Mon 11th
19:17
Bull's attempt to scratch 'itchy bum' cuts off power to 800 homes in three Scottish villages
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Evening Standard.
Second paragraph of third chapter:And what a squealing, tempestuous, fuss-making child she was. The quivering pink tongue and toothless gums in July's shrieking mouth were more familiar to her mama than her baby's arms and feet. With such agitation coming hourly from this newly born creature, Kitty did believe that this pickney must have been ripped from some more charmed existence. That she howled for the injustice that found her now a slave in an airless hut, in a crib too small, and being mothered by an ugly-skinned black woman who did not have the faintest notion as to why ...
Whilst any moves towards normality are to be welcomed, I have found all the talk about exiting lockdown rather depressing. Everyone else seems to be demob happy (as well as confused, but that's another story), but for a couple of million of us in the UK life will not change at all for a very long time. At least 1.5 million people in the UK have been told to shield themselves, initially for 12 weeks, because they are clinically extremely vulnerable. Someone like me, who does not have health issues but who lives with an extremely vulnerable person, has two ...
Rather than a normal episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, this time I'm running an episode of the excellent Not Enough Champagne podcast, including an improbable comparison between me and Terry Pratchett. You might recall me mentioning Not Enough Champagne as one of my favourite podcasts. I like it so much despite - or rather because - it's done by two Labour Party activists, Cory and Steve, and therefore gives a rather different take on the world from mine. Different enough to be thought-provoking and a guard against insular thinking without being so different as to cause me to ...
Born in 1873, Charles Masterman was the great nephew of Elizabeth Fry (of £5 bank note fame for her work in making the prison system humane).
The more I think about the 2019 General Election the more I realise what a terrible choice the British public had on offer in terms of potential Prime Ministers. On that basis is it any wonder they picked (with the more than significant help from our warped electoral system) the politician to lead them who is probably best summed up as a populist entertainer. If Corbyn had been really credible he would have won in 2017. That he didn't and went down hill from there makes you wonder what on earth the Labour Party was doing keeping him on as ...
We have a number of Google Home devices around the house. A Lenovo Smart Clock in the bedroom, Zolo Mojo's in the kitchen, living room, "office" and the girl's bedroom and a Google Home Mini in Charlie's room. Other than Alice playing "5, 6, 7, 8" the second most used feature is just listening to the radio. We've had DAB radios in the past. Whilst in Lincoln the signal was weak as there was no local DAB transmitter, the radio would only work with the aerial at full length and if on the right window sill. It had five presets, ...
Liberal Democrats know that a clear and consistent message is the most effective, that's why we deliver so many leaflets when campaigning. These same principles of clarity and consistency apply now in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. We are inundated with news and updates about what financial support is available, the state of our hospitals and care homes, the social distancing measures, and what is and is not open. All of the governments across the UK are holding regular press briefings, in addition to social media, to communicate these changes to people. However, it is the media from whom ...
In February I spoke at an Ageing well event in Manchester. I was talking about how to age well and when we should start thinking about our third age. My answer was very simple. I quoted the late and great ... Continue reading →
This is a reminder that I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. As you can see from this list of the 10 most recent guests posts, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects beyond the Lib Dems If you would like to write a guest post yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. Joseph Merrick in the cigar factory - Joanne Vigor-MungovinWhy we need a GCSE in Natural History - Mary ColwellThree unlikely heroes from Grantham suggest a future for smaller towns - Brynley HeavenPolitical parties must be rooted in their communities ...
We've waved our flags for VE Day, we've spent Thursday evenings clapping the NHS and we've listened to the PM thanking us for doing the right thing, staying at home and saving lives. We're all in this together and together we'll beat it – right? Well, not really. Hospitality UK, the trade body for the third largest employment sector in the country, say that of the 3.2 million people it employs, only 84% have been able to receive money from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. That leaves somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 that could not be furloughed because of the ...
The lockdown caused by the coronavirus crisis has illustrated starkly how dependent we all are on people doing low-paid jobs.
The Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside has been closed since the start of the the pandemic lockdown. The garden survives entirely on the work of volunteers and local fundraising. Last month I came up with the idea of having a pop up shop in the Whinnies car park to sell plants grown in the garden and jams made by volunteers. We decided to go ahead with the shop on Saturday and I gave them
When the York Conference was cancelled, I was annoyed, not because I love conference per se, but because I'd been involved in planning the launch of a new organisation - Northern Liberal Network - which had to be cancelled. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when 140 people signed up for the digital launch of the organisation on Zoom a couple of weeks' later. And for the breadth of attendance from every corner of the NE, NW and Yorks and Humber. The enthusiasm at the launch confirmed what the founders of the organisation had instinctively felt. That there was something distinctive ...
With feature films, as with the theatre, a degree of suspension of disbelief is needed. That is particularly true in what one might call the genre of "what if" movies, which site the action in a specific time and place, with fictional characters mixed in with real historical figures. Jack Higgins' classic wartime thriller novel, The [...]
The pandemic lockdown has been a terrible experience for the world as a whole yet there have been a few unintended but positive benefits. Pollution levels have dropped, the roads are much quieter, congestion has been significantly cut, the environment is getting better. The issue is, when we return to "normal" (whatever that turns out to be), how do we keep the environmental benefits we have
The government has confirmed that if you are working reduced hours due to Covid-19 or are furloughed, your tax credits won't change as long as you're still employed or self employed. There is no need to tell HMRC about the change. You will be treated as working your normal houses until the Job Retention Scheme / Self Employed Income Support Scheme closes, even if you are not using either scheme.
While we are all preoccupied with COVID-19, it seems that a more persuasive threat to human life is gathering its forces for one last assault, and I am not talking about the 'Murder Hornets' currently establishing themselves in the United States. The Guardian reports on a new study, which has found that intolerable bouts of extreme humidity and heat which could threaten human survival are on the rise across the world, suggesting that worst-case scenario warnings about the consequences of global heating are already occurring. They say that scientists have identified thousands of previously undetected outbreaks of the deadly weather ...
Sun, 12:56: Juliet Johnson and Peter Capaldi on the Story of Richard Adams' Watership Down https://t.co/oHxcttiFEM A new record... https://t.co/FBtJFzkzVZ Sun, 14:48: 10 Digital Miscommunications — and How to Avoid Them https://t.co/NQoUdaiJXM Wise words. Sun, 15:46: Heralds of Destruction, @Paul_Cornell; World Without End, @JohnBarrowman @BarrowmanCrime https://t.co/EStfzhSLWi Sun, 16:05: We Remember World War II Wrong https://t.co/Ohm5VpmjiO Interesting take. Sun, 16:38: RT @Sime0nStylites: 1. Why is the government so rubbish? Cast your mind back. It wasn't meant to be this way. This was meant to be the go... Sun, 18:29: Trieste 1945 and now https://t.co/QN0lPm4pMf Sun, 18:29: New Zealand soldiers in Trieste, ...
Readers of Lib Dem Voice with good memories might remember, in early February, an article from me about the review of the Federal Committee elections. We put the process on ice over the past couple of months, due to the lockdown and the cancellation of the spring conference, but now we're getting it going again. Last year's elections to the federal party's committees - the Federal Board, Policy Committee, Conference Committee, International Relations Committee and ALDE council - broke new ground, especially in the efforts to engage as many party members as possible, and also through the management of the ...
A pause for thought: during the weekend of VE Day memorabilia were we celebrating 75 years of European peace, the retreat of fascism and the advance of parliamentary democracy ? Hopefully yes: realistically - in the case of the Brexiteers and their newspapers - NO ! And yet we have no cause for complacency. The UK is already looking as if we have reverted to being "the sick man of Europe" in terms of both our public health and the health of our democracy. While in those 75 years the dictatorships of Western Europe have all collapsed, and effective representative ...
As it's a Monday, I'm on editorial duty, as well as "opening batsman". And we've got some interesting stuff coming up on the site, with the House of Lords, Northern (England) campaigning, Welsh devolution, business support for the hitherto overlooked and even some audience participation for those of you who have an interest in how democracy works. Naturally, we'll have the latest thoughts from Mary too, for whom the announced changes make little difference. So, if like so many, you're a bit cooped up at home, why not join us during the day? Oh, and yes, I'm actually at work, ...
From the Evening Telegraph :
