I have moaned before about the inexorable spread of the high-visibility vest. The latest group I have seen succumb to this plague are the Scouts. Still they were picking up conkers in the park - obviously a high-risk activity. This video shows the dangers of this item of clothing. Though, in all honesty, it is more of a warning of the danger of flourescent yellow away strips.
I am way way behind on book-blogging, but one has to re-start somewhere. Second paragraph of third chapter:The clink of armour rang out through the crisp, sharp air as a squad of guards, splendid and sinister in coal-black breastplates quartered by a bold white cross, spread out amongst the townspeople.The unkempt mass of traders and townsfolk allowed themselves to be shepherded into a large and ragged group. Del Toro picked his way through the mud, staring into the eyes of the crowd before him, nodding with satisfaction at the fear visible there.I really enjoyed Perry and Tucker's novels featuring the ...
The Leicester Mercury reports: Several community hospitals are to close along with a county birthing centre under radical plans to cut NHS costs across Leicestershire and Rutland. The sustainability and transformation plan (STP) published on Monday is aimed at slashing £400 million from the health budget over the next five years. It is estimated 1,500 hospital jobs will be lost by 2020 but the number of health workers in the community will go from 2,271 whole time posts to 2,505. The number of acute hospital beds will be slashed from the current 1,940 to 1,697 by 2020.
I recently visited the Battle of Britain Museum at Bentley Priory in outer London. The Priory was used by the RAF as its HQ during the Second World War.
This is the former Mountsorrel Hall in Leicestershire. This striking 18th-century brick building in a village built largely from the local granite was at first a private house but later became the rectory for the village. As Pevsner observes, the house does not really go back far enough to justify this grand facade. On the building is a modern plaque telling us that William Gladstone's birthplace in Rodney Street, Liverpool, was a copy of Mountsorrel Hall. As the photograph below, taken from a post on The Victorian Web by Jaqueline Banerjee, shows, while there are similarities between the two buildings, ...
"I believe that the Liberal Democrats provide a strong platform for building a centre-left politics in rapidly changing times. The Party's mission of seeking to create a society that balances fundamental values of liberty, equality and community recognises that sound politics is not about the rigid implementation of political dogma but the struggle to find practical ways of realising our (sometimes conflicting) values." Gordon Lynch has left Labour and joined the Liberal Democrats - he has also made me see that the preamble to our constitution embraces Isaiah Berlin's argument for the incommensurability of liberal values. Lucy Kellaway explains why ...
Iraq - enough said. Europe - he agreed to the widening of the EU without any attempt to limit economic migration from the poorer areas of the EU to the richer areas. This failure to think about the impact on the living conditions of skilled workers is the main cause of the Brexit vote. Forced Adoption - this was another of his failures. This may not have been fully recognised yet, but I expect
Nominations have now closed for elections to Federal Committees, and I'm pleased to say that members have responded extremely well to the call for nominations. There's a great set of candidates for positions on our Federal Committees, and I would encourage you to read through their manifestos before deciding who to vote for. Manifestos will be made available online as part of the voting website once voting opens. Voting instructions are being dispatched in the post and should arrive this week. The deliveries are staggered, so some members may receive their voting instructions earlier in the week than others, so ...
Embed from Getty Images Over the last few years, we've seen rise after rise in English prescription charges. Yet the list of illnesses giving you free prescriptions was set in the 1960s, with cancer being the only recent addition. Shockingly, it excludes mental health outright. At this autumn's South Central Regional Conference, a motion by the author was passed calling for reforms to remove the inequities of the current charging regime. Take two hypothetical examples. Jon is 40 and has a weak thyroid. Although he has a well paid job, Jon does not have to pay for his thyroid medication, ...
I have heard from several sources - perhaps just one echoed around social networks - that Ludlow Community Hospital is to close on Wednesday. We need to scotch this rumour. It is false. Rumours usually have a spark that sets them going. I don't know why this myth started but I do know what is... Continue reading Rumours that Ludlow Community Hospital will close on Wednesday are wrong →
[IMG: ross-pepper] So what have the following years got in common? 2007, 2005, 1999, 1935 and 1937. It might seem a bit unlikely, but they are the year of birth of five of our activists who came out, fed and watered activists, wrote envelopes, stuffed and folded and delivered in Sleaford and North Hykeham. Yes, this is a snapshot insight into the most unlikely and optimistic by-election campaigns that Lincolnshire and, indeed I would venture, the East Midlands has ever seen. On paper the odds and the basis for such optimism is very very low, but let's go through a ...
Embed from Getty Images Around this time last year, I posted on Lib Dem Voice about York's role in responding to the refugee crisis. I am very pleased that over the last year, York has been active in the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme and in welcoming refugees to the city. We have a proud history of offering a home to those fleeing persecution and will continue our work to meet our humanitarian commitments. A closely associated issue, increasingly prominent over the last few months, has been that of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Tim Farron and Liberal Democrats in the House of ...
The Remembrance Service in Formby was at 3pm on Sunday 13th November at Holy Trinity Church, Rosemary Lane. This was attended by the Mayor of Sefton, Councillor Iain Brodie Browne. The service included the laying of wreaths and a parade from and to the Gild Hall, Church Road. The Bubble reports: The parade formed at the Gild Hall at 2:30pm, and marched off at 2:40pm through the village to Holy Trinity Church in Rosemary Lane, after the service at approx 4pm the parade marched back through the village to the War Memorial, where the salute was taken by the Mayor ...
This is a matter I have covered before over a number of years. My previous relevant postings are available below:- [IMG: This is the Green Lane, Maghull site where cars are regularly for sale.] This is the Green Lane, Maghull site where cars are regularly for sale. The first posting above is dated 26th March 2011 and when I had a further chat about the matter with a Sefton Council Highways Office this morning he told me that I had first raised it in 2008! The issue has been raised with me a number of times by residents ...
After calling into the Comrades Club in Crosby after the Act of Remembrance at Southport Cenotaph I went to have a Curry Lunch with the Army Reservists. This event was held at the Private R G Masters VC Barracks. Pte Masters was a Southport lad who won the VC in WW1. First up I should say that both the curry and the company was excellent. It was only a fleeting visit but I was pleased that we had agreed to do it. Increasingly our defence capability relies on reservists and it is important we recognise their contribution. I was impressed ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38044015 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above Oh dear Mrs Mayday you have but one good idea and then you allow special interest lobbyists to talk you out of it! Instead, you now propose some half-baked half-hearted alternative.
This year's act of remembrance at Southport Cenotaph was amongst the best attended that I can recall. There was a period when the numbers appeared to be in decline. This year we saw many more families and young people. Some of this is down to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme but more, I think, is because of service personnel returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. The civic party assembled at the Town Hall and walked along Lord St to the Cenotaph. The pavement were lined with people and the square was several people deep on all sides. ...
[IMG: please-dont-go] In David Thorpe's recent post his opening sentence asked: "Ever lost a lover and then spent hours replaying the whole of the time you had together back in your mind?" This sentence resonated with me and little did I think on the announcement of the referendum result that I would end up doing exactly this. Being a bit of a news addict I think my initial reaction to the referendum was to find the whole thing quite exciting. During the campaign it was a standard joke in our house to come home and say 'I'm an inner today', ...
Crikey, norovirus is HORRIBLE, isn't it? Saturday morning I was right as rain. Saturday lunchtime I felt a bit queasy. Two minutes later I had to fight my way to the loo and ( cut for TMI ). The rest of Saturday and up to Sunday afternoon I couldn't even keep water down. Sunday afternoon I managed a yogurt. Sunday evening I managed a plain chicken breast, then got overconfident and tried to eat a funsize bag of skittles. Skittles caused puke-o-rama. About 2am I managed a bagel. It stayed down but I felt awful. About an hour ago a ...
The public trial of Thomas Mair, who killed my MP Jo Cox, last June, has now lasted a week and is expected to continue for another two. I cannot see what useful purpose is served by this. The fact that Mair killed her is undisputed, and whether the verdict is murder, manslaughter, unlawful killing or something else should make no difference to the sentence, that he should be detained in a secure institution and treated for mental illness until it is safe to release him, which will probably be "never." A sensible system would sort this out in an afternoon. ...
Sunniside Social Club held a Christmas Fayre yesterday. I decided to call in to have a look around but also to buy cakes. I found the cake stall, parted with my cash and ate the cakes when I got home (with help from David!)
On Saturday morning, Lighting Up Whickham held a coffee morning to raise money towards the village's Christmas tree. I was invited to have a table to sell my homemade jams. There was a reasonable flow of people into the library where we were holding the event. For me it was more like my councillor surgery as people spotted me and used the opportunity to raise local issues with me! Hopefully,
Liberal Democrat Newswire #86 includes a lesson from the 2005 general election about what happens if you don't have a core votes strategy.
There is no doubt that, just at the moment, voters tend to want change. Perhaps that is too obvious even to mention, except that it happens to coincide with a period when the Left doesn't seem to want change at all. Where they do want it, it is either symbolic - pulling down offensive statues of Cecil Rhodes, for example - or it is just going back to the policy assumptions of a generation ago (rail nationalisation, the return of the CEGB). It is a reversal of the way the world ought to be. But when the most conservative political ...
Embed from Getty Images After the financial crash, the Tories persuaded the public that they were the only party who could be trusted with the economy. Osborne's message went something like this: "Labour crashed the economy. They did this by spending too much, borrowing too much, and letting the budget deficit get too large. In order to create a strong economy, we need to get the deficit down. And the only way to do this is to implement spending cuts until our deficit reaches zero again." This narrative was a huge political success. Even now that we have a new ...
BBC Radio 4 - Today, 'Beards are a symbol of manliness' RT @BBCRadio4: Did you know there was a mechanical beard designed to help the whiskerless? [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Theresa May's speech to the CBI conference this morning, trailed in the newspapers, perfectly illustrates the economic policy bind she is in. In one breath she will say: "In the autumn statement on Wednesday, we will commit to substantial real terms increases in government investment in R&D investing an extra £2bn a year by the end of this parliament to help put post-Brexit Britain at the cutting edge of science and tech." In another clip from the same speech, she will say, "my aim is not simply for the UK to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20, ...
Those who recall Margaret Thatcher's triumph return to the Tory Party Conference, when she announced that 'The Mummy has returned" in direct reference to a poster advertising an American action adventure fantasy film, may feel a twinge of Déjà vu at this weekend's news that Tony Blair is to re-enter politics. The Independent says that the controversial former Prime Minister is engineering a comeback because he feels he can fill a political vacuum caused by Theresa May being a "light weight" and Jeremy Corbyn being a "nutter". They add that Blair is sourcing premises near Westminster in order to relocate ...
I am pleased to report that Dundee City Council recently made a bid to the Scottish Government for additional funding for energy efficiency measures - the Capital Stimulus Programme. As recently discussed at the council's Neighbourhood Services Committee, the bid was successful and the funding will be used to carry out a programme of underfloor insulation for ground floor council tenants in the Logie area, together with some other areas. The properties that will achieve the greatest benefit from this type of work are those with particularly deep under-floor areas and tenants should notice a marked improvement in their warmth ...
How Fake News Goes Viral Sad! (tags: facebook twitter uspolitics internet ) Carrie Fisher on Harrison Ford: 'I love him. I'll always feel something for him' Wow. (tags: sf )
