Embed from Getty Images Last month I blogged about the fair that used to take place at Boughton Green in Northamptonshire. You'll find the site across the road from the ruined church of St John, Getty Images has this postcard of the fair, which it dates to c.1909. It looks to have been colourised to within an inch of its life, but I assume it was based on a photograph of the event.
Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- John Birch. To help, please contact Keith Smith (keithsmith1@waitrose.com).
Liberal Democrat titans of the 2010 parliament Where are they now, those Liberal Democrat titans of the 2010 parliament? Bob Russell, as is well known, takes visitors on tours of his beloved Colchester. Before I left for the Riviera I travelled to that fine Essex town to join him on one I learnt a great deal about its history (who knew that the Plantagenets were around at the same time as the dinosaurs?) and the Suffolk Police were very good at putting us right when we got a little lost. Paul Burstow is now a professor of public health or ...
Last week I suggested that this blog's hero Malcolm Saville would have approved of Pokemon Go because it gets young people out of doors. A story in York's daily paper The Press suggests he would have approved of the game even more as it is causing them to fight crime: Police have launched an investigation into the theft of a memorial plaque in York - as a Pokemon Go player came forward to help pinpoint when it went missing. The Press reported yesterday how the family of Richard Horrocks was distraught at the disappearance of the plaque from a balcony ...
The Swindon Advertiser wins our Headline of the Day Award.
As Larry and Palmerston have proved one of the charms associated with cats is their ability to pop up in the most unusual places and look very cute whilst doing so. According to Walesonline this particular moggy has been practising these dark feline arts in the Sainsbury's store in Thornhill, Cardiff. She has become such a feature at the entrance to the store that customers, afraid that he was being cast out by management, got together to collect a 500 signature petition urging that she be allowed to stay put. Happily, management had no such plans. The petition said: "She ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: In August 1814, in one of the last acts of the futile and misnamed War of 1812, British forces dropped anchor at Benedict, Maryland, some forty-five miles southeast of the District. Avenging the American army's devastation of the Canadian city of York, the British marched to Bladensburg, where they routed a force of capital militia. From there they attacked Washington City from the north, only to find it abandoned by its defenders. The British torched the Capitol, the Library of Congress, and other public buildings before finding a fully prepared meal laid out for guests ...
By-elections are usually what Thursdays are for, but Hangers and Forest ward in East Hampshire polled yesterday – and it was tantalisingly close to being another Lib Dem gain. It's unusual to go from a standing start to almost half the vote, but they did it. The Hangers & Forest (East Hampshire) result: CON: 45.3% (-23.7) LDEM: 43.6% (+43.6) JUST: 7.9% (+7.9) LAB: 3.3% (-9.7) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 26, 2016 Just 9 votes in it An incredible effort by Roger Mullenger and his team. There does seem to be something of a pattern forming now, with significant vote ...
If it hadn't been for one of our peers moving house, we might never have had this wee gem fall into our hands. We know that new Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Liz Truss was once a young Liberal Democrat activist before joining the Tories. However, we now have photographic evidence from an LDYS newsletter from the time of one Elizabeth Truss proudly holding up the LDYS banner on a mass trespass at Twyford Down in protest at the Criminal Justice Bill on 2 July 1994. Simon Hughes also took part. This controversial piece of legislation was introduced by Conservative ...
[IMG: halfeature] Scottish Development Officer, Peter Barrett, spoke to Hal Osler candidate for the Inverleith ward on Edinburgh City Council. Hal is campaigning hard to win the four member ward back for the Lib Dems and has been knocking doors twice a week since the EU Referendum. Hal and her team are on a mission to identify [...]
The Independent reports that the Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith will go head-to-head in a husting for the first time in Cardiff on Thursday 4th August. Rather optimistically Labour's general secretary Iain McNichol has stressed in an e-mail that members will be choosing the party's "candidate for prime minister" and that the hustings would help them decide. Meanwhile we await the verdict of the High Court as to whether Jeremy Corbyn should be automatically included on the Labour leadership ballot paper. I hope they are selling popcorn next week.
Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Mike Rumbles MSP today revealed the most dangerous trunk roads in Scotland as new figures showed that serious and fatal accidents on roads managed directly by the Scottish Government have increased year on year since 2013. The five most dangerous trunk roads in Scotland are the A90, the A9, the [...]
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe as Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister, talks about his new mandate.
How would you spend £2 billion? That is one of the questions in a survey to party members asking for their opinions on our platform for a snap general election. My answer was on house-building. If people have somewhere safe and secure to call home, that has such a huge positive impact on every other area of their lives. The difficult bit was then explaining where you would get the money from. That, for me, was easy – take it from defence and most especially the budget line that goes "like for like replacement for Trident." Many people think that ...
Fr Jim Nolan is a Roan Catholic priest who has sever most of his ministry in the Solomon Islands. I first met him when we were both teachers in Papua New Guinea in the 1970s. Jim, then plain Mr Nolan, taught natural sciences - our curriculum didn't allow for separate specialist teachers of physics, chemistry and biology, though I think his speciality was physics. He is originally from the Republic of Ireland. We have remained in "Christmas card-plus the occasional letter" contact ever since, and yestereday I received this letter from him. I fail to understand why it should take ...
When Theresa May suggested that businesses ought to set up workers' councils, she was said by many commentators to be moving to the centre ground, perhaps to hoover up centrist voters put off by Labour's leftwards drift. Whatever the political motivations, it is an extremely interesting idea. Is it one that liberals should support? Absolutely, because it can help people take back control — in a meaningful way. A lesson from the EU referendum was that many people are dissatisfied with the economic system. The slogan "Take Back Control" was vague to the point of meaninglessness, but psychologically potent for ...
This problem surfaced last year when a blind chap walked into the uncut hawthorn hedge along Eastway but the hedges here (on both sides of the road) are back again in last year's overgrown condition. What's more the hedge along the edge of KGV Park on the A59 (Northway) is in a similar condition. Here's a photo I took last Sunday of the hedging along Eastway:- [IMG: WP_20160724_17_01_24_Pro] Click on the photo to enlarge it Not sure what the problem is but surely Maghull Town Council can cut these hedges regularly so that folks do not have to run the ...
[IMG: paddy-ashdown_1388357c] Mm, I don't know quite what to think about this new movement. Well intentioned no doubt but I always worry about aiming for the centre ground, moderation etc. In many ways it makes sense but it hardly grabs folks attention nor does it create a radical way forward for progressives in the UK. If it succeeds in bringing free-thinking radicals and progressives together to organise around a set of clear principles then great but for now I'll take a rain check on it. Would love to here the views of others though. With thanks to my Research ...
Labour leadership election: Owen Smith refuses to dismiss 'too many immigrants' fears and questions Corbyn's patriotism | UK Politics | News | The Independent RT @IndyPolitics: Owen Smith refuses to deny there are 'too many immigrants' Beyond the Binary are offering paid writing positions! Theresa May must rally her furious women - it's time to talk about sex Andrew wrote a post about Paddy's daft MoreUnited thing so I don't have to Why I won't be watching The Kiling Joke Dogs Are Not Allowed On NYC Subway Unless They're In A Carrier...So This Happened | Bored Panda Dogs in bags ...
[IMG: recruiting website] Direct Mail should be a staple of every campaign. Not only is it very effective if targeted correctly it is also read much more widely than any of our usual leaflets, getting our message across to more people about why our candidates are the best choice at election time. Different people have different issues that [...]
Wed 27th
10:25
LibLink: Tim Farron: Scrapping Minister for Refugees shows May's Govt shrinking from role in solving...
[IMG: Syrian refugees by Syria Freedom Freedom House Flickr CCL 2] In an article for the Huffington Post, Tim Farron has slammed Theresa May for scrapping the post of Minister for Refugees, a post which was only established by David Cameron last September to make it look like he was doing something. The minister, amongst other things, oversaw the implementation of Britain's commitment to take 20,000 Syrian refugees from the region and an additional 3,000 vulnerable refugee children from the Middle East over the course of this Parliament. This process was already moving at a snail's pace – by the ...
There are so many articles floating around the internet with this basic theme, it has become a cliché already: the right and soft left of Labour like to go on and on about electability while having no ideas of how to create a different sense of how to be different from the Tories. Meanwhile Corbyn represents a new, radical agenda. Let's put aside the fact that electability is incredibly important and that being 16 points behind the government at this stage of a parliament is reason enough to chuck aside an opposition leader. Let us forget about that completely and ...
Political Tribalism. We see it everywhere. In Labour there is currently a battle for the soul of the party with the left and the right locked in a battle, possibly to the death, with the soft left caught up somewhere in the middle of it. In the Conservative Party there is the constant tension between [...]
Issue 379 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers. This issue's free sample online content is from Baroness Julie Smith on what went wrong with the Remain campaign, and Roger Hayes on a plan to take the political temperature of the post-referendum UK and devise liberal responses to this. Elsewhere the issue has the Commentary on how 48% of the electorate is an ample pool in which the party can fish, news and gossip in Radical Bulletin, reviews and Lord Bonkers' Diary. There is also more referendum reaction from: Kiron Reid, Sir Graham Watson, Jane McBennett and Lord Trevor ...
The big stand-off in politics is not Corbyn versus Owen Smith. It is not the battle for leadership of the Greens or of UKIP. It is not even the oneupmanship between Theresa May and the European Union over Brexit. The main event is the rivalry between Larry, the cat currently occupying Number 10 Downing Street and Palmerston, the Foreign Office's cat. The Telegraph reports that Palmerston seems to have inherited the Downing Street ambitions of Boris Johnson. He was caught sneaking in to Theresa May's new residence while no one was looking. The black-and-white cat, who was appointed Chief Mouser ...
Back in April, residents contacted me about the state of the fencing round the Elliot Road playing fields - this needed some repairs and a repaint (given the rather ghastly and faded pink paint) - see below :I contacted the City Council asking for this and an officer in the City Development Department responded positively as follows : "I am looking to carry out some maintenance works to the Pavilion and I asked the Property Officer to obtain costs to repair and repaint the boundary fence." Repairs and a repaint have now been carried out and the finished result is ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur MSP called yesterday for an urgent review of the regulation of Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) after it was revealed the controversial business model was at the heart of a Ukrainian probe into organised crime arm exports. These revelations follow reports that SLPs are being marketed as tax avoidance [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said yesterday Ministers must work with health boards to boost early cancer detection rates as new figures revealed a flagship target has been missed. In 2012, the Scottish Government announced a four year Detect Cancer Early plan with a target to increase the proportion of people diagnosed [...]
POLITICO - Morning Exchange 26 July Lots of interesting stuff on consequences of Brexit today. (tags: ukpolitics eu ) Owen Smith: There are too many immigrants in parts of Britain Appalling. (tags: ukpolitics migration ) Pokemon GO, Eleven Days Later Lydy's take on class and disability. (tags: games ) Yes, Your Opinion Can Be Wrong On facts. (tags: rhetoric )
Last week I appealed in Focus 321 for volunteers to help maintain the rose gardens and the planters in Corporation Road and West Dyke Road. I was pleased to learn that young people from the National Citizens Service (NCS) have agreed at, very short notice, to carry out a makeover of the central bay of the rose gardens. The rose gardens are situated in Lakes Avenue at the West Dyke Road entrance to Redcar Racecourse. Cars attending race meetings and car boot sales park alongside the rose gardens and in the adjacent seats. It was not a pleasant site for ...
I am hoping that I will be able to keep up a daily blog posting schedule from now on (so Patreons PLEASE make sure you've got a cap on your maximum amounts — I'll be reminding you a few times ... Continue reading →
