Taken on a holiday in 1999. Wikipedia explains: The Quiraing (in Gaelic: A' Chuith-Raing) is a landslip on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, the northernmost summit of the Trotternish on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The whole of the Trotternish Ridge escarpment was formed by a great series of landslips; the Quiraing is the only part of the slip still moving - the road at its base, near Flodigarry, requires repairs each year.
A psephologically and geographically pleasing set of 4 local by-elections this week, with 1 Tory, 1 Labour, 1 LD and 1 Independent defence, from Bolton in the North West to Bournemouth in the South West and Rochford in the South East. Also pleasing from our perspective is the full slate of candidates. A huge thank you to last night's brilliant team of volunteers who came to 23 New Mount Street in Manchester to make calls at ALDC's By-election HQ. It's always good fun with such a lovely team - if you haven't been yet please come and join our winning ...
Jim Rodford, a founder member of Argent, a member of The Kinks for many years and a member of The Zombies in recent years, has died. Rod Argent writes on The Zombies facebook page: It is with deep sadness that I learned this morning that my dear cousin and lifelong friend, Jim Rodford, died this morning after a fall on the stairs. More details are not yet known about the exact cause of death. Jim was not only a magnificent bass player, but also from the first inextricably bound to the story of The Zombies. An enormous enabler for us. ...
This is the second article on my misadventure with a stroke and my adventures in Hereford Hospital (the first article). It has some serious messages but it also tells of the funnier moments and the wonderful camaraderie amongst the medical staff in a challenging environment. Within hours of arriving in A&E, I was moved to the acute stroke unit on Wye Ward. I couldn't stand up and was transferred into a bed using a Pat Slide. The bay I was in was mixed and was occupied at that point by two men and two women. I write more on mixed ...
Sat 20th
19:15
Still my favourite non-electronic gadget: a Stirling engine for your coffee/tea/hot chocolate
Welcome to my toy Stirling engine. It gets a good turn of speed with just a small nudge to overcome initial friction. Turn up the volume to hear just how fast it is turning by the end.
You Can't Take It With You won the Academy Award for Outstanding Production of 1938; there were nine other nominees, but the only one I was aware of was the Pygmalion with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. It got nominations in six other categories, Frank Capra winning for Best Director. The only film from the same year that I can remember having seen before is The Lady Vanishes, which I hunted down long ago because supporting characters Charters and Caldicott briefly got their own TV series in the 1980s. IMDB's two ratings systems rank different Cary Grant / Katherine Hepburn ...
Michael Portillo has bought a brand new red "pixelated" jacket for a new series of "British Railway Journies", available on BBC iPlayer. In Episode 15, available on iPlayer for the next 29 days, the man with arguably the best job, and the worst jackets, in the world travels by chuff-chuff from Criccieth to Caernarfon. Just near Criccieth, at Llanystumdwy, where David Lloyd George grew up, he meets the great man's grandson, Bengy Carey Evans at the David Lloyd George museum. Bengy Carey Evans recalls that his grandfather never took credit for anything and said: I didn't win the war. Three ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 19-01-2018 I posted The Blood is the Life for 19-01-2018 to my dreamwidth blog The 29 Stages Of A Twitterstorm In 2018 This is PAINFULLY accurate. Poor William Price-Hound. Jo Swinson debates ethics and artificial intelligence - and suggests the Lovelace Oath She's so good. PleaseDon'tBeAMilkshakeDuck. PleaseDon'tBeAMilkshakeDuck. PleaseDon'tBeAMilkshakeDuck. Why you should check email less often, and how to do it I've been trying to do this for about 3 years. Definitely has helped my mental health. TalkTalk most complained-about broadband provider Post Office worst for Landline and Vodafone worst for mobile. Twitter ...
According to i-News, the first tranche of the £1 billion secured by the DUP as part of its deal with the Tories is already being spent, despite the fact that Parliament has not authorised the expenditure as the Government said would be necessary. The news site has been told by the Treasury that the Confidence and Supply Agreement is subject to the full authorisation of the UK Parliament through supply estimates which will take place soon. However, in late November, the Department of Finance said that £20 million "is being drawn down now from the Treasury" and on Monday the ...
I'm getting rather excited about the plans coming together for a very different sort of event for Liberal Democrat members: Launchpad. It is being piloted in February in Sheffield and London, one on the weekend and one on a weekday evening. Your Liberal Britain, which has pioneered excellent and successful innovation in the way party members are involved in our policy process, is working with party HQ to put these on. Launchpad is an exciting new Members-only event hosted by the Liberal Democrats & Your Liberal Britain, that gives you a chance to share your policy ideas, get the latest ...
Fri, 16:05: Taking full benefit of supercomputers in Europe https://t.co/Vzh9WL3LVb Interesting thoughts from Commissioner @GabrielMariya. Fri, 18:18: "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber https://t.co/amz0PaQvFt Fri, 21:23: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2018 BC, 4m-8m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 3km/s, missing by 282,000km. https://t.co/8c2irAFqld Sat, 05:26: RT @joncstone: Instead of a bridge duplicating the Channel Tunnel, what about a high speed rail line linking Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast an... Sat, 10:26: RT @bbcdoctorwho: Break out the jelly babies - it's Tom Baker's birthday! 🎁 #DoctorWho https://t.co/JCoHdbljXs Sat, 10:45: To Be, or Not to Be, by Masha Gessen https://t.co/6aBvLj9Ch8 A fantastic piece. ...
As millions of cinema goers view The Darkest Hour - a concerted attempt to conscript our national hero Winston Churchill is once again attempted by Conservative Brexiteers. Conservative Home carried this attempt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U3KBNMsPTQ They neglect to say that Winston Churchill supported not just Britain being in the heart of Europe but the creation of United States of Europe with Britain leading the way. Winston Churchill was for a key part of his political life a Liberal MP from 1904 to 1924, a free trader and a Francophile. He even suggested in June 1940 at the Fall of France Union ...
Flora Page joined the Labour Party in 2015, but has now decided to switch to the Liberal Democrats. Blogging about her reasons, Europe features and she also explains that part of her reason is a reaction to the hostile polarisation of British politics: I believe in compromise, not just as political necessity but as politically desirable. I'm proud of the British tradition of organic development, muddling along, fudging it and finding compromises. I'm disturbed by the apparent trend towards subscribing to belief systems which make it impossible to co-exist peacefully alongside those who do not subscribe. And how to turn ...
Responding to reports in The Telegraph that David Lidington has said the UK could rejoin the EU in the future, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said: "Whilst I welcome David Lidington's suggestion that the UK could rejoin a reformed EU, it would be more effective for the UK to be at the heart of that reform process from the outset. The UK, which has always been very influential in the EU, is best placed to play a part in driving reform by remaining a member. "As a Liberal Democrat, I want people to have control over the future of ...
Sheila and I attended another packed out talk at Crosby Library last Wednesday, this time all about the Second World War Blitz of Bootle and its docks. It was a compelling talk with a lot of information to take in despite the talk leader saying it was only a broad brush overview of the bombing of Bootle. There were people in the audience who had lived through the Blitz and/or had lost relatives in it. One matter covered was the bombing of Bedford Road School and the fact that the clock in the school stopped at the time the bombs ...
You can't be truly free if you are constantly fighting illness without the support that you need. That is why Liberal Democrats are so passionate about making sure that people have the right mental health support. For five years during the coalition years, Liberal Democrat ministers were at the helm of pushing through positive change. Norman Lamb, as the Minister responsible, totally got it. Of the many things he did, the Crisis Care Concordat was a really good example of helping people when they most needed it . He also fought for parity of esteem between physical and mental health. ...
I recently received complaints from residents about the slippy state of the pavement in West Marketgait near the junction with Hawkhill - see photo - caused by leaves. I have reported this to the council's Neighbourhood Services seeking these being cleaned up - along with similar complaints in other streets such as Roseangle.
Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen, the new novel by James Goss, has an unusual and rather tortuous history. A few years back, BBC Books published Shada, a novelisation by Gareth Roberts of a script Douglas Adams had written for Doctor ... Continue reading →
