The ever excellent Liberal England - possibly overstretching his geographical remit - dug out some excellent footage of disused railways in Edinburgh, including footage of Balgreen Halt on the Corstophine branch line. But Balgreen Halt is not really disused anymore with a tramstop of the same name on the increasingly successful Edinburgh tramline. And my visit to Edinburgh last week wouldn't have been complete without a ride on the tram coincidently to Balgreen:
Big email write in in advance of Council considering this next Thursday. Haven't counted but with over 100 against, I have had only 2 in support in my inbox to date. The two Conservative MPs are weighing on different sides and they are all in chaos. the email coming in states:- Dear Cabinet Member, Re: Proposal to site a Park and Ride on Bathampton Meadows I am writing to ask you to vote against the proposal to proceed with a Park and Ride (P&R) on Bathampton Meadows. My reasons are as follows ... The proposals are being advanced in the ...
The first of four (you lucky people) videos in which Geoff Marshall from Londonist explores London's canals.
Liberal Democrat Voice recently posted a couple of cheering links. A letter in the Independent had said: After the election, one commentator remarked that history would treat the Liberal Democrats better than the electorate did. After less than six months of this spiteful government it is already clear what a restraining influence the Lib Dems were.And Nic Dakin, the Labour MP for Scunthorpe, was reported as saying that he wished Nick Clegg was still in government to stop cuts to tax credits and steel closures. These were good to read - even if the writer of the letter has a ...
Proper post in an hour or two, but just to let non-backers know, California Dreaming is now done. The ebooks have been sent to my backers on both Kickstarter and Patreon, and I'm waiting on the proof copy to come back from Lulu before I ship copies out to those who've ordered them. I'm afraid [...]
On their way home they paused a moment under the great oak at the top of the Home Field, and looked back. The whole south burned with stars. There was a roar in the oak like the thunder of the sea. The sky was black, black as velvet, the black north had come down, and the stars shone and burned as if the wind reached and fanned them into flame, Large Sirius flashed; vast Orion strode the sky, lording the heavens with his sword. A scintillation rushed across from the zenith to the southern horizon. The black north held down ...
As a scientist and computer entrepreneur, I am constantly appalled by the blindness to evidence and logic displayed by right-wing politicians. So I heartily endorse New Scientist's editorial lamenting absurdities in the proposed Snooper's Charter following hard on the heels of the Psychoactive Substances Bill: This pattern of ill-conceived pledges followed by impractical legislation looks ominously as though it will be repeated in energy and education. That suggests the government is either scientifically illiterate or can get its way by assuming its citizens are. What can be done to stop this folly? I think we need to seize upon specific ...
The Liberal Democrats have accused Labour of acting like a "nodding Conservative dog" for giving qualified support to Theresa May's controversial plans to shake up Britain's surveillance laws. Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, has promised to lead the fight against the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill as he seeks to carve out a niche for his party as a champion of civil liberties... Mr Farron told The Independent: "The Home Secretary has created a sham of judicial authorisation that doesn't fool me, the public or the experts. It is an utter disgrace." He added: "The Labour Party is even worse ...
Fri 6th
19:24
Mystery behind buyer of tennis champ Virginia Wade's undies as they fetch £1,600 in Ludlow
Our Headline of the Day comes from the ever-reliable Shropshire Star.
[IMG: ALDC supports Liberal Democrat candidates and campaigners across the country] Following financial support from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd., ALDC and ASLDC are looking for two new part-time staff members to join our team. These are two exciting opportunities to be part of rebuilding our local government success in Scotland, Wales and England. Development Officer – 3 Days a Week – Location Flexible (England [...]
So writes Nick Clegg: When the Edward Snowden revelations were first published, the knee-jerk response from the government was to play the man and ignore the ball. The debate online and in the pages of the Guardian was taking off, and civil society groups were beginning to mount legal challenges in the investigatory powers tribunal. But most ministers simply didn't understand - whatever concerns they may have had about Snowden's own behaviour - the significance of the fact the world now knew the government's most closely guarded secrets. They refused to acknowledge that the democratisation of the security state had ...
The last time I was in Mexico City, anout 20 years ago, I was enchanted by the Zona Rosa: a tight grid of tree-lined streets between the Paseo de la Reforma and the Avenida Chapultepec, not far from the city centre. So now I am back there for a few days I'm pleased to se [...]
Yesterday St Martin-in-the-Fields, the church at the edge of Trafalgar Square, held its annual service to commemorate the homeless and destitute people who had died in London in the past year. The number this year was a record 194. Apparently the organisers try to find some personal detail to attach to each name, just to remind us that these are people, and not just a statistic. Here is a poem written by one of them, David Rose: After a boom there's always a bust; Ask who's to balm and they'll tell you it's us. It's not greedy bankers or embezzling ...
A collection of stories by C.S. Lewis, including the time-travel story of the title. It's not finished, but it would have been an interesting read - the Dark Tower itself turns out to be a replica of Cambridge University Library, built in an Othertime by people who our hero tries to understand. I think Lewis was probably better advised to go to Venus rather than take this route, but there are elements of the story that made it into That Hideous Strength. I see that there is some controversy about the extent to which Lewis's literary executor Walter Hooper may ...
[IMG: spectre] I'm not at my best this week thanks to a cough/cold combination that's laying me low, so interesting political thoughts will have to wait for a while. However, I did manage to go and see Spectre the other night and it's prompted a few thoughts, which I thought I'd share. Spoilers follow, so look away now or don't click the read more button if you want to avoid them: In general terms, it's not a very good film. Daniel Craig spends most of it looking bored, the script's a mess and it's very much in the standard Bond ...
[IMG: image001] Please click on the map above to enlarge it This map, if you examine it carefully details the potential extensions to the Merseyrail electrified network that may or indeed may not come about. It comes from a recent presentation to Merseytravel Committee members. I realise that even when you have clicked on it that good eyesight is required to pick out the detail.
Following Justin Trudeau's stunning General Election in Canada in October, Liberals in Britain are taking heart that a restoration in the political fortunes for the Liberal Democrat Party is taking shape as the EU Referendum approaches in 2016. Under Tim Farron's leadership we have scored a number of Council byelection successes winning 13 seats and holding 13 seats since May. Recent victories such as Torbay, Inverness and Essex show a UK wide trend towards upsurge with some swings in excess of 30%. In the Commons we have deterred a ill-judged Airstrike campaign in Syria lobbied for by Cameron and in ...
For many of the BBC viewers & licence fee payers watching and funding BBC Question Time : the perplexing issue of Political Bias on the Question Time Panel is becoming acute. While the Conservative Party & Labour each have a panelist each week, other political parties with millions of votes have to wait up to 8 weeks to hear their representatives, while private media commentators appear in pairs each week. The net effect is often a right wing panel. The SNP is often on panels in England where they do not contest elections while Liberal Democrats are not represented. UKIP ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg Q&A 8] Writing in The Guardian today, Nick Clegg claims that in 2010: When a senior official took me aside and told me that the previous government had granted MI5 direct access to records of millions of phone calls made in the UK- a capability only a tiny handful of senior cabinet ministers knew about - I was astonished that such a powerful capability had not been declared either to the public or to parliament and insisted that its necessity should be reviewed. That the existence of this previously top secret database was finally revealed in parliament ...
Funding cuts are not the only thing that should worry scientists: plans to put all research funding in England into a single body should also be of concern, and will raise eyebrows in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The pieces of the puzzle about the future of UK science are starting to come together. We are still waiting for the Spending Review (due in a couple of weeks time) settlement. We also await the recommendations of the Nurse Review into the role and function of the research councils in our system, despite some interesting leaks. But today's Higher Education Green ...
Three weeks ago, Zack Polanski offered us a perspective on the way we, as Liberal Democrats, select candidates, focusing in particular on the barriers to participation that campaign spending limits create. And, whilst I am not Mark Pack, I am prompted to offer a different perspective on the problem by Mark Platt's suggestion of a 'Packian response'. First, some context. The 1997 European Parliamentary selection was the first where, almost regardless of where you were, there was a serious prospect of a Liberal Democrat being elected. In South East England alone, seventy-two members applied to be on the shortlist. In ...
Liberal Democrats, Conservative backbenchers and moderate Labour MPs are honourable Parliamentarians trying to resolve the Syrian situation. They understand that they cannot solve the situation overnight and with easy solutions. Contrast this fair-minded and well-intentioned approach with the black and white binary through which the hard-left narrates all foreign affairs. American, Britain and Israel are the problem; all other states and non-state actors are either lesser evils or even victims, so their narrative goes. The anti-colonial hard left blame the west for every problem in present day Syria. Alex Salmond at his party conference and on Channel 4 News this ...
[IMG: Political news aggregator screenshot - Mark Pack] Save the hassle of working your way through piles of different political news with my political aggregator. Straight out of the Ronseal school of website naming, it aggregates political news... providing you with the latest stories from a range of the most important and best media outlets and blogs. It's at aggregator.markpack.org.uk. Happy reading!
[IMG: postcard3] Congratulations to Adrian Sanders, the former MP for Torbay, who won a local council seat in yesterday's by-election, increasing the percentage of votes from 30% to a stonking 69%. The by-election followed the sad death of long-standing Lib Dem councillor Ruth Pentney. Clifton-with-Maidenway (Torbay) full result: Adrian Sanders Liberal Democrat 1096 – 69.2% (+39.3) Conservative 235 – 14.8% (-13.7) UKIP 158 – 10.0% (-9.7) Labour 53 – 3.3% (-9.0) Green 43 – 2.7% (-6.8) * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
[IMG: 27 New Lib Dem Cllrs since the general election - and counting!] What a result in Torbay, where former MP Adrian Sanders has been elected to the council with just short of 70% of the vote. Adrian held with Clifton with Maidenway ward for the party with a 40% increase in vote-share since last time. This is the 14th council seat to have been defended successfully by [...]
You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... getpocket.com Depressingly accurate by Rafael Behr on the Syrian stalemate no-one has a good answer to http://bit.ly/1RANwba getpocket.com V good from Dan Hodges on what Labour moderates should do (ie, the opposite of Liam Byrne) http://bit.ly/1kezhyn getpocket.com David Aaronovitch on top form tackling "soft Stalinists of the campus" always on look-out for what next to censor http://bit.ly/1XUazSe getpocket.com Very good from James Kirkup on the gig economy and need for politics/parties to get ready for it http://bit.ly/1WBbAkP getpocket.com Denis McShane's 12 ...
I recall being sixteen and going to a "protest march", for no other real reason than because I was trying to get off with a girl who really wanted me to attend it with her. As we travelled to the site of the protest, I have to confess I didn't even know what we were about to protest against. So I asked my companion. "We're protesting for peace," she said. This stunned me, as I suddenly thought I must have missed something big. "Who are we at war with?" I asked. "No one," she replied. "We just want to take ...
[IMG: Baroness-Claire-Tyler-1] We have covered the launch of the Equality for Mental Health Campaign this week and we also linked to Norman Lamb's account of his son's struggles with mental health. And now our spokesperson in the Lords on Mental Health, Claire Tyler, has written an article in Politics Home. She outlines the campaign then writes: Our job now is to hold this Government's feet firmly to the fire and make sure the promised money finds its way into the system and, crucially, that money earmarked for mental health services is indeed spent on mental healthcare by Clinical Commissioning Groups. ...
I suppose Jeremy Corbyn will quickly get used to the continuous speculation about his future but, for journalists at least it never gets old. Today's Independent reports that the new Labour leader could be hit by a wave of resignations by moderate frontbenchers in an attempt to destabilise his leadership and pave the way for a coup aimed at ousting him. They say that some Labour frontbenchers who agreed to serve under Corbyn are determined to topple him well before the 2020 general election and have begun private talks about their tactics. One option is an orchestrated series of resignations ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : This new exhibition marks the centenary of the publication of Patrick Geddes' Cities in Evolution (1915) and the associated Cities Exhibitions. This exhibition features original archival material, much of it never displayed or published before, plus current work by affiliates of the Geddes Institute for Urban Research at the University of Dundee. The exhibition is a research project whose aim is to evaluate Geddes' thinking at a time when city regions are under increasing pressure to accommodate new populations without losing sight of their natural heritage and sustainability. ...
This is my third weekly diary over at LibDemVoice today... Blind chance Here's a paradox I've often pondered - why are so many Lib Dems who support name-blind job applications against external assessment of children in schools? What's the link, I hear you ask. Okay, let me explain... Lynne Featherstone did a great job over many years highlighting the need for applicants' names not to be disclosed on job applications to avoid employers' bias (inadvertent or otherwise) against individuals, especially those whose gender and, in particular, race is evident from their name. There's a stack of evidence demonstrating that equally ...
The former Liberal Democrat MP, Adrian Sanders, is back to election-winning ways in his council by-election: Clifton-with-Maidenway (Torbay) result: LDEM – 69.2% (+39.3) CON – 14.8% (-13.7) UKIP – 10.0% (-9.7) LAB – 3.3% (-9.0) GRN – 2.7% (-6.8) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) November 5, 2015 Or to visually represent this:
Blind chance Here's a paradox I've often pondered - why are so many Lib Dems who support name-blind job applications against external assessment of children in schools? What's the link, I hear you ask. Okay, let me explain... Lynne Featherstone did a great job over many years highlighting the need for applicants' names not to be disclosed on job applications to avoid employers' bias (inadvertent or otherwise) against individuals, especially those whose gender and, in particular, race is evident from their name. There's a stack of evidence demonstrating that equally qualified candidates are less likely to get called for interview ...
Serbia shuts down historic Tanjug news service started by revolutionary Tito Sad news! (tags: serbia media ) Scoping the possible economic impact of Brexit on Ireland Bad news, both sides of the Border. (tags: eu ukpolitics ireland northernireland ) Who Knows What About Me? How apps share *your* data. (tags: internet socialmedia privacy ) Matthew 22:39 Research shows that (some) devout people are just mean. (tags: religion economics ) The Real Map of Ireland Even wetter than you realised! (tags: ireland maps ) Brexit to Nowhere: The foreign policy consequences of Out @ecfr explains. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) The GOP's ...
Getting rid of Linkis - please, please, anyone who is currently using it read this The Racial Pecking Order in British Theatre and TV Not sure whether #29 or #31 is best [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
