Another video from the engaging Geoff Marshall.
A second day in lockdown at Bonkers Hall. Personally, I think Meadowcroft has the right idea. Tuesday Meadowcroft has taken this damned virus badly, locking himself in his potting shed and morning, noon and night. You may very well feel he is Going A Bit Far, but he is determined not to pass the virus on to his beloved geraniums. As I gaze out of the window I see Cook pushing slices of cheese on toast under the door. What a fine woman she is! Meanwhile, all this insistence that one washes one's hands gives me some insight into what ...
Many argue that our political system is broken but why? - is it simply sour grapes from candidates who didn't win? There is plenty of evidence to show that in the UK a political party can win a majority of seats in government without gaining a majority of votes cast. In the 2005 election for example Tony Blair's government won 355 seats with only 35% of the total votes cast. In contrast the Conservatives won 198 seats having polled 32% of total votes cast. This imbalance of the "first past the post" election system is further compounded if results of ...
Sad news in the Leicester Mercury. The Angel Hotel in Market Harborough has closed permanently. The Mercury report says the owners have decided to cease trading 'with a heavy heart' for a number of reasons, including the coronavirus lockdown. I have to admit I didn't go in there very often, unless it was to watch the rugby on television. It was the sort of place that hosted the annual dinners of local clubs and societies - and there's nothing wrong with that. No doubt the building will be bought by Brooke House College, the private school aimed at overseas students ...
Retired UK Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption recently told Radio Four's World At One said that when people lose their freedom it is not because tyrants have taken it away. "It is usually because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection against some external threat." The eminent jurist was talking about measures in the UK to combat coronavirus which he described as a cure "worse than the disease." At the moment, I think he is wrong about Britain. But if he was talking about Hungary he would be spot-on. There the Fidesz-dominated parliament has responded to the pandemic ...
Next Thursday 9 April, from 9am to 2pm, a pop up food shop will be in business outside the Local to Ludlow shop at Castle Square, Ludlow. That is just by the market. The stall will feature food and drink from many of the small independent traders we know well from the twice monthly Thursday Local to Ludlow markets. This will be a pilot open air stall where strict social distancing will apply. I hope people will drop by and buy. Many people will be able to walk to the market area, though some people from the outskirts will need ...
Second paragraph of third essay (John Kornblum, "Six Vignettes about Europe"):2. In today's Europe, as Marshall McLuhan put it: "the medium is the message." Raised on Europe's mantra of peace and stability, many Europeans actually feel a sense of superiority from the success of what they see as their innovative "peace policy." They believe that their multilateral institution-building has "erased the threat of war forever," and that this method can be applied across the globe. Even the euro was sold not as a tool for a dynamic financial future but as guarantee that Europe would never fight another war.One of ...
This afternoon was the first outing for something a little different: the first two-hour block set aside to let Liberal Democrat members book a Zoom call with me to discuss whatever they want.
This post deals with issues around death, so please do not read it if you would prefer not to. One of the consequences of this pandemic is that a lot of people have started to think about the end of life, both in general terms and also in terms of their own mortality. It can be pretty scary, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been plagued with dark thoughts in the early hours. Maybe we worry about the possibility of our own deaths and, worse still, the death of those close to us. But I'm very ...
When pondering the impact of the Second World War on his movement's efforts to establish an independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote "crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think". After three years of fighting in what amounted to a culture war, this party already found itself forced into reflection before this crisis. Now we find our own introspection will have to take place in the context of a national and international re-evaluation of some of the shibboleths of the last few decades. How then, to respond? Much of the government's economic ...
It's a sign of the times when I put Malthus into Google just to refresh memory the first dozen entries were about a contemporary singer or entertainer. However, adding Thomas R produced the following summary of his theory: Populations [have] a tendency to grow until the lower class suffered hardship, want and greater susceptibility to famine and disease, a view that is sometimes referred to as a Malthusian catastrophe. Doubtless some of the more hard-hearted population pessimists will take satisfaction in the likelihood that the present pandemic will diminish the world population mainly in the lower part of the triangle ...
There is a very long list of people who are struggling at the moment due to the impact of coronavirus and measures in place to slow its spread, in addition to the many people who are suffering directly from the virus itself. That list stretches from self-employed people who are worried about how they will pay their household bills in the weeks ahead through to people sleeping rough every night in our town and city centres. We are now facing a situation where some foodbanks are struggling to cope and many local and national charities are worried about how they ...
Ward News Housing development proposals for local Greenbelt A developer has been exhibiting proposals to build a care home on Greenbelt land to the rear of Wallington Girls School on the Wallington Nurseries site. Greenbelt land is protected from development that is not agricultural and this protection was strengthened through the council's Local Plan. The [...]
This free email course takes you through the philosophy behind the Liberal Democrats, including recommendations for further reading.
Fri 3rd
11:55
Why the EU could be in for a rocky few years post-Coronavirus - and why that should make Eurosceptic...
Since June 2016, a common trope on the right in Britain has been to big up any problems within the EU between differing member states as proof that the EU is about to crumble to pieces. This is happening now, with Leavers jumping on some Italians complaining about what they perceive as the EU's poor response to the current crisis – complete with videos of Italians taking EU flags down from somewhere they had supposedly been long resting – as proof that Coronovirus will spell the end of the EU. Yet the Eurosceptics may have half a point here; by ...
Message from our local police"Please could you encourage anyone reporting to you any breach of Covid-19 restrictions to contact the Police on 101 or via the online reporting form below which has now been set up. Each beat team is monitoring the number and locations of breaches in their areas to assist with their patrol plans.The Yate Team are currently attending Lilliput Park and Peg Hill Skate park several times throughout the shift when on duty.Please share the above want to add thanks to our local beat police officers who are putting themselves at risk of the virus by ...
Some may remember the UKIP Councillor, David Silvester from Henley-on-Thames, back in 2014, who sought to blame the then storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government's decision to legalise gay marriage. Just to refresh people's memory, in a letter to the Henley Standard Councillor Silvester wrote: "The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war." He added: "I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to ...
Thu, 12:56: RT @Kasparov63: Indeed, Molly. Being the best in the world at one thing taught me that it conveys no expertise in anything else. All knowle... Thu, 13:00: RT @cgs_atl: 👋 In non-#coronavirus news ... @Europarl_EN Conference of Presidents today agreed to resume negotiations on an inter-instituti... Thu, 16:05: RT @OsborneTweets: In your wildest dreams did you ever think this would be true? https://t.co/5Tga7EptYP Thu, 16:36: There are two planes in the air in Belgian airspace (Heathrow-Munich and Heathrow-Sofia), and three shown on the gr... https://t.co/HlH2u0wuXi Thu, 17:11: RT @anandMenon1: Talking to someone in a major pharma multinational today ...
Queen Victoria and her nine children. Princess Alice is on the left In 1878 Queen Victoria's daughter Alice was 35. In the lead up to Christmas most of her family in Darmstadt, Germany became ill as the brutal disease diphtheria raged through them. Alice was scrupulous about infection control. She was a nursing pioneer and Liberal thinker. Way ahead of her time. But she buckled when telling her little son Ernest that his young sister Marie had died and, against all of the rules, she held him close. Inevitably she succumbed to the disease and died a few days later. ...
It's Friday, it's five to five half-past seven, and it's time once again for... 2 big stories Yesterday, Matt Hancock announced that he was writing off £13.4 billion worth of NHS debt – on the face of it a thoroughly good thing. Of course, you find yourself wondering how it could have repaid that debt anyway, and the problem of the legacy of PFI remains a shadow over the finances of our healthcare, but it will obviously help to ease the burden on day to day finances in our hospitals. Ten million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits in the ...
Residents will be aware that I have previously asked for the railings of Blackness Library to be repainted - this is badly needing done. In principle, it was agreed the Community Payback Team would do this, and I recently asked for an update on timescale. I have now received this helpful response from the Project Manager : "Due to reduced staffing in my team, client numbers and the amount of work we have on our list (most of which are projects requiring several months' work) we were unable to carry out any work to the railings. We are now in ...
