The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, which runs from Duffield to Wirksworth in Derbyshire, held a diesel event this weekend. The most interesting visitor was the Warship D832 'Onslaught'. These class 42 locomotives, known as Warships because that was what they were all named after, ran on British Rail's Western Region between 1958 and 1972.
This evening I had the great honour to attend the London memorial for Dmitri Hvorostovsky, organised by the Royal Opera House. It was a wonderful celebration of his life and work. All the singers, musicians, and Covent Garden staff performed for free, which on its own was a great testament to how much he was [...]
Embed from Getty Images From today's Sunday Times (behind its paywall): Senior Labour MPs appalled by Jeremy Corbyn's performance over the Salisbury poisoning have been in secret talks with the Liberal Democrats and at least one Conservative MP about forming a new political party called Start Again. Plans for a new pro-European centre party have been openly discussed as part of cross-party discussions on Brexit, according to sources present. One of those involved in the plotting — a former member of the shadow cabinet — told The Sunday Times that Corbyn's refusal to blame Russia for the attack would cause ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 511th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (11-17 March, 2018), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. One of the wards up for election ...
Testing over, now launched for real: my weekly-ish Facebook Messenger service is now up and running. The idea is to send people one piece of high-quality content a week that's suitable for sharing on Facebook to help get the party's key messages out. Just sign up with Facebook Messenger here: https://m.me/199674550052349?ref=botletter. Then once a week or so you'll get a message appear in your Messenger inbox with a simple link through to sharing a piece of content. Tap, tap and bingo! Our messages get ready by more people. Many thanks to the kind colleagues who helped test it. Any remaining ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:During those two years, an obscure and unassuming undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, completed his studies. Hoping to avoid the plague, he returned to the house of his birth, from which his mother managed a farm. His father had died shortly before he was born, and he had been brought up by his maternal grandmother. Perhaps inspired by rural peace and quiet, or lacking anything better to do with his time, the young man thought about science and mathematics. Later he wrote: 'In those days I was in the prime of my life for invention, and ...
Liberal Democrats in Statford on Avon have selected Dominic Skinner as their new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC).
Sun 18th
14:00
Martin Horwood writes...The real issue about Trump, Facebook's 'data breach', why The Observer misse...
The Observer's front page today lays into Facebook for a massive 'data breach' in which 50 million Americans' data were harvested by the infamous Cambridge Analytica and used with great effect to target Trump messaging at US voters. They "built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons" their whistleblower Christopher Wylie is quoted as saying. It was a powerful tool for a campaign based on fear and paranoia. Little surprise then that Cambridge Analaytica is also being investigated by the Office of the Information Commissioner and by the Electoral Commission in the UK in ...
On Friday, MPs kept alive a Bill proposed by the SNP's Angus MacNeil aimed at reuniting refugee families. The debate was one of those which makes you proud of MPs from all parties. The Bill had support from Conservative, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrat MPs. Ed Davey, Alistair Carmichael and Layla Moran all made interventions. Tim Farron made a really powerful speech. His leadership was marked by his constant and passionate pressure on the Government to do more to help refugees and it's something that he still continues to pursue. Here's his speech in full. I will try to be ...
R.E.M. were huge in the 1990s - arguably the biggest band in the world. Listening to their music now makes you yearn for a decade when the good guys seemed to be winning. I Believe is a track from the 1986 album Life's Rich Pageant. The band specialised in songs with lyrics that sounded significant but resisted explication, leaving listeners to supply their own meaning. Still, "I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract" sounds like the beginning of a serviceable creed.
Sun 18th
11:30
Because I'm in bed poorly I mainlined the entirety of Jessica Jones series 2 yesterday...
... here are my disjointed thoughts (there's not many because my brain is on anti-flu drugs) ( filled with spoilers, natch ) Overall, I liked it. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Sun 18th
11:21Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower used to work for Lib Dems and warned us of our 2015 demise
The Cambridge Analytica data story that's been unfolding is equally fascinating and terrifying. Today, the Observer has an interview with the whistleblower Christopher Wylie. He's only 28, but he's worked for the Canadian Liberals, the Obama campaign and the Liberal Democrats. At 19, he taught himself to code, and in 2010, age 20, he came to London to study law at the London School of Economics. "Politics is like the mob, though," he says. "You never really leave. I got a call from the Lib Dems. They wanted to upgrade their databases and voter targeting. So, I combined working for ...
The day it finally sinks in that dude "informal" friend networks are the main vehicle by which women are "innocently" and systematically excluded from professional advancement will be a big day for humanityTweet, but contains pertinent image and link 🔸️🔶️Jennie Rigg🔶️🔸️ on TwitterI was quite proud of this twit TBH What does your knee's inside sound like? - BBC NewsIf it's my left one, according to various medical professionals, it sounds like "creppin" miss_s_b | Report Back From Federal ConferenceReminder that FCC collects informal conference feedback, as well as that submitted by the email survey, so if you have any ...
Sat, 12:27: RT @guyverhofstadt: For a family of four this registration process could cost £290. The European Parliament and I think it should be free.... Sat, 12:56: Will the unity of the 27 crack? https://t.co/jHFfWPhWje Probably not. Sat, 15:25: Arthur C. Clarke Submission List - Goodreads/LibraryThing stats https://t.co/FgsRYMEKfn Sat, 16:05: Married couple in China discover they appeared in same photograph as teenagers https://t.co/HMy2lyIgqj Awww. Sat, 17:56: Ireland and Doctor Who (�ire agus an Docht�ir C�) https://t.co/TgCxXrjfnd #390 Sat, 18:03: #doctorwho #DoctorWhoInIreland 1) No televised Doctor Who story is set in Ireland. But Tom Baker visited Derry and... https://t.co/BDHRmgaQGA Sat, 18:44: ...
Anybody who has been following the spoof Trumpton Twitter account will be delighted to learn from today's Observer that its progenitor, illustrator and author Mike Dicks is to launch a Brexit comic featuring some of the regular Twitter characters, including the Reverend May and her Brexit Gang, David Dealin' Davis and Boris "Captain Brexit" Johnson. The comic will go into circulation next month, loosely based on the classic 1960s children's TV programme Trumpton. Mike Dicks has raised £4,400 via crowdfunding to pay for the first edition, which will be posted to donors and supporters by 1 April: Dicks, a former ...
A snowbound Maghull (not Maidstone East Station) Station with an Ormskirk train approaching – from 2010 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGqdV9A0Zns For those of you who like both trains and snow a excellent You Tube video, which I have just come across, of a bad winter back in 1987. Enjoy
A few days ago, I got a bright email from our party's new Head of Membership and Member Engagement, Greg Foster. You may well have had it too if you are a party member. Its purpose is to advertise a new survey tool that the party is trialling. It is basically a chatbot asking you questions in Messenger. I had to have a go. It felt very weird to be interacting with a bot, but I soon found myself typing away in relaxed and conversational tone with it as it asked me about my history in the party, what prompted ...
Seen in a field just off Broad Lane in Downholland last Sunday:- Downholland is the Civil Parish to the north of Lydiate; it's in West Lancashire not Sefton Borough as is Lydiate. This one of those situations where you scratch your head and wonder how on earth the car got there. There did not seem to any tyre tracks off the road, it was as though the car had just been placed in the middle of the ploughed field.
Nice to see the Lydiate boundary sign now fully back up and ready to receive a Lydiate in Flower plant trough later on this year. My previous postings refer.
Further to my recent update about recycling changes in much of the West End other than the Perth Road Lanes area, this is just a reminder that the first drop in information session event for the West End is tomorrow. Here's our local details and a poster below - all welcome! Blackness Library 19th March 4.30pm to 6.30pm Tesco Riverside 29th March 12 noon to 3pm
