Richard Vaughan reports on iNews today: The Liberal Democrats will abandon political party protocol by joining pro-EU campaigners to protest against Brexit outside this year's Conservative Party Conference. Activists are planning to stage one of the biggest marches in opposition to Britain leaving the EU when the Tories stage their annual conference in Manchester in October. And they will be joined by the Lib Dems who will break the conventional truce that prevents parties from disrupting other political conferences. The party said it did not take the decision "lightly", but said such action was necessary to prevent the Government pressing ...
The great man is 65 today.
Responding to Jeremy Corbyn's statement on Venezuela, leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said: "Labour have again failed to condemn President Maduro as he slides his country closer to dictatorship. It remains a source of fascination that the far left see what is happening in Venezuela as some kind of role model for British politics. "The whole idea that Chavez and his successor could serve as a dry run for government in the UK is absolutely horrifying. "Venezuela is facing a complete economic collapse with hyperinflation and chronic shortages of basic necessities. This is essentially a rich country slipping ...
No time for a proper post from me this week. But I was intrigued by an article in Mark Pack's Newswire (a Lib Dem newsletter), with an extensive quote from Vince Cable. This shows how hard he is to pin down into conventional categories of economic thinking. But that's for the best possible reason – ... Continue reading Vince Cable and economics – what he says in Newswire →
Embed from Getty Images In a move unheard of in any democratic country regarding its head of state (both personal and as an institution) and his/her official trappings, the Trump government has: 1. moved the presidential bodyguard local co-ordination centre out of Trump tower to a trailer on the New York sidewalk, 50 floors below, and 2. made the presidential military staff, keepers of the famous "football" containing the infamous nuclear button, accept an extortionate lease price to keep it located inside Trump Tower. At least, that is what the Washington Post has discovered. In US politics, it is quite ...
Embed from Getty Images The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) published its detailed proposals for a basic income in 2015. The proposals are based on the Citizen's Income Trust 'pure Basic-Income' model. Disability support and housing costs are not included in the scheme as they are not in the Citizen's Income Trust's scheme. Housing and council tax benefits (and, for the record, disability payments) are an important source of support to those at the bottom of the income distribution. An option which the RSA proposes for further exploration is the introduction of a 'Basic ...
Turing had cracked the code. It had been simple enough in the end, and he'd been surprised it had taken him so long - it had ended up being a minor piece of number crunching. Hess had not used a ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images Not a lot of positives came from last year's divisive EU referendum. However, one silver lining seems to be that science is being talked about by all parties, in no small part due to the efforts of fantastic groups like Scientists For EU. As a British PhD student starting to think about post-doctoral opportunities, I have a somewhat vested interest in ensuring that our national science capability is as strong as it possibly can be. Brexit remains a serious threat to UK science, both directly due to the loss of EU funding (something that the UK ...
Yesterday I went to our multi-plex cinema to see this well-reviewed film. Although I've been several times before I still haven't quite got the hang of modern cinema going - quite different from the good old days of "going to the pictures." The booking counter has now started designating seats and I spent quite a lot of time in the semi-darkness looking for 12A. Failing to find it I sat where I could, and eventually realised that 12A was not the number of my seat but the classification of the film. Happily no-one claimed the seat I was in but ...
Sun, 12:56: US surgeon may be forced to quit UK because of visa nightmare https://t.co/Cw1hrha0pB Keeping UK safe from well-trained doctors. Sun, 15:44: In the woods. @ Heverlee Bos https://t.co/9vN9picUmL Sun, 16:05: So, about this Googler's manifesto. https://t.co/BKqeg7PUiz A robust rebuttal! Sun, 16:43: RT @jk_rowling: 'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.' https://t.co/hPW3dTY8Fx Sun, 20:04: In 1992, we landed at BFS in same plane; he vaguely knew me, got NIO driver to drop me into town b4 his mtgs starte... https://t.co/hwPaXsf9M2 Sun, 20:48: E.B. White's former Maine farm, where Charlotte spun her web, goes up for ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 06-08-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 06-08-2017 to my dreamwidth blog [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Those who warned of the consequences of voting to leave the EU in the referendum last year were accused by the Brexit extremists of carrying out Project Fear. The world did not implode after the result (though the pound did), giving the extremists a chance to spin a message that we have nothing to fear from abandoning our links with Europe and floating off into mid-Atlantic isolation. But the
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There is going to be a pro-EU rally outside Tory conference this year. That's good news for all sort...
The Guardian informs me this morning that there will be a pro-EU protest outside of Conservative Party conference in Manchester this year. I will now tell you why this is good news – even for Eurosceptic Tories. The Conservatives hold their conference in Manchester every two years. I don't know why they do this – I assume it must be in some way transactional. For those of us who go to every or at least most of the party conferences each year (and Tory conference is always assured to be one of them), having to go to Manchester for this ...
Embed from Getty Images In the London Borough of Bromley, as in many places across the country, we are facing a massive projected shortfall in school places over the next few years. Councillors and activists from all parties are busy scrutinising planning applications for new schools of all shapes and sizes. But is it really necessary? Imagine a school, let's call it the Tweddle Academy (though pupils and staff just call it Tweds). Tweds was once a medium sized comprehensive with 1200 children on roll. Now it is an establishment providing all-through education for 2400 kids aged 6 to 18. ...
Exit from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) may be one of the few things that offer Britain a real opportunity for a better future following Brexit. The CAP has long been recognised as being a mess. Driven by member states pushing in different directions to favour their own interests it has, over decades, consumed vast [...] The post Why the latest thinking on farming after Brexit is so dull and old-fashioned appeared first on Radix.
We had set sail for Bjornøya, or Bear Island, an isolated piece of rock halfway between the southern tip of Spitsbergen and the North Cape of Norway, and the crew were putting on a show for the passengers. Ros and I had slipped away, but just as I was leaving, Colin, the Canadian cetacean expert, suggested that I might like to go to the viewing area on one of the upper decks. Stopping only to pick up Ros, we made our way, binoculars in hand, and it wasn't long before we saw a telltale 'blow' in the distance. Whales! We ...
Read the link above and worry because there's a lot to worry about! 'The Three Paradoxes Disrupting American Politics' but it will be a worldwide challenge soon enough With thanks to Keith Page for the lead to this posting
The irony has not escaped me that a new law being proposed by the UK Government to give people sweeping new powers to see what tech companies know about them and have it deleted is being brought in to mirror provisions already in existence in EU law. As ever the UK Government relies on the EU for its more liberal legislation. The Independent says that the Data Protection Bill will make it far more easy for people to find out how companies are using their personal details, including their browsing history and even their DNA. And once they've seen it, ...
Following a complaint from residents about the extent of weeds growth at the road edges in Hillside Terrace (see below), I have asked the council's Neighbourhood Services to attend to these :I have also asked for an update on the road weeds treatment programme this summer across the West End.
