So how was it for you? 2017 I mean! For me it was not a vintage year. My Dad died in May and his sister, my Auntie Hazel, died on Christmas Day. My friend Richard has been in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for most of the second half of the year. He was rushed in by ambulance in early July and on his times out of hospital, David and I have been his carers. Much of what I planned for the second half
The first of a planned series of posts on Crisis on Infinite Earths. Patreon backers will get a bonus post tomorrow on John Byrne's Man of Steel to go with it.
When I was a student at York there was a train that left at two in the morning for Edinburgh. A couple of friends and I decided that, after finals, we would catch it. And so we did. I remember wandering around Edinburgh in the very early morning sun and then dozing for the rest of the day. We got as far as Aberdeen, and this photograph must have been taken on that day in 1981. It shows my train setting out gingerly across the Tay Bridge. In those days it was commonplace to lean out of a train window ...
There are six days left to watch the "Classic Albums" documentary on Don McLean's "American Pie" from BBC 4. It is a fantastic programme with McLean himself plus the musicians and producer involved talking about the album. Of course, it has some great stuff on the title track. Advertisements
Mon 1st
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How an argument over lumpy mash potato sparked one of the most beautiful ballads ever created
The wonderful BBC archive throws up this brilliant 1997 interview with Kathy Etchingham, who was Jimi Hendrix's live-in girlfriend for several years. Under the series "You probably think this song is about you", Ms Etchingham explains how a domestic argument between the two, over her cooking skills, led to the creation of "The Wind Cries ... Continue reading How an argument over lumpy mash potato sparked one of the most beautiful ballads ever created
At the time of his death last summer, James Davidson was the oldest surviving Liberal MP. Yet few Lib Dem members my age or younger knew anything about him. Which was a shame, because he lived a remarkable life. Davidson, who represented West Aberdeenshire between 1966 and 1970, is profiled in a BBC News feature on MPs who died in 2017. And that feature refers us to his Scotsman obituary, where you can read more about him: As he once observed, with a considerable degree of understatement, life is full of surprises - none more so than finding yourself on ...
1, Work towards making sure as few of my depressing political predictions come true as possible. I genuinely think that things will get worse before they get a lot worse - I am a clinical depressive, mind - but that's not going to stop me trying to prevent it. And it seems I'm not alone: the lovely Lady Mark has started work on #5 already. 2, Keep up to the dog walking schedule that I have mostly (with a lot of help from Alisdair) been keeping up to the last couple of months. It's made such an appreciable difference to ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Denn man dachte anders über die Dinge vor dreißig und vierzig Jahren als in unserer heutigen Welt. Vielleicht auf keinem Gebiete des öffentlichen Lebens hat sich durch eine Reihe von Faktoren - die Emanzipation der Frau, die Freudsche Psychoanalyse, den sportlichen Körperkult, die Verselbständigung der Jugend - innerhalb eines einzigen Menschenalters eine so totale Verwandlung vollzogen wie in den Beziehungen der Geschlechter zueinander. Versucht man den Unterschied der bürgerlichen Moral des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, die im wesentlichen eine victorianische war, gegenüber den heute gültigen, freieren und unbefangeneren Anschauungen zu formulieren, so kommt man der Sachlage vielleicht ...
And so, the end is here. This will be the last 'Cable from Korea'. Tomorrow I leave this country for the UK. Friday was my last day at work. I intend to live elsewhere for the foreseeable future. I am sure that this is the right decision but that doesn't make it an easy one. [...]
Welcome, Andrew Marshall: I've joined the Liberal Democrats. An open, tolerant country. Social market economics. Broadening opportunity. Britain in Europe. Constitutional reform. Internationalist, concerned for our planet. @LibDems @CamdenLibDems — Andrew Marshall (@AndrewIMarshall) January 1, 2018 As local Liberal Democrat activist James King puts it, Delighted that such an experienced and respected Camden councillor has joined the Lib Dems. Our door is open to other former Conservatives, who want to fight for an open, liberal UK and against hard Brexit. Traffic to the Liberal Democrats is not only from Conservative ranks, it's also from Labour ranks – fuelled by Jeremy ...
Regrettably, I believe that this failed development in Norfolk Street will be one of many when Liverpool's speculative property boom turns to bust Over the past few months I have been inundated with e-mails from around the world relating to ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Why I will be talking to Liberals about race in 2018] I am no longer going to be silent about racism. I am no longer going to pretend that racism is a thing of the past. Racism never went away. Ask any person of colour. Racism... The post Why I will be talking to Liberals about race in 2018 appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
Sun, 12:56: English Handwriting 1500-1700: An Online Course https://t.co/wtnoeaeqpB Bookmarking this for future use. Sun, 12:57: RT @jonnymorris1973: But my greatest twitter achievement of 2017 has to be the week I was laid up with norovirus and did a complete* guide... Sun, 13:21: My books of 2017, including a poll https://t.co/Xf6rES2QqZ #animateeurope Sun, 16:05: Statement on Visit to the USA, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and... https://t.co/DVT6B7FslT Sun, 16:42: Last Jedi - at last! (at @Kinepolis in Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant) https://t.co/MzdPN7K6GJ Sun, 20:03: I just published "What to expect in 2018, according to science fiction" ...
Ministers consider using volunteers to guard UK bordersJesus Christ. Because the sort of people who would volunteer to do that won't be racist AT ALL. The best science long reads of 2017 (part one) - BBC NewsCW: there's animal trafficking in there. The best science long reads of 2017 (part two) - BBC NewsMinimum wage would be £26,000 if rate matched executive pay rises, GMB findsmiss_s_b | Predictions for 2018I posted my Predictions for 2018 (they're not very cheery) miss_s_b | Filling In Speaker's Cards For Lib Dem Conference: A User's GuideThis is my favourite blog post wot I wrote ...
2018 is, for the optimists, the year when the wheels come off of the Brexit chariot for once and for all. The process of negotiating "the best possible deal for the United Kingdom" obliges the Government to face up to the brutal reality that the European Union has to hold together at all costs, and that means an outcome for us that is less good than the current arrangements. Then, as rational people, Conservative MPs will look into the abyss and realise how bad things might be. I'm not so sure. Remember, most of them campaigned, with various levels of ...
Crossens Saturday, 13th January, St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens, from 11am to 12 noon. Churchtown Thursday, 25th January, BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt cafe, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30am to 11:30am. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in.
I am tired so here is some party political propaganda until tomorrow. Happy New Year everybody.
Embed from Getty Images The Evening Standard wins Headline of the Day on New Year's Day.
Welcome to my email service Polling UnPacked. This brings you the best and latest news about British political opinion polling from a range of different experts direct to your inbox: Email* Name* First Last Click here for legal/privacy information.PhoneThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Submit This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. Polling UnPacked is different in two key ways from my range of other email lists. First, it's a carefully curated selection of stories from others, with just the occasional story from myself. I've also gone for including stories ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above This article in the Echo brought back memories of our trip on a City Explorer Tour Bus (with Maghull's very own Phil Marshall as the tour guide) and my blog posting about it from last August. Here's the link to that posting:-
One of the unexpected advantages of being the Day Editor on New Year's Day is that you can, perhaps, make a resolution for the year ahead. And nobody can stop you... Mwah, hah, hah, hah... And it dawns on me that, as the person technically responsible for moderation today, I have the tools at my disposal to actually change a small corner of the Internet, and make it a better place, if only for a little while. Call it "taking a stand for decency", if you like. Or, as someone is bound to say, "censorship"... (you're wrong, in the nicest ...
The Liberal Democrats have warned that plans for volunteer border guards would expose Britain's soft underbelly in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. The Home Office has confirmed proposals for "border force special volunteers" at small air and sea ports, who would be unpaid and have no powers to interrogate or arrest suspects. It recently emerged that the budget for UK border force will be cut again in 2017/18, from £565m to £552m. The number of border guards has been cut from 8,153 in 2014/15 to 7,574 this year. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey commented: "Now we ...
Vince Cable has said it is difficult to see how Chris Grayling can survive as Transport Secretary if criticisms made by Lord Adonis over bailing out the East Coast rail franchise are correct. Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said: "This is a lethal criticism of the Transport Secretary's mishandling of rail franchises. "It would appear that the government is handing out millions of pounds in subsidy to Virgin Rail and Stagecoach for failing to meet their financial objectives. "This makes a complete mockery of the entire principle of rail franchising, that companies compete and take a hit if they miscalculate ...
Yes, it's time to say goodbye to 2017, and hello to a brand new year. On behalf of the whole Liberal Democrat Voice team, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and hope that you've enjoyed the festive season so far. It will be another quiet day at LDV Towers, made more so by the fact that your Day Editor is five hours adrift – I'm off out to dinner in about an hour. But remember, we welcome your comments, contributions and support, so do feel free to let us have your thoughts!
