Readers may recall that my campaigns for election to the Federal International Relations Committee and the Party's delegation to the ALDE Party Council were less than entirely successful - I was the second runner-up for both. And that was alright, as I'm a great believer in democracy and have never seen myself as having a divine right to do anything. Besides, it's not as if I don't have other things to keep me entertained. However, news reached me the other day that, after only eight and a half months, the Federal International Relations Committee has a vacancy, following a resignation. ...
This video was made by the British Film Institute. Its blurb on YouTube runs: What makes a film an 'Ealing' film? Why should we cry at 'Mandy'? What has 'The Man in the White Suit' got to do with the atomic bomb? And what might Ealing films teach us about the world today? In this short video find out why Ealing Studios are so important in the history of filmmaking with broadcaster Matthew Sweet and BFI curator Mark Duguid.
Wed 16th
21:46
Despite a hacker disrupting meeting, Ludlow Town Council votes against Castle View Terrace applicati...
It was a difficult meeting of Ludlow Town Council's Representational Committee tonight. The agenda was straightforward for a planning meeting. But as the committee was working through the agenda on Zoom an interloper joined as a member of the public and in a sequence of events I could not follow in detail from my screen, talked in a synthetic computer voice repeating the N-word and F-word repeatedly. It was clear that the interloper was live to the meeting as councillors were cited. Despite the interruptions, the meeting completed its business in an orderly way and councillors unanimously voted against the ...
For anyone wanting to understand how COVID-19 is affecting European economies, come to Lisbon. This is usually peak season for older travellers catching the last of the summer sun, with children back at school. But the city is largely deserted. Of course it didn't help that Britain suddenly added Portugal to its quarantine list last [...]
The best walk back to Market Harborough from Great Bowden is the path across the fields. A history history teacher once told me that it used to be the main route between the two settlements - it also formed part of our school cross-country course. On Saturday there were bulls in two of the fields it crosses, but they ignored me. Perhaps they were too busy admiring the pattern of ridge and furrow left by medieval ploughing?
With covid restrictions tightening again there is no realistic prospect of direct face to face advice surgeries starting up again at Acocks Green Library in the next few weeks. I have therefore taken advantage of an online alternative that the Council has recently set up. These will operate at the same time as the physical version used to, running every Monday from 6pm to 7pm. You join online a virtual waiting room via this link and then I'll then meet people in the order they join, until everyone has been seen. I'm always more than happy to call any local ...
We spent one day of our trip out west in and around Ypres, where the grand Cloth Hall, reconstructed after 1918, houses the moving and thorough In Flanders Fields Museum, chronicling the experiences of the first world war. It took us about an hour and a half to walk through. Just outside the church is a memorial to the Munsters: The battlefields are all concentrated in a very small area - just a few kilometres separate Ypres from Passendaele; halfway between is Tyne Cot, the largest of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's cemeteries worldwide, with an unimaginable 16,000 buried there, ...
The Liberal Democrats have secured cross-party support for a Bill being introduced today [16/09/2020] which would create a new select committee to scrutinise Overseas Development Assistance expenditure by the Government. The move, supported by former International Development Committee Sarah Champion and former DfID Minister Harriett Baldwin, follows the Prime Minister's decision to abolish the Department for International Aid and rumours the Chancellor now intends to scrap foreign aid. Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain, who is bringing in the Bill, has stressed the need to ensure "that where UK aid is delivered, it delivers". In recent weeks, the Government has confirmed ...
Understandably, a lot of members have been in touch about the issues over the London Mayor selection: Statement on London Mayoral Candidate Contest: "Geeta Sidhu-Robb has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats and will not be on the ballot paper to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London. There is an investigation underway in accordance with due process." — London Liberal Democrats (@LondonLibDems) September 13, 2020
Sometimes you have to keep banging away about something. For some time I have been complaining that the government's system for providing tests for Covid-19, and then for its approach to contact tracing, suffers from a fundamental flaw of process design. I see this being occasionally mentioned by others, but the idea hasn't caught on. ... Continue reading Why localism is key to test and trace
Here's an update on two significant Maghull environmental projects which are presently being pursued by the Friends of Maghull & District and which I thought were worth shouting about. I don't have any direct involvement in either project [only so many hours in each day:-)] so any queries are best directed to Frank Sharp – woodendcwp@gmail.com – who leads on these matters. Here's the update:- Thank you very much for your kind past support towards the ongoing Stafford Moreton Way Wildflower Project in 2019/20. We would like to take the opportunity to provide an update and to encourage you to ...
In addition to expanding and improving the reporting back from various party bodies to conference, we're also doing the same for reporting on what the federal committees are up to via the main party website. You'll be seeing regular reports from each of the key federal committees appearing, with those from the Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC) having stared up over the summer, and the Federal Finance and Resources Committee (FFRC) ones starting up this month. Here are the latest: Taking Care of the Party Finances and Planning for the Future (FFRC, September) Preparing for elections (FCEC, September) Election ...
Tue, 13:23: RT @JamesCrisp6: I can't say who is telling the truth over any EU "threat" to not list the UK or if it is a simple case of miscommunication... Tue, 15:07: Jon Worth reckons 55% chance of No Deal. https://t.co/MGQ9vBR0bn Tue, 15:13: RT @jc_ie: @nwbrux That's not quite represenative. 55% of straight out no deal and 36% of getting back to the table. Which itself isnt guar... Tue, 17:13: I must say if I was advising these catering suppliers, I would have a long hard think about the corporate logo... https://t.co/KqHo7aLWwi Tue, 18:38: A Bruges art mystery - Jean-Claude ...
The government has written to Returning Officers about its plans for the local elections, Mayor elections and Police and Crime Commissioner elections due in May next year in England and Wales.
Luisa Porritt and Geeta Sidhu Robb (Photo: PoliticsHome) In July the Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, Siobhan Benita, stepped down citing concerns about her voluntary responsibilities in the role making it "very difficult to combine other work". This alone raises questions about what we expect from our candidates and how those of us without financial means can become candidates in target seats - or even non-target but high profile electoral races such as that for Mayor of London. The situation has developed significantly in the weeks since. Last week, it was announced that the party had drawn up a ...
Wed 16th
08:30
Whoniversaries 16 September: Tomb of the Cybermen #3, The Ribos Operation #3, Zygon hunting
i) births and deaths 16 September 2014: death of Michael Hayes, who directed Fourth Doctor stories The Androids of Tara (1978), The Armageddon Factor (1979) and City of Death (also 1979). 16 September 2016: death of Andrew Staines, who played Benik's sergeant in The Enemy of the World (Second Doctor, 1968), Goodge in Terror of the Autons (Third Doctor, 1971), the Captain in Carnival of Monsters (Third Doctor, 1973) and Keaver in Planet of the Spiders (1974). He was a nephew of Barry Letts, the show's producer for the Pertwee years. ii) broadcast anniversaries 16 September 1967: broadcast of episode ...
Bill introduced to restore scrutiny of international aid The Liberal Democrats have secured cross-party support for a Bill being introduced today [16/09/2020] which would create a new select committee to scrutinise Overseas Development Assistance expenditure by the Government. The move, supported by former International Development Committee Sarah Champion and former DFID Minister Harriett Baldwin, follows the Prime Minister's decision to abolish the Department for International Aid and rumours the Chancellor now intends to scrap foreign aid. Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain, who is bringing in the Bill, has stressed the need to ensure "that where UK aid is delivered, it ...
During the COVID-19 health emergency, some bus services have not run and these have included the "blether bus" service (run by the City Council) and Service 4 (run by Xplore Dundee). The council's Parking & Sustainable Transport Team Leader recently advised councillors as follows : "As a response to lockdown, declining passenger numbers and the unavailability of bus drivers who were shielding, all bus operators reduced their commercial service offering in March/April 2020. This meant reduced frequencies on core routes and in some neighbourhoods the suspension of non-core bus services. With financial support from Scottish Government, the bus industry has ...
With the government continuing to make a hash of Brexit, it is unsurprising that another leaked document has emerged, this time predicting that thousands of lorries could be stuck in queues for up to two days to cross the Channel to Europe after the UK transitions to Brexit on 1 January. The Independent reports that the 46-page document presented to the government's XO (exit operations) committee last week sets out the possibility of massive disruption in the county of Kent, whether or not Boris Johnson manages to secure a free trade agreement in the currently stalled talks with Brussels: A ...
Barbados has opted to become republic, removing Queen Elizabeth II as the nation's head of state by November 2021. This will also mark the island nation's 55th anniversary of independence. The announcement was made by Dame Sandra Mason, Governor General and the Queen's domestic representative, who outlined the upcoming priorities of Prime Minister Mia Mottley's government. It makes perfect sense that, more than half a century after achieving independence, the people of Barbados might want their head of state to be someone who doesn't live in a palace over 4,000 miles away or owe their position to either historical accident ...
