It's been a long time, but hello to a new (to me) Pizza Express outlet in London. This time in Curtain Road. My main memory of the meal? The absence of any curtains. Also absent, despite the usual Pizza Express style of fitting out venues in ways that mark the local history, were any obvious decorations marking either the actual curtain of Curtain Road, as in part of a fortification, or the main cause of fame for Curtain Road as the location of one of London's first theatres, home for a couple of years to Shakespeare's theatre company. So that ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There's a decidedly Welsh flavour to today's press releases, as Theresa May hits the road in an attempt to sell a dead parrot to the masses... Police acting as first responders to people with mental ill health Welsh Lib Dems Welcome Aled Roberts as New Welsh Language Commissioner Theresa May Must Give Wales a People's Vote - Welsh Lib Dems Stars Oppose Brexit at Hay Festival - Welsh Lib Dems Davey: Govt's failure to publish immigration plans "unacceptable" Police acting as first responders to people with mental ill health Responding to today's report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Democrat Voice

It's a while since I have been to Liberal Democrat Conference. In the days when I did, one of the pleasures of the Glee Club was the song Woad. You know it: Romans keep your armours; Saxons your pyjamas: Hairy coats were meant for goats, Gorillas, yaks, retriever dogs and llamas.Tramp up Snowdon with our woad on: Never mind if we get rained or blowed on. Never want a button sewed on. Go it, Ancient Bs. Woad was written some time before 1914 by William Hope-Jones, a housemaster at Eton, for the school's Scout troop. It became popular in the ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

In a press release today on last week's changes to car parking in Ludlow, Shropshire Council said: "Early indications are that the changes have had a positive impact and been well received. Initial observations indicate a noticeable shift from on-street to off-street parking — in line with the aims of the strategy - plus positive feedback from residents about the reduction in parking congestion and ability to park close to their homes." You cannot judge a parking scheme based on a seven-day period during which the weather was often poor. A seven-day period when town centre roads were closed over ...

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

This is where decisions are supposed to take place but the council are now investigating allegations of improper decisions taken elsewhere My colleague Cllr Mirna Juarez, our Regeneration Spokesperson, has today asked for a full investigation into allegations that are ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Tomorrow the world chess championship will be decided in London by a succession of games played at increasingly fast time limits. It's an unsatisfactory to decide the game's ultimate honour - rather like deciding a drawn Ashes series with a Twenty20 game. And there have been several problems with the match between the reigning champion, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, and his challenger, Fabiano Caruana from the United States. Carlsen has seemed out of sorts, particularly after failing to convert a favourable position in the first game. In the final game he offered the draw that took the game into a fast ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The most unexpected news story of the day must be Patrick O'Flynn MEP's decision to leave Ukip and join the SDP. In his statement, O'Flynn says: "like many on the communitarian wing of the party, I have decided to join the resurgent SDP". I am afraid that resurgence has passed me by, though there are a few pro-SDP Twitter accounts around. And Sam Watts, who was the Ukip candidate for Corby at last year's general election, joined the SDP shortly afterwards. He is also a town councillor in Burton Latimer. There's even someone on Twitter called William Clouston, who claims ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

[IMG: Alan B'Stard captured the current mood of ultra Tory Brexiters 28 years ago] I was a great fan of the TV comedy series 'The New Statesman' which starred Rik Mayall as the ultra right wing Tory MP of a fictitious place called 'Haltemprice' in Yorkshire. The series first... The post Alan B'Stard captured the current mood of ultra Tory Brexiters 28 years ago appeared first on FeministMama.

Posted by ambitiousmamas on FeministMama

Second frame of third chapter: Second frame with words from third chapter: Constant Abeels: "Christ, what's all this mess?" There is actually a comics shop in downtown Brussels named after this volume, and I had assumed for some reason that it was originally in Dutch and a standalone tale. In fact it was originally in French (but I read the Dutch translation) and it's the fifth (at least; counts vary) in a series of works with the overall title Les Cités obscures, which sort-of translates to "The Obscure Cities", set in a succession of parallel conurbations which are closely related ...

I've recently been dipping into Brainchildren – essays on designing minds, by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. The essays in the book were written between the mid 1980s and 1998. There's a whole section dedicated to artificial intelligence, hence my interest. It's instructive to look at this topic from a philosophical rather than a pure [...] The post Brainchildren – Exploding robots and AI appeared first on ten pence piece.

Posted by tim on ten pence piece
YouGov
Tue 27th
15:51

SDP gain from UKIP

Here's something I didn't see coming! UKIP MEP for the East of England region, Patrick O'Flynn, has defected to the Social Democratic Party. Or perhaps I should rephrase that. He's actually defected to the continuing continuing SDP, as the parties of that name formed by the Gang of Four (1981) and Dr David Owen (1988) have both ceased to exist. Mr O'Flynn is an interesting figure. I've always thought him to be inherently capable, and for all my disagreements on policy I found him to be honest and very much his own person. He famously struggled with Nigel Farage, favoured ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

Technically, the Inchindown oil tanks in Invergordon, Scotland, have the world's longest reverberation, but that makes a much worse title. We tested them with a loud noise and some very sensitive microphones.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

One of the curios about the origin of the Liberal Democrats in a merger between the Liberal Party and the SDP, is that the two splinter groups who disagreed with the party – the breakaway continuing Liberal Party and SDP – both then took a strongly anti-European turn. A Liberal Party branch even ended up backing Ukip, whilst the SDP has now picked up its first* MEP: the former Ukipper, Patrick O'Flynn. The East of England MEP explains his move as a response to the increasingly hard right policies of the party's leader, Gerard Batten: I am joining them because ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Tue 27th
11:55

97000 people per year

Content warning: Sexual violence In England and Wales every year approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped; that's roughly 11 rapes (of adults alone) every hour of every day. When you look at the number of adults sexually assaulted each year in England and Wales that number jumps to nearly half a million. Economically the cost of sexual offences in a year is estimated to be £8.46bn. 1 in 5 adult women will or has experienced some form of sexual violence. The numbers of people affected by sexual violence are so large that it is doubtful that there is ...

Posted by Suzanna Austin on Liberal Democrat Voice
Tue 27th
11:27

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An officer smiles showing poison's clean white roots in hypocrisy Advertisements

Posted by AL Franklin on Maintain the Advance!
Tue 27th
11:00

My tweets

Mon, 12:56: Banksy works worth £12m impounded in Belgium after legal row https://t.co/Xj5LG5RvrY Extraordinary, and yet somehow... https://t.co/OcTITpGYkT Mon, 14:26: RT @cmioffice: President Ahtisaari steps down as an active member of @TheElders. He is deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked f... Mon, 14:39: RT @haveigotnews: After President Macron makes blunt warning to the UK over fishing rights, experts suggest he's just flexing his mussels. Mon, 16:05: RT @marykmac: Four-year-old nephew:,"Excuse me, is there a party bag?" Me: "Oh, I'm sorry, no there isn't. Grown-up parties don't have par... Mon, 17:11: Fake Britain: A Map Of Fictional Locations In ...

Layla Moran represented the party in a debate on the Brexit Deal on last night's Newsnight. Here's her pitch: Finally, Lib Dem Layla Moran MP pitches what she wants to happen: another referendum #newsnight | @maitlis | @LaylaMoran pic.twitter.com/3CdfffNMVq — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 26, 2018 You can watch the whole thing here.

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

During the 2015 general election campaign, I did some phone canvassing for the Lib Dems. It was the simpler end of this sort of thing, at least for me: I was calling local organisers to see what, if anything, they required from HQ. So, no need to pitch the party, just find out some practicalities. Or so I thought. I was surprised at how many of the people I called – and recall, these were Lib Dem organisers at the last election, so people who actually not only canvassed for the party but organised other people to do so as ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Detectives investigating the attempted theft of a cash machine in Seabrook, Hythe are appealing for witnesses. The incident is reported to have taken place at Hythe Service Station, Seabrook Road, Hythe, at 3.19am on Monday 26 November 2018. Two men wearing masks were seen trying to remove the ATM from the service station. They left in a white pick-up truck which was being driven by a third man. The vehicle headed towards Hythe. Officers are following a number of lines of enquiry and are appealing for anyone with information about the attempted theft to come forward. They would like to ...

The Guardian has the story on its website – see link below:- Quote from the Guardian article – 'Labour will not allow a representative of the People's Vote campaign to take part in any televised Brexit debate involving Theresa May' – What a damming indictment of the Labour Leadership's appalling pro-Brexit stance, which flies in the face of the overwhelming opinion of Labour's members and supporters. With thanks to Bob for the lead to this posting

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
eUKhost

In the rather dry text of the Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on copyright in the Digital Single Market there lurks, behind the good intentions, an information restricting and illiberal set of proposals. The infamous Article 13. The objections of the technically informed and creative internet users were ignored last June by the majority in the European Parliament who passed the proposal by a sizable majority and the final vote on the directive is immanent. Article 13 risks being nothing more than an act of corporate welfare; with big business standing to gain ...

Posted by Robert Johnston on Liberal Democrat Voice

I am sure that Mr Rees-Mogg's expensive education has given him a mastery of Shakespeare. But just in case, he may want to re-read this passage: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The [...] The post Theresa May haunted by all her yesterdays appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Joe Zammit-Lucia on Radix

We were told that Brexit was about taking back control and yet our economy and trade depend on finding partners, striking deals with them and in the process, ceding some of that control over the movement of labour and goods. Anybody who says differently is either lying or profoundly naïve. The UK cannot stand alone in an interdependent world dominated by multi-national companies. The logic of Brexit is that we should not be locked into a single free trade area, even if it is the biggest in the world, accounts for 44% of our trade and holds the key to ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

The Liberal Democrat Group submitted a motion to Council relating to Anti-bullying Week 2018 promoted by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. It was proposed by Cllr Chris Williams and seconded by Cllr Jenny Batt, the two vice-chairs of the People Committee. The motion recognised the increasing incidences of bullying, and resolved to be clear that bullying is [...]

Posted by jaynemccoy on Diary of a Sutton Councillor