Embed from Getty Images From BBC News: The Duke of Rutland, who is reportedly worth £145m, has been criticised after actors were asked to work without pay at his stately home. Belvoir Castle, where the 11th duke David Manners lives, advertised for actors to perform voluntarily as "Kings, Queens, Dukes and Duchesses". One actor said the advert, which asks applicants to be "flexible" with working hours, was "outrageous". Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire, has since taken down the advert.Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England: Noblesse oblige, it is the business of the wealthy man to give employment to the artisan.and ...
Last Saturday's walk from in search of C.P. Snow took me past the goals of a couple of former outings. There was a match going on at the Aylestone Road ground where Leicestershire used to play and Mike Brearley kept wicket for Cambridge in the last first-class game it hosted. The path to the point from which you can view Raw Dykes, the remains of the water course that brought Roman Leicester its water supply, was choked with weeds that were turning brown from the sun.
There are not enough swear words in the world to describe my reaction when I read this Mirror story today about Vince's alleged plan to open up the party leadership to non MPs. He wants to scrap or amend an obscure part of the party's constitution which states only an MP can take the helm. The move, which is likely to be put to the party after summer recess and could be debated at the annual conference in Brighton in September, would mean a non-politician could become leader, scuppering ambitions of Sir Vince's rivals on the Commons' benches. It may ...
It transpires that Vince Cable's plan of "opening the doors, ceasing to be an inward-looking, membership club and broadening out" goes much further than we realised. As the Daily Mirror told us last night Vince Cable has hatched a secret plot to pave the way for a non-MP lead the Lib Dems. He wants to scrap or amend an obscure part of the party's constitution which states only an MP can take the helm. The move, which is likely to be put to the party after summer recess and could be debated at the annual conference in Brighton in September, ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: I had used to wash the chamber-pots, at home. Now, seeing Margaret tip my piddle into her bucket, I was not sure I liked it. But I said, 'Thank you, Margaret'—then wished I hadn't; for she heard it and tossed her head, as if to say, Who did I think I was, thanking her? Cor. I have come rather late to Sarah Waters - this was published in 2002 - but this was an amazing delve into the depths of Victorian London (and Surrey), with seedy plans of the lower and upper classes intersecting, and ...
I set out to write a brief history of Universal Credit since 2010, but I realised when writing it that that is not possible, because it is in fact a brief history of government incompetence, falsehood and vindictiveness. Universal Credit is a great idea that many people have tried to bring to fruit for more than fifty years. It simplifies the benefits system, removes lots of barriers about eligibility, removes barriers to getting back to work, and takes considerable administrative burden off citizens, businesses and the state. However, it always proved too complicated, particularly given the Byzantine complexity of the ...
Last year I attended ALDC (the Association of Liberal Democrat Campaigners and Councillors) Kickstart weekend as part of their Future Leaders scheme. 15 or so young people in the party are offered individual mentorship to help them get to where they want to be in the party – whether that is an MP, a Councillor, or something else. And then they attend their choice of wider training sessions on campaigning alongside the other attendees of Kickstart. There are a huge range of courses - such as on how to find volunteers, how to use data for your campaigning, and social ...
Thu, 12:56: RT @SimonFraser00: I recall @DominicRaab with @michaelgove pressing me to agree in the first ever meeting of the @CommonsEUexit Select Ctte... Thu, 16:05: A solution for the Northern Ireland backstop? https://t.co/bdWlufTyZl Thu, 18:53: Anno Mortis, by Rebecca Levene https://t.co/uABVMyntvI Thu, 20:37: RT @digbylidstone: "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper." #Civilisation #TSEliot https://t.co/3aAncCum1N Fri, 10:45: https://t.co/eOGorjTAei
Kate Hoey and the constituents of Vauxhall are one of my pet projects on twitter. Every time the MP makes a statement about Brexit or votes for as hard a Brexit as possible, I get out on iPhone and write a pithy tweet about the people getting what they voted for. Last year the country went to the polls and in Vauxhall, a constituency that voted overwhelmingly to Remain in the European Union, they flocked to the ballot box in their droves to ensure that the arch Brexiteer Hoey was the person representing them in Parliament. Why did they do ...
Last weekend, the Sunday Times revealed that 38% of people would vote for a new right wing party that is committed to Brexit, and a quarter would support a party which was explicitly far right, anti-immigration and anti-Islam. This should be a wake up call for progressives. The electorate is faced with the choice between a deeply divided Conservative Party whose Eurosceptic tail is wagging its political dog or a Labour Party that thinks it knows better than the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on how anti-semitism should be defined. The party I belong to, and campaign for is still polling ...
One of the world's best museums of modern art is the Tate Modern in the monolithic old Bankside power station on the south bank of London's River Thames. Personally I prefer hanging my walls with figurative paintings of recognisable people, places and flowers, but I enjoy going to the Tate Modern for a fresh perspective, good laugh and the occasional thought-provoking head scratch. One exhibit that achieved all three of those reactions was "The Oak Tree." I am afraid I can't remember the artist's name but the structure of the exhibit remains crystal clear in my memory. Halfway up the ...
The Guardian reports that Human rights campaigners have challenged the prime minister in the high court, accusing her of abandoning the longstanding principle that members of the government should be bound by international law. The paper says that campaigners from the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) argued in court that ministers had abandoned their commitment to abide by international law after quietly rewriting the ministerial code in 2015: The code has been in existence since 1997 and sets out the standard of conduct expected by ministers. The previous code, issued in 2010, said there was an "overarching duty on ...
I've blogged about Southport's former tram system in the past but a visit to the reopening of Wirral Transport Museum the other day brought this tram into view:- What's more it had this description fixed to it:- So this former horse tram once operated in Southport and was then sold to a Southport coal merchant before ending up in the former Steamport Museum in the Town. Here are 2 more views of it:- Obviously it has been restored to its Birkenhead livery but as you can see there's a nod to its Southport heritage via the advertising in photo 3. ...
The significance in today's YouGov polling for The Times is not that those wanting a second referendum now outnumber those opposed on this question wording but rather the trend over the last couple of months.
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating gas main renewal works. The Order is expected to be in force for five weeks from 30 July 2018. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily (1) all southbound vehicular traffic in Riverside Approach from its junction with Magdalen Yard Road to its junction with Riverside Drive and (2) all right turning traffic (westbound) from Barnetts Garage onto Riverside ...
Commenting on figures which reveal the extent to which top UK universities rely on Horizon 2020 funding Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran said:"As these figures show, UK universities have benefited from Horizon 2020 funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds - helping to keep them at the forefront of innovation and research, and rated among the best in the world. "Yet, the Conservative Government have completely neglected the future of research in their negotiations with Brussels and have not been able to offer our universities any clarity about whether this funding will continue. It is no ...
I'm trying desperately to get all my reviews posted before the deadline for voting on July 31. As always, I won't manage this — if nothing else, the reading this year is somewhat unbalanced, as almost all the novellas are ... Continue reading →
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