So I follow a few well known people on Instagram and noted one had posted a picture of themselves. Nothing normally of particular interest there, but then I read the caption, which read 'for all those who have said I am fat, I am not I am curvy.' It then went on to say 'usually ... Continue reading Body Shaming →
In the summer of 1984 I came back to Leicestershire for a week and went on a couple of long bike rides. One of them took me past Nevill Holt, which in those days was still a prep school. It closed in particularly dramatic circumstances after a police raid - see the many comments on this post for accounts of its life and death. I do not remember photographing the building, but I do remember showing the photo to someone when I got back to London. Yet when I started posting these old photos of mine, I could not find ...
Fascist: Let's kill all the foreigners, because they're the reason everything's bad Actual Liberal: Let's get rid of the foreigner/"native" distinction altogether. It's arbitrary, divisive, and beneath us. Centrist: Now, now, we believe in compromise and consensus politics. Let's just ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images I was going to write a blog post about Owen Jones. About how he had upset the true believers by expressing his lack of faith in Jeremy Corbyn - 10 times according to Guido Fawkes - and is now desperately trying to get back into the true believers' good books. But the Lion & Unicorn blog has written it for me: Jones's current cry for loyalty has the ring of a plea for forgiveness. He was weak. He denied his leader, betrayed his fellow disciples, but now the sinner repents. In 2016 he worried about a ...
South Glos Council has published some fire safety advice on its website, along with links to more comprehensive advice on the Avon Fire Service website. Topics covered include: what to do if you have a firepreventing electrical firespreventing kitchen firesplanning your escape routefire safety in blocks of flats smoke alarms Well worth a read.
The Times, paywall and all, wins our Headline of the Day Award, man.
Vince Cable recently said that if Lib Dems can "occupy that enormous ground in the middle of politics we've got tremendous opportunity". He's only part right. To occupy is to inhabit a space that is otherwise vacant. There is a missing middle in British politics but that's the point - it's missing. There's nothing there to inhabit. First it needs to be built in terms of a reality in Parliament and an idea based vision. This requires leadership. So before Vince gets carried away with talk of the "political winds blowing in the Lib Dem's favour" he would do well ...
Annihilation, second paragraph of third chapter:Beyond, the lighthouse stood, and before that, I knew, the remains of a village, also marked on the map. But in front of me was the trail, strewn at times with oddly tortured-looking pieces of heavy white driftwood flung far inland from past hurricanes. Tiny red grasshoppers inhabited the long grass in legions, with only a few frogs present to feast on them, and flattened grass tunnels marked where the huge reptiles had, after bathing in the sun, slid back into the water. Above, raptors searched the ground below for prey, circling as if in ...
Embed from Getty Images The theme for this year's conference "The Retreat from Globalisation " was conceived 6 months ago. The country had voted for Brexit and the US had elected Donald Trump, albeit on fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Since then however Liberals have seen off the threat from the far right in both Holland and France, but more recently in the UK general election both of the pro Brexit parties, the Tories and Labour, made big gains. So how do we make sense of what is going on and where do we go from here? There are no ...
Ignore what you have been hearing in the last few days about Theresa May engineering a Brexit walk-out, a hard Brexit is now politically impossible - because it would mean a border with the Irish Republic, and that is anathema to the DUP. In fact, paradoxically, the strange general election result makes it a good deal easier to negotiate a Very British Brexit, which - by coincidence - is the title of a report which sets out how by my colleagues at Radix. Get a free copy of my Brexit thriller on pdf when you sign up for the newsletter ...
Embed from Getty Images In his Sky interview on Sunday (quoted by Caron Lindsay in her earlier post), Sir Vince Cable warned that the Wimbledon tournament is hit by a serious strawberry crisis. British strawberry fields will (forever?) remain unattended because the people (EU workers) needed to pick the fruit have scampered home, afraid of the uncertainties of staying in the UK where both May and Corbyn keep pursuing a hard Brexit, never mind May's sweet-talking at the recent Brussels summit (which was roundly dismissed, if not disbelieved by Juncker, Tusk and German prime minister Merkel). In the Dutch liberal ...
The threat to Liverpool's World Heritage Site is just one the three threats to our City's future that Liverpool's Lib Dem Councillors want to see discussed at the July Council meeting. Liverpool's Liberal Democrat Group have tabled three resolutions that ... Continue reading →
I have covered the development of this site for housing many times on this blog site right through from Sefton Council deciding to take it out of the Green Belt to the unlicensed felling of many trees and the difficulties there will be in accessing the site during any construction period. And of course as I was heavily involved in the fight against Sefton Council releasing land from the Green Belt, during my time as as local Sefton Councillor, this is a matter close to my heart. Sheila and I made a submission to Sefton Council about the original planning ...
Embed from Getty Images There has been plenty of analysis and commentary on the Liberal Democrats at the 2017 election. There were significant positives from some great seat gains. But it is difficult not to be disappointed by the low vote share nationally. Much has already been said as to why, which I won't repeat here. I'd like to instead focus on three specific areas which pose - the third especially - a broader long-term question for the party. Namely that of how the public perceive us, and what they think we are truly "for". The first point concerns increasing ...
One of the central narratives of the 2017 general election, as it starts to recede from view, is that while he didn't win, it was a victory of sorts for Jeremy Corbyn. Many had predicted the election would result in a meltdown for Labour, with the party shedding anywhere from 30 to 100 seats, symbolically dropping below 200 seats in the Commons for the first time since the 1945 Attlee-led success. Instead, Labour actually gained seats, depriving the Tories of a majority. This has cemented Corbyn's leadership for the foreseeable future in a way he couldn't have foreseen when the ...
Mark Watkin as opposition spokesperson for Children's Services has tabled the following motion about the proposed closure of Nascot Lawn Childrens Respite and Care Centre. It will be debated at the next meeting of the County Council in support of the petition which will be presented by parents and families who are dependant on the [...]
Sun, 12:56: Michael Bond explains how he invented Paddington Bear https://t.co/RJOcVXjUz4 Explicitly a refugee. Sun, 15:10: Europe in the Sixteenth Century, by H.G. Koenigsberger and George L. Mosse https://t.co/YXN0zMmTl4 Sun, 16:05: A chronicle of deaths foretold https://t.co/r2Hw9VMoyi @PrivateEyeNews excellent on Grenfell Tower. Sun, 16:31: #WonderWoman! (at @Kinepolis in Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant) https://t.co/0e1nn24WSg Sun, 20:48: Why we should learn German https://t.co/BxHMrZ88P4 John Le Carr� speaks. Mon, 08:08: RT @srgjan_kerim: Resolution of this dispute could create positive synergy for the mediterranean,Middle East,Balkans and why not greek-mace... Mon, 10:45: British officials drop 'cake and eat it' approach to Brexit negotiations https://t.co/tEySrVLHTJ Reality dawns...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 02-07-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 02-07-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Instagram Instagram photo: Stupid day star. Twitter Instagram photo: Stupid day star. The real reasons why British workers won't pick fruit Basically, the social, benefits, transport and housing systems are almost entirely set up (partially purposefully and partially coincidentally) to dissuade them from doing so. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - a short story "It's just possible that the crossover between people who remember Terry and June and people who watched Tales from the Crypt (the Amicus version) ...
Embed from Getty Images Since June 9th, I've been keeping a little spreadsheet to show the exact majority of the government. First of all, the question arose: 'What is the working majority of the government?' That is, if the DUP don't vote with the government but simply abstain (because they don't want Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister). My calculations suggest this working majority is four, based on the following assumptions: As you can see, I assume that Sylvia Hermon would abstain, given her similar opposition to Jeremy Corbyn in Number Ten. I'm also assuming that the Deputy Speakers would ...
Britain's Conservatives are in an extraordinarily deep mess. Their catastrophic their election failure was followed quickly by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which to many showed the bankruptcy of Tory policy. A union representative at recent meeting I attended confidently predicted that Labour would be in power in six months. That looks implausible, but the Tories could ... Continue reading Was Grenfell Tower Theresa May's Black Tuesday? →
Embed from Getty Images I joined the Lib Dems in 2015, stood for Chester Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016 and for Bromsgrove in the 2017 General Election. Both were tough but fabulous experiences and I was hugely grateful for the opportunity to stand for our shared Liberal Democrat values and for the great local support I received. So what lessons did a newbie learn in this General Election? All is not lost! Yes, our vote share was disappointing – but from my conversations on the street, and also as the latest evidence, we were squeezed – dreadfully! So, we ...
The next West End Police Surgery takes place at the Mitchell Street Centre tomorrow - details below :
The developers behind plans for 137 houses off Foldgate Lane have applied to divert the footpath that current leads to the site from Steventon Road, across the railway. The right of way will be diverted to follow the rail line from the railway bridge on Foldgate Lane. Heading south, it crosses a new footbridge and swings east before returning to the rail line. The new route then heads south east again to join the Tinkers Hill road close to the road bridge over the A49. This curious route makes sense when it is superimposed on the development plan for the ...
