Wandering the back streets of Oakham (as one does), I came across this corrugated-iron building. As the site is being sold for development, its days are numbered. An old boy living across the road told me that it used to be a cinema, and he was right. Cinema Treasures tells us: The Picture Theatre operated from 1925. It was an extremely modest affair, with the cinema, constructed out of corrugated iron, referred to, no doubt with some affection, as the 'Tin Tabernacle'. The 1931 Kinematograph Year Book lists the owner and manager as Captain Guy Dawson, The Old House, Oakham. ...
Bad news from the Leicester Mercury: An historic Leicestershire business, which is one of the last of its kind in Britain, has been delivered a shocking blow. Taylor's Bell Foundry is reeling from the news it has failed in its bid for a grant for more than £8 million, that was due to be used to secure its future. The Heritage Lottery Fund cash was set to be used to make the Loughborough business, which has its roots in the 14 century, viable for the future. There seems little hope of a similar grant being approved in the future as ...
[IMG: Vince Cable's story of having suffered from racism is a timely one] Vince Cable has spoken about his mixed race marriage in a moving way. His first wife was Indian and they had a happy marriage by all his accounts till her death from cancer at a young... The post Vince Cable's story of having suffered from racism is a timely one appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
I have commented before on the Liberal Democrat weakness for confirmation bias - our tendency to notice results that suggest we are doing well and ignore the ones that suggest we are not. That post was written after apparently encouraging results in local by-elections were followed by disappointing results in the wider local elections of 2017. But 2018 was different, wasn't it? The local elections earlier this month were good for the Lib Dems, weren't they? In a fair-minded article on the LSE's British Politics and Policy blog, David Cutts suggested that the truth is less encouraging: At 16%, the ...
So, to expand on my last post, I'm doing better now. Not *well*, but much, much better than even a few days ago, so I will explain a bit of what's going on. I suffer from various chronic illnesses, both ... Continue reading →
Liberal Democrat members on campuses, tell your friends. Parents and grandparents, contact your offspring at University. Teachers and lecturers, get active on Facebook and What's App! A lot of young people won't have heard yet. But Sunday's Observer broke the story - that student organisations representing almost a million young people studying in UK colleges and universities are starting a campaign for a 'People's Vote' before a final Brexit deal can be implemented, and I believe they will be a potent voice. They want another referendum, on the proposed deal with the EU. From 60 of the country's universities and ...
Take a tour inside the UK Houses of Parliament with this video trip to St Stephen's Hall.
Wed 16th
19:50
Here we go again - another consultation on parking - this time for off-street parking in Ludlow
Here is the fourth and penultimate of the consultations on the new parking regime which is expected to come into force in September. It is a mixed bag of changes. There will be free parking on Sundays but the council has reneged on its promise to only apply charges from 9am in the morning. Charges will apply from 8am to 6pm. Users can stay for as long as they want subject to a maximum charge of eight hours. Castle Street car park will cost £1 an hour, half price on Sundays. The top deck of Upper Galdeford will cost £0.50 ...
Two photos taken today of the present state of works on Maghull's brand new railway station which is due to open on Monday 18th June. It was clearly never going to be ready for the original optimistic opening date in May but things seem to progressing well. The lead photo is also amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Second paragraph of third chapter: Even if you stick mainly to mainstream sites, you've probably seen glimpses of the internet's underbelly in the notorious comments sections at the bottom of news articles. The article could be about a local man saving a box of kittens from a burning building, but no matter: the comments will accuse him of hating dogs, setting the building on fire in the first place, and secretly being Barack Obama's Kenyan uncle. This is a crucial book, a finalist for this year's Hugo in the Best Related Work category; its author was the first victim of ...
The Hop Garden is a community allotment in High Spen. An annual seed and plant swap event is held there and the most recent one was on Sunday. I attended but took quail and duck eggs with me to swap.
The Party is coming to terms with the implications of John Alderdice's review: "Race, Ethnic Minorities and the Culture of the Liberal Democrats." We spent much of last Saturday's Federal Board awayday talking about how to take it forward. A natural default option is an argument: "wouldn't it all bit a lot easier if we could just tell people what to do and they'll do it"? There was a similar feeling about how to get people to go to target seats during the last two General Elections. It is, of course, an unconvincing argument in a Party full of Liberals ...
Wed 16th
16:21
UK participation in Eurovision 2019 in Israel would condone "outrageous human rights violations"
Embed from Getty Images I'm just back from Lisbon where I was lucky enough to have a stageside position for the Eurovision Song Contest last Saturday. Apart from a nasty stage invasion during Surie's performance (with which she dealt brilliantly), the whole thing went without a hitch. Portugal were Eurovision Song Contest entrants for 53 years before they won it in 2017. As a result, they were desperate to welcome everybody to their country and to put on a fantastic experience. That they did. Apart from anything else, Lisbon must have been the most LGBT+ friendly capital city in the ...
Wed 16th
14:50Vince Cable talks about his mother's mental illness, his father's racism and overcoming prejudice in...
Embed from Getty Images You probably don't know that Vince Cable was on Radio 5 Live as the birthday guest on Sunday night because it's not really been reported anywhere. It's worth catching up on it though because it's one of the most open, personal and moving interviews I've heard him give. He's mentioned the racism he and his first wife Olympia faced as a mixed race couple before but in this Vince was 75 last week but he said that he was both physically and mentally fit – he was introduced as a dancer and black run skier. His ...
I was very pleased to be invited to join the Sutton Mayor Cllr Jean Crossby to celebrate the official opening of Dillon Court, a development specially designed to accommodate older residents. The development in Brighton Road, Sutton replaces the outdated Grace Court sheltered accommodation and provides 39 affordable housing flats, and 11 shared-ownership flats. This [...]
Wokingham Borough local party invited Vince Cable to a question and answer session on Saturday 12th May 2018. It was good to see members from Wokingham, Reading, Newbury, Maidenhead, and Bracknell who came to meet and listen to Vince. Councillor Clive Jones asked wide-ranging questions with supplementary questions from the audience. Some of the main points addressed by Vince were: – Vince mentioned his meeting with the head of National Union of Students (NUS) and how the NUS talked about the neglect of further education (FE); Vince highlighted the importance of vocational education and giving people a second chance; FE ...
The idea that since university tuition fees were raised to £9 000 a year students emerge "burdened with debt" was effectively and vigorously demolished on BBC 1's "Question Time" a couple of weeks ago. Please watch it on for the full effect. If you haven't time, 22 minutes in a Martin Lewis, the financial guru who founded monesavingexpert.com explains that, however much is borrowed, you pay 9% of extra tax on anything you earn over the threshold for 30 years. Lewis then spells out the figures for what what this actually means in practice. At present the earnings threshold ...
Immediately after Theresa May took power following the referendum she had a brief window of opportunity to unite the country behind a common course of action. Given the narrowness of the victory for the 'leave' side, a leader who genuinely had the interests of the country at heart would have aimed for the greatest possible degree of consensus. Instead, she ... The post Gammons, remoaners and everyone else appeared first on ten pence piece.
University College London has started a Fantasy Frontbench to debate major current issues. The first in their series was "Should Climate Change be UK's Top Policy Priority?". The guest speakers were Natalie Bennett (previous leader of the Green party), Ahir Shah (a comedian), Professor Mark Maslin (Geography professor at UCL) and Dr. Emily Shuckburgh (climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey). About 120 people attended including children from local schools. Before the discussion started, the audience was asked the question, and the result was 52% for Yes and 48% for No (to which Ahir commented that this was considered an ...
Home Office tells couple it divided to stay together on Skype Today's installment of The Home Office Are Bastards comes from the FT This is what free movement means to me aka why Brexit is madness weekly_food_challenge | Challenge #42: Iftar - Amritsari-style Chicken, roughly as served in my local south Asian restaurant My version of this might not be exactly how they do it in the restaurant, but it's good. weekly_food_challenge | Challenge #43: Baked This week's challenge is live! If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: ...
Every now and again someone in the Lib Dems argues that the party's focus on Brexit is mistaken because the issue will be over and done with come the spring of next year. What's odd about these comments when I've seen them made is that they're not followed up by any evidence or justification beyond the (to the utterer) apparent self-evident logic that once Brexit has been dropped or come into force it's bound to be dead as a political issue. That's odd, because we have plenty of examples from previous dominant political issues about what happens once they pass ...
Tue, 12:56: Brexit: UK government to host summit on why other countries should join the EU https://t.co/8ZFKkEWG2n Yes, you read that correctly. Tue, 16:05: RT @damocrat: Foreign investor: "I have $1bn to invest." EU: "Invest in EU. Our Customs Union and Single Market will give you frictionless... Tue, 18:56: Spirit: The Princess of Bois Dormant by Gwyneth Jones https://t.co/itDrZ6IvyZ Tue, 20:48: RT @Rotary: How Nigeria's start-stop immunization battle is winning the war to eradicate polio in Africa. #endpolio https://t.co/BIV7oEdHwl... Wed, 10:45: Inside Housing - Comment - Ronan Point 50 years on: the worrying legacy of a disaster https://t.co/7KdaPwJUUb indeed.
There are few things more obvious than if you are deprived of the means to feed yourself, it's going to be stressful and more than likely affect your mental health and not in a good way. This Mental Health Awareness Week, the excellent Scottish Association for Mental Health is collecting evidence to present to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into benefit sanctions. People on benefits can lose up to all of their personal allowances if they are deemed to have not done enough to find work or have missed an appointment or have been sacked for ...
In case you are unaware, the Labour Party is holding a pop concert in north London (the party itself describes it as a "one-day festival of music, art and politics that brings together our incredible movement") on June 16th. Hear The Magic Numbers, Rae Morris, and Owen Jones (not singing, but ranting, one assumes) and flock together with likeminded socialists. Given the Glasto moment last year, Labour figured they could get 15,000 people to pay £35 a pop for this; turns out the actual tickets sold to date could be as low as 2,000. Ouch. It goes to show that ...
Responding to the publication of an inquiry by two parliamentary committees, which found Carillion's collapse was down to a "rotten corporate culture", the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable MP said: "Previous attempts to open up the audit market have been far too weak and failed to deal with the major structural problem."I and others have called for radical reform for years. It is now clear that we need to break up the Big Four and shatter this cosy club to create a more competitive, truly diverse market."
Responding to the House of Lords defeating the Government, this time to successfully amend the Data Protection Bill to establish 'Leveson 2', Liberal Democrat peer and former Justice Minister Tom McNally said:"This issue keeps coming back for the Government, and this vote shows that the House of Lords aren't willing to forget the promise that was made by the Coalition that Leveson 2 would be enacted. "The decision to drop Leveson 2 was part of a squalid deal between the Conservative Party and the Press Barons and was against the strong advice of Lord Leveson himself. The promise to hold ...
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran yesterday called on the UK Government to recognise Palestine to rekindle hope in the region, following the deadliest day in Gaza since 2014. Ms Moran, who is the first MP of Palestinian descent, also urged the UK Government to acknowledge that the two sides in the conflict are not "meeting as equals". Responding to Ms Moran, Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the question of recognition "remains open" but needs to happen "at a time when it's most designed to serve the cause of peace". Ms Moran said: "Between Hamas and a very extreme Israeli ...
Wed 16th
08:55LibLink: Dorothy Thornhill: Harry Potter and my spell as England's longest serving woman mayor
This month, Dorothy Thornhill stepped down as Mayor of Watford after 16 years in tole. She was always very popular and left a great legacy for her successor, Peter Taylor. She wrote for the Guardian this week about her years as Mayor, which included supporting the establishment of the Harry Potter Experience on her patch. She looked at the advantages of towns having a directly elected Mayor: At one level mayors have no more direct power than council leaders. But they have more soft power. You are the mayor of a place, not just the leader of a council. The ...
A diplomatic meeting of crucial importance for the future of the European Union (EU) as a political entity was held in Brussels on Tuesday (yesterday). The High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, met the Foreign Ministers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. These three powers were signatories, on behalf of Europe, of the [...] The post How the EU can retain its reason to exist appeared first on Radix.
8 buses and a milk float No I had not heard of it either until quite recently but when an advert popped up on social media for an open day Lydiate photographer Keith Page and I decided to go and have a look. A visiting Austin 8 It's quite a big museum and on the day we went there was also a one-off display of visiting vintage cars and a large model railway too. But the regular collection of vintage buses, fire engines, trucks, cycles, cars etc. is quite extensive in its self. Why are all fire engines called Dennis? ...
I was standing at the bus stop yesterday morning in already warm sunshine wondering how on earth I'd cope if I couldn't have anything to eat or drink before the sun went down which, in Scotland is nigh on ten at night. The answer is not very well. I have nothing but admiration for my Muslim friends who take part in Ramadan every year. For them it is part of the annual routine and they just get on with it, however challenging that might be in our northern hemisphere long days. It's important to remember that the majority of a ...
From Sheena Wellington : Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library Saturday 19th May at 11am (doors open 10.30am) Cappuccino Concert with Chris Sesar and Gill HallidaySinger song-writers, Chris Sesar and Gill Halliday have gained recognition for their genre defying repertoire, effortlessly blending Celtic folk and roots, country music & Americana with a brush of gypsy jazz. Chris Sesar's songs paint the landscape of human relationships with gentle colours and delicate detail, sometimes bitter sweet, sometimes dark and with a comic twist. Since March 2016 Chris has been touring Scottish & European Venues with Angus based singer songwriter Gill Halliday. Her intuitive ...
The Guardian reports that Jeremy Corbyn has told Labour MPs that a Norway-style option cannot be considered by the party, but faces a party split after rebel Lords passed an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill which would keep membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) as an option. EEA membership, which is often described as the Norway option gives countries full access to the EU's internal market, allowing it to trade goods with EU states without customs fees, except food and drinks which are subsidised by the EU. Iceland and Liechtenstein are also members of the EEA, but the ...
