My wife is legally blind, and likes to go to the cinema. There are a few cinemas that we go to, and most of them are very good about her blindness. We sometimes go to HOME, and they provide audio ... Continue reading →
The man who was deputy leader of the Conservatives in Derby before resigning in the face of questions over his election paperwork has now been convicted of breaking the law: A former councillor has been jailed for two months after admitting giving a false address in order to win a safe Conservative seat. Richard Smalley was elected to Derby City Council in May for the Allestree ward. He had filled an electoral form saying he lived in Allestree – when his real address was in Borrowash, outside the Derby city boundary. He pleaded guilty to providing a false address to ...
I suspect Phil Cowley and Rob Ford were gently trolling me when choosing the chapter title for my contribution to More Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box.
Second paragraph of third chapter: Soon, the car and its headlights were cutting through the night at a steady eighty. Another for my (very short) list of sff set in Belgium, this is a story of a Roman soldier yanked forward from the Boudicca uprising to the present day (1997), where he falls in with a Northern Irish brother and sister living in Milton Keynes and reminisces about his involvement with the Crucifixion; they flee to Brussels, and the story ends in an apocalyptic battle between the SAS and the IRA around the Atomium. Dedicated to Graham and Agnes Andrews, ...
Wed 24th
17:35
We shouldn't criticize Jeremy Corbyn for finally doing a bit of reasonably clever "media"
Embed from Getty Images Jeremy Corbyn is getting a bit hammered, particularly by Richard Branson, for a video of him sitting on the floor of a Virgin Train. You can read the ins and outs of "Traingate" elsewhere. Since he was elected Labour leader there have been umpteen examples of Jeremy Corbyn being absolutely useless in dealing with the "media" in all its forms. At long last, he has done something, from the floor of a train corridor, which could loosely be described as reasonably good media handling. He highlighted, with great visual panache, an issue (lack of seating on ...
Network Rail is carrying out further work in South Wales and the South West this August Bank Holiday weekend, to install new signalling as part of their Railway Upgrade Plan. The work will take place from 27th to 29th August and will require a temporary closure of the lines in both directions between Bristol Parkway and Swindon, Newport, Bristol Temple Meads, Gloucester and Severn Beach. Trains will be diverted and in some cases replaced by buses. More information is available here.
Wed 24th
16:17Hate crimes up 42%, but Tories give discrimination helpline contract to controversial G4S
With hate crimes up by 42% since the EU referendum result, the Conservative government is privatising the EASS (Equality Advisory and Support Service) which is a lifeline for people facing human rights issues or discrimination. After a tendering process, they are awarding the contract to G4S. The same company which has demonstrated shocking track record of human rights breaches, and for failing government contracts wasting millions in taxpayers' money. Prime Minister May wishes to put them in charge of the national helpline responsible for providing support to people facing discrimination, something which is deeply concerning considering their history. This would ...
Local residents recently popped along to ward surgery to ask Cllr Bond, Cllr Davidson and myself, why Vivacity have provided no replacement bus service, after one of their drivers retired, for a service that had taken them on a weekly basis to the Regional Swimming Pool for the last 20 years. The residents are made up of [...]
[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] The Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners is recruiting. Here are the jobs they are currently advertising: Campaigns Officer (Full Time, Manchester) Local Government Scale SO1-SO2 (Currently £25,440 - £29,558) Work with the leading campaigning organisation within the Liberal Democrats as one of our two national Campaigns Officers. We are looking for someone who can bring their own campaigning experience and ideas -not necessarily gained within the Liberal Democrats - to help us enable Liberal Democrats to campaign effectively in our communities and win elections. Experience and ability around online campaigning will be ...
All this will make a lot more sense if you begin here 'Big Berg' 178 cm x 178 cm Gloucester Gate Regent's Park The vibrant colours- of what turned out to be the spring blossom in Adrian Berg's picture of Gloucester Park- and the size of the canvass led me to ask Steve about the picture. The first thing he told me was that the artist didn't mind which way up you hung the painting. Adrian Berg had a studio overlooking Regent's Park and he had painted the scene many times from different stand points and at different seasons. It ...
[IMG: The Alternative] Failure to fully fathom the 'shy Tory' at the 2015 general election didn't just leave egg on the faces of opinion pollsters. It produced shock waves across the political spectrum; from a delirious Conservative party to Paddy Ashdown's exasperated milliner. Of course psephologists weren't really suggesting that a significant proportion of Tory voters are bashful by nature but were perhaps politely implying there may be a sense of 'shame'. Politics in its most basic form is polarised between, on the one hand, those who feel 'shy' about their self-absorption and (when the mask slips) their distaste for ...
As a regular user of the East Coast rail service between the North East and London, I was a bit surprised to learn of Jeremy Corbyn's claims that he had to sit on the floor of the 11am train out of Kings Cross on 11th August, due to over-crowding. Admittedly the service is often busy, especially during the summer months. Often it is the case that there are lots of seats reserved but many are not
Here's an update on Lydiate's very own volunteer litter pickers and their activities:- Dear all, Firstly a thank you all for the stalwart work done to date. We have collected near to 200 bags of rubbish around Lydiate this year. Personally I can physically see the difference when I walk/cycle around. Please don't feel that because I am emailing you I am expecting you to turn up on Saturday, I think it is good manners to keep anyone who has shown an interest in keeping Lydiate green and pleasant, to update them as to progress. So, next Saturday is that ...
The local plan is not a quick read but an important one! It's long (1,000) pages; at times heavily technical but it's probably the most important document that we have received in the council for a decade. What is it? ... Continue reading →
Members of the Nuclear Weapons Working Group are presenting their personal views as part of a wider consultation process into the party's future policy on nuclear weapons. The full consultation paper can be found at www.libdems.org.uk/autumn-conference-16-policypapers and the consultation window runs until 28 October. Party members are invited to attend the consultation session at party conference in Brighton, to be held on Saturday 17 September at 1pm in the Balmoral Room of the Hilton. [IMG: Trident] UK nuclear defence policy does not exist in isolation. As the Lib Dem's Nuclear Weapons Working Group Consultation Paper makes clear, nuclear defence policy ...
Instagram Brother Spike is performing "Dignity" Twitter RT @jdthndr: Right: MPs debating their pay Left: The 11:32 to Reading #traingate Twitter RT @BenHCarrington: Hard to ignore the allegorical significance of a black woman trying to console white women upset at HER for existing Transgender health discrimination ban faces legal challenge from five states | US news | The Guardian RT @latentexistence: Catholic healthcare providers and 5 states are suing the US govt to get out of *all* healthcare for trans people. Twitter RT @jelle_simons: Brexit is taking too long. Leavers expected they'd be pretending to be a global power by ...
For those of you who have been avoiding the news, living in a box, or are reading this in the future, Jeremy Corbyn has caused a social media storm this week with what has been dubbed "Traingate". Corbyn and his team got on a Virgin train and filmed the Labour leader sat in a corridor, complaining about the lack of seats. Virgin subsequently released CCTV footage of Corbyn on the very same train journey getting up and sitting down in a now miraculously free seat. All this has caused some to speculate that this shows Corbyn can be fickle with ...
[IMG: Kickstart 2016] With just over two weeks to go until KickStart, teams from across the country are getting ready for a great weekend of campaigning advice and planning. From Friday 2 September until Sunday 4 September, Lib Dems will come together to work on their campaign plans for the election in May 2017 and beyond. There will [...]
Just how toxic is the on-going civil war within UKIP? Well, if the Guardian is to be believed it extends to senior members actively sabotaging the election campaigns of their colleagues. The paper says senior members of UKIP have accused the party's only MP of helping the Conservatives defeat Nigel Farage in South Thanet in last year's general election. UKIP's main donor, Arron Banks, has written to Kent police with the allegation that Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP for Clacton, helped the Tory campaign retain the seat. his letter details allegations that Carswell downloaded Ukip data for South Thanet and ...
At the outset, I would like to make clear that, in writing this article, I am not lending my support to any argument that the EU referendum should be re-run or that the result should be overturned. In my view, any such argument is specious in the extreme, with its Liberal Democrat proponents appearing especially hypocritical. That the EU Referendum Bill received overwhelming support from all parties (the SNP excepted) is demonstrative of both the democratic inviolability of the outcome as well as the abject failure of Parliament to properly countenance the potential impact of an affirmative vote to leave ...
Phew, finally looks like truth about Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and train seats looks to be clear. Mostly. He and his team has admitted there were spare seats on the Virgin train which he could have sat in, but he chose not to use them as he wanted two seats next to each other to be able to sit with his wife. In itself, a perfectly reasonable choice, but also very different from how Corbyn and his team presented the original imagery of him sitting on the floor in the train, which was about how there were not any seats ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : "Of the verse that has come straight from the trenches, the Ballads and Battle are among the very best. The horror, the exultation, the weariness and the humour of trench warfare are here." - The Spectator As part of the on-going commemorations of the centenary of the Great War, the University of Dundee's Archive and Museum Services have created a new exhibition celebrating the life and work of the Dundee writer and illustrator Joseph Lee (1876-1949), whose first book of war poetry, Ballads of Battle was published 100 ...
Banks' Brexit wishlist Summary of the UK financial services industry's position paper (tags: ukpolitics eu ) Belgium denies NSA helped in Salah Abdeslam manhunt: report Countering the spin swallowed by Buzzfeed. (tags: waronterror Belgium ) Brexit casts a shadow over UK development aid How things become more difficult. (tags: ukpolitics eu development )
