Non-fiction: 3 (YTD 38) The Ancient Languages of Europe, by Roger D. Woodard Companion Piece, eds. L.M. Myles and Liz Barr Who's Next?, by Derrick Sherwin Fiction (non-sf): 3 (YTD 31) Girls in Love, by Jacqueline Wilson The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbø Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie SF (non-Who): 7 (YTD 96) A Vampire Quintet, by Eugie Foster The End of All Things, by John Scalzi (did not finish) The Wild Reel, by Paul Brandon (did not finish) Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson Manuscript Found in a Milk Bottle, by Neil Gaiman The Unlimited Dream Company, by J. G. Ballard ...
It had finally arrived. My first Liberal Democrat conference in the beautiful seaside town of Bournemouth. I sat in the darkened auditorium of the BIC arena next to my fellow ... Continue reading →
Copyright © Dennis Calow The University of Leicester Special Collections site labels this as "Emanuel Baptist Church, New Park Road". But it is clearly the same church I have twice blogged about, saying it was in Leamington Street. Perhaps it was on the corner? Anyway, here it is again photographed some years earlier, complete with a very 1965 car and small boy.
Here are the five posts on this blog that recorded the most hits between July and September 2015: Why is Owen Jones so annoying? (4th July 2013) Slums as a housing solution (11th Aug) Through a glass, darkly (12th July) Capitalism's real enemies (22nd Aug) Policy capture, busy work and the housing problem (31st Aug) I can only think that the frequent appearance of Mr J across the media over the summer has forced more people on to the internet to ask the question posed in the title of the list-topping post. It was a long, long way ahead of ...
To go with a Mayor of London candidate and a set of London Assembly list candidates and the first two GLA constituency candidates, the Liberal Democrats now have a third selected too: Elaine Bagshaw (City & East) Amna Ahmad (Croydon & Sutton) Michael Bukola (Lambeth & Southwark) NEW Michael said: As a council tenant, it is very unlikely now that I will ever own my own home, particularly in such an inflated market like London. Clearly we need more homes, but not as a consequence of selling off social housing stock like the Tories wish to do, or by treating ...
Game Show Host: Good evening and welcome to Stake Your Claim. First this evening we have Mr Norman Voles of Gravesend who claims he wrote all Shakespeare's works. Mr Voles, I understand you claim that you wrote all those plays normally attributed to Shakespeare? Voles: That is correct. I wrote all his plays and my wife and I wrote his sonnets. Host: Mr Voles, these plays are known to have been performed in the early 17th century. How old are you, Mr Voles? Voles: 43. Host: Well, how is it possible for you to have written plays performed over 300 ...
Norman Baker was on the Daily Politics last week talking about life as a Coalition minister. You can see the interview above. He has also been talking to the Sussex Express: To many people Norman Baker is as authentic a part of Lewes as the Castle or the Brewery, epitomising the county town the way, for example, Jilly Cooper epitomises the shires or Pam Ayres epitomised Norfolk [the geography a bit off in both cases]. Against the Grain is the perfect title for his biography. Like Lewes, he is slightly bohemian (not for effect), plain speaking, anti-authoritarian, quirky and possibly ...
There has been a very minor outbreak of people using the label "Preamble Lib Dem" to describe themselves. There are two ways of approaching this. The first is to say that all Liberal Democrat members believe in the Preamble to the constitution and therefore can call themselves "Preamble Lib Dems" if they want to. The second is to ask why a few people feel the need to call themselves this? It appears to be so that they can differentiate themselves from Lib Dem members who, they believe, do not believe, and/or act in accordance with, the preamble. In other words: ...
There has been a very minor outbreak of people using the label "Preamble Lib Dem" to describe themselves. There are two ways of approaching this. The first is to say that all Liberal Democrat members believe in the Preamble to the constitution and therefore can call themselves "Preamble Lib Dems" if they want to. The second is to ask why a few people feel the need to call themselves this? It appears to be so that they can differentiate themselves from Lib Dem members who, they believe, do not believe, and/or act in accordance with, the preamble. In other words: ...
Very quickly, because it is not very difficult. The new British Labour Party leader has sparked off a row over comments that he wouldn't use nuclear weapons as Prime Minister. The row/debate is totally and utterly pointless: The UK is in NATO; the Americans have nukes; the British wouldn't use nukes without Washington's approval; under any circumstances where a British PM might use nukes, if he didn't the Americans certainly would. Simples. Next manufactured controversy please.
[IMG: Third Flag of the Confederacy] Third Flag of the Confederacy [IMG: First Flag of the Confederacy] First Flag of the Confederacy [IMG: Second Flag of the Confederacy] Second Flag of the Confederacy Flag of Georgia until 2001 Current flag of Georgia. Spot the difference. Of course whites in the South were able to have a gentlemanly and mannerly lifestyle, because it was paid for by the enslavement of African-Americans. John C. Calhoun made it clear in his writings that slavery was not just a necessary evil, it was a positive good that reduced class distinctions among white people, as ...
[IMG: Ask ALDC is split into subject areas covering all aspects of Lib Dem campaigning] Those areas with local elections next year will be well on the way (or have already) selected their council candidates for their key council wards. However for those of you who have yet to start, there are some useful materials available in the members' area of the ALDC website. Even if you are simply looking [...]
We have had a lot of articles about Trident in the build up to conference. Now the motion has now passed with amendments, conference has commissioned a working group on what to do without Trident. The group has been asked to assess strategic threats; how best to promote non-proliferation and disarmament; the implications for Britain's defence commitments to both NATO and our European alliances; and the scope and implications of other kinds of nuclear deterrent. Here is a proposal to consider. In his article, George Cunningham argues that the international situation has changed enough that we should retain our nuclear ...
I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks. Not because I haven't had things to say but because I've been in some sort of a malaise in terms of writing on the blog. Not that I haven't been writing a lot mind you, I've been writing elsewhere doing a fair amount of sports writing. This blog though has developed more into politics as the years have gone on. Still here I am. On the back of two Labour conference speeches I feel compelled to tap tap tap on the keyboard once more. Jeremy Corbyn I actually have few problems with. ...
Well that didn't take long. Barely 12 hours after I wrote last night that Jeremy Corbyn had given us something to throw back at any Labour nastiness, Corbyn's own deputy Tom Watson took a right pop at us in his speech to Labour Conference. From PoliticsHome: I did go too far though when I compared the Lib Dems to a Banarama tribute band. Some people were angry, and I accept that I crossed the line. What I said was demeaning, unjustified and wrong. Siobhan, Sara, Keren - I should never have compared your tribute acts to that useless bunch of ...
Earlier this month it was Heritage Weekend during which local heritage attractions were promoted. I helped run a stand at the Tanfield Railway for the Sunniside History Society, of which I am deputy chairman. We have also been organising a trip for members and residents to visit the Tanfield Railway on Sunday 4th October. There will also be a BBQ in the main shed. A vintage bus has been booked
We are all going to be asked to make a serious decision about the UK soon. The UK's EU referendum, at the moment considered to possibly happen in 2017, may result in the UK leaving the EU. I'd like to share some of the resources I use as I saw someone ask on social media about good stuff to read. This isn't all non-biased but I do try to read around as much as possible Full disclosure : I'm opposed to us leaving the EU at the moment and will probably remain that way, however happy to listen to the ...
[IMG: ALDC's Campaigning on Crime Pack] Back in July we put forward the reasons why ALDC is advising as many areas as possible to field candidates in the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections in May 2016. You can read the full article here. In brief: Standing more candidates this time will help show that the #LibDemFightback is happening; It gives [...]
Wed 30th
15:09
LibLink: Tim Farron: Not satisfied with snatching their milk in the 70s, the Tories now seem set to ...
Remember how Mrs Thatcher put an end to free school milk in the 1970s? Our parents really should have known then, shouldn't they? Anyway, the Tories appear to be getting ready to ditch the free school meals introduced by the Liberal Democrats two years ago. Tim Farron has written for the Huffington Post making it clear why he thinks that free school meals are important: Children from all backgrounds, rich and poor sitting down for lunch together, ending any stigma of young pupils having to admit they receive free school meals is a good thing. I will not sit by ...
For some time, many Liberal Democrats have been appalled by the backhanded coverage of Liberal Democrats by the BBC, a broadcaster tasked to be politically neutral and unbiased. Since the election with our representation in the commons & a lesser share of the vote we have accepted that diminished coverage would be necessary to reflect parliament & opinion polls but the almost blanket media ban on Liberal Democrats and Tim Farron has been perplexing and worrying. Equally unhelpful has been the backhanded reportage given by BBC journalists. BBC Question Time Great care and expense is taken by the BBC to ...
The Guardian reports that Jeremy Corbyn's announcement that he would not press the nuclear button has sent the brothers and sisters into a bit of a tizzy at their Brighton Conference: In a sign of deep divisions over Trident in the shadow cabinet, Maria Eagle described the Labour leader's comments as unhelpful - prompting a rebuke from Diane Abbott, the shadow development secretary. Sir Paul Kenny, the general secretary of the GMB union, said he also disagreed with Corbyn. They add that Eagle, who is the shadow defence secretary and a supporter of Trident, told the BBC: "I think it ...
For those of you who do not know about this, there is a list of topics upon which I will not venture an opinion, even though I hold one, because on those topics no matter what opinion you venture you are villified. It's called the Israel/Palestine list because that is a pertinent example of a topic upon which you cannot advance an opinion of any kind without otherwise sane and rational people frothing with hatred and loathing for you, despite agreeing with you on pretty much everything else. I'm quite an opinionated person, and I like having a good debate, ...
Along with several other Stockport councillors and council officers I had a meeting with Virgin Trains staff about the new ticket gates across the underpass at Stockport station. The gates have now been in place for over a month. Virgin's aim is to both stop people travelling without tickets and future-proof the station for when we have oyster-style smart cards. Some residents had contacted councillors with reports of being trapped in the gates, of ticket machines not working, rude staff and insufficient signage, and those complaints were all passed on to Virgin. While the complaints were a small proportion of ...
[IMG: Southport FC] www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southport Poor old Southport are really struggling at the start of the new season – just 8 points so far from 13 games. A big recovery is clearly needed if Sefton's premiere football club is not to face relegation.
Wed 30th
13:18
I think this Smack The Pony sketch comes closest to explaining Jeremy Corbyn's concept of the nuclea...
Jeremy Corbyn has said he can live with the idea of the Labour party he leads spending £100bn on the Trident nuclear weapons system even though he's today confirmed he would instruct the UK's defence chiefs never to use it. It's certainly an interesting approach to the concept of a nuclear deterrent. For some reason, it reminded me of this Smack The Pony sketch (begins 8 seconds in):
So, the two parter which began the new series of Doctor Who is over, and the critiques have started appearing. I've read several. Some of them were very good, and went into great depth about elements of the story and the craft of writing it. Some of them were more superficial, and full of squee. Almost all of them, though, had one thing in common: they all concentrated on the Doctor/Davros relationship. Now I'm a big Davros fangirl. I think he's a fascinating character, and his relationship with the Doctor is a complex one. I am dead set certain that ...
Willie Rennie has announced the four members of his working group into improving gender balance which he announced last month. He made it clear that he wants to see the party adopt a raft of measures including all women shortlists. Today he met with the Women 50/50 campaign to discuss improving gender balance. What's interesting about the make-up of his working group is that it includes people who have historically been sceptical about measures such as all women shortlists. If they support his plans, it will be a very clear message to the party that it is time for serious ...
Are Corbyn/McDonnell not already in danger of compromising their 'hardish left' views simply to keep the majority of right wing Labour MP's on board? Yes I know this question comes from me a Liberal opponent of Labour but never the less surely those right wing Labour MP's have to be deselected (they did not want Corbyn and certainly did not vote for him) or Corbyn and this shadow chancellor McDonnell will have to continue to compromise what they believe in to keep them from rebelling. Even then it won't work though as those right wingers will see them off at ...
In an earlier post I've used this quotation from Owen Jones's excellent book, "The Establishment": Those policies that challenge the position of the Establishment . . . are dismissed as a recipe for ruin: businesses will leave, capital will flee, tax revenues will collapse, and so on. After his speech to the Party Conference on Monday Labour's new Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell was interviewed on BBC 2's "Newsnight" by Evan Davis. Now, I have a great respect for Evan Davis. He used to come to day conferences for sixth formers studying economics and give us easy to understand talks on ...
Next week (Monday) plastic bag charges are finally coming into effect in England. It'll be 5p per bag from then on. Plastic bags can take hundreds of years to degrade - and they damage wildlife. Yet in 2013, over 7.4billion of them were given out by major supermarkets.
Last night, with Lib Dem support, Cheadle Area Committee voted to make the High Grove Pub on Silverdale Road an Asset of Community Value (ACV). ACVs didn't exist until the Lib Dems introduced them as part of the Localism Act in 2011, so they're quite new. We think it's absolutely right that – with Hydes planning to close the pub – the community should have the opportunity to save it. However, I want to say a few words about what this does and doesn't do, because it's not a magic fix and we shouldn't raise expectations too far. Making the ...
[IMG: Serif Pageplus is the party's recommended desktop publishing software] ALDC members can view our latest advice article on how to use Pageplus when using a Mac, now published on the Ask ALDC section of our website. The technology section of Ask ALDC also has articles on: What is Pageplus? Social Media Texting Connect Casework Flickr (Online Photos) Installing fonts IFTTT (If This Then That) – [...]
Got back from Brighton yesterday, having experienced a Labour conference that wasn't really all that different to ones I'd experienced in the past (as I wrote yesterday). It felt like a simple continuation of the Ed Miliband years in most respects: a feeling that the Labour Party is getting smaller each year it is out of power. Perhaps next year really will feel different; when all of the new, young members make the trek to Liverpool. But somehow, I think it will just be a continuation of the same air of shrinkage. In one of his TV interviews this morning, ...
Jez we Can? (probably not!) One of the most bizarre claims made by Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election was that £120 billion was being lost to the Treasury by tax evasion and avoidance and downright cheating. That claimed Mr ... Continue reading →
We've heard a lot of Liberal Democrats urging a compassionate response to the refugee crisis but for former Brent Councillor Paul Lorber, it's personal. He told the Brent and Kilburn Times about his family's escape from Czechoslovakia and how he found safety in the UK: He said: "I had no wish to go. I had a happy childhood in Czechoslovakia and did not want to leave all my friends and everything else I had known." His parents, who had both survived the horrors of Nazi concentration camps in the Second World War- his mother Auschwitz Berkenau and his father Sachenhausen- ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat governance structure 2015 - part 1] Job descriptions are not always a good description of what doing a job will really involve, nor are they always a good indication of what's really going on. The job description for Tim Farron's Chief of Staff (interim Chief of Staff Ben Rich keeping to his promise to set things up and move on), however, is one of the more revealing ones. Aside from the opening joke (40 hours a week? yeah, right), and the wince at the missing apostrophe, it is a job description that is full of party management ...
I have studied war and all of its incarnations since the age of eight when I first picked up the Ladybird book of "Soldiers" and started asking questions of my grandfather. War is undeniably one of the great evils that mankind has unleashed upon the world and sadly the one thing at which we as a species excel at. Aggression breads technology and at the very top of the tree are the nuclear weapons. Many people argue that Nuclear weapons are necessary. They have never been necessary. The excuse of ending World War Two quickly is touted too quickly but ...
The photograph below shows the junction of Reform Street, here seen running northwards to the High School, and Bank Street, which runs westwards, parallel to the Overgate, towards Barrack Street. The pianoforte & music saloons, 'sole agents in Scotland' for Bechstein and Steinway, were Paterson, Sons & Co. Pricelists in Dundee Central Library's Lamb Collection (Box 29(19)) list other stores in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayr and Dumfries. Next door at numbers 42-46 were the clothiers and men's mercers, J. D. Adams & Company. No. 48 were the bootmakers, Miller & Smith. Alexander Miller lived at Edenbank, Downfield, a village at that ...
It's poor Edward I feel most sorry for in this article. "I can't do it, but I can read about it" :( Of course, none of the poor little sods is going to be able to get a job. But given that their parents can afford a place at that school it's probably not going to be an issue. Mr Allcoat, I salute you. If only more were like you. West Yorkshire 'invalid driving fines not to be refunded' Google's Driverless Cars Run Into Problem: Cars With Drivers Loud Liberalism Will Save the Lib Dems Forget James Bond. Danger Mouse ...
