My current enthusiasm for exploring the Leicester suburb of Aylestone was curbed by the weather on Saturday. I sat in The Black Horse and watched the rain falling. Eventually I got tired of waiting for it to stop and ordered a taxi back to Leicester station. My exploration of Aylestone began with a search for the birthplace of C.P. Snow. But he was not the only noted 20th-century novelist to have lived there: Over a pint of Tiger, somebody told me that Anthony Burgess used to drink in our pub. The story sounded implausible -- that Burgess had been a ...
Boris Johnson's "Fuck business" policy is being put into operation here in Leicestershire as Melton Conservatives boycott the major Leicester employer Walker's Crisps. I'm not entirely clear why they are doing so, but they appear to want the presenter of Match of the Day to be elected and for no one in Britain to be allowed to express a minority opinion.
Second paragraph of third chapter: I went back to the Majestic - girls around the lobby gazed hopefully up at me - and tried to pick up the thread of my own life. Walking through a book by an author long dead is not a comforting experience; I began to feel I was just a compound ghost that someone else had dreamed up, and his novels were my unwritten autobiography. I had reread The Quiet American perhaps seven times at that point, sometimes feeling my sympathies with the Englishman, whom I recalled from friends at school, sometimes with the young ...
Following the news that Simon Hughes won't be standing for Parliament again comes news of a new role for him at London South Bank University.
Wed 1st
20:43
Wit, Wisdom and Timey-Wimey Stuff: the Quotable Doctor Who, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. It's a collection of the best lines from Doctor Who, from 1963 to 2014, organised thematically, with a strong but not overwhelming leaning to New Who (where in fairness the writing has generally been better). I'm writing this on holiday, having left the book behind at home, so no direct quotes here, but this is one of those books that fans at all levels of engagement will appreciate. You can get it here.
Wed 1st
20:29
Lib Dem conference paperwork includes high profile non-Lib Dem speaker, new slogan and more
The agenda, directory and other paperwork for the autumn Liberal Democrat federal conference in Brighton are now out.
The Liberal Democrats hold two federal (i.e. UK-wide) party conferences a year, a weekend in the spring and a week in the autumn.
When Jeremy Corbyn got himself elected as Labour Leader my first thought was, at last Labour will become the socialist party that it should always have been. I also felt a little sorry for him as the right wing press and the right wing of his own party tried to undermine his leadership. Of course I'm no socialist and no supporter of the Labour Party but Labour moving to the left is where they belong to my mind. Now don't get me wrong Jez is a second division politician who got himself elected almost be default but he clearly has ...
In a blog post on the 22 January 2014, I suggested that Councillor Joyce Barrow signed the 27-year Veolia contract. Councillor Barrow complained on 29 July 2018 to the Lib Dem leader at Shropshire Council that she did not sign the contract. "It was in fact officer [name redacted by me]. I did tell Andy last year but assume he has forgotten!" I has forgotten that and I apologise. Contracts are signed by officers. Councillors can't sign them. But the political decision is a signing off. If I had used the phrase "signed off" not "signed" it would have been ...
Some of you may think that the title of this piece is another example of hyperbole. You might be right as the local government has faced crises before. However, as someone with 30 years' continuous service as a local councillor, I do think that what we have come to expect concerning local services could be something we will in future only read about in history books unless something is done to reverse the downward spiral. Especially since WW2 governments of all political hues have over the years progressively emasculated local councils, not only by taking many of their responsibilities away ...
I have deliberately spent most of my career working for charities. I was lucky enough to hold some senior posts and feel satisfied that in my mundane daily work I was able to help charities to deliver much-needed assistance to the public. I believe in charities and have been for a while dissatisfied that governments have not supported charities better. Charities in the main are good value for money, and the service they provide is often essential for local communities, nationally and internationally. It's regrettable to read re charities revelations about the sex abuse scandal. It is even more shocking ...
I'm not dead (tho mega busy) but I couldn't let Yorkshire Day pass without a post. Happy Yorkshire Day to all who are fortunate enough to live in God's Own County, and commiserations to those poor benighted souls who live elsewhere. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I was in Berlin last week, a sweltering week. I was immediately struck with the efficiency of their public services; there was eight of us on a boy's holiday when we came out of the airport to catch a bus to our hotel; the buses arrived precisely on time and left on time. We were still dithering when the first bus arrived, and we were told to stand back so the bus could go on time - lesson learnt. Over the week we went on a number of tours that took us to the Bundestag, different locations to look at ...
I wanted to take the opportunity on a Wednesday to make some small and varied points/announcements that I feel will be of interest. My announcement for this week is about the: Autumn Conference The Agenda for the autumn conference launched online today. HO staff should be thanked for the hard work they have done to get this ready. The Agenda and the Directory can be found at https://www.libdems.org.uk/autumn_conference_2018 To help promote the autumn conference there is a Local Party Conference Challenge Challenge Criteria:- Between the dates of 1 August and 31 August FCC would like to challenge all local parties ...
Tue, 12:56: Notices to Stakeholders https://t.co/nKknslNzWW Useful summary of the EU's preparedness documents for the event of a no-deal Brexit. Tue, 16:05: Awwwww!!!!!!! https://t.co/38NbqV4inf Tue, 18:42: Slow Sculpture, by Theodore Sturgeon https://t.co/kIlwI1Ggn5 Tue, 21:47: July books https://t.co/Uq7q0TcE7N Wed, 10:45: RT @kevinhorourke: This seems to get to the heart of one of the key British misunderstandings about Brexit. It is the assumption that there...
Headlines are designed to grab our attention and draw us into the article, but rarely are they so successful in that endeavour as this one in The Times. The paper reports that the Freemasons are to admit women, but only if they first joined as men. This secretive society, which has been male-only for centuries, is to relax its rules. The United Grand Lodge of England, founded in 1717, has issued guidance to its 200,000 members that "a Freemason who after initiation ceases to be a man does not cease to be a Freemason". The paper tells us that the ...
Dan Hodges' article last weekend was about how twenty or so Labour MPs were finally ready to walk away. What shape this would take, the article was unclear about. New party? Resign the whip and sit as independents, hoping to one day return to planet Red? The Hodges piece wouldn't specify. It makes me wonder if this amounts to another false dawn, having heard all this sort of thing many times before. However, this time feels different. The anti-semitism thing is spiralling way out of control. Further, the Labour leader's office seems to be trying very, very lightly to control ...
On July 27, the White House said that President Trump would receive President Putin in Washington early in 2019, and that Trump would later travel to Moscow. Including the Helsinki meeting of July 16, this would be the third Russian-American summit in the space of a year. Do these multiple meetings foreshadow a Russo-American rapprochement? [...] The post What gets in the way of an Russian-American agreement appeared first on Radix.
[IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL] The English Premier League kicks off next week, Friday 10 August, and LibDemVoice has revived its Fantasy Football League to mark the occasion. So if you fancy pitting your soccer selection skills against fellow party members then here's your chance. There's almost 100 of you already joined! To enter all you have to do is click on this link. Simply register your details, pick your team, and away you go. If you need the joining code at any point, it's 1729103-394948. Last season's winner, Alan Worthington, finished in the top 25,000 world-wide (out of over six ...
From Sheena Wellington : Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library For the second of our Year of Young People Lunchtime Recitals, the Ciar Milne Trio play at the Wighton Centre today - Wednesday 1st August - 1.15pm to 1.45pm. These three very talented Dundee school pupils - Dundee music maestro Kenny Christie describes them as "fab"- are Ciar Milne, small/border pipes, Hannah Dineen, fiddle, and Robbie Lamond, guitar. Hannah and Ciar have been playing together since September 2017. As well as playing in the Dundee Schools' Spring Concerts, they played in Würzburg, Germany in May, as part the Dundee-Würzburg twinning programme. ...
I've just published a new novella. It's the first in the series, so I'm afraid it's something of an origin story with a bit of a cliffhangery ending, but it's only 99 cents and the second novella in the series ... Continue reading →
The digital, culture, media, and sport (DCMS) committee has spent 18 months conducting an investigation from disinformation to the influence of social networks to targeted adverts during the Brexit referendum that played on people fears and prejudices. MPs rightly point out that this abuse is a threat to democracy. The DCMS committee report is based on 20 oral evidence sessions, during which 3,500 questions were asked of 61 witnesses, and included a trip to Washington DC. The committee received more than 150 written submissions and numerous pieces of background evidence. Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine has warned "democracy is at ...
