Monarchical systems are strange entities, nonetheless we may still compare and contrast. In his Christmas homily to the Luxembourg nation, Grand-Duke Henri went out of his way to thank all non-Luxembourgers who live and work in the Grand Duchy and who thereby enhance the society of the country – "je voudrais remercier les non-Luxembourgeois qui ... Continue reading A contrast between Monarchs: Grand-Duc Henri recognises the contribution of immigrants

Posted by martinrdbennett on Liberal Democrats in Luxembourg

When I chose a song from Hair as my Sunday music video, I wrote of my childhood in the Sixties: Seemingly by law, every request programme played Harry Secombe singing If I Ruled the World and Stanley Holloway singing I'm Getting Married in the Morning. And if you went to a friend's house their parents would have, not Ogden's Nut Gone Flake or The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, but the cast recordings of Oliver! or My Fair Lady. There was more fun to be had at one friend's house as his parents had the cast recording from ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

For years it has been impossible for a party of children to leave their school unless they are dressed like navvies. Michael Gove used to dream of putting every child in the country into a blazer, but it is the hi-vis jacket that has triumpjed. I sometimes have lunch at the cafe at Leicester's museum. and even there the visiting school parties all wear this garment. It is, I suppose, a reflection of teachers' fears of being blamed if anything happens to a child in their charge and of wider society's belief that something terrible will befall a child who ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

There have been ten leaders of the Liberal Party and its successor the Liberal Democrats since 1945 as follows. I have resisted the temptation to rank them 1 – 10, but my top three are revealed later. The roll of honour is as follows; Clement Davies 1945 -56 A reluctant leader who led a depleted parliamentary party in a chamber dominated by Labour. He was credited with keeping organised Liberalism alive during one of our darkest periods. Jo Grimond 1956 -67 A youthful breath of fresh air who oversaw a mini-revival with famous by-election victories at Torrington and Orpington. Ultimately ...

Posted by David Warren on Liberal Democrat Voice

Second frame of third chapter: Bookblogging has been a bit slow of late, partly due to end-of-year exhaustion, but also I have rediscovered Civilisation (for the iPad, in this case) and it's proving as big a temptation as it was when I was last really into it twenty years ago. Anyway. Nice to get back to the world of Saga, where our protagonists, renuited, are dealing with being exiles on a hsticle world while looking for gynaecological services. Some surprisingly heavy stuff here about abortion, seriously and sensitively approached, with also some more information about what is going on with ...

There has been a noticeable burst of people joining the Liberal Democrats over Christmas, especially former Labour supporters for whom Jeremy Corbyn's recent interview about proceeding with Brexit was the last straw.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

This gem from Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev in 2015 is still the stand out winner in the 'most modest tweet from any county leader, anywhere, anytime' category.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Wed 26th
12:13

Terminus

One of my Christmas Day highlights (*) was seeing John Schlesinger's film Terminus for the first time in many years. A 33 minute short produced by British Transport Films, it documents a day at Waterloo Station...Continue Reading The post Terminus appeared first on ten pence piece.

Posted by tim on ten pence piece
Wed 26th
12:00

Snippets

I read an interesting article and came across a YouGov poll, the gist of which I thought would be worth passing on. The first was an article by pollster Peter Kellner in The New European. Based on an analysis of demographic change, Kellner concludes that the Leave majority will disappear in January 2019. His analysis points out that approximately 600,000 die each year and a further 700,000 reach voting age. Allowing for the fact that most of those passing on are the elderly and who in the main did vote and voted to leave against the young who on the ...

Posted by Tahir Maher on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 26th
11:00

My tweets

Tue, 13:11: The King of the Belgians delivers a surprisingly forthright Christmas message. He calls on politicians to listen to... https://t.co/PHKviXgtKb Tue, 18:35: No TV #DoctorWho Christmas special this year, but here's the first ever seasonal Who story, as published in TV Comi... https://t.co/k3CBJmTMtG Tue, 20:48: RT @tashadrinkstea: Merry Christmas! Sometimes people ask me why I celebrate Christmas as a Hindu. I usually say it's because everyone love... Tue, 20:56: Another partial remedy for #DoctorWho Christmas special deprivation syndrome: @Paul_Cornell's Classic Who Christmas... https://t.co/jh0UmAVpVA Tue, 23:41: I've read all of Bulis' Who books, but looking back on my own write-ups ...

YouGov
Wed 26th
10:53

A Christian perspective?

As encouraging as it is to see UK Ministers introducing an ethical dimension into foreign policy, the announcement that there is to be an independent inquiry into the persecution of Christians around the world raises more questions than it answers. The Independent reports that the foreign secretary has admitted that the UK should be doing more to help. He has appointed the Bishop of Truro, Rt Reverend Philip Mounstephen, to carry out the investigation, which will look into how Britain could improve its work overseas. The review is due to report by Easter, and will assess threats to Christians in ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Being a bold creative genius who flouts the rules of society to create art that has little to no commercial value for five decades on the trot takes a lot of balls. Even more so if you were a black man in the southern US in the early part of the 20th century. Sun Ra was born Herman Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. Sometime in 1936, Blount said he had some sort of revelation that revealed to him that he had been born on Saturn and was brought to Earth for a divine musical purpose. Although he had played ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com
Wed 26th
07:00

Good King Wenceslas