It's been a while - but not as long as it has taken Hibs to win the Scottish Cup (which is the oldest football trophy in the world, by the way), so it's definitely time for a tune. So here's some football fans celebrating winning it after 114 years. It is of course the Friday favourite to end all Friday favourites...
The Annual Volunteer Celebration held in the Town Hall and organised by the Volunteer Centre. Congratulations to all the Volunteers and to Mike Howlett who magnificently manage the whole afternoon. The volunteers presented with certificates came from 17 different organisations. In the order of presentation: Age Concern Crosby (whose strawberry afternoon tea I am looking forward to)Age Concern Liverpool and SeftonAiming HighAinsdale Community CareAinsdale in Bloom (It was nice to see Brenda Porter ) Volunteers from Southport BeanstalkCanal and River Trust ( We are coming up to the 200th anniversary of the opening of the leeds Liverpool canal and I ...
This branch is a branch that survived the closures of the Beeching years but succumbed in the following decade. The film here was shot in 1976, its final year of operation. Today part of the trackbed is used by the South Tyndale Railway, but if the whole branch had survived only a few more years it might still be open today. Thanks to Tim Hall on Twitter.
Fri 3rd
19:53
It used to be public toilet. Now this New Road eyesore could become a sandwich shop or florists
Plans have been submitted to redevelop the former public toilet on New Road into a shop and apartment (16/02163/FUL). The property was sold by Shropshire Council was sold to Mr Gulam Ahmed for around £7,000 nearly six years ago. This is a building that is a blot on Ludlow's landscape. It needs redeveloping. The plans... Continue reading It used to be public toilet. Now this New Road eyesore could become a sandwich shop or florists →
A new winner of our Headline of the Day Award: well done Court News UK. Thanks to Joe Oliver on Twitter.
So the Hugo Packet is out, and so as always I'm going to look at the nominees. Like last year, all but one of the entries in "best" short story is there illegitimately, as part of a campaign by a ... Continue reading →
In the midst of the hubbub of my unsuccessful campaign to be elected as a District Councillor for Barking and Somersham, the resignation of the Chair of our Parish Council, not only as Chair but as a Councillor full stop, created an unexpected vacancy. It was suggested that I might put myself forward, given the changes in the make-up of the council, and I decided that, if I was likely to be welcome, I would do so. It turned out that I was, and so, on 16 May, having raced from the Annual Parish Meeting at Offton and Willisham, I ...
Crossens Saturday, 11th June, St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens, from 11am to 12noon. Churchtown Thursday, 23rd June, BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30am to 11:30am.
Fri 3rd
17:49
"Connecting Communities" - a better service at a lower cost, says our Conservative County Councillor...
At last month's meeting of Creeting St Peter Parish Council, I raised an issue under 'Any Other Business', having been newly co-opted (and I'm really pleased to be back), i.e. the new demand responsive transport service for Mid Suffolk, which comes into effect on Monday week. The new contract is a worry, for a range of reasons. Funding for the service is to be cut each year for the next five years, and one of the side effects of the change to smaller vehicles is that bus passes will not be valid - a real blow for the rural elderly ...
Britain has attracted the world's top companies to invest here, creating jobs, on the basis of access to the European single market. That's what Vince Cable told an audience in Bristol earlier this week. Far from being an invention of straight-banana obsessed bureaucrats, the EU represents a British vision of an open Europe, he added. Here is his speech in full. It is great to be here in Bristol celebrating the best in British manufacturing with the leaders of our top manufacturing companies. Manufacturing still provides half of our exports, three quarters of scientific innovation and two and a half ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: The next day, Chorley rose at his usual hour of 7:30am and, fuelled by three cups of percolated coffee (an extravagance he could never forsake), he began his investigation into Dominex. Another in the very enjoyable series of books about the career of Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart between the events of The Invasion and Spearhead from Space, this actually manages to tell a good story about the Dominators taking over part of Dartmoor for their own nefarious purposes, bringing in Harold Chorley and other figures from the relevant era of Doctor Who. I realise to my annoyance ...
Embed from Getty Images Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal. Hillary Clinton has found her voice with a major speech on foreign policy in San Diego. The speech is substantive, going through key issues one by one and quoting Donald Trump's "ideas", of which she says, powerfully: Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different - they are dangerously incoherent. They're not even really ideas - just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies. Time have the full transcript and here is the video: * Paul ...
And so, the people of Barking and Somersham have spoken. Well, about one-third of them did - turnout was, as I predicted, 34% - and the result was as follows; Anne Marie Killett (Green) - 212 votesJemma Lynch (Conservative) - 210 votesMark Valladares (Liberal Democrat) - 154 votesWill Marsburg (Labour) - 38 votes Green gain from Conservative. The circumstances surrounding the by-election were certainly unusual. The sitting Conservative Councillor resigned, stating that;In my election address I said I would use my "single voice to unite my like minded colleagues to continue to put local people first". As some of you ...
Although the debate around whether we should leave the European Union or not has often resembled a family argument within the Tory party, I have been intrigued recently by those Labour MPs who have lined up behind Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in calling for us to quit the biggest free trade area in the World. Yesterday, we had South African-born Peter Hain claiming that the German-born Gisela Stuart had "no right to claim to speak for voters in Wales". She came to Cardiff to argue that working people in Wales" would be better off ...
Our Canadian sister party, whose recent success has interested and inspired many of us, held its Federal Party Convention (which takes places every two years) in Winnipeg last weekend. Here is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's bi-lingual speech (French parts have been over-dubbed into English). * Antony Hook was #2 on the South East European list in 2014, is the English Party's representative on the Federal Executive and produces this sites EU Referendum Roundup.
Together Trust Family Fun Day (formerly called Cheadle Festival) Saturday 11th June 2016 11am – 4.30pm. [IMG: together trust festival 2016]
Fri 3rd
13:15
Norman Lamb MP writes...Disastrous A & E figures emphasise need for independent commission on NH...
Every day seems to bring new crushing evidence of the immense strain facing the NHS and social care. Missed key targets have become the norm rather than the exception; A&E is bearing the brunt of cuts to preventive and community services; and few were surprised when NHS trusts recently revealed a record deficit of £2.45 billion. After hearing anecdotal accounts of ambulances queueing up outside A&E departments due to a lack of available beds in my own county of Norfolk, I decided to investigate the true scale of the problem across the whole country by submitting Freedom of Information requests ...
Analogies are a wonderful way of making a hard decision. I was thinking therefore how I could best understand the implications of our referendum. In essence if we take Britain as a business with various departments offices etc... Ok a large company with many difference facets but bare with me. One day the CEO comes in and says after pressure from a number of board members we are going to ask all the employees if they want to start over, get rid of all our preferred contractors, rip up agreements we have with other businesses set up to protect us, ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36428361 This is a very serious matter indeed but it rarely gets any coverage in the media. The BBC web site article – accessible via the link above – is therefore worth reading. By allowing the degrading of the quality of our soil we are in effect taking steps to starve ourselves! The poor link between environmental and planning policy in the UK is also highlighted as it is the case that land is sometimes deliberately degraded to make it more likely to be developed. Having said that here in Sefton Borough our local Labour rulers (via the Borough's Local ...
More on the Volunteer Celebration from the Town Hall yesterday. Age Concern Liverpool and Sefton deservedly got awards for their befriending service. I was pleased to meet one of their befriender who lives in Birkdale and is, incidentally, an octogenarian. I know from local residents what an important role Age Concern volunteers play in our communities. It was good to have the opportunity to recognise their work and to say 'thank you'
I never expected to come anywhere near the top of the ballot for private members bills. My record for the Lib Dem raffle over thirty odd years is less than five or six wins. And I came third! That means I have second reading next Friday (10th June). My bill calls for arms brokers to be registered and a fit and proper test applied to would be brokers. At present there are few restrictions so you or I could set up as a broker. In the US they are regulated. Save the Children and Amnesty International are supporting us. Save ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36389383 A Walk in the Woods is probably Bill Bryson's best book and of course it was recently turned into a film starring Robert Redford. It's all about walking the famed Appalachian Trail. But the story on the BBC web site – -accessible via the link above – really does show what a lonely wilderness this American long distance footpath travels through. Poor Geraldine Largay, 26 days lost before she sadly died.
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Why is there so little noise about the Tory election fraud claims? | Michael White | Media | The Guardian RT @jonsnowC4: Intriguing question: question: why is the rest of the media so uninetersted in the Tory Election Expenses scandal? - This is incredibly interesting RT @FT: Here's our demographic breakdown of how people are likely to vote in the UK's EU referendum. Instagram Investigating the woods #dogs #dogsofinstagram #lurcher #sheltie #rescuedog #adoptdontshop @... Saladin Ahmed is creating fiction and commentary | Patreon RT @saladinahmed: To launch my new Story of the Month Patreon, I've published my first fiction in ...
It came this morning and I've sent it straight in. The arguments about trivial matters such as whether we'll be 2% better or worse off for a few years are dismaying in their triviality. Even the major medium term issues - such as defeating neoliberal economics, fighting for fair trade rather than free trade – are not the ones to focus on. The urgent major issues are climate change, biodiversity, population growth. If we can't deal with these there is no hope for social prosperity or justice – for defeating Beveridge's five giants: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease. The ...
Last night, as those of you not watching England v Portugal might have picked up on, the prime minister went on Sky News to be grilled by Faisal Islam on why we should stay in the EU, followed by questions from the studio audience on the same topic. After it was all done, the commentariat weighed in. This is where it gets interesting. If you'd read the Guardian, you'd have thought that Cameron won the day decisively. That yes, there had been a few tough moments to navigate, as you'd expect, but that the PM had made his case well. ...
There is a wealth of research out there backing up a bit of common knowledge: people do not trust politicians. All politicians of every party and none will acknowledge that they try to present the facts in the best light to suit their position. They'll cherry-pick, they'll play down unflattering facts and big up flattering ones. They'll misdirect. Few, however, will admit to outright lies, despite the fact that some at least can be proven to be actively promulgating falsehoods. This means that once a "truth" becomes common knowledge about a certain type of politician, it becomes very, very hard ...
When we use the word 'austerity', what do people hear? Do they hear a reasoned argument for why Tory cuts are ideological and unnecessary? That cutting slower will prevent the economy stalling, will allow a faster recovery, and will reduce the deficit faster. I fear not. More likely, they hear someone who wants to get us into a never-ending spiral of debt. Have you heard the quote: "If you're putting the rent on the credit card month after month, things need to change". If you think that's rightwing nonsense, have a read of who said it. To many in the ...
You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... Sponsored: 64% off Code Black Drone with HD Camera Our #1 Best-Selling Drone–Meet the Dark Night of the Sky! Why did I tweet that? — Medium Post-millennial social media addict @DuncanWeldon asks "Why did I tweet that?" http://bit.ly/1XT8DdS Week 70 – Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A | Ruth and Martin's Album Club Best thing abt Tim Farron's @RamAlbumClub review of NWA's Straight Outta Compton is the Chris Morris' Uzi Lover ref http://bit.ly/1sFUipo Fog in Channel: Brexiteers isolated from Britain's duty to ...
The Conservative Party twice failed to comply with legal notices from the Electoral Commission to reveal information about election expenses returns, and then twice more failed to comply with repeated requests for the information. Along the way the Conservative Party also stalled and twice asked for extra time to respond. Ironically, shortly afterwards the Conservative Party itself then employed lawyers to try to block the police's request for more to investigate it. Only when the Electoral Commission eventually went to court did the Conservative Party finally hand over what it says is all the information that was asked for. The ...
[IMG: Andrew Reeves] The first week of June has become full of sad memories in recent years. Yesterday we remembered our wise and funny former leader Charles Kennedy who died a year ago. Five years ago today, I woke to a phone call telling me that our much loved Director of Campaigns in Scotland, Andrew Reeves, had died. I had known Andrew for years, first meeting him on Cix which was the first Lib Dem online community. I was so thrilled when he moved to Scotland in 2008. He arrived in Edinburgh on a Friday lunchtime. By Saturday morning, even ...
Good news from Sherborne in Dorset, where Liberal Democrat Matt Hall has gained a county council seat from the Conservatives. Last week, some bloke from up north went to help his campaign: Heading out canvassing with @timfarron & candidate Matt Hall in the Sherborne rural by election #LibDemFightBack pic.twitter.com/Vjq5Vblv5n — Daisy Benson (@_DaisyBenson) May 24, 2016 The margin of victory was slim enough to show how critical it is to have a good polling day operation: Sherborne Rural (Dorset) result: LDEM: 49.6% (+15.1) CON: 46.7% (+9.6) LAB: 3.7% (+1.2) GRN and UKIP didn't stand this time round. — Britain Elects ...
Where to begin? Yesterday I was delighted to be asked to present certificates at the Annual Volunteer Celebration in the Town Hall organised by the Volunteer Centre and hosted by Mike Howlett. There were seventeen groups recognised and I will endeavour to mention them all in postings this week. In no particular order let me begin with the Lord Street gardeners-described at the ceremony as Lord Street in Bloom. I will forever think of these folk as the Lord Street Guerrilla Gardeners. When the council cut the budget for floral displays on Lord Street these people were not prepared to ...
A great Lib Dem gain in Dorset: Sherborne Rural (Dorset) result: LDEM: 49.6% (+15.1) CON: 46.7% (+9.6) LAB: 3.7% (+1.2) GRN and UKIP didn't stand this time round. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 2, 2016
