Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. 1. Water Bus The Canals and River Trust are looking at the possibility of establishing a water bus to run between Attenborough Nature Reserve and Holme Pierpoint. They have carried out a feasibility study and are now looking for an operator to run the service. With the number of locks that would need to be negotiated this will not be a fast service ...
I detect a hunger among my readers for good news about the Lib Dems. So you may enjoy this from the Daily Mirror: Lib Dem membership has been soaring since the Brexit vote and has now hit around 80,000, the party announced today. Officials say the party's ranks have grown by a third since the EU referendum with 20,000 people signing up. The new figure means membership is higher than it was at the heart of the party's protests against the Iraq War.
If you enjoy the ghost stories of M.R. James then I recommend A Podcast to the Curious. They have finally exhausted James's published writings, but say at the end of the latest edition that they will continue by looking at the work of the writers who influenced him. One of the links they give this time is to this 1995 dramatised documentary about James's life and work. It is notable for the high quality of its talking heads - Ruth Rendell, Ronald Blythe, Jonathan Miller. The film is narrated by Bill Wallis. I remember him as a stalwart of the ...
Our Trivial Fact of the Day is taken from How To Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney magic every day of your life by Pat Williams and Jim Denney: Walt personally made all of the casting decision for Mary Poppins. His first choice for Mary was surprising - Bette Davis. One of the reigning queens of Moviedom, Ms. Davis was in her fifties at the time. In voice and appearance, she couldn't have been more different from the twenty-seven-year-old singer Walt ultimately chose. Yet P.L. Travers had given no hint of Mary's age in the books - most readers at ...
Want to read the latest news stories from the Liberal Democrat websites but prefer the stories to come to you rather than have to remember to go and check the websites regularly for new content?
One blog was added to the LibDemBlogs aggregator in September. Thanks as ever to Ryan Cullen for sending me this information. More Than Nothing is written by Dani Tougher. I am pleased to see that, in the spirit of independence that characterises the best blogs, it is as much concerned with the arts (particularly ballet) as politics. A post written back in August combined these two enthusiasms: If, as greater and wiser minds then mine have argued, the arts have this power, then surely this is a huge argument both for greater cultural investment? To invest more and more often. ...
Thank you to everyone who sponsored my 10,000 steps a day challenge for Cancer Research UK. It's hugely appreciated and the £305 raised will really help. I completed the challenge successfully yesterday by adding another 10,127 steps – my lowest daily total of the month. I confess that I was getting rather tired of the constant nagging from the app, ... The post 10,000 steps a day – days 28, 29 & 30 – the end appeared first on ten pence piece.
Some good news. Wednesday night East Dulwich councillors allocated our devolved road maintenance budget as per my proposals. All this maintenance is long over due and completes partially completed work funded by Southwark Council – we're having to use our devolved budget to finish these incomplete works, Rodwell Road – £29,870 to resurface parts of Rodwell Road not resurfaced previously. Not enough to do the pavements as well. Another year. Landcroft Road – £20,000 to resurface middle third of Landcroft Road not previously resurfaced. Landells road – £47,250 to replace half of all the pavements of Landells Road. The works ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Donna dropped her suitcase and opened her arms. Hettie was standing in her pristine Chiswick doorway. She lived in one of the posh houses, down by the riverside. Jenny Colgan is clearly among those who regard the Tenth Doctor / Donna pairing as one of the high points of New Who; as well as this novel, she wrote a Big Finish audio starring Tennant and Tate earlier this year. This is both rollicking sparking adventure with the two protagonists rubbing along beautifully (plus of course Donna's grandfather Wilf), and also a sombre reflection on why ...
Peterborough would benefit from having a fleet of hire bikes across the city, or at least that's the suggestion from one of my Twitter followers. But the more I think about it, the more I kind of think it would be cool! @cllrdarrenfower @Joffff @EerynNyree @trev2501 imagine a fleet of these with PC branding and [...]
Look at the graphic below, which the council is touting round all its budget consultations. There's a missing figure of £151 Million! That's how much Durham County Council has added to it's reserves since 2011. [IMG: Budget Graphic] It seems they "forgot" to include a graphic to show the reserves ballooning from £120 million to £271 million. That means that many of the "savings" made have just been money stuffed into the council's piggy bank! The appalling thing about it is that in the meantime they've chopped schools transport, youth clubs, social care for the elderly .............. Those are the ...
[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] This week has seen eight principal council by-elections across the country with Lib Dem candidates contesting six of them. The team in North Norfolk have faced another by-election, this time in Glaven Valley with our great candidate Karen Ward. This was a Lib Dem defence and the team managed the following result: LD Karen Ward 429 (55.3%; +8.4%) Conservative 281 (36.2%; +3.8%) UKIP 32 (4.1%; -6.8%) Labour 23 (3.0%; -2.8%) Green 11 (1.4%; -2.5%) Lib Dem HOLD Karen was promising to work to protect our villages and countryside from inappropriate development, back more affordable ...
Current Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in honour of Jack Vance, eds. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois Winter Song, by Colin Harvey SPQR, by Mary Beard Short Trips: The Solar System, ed. Gary Russell Last books finished Unquenchable Fire, by Rachel Pollack The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke Nemesis, by Philip Roth Toch Een Geluk, by Barbara Stok The Dinner, by Herman Koch Last week's audios The Peterloo Massacre</ b>, by Paul Magrs Next books AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers, ed. Nnedi Okorafor Angels & Visitations: A Miscellany, by Neil Gaiman Companion Piece, by Robert ...
Sat 1st
15:39
Maidstone council suspends its litter wardens after woman is fined for feeding 'imaginary' ducks
An imaginary duck yesterday The Evening Standard wins our prestigious Headline of the Day Award.
Myth #21: People can tell you what they want Useful for politicians as well as market researchers Twitter RT @TomChivers: Rosetta quoting Douglas Adams as it ambles towards its icy final resting place, which is rather nice We're all screwed RT @Scientists4EU: Devastating piece from FT: Britain is not a world-beating, nor Europe-beating economy. Brexit vision is delusional Theresa May had private meeting with Rupert Murdoch | Media | The Guardian RT @HackedOffHugh: Soft moan of despair for my country. "Theresa May had private meeting with Rupert Murdoch | Media | The Guardian" A win for 'proper people'? Brexit as ...
[IMG: Terraced housing] Are we barking up the wrong tree? I have wondered for a while if we are focussing on the wrong things, particularly where the EU is concerned. For the record, I want to remain in the EU. I see it as a flawed institution, run by the same cadre of neoliberal capitalists as those who run this country and most of the other countries in Europe. It has, however, two things going for it. The first is the possibility of deeper co-operation across national boundaries. The second is that it has woven into it a thick texture ...
Way back in the 1950s we in Britain tried to develop a Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) called Blue Streak, which would "deliver" the independent British nuclear bomb and so enable us to "keep up with the Joneses " (ie the US and USSR.) However, Blue Streak proved too difficult and too expensive, so was abandoned and from 1960 we had to rely on the American Skybolt (and later Polaris and Trident) to "deliver" our bomb. Yesterday the wonderful Rosetta spacecraft was deliberately crashed into the comet it had been examining for two years after having taken 10 years to ...
I have been trying to keep away from the US Presidential election, partially so as not to jinx my favoured candidate, one Hillary Clinton, but also because the more I read about it the more preposterous the contest seems. However, I am not immune to an opportunity to feature a bit of click bait so this piece in the Independent was irrresistible. The story revolves around Donald Trump's treatment of women (which is appalling) and the revelation from Clinton during the first debate that her opponent had verbally abused Alicia Machado during a Miss Universe contest. Trump has been obsessing ...
The Guardian has the story on its web site – see link above This really does make you wonder whether the UK has taken leave of its senses with our 'stop the World we want to get off' attitude. So we can hire 500 extra civil servants but we can't fund our NHS? Sounds to me like our priorities are at best very confused!
As Tory conference kicks off while I still feel hungover from the Labour shindig, I thought it might be worth some time to consider the top five folks who ruined the party of the British left; those most responsible for reducing it to where it is at present – a weird cult – than anyone else. While I still say that any talk of Labour being dead for good is premature, it is not looking great. Here are the five folk who deserve most of the blame. 5. Jeremy Corbyn I know you probably thought he'd be higher up the ...
[IMG: BBC1 Newsflash logo from black and white TV] There was a time when news of the death of the King took months to percolate through to all parts of the realm. Some villages heard the news when a random horse rider came through after taking a wrong turning. I like to think that some villagers in some instances didn't hear about the death of the King until his successor had also died, but perhaps that is fanciful. Nowadays the death of the head of state is plastered all over all types of media at breakfast, dinner and tea for ...
I recently, on behalf of residents, requested improvements to Riverside Approach's road surface, which is in a poor state. A pothole I had reported has now been repaired but the more substantive news is that the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership has advised me that the road is included in the 2017/18 carriageway resurfacing programme, which is good news.
Why are we happy? The upside of Northern Ireland. (tags: northernireland ) Loss On surgery and bereavement. (tags: Death health ) You don't have to be stupid to work here, but it helps "In a world where stupidity dominates, looking good is more important than being right." (tags: work ) Special Hugo Awards category announced for 2017 A special Hugo category for "Best Series" will be included in the 2017 Hugo Awards. (tags: hugos )
Here is the surprising story of how a British Conservative politician played a key role in creating the European Convention on Human Rights.
