Julian Wadham is John Steed. Anthony Howell is Dr Keel. It's not The Avengers as you know it. The Springers was broadcast on May 13th 1961 and no longer exists to watch - but as an audio drama, it's now very satisfying. To break a prison-breaking gang, one Avenger goes undercover deadly seriously while the other goes undercover outrageously. You can guess which. And you can see (or hear) just how The Avengers was on its way... To Begin With..."The Avengers is about a man in a bowler hat and a woman who flings men over her shoulders."...said Patrick Macnee, ...
We've had a bit of a glitch with press releases – it's a long, rather dull story – but this has been fixed, and the flow of news from HQ has resumed. And so, it's time to pick up the thread... Lib Dems call for Safe Trace App Law to ensure coronavirus app is safe and effective Moran: Govt must publish scientific advice for reopening schools Govt must publish scientific evidence behind lockdown decisions Jacob Rees-Mogg must not be allowed to undermine public safety Lib Dems call for Safe Trace App Law to ensure coronavirus app is safe and effective ...
Before the Midland Railway opened its London terminus at St Pancras, it used Euston and then King's Cross. To reach the latter, trains south from Leicester took the current line as far as Bedford, then ran on Great Northern metals to Hitchin and took the East Coast main line from there to King's Cross. This arrangement survived until St Pancras opened in 1868, after which the Bedford to Hitchin line dwindled to become a rural branch line. It closed to passengers in 1961 and to good traffic in 1964. This video follows the route today to see what survives of ...
Cllr Mark Titterington, Conservatives turned Independent Conservative councillor in Buckinghamshire, has now joined the Liberal Democrats. He explained: We are living in a time of profound social, economic, and environmental change which is impacting upon the lives of everyone. To have embarked therefore on the folly of Brexit in such times, and without anywhere near enough preparation in the run-up to and following the 2016 referendum, was reckless in the extreme. The fact that this was done to solve a mainly internal problem in the Conservative Party was doubly irresponsible. It was for this reason, and the continuing failure to face reality ...
Cllr. Allan Knox, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Ribble Valley Borough Council has slammed the announcement by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, that in a bid to get the construction industry restarted, he will allow flexible working on sites, which means that construction could go on as late as 9pm in residential areas. Cllr. Knox said: "It is important that as we come out of lockdown, industry starts to gets back on its feet. "However, it seems outrageous that residents up and down the country, who have endured so much over the past ...
Donald Trump may not be the most obvious of role models for the Liberal Democrats. But there's a lot about effective communication the party can learn from him. After all, he won a national election, defying political establishments and seeing off unfriendly>media along the way. So in this episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I talk about him with Rob Blackie. I used to work with Rob atLib Dem HQ many years ago when he was the maestro of costing manifesto policies. He has since carved out a very successful career in marketing and communications. Feedback as every very ...
The third entry in this compilation of comic strips, in full (by Tony Millionaire, whose work I don't otherwise know and frankly this doesn't encourage me to seek it out): About a year and a half ago I went both to the permanent exhibiton of the Charles M Schulz museum in California, and to a temporary exhibition of his work in London. I bought this while I was in Santa Rosa; it's a collection of pieces paying tribute to Schulz's work, some of them very personal - one or two of the artists were lucky enough to meet or know ...
Today is our younger grandson's 11th birthday and we have been invited to his Zoom party – in fancy dress. I have been challenged to go dressed as my son, his father. Luckily, I still seem to have a lot of things in the house that belong to my two sons, even though they both moved out over 20 years ago, and I have managed to unearth an old school tie and blazer. The blazer is rather small and would fit my grandson now, so I will have to sling it across my shoulder instead of wearing it. But a ...
It can almost be universally agreed that 2019 (until the end) was 'the year' to be a Liberal Democrat. We saw a Local Election renaissance and won seats hand over fist (sadly not mine in Lancaster), we walked the Euro Elections with a 1500% increase in seats and won over defectors galore. But by December, we lost our leader, many of our MPs and missed most of our target seats. I think we have to be frank about the state of British Liberalism; however, I believe solace can be found in our prior success and our ability as a Party ...
Covid-19 is a nasty disease, causing people to be seriously ill, even killing them. I work for an Acute NHS Trust. Although my work isn't clinical, I know just how dangerous caring for COVID patients can be, not only for our clinical staff but those who support them in the "COVID" areas but also those in care homes and elsewhere. To stop its spread, the Government has imposed restrictions on the like of which we have never seen in this country and, for the most part, people have accepted them because they know that these restrictions will save lives. Many ...
The economy of Ludlow and Shropshire is dominated by small businesses. Many people work in micro-businesses, those with less than ten employees. At the last count, there were 14,355 micro-businesses in our council area. That's 91% of all our enterprises in Shropshire. Many working in these businesses are self-employed. They were initially ignored by the government but a £9bn support scheme is now in place. It has strict rules and will not help those businesses that did not submit a tax return in 2018-19 because they had just been established. I have received a lot of desperate pleas from local ...
Some of the endemic problems within the Tories resurfaced with a vengeance today, when the Muslim Council of Britain branded a probe into discrimination within the party as a 'facade' and an attempt to distract from the party's problems with Islamophobia. As the Independent reports, the council said the Tories were attempting to "hide" hundreds of instances of abuse, after the party published the terms of reference of the investigation: Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "We have previously described the Conservative Party's attitude to Islamophobia as one of denial, dismissal and deceit. The publication ...
'You are not alone' - domestic abuse campaign Next Link, to tell people that services are still open and isolation rules do not apply if you're a victim of domestic abuse. You can view the video Next Link 0800 4700 280 or visit here: for help.
Today my Liberal Democrats colleagues and I have welcomed the Mayor's short term proposals for cycling and pedestrian improvements but have suggested that the actions are short term and need to be conducted against a wide spread review of the ... Continue reading →
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Tue, 12:56: RT @jackiantonovich: Sarah Michelle Gellar wearing her Prophecy Girl dress from the season 1 finale of Buffy is the quarantine gift we all... Tue, 16:05: The $60,000 Telegram That Helped Lincoln End Slavery https://t.co/ZIuKKCBhRH Or, how Nevada became a state. Tue, 17:11: Diplomacy, disrupted https://t.co/qZgjGx4I7h Good long piece. Ireland getting it right; US and UK getting it wrong. Tue, 18:46: May 2006 books https://t.co/GuGkOskuJB Tue, 19:09: Here's the Quartier Leopold, ie the EU quarter of Brussels, filmed in 1978, pretending to be the 1943 setting of UK... https://t.co/mQuF8oY3OW Tue, 20:20: RT @HamiltonWestEnd: Shout it to the rooftops! The ...
Fishing at Brinsham Lake (Not a typo that is the correct spelling for the lake and park).As angling is now permitted, a notice will be going up at Brinsham Lake containing guidance from: remember, social distancing rules apply. Please remove all your rubbish - remember there are fewer people around to clean up after users of parks. The Town Council announced last night: Sunnyside Tennis Courts A poster will be displayed at the tennis courts and online (social media/website) to advise that the tennis courts: are now available to be booked for public use subject to the hirer complying ...
Responding to reports that Parliament will no longer remain virtual after recess at the end of May, Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain said:"Suggestions that MPs will not be able to do their job virtually from the beginning of June are deeply concerning. We are living through a national emergency. We have worked incredibly hard to get Parliament up and running in virtual form for exactly that reason. The current advice is that people should work at home if the can - we have proven that MPs can. "As yet, the Government has published no guidance as to how MPs and ...
We are witnessing a long-term trend for wealth to be within the control of super-rich individuals and large corporations. I remember when the Liberal Democrat manifesto was an extra 1% on Income Tax, earmarked for education. It then now 1% on Income Tax, earmarked for the NHS. The problem with such a policy is that it requires the voter to behave in an altruistic way. It may make sense, it may be socially responsible, it can be espoused in a self-righteous way, but when a swing voter steps into the booth to put an X in the box, many factors ...
Forestry England have announced that the car parks serving the Mortimer Forest have reopened this morning. The closure was always controversial and has been the subject of much debate on this blog. However, that is now behind us and we can more easily use one of the most import outdoor resources for South Shropshire and North Herefordshire. Social distancing will of course apply. Sixty-eight Forestry England car parks around the country remain closed today, including Haughmond Hill and Wyre Forest. It is great that the Mortimer Forest car parks are now open. Enjoy the space. Use it to the full ...
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) is again being widely discussed as a radical policy to tackle inequality and provide us all with a new level of freedom in an uncertain future. I will leave aside the moral arguments in favour and against for this article and instead look solely at how we could pay for a UBI at a meaningful level using a new micro-tax on all electronic transactions. Preceding the 2016 Swiss referendum on introducing a UBI BIEN-CH the non-profit organisation behind the vote proposed introducing a micro-tax on all of Switzerland's electronic transactions. This would be levied on ...
Wed 13th
08:49
Nigel Farage is on the rise again - and this is why the Tories should start to be worried
It has been a tough six months for Nigel Farage. Riding high in the early summer of 2019 after winning the EU elections, it looked for a bit like once again Farage could change the political order in a profound way. Yet the ascension of Boris Johnson to the leadership of the Conservative Party was a killer blow from which Farage is still yet to fully recover. Used to being the darling of the British right, something which flourished when Theresa May became so widely loathed, the sudden reuniting of the right under a Conservative Party banner cut his platform ...
My apologies for missing yesterday – life is rather hectic at the moment, so time to catch up, methinks... 2 big stories Today, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme goes live with, potentially, 3,500,000 eligible applicants, and HMRC will, hopefully, step up to the mark again. But yesterday saw Rishi Sunak kick the can down the road somewhat, extending the Job Retention Scheme in its current form for another month, until 31 July, and indicating that furloughed employees will continue to receive 80% of their usual gross pay until 31 October. The catch? Employers are going to have to make up ...
With thanks to the resident who kindly sent this, lovely Hawthorn blossom on Magdalen Green :
