A shocking attempt is underway by Leave Academics to rewrite British History and misappropriate the Second World War for the Brexit Cause. During the EU Referendum, an attempt was made unsuccessfully to claim Sir Winston Churchill was an opponent of British membership of the EEC. Quotes were taken and engineered to create the false impression that the proposer of the United States of Europe, Founder of the European Movement would have supported Brexit. Now Brexiteer academics are likening Remainers with those who supported appeasing Hitler and the European Union with Nazi Germany. In fact as Guy Verhofstadt rightly says Churchill ...
There were certain programmes in the 1970s that you only watched if you were off school with a cold. There was Crown Court, which is now being lovely chronicled by Ivan Kirby at Fulchester Crown Court. There was a Scottish soap opera called Take the High Road that seemed to have undergone a complete cast change every time you saw it. And there were two Australian soaps in these days before Neighbours made them cool. There was The Sullivans, which I remember for opening titles that featured a photograph coming to life. And there was the Young Doctors, which I ...
One of the important things the series deals with is the question of identity. Almost everyone in the series is lying about who they are, at least at first. Eleanor is not the Eleanor Shelstrop she claims to be. Michael ... Continue reading →
Wed 30th
17:29
No Time to Spare, by Ursula Le Guin; and Sleeping with Monsters, by Liz Bourke (2018 Hugo finalists)
Two more Hugo finalists for Best Related Work - both of them books of essays and blog posts, originally published online. No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, by Ursula K. Le Guin Second paragraph of third chapter: One of the things people often find when they get there [old age] is that younger people don't want to hear about it. So honest conversation concerning geezerhood takes place mostly among geezers. I was delighted last year when Ursula Le Guin won the Hugo for Best Related Work on my watch, and sent a lovely acceptance speech. I hadn't anticipated ...
I first became aware of the Bulgarian-born artist Christo when he shrouded the Bundestag in Berlin in 1995. There was quite a heated debate among German MPs at the time, about whether this was a good idea, but in hindsight it was a blessing that Art won through. Christo (he habitually calls himself only by [...]
The timetables apply from Saturday 2nd June The timetables are accessible via the link above to the Merseytravel web site With thanks to Kevin for the lead to this posting
Leading Liberal Democrats have written to the Chancellor calling for new, dedicated money from the Treasury to fund teachers' future pay rises and are seeking cross-party support. The call comes amid fears that the Government will accept a pay rise for teachers, but won't provide schools extra money to fund for it. The Liberal Democrats MP argues that schools are "under huge financial pressures" and it is the responsibility of the Chancellor to "save them and their pupils from the inevitable consequences of a further erosion in the funding." The School Teachers Pay Review body has been looking into the ...
For the £110bn-a-year agriculture and food sector in the UK, the EU accounts for 60 percent of exports and 70 percent of imports. As there is likely to be no trading or customs agreement with the EU, it will mean that we will have to trade with the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs. The WTO tariffs will increase the price of goods coming into the UK, and this will have a significant adverse impact on the agricultural industry and consumers. Although we will be able to agree on trade deals with other parts of the world (if we ...
Responding to reports that the EU plans on blocking UK participation in the new €500m European Defence Industrial Development Programme, former Leader and Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Ming Campbell, said: "This is yet another example of Brexit compromising UK security. The participation of the UK in the programme would maximise security for, not just the UK, but all member states of the EU. "The UK's defence spending is the highest in Europe, with the greatest contribution to military industrial development. This is a clear example where the EU needs UK and UK needs the EU. The security of the continent ...
Responding to a report by the Work and Pensions Committee that reveals Jobcentre Plus staff do not feel equipped to deal with critical issues like domestic abuse, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions Spokesperson Stephen Lloyd said: "Universal Credit is paid to one person in the household, often the man. In some cases, this has led to domestic abuse victims being deprived of money, and less able to escape their dangerous home situation."A month ago I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to raise these concerns. I have yet to receive a response."Compounding the misery, this report ...
Responding to the LGA's report outlining the effects of Brexit on the UK food and farming industries (pdf here), former Liberal Democrat Leader and Spokesperson for the Environment and Rural Affairs, Tim Farron, said: "Withdrawing from the EU will entail severing ties to fundamental regulatory bodies responsible for maintaining food standards. It is clear that the Tories have no substantial plans to replace or replicate this key, underappreciated element of EU infrastructure."The UK makes routine use of these bodies, which ensure that the food on our plates is a high quality, and provide incentives for responsible, sustainable farming."This report highlights ...
Windrush; not just institutional racism, shocking callousness too. Up to 1834 if you were poor and alone, and long-term sick, disabled, orphaned, or too elderly for heavy work, you were likely to be sent by the government to a workhouse. We might look back on this time and wonder how utterly brutal our government institutions were. We live in a modern democracy now, and government departments would not be allowed to act in a knowingly callous way. Or would they? Think again. Think for example about Hubert Howard who arrived in the UK from Jamaica, in the 1960s aged three, ...
Dodington Parish Council, in partnership with the Birds Resident Group, is organising a traffic count on Heron Way to help the case opposing flats being built on the Tern Inn and car park site. This would be presented as evidence for the planning enquiry that will be held in the next few months. The count will take place over the week commencing next Monday, 4th June (Yes, we know that next week includes an Inset Day and the School Sports Day etc - this will give us a week with varying activities so that we have a realistic picture of ...
Recently I found an article on the New Statesman website about the writer and psychologist, Jordan Peterson. Now putting aside the grotesquely shoddy nature of the hit piece and the fact that I have only recently become acquainted with Peterson, there was a line that boiled my blood. "But because he's writing for sad young white men - and their problems are, you know, real problems, not like anorexia or rape or sexual harassment at work - he's a public intellectual." Let's break this down for a moment. The writer, Helen Lewis, whose work I have enjoyed in the past ...
Public Health England estimates that a quarter of children between two and ten years old are overweight or obese. There is a strong relationship between obese children and adults who have grown up and are overweight. Records show that obesity among children starting their first year of primary school has risen for the second year in a row and results from a survey of more than 1 million pupils across England, show 32.4% of girls and 36.1% of boys in the final primary school year are overweight or obese. Unfortunately, the children in deprived areas are much likely to be ...
Tue, 12:56: This is a really lovely story. https://t.co/tcO5hab5ji Tue, 14:48: UK Brexit proposals nominated for Hugo Award in Fantasy category https://t.co/upyvivGG1I via @newsthump Tue, 16:05: So You Think You Have Troubles? Northern Ireland and Brexit https://t.co/RKJsZ6lJQ8 Lecture by @GerryLynch Tue, 17:22: RT @kmlooi: "General Kenobi. Years ago you subscribed to my father's mailing list. Now he begs you to help him by confirming you wish to co... Tue, 18:06: Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith https://t.co/YXtNK60AYv Tue, 20:48: In 1955, Britain had the chance to shape the future EU. It flunked it https://t.co/ILbjB0FkEi Interesting historical perspective. Tue, 22:23: RT @BDStanley: The ...
Given this looks set to drag on for some time ahead, I will write this article here and now and then shut up about it. It is a Remainer trope that that the Brexiteers are on their last legs; that they see the dream dying and are wrapped up in an angry phase of denial about it all. For a while I figured this was wishful thinking on the part of the Remainers. Now it has become clear that they are correct, at least about Brexiteer desperation. There has been a glut of articles from right of centre media outlets ...
The annual meeting of Gateshead Council on 18th May was a slightly strange affair as the retiring mayor, Pauline Dillion, was absent due to health problems, as was Martin Gannon, leader of the council. The meeting went ahead anyway. One of the points that irritates me about Gateshead Council is that the mayor is always Labour, but as Leader of the Opposition, I am asked to second the vote of
Having come back from a long weekend at the Hay Festival I was astonished to find an abnormal number of hits on my blog, all looking for a post I wrote in December 2014 following the death of Jeremy Thorpe at the age of 85. The post is here and the comments are particularly worth reading, however for ease of reference for those watching the excellent 'A Very English Scandal' and the outstanding performances by Hugh Grant as Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Norman Scott, amongst many other brilliant performances, I have reproduced that blog below: The sad death of ...
It is funny how it is always the Eurosceptic parties who like to preach 'do what I say, not what I do'. It is outrageous that those same parties, allegedly dedicated to abolishing the EU and all it stands for, are the same ones who like to milk it for their own ends. And so we have this Guardian article, which reports that a defunct European political grouping that was dominated by UKIP has been asked to repay €1.1m (£977,000) to the European parliament following an investigation into misspending of EU funds. The paper reports that The Alliance for Direct ...
We need to make a massive improvement to the diets of everyone but especially children if we are to stop what can only be described as the obesity tsunami facing our Country Regular readers of this blog might feel that ... Continue reading →
I remember when the World cup was held in Mexico (1986) a TV commentator remarked his taxi, that was taking him to the TV studios, swerved from one side of the road to the other to avoid the potholes. In fact, the only people who drove straight were those who were drunk. The statistics for potholes are staggering: Potholes cost British motorists an estimated £2.8 billion every year; Over £30 million is paid out in compensation claims; It is estimated that road maintenance is underfunded by £1 billion every year. If local authorities were given the funds required to maintain ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42566393 The BBC has the article of its web site – see link above An issue that has not been high enough up the political agenda for a long time not least, I suspect, because often the most polluted areas are where the poorest people live.
We have often addressed in this blog the question of bottom-up versus top down initiatives. The latest has been Barry Cooper's excellent piece about getting to well-being in a no growth world. One of the big issues in devising policy and in stimulating action is that it all has to be done within the expectations [...] The post The psychology of making things happen appeared first on Radix.
Canal barges and narrow boats lined up for the 200 year celebration of the completion of the Leeds Liverpool Canal near Wango Lane swing bridge in June 2016. I had heard that things were a changing on the Leeds Liverpool Canal in terms of how boaters access the previously only Canal and Rivers Trust operated swing bridges in Aintree and Netherton but was not too clear on what the changes were as a non-boater. As a canoeist I can usually slip under the swing bridges. But as luck would have it I picked up a copy of the June edition ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum will re-open for its summer season this Friday (1st June) and will be open every Friday 2pm-4.30pm until 31st August. As always the museum showcases D'Arcy's amazing collection of animals from around the world, as well as stunning models, charts and artworks inspired by D'Arcy's ideas and specimens. Newly added to the museum are stunning images taken from some of D'Arcy's original microscope slides. The museum is in the Carnelley Building, just behind the University Tower on Park Place. Please enter by the main ...
Wed 30th
06:22
Future Fit consultation launches: It's time to decide the future of Shropshire's hospitals
We have been waiting for this, even dreading this, for a long time. Way back in 2013, health managers announced that the county's health services were to be reshaped. Not long after, they said that one of the A&Es would close under the Future Fit programme. Controversy has been raging since. Today, the Clinical Commissioning Groups launched a major consultation on reorganising services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princes Royal Hospital. They are asking whether the A&E should be in Telford or Shrewsbury. If the A&E is in Shrewsbury, which is what the CCGs want, planned care will ...
[This is the first of a whole series of posts that will be going up, and will eventually be bookified. I've written enough of them now to know that I'm not going to just drop this series half way, as ... Continue reading →
