October was a busy month in the life of this Parish Councillor, dominated by two things - Gateway 14 and something more personal. Two meetings with the developers managing the Gateway 14 project took place virtually, one for the Parish Council, the other for village residents. Each had its own flavour, the first being slightly more formal, as befits a statutory consultee, the other more freeform. As I noted after the first meeting, I'm of the view that Jaynic are a serious operator and, regardless of whether they are genuine in their intention to take our concerns into serious consideration ...
A press release brings the news: Activate Collective, a UK fund supporting women from underrepresented groups to run for political office, today announces its first list of candidates. Activate is funding 11 women running for five different parties in the spring local and mayoral elections across five parts of England - London, the Midlands, North East, North West, and Yorkshire and Humber. The list includes eight women of colour, one disabled woman and one care leaver. Seven of the 11 women are from low-income households or identify as working class. The fund is supported by Emma Thompson, who donated £50,000 ...
[IMG: Money ()] The Kent and Medway Growth Hub Team have emailed businesses with a helpful review of the current financial support available for businesses, as below. I've added some additional information from Folkestone and Hythe District Council on Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed Businesses) below (in italics). Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed Businesses) Based on the rateable value of property Grants between £1,334 & £3,000 Businesses that are eligible are those that have been mandated to close by Government and include non-essential retail, leisure, personal care, sports facilities, and hospitality businesses Claimed online from Local Authority website Update from ...
Today I chaired a Zoom Meeting between Ed Davey, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats; Munira Wilson MP, our health spokesperson in the Commons and Joe Anderson who is, of course, the Labour Mayor of Liverpool. None-Partisan observers of the ... Continue reading →
By great good chance I happened to be in New York during the first week of November 2008, so I was able to witness at first hand the jubilation around Obama's first election as President. It's a nice coincidence for this month to come up now in my schedule of posts about previous years' reading, as we watch Trump's inability to cope with the reality of defeat. McCain has a lot more class. We also had a lovely weekend in Cambridge, marred however by the car breaking down on the Brussels ring road just as we were nearing home at ...
I keep hearing siren party voices yet again hankering after a "progressive alliance" against the Conservatives. I firmly agree with John Pardoe's adage of old that "a hatred of the Conservative party is the beginning of political wisdom", but I fear that the very idea of the Labour party being "progressive" is, frankly, risible. It is one of the besetting chimeras of Liberals to have a dream that one day the Labour party will change. No-one who has challenged Labour in its industrial fiefs will succumb to such a fanciful concept. Labour believes in hegemony and control, and it has ...
I'm sitting in my dining room at home in another meeting, courtesy of Microsoft Teams. This meeting is a Gateshead Council advisory group and today, we are looking at the latest information about the impact of, you guessed it (!) covid. Worryingly, Gateshead's figures continue to rise, with a rate greater than elsewhere in the North East. There is no information yet as to why Gateshead is doing
Great stuff from the former Australian prime minister as he takes on The Australian's editor-at-large, Paul Kelly. The Australian is a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. Turnbull sums up the tactics of the right on climate change perfectly: The company you work for and its friends in politics, like Trump and others, have turned this issue of physics into an issue of values or identity. ... Saying that you believe or disbelieve in global warming is like saying you believe or disbelieve in gravity. You've turned something that should be a question of engineering and economics into undiluted ideology and ...
A message from Kirsty Williams: – Universities are working together to help students make safer plans for the end of term. New covid-19 lateral flow tests, designed to diagnose people without symptoms, will be provided to students who are planning to travel home for the holiday. Universities across Wales will also end face-to-face lessons in the week ending 8th December, allowing anyone who tests positive for coronavirus to self-isolate for 14 days before travelling home for the Christmas break. Students at universities in Wales who plan to travel home for the holidays will be asked to: minimise their social contacts ...
"This started as a conversation in a pub a few weeks ago, and turned into one of the more ridiculous videos I've ever done. We send home-made garlic bread skyward on a balloon; exposed it to the stratosphere, 35km up; successfully returned it to earth in a protective box; and then ate it. It tasted... cold" - Tom Scott
I came across this video of the new US Vice President Kamala Harris in action on Twitter last night. She is mightily impressive. There is a good short piece on her for the Guardian by Arwa Mahdawi: Aged 13, she mobilised the neighbourhood children to protest against rules that stopped them playing on the lawn in front of their apartment building. The protest was a success.
The latest episode in the ongoing sage of incompetence and chaos surrounding Brexit threatens to create a border meltdown for those looking to transport good into and out of the UK. As the Independent reports, a guide to the mountain of new red tape required to transport goods was promised in early September - but will now not be available in full until 7 December, little more than three weeks before it is needed: Logistics UK, which represents freights group, warned time is running out to prevent "lorry queues at Dover and empty shelves in Northern Ireland", when the transition ...
I should start with a word of thanks – in fact, many words of thanks – to Kirsty Williams. She has announced that she will be standing down at the Welsh Senedd elections next May. As such a successful education minister in Wales, she is a daily demonstration of the difference that Liberal Democrats in power make. A consistently powerful voice for liberalism through all her many years of service, she has made such a big difference to so many lives. Thank you, Kirsty. We need to get many more people like Kirsty elected in future. As the Thornhill Review ...
Tue, 12:22: I'm at Abbaye de Villers in Villers-la-Ville, Brabant wallon https://t.co/DrP1qnDpu1 with Folon sculptures. https://t.co/gNXelnaZ8b Tue, 12:29: I'm at La Roche Qui Tourne https://t.co/Q98uaEHW2N https://t.co/0mfya0HN7G Tue, 12:56: RT @marktigheST: This is the explosive letter from the Chief Justice sent to fellow Supreme Court Judge Seamus Woulfe on November 5 saying... Tue, 14:32: American Gods by Neil Gaiman The background of American Gods depends on the interplay between the nature of America and the nature of the gods, and it's here that the book is at its most infuriating. #nwbooks https://t.co/uRjexaPPSZ https://t.co/7AAjAloD5h https://t.co/XUk3WZC4KM Tue, 15:11: I'm at Huy in Li�ge ...
Wed 11th
09:45
We are back to "the car is king" after lifting of King Street middle of day closure Friday and Satur...
We are in lockdown again as cases soar across the county. But Shropshire Council last week decided to remove social distancing measures in Shrewsbury and the market towns including Ludlow. That means closures on King Street are no longer in place on Fridays and Saturdays. I don't agree with this. Even with reduced footfall we need the full width of social distancing to maintain social distance and to promote it as an attractive street. However, Ludlow Town Council was in favour of opening King Street fully again and lifting restrictions. It is not known whether Shropshire Council or Ludlow Town ...
I should start with a word of thanks - in fact, many words of thanks - to Kirsty Williams. She has announced that she will be standing down at the Welsh Senedd elections.
i) births and deaths I considered commemorating the births of Stubby Kaye (1918) and June Whitfield (1925) but since neither appeared in more than one Doctor Who story - respectively Delta and the Bannermen (Seventh Doctor, 1987) and The End of Time I (Tenth Doctor, 2009) - I decided I wouldn't mention them. ii) broadcast anniversaries 11 November 1967: broadcast of first episode of The Ice Warriors. Britannica base, fighting a new Ice Age enveloping Britain (and the whole planet) finds a frozen humanoid and three people arriving from the Tardis, all of whom are intrigued by future fashion. 11 ...
