Without the BBC we could be facing a post-truth dystopia, says Jonathan Freedland. But certain Beeb programmes may be taking us there. Here's Fiona Sturges on Question Time: "At a time of entrenched tribalism, experts remain thin on the ground while showboating 'characters' reign supreme. As contrarian columnists spew bile on one side, terrified junior ministers trot out pre-rehearsed platitudes on the other. Meanwhile, viewers roar in fury on social media." Gráinne O'Hare recommends a podcast on the history of general elections. "When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the ...
Last week came news that Keith Vaz had turned up as the chair of his old constituency Leicester East. Today the Leicester Mercury reports that the position will be voted on again 'in the coming weeks'. The East Midlands Labour Party says this was always the plan. Others will be struck by the Mercury's account of the meeting where the first vote was held: Some Labour members have claimed they were barred from attending the vote, and one reported being assaulted at the meeting. Current MP Claudia Webbe was not present at the constituency Labour party ... meeting which was ...
Our second Lib Dem action day of the year in Gateshead will be tomorrow. We are heading to Birtley to do some door knocking and a survey. I printed 1000 survey forms last night. Much to my amazement, our printing machine was as good as gold so my visit to our office in Consett was unusually brief.
Congratulations to Rod Naysmith from Downton View who has been elected to represent Clee View on Ludlow Town Council unopposed. In the town centre ward of Whitcliffe, there will be an election. Phillip Adams from Corve Street will stand against Hillary Hall from The Angel. For those of you who live in the ward, election day is 20 February. Please vote. Our town council does a lot for our town and must do more as Shropshire Council plans to do less. If the candidates for Whitcliffe Ward would like to send me a pitch on why they would make a ...
Second frame of third page of Auguria, Tome 1: Ecce signum: Sound the retreat! We are withdrawing! NOW! Second frame of third page of Auguria, Tome 2: Gaeso dux: Ehiwaz... Second frame of third page of Auguria, Tome 3: Fatum: I know that voice... I bought this series of three albums on spec at the Brussels comics festival in September, and started kicking myself as soon as I opened to the title page and realised that I had the French translation of a Dutch original - if I'm going to read in another language, I prefer the original if I ...
[IMG: Day 139 - Worzel Gummage at Birmingham airport - 1982 (14515725233)] Many readers have been intrigued by the post earlier this week with a message to our troll farmer in Aberdeenshire. Over the last month of so, by the look of it, someone or some people using the same two computers or two Local Area Networks which link locally into Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, have been posting multiple comments on LDV, under multiple names from multiple invalid email addresses. As all the email addresses have been invalid (up until yesterday), we have had no way of communicating privately with this person ...
"I think we've got an opportunity now to truly bury the hatchet with the Labour Party," said Layla Moran, who is very likely to the be the next Lib Dem leader, while on talk radio a couple of weeks ago. She also said she wouldn't rule out a more formal relationship being established between the Lib Dems and Labour. This is a classic example of the Lib Dems misunderstanding the Labour Party in a comically absurd way, something that has gone on for a while but now, after the election, seems to be getting a lot worse. The Lib Dems ...
Embed from Getty ImagesWokingham Today reports: DR PHILLIP LEE is to carry on his connections to Wokingham after being appointed by the local Liberal Democrats to be its parliamentary spokesperson for the year ahead. The former MP came second to Sir John Redwood in December's general election, seeing the party's share of the vote soar. He told Wokingham.today: "I was very proud to be asked to become the Wokingham LibDems parliamentary spokesman for the coming year and was delighted to accept. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs ...
Merseyrail Class 508 EMU at Maghull Station The story is on Merseyrail's video which you can see via the link to You Tube below:- www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3lEe-ZATeA&feature=youtu.be A Merseyrail electric unit at Bootle New Strand Station. Nice to see Maghull's award winning Station Volunteers featuring on the video.......
Fri 24th
13:30
Don't carelessly jettison the European inheritance of the BBC in trying to modernise it (Part 2)
Part 1 can be read here. The clinching factor for all continental Europeans from 1939 was the role of the BBC World Service during the Second World War; and the fact that the BBC World Service on medium wave could be received on car radios, and on transistors on European beaches and gardens in many of the present EU member states. The stupidest budget cut of the Coalition Government in 2011 was, in my eyes, cutting this medium wave availability, restricting the BBC World Service to local DAB+ stations, and to BBC4 at 4.00 o'clock in the morning. Don't underestimate ...
This is the first of a series of discussion documents which the Liverpool Lib Dems are issuing to enable our manifesto proposals for this year's set of local elections to be discussed. Any thoughts of things that are talked about ... Continue reading →
Fri 24th
12:00The Lib Dems must abandon their support for HS2 for the sake of our economy and environment
Today's report from the National Audit Office contains no surprises. But it is still devastating for High Speed 2. The complexity of the project was underestimated. Costs are ballooning. Value for money is deflating. The political uncertainty surrounding the project, especially the northern sections, will load in more costs. It is "impossible to estimate with certainty" how much HS2 will eventually cost, the auditors conclude. But it will be north of £100bn. That dwarfs into insignificance the cost of a third runway at Heathrow. The drain on public finances is not the main problem. HS2 is environmentally destructive. Far from ...
There were four seats up for grabs in Brent, two of them in one ward – Barnhill. Well done to all our candidates, Anton Georgiou, Jyotshna Patel, Michael Brooke and Larry Ngan and their teams who worked so hard in the run-up to yesterday. Here are the results from the Brent Council website: Here are the percentage vote changes from Britain Elects: Wembley Central (Brent) result: LAB: 54.5% (-11.8) CON: 30.6% (+14.7) LDEM: 10.6% (-0.6) GRN: 4.3% (-2.3) Labour HOLD. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 24, 2020 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the ...
Thu, 12:38: RT @IFAD: 1/3 of the world's youth population is projected to live in sub-Saharan #Africa by 2050. Economic participation of rural youth:... Thu, 12:56: The alphabets at risk of extinction https://t.co/PCKHeo0eCb Fascinating. (Though the "Old Nubian" illustration look... https://t.co/PVnBmHm3n3 Thu, 18:09: November 2004 books https://t.co/kY1gBPL3lM Thu, 20:48: A time for generosity https://t.co/nUVPAukHPA And we're not seeing it form the British government towards EU citize... https://t.co/PFSowCu9EU Fri, 10:45: RT @davidallengreen: And so Brexit will begin With a Big Ben that does not bong, because Boris Johnson's gung-ho, can-do confidence failed...
It is not just Donald John Trump who is on trial in the US Senate. In the dock before the court of world opinion are 100 senators, the American justice system, the rule of law and democratic institutions in the United States and in every other country which follows its lead in promoting liberal democratic ideals. Like it or not, America has been historically viewed as the world's leading exponent of the interlocking values of democracy, judicial transparency and the rule of law. It likes to think of itself—as the Puritans and President Ronald Reagan said—as "the shining city upon ...
[IMG: Kent Police van and car (Editor5807 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons)] Kent Police is appealing for information following two car fires in Folkestone. Officers were called to a report of a car alight in Bouverie Road West at 3.30am on Thursday 23 January 2020. A second car was then reported alight in Dixwell Road at 4am. Both fires were extinguished by Kent Fire and Rescue Service and nobody was reported injured. Enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incidents are ongoing but the fires are currently being treated as suspicious. Anyone with any information, or ...
With Donald Trump in denial on the extent of climate change and the action needed to slow it down, it has been left to the rest of the world to do what is necessary to deal with this issue. However, for many nations, their measures amount to what is convenient rather than what is necessary. The UK is no exception. As the Independent reports, our prime minister has announced an immediate end to the use of UK taxpayers' money to support coal mining and coal-fuelled power stations in developing countries in a bid to limit climate change and protect biodiversity. ...
WE DID IT. #Anton4Alperton pic.twitter.com/aEdvFiFtLE — Anton Georgiou [IMG: 🔶] (@anton_georgiou) January 24, 2020 Andrew Teale on Britain Elects provides an excellent write-up of the background to the four by-elections yesterday in Brent, including this snapshot of the past figures for Alperton ward elections: Alperton Parliamentary constituency: Brent North London Assembly constituency: Brent and Harrow ONS Travel to Work Area: London Postcode districts: HA0, NW10 Anton Georgiou (LD) Chetan Harpale (Lab) Andrew Linnie (Grn) Harmit Vyas (C) May 2018 result Lab 3185/3174/2961 C 1337/1162/1026 LD 582/500/362 Grn 577 May 2014 result Lab 2370/2309/2305 LD 1691/1669/1553 C 612/506/452 Grn 325 May ...
Only two councils with by-elections this week, but they give us four wards up for election with five different seats at stake. Those unusual numbers are thanks to the burst of resignations of four Labour councillors across three wards in Brent. Alperton, Brent Anton Georgiou fought this Labour seat for the Liberal Democrats, helped by Labour having to suspend their candidate over alleged anti-Muslim tweets. And what a result Anton got: Alperton (Brent) result: LDEM: 39.7% (+29.5) LAB: 30.5% (-25.6) CON: 21.0% (-2.5) GRN: 8.7% (-1.4) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Labour. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 24, 2020
From Sheena Wellington : Wighton Heritage Centre, Central LibraryTomorrow - Saturday 25th January - at 11am (doors open 10.30am)Cappuccino Concert starring Wilma Kennedy We launch the 2020 Wighton season with double Mod Gold Medallist Wilma Kennedy, singing at our Burns Day Cappuccino Concert. Rabbie set many of his loveliest lyrics to Gaelic tunes so would surely approve. One of our finest Gaelic singers, a sought after teacher and coach with wide experience on television and radio, Wilma is no stranger to the Wighton. As the Friends of Wighton Gaelic Song tutor for several years she introduced numerous singers to the ...
