I was reading my newspaper yesterday, perusing the business section, when I came across an article which noted that all of the Austin Reed stores would be closing. Now, I admit, I've never shopped there, but it was a chain that I knew of, albeit the prices were above what I'd normally pay - I've never been extravagant when it comes to my wardrobe. And my first thought was, "there'll be some decent savings to be had". I noted my diary to drop into the Ipswich store midweek to see what might be had, especially as I need a few ...
Despite the presence of the ruined St John a little way out of the village, Boughton has a medieval church. St John the Baptist probably began life as a chapel for Boughton Hall. Next to it is the village pub, The Whyte Melville. It is named for the 19th-century Scottish novelist and poet George Whyte-Melville, whom I have run into a couple of times before. He wrote many novels of the hunting field. One of them, published in 1861, was titled Market Harborough. And around 1990 I occasionally played chess for Northampton Working Men's Club. They took part in the ...
RIA Novosti archive "If Brexit wins, it will be because a majority of British voters have simply lost confidence in the way they are governed and the people they are governed by. That loss of confidence is part bloody-mindedness, part frivolity, part panic, part bad temper, part prejudice. But it is occurring - if it is - in a nation that has always prided itself, perhaps too complacently, on having very different qualities: good sense, practicality, balanced judgment, and a sure instinct for not lurching to the right or left." Martin Kettle analyses why we have been brought to the ...
Embed from Getty Images In April I wrote that: Like all sports, chess has a way of mirroring the conflicts in wider society. The Fischer vs Spassky match of 1972 was a wonderful metaphor for the Cold War, even if the gentlemanly, quietly dissident Boris Spassky was never a cypher for the Soviet Union. In the 1980s the volatile Garry Kasparov was a perfect symbol of glasnost and perestroika against the model Soviet citizen Anatoly Karpov.In between those two rivalries came the one between Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, which was a battle between the model Soviet citizen and a dissident. ...
The current batch of opinion polls make worrying reading for those of us backing the remain camp in the forthcoming EU referendum. It's not lost yet of course – far from it – and I remain convinced of the good sense of my fellow citizens. However, some of the remain tactics do seem to be somewhat less than optimal. I ... The post Why #RemaIN may be failing the "pink tuna" test appeared first on ten pence piece.
With the Leave campaign pulling ahead in the polls, as a Remainer, I find myself nervous for the outcome of the referendum on June 23rd. I find myself nervous, in particular, for my rights as an individual if we leave the European Union and hand our rights into the hands of Westminster and a Conservative [...]
Monday: Nearly 12,000 people came to read my Fluffy Diary in May - that's a HUGE spike in readership, and it's all driven by ONE post. This one: Day 5588: EUROPE - JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM People are DESPERATE for the FACTS in this referendum. And if you give it to them straight, sometimes you can win them over. At the Cheadle Lib Dems' street stall on Saturday, I talked to a student who was going to vote leave "because the EU isn't worth it". I gave him the facts, simple maths convinced him, and he said he'd be voting ...
Former Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders has been told by the police that they are dropping an investigation into his election expenses as they found nothing requiring further investigation: Thanks to a right-wing blogger I've had to check my own expense return. Following a complaint from someone based on the blogger's allegations into my own return the police quite rightly have had a good look. The Devon & Cornwall police (who should have passed the complaint to another force in my opinion, after all which Police & Crime Commissioner could my Agent or I complain to if dissatisfied with their ...
As noted previously, it is more difficult this year than last year to assess the impact that slate voting had on the final ballot for the Hugos. For some guidance on that question, once again I'm looking at the File 770 straw poll, where the top novellas that readers reported nominating were: Penric's Demon, by Lois McMaster Bujold (25) Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor (16) Witches of Lychford, by Paul Cornell (13) "The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn", by Usman T. Malik (12) The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson (12) "The New Mother", by Eugene Fischer (11) ...
Animation is a lovely way to get a message across. Stronger in have this short clip on how Brexit would affect British families. * 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.
Here is Tim Farron on the BBC News Channel talking about the need to call out the Leave campaign for its lies – including the one emblazoned on its bus which has been debunked by just about everybody. We potentially face the prospect of leaving the EU because of a prospectus of dishonesty peddled by the Leave Campaign. I am determined to fight a positive campaign about how much more prosperous and prestigious we are if we stay in the EU, we can't allow Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage to peddle a series of what are basically lies. ...
The lovely Lydiate Abbey, proper name St. Catherine's Chapel, looks to have been damaged seemingly by people wanting dressed stone from it to take away? The damage has been caused in recent days and the Police and Sefton Council have been informed I understand. Here are some photo's that I took earlier today:- [IMG: Lydiate Abbey damage 06 06 16 (2) r] [IMG: Lydiate Abbey damage 06 06 16 r] It would be useful if folks living at the north end of Lydiate or visiters to the Scotch Piper Pub could keep an eye out for any odd activity around ...
Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has said many times that the ECB has scenarios prepared for any eventuality which might occur after a Brexit. This week, at a financial summit in Italy, ECB executive member (he's the Governor of the Bank of France, trained at ENA, France's elite government luminaries school) Francois Villeroy de Galhau spelled out some more what Draghi meant: if a Brexit causes serious disruption in financial markets (and an overwhelming majority of experts predict just that), the ECB and EMU governments will do all they can to fend off and stop ...
A US senator has ridiculed a selection of 'wasteful' studies. But this latest attack on research spending won't make scientists engage with the tax-paying public On May 10, Senator Jeff Flake arrived in the US Senate Press Gallery with cups of gummy worms and crumbled chocolate biscuit. The worms are reference to a study criticised in his new report, Twenty Questions: Government Studies That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head. Flake's report picks apart twenty US government-funded studies, claiming to reveal a culture of waste among scientists and three federal funding agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of ...
You can sign the petition to call on Bury Council to save Unsworth Library on the Council's website by following this link: http://www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10483 Click on the button titled "Sign the petition – Save our library (Sunny Bank, Unsworth). Here is the text of the petition: Bury Council is undertaking a comprehensive review of the borough's library service. The council has said that they remain fully committed to retaining a high quality library service, but anticipate that there will need to be changes, including the possibility of a reduction in the number of libraries. Unsworth Library at Sunny Bank was almost ...
South Glos Council's ruling Conservative Group at first said that there would be no public consultation on the West of England devolution deal until after the four councils have decided whether to accept the deal. The Liberal Democrat Leader on South Glos, Cllr Ruth Davis, put an urgent question to the Conservative Leader of the Council ahead of Wednesday night's council meeting asking why this was. This is what the devolution page looked like originally: After Ruth submitted her written question, this was changed to say: During May and June 2016 It is your local councillors that will be making ...
[IMG: Europe] The result of the European referendum is going to be decided by turnout. We need to get Remain voters out to vote on June 23rd. A generous donor has come forward to help Lib Dem HQ launch a new challenge to local parties – get people to pledge to vote Remain and give us an email [...]
Embed from Getty Images Living in mid Wales, we are able to pop along to the Hay Festival, and take in a day of culture, politics and new ways of thinking. On Saturday June 4th, I did 4 contrasting bite size chunks of life – past and present. The day started with Erwin James, a convicted double murderer, sentenced to life imprisonment 32 years ago, and former Guardian columnist. He started his session by saying that for the first 12 months of his sentence, he was locked up for 23 hours a day, which forced him to think about whether ...
No prizes for guessing which way we're voting! But it's vital that everyone has their say. If you're not currently registered to vote, you only have until midnight tomorrow, Tuesday 7th June. You can do it online - it only takes about 5 minutes. Click here to register on the government website. If you've already had a polling card, you don't need to do anything, you're already registered. If you haven't yet decided which way to vote, we suggest that you read this very well balanced article by Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com fame. He gives you the facts for both ...
The Snoopers' Charter, as the Investigatory Powers Bill is colloquially known, returns to the House of Commons over the next couple of days. As you would expect, Alistair Carmichael has been working on many sensible amendments to the Bill which are supported by Liberty. It is also good to see that the SNP been on this as well. I was none too pleased when they didn't oppose the Bill at Second Reading when there was a chance to kill it for good and even more worried when it wasn't singled out for mention in the SNP's Holyrood manifesto, unlike many ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesman Liam McArthur MSP today called for SNP Ministers to get a grip on a £12m scheme designed to support unemployed oil and gas after it emerged that just 91 people had benefited from the scheme. Media reports today revealed that fewer than 100 people had received payments from the Transition [...]
Drivers through the pretty West Lancashire village of Halsall will know, some to their great cost, that speeding through the village is not a cleaver thing to do at all as there are often police speed traps lurking to catch the unwary. But budget cuts are hitting Lancashire Police very hard, to the extent that the village bobby in Halsall is now – well a man of straw quite literally:- [IMG: Constable Straw on duty in Halsall]
Tuesday, 7 June, is the deadline to register to vote for the referendum. Please could every LDV reader think about who they could remind about registering. People who may have overlooked registration include those who have recently moved home or students getting to the end of term. You can register to vote here. * 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.
Lots of road works and road closures are coming up: Today (Monday 6 June) - three-way traffic lights between the Shire Way mini-roundabout and the Nibley Lane junction to complete the isolated section of cycle/pedestrian path. This will look more sensible in a year or so when the rest of the link from Yate to the Bristol/Bath Railway Path is completed (at the moment it only links from Westerleigh) Next week (w/c 13 June) - major work on the Shire Way / Rodford Way junction to improve safty on this dangerous junction. The northern end of Shire Way will be ...
Autscriptic - Autism and expectations UK gains £20bn from European migrants, UCL economists reveal | UK news | The Guardian RT @A_C_McGregor: UK gains £20bn from European migrants, UCL economists reveal Swiss reject free income plan after worker vs. robot debate | Reuters RT @latentexistence: Swiss vote rejects universal basic income. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
It's a referendum about Britain's future, at the risk of being decided by the prejudices of past generations. Both Labour and the Conservatives are divided, facts are manipulated to suit the needs of the day and the voices of the young are generally being drowned out by those of the old. The outlook is bleak for young and first time voters, but more than anything else related to the EU referendum I am disappointed by the amount of fearmongering and negativity that has dominated the 'Brexit' campaign. Financially speaking, Boris & Gove don't have much left to stand on. Reasonable ...
It's often said that we no longer have The Thick of It because politics can no longer be effectively satirised in Britain. You could say the same about Spain (although there is a Catalan programme that makes a valiant effort.) After the last round of post-election negotiations failed, it sometimes seems like you're watching a particularly dramatic TV show. The polls have remained fairly static, and where there are variations in the number of seats in the new election on 26th June they will be reasonably small. However, there has been one large development - Podemos and Izquierda Unida (IU) ...
When the Leave campaign began to focus all its guns on immigration, it looked to many of us as if they had given up. They couldn't win the economic argument, so they shifted to betting everything on a last ditch effort built around a topic they had assiduously avoided to that point in order to at least get the result as close as possible. But lo and behold, their strategy appears to have had an instant effect beyond what they were almost certainly hoping for. Leave have had a genuine poll bounce, whether the Remains like the means by which ...
[IMG: UK_EU_flags] If we lived in a world of disconnected nation states, we might not need an EU — except for the small matter of avoiding war. I could argue that this applied for much of European history in that wars were relatively limited affairs (because most of Europe was close to subsistence farming, so there were not the human or financial resources to mobilise for a large war without facing starvation at home). But increased wealth and mechanisation of production and warfare change these things profoundly in the twentieth century. But even then, royal households inter-married to build alliances ...
Today's Western Mail speculates that UKIP AM Neil Hamilton is planning to back a post-referendum leadership challenge to Nigel Farage. They say that the UKIP Assembly group leader is believed to be backing his party's deputy leader, Paul Nuttall to replace Farage. Hamilton and Farage have been at loggerheads for a number of years, with the UKIP leader previously blocking attempts by his nemesis to become and MP and an MEP. Hamilton used his influence on the UKIP National Executive to force a one member one vote selection process for the National Assembly elections and successfully convinced the party's membership ...
Any contract signed with the China Rail Group CR3 will tarnish Scotland's human rights record. That's the claim from Willie Rennie, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, following the refusal of the First Minister to rule out such a contract with the controversial company. Mr Rennie says that the First Minister needs to decide whether [...]
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 11th June from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, fourth Thursday of every month (except December) from 10:30 to: 11.30 am.
Residents have complained to me that the directional sign to the housing at the very north end of Taylor's Lane is badly worn - see right. I asked the Roads Maintenance Partnership if this can be replaced and have been updated as follows : "... a replacement sign has been included in the first monthly street name plate order of this financial year which is almost complete. Timescale for the sign to be erected is likely to be six to eight weeks or sooner if possible."
Figures from the Electoral Commission show that Returning Officers failed to pass on copies of election expense returns for 1 in 5 constituencies. Returning Officers themselves only keep such expense returns for two years before destroying them, but they are required to pass on a copy first to the Electoral Commission. The Commission itself (thanks to some lobbying by myself in the past) keeps the returns for seven years and will then consider passing them on to the National Archives for safekeeping in perpetuity. That is particularly important because there is a whole chunk of donation records (donations made direct ...
Here is Tim's message at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. As-Salamu Alaykum Today I join the many Muslims in the UK and across the world in welcoming the Holy Month of Ramadan. We in the UK are privileged to have in our society the benefit of many religions and many cultures, that have weaved over several decades, in a rich tapestry of friendship and togetherness. I know that for all of these communities, and especially for Muslims during Ramadan, the refugee crisis is at the forefront of our thoughts, with Ramadan reminding us all to remember ...
Today (6 June) marks the 75th anniversary of an important moment in the history of British relations with Europe - a moment when the UK spoke confidently, and without complex spin, to the people of the continent. And were listened to with trust. Just after 11pm, on 6 June 1941, the BBC's European Service English language network broadcast the first programme in their V for Victory campaign. The speaker announced himself as Colonel Britton, and his identity was a closely guarded secret for the rest of the war. He was actually Douglas Ritchie, the BBC deputy European news editor, and ...
This is an update on my post last week on Shropshire Council's appalling record on reducing the number of empty homes into use. The stark statistic is that we are getting an extra eleven long term empty homes every month across Shropshire. That's appalling when people are crying out for decent homes to live in.... Continue reading Eleven new long term empty homes every month - Shropshire Council is failing people who need decent homes →
I had a most delightful afternoon visiting all the Birkdale gardens that had opened as part of the National Garden schemes; 'gardens open for charity' . Each of the five Gardens were different both in scale and emphasis but they were uniformly magnificent. If you did not join the throng of visitors you certainly missed out. Put it in your diary for next year, these brilliant Birkdale gardeners deserve your support and I hope my Mayoral visit was some recognition of the part they play in making Birkdale such a special place to live. This afternoon (Sunday 05/06/16) I got ...
My final port of call took me across the railway line into West Birkdale to the home of Margaret and Geoff Fletcher. I was met at the gate by their grandson Sam who politely welcomed me and told me all about the cakes that were on offer. Later on I took him up on his recommendation of the chocolate and Guinness cake. Before I settled down in the shade of the refreshment area Margaret showed me around their stunning garden. This walled garden covers 1/3-acre and has an exciting mix of secret areas, informal beds & water features, all accessed ...
Viv Rimmer the Queen of succulent plants Now this really was different, in the heart of East Birkdale Viv Rimmer has created the most original garden. Her interest is in succulent plants and you can see a fine specimen in the photo below. Viv has won many prizes for her plants and I found that I was fascinated by the enormous variety of plants she was displaying. Viv's garden also displays a mischievous sense of humour which was appreciated by many of the visitors I was met at the door by Jhanaica Mook who introduced herself by proclaiming that she ...
Sandra and Keith Birks-photo by Sue Blaney Now this Hartley Crescent garden takes your breath away. Sandra and Keith have spent years developing this little paradise in Birkdale. It is on a larger scale than some of the other gardens. why can't I get a wisteria to grow over an arch like this? I knew I had been here before and realised that my friends Andy and Cheryl Dean purchased the Birks original house which stands next door but Andy, being no gardener, only took a small portion of the garden leaving Sandra and Keith a large L shaped plot ...
I have visited this garden before when it first open s part of the NGS about five years ago. This is not some large scale country estate landscaped by Capability Brown but an ordinary size suburban garden. Needless to say that what John and Jennifer have achieved is far from ordinary. They are an inspiration to anyone who has a back garden. The space is divide into three distinct rooms. The hosta 'praying hands is in John's garden I was struck by the magnificent display of hostas. In my experience unless you take extreme measures the slugs and snails embroider ...
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