Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. The Watts family have been very excited this week after Peppa, one of our cats, gave birth to two gorgeous kittens. They are now five days old and are just starting to find their voices. 1. Garage Sale Broxtowe Borough Council is selling off more than 70 garages in Beeston and Chilwell to make way for new homes. They are also considering the sale of a further 89 garages. These are all garages which are, at the moment, ...
Pushed myself too hard this week with campaigning, and it made my arthritis flare up. Typing is hard. Post probably tomorrow, on Brian Wilson's No Pier Pressure.
Photo from Michael Mullaney on Twitter The Liberal Democrat manifesto for next month's Leicestershire County Council elections was launched at an event in Hinckley yesterday evening. Speeches were given by my old Liberator collective colleague Baroness Liz Barker and my old Harborough District Council colleague Simon Galton. Simon is now leader of the Lib Dem group on the county council. The Leicester Mercury quotes him: "The deepening financial crisis in the NHS, proposed funding reforms in education and local government and the expected transfer of new responsibilities to the county council suggest the second half of this period of austerity ...
Embed from Getty Images The broadcaster Brian Matthew died this morning at the age of 88. The BBC, which erroneously announced his death a couple of days ago, has a good obituary. I wrote my own tribute to him back in 2008: Just about my earliest memory is climbing into my parents' bed on Saturday mornings, and I clearly remember Matthew's Saturday Club being on the radio when I did so. I may well have heard some of the Spencer Davis Group performances from the show that I bought last year (volume 1 of Mojo Rhythms & Midnight Blues) when ...
We all do it from time to time, some of us more than others. We collect a chilled meal from the supermarket because it is a pretty hassle-free way of getting something to eat. The meals often come in black plastic trays, which we later conscientiously put in the recycling box for collection. So far, so good. But what Shropshire Council don't tell you is that Veolia incinerates black plastic rather than recycles it. You must drill deep into Shropshire Council's website to find that black plastic is not recycled. It's not mentioned on the door-to-door leaflets or the recycling ...
... which comm I fully rec to all those of you who are LJ refugees looking for familiar names :) Original post here. Name: Jennie Age: 39 Location: Yorksher Tumblr/Goodreads/IG/etc: I have a list of accounts in other places and how active I am on them here Describe yourself in five sentences or less: I'm an SJW cliche: Liberal in the British sense rather than the American or Australian, and reasonably high up in various bits of the Liberal Democrats - I'm on regional exec, I'm the acting chair of the LGBT+ faction, I'm on one of the 3 ruling ...
There's no overlap at all between the BSFA shortlisted Short Fiction and the Hugo finalists. It's also striking that I think all of the BSFA shortlist first appeared in print, whereas non of the Hugo finalists did (several appeared simultaneously in print and electronic publication). I found my final ranking easy enough to make. 6) "Taking Flight", Una McCormack Second paragraph of third section: For a whole day the shuttle followed the coastline south along ragged shores and pristine sands. Shortly after dawn of the second day, we reached the silver-streaked triangle of a river delta and struck south-west into ...
What's this about then? Peterborough City Council's Environmental Services are undertaking a spring clean of Gunthorpe. The Council's contractors will spend a couple of days, collecting rubbish and removing fly-tipping. They want to hear about any areas locally that you know need some attention? What does Darren think? I've sent in some suggestions, as will my colleagues [...]
How much do YouTubers and YouTube make from ads and how are ads matched with videos? CGP Grey explains.
I grew up very much a Batfamily girl when it came to superheroes. Superfamily, in particular, I was v disdainful of because of the sheer number of powers they have. It's just BORING to have that many superpowers. But as I've grown older, and the Bat stuff has got relentlessly more Grimdark and depressing, there's an attraction to the more optimistic superheroes. So when Supergirl's TV series started, I thought I'd give it a go. We're well into series two now, and it has absolutely captured my heart with its quiet yet determined feminist agenda. At the end of s1 ...
Sat 8th
15:20
Why haven't the Liberal Democrats broken through and what is necessary for them to do so?
This post originally appeared in 2011. I'm republishing it now as it is rather relevant to the current debates over Liberal Democrat strategy. I recently answered a few questions for a student at Goldsmiths College writing a dissertation on the theme, "Why haven't the Liberal Democrats broken through and what is necessary for them to do so?". As it was a good set of questions, and my answers might also be of wider interest, here they are: 1. Is the short to medium term objective of the party to govern alone or to become what John Curtice describes as a ...
Last year Manchester Lib Dem Jen Yockney won the first MBE for services to the bisexual community. In the current issue of Big Issue North, she features in an article about bisexual people, highlighting the discrimination that they face, even within the LGBT community itself. For example bi people earn less than their lesbian and gay peers. We are more likely to experience domestic violence and stalking than our gay friends. And we are less likely to feel we can be out at work - bi men are about four times less likely to be out at work, and given ...
The other day I ordered the DVD of the film Arrival, to watch it again before voting on the Hugos. Unfortunately, both my original copy and a replacement I got failed to be watchable — the DVD is badly authored ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images When Jo Swinson was Minister for Equalities, she introduced the requirement for companies with more than 250 employees to report on their gender pay gap. That requirement came into force this week. Jo wrote on the Huffington Post about why this is important and how the information will help organisations understand what they need to do to improve their gender equality. The numbers are really a springboard for further questions, and companies can delve into the data at much more granular levels than what will be published to understand what's driving the pay gap. If it ...
Sat 8th
10:05
Scottish Liberal Democrats demand answers from Ruth Davidson over mental health cuts to PIP
The Conservatives have not covered themselves in glory on social security issues recently. The removal of Housing Benefit from young people, the totally immoral restriction of benefits to two children and the deeply objectionable 8 page form that women have to complete if they want to claim for a third child conceived by rape, the cuts to disability benefits and cutting back eligibility to Personal Independence Payments for those suffering psychological distress have all shown a cruel lack of understanding of real life. Let's not forget the five year benefit freeze imposed by George Osborne in 2015. With Brexit bound ...
There in the category of 'I told you so' is the warning by Ryanair that it will have to halt flights from the UK for "weeks or months" if Theresa May does not seal an early bilateral Brexit deal on international aviation. The Guardian reports that the company's chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan believes that the suspension of flights from Stansted and other airports is "a very distinct possibility". He added: "In the worst-case scenario there will be no flights in or out of the UK to Europe for a period, for all carriers. "There could be a situation where ...
Do top-rate hackers put an F.B.I. career at the top of their list? Maybe not. When the F.B.I. couldn't hack into an encrypted iPhone, it begged Apple for help. When Apple refused, it planned to ask Congress for a new law. Finally, it found hackers for hire and dropped the whole thing.
March pretty much disappeared as a reading and blogging month, thanks to the Hugos and also the election in Northern Ireland. I think it will be a little easier now that those two votes are over. I don't need to be as discreet about what I am buying or reading (though Hugo finalist write-ups will have to wait until the second half of August). The one book I'm working through from my standard reading lists is Very Long Indeed, which also didn't help my tally. Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 9) The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl, by Belle de ...
Campaigning last autumn for improvements to the 82 bus After many months of campaigning with bus users for improvements to the notoriously unreliable 82 service, we are delighted to be able to report some more positive news. Alan Barrett of First Bus attended Dodington Parish Council on Wednesday to give councillors and parishioners an update on the problems affecting the 82. He said that at the end of April they would be transferring responsibility for running the 82 service to the team that currently runs the more reliable 46 and 47 Yate to Bristol services. It is hoped this will ...
Embed from Getty Images On Thursday on Question Time Tim Farron spoke in favour of protecting Syrian people from the murder visited on them by Assad's military. I applaud Tim's decision to do so, especially in the light of earlier Lib Dem votes against military action. However, in doing so I have to insert the caveat that a solution based on air power alone is in fact no solution at all. To illustrate my argument I must take you all back before the Iraq war and to the North and South Iraq No Fly Zones. In the north the NFZ ...
The next West End Community Council is next Tuesday - details and agenda below - all welcome! WEST END COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETINGTUESDAY 11TH APRIL 2017 AT 7.00PMIN LOGIE AND ST JOHN`S (CROSS) PARISH CHURCH HALLS(ENTER FROM SHAFTESBURY TERRACE - OFF BLACKNESS AVENUE) 1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION 2. APOLOGIES 3. MINUTE OF MEETING OF 14TH MARCH AND MATTERS ARISING 4. POLICE SCOTLAND UPDATE 5. PLANNING UPDATE 6. CORRESPONDENCE 7. OTHER MEETINGS ATTENDED ON BEHALF OF WECC 8. AOCB - MEMBERS OF THE P[UBLIC INPUT 9. DATE OF NEXT MEETING - Tuesday 9th May 2017 Light refreshments will be provided.
A 231 circular bus parked in the drop off area of Maghull Station on 28th December 2015. This route will now be numbered 31 from 23rd April. If you use Maghull's circular buses be prepared for changes from 23rd of April. Some routes are changing and the numbers of the buses are too. A visit to the Merseytravel website (see link to timetable below) will show the newly posted timetables. If I am reading it right the last train from Liverpool is to be met by a No.31 bus (until 23rd this is the 231 route) and it departs ...
Theresa May is right: if we let someone drop 'Easter' off an egg hunt, we may as well hand Britain to the jihadis Glorious. (tags: ukpolitics ) Latvia Mayor Upstaged by Cat in Interview Yes. (tags: latvia tv cats ) The Trump Lifestyle Is Bleeding the Secret Service Dry Ostentation costs. (tags: uspolitics )
This isn't about whether you support America's airstrikes on Syria or not. I personally find the need to protest every time America does something militarily, yet turn a total blind eye to when Russia does the same hypocritical and morally questionable at the very least. But I do not wish to get hung up on that issue here. For you don't need to think Trump dropping bombs on Syrian air bases was a good idea to think that defending the Assad regime (and the man himself) is a very, very bad idea. My Twitter feed has been inundated over the ...
Hooray! Today I finished delivering the 3 patches I do in the Whickham part of my ward. The latest edition of Focus leads on the transfer of Whickham Library from the Council to a group of volunteers. There's also a couple of stories about Chase Park - the Lottery funded improvements and Labour's attempts to sell part of the park for housing. The Focus is going out across the whole of Whickham
