, with the guidance of the Wikipedia (yes, I know) articles on the ...
I like to joke at gathering of my cousins that, as the eldest, I am our generation's guinea pig, testing concepts so that others might learn from the experience. Divorce and (relative) old age are my main areas of expertise and, whilst both are better avoided, only one can be put off permanently. Since having to resort to reading classes two years ago, there has been a constant, albeit slow, deterioration in the quality of my eyesight, coming to a point whilst Ros and I were in the US whereby I could go into a coffee shop and not be ...
I was checking whether the Bebside waste recycling site was open tomorrow, when I noted this little gem. From 14th September Northumberland County Council will be charging for the disposal of plasterboard, rubble and soil. Charges range from £2 for a "bin bag" or single sheet, to £80 for a van load ( = transit van sized ) I can understand the charges being levied for commercial users, but I'm not sure about this for residential users. Especially when commercial users are not supposed to use the local amenity sites I hadn't seen the announcement before today, and I bet ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 15,500 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... How to beat the SNP (61 comments) by Joanne Ferguson Eleven new Liberal Democrat peers announced (54 comments) by Caron Lindsay The crowded centre left (101 comments) by Joe Otten Jo Swinson writes...Dissolution honours make the contribution of women look invisible (52 comments) by Jo Swinson The Lib Dems' problem in a nutshell (90 comments) by Tom Papworth Why I'm not going to castigate Jeremy Corbyn over women-only train carriages (117 comments) by Caron Lindsay Dame ...
The British Home Secretary, Theresa May, set out in an article in today's Sunday Times changes she would like to see made to the principle of freedom of movement within the European Union. This is one of the central planks of the European single market, which was largely put in place by the Conservative peer [...]
Back when he was Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott was an opponent of electoral reform for Westminster, so his conversion to the cause is sadly rather late in the day but is still welcome as the more converts the better: I think it's time to give people a real say in a more democratic way, put an end to job-for-life MPs in so-called safe seats and make every constituency a marginal one. Labour's next leader is being chosen by transferable voting and it's proving to be a really exciting contest. So I'd like to see the next Labour leader make ...
Paul and Barry Ryan were the twin sons of Marion Ryan, a popular British singer of the 1950s. They had success as a duo in the 1960s, but Paul found performing too stressful and turned to songwriting instead. He wrote this for Barry, which was a number 1 in many countries but was kept at number 2 in Britain by the juggernaut that was Mary Hopkin's Those Were the Days. In 1968 a five-minute single was practically unheard of. With its changes of mood and tempo, you can see Eloise as a forerunner of Bohemian Rhapsody. The teenagers may recall ...
[IMG: This was the scene around 4pm today] This was the scene around 4pm today The Liverpool Echo has the story – see links above
Sun 30th
10:56
Tim Farron's Q & A with Scottish Party members: "Liberals, moderates, our time has come"
Tim Farron came to Scotland on Thursday and spent an hour taking questions from party members at a very hastily arranged event at Party HQ in Edinburgh. Even though it hadn't been organised until Tuesday afternoon, there was standing room only. A fair proportion of the audience was made up of new members. He spoke about our place as a party, positioning ourselves as a party of economic credibility and compassion ready to stand up to the authoritarian governments in London and Edinburgh. His words complemented what Willie Rennie was saying about us being at the heart of the radical ...
Do you remember the old Lydiate Voluntary Youth Club in Lambshear Lane? My old chum Phil Davidson was involved in running it back in the day, if I recall correctly. Also, I seem to recall the old club being brought up on Facebook a while ago. Anyway, a trawl through some old photos by my old mate Andrew Blackburn brought this shot to light:- [IMG: Former Lydiate Parish Councilors Tony Fenton and Pat Foster outside the old Lydiate Voluntary Youth Club] Former Lydiate Parish Councilors Tony Fenton and Pat Foster outside the old Lydiate Voluntary Youth Club Pat Foster left ...
And the first science fiction book with a partly Irish setting was...
The UK Government has announced that their disastrous and ineffective badger cull will be revived for another year and extended to the county of Dorset. According to the Independent Ministers claim the killings are necessary to fight TB in cattle, which farmers say hurts their business. Some believe badgers are responsible for spreading the disease. However, an independent analysis commissioned by the Government told ministers that the culls were ineffective and inhumane: "Findings show unequivocally that the culls were not effective and that they failed to meet the humaneness criteria," Rosie Woodford, a scientist at the Zoological Society of London ...
Sun 30th
09:02
Holding the centre ground is straightforward: you convince swing voters you are the only party for t...
Pretty much anyone who knows anything about politics agrees that the way you win general elections in Britain is by convincing everyone that it is your party that occupies the centre ground, and that, by extension, the other lot are too far towards one of the extremes. There is, of course, a great deal of discussion about what exactly is meant by "centre ground" - I am attempting in this article to try and answer that not in absolute ideological terms (if such a thing can even be defined), but by what it means in realpolitik terms. Tony Blair won ...
Sun 30th
08:55Lib Dems could try to out-flank Corbyn from the left? Are you having a laugh? Oh, and quit the anony...
I am more than a little irritated by an article in the FT in which three of our eight MPs are quoted. They are all talking about the need for the Liberal Democrats to stick to that centre ground and not try to move to the left of Labour if they elect Jeremy Corbyn. When on earth was that ever going to happen? How on earth could you outflank Corbyn from the left? He is an old fashioned socialist. He wants to nationalise everything, leave NATO, dispense with any sort of fiscal caution. To go any further left would involve ...
Sadly Jane Dodds didn't make it to Parliament in May, but great to see that's not stopped her campaigning zeal: Driving a van load of clothes from kind people in Montgomeryshire to Dover for refugees in Calais. Diolch/Thankyou pic.twitter.com/8nocymn45E — Jane Dodds (@DoddsJane) August 29, 2015
Sir Jimmy Shand From Sheena Wellington of Friends of Wighton : Jimmy Shand was world renowned as player, composer, band leader and innovator. Less well known is that he was also a discerning collector of old music books. Friends of Wighton bought The Jimmy Shand Collection at auction and we are now raising money, through events, application to funding bodies and trusts, and crowdfunding, to have the volumes conserved so they can be on display at Dundee's Wighton Heritage Centre and used by musicians, scholars and the community. To bring the music off the page and into life and to ...
Like Tim Farron, Ray Comfort believes homosexuality is a sin (equal to stealing, adultery and "fornication"). His latest movie "Audacity" is dedicated to the subject of witnessing to homosexuals. It makes for some uncomfortable viewing. Uncomfortable mainly because of Ray Comfort's excruciating "gotcha" footage where he wanders up to people in the street and leads them off down the garden path. Just like watching this video of Richard Dawkins destroying an ill-prepared Brandon Flowers (I love Dawkins but seeing him up against Flowers is as uncomfortable as watching a lorry drive over a rabbit), Comfort bamboozles these unprepared people by ...
Sun 30th
00:23
The World's Busiest Railway: might I suggest that Hugo Rifkind's bourgeois slip is showing?
I have to admit that, having only got home on Thursday, I haven't kept up with what's on television. And so, it was only yesterday that I found out that BBC2 are having an India Season, courtesy of Ann, who drives the Gipping North Suffolk Links bus on Friday evenings. She had found the first four programmes, on Indian railways, fascinating, and gave them a strong recommendation. And so, I made plans to watch them over the long weekend. After all, I am, deep in my soul, at least a part-time Mumbaikar. However, household chores have a tendency to get ...
