The Monkees might not have sung that, although given the number of Clarksvilles in the United States, it might have been easier had they done so. And, one must admit, buses have never been as glamorous as trains. The Orient Express rail replacement bus, as an example, doesn't really cut it. So, fair enough, "Last Train to Clarksville" it must be. The last direct bus to Cambridge leaves Market Street, Ely at 6.15 p.m. on a Saturday evening. Forget a late night out if you don't live near the station. Admittedly, late night excitement is a bit thin on the ...
I admit it, I'm rather fond of Ely Cathedral. It dominates the town and can be seen from miles, thanks to the fact that it's on the only piece of (relatively) high ground between Cambridge and The Wash. It appears to pin the town to the ground like a captured moth in someone's collection. And so, with about twenty-five minutes to kill, it was time to head to cut across High Street, through an archway and into the cathedral grounds. Sadly, there wasn't time to get inside, but it seemed appropriate to take a photo or two for the blog. ...
I have not yet shown you the photographs I took of this line in July. While you wait, here is some colour film of it from 1959.
Mon 7th
20:50
#RefugeesWelcome: Our county and country steps up a gear - it's welcome but is it enough?
Is it enough? People will have different views on today's announcement by David Cameron that Britain will take up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years. My view is that it is a good start. This maximum may well need to be reviewed upwards when we get more details of responses from other EU countries. [...]
Final score from the Abbey Stadium, Cambridge United 1, Luton Town 3! So, my scheduled connection lost, what was I to do? There was another number 9 to Ely an hour away, but I wanted to keep moving. Luckily, Stagecoach offer another means of getting to Ely, albeit somewhat counterintuitively via Newmarket (for the geographically challenged, Ely is north of Cambridge, and Newmarket is east of it. But, it was due in twenty minutes, so I settled down with my good book, a history of the Peninsular War (we won, the French didn't) and waited. And, sure enough, another shiny ...
Michael Moore (Are you sure about this? Ed.) "We should make sure the credit is properly allocated, but not be shy about celebrating the roles of many Liberal Democrats, from David [Steel] onwards, who were part of the team that helped to deliver this magnificent railway." Michael Moore celebrates the reopening of the railway line from Edinburgh to the Borders. Mark MacKinnon visits Perm, a city in the Urals where, not long ago and for not very long, free expression was allowed to flourish. In fact, it was encouraged and even financed by the Russian state. David Aurebach says the ...
Clive King is best known to my generation of readers for Stig of the Dump, in which a modern (ie 1963) boy makes friends with a caveman who has mysteriously appeared in the neighbourhood via a never-explained timeslip. It must be forty years since I last read it. It may be forty years also since I last read The Twenty-Two Letters, in which a family living in a city-state on the coast of what is now Lebanon about 3,500 years ago is torn apart by war and natural disaster, and start to rebuild their society by inventing the alphabet. The ...
Monday: I was going to review the Doctor Who story "Mummy on the Orient Express" today. I was going to make a joke about "a shambling creature trapped by its history into perpetuating a war that ought to have been long forgotten and now just murdering by-standers..." Unfortunately, this ISN'T the plot of "Mummy on the Orient Express" but the Prime Minister's announcement to the Commons of a drone strike in Syria. I'm very concerned that the British Prime Minister appears to have secretly ordered the de facto invasion of Syrian airspace to carry out extrajudicial execution of British citizens. ...
Lets be clear, the Conservatives are desperate to use the tragic death of Syrian Kurdish Refugee Aylan Kurdi to get public approval for airstrikes in Syria against ISIS and probably the Assad Syrian Government forces too. In 2013 Lib Dems ensured that airstrikes in Syria were blocked . Also too Cameron is refusing to give sanctuary to desperate refugees who have fled Hungary and at Calais but a tiny 4,000 per year selected by Britain from camps in Turkey. Cameron has already allowed RAF pilots to fly to pilot air strikes for the US in Syria. He has now announced ...
Mon 7th
16:33
Joe Anderson – Elected Mayor of Liverpool – This really is in the unbelievable category!
[IMG: Joe Anderson] Joe Anderson The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above As a former trade union officer it is clear to me that Joe's trade union should have shouldered the burden of fighting any tribunal case. What on earth has it to do with his present employer the City of Liverpool? Did his union decline to fight the case? If so why? This is what my fellow Lib Dem Councillor Richard Kemp thinks:- [IMG: Richard Kemp] Liverpool City Lib Dem leader Cllr Richard Kemp has reacted angrily and says Mayor Anderson should pay the money ...
[IMG: Black Cab CC0 Public Domain] As a good rule of thumb, the power of computers doubles every two years or so or, to put it another way, halves in price. It is a rough rule of thumb, but one that has turned out pretty accurate for several decades now and does not show any real signs of changing (on which see the transcript of Ben Hammersley's talk here). For a striking example from your pocket, consider the portable phone. It is still less than a decade since the first iPhone was launched in 2007. In political terms, we've only ...
[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] LGA Lib Dem Group Comment LGA LIB DEMS URGE LOCAL SUPPORT FOR REFUGEES AND SAY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED Liberal Democrats in the Local Government Association have urged local authorities across the country to show central government that they are ready and willing to offer to take in refugees fleeing persecution from the Middle [...]
Mon 7th
14:52
The Independent View: Liberals need solutions to the migrant crisis - and conflict prevention will b...
So this was the tragedy of a Britain with open hearts and closed borders. The growing humanitarian crisis in Syria coupled with instability in North Africa is creating one greatest migrations waves seen since the end of World War II. Jordan alone has taken over 1.1 million displaced Syrians and is now suffering water shortages that could lead into larger migrations into other Middle Eastern nations. The reaction to this has been largely isolationist policies, with commentators in the UK describing these migrants anywhere between 'cockroaches' and 'a swarm'; the narrative media focused on dehumanising those fleeing conflict. In a ...
My children need three square meals a day My children need three square meals a day O Lord God And I ain't gonna be treated this way Woody Guthrie, of course, in the aftermath of the Dust Bowl, and the great movement of the poor and ruined westwards to the California line. More of him another day. There is something of The Grapes of Wrath about what is happening in the interface between Europe and the middle east, but I suspect that even John Steinbeck never dreamed of what is about to emerge. This is a difficult blog post to ...
The European Commission has today endorsed a plan put forward by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President Francois Hollande over the weekend in response to the current refugee and migrant crisis. Germany has agreed to take in 40,000 refugees and France 30,000. Smaller quotas have been allocated to several other richer European [...]
What would improve minor injuries services in South Glos - more services at GP surgeries, or extended services at Yate Minor Injuries Unit? The South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group is looking at a 24 month trial of increased services at GP surgeries, covering: sprains and strainscuts and grazesminor fracturesminor head injuries wound infectionsminor burns and scaldsbites - insect, animal and humanminor eye injuries such as scratches, foreign bodies in the eyesnose bleedsinjuries to the back, shoulder and chest They say that the new services "would be available between 8.30am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday. We are also considering options for ...
It's just over three months since Charles Kennedy died suddenly. Yesterday his partner Carole MacDonald spoke for the first time to the Sunday Times (£). In a very moving interview, she said that what upset her in the days following his death was the idea that he was a tortured, sad soul. They made out that Charlie was this tortured individual and that angered me," she says. "I didn't think they knew him particularly well. Yes, there were issues but he wasn't tormented. There weren't two sides to him. He was very considerate, gentle and non-confrontational. What you saw in ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above
There has been a certain amount of hysterical reaction to Jeremy Corbyn's suggestion that women only carriages could be brought back but above is a more sober reflection on the issue and why it is probably not a good idea. With thanks to Jen Robertson for the lead to this story.
How many of us have heard the story of the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Clela Rorex and what she did in 1975 by issuing wedding licenses for two men to get married? I suspect not many of us. I know I hadn't until I was pointed in its direction last night but it is a quite wonderful story and I'll allow Clela to recount it in her own words via NPR: The couple came in. They asked for a marriage license. And it's the first time I met openly gay people. I said, I don't know if I can ...
David Cameron seems, at last, to be softening his stance, but references to "swarms" of refugees have been shocking. It has felt as if he were a party-politician more in sympathy with the xenophobic strand of his own party than a statesman able to see the plight of people making desperate journeys to escape a situation in Syria that most of people in the UK should be glad not to understand. The numbers should inject some realism. The total population of Syria is just under 23 Million. The total population of the European Union is 503 Million.Around 7.6 million people ...
[IMG: Bernie Sanders rally in Iowa. Image courtesy of berniesanders.com] Lessons for the UK too from how Bernie Sanders is using Reddit to fuel his most-likely-doomed-if-rather-successful-in-the-interim challenge to be the next Democrat Presidential candidate: One of the most effective tools the Sanders operation uses to promote its attention-grabbing spectacles is a network of Bernie-loving communities on Reddit, the massive social news site. There are at least 80 distinctSanders-related subreddits, including one dedicated to each state and the District of Columbia. In particular, the Sanders campaign is coordinating with r/SandersforPresident, which serves as the hub for an amalgam of state and ...
The Western Mail report that environmental organisations in Wales have written to First Minister Carwyn Jones expressing fears about the impact of proposals for a new M4 relief road. The letter from 11 leading groups including Wildlife Trusts Wales, RSPB Cymru and the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales, and which coincides with the start of a series of public exhibitions run by the Welsh Government about its proposed M4 Black Route, says the £1bn project contradicts the Welsh Government's commitment to sustainable development and urges the First Minister to consider the environmental impact: "This proposal is an example ...
I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said that 'England and America are two countries separated by the same language' and the more I read about the US Presidential election the better I understand the sentiment. Today's Guardian reveals that the former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has added her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump's criticism of Republican rival Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish by saying that immigrants to the United States should "speak American". Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner whose hardline stance on illegal immigration is a hallmark of his bid for the party's ...
A good friend who was coming to Lib Dem conference was going to shave all of my hair off, for Cancer Research, at the Glee Club on the last night of conference. This has all been agreed with the Hotel and the Glee Club thanks to the efforts of Gareth Epps and the conference office. However, my hairdresser cannot make it. So, if you know any hairdressers with a pair of clippers coming to conference who are able to give me a close shave for a good cause at the Glee Club, please put them in touch. In the meantime, ...
Liberal Democrats on Herts County Council have called upon the County Council to do more to help refugees from Syria. Lib Dem health spokesperson Chris White said: 'We must be in no doubt what we are dealing with here. The BBC's insistence, along with other media outlets, of continuing to use the term "migrant" has [...]
Jeremy Corbyn entered the Labour leadership contest with odds of 200-1 of winning, a number we endlessly hear about these days. However, it's still worth bringing up as an example of how little anyone saw the whole thing coming. But like so much of life, it all seems obvious in hindsight. Labour conference 2013, Brighton. I recall stepping out from Ed Miliband's speech while looking at how it was playing on Twitter. This was the year of the energy price freeze pledge, and the press was dishing out the "Red Ed" sobriquet very freely – even the left of centre ...
Mon 7th
08:55Michael Moore writes...A celebration of the Liberal Democrats who made the Borders railway possible
The campaign to restore the railway to the Borders, enthusiastically championed by David Steel, was already a couple of decades old in the late 1990s, pre devolution. But in 1998 the region was hit by the economic tsunami of the closure of the Viasystems factories, a major printed circuit board manufacturer, and the world famous Pringle knitwear operation in Hawick – thousands of jobs were lost with some clicks on a financier's spreadsheet. Archy Kirkwood and I led a delegation to St Louis, Missouri, to seek to persuade the owners of Viasystems to keep the factories open. While the mission ...
Mon 7th
08:55
Coming soon: a damning statistic on Clegg's diversity record, new survey data on who Lib Dem members...
Find out more about all these stories and more in the next edition of my monthly email newsletter, Liberal Democrat Newswire, going out later this week. Sign up for it here and make sure you don't miss out. In the meantime, you can browse the previous editions online.
This Photopolis photograph (below) shows Perth Road at St Peter Street. It shows the north side of Perth Road running eastwards to the right towards the city centre, with St Peter Street leading north to the left. Alexander Sutton, The West End Supply Stores, was at No. 121 Perth Street. Notice the peculiar barrow in St Peter Street. Sutton lived at No. 4 Gowrie Street. The confectioner at No. 199 was David Kermack. No. 117 was George Pickles' West End Hosiery. Alexander Thompson Watt at No. 115 was a butcher, with other shops at No. 4 Wellgate, No. 30 Victoria ...
You need more than the media to grasp the world Hans Rosling explains what the world is really like. (tags: media economics ) Nothing and Everything: The Different Textures of Terminal Pat Cadigan on what palliative care means. (tags: health ) End in sight for Schuman station works We live in hope! (Will make a huge difference for me!) (tags: belgium )
Double Standards Fake health brochure about Donald Trump Making Maps for Books: 2 Cartographers Tell Us How It's Done 'If You Don't Like It, Make Your Own' Is a Terrible Argument An open letter to anyone who ever talked down the refugee crisis [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
At the recent AGM of the ERS, five Liberal Democrats were elected to the Council. There are also 4 Labour, 1 Green and 5 non politically aligned members. No new resolutions were passed, but the feeling of the meeting that the society should continue to encourage moving away from first-past-the-post voting systems, and continue to press for fair votes in Westminster general elections and in English and Welsh local elections. ERS is to hold two events at this month's federal conference in Bournemouth: a fringe meeting - 'Like Minds to Change Minds' - to be held on Sunday September 20 ...
