WalkCar was planned as the world's smallest electric car - so small it can be put in a bag and carried around with you. Just right for leaflet delivery. If it ever appears.
"On the 19th of January a group of men described as being of a certain calibre and dressed up like Penguins filed into one of the most expensive hotels in the country feeling mightily pleased with themselves." Jane Chelliah argues that the President's Club members' sense of entitlement was class based. It isn't public versus private, it is small versus big, says David Boyle. Nick Wates on the Battle of Tolmers Square - with the help of some remarkable photographs. In the 1970s these Camden properties were occupied after the council attempted to evict local residents and sell the land ...
Without a doubt, the NHS has a doctor recruitment problem. Depending on your point of view, it can be described as anything from a shortage to a crisis. In Gateshead we have had to close at least one GP surgery because it was impossible to recruit a new GP after one left a practice which was already suffering from being one GP short. Our hospitals suffer from similar doctor shortages.
Before I start this blog post proper, a complaint about Rhino's customer service. Skip to RANT ENDS if you want to just read the review: I should have written this post a month ago. This box set is only orderable ... Continue reading →
Our Gateshead tabloid arrived back from the printers today. I picked up 12,000 to transport them to those responsible for distribution in three wards. Other wards made their own way to the collection point in Newcastle to collect their copies. I'm pleased to say that delivery through people's doors has already started!
Second paragraph of third section: Het is 1976, zomer, de zomer die in het geheugen van een generatie zou worden geprent door de uitzonderlijke warmte en droogte. Hij is oud; hij heeft de afgelopen dertien jaar aan deze memoires geschreven, met tussenpozen. Soms liet hij het schrift ook weken liggen, een enkele keer zelfs een half jaar; dat was toen hij over zijn derde kwetsuur moest schrijven, en het verraad van de officieren, zoals hij het noemde. Naast hem liggen zijn decoraties, die heeft hij vandaag weer even bovengehaald omdat de herinneringen zo levendig waren. Toevallig is met de beschrijving ...
Wednesday wasn't supposed to turn out like it did. I'd already made work commitments and personal plans for 2018. A few days driving around the Border 500. A trip to the Edinburgh Fringe. A holiday in Cyprus. Theatre trips. A little bit of politics. It's all going to have to wait for 2019 instead. While the lumps on the left ... The post The beast is awake appeared first on ten pence piece.
Back in December the street light (No 5) went out in Grantham Close and the elderly residents in the maisonettes reported it to the council. Opposite their homes the is a big open space and, understandably, they were concerned that the unlit street made them insecure. The darkest and longest nights of the winter passed and there was no action from Sefton council despite residents chivvying the council. As I write the light is still out. This is an unacceptable level of service from the council. Street lighting plays an important part in helping residents feel safe. The housing development ...
A solitary by-election this week to round out January, as head across the Solent to the Isle of Wight, a former Liberal/Lib Dem stronghold which provided us with a very pleasing result considering we hadn't had a candidate in the ward since 2009. Overall in January, we stood candidates in 8 out of 10 by-elections, giving us a total vote of 13.2% (up 5.9% on previous corresponding elections), although this rises to 21.6% (up 9.9% on previous corresponding elections) if you look at the by-elections we fought. Proof, in case any of you needed it, that you should always stand ...
Let me start with a story, which has to be a little obscure to protect the innocent. The government has a Voluntary Repatriation Scheme for asylum-seekers and refugees who find their home has changed, and who get employment back there. The scheme is administered by the Home Office, who hang on to the passports of those involved until the very last minute, in case they skip away. It so happens that a friend of mine has applied to go home under this scheme. He is vulnerable because, after the traumatic scenes he witnessed, violence to his family back home, he ...
[IMG: The sense of entitlement by the President's Club members was class based] On the 19th of January a group of men described as being of a certain calibre and dressed up like Penguins filed into one of the most expensive hotels in the country feeling mightily pleased with... The post The sense of entitlement by the President's Club members was class based appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
The Presidents Club Dinner has been in the news this week, but I was reminded that this was not the only example of a men only dinner for powerful men at which women were there to provide little more than decoration and entertainment. Two years ago, Caroline Pidgeon spoke out when the TfL chairman managed to attend 3 dinners without noticing that there were no women there. I wrote at the time: Transport for London boss Sir Peter Hendy is under fire after he accepted an invitation to attend not one, or two, but three dinners from which women are ...
The pension implications of the collapse of Carillion are scandalous – as well as tragic for the people involved. Senior management used cash, debt and asset sales to pay out dividends and significant senior management salaries while starving both the business and its pension fund. Between 2012 and 2016, Carillion paid out dividends of £376 million while [...] The post It isn't a few bad apples – it's the stupid system appeared first on Radix.
The President's Club, MeToo and a difficult conversation | Girl on the Net This is an excellent article. 98 Grenfell Tower families still stuck in hotels, figures show | HeraldScotland Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox takeover of Sky not in public interest, UK regulator says And they're right. LBC under pressure to sack Nigel Farage over false on-air statements "Management at the station believe that the continuing controversy surrounding Farage is a "price worth paying" for the attention he gathers, one source said." That's his entire career. And Hatie Hopkins. And Rod Liddle. And Quentin Twat. And Julia Hateful-Bigot. And ...
Thu, 12:56: Ursula K Le Guin obituary https://t.co/H38ZAN9eBE by John Clute. Thu, 13:29: RT @leighblue: PR agency: I've got good news and bad news. CEO: good please PR: we've got some coverage in the FT for your charitable activ... Thu, 16:05: Why the status quo is far more dangerous than a settlement https://t.co/zHu38IPcAq The wise Fiona Mullen on economi... https://t.co/8PEw98eUDV Thu, 18:25: Hamilton in London https://t.co/iWC0u7ku3V Thu, 20:48: RT @Dimitrov_Nikola: Shallow nationalism feeds on fear and prejudice. Visionary patriotism is about courage, hope and good will. We surely... Thu, 21:18: Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart https://t.co/HDBsoN6ETT ...
We had a presentation at the start of the Gateshead Council meeting yesterday about the Great Exhibition of the North. While the presentation was taking place, I caught in the corner of my eye a man standing at the edge of the well of the chamber. My first thought was that he was there to be part of the presentation. But it quickly dawned on me that someone dressed in black leather and wearing
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day tomorrow, here's Christine Jardine's speech from the Commons debate last week. It is an honour to take part in this debate in remembrance of an event that, in its own way, challenges the power of words adequately to express the horror and sorrow of the holocaust. Three years ago I visited the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel. As I was taken around that remarkable monument, the experience was at times emotional, as well as inspiring and thought-provoking throughout. It is a dark, oppressive space—a tunnel in a hillside—and as we travelled through it, guided as ...
An impressive line-up of London MEPs and other senior politicians gathered at the Irish Culture Centre in Hammersmith last night at an event organised by the Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea branch of the European Movement. Charles Tannock MEP (Conservative), Mary Honeyball MEP (Labour) and Jean Lambert MEP (Green) were joined by former [...]
The Cardiff Bay bubble is a curious place, full of secrets and rumours, whispering campaigns and personal vendettas. I suppose it is what you get when you lock away 60 politicians, their staff, dozens of lobbyists and a handful of journalists together for a couple of days and nights each week, cut them off from the real world and provide them with a platform to pursue their own agendas and prejudices. This strange game spills out into the bars and restaurants around the Assembly, except that it is no longer a game. Somebody has died and the players are turning ...
They are probably the most controversial part of the new station with the Mersey Avenue residents who will be living next to it:- Presently the towers are just concrete boxes but they will look a little different when complete – something like this:- Here's another shot of the work on the new Maghull North station (taken on 25th January) from the Park Lane over-bridge:- The first photo is also amongst my Flickr shots at:-
I have discovered a new word—Whataboutery. I would like to claim that I coined it. But that would be a lie. It is in the esteemed Oxford English Dictionary which says the word has been around since the 1970s. I just missed it. However, it is missing from the pages of America's premier lexicon Webster's. So perhaps I can claim the credit for introducing it into the American vocabulary. All that is by the by, the real issue is what is it about whataboutery that has struck my fancy and what is its definition. The OED defines whataboutery as follows: ...
Fri 26th
08:34
Dangerous, misogynistic, racist Trump is deserving of the protests he will undoubtedly face
Responding to reports that a UK visit from Trump will happen later this year as details are being 'finalised', Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, said: "Trump is a dangerous, misogynistic racist and is deserving of the protests he will undoubtedly face. "If and when he comes to the UK the Liberal Democrats will be at front and centre of the protests."
New figures show that violence and self-injury in prisons have reached record highs Data released by the Ministry of Justice demonstrates a 12% rise in incidences of both self-injury and assaults over the past year in prisons in England and Wales. Over the last 12 months there has been a 15% increase in the number of self-harm incidents requiring hospital attendance. Lord Jonathan Marks, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson, said: "The Government's continued failure to get violence and self-harm in our prisons under control is utterly disgraceful. The new Minister for Prisons, Rory Stewart, must make this his top priority. "The ...
In September, I highlighted that, at the request of residents, I had asked the City Council to add a short extension to the handrail down the east side of the pavement of Pennycook Lane - at Pennycook Court sheltered housing - so the rail would go right down to the flat pavement of Perth Road. I am pleased to say this was agreed to and has now been installed - see below :
The latest National House Building Council statistics say that there has been a 6% growth in the number of new homes built in 2017 on the previous year. Responding, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: "A 6% increase to 160,000 homes still leaves the country a long way short on the 300,000 a year everyone now agrees is necessary to provide some stability to the market and provide hope to would-be first time buyers. "This modest increase in new houses is dwarfed by the hike in bonuses enjoyed by housebuilding executives, fuelled by the flawed Right-to-Buy scheme."
