This is wonderful stuff. Footage of Britain's railways matched to pop songs, radio recordings and television theme tunes from the same year. It is odd how some things date faster than others. I have a book about Romney Marsh from the 1960s that contains a photograph of the car park at the nuclear power station at Dungeness. The power station itself still looks strange and futuristic today. The cars are laughably old fashioned. Here I think that, in many cases, the railway footage appears more dated than the music sounds.
January The year began with Lord Bonkers being told by a Well-Behaved Orphan that "chimbleys is awkward things", praising Dutch Mulholland and promising to build an impenetrable, physical, deep, powerful, beautiful ha-ha. It will keep out invaders and, incidentally, keep in domestic staff.He also met the Wise Woman of Wing: Incidentally, while we were out in the garden it started to spit, but when I suggested we go indoors she replied: "I'll do my scrying in the rain."March After GCHQ warned of the danger to British political parties of Russian hacking, I had to report: Lord Bonkers tells me he ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 500th 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 (24-30 December, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed.And how amazing was that to have the 500th edition fall on Hogmanay! Here's to the next 500. The whole point of this is to showcase the best in Lib Dem blogging. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never ...
With politics no longer defined by class struggle. it seemed everyone wanted to be middle class, to own their own home and send their children to university. But there was a massive flaw
"If the Conservatives care about the future of their party they would do well to ignore the squeals coming from the swivel eyed ideologues and listen to the warning Lord Heseltine is trying to give his colleagues." George Turner believes Brexit may yet destroy the Conservative Party. Phil Wainewright says the Remain campaign in the referendum let Britain down by its complacency. Will plans to divert Metropolitan Line trains into Watford Junction hit the buffers? And if they do will it be Boris Johnson's fault? A fascinating post from London Reconnections. Passing football began in working-class Lancashire according to Conor ...
In the closing days of 2016, I made a naive assumption that 2017 would be the best year of my life. Have you ever done a similar thing? Naturally, I was wrong. 2017 would be a mixed bag for most of the year until I reached November 2017. That is when the year took a turn and became a truly terrible year. In November, I made an idiotic decision that almost led to me losing my boyfriend. It is only down to his kind heart and forgiveness that he remains by my side. Then December arrived and kicked me right ...
Just a bit of New Year's fun. Please add your own humorous predictions in the comments section [IMG: 🙂] January. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agrees a job swap with President Trump. After Donald Trump complains his tweets are being censored by the North Korean military, the entire world celebrates. Kim Jong-un imposes a strict dress code on Washington. Department stores run out of pyjamas. February. The Pope announces that Barak Obama is to be fast tracked to sainthood. Jeremy Corbyn complains he was overlooked for the role. March. The NHS says it has at last worked out why it ...
We're on the home straight now. Our second most read post of this year was actually written in 2016, but presumably became important again during the General Election. #2 How did our constituencies vote in the EU referendum? Duncan Brack's commentary on Chris Hanratty's analysis of the vote in present and former Lib Dem seats challenged the party to come up with ways to appeal to Leave voters as much as to Remain voters. Given that almost two-thirds of the seats in total (three-quarters in England and Wales) voted to leave, that's quite a strong skew towards remain-voting areas - ...
We live in 'interesting' times - I'm sure you've noticed! The politics of the Western World seems to have taken some pretty big leaps of late, and it's showing no signs of stopping. History often gets divided up into different 'periods' or 'cycles' - times where things seem to be moving in one direction, defined and punctuated by changes of direction. The fascinating thing, of course, is that you never know exactly where you are within or between such 'periods' while you're actually living through it - such definitions come much later. Different historians will have different opinions on the ...
We're back to the party leadership with our 3rd most popular post. #3 Ed Davey MP writes: My family, my party Everyone assumed Ed Davey was going to run for the party leadership. Rumours abounded that his campaign team was already in place. So when he emailed me early one morning to ask if there was space for a piece from him, I agreed, with a soon-to-be-regretted flippant comment about what it might be about. I was a bit mortified when the copy actually came in. I've come back to Westminster more determined than ever to campaign hard for the ...
Philip Hammond: could he be sacked for being too competent? (Photo: The Independent) Every year I make some predictions - inevitably some are more accurate than others. There is no real reason for doing this other than for a bit of end-of-year fun, but it's become something of a tradition and I will stick with it! How did I do last year? Why don't you take a look for yourselves? Clearly I didn't get everything right, especially on the political front, but it's becoming near-impossible to make accurate political predictions at a time when the once-unthinkable daily becomes terrifying reality. ...
I didn't make any predictions last year. I should probably have more sense than to do so this year, too. However, I am willing to sacrifice myself on the altar of entertaining you all with how horribly wrong I am about all this. ( click here for politics predictions ) ( click here for fandom predictions ) ( Click here for personal predictions ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
By the beginning of March, Donald Trump had been in power for 6 weeks and the liberal world was horrified at what he was doing. #4 Donald Trump is a dangerous and complete joke – but the joke is on the American people Paul Walter wrote a sobering piece after yet another nonsense tweet storm. If we step back, we can consider some of the people who have graced the Oval Office: Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D Roosevelt, George H W Bush, John F Kennedy, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama... and then we see this dangerous, complete ...
Usually I do not make serious New Year's resolutions — or even frivolous ones. But this year it's different. The reason is that, in my opinion, 2018 will be the make-or-break year for Brexit. And my resolution is to work as hard as I can with all Remainers to break it, before Brexit breaks Britain. [...]
Atlas stretched and flexed, but my brittle shoulders cracked; which was sadly typical – or ingrained, even entrenched. Versed in common rhetoric, I had adapted to the sweep of years but shed a flake of life at each inflection: ~ When I'd learned to feed the looping thread towards the needle's eye; ~ When I'd traced the [...]
Sunday reading Current The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis L'Équation Africaine, by Yasmina Khadra Last books finished A History of the Future: Prophets of Progress from H.G. Wells to Isaac Asimov, by Peter J. Bowler Zola and his time; the history of his martial career in letters: With an account of his circle of friends, his remarkable enemies, cyclopean labors, public campaigns, trials and ultimate glorification by Matthew Josephson Democracy and its Deficits: The path towards becoming European-style democracies in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, by Ghia Nodia with Denis Cenușă and Mikhail ...
I read 238 books this year, more than last year and about the same as in 2013 and 2007, otherwise lower than usual (full numbers: 212 in 2016, 290 in 2015, 291 in 2014, 237 in 2013, 259 in 2012, 301 in 2011, 278 in 2010, 342 in 2009, 374 in 2008, 235 in 2007, 207 in 2006, 137 in 2005). Running the Hugos has that kind of effect. March, when nominations closed, was a particularly slow month with only 5. I did manage 29 in May, and 27 in January, June and July. (I've also padded the total a ...
We're now at Number 5 in our look back at our most read posts of 2017. #5 Massive Lib Dem swing to GAIN Sunderland council seat from Labour in by-elections clean sweep In this post from January, Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton says he's doing a one-man conga in celebration at some stunning local council by-election results. In Sunderland of all places we went from zero to 41.5% of the vote to win a seat. So, two very different results. An amazing gain that few would have expected from Labour in the north. UKIP's vote fell by a third, too. ...
It's that time of year when I wipe the Christmas pudding from my crystal ball, stare hard into the tea leaves and look up at the stars, to bring you the predictions that will shape 2018. Old Timmy's Almanac will guide your way through the darkness. Or not. January After Storm Dylan fails to deposit much needed carrots over the ... The post Old Timmy's Almanac 2018 appeared first on ten pence piece.
It was 50 years ago this week that Traffic's first album Mr Fantasy entered the charts. The fruit of the band's 'getting it together in the country', it was to reach number 16. The album's origins in a cottage near Aston Tirrold in Berkshire is reflected in the title of this track - a title that could have been borrowed from a John Betjeman poem. Helping out with the backing vocals are the Small Faces - Steve Marriott's voice is unmistakable.
Sat, 12:31: A History of the Future, by Peter J. Bowler https://t.co/M951kALhOB Sat, 12:56: 2017's Biggest Conspiracy Theories https://t.co/BzVCoq55zz Worth reading. Sat, 15:01: The Life of Emile Zola (1937); Zola And His Times https://t.co/qPSGKG6CjV Sat, 15:45: RT @nickjbarlow: I like to think that there's a section of academia devoted to honours who are now having heated discussions over why they... Sat, 16:05: "Australia's priority is to trade with the EU" https://t.co/AwBiukR5qR The opportunities of Brexit!!! Sat, 16:32: Democracy and its Deficits, by Ghia Nodia et al https://t.co/OCq3bFMCCH Sat, 18:16: RT @jonlis1: Justifiable scorn here from a Head of Cabinet in ...
"They call it swatting," says grieving Wichita mother after son killed by policeI am so, SO glad that this is much harder to do in the UK A twitter thread on why women don't bother reporting sexual assaultCW, obvs. And the tl;dr is: even in places with CCTV where the assault is caught on camera, the police don't bother to prosecute. BLIMEY! The Blog of British Comics: Here we go again!Lew Stringer addresses British Comics' equivalent of the Winterval Myth 5 Absolutely Incredible Books By Female Authors That He'll Say He Just Couldn't Get Into*burny burny fire emoji* Men Resist ...
Sun 31st
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Willie Rennie's New Year message: The forces of openness and tolerance tolerance must win the argume...
In recent years we have witnessed the forces of division making advances in the court of public opinion. It has made our country more introspective and insular instead of the outward looking, optimistic nation that it has traditionally been. In 2018, it is my ambition to make sure the forces of openness and tolerance start winning the argument again. We should begin with immigration. It is good for our social fabric, our culture and our economy. Bringing people from across the globe enriches us with talented and energetic people who want to give to their new home as well as ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above Wow only days since I blogged about this very matter (see link below), based on a previous Liverpool Echo investigation we find that there are people driving local taxis whom surely we would rather not have behind the wheel. A small but shocking minority of drivers who shine a poor light on the many great taxi drivers. And how do we end up in this position? Why are inappropriate drivers not refused licences to drive our taxis? That Sefton amongst all the local councils ...
Faced with the impossible task of how to patrol Britain's borders once we leave the European Union, the UK Government has apparently hit on a wizard wheeze. As the Observer reports, the Home Office is considering proposals for a "border force of special volunteers" at small air and sea ports. The paper says that this modern day Dad's Army would be used to bolster border force staffing levels, in a similar vein to police community support officers. The main problem with this proposal is the sheer complexity of the work, involving years of training for those doing it. The border ...
Many thanks to everyone who has been a reader in 2017, whether on this site, one of my other sites, on email with Liberal Democrat Newswire and my email digests, on social media or in book and pamphlet form.
So we kick off our second half of our most popular posts of 2017 with one of the most shocking and heartbreaking. 14th June is a day etched in our collective memory as the awful day when the Grenfell fire took place. We were all so horrified. In the few days after the election, there had been some signs that all was not so harmonious in the parliamentary party. Some Lib Dem members of the House of Lords had publicly made clear their dissatisfaction with Tim Farron and there were reports of private grumblings. We may never know exactly what ...
As we look forward to 2018, science fiction has already been there. Here are six portrayals of 2018 from books, television and film, imagining the coming year as utopia, dystopia, or something in between. Lauren Beukes' first novel, Moxyland (2008), is set in a cyberpunk South Africa of 2018, where your phone is your identity (much more true now than then) and vulnerable to control by the authorities (also even more true now), while nanotechnology has advanced to the point that you can inject yourself with it for health and entertainment, and games are another means of control, providing distraction ...
Dymuniadau Gorau i chi gyd dros y Blwyddyn Newydd/ Best Wishes to you all for the New Year. 2018 will be the year of the Welsh Liberal Democrat fight back, with renewed energy in our activists, key policies which will change the lives of Welsh people, and a focus on winning seats. We want to see a Wales that has social justice as its backbone - rethinking a punitive benefits system which wages war on the poor. We want to see a Wales that looks out to Europe - leaving the EU would be a disaster for Welsh farmers and ...
