I had meant to mention the current Boundary Commission review of Mid Suffolk's ward boundaries, in which the District Council loses six councillors, going from forty to thirty-four, which requires, as you might guess, some interesting reshuffling. Unlike in London, where redistributing means drawing entertaining lines of maps and crossing your fingers that the other political parties don't work out what you're doing (I do those who study these things a disservice here admittedly...), in Suffolk you have a set of building blocks known as towns and parishes. Rule one is, "thou shalt not split up parishes", which simplifies and ...
We have our Headline of the Day, thanks to the Daily Telegraph.
The Church of England must always have struggled in Snailbeach. The miners, some of whom had come from Cornwall as the tin mining industry there declined, had their own Nonconformist chapels. Today, St Luke's in the village is a festival church, open only for a few services a year. It is also given over to the worship of the Shropshire novelist Mary Webb. Obscure in her own lifetime, she had a huge vogue in the 1930s after Stanley Baldwin had spoken in praise of her shortly after her death. In those days charabancs roamed the Shropshire hills with 'Mary Webb ...
Embed from Getty Images Well, that speech probably contained everyone's worst nightmares. In April this year, just after the election was called, I was one of those recording a podcast made by the excellent Engender Scotland. I ended up having the mother of all coughing fits. Of course, there were half a dozen other wonderful women to hold the fort while I left the room until the spasms subsided. So I really felt for poor Theresa May today. She was up there on her own at the keynote occasion of the year and the germs took control. I don't mean ...
SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND DON'T WANT SPOILERS FOR ALL SIX SEASONS, GO AWAY NOW 🙂 I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOU CARRY ON! I love Teen Wolf. There are many preconceptions about what certain folk should and shouldn't watch on TV. Fuck em. If you or I like a tv show about hot, shirtless guys transforming into werewolves and fight various mythological creatures, then I will. I enjoy seeing those firm, muscular bodies on my screen. So much so that I convinced my best friend and boyfriend to get hooked on it too. All three of ...
I was one of those who, up to today, believed that Theresa May would stay on as Prime Minister at least until the UK had left the EU in March 2019. The Conservatives would then choose a new leader and then struggle on to the end of the Parliament, avoiding the risk of the election and hoping time would expose the Corbyn Labour Party for the unrealistic dreamers they have become. I am now changing
Second paragraph of third chapter: Sir: I do not know what sort of people you are. We are Frenchmen. We are among the savages. We would like very much to be among the Christians, such as we are. We know well that you are Spaniards. We do not know if you will attack us. We are very vexed to be among beasts like these who believe neither in God or in anything. Sirs, if you are willing to take to away you have only to send something in writing. Since we have little or nothing to do, as soon as ...
[IMG: Princes Parade] An extraordinary meeting of Sandgate Parish Council that has been called to discuss the Prince's Parade planning application (Y17/1042/SH). The meeting will start at 6pm on Tuesday 10th October at the Sandgate Library and Parish Council Office (James Morris Court, Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Folkestone CT20 3RR), and will consider the response to Shepway District Council as a consultee on the above planning application, the documents for which are available on line and at Sandgate Library. Shepway District Council have been asked to send an officer to make a presentation on the application, following which there will ...
Look at the comments to my last blog post. It IS possible for the comment section to work like we all think it should. There are people imparting information. There are people disagreeing with each other, but respectfully. There is kindness and an apology when a tiny bit of friction happens. People are civilised! Now, if that can happen - and indeed ALWAYS happens, because my f-list is made of awesome - on my humble blog why the blue buggery fuck can't the newspapers with all their money and paid moderators manage it on their sites? I mean yes, there's ...
This article is crossposted from the Radix blog... Sometimes all you can rely on, to understand some sense of the direction events are taking us in, is a sense of history. As such, it seems pretty clear to me that the way the national authorities behaved over the Catalonia referendum guarantees that Catalonia will eventually secede from Spain. Perhaps not now, perhaps not for decades, but eventually. What is more, it may also provide enough of a political impetus to other nations-within-nations , like Scotland, to go their own way. When firefighters have to stand between the crowds and the ...
Sometimes all you can rely on, to understand some sense of the direction events are taking us in, is a sense of history. As such, it seems pretty clear to me that the way the national authorities behaved over the Catalonia referendum guarantees that Catalonia will eventually secede from Spain. Perhaps not now, perhaps not [...] The post What Catalonia means for Scotland – and the rest of us appeared first on Radix.
In the UK, gains on domestic property values are virtually untaxed. This put renters at a huge disadvantage. But far worse is the damage this does to our competitiveness. Failing to tax gains in property value means that our economy in effect hosts a currency counterfeiting operation with a £50bn turnover. This can be illustrated with a very short story. Once upon a time a newly crowned king wished to prove his military prowess, and decided to raise a navy to conquer lands overseas. His councillors protested that the royal coffers were empty, but he hit on a brilliant idea. ...
It always feels good to get home after Tory conference every year, having successfully survived not only the Conservative conference but those that preceded it. One of the most interesting things about going to the different party conferences is seeing how much they vary in feeling on the ground compared to how they often get reported. The political press often coalesces around a single narrative each year: this time it's Labour unity and energy versus Tory exhaustion. I didn't quite find that myself. There was a lot more tension at Labour than has been discussed elsewhere – a lot of ...
Finland is celebrating the centenary of its independence this year, so the exhibition that opens today at the 12 Star Gallery in Europe House in Smith Square, Westminster — "100 Wishes from Finland" — is timely. It is also very appealing, not least for anyone who has ever been a philatelist at any stage in [...]
Tue, 12:56: 10 businesses facing extinction in 10 years https://t.co/7uV1zsjSry An article from 2007. Tue, 16:04: RT @apcoworldwide: Here's an overview of the #CatalanReferendum by our Alexia Faus. For more information, visit: https://t.co/0AGZKy8pNl. c... Tue, 16:05: Catalonia's Independence: A Certain Uncertainty https://t.co/tl3oE6He9w My colleague Alexia on what's happening at home. Tue, 16:40: RT @Kaibutsu: Brother kicked that double standard right in the teeth. https://t.co/iWlUOMcqVl Tue, 17:53: RT @marc_limon: Just out: URG report on 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Everything you need to know! https://t.co/0ofuD9UJLG v... Tue, 20:34: The Dancers At The End Of Time https://t.co/B4M9N3jJts Tue, 20:48: ...
Amber Rudd Says She Doesn't Need To "Understand How Encryption Works" To Know It Needs Changing OMG the woman is completely technologically illiterate. The quotes in this article... Every Member of Congress Who Took Money From the NRA and Tweeted 'Thoughts and Prayers' to Las Vegas Reasons to get into an argument on the internet A map of what it would look like if a whole load of European Independence movements succeeded miss_s_b | Attention Fellow Lib Dems! Specifically those of you who attended conference in Bournemouth... FCC wants your feedbacks. Feed them! BACKS! Speaking at Conservative Party Conference more ...
Britain has been rather successful at adopting as our own, foreign symbols which in reality have origins that have nothing to do with our home islands. For example, St George, patron saint of England, was Turkish; Christianity, originating in the Middle Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, was brought to Britain by the Romans and again later by European missionaries; lions, native to Africa
[IMG: The Lewis College of Business, Detroit, Michigan] This is the fourth of my posts based on a recent tour of the eastern half of the USA. I visited a number of sites relevant to African American history. To mark Black History Month, I am relating some of the things I saw, in the order I saw them. As I was wondering through the streets near my hotel in Detroit, I came across one of the many historic plaques which one sees right across America. The plaque was next to this house (above) in John R Street, Detroit. It records ...
We had a great issue to consider last night at the monthly meeting of the Sunniside History Society in Sunniside Club. Nick Butterley, project manager at Beamish Museum, gave us a fascinating presentation about the new developments which are now moving on from the planning stage to the actual cutting of turf and laying of foundations. Over the next four years, a 1950s town, extensions to the
It has started. I listened to a representative of the Welsh Local Government Association on Radio Wales this morning explaining how the latest Welsh Government budget will devastate services around Wales, but placing the blame squarely on UK ministers for their austerity agenda. She was right of course. Cuts to Welsh budgets have led to painful cuts in services in Local Government and elsewhere. But the way that the money is allocated has nothing to do with the Secretary of State for Wales as she implied. It is a matter for the Welsh Government, and this year Ministers in the ...
Liberal Democrat opposition councillors at Herts County Council have hit out over a decision to recommend that its main highways contractor, Ringway, is set to be awarded an extended contract for another five years. Ringway has been fined just under £1.2m for poor workmanship in the last 5 years, leaving opposition councillors scratching their heads over the decision to [...]
From free school meals in 1906 and 2014 to the Pupil Premium, Liberals have a proud and positive history in terms of reforming education in the UK. Despite this, Vince Cable's idea of a "learning account" might be the most radical yet. The policy seems to be in its infancy at the moment with Vince Cable asking to "develop" the policy with the party. It would see all young people given a learning account, that they could use at any point in life for education purposes. As Mr Cable argued this is "fundamentally a liberal idea" and it is astonishing ...
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating Scottish Water mains renewal works. The Order is expected to be in force for 2 weeks from 9 October 2017. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all (1) a left turn into Blackness Road from Rosefield Street, (2) a left turn into Blackness Road from Rosefield Place and (3) all vehicular traffic in Annfield Road between Blackness Road ...
My previous posting from July '17 gives the background to this issue and is available via this link:- At our Lydiate Parish Council meeting held on 26th September we decided to remove the top section, top floor, tube slide and carry out other alterations to this piece of play equipment whilst installing a new open stainless steel slide. It's rather sad to have to do this but anti-social behaviour and vandalism has bedeviled this particular piece of play equipment meaning that it will be less adventurous, when the work is completed, for the youngsters it was aimed at as ...
Wed 4th
08:23
Merseytravel respond to a customer's concerns about the removal of Guards from the new Merseyrail tr...
A new Stadler Merseyrail train artist impression Merseyrail passenger Jen Robertson has recently raised concerns about the removal of train guards from the new fleet of Stadler trains on order for this rail franchise. The response to her concerns from Merseytravel is below.* ***** Thank you for your e-mail about the new fleet of trains for the Merseyrail network. As you may be aware, a decision was made on the 16th December 2016 by elected councillors and council leaders of the Merseytravel Committee and the Combined Authority in the Liverpool City Region, to approve the purchase of a new fleet ...
