Pevsner says: There are no churches in Rutland and few in England in which English sculpture from the C16 to the C18 can be studied so profitably and enjoyed so much as at Exton. The church contains nine important monuments, and several of them are of outstanding value.And the church's webpage says it is open during daylight hours. But when I got there today I found that, despite notices about CCTV and Church Watch, not to mention Divine Omniscience and the possibility of Eternal Damnation, it was locked. So I enjoyed a wander round the churchyard and the views of ...
The Brexit debate, on social media at least, shows few signs of abating. It shows every sign of continuing to be vociferously unpleasant on the occasions people venture outside their echo chambers and encounter an incorrigible who disagrees on the wisdom of Brexit. In some respects, therefore, little has changed. But in other respects things have become more interesting. Vince Cable speculated that Brexit may never happen. His elevation to leader of the Liberal Democrats might - or might not - impart greater momentum to the Brexit opposition. Jeremy Corbyn is finally nailing his colours to the mast and his ...
Embed from Getty Images Andrea Leadsom demanded that BBC journalists should be "patriotic" - which in her mind consisted in telling everyone how well the negotiations with the European Union are going. Now Liam Fox has written to the BBC's director general complaining that the corporation consistently runs negative stories about the economic effects of Brexit and demanding a meeting. The Guardian report quotes someone giving the right response: The Lib Dem chief whip, Alistair Carmichael, called the letter "a blatant attempt at intimidating the BBC and undermining the independence of our media". "The BBC shouldn't be bullied into publishing ...
Embed from Getty Images If Peter Harrison, a fellow member of Wrekin Young Socialists with whom Jeremy Corbyn once climbed that Shropshire hill to plant the red flag, is right to say: "I knew him when we were 18 or 19, and his views have not changed. We are talking about the thick end of 50 years ago." it follow that we should look back to those days if we want to understand the Labour leader's economic views. And that brings us to the Alternative Economic Strategy which Tony Benn put to the Labour cabinet (with some support from Peter ...
Josh Friedman's recent article for Time, "It's Okay to Be a Coward About Cancer", is an interesting piece about the language that surrounds the disease. It's written from the perspective of someone who has experienced cancer for himself. In it, he takes issue with the dominant interpretative repertoires (*) of "fighting" and "surviving" the disease. When I was first diagnosed ... The post Yes, we are all individuals! appeared first on ten pence piece.
(Warning: poultry metaphors are in operation) Fox running into trade negotiations like a headless chicken - Farron Commenting on reports that Liam Fox is happy to import US chlorinated chicken as part of a UK-US trade deal Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said: "Liam Fox is running into these trade negotiations like a headless chicken. "Parliament will not back a reduction to food standards as part of the repeal bill. This is a betrayal of British poultry farmers who currently work to the highest standards in the world. Liam Fox's dangerous grovelling to the US is only going to see ...
Commenting on the latest government proposals for home energy generation, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey said: "The UK could have been a world leader in home energy generation by now but the last two years have seen renewable investment nose-dive after the Conservatives decided to "cut the green crap'. "While today's announcement is a belated step in the right direction no-one will forget how Conservatives damaged the progress made by Liberal Democrats by their right wing attack on the green agenda since 2015 - from the slashing of feed in tariffs to ending onshore ...
Embed from Getty Images I was going to include Tom Kelsey's Guardian article drawing parallels between Concorde and Brexit in a Six of the Best, but it deserves an article in its own right. Kelsey shows that Concorde never had a hope of making money for Britain: As secretary of state for industry, Tony Benn revealed to parliament in 1974 that Britain would not recover any of the £600m that the government spent on Concorde. Putting sixteen Concordes into production would also cost another £200m, at the very least. Due to their high running costs, Concordes could not be sold ...
It's been a while since I've written about the strategy process being run by the Liberal Democrat Federal Board (FB). The FB now has responsibility for drawing up a draft strategy and putting it to federal conference for members to vote on. That process was kicked off earlier this year with a consultation paper and a survey of party members. But then came along an early general election followed by a leadership election and of course the new leader now needs a chance to be closely involved in the process. So rather than a proposed strategy being presented to party ...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats, featuring Vince Cable talking about the party's policy on Europe and the need to work with people in other parties.
One view of our divided country is that it was always a land of potential Leavers and Remainers, the rift being merely exposed by the referendum. On this theory, Remainers were born rather than made and Leavers, like leopards, will never change their spots. Yet the truth is that Leavers comprise all sorts of people, as do Remainers. They are not a different species. I am coming round to the view that our current turmoil is not the fault of the people themselves, so much as the power of a virulent ideology that has swept the country like a tsunami, ...
Dear Chris, You asked me:Friend in US wants to start watching Dr Who now there is a female doctor. Which are the seminal episodes she should watch in advance? Is there one episode per season she should watch?Unless your friend is already a big fan of sf shows from the last century, she should probably start with New Who, meaning the 2005 reboot with Christopher Eccleston. One sometimes needs to be forgiving of the production values of Old Who, and it may not be right to demand that tolerance of a newbie. For what it's worth, I answered a similar ...
Cllr Steve Cook has provided the following summary of the July Beddington & Wallington Local Committee meeting attended by your ward councillors: The meeting started with Public Question Time which majored on the current situation with Veolia, collection of waste, street cleaning and re-cycling. Scott Edgell (local area manager from Veolia) and Mark Dalzell (Sutton [...]
William Wallace – one of our eminent peers – delivered the William Beveridge Memorial Lecture at the Social Liberal Forum Conference a week ago. Professionally William was a professor in International Relations at the London School of Economics, and he has worked as a visiting professor in Universities around the world. So you would be right in expecting his lecture to be intellectually rigorous and thoroughly relevant to social liberals. He took as his theme the question: Is a liberal and democratic society compatible with globalisation? You can read the full text of his lecture here, but here is a ...
Cllr Juarez and I visited the traders at St John's Market for a 3rd time. At the committee this week we want the whole story and not the Toy Story! You would think that after 810 years as a market ... Continue reading →
Oh Vince. Vince, Vince, Vince. Why? Why? Why? So as some will have noted over the past few days, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backtracked from his promise that he would deal with student debt. The issue is he never promised anything. He just said that he hoped he'd be able to deal with it. If anyone took it as meaning that he would cancel student debt along with scraping tuition fees then that is on them, not on him. It was super smart politically. By saying that he hoped to deal with the issue surrounding student debt, he would ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global club of national parliaments, so one might ask why Liberal International (LI) has signed up to the organisation as an Observer Member. The clearest reason is to further the work of LI's highly active Human Rights Committee, which already has recognition and speaking rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The IPU has its own human rights committee specifically defending the rights of parliamentarians across the world. Many of its cases involve liberal politicians in places where opposition politics is fraught with danger. A second reason is to develop stronger collective identity ...
The road to independence for former European and Japanese colonies was one of the most striking features of the second half of the 20th Century, yet the process of decolonization has received scant academic analysis. A lacuna in the market has thus been filled by Jan C. Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel's Decolonization: A Short History (Princeton University [...]
Section B5(B) of the Security Service had a very different remit from the rest of MI5. While most of the service was devoted to fairly routine espionage operations, Section B5(B) operated out of separate offices, and had little contact with ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images Liberal Leave was formed as a part of Vote Leave during the EU referendum. It had the slogan "Liberal. Democratic. Internationalist." and it mainly operated through social media. The most high-profile figure in the Group was an ex-MP called Paul Keetch who wrote an article in the Independent called "Think that if you are liberal you should vote to stay in the EU? Think again". I was part of that group during the EU referendum and I now chair it. I have tried to change the group so it is about a compromise between Remain and ...
Sun, 13:33: The 2017 WSFS Business Meeting: Deterring Slates https://t.co/7cg98n7bHN Sun, 21:09: Sunday reading https://t.co/m30DWzDdP2 Mon, 08:05: So, just missed two trains (again) because @DeLijn has decided that the 337 will stop much further from Leuven station. Thanks, @delijn! Mon, 10:45: Why I'm leaving UK academia (not just Brexit) https://t.co/9hJCC53y9H Jeepers, how awful. Mon, 10:54: Polish President Andrzej Duda to veto court, judiciary laws https://t.co/pWnrDSr9De Hooray!
On Saturday I was meant to be running a stall at the Whickham Community Festival. Unfortunately, the festival was cancelled at the last moment because of the weather. I needed to put Plan B into operation: I attended the Northern Pride parade through Newcastle. I joined other Lib Dems to help carry the Lib Dem banner. The parade started at Newcastle Civic Centre and ended at the Exhibition Park
I've written a lot about this already, I realise. Yet the problem not only persists, it is getting much, much worse by the day. It is hard for me to rationalise how a lot of Labour supporters are rationalising this all themselves; harder still for me to understand how pro-EU Corbyn supporters manage to square this circle. Corbyn was on Marr over the weekend. His words on single market membership were as unambiguous as Corbyn ever gets – which is still pretty bloody ambiguous, but still: "The single market is dependent on membership of the EU. What we have said ...
On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September Network Rail will be testing the overhead wires in the Reading area, which will have an impact on all Thames Valley and High Speed Services. What that means for people travelling from our area is that services will operate hourly from Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, with amended calling patterns and some extended journey times. You can find out more here.
In what way is immigration relevant to the Brexit debate? Those on the hard, quick Brexit side of the debate claim that immigration was one of the main drivers of the Leave vote. And that 'the will of the people' must be respected. In her Lancaster House speech (what a different world it now all [...] The post Why Brexit is irrelevant to immigration appeared first on Radix.
Embed from Getty Images Politics in the UK is changing faster now than ever before. This change gives us the opportunity to take our place at the heart of the UK by presenting a strong, passionate and persuasive liberal view of the world. It also means we may get lost among the crowd. We must make sure it is the former, and not the latter. Clear, simple messages are crucial to how the country views us. Every opportunity to speak to people is a chance to present liberalism in its best light – distinct, valuable, and making our communities stronger. ...
Yesterday's Observer speculates that the long summer recess will see much manoeuvring amongst the ranks of Tory MPs to succeed Theresa May as Prime Minister, possibly to even oust her. They say that the subsequent drain on the PM's authority has led to a plethora of unwelcome analogies from MPs about her position. A paddle boat in a storm, the lamest of lame ducks - and worse. "She is the village goat, prepared for sacrifice to take on the sins [of the election campaign]," said one erstwhile May supporter. "Her throat will be cut in a humane way at a ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 24 JULY 2017 Riverside Esplanade/Riverside Drive (Tay Road Bridge off ramp to 75m along Riverside Drive) - westbound nearside lane closure for 19 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 4 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 20 weeks for ...
Shropshire Council wants to charge you more for parking. It will cost more to park on the street and to obtain a residents parking permit. Charges to park your vehicle if you are a builder or renting a holiday cottage are to soar. Car parks will be more expensive, with full cost charging on Sundays and no free parking until eight in the evening. Limits on how long people can park are to be abolished, ending short stay parking in the town. This scheme is totally wrong for our town. It will damage trade. It will cost residents and visitors ...
Mon 24th
07:03
We should know how Shropshire Council spends the £2.7 million profit it makes from parking eve...
Here in Shropshire, we are among the country's top performers in raising cash from car parking. That's the verdict of the RAC Foundation. Of the 353 local authorities in England, only 57 have made more from car parking than Shropshire over the last five years,after essential costs are deducted. The Foundation says that Shropshire Council made £2,751,000 after running costs in 2015/16. Between 2011/12 to 2015/16, the council took in £13,564,000 over and above that needed to cover its costs.[1] Those making more money than us are London boroughs like Westminster or Camden, or tourist hotspots such as Bath and ...
