The other day I wrote: Thirty-eight years ago I travelled on the last train from Market Harborough to Northampton. Now comes news from Harborough FM that there is talk of reopening the line.Discussing the idea with someone on Twitter, we came to the conclusion that restoring the original line through Market Harborough to the station would involve too much demolition, But it might well be possible to divert the line at Great Oxendon to meet the Midland main line somewhere near Braybrooke. Anyway, the last train on the line (at least for now) ran on 29 August 1981. These are ...
The Quiraing, Skye The Scottish Lib Dems' election co-ordinator Alex Cole-Hamilton is notably bullish in an interview for Scotland on Sunday. He says: "We're very excited about the prospect of a general election whenever it comes." Among the former Lib Dems Westminster seats he lists as good prospects are Charles Kennedy's old seat of Ross, Skye and Lochaber; Aberdeen South; Argyll and Bute; and North East Fife. There's more: The traditional stronghold in the Borders seat of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk - which the party held for decades - is also in play. The Lib Dems are even confident of ...
How we used to laugh at Ann Widdecombe when she was a government minister! We didn't laugh at her politics, which were deeply unpleasant, but at her image. It was so hopelessly old fashioned. As it turned out, Widdecombe was not old fashioned at all. She was an early adopter of a style that has since been deployed by a number of leading Conservatives. The clue at the time was the number of her university contemporaries who told the press they did not recognise the young woman they knew then in the iron-clad virgin of the 1990s. Because Widdecombe had ...
The Tories have a long history of calming to be the "party of law and order," so much so that journalists in the 60s invented their standard bearer as "Lora Norda." At their Conference this year the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, revived the claim and warned criminals to "watch out, we are coming for you." Given that: their prorogation of parliament was declared illegal by the Supreme court;the entire government is apparently seeking ways to circumvent the Benn Act which make leaving the EU with no deal illegal;the prime minister is under investigation for improper use of public funds for ...
Britain is due to leave the European Union on 31 October, but there is no agreed deal about how this is to happen. Nevertheless, the government insists that it will happen on that date come what may. We've been here before, when when Britain was due to leave on 29 March, only for it to ... Continue reading The Brexit endgame: the two mostly likely outcomes for 31 October
When I was recovering from my stem cell transplant last year, I built a weather forecaster. It uses a Raspberry Pi, a BME280 sensor and a 20×4 character LCD screen. The forecasting algorithm I'd written...Continue Reading The post A Zambretti weather forecaster appeared first on ten pence piece.
Liverpool Lib Dems are taking the climate change emergency seriously. Although the Council has failed to call a meeting of the Climate Change Select Committee to establish a work programme our Lib Dem team has been at work looking at ... Continue reading →
Stuff that we did last month that I didn't get around to writing up. The first weekend of the month had the usual zomerfeest. The live music mostly happened on Saturday night; on Sunday the barbeque was enlivened by Les Nicolettes, a Leuven troup of majorettes. They somehow look very Belgian. The usual exhibition of art by villagers included some sculptures that caught my eye. (Those last ones are actually by Anne.) The following weekend there was a comics festival in the park in Brussels; F and U both came. And the next weekend there was more art on display ...
A book has just been published by the Ulster Historical Federation telling the story of Sheelagh Murnaghan, Ireland's only Liberal MP. 'In Northern Ireland politics, I don't know which is the greatest obstacle: to be a WOMAN, a CATHOLIC or a LIBERAL. I am all three.' Sheelagh Murnaghan was a remarkable person. She was the first female barrister to practise in Northern Ireland; a talented sportswoman who played hockey for Ulster and Ireland; the only Liberal Party MP 1961-9) in the 50-year history of the Northern Ireland Parliament. In a country riven by sectarianism, she was consistently a voice of ...
In January 2018, I outlined 8 scenarios for Austria's future, from a slow reversion to the mean through to an Orbanising right-wing coalition slowly steamrollering its opponents. With Austria just having just had another election, years ahead of schedule, it's pretty clear what the outcome was. Here's the second scenario I outlined as a possibility [...]
There's been a lot of discussion in recent days about the language we all use in political discussion and debate. Today, Sal Brinton has emailed all party members to urge us to play our part in being thoughtful and sensitive in what we say. Here is her email, reproduced with her permission: I chair the all party parliamentary group on bullying. We focus on helping young people and we know many schools now use the THINK acronym to teach good communication (Is it True; Is it Helpful; Is it Inspiring; Is it Necessary; Is it Kind?). As a party, I ...
Sometimes only The Jam will do and this is a live performance of a track from their 1980 album Sound Affects. But do we believe him? Is he different now?
Sun 6th
12:32
Visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury to Ludlow 15 October - come early and expect delays getting in...
Justin Welby will be visiting Ludlow and holding a gathering St Laurence's church on Tuesday 15 October. A road closure notice has been put in place at short notice for King Street between 9.15am and 10.30am. The closure could be in place for longer if necessary for public safety. Town workers should arrive early as the Broadgate is also scheduled to be closed that day (though I have asked for that to be lifted). Hundreds of cars are expected so there may be traffic jams, along with crowded park and ride buses. The Bishop of Hereford has invited the 439 ...
Always good to get a mention! On the new Survivors, I recall it being better than the original because it had a bit more of a coherent storyline but not so good that I'd recommend making a special effort to watch it. And one day there'll be a new B7 for us to be equally disappointed by.
Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have actively colluded with Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential campaigns. He may not have plotted with the Brexiteers in the referendum vote of the same year. But he has certainly benefited from the results—BIG TIME Those results are an erratic president dividing America and angering European allies. On the other side of the Atlantic it is a Britain hopelessly split over membership of the EU. The turmoil in both countries is proof that even the darkest clouds contain a silver lining for someone somewhere. In this case the main beneficiary is Russia. ...
Sat, 12:56: What changes on 1 October in Belgium? https://t.co/e1hxYBcm4R Glorious from @JohnstonJules: "From 1 October, only 4... https://t.co/kQEBA14Yrc Sat, 14:48: Hong Kong Versus Shenzhen: Two Competing Visions of China's Future https://t.co/qoGE6lEe8D Fascinating from... https://t.co/LaDv7DvMP1 Sat, 14:56: RT @tnewtondunn: I'm told an extension veto never came up during talks between Dominic Raab and Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto... Sat, 16:05: RT @MalachyQuinn: When @googlemaps captures a Plane flying over Loughbrickland 🤣 https://t.co/b1djeyzZx3 Sat, 16:28: RT @dmcbfs: Varadkar (if they watched the speech) was actually putting a UI down the list of his priorities. He's the most apathetic Taoise... Sat, 16:31: ...
The Sunday Times reports (£) that we are standing down in Beaconsfield to support Dominic Grieve's run as an independent following his unceremonious ejection from the Conservative Party. Normally you don't believe these things – I mean, we were supposed to be standing down in favour of Rory Stewart a few weeks ago and that was never going to happen. But we do have this one from the horse's mouth – our PPC in Beaconsfield, Rob Castell. Alright twitter calm down. I'm out at the theatre with my mum for her birthday so I'll respond in the morning. But yeah ...
Want to read the latest news about the Liberal Democrat websites but prefer the stories to come to your email inbox rather than have to remember to go and check different websites? Then this free email service is for you.
ITV reports of another high-profile recruit for the Liberal Democrats, fuelled by Brexit: The former Loughborough and Charnwood MP Stephen Dorrell has joined the Liberal Democrats, urging other liberals in the Conservative Party and social democrats in Labour to now "break cover". He was a Conservative MP for 36 years and served as a minister in the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments. In 2019 Dorrell left the Conservative Party and joined Change UK, where he stood in the European Parliament election for the West Midlands constituency, but failed to get elected. Meanwhile, in other news of British politics being ...
Huddersfield Liberal Democrats have selected James Wilkinson as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC). He was born at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and has lived in Huddersfield for over 30 years. James Wilkinson was educated at Greenhead College and Cambridge University and now works as an accountant for a large retailer in Leeds. He also volunteers as a school governor. He has been a Liberal Democrat campaigner for 20 years. He said: My top priority in Parliament will be to stop a damaging Brexit, whether by revoking Article 50 or having a People's Vote. Having lived and worked abroad, I know that ...
Sun 6th
07:11Shropshire Council is consulting on the future of its library services - I fear for mobile library s...
Shropshire Council's Library services were reviewed two years ago. The conclusion of that review was that three tiers of library would be established: Tier 1 Library Hubs in Shrewsbury and larger market towns, including Ludlow; Tier 2 Community Libraries in the smaller market towns such as Church Stretton; and Tier 3 Community Libraries in smaller market towns such as Craven Arms. Rural areas would be served by mobile libraries with 281 stops in all. The new library strategy was to last for five years. But just two years into its implementation, Shropshire Council has announced another review. The council does ...
Starting tomorrow - Monday 7th October - Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks will start work to replace the underground electricity cables that serve Pitfour Street and the surrounding areas. Two new 11kV cables will be installed from Pitfour Street Substation to the junction of Baxter Street and City Road. It is envisaged the works will be completed next month. Traffic management will be put in place by their contractors, Inverness Paving. This will include temporary lane closures and parking restrictions along Pitfour Street. There should be no interrupting to residents' electricity supply to carry out these works. I recently gave ...
Saturday started off with a double hit of back-to-back canvass training sessions in Camden, getting several new people up to speed on how to canvass for the very first time: Fab to help train up several new members, all fired up to canvass for the first time for @MattSanders_ https://t.co/4G39vjj08G — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] (@markpack) October 5, 2019 If you sign up for my blog posts digest you'll get a handy one-a-day email with links to all the latest posts. You can also sign up for a range of other lists, including Liberal Democrat Newswire – a monthly newsletter ...
