The traditional poll of books I read this year; inconsistency in numbers with my previous post is largely due to omertà over the Clarke process. If you like you can advise me what to read in 2016 as well. View Poll: #2032388
A video by Streetfilms: For those watching in the United States, this film is like a road map to how to get public support and your community energized around lower speed limits. New York City may have recently set it's city speed limits at 25 mph, but to keep driving down serious injuries and fatalities, we should be following the example set by the UK.
I read 290 books this year, precisely one less than last year's 291. However 24 of these were dives into the first 50 pages of Clarke nominees that I knew were unlikely to win or be shortlisted. My total pagecount was 80,100, compared to last year's 97,100 (cf ~68,000 in 2013, ~77,800 in 2012, ~88,200 in 2011). However, those totals are for books only; since August I've been reading a lot of short sf which had not yet been collected into book form - nine months' worth of Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Asimov's and Strange Horizons - so I guess my "real" ...
So here we go again - the annual circus that is the New Year Honours list, with the usual list of nominal rewards given to 'the great and the good' for services rendered to something or other. And, as usual, there's controversy about the Westminster bubble patting itself on the back in various ways, handing out the gongs to it's own people with a hearty 'haven't they worked so very hard at their public service'. And rightly so, I reckon. I'm not going to launch into some tirade against individual honours here - there's plenty of people doing that already, ...
January 1st 2013, I stepped on the scales. I had spent Christmas at my in-laws and they had 12 of us round for Christmas Day, so of course my mother did enough Christmas dinner for 36 people. Leftover food was in abundance. The untouched Turkey weighed more than my then 4-month-old son. I was having a full Christmas dinner for breakfast, lunch and tea (yes, "tea", I'm Northern) from the 26th to that morning. The scales hit 18 stone dead on. I was officially fatter than I had ever been before in my life. I decided enough was enough, my ...
You can find a selection of the old boy's wit and wisdom over on Liberator's blog: [The Revd Hughes] tells me he has arranged for a locum vicar to take Divine Service and visit the sick whilst he is away. "He's young and keen and believes every word of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is the literal truth." I eye him levelly: "It's not Farron, is it?"You may also enjoy these two posts from 2010: Twenty years of Lord Bonkers: Part 1Twenty years of Lord Bonkers: Part 2
Non-fiction: 2 (Year end 47) When I Was a Child I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson Rave and Let Die: The SF and Fantasy of 2014, by Adam Roberts Poetry: 1 (Year end 1) The Whole and Rain-Domed Universe, by Colette Bryce Fiction (non-sf): 2 (Year end 42) Between the Acts, by Virginia Woolf The Oxford Book of Christmas Stories, ed. Dennis Pepper SF (non-Who): 18 (Year end 130) Short Fiction Eligible for the 1941 Retro-Hugos Vol 3, ed. von Dimpleheimer Keeping it Real, by Justina Robson The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson Witches of Lychford, by ...
Many years ago the black Democrat politician Jesse Jackson created what he called a Rainbow Coalition to support his bid for the Democratic nomination for president of the USA. This Coalition was intended to include all those who are oppressed by hostility to their identity, whether women, BAME, LGBT and other groups. It is something all Liberals aspire to achieve and in theory should be able to achieve. Liberalism celebrates diversity does it not? The lack of female, BAME and disabled MPs suggests otherwise, but for this blog I want to focus on religion. People who are religious often look ...
January An article by Paddy Ashdown in which he spoke of his love of the poetry of John Donne led Lord Bonkers to remember the first Liberal Democrat leadership election: Many though Alan Beith was the frontrunner, but Ashplant began his speech to the first hustings by looking his opponent in the eye and declaiming: Beith be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so. This was widely counted as something of a zinger, and poor Beith's campaign never recovered from the blow.February Looking forward to the general election, Lord Bonkers was confident ...
This has perhaps been the most politically eventful half decade since the early 80's; we've seen the first peacetime coalition government of modern times, two new parties get over one million votes, the SNP sweep Scotland and almost tear the United Kingdom apart, their party's greatest rebel became Labour leader, and much more besides. So [...]
Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams The Philosopher Kings, by Jo Walton Last books finished Hark, A Vagrant!, by Kate Beaton Helliconia Summer, by Brian Aldiss The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer, by Sydney Padua The Just City, by Jo Walton Speak Easy, by Catherynne M. Valente Rave and Let Die: The SF and Fantasy of 2014, by Adam Roberts Helliconia Winter, by Brian Aldiss Jews vs Zombies, ed. Rebecca Levene and Lavie Tidhar Next books Short Trips: Zodiac, ed. Jacqueline Rayner Travelling Light, by Tove Jansson Books acquired in last ...
Here is our weekly roundup of what the Welsh Liberal Democrats, led by Kirsty Williams, have been getting up to.. Labour waste money on ad campaign for a metro system that won't be in use for 5 years [IMG: Welsh Labour metro billboard waste] Eluned Parrott AM has blasted the Labour Welsh Government for wasting over £52,000 on an advertising campaign intended to promote the South Wales Metro. Over recent months, posters, light boxes and banners simply saying "It's approaching" have been appearing in train stations across South Wales. The posters feature no useful information for the public, but instead ...
The Guardian has the story on its web site – see link above I smell a rat here, a political rat as big as the Bank of England's vault. Odds on that Tory Government pressure has 'suggested' to the FCA that they should drop the investigation into the banks. Just let them off so they can ruin us all over again! With thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this story.
'Un Ballo in Maschero' (ROH) An enjoyable opera, made more enjoyable by seeing Dmitri Hvorostovskiy for the first time. It got poor reviews, which were not deserved in my opinion. The material itself is on the boring side but it was beautifully performed. 2. 'Andrew Chenier' (ROH) The best discovery of this year. Jonas Kaufmann [...]
Welcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to. The plight of 50,000 children on housing waiting lists Jim Hume highlights the tens of thousands of children on housing waiting lists in Scotland. This is an area entirely devolved to the SNP Government. Jim said: It's unbelievable that someone has been on a council house waiting list since the end of the Second World War. The lack of housing available for social rent in this country is a disgrace and Ministers should be ashamed of themselves. The SNP has ...
Blood tests: last 8 results 29 24 20 16 9 7 25 18 Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Nov Nov Normal Hb 80 87 82 103 108 79 86 87 130-180 WBC 1.81 2.07 1.51 2.16 1.6 1.3 1.47 1.76 4.5-10.0 N'phils 0.8 0.99 0.47 0.56 0.47 0.44 0.48 0.46 2.0-7 Plt 47 54 50 60 95 107 187 221 150-450 These results were before a blood transfusion And these were after 29 29 24 20 16 9 7 25 Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Nov Normal Hb 86 80 87 82 103 108 79 86 130-180 ...
[IMG: Tim Farron at Lib Dem Bournemouth 2015 conference. Image courtesy of the Lib Dems CC BY-ND 2.0] What is Lib Dem conference? The Liberal Democrats hold two federal (i.e. UK-wide) party conferences a year, a weekend in the spring and a week in the autumn. All Liberal Democrat members can attend and vote, subject to paying the registration fee. The conferences are a mix of set-piece speeches, policy debates, fringe meetings, training events and more. The next Liberal Democrat conference is in York in March 2016. You can read more about the York Lib Dem conference in my previous ...
It is 5 years since my last blog post. In that time there has never been a more challenging time to be a Lib Dem, apart from in the 1950s when the Liberal party almost died. We can see from what the government is doing today that the Lib Dems did perform a useful role in Coalition in moderating the Tories. Even so, the reputation and the appeal of the Liberal Democrats has taken a battering. Some policies that should not have seen the light of day got through and the Lib Dems have a difficult legacy to deal with ...
We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2015, which has been one of the toughest years in our party's history. Over the past few days, we have sought out nominations and now have a rather impressive list that we'll be publishing in instalments during this week. Here is the third part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let's celebrate them and the many others who are fighting fto keep that Liberal Democrat flame alive. These ...
Bloody hell – what a year. I have done a lot. [IMG: I think I was having more fun than Mum was...] I graduated. It's on a piece of paper – I'm a goddamn Master of Physics. Sheffield is a great university city and it will always feel like home. [IMG: Me & Cleggers are obviously BFFs 4 lyfe] I helped win an election. I don't know if I had mentioned it to anyone? I stood for Council and got nearly 3000 votes(!). [IMG: I built an IKEA table (thanks Tim!)] I moved 200 miles, then another 200 miles. Turns ...
[IMG: charlotte-new-years-eve-2015] Thanks to all of you have visited here over the year. There were either a lot of you, or a few of you who came here very regularly to read what I had to write, and if you'd all paid a pound for each visit you'd have been horrendously overcharged. My most-visited posts this year were ones that definitely hit the Google zeitgeist, either because they featured general or local election results, because they featured Balustrade Lanyard (shockingly overlooked when Time named their man of the year) or because politics students were working out how to answer a ...
Stockport District Citizens Advice Bureau Opening hours from Monday 4th January 2016 Cheadle CAB drop in opening times are Monday to Friday from 10am to 3.30pm. Marple CAB drop in opening times are Monday to Friday 10am to 3.30pm. Stockport CAB drop in opening times are Monday to Friday 9.30am to 2pm. Stockport District CAB Telephone Advice Service operates Monday to Thursday 2pm to 7pm and Friday 2pm to 4pm on 0844 826 9800
This is the post I wrote 365 days ago that went live as 2015 dawned. Despite all our efforts, it ended up being one of the worst years ever to be a Liberal Democrat. The devastation of election night, followed less than a month later by the death of Charles Kennedy could have knocked the stuffing out of us. In many ways, we are still grieving and adjusting to our new circumstances, while simultaneously engaged in that #libdemfightback. There are huge challenges ahead of us in this coming year – the Welsh and Scottish elections, the London Mayoral election and ...
[IMG: Thank You chocolate. Image courtesy of http://www.krausescandy.com] Many thanks to everyone who has been a reader in 2015, whether on this site , on email with Liberal Democrat Newswire, on social media or in book format. Your time and mouse clicks (or rather, screen taps) are hugely appreciated, as is the very kind generosity of those who help with the costs of running LDN. Thank you. With the number of subscribers to Liberal Democrat Newswire up by 70% over the last year and with now in some weeks (judging by the weekly numbers Lib Dem Voice usually publishes) more ...
In today's Guardian, Tim Farron has called for the commission reviewing the freedom of information law to be disbanded on the grounds that the group has "a bias towards limiting access to FoI requests for quite spurious reasons". As the Liberal Democrats leader says: "I'm sure there is a cost - an administrative cost and a time cost - to providing this information, but that's the price you pay for living in a liberal society." The paper says that Farron believes that any conclusions drawn by the commission other than to protect the existing rules would not be credible. "They ...
Thu 31st
08:59
How the 2008 crash was the perfect political mirror image of the fall of the Berlin Wall
I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall very clearly. I was a few weeks shy of my seventeen birthday, and this momentous event felt as if it came out of nowhere. The Cold War had been the backdrop to my entire life up until that point; the idea that it was ending seemed unimaginable. But just over two years later, the USSR was officially disbanded. Communism in Europe had come to an end. The thought at the time was that the political right in Europe and the west generally would be the beneficiaries. After all, hadn't the policies of ...
Its always difficult to know where to start and what to leave out of a review of a year just past but here goes with 5 memorable issues for me in 2015. Loss of the 311 Bus – Thanks Arriva! – This was a big issue for Lydiate in particular and it now means that Lydiate folk can only get to Ormskirk, if they don't have a car, by getting the 231 bus to Maghull station and then a train to our local market town. [IMG: This is me with the Lydiate & Maghull resident's petition earlier this year at ...
Thu 31st
08:42
Sefton Borough – So building thousands of new houses on land that can cause flooding is such a...
Another aspect of the recent flooding which I covered in my Radio Merseyside interview yesterday is the barmy quest of Sefton Council, via its Local Plan, to build thousands of new 3 and 4 bedroom houses on land which will potentially cause more flooding for local communities like Maghull & Lydiate. [IMG: The pedestrian bridge over Dovers Brook, Sefton Lane Maghull, became a river itself on Boxing Day 2015..] The pedestrian bridge over Dovers Brook, Sefton Lane Maghull, became a river itself on Boxing Day 2015.. Not only is all the earmarked land high grade agricultural on which we grow ...
As 2015 closes, it is fitting to remember the passing of the fabulous, talented Cilla Black, who passed away on 1st August :
The New Year Honours were announced late last night. We have trawled through the list and have spotted a couple of prominent Liberal Democrats. But we are sure there are others known to you, our readers. Please let us know in the comments about anyone we have missed, and we'll add them to this post. First, Ed Davey has been made a knight. He was the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change for the last three years of the Coalition, and before that a junior Minister in the Business Department. He served as MP for Kingston & Surbiton ...
Sorry for the recent spate of odd linkspam posts. My usual bookmark site, Delicious.com, isn't working properly, and I am probably going to move over to Pinboard. In the interim links will be a bit chaotic.
It's that time of the year when people take stock of the previous 12 months and formulate resolutions that aim to make them personally or the next year better. I confess to a lack of originality at this time, as the two great ambitions I have remain the same as in previous years, though at [...]
Log In - The New York Times America's Empty Embassies Ex-Veep Walter Mondale writes. (tags: ) Donald Trump was for the Clintons before he was against them - POLITICO Donald Trump was for the Clintons before he was against them Times change. (tags: uspolitics ) Brilliant illustrations bring this 1976 Soviet edition of 'The Hobbit' to life Wow. (tags: sf ) Untitled For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions Plutocracy in practice. (tags: ) Nicholas | Kinepolis At last! The Force Awakens! (@ Kinepolis in Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant) (tags: ) Twitter RT @historyepics: Lyndon B. Johnson ...
In a new series for Lib Dem Voice readers, I will be reporting a summary of the latest news from media in the UK and abroad about Britain's referendum on its future in Europe. Brexit Risks Damaging Sterling, Investment and Trade Highlighting the economic damage that holding the referendum will to do, quite apart from the damage of Exit itself, The Wall Street Journal notes that the pound has fallen to an 8-month low against the dollar and reports that: "Investors also remain wary... as a possible withdrawal could discourage investment flows that have supported the pound." Sir Victor Blank, ...
Sore head? Wine contains more alcohol than manufacturers claim Elland Bridge will be closed 'for the forseeable future' The 100 Most Important Fails Of All Time - get yourself a cup of tea & suit down for these actually cup of tea might not be the best plan. 66 is my favourite: the definition of punching up comedy Reminder: the political art of the Unapology Black Lives Matter Minneapolis & Tamir Rice UK national archives: release of thousands of papers delayed - or may not be released at all Wasn't Leon Brittan in the cabinet in that period? Please, if ...
The previous post accused our government of "criminal neglect of the the duties of a government towards its citizens." The following day the Guardian published an article by Damian Carington which gives further and better particulars which in my view amply justify this accusation. In summary: In response to floods in 2007 the Pitt Review recommended that increased funding was needed. The then Labour government duly hiked up the expenditure;In 2008, in response to floods in his own Oxfordshire constituency, David Cameron, then in opposition, said in parliament "Most people accept that, with climate change [floods] are likely to become ...
Thu 31st
06:00
Willie Rennie's New Year Message: Let's unite Scotland with a positive liberal message
Embed from Getty Images So what can we look forward in 2016? The Forth Road Bridge's continued opening (we hope). Scots athletes excelling as part of Team GB at the Rio Olympics. Andy Murray mounting another challenge at Wimbledon. And the small matter of a Scottish Parliament election that will set the direction of the country for five years. As ever, at this election voters face a choice. They can choose five more years of constitutional division and grievances with the SNP who have failed to protect crucial services. Or the Conservatives, a party who have systematically withdrawn support from ...
