"The United Kingdom's spiralling COVID-19 infection and death rates can best be understood as reflecting a tragic, and distinctly English, set of failures and delusions. The exceptionalism widely championed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Brexiteers is proving fatal." Mary Fitzgerald and Peter Geoghegan tell it like it is. The biggest myth about the Red Wall is that it was all about Brexit and that the Red Wall seats, which had voted Leave in the 2016 Referendum, fell to the Conservatives because of Boris Johnson's repeated mantra that he would 'get Brexit done'." Joyce Quin looks at the myths ...
Responding to reports that Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, which incorporates the Cardiff-based Peacocks, is at risk of collapsing after it filed a notice to appoint administrators, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: "The fact that thousands of jobs are at risk as Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group faces collapse clearly underlines the extent of the challenge to businesses across the UK and to all of those struggling to get by."Rishi Sunak cannot simply dismiss those struggling as not viable, and pretend that somehow the economy is on anything like a path to reopening. "The Chancellor must announce today a guarantee ...
Sun 11th
18:55
Latest PollBase is out, with all the voting intention polls since the general election
With the end of another quarter, another update to PollBase, my database of British voting intention opinion polls since 1943 is now up. In addition to the another three months of polls, this update includes: Seven Marplan polls from 1968-1970 previously missing from historic polling datasets. Several small additions and corrections to information about polls close to general election polling day in Parliaments up to the 1970 general election. Enjoy! P.S. For the very latest polls, see my polling scorecard. Get polling news and analysis by email I release a new edition of PollBase once a quarter, both adding in ...
Sun 11th
16:20
LibLink: Jane Dodds We must fulfil our moral duty and embrace refugees who seek safety and sanctuary
Jane Dodds makes a compelling case for a compassionate and welcoming approach to seekers of sanctuary in a column for Nation Cymru this week. She challenges the "invasion' narrative put out by the right: With Nigel Farage decrying an "invasion" of our shores and Sarah Atherton, Conservative MP for Wrexham, calling for the Royal Navy to stop "huge scale" crossings, you could easily be led to believe we were seeing hundreds of thousands of people coming to the UK every day. But the numbers of people seeking asylum are not increasing; despite the rhetoric which wants us to believe we ...
Sad news this week from Helensburgh. Ellen Morton, a councillor since 1999, has passed away. Helensburgh and Lomond would be "a great deal worse off without Ellen Morton". A tribute to the former Argyll and Bute councillor, who has died at the age of 76, is this week's Advertiser View: https://t.co/WQbJvMW5D1 pic.twitter.com/5JI4IdiXYz — Helensburgh Advertiser (@helensburghadv) October 11, 2020 From the Helensburgh Advertiser: She was first elected to Argyll and Bute Council as a Scottish Liberal Democrat in 1999, representing the Helensburgh North ward. From 2007, following the introduction of a new system of local government elections across Scotland, she ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Barahir is driven into hiding, his hiding betrayed, and Barahir slain; his son Beren after a life outlawed flees south, crosses the Shadowy Mountains, and after grievous hardships comes to Doriath. Of this and his other adventures is told in The Lay of Leithian. He gains the love of Tinúviel 'the nightingale' — his own name for Lúthien — the daughter of Thingol. To win her Thingol, in mockery, requires a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth. Beren sets out to achieve this, is captured, and set in dungeon in Angband, but conceals his real identity ...
One of the highlights of Party Conference is the annual presentation to those people who have gone above and beyond. The Harriet Smith Award was established to recognise those who had never held elected office. This year, it was won by Edinburgh's Gregan Crawford. Watch the whole party awards session here and read the submission in support of Gregan under the cut. Gregan Crawford has played an enormous role in the success of the Scottish Liberal Democrats' election campaigns over the last 15 years. It is not an exaggeration to say that he has had a hand in the election ...
For optimists, life begins at 40, whereas for pessimists it's then downhill all the way. African American playwright Radha Blank — or at least her alter ego in the new Netflix movie The Forty-Year-Old Version — finds herself perched on the edge of the precipice in New York as the fateful birthday looms, getting the [...]
Sat, 12:56: Alf Dubs: Priti Patel's anti-migrant rhetoric is unworthy of a British home secretary https://t.co/c8W0uldywI How true. Sat, 14:43: Kramer vs. Kramer https://t.co/wGJcYsUyvN Sat, 14:48: RT @northumbriana: Is this @vizcomic's best yet? Via @MsJacksonTweets. 🦢 https://t.co/N4dzD0m773 Sat, 20:07: RT @TownsendMark: EXCLUSIVE: Priti Patel was told last month her anti-immigration lawyer rhetoric had led to a far-right knife attack in wh... Sat, 20:36: RT @bbcdoctorwho: Get your first look at 'Daleks!' with this exclusive clip from the animated #TimeLordVictorious series 💥 https://t.co/JOU... Sun, 09:30: Whoniversaries 11 October https://t.co/2SQAWjEEKA Sun, 10:31: RT @Tom_deWaal: Awful news Sun, 10:45: RT @TrivWorks: #ChickenTrump is ...
A lack of trust in Ministers is one of the biggest obstacles to the UK Government's attempts to tackle this pandemic. fuelled by their one-rule-for-us-another-for you attitude and the many inconsistencies in their messaging. Rhetoric has replaced assurance and that has turned many people off. And now we have reason to mistrust the government's track and trace system that they are depending on to turn the infection rate around. The Times reports that companies collecting data for pubs and restaurants to help them fulfil their contact-tracing duties are harvesting confidential customer information to sell. The paper says legal experts have ...
Seventy-five years ago, the United States of America changed the world with two acts that define our current global order. Through dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America simultaneously brought World War Two to an end and took on the mantle of the pre-eminent global superpower. As the nominal "leader of the free world", America cultivated science and the arts at an unprecedented scale while taking on the role as the global beacon of liberal, internationalist principles. However, as James Croft has superbly illustrates in his upcoming article, being a "Liberal" in America has become a smear. But, it ...
At the end of this month it will be 50 years since this single reached the top of the UK charts. It was written by Joni Mitchell, who did not make it to the Woodstock festival, so it is based on what her then boyfriend Graham Nash told her about the event. Matthews Southern Comfort were led by Iain Matthews, who had previously been in Fairport Convention, sharing vocal duties with Judie Dyble and then Sandy Denny. This is their own arrangement of Joni Mitchell's song. Now based in the Netherlands, Matthews has appeared on more than 100 LPs and ...
Sun 11th
09:25
Moving towards a name for the Fishmore Quarry development - I propose to back "Raglan Quarry"
Over the last few days, we have been discussing online, by email and even face to face the best name for the proposed development of nearly 80 homes in the old quarry on Fishmore Road. I have also had a discussion with the developer to clarify some points. Quarry Place will be the marketing name only so there is freedom to select a new name. We agreed the name Quarry Place is unlikely to be accepted by Shropshire Council as a permanent name because of possible confusion with Quarry Gardens off Gravel Hill. That leaves us free to choose another ...
I am a massive fan of The West Wing. There are several episodes (The Midterms, for example) where I am almost word perfect. So you can imagine how excited I am that it's very briefly returning in an HBO Max special on Thursday. It's being done for When we all vote, an organisation chaired by Michelle Obama to: increase participation in every election and close the race and age voting gap by changing the culture around voting, harnessing grassroots energy, and through strategic partnerships to reach every American. The cast will reunite to perform the 2002 episode Hartsfield's Landing. It's ...
i) births and deaths 11 October 1986: death of John Crockett, who directed "Wall of Lies", the fourth episode of the story we now call Marco Polo (First Doctor, 1964) and all four episodes of the story we now call The Aztecs. 11 October 1988: death of Roy Herrick, who was the counter-revolutionary Jean in the story we now call The Reign of Terror (First Doctor, 1964) and Parsons, a space medic in The Invisible Enemy (Fourth Doctor, 1977) 11 October 1960: birth of Nicola Bryant, who played the Fifth/Sixth Doctor companion Peri (Perpugilliam Brown) from 1984 to 1986 and ...
