As I wrote the other day, Hanging Houghton used to sit in an industrial landscape. The old Market Harborough to Northampton railway, now the Brampton Valley Way and part of a national network of cycle paths, is easy to find at the bottom of the hill. As for relics of the ironstone tramways and aerial ropeway, the best candidate I could find was the concreted lane leading to a minor water treatment plant.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Following last week's full slate of Liberal Democrat candidates, this week sees three Liberal Democrats for the three (sort of) by-elections this week. The caveat is there are a fourth and a fifth contest too. That pair is for the Corporation of London which, as is common for its contests, sees all-independent battles. Results as they come... Kingsmead, Bath and North East Somerset One of the most picturesque urban wards in the country, including the famous Royal Crescent. It's also a ward which, like the Bath constituency it falls within, has often been a close Conservative-Liberal Democrat tussle with seats ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Last month the Leicester Mercury established that Leicestershire County Council has returned almost £900,000 to developers because it failed to spend money given to ameliorate the effect of new development. Now comes news that £260,288 of that should have gone to fund a bus service for the Farndon Fields development in Market Harborough. At a time when many of the town's bus services are under threat, I find that quite extraordinary. The reason given in the Mercury is: Elsewhere, £260,288 was sent back to the developers behind the Farndon Fields estate in Market Harborough after internal roads on the estate ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

"I say to Coun Rushton - bin this, this week or you will find yourself in great personal difficulty."That was Sir Alan Duncan, Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, speaking about Nick Rushton, the Conservative leader of Leicestershire County Council, and his plans to abolish the county's district councils. I am not sure an MP should be speaking like that. Mind you, I would have more sympathy for Mr Rushton if he had not waited until county council meetings had ended for the summer and then called a press briefing. People who want an easy ride seem to leak things ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

It's been a while since I did the first posts in my series about the Hugo nominees this year, but after a month in which I've been scrabbling to finish an overdue book (the draft is now finished, and sent ... Continue reading →

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!
Thu 5th
19:17

Six of the Best 803

"Within hours of British police announcing last night that a couple from Amesbury, Wiltshire had been poisoned with Novichok, Russia's propaganda machine was firing out projectiles in all directions with the usual aim of casting doubt and confusion in people's minds." Sarah Hurst lays bare the tactics of the Putin regime." Alastair Meeks diagnoses the disease in the English hard right and the failure of the rest of us to confront it. Matthew D'Ancona is right about Jacob Rees-Mogg and his weaponising of quaintness: "He personifies all that is wrong with conservatism in 2018. But until we stop indulging him, ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Second paragraph of third chapter: Äckligt, viskade Filifjonkan och skakade sin trasa. Hon lyfte upp fatet och klev ut genom fönstret för att tvätta utsidan. "Horrid", whispered Fillyjonk, and shook out her duster. She lifted up the bowl and climbed through the window to wash it from the outside. The last of the Moomin books, this barely has the Moomins in it; instead five characters - the established Snufkin and Mymble, the Hemulen and Fillyjonk who may or may not be the same as earlier Hemulens and Fillyjonks, and the new characters Grandpa-Grumble and Toft, all congregate in the Moomins' ...

The fitting of my Hickman line and 6th cycle of chemotherapy went well last week. I'm now rapidly approaching the end of the first phase of treatment. It's been successful! All that's left is a day unit appointment tomorrow for my last Rituximab infusion (held over from the first cycle of chemotherapy). I'm also part way through mobilising my stem ... The post End of treatment phase 1 appeared first on ten pence piece.

Posted by tim on ten pence piece
Thu 5th
17:01

Happy Anniversary!

Embed from Getty Images It's hot, and our regular supply of posts from you, dear readers, seems to have melted away. But we can't let today go by without acknowledging the 70th Anniversary of the NHS. Of course, we can't do it justice in a short piece, but we can be proud that, for all its faults, we do still have a system that is not only valued at home but also admired by other countries. Indeed, many nations now have systems of health care which are universal and free at the point of delivery, even if they differ in ...

Posted by Mary Reid on Liberal Democrat Voice

View Poll: Quarter-finals, anticipation You should be able to vote using your Facebook or Twitter account, even if you aren't on Livejournal.

YouGov

Reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 Consultation This is going to get piled on by transphobes. Please add to the number of reasonable people filling it in. My responses to the government GRA consultation | Sarah Brown's Blog If you're unsure about what a reasonable response to the GRA consultation would look like, here's one. 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

Thu 5th
11:00

My tweets

Wed, 12:56: Dinner Party Diplomacy https://t.co/O11A8Yx7gD The choreography of a ministerial press conference. Wed, 13:02: Second round wrap-up https://t.co/ySoJVIzooc Wed, 18:23: Virgins, Weeders and Queens, by Twigs Way https://t.co/bV8ZVSVSNL Wed, 18:43: RT @DuplanLea: #Brexit Bites Alert: The 5th edition of @APCOBXLInsider experts' take on the current Brexit situation is out! Important note... Wed, 18:44: ...and two pieces by me! https://t.co/1IpXztQYBh Wed, 20:48: RT @TJFKerstens: Never miss out on an opportunity to be creative #brexit #cartoons #Futureofeurope #apco #consultinglife https://t.co/CkZe3... Wed, 21:52: Flight delayed by three hours.... (@ Gate B15 - @brusselsairport in Zaventem, Vlaams-Brabant) https://t.co/c1SMyj8Ew1 Wed, 23:22: Ahhh. #DoctorWhoOnTwitch https://t.co/wHtMrZHewX ...

We live in surreal political times. On Friday, the Cabinet of HM government will meet at Chequers to furiously debate different post-Brexit customs arrangements, all of which have already been rejected by the EU. The political press doesn't seem able to comment on this, for whatever reason, and is instead entirely focused on the dreary internal soap opera involved. The leader of the opposition, presented with this yawning open goal to score at PMQs on this count, decided instead to ask six questions about buses. The Guardian, becoming more of a parody of itself every week, declared it all a ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

If, when I was Elected Mayor of Watford, you had asked me what kept me awake at night, I would have said the number of families we had in bed and breakfast (it was once a matter of pride that there were none), and whether we had enough temporary accommodation. Dorothy Thornhill (now an active parliamentarian in the House of Lords) has been writing in PoliticsHome about her worries about the supply of social housing. She writes: It tells its own story that the rise in evictions from the private sector is now the top reason for people ending up ...

Posted by Mary Reid on Liberal Democrat Voice

There are less than nine months to go before the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019. For many Britons this is a welcome step in the fight back against liberal elites. Others, like me, feel sick at the thought of it. In the middle of all this is ... Continue reading Brexit: is Mrs May winning the end game?

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

The Liverpool Echo has one story about a politician seemingly falling foul of the facts – see link above – but this kind of presentation of 'the facts' by politicians and indeed newspapers is not new, however, it is widespread. I'm not going to go into the issue of whether Ester McVey was right or wrong as the facts seem to speak for themselves – she was wrong. But the real question is why did she put her own spin on the Tax Credit issues? It was probably no more than playing to an audience who would like to ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

The current disagreement in Germany between the Christian Democrats and the Bavarian Christian Socialists (centre-right parties continuously allied since the creation of the Federal Republic) raises a question over migration policy in Western democracies. The CSU (Christian Social Union) criticizes the Christian Democratic Chancellor for having made a single strategic decision, with immense consequences for Germany and, [...] The post Who should decide about immigration? appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Renaud Girard on Radix
Thu 5th
07:52

This is wonderful.

This is wonderful.

Posted by Nick Barlow on Stories by Nick Barlow on Medium