The High Speed Train - HST - is still to me the essence of modernity on the railways. It is reaching the end of its career, even on the neglected Midland main line. To mark this retirement, one set has been repainted in the livery of the Blue Pullman, an innovative service that flourished in the 1960s. You can see the Blue Pullman racing through Market Harborough in the video above.
Fri 18th
21:29
Time Lord Victorious: DALEKS! by James Goss, He Kills Me He Kills Me Not, by Tracy Ann Baines
Another update on the Time Lord Victorious stories that I've been working through, all recently released in an order that will surely build to some kind of climax. First off, a webcast series called DALEKS! starring Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks, with Anjli Mohindra and Ayesha Antoine as the Mechanoids. (Anjli Mohindra needs no introduction; Ayesha Antoine played the professor's assistant Dee Dee in that great Who story Midnight, and has also been Bernice Summerfield's companion Ruth on Big Finish.) Since they are webcasts, you can watch the five episodes starting here: The series is by James ...
2020 has been a bad year. It is certainly the worst I can remember and I have been around for 71 of them. The main cause is, of course, coronavirus or covid-19. It started in Wuhan, China almost exactly 12 months ago, and as the year draws to a close about two million people worldwide have lost their lives to this deadly virus. Coronavirus has destroyed lives and livelihoods and although vaccines are now being distributed, it will be some time before the world returns to normal—if ever. The Chinese were initially slow to respond to the threat. Whether their ...
A hustle, a medieval conflict... Stuart Whomsley offers new ways of understanding the powers behind Brexit. Brexit was always a hustle: it was always about a powerful rich elite in the UK wanting to take back control from the community of European countries in order to better exploit the ordinary person. And in order to do so they conned many ordinary people to vote for it. You could think of it in medieval terms. The leaders are a subgroup of the rich and powerful who wanted to claim the throne with the support of foreign powers. The foot soldiers are ...
As is usual with the treacherous Tories they have completely broken their promises regarding meeting all the costs of dealing with the pandemic. Ongoing costs will largely be met by increases in Council tax where Councils can increase tax by ... Continue reading →
Across the political board, parties' memberships remain hugely unrepresentative. We can and must do more to simply reach out to those who we perhaps forget all too easily. Political turmoils, such as Brexit and the continuing Scottish Independence debate, have not only exposed deep socioeconomic fractures in our society - it has also created some new ones. Identity politics is unfortunately here to stay and with that then comes the strengthening of class politics. It is important to recognise how many people are now priding themselves once again on being labelled working class, in some way, shape or form. There ...
Fri 18th
13:58
Council gives unanimous support to Liberal Democrat motion on tackling stalkers and domestic abusers
Gloucestershire councillors have unanimously supported a motion proposed by the opposition Liberal Democrat Group on tackling stalkers and domestic abusers. The motion, proposed by Yate North councillor Ben Nutland, highlighted the scale of the scourge that is domestic abuse across the country - with evidence having shown that domestic abuse has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Proposing the motion, Councillor Nutland said: "On average a woman is killed by a man every three days in this country. "One in four women in this country will suffer domestic violence in their lifetime. One in four. "Three-quarters of violence against women happens ...
Andrew Lewer, the Conservative MP for Northampton South, has been sacked as parliamentary private secretary to policing minster Kit Malthouse after a leaked memo appeared on the Guido Fawkes website. The memo was a warning to Tories in junior government roles not to leak memos. But how was he caught? The Northampton Chronicle explains: What the recipients did not know, reportedly, is that each copy of the memo from Chief Whip Mark Spencer MP was worded differently. Then, when a copy of the memo was appeared on political gossip website Guido Fawkes, this reportedly led the Government to work out ...
The Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to "take real action now" to prevent the spread of coronavirus in prisons, as new figures show that the number of Covid cases has surged more than five-fold in the last two months. The figures, released today by the Ministry of Justice, show that, as of the end of November, 3,429 prisoners have now tested positive for Covid-19 - up 1,807 (111%) from 1,622 at the end of October and more than five times the 636 cases at the end of September. There were 15 Covid-related deaths in prisons in November, the largest ...
Responding to the Court of Appeal's ruling that the Government has unlawfully discriminated against EU citizens with Pre-Settled Status by excluding them from Universal Credit, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "Denying people the financial support they desperately need during this pandemic is an appalling way to treat the EU citizens who are our families and friends, our colleagues and carers. "Boris Johnson and the Conservatives promised to guarantee EU citizens living in the UK the automatic right to stay, but they have broken that promise. Not only that, but they have unlawfully discriminated against them as well. ...
Thu, 12:56: 'Heroes' Was Supposed to Be Leonard Roberts' Big Break. Instead, It Nearly Broke Him. https://t.co/bbF9VqsvXe Awful story of racism in the making of a science fiction TV series. Thu, 16:05: Perfume, by Patrick S�skind The story of a man in 18th century Paris, born with no body odour of his own, who grows up to be a perfumer and a psychopath, murdering teenage girls in order to capture their vital essences. #nwbooks https://t.co/CfrSaHhjkZ https://t.co/TvZJgQREZX https://t.co/Swion8ShDJ Thu, 16:40: Nipped into France for a haircut. (@ Vincent) https://t.co/SQnuJaKLTD Thu, 17:11: Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold Bujold has put some thought ...
Liberal Democrat members and other progressives can now join an exclusive lecture club to challenge and engage with some of the most original and innovative thinkers of our time. Launched today, The Shirley Williams Lectures will offer a platform to specialists from a range of fields to share their ideas and vision for the future. Club members will be given the opportunity to consider and discuss how we can tackle some of the biggest questions facing the world. Whether it is concepts for a new style of politics, views on the UK's business outlook, the future of international sport or ...
Fri 18th
09:51
Most disgraceful Parliamentary contribution of 2020 (and the bar was pretty low to start with)
Jacob Rees Mogg managed to achieve one of the low points of the 2020 Parliamentary year yesterday when he used the House of Commons chamber to accuse Unicef of "playing politics", alleging that the UN agency should be "ashamed of itself" after it offered funding to help feed children in the UK for the first time in its history. The Independent reports that the international organisation announced on Wednesday that it would support charities tackling child hunger in the UK due to the "unprecedented impact" of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen rates of poverty and food inequality soar, but ...
The Shirley Williams Lectures will offer a platform to specialists from a range of fields to share their ideas and vision for the future.
Fri 18th
08:30Whoniversaries 18 December: Master Plan #6, Shalka #6, the Sky Gypsy disappears, Sarah meets K9
i) births and deaths None that I noted. ii) broadcast anniversaries 18 December 1965: broadcast of "Coronas of the Sun", sixth episode of the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan. The Doctor, Steven and Sara give Chen a fake tarranium core; and land somewhere with a really poisonous atmosphere. 18 December 2003: webcast of sixth episode of Scream of the Shalka. The Doctor blows up the Shalka with Alison's help. (And there's a rather peculiar bit with the Master, but watch and judge for yourself.) iii) date specified in canon 18 December 1953: disappearance of the Sky Gypsy ...
Fri 18th
08:18
Shropshire Council gave false information on prospects for a vaccination centre for south west Shrop...
What nonsense we were told at Shropshire Council yesterday. Tracey Huffer and I had asked a detailed question on testing for Covid-19 and this had been answered. Our supplementary question asked what the arrangements were for a vaccination centre in south west Shropshire. Tracey led and we could not believe the answer from Councillor Dean Carroll, the portfolio holder for heath. In summary, no hope of a centre for the current vaccine. We will have to wait for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Which is not yet approved. As soon as council finished, we got in touch with medical professionals. Councillor ...
Responding to the publication of the Annual Report on Special Advisers 2020, which shows that prior to his departure from Number 10 Dominic Cummings' salary was £140,000-£144,999 - up from £95,000-£99,999 the year before - Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper said: "Families across the country who are facing extraordinary financial hardship right now will be appalled that their taxes were being wasted to pay Dominic Cummings more than five times as much as a nurse. "Not only did Boris Johnson undermine public trust by refusing to sack Cummings when he flagrantly broke lockdown with his trips to ...
The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to take urgent action to tackle the growing backlog of court cases, as new official statistics reveal the scale of the problem. The figures, published yesterday by the Ministry of Justice, show that the number of outstanding criminal cases in the Crown Court has risen from 33,248 at the end of 2018 to 50,918 at the end of September - a 53% increase in less than two years. Separate Ministry of Justice statistics, also published yesterday, show that the average length of care proceedings in the Family courts has risen to over ...
For 50 years or more, visitors to Nottingham have been funnelled through a bus station and a shopping centre if they wish to get from the railway station to the city centre. The planned redevelopment of the city's Broadmarsh gives a chance to change all that, particularly now the site's developer Intu has gone into administration. To respond to this opportunity, Nottingham's Greens and Liberal Democrats have worked with a local architect to produce a new vision for the site. The parties say: With many groups coming forward asking for the old Broadmarsh to be turned into a park, Nottingham ...
