On this day in 1980, Doctor Who returned for its Eighteenth Season with a blaze of sound and colour in The Leisure Hive. The Season is the ultimate in Who 'concept albums' and its opening story is a bold statement, the director's ambitious visuals, faster edits and movie-style camerawork revolutionising the show's look (and breaking its budget). Yet the story opens with a shot so infamous that almost everyone calls it a disaster. For me, it's a truly great moment and Doctor Who's most sublime comment on Summer Holidays. "I don't think much of this Earth idea of recreation."When I ...
Here is another interesting image from the Britain from Above site. In the bottom right-hand corner you can see the LNWR lines to Rugby and to Northampton just beginning to diverge. Above that is a sports ground. Old Ordnance Survey maps call it a football ground, but that looks very like a cricket pitch in the centre. The Settling Rooms in the middle of the cattle market help modern readers orient themselves, though it may be a surprise to them to find it set among such established trees. What intrigues me most is the vacant site above the cattle market ...
[IMG: Fox News Host rebukes Trump] Also read my previous posts on American Politics: The post Fox News Host rebukes Trump appeared first on @ambitiousmamas.
Fri 30th
18:56
Should 5G come to Ludlow and Shropshire? Should we be in the modern world or scared of it? Should we...
It is one of the stark choices of modern life. Should we embrace new technology or stop its advance? All my life there has been a debate about this. Much of this has centred around radiation. More formally, the electromagnetic spectrum. But maybe it is time to decide. Is the future so dangerous we should withdraw from it? I am inspired to write about this having learnt that there is a forthcoming meeting in Ludlow. Titled "5G is it safe?" and screaming that 5G is "weapons grade technology", the leaflets say that wifi and mobile use has led to an ...
Second paragraph of third story ("Fast Contact", by Matthew Griffith): 'Hello, my name's Bernice.' His skin is not nearly so rough as I was expecting. He bows his head and, anticipating his kiss, I slip my hand away and smile firmly. Six short stories set in a slightly different universe to Benny's original environment. I liked the first two most, "Hue and Cry" by Kate Orman and Q and "Never the Way" by Jonathan Blum and Rupert Booth. I might have liked others more if I were more au fait with the continuity. You can get it here. Only one ...
Sir John Major, reports the Guardian has said he will seek the high court's permission to join the case brought by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller. It aims to prevent Boris Johnson proroguing parliament from next week until mid-October. And who is acting for the former prime minister? Step forward Lord Garnier, who as Edward Garnier was Conservative MP for Harborough from 1992 to 2017. Oh yes.
Fri 30th
15:09
How Continental Europeans view proroguing Parliament and abandoning EU inhabitants of the UK
In my earlier June 17th LDV piece on the concept of proroguing Parliament I reminded readers that the last person on the continent trying to disband a sitting EU parliament was the fascist colonel Tejero who in February 1981 entered the plenary session of the Cortes to disband at gunpoint the Spanish parliament finishing Spain's transition to a full constitutional democracy. To give you a flavour of how proroguing is seen here, a small list of continental heads of government who disbanded parliament to get their way without hindrance: Napoleon in 1799 fled Egypt to conduct a Paris military coup ...
Hard to beat this canvassing story from Liberal Democrat Prue Bray in the 2015 general election, which I think fully delivers on my headline: Is this a first? On the doorstep today a lady told me about some friends of hers who are so keen on me as a councillor that for Christmas the wife made the husband a board game about me, where all the pieces are made out of photos of me cut out of our Focuses. And they play it. Regularly. No parrots, though.
The present end of the line for trains from Wigan, the Merseyrail service to Liverpool is accessed under the bridge. The new Headbolt Lane Station will see the Liverpool – Kirkby Line extended to it. The Liverpool Echo has the article on its website – see link below:- If delivered this is good news indeed, my only reservation is that Merseytravel has a history of big promises but being less than good at delivery as previous blog postings on this site have detailed. My old friend Cllr. Andrew Makinson (member of Liverpool City Council) will be delighted to hear ...
Abbotswood Action Group have announced their programme of events for "Sustainable September" - there's lots to interest all the family. The first event is this Sunday, 1st September: "Lines In The Landscape: A time trail walk exploring how people and nature interconnect in our modern town and countryside" The walk will set off from outside St Nicholas Church, Abbotswood at 2 pm. A walk of about two hours at a gentle pace from Abbotswood to Wapley Bushes and back. Discover disused streams and ancient hedges in the built-up area, and see how wildlife and people use pathways, beelines and wildlife ...
Because of the hellscape that is British politics at the moment I am latching on to any vaguely interesting discussion these days, and ended up in a long rambling one on twitter the other day about inner voices, which covered a lot of the same areas as this post but with wildly different participants. One of the things that came up in that recent discussion that didn't before, though, was inner monologues, which are obviously distinct from inner reading voices and... I'd never really thought about mine much before? So I've had a couple of days musing on it. My ...
Fri 30th
12:59How British liberals should advocate for the human rights of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir
This past month, the Government of India has escalated military presence in Jammu and Kashmir, already perhaps the densest in the world, enforced curfews, a media blackout, blocked all communications and arrested Kashmiri politicians without issuing warrants under a draconian law. Reports of torture of civilians are now coming through the BBC. This comes accompanying the Government of India's attempt to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status per the conditions of it joining India after India became independent. Civilian casualties over the past 12 months were already at a decade high, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ...
If the country and politics itself has been thrown into chaos by talks of a no deal Brexit, then spare a thought for the many EU citizens living in the UK, whose very way of life is being threatened by the recklessness of Boris Johnson and his fellow Tory ministers. As the Guardian reports, EU citizens living in Britain have asked the government for clarification on their status in the event of a no-deal Brexit. They says that altough 1 million have applied for settled status, at least 2.6 million have yet do so: More than 100 EU citizens who ...
The petition opposing the proroguing of Parliament which I signed earlier this week has, at the time of writing this, reached 1784 signatures in Blaydon constituency. Keep on signing everyone! You can see the numbers for each constituency on this link.
Just arrived: nearly one thousand Focuses for my ward. It looks like I'll be pounding the streets over the next few days. So no change there!
Writing in the foreword of the 1946 edition of his own novel from 15 years previous, "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley said this: "For the last 30 years there have been no conservatives; there have only been nationalistic radicals of the right and nationalistic radicals of the left." Huxley saw the First World War – correctly in my opinion – as the breakdown of British conservatism, something which did not come back in to itself again until after the Second World War and the shock of the Attlee government to focus Tory minds. Perhaps the scariest thing about Brexit is ...
Good news about the Whickham branch Post Office. It has been closed for some time and the search was on to find a new location. The issue is now resolved. The branch reopens at Whickham News in St Mary's Green on 17th September. Photo above: Cllr John McClurey, Cllr Marilynn Ord and me outside the new location for the Whickham Post Office branch.
Thu, 12:56: RT @garvanwalshe: I'm sure that suspending parliament by executive decree will reassure Britain's EU partners that the backstop is not nece... Thu, 13:36: RT @JerrySanBXL: ... I'm adding the famous « Nicholas ( @nwbrux ) LIST ©️™️ » 🤓 for all good purposes ✍🏻 🙌 ... #EuTweetup https://t.co... Thu, 16:05: RT @five_books: Interested in science fiction, but not sure where to begin? We asked Nicholas Whyte, administrator of the World Science Fic... Thu, 17:11: In fairness, the @Spectator has generally been on the right side of this issue, and is now rightly holding Boris Jo... https://t.co/XA91dIg9YD Thu, 19:26: ...
I hate it when politicians insult my intelligence. When they speak and act in a manner which implies that the voting public are no more than gullible poll fodder it undermines their credibility and damages the democratic process. Not that the current prime minister had much credibility to start with. Boris Johnson is infamous for his deceits, distortions, half-truths, vacillations and outright lies in pursuit of political ends which are clearly designed to serve only the interests of Boris Johnson. His latest porky is the claim that proroguing parliament has nothing to do with the Brexit debate. That is so ...
Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, in which Stephen Tall finally got me to talk about Brexit for a whole episode. But he might have regretted the outcome... Show notes Beatrice Wishart wins in Shetland. Reasons to doubt the Boris Johnson / Dominic Cummings strategy. Tom Chivers on Dominic Cummings and a game of chicken. Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher. Come and watch us record a special episode: "Is Dominic Cummings a genius?". Find Never Mind The Bar Charts on social media Like the show? Do follow on Twitter or Facebook. It's a great ...
Congratulations to Beatrice Wishart on winning the Shetland by-election to the Scottish Parliament yesterday. The result was: LD - 5659 (47.9%, -19.5) SNP - 3822 (32.3%, +9.3) Ind RT - 1286 (10.9%, +10.9) Con - 425 (3.7%, -0.1) Grn - 189 (1.6%, +1.6) Lab - 152 (1.3%, -4.6) Ind MS - 134 (1.1%, +1.1) Ind IS - 66 (0.6%) UKIP - 60 (0.5%, +0.5) Ind PT - 31 (0.3%, +0.3) The challenge to the Lib Dem
In the US, as elsewhere, there is an incipient movement to reduce single use plastics. Plastic straws, which are handed out with every drink one purchases, are being replaced by paper alternatives – or no straws at all. In response, the Trump campaign has started selling red plastic straws with TRUMP printed on them. So far, sales of these straws have raised in excess of half a million dollars for the campaign. This is a microcosm of what is happening to politics almost everywhere: every issue of political debate has been transformed into a culture war of identity politics. Being ...
Merseytravel are advertising the following changes to some of our local bus routes 31, 31A, 32, 32A, 33, 34, 34A, 34B Maghull Circulars Evening and Sunday Route 32A journeys and Routes 34/A/B are withdrawn but are replaced by additional Route 32/33 journeys and a new Route 32A which runs during the morning and evening peak periods. Some times are changed. 36 Aintree Hospital – Maghull circular Service is rerouted out of/into Aintree University Hospital. Journeys exit the hospital grounds onto Lower Lane and enter the hospital grounds via Longmoor Lane. Times are unchanged. 133 Kirkby – Waterloo Service is now ...
Three by-elections this week, two for local councils and one for the Scottish Parliament, the Lib Dem held Shetland constituency.
Great news from Shetland tonight as the Scottish Liberal Democrats' Beatrice Wishart won the Scottish Parliament by-election with 48% of the vote. The result in full is: Beatrice Wishart (Scottish Lib Dems)5,659 (47.86%, -19.52%) Tom Wills (SNP) 3,822 (32.32%, +9.27%) Ryan Thomson (Independent) 1,286 (10.88%) Brydon Goodlad (Scottish Conservative) 425 (3.59%, -0.07%) Debra Nicolson (Green) 189 (1.60%) Johan Adamson (Scottish Labour) 152 (1.29%, -4.61%) Michael Stout (Independent) 134 (1.13%) Ian Scott (Independent) 66 (0.56%) Stuart Martin (UKIP) 60 (0.51%) Peter Tait (Independent) 31 (0.26%) 14.40% swing Lib Dem to SNP Electorate 17,810 – Turnout 11,824 (66.39%, up by 4.31%) Willie ...
