Agree to write a piece for We Are Cult, try to NaNoWriMo, try to keep up with comics reviews, or, really, anything. This is just a general apology for my lateness on several different things at the moment. Only a ... Continue reading →
Two years ago I fell in love with The Elephant Will Never Forget - John Krish's ridiculously moving account of the last day of London's trams in 1952. Nine, Dalmuir West, made by Kevin Brownlow, shows the last day of Glasgow's trams 10 years later. (Click on the still above to view it on the British Film Institute website.) Brownlow was obviously inspired by Krish: in fact he gets a mention in the opening titles. The BFI site says: Kevin Brownlow's portrait of the last days of Glasgow's tram system centres on the last tram to run in 1962, accentuating ...
Introducing Doctor Who and the Cybermen... After some of my reasons to love the first Doctor Who I ever saw, what could follow but the first book I ever read? Gerry Davis novelises Patrick Troughton's fight with Cybermen on the Moon - or, as the back cover puts it with charmingly oblivious self-deprecation, "Can the Doctor defeat an enemy whose threat is almost as great as that of the mighty Daleks?" Can I find five reasons you should read 'Invasion of the Also-Rans'? It's time to sit down, mix yourself a celebratory Cocktail Polly, and curl up with a book. ...
Following on from the Federal Board and the Federal Policy Committee, here are two great candidates to highlight from the list running for Federal Conference Committee.
Sun 27th
20:11
Ill-treatment, torture, death: Amnesty's verdict on how Fidel Castro treated opponents
This following is taken from the Amnesty International Report for 1998 (reporting on the events of 1997). I've chosen this year partly as it's one of the semi-random selection of years from which I have the reports on my shelf and also because it is well after the end of the Cold War, stripping away many of the excuses rolled out earlier in Castro's reign: Hundreds of political prisoners detained in previous years and convicted after unfair trials remain imprisoned. Many were prisoners of conscience. Scores of dissidents suffered short-term detention and harassment and several were forced into exile. There ...
Sun 27th
19:46
Princess Beatrice 'accidentally sliced open Ed Sheeran's FACE with a sword while pretending to knigh...
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Mirror. Well done to all involved.
At the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California, there sits a small teapot. It's the world's most famous teapot, after a computer graphics researcher called Martin Newell digitised it.
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2016 Perth Road (West Park Road to Glamis) - occasional temporary traffic lights for 4 weeks from Monday 28 November for gas main/service connection works. Perth Road (at Westgrove Avenue) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 28 to Wednesday 30 November for SSE service connection.
Here's a nice graph. "Yes, Nicholas, but what does it mean?" Let me tell you what it means. Along the bottom you will see the names, in order, of the US Presidents to date. Immediately above them is a blue line, which corresponds to the length of each president's term in days. (Counting Cleveland's two terms separately, and assuming Obama serves until 20 January 2017.) Above the blue line is an orange line, showing the cumulative terms of pairs of presidents who served successively. So the leftmost point corresponds to the almost 12 years, 4,325 days, served by Washington and ...
Liberal Democrat Voice was kind enough to run my piece on the Liberal Democrats adopting the strategic slogan, The Party of Freedom, as an umbrella proposition for all the party stands for and to give voters an elemental reason to want to vote for us. The article elicited a lively range of opinions. Most, I think, favourable to my thinking. So, I want to keep the debate alive because I think the idea has real electoral legs. As a new member of the party I am completely ignorant of its structures and processes. I'm equally ignorant of its internal traditions. ...
A high-res single poster incorporating the panels above is available here (6 Mb pdf). It is A3 sized and suitable for printing out.
It isn't that often that I appear in Hansard. Ros has occasionally referred to me in terms of rural transport, but I'm not the Liberal Democrat equivalent of Mrs Bone. But, in this instance, my colleagues and I (or at least some of them) receive a little bit of praise, as Ros calls for proper focus by the new scheme on hard-to-reach, under-represented groups... Baroness Scott of Needham Market (LD) My Lords, I join in the thanks to the Minister for introducing this short but important Bill. In doing so, I declare an interest as a member of the advisory ...
Embed from Getty Images The fellow on the left of the photo (above) is Jared Kushner. He is the son-in-law of Donald Trump and, perhaps, "the power behind the throne" of the new President. An MBA and Harvard graduate, he knows how to run a business. Given Trump's extraordinary victory, of which he was the architect, he is also a successful political campaign manager. It was often said of Ronald Reagan, regarded by some as a "great President" of the US, that he was a good manager. That is, that he chose good people to work for him, who made ...
Prof June Thoburn who was recognised for outstanding work as a social worker and in support of social workers. Like many people the closest I get these days to social workers is looking at the 'Clare in the Community' cartoons ... Continue reading →
A new planning application has been submitted for consultation by Rochdale Council, as it directly affects Unsworth residents and businesses. Details below: Application Number: 16/01399/HYBR Registration Date: 22/11/2016 Location: Land bounded by Manchester Road, Hareshill Road and Pilsworth Road; West of Junction 19 of the M62, Rochdale Proposal: Article 18 consultation from Rochdale Council (ref.16/01399/HYBR) for part full / part outline planning application for the redevelopment of land at South Heywood including demolition works. Full application includes new link road between junction 19 of M62 and Pilsworth Road, widening of Pilsworth Rd. and juction improvements. Outline application (all mattters reserved ...
The BBC's repeat of Top of the Pops from 1982 - or at least of those episodes that have not been Yewtreed - is one of the highlights of the week. The show recently featured the forgettable Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White by Modern Romance. But there was something notable about it, because Modern Romance evolved out of the far more interesting Leyton Buzzards - a great band name for a start. I was convinced that Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees) had been a bit, but in fact it reached only no, 53 when it was released ...
It has come sooner than we might have thought. But the first crunch parliamentary vote on Brexit is about to take place. Not in Westminster, but 200 miles to the east, in Brussels. And the British press is waking up to it. Splashed across the front page [£] of Saturday's edition of The Times is the news that Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian MEP who leads the Liberal group in the European Parliament, backs the idea of offering EU citizenship directly to Brits who want it post-Brexit. The Guardian and others have reported on it too (if you don't have access ...
One of the biggest threats posed to the country and our economy by Brexit is the failure of the official opposition to adopt a clear position and to properly scrutinise the way the UK Government are dealing with this issue. There are honourable exceptions of course such as Kier Starmer but, as reported here before, he is being constantly undermined by other Shadow Cabinet members. The Independent reports that this lack of clarity is frustrating many within the Labour Party as well as without, with senior Labour MPs accusing their party leadership of paving the way for a hard Brexit ...
Since the end of October our energy in London has been focused on the Richmond Park by-election. We have spent hours campaigning and gathering data about which voters will support our superb candidate, Sarah Olney next Thursday. We now have a few days to get those people who have said they will vote Liberal Democrat to do so on Thursday. Everything is now concentrated on getting out the vote (GOTV). The next few days will be even more intense, with thousands of letters and leaflets to be delivered and, we hope, hundreds of Liberal Democrat activists moving in for the ...
Sun 27th
08:59
HMP Kennet – Melling's prison is closing and the only surprise is that it is 7 months early!
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above This has been a odd story for a while now in that the closure of the prison is still often talked about as being a 'shock announcement'. It really is not as it was always meant to be a temporary prison from when it first opened. In fact the only 'surprise' is that it is closing 7 months before the originally stated closing date. My last relevant posting on this subject, from the 8th of June, is below:- It is also in Melling Civil Parish not Maghull but ...
The Lib Dem hold - with a large swing to the party - in a Tandridge Council by-election by Dorinda Cooper had impressive headline figures. But there's also a brilliant story behind them.
Donald Trump, the US president-elect, was unequivocal about Fidel Castro in a statement yesterday. "The world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights." I hate to agree with Trump on something, but he is bang on about this. Predictably meanwhile, a certain regrettable subset of the Left showered Castro with praise: Corbyn praised his "revolutionary heroism", Ken Livingstone called Castro an "absolute giant"; but of course, the highest praise for the man ...
Trump Grasped What Others Missed Short but clear. (tags: uspolitics )
