This is the other half of Holden Webster's exploration of this interesting little line. (Part 1 is here.) I visited Ditton Priors years ago and once blogged my memories of the visit: Ditton Priors, incidentally, is a strange place. My theory when walking is the more remote the place, the more certain you are of finding accommodation. In town a B&B proprietor will simply turn you away. In the country they feel more responsible and do not want you frightening the animals, so they volunteer to phone someone down the road who takes in walkers sometimes. My theory did not ...
The original version of this post can be found on my Facebook Page. This version has been expanded to incorporate my response to a comment on the post, and one or two musings elsewhere. Much has been written about the rise of the populist right lately. With the advent of Brexit, and the election of Trump, the left is being challenged in ways it hasn't been for decades, and certainly not in the era of post-war politics. For some, the answer is to retreat further to the left: the left of class war, the left of opposition-ism, the left of ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe as Bert Waitdesmore. Seasonal Products Consultant, gives Christmas gift advice.
Fidel Castro, who died yesterday at the age of 90, was one of the political giants of the 20th century. That does not mean that I revered him — his record on human rights and curtailing freedoms precluded that — but I did admire the way that he stood up to pressure from successive US [...]
Alas, our valiant household computer is dying, and much of the day was spent tactfully lining up a replacement. Current Kings of the North, by Cecelia Holland AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers, ed. Nnedi Okorafor Tolstoy, by Henri Troyat Short Trips: The History of Christmas, ed. Simon Guerrier Last books finished Kramer's War, by Derek Robinson Next books Angels & Visitations: A Miscellany, by Neil Gaiman Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past, by Paul Cartledge
A new planning application has been received in Unsworth ward, as detailed below: Application Number: 60845 Registration Date: 21/11/2016 Location: Unsworth Smile Clinic, 57 Parr Lane, Bury, BL9 8JR Proposal: Second floor extension to form three storey building Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with these. The details are on the Council's website here. Unsworth Liberal Democrats would be interested to know what local residents think about the proposal to build a third storey on top of the existing Unsworth Smile Clinic. Feel free to email steve@stevemiddleton.net or comment below. The ...
"Trump's behavior, if successful, would supply proof of concept that he can destroy norms unimpeded. He has already dismantled the twin guardrails against presidential kleptocracy, tax disclosure and personal divestment, in quick succession." Jonathan Chait fears that the US constitution provides few curbs to Donald Trump's apparent intention to behave like a Russian oligarch. "Worker-directors would increase boardroom diversity - not least by bringing ground truth to the table - and thus improve decision-making. The more intelligent fund managers see this." Chris Dillow is disappointed that Theresa May has gone back on hre promise to put workers on company boards. ...
Cllr Allan Knox has slammed the Government's autumn statement and the lack of any additional investment for social care. Commenting on the lack of any extra measures to tackle the social care funding crisis in the Autumn Statement, he said: "Once again, the Government have ignored all voices - care providers, charities, the NHS as well as local government and failed to take action on this to provide adequate social care for the elderly and disabled. "At the moment we are facing a funding gap of at least £2.7 billion. And we all know the knock on effects faced by ...
Years ago I contributed a book chapter arguing that the abuse of children is rarely a new discovery. History shows that it is regularly discovered and then forgotten again. So I was not too surprised to discover that the scandal of Barry Bennell, and of the sexual abuse of boys in football more generally, was exposed in this Dispatches documentary back in 1997. Perhaps people are regularly surprised to learn that abuse exists because of the assumption that if only the authorities knew, they would do something about it. Sadly, that is often not the case. Take the account of ...
Sat 26th
17:59
A big beast breathes his last. Fidel Castro's legacy isn't as black or white as is being painted...
The news that Fidel Castro has died shouldn't really have come as a huge surprise, even if you did begin to wonder if he was ever going. He had retreated from public life for the most part, and I suspect that the obituary writers had edited their drafts more often than for most people. But he is gone, and the opinion makers are off and running. For the left, Fidel is a hero of the anti-imperialist movement, for the right, an authoritarian who impoverished his people, repressed dissidents and was a threat to world peace. And it's easy for those ...
Sat 26th
17:24
Young Liberal Entrepreneurs Network to bring together young entrepreneurs with business people
[IMG: Young Liberal Entrepreneurs network] Liberal Youth will launch the first in a series of Young Liberal Entrepreneurs Network events this Monday. "Be Your Own Boss" brings together the next generation of business tycoons with established Lib Dem entrepreneurs. The event will explore techniques young entrepreneurs can use to found a successful start-up. "Be Your Own Boss" will take place at University College London with speakers including founder of Think publishing, Tilly McAuliffe, managing director of Tancroft Communications Ltd., John Duggan and co-founder of Charlie HR, Ben Gately. The event follows the release of the government's Autumn Statement detailing an ...
There are many great candidates for the Federal Board. Here are two I particularly hope you'll vote for (in addition to myself!)...
I see that the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, Andrew Bridgen, is unhappy about suggestions that British citizens might be offered the option of some form of associate membership of the European Union. Diddums. By throwing his toys out of the pram in such an ostentatious manner, he demonstrates what I have always suspected about Conservatives, which is that when they talk about choice, it is the choice to do things that they approve of (not that much, after all, they are conservatives), and that when they talk about freedom, it is with the caveat that they are to ...
When I wrote about More United backing Sarah Olney in the Richmond Park by-election, I commented: As part of the support for her, More United will be encouraging its supporters to go and campaign in person... How many supporters it can mobilise will be an obvious indicator as to More United's potential future impact on British politics... If More United can mobilise such people in Richmond Park, then that will be a surer sign that it can indeed make an impact on the direction of British politics. On that score, the outlook is promising as reports so far from More ...
I was a nerdy British nine year old when Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published. I, therefore, really ought to have been a big fan of the series. All my friends were (and mostly still are). Yet for some reason I never got into them. I did eventually read the Philosopher's Stone [...]
[IMG: sarah-olney-for-rp-600] There are a lot of good reasons to go and campaign for Sarah Olney in Richmond Park - to send the government a message on Brexit, Heathrow and our NHS, to champion our open, tolerant and united message and to support our fantastic candidate Sarah. But if that's not enough for some of you, think about this: We lost 3 seats in South West London in 2015 - at least 2 of which voted heavily to remain in the referendum on 23rd June. And neighbouring seats like Wimbledon where I'm the candidate and even Putney, are stack full ...
The week's most interesting development in podcast land has been the arrival of Undone. The conceit is revisiting news stories and controversies of yesteryear to see how they developed once they stopped being the focus of media attention. Which is interesting but the real selling point are the production values. It comes from Gimlet Media who [...]
We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned | CPR RT @JohnRentoul: Catch-Up. Extraordinary report on how fake news works - NPR HT @JamesTapsfield Dark Star Six Hop - 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, Beer #80 - YouTube If you'd like to admire my many chins, I'm a special guest on @LiberalJames's beer review channel here: 'Just about managing' is about time as well as money - Medium RT @lizgreenhalgh: 'Just about managing' is about time as well as money. Consumer policymakers should remember that: Why are some of us better at ...
The Lib Dem Newbies group is run by and for new and not-quite-so-new Liberal Democrat members. There's a great buzz about the group, and it's a wonderful source of information, support and inspiration.
My daughter recently turned four and we had to start thinking about schools for her. Not that you actually have to remind yourself of that as I sensed an almost obsessive attitude with schools and what school you would chose for your child around me. I always felt myself getting very upset in a lot of the school conversations and I had to think for a moment why that was. To me, it is that this talk about needing to get into "the good school" always seems less related to any real knowledge of what the school actually teaches or ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38109125 The BBC has the story, see link above I begin to wonder what the rabid right wing press and the Brexiters think they are doing. They seem to want Brexit to happen straight away, under any circumstances and at whatever cost! I am sure that many of those who voted for Brexit did not vote for it at any cost. Some yes, I accept that but many? No, that's just unbelievable. It becomes clearer by the day that Brexit is going to hurt our economy greatly and it is going to cost us all a great deal. So what's ...
From Dundee City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating house building extension works. The Order is expected to be in force for 3 weeks from 28th November 2016. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic Hillside Road from its junction with Hillside Terrace to a point 150m or thereby in a northerly direction. The road closures will be intermittent and should only last several hours ...
I have always been sceptical about the customer service standards of many bus operators and yesterday I saw something that hardly made me want to change that view, indeed it reinforced it. It was coming up to 12 noon at the bus stop and shelter in Lydiate's Southport Road opposite the junction with Nedens Lane. I was stuck in a short queue of traffic heading towards Maghull as there were some temporary traffic lights due to road works. I saw a retired lady stood at the Southport bound bus stop, she put out her hand to stop a 300 route ...
The Shape Of Emily's Coffin Trying to grasp a ghost. (tags: Death literature bronte )
As the Investigatory Powers Bill passes into law, internet providers will be required to keep a full record of every site that each of its customers have visited and that means that a number of government agencies will have the right to inspect our full browsing history. The snoopers charter forces internet providers to keep a full list of internet connection records for a year and to make them available to the Government if asked. Those records will serve as a full list of every website that people have visited, rather than collecting which specific pages are visited or what's ...
