Embed from Getty Images The things you discover when you Google obscure county cricketers from the 1970s: In many ways, Lauren Cheatle's life is like that of a typical Australian teenager: school, study, exams, friendships. Except Cheatle's life during the six months since she burst onto the international cricket scene in late January has been anything but typical. The 17-year-old has logged plenty of frequent flyer points since that first Twenty20 at the MCG in late January, with the left-arm quick travelling to New Zealand and India with the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars and attending a training camp with the ...
It looks like a network of 13,000 Twitter bots (yes, 13,000 bots, or the equivalent of 20 for every Parliamentary constituency to give that number a bit of perspective) was used to pump out pro-Brexit messages during the European referendum last year. As Buzzfeed reports: Researchers have uncovered new evidence of networks of thousands of suspect Twitter bots working to influence the Brexit debate in the run-up to the EU referendum. The findings, from researchers at City, University of London, include a network of more than 13,000 suspected bots that tweeted predominantly pro-Brexit messages before being deleted or removed from ...
Recently I've been watching the stupendous 10-part series of one-hour films on the Vietnam War, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, screened on BBC4 but also available through BBCiPlayer. The project took ten years to put together, from contemporary news footage, home videos, interviews with survivors or families of those killed, Vietnamese North and [...]
I delivered 370 Focuses this morning in Watergate Estate in Whickham. I have delivered this patch so often that I could do it with my eyes closed! Tomorrow I have another 3 patches to deliver in my own ward. Hopefully the rain will hold off.
The former Liberal Democrat MP and transport minister Norman Baker, you may recall, is now the managing director of Brighton's Big Lemon bus company. The city's newspaper The Argus caught up with the firm last month: The Optare Solo EV has spent the last month on trial with Brighton-based bus company Big Lemon. Big Lemon MD Norman Baker has praised the new electric bus. He said: "Our mission is to enable everyone to get around their community in an affordable, enjoyable and environmentally-sustainable way and it would seem the Solo EV has delivered just that. "We have been extremely impressed ...
The Leicester Mercury wins our Headline of the Award. My paparazzo photograph shows an uncharacteristically fully clothed Gary Lineker at Leicester station.
Second paragraph of third chapter: As a species we are strongly imitative and it is impossible for a healthy individual to grow up and live in a community without becoming infected with its typical-action patterns. The way we walk and stand, laugh and grimace, are all subject to this influence.This is the third of three books on human behaviour which I read over the last few months and am writing up this week. This one was recommended to me by Sir Graham Watson, and I got it as part of my belated birthday spending of Amazon vouchers. It's the 2002 ...
Embed from Getty Images It was one of the most famous speeches ever made and led to two major pieces of Civil Rights legislation in the USA. Yet, in issue 1277 of the Big Issue, author Philip Collins tells how Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" on August 28th 1963 in The Mall, Washington DC, wasn't planned as it happened. Dr King had been speaking about his "dream" on several occasions around the country, prior to the big event when 250,000 piled into The Mall to watch a succession of speakers and singers, for whom Dr King provided ...
(Picture by Harold Tor) At a glittering (well, actually somewhat overheated) ceremony on Thursday night, the list of the top forty EU Digital Influencers, as calculated by a rigorous and scientifically determined algorithm, was announced by EurActiv and ZN Consulting. The list was selectively drawn from Anglophone Twitter users, excluded sitting MEPs and Commissioners, but included their spokespeople, and also other EU officials and journalists, and former Commissioners and MEPs. Slightly to my surprise I scraped into the list at #37. My glory was slightly muted by the fact that the official infographic illustrated me with a picture of former ...
Well, this will probably be a controversial one as the issue over whether parents should have the right to hit their children for some peculiar reason always causes a big argument in liberal circles. My own view has always been that there are no circumstances in which it is justifiable to hit a child and that there is always a better way. Having children grow up thinking that it's fine to hit someone smaller and defenceless to get your own way really isn't a good look. Some children will grow up emotionally scarred from the experience of what some people ...
Your four Lib Dem councillors believe that we should collect every penny in tax for both central and local government that is due. Only the Labour Party in Liverpool would say that motions designed to achieve this were frivolous At ... Continue reading →
On 19th October 2017, we received a letter from Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ahead of her meeting with the European Council as part of the UK's Brexit negotiations. Given that she had taken the trouble to write to us, we thought it only polite to reply. This is our response. Continue reading →
This evening's Owl Prowl at Wapley Bushes is being postponed due to forecast high winds. We have a provisional date of Friday 10 November at 7 pm - we will confirm here. Sorry for any inconvenience - the Conservation Group will be at the gate this evening to tell anyone who doesn't know it's cancelled. The Dodington Dog Walk at Wapley tomorrow morning has also been cancelled for safety reasons due to continued high winds.
I'm no fan of local bus services generally because since Bus Deregulation in the 1980's services have declined and are in the main poor to average. I often wonder whether Arriva run buses to suit themselves as they do not seem reliable on the 300 route in particular, or so I have heard regular users complain about. Missing buses during afternoons is something I have been hearing folks grumble about for a while now. If a bus does not run, is cancelled or significantly delayed why aren't passengers told why? Surely a screen on a bus could give messages that ...
miss_s_b | Yorkshire Gubbins: The Smash Hit New Game They're All Talking About I posted Yorkshire Gubbins: The Smash Hit New Game They're All Talking About to my dreamwidth blog A new LEGO set honors the women of NASA—and it looks pretty awesome How to decode the images on the Voyager Golden Record The Airport Bomber From Last Week You Never Heard About I did hear about this, but only because I know somebody else who was so shocked about the lack of publicity around the case. Alarm over decline in flying insects We're all doomed. Student speech to be ...
Lib Dem Deputy Leader Jo Swinson was on the Daily Politics this week talking about her two years out of politics after her defeat in 2015 and what motivated her to come back. She cited the threat to liberal values posed by Brexit and Trump and the unwelcome prospect of another divisive referendum on Scottish independence as the driving forces which spurred her to contest her seat again. Watch her discusser own comeback – and whether Nick Clegg could do the same, here: * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Thu, 12:56: Brexiteers are not being honest about negotiations because they are panicking https://t.co/L9Zn8JsJ4J Lucid by @RCorbettMEP. Thu, 16:05: This is what the Brexit cliff edge looks like https://t.co/p3L2sjpzZp And @POLITICOEurope doesn't even mention the Irish border... Thu, 17:23: Who are the #EUInfluencers? asks @EURACTIV. Apparently I am a top 40 #EUinfluencer - more details to come. https://t.co/PyiI0Fo9w0 Thu, 17:25: RT @DanLucaEU: Ready For The Show? #EUinfluencer https://t.co/PcpD8Mk1yt Thu, 17:26: RT @BrusselsGeek: Kicking off in a couple of hours. Be there or be... not a #EUInfluencers https://t.co/1tquJs4hlA Thu, 17:28: RT @jesusazogue: I will make a 360 experience of this. #EUinfluencer ...
Nick Clegg has been telling the readers of the New Statesman all about his week. As he attended a reception on mental health at Buckingham Palace, he remembered one of his first appearances as Lib Dem Leader at PMQs: In the evening, I attended a reception at Buckingham Palace to support people who work in mental health, listening to a good speech by Prince William and a funny and moving one by Stephen Fry. Almost exactly ten years ago I raised mental health at Prime Minister's Questions when Gordon Brown was at the despatch box as PM, and I was ...
Someone I know who I would never have thought would say anything like the following told me recently: "Getting Corbyn as prime minister for a bit is looking not as bad as what the Tories might be capable of doing, on Brexit and on other things as well." This is the major danger the Tories are creating for themselves at present: they are making Corbyn look, well, if not good, at least a little safer and certainly less of an overall liability in the eyes of swing voters. This could develop into an insurmountable problem for the Tories if they ...
Earlier this week the Official Opposition in the House of Commons won a vote to delay the rollout of Universal Credit. The reasons why they wish to postpone the implementation of a benefit change that is supported by all the major parties is academic for the purposes of this piece (though not for those affected). Needless to say, the Government has made a hash of administering the new payments and lots of people are suffering needlessly as a result. The significance of this vote was that on a major plank of Government policy the Tory whips ordered their MPs to ...
There are few examples in Europe of political entities – states, regions, cities or parishes – which are governed from the bottom up. The small Channel Island of Sark is one of them. In looking for possibilities of system change, we should be aware of existing ways of doing things which are outside our experience, [...] The post Governed from the bottom up, and in Europe too appeared first on Radix.
Here's the latest update about the long-awaited cycle track between Yate and the Railway Path, the cycling "superhighway" between Bristol and Bath. At the moment the Yate Spur only comes out as far as the T junction on Westerleigh Road south of Westerleigh. Westerleigh Road T junction to Broad Lane (Cornerways) - inside the farmer's field up to the former Cornerways Nursery - You will probably have seen the fencing and the signs, with not much work going on lately. They struck a sewage pipe that wasn't on ANYBODY'S maps, and they've had to do some redesign. Work should start ...
Patriotism: Good. Nationalism: Bad. At least that is how it reads in my political lexicon. Patriots love their country. They love the land and the sky, the people, the culture, the history and the values. If necessary, they are prepared to die for their country. Nationalists feel all the above, but then take it a step too far. Sometimes several steps. And therein lies the problem. Nationalists (in my political lexicon) believe that their country is better than other countries. That it and their fellow citizens are superior to other countries and their citizens. Sometimes that sense of superiority is ...
Fri 20th
08:52
Maghull – An unexpected contributor to a Maghull Radio show about local journalist Jim Sharpe
Yesterday I was asked by presenter Dave Hughes to call-in and contribute towards an interview/broadcast he was doing live on his Maghull Radio show. The person being interviewed was none other than well known local journalist Jim Sharpe. Jim Sharpe in the recording studio of Maghull Radio – with apologies for the reflections caused by the glass partition. The thing was Jim did not know I had been invited so he was surprised when I walked into the recording studio of this internet based radio station, which is run from Maghull Town Hall, part way through his interview. My point ...
Retail sales fell sharply by 0.8% in September 2017 compared to the previous month, figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics have revealed. Meanwhile prices in the shops increased by 3.3% compared to last year, the largest annual rise since March 2012. Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable commented: "This fall in retail sales shows shoppers across Britain are feeling the Brexit squeeze. "A toxic combination of rising prices and stagnant wages is severely constraining household spending. "Year on year retail growth is also looking weak compared to previous years. "Given the UK's unhealthy over-reliance on consumer spending, the ...
A number of constituents have commented to me about the lack of temporary bus stops on Blackness Road during the Scottish Water temporary works. I contacted the City Council's transportation team about this and have been advused as follows : "The extent of the works is temporary traffic lights contained within the area between Forest Park Road and Rosefield Street. As a result two bus stops are affected, namely Blackness Road opp Forest Park Road and Blackness Road opp Annfield Street. The contractor has displayed signs informing passengers that both bus stops are out of use. A temporary stop cannot ...
Violent crime has increased by 19% in the last year, figures published today have revealed. Knife crime was up 26% year-on-year, while overall crimes increased by 13%. Commenting on the reported rise in violent crime, Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, said: "People's lives are under threat because Theresa May is failing to back Britain's police. "These increases in violent crime are frightening and it ought to be government's first priority to protect the public. Yet with her police cuts, Theresa May has gone soft on crime and is letting the country down. "Theresa May was the Home Secretary ...
Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Daniel Lewis, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtown. We will be at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30 to 11.30am on Thursday 26th October. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am to 12:00.
