For more than two decades, Chris Rennard was the Liberal Democrats' campaign guru, masterminding successive by-election wins and astounding many media professionals by being able to predict results with uncanny accuracy (sometimes winning himself some useful cash with judiciously-placed bets at the same time). But as his memoir Winning Here (Biteback, £25) makes clear, he was something [...]
I went to the Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester on Saturday, hoping to photograph the World War II gas decontamination building on the site. But I was too late: it has already been demolished. At least it was the museum's spring railway day, so the museum's narrow-gauge railway was operating. The locomotive was built by Bagnall in 1918 for service on the Western Front.
"As far as I can find, no-one has actually made a International Standard Cup of Tea - ISO 3103 or BS 6008 - for the internet before. Lots of people have talked about it, but that's easy. Making one? That requires precision... and some specialist equipment" - Tom Scott
Embed from Getty Images Dave Hill's On London site brings news of an electoral pact in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In next month's elections six of the borough's 18 three-member wards will see one Green and two Liberal Democrat candidates on the ballot paper. The Greens are giving the Lib Dems a clear run in the other 12 wars. As the website says: Zac Goldsmith's famous parliamentary by-election defeat by Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney in Richmond Park in December 2016 may have been helped by the Green Party choosing not to field a candidate. The Greens said ...
I have mentioned Bryan Magee on this blog several times. How he wrote a brilliant short book on Karl Popper that led me to the philosopher. How he was evacuated to Market Harborough as a boy during World War II. He also interviewed some of the world's leading philosophers in two television series. The first of them, Men of Ideas, was broadcast in the early months of 1978. Later that year I started my degree in Philosophy at York having learnt much from it. Men of Ideas also proved that talking heads make the best television if those heads are ...
Tue 10th
19:16
Lib Dems Julia Ogiehor and Melissa Gordon join five other black and mixed-race women to launch new p...
Liberal Democrat council candidates Julia Ogiehor (Haringey) and Melissa Gordon (Southwark) are two of the seven hosts of the new Consensus politics podcast.
I found the ranking pretty easy, though hesitated between the top two. See also my guide to getting hold of them - unfortunately the direct link for "Mimic," by Donald A. Wollheim is no longer working. NB that there is precisely one speaking female human character in these six stories (not surprisingly in the one story which has a female co-author). Normally I give the second paragraph of the third section as a taster; none of these stories is subdivided, so I'm just giving the third paragraph in each case. 6) "Etaoin Shrdlu," by Fredric Brown Third paragraph: I admitted ...
They may well be utterly charming people, of course, but they're not exactly my statesmanship dream team. And I'd hesitate to leave them in charge of next door's guinea pig, let alone my country. Continue reading →
Tue 10th
13:00
Shropshire Councillor leader Peter Nutting soft pedals on charity business rate rise but doesn't put...
Speaking on BBC Radio Shropshire this morning Shropshire Council's leader partially backtracked on threats to remove discretionary business rate relief from charities contained in a recent letter. But he still wants to charge some charities. He said current media and councillor coverage of this is "scaremongering". And, in one of the doublethink moments that some politicians excel in, he said that Shropshire Council had a "no blame" culture but "words would be had" with the officer who had sent the offending letter. So that's no blame for anyone then. The background to this story is a letter sent to all ...
Tue 10th
12:49
For what is supposedly a ridiculous idea, a lot of people seem really put out by all this new centri...
News came out this week that a nascent centrist party is in the works, guided by 50 million quid and a rich chap named Simon Franks. Hands up: I've known all about this for several months now. In fact, I know of several such schemes, all of them uncoordinated with each other, all of them centring around a moneyed bloke who is convinced he can be the next Macron, demonstrating in turn a lack of knowledge about politics and of Macron's rise. They all think that politics is easy and that, having run successful businesses, they would obviously know how ...
Look to Hungary if you want to know what you're fighting against Man living in UK for 56 years loses job over immigration papers Yet another instalment in the "The Home Office Are Bastards" series. DfE ends divisive pupil nationality data collection Thank Cthulhu for that. 'The Simpsons' To 'The Problem With Apu': Drop Dead If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: Paypal Donate Button] [IMG: Buy Me an uncaffeinated beverage (because I'm allergic to coffee) at ko-fi.com] [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The company doing landfill at Beech Hill (the other side of the railway from Chedworth) and spreading all the mud up Westerleigh Road has been told to clear it up or pay for South Glos to do it. After Focus Cllr Claire Young intervened, South Glos Streetcare put their own sweeper out on Friday and Keyway have been told to get a sweeper and a team out with shovels to clear the road today or the council will do it and re-charge them for it.
It wasn't always Tory v Labour, and it doesn't have to be again! State education, particularly at secondary level, is like the proverbial curate's egg, thanks largely to mistakes made by politicians of all parties over the past sixty years - and I include the 2010-2015 coalition as well. However, much of the mess was already in place by the beginning of this decade so I suppose that we could call it a joint affair between Tories and Labour. However, much of the success of state education is down to Liberals, as were the ideas behind the Welfare State, which ...
Mon, 12:56: #Comicsgate: How an Anti-Diversity Harassment Campaign in Comics Got Ugly—and Profitable https://t.co/EmycZWXi51 I... https://t.co/n8VsFOwQfZ Mon, 16:05: Donald Trump's War on Jeff Bezos Is More Than Just Bluster https://t.co/ob1XQsLekE Be afraid. Mon, 17:42: RT @apcoworldwide: Here are #ThreeThings to know about yesterday's #HungarianElections2018 from our @nwbrux https://t.co/uAxP3YvVql #Hungar... Mon, 18:11: Monday reading https://t.co/uZ8cdaoOez Mon, 20:48: This is just glorious, especially @GilesTerera as Aaron Burr. https://t.co/qBXz1V2Sdu Tue, 09:03: RT @davidallengreen: That was the moment when I also felt a shift. Until then the Irish border issue could well have stopped or delayed Br... Tue, 09:09: 94 minutes from home to ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43696948 The BBC has the good news environmental story on its web site – see link above This is a really positive step forward and it needs to be followed by other major retailers.
This move made me wonder whether this new penalty scheme will in fact catch out the honest traveller as well as the deliberate fare evader? What do you do if you are at an unstaffed station with only a ticket purchasing machine but the person ahead of you has never seen one before and is puzzling about how to work it and get the best value ticket for their journey. Oh and the train is coming too so you are not going to be able to get a ticket yourself. Do you take a chance that the guard/ticket inspector ...
Tue 10th
09:22
Is Labour prepared to jettison peace in Northern Ireland to help the Tories secure a hard Brexit?
Remarks by Barry Gardiner, the shadow trade secretary, that the Good Friday agreement is a shibboleth that is being "played up" in the Brexit negotiations for economic rather than political reasons are quite shocking. It is almost as if Labour have decided that peace in Northern Ireland is expendable as long as they achieve their objective in supporting the Tories in securing a hard Brexit. As the Guardian reports, Gardiner was answering questions at a think-tank session in Brussels last month, when he suggested there was no reason to fear that a border with customs controls would lead to a ...
Just to let residents know about recent planning applications in our area – quite a few this month on Mount Road, Tamworth Avenue, Glebelands Road, Nursery Road, Maple Grove, St Margaret's Road and Heywood Road. Please just let me know if you have any queries. Removal of existing attached garage and erection of single storey extension at side 31 Mount Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 2GP Ref. No: 62668 | Received: Wed 04 Apr 2018 | Validated: Wed 04 Apr 2018 | Status: Registered Prior notification for proposed single storey rear extension 16 Tamworth Avenue, Whitefield, Manchester, M45 6UH Ref. No: ...
Has the Skripal case – the poisoning in England by chemical nerve agent of a former Russian double agent, with collateral casualties – led to a snowball effect of a kind of anti-Russian hysteria in the West? One is led to that question when reading an editorial of the Spanish daily El País. The author [...] The post Don't blame the Russians for everything that's wrong appeared first on Radix.
Diary date for next month – Prestwich Clough Day returns on Sunday 20 May 2018, 12pm-5pm in St Mary's Flower Park and outside The Church Inn, Church Lane. The Event features Activities, Concessions, Countryside Groups, Displays,Entertainment and Local Groups. More information www.prestwichclough.co.uk.
Today an archaeological discovery in Rutland leads to a re-evaluation of his lordship's family history. Tuesday You may have heard of Cheddar Man, but hereabouts we were very excited by the discovery of Stilton Man. The boffins from the University of Rutland at Belvoir soon demonstrated that he had prominent blue veins and an impressive moustache not unlike my own. The family legend has always been that my De Bon Coeur ancestors came over with the Conqueror (some versions maintain that they were obliged to go back shortly afterwards), but could this be evidence that we Bonkers have been in ...
Nominations are now open for the first ever Greater Manchester Health and Care Champion Awards. The awards are the first in the region to recognise members of our paid and unpaid health and care workforce who regularly go above and beyond to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Greater Manchester. Award categories include 'Collaboration', 'Innovation', 'Apprentice of the Year' and the 'People's Champion'. The awards are open to all individuals or teams, paid or unpaid, who work in the health or care sector in Greater Manchester. Nominations can be completed by colleagues or members of the public ...
From Sheena Wellington : Wighton Heritage Centre, Central LibraryToday - Tuesday 10th April - 1.15pm - 1.45pmLunchtime Recital - Thomas Allery, harpsichord The famous Wighton harpsichord will get a special airing in the second of our April Lunchtime Recitals when the renowned musician and scholar Thomas Allery pays the Wighton Collection a visit. Thomas Allery is an organist, choral conductor and harpsichordist based in London and Oxford. He enjoys a varied career spanning work as an organist and choral director in church music, continuo playing, research and teaching. Thomas is the Director of Chapel Music at Worcester College, Oxford, where ...
Tue 10th
01:25
#Hastings #StLeonards Lib Dems want more diversity on the Borough Council (as 2018 slate of candidat...
Hastings and St Leonards Liberal Democrat candidates 2018 represent people from a diversity of backgrounds in a bid to ensure that the new Council is more representative. In addition to wanting a council which represents a fairer range of political opinion - at the last Borough elections Labour won 82% of the seats for under [...]
