Whickham's Chase Park was officially re-opened today after its £1 million refurbishment, paid for by the Heritage Lottery Find and the Big Lottery Fund. I brought along Pinkie, one of my goats, who is always a hit with people of all ages. She certainly was today. I think she must have been in more photos than anything else in the park today. I came away from the event today with lots of
Today is Bi Visibility Day. This is the day that the B in LGBT+ is emphasised. Sadly, it is too often the only day when bisexual people are even thought about. It is wonderful to see Stockport Town Hall lit up to mark the occasion: Stockport town hall does #bivisibilityday @biphoria @bivisibilityday @LGBTLD #bitwitter #bipride #BiVisibility pic.twitter.com/wxs7O7Q7jm — Jen Yockney MBE (@jenyockney) September 23, 2017 This did not happen by accident. It was Lib Dem Councillor Lisa Smart who put a motion to Council earlier this month. She said: As a society, we have definitely made progress on LGBT+ Equality ...
I have told this story before, but not with this photograph: One year I joined a guided walk around the town. Outside Raynalds Mansion we were told the story of some children who were evacuated to the town and housed here during World War II. On the first morning they came downstairs and demanded to know who the children in funny clothes they had been playing with were.
"All these new members have certainly infused the party with fresh vigour and assurance. But there's been no discernible shift in the party's politics at all. It's as though all these newbies have slipped on their Liberal Democrat membership and discovered that it fits them like a glove." Phil Wainewright suggests that the influx of new members has made surprisingly little difference to the party. The Universal Credit debate was one of the highlights of the Lib Dem conference, says Caron Lindsay. Ben Rathe thinks Vince Cable should stop talking about tuition fees. "These stations were to act as adverts ...
Embed from Getty Images Last summer Lord Bonkers ran into his old friends Freddie and Fiona at the offices of the Remain campaign: I ask how their economic liberal think tank is getting on. "It's going really well." "Did you go to our fringe meeting at the Lib Dem spring conference?" "It was all about Uber." "Do you know it? It's this wonderful app on your phone." "You can call at taxi any time." "And if you don't like the driver you can give him a low score and he loses his livelihood." "We call it 'the sharing economy'."My take ...
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Over on the Black History Month website, as they gear up for the 30th year, Vince Cable has sent a message for this year's Black History Month which starts next week. Since its inception in 1987, Black History Month has given us many inspiring stories, reminding us of the tireless efforts of those who have fought for equality in the face of adversity, hate and indeed danger. They did so selflessly, so that future generations would enjoy the freedoms and opportunities they were denied. I am really pleased to once again extend my support to this annual celebration of culture, ...
Thanks to all those pointing out that this bin was disgusting and needed emptying. It has been reported
The undoubted highlight of the Glee Club was Dillie Keane sing Fascinating Aida's pro Remain song Thank You Scotland. She was ntroduced by that disgruntled radical David Grace, for him, he said, it was like when Nelson Mandela met the Spice Girls. After the usual rendition of The Land the packed hall fell silent, frankly stunned by the quality of the performance, it didn't last as the video shows. Enjoy
Second frame of third page of vol 1: Girl: "I'm afraid his hard disk is crashing." Lars: [My hard disk? / What? Wait... / I'm not really... Does she mean... / No, that can't be, unless... / Oh shit. / I'm stammering even in my own thoughts. / This is worse than - ] Boy: "Well, you'll just have to reboot it." Second frame of third page of vol 2: Matthias: "What? He was going to serve Ella up to you with a pretty bow on top?" Lars: "Just banter. / He just wanted to have fun with his mates. ...
An influx of 60,000 new members in the past two years has reinforced, not changed, the Liberal Democrats.
Having compared Vince Cable's first speech as party leader to Lib Dem conference with that from Tim Farron, it's instructive also to look back to Nick Clegg's. This was at Liverpool, in the spring of 2008. It was given against the backdrop of a debate over what the party's line should be on Europe. Sound familiar? The full text of the speech still reads well: the backstory, the political positioning tied in to the big issues of the day, a scattering of headline catching ideas and so on. But it also reads badly because although the policies talked about in ...
Yesterday, in Florence, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, set out — partially — how and why Britain intends to leave the European Union. She said she chose that location because Florence had played a central role in the Renaissance, "a period of history that inspired centuries of creativity and critical thought across our continent [...]
On of my highlights of Conference was the debate on the emergency motion on delaying the rollout of Universal Credit because it is turning into a disaster for the people who are forced to claim it. People have to wait 6 weeks or longer for money. Imagine what that is like if you have no savings to get you through – a situation many people on low incomes will face. The idea of Universal Credit is a very good one. It aimed to end the poverty trap which stopped people on benefits from getting work because it cost them to ...
Sat 23rd
11:27
Care crisis cover-up: vulnerable residents to be asked to pay more to meet the funding shortfall in ...
The Conservative-run County Council is set to ask some of the most vulnerable residents in Hertfordshire to contribute more to social care charges to cover up the Government's failure to fund social care properly. The move comes at a time when demand for social care is growing, but continued cuts to social care budgets imposed [...]
Fri, 14:53: RT @JenniferMerode: Same Liam Fox who called Malmstrom's comments "bizarre, stupid, preposterous and ridiculous" when she said no trade ta... Fri, 16:05: Why Sanctions Against North Korea Are Causing Pain in China https://t.co/izoAyRG4Il A local perspective. Fri, 17:29: RT @LaJaOxAn: Julia de Clerck-Sachsse: globalisation is only changing - global and local becoming intertwined @oxfordanalytica Fri, 18:00: A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason https://t.co/Fm1QLLfsLv Fri, 18:42: RT @MichelBarnier: Constructive #FlorenceSpeech by PM May; must be translated into negotiating positions to make meaningful progress https:... Fri, 22:00: RT @BBCFOUR: Guess who? Yes, that's @sawboneshex's assistant @thenicolabryant next ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 22-09-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 22-09-2017 to my dreamwidth blog [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
EU citizens living under squeezed financial circumstances could be forgiven for wondering whether Commission President Juncker was having a joke at their expense when he spoke recently about how Europe's economy is finally bouncing back. After a tumultuous decade triggered by the global financial crisis in 2007, the Eurozone's growth figures are being compared favourably to America's, with production up 3.2% against last year. However, evidence points to a wide chasm between people's lived experiences and Juncker's message of triumph. It is doubtful that the citizens of Spain and Greece, for example, would agree with his assessment. According to the ...
Perhaps the most unreal experience following Theresa May's Brexit concession speech in Florence yesterday was listening to all the hard line Brexiteers continue to spout the line that a promised land of milk and honey for the UK economy awaits us once we leave the EU. That well-known champion of the under-privileged and sole saviour of the developing world's falling birth rate, Jacob Rees Mogg even suggested that in a post-Brexit world, the price of essential food stuffs would be lower. He apparently overlooked one of the most marked effects of the referendum result, a falling pound which has put ...
Yesterday, I headed out of London on the M4 to rural Berkshire for George Freeman's "Big Tent Ideas", lazily referred to in the media as the "Tory Glastonbury". Several things to say about it: one, although the focus of the whole thing was undeniably reviving the fortunes of the Conservative Party, particularly amongst young people, there were plenty of non-Tories there; two, I actually had quite a good time, but then again, I am bam within the target audience for a "policy festival", I suppose; three, if the Tories want to revive their fortunes via the ways discussed in Berkshire ...
Responding to comments by senior police officers that the police is under unsustainable strain because of terror attacks, Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, said: "The first duty of Government is to keep its people safe - this means giving the police the resources they need to do their jobs. "When Britain's most senior police officers are sounding the alarm about police funding, Ministers must recognise they should be acting urgently. "The police desperately need more funding as a whole, the disappearance of bobbies on the beat means intelligence is drying up which is vital to preventing terror attacks ...
Responding to Theresa May's Brexit speech in Florence yesterday, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: "Both the Conservatives and Labour have now essentially converged on the same position, which is to kick the can down the road and simply delay the economic pain caused by an extreme Brexit. "Neither are prepared to fight to keep Britain in the single market and customs union or to offer people a chance to exit from Brexit "Voters were promised £350m a week for the NHS, instead Theresa May is admitting the UK will have to pay a hefty Brexit bill worth billions of ...
Yesterday in her Florence speech Theresa May said: "The UK never felt a part of the European Union.The European Union, never felt to us an integral part of our story" I beg to differ. I sitting writing this in the house that my parents moved into in 1979 on the day of the first UK elections to the European Parliament. So even from then I new about Europe and that it was a part of our lives. I went to University in Kingston at the end of the 80s and took as one of my options in both 2nd and ...
Last Saturday, The Times published an opinion piece by Janice Turner in which she tells a version of events that took place at Speakers' Corner last week during a protest by trans activists. By the time of publication, Janice's narrative of an elderly woman being beaten up had already been proven false by video circulating on YouTube. This is my letter to the editor in response to that piece, sent on Saturday afternoon – The Times have chosen not to publish it. Dear Editor, I am writing in response to Janice Turner's article "The battle over gender has turned bloody". ...
I ran a series in Liberal Democrat Newswire highlighting essential online tools for campaigners. Given their continuing relevance, here's an updated version of what I had to say about Backblaze in LDN #77: When I first heard about it, I thought the Backblaze online backup service was just too good to be true. An online backup service which quietly backs up all of your computer all the time, to whatever volume of data and a mere $5 a month? But that indeed is just what it is. The Backblaze software is a snip to install and runs unobtrusively in the ...
The decision taken by Transport for London to revoke Uber's licence undermines a key theme of Vince Cable's speech from just a few days ago, a belief in competitive markets. Whilst the company has only operated in the capital for a relatively short time, the benefits it has bought to London's transport market for both Londoners and tourists alike have been numerous. Uber not only provides a cheaper, more accessible transport solution to its customers, but it has also forced its competitors to innovate, an example being black cabs now accepting card payments, freeing their users from having to carry ...
In March 2014, against the backdrop of impending referendums in Crimea and Scotland, about why claims of a right to secede grounded in self-determination are problematic. Given the current crisis in Catalonia, I felt the argument was worth revisiting: In a few days the Crimea will go to the polls in a referendum on whether [...]
Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, Skills Development Scotland and partners are organising this year's Dundee Jobsfair :
Sat 23rd
08:26
Maghull – So who were/are the people who have made a difference to the community and won the T...
Two honours boards in the Council Chamber of Maghull Town Hall tell part of the story about who has won the Town's Civic Award since its inception in 1981. But for how many of those winners do I know the reason why they won the award (as the boards do not give such detail)? Here's a couple of photos of the boards – Click on each board to see it enlarged:- Well here goes with my recollections:- Neil Burslem – Anthony J Brooks – Joseph Fay – For his long membership/service to Maghull Town Band Mark Thompson – Arthur Dwyer ...
I'll be with some of the other Mindless Ones at Table 79 in the Cookridge St Marquee at Thought Bubble this year. Unfortunately, this year I didn't think I'd be able to go until a few weeks ago, so had ... Continue reading →
Day four was Wednesday, and it became apparent I was running out of activities to do. Dublin is a compact city, and everything is within 10 minutes walking distance of everything else. Before I came away to Dublin, I decided I'd purchase a book from everywhere I travel in the future, and with Dublin being my first location, I went book hunting. One of my favourite aspects of Dublin is that it isn't short of bookshops. It does love its literary history after all. Time to buy books I walked into the Easom on O'Connell Street and browsed the Irish ...
