One of the easier ways to climb the Long Mynd in Shropshire is to follow Ashes Hollow up from Little Stretton. At the top you will come across this sign - or at least you did 25 or so years ago. It is a safety warning for walkers as the gliding club at the field on top of the Mynd uses cables to launch its craft.
As many of you will have seen, I've been working for a while on a series of essays on books that won the Prometheus Awards. I believe this essay series, when it's completed, will be an important work, at least ... Continue reading →
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 498th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3-9 December, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Brexit voter tells Nigel Farage "I'd now ...
Embed from Getty Images Yesterday BBC2 showed a lovely tribute to John Noakes, one of the presenters of Blue Peter in its Golden Age. He held that role from 1965 to 1978. and also fronted another classic BBC children's programme. From 1976 to 1980, Go With Noakes featured John and his engagingly delinquent sheepdog Shep touring Britain. They walked long-distance footpaths, helped restore derelict canals and met good people. Sometimes I think a happy life would be a lot like Go With Noakes. I blogged earlier this year about the importance of John Noakes, but in some ways the star ...
[IMG: My less than six degress of separation from Max Clifford] I had two encounters with Max Clifford, the PR supremo who died today from a heart attack. The first recollection involves a baby, a dummy, WH Smith and Waterloo Station. It happened in 1999. The second... The post My less than six degress of separation from Max Clifford appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
Nick Cohen asks what it would take for Labour moderates to revolt. "Despite all his bluster, he views himself less as a titan dominating the world stage than a maligned outsider engaged in a struggle to be taken seriously, according to interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress." Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker takes us inside Donald Trump's hour-by-hour battle for self-preservation. "Far and away the biggest losers from the last decade of funding changes in HE [higher education] in England have been part-time, mature students," says Tim Holyoake. David Clarke is worried that local ...
I certainly didn't think I'd ever be embedding Nigel Farage's LBC show on this site, but the first 20 minutes of today's is well worth watching because our Vince is on there. You can't accuse him of sticking to echo chambers, that's for sure. He even agreed with him about Friday's deal. Farage has been complaining that it's not brexity enough and Vince certainly said that it looked like it could be a formula to put of leaving pretty much for ever. We know that the Tory Brexiteers are starting to wail now that they've read the small print and ...
Current Re: Collections, ed. Xanna Eve Chown Last books finished Guided by the Beauty of Their Weapons: Notes on Science Fiction and Culture in the Year of Angry Dogs, by Philip Sandifer The Bounty Trilogy, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses, by Kevin Birmingham Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Whose Cruden's Concordance Unwrote the Bible by Julia Keay Next books The World of Yesterday, by Stefan Zweig Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories, ed. John Joseph Adams A Life in Pieces, by Dave Stone, Paul Sutton & Joseph Lidster ...
The Ship Inn. A random image, found in amongst pictures of caravans and a family holiday at the seaside. The film it was on was developed in September 1968. Does anyone recognise this particular Ship Inn and could tell me where it is? I'm also intrigued by the man and the cart. I wonder if the cart was his or ... The post The Ship Inn appeared first on ten pence piece.
His entire recorded output available online in high res audio, free (for a while): the good, the bad and the absolutely essential 🙂 https://www.neilyoungarchives.com Advertisements
Are you a Lib Dem? Do you listen to a lot of podcasts to stop yourself listening to the Today programme and going mad with rage? OK, maybe that second one is just me... Anyway, if you do fit the podcast-listening-Lib-Dem demographic, you might be interested in these two:Limehouse Podcast, which is by and for Lib Dems but aims to not be too wonkish. Liberated Podcast which is "by Laura Sheeter" but has the smell of LDHQ all over it, not least because every episode just happens to feature Vince Cable. Limehouse Of the two, Limehouse has been going for ...
Time for another blast from the late great Poly Styrene, who died in 2011 The Day the World Turned Dayglo was a hit in April 1978. It comes from X-Ray Spex's first LP, Germfree Adolescents. The title track was a hit later the same year.
Over on Facebook, Pete has an interesting question:From which town/city of more than 50,000 inhabitants, would you pass through the most number of countries (added together) if you headed due north to the North Pole and due south to the South Pole, with an equal number of countries to the north and south of your starting point?Well. It's pretty clear from a casual glance at the map that the answer lies somewhere around 30° East. Indeed, Wikipedia confirms that both 27°East and 28° East pass through 21 countries: Norway Finland Russia Estonia Latvia Belarus Ukraine Moldova Romania Bulgaria Turkey Greece ...
Sun 10th
12:10
Sticky Feet snow and ice grips for shoes: just the thing for delivering in this weather
A few winters ago I finally got round to trying out slip-on snow grips for my shoes, and these 'Sticky Feet' ones work a wonder.
After some time it was finally agreed earlier this year in principle to extend North Cross Road Market from its currently 30 pitches to 50. Hooray. This has not deflected us from fixing the problems associated with the market setting up way too early, the amount of rubbish and getting it cleared away. Also the needless restricted car parking on Fridays when no market is present. All these issues and a number of others have largely been fixed. I've visited market set-up a couple of times to witness these problems but we must be super vigilant they don't return. From ...
Sun 10th
11:00
Clegg criticises May on Brexit, talks about defeat and the Westminster culture that enables bullying...
Nick Clegg gets loads of column inches this weekend. He has a long interview with Camilla Cavendish in today's Sunday Times magazine (£). They discuss Brexit, Parliament, sexual harassment and his son's Blood Cancer. He describes the serendipitous series of events that meant that he took Antonio to the GP: To this day, I don't know what possessed me to take him to the GP. It was those early days in September, you know, when you have to get kids ready for school. Miriam had to work very heavily that week, so I was at home most of the time, ...
Sat, 13:02: Brexit and the Irish border: How the Deal was Salvaged https://t.co/LVCUr3EgL8 A must-read piece. Sat, 13:20: Reminder: BSFA nominations are open, until 31 December. https://t.co/zzJGnSL7IC Sat, 14:14: RT @julianHjessop: A lot of people confuse the #ECJ (highest EU court ruling on EU law) with the European Court of Human Rights (completely... Sat, 15:11: RT @lorddeben: Telegraph headline most disgusting even they have ever printed. 'Price of Freedom' when leaving EU means less influence, les... Sat, 15:12: RT @IanMoore3000: Still the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion the world has ever seen. https://t.co/Z8RxCivvty Sat, 15:50: My travels in 2017 https://t.co/4NejtzlVU5 Sat, ...
Patreon tested their shitty new model 5 months ago And it was unpopular then. My theory: Patreon doesn't want to be a money services business There might be a legal/regulatory reason why Patreon are behaving the way they are. Still doesn't excuse them calling rich people signal and less rich people noise, though. Couple Abandon Baby Because She Received A Blood Transfusion From A Transgender Woman Oh for fuck's sake. If you're likely to go into NHS Mental Health inpatient care, try to be male, white & over 20 As my friend on Mastodon put it: "The correlation seems to ...
The advent of fake news has made the idea of collapsing trust in institutions, the media, politicians and the Earth's lack-of-flatness an even more widespread staple of punditry. But it's a bit of fake news itself.
I have said it before on this blog, it has been said by professional commentators and now the public are saying it too (or at least that is what the polls say), the obsession of ministers with Brexit means that they are neglecting other challenges facing our country. The Independent reports that the large majority of British people think the Government's struggle for a Brexit deal has become so all-encompassing that other crucial challenges have been forgotten about. The papers says that its exclusive survey by BMG Research showed some 60 per cent of people believe "important domestic issues" are ...
One of my highlights of Glastonbury this year was seeing Rag 'n' Bone Man. It was Sunday afternoon, the weather was nice, and the Other Stage was mobbed for the man who has had the biggest selling debut album of the year, and the decade's fastest selling. His overnight success has been a long time in the making, and prior to Humans he has had two album almost-album-length-EPs. Which is by way of saying that he had enough material to fill that hour long slot. Two things - other than the amount of love the crowd had for him - ...
The Scottish Government unveils its budget this Thursday. The SNP mislaid their majority in Holyrood in the elections last year so there could be a bit of drama between now and February when the Finance Bill is finalised. The last time a Budget fell was in 2009 when the Greens, to everyone's surprise, voted against. A couple of weeks later, to nobody's surprise, they voted for it but hadn't extracted anything of consequence from the Government. When John Swinney was Finance Minister, he used to engage pretty well with the other parties. Willie Rennie was able to get things like ...
One of the main ways councillors and the public can find out what is happening in Shropshire Council, and make political points, is to ask questions or deliver petitions. There are several interesting questions at next Thursday's Council meeting, including on affordable housing, recycling and business rates. The council will also consider plans to limit public questions at future meetings. One of the main ways of the public engaging with the council is through questions at full council meetings. Shropshire Council has long not been keen on them. The current rules are that a member of the public can submit ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 11 DECEMBER 2017 A85 Riverside Drive - prohibition of right turn from westbound lane of Riverside Drive into Riverside approach and prohibition of right turn from Riverside Approach in to Riverside Drive for 2 weeks for works to the sea wall. Prohibitions will only be in place when required. A85 Riverside Drive (at Railway Station) - eastbound nearside lane closure for one week for SGN essential valve maintenance and footway, drainage and kerbing works.
Mind the gap – It is often the height difference between a train door and station platform which causes difficulties for those with a disability. The Liverpool Echo has the story on it s web site – see link above How long has the Disabled Discrimination Act (DDA) been in place? Well it came into effect in 2005 and was then added to/superseded by the Equities Act of 2010 yet still people with disabilities are left at a disadvantage. Frankly it is not good enough in my book. The photo is amongst my flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Over the Christmas period bin collection days are amended to:- Week beginning 18th December No change ( General rubbish, Green bin ) Week beginning 25th December Collections put back by 2 days - ie if your usual day is Monday, the bin will be collected Wednesday etc ) ( Dry recycling, Blue bin ) Week beginning 1st January Collections put back by one day ( General rubbish , Green bin) If in any doubt, contact Northumberland County Council Don't forget that there are local recycling points scattered around the area ( Pavilion on South Newsham Rd , Isabella Centre and ...
Highlights from the livetweeting of episodes 2-5Me: it's the most hilariously terrifying thing I've ever watched. She fists a turkey till it's literally doubled in size and is an unrecognizable shape, and that's just in the first five minutes... James: It's like Delia Smith directed by David Cronenberg. Me: Sorry if you all heard James screaming JESUS GOD at the same time as me yelling WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. It was meant to be a mince pie. James's description was "non-Euclidian Big Mac". It was HUGE and terrifying. James: I present the following quote without comment. "Take a baby ...
(Inspired by this tweet, and with apologies to Gerry Davis) From the War Diaries of Jolly the Elf It all began, unsurprisingly enough, with a present. Well, I say "unsurprisingly enough", but at the North Pole we don't tend to ... Continue reading →
