Planting Up Whickham's volunteers had been out on Wednesday to weed the flower beds on Church Green. I was asked to go down in the evening to move all the waste in my land rover to the compost heap in Chase Park. I had previously seen some photos of the floral display but it was quite something to see it for myself. A superb display planted by the volunteers. Well done to everyone involved.
Last month we planted 100 trees on the Kingsway community orchard in Sunniside in my council ward. On Wednesday, we were investigating more tree planting. Or more specifically, we were looking at planting one tree on Sunniside Front Street, near to the new Sunhill Court. Residents have told us that they are keen to have a Christmas tree in the village. Sunniside has never before had a public
Copyright © Dennis Calow The University of Leicester has now indexed Dennis Calow's photographs on a clickable map, which makes it easier to find your way around the collection. This one, taken in 1949, shows Everard's brewery, which stood on the corner of Castle Street and Southgate Street. It was built in the mid 19th century and originally owned by Wilmot & Co. It was to be lost to the city's enthusiasm for new roads in the 1960s.
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe as Hector Pastel, Senior Meteorologist, takes a look at the weather.
"There is a tension between the individualisation of social risks pursued by British political parties over the last two decades and the call to create social capital." Emanuele Ferragina and Alessandro Arrigoni look at the failure of David Cameron's 'Big Society'. Miles Richardson discusses an academic paper that shows that words connected with nature have been used less and less in popular culture since the 1950s. Drinks Maven explains the craft beer revolution. "Depending on your cultural touchstones, you might find a hint of Diment in Austin Powers, or perhaps Peter Wyngarde's turn as crime-novelist-turned-secret-agent Jason King from Department S." ...
What's this about? The T-Junction at Chiltern Rise and Cheviot Avenue is well used by local residents, making their way to and fro the local school, community centre, accessing the John Clare rec or even simply popping to the local chip shop. Sadly at present there is no dropped kerb at this location. This means some [...]
Fri 7th
15:30
Anthony Lester on how Lib Dems and liberal politics have influenced progress of gay rights in UK
Yesterday in the House of Lords, Lib Dem peer Anthony Lester spoke about the Liberal Democrat involvement in changing the law, and, more importantly, public opinion on LGBT rights. Here is his speech in full: This year is the fiftieth anniversary of Leo Abse's Private Member's Bill that became the Sexual Offences Act 1967. It came ten years after the Wolfenden report recommended reform. The Act abolished the crime of sexual love between two men over the age of 21 in private. It had crucial support from the then Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins. But the path of reform has been ...
Last night I went to a brilliant production of the Adams Family at The Atkinson in Southport. It was great fun with lots of comedy and satire. The principals-especial Morticia and Gomez -were excellent and Uncle Fester's number The Moon and Me stole the show and the hearts of the audience. Who would have thought the singing of a plaintive love song to the moon by a character of undetermined sexuality would be the sanest plot line in the show? Morticia, who was delightfully scary, led the chorus in a memorable rendering of Death is Just Around the Corner- summing ...
Over the last couple of months, every Wednesday lunchtime and in another few meetings too, a group of us have been getting together to start the process of building the party's future strategy which will be voted on at Autumn Conference in Bournemouth. I don't say very much in these groups because there are people much cleverer than me with much more useful things to say, but one of the things I wanted to make sure of from the start is that we involved members in the quest to shape our future direction. This is something that we must build ...
The Independent has the story on its web site – see link above A well thought our piece in my view and I particularly liked this:- 'The problem with basing your case on scaremongering, spin and out-and-out nonsense is that eventually it will come back to bite you. Just say the word "Iraq" to Tony Blair.' My thanks to Roy Connell for spotting this article.
Fri 7th
11:55Baroness Joan Walmsley writes...150% rise in patients forced to move GP surgery as practice closures...
One of the jewels in the NHS, for as long as I can remember, has been the family GP. My GP looked after my mother before I was born and looked after me until I moved away from home. In those days the GP's long acquaintance with my whole family was important to us. Everyone had a "family doctor". They even did home visits! Things are very different now. We still have primary care and acute care, but many more community nurses, health visitors, therapists and care workers, not forgetting the wide range of services offered by community pharmacists and ...
... Due to the sad passing of Graham Hall, who was a Tory of the reasonable stripe (as opposed to the headbanging loon climate-change-denier Trump-supporting stripe they seem to be breeding these days). Hipperholme and Lightcliffe is a pretty safe Tory ward, and voted leave, and we haven't done much there for about ten years, but we threw a few leaflets at it to see what stuck. Results:Tories: 1483Lib Dem 420Labour: 407Green: 150Spoilt: 3All parties lost raw vote number and vote share except us, we went up in both numbers and share. Bearing in mind decreased turnout, this is pretty ...
In which I share my discomfort about how the news media are treating Barry Manilow It's immoral to be rich This piece is provocative in every sense of the word. Want to find an old LJ friend? Here's a post linking DW and LJ identities All in alphabetical order by LJ name :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
American bombing in Syria may make Donald Trump a hero on the streets of Idlib. Those fighting for simple democratic rights in Syria felt bitterly let down by the west in 2013 when we failed to take action the first time there was good evidence that the monstrous Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons on his own people. We still live with the consequences of that inaction. We were warned our intervention against Assad might make the situation worse. The situation got worse anyway as Assad continued to kill his own people in their thousands with impunity. Millions fled their ...
Following yesterday's stunning victory over UKIP in a council by-election in Aylesbury Vale, England, Liberal Democrats extend their lead on the scoreboard of gains in British local government. It now looks like this:
Dodington Railway Bridge, near Chipping Sodbury School, will be closed from Monday 10 April for 2 weeks. Network Rail will be working to raise the height of the bridge parapets and provide anti-climbing measures, all associated with the electrification of the railway line. South Gloucestershire Council will then be working there to install 2 speed tables (long flat "speed bumps") to reduce speed on this dangerous bridge. The works have been timed to coincide with the school holidays. The diversion route will be signposted along the B4465, A46 and A432, but "locals" will of course know some short cuts.
It was quite disconcerting to wake up this morning to see that Donald Trump had launched air strikes. There is no question that Syria needs to be dealt with. You just can't have any government getting away with gassing its own people. I just feel uneasy about Donald Trump being in charge of this. Does he even have a proper strategy? I also feel uneasy about our Government just slipping into line behind him. On Question Time last night, Tim Farron was talking about the importance of establishing no fly zones and of humanitarian aid, but made clear that doing ...
The ability of autonomous vehicles to navigate our cities is impressive. But their potential will only be realised when these cars are interdependent The crash of an Uber Volvo in Tempe, Arizona has dragged a regulatory spotlight back onto self-driving cars. The Uber car, in driverless mode, crashed into a Honda that was turning left, ending up on its side. Such incidents bring the hype surrounding automotive autonomy bouncing back to earth. But they also remind us of the need for smart regulation. The true believers at Wired magazine used the crash as another illustration of human incompetence and called ...
Cllrs Tony Davis and Claire Young at the flooding exhibition At the Environment Agency's drop-in exhibition on the risk of river flooding in the Yate and Chipping Sodbury area in March, local councillor Claire Young asked them to make the plans available online for those who couldn't attend. They have now published the plans on their website. If you would like to make comments, you can email them to mark.goldingay@environment-agency.gov.uk
As far as the proverbial man in the street is concerned, there is very little that separates the extreme right from the extreme left. The results are the same: Power concentrated in the hands of a small circle of political leaders, suppression of human rights and academic freedom, political prisoners, torture, absence of a free press, no free speech, no freedom of assembly, rule by decree, corruption and politically-appointed judges presiding over show trials. That is not say that there are no differences. There clearly are. The left tends to find its suppressive roots in an all-embracing ideology or - ...
Yesterday's decision by Mark Reckless AM to leave the UKIP group and sit within the Conservative Group as an Independent has had consequences, not least for the Tories. Although the move makes the Tories the second largest group and confers on Andrew R.T, Davies the unofficial title of leader of the opposition, it has caused significant unrest within his party. This is the take by Glyn Davies, the Tory MP for Montgomeryshire: The BBC report that they have been told by a UK Conservative Party source that Tory AMs have put their positions "in jeopardy" by allowing Mark Reckless to ...
Volunteer Dundee has a drop-in session for the West End every Wednesday at Blackness Library - where you can find out more about activities and volunteering opportunities in our area - see below!
The latest announcement by the Labour Party to fund free school meals for all children of primary age seems, at first glance, a reasonable one. After all, the rich can afford school fees, so they can afford a further 20% tax can't they? Labour say that the schools can afford it, but as a sales tax VAT has to be charged on the sales ( ie added to the selling price ) Well, look at the actual way this might work. Any business has to register for VAT if they make taxable supplies over a certain ( registration) limit. The ...
I recall vividly the first day of the 2014 Tory conference in Birmingham. As an aside, every Tory conference for the last 87 years has been in either Brum or Manchester. Anyhow, what was memorable about the first day of 2014 Tory conference was that Mark Reckless, until earlier that very morning a Conservative MP, had defected to UKIP. Every Tory MP was filled with massive amounts of bile towards him – and not just for the defection. "I always hated that (insert pejorative word)" one particular cabinet member remarked within earshot of me, and there were plenty of comments ...
