A walk with Iain Sinclair from Shooters Hill and the Shrewsbury burial mound to Charlton House and Maryon Park, where we see the locations used in Antonioni's Blow Up.
If you doubt the Labour Party has a problem with anti-Semitism, take a look at the motion debated by its Bristol West constituency party this week. (It was defeated by 108 votes to 84.) It includes these words: when people see inequality, ecological disaster and war alongside the accumulation of unprecedented wealth, in the private hands of a few, it is reasonable that they seek out explanations.Given that this motion was condemning the constituency's Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire for joining a demonstration against anti-Semitism in the party, there is only one construction I can put on them. It is saying ...
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This is my review of Chris Rennard's memoirs from the current issue of Liberator. Since you ask, you can subscribe to the magazine via its website. Winning Here - My Campaigning Life: Memoirs Volume 1 Chris Rennard Biteback Publishing, 2018, £25 When Phil Reilly left his job as the Liberal Democrats' director of communications last November, he announced the decision in a post on Lib Dem Voice. Writing of the first leaders' debate in the 2010 general election, he said: That night changed the course of our party's fortunes, but it also changed my life. I had joined the press ...
Embed from Getty Images In the Financial Times (registration needed), Nick Clegg writes very realistically about the prognosis for Brexit: Public opinion has shifted a little in favour of the Remain camp, and a lot towards wider concern about the impact of Brexit on the NHS and the economy. But it remains firmly enveloped in an indifference towards the details of the negotiations, and a sullen belief that politicians should just "get on with it". Advertising campaigns by anti-Brexit groups will not, on their own, shift opinion in a big way. Equally, while there are abundant signs that Brexit has ...
Frank Bauer, the last person alive who broadcast on the BBC to occupied Europe in the 1940s, died last week at the age of 99. You can find the details here. In my "year abroad" when trying to improve my schoolboy French in 2005/6 I was surprised and rather flattered to discover that these BBC broadcasts, not necessarily Bauer's but in general, were still remembered with affection and gratitude by those who had lived under the Occupation. Whilst in France I attended a small Protestant church (Temple) and as is my wont, joined the choir. This wasn't as much help ...
Due to new info coming in from Carla (thanks Carla!), I've had to split the Short Stories onto their own page! Hooray! See Novellas here, and Novelettes here. Short Stories "Etaoin Shrdlu," by Fredric Brown Original publication in Unknown WorldsAvailable for free here.The Fredric Brown Megapack: 33 Classic Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy, as mentioned above.Angels and Spaceships, Fredric Brown collectionThe Best of Fredric BrownFrom These Ashes, Fredric Brown collectionStar Shine, Fredric Brown collectionStories from Science Fiction, ed. G. D. DohertyWorld of Wonder, ed. Fletcher Pratt "Mimic," by Donald A. Wollheim Available for free here.Isaac Asimov Presents The Great ...
See Novellas here and Short Stories here - thanks to Carla for supplying details of the original publications. Novelettes "Bridle and Saddle," by Isaac Asimov Original publication in AstoundingFoundation, as mentioned above.Men Against the Stars, ed. Martin GreenbergAstounding Stories: The 60th Anniversary Collection (Vol. 2) "Foundation," by Isaac Asimov Original publication in AstoundingFoundation, as mentioned above.Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 4 (1942), as mentioned aboveIsaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction: 2nd Series, as mentioned aboveGalactic Empires, vol. 1, ed. Brian W. Aldiss "Goldfish Bowl," by Robert A. Heinlein Original publication in AstoundingApeman, Spaceman: An Anthology ...
The eighteen finalists in the three short fiction categories are: Best Novella * "Asylum," by A.E. van Vogt * "The Compleat Werewolf," by Anthony Boucher * "Hell is Forever," by Alfred Bester * "Nerves," by Lester del Rey * "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag," by Robert A. Heinlein * "Waldo," by Robert A. Heinlein Best Novelette * "Bridle and Saddle," by Isaac Asimov * "Foundation," by Isaac Asimov * "Goldfish Bowl," by Robert A. Heinlein * "The Star Mouse," by Fredric Brown * "There Shall Be Darkness," by C.L. Moore * "The Weapon Shop," by A.E. van Vogt Best ...
Sun 8th
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LibLink: Robin Teverson: It is the fuel poor who are destined to feel the post Brexit chill
There are many ways in which Brexit will harm the poorest people in our society. The cost of heating their homes is one which Lib Dem Peer Robin Teverson highlighted in a article for Politics Home this week: The good news is that excepting a major failure in replacing the Euratom regime that regulates our nuclear power sector, and if we manage to replicate Euratom's nuclear cooperation agreements with our overseas nuclear equipment and fuel suppliers, Brexit blackouts are not the threat. But even here there is little room for complacency. Our home-grown replacement for Euratom - the beefed-up Office ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Too much time to give to this question, the super being so sullen and slow. New York parking! One can do nothing but practice patience. Eventually the zoomer was mine to step into, off the boathouse dock and then out the doorway onto the shadowed surface of the Madison Square bacino. Nice day, crisp and clear, sunlight pouring down the building canyons from the east. This year I am reading the books which are Hugo and Retro Hugo and WSFS YA finalists in order of decreasing total page count. That ranking is, if you are ...
Robert Mercer backed a secretive group that worked with Facebook, Google to target anti-Muslim ads at swing voters On the one hand this is profoundly depressing. On the other, this means that this shit is not springing up organically, but is being force grown. This gives me more hope that something can be done to stop it. Molly Ringwald Revisits "The Breakfast Club" in the Age of #MeToo This is a really thoughtful and thought-provoking piece. What will it take for the Lib Dems to get bolder? He came to Britain to study medicine, and now just as he's about ...
This is going to be interesting. As the Telegraph reports, tens of thousands of wildcats once roamed Britain before they were hunted and killed from the 1700s onwards, due to fears they would target lambs, rabbits and poultry. The last English wildcat population was wiped out on Exmoor near the River Exe just over a century ago. Only a small population now survives in the north of Scotland. Now, Ben Goldsmith, a City financier and Tory donor who was appointed to the board of Mr Gove's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last month, and who has already ...
"I can almost hear my lawn growing." said someone at work the other day as we discussed the sudden advent of spring.Which put me in mind of this record. It has a hippy-dippy, flower-power title, but there was nothing wet about The Move. As Brumbeat says: One of the most successful pop groups to come out of Birmingham during the 1960s in terms of British chart success, The Move were difficult to categorize musically as their style ranged from pop to psychedelic, blues, progressive, 1950s style rock 'n' roll and even country and western! Above all, it was Roy Wood's ...
Sat, 12:31: RT @davidallengreen: The Irish border issue can be solved by having no controls on the border... ...say those who insist that Brexit is ab... Sat, 12:34: Here for the afternoon! (@ FACTS Spring Edition 2018 w/ @countessofsnark) https://t.co/qj5LWtb1hD Sat, 12:49: RT @CharlesTannock: Brexiteers are totally insightless into their own own obvious contradictions! https://t.co/lFzOY8iDjY Sat, 12:56: Bashing burglars and the law of self-defence https://t.co/YOogZGnPO8 A clear explanation. Sat, 14:40: RT @KeohaneDan: V interesting on Brexit & the Irish border - "So as one senior UK negotiator puts it: "there are probably only 1.1 differen... Sat, 15:03: The one and ...
It's less than a week now until this year's Annual Abbotswood and local area Clean Up Day. Last year about 50 people, of all ages, took part and the weather was brilliant. AAG does things across the whole local area (much more than just Abbotswood) and takes in an area of Yate from Witcombe to the West, Shire Way to the East and Badgeworth to the South as well as Abbotswood, Chargrove and Hardwicke. As numbers and equipment allow people are encouraged to litter pick wherever you would like to in the area, or you can do do painting and ...
Edwardian workers leave the Liverpool docks at the end of another long shift. I came across this short 4 minute film by chance whilst searching the internet for Alexandra Dock references. You can just about make out an Overhead Railway train pass over the dockers at one point. The metal girders supporting the 'Dockers Umbrella' as the railway was known as locally can be seen quite clearly. A real blast from the past.
Twice recently, Christine Jardine has visited a Mosque in her constituency. When she's posted the pictures on social media, the nasty, racist comments started to flow. She wrote about that experience in the Scotsman this week: I was brought up in Glasgow where sectarianism is almost commonplace. But I had never experienced anything like this. After removing a string of offensive and abusive comments from my page, I posted another comment asking people to be more respectful. That was a waste of time. It seems my offence was to cover my head, something my Church of Scotland-going grandmother long ago ...
...and this one's managed to get itself the cover of the Observer. Except, well, it's not actually a new party is it? When I first saw the headline being shared around Twitter last night I thought there'd been some formal declaration of a new party, that as well as this story there'd be a big multiple-page interview with the founders of it that would set new records for mentions of Macron per column inch, and that there'd be some snazzy new website where you could sign up to show your support and be allowed to think you were a key ...
I have today launched my April 2018 Update to West End Community Council. Subjects covered include: • Recycling changes for much of the West End from 16th April • Speeding - Magdalen Yard Road • Road safety - Perth Road/Riverside Drive junction• West End Community and Sports Hub The Community Council meets on Tuesday evening at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall at 7pm - all residents welcome. You can download my Update here. Here's the agenda : WEST END COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETINGTUESDAY 10th APRIL 2018 AT 7.00PMLOGIE AND ST JOHN`S (CROSS) PARISH CHURCH HALL(ENTER FROM SHAFTESBURY TERRACE - OFF ...
