Five years ago a project to rewild the Welland through Market Harborough was completed. The river was given a more natural aspect as some of the damage caused by post-war flood prevention and land drainage schemes was reversed. The Welland Rivers Trust is now working on a new project at Lubenham, a village a mile of two upstream, to address pollution, improve habitat and provide community access to an ailing section of the river. You can read about the Welland Headwaters Improvement Project on the Welland Rivers Trust website and watch the video above.
David Cyril Damant, who died suddenly this week, at the age of 83, was a figure straight out of a Moliere play, with the girth to match. Born in Rhyl, North Wales, on 15 March 1937, he shed all traces of Welshness, graduating from Cambridge University with a 2:1 in Logic. He did his National [...]
I've come across a paper on the Liberal Democrat experience of being in coalition with the Conservatives and of defending that record at the 2015 general election. It is written by Dr Matt Cole from the University of Birmingham, who interviewed Liberal Democrat campaign teams in 12 constituencies that the party had won at the 2010 general election. His research was conducted after the 2015 election and published in September 2016. The whole paper is worth reading, but I shall pick out three areas of particular interest here. First there is the Fixed-term Parliament Act. Ending the ability of prime ...
The repairs to the Buttercross could be quicker than I first thought. Ludlow Town Council is meeting potential contractors on Tuesday to give them a briefing on tendering. Shropshire Council's conservation team has confirmed that any like for like repairs will not need Listed Building Consent. The repairs must be of Grinshill sandstone, which is still available. On the advice of structural engineers, King Street must remain closed to create space for Heras fencing. That fencing was put in place yesterday evening to create a safety zone for pedestrians and prevent any further damage to the Grade-I listed building. King ...
Gossip and flirting were major occupations for French aristocracy in the 18th century, but in the case of the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) — erstwhile lovers who enjoy playing the field and recounting their exploits — ennui is temporarily banished by a wicked wager about whether the [...]
Second paragraph of third chapter:Eliot's journals also tell us a great deal about the everyday cultural lives of well-off, educated Victorians, the vital centres of Victorian high culture, the social networks in which it was produced, and the close relationship between cultural production and Victorian society. Eliot attends a performance of a Handel oratorio with a stalwart of the artistic establishment (Frederic Burton s portrait of Eliot was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867). She views neoclassical paintings by Frederic Leighton (who had illustrated Romola) in a studio in Kensington fitted out to resemble a Turkish palace. She accompanies ...
(Photo Mayor Karl Tomasin with residents earlier in 2020 in his campaign to get rid of the pylons)The Lib Dem Focus Team Councillors have been trying to get a commitment to get the pylons along Eastfield Drive removed. Remember the promise years ago to underground the pylons😃? When it did not happen, South Gloucestershire Council washed their hands of it and said there was nothing they could do.But your councillors from the Focus Team did not give up.Led by Yate Mayor Karl Tomasin, they started talking direct with Western Power and tracked down the person in charge of the issue. ...
Fri 7th
16:03
Building a progressive alliance on the basis of the past, and now looking to the future
Clive Lewis, the Labour MP giving the Beveridge lecture to Liberal Democrats last week, admitted that some of his party believe that 'labourism' is the only progressive future. Certainly Lib Dems have to accept that Socialists who believe that Liberals will always defend capitalism against the workers will never accept us as a progressive party, and will consider any alliance as a mere tactical ploy. In a mirror image, there are plenty of Liberals who believe that Labour cannot shake off its Far-Left inheritance and will always aim for state control and management, with the soaking of the rich to ...
Acocks Green Library will be offering an order and collect service from Monday 10th August. This means you will be able to order up to 6 items held at the Library and collect them at an arranged time. It will work like this: * You put in your request online, at acocks.green.library@birmingham.gov.uk, or by phone on 0121 464 1738 (phone lines will be open from 10am to 12noon). * The library staff will collect the items you have ordered and make them ready for you to collect. * You arrange a time to collect the items. The Library is planned ...
When it comes to some things, though, it's as if Ozzy flips a switch and takes it to a different level. Continue reading →
It is looking good for Joe Biden. He is racing ahead in the polls as foot-in-mouth Trump slumps under the weight of the pandemic, economic woes, legal problems and a growing credibility gap. But what would a Biden win mean? In terms of the tone of political conversation it would mean a dramatic change. We would also see some big differences on the domestic political front. In foreign policy, an evolving international situation plus difficult to change actions which Trump has started, means shifts could be less dramatic. Compared to Trump's stream of consciousness rants, Biden is practically mute. Throughout ...
The government's decision to replace the existing rules for urban planning with a much looser system is apparently based on the ideas of a Cummings type special adviser, Jack Airey, who believes that "Market conditions should ... determine how urban space is used." One of the first points made in any economics course is that, although although economists freely use the stand-alone term "demand" what we really mean is "effective demand." This constitutes not just wanting a product but also the ability to pay for it and the willingness to pay for it. Hence, if the housing market is to ...
Thu, 12:56: How to Evaluate COVID-19 News without Freaking Out https://t.co/njR61iUbaW Good advice. Thu, 16:05: Belgium shaken by prospect of coronavirus second wave https://t.co/uF7BLyDcfP Not yet surging but we are at immediate pre-lockdown levels. Thu, 16:45: Crumbs. Glad that I am working from home today. This is right beside the North Station - even if damage is containe... https://t.co/0VbgMQoGOi Thu, 18:23: Nobody injured, it's all under control apparently. https://t.co/BD25Dygg0i Thu, 18:39: Thursday reading https://t.co/oRYoPE7fLx Thu, 22:27: RT @dmcbfs: If the link to the union is so tenuous that a hammer blow can be struck by people like me voting for ...
The agenda for the online party Conference in September can be downloaded here. It is at the same time both very familiar and rather different from usual. All the expected elements are there: policy motions (with amendments), business motions, speeches, Q&A's, reports, consultative sessions, fringe meetings, training, exhibition stands and helpdesk. There is even a feature that enables you to network with other members at random, just as you might chat with someone while queuing for a coffee. Conference Extra and Conference Daily will be published as usual and the Conference app will be available nearer the time. The most ...
i) births and deaths 7 August 1924: birth of Kenneth Kendall, who appeared as a newsreader in The War Machines (1966), the first celebrity to portray himself on Doctor Who (unless you count the Beatles). He's also in 2001: A Space Odyssey in a similar role. 7 August 1952: birth of Alexei Sayle, who plays the DJ in Revelation of the Daleks (1986). 'Allo John, got a new motor? Is there life on Mars? Is there life in Peckham? 7 August 1966: birth of Shobna Gulati, who plays Yaz's mother Najia Khan in several Thirteenth Doctor stories (2018 and 2020). ...
Corbyn's legacy is continuing to haunt the Labour Party after an inquiry was told that staffers named in a leaked internal party report that claimed to show their private hostility to Jeremy Corbyn have alleged the document misused private messages to falsely make them seem racist and sexist. The Guardian reports that officials accused in the report of insulting pro-Corbyn colleagues in WhatsApp groups are seeking damages from the party for misuse of data and libel, among other complaints: The leaked 860-page report emerged in April, just after Keir Starmer became Labour leader, reigniting party splits by claiming that Corbyn's ...
Like everything else in the current era, CoVid is thought of differently on the left and right. The left have, oddly in a way, become lock down passionate, sure this is the right way to go. I say strange since it means giving a Tory government they swear are fascists ever more power. On the right, CoVid skepticism abounds. We don't need masks, we don't want more lockdowns, let's get the economy up and going again as quickly as possible. Increasingly, there is very little in the way of a middle position through all of this. I hated writing about ...
Failure to sack Cummings shows PM's "weakness and incompetence" Responding to a new report from University College London showing that public confidence in the UK Government's ability to handle the coronavirus pandemic dropped sharply following news about the travel movements of the Prime Minister's Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: Millions of people across the UK have made heart-breaking sacrifices to comply with the lockdown and help keep others safe from coronavirus. They were rightly outraged when Boris Johnson's Chief Adviser thought it was one rule for him and another rule for the ...
There's a path from Perth Road just west of the Ninewells Garage down to Riverside Avenue. It looks OK at the top end but as residents walk down it, it is very overgrown and a resident said at one point it is actually difficult to negotiate your way down it. This path was orginally in private ownership but was upgraded by the council around the time Riverside Nature Park was opened to provide access from Perth Road, so I am hoping there is a maintenance agreement in place so I have asked our local environment manager if the foliage can ...
