The Theatre Royal used to have entrances on both Horsefair and the Market Place. It closed in 1957 and was demolished the following year. Read more about it on The Music Hall and Theatre History Site.
Embed from Getty Images "I thought I was running for the leadership of the Conservative party, not some demented Marxist sect," fumed Douglas Hurd in 1990. That was when he found his Etonian background being held against him in the Conservative leadership election that followed the defenestration of Margaret Thatcher. Sure enough, he lost out to the Brixton boy John Major. Fast forward to 2008 when, in admonishing Nick Clegg for an insensitive remark on pensions, I wrote: Just because Tony Blair and David Cameron have made it look easy to be a public school type in modern Britain and ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has branded Ruth Davidson the biggest cheerleader for the London Conservatives as she calls for David Cameron to stand for another term as Prime Minister. Earlier this week Ms Davidson said she supports a Conservative Cabinet campaign to stop David Cameron quitting as Prime Minister, just a day before [...]
Current Watership Down, by Richard Adams (a chapter a week) Legacy: A Collection of Personal Testimonies from People Affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland, by BBC Northern Ireland Whispers Under Ground, by Ben Aaronovitch Lethbridge-Stewart: The Schizoid Earth, by David McIntee Last books finished The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers Short Trips: Life Science, ed John Binns Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis Prime Time, by Mike Tucker The Folding Star, by Alan Hollinghurst A Princess of Roumania, by Paul Park Beige Planet Mars, by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham Next books Gorgon Child, by ...
Tomorrow (Sunday), the last pints will be pulled at the Church Inn - at least for some weeks. The current management is to leave and staff have lost their jobs. Cedric from the Charlton Arms is to take direct control of the pub. At this stage, there is no news on how long the pub... Continue reading All change in Ludlow as another pub closes and post office threatened →
Credit must be shared with the cyclist who rode past and startled them just at the right moment.
London's Whitehall was blocked this afternoon by demonstrators calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to resign. There are many reasons why the public might want to see the back of him and the Conservative government, even though they were only voted in last May, but the cause of this particular rally was the PM's delay [...]
I've read the revelations about tax havens in the Panama Papers with a sensee of deja vu rather than shock or horror. That's because back in 2012 I attended a talk given by John Christensen, Director of the Tax Justice Network, which, he said , was ten years old a that time (and I think is partly meant to be an antidote to the so-called Taxpayers' Alliance.) Christensen argued that some time in 1956 "the authorities" (I think the Bank of England) took the deliberate decision that, since the days of Empire were over, Britain should expand into tax havens ...
Clever, very clever (still, four years on): More about this here.
I'm presently in the process of chasing up Peterborough City Council as to when local residents and users of Hall Lane can expect to see some resurfacing work. I think it's important to note that the stretch is well used esp when the schools are open, and even when they are a not people, still [...]
As a cyclist I am more aware of potholes than most folk but a couple that have appeared in Birkdale are so big nobody can missed them. We have reported several in recent days but the one in Burlington Rd and the one in Lyndhurst Rd take the joint 1st prize for the biggest. And before anyone tells me I have already reported the state of the road by The Fisherman's Rest
I have been asked by a number of people why we should remain part of Europe, why it would be wrong to leave. Don't get me wrong I do appreciate that there have been some rather damning stories that have come out of Brussels over the years, that we pay into a club and we don't always reap the benefits and I can understand that in Britain we are never really invited to the party being an island not actually connected to the rest of the continent. But to me these arguments do not outweigh the benefits of working as ...
We had a good discussion about potential improvements to the tennis courts and changing pavilion on this park at the March Parish Council meeting. Yes, I know I mentioned these tennis courts a few days ago but that was in relation to Labour claims that they had got the fencing around them renewed, despite the fact that opposition Lib Dems on the Council supported the work being undertaken. However, the new fencing is one thing but the fact is that the surface of the courts is poor and I suggested at the Council meeting that it is potentially now dangerous ...
We know that Caroline Pidgeon is making a very positive impact on London's mayoral race. In virtually very debate, she is judged to be the winner, with even arch-Tory Iain Dale, now of the LBC parish, saying that the two women were eclipsing the men in the debate. Caroline was featured in the Standard and the first paragraph of that article had praise from her two biggest rivals. They don't often agree, but they are clearly both bowled over by her talents. If the mayoral election was decided on a candidate's grasp of policy, there's a good chance Caroline Pidgeon ...
In February I wrote a post highlighting some of the interesting TV programmes I'd seen over the last few months. I'm going to do the same again but expand it to some of the books I've read and talks I've watched online (largely on TED talks) as a wider set of recommendations: TV – Drama Line [...]
Writing in the Edinburgh Evening News, Lib Dem Scottish Parliament candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton responds to SNP attacks on him for attacking them: When [SNP] ministers preside over a year on year decline in the global rankings of our education system, the shambolic and unwanted centralisation of public services or a waiting times crisis in our health service, then someone should point out that we deserve much better... John F Kennedy said that "without debate, without criticism no administration can succeed and no republic can survive". Whilst the SNP may win another landslide (and I think that would be terrible for ...
Sat 9th
11:55
LibLink: Nick Clegg: Hypocritical Brexiteers are as much an elite as those they rage against
I reckon that Nick Clegg's columns will be more often than not about the EU for the next few months. This week, he's looking into the records of those "men of the people" Brexiteers such as Boris, Farage, Zac Goldsmith and Nigel Lawson: Well, there's Lord Lawson, the 83-year-old former chairman of Vote Leave who was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher. He now lives for much of the year in the South of France, nurturing his climate-change scepticism and loathing of the EU from the sunny climes of the Gascon countryside. Then there's Nigel Farage, always ready to ...
[IMG: ImmigrantSpirit.com home page] ImmigrantSpirit.com home page Today's tranche of emails included one from Immigrant Spirit, which highlights the other side of this. It quotes Andreas Meyer-Falcke, Commissioner of Human Resources for the City of Düsseldorf, saying that in the next five years one third of his employees will retire. Thousands of jobs will become available. It asks: "How expatriates could benefit?" The free movement of people means that, provided we vote to remain in the EU, I could respond to this by applying for one of those jobs in Düsseldorf, or anywhere else in the EU. Some close friends ...
Sat 9th
10:25Willie Rennie stands up for Scottish farmers let down by the SNP's CAP payments failure
Ok, let's get this out of the way first. We know that Willie has had his issues with farm animals recently. I know it's kind of hard to stop laughing, but try for a second, because this is important. Before Willie had even set foot in that city farm yesterday, he'd been standing up for farmers across Scotland. As we told you earlier this week, the SNP has totally failed on delivering payments to farmers on time. This has caused our farmers tremendous difficulty. To add insult to injury, apparently whacking rates of interest will be charged on the emergency ...
Liberal Party and the Economy 1929-1964 by Peter Sloman Like many academic books it is ridiculously expensive, it is advertised on Amazon for £58 . I recall a meeting of the Liberal Party Standing Committee in 1979 which was drawing up the Election Manifesto. We reached the item on the agenda marked economic policy. There was a silence until Richard Moore spoke: 'I joined the Liberal Party in spite of not because of its economic policy 'he told us.Many people hold the opinion that our party gives economic policy a lower priority than say the environment, reform of government, foreign ...
Ludlow, as we know, has been prone to flooding over the years. For some while, we had a local flood forum but this stopped meeting after memories of the 2007 floods faded and the new unitary authority was established. We are now proposing to re-establish a flood forum under the umbrella of the Ludlow and... Continue reading Ludlow Flood Forum - initial meeting 19 April →
The Free Democrat leader and German Foreign Minister died 10 days ago. A number of obituaries have appeared including in the Guardian It is odd how random facts about people stick in your mind. The 'Gencher' fact for me was his penchant for wearing the FDP 's colours. His yellow sweater became his trademark a fact mentioned in the The Scotsman's obituary. He was a dedicated European who clearly saw that German's role in the world should be acted out in concert with his neighbours.
Thank you for your recent email on animal welfare. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are strong supporters of animal welfare and will continue to protect wildlife, pets and farm animals in the next parliament. My colleagues at Westminster were able to make significant progress on improving animal welfare during the last government. Many of these achievements affect the whole of the UK, including the ending of housing hens in battery cages and tackling the smuggling and illegal trade of wildlife through the Border Force. Recently I have visited livestock farms in the Pentland Hills and seen best practice at work. I ...
David Cameron has handled the offshore tax avoidance thing very badly, I think we can now declare. So badly, in fact, that we should now discuss the idea that it has threatened the future of his premiership. A lot of people out there, particularly on the left or centre-left of politics, would love to see Cameron being forced to resign, particularly over an issue like avoiding tax. But I'd like to take the time now to point out some basic things to these folks. Cameron resigning will not be the end of Tory government. They will still be as dominant ...
The most damning poll finding of the week has to be that of YouGov that 82 per cent of Britons, or five-in-six people, were not surprised by the revelations contained in the Panama Papers. Just 8% admitted surprise that rich people are using off-shore accounts to avoid tax. The 'Panama Papers' have claimed that associates of Vladimir Putin are owners of $2bn held offshore; the President of UAE is behind a £1bn property empire in London; and that political leaders or their relatives in 40 other countries appear to have profited from offshore tax arrangements. And then we had the ...
[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] Yesterday saw three principal council by-elections being held, one each in England, Scotland and Wales. In Perth & Kinross (UA), the Conservatives made a gain in Almond & Earn ward from an Independent. The Tories received 48.1% of the first preference votes as they eventually won the seat after the third round of voting. Liberal Democrat candidate George Hayton polled 4.2% of the first preferences in finishing in fourth place. However, the Conservatives did continue their recent run of by-election losses, losing a seat in Pocklington Provincial ward in the East Riding of Yorkshire ...
I've now completed my pilot research interview, transcribed the resulting audio and conducted a very brief analysis of the data. These are six of the more important things the pilot has taught me. I was accurate at estimating how long the interview would take. I recorded just over 46 minutes of audio, having initially estimated 45-60 minutes. This is good ... The post 6 things my pilot research interview taught me appeared first on ten pence piece.
As reported in yesterday's Courier and also on Radio Tay and Wave 102, with the fixed penalty for failing to clean up after your dog doubling from the start of this month from £40 to £80, I have asked the council to re-double its efforts regarding the recovery of fixed penalties for dog fouling. Dundee City Council advised has me that the statistics for dog fouling fixed penalties and payment is : 2015 :No. of dog fouling FPNs issued during 2015 - 63No. of these cancelled (representations / appeals upheld) - 7No. of these paid - 29No of these outstanding ...
Ab Brightman, Amendment Proposer Conference these past (almost) three years as your International Officer has seen me and other LY members work extensively with partners in our liberal umbrella organisations the International Federation of Liberal Youth, IFLRY, and European Liberal Youth, LYMEC. For parts of my time as International Officer LY has been [...]
The Day I Failed on Stage at TEDx That drying up moment... (tags: publicrelations ) Gaps and holes: How the Swiss cheese was made Tax avoidance and secrecy. (tags: economics )
