This post first appeared on the Radix blog... Once upon a time, I was a member of the Lib Dem's federal policy committee. I used to irritate Danny Alexander and other luminaries by claiming that Liberals had made no contribution to economic debate since John Maynard Keynes had breathed his last in 1946. In retrospect, this wasn't terribly helpful of me, but I believe it to be true. I don't include in this stricture, of course, the so-called 'neo-liberals', who are not Liberals in any sense of the term. Their main contribution has been their scepticism about the dangers of ...
What with today being Shrove Tuesday, here is a photo of the finishing post from the pancake race held every year at Olney in Buckinghamshire. A page on the history of the race says it dates back to 1445. The film below shows the race in 1951 - no doubt still remembered as a classic. There is little evidence of pancake tossing: the women just pin back their ears and charge for the line. But the history page says they must toss their pancake once at the start outside The Bull Inn and once at the finish by the church. ...
Talking Pictures has just shown a film I have long wanted to see: Violent Playground from 1958. Tipping My Fedora describes its genesis: This story of juvenile delinquency in 1950s Liverpool was one of a series of topical dramas made by director Basil Dearden and producer Michael Relph from subjects ripped from the headlines. Since the 1940s they had alternated more commercial fare (including comedy vehicles for Peter Sellers and Benny Hill) with these properties that took on socially relevant themes with a (fairly) progressive outlook, shooting on location for a more realistic style. The best thing about Violent Playground ...
[IMG: How much respect does Trump command globally?] This great article was written by Kyra Miller who is a 20 year old studying Communication Studies at Philadelphia's Temple University. Kyra had originally published this article online at Freely Magazine, a Philadelphia-based multi-cultural media... The post How much respect does Trump command globally? appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
A new Wittgenstein aphorism has been found in the margins of a book he used to own, Julian Baggini reported in a tweet yesterday. It runs: "If you grapple with every donkey you easily become one yourself." Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was still the strongest influence on British philosophy when I did my degree at York, though his star has waned since then. His later work was rich in aphorisms of this sort. Here he was foreseeing Twitter in this one and counselling us not to spend our time arguing with random strangers with foolish views. I have stopped myself doing ...
Caron Lindsay rather jumped the gun by mentioning Afternoon Tea when she was reporting the most read Libdem blogs last week. Now is the moment: Southport is fortunate to have a goodly number of independent tea room. We do, of course have some chain operating as well. My advice is to check out the former. Let us start with Lillibets Tearoom (and here I am reviewing their pastries and not their politics.) I have to say, in my opinion, it is the best. It is situated on Lord Street. If you walk up to Lord St from the conference along ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Presently the fireworms emerged from underneath the land. They ringed me on all sides, approaching slowly. I knew I should be scared, but oddly I wasn't. I was a mere three years old or thereabouts. My curiosity was insatiable.A fairly standard post-apocalyptic landscape, with fireworms inhabiting the desertified what is currently the southwestern USA; our hero, Daystar, and his girlfriend, Shadow, have more serious problems with the Christian cultists who want them dead, mainly because they are autistic. This interesting premise is executed in the usual way, not particularly bad but not particularly memorable either. Not ...
Tue 13th
16:10
Southport's biggest employer and the impact of 750 people working in a residential area
John Pugh and I outside Smedley Hydro Over the years there have been complaints about parking in the roads around Smedley. A little background will assist in understanding the issue. This Government facility which includes the staff with the Home Office and NHS digital is Southport's biggest single employer. There are about 750 staff overwhelmingly drawn from the local area. There are only 245 car parking spaces. It is not difficult to see why residents close to the facility feel they have a problem. The issue was raised at the public Forum in Southport Town Hall and so it was ...
I'm a little burned out after completing The Glam Rock Murders, and I'm also working on the second edition of Monkee Music (which should be out in a couple of weeks), and have been doing a lot of admin stuff ... Continue reading →
From the Guardian: The foreign secretary called (the EU) a "teleological construction" that was "ends driven". He said the founding fathers of the common market decided to create a "new sense of political identity by legal means" - but claimed this went against liberal thinking. "(John Stuart) Mill would say that the national group, the group that most associate with each other, govern each other. But this was a new idea to try to transcend that." Such is the spin ahead of a major speech by Boris Johnson this week, billed as an attempt to unite Remainers and Brexiteers. Boris' ...
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Sometimes being a councillor is immensely frustrating. Here is an example of one of my current frustrations. In the great scheme of things, not the most important issue ever. It is routine, has a solution, and could be sorted out without the council spending any of its own money. But nearly 5 years after I first started asking about it, we are no further forward. So the question I have to ask is: am I being too nice? If I shouted and screamed instead of asking politely, would I have got further with it by now? I fear the answer ...
Helen Evans, former head of safeguarding at Oxfam, made damning accusations about the lack of basic processes and disregard of serious concerns she raised, the substance of which were not denied by the chief executive. In response, Baroness Sheehan, Liberal Democrat International Development Spokesperson, said: "The government must now accept that nothing short of a full and far-reaching enquiry into illegal sexual behaviour within Oxfam and across the wider aid sector, will do. "The public have a right to know what the extent of the problem is, and whether what has been exposed to date is only the tip of ...
Mon, 15:50: RT @lorddeben: Lord Digby-Jones starts with an insult, continues with an untruth, and finishes with a non-sequitur. He then expects to be t... Mon, 15:51: RT @campaignforleo: Meeting with @Number10gov Theresa May and her officials in Belfast, constructive talks on restoring power sharing and B... Mon, 16:05: RT @stephenkb: It makes sense for the Tories to try to turn 2022 into a culture war: it's just that they're doing it badly: https://t.co/sz... Mon, 16:10: RT @chrisgreybrexit: In other news: man insists it will be easy to build a perpetual motion machine, despite repeated warnings that it won'... Mon, ...
Baroness Sheehan, Liberal Democrat international development spokesperson, writes for Politics Home that the UK must lead the fight against institutionalised abuse wherever we find it. The revelations emerging about the behaviour of some staff in Oxfam, and other aid organisations, are shocking. People who were sent to rebuild communities and get people back on their feet in the wake of a major natural disaster have betrayed those very people they were sent to help. Those senior staff in Haiti who abused young women whilst they should have been helping to rebuild shattered lives after the 2010 earthquake, have rightfully shaken ...
Tue 13th
10:40
Shropshire Council to push ahead with damaging new parking regime in Ludlow despite objections
"We have had a good discussion". Those were the concluding remarks of the chair of Shropshire Council's Place Overview Committee this morning. And with that, the scrutiny committee voted not to intervene in a parking policy that is set to damage our town. This means we will have the highest parking charges in the county outside Shrewsbury. And they will apply on-street in the town centre until 8pm. In all other market towns, charging will end at 6pm. These charges are being introduced, we were told, with the support of Ludlow residents. The meeting began with a clear and forceful ...
Tue 13th
10:25
Confusion reigns over who stands for what, and not just on Brexit: Liberal Democrat Newswire #109
Lib Dem Newswire #109 includes a poll showing how the Lib Dems might rise to 18%, Jo Swinson talking about the fight for equalities, an interview with Lib Dem Voice editor Caron Lindsay and a welcome step forward for electoral reform in Wales.
The old public hall was closed in 2015 as the income the hall could generate fell well short of the maintenance and restoration costs required to bring the building up to a modern and safe standard. Rather than selling the site to a private developer the council is using its new Housing Development Company, [...]
Bury Liberal Democrats have organised a public meeting, open to all, to look at some of the current issues around leaving the European Union under the title 'Is Brexit Inevitable'. Wednesday 14 March 2018. 6.30 for 7.00pm Our Lady of Grace Church Hall Fairfax Road Prestwich. The keynote '"Is Brexit Inevitable?" will be given by Professor Dimitris Papadimitriou from the University of Manchester: "The British people have spoken" and a hard Brexit now looks inevitable. Brexit negotiations are under way but long-term economic signs don't look good right now. We will look at the challenges ahead and if the UK ...
Transport for Greater Manchester are proposing a change to the 96 bus service on Sundays only. The Sunday route currently serves Prestwich however, due to the timetable is no longer achievable and is causing reliability issues. The recommendation is that the service no longer serves Prestwich meaning there would be no service on Sundays linking Simister and the Heywood Road area to the Village. This takes effect from 8 April 2018. Please get in touch if you have any comments.
Allegations that Oxfam's aid workers used prostitutes in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2011 are shocking, need to be investigated fully, and action must be taken to ensure that it does not happen again. The exploitation of vulnerable persons in a crisis situation by people who are supposed to be there to help is unacceptable and those responsible should be removed from any position that allows them to repeat this behaviour. But this episode and any like it must not be used to cut our foreign aid budget or to diminish the UK's commitment to helping impoverished ...
A global study of traffic and congestion published by INRIX has shown that A56 from Salford up to Prestwich is the FIFTH worst road in the UK for traffic congestion, outside of London. The A6 through Stockport is the 8th worst, the A560/A6 through Salford the 10th worst. More information INRIX and this MEN article. Not something to be proud of!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42946503 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above During my time as a Sefton Councillor I was involved in pretty much all the activities which eventually led to the building of Brooms Cross Road. It all started with us marching through Thornton to try to get the new road project back on the agenda of Sefton Council. It had previously fallen off that agenda with the demise of what was then called the 'Blue Route'. That former project would have seen a great deal of tree loss through Ince Woods and it fell pretty ...
Remember this picture? Its a screen grab of a Joe Anderson website which shows that he took money from Carillion two years after condemning them!! Regular readers of this blog will have seen this picture before. It's a screen shot ... Continue reading →
I used to be a member of the Lib Dem's federal policy committee. I used to irritate Danny Alexander and other luminaries by claiming that Liberals had made no contribution to economic debate since John Maynard Keynes had breathed his last in 1946. In retrospect, this wasn't terribly helpful of me, but I believe it [...] The post The strange rebirth of Liberal economics appeared first on Radix.
I have today launched my West End Community Council Update for February - you can download this here. The Update covers the following issues : • Nethergate road surface • Miller's Wynd Car Park • Lighting - Ninewells Village to Clayhills • Hawkhill and West Port - Street Lighting The Community Council meets at 7pm tonight at the Logie & St John's (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace - included is the AGM - all welcome! The agenda is as follows : 1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES2. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT3. TREASURER'S REPORT 4. ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS5. POLICE UPDATE 6. ANY URGENT ...
I am rather surprised that the unfortunate activities of a group of OXFAM Aid workers in Haiti has been headline news for the past four days and, it seems, still counting. In case you've missed it, the group made use of prostitutes, and in a property rented by OXFAM, while they were there to provide aid and assistance after the earthquake in 2010. The furore has revealed that there may have been similar unsavoury incidents by other aid workers, not just OXFAM, in other situations. Full disclosure: I have been a financial supporter of OXFAM via a regular Standing Order, ...
When a young woman is raped and killed in a small town in America's Deep South, her mother, Mildred, rages at the local police's inability to find any suspect. After months of no progress, Mildred challenges the police and the whole of the town's largely redneck community by posting provocative messages on three battered old [...]
