Entering a disused church makes me think of Alan Garner's Elidor, but St Barnabas was not like that. It was bright and charming and had reached the end of the road. It was August 2013 when I found its door open. Inside was an electrician making the building safe before it was handed to its new owners. He invited me in to take photographs. There was something moving about the photographs of the choir of men and boys once drawn from the streets around, but I find that I missed recording the plaque to Bernard Vann VC, who was once ...
As soon as Boris Johnson started speaking, I was infuriated. Nicola Sturgeon manages to get a signer there for every briefing. And she does hers live. Boris's was pre-recorded. Why not have a signer in the room with him so that, whatever channel you watch, you can understand what is being said? It's not the first time I've been infuriated by his government over the past week. The misjudged, mixed messaging. One minute people were doing great for obeying the guidance, the next they were getting too lazy at home. Then the briefing that lockdown was going to be lifted ...
Sun 10th
20:26
Mortimer Forest car parks must reopen from Wednesday - letter to Forestry England #coronavirus
The closure of the visitor car parks serving the Mortimer Forest has been contentious from the outset. Forestry England has stood firm on this restriction despite protests from local people and myself. We did not accept that restricting access to a huge area of forest walking made any sense during a lockdown during which people were encouraged to exercise. Social distancing is the norm in the Mortimer Forest in the best of weathers. But the car parks were closed. After Boris Johnson's address to the nation tonight, we must now quickly reopen the huge recreational area of the Mortimer Forest. ...
To judge from my Facebook news feed and Twitter updates, the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI) is gaining traction on the political left and centre-left. The extraordinary measures being undertaken by governments to prop up economies hit by Coronavirus and associated lockdowns somehow make it look less outlandish. In Britain the idea is getting ... Continue reading Universal Basic Income – why it doesn't deserve the hype
One of the less well-remembered episodes at the end of the second world war was the capture of the Italian city of Trieste by the 2nd New Zealand Division when the German garrison surrendered to them in preference to the 8th Dalmatian Shock Corps of the Yugoslav Partisans. The two armies uneasily held the city jointly for a few weeks until the Yugoslavs backed off to the line which still in part forms the international frontier between Italy and Slovenia. Until 1954 it was run as an independent UN protectorate, and then split, the city and a narrow coastal strip ...
I have just learnt about an excellent initiative set to spread across the country, that was started by some people in my area. (Hat tip to my MP, Ed Davey). It's a simple idea – support local independent businesses by paying forward. Buy online vouchers now and redeem them when the businesses are functioning properly again post-lockdown. Vouchers also make great gifts – birthday presents are a bit of a challenge at the moment. The BE A LOCAL HERO website brings together businesses and customers. If you have a small business then register on the site and you will be ...
Sun 10th
15:45
Thinking of standing for election or re-election next year? The questions you should ask yourself
The delay in this year's elections means even more people than usual are thinking over the summer whether or not they wish to stand for election next spring. Moreover, for all the glorious gains in last May's local elections, they also showed how far the party still has to go in standing more often. The Liberal Democrats only contested half the seats up for election last May. So I hope that in addition to more people than usual thinking about standing, more people than usual are also encouraging others to think about standing. Of course, saying yes to standing isn't ...
Ten years ago, in the wake of an election which delivered the first hung Parliament since 1974. the Liberal Democrats entered a coalition with the Conservatives. Nick Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister leading five Lib Dem Cabinet Ministers and 20 or so junior ministers. That decision has undoubtedly affected our party's fortunes badly. We won 57 MPs in 2010, and just 8 in the brutal and devastating election 5 years later. In the intervening years, we had lost most of our MSPs, all but 1 of our MEPs, 40% of the council seats we defended and control of 9 councils. ...
Sun 10th
14:46
Heralds of Destruction, by Paul Cornell; World Without End, by John and Carole Barrowman
Two new-ish Who comics that I picked up on one of my London trips last year - I have now read almost every Doctor Who novel (there are a couple of recent releases I haven't caught up with yet) but I am much further behind in the world of Who comics, especially Titan who keep pumping them out. Heralds of Destruction, by Paul Cornell and Christopher Jones Second frame of third chapter: This is a Third Doctor story, firmly set in UNIT between The Three Doctors and The Green Death, with beautiful attention to character and detail both in writing ...
This week, Parliament debated the Census which will take place next year. Wendy Chamberlain highlighted the need to ask the right questions to make sure that all people are taken into consideration when planning future public services. She also talked about the need for everyone to be able to take part. As the census moves online, how will people who don't have access to computers take part? She also took the opportunity to challenge Liz Truss's remarks on health care for transgender people, saying how important it is for members of the government to watch that their language does not ...
I used to love watching the Five Nations, as it then was, as a boy, even in the days when we had a black-and-white television and you couldn't tell the teams apart when Wales played Ireland. My great disappointment was how badly England did. I did not see them win the title until I was 20. Some explanations for England's repeated failure when they had more players than any other country can be found in an interview with Martin Cooper, who played fly half for them in the early 1970s: My one regret on having got to the top was ...
Last week, Alistair Carmichael wrote an article for the Herald calling for a Universal Basic Income to be considered as a key part of the strategy for an economic recovery. He cites practical examples of the people who are falling through the Government's various support plans: Thousands of families will face financial hardship in this crisis due to the current gaps in Government support. The small building firm in Shetland that I have been trying to help in recent weeks illustrates the problem well. It is owned by the two men who started it and runs as a limited company. ...
To mask or not to mask, that is the question. The advice that is around is contradictory, to say the least. Some countries are making wearing a face mask in public — especially on public transport — mandatory, while others say the face coverings are pointless in protecting oneself and others against the coronavirus. The [...]
In a time of national crisis, the last thing we need is for the government to start spinning and briefing announcements in advance, before backtracking spectacularly, and in doing so leading people into a false sense of security and putting lives at risk. And yet, that appears to have been what happened last week, when journalists were briefed on the contents of Boris Johnson's speech at 7pm tonight and were led to believe that the lockdown is to be significantly eased. In reality, the Prime Minister could not take the other nations with him, and with Wales leaping in to ...
WEEKLY RECYCLING BEGINSRemember that from Monday (11th) weekly recycling begins again. The Sort it centres will not be taking recyclables, so any recycling you have needs to go out kerbside. Whilst we are all at home, are there things we usually put in the bin that we could actually put out for recycling? Check
Sat, 12:56: RT @BBCRosAtkins: THREAD (on a clock panel no less). In the last few weeks, I've been broadcasting from home and lots of you have asked abo... Sat, 14:48: Bright time: Why is the sun less active than other stars? https://t.co/93xkBLSTRH And maybe that's good luck for us! Sat, 14:59: RT @Mico_Vlahovic: I served as ambassador to US during the term of pres. George W. Bush & for the first two years of pres. Barack Obama. Im... Sat, 15:41: Cabaret https://t.co/BS2J0OVJ6w Sat, 16:05: Empty sets https://t.co/OCwLyescLf BBC backgrounds for your Zoom calls. Sat, 19:00: RT @bbcdoctorwho: 50 years ago ...
Sun 10th
10:30
Lib Dem Councillor calls for gay and bi men to be allowed to participate in Covid-19 trials
"Discriminatory, arbitrary and regressive." Those are the words used by Liberal Democrat Councillor Victor Chamberlain to describe the decision to exclude the plasma of gay and bi men being used in the trial to try to find a treatment for Covid-19. Victor has written to the Health Secretary to ask him to reverse this ban. He cites a similar trial in the Netherlands which doesn't mention sexuality at all. It's great to see a Liberal Democrat councillor taking a leading role in this. I've written to @MattHancock to demand that gay and bi men can participate in the trial at ...
Sun 10th
09:55What should Joe Biden do to win the US Presidency? Democratically: 2020 podcast interview
What should Joe Biden do to win the US Presidency? What news stories can we trust? To find out the answers to this and more, listen to my guest appearance on Karin Robinson's Democratically: 2020 podcast.
It's been a week of deaths in the musical world. Dave Greenfield from the Stranglers, Florian Schneider from Kraftwerk and now Little Richard. As Rolling Stone says, Little Richard was a founding father of rock and roll "whose fervent shrieks, flamboyant garb, and joyful, gender-bending persona embodied the spirit and sound of that new art form". Or as Bill Wyman (no, not that one) says on Vulture: Sex was a potent part of the blues — and of course this influence came down into rock and roll as well. But it is safe to say the music would not be ...
Up for discussion at a recent meeting of my local pro-European group in Stratford-upon -Avon, was an item entitled "do we give up on Brexit?" It was prompted by the eclipse of Brexit in the public consciousness by the coronavirus, the collapse of hopes that we might still, somehow, remain in the EU, and the turnaround among some pro-European groups to support the idea of leaving the EU. Given this situation, what should Remainers do? Should they lie low, at least for the time being, or should we "take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end ...
A fantastic view from Balgay Hill, with grateful thanks to George!
