So far so good, as I've managed a little over 12,000 steps today. However, I'm constantly on the lookout for ways of increasing my step count. Today I resorted to parking my car in the furthest reaches of the office car park. I reckon that was worth at least another 50 steps. Fortunately the weather remained reasonable this lunchtime, so ... The post 10,000 steps a day – day 2 appeared first on ten pence piece.
I am running a Twitter poll on this important subject: Who is the greatest J.K. of them all?— Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers) September 1, 2016 Lord Bonkers once wrote: For many years, my favourite pair of opening bowlers were J.K. Galbraith and J.K. Lever; I was happy whenever I could persuade them to turn out for my XI together. Galbraith's height and his talent for exposing the inadequacies of laissez-faire economics with witty apercus, together with Lever's ability to bring the ball back in to right-handers, made them a fearsome combination indeed. These days, the only J.K. I know is J.K. ...
South Glos Council has announced that the planned closure of part of the A4174 ring road this weekend for resurfacing work has been postponed. Due to the wet weather forecast for this weekend (2-5 September), the planned resurfacing work on the westbound carriageway of the A4174 between Bromley Heath roundabout and Hambrook traffic lights has been postponed. Further updates will be provided by South Glos Council when this postponed work has been rescheduled. However there will still be a full overnight closure of the A4174 eastbound carriageway between Wick Wick and Lyde Green roundabouts between 8pm and 6am from 5 ...
In 2013, the Liberal Democrat-held County division of Hadleigh was lost. Our long time County Councillor, David Grutchfield, had retired, and a replacement candidate wasn't really selected early enough to establish themselves in time. Combined with our general unpopularity at the time, it was always possible that the seat would be lost and, sure enough, it was. The new councillor was Brian Riley, a Conservative who'd been around for a while. He'd fought the seat in 2009, and lost by less than 100 votes. And, for a while, it went as you might expect. Until, that is, he decided that ...
Rapist Brock Turner has been released from jail, after three months. Although it's technically not legally correct to call him "Rapist Brock Turner" since he was never convicted of rape. He was convicted of "intent to rape" and "penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object" and "penetration of an intoxicated person with a [...]
After the glories of the Minster, my favourite part of Southwell is the Burgage. Here the street opens out into a wide green. One of the houses around it was the boyhood home of Lord Byron. Keep walking away from the town centre and you will find the outskirts dominated by an unexpectedly large brick industrail building, Its story is told by a town heritage trail leaflet: Caudwell's Mill stands on the River Greet on the site of Southwell's mediaeval Burgage mill. When Charles Caudwell, whose family originated from Derbyshire, bought the mill in 1851 he made changes, thus greatly ...
Fri 2nd
19:22
Why Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew giggled when Botham didn't quite get his leg over
Embed from Getty Images The psychologist Sophie Scott writes on The Conversation: You can hear in their voices a slight embarrassment at having to discuss exactly what Botham's inner thigh is doing, at the top of the clip. I can empathise. In this context, Agnew makes a little joke about "legovers" - but, very quickly, he and Johnston are not laughing because this is a very funny joke, they are laughing simply because they are both there, and they are laughing. Provine also showed that laughter is highly contagious - one can often catch a laugh from someone else simply ...
The Liberal Democrats have proposed a new law to create a register of arms dealers in Britain. The party said the law would mean greater accountability for UK arms sales to "shady regimes" like Saudi Arabia... The party's Defence Spokesperson Judith Jolly said: "This register would allow better scrutiny of these shady deals, and bring the UK into line with countries like the US and Australia, which already regulate brokers." Britain currently has registers for 32 trades, but these do not include arms brokers. Of 28 countries flagged for concern by the Foreign Office on issues such as human rights ...
Here's another catch-up instalment of my photo a day of the last year of my 40s. We're nearly caught up now. #339 It was our 28th wedding anniversary! Bob and I headed into Edinburgh on our own and stayed out ... Continue reading →
[IMG: campaigner-awards] Voting is now live! Each year, ALDC recognises the outstanding work of local Focus teams through our Campaigner Awards and ythe voting is now open to select your best Focus teams from across the UK. The Campaigner Awards are presented at the ALDC AGM at Federal Conference. Winners in each category and our Overall Winner [...]
Second speech of third scene (Act 1 Scene 3): Old Queen of Navarre [who has just unwittingly accepted a gift of poisoned gloves]: Thanks, my good friend. Hold, take thou this reward. Gives a purseAnd so we are set up for the first of many many horrible deaths. (Have you noticed that the title character of every Marlowe play except this one dies horribly - I refuse to believe that Tamburlaine's death, though of natural causes, is easy - and this one, the exception is actually named after a massacre?) Unfortunately there's not really much else to say about it. ...
South Gloucestershire Discover Festival is now underway with a wide range of LOCAL events covering crafts, nature, learning, heritage, food, arts, getting active, and wellbeing. Check out the Discover Festival website to pick the events you would like to attend!
[IMG: 2015 policy pitch autumn conference by Paul Walter] The vast majority of Liberal Democrat councillors don't go to conference. There are good reasons, of course: locations, cost, time (especially sudden by-elections!). But there are always overwhelmingly good reasons to attend. In the first place it is always amazing just how many colleagues from neighbouring authorities you come across and with whom you can share ideas, problems and even gossip. You may even come across members of your own council with whom perhaps you need to spend more time on business not entirely dictated by council officers. Naturally, the Conference ...
My new book on the Doctor Who story The Mind Robber is out now from Obverse Books. As this isn't a self-published book, it doesn't come under the Patreon backer reward tiers, but thanks to the generosity of Stuart at ... Continue reading →
It is no surprise that the SNP continues to focus on independence. They are a nationalist party. It's what they do. This morning, Nicola Sturgeon shifted her focus away from finding options for Scotland post Brexit, from fixing the education system that's falling apart, from sorting out the huge bottlenecks in the health system, from ensuring decent mental health care and all the other things that she's paid to do to concentrate on the next push for independence. Scotland's people are invited to take part in a survey giving their views on independence. All 120,000 SNP members are charged with ...
Three 'Living Well with Dementia' roadshows will be held locally in 2016/17. This initiative is part of Better Care South Gloucestershire, the programme to improve and enhance health and care services in our area. It's run by the NHS and local authority, but it involves everyone: individuals and their carers, community and voluntary groups, health and care providers and their staff. The first roadshow is on Tuesday 27 September 2016 2pm - 4.30pm at Ridgewood Community Centre, 244 Station Road, Yate BS37 4AF The roadshows are intended for anyone who has recently been diagnosed with dementia, and their carers or ...
Liverpool has sadly lost two major overground railway stations i.e. Central and Exchange but like with the facade of Exchange a part of Central survives and it's a Cafe Nero at present. [IMG: Fronting onto Bold Street - the last part of the original Liverpool Central overground station still standing.] Fronting onto Bold Street – the last part of the original Liverpool Central overground station still standing. Wikipedia says of the old overground station:- The original station, which was a large, above-ground terminal station, opened on 2 March 1874, at the end of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) line to ...
I have wondered many times in the last few years whether Lib Dems really want PR. And the reason for this scepticism is that we keep propping up First Past The Post (FPTP) in the way we campaign and act politically - with disastrous results for our political success, our influence within government and for liberalism across the UK. The arguments for a change in the electoral system are well known – for every million votes cast for a party at the 2015 general election , the Greens won one seat, UKIP won a quarter of a seat, the Lib ...
In June, Nicola Sturgeon erected a very big tent as she said she was going to explore all options to ensure Scotland's continuing place in the EU, given the huge Remain majority north of the border. Since then, SNP ministers seem to have narrowed the options to independence. They are talking about nothing else. Mike Russell, a man who spent 7 years as education secretary upsetting people, has been appointed as Brexit minister. It's not the best appointment to a job that needs finesse and diplomacy. Sturgeon, says Willie Rennie in an article for the Scotsman, has broken the consensus ...
A friend of mine who is a journalist on a right leaning outlet said to me several years ago: "The thing about the Left is, they are always talking about things that either can't be done or would never be done. Like socialising off licences or abolishing prisons. It's always fantasy politics which is why the Right usually wins." Putting aside his wildly exaggerated claims around what the Left seeks to achieve in policy terms, he had a valid point. Left of centre parties often promise things that are undeliverable (think Lib Dems and tuition fees for a particularly painful ...
Sometimes the small things matter most. In this case, moving a bus stop by just 25 metres will improve mobility access in Lower Galdeford. Two years ago, I asked for the steps and bollards at the Galdeford end of Friars Walk to be removed. This ensured a fully accessible route between Old Street and Lower... Continue reading New bus stop in Ludlow will improve mobility access across the town →
The privatisation of the railways was always a contrived attempt to prove that a particular brand of capitalist ideology could work in any circumstances. As an economic and social experiment it failed spectacularly. One reason for this failure was that the operating and capital costs meant our railways were always going to need a public subsidy and that as such operators were actually competing to see who could operate at the lowest cost to the exchequer rather than against each other. Another reason was that it is impossible to actually deliver straight competition in service delivery. The trains operate on ...
Here's the next catch-up instalment of my quest to take a photo a day during the last year of my 40s. We are now back home in Livingston after a wonderful holiday. #344 I went over for the second day ... Continue reading →
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! Jeremy Corbyn paid £20,000 by authoritarian government Headline's half the story > "Outrage as Tory MP calls £20,000 pay for few hours work "not an enormous amount"" http://bit.ly/2bHoTAk In Full: Tim Farron's speech to the IPPR: Lib Dems will find a "more humane, effective, successful way of doing economics" Tim Farron's EU speech in full. Plenty of passion. But we need more ...
The West of England Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre is organising its first annual triathlon to raise funds for the Centre. The Players Sprint Triathlon is taking place on Sunday 2nd of October 2016 at The Players Golf Club, one of the region's most prestigious golf courses. The sprint triathlon will consist of: 750m swim in the golf course's open-water lake20km cycle through the picturesque country lanes5km run on the championship golf course itselfYou can enter as an individual or you can grab a couple of friends and take on one component of the triathlon each. The event includes: Secure bike ...
Labour activists have reacted with outrage at the out of touch Conservative MP who was paid £20,000 for just a few hours work and defended the payment as "not an enormous amount". Oh hang on...
It's been another night of gains for the Liberal Democrats in local elections. In Cornwall, we gained our 5th seat of the year, this time from UKIP whose vote tanked, in the Four Lanes ward, going from a standing start to getting 34.7% of the vote: Four Lanes (Cornwall) result: LDEM: 34.7% (+34.7) IND: 16.6% (+16.6) CON: 14.8% (-5.8) LAB: 14.5% (-5.7) MK: 12.8% (-0.9) UKIP: 6.6% (-21.9) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) September 1, 2016 In Hampshire, a thrilling Parish Council contest saw Jack Davies elected after the drawing of lots. He and the Conservative candidate had 401 votes each. ...
Some weeks ago I decided to take part in Cancer Research's "Walk all over cancer" 10,000 steps a day during September challenge. As I typically manage less than half that, the target is something I need to work at, but seems achievable. Unlike signing up for a triathlon, for example. I'm far too lardy to consider something like that any ... The post 10,000 steps a day – day 1 appeared first on ten pence piece.
From Samuel Pepys' diary: Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City... So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places, Sir J. Robinson's little son going up with me; and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge; which, among other people, did trouble me for poor little Michell and our ...
iFailure: Apple crashes in Brussels How not to influence the EU. (Start by just not showing up.) (tags: eu )
On Tuesday, Ribble Valley Borough Council will make the biggest decision it can make over the future of the market. Its options are to press ahead with the much derided current plan; or do what I (and many others would wish) and start a new round of consultation, on variety of options, and involve in that consultation: all the people of Clitheroe, the market traders, market users and other stakeholders such as the civic society, chamber of trade etc. As a member both of the committee that will make this decision and having been recently appointed to the market working ...
