( spoilers for Star Trek Discovery JAMES DO NOT CLICK or so help me I'll never try to protect you from spoilers ever again ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Today I head that a friend, fellow LGBT+ activist and member of another political party has been suspended from a suicide prevention charity because of comments he posted linking suicide with the DUP. Just under a year ago a member of my close extended family committed suicide. Looking back at the draft I attempted to write at the time a number were trying to address that subject in a relevant way but they never really hit the mark or passed my standards for pressing publish. This time I hope this is different*. I first considered taking my life in the ...
Since I first discovered Bishop's Castle the Three Tuns has been extended and it is now a separate business from the brewery. This short news report shows them and the town as they were in 1977.
As the EU Withdrawal Bill hits the House of Lords, here is Dick Newby's speech in full: It is now a year since Your Lordships House began its debate on the Bill triggering Article 50 and 10 months since the Article was triggered. It is generally agreed that both the withdrawal agreement and the agreement on our future relations with the EU have to be concluded before the end of the year and so we are approximately half way through the entire period available for our exit negotiations. What has been achieved so far? My Lords, Virtually nothing. The Government ...
"By definition, once we have no campaigning in a majority of seats our organisation atrophies and we lose the deliverers, canvassers and all the local workers in those seats. Then, at the following election, the number of workers available to go to target seats dwindles away and the strategy doesn't even work for target seats." Michael Meadowcroft argues that targeting has mortally wounded the Liberal Democrats. Frances Coppola explains how Carillion used a British government scheme to rip off its suppliers. A lost opportunity? Rail Magazine on the closed March to Spalding line, which I travelled on as a student. ...
Getting back to the Big Finish plays I have bought but not written up, here are four First Doctor stories featuring the surviving original companion actors, released back in 2014. All but one of these is directed by Ken Bentley. Domain of the Voord, by Andrew Smith I think the only previous attempt to bring back the Voord (from The Keys of Marinus) was a story in the 1966 Doctor Who Annual. (Apparently they have returned again since 2014, in both comics and audio; and there are references to them being pitted against Irish Wildthyme in the Death Zone on ...
Embed from Getty Images In any party, or indeed any organisation, a strategy will struggle if it's seen as something for other people to do. Successful strategies are embraced throughout the organisation, and that's all the more true in organisations heavily dependent on volunteers, let along those, like the Liberal Democrats, which also believe in grassroots power. Building a core vote for the Lib Dems: the 20% strategyA strategy for rebuilding the Liberal Demcorats more So although much of the core vote strategy David Howarth and I set out is about what the party 'centrally' or 'nationally' should do, to ...
BuzzFeed News has done the British public a great service by publishing details of a leaked government assessment about the likely impact of Brexit on the British economy. The headline message is that in all three scenarios modelled by civil servants almost all sectors of the British economy and most of the UK regions will [...]
Brexit, the will of 52% of the people, now completely consumes the UK's political energy. Yet the process itself is stuck in paralysis, because it is trying to confront incontrovertible logic head on. It has hit the buffers of reality. Hence Teresa May's paralysed government, and the permanent state of internal feuding from Tory Brexiteers, who remain full of nationalist passion, but void of logical argument. The nightly appearance of their cheerleader Jacob Rees-Mogg on our TV screens needs countering with that logic. Here is some of it. 1 UK currently has the best trade deal available with the EU ...
Deep down this isn't exactly breaking news but a couple of weeks ago the fact I'm not the greatest friend in the world was hammered home in a very dramatic fashion. I can have no complaints about it but it is quite something when you sit there, look at yourself and realise you just aren't that great. Always a painful moment that. It starts like many tales do in the days of yore, oh no wait, university. At university I hung out with several people on my course for the majority of my time there. Since uni, we've met up ...
A combination of being ill and doing the Freelancer Tax Panic has left me unable to complete the Batpost I was going to post yesterday. With luck I'll be releasing The Glam Rock Murders tomorrow, and there'll be a Crisis ... Continue reading →
The fight to save the Harthill section of Calderstones Park is not over. These are just some of the people who pledged action on 29th January to stop this land being developed by Redrow Last night more than 250 concerned ... Continue reading →
My fellow colleague kicked off a fascinating debate on how the Party might progress on Sunday. Amongst the comments was a contribution from Michael Meadowcroft which, according to one of our readers, deserved to be expanded upon. It's a bit longer than our normal pieces, but I hope that it will be thought-provoking. Mark I have a fellow feeling for Paul Holmes as another of the handful of Liberals who have gained seats from Labour, but it is perverse in his situation for him to defend targeting. I have acknowledged that it arguably works once in the ruthless way it ...
I found this week's Bagehot column in the Economist interesting. It complains that Westminster is brain-dead, but that elsewhere there are signs of innovative thinking. This helps to raise the question of how to address the imbalance of Britain's (and especially England's) imbalance towards London. But it betrays some rather stale thinking. The article itself ... Continue reading British regional policy needs more government
The Lib Dems are for freedom: making everyone free to be whatever they can be. That's the golden thread running through all we do. You know that. I know that. Most electors don't know that. We're flatlining in the polls at 7-8%. Last year, thanks to ruthless targeting, we held half of our existing eight seats and picked up a few others - but most of the country became a desert to us. We can campaign in any given seat like no other party - but, by definition, we can't run targeted campaigns over the entire country. We need to ...
This is not going to be coherently reviewy, because DAMN this film is good. I had genuinely forgotten how good. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's bonkers, but it's great. It stars the stunningly gorgeous Calvin Lockhart with the kind of soul patch you just want to nibble, alongside British acting stalwarts like Michael Gambon and Peter Cushing and Charles Gray. Stylistically, it's a collision between 80s action movie (not bad for 1974), The Prisoner, and your classic Hammicus horror fillum. There's some hilarious day-for-night shooting and delicious 70s costumes. And there's a bunch of little gimmicky draw-the-audience-in ideas ...
Tue 30th
11:18
Here's what is sorely missing from the Brexit debate - and why it makes Brexit such a certainty
I know what you're thinking – there are a lot of things missing from the Brexit debate. Some realistic form of what post-Brexit Britain might look like, some of you might say. What I'm going to talk about here is what Remainers are getting wrong – and why that makes Brexit almost certain to happen, whatever you might think. In fact, the only thing that would stop Brexit now would be it simply being impossible to actually pull off given the personnel involved (this is theoretically possible), not anything the anti-Brexit crowd are doing. Remainers keep coming back to Labour ...
Mon, 12:56: Finnish Election Through Facebook Reactions https://t.co/m8FUpgEX6B A glorious piece of analysis. Mon, 16:05: French wife of Royal Marine denied residency card despite living in the UK for 24 years https://t.co/ieWgnRCglN... https://t.co/442cmgzIz7 Mon, 20:48: RT @PabloPerezA: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the EU Customs Union. This was the video created in 1968 to announce it. #Customs... Mon, 21:41: Monday reading https://t.co/NbshCHBM3D Mon, 21:43: RT @OthelloFloof: @nwbrux @profalanriley1 #EUTweetup https://t.co/WdGDCDLwR7 Tue, 10:45: Science fiction 'is a dark mental experiment' https://t.co/nQDhbKVoFu Hao Jingfang, interviewed by the BBC. Tue, 11:19: RT @BuzzFeedUKPol: Exclusive: The government's own Brexit analysis says the ...
Bury's NHS Clinical Commissioning Group is yet again consulting on the future of the Walk-In Centres. Readers will remember news in December – fairly simplistically reported by the press as 'Walk-In Centres Saved', though now we have a bit more information the truth is not quite so simple. What are the facts: Bury is going to have just ONE Urgent Treatment Centre, which will be at Fairfield Hospital in Bury. The Urgent Treatment Centre will be suitable for patients experiencing minor illnesses and injuries. Examples include minor sprains and strains, cuts and grazes, minor burns and abdominal pain. Being located ...
A few changes to the Metrolink service pattern were introduced at the start of this week. The ones which affect us are: – Airport line services (except very early morning) will start at running to Victoria (previously Deansgate-Castlefield), providing better connections and additional capacity through the regional city. – Sunday services extended by approximately an hour into the evening. More information here.
A leaked cabinet document containing the government's new analysis of the impact of Brexit has suggested that the UK would be worse off outside the European Union under every scenario modelled according to Buzzfeed. They say that the assessment, which is titled "EU Exit Analysis - Cross Whitehall Briefing" and dated January 2018, looked at three of the most plausible Brexit scenarios based on existing EU arrangements: Under a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, UK growth would be 5% lower over the next 15 years compared to current forecasts, according to the analysis. The "no deal" scenario, which ...
Two bits of local news to report on for Holyrood Ward: Heywood Court and Baguley Crescent Bins Residents who live in the flats which use communal bins in Heywood Court and Baguley Crescent have had their bin day changed from Friday to Monday for the grey bins only. Residents in one part of Heywood Court had experienced problems with bins being emptied, due to the narrow access for bin lorries. Working with the residents Management Company the Council has agreed to use a slightly narrower bin lorry which will hopefully mean the bins can be regularly emptied. To enable this ...
Hearing professionals will be on hand to offer advice during a free session for residents during Tinnitus Awareness Week (5-11 Feb). The event takes place on Friday 9 February (10.30am to 12.30pm) at Prestwich Library where Bury Audiology will give a talk about tinnitus, and other experts will answer any queries about tinnitus and hearing loss. For further information about this event please contact the Inclusion Officer on 0161 253 7512.
It's many years now since the Cheshire Lines Path was created on the trackbed of the old Cheshire Lines and Southport Extension Railway and of course it subsequently became a part of the Trans Pennine Trail. Sadly the part of the Path/Trail through the Great Altcar part of West Lancashire has not been maintained and the surface is now rough and narrow considering that it is for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The photo above illustrates one particular part of the path where agricultural vehicles regularly cross over it – this particular site is the extension to Cabin Lane off ...
I went along to the Worthing Dome at the weekend to see the film Darkest Hour, and it was extremely good – atmospheric, brilliantly acted and it reduced some of the audience around me to tears. Gary Oldman's performance is really extraordinary. But since the credits rolled, I have been trying to analyse why it worried [...] The post Yes, Gary Oldman is fantastic as Churchill, but why are we getting these films now? appeared first on Radix.
Following concerns raised by a resident with me yesterday about the damage to fencing at the side of Pleasance Court, I immediately raised this with the fence owners, Home Scotland. See photo - right : The broken fencing was lying across the public pavement at the Brewery Lane/Brook Street junction. Home Scotland's Maintenance Surveyor responded very promptly late yesterday afternoon as follows : "I have attended and removed the fence from the street. We will now organise repair / replacement. Thanks for bringing this to our attention."
Parking is among the most divisive issues in our county. Residents want restrictions and priority. Traders want flexibility. Shoppers and visitors want to park easily. Everyone wants the lowest charges, except Shropshire Council which needs to raise revenue to fund its highways work. Resolving the conflicting viewpoints means that there is good news in the council's new parking strategy but also some bad news. Some parts of the policy don't work for Ludlow at all. This article describes the changes that have been provisionally agreed to be implemented in September. A subsequent article will look at the implications for Ludlow. ...
