Mon 10th
20:45
Mildenhall residents - including American visitors - hit back after artist causes a storm over natur...
Our Headline of the Day comes from the East Anglian Daily Times.
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe as Scott Morrison, Federal Treasurer, talks budgets it what will be, alas, their final new sketch that I post as John Clarke has died at the age of 68.
Continue the trends from Greens, Labour and Conservatives: A former senior Conservative Elmbridge councillor has defected to the Liberal Democrats in the upcoming Surrey County Council elections... He had chaired both the licensing and planning committees, and was vice chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee, as well as a member of the Surrey County Council local committee for Elmbridge. Mr Elmer did not put his name forward for the 2016 Elmbridge elections last May. Speaking ahead of his appointment as the Lib Dem candidate for Walton in the May 4 elections, he said: "Here in Surrey I became disillusioned ...
Hi, Have you already read that new book? It's my favorite, you can find it here open link Speak to you later, Alex Feakes
Prater Raines is one the main suppliers of websites to the Liberal Democrats (NationBuilder being the other). So this is good news for many Liberal Democrats involving as it does someone who did much good when working at party HQ: Liberal Democrat website supplier Prater Raines Ltd are delighted to announce that Stewart Christie will be joining their team from mid-April. Stewart joins Prater Raines from the Liberal Democrats, where he has been Head of Technical Delivery since 2014. During this time, Stewart has supported of the party's key online membership, campaigning, election and communications tools including Salesforce, NationBuilder and ...
Since none of the artists whose work is up for the BSFA for Best Art is also on the Hugo ballot, I think I can list my preferences here in the usual way. 6) Suzanne Dean and Kai & Sunny - Cover of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan (William Heinemann). Geometrically pleasing but not super-exciting. 5) David A Hardy - Cover of Disturbed Universes by David L Clements (NewCon Press). Hardy is one of the great sf artists, but this didn't appeal to me as much as some of his other work. 4) Chris Moore - Cover of The ...
If you live outside London you might be unaware of the on-going row over the proposal for a Garden Bridge. The concept was supported by Boris Johnson, with celebrity endorsement. The project envisaged a pedestrian bridge located between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges, designed as a park. The Mayor of London published a report last week, authored by Margaret Hodge, which identified major problems with the project and recommended that it should be scrapped. Costs have increased from £60m to over £200m, and the procurement processes were deeply flawed. What is more, the project was "driven more by electoral cycles than ...
What's this about then? Local residents had a few concerns about a planning application (14/01049/DISCHG), where development was already underway, in regards its impact on their adjacent properties. As a result, I requested that a site visit should take place, with the owner of the land and a Council planning officer. This was kindly arranged. [...]
*flaily flaily excite* Cate Blanchett and Karl Urban and Idris Elba and Tessa Thompson and Jeff Goldblum AND the receptionist from Ghostbusters AND a big bassy wallop of Led Zep? Oh YES! This definitely calls for the Cartlon Happy Dance [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The following piece I penned for our weekly Digital Inspirational email at Blue Rubicon. Do sign up if you'd like such stories in your inbox every week. The widespread and easy availability of data from Twitter makes it a popular source of insight into what the public is doing, thinking, eating, watching or buying. The Times's Redbox newsletter for example now regularly features assessments of the different party leaders based on analysis of tweets. But is this data reliable? Are people on Twitter representative of the rest of us? Much analysis - too much analysis, in fact - rests on ...
I had an arthritis flare-up on Thursday which has made typing more than a sentence basically impossible. The flare-up is improving, but I want to wait until tomorrow before doing any more typing than I have to.
Catherine Bearder on cracking form in the European Parliament.
Embed from Getty Images Scottish juries have the choice of three verdicts - Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven. This multiple choice is much more real to life than the "English" binary or oppositional choice of guilty or not guilty. In non-judicial or "everyday terms" the Scottish three-way choice when facing a decision is "yes"; "no"; "I don't know." The Scottish choice seems to be closer to real life and so is worth using when considering and possibly taking action on matters of and relating to armed conflict which deals in death, mutilation, madness, theft and profit as well as, ...
The thoughts behind this post were formulated before President Trump's volte face in foreign policy and his illegal bombing of Syria. Whether this is the start of a changed and consistent foreign policy, a caprice or a temper-tantrum remains to be seen. The situation is so complex that I have no firm views on the tactics the international community should be following, but I deeply regret that we do not have a strategy which enables the "great powers" to work together to stop armaments reaching this desperate country, even if they are incapable of brokering a peace. However, on the ...
Lord Malcolm Bruce, Marianne Magnin and Dr Sean Hanley On the evening of 5 April 2017, the Liberal International British Group held our first joint forum with MoDem (Mouvement démocrate), France's liberal, centrist party. Given the recent rise in populist parties, the topic for debate was on 'Populisms in a Post Truth World'. Chairing the forum was Mathieu Capdevila, President of Northern Europe MoDem who introduced the speakers: Lord Malcolm Bruce, Member of Parliament for Gordon from 1983 to 2015 and the chairman of the International Development Select Committee from 2005 to 2015 Dr Sean Hanley, Senior Lecturer in Comparative ...
Weekly Food Challenge: Challenj #14: Bread Look, ok, maybe 10 past 10 on a Sunday night ISN'T the best time to try ressurect Weekly Food Challenge, but I'm drunk and hungry. MAKE ME FOOD, PEOPLE. Instagram Photo Team CalderdaleLD catching a breath with the next MP for Manchester Gorton Instagram Photo Letterboxes On the door fronts Should be subject to reg-u-laaaaaay-tions Le Cinq, Paris: restaurant review | Life and style | The Guardian Sometimes the Restaurant Review IS worth reading. I think "My lips purse, like a cat's arse that's brushed against nettles" is my favourite choice phrase, but there ...
I just posted this on the Radix website, but it applies here too... No, Fabianism isn't dead yet - but the flurry of debate about parents taking their children out of school does seem to mark a moment in the story of the great decline. When judges in the Supreme Court develop their own brand of Fabianism, and give parents no discretion at all, you know the end can't be far away. I am defining the branch of Leftist thinking here, developed by Beatrice and Sidney Webb - with a little help from George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells ...
Excellent Full Fact "How to Spot Fake News" Toolkit Some of this is pretty basic, but it dives into more depth further down. Everyone who is active online should have a grasp of these principles. Interesting review of The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart My problem with the book is (as m'learned friend Andrew said) you'll find few people more rooted in and fond of their local community than me, yet in every other respect I am a "rootless" Anywhere. So perhaps, as usual, it's a little more complicated than the author would like us to believe... Uber said ...
I was asked yesterday who was standing in the county council election, and parish elections, in their area, so I thought I'd put up the links where you can find all the names in all the places in the county. Candidates for County Council elections in County Durham 2017. Candidates for Town and Parish Council Elections in County Durham.
Embed from Getty Images One thing I absolutely love about being a Liberal Democrat is the involvement we members have in formulating, developing and approving policy. This open and transparent process not only chimes with our values but also is a marvel to behold. At York last month, my first ever time at a conference, I voted in important policy proposals ranging from faith schools to nuclear weapons and partook in a consultative session on economic policy. Nonetheless I feel this whole process is in danger of failing us. A fast changing political environment needs a fast policy making process ...
In the summer, South Glos Council will be launching a simplified recycling service, with weekly collections for paper, cardboard, plastics, cans, cartons and glass, alongside the existing weekly food waste collections. You will be able to put all recycling out every week. You will still need to sort your recycling for collection but can choose to use green boxes instead of bags for plastics and cardboard or stick with your existing bags. You will be able to get extra green boxes if you need them. Once the new service is up and running, your black bin will be replaced with ...
It would be fair to say that the decision by former UKIP AM, Mark Reckless to sit as an Independent within the Welsh Assembly Tory group has not been met with unanimous praise within the Welsh Conservatives or amongst Tory MPs. One would have expected though that the group which apparently welcomed Reckless with open arms would be more receptive. Apparently not. As the BBC reports, over the weekend one of those AMs publicly broke ranks. Monmouth AM Nick Ramsay went onto Radio Wales yesterday and asked: "Am I a member of a Welsh Conservative group or am I a ...
Residents remarked to me how pleased they are that the council's unadopted pavements programme is now upgrading the muddy path round the north edge of Magdalen Green to create a proper tarred footway. As vehicles are unable to be parked in a number short sections of the road during the works, I have asked the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership to take the opportunity to properly clean out the road edges (months of compressed leaves and dirt!) and unblock the drains - see right :
Mon 10th
07:08
A week in the life of Labour demonstrates exactly why they're on course to lose hundreds of seats ne...
I spent most of yesterday in the town of Budva, on a beach that in high season hosts wealthy Russians but in April we had mostly to ourselves. From the view in Montenegro, the machinations of the Labour Party look even more ridiculous than they do from my usual ringside seat in Westminster. John McDonnell was asked about the problems the party was experiencing in the polls, and about the dire predictions regarding local seats come May. The shadow chancellor had this to say: "What's interesting is when you poll the issues and our policies, they are extremely popular, so ...
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin pose a fundamental challenge to the notion of money itself It started with the best of intentions: in 2015 a group of programmers inspired by the success of Bitcoin launched a new software platform called Ethereum that allowed users to conduct transactions without a central bank or currency authority using "tokens" called Ether instead of dollars or pounds. Even more exciting, their platform allowed for "smart contracts" so a deal could be made conditional in all sorts of ways, allowing for everything from options contracts tied to future commodity prices to elaborate corporate governance and voting schemes. ...
