I think this is the sort of thing I used to post. Click on the image above to watch footage of the Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea branch in Essex. The film, which includes an intermittent commentary, was shot in 1963, the year before the line closed.
Today's announcement by Mr Anderson brings further shame to our City. He won't resign but he won't do anything either! He should have resigned when it became clear that the investigation in which has been arrested but not charged will ... Continue reading →
The Rt. Hon. Dominic Rennie Raab MP First Secretary of State Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Dear Foreign Secretary Please accept my best wishes. With the merger of the FCO and DfID in mind and the incorporation of development policy into your brief, I was encouraged by your statement in Parliament on July 7th 2020 which included the words: 'As we forge a dynamic new vision for a truly global Britain, this Government are absolutely committed to the United Kingdom becoming an even stronger force for good in the world ... on human rights, where we ...
Data last date 27/12/2020 This table reports admissions into hospital trusts for covid in the order of the number of admissions in the last available week compared to the total number of admissions. The idea is to highlight those trusts which are having a high level of admissions that has grown in the past two weeks. Some trusts serve areas where there is a high level of immunity and hence few
2020 started off badly. Then it got worse. Later in the year, it got even worse still. I think that's all that needs to be said. Did I miss anything? Let's hope 2021 is a better year for all of us. For those interested, my predictions for the coming year can be found here.
We pick up where we left off earlier... William Wallace This Bill, and the agreement it transposes into domestic law, commits us to continuing negotiations across a very wide range of issues, in which the UK will be the dependent partner. I mention two issues only out of the many that remain unresolved. The issues of data access, and the adequacy of data protection, are vital to the future of our economy. Three-quarters of UK data exchanges flow between here and the European continent. Sovereign independence on data regulation for the UK is not on offer; our choice is between ...
I read 266 books in 2020, the seventh highest of the seventeen years that I have been keeping track, so a nudge above the average. (Full numbers: 234 in 2019, 262 in 2018, 238 in 2017, 212 in 2016, 290 in 2015, 291 in 2014, 237 in 2013, 259 in 2012, 301 in 2011, 278 in 2010, 342 in 2009, 371 in 2008, 236 in 2007, 207 in 2006, 144 in 2005, 149 in 2004) Page count for the year: 70,400, ninth highest of the seventeen years I have recorded, bang in the middle. (64,600 in 2019, 71,600 in 2018, ...
As 2021 approaches and as Trump prepares for an undignified exit from the White House, can we hope for some positive moves towards a peaceful settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict? Joe Biden may in due course try to get the peace process going, but nothing much will happen for a few months until yet another Israeli election has taken place in March. There are also plans for long overdue elections in Palestine which may lead to a power shift to a younger and more credible generation of political leaders. Even if Netanyahu loses (and all liberal democrats will surely pray ...
Current Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake At Childhood's End, by Sophie Aldred Last books finished The Anything Box, by Zenna Henderson House of Music, by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma Explaining Humans, by Camilla Pang Palimpsest, by Charles Stross Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke Tales of Terror, no editor given December Books Non-fiction: 4 (YTD 50) Our War: Ireland and the Great War, ed. John Horne Utopia For Realists, by Rutger Bregman House of Music, by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason Explaining Humans, by Camilla Pang Fiction (non-sf): 3 (YTD 38) Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells The Prisoner of ...
2021 could contain a few surprises. I'm expecting Scotland to surprise us all in the Euros...they could score a goal! On 31st December 2011 I decided to make some predictions for the coming year, the main purpose of which was to show that I had a humourous side. The responses to my attempts at being funny led to my making predictions becoming something of an annual tradition and so, for the tenth consecutive year, I bring you my projections for the coming year. As always, some of these are serious, and some are not quite so serious. I do sometimes ...
Only a few hours ago, we wrote about the failure to rollout vaccinations in Ludlow and south west Shropshire. We wrote about the need to vax now. Lobbying has been going on behind the scenes as Tracey Huffer and myself, along with many medical professionals, have been pressing home the message of vax now. The news just in is that the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group has given permission for vaccination to start in care homes in this area on Saturday. That must happen. It will now happen. The emergency is becoming so great we can't afford to waste a day. ...
We need to learn from 2020 what we can, in the hope that it will help us better to deal with the year ahead. Continue reading →
And, for completeness, we bring you excerpts from the speeches of our Parliamentary Party in the Lords during the debate on the Future Relationships Bill... Jeremy Purvis Liberal forebears joined together to ensure the widest benefit of free, fair and open trade well over a century ago. We fought relentlessly against Conservative protectionism at the turn of the last century. We split from the Conservative and National Government over their imposition of tariffs all round. Now, a century on, we need to try to militate against the worst elements of this poor agreement. We will have to be in the ...
The New Year Honours list published last night has a strong focus on all those wonderful people who have supported their communities during the pandemic. Do you know any Lib Dems who have been honoured in this way? If so, we would love to congratulate them. Please let us know in the comments below. Updates From Chris Rennard: Congratulations to Nigel Priestley, former candidate for Colne Valley, awarded the MBE for services to children and families. * Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames where she is still very ...
I think that when historians come to assess politics in the UK over the pas four years, and particularity the last four weeks, they will identify Wednesday 30th December, 2020 as the date on which our liberal democracy hit rock bottom. After an ill-deigned referendum and campaign peppered with lies and probably influenced by foreign interference a minority of a restricted electorate voted to leave the European Union. This was magnified to represent "the will of the people", and our leaders we manoeuvred by ideologues into aiming for the severest severance possible. In the final few weeks of negotiations the ...
2020 may have been something of a wipe out for many. It has certainly not been an easy year for Brits coping with the twin impact of Covid 19 (now with the new more contagious strain) and Brexit. For Chinese Liberal Democrats, we started out the year quite oblivious to what was to come, ushering in the Year of the Rat at the National Liberal Club with our AGM and Chinese New Year celebrations on 30th January. Dr Yeow Poon, our Chair, was the key note speaker, expounding the relevance of liberal democracy in the world today. Yet it was ...
As it happens the headline to this post can be read literally, as according to the Independent, the EU has secured the ability to shut off gas and electricity supplies if the UK tries to seize control of disputed fish stocks in future. The paper quotes the Institute for Government, who believe that this sanction - which would hike prices and possibly trigger blackouts - makes a mockery of the prime minister's claim to have "taken control" of British waters in his trade agreement: The little-noticed clause in the vast 1,255-page text allows Brussels to kick the UK out of ...
Wed, 12:56: Important. https://t.co/oWCwKeAbmi Wed, 15:00: Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism, by Marina Warner Explores Joan as woman, hero, warrior, prophet; goes on to her later influence on literature, French politics, church authority, and concepts of sexuality. #nwbooks https://t.co/fxgXFN93Bi https://t.co/y22w0ZTsoq https://t.co/IgLG0GmZCh Wed, 15:20: Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany Delany's city Bellona is a state of mind, detached from the USA; strange things happen in the sky; the central character's own sense of time is as skewed as the local newspaper's chronology. #nwbooks https://t.co/YD0ggA3Hdm https://t.co/zs59ai46dI https://t.co/kRcYi3nPwN Wed, 15:40: Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, by ...
Usually on this last day of the calendar year I am in Brazil, having a lazy day by the pool, preparing a festive supper and looking forward to the giant firework display that takes place at midnight right behind the house. But this year things are very different. Thanks to coronavirus I haven't been able [...]
Welcome to the final instalment of our most read posts of 2020. For those of you late to the "countdown", the earlier posts can be found by following the following links; posts 20-16 posts 15-11 posts 10-6 It would be naive to suggest that the 2019 General Election campaign was a success and, for good or ill, much of the blame fell upon Jo Swinson and her advisors. In the fifth most read post of 2020, Paul Walter highlighted the views of the former Chief Executive of the Party, and former MP for North Devon, Sir Nick Harvey. He wasn't ...
I've been looking back at my blog postings throughout each month of 2020 and I've picked out the 12 most interesting from my perspective:- Liverpool 2's massive new container cranes January – Access to the Port of Liverpool & Sefton Council's far, far too late Judicial Review application – Cottages in Sefton Lane, Maghull (September 2012) – Sadly flooding here has a long history February – Will building Maghull's vast new urban extension lead to more flooding? – Sunny Southport Cricket March – Watching County Championship cricket at Birkdale – so sad it's seemingly a thing of the ...
Many thanks to everyone who has been a reader in 2020, whether on this site, one of my other sites, on email with Liberal Democrat Newswire and my digests, on social media, or in old and new book form.
Thu 31st
09:51
Covid Watch: We want vaccination! When do we want it? Now! But local health managers won't act quick...
"We want vaccinating." Those are not the exact words used by many callers over the last few days, but they express the common sentiment. Expectation has reached a high point with yesterday's approval of the easier to administer Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. We have two vaccines, millions of doses, but here in south west Shropshire we still don't know when vaccination will begin in earnest. Local GPs are frustrated. They are ready to go. They will begin in care homes this Sunday if needed. Their switchboards are busy with callers asking when their vaccination will be available. They don't have an ...
[IMG: 2020 has been a year like no other. The stresses and strains of it will be etched in our memories for many years to come."New Year is usually a point to reflect on a year that's passed and set new goals for the year ahead. This year that feels different. We have to pause to take stock of the enormity of our loss. The virus has devastated so many families and ripped the fabric of our liberal society apart too. However, we can be proud, proud of the effort we've made as communities and as a wider society ...
On 28 December, Sky News ran a story about Peter Wood, who runs a business exporting glass eels, and voted Leave, who now faces going out of business because of Brexit. He commented: "be careful what you wish for. I thought we were going to get a global market. This was going to be a new opportunity. It hasn't turned out like this. I would never have voted for Brexit if I knew we were going to lose our jobs" There are many more stories of this sort on the horizon as we face disruption — to travel, insurance, exports ...
i) births and deaths None. There's quite enough for today as it is. ii) broadcast anniversary 31 December 1965: broadcast of third episode of The Highlanders. Polly overpowers Ffrench; the Doctor overpowers Perkins; but Ben is thrown into the cold sea... iii) dates specified in canon 31 December 1879: Queen Victoria issues the Torchwood Charter, as seen in Children of Earth (2009). (Though it must be a fake since she is referred to inaccurately as 'HRH', ie 'Her Royal Highness', rather than 'Her Majesty'.) 31 December 1930: setting of the framing narrative of the 2002 Eighth Doctor / Charley audio, ...
I'm writing this on a cold and frosty morning waiting for the sunrise to give us a little bit of warmth. At New Year it is customary to look back over the last year and look forward to what is to come. Let's be honest, 2020 was pretty shit. Covid-19 has hit the world with a vengeance. There are lots of things I could say about the government's handling of how it affects the UK, but it wouldn't help the situation. Now vaccines are becoming available there is a glimmer of hope that the situation will improve. Only a glimmer ...
Auld Lang Syne Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne? CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup of kindness yet, For auld lang syne! And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp, And surely I'll be mine, And we'll tak a cup o kindness yet, For auld lang syne! We twa hae run about the braes, And pou'd the gowans fine, But we've wander'd monie a weary fit, Sin auld lang syne. We twa hae paidl'd in the burn Frae morning sun ...
Blyth Town Council continues to meet through the Zoom programme. If you wish to observe any meetings BTC will send a link just prior to each meeting. In January anticipated meetings are:- Tuesday 5th January , 2:00 pm Governance Committee Thursday 14th January , 4:30 pm Full Council As ever please check with BTC that the meetings will proceed as planned if you wish to observe them
