The film Mad to be Normal goes on release next week, and this is rather an important moment - at least for me. Partly because I have been fascinated by the revolutionary psychiatrist R D Laing my whole adult life - I even went to a poetry reading by him when I was a student (he sat slumped on the floor for most of the reading). But partly also because I have a short book out which tells the strange and courageous story of his radicalisation, as a military psychiatrist and tries to set him in the context of a ...
A short film, starring Jonathan Meades, about Robert Clayton's documentary photography from 1991. The photography centres on the everyday life of the Lion Farm Estate, Oldbury, West Midlands which was the subject of a photo book published in 2015. The Great Meades narrates his introductory essay to the book against images from the work, archive footage and contemporary material. I posted a short trailer for this film back in December 2015.
Hitting the email inboxes of Liberal Democrat party members this week is a message from Sal Brinton about the party's future strategy – with a consultation document and an online survey. This is part of the process which will lead to a debate and vote at the autumn federal Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. At our last federal conference in York, Tim Farron set out a very ambitious vision, "to replace the Labour Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives... so that we can replace the Conservatives as the Government of our country". This is about how we put ...
One of the large volume of topics that residents raise with me, in my councillor's post bag, is the large numbers of missed collections of kitchen waste. In Southfield, residents saw, when the wheelie bins rolled in - like Daleks - dirty streets and a huge number of missed collections of their household waste. Since then kitchen waste has not been collected as often as it should be. Sometimes the same person has missed their collection for many consecutive weeks. Other times whole streets are missed. From a resident who comments recently the contractor said they did not collect the ...
Shropshire Council today published the list of candidates for the town and parish council elections on 4 May. In Ludlow, there are 13 candidates standing for 15 seats in seven wards. Seven candidates will be elected unopposed. A further two will need to be co-opted after the election. There are more candidates standing than four years ago. All but one of the current 15 councillors were either elected unopposed or co-opted. But only three of the current candidates are new to the council, the rest are sitting councillors. I am disappointed with this, particularly after the efforts by the town ...
There have been rumors today that Mark Reckless, now a member of the Welsh Assembly, is planning to leave Ukip and rejoin the Conservatives. Reckless was elected at Rochester and Strood as a Tory in 2010, but resigned the seat in 2014 and won the subsequent by-election for Ukip. He fought the seat for Ukip at the 2015 general election, but was defeated by the Tories. But if he has ambitions to re-rat (as Churchill put it), he may be disappointed. The Daily Telegraph reports: former Tory MP who defected to Ukip and is rumoured to be considering joining the ...
You might have noticed of late that my linkspam posts are much sparser. There's a bunch of reasons for this, and they all boil down to the services I use. 99% of the link posting I do is on Twitter. I share links and RT links a LOT. Twitter is very much an in-the-moment service, so I don't feel spammy for doing this. In order to get the automated links posts, I use pinboard, which scrapes twitter (and can also scrape a bunch of other services I don;t use), and then feed it through [IMG: [personal profile] ] andrewducker's clever ...
Embed from Getty Images George Eaton claims an exclusive in the New Statesman: Last month, Conservative MPs from Cornwall and Devon urged May not to go to the country for fear they would lose their seats. In Richmond, Tim Farron's party overturned Zac Goldsmith's 23,015 majority by attracting Remain voters and the Lib Dems have won 34 council seats from the Tories since May 2015. The MPs' fears, I can reveal, were later reinforced by private Conservative polling. According to multiple sources, a survey conducted by Crosby Textor showed the party would lose most of the 27 gains they made ...
I've covered previously how worried Conservative MPs have been lobbying Theresa May against holding an early general election. Now comes news that Conservative Party polling is painting a very grim picture for the party in seats taken from the Liberal Democrats in 2015: A survey conducted by Crosby Textor showed the party would lose most of the 27 gains they made from the Lib Dems in 2015, including all those in south London, all those in Cornwall and most of those in Devon... Since their general election nadir, the Lib Dems have risen to double figures in national polling and ...
Writing on the Times Red Box site (£), Manchester Gorton's brilliant Lib Dem candidate Jackie Pearcey has said that only the Lib Dems can offer national opposition to a hard brexit and take on a Labour Party which takes people for granted. She outlines some of the ways that they have done so in Gorton – in a city where they have all but one councillor: Residents here are also tired of being ignored by the Labour-run council, which has become a de facto one-party state. This constituency is full of proud communities, passionate about improving their area. I was ...
What's this about then? You may have read in the local media recently, that a 3 year old suffered the injuries on Cleveland Court outside Gunthorpe Primary School, after being struck by a car? What does Darren think? I think this is not a new issue, and it's getting worse, with more and more cars on [...]
*waves at the sudden glut of LJ deleters on DW* Nice to see you all here! I have finally obtained a working Laptop, so I should hopefully be more about on here than I am when I'm stuck with just phone and Office PC. If you're an old LJer I haven't seen on here before, do hit me up :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Shropshire Council today announced the candidates for the unitary elections on 4 May. This is an "all up" election - all current councillors must stand for re-election unless they are retiring. I will be competing against three candidates in Ludlow North. They are a UKIP candidate from Hopton Court near Cleobury Mortimer; a Conservative from Billingsley near Bridgnorth; and a Green from New Street in Ludlow. Across the county, 74 councillors are due to be elected in 63 electoral divisions (wards) - 53 single member divisions, nine 2-member divisions and one 3-member division. The current political makeup of the council ...
If you listen to most experts, the reason for the crisis in the NHS comes from under-resourcing and an aging population. But, no, UKIP council candidates in Chard in Yeovil have come up with another explanation. It's all the fault of women doctors and their career breaks and part-time doctors. Buzzfeed has the story: The leaflet was produced by local UKIP councillors in Somerset who suggest alleged positive discrimination in the GP hiring process could ultimately lead to local surgeries closing altogether. "How many female Doctors are there in your surgery working 2 or 3 days a week?" it asks, ...
Three Spanish Exchange students have descended on our home this week. Full of fun, responsive and impeccably mannered, it has been a pleasure to have them around. About parts of their experience in England, though, it is impossible to be so complimentary. Their looks of bemusement have grown ever stronger during the week as the farcical events surrounding Gibraltar have unfolded. Firstly, they watched in amazement as a former Tory leader - not a rogue backbencher, a former leader – envisaged a situation in which Britain would sent a Task Force, Union Jacks waving and bugles blowing, to defend the ...
Wed 5th
15:05
Southport – Manchester trains – An update on the campaign by Southport Rail Transport Fo...
Southport Rail Transport Forum logo OPSTA logo SRTF has an update on the long-running campaign to ensure that Southport and West Lancashire passengers are not disadvantaged by changes to trains into and out of Manchester. See the link above for the full update. Parbold Level Crossing on the Southport – Manchester Line
Wed 5th
13:45
Vince Cable to liberals: Don't despair, go local, celebrate identities and embrace social democratic...
Last night, Vince Cable gave the annual John G Gray Lecture to the Scottish Liberal Club in Edinburgh. John G Gray was a leading Scottish figure in the fightback from near extinction in the middle of the last century. He was at one point the only Liberal councillor in Scotland. Vince observed that at the same time as he was successfully fighting a ridiculous proposal for a ring road in Glasgow, Gray was doing the same in Edinburgh, making sure that a proposal that would have damaged much of the city's heritage never came to fruition. The subject of his ...
Wed 5th
12:05John Leech writes: Come and help deliver a knockout blow to Labour and hard Brexit in Gorton
Having spent the last few weeks delivering leaflets and talking to residents in Manchester Gorton I wanted to share my thoughts on the by-election. Manchester Gorton presents a huge opportunity for us as a party. The response that we are getting for our candidate, Jackie Pearcey, is really very impressive. I have been struck by the number of people who have told me on the doorstep how much better their local area was when they were represented by local Lib Dem Councillors like Jackie. This is a constituency that voted 65% remain, had 19 out of 21 Lib Dem Councillors ...
Can you see the word "Easter" in the image above? The image is a screenshot of the National Trust website for its Easter activity. Yet, Theresa May saw fit to interrupt her visit to Saudi Arabia to criticise Cadbury's and the National Trust for calling the activity an "Egg Hunt" rather than a "Easter Egg ... Continue reading Easter egg hunt furore – something of the ridiculous?
Wed 5th
11:26LibLink: Tom Brake: The Westminster Attack was an assault on democracy, let it not be an assault on ...
Tom Brake wrote for The House magazine about the threats to civil liberties in the wake of the Westminster attacks. He said that the appropriate response to the horror was: What the attacker sought to do in his rampage was to instil fear and division, erode our democracy, shake confidence in our institutions and rupture our way of life. Our response must be more unity, more democracy, and steadfast humanity in the face of evil. We must always counter hate with love. We will remain open, tolerant and united. The article was written before Amber Rudd effectively conceded that she ...
Dirty Tricks in Hipperholme & Lightcliffe By Election What's the best way to make fake news spread? Create plausible evidence for it. Not THAT plausible for anyone familiar with the Lib Dems' campaign techniques, obviously. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The Brexiteers have been very clear that once we leave the EU then the UK is going to have to get out and negotiate a lot of trade deals to make up for the lost business. Whether those deals will compensate us for what we have lost is a moot point, but still it is nice to see Ministers out and about trying to put their words into action. Or is it? According to the Guardian, UK Trade Minister, Liam Fox has been in the Philippines, where he has proclaimed that the UK has "shared values" with Rodrigo Duterte, the ...
Can you see the word "Easter" in the image above? The image is a screenshot of the National Trust website for its Easter activity. Yet, Theresa May saw fit to interrupt her visit to Saudi Arabia to criticise Cadbury's and the National Trust for calling the activity an "Egg Hunt" rather than a "Easter Egg Hunt" – even though Easter is emblazoned above the title. How ridiculous is that? Now I see that I am being asked to boycott Cadbury's Creme Eggs as a result of this nonsense. I don't eat Cadbury's Easter eggs anyway so I can't boycott them. ...
Another day, another bit of excellence from the Lib Dem Press Office. They even managed to avoid any apostrophe abuse by the cunning tactic of not using any.
As Theresa May went all Donald Trump on us by playing up to traditional Tory supporters and focusing on an irrelevant and inaccurate news report about Easter eggs to distract us from the general chaos of her Government, The Liberal Democrat Press Office quietly went about providing commentary on the actual big issues of the day. Our press team highlighted contradictory remarks by Philip Hammond and Boris Johnson. Boris was doing his best "It'll be fine if we don't get a brexit deal" in Germany, while Hammond said that we needed one to protect our economy in India. Tim Farron ...
I'm wary of putting too much hope in this government, but post Article 50 being triggered, the government seems to be executing a pivot towards policies which seem sensible. Theresa May has indicated that for an "implementation period" the free movement of EU citizens could continue, and hasn't said much recently about her immigration in the "tens of thousands" policy. Now, I obviously don't want to Brexit, but this is sensible, whilst businesses and government turn around the tanker of the UK economy towards slower progress..... or of course, don't do that. As it seems to me a great deal ...
Wighton Heritage Centre at the Central Library Today - Wednesday 5th April 1.15pm - 1.45pm Lunchtime Recital Helen Forbes, whistle player extraordinaire! Admission free, donations welcomed
Guidelines for a soft Brexit More from @AndrewDuffEU. (tags: brexit eu ukpolitics ) The modern myth of the Easter bunny in case you were wondering. (tags: history religion ) How the Article 50 letter compares with the European Council draft guidelines Rather useful. (tags: ukpolitics brexit eu )
Yesterday afternoon, my family and I took a trip to a beach called Zlatni Rat on the island of Brac. It's a Croatian island, an hour's ferry journey from Split. Anyhow, since we'd come one certain wway from where we're staying on the north side of the island to get to the beach, we figured we'd take a different way back. The road I had embarked upon was marked on all maps (including Google's) as a motorway. Indeed, that was the way it began. But soon enough, the road got rougher and rougher until it was nothing more than a ...
Ah, remember those halcyon long-ago days of 2015, when the worst fascists could do by manipulating voting systems was to get themselves nominations for a minor literary award, rather than take over most of the Anglophone world? That was good, ... Continue reading →
Our next efocus has just been sent to residents in Ryton, Crawcrook, Winlaton Blaydon and Rowlands Gill. Issues covered include council tax rise, housing in Ryton and Crawcrook, GP surgery mergers, planning applications and the future of local library branches. You can view it on this link.
