Second section of third chapter: she's wearing a light grey pencil skirt and jacket, powder-blue blouse, grey neck-tie, black patent leather court shoes, and her pride as she passes through the formidable doors into the wood-panelled entrance wide staircases sweep up either side of the lobby ascending to the upper floors long corridors extend in two directions either side of her she's way too early, wanders through the empty school, explores its light-filled classrooms, imagines its essence pouring into her soul, yes, her very soul she isn't going to be a good teacher but a great one one who'll be ...
A Radio 4 pre-election programme featured a 'focus group' which described the Lib Dems as "irrelevant" and "wishy-washy". They were neither 'left', nor 'right', but somewhere lost in the middle. The Benny Hill tune was suggested as an appropriate Party theme. This and the election result may be a distortion of the true representation of what the majority of people think, but for too many the Lib Dems are seen as stuck 'hey-diddle-diddle-in-the-middle' of nowhere, taking a little from both of the two major parties without constituting anything of great substance or profundity itself. So, whatever the debate within the ...
In the new year, the party will be kicking off its formal review of both the general election and the European Parliament election. (The review of the latter was delayed due to the then imminent general election.) There will be much to learn, and it's important that the review is conducted independently of those who ran the campaigns and that where necessary it is robust in its findings. Party members should have received yesterday an email with an initial survey to help capture feedback while it is fresh in people's mind. Much more consultation will happen in the new year. ...
If the objective of a general election is to win the most Commons' seats we can (which I assume it is), then 2019 was the least efficient general election in the party's history. That is, if you define efficiency as garnering votes in such a geographical way so that we maximise the number of seats we win. The figures are as follows: Ranking the votes per seat with the highest number on the right and moving downwards towards the left hand side, my graph looks like this: Following on from this, I have a number of questions about the process ...
It has often been said — not always in jest — that Brits are bad at learning foreign languages. But for many Brits the truth may be that they don't see the point in making the effort, "as everyone else speaks English, don't they?" That latter assumption is of course incorrect and to be honest [...]
Thu 19th
11:25
This is the only way the Labour Party can win the next election - and who I think the Labour members...
A lot of people seem to have already conceded the next general election to the Tories. It is easy to understand why. Labour's reaction to their crushing loss has not been inspiring. The Left have an arrogance that is truly breathtaking yet understandable: the membership have backed them every step of the way since 2015. It would be strange if they suddenly gave up now given reality is never an impediment for those indoctrinated in this ideology. I will try here to reach out to the Labour membership with the following statement: Labour cannot win the next election if they ...
Our current co-leaders, Sal Brinton and Ed Davey, have written to party members asking for their initial thoughts on the general election campaign and results. They write: ...we know we have a lot of work to do and many lessons to learn. In the new year, we'll be conducting a full independent review of this election. This will include a chance for you to give us all of your views on what worked, what didn't, and what we need to do differently in the future. But we also want to give you a chance to share your views before the ...
Wed, 12:56: RT @BradStaples: So #GE2019 is over with a reshaped UK and Europe set for 2020, but globally there are more trends and tremors to keep an e... Wed, 15:44: RT @davidallengreen: Looking at Brexit after the 2019 general election My longish post at @law_and_policy on the significance for Brexit o... Wed, 16:05: Four Other Elections to Watch in 2020 - @APCOWorldwide https://t.co/sm3dBhniGh Everyone will be watching the USA, a... https://t.co/rwtUFubqYD Wed, 17:11: Science Fiction's Wonderful Mistakes https://t.co/sgw9RrPCFo Not really fair to look at old SF as a literal predict... https://t.co/dTDTkn0qJa Wed, 18:13: May 2004 books https://t.co/Wel2I2dxtf Wed, 20:48: ...
Thu 19th
09:45
Nick Tyrone: At least the general election result has buried the UK's flirtation with direct democra...
On his website, writer Nick Tyrone has written a post entitled "Here's one thing that was definitely positive about the general election result". In it, he argues that at least the general election has killed off the UK experiment with direct democracy and led to a resumption of our historical representative democarcy: One of the things that has infected UK politics since June 2016 has been this clash between direct and representative democracy, with direct democracy often being given the greater nod by both the public and the media. The Leavers began to treat the referendum result as if it ...
With the General Election behind them and a enjoying a comfortable majority, the Tories are reverting to type with one of their first acts after voting being to abandon the promised inquiry into Islamophobia. Instead Boris Johnson has announced a broad-brush review of how the party handles discrimination complaints. The Guardian says that the Muslim Council of Britain has expressed concern at the move on Tuesday, saying it suspected that broadening the remit was designed to bury the real problem: "This appointment is at risk of being seen in the same light as the Conservative party's customary approach to Islamophobia, ...
A number of elderly constituents have raised with me how welcome it would be to have a bus shelter on the north side of Perth Road at the bus stop a little east of opposite the Seafield Road junction. I raised this with the Parking and Sustainable Transport Team Leader at the City Council who advises : "A quick look at the street layout indicates that without a redesign of the footway, there isn't sufficient space at this stop for a bus shelter. Notwithstanding, we'll add it to our list of 'shelter requests' and score it in due course to ...
