Sun 16th
22:46

Destroyer: Chapter 9

Before the war, travelling to Torquay had mostly been for pleasure - holidaymakers would travel down to the south west to swim in the town's famously blue waters, to marvel at the sights, and to look out over the ocean. ... Continue reading →

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

This is obviously an early Meades film and one that was thought lost or at least hard to find. It was turned up on an old VHS tape and put online by MeadesShrine. The great man visits Marsh Court (or Marshcourt), a house built by Edwin Lutyens in the first few years of the 20th century. When he made this film the house was home to a prep school. I shall not quickly forget the shots of small boys doing their PE under the gaze of hunting trophies. The school had closed by 1993, because Wikipedia records that it was ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Some takeaways from yesterday's Social Liberal Forum on tackling globalisation and winning support for Universal Basic Income.

Posted by philwainewright on Raw Liberal

Next Wednesday, Claremont Planning Consultancy is to present their outline plans for 200 homes south of Rocks Green to Ludlow Town Council. The development is in Ludford parish. The town council has little to no influence over the development. Most future development is expected to be in Ludford, not Ludlow. We need to merge Ludford and Ludlow councils to ensure that the future of our town is planned coherently. Here is what we know so far on the application, followed by my comments of getting planning better organised for Ludlow. This housing application has been a long time in the ...

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington
Sun 16th
19:32

Sunday reading

Current Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month) Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 by David Kynaston Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth Last books finished Decide Your Destiny: The Spaceship Graveyard, by Colin Brake Decide Your Destiny: Alien Arena, by Richard Dungworth The Angel Maker, by Stefan Brijs Decide Your Destiny: The Time Crocodile, by Colin Brake Re-#AnimateEurope: International Comics Competition 2017, ed. Hans H. Stein, by Jordana Globerman, Stefan "Schlorian" Haller, Štepánka Jislová, Noëlle Kröger, Magdalena Kaszuba, Davide Pascutti and Paul Rietzl Decide Your Destiny: The Corinthian Project, by Davey Moore Next books The Presentation of Self in Everyday ...

Sun 16th
19:20

Six of the Best 708

"The most prominent Brexit cheerleaders, none of them lacking in ambition and all of them now installed in the Cabinet, appear to have lost, for now at least, any desire to captain the team." James O'Brien on Brexit and the aftermath of the general election. underthewesternfreeway analyses what it means to steal a poster board. It's time for an all-party parliamentary group on land value taxation, says Joe Bourke. "The many maps contained within the book are rendered as works of art and it includes a particularly beautiful visualisation of the proposed (but later superseded) scheme for the Neasden interchange ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

When I read this I am reminded that Lord Bonkers was a great supporter of women's suffrage. (But then the first Lady Bonkers would have taken a pretty dim view if he hadn't been.) Wednesday "Why can't we have a woman as leader?" came a question after I spoke at a local Liberal Democrat dinner this evening. I replied that, while I am attracted to the idea, you must first find a woman who is willing to stand. "At one time," I went on, "we would have engineered a by-election in a safe Liberal seat and got the Wise Woman ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

There is only so much excitement Liberal Democrats can take. The prospect of a new Doctor and a new Leader in the same week is testing us to the limit. I suppose it's just as well we had a General Election campaign to build our stamina. We should perhaps also be grateful to our MPs for sparing us the extra adrenaline rush of a contest. Just to get this out of the way, I know that there have actually been 14 Doctors, if you count John Hurt, the "War Doctor", but the BBC aren't going to screw up decades of ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

At 11am on 20th June, an article was published on Lib Dem Voice, entitled: BREAKING NEWS: Vince Cable announces his candidacy for Leader. Vince's messages in this statement were exactly those that I would have liked to see from someone wanting to lead the party. I will talk about what he has stated on Brexit later, but for now ... Continue reading Why I'm looking forward to Vince Cable's leadership

Posted by Louis Mian on Louis Mian

I must go back and look at newspapers from the Major administration of the 1990s at some point. It was clear then that his Cabinet was divided (over Europe) and that they all seemed to hate each others' guts. However, I can't remember anything quite as nasty as the various newspaper reports doing the rounds now describing the open warfare between and around senior Cabinet ministers in the current Government. It seems like a total free for all with Philip Hammond getting the brunt of it. So far, it's been leaked that he said that public sector workers were overpaid ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

Chancellor Philip Hammond was quite happy to tell Andrew Marr that his Cabinet colleagues didn't trust him on Brexit, but not so quick to deny that he'd said that public sector workers were overpaid. Our shadow Chancellor and almost leader Vince Cable had this to say: I am very surprised by Philip Hammond's reported comment the public sector workers are "overpaid". Who exactly is he talking about? Nurses? Teachers? Police officers? Servicemen and women? There is very clear evidence of chronic shortages and recruitment difficulty in many of our essential services. Basic economics, let alone wider ideas of fairness suggests ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

I heard this on the radio the other day and it sounded good. Don't let the dry ice in this video put you off. It was a minor hit in February 1976 when Harold Wilson was still prime minister and the nation's youth was waiting impatiently for punk to happen.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

My #Remainer's Diary Day 300: I mull over a joint statement from the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland, Carwyn Jones and Nicola Sturgeon about the repeal bill. It says: "We have... put forward constructive proposals about how we can deliver an outcome which will protect the interests of all the nations in the UK, safeguard our economies and respect devolution. "Regrettably, the bill does not do this. Instead, it is a naked power grab, an attack on the founding principles of devolution and could destabilise our economies." So a constitutional crisis that was latent ever since 23rd June 2016 ...

Posted by Jo Hayes on Jo Hayes
Sun 16th
11:00

My tweets

Sat, 12:55: The 2017 WSFS Business Meeting: reforming the Artist Hugos https://t.co/pqwv9YvbmX Sat, 15:01: RT @worldcon75: This is the final countdown! Online voting in #TheHugoAwards close at 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time TONIGHT, July 15! https:... Sat, 19:58: RT @angelurena: Everything's bigger in Texas. https://t.co/QKuWvzAVDe Sat, 20:00: RT @billclinton: Note: Not to scale. https://t.co/fTY9L401uc Sat, 21:31: Hugo voting closes soon! Eleven and a half hours to go! Sat, 22:23: RT @cvasilevski: I juuuust filled in my Hugo ballot! I'd like to recognize the work that @worldcon75 did in making their ballot site so eas... Sat, 23:39: RT @Weregopher: #Hugos I've voted. ...

miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 15-07-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 15-07-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Wimbledon fan invited on court to put on skirt and face Kim Clijsters' serve after shouting advice Oh this is adorable (video) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

The one Liberal Democrat left in national government, Kirsty Williams, has written an article for the Guardian in which she sets out what she is introducing in Wales – a plan to help students with living costs which will support part time and postgraduate students too: The new support package in Wales will cover those who start their course in 2018/19, wherever in the UK they choose to study. Every student will be entitled to support equivalent to the national living wage. This means that eligible full-time students will receive maintenance support of £11,250 if they study in London and ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Independent reports on claims that France is actively seeking to exploit Brexit to disrupt and degrade Britain's lucrative financial sector. They say that former foreign office minister Jeremy Browne, who acts as the City of London's envoy on Brexit, believes that the French see the British as "adversaries" in the forthcoming withdrawal negotiations: In a memorandum leaked to the Mail On Sunday, he said his talks in Paris have been "the worst I have had anywhere in the EU", with the French open about their desire to see the UK weakened. Following a visit to the French capital earlier ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

An intriguing snippet from the latest Survation poll, out this weekend: 41% of Leave voters in the Referendum now agree that "the Brexit process has been more problematic than I thought it would be" and only 16% say it has been less problematic. That is important, because the best way to change people's mind isn't to lecture them about how wrong they were. Rather it is to show that new information gives a good reason to come to a new view. Brexit turning out to be a rather different beast in reality from previous expectation fits the bill perfectly. Get ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Sun 16th
09:06

On the new Doctor

Well, here we go again... At some point this afternoon, probably around half an hour after the umpire says 'Game, Set and Match Federer/Cilic' we'll find out who the new Doctor is. Whoever they are, they'll be the fifth new Doctor since the announcement of the series' return in 2003, and the fourth of them of them to have been the focus of massive fan and press speculation before they were announced (the exception was David Tennant, who was pretty much announced in the same press release that disclosed Christopher Eccleston's surprise departure). Things feel different this time as we ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

Praise for new Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran from John Rentoul in The Independent as he reviews the debut speeches of new MPs: One of the best speakers on education was Layla Moran, new Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and already her party's spokesperson on the subject: "I am here because I have a burning passion: that every child, no matter their background, should have a fair chance of making the best of this world."

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
eUKhost

Shirley Williams is probably my biggest political hero. It was she who inspired me in 1981 when she fought the Crosby by-election. Her sharp intellect, indefatigable energy and ability to communicate with her audience have all made sure that she is loved by many of all political persuasions. She came up to Scotland during the last few days of the horribly divisive independence referendum in 2014. It was a painful time. However, as Shirley stepped on to Dunfermline High Street, one of the Yes campaigners came across and took her hand and said how much she had always admired her. ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD FOR WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 17 JULY 2017 Riverside Esplanade/Riverside Drive (Tay Road Bridge off ramp to 75m along Riverside Drive) - westbound nearside lane closure for 20 weeks to facilitate V&A construction works. SSE Glenagnes Cable Renewal - Lochee Road lane restrictions and closures on Blinshall Street, Fleuchar Street and Scott Street for 5 weeks. A85 Riverside Drive - prohibition of right turn from westbound lane of Riverside Drive into Riverside approach and prohibition of right turn from Riverside Approach in to Riverside Drive for 21 weeks for ...

For 298 days I have kept my #Remainer's Diary on Facebook. Two nights ago my FB account became inaccessible without explanation. So I'm back on Blogger. Diary Day 299: the UK's Office of Budget Responsibility published its first Fiscal Risks Report, a 312-page tome, in accordance with a requirement introduced by Parliament in October 2015 that the OBR must produce a fiscal risks report at least once every two years. It is freely downloadable by anyone. Fiscal is a fancy word for pertaining to government finances. Derivation: 16th century, from Latin fiscālis concerning the state treasury, from fiscus public money, ...

Posted by Jo Hayes on Jo Hayes