[IMG: Monnow Bridge, Monmouth] This lovely colour film follows the river upstream from Chepstow to its source. Click on the still of the Monnow Bridge in Monmouth above to view it on the British Film Institute site. The film was produced by The National Savings Committee, so we get a lecture on the importance of thrift when we reach the confluence of Wye and Elan.
There is some interesting material on the Carbon Brief website about electricity generation in the UK in 2016. During that year, wind generated 11.5% of the country's electricity and for the first time ever, it beat coal which produced 9%. Solar also generated more power than coal from April to September. This is good news for the renewable energy sector and I am especially pleased that this
Do you remember the days when many an urgent TV news interview on the state of the nation was conducted in a plumbers' yard? The yard contained the constituency office of Nick Clegg MP, and before him Richard Allan MP. Nick moved out around a year ago to a nearby alternative, and this morning on the school run I saw ... To be honest, even when standing it wasn't much prettier than this. But the office was unpretentiously a place of ordinary decent hard work, at the heart of the community, next door to a church and a primary school. ...
I'm just a party loyalist, me.
I spent today in Sunderland helping Stephen O'Brien, the Lib Dem candidate in the Sandhill by-election. We delivered letters to target voters (and had a pub lunch at the Hastings Hill). The ward has returned Labour councillors for decades. We were 4th here in May 2016 when it was last contested. The result was: Lab 1,229 UKIP 579 Con 277 Lib Dem 90 Green 59 So at first sight
Embed from Getty Images Last week, in the person of Harry Phibbs, Conservative Home was playing down Tory chances in the Copeland by-election: Victory will surely be a challenge. Labour starts out with a lead among local councillors - and the grassroots network of support that goes with them.Now Andrew Gimson has been to the constituency, sniffed the wind, talked to a few voters and come to a different conclusion: Perhaps by the time the by-election is held, this favourable estimate [of Theresa May] will have worn off, and there will be a reversion to traditional voting patterns. But it ...
Jeremy Cobyn's proposal to bring in a maximum wage (or, if you like, a 100% tax rate) would not work, for two reasons. The first, is that the swing voters he needs to attract would never vote for a party with this potty policy. If you are flirting with voting for the Conservatives, you are not going to like the idea of a wage cap. If any further discussion is needed, then the second reason is that it would not have the intended effect. Presumably the reason to bring down wages would be to reduce inequality. But most rich people ...
Embed from Getty Images The most endearing thing I have ever heard about Jeremy Corbyn was a story told to the Shropshire Star by his teenage friend Peter Harrison: We were drinking and it was May Day the following day, and asking what we were going to do to celebrate, and next thing you know one said, 'Why not go up The Wrekin and plant the red flag?' "If I remember correctly one of them made the red flag and we took it to the top of The Wrekin and tied it to the trig point and we all sang ...
I have to say I do feel for my friends in the Labour Party – those people whose views on many of the issues of the day are not wildly dissimilar to mine. They stuck with Labour through Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties despite feeling uncomfortable with both of these things. And now they are faced with a leadership delivering them at the feet of Theresa May and her Brexiteers. When you have devoted a huge amount of your life to working for a political party, you have a huge amount of your social and emotional ties wrapped ...
Second stanza of third section ("Song of the Little Hairy Man"): And when the night's all thundering I shall not fear the thunder Nor fear the mammoth's blundering, nor bandits and their plundering -- For "How much, we was wondering?" I'll walk the wide world under. This was part of the Neil Gaiman Humble Bundle, only 14 pages, published in 1999 and illustrated by Charles Vess. Most of it is a very short coming of age story about a girl and the significance of magpies; there are also three poems. The third poem is rather neat but the other two ...
Liverpool Town Hall where next week we will be debating a call from our Labour Mayor to have a demomonstration in London When I last did a blog some 10 days ago about the Mayor of Liverpool's call for a ... Continue reading →
From the District Council Train users have a chance to quiz railway executives about services between London and the St Albans District. Representatives of Govia, which operates the Thameslink line, are to attend a public meeting later this month. They will be joined by colleagues from Network Rail which owns the track and other infrastructure. [...]
[IMG: Ask your friends to join]
[IMG: clitheroe-single-issue-campaign] Our team in Clitheroe is working hard to gain the division on Lancashire County Council from the Conservatives. In 2013 we lost this seat by just 129 votes, and one of our district Councillors in Ribble Valley, Allan Knox is already campaigning hard in the division. Allan has had some recent success with a single [...]
In his recent burst of activity, UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has made several fairly controversial statements. Some I agree with him totally on (the crisis in the NHS due to underfunding), and others I disagree with him totally on ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Peel's cranes at Liverpool 2's deep water river berth for colossal sized contain ships, Seaforth.] Peel's cranes at Liverpool 2's deep water river berth for colossal sized contain ships, Seaforth. Here's what Highways England are up to over the highly contentious project to provide increased road capacity to Liverpool 2/Seaforth Docks – see link to and extract from the Highways England web site below:- Progress report We have been working hard to complete our economic and environmental assessments. We have used our findings from these assessments, as well as the feedback received during the public awareness exhibitions in ...
I am the first one to say that I think Tim Farron over eggs his 'moderate' approach to things and I seriously wish he would drop that word from his speeches. But hey there's nothing moderate about this response to JC! Tim Farron responds to Corbyn speech By Greg Foster on January 10, 2017 Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has responded to Jeremy Corbyn's speech on Brexit. Tim Farron said: "This confirms what we all suspected, that Jeremy Corbyn never had his heart in fighting to protect Britain's place in Europe. "He failed to pull a shift to ...
Yesterday my attention was taken by this excellent video of a young man talking about his experiences with Depression posted on the BBC's The Social Facebook page. I then found out that Ben is not only a Lib Dem member but he is our Council candidate for the ward of Monifeith and Sidlaw in Angus and you can follow him on Facebook here. When I was at school and dealing with debilitating bouts of Depression, I couldn't talk about it to anyone because you just didn't back then. I had no idea that others felt the same way. It would ...
I visited the Christmas Shelter on the 25thDecember. This project operates for five days over the Christmas period providing food, shelter and companionship for those in need. It was so heartening to meet the volunteers who were giving up part of their Christmas Day. There was a real variety of people; Mums and daughters, married couples whose children had left home, a good representation of church folk and people just dropping in with home-made goodies. Ken, who was organising, soon had me slicing onions and bagging up sandwiches and then meeting and greeting folk with a cup of tea. My ...
Tim Farron will be taking calls from listeners on Iain Dale's LBC show this evening. As the Tories and Labour seem to linking arms and heading off to Hard Brexit land together, Tim will know doubt be showing off what a proper opposition leader does. ALERT: LibDem Leader @timfarron will be taking calls on my @LBC show from 6pm tomorrow. Questions to iain@lbc.co.uk. Please incl phone no. pic.twitter.com/76ZWriVHfO — Iain Dale (@IainDale) January 9, 2017 Get your questions in!
This was a bit of a surprise - the Journal, Tyneside and Northumberland's morning newspaper, carried a positive front page lead story about the Lib Dems and the A&E crisis at Cramlington Hospital. The Journal, owned by Trinity Mirror, is usually a slavish supporter of Labour. Is their commitment to them beginning to crack? The Journal backed the Remain campaign and with Corbyn today trying to
ALDE Leader Guy Verhofstadt: "I have come to the conclusion that there are not enough guarantees to push forward a common agenda to reform Europe." "There is insufficient common ground to proceed with the request of the Five Star Movement to join the ALDE Group. There remain fundamental differences on key European issues." "However, on ... Continue reading Verhofstadt Rules out Five Star Movement Joining ALDE Group
When Corbyn got elected as Labour leader in September 2015, I thought at the very least we'd get to see what opposition unhinged and unsullied by compromise would look like. I knew I would probably disagree with a lot of Corbyn's policies, but I did have to admit that watching someone say previously unsayable things from a left-wing position would be exciting to watch. When Corbyn first refused to sing the national anthem, I got butterflies in my stomach: he would have no choice but to tell the nation that the reason he wouldn't sing "God Save the Queen" is ...
Greater Manchester Police have announced the outcome of their review of Public Enquiry Counter Services. Ten public enquiry counters will close: Altrincham, Chadderton, Fred Perry House (Stockport Council), Horwich, Hyde, Leigh, Middleton, Pendleton, Whitefield and Wythenshawe. 11 of the 12 remaining counters will see reductions in opening hours: Ashton, Bolton, Bury, Central Park, Cheadle Heath, Longsight, Oldham, Rochdale, Stretford, Swinton and Wigan to 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sundays. The Manchester City Centre PEC will remain open on a 24/7 basis. [IMG: whitefield] GMP do stress that members of the public will still be able to ...
Feed the Birds Day is on Saturday Jan 28th at the Barn Visitor Centre, Philips Park, Whitefield – organised by Friends of Prestwich Forest Park. All ages welcome – the event includes: 'Make your own log feeder, nesting boxes for sale; and you can take part in recording the different types of birds in your local area. [IMG: 15941172_10211681599145501_8010354590159101143_n]
Bury Council's Director of Public Health is leading a consultation on the future of children and young people's services in the Borough. Bury Council and NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group are working together to explore options to improve services and experiences for children, young people and their families in Bury. They need our help to shape the future of our provision and ensure all our children and young people have happy healthy childhoods leading to a happy, healthy adulthood. [IMG: screenshot-2017-01-10-09-13-18] (Click on the image above to watch a short video from Bury's Director of Public Health.) The work focuses ...
I'm certainly not a conspiracy theorist. Quite the reverse in fact. But the bizarre way that the poor put-upon passengers are being pressured into taking sides in the rail dispute - for the management or for the unions, as if that was the only issue - might just make me one. Perhaps most worrying of all has been the way that the two women, arts journalists, who run the Association of British Commuters are being vilified in the media. The strange thing is that I have huge admiration for Andrew Gilligan, and I hope he's realised that he got it ...
BBC Radio 4's Gardener's Question Time will be joining Whitefield Horticultural Society to record a programme on Tuesday 24 January at Whitefield Methodist Church, Elms Street. [IMG: 5178689_orig] Doors open 5.30pm, tickets cost £3 – 0161 766 5197 More information from the Bury Times here.
Nibley Lane is expected to close for cleaning from its junction with Badminton Road to its junction with Westerleigh Road between 9.30am and 2.30pm on Monday 16th January.
The Guardian reports that Jeremy Corbyn will use his first speech of 2017 to claim that Britain can be better off outside the EU and insist that the Labour party has no principled objection to ending the free movement of European workers in the UK: Setting out his party's pitch on Brexit in the year that Theresa May will trigger article 50, the Labour leader will also reach for the language of leave campaigners by promising to deliver on a pledge to spend millions of pounds extra on the NHS every week. He will say Labour's priority in EU negotiations ...
The rail crisis is reaching its reluctant and rather tawdry head. Even passengers campaigners are being singled out for flaming criticism by the government's supporters in the press, as the leaders of the Association of British Commuters were so unfairly over the weekend. Embed from Getty Images We are in short being forced to take sides in the traditional management versus labour battle - when people like me believe that the slow collapse of Southern Rail is mainly to do with incompetent franchising from the Department of Transport and absentee landlord behaviour from the Treasury and owners Go Ahead (as ...
There will shortly be an extension to the food waste collection service which will be sent out this week to householders in the Perth Road Lanes (as well as some other areas outside the West End including the City Centre, Docks, Hilltown, Lawside, Coldside and parts of Stobswell). The poster below gives details of Drop In sessions (including one at Blackness Library) that will be manned by staff from the council's Waste Section, who will be happy to answer any queries and pass on further details relating to the new service. Ahead of the service launch at seek commencing 27th ...
I've given Brexit it a well-earned rest over the last month. It remains Britain's leading political issue, but the commentary from all sides is completely unedifying. Remainers are mainly just whingeing, angry that we are were we are. I agree, but where next? This lets the Brexiteers off the hook: instead of being forced to ... Continue reading The shape of Brexit is becoming clearer. Don't write Theresa May off. →
5 Russian words that explain Vladimir Putin Actually 6½. (tags: Russia russian ) Architect of modern Ireland TK Whitaker dies aged 100 Very sad news. (tags: death ireland ) TK Whitaker, supreme mandarin and good citizen Obituary by Fintan O'Toole. (tags: ireland death )
