I have started work on a short ebook on Richard Jefferies. Some of the writing will require visits that are now best left until the spring - Worthing, Surbiton, Swindon... Writing is a glamorous life. So if I post on here a bit less often than has been my habit, I hope that is the reason. (Mind you, I notice this is my fourth post today and I have scheduled one from Lord Bonkers for tomorrow morning.) There is also the sad fact that neither blogging nor the Liberal Democrats are what they were a decade ago. I have been ...
Embed from Getty Images What do we want our politicians to be like? I would rather like it if they were prepared occasionally to raise their eyes from day-to-day politics and talk about the deeper and longer-term questions we face. That is just what Philip Hammond did this morning: Mr Hammond was interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show ahead of Wednesday's Budget, where among his announcements he is expected to pave the way for an expansion of driverless cars. Challenged on the impact of wider automation on people's jobs, he said Britain had to "embrace change", adding: "I remember 20 ...
Brighton's daily paper The Argus has revealed that the city's derelict Hippodrome has been bought by a property developer: In a recent update to his LinkedIn social media profile, Mr Sheikh wrote: "We are pleased to announce the purchase of a [sic] iconic site in Brighton. For the development of a boutique 5 star 70 bed hotel, 25 high end serviced apartments and a concert, theater[sic], conference and banqueting venue."This is the old theatre I blogged about in the spring when I was down in Brighton as part of the day job. Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, ...
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 23rd November. 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. We will be there to meet ...
(Trigger warnings for this post: cissexism, transmisogyny, sexual assault, murder, suicide. Also, probably, there should be a trigger warning here for clueless cis man talking about stuff outside his lane.) This is not a blog post I want to be ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images Jo Swinson has published an article on Medium titled "Sexual harassment: a chance for change". She writes: Many people have been shocked by recent revelations about the extent of sexual harassment in politics. Sadly to many of us it does not come as a shock, but we have welcomed the focus on a persistent problem that has too often been trivialised or ignored. Some sections of the media have — without any sense of irony — provided illustrative answers to the endless questions about why victims hesitate to come forward to tell their story. While it is depressing still to ...
Embed from Getty Images The majority of Australians have backed equal marriage in a postal vote survey: 61.5% of Aussies endorsed the rights of LGBT+ citizens. It is now over to the Australian parliament to implement the will of the people. LGBT+ Aussies and allies rejoice after a deserved victory. But it is sad that this referendum had to happen at all. I realise that to most, holding the referendum was just sensible politics and a civilised means to settle a debate in a democracy. But this vote really was petty: someone's private relationship is neither a political or democratic ...
This is the letter that 90 MPs sent to the Prime Minister last week. We need all-Party action like this if we are to save the NHS At the end of last week, a highly important development took place when ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images My two grandchildren both love football, and one of them takes it very seriously indeed. We all know the huge social and health benefits from taking part in sport and I have a great respect for all those parents who help to keep community sports clubs alive and kicking, as it were. But children who love a sport also want to watch professionals playing, so it is very sad to learn that major clubs are effectively pricing out younger supporters. The BBC has published its annual report Price of Football 2017 and found that most ticket ...
Sat, 12:56: RT @kevinhorourke: No. We really can't. By definition they will weaken. https://t.co/XfprfIfhI2 Sat, 15:18: Cavalcade: film and theatre script https://t.co/PJqQZEs9og Sat, 16:31: RT @GuitarMoog: David Davis went to Berlin this week and said "If you want to know the mind of a nation all one must do is read its press."... Sat, 18:22: RT @djmgaffneyw4: Seriously, Brexiteers are going to have to make up their minds whether Ireland is a devious Foreign Power out to subvert... Sat, 18:53: RT @naomi_long: The DUP seem to be having a collective meltdown over the last 24 hours at the "shock" revelation ...
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates has hits in 1959 (Please Don't Touch) and 1960 (Shakin' All Over), before packing it in in the mid 1960s. Remarkably, The Pirates, sans Johnny Kidd, had a renaissance at the end of the 1970s and sounded very much at home on the pub rock, punk and new wave scene. I saw them at York in 1978 and here they are a year later
Sun 19th
10:25
Shouldn't "no deal" Brexiteers be celebrating the Irish obstructing the next round of negotiations?
The Irish government has made a bold and daring move. It has said that the next round of EU-UK talks cannot go forward unless the UK guarantees that under no circumstances will there be a hard border on the island of Ireland. In theory, this shouldn't be tricky given the UK government has assured everyone throughout all the bluster that this will be the case. However, this impediment to talks erected by Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, sort of calls their bluff on this, as in reality there are only two real options for the UK if it wishes to ...
I am a bit of a luddite secretly, at least when it comes to technological advancements that aim to cut out the human touch. I don't do on-line banking, I don't have a Netflix or Amazon account and for the life of me, I don't see why anybody would want to develop driverless cars. Don't get me wrong. I am not the sort of person who mourns lost employment opportunities following the abolition of the man with a red flag who used to walk in front of the earliest motorcars. Nor do I want to go back to the days ...
We live in an Information Age, in which there has never been so much and such easy communication. Yet parallel to technological advances, the quality and precision of languaage have declined. Some people blame this on the "vocabulary" of text-speech; the demands of an SMS encourage us to abbreviate and to have recourse to stock [...]
Your Focus Team welcomes news that local health managers have rowed back on proposals to cut the upper age limit for which women are eligible for IVF treatment on the NHS after protests - but more cuts are to come. Faced with a growing deficit, NHS chiefs proposed a series of cuts to local health services, including limiting fertility treatment to women between 30 and 35 years of age. They already only fund one treatment, rather than the NICE recommendation of up to 3. They have now decided to keep the age limit for IVF treatment at 40. However they ...
Sun 19th
08:52
Maghull – Habitat Regulations – Town Council has an in and out relationship with them or...
The irony of Maghull Town Council taking out hedges (otherwise know as a habitat for wildlife) in Glenn Park only yards away from other hedges along Eastway, which they have previously left uncut despite complaints from pedestrians, due to Habitat Regulations is not lost on me. This saga goes back a while now (to 2015) and I have posted about it previously. Here's my most relevant previous posting:- What's brought the matter back into focus now is the removal of a couple of quite long hedges from within Glenn Park by Maghull Town Council in the past few days. ...
From the Corporate Affairs Officer at Scottish Water : I have been made aware from our contractors CWA who are carrying out our water mains upgrade works in Dundee of an additional piece of work to take place within your ward. This work was originally planned previously however due to issues with the proposed backfeed (to reduce amount of customers affected) the work was unable to be completed. I have been informed that the work will now take place from Monday 20th November for approximately 2 weeks. The work involves the lining of existing water mains in Fyffe Street (near ...
