The film here was shot between 1961 to 1966.
Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael says, Decades ago my predecessor as MP for Orkney and Shetland, Jo Grimond, spoke about political realignment. It has been a long time coming. There have been many false dawns but finally that moment has arrived. Jeremy Corbyn has rendered Labour an historical curiosity. Will Labour moderates seize the moment? Liberal Democrats, Greens, the Women's Equality Party and others who wanted a progressive modern Britain without attaching themselves to any individual party took the first tentative steps in the Richmond Park by-election - and to some effect. Now we need ...
Embed from Getty Images And you thought Jimmy Krankie was disturbing.So I wrote last May while blogging about Jimmy Clitheroe. Today Radio 4 Extra repeated a programme about him that Mark Radcliffe made in 1999. It makes Clitheroe's story sound sad rather than disturbing and features interviews with people who worked with him and are probably no longer with us.
Second paragraph of third chapter:True, some of us manage to rise above this aspect of our nature (or to sink below it). But these preconscious impulses remain our biological baseline, our reference point, the zero in our own personal number system. Our envolved tendencies are considered "normal" by the body each of us occupies. Willpower fortified with plenty of guilt, fear, shame, and mutilation of body and soul may provide some control over these urges and impulses. Sometimes. Occasionally. Once in a blue moon. But even when controlled, they refuse to be ignored. As German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer pointed out, ...
Embed from Getty Images Jessica Elgot has written a piece for the Guardian on the Liberal Democrat revival in the South West of England. She quotes, among others, Daisy Benson (PPC for Yeovil) and Ross Henley, victor in a recent, startling council by-election. Ross says: "People did actually want to talk about Brexit on the doorstep. It seems to be redefining British politics in the same way the Scottish referendum did, it completely shook up the way people voted. "Parties that have a muddled view on the big issues of the day generally tend to struggle. And we know where ...
The Samaritans are one of the major organisations relying on volunteers to assist the suicidal and those just needing someone to talk to Yesterday Erica and I received some bad news. The daughter of a friend of ours had tried ... Continue reading →
The report in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, suggesting that expats living in Spain are being recruited for short-term live-in care work without much training or, it is alleged, active supervision, raises a number of warning flags. One of the many agencies supplying care staff is apparently recruiting heavily amongst the retirement communities, offering quite lucrative (£800 per week) packages designed to "fit neatly with the expat lifestyle" and to attract those whose income has been affected by the fall in the value of sterling. They admit that many of those on their books don't want to look after the vulnerable, but ...
Sir Ivan Rogers, the UK's ambassador to the European Union has resigned. Highly experienced and diligent, Rogers was expected to play a key role in the upcoming Brexit negotiations. Nick Clegg has commented The resignation of somebody as experienced as Sir Ivan Rogers is a body blow to the Government's Brexit plans. I worked for Ivan Rogers in the EU twenty years ago – then he worked for me and the rest of the Coalition Government several years later. Throughout all that time Ivan was always punctiliously objective and rigorous in all he did and all the advice he provided. ...
A bold statement? Perhaps, but I think it is one that is well supported by what has happened to our politics over recent years, culminating in the rise of populism, post-truth politics and Brexit. This post was party prompted by comments made recently on a Facebook group - I won't go into detail here, but essentially it revolved around the significance to the overall result of weak or non-existent local Remain campaigns during the referendum campaign. I think it goes much deeper than that - to see why we have to look at some of the areas where this happened, ...
Yesterday (2nd January 2017) I joined hundreds of people who walked from Elton High School to Elton Reservoir in Bury. The main aim of the walk was to raise awareness of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's plan to introduce their 'Spatial Framework' across all the Greater Manchester authorities, including Bury Council. This plan, should it be agreed, would release green belt land all across Bury (and Greater Manchester as a whole) for the building of houses and industrial units. In Unsworth alone, we would be set to lose almost half of our green belt to construction of this kind should ...
I've written several times before about how I believe the arts can be of benefit; not only to the individual in terms of health and experience, but also to society and the wider economy. Image Source: bbc.co.uk Hull launches the City of Culture, promising at least one cultural event each day during 2017. Predictions are for a 9:1 return for the local economy. This interesting article raises some relevant questions for how the cultural sector can continue to thrive, how the arts industries can state their importance and relevance for the economy, and the importance of not dismissing creative subjects ...
[IMG: Decorated Christmas Tree] Shepway District Council are offering to recycle your real Christmas tree for free from 9 January to 3 February 2017. If you have a real Christmas tree and you want to recycle it for free complete the form on the Shepway Council website. Alternatively, if you are signed up for Shepway's £45 per year garden waste scheme just put your tree next to your brown lid bin on your normal garden waste collection day (remember there will be no garden waste collections from Monday 26 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017). Shepway Lib Dem Campaigner ...
[IMG: rsz_lydiate_abbey_92_02_13] www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF1eg7xb1Do The link above is to a youtube video, shot by Mike Kirby, of St. Catherine's Abbey otherwise know as Lydiate Abbey. It is well worth looking at.
Tue 3rd
12:59
Train Guards – Have Merseytravel (who are not even the employer) 'signalled' a rail dispute wi...
The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above I covered this issue quite a bit in that terrible year of 2016 and the end result of, in effect, ignoring the concerns expressed by the rail trade unions and indeed concerned rail passengers seems to be coming to pass in 2017. [IMG: This is what the new Merseyrail trains could look like when delivered but they are already the cause of great concern at being DOO (Driver Only Operation).] This is what the new Merseyrail trains could look like when delivered but they are ...
The former head of MI6 has warned against adopting electronic voting systems owing to fears about international cyber warfare. Sir John Sawers told the BBC that casting a ballot with pencil and paper was "actually much more secure". He warned: "The more things that go online, the more susceptible you are to cyber attacks." [BBC] Pencils are even more secure if they are indelible, something which the Electoral Commission alas has rather messed up on. The big difference, by the way, between online voting and online banking is secrecy. With online voting, no-one knows what the correct vote totals should ...
At the start of 2017, things feel much less stable than a year ago. Prince Charles broke with convention in his Christmas message by expressing concern at the deeply-disturbing echoes of the 1930s. He is thinking in global terms, but the UK is part of this story. He is right to be concerned. I finished a recent blog post by saying that what we need now is wise leadership. Those words are haunting me. Doubtless there are some who want a leader to push Brexit through as fast as possible, and others who want a leader to stop it. We ...
The "I" word has caused the Labour Party no end of problems in the past few years. Remember the "immigration mug" before the 2015 general election and all of the furore that caused on the Left? It has got worse since. A lot worse. Immediately following the vote to leave the European Union, many members of the PLP rushed forward to denounce freedom of movement. It had all the hallmarks of "okay, we get it, we get it, we'll stop preaching about how great immigration is and do what you say as long as keep those safe Labour seats safe." ...
Tue 3rd
10:57
Back to realpolitik: only the promise of prosperity will ensure the return of liberal diplomacy
Yet another ceasefire has been arranged in Syria's civil war, although this morning it looks close to collapse. The difference with this one is that the US and the EU have not been involved in its negotiation. And, not coincidentally, it does not include the Kurdish forces. It is the result of a rapprochement between ... Continue reading Back to realpolitik: only the promise of prosperity will ensure the return of liberal diplomacy →
Daniel Kreiss's Taking our country back looks at how Democrats first learned how to build digitally savvy election campaigns from scratch and then - crucially - learned how to institutionalise the technology and data.
Telegraph political correspondent and web editor Michael Wilkinson has been appointed as head of digital content at the Liberal Democrats. I'm delighted to say I'm joining the @LibDems as Head of Digital Content. I'm very proud of my time @Telegraph and all we have achieved. — Michael Wilkinson (@ThatMichaelW) January 2, 2017 We'd like to wish Michael a warm welcome and the best of luck. We know a thing or two about digital content ourselves here at Liberal Democrat Voice and I hope we will have a constructive relationship. For a flavour of what we might all look forward to, ...
[IMG: day-10-christmas] On the tenth day of Christmas, ALDC gave to me... a file of all the fonts I'll ever need. Download the zip file. If you need help installing fonts on to your computer, then read our handy how to guide. At ALDC we provide our members with all the advice, resources and training they need [...]
There's still time to nominate a "local hero" for a Chair's Community Award. Do you know an unsung hero who is contributing in areas such as community development, promoting equality, arts, sports, play, environment, working with older or young people, advice and advocacy and being a good neighbour? Or a group doing the same? For the first time in 2017, the council is taking group nominations as well as individual ones. You can find out more and download an application form on the South Glos website. The deadline is 16th January 2017.
This is something I read in a conversation online. The political climate in both Britain and the world at large is, I suspect, something a great many people are worried about at the moment. 2016 has been hard. Tragedies like Berlin and Orlando, the pure horror of Aleppo, the deaths of so many of our heroes, aggressive and violent political discourse in multiple countries. If you have this disturbing suspicion that 2016 was sent by some wrathful God, specifically to beat you down into submission, then believe me, you are not alone. It feels as though the world is coming ...
As has been said many times, 2016 was a dark year and the future could look even darker. The question to ask ourselves is how do we deal with such dark designs on our future? With the rise of Trump, extreme populism, both right and left, and Putin and so on, how do we ordinary people fight back against things that appear so large and so beyond us? I think about this a lot because I care about so many issues and those issues appear to be getting either forgotten or casually thrown aside in our current climate of fear, ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : The next exhibition in the University of Dundee's Lamb Gallery will be a retrospective of the Dundee painter Alec Muir. It features over 30 paintings produced over a period of nearly 70 years. A star student of James McIntosh Patrick at Dundee College of Art (now Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design) in the 1940s, Muir is now 86 and continues to paint. Alec's work is meticulous in its technique, with some of his paintings taking several years to complete. Some are detailed recreations of particular ...
How Britain will negotiate Brexit Reading the runes. (tags: ukpolitics brexit eu ) Nine economic lessons from 2016 Most, but not all, gloomy. (tags: economics ) EU English again Glorious. (tags: eu english )
Wales on line reports that the experimental closure of junction 41 in Port Talbot and associated road works cost taxpayers £2.2 million. The closure of this junction was designed to reduce congestion on the raised section of the M4 going through the town, but Welsh Government studies showed that at best it only knocked about 30 seconds off the journey. In fact, as is obvious to those who use this stretch of the motorway regularly, the main cause of the congestion is the narrowing of the carriageway from three lanes to two with the result that traffic problems often stretch ...
So, having read through the expenses regulations for federal committee members, I'm going to say two things: 1, I can see why they don't get many applicants from outside London or from the less-monied classes. I need written permission from the chair of my committee to claim for accommodation? Seriously? I live in Yorkshire, dudes. It's a two day meeting. What am I supposed to do, pick a bench outside King's Cross? FFS. 2, Any Londinium types, if you have a spare room that I could have for the evenings of Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th of January, ...
