These baths stand on the edge of the Welland meadows in Stamford, and incidentally mark the outer wall of the castle once built to protect the river crossing. I had assumed the elegant building once housed a fashionable spa, but it turns out to have been home to public baths built because of the poor sanitary conditions in the town. Yet Stamford did once have a medicinal chalybeate spring and today I found it. It is in those same meadows, but some way out of the town. You can find it near the bridge that takes the A1 over the ...
Mike Smithson has written a post on Political Betting looking forward to next month's local elections. In it he quotes the observations of the former Labour MP Nick Palmer: Interesting 3 hours on the doorstep this afternoon (and no, people don't mind being canvassed at Easter) in deepest Surrey. I think the Lib Dems are going to do well - I'm used to their voters showing up as don't knows till the last minute, but there's some definite enthusiasm out there. Labour's core vote seems solid but not especially enthusiastic - it's mostly about fighting the Tories. The Tory vote ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Henry, of course, was not the only Irish Law Officer of note during this period, and he was assisted by two Solicitor-Generals [sic]; D.M. Wilson, followed by T.W. Brown. Born in Ballymena and son of a former moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, Wilson had been educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College Dublin. Called to the Bar in 1885, Wilson had practised in the North-West Circuit, winning the West Down seat in the 1918 general election. Thomas Watters Brown was born in Newtownards in 1879, and had been educated at Campbell College ...
Sat 20th
17:53
On balance, after careful consideration, I'm happy to share this tweet of a Labour activist campaign...
What can one say about this tweet? Let's go for, 'thank you, Terry'.
The sudden heatwave this weekend has made the soft greens of Spring seem all the more vibrant. Orange tip, Brimstone, Blue and Speckled wood butterflies are emerging. This morning I went out in search of green to photograph around the garden... hostas, cornflowers, rose and oregano in pots mini flower gems new sunny gravel bed with low growing herbs, golden oreganomarjoram and thyme rejuvenated lilac and willow 'dragonsclaw' Spring greens!
After the British government failed to arrange Britain's exit from the European Union on 29 March, the country must now elect members for the European Parliament (MEPs) on 23 May. Few people wanted this to happen, but the state of EU law is such that it can't be waved away. These elections have a rather ... Continue reading Britain's European Parliament elections are the Brexit Party's to lose
Yesterday one of the quotes from Lyra McKee that really struck home was this: "We were the Good Friday Agreement generation, destined to never witness the horrors of war but to reap the spoils of peace. The spoils just never seemed to reach us." Today on the day after she died of the gun shot wound she received on the streets of Derry we learn that two others of that Good Friday Agreement generation have been arrested for her murder. These are three young people who should have been able to reap the spoils of peace. Twenty one years ago ...
What does an MEP actually do? Take their salary, barely turn up for work and then get fined for breaking the rules if you are Nigel Farage. But what about the rest of the Members of the European Parliament? Former Liberal Democrat MEP, and candidate this time around, Bill Newton Dunn put together a booklet in which MEPs explain what their job involves. You can read it online here. Or, if you would like to buy a printed copy, drop him an email. What-do-MEPS-do-edited-by-Bill-Newton-Dunn
For European Parliament elections in Scotland, Wales and England a form of list proportional representation is used, called the d'Hondt system.
This is a piece of land which I have blogged about before – August 2017. Here's a link back to that posting:- And now the good news, because unconnected with my previous moaning about the state of the site, a group of volunteers has come together to tackle the unkempt plot of land and I've been asked to publicise their project. www.spacehive.com/stafford-moreton This week they launched a crowd funding campaign to raise over £6000 before 31 October, to improve the beginning of Stafford Moreton Way. Sefton Council award up to £5000 or 40% of the target fund (whichever is ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @davidottewell: So having analysed the names of 20,000-odd councillors I was going to do a map showing the most common local politicians... Fri, 15:19: RT @SJAMcBride: The leaders of the DUP, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionist Party, SDLP, Alliance Party and the Green Party have issued a rare joint... Fri, 16:05: RT @lilithsaintcrow: "If they demand unconditional love from you but make their love conditional on your achievements and conformity to the... Fri, 17:11: RT @opourriol: Victor Hugo remercie tous les généreux donateurs prêts à sauver Notre-Dame de Paris et leur propose de faire la même chose a... ...
With each month passing there is more and more evidence that now is the time to bring an end to the failed DWP disability assessments and private outsourcing by companies such as Maximus and Capita and bring all assessments in house. Appeal success rates for those that go to tribunal for both Personal Independence Payment and Employment and support allowance are at their highest rates ever, with success rates of 73% for Pip and 74% for ESA. This is an increase of 4% and 5 % respectively. At the same time, waiting times for mandatory reconsiderations, which a claimant has ...
Everyone is furious. Spencer Manufacturing in Ludlow has felled several trees this morning. There was no necessity for this. A beautiful cherry tree now lies in chunks. I am not suggesting that the site owners or the landscape company have acted illegally. But we must stop stripping the green out of our environment. We will become extinct if the bugs and beasties that support the ecosystem have nowhere to live. Trees are a fundamental part of our contract with the natural world. They absorb the greenhouse gas CO2 and give us life maintaining oxygen in return. We lose trees because ...
There was an interesting article in Thursday's Guardian, which highlighted an assertion by the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, that claims rough sleeping is falling in England should not be trusted until the government has explained how an emergency funding scheme for the worst-affected areas might have skewed the latest figures. The paper says Sir David Norgrove's comments are the latest development in a row over the apparent 2% fall in rough sleeping in England in 2018, which ministers said was a sign the government's Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) was tackling the homelessness crisis: In a significant intervention, Norgrove ...
Following their appearances in France and India on the election trail, holograms are now set to make an appearance in US campaigning too: Democratic presidential hopeful and entrepreneur Andrew Yang this week unveiled a new campaign technique that will allow him to be in two places at once: holograms. Yang deputed his 3D hologram during a Wednesday segment on TMZ Live, featuring him performing a duet alongside a famous hologram of rapper Tupac Shakur. [The Hill] Me trying out being a hologram with hologram Tupac [IMG: 👍] pic.twitter.com/IclQvAa27z — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) April 11, 2019 As I pointed out back ...
Standing for the Bridge ward of Lewes Town Council, we have: Just glorious. Janet was the first BaME mayor of Lewes last year. "Today you have made history in electing someone like me," Councillor Baah told the Council after her election. "I feel very excited, honoured and grateful to live in a town where I am respected and whose councillors have elected me to serve all the people of Lewes. "Mayoral duties can be difficult because you have to deal with issues concerning the law and individual freedom, but I look forward to supporting everybody's democratic rights and fighting for ...
You can join the Liberal Democrats quickly, easily and safely online. Membership starts at just £12 a year (£6 for the under-26s on benefits or £1 for students).
I have received a number of further complaints about the amount of litter regularly in both Forest Park Road (pictured below) and Rosefield Street :I have therefore raised this with the environment manager for the area regarding the need for more regular street sweeping in both streets.
Don't forget - with Monday being a bank holiday all bin collections next week are put back a day. So, if your usual collection date is a Tuesday, next week it will be on Wednesday I'm sure that by now you know the drill
