This blog first aired itself on the Radix blog site... It's a funny thing, but Michael Gove's defence of Boris Johnson, following his damaging confusion about a British woman detained on holiday in Iran, gave me a real shiver of apprehension. It wasn't just the lazy way Gove was apparently prepared to undermine the slim chances Nazanin Ratcliffe has for release - by implying there was some doubt about why she was in Iran (visiting her parents), when there is none. Nor was it simply the way the Brexit establishment shoves aside vulnerable people if it helps their political chances. ...
Amey have published a new list of trees to be cut down across Acocks Green in the next few weeks. The reason for each case is given below. If you think they have got any of them wrong, please let me know as soon as possible: Outside 285 Olton Boulevard East – Dead tree Outside 289 Olton Boulevard East – Dead tree Opposite 34 Hartfield Crescent – New planting vandalised Outside 76/78 Hazelwood Road – Structural Integrity Outside 34a Malvern Road – Dead tree Outside 45/47 Oxford Road – Malicious damage Opposite 918/910 Warwick Road – New planting failure Opposite ...
I went for a PET/CT scan a few days ago to see how my lymphoma was progressing. I'm used to the process now, as it's the fourth time I've had one since my diagnosis in 2014. After I'd checked in and the formalities were over, I was given an injection of a radiotracer. This contains glucose, and as cancerous cells ... The post Why I love being in the bottom 10 percent appeared first on ten pence piece.
Third entry: Assapanick On 26 July 1788 William Thornton, American physician and architect of the U.S. Capitol, wrote the following to Dr Lettsom, English amateur botanist. 'I have sent you four assapanick or flying squirrels and four ground squirrels. The flying squirrels are a family, male and female, with two young ones; the young are very easily tamed; the ladies here have them running all over them, and carry them in their pockets or bosoms, with a small collar of leather round their necks, and a little chain. They do not bite, but soon grow familiar. The old ones and ...
The power which control over language gives to channel thoughts and direct actions was most famously set out in George Orwell's 1984. It's a recurring theme of the battle for equality too. It can be trivialised into superficial renamings that bring little other than embarrassment. More mundanely, the choice of shared language is often an insight into how an organisation operates and changing it can also be a route to changing how the organisation operates. Consider the use by Liberal Democrats of "campaigning" as the default term to describe what happens on doorsteps, through letterboxes and in social media timelines. ...
Editor note – comments are closed on this article, given its nature. The consultation on the Party's governance held in late 2015 laid bare a number of concerns which members had with our current disciplinary processes. The Federal Executive at the time took the decision to commission a separate review, which I was asked to chair in the autumn of 2016. I am clear: the only way members will be well-served by a disciplinary process is if it is simple, transparent and efficient. It needs to be independent, a stand-alone process, and it needs to deal with complaints promptly with ...
Two Labour Mayors for Liverpool but one is playing in a different league. It's time for the spare Mayor to realise this and go Liverpool Lib Dems have welcomed yesterday's report back session on Mayor Rotheram's first ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images Please use the left/right arrows to see the full Getty Images slide show The BBC reports: Australians have overwhelmingly voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in a historic poll. The non-binding postal vote showed 61.6% of people favour allowing same-sex couples to wed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Jubilant supporters have been celebrating in public spaces, waving rainbow flags and singing and dancing. A bill to change the law was introduced into the Senate late on Wednesday. It will now be debated for amendments. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his government would aim to ...
To save time, I need to build a bot that finds the appropriate xkcd for a post. There's lots of annoying responses going around to the issue of social media bots, but one of the most annoying to me is the canard of 'it's all stupid, they can't be influential because who's going to change their mind on how to vote after seeing one tweet or Facebook post?' It particularly irritates me because it's conflating two bad ideas together. First, the idea that our political opinions are fixed and immutable things, near impossible to change, and secondly, ignoring that the ...
Yesterday, MPs debated International Men's Day. Our participant in that debate was Jo Swinson. She would not ever be so shameless as to give a massive plug for her book, Equal Power, which is due out in February, but she used a lot of her speech to talk about how gender equality benefits both men and women. Men face pressures from our unequal world, she said, in mental health, employment, expectations of being the bread winner, of not showing emotion. She talked about the importance of both parents' roles in children's lives. Here is her speech: It is a pleasure ...
Wed 15th
11:56
No online access to South Glos Council this weekend - Library Open Access also affected
Due to essential electrical work all of South Glos Council's online forms will be unavailable this weekend from 6pm on Friday 17 November until 4pm on Sunday 19 November 2017. What's more, Open Access will not be available in libraries from Friday evening until Monday morning. IT services will also not be available in libraries in staffed opening hours. South Glos apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Last night I was on Channel S TV's "Let's Talk" live debate show, hosted by my old friend Ajmal Masroor, discussing the state of Britain's National Health Service (NHS). The NHS will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its foundation next year, but there is a widespread belief that it is showing its age, not in [...]
Tue, 12:00: RT @apcoworldwide: Our @ehoffm4nn and @WallerandB discuss the EU Clean Mobility Package and its new impact on #sustainability https://t.co/... Tue, 18:38: Thorns, by Robert Silverberg https://t.co/VS9bEmcGNR Wed, 11:04: Proud to have signed this. https://t.co/awfrKiMLtU
Wed 15th
10:54
Why is the government so obsessed with getting the Repeal Bill passed this very second anyhow?
The pause on the Repeal Bill, a piece of legislation that will take the 1972 European Communities Act out of commission, has been lifted. The Committee Stage of the Bill roared to life yesterday and will continue for the next seventeen years (I exaggerate slightly). A host of twenty Tory MPs are threatening to rebel and vote for a host of amendments to the Bill (or vote down government backed amendments), causing May's government to wobble further, just when it least needs another such wobble to occur. So here's my question: why are they bothering to try and push this ...
Wed 15th
10:26
LISTEN: to Layla Moran on Any Questions: We have a foreign secretary who is not fit for purpose
Layla Moran took a trip to Kent on Friday night to appear on the Any Questions panel. She had invited local party members to help her practice earlier in the week. She answered questions on Michel Barnier's deadline, whether Boris should be sacked (even asking the question had the audience cheering and Layla's answer was "yes, yes, yes"), the case of the young boy whose image is on a police database after he was reported for sexting and the idea of safe spaces You can listen to the whole thing here. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary ...
A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carré reminds me of the work of three other authors. First, Terry Pratchett's final Discworld novel, Raising Steam.
It's a funny thing, but Michael Gove's defence of Boris Johnson, following his damaging confusion about a British woman detained on holiday in Iran, gave me a real shiver of apprehension. It wasn't just the lazy way Gove was apparently prepared to undermine the slim chances Nazanin Ratcliffe has for release – by implying there [...] The post The choice for Brexit UK – open society or Chinese capitalism? appeared first on Radix.
Last Saturday, 11th November, the Scottish Liberal Democrat Autumn conference was held in Dunfermline. It's fitting our conference returns to this historic Scottish town as Scotland has always been a liberal country at heart: Braveheart, after all, was about freedom, more than nationalism. This was my first party conference and I was immediately struck by how homely and welcoming the event was. The Scottish Liberal Democrats are a close-knit party - one advantage of being small in number (in comparison to other parties) - where old friends are reunited and strangers are simply undiscovered new friends. The agenda was packed ...
Residents highlighted to me recently the poor road condition in Greenbank Place and also a chocked street drain. I raised this with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and have now received the following response : "Greenbank Place is provisionally included in the 2019/2020 Carriageway Programme for resurfacing. An inspection has been carried out and there are currently no actionable defects on the adopted section however an order has been raised for the repair of three potholes on the non adopted section with an approximate timescale of twenty eight days. The gullies were last emptied in February 2017 so the gully ...
Wales may have voted to leave the EU but did those who formed that slim majority fully understand the possible consequences of their actions? The latest potential outcome could have a devastating effect on the Welsh car industry, with Aston Martin's Chief Financial Officer warning that leaving the EU without a deal could prove "semi-catastrophic" for the car manufacturer and force a temporary halt to production: Aston Martin selected the Ministry of Defence's St Athan site in the Vale of Glamorgan as the location for its second UK manufacturing plant. Earlier this year it stated it was on target to ...
Wed 15th
08:02
Liverpool City Region Labour Mayor adopts much of Lib Dem Carl Cashman's manifesto – Well that...
Yes I know, many of those Lib Dem manifesto pledges that Labour voters rejected in the Mersey Metro Mayor election of a few months ago seem to have been picked up as policy by the newly elected Labour Mayor of Liverpool City Region. Just look:- Not exactly the same words but you could not read Carl's manifesto without saying hang on a minute! And what will Labour voters think of it; they seemingly rejected Carl's policy options only last May! Politics is a funny old world at times but this made me smile because much of what Lib Dem candidate ...
The lock on ministerial red despatch boxes is on the bottom, not the top, which is intended to ensure that the box is locked before it is carried.
