Remember the video I posted on The Great Quorn Public Lavatory Dispute of 1961? As I wrote then, what had once been the village lock-up is now a pizza business. And I was in Quorn on Saturday to take a photograph to prove it. What I also found was a new set of stocks which, says the board on the old lock-up, are a representation of those which stood in front of it until about 1868. I don't know if they had a particular problem with crime in this car park when the stocks were set up in 2010 or ...
Good news from the BBC: The League of Gentlemen is to return to BBC Two for three special new episodes. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the comedy, which began on BBC radio before moving to TV from 1999 to 2002.At least I hope it's good news. Not every comedy that makes a return is a success. What the young people will make of it I do not know. I think the humour of The League of Gentlemen was very much of its time. But that time was not the 1990s. For as I once blogged: To someone who ...
Tony de Brum, former vice-president and foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, died yesterday. I was tremendously privileged to have helped him a bit with his campaign against climate change; he was a great man from a small country. Another much younger leading politician from the Marshall Islands, Mattlan Zackhras, died earlier this month. The Marshallese poet Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner wrote this moving tribute to them both. What I will tell my daughter about her name (dedicated to Mattlan and Tony) Peinam is the name of a land in the Marshalls where your mother's family is from We named you knowing ...
A new survey shows that two-thirds of young people think that filibustering is, umm..., a sexual act. I can see how that misunderstanding survives contact with headlines such as "Filibustering leaves MPs 'ashamed'" or "MP calls for filibuster ban after Commons Brexit debate". I can also see how it almost, just about, survives contact with a news story where "Sky News host Faisal Islam slated Labour's housing minister for "filibustering" as she refused to answer whether she would vote down the Brexit Repeal Bill". No sniggering please at "The New York Times called it "Congressional masochism," though it was not ...
The last thing you do is sit around and mope tonight. I know what I am talking about. I have been through three results days; GCSEs, AS levels and A levels last week. Sitting around worrying the night before just makes matters worse and actually caused me to be physically ill last week. These are my tips. 1. Decide what time you are going to go in tomorrow but don't delay it. On my results day I was tempted to go in later out of fear but it would have just delayed the inevitable. Finding out my results ASAP was ...
Almost exactly two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn took a whole load of pain for daring to suggest that women-only train carriages might be part of the solution to combating sexual assaults on public transport. At the time, I looked at what he actually said and decided against against castigating him – although I was and remain convinced that it is a terrible idea. First of all, it's pretty good to see a male politician think that the issue of sexual assault on public transport is an important one that we should do something about. Where were the other politicians, including ...
Liverpool's Spare Mayor needs to get a grip on a situation where we are spending about £20,000 a month for an employee to do nothing At the budget meeting of the Council in March the Lib Dems moved a motion ... Continue reading →
During this year's General Election campaign one of my friends, who doesn't always vote Liberal Democrat, was enthusiastically considering voting for us. Then our cannabis policy was announced in the press. For her this cast a shadow over her voting intentions and she had grave doubts that she would now vote Liberal Democrat. She had run an urban centre in the UK for homeless men for 7 years. Around 50-80 men visited this centre each day. A common pattern, with a proportion of the men, was to arrive at the centre because of family breakup and unemployment but in a ...
The Independent has the story on it's web site – see link above Well would you credit it more fake news but at least the peddler of it has fessed up. 'Another £350 million a week for the health service moment!' says Roy Connell With thanks to Roy for the lead to this posting
I attended my first Cabinet Meeting recently as Oxfordshire County Councillor. OCC is led by a coalition of Conservatives and Independents. The question I put was: Many villages in Wheatley Division are suffering because of the cut in bus subsidies. Elderly and vulnerable people are isolated; younger people cannot get to college and apprenticeships; those who relied on buses for work are now using cars and increasing the traffic on our already congested roads. Does the member agree with me that saving up to £4 million pounds from cutting bus subsidy was a false economy, and will she work with ...
Tue, 12:56: A high price looms as Brexit reality bites https://t.co/2OM7YdJCPT Interesting from George Osborne, no less. Tue, 13:10: Amen. https://t.co/6NUnmflijF Tue, 16:05: How did The Prisoner ever get made? https://t.co/iq2zizFMv2 Good question! Tue, 16:16: RT @President_Heine: Our nation lost a hero today with the passing of @TonydeBrum. He made our island home and the rest of the world safer... Tue, 19:45: A Mutual Friend, by Terrance Dicks https://t.co/2Z0RxHyVsO Tue, 21:52: A beautiful tribute to Mattlan Zackhras and Tony de Brum, by Marshallese poet Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner. Wed, 03:01: RT @HoarseWisperer: A person is about to be executed based solely on ...
Twitter RT @Independent: Government 'breaching UN convention' in its treatment of disabled people Government accused of breaching UN convention in its treatment of disabled people | The Independent RT @Independent: Government 'breaching UN convention' in its treatment of disabled people [unknown title] RT @Tiernanbrady: Australians in the UK? - if you want to vote for marriage equality you have 2 days to enrol & update your address... Twitter RT @pennyb: The surprise is not that a racist, misogynist, wife-beater said this. No, it's that people genuinely think neither... Untitled (https://www.facebook.com/unsupportedbrowser) RT @ARCint1: This is a sad statement by @frankmugisha. But ...
It was mid-January and the snow was still falling. It had been falling since that night with Amelia on the Docks and how Britain groaned. Obviously travelling over Christmas had been a nightmare for all of them, but Harris had it worse. On the day he was going home for Christmas, his first two trains were cancelled and a following five trains were delayed or cancelled. He left Liverpool Lime Street at eight in the morning but didn't arrive into London until ten at night. Safe to say, James had received a very angry and frustrated phone call, which had ...
Once out, the pin can't be put back in. Or can it? Yes it can, so long as the strike lever has not been released. And that is the position we are in with Brexit. In theory, article 50 can be revoked if we act fast, but the clock is ticking. And According to both Emmanuel Macron and Alastair Campbell, editor of the New European, we have little time left. At some point, the EU will go into full self-protective mode and focus on performing a clean amputation. In grenade terms, the strike lever will have been released and the ...
Last Year World Merit took young people to the USA and the UN to discuss global issues. This year they will be in Chester and Westminster taking the 'truth to power' Sometimes good things come out of tragedies. One of ... Continue reading →
Slowly but surely Universal Basic Income (UBI) is becoming a totem policy on the left. Longer standing readers of this blog will know that I am sceptic. But should I be reluctantly reconciling myself to the idea in some form? Recent impetus for UBI has come from the US, where it is favoured by high ... Continue reading Universal Basic Income is a problem dressed as a solution →
Wed 23rd
09:04
How the Left is stuck in the first stage of grief - and what that is doing to the Corbynist agenda
It is silly season at present, and therefore it is very telling what each of the major parties is putting forth as policy announcements. The Tories are releasing a whole bunch of policy papers regarding Brexit in the hopes that the dodgier bits of it will fly by most pundits and the public (this has mostly worked thus far); Labour are recycling old bits of policy that people hated the first time round in the hope that post-2017 general election and all that Glastonbury Corbyn love, people may like them now (this has mostly not worked). The big one they ...
I have blogged previously on the impact of Brexit on the ability of British airlines to operate freely within Europe. International air travel depends on a host of bilateral treaties, and there is no default fallback for the UK outside the EU. It is unsurprising therefore that UK airports have joined forces to press the government to urgently strike a post-Brexit deal on flights between the UK and the EU, warning that the current uncertainty alone would be enough to see bookings drop by up to 41%. The Guardian says that a report submitted to ministers by the owners of ...
Many residents have commented to me what a good job the council's Neighbourhood Services has made of the corner site environmental improvement in Hawkhill at the junction with Bellfield Street - opposite the Whitehall Theatre :I am pleased the council agreed to my request that this site was not sold off to a property developer some months ago and the environmental improvements clearly make the point that keeping the site in public ownership was the right thing to do.
Wed 23rd
08:14
Govt's support for Trump on Afghanistan contrasts with failure to condemn him in the past
Donald Trump has committed to send more troops to Afghanistan, in a move that was rapidly welcomed by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. The Liberal Democrats said the Government's rapid praise for Trump contrasted with its failure to condemn him in the past. Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary and Deputy Leader Jo Swinson commented: "For once, sense seems to have prevailed in the White House. "But to succeed in Afghanistan will require winning the hearts and minds of its people and working closely with neighbouring countries. "On that front, Donald Trump has already done untold damage through his proposed refugee ban, ...
British officials have admitted it will become harder to recover children abducted and taken out of the country by a parent if no Brexit deal is struck with the EU. The comments come as the Government publishes its latest Brexit negotiating paper (pdf) on judicial cooperation after Brexit, including proposals to end the direct jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK. Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake commented: "This exposes the reality of a no deal Brexit, abducted children at greater risk and families plunged into uncertainty. "The Government needs to end its heartless insistence that no ...
