Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. 1. St Michaels Church, Bramcote On Saturday St Michael and All Angels Church Bramcote received a 'National Fairtrade Campaign Award' at the National Fairtrade Supporters' Conference in London. This was for their Fairtrade Campaign work over the past 12 months leading up to Fairtrade Fortnight 2015. A large part of the campaign took place in Fairtrade Fortnight this year but an even larger ...
I think everyone in the world has problems of some type or another. I also believe the magnitude of your problems depends entirely on your own personal situation. Now for me I think I have had a pretty disastrous year to this point. Just to give you a very brief rundown: I broke my leg ... Continue reading Everyone is in Need of a Silver Lining! →
If only you knew, Will... Will Hutton writes in the Guardian about the crisis of morale in the public sector. Amusingly, if you're into black humour, he talks of a ten-year pay freeze in real terms. If only, as I won't have had a pay rise that wasn't a real terms cut unless CPI stays as low as it currently is. It won't though... Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai It doesn't matter how wide the margin is, as long as there is one... A win for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy over Tamil Nadu by one wicket, after a late collapse. We ...
I am pleased this means the former Liberal Democrat leader will be playing a prominent part in the referendum campaign. Reuters quotes Paddy as saying: "We are about to enter the battle of our lives to keep Britain in the European Union ... "The choice is between a divided Britain that retreats into isolation or a Britain which maintains the foundations on which our greatness has been built: outward-looking, engaged and playing our full part in our continent."
The dramatic struggle for female enfranchisement in Britain is so much part of the country's political history that it is amazing it has not been the subject of a major feature film until now. But Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette", which is now out on general release, has been well worth waiting for. Wisely the storyline focuses [...]
I am a member of the International Relations Committee of my beloved Party, and represent most of you at ALDE Party Councils and Congresses (the rest of you go yourselves, and I know who you are). However, having been elected by Conference delegates, I do like to get involved in the policy debates where I can. The catch is, you can't. At least, not in the way that I can. However, you know stuff, gentle reader, and almost certainly stuff that I don't know. And so, it dawns on me, why not tap into your knowledge when considering what we ...
[IMG: st run] As my LibDemVoice colleagues have been kind enough to highlight, I fulfilled my pledge* this week to run naked down Whitehall. My daft fault for claiming on live telly that's what I'd do if the Lib Dems were reduced to 24 MPs. Never bet more than you can afford to lose, folks. In any case, it was all in a good cause. I wasn't going to go through with it for the lolz. But when Kelvin McKenzie challenged me on the Daily Politics — and said he'd back up the offer with £5,000 to the charity of ...
There follows the current draft of a resolution on Europe and the digital society. I'll be honest, I am not an expert in this field, whereas many of you who read this are. Do me a favour, take a look at it and tell me if there is anything outrageous/stupid/missing. The deadline for amendments is Friday, so if you have any ideas, the sooner the better. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party convening in Budapest, Hungary on 19-21 November 2015: Having regard to:ALDE Party resolution 'Digital Freedoms' from 2009 Congress in Barcelona, Spain;ALDE Party resolution 'Global Digital ...
Sophie Sabbage The Cancer Whisperer gets half a page in The Observer for her rejection of the idea of 'battling cancer', as if it was a new idea. Her mother was horrified that she was writing a book about her own experience, culling entries from her blog. In the Macmillan Online Community's Living with Incurable Cancer Forum (on which I post occasionally) there's a tendency for people to write of their cancer in adversarial terms, which is surely unhelpful since it must raise their stress levels without alleviating their symptoms. If they already lead a healthy life there may not ...
[IMG: The Great Seige - E Bradford] Ernle Bradford's account of the attack on Malta in 1565 by the Ottoman Empire, published just short of its 400th anniversary in 1961, has remained a standard work on the subject because, although not a detailed scholarly account it is readable, accessible, entertaining and (probably) mostly accurate. The paucity of sources makes assurance about accuracy hard to secure, and Bradford does a good job acknowledging how the acts of ordinary Maltese – as opposed to those of the invaders or defending Christian knights – were mostly lost to the historical record despite their ...
See also YouTube 'Avebury cat Stripeys'
The real issue of course is why YouGov would want to include in its opinion polling a question about supporting a military coup? Do they know something that we don't? The rather disturbing news is that one in four voters could envisage supporting such a coup. Is Prime Minister's Question Time really that bad? By far the biggest backers for a military takeover of our civilian government were people who vote for UKIP. Apparently, as many as 44 per cent of Ukip voters would swear allegiance to some power-mad General who thinks he knows better than the population at large. ...
Sun 18th
12:43
Why I'm supporting plans for a bus shelter at Salisbury Road/Lincoln Road junction in Werrington
You might be surprised how controversial the idea of introducing a new bus stop can be in Peterborough? I myself am a big fan of improving bus services in the city and providing decent shelters throughout the area. So I was happy to hear about the latest consultation regarding bus stop improvements, at the stop [...]
Sun 18th
12:09
More influential than the Liberal Democrat chief executive, 2 former cabinet ministers and a Council...
One of the biggest laughs I've had in a long time came during our Conference in Bournemouth when Iain Dale published his list of the top 50 influential Liberal Democrats. I've been meaning to write about it for ages but never quite got round to it. I, believe it or not, am at number 30, up 11 places from last year. This puts me above Keith House, Leader of Eastleigh Council in charge of a budget of millions, 2 former Cabinet ministers, Ed Davey and Danny Alexander and the Chief Executive of the Party. You can perhaps see why I ...
Remember the slightly spooky 'Tonight You Belong to Me' by Patience and Prudence from last Sunday? The Ear Candy page I linked to has all sorts of speculation about what became of them in later life, most of it almost certainly fiction. But two things are certain. The first is that the sisters appeared on television in 1978 talking about their early fame (which they did not greatly enjoy). The second is that Prudence, the elder sister, was the wife or partner of the drummer Don Conka, who played with Alvin Lee's band Love in its early days. AllMusic describes ...
Rifling through some old blog posts I came across these two great clips of political canvassing, taken from Dennis Potter's satire Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton which, like all great satires, comes with a large dollop of truth: Of course, grim canvassing experiences can be the trigger for fun, even if Liberal Democrat peer Tim Razzall recounts in his memoirs going a little far: After the first ten houses, all of whom had told me that they were Tory and disliked the Liberal council, I thought I would have some fun. For the next ten houses I said I ...
Sun 18th
10:35Scottish Conference Countdown: What's on the agenda? And get writing your amendments today
Scottish Liberal Democrats gather for their Autumn Conference in Dunfermline on Saturday 24th October. The agenda contains no fewer than 8 policy debates – not bad for an event that lasts for just 7 hours. There are keynote speeches from Willie Rennie and Tim Farron and the day ends with a tribute to Charles Kennedy. The policy motions to be discussed are: A penny on tax for the NHS: This one will be controversial. The MSPs will be very scared of it passing because it's way more radical than they can cope with. Perhaps Conference needs to give them the ...
One of the worst kept secrets at the Town Hall, has now come to fruition! Local councillors have now agreed to approve plans to share their chief executive, Gillian Beasley, between Peterborough City and Cambridgeshire County Councils, on a temporary basis. Apparently, Cambridgeshire County councillors voted unanimously to approve the proposal at a meeting held [...]
Not for the first time, the Shropshire Star wins Headline of the Day. In fact it's not the first time Uri Geller's spoon gorilla has won Headline of the Day.
Yakuza are Japanese gangsters, but that doesn't quite tell the whole story. In real life, the Yakuza are the inheritors of the Tekiya and Bakuto groups that existed in Edo-era Japan; at least, the rituals of those groups found their way down to the modern day Yakuza (such as the large scale tatoos that adorn their abdomens). Or so I've read (and seen in Yakuza films), not having spent any time at all in the underbelly of Tokyo's crime syndicates myself. Anyhow, that's simply by way of introduction – whatever the Yakuza are in reality, the film genre they inspired ...
Readers may well remember that Labour-run Sefton Council is in the process of bringing in parking charges for this popular car park in Formby Village. Indeed, the issue has already split Labour locally with their Sefton Councillors backing the parking charges whilst the local Labour MP is publicly opposing them! So much for Labour unity, although if you read my previous posting you will notice that there has not been much Labour unity locally in recent times. My previous posting on this matter can be accessed via the link below:- Formby Parish Council are leading the campaign against the ...
Following a spate of burglaries in the area, the next meeting of the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee (LJC) next Thursday, 22 October is to debate community safety. The meeting will be attended by Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner Barrie Sheldon and Inspector Rob Thomas from West Mercia police. Councillor Andy Boddington, chair of [...]
Two years ago I was in acting charge of a London day care setting for the elderly not a million miles away from the fabled Kids Company. My young colleague put together a craft afternoon for our clients. She sent off for £20 of glass beads on Ebay. A lot of elderly people with dementia had a lovely time making jewellery thanks to her. The £20 was authorised by my manager beforehand and accounted for afterwards. Of course it would have been nice to give handouts to our clients, many of them in great need, but we had to vouch ...
[IMG: labourlistjobs] Browsing through the W4MP Jobs site yesterday, I spotted a couple of interesting adverts, which made me question if I'm doing blogging right. LabourList want to employ a staff writer for £21,000 and an editor for £30-35,000, both of which are so many orders of magnitude above what I've ever made from this blog that I do question if I'm doing it right. My income from this blog has normally sufficed to pay the not-very-large hosting costs of it, and that's about it and I'm pretty sure the same is true for just about every other blogger I ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Our next evening event in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum will be a free talk by Professor Terry Dawson, SAGES Chair in Global Environmental Change at the University of Dundee, which will take place at 6pm on Tuesday 20 October - Protecting the Real Treasure of the Pitcairn Islands - Challenges to creating the world's largest marine reserve The Pitcairn Islands, located in the South Central Pacific Ocean, consists of two atolls; Oeno and Ducie (the most southerly atoll on earth), a raised atoll Henderson (a UNESCO World ...
Backing the fiscal charter = abandoning opposition How much are e-books worth compared with physical books? - interesting comments thread on this too Stephen Collins on TripAdvisor - cartoon Not Watching This Weekend: Nighthawk - @nickjbarlow reviews another movie that doesn't exist in this universe ICYMI: Film Review: Scent of Mystery AKA Holiday In Spain at the @mediamuseum Shop sent away blind customer with guide dog - and owner appears unrepentant ICYMI:| Repost: Why I am Against "Positive Discrimination" Music writing masterclass: Bernard Levin and the Wexford lemon juice - the funniest opera review ever written Velociprincesses - Velociraptors as ...
Bernard Levin and the Wexford lemon juice Best review ever. (Well, one of them.) (tags: funny ) If You're Not Paranoid, You're Crazy: How to Protect Your Personal Data—and Humanity—From the Government Walnuts! (tags: internet )
Filed under: Ludlow Tagged: poll
