One of the bits about being a day editor of Liberal Democrat Voice is that, occasionally, you are tempted to respond to the news of the day. And sometimes, you realise why you aren't often tempted... On Monday, I was critical of a piece by Nick Cohen, attempting to smear the entire Liberal Democrats on the basis of a rather quirky stance on 5G masts by two councillors in Bath and possibly endorsed by the local Liberal Democrat MP. My view was that his attempt to associate the party with an anti-science stance was indicative of lazy bias. My understanding ...
The system is broken and it's corrupt: liberals need to make fixing the system and rooting out corruption a key part of our message to voters. If we don't, then who will?" Max Wilkinson says the latest peerage announcements are yet more evidence that the system is broken. David Torrance looks at the Government of Ireland Act 1920. He argues that it "paved the way for the formation of the United Kingdom as we know it today". .Will Davies dissects the intellectual decline of the Spectator. "The primary message that came through loud and clear from the respondents is that ...
The Low Fell Focus Team published their latest edition of eFocus (no. 79) yesterday. Issues covered include:Happy New Year from the Focus TeamChanges planned to social distancing measures on Durham RoadAll Gateshead Council gyms now closedCalls for better signage as 11,365 penalty charge notices handed out in just over six weeksNew 20mph speed limit zone plannedFuture lane closures on Gateshead
The figures have just been released for English hospital admissions to the end of 2020. Although the figures have gone down two days in sequence we cannot at this stage say whether or not they have peaked. The government are releasing figures for each hospital trust. From those it would be possible to see whether individual trusts are peaking or not. However, those figures are only released
Second paragraph of third chapter:Gideon stood beside his father. The sun made a fuss of setting, bleeding red and orange into the sea. Gideon could smell salt. The vastness of the ocean was still new to him.Towards the end of the year I'd been working through some of the short fiction submitted as part of the editors' section of the 2020 Hugo voter packet, but this is the first one that left enough of an impression to write up. It's a novella edited by Ellen Datlow (who was last to qualify for the final ballot for Hugo for Best Editor, ...
Back to the Future won the 1986 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentaton. Second place went to Ladyhawke, third to Cocoon, fourth to Brazil (the only other one I've seen) and fifth to Enemy Mine. Brazil is rather a cinematic triumph, but I'd have voted for Back to the Future for making me feel good. That was the year that Ender's Game won both Hugo and Nebula for Best Novel. IMDB users rate Back to the Future top film of 1985 on one ranking and second on the other. That year's Oscar winner, Out of Africa, is pretty far behind. (Back ...
Sat 2nd
13:21
Ed Davey calls on Government to make it easier for retired health professionals to work
We've all seen some pretty scary things on social media and the news about the strain that some hospitals, particularly in the South East, are under. Critically ill Covid patients in Kent are being transported by ambulance and helicopter as far as Bristol, Leeds, Southampton & Portsmouth. Oxygen is running out. ICU nursing has gone from 1:1 to 1:4. Please, everyone, take Covid seriously. PLEASE [IMG: 😔] https://t.co/NFc3nqVuSH — Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) January 1, 2021 In the past few days, I've seen accounts of a friend's relative waiting hours for an emergency ambulance and then spending more than a day ...
The Daily Heil and the Daily Excreta and rest of the off-shore and foreign owned British media are greeting the supposed Brexit day with made up drivel about new dawns and nonsense about splits in President Macron´s family, while -with no irony at all- Boris Johnson´s father applies for French citizenship. So Brexit Britain. As bitterly divided as ever and with the incompetent clique of Conservative journalists, PR bullshitters and other ne´er-do-wells who by a nasty fluke have ended up in power are costing the country millions every time they take another ill-judged or unfair decision. The latest nonsense is ...
Sat 2nd
11:14
Are difficult planning applications like buses? Because it surely feels like it right now...
If having the challenge of the Gateway 14 planning application wasn't bad enough, we're now faced with a proposal to expand the Poundfield Products facility at the other end of the Parish. Given that the applicants had a fairly poor record of compliance with planning constraints previously to their takeover by Sigma Roc plc, and that the relationship between the new owners and the village is, how can I put it, suboptimal, we are wary as to their intent. The new proposal is to extend towards the River Gipping by adding an outdoor storage and fabrication area and likely objections ...
We should be getting used to this Tory government breaking its promises by now, but the letdowns and betrayals continue to flow out of Whitehall. The latest is reported in the Independent and relates to Ministers failing jobless young people by falling far short of a promise to recruit 30,000 new apprentices to the civil service. The paper quotes a senior Conservative, who said the government had failed to make achieving the pledge "a priority" - and criticised an attempt to blame the embarrassing shortfall on Covid-19, in fact, the target was set four years ago. Only 16,155 apprentices had ...
Fri, 13:20: RT @DouglasSloane: Cork is now the second largest English speaking city in the EU Fri, 15:00: Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss I think it's all a bit exaggerated myself; I doubt that the level of literacy in general has deteriorated much in recent decades; what has happened is that more people are writing. #nwbooks https://t.co/Hcu7heMWOD https://t.co/6tyrSYKU7z https://t.co/MTFF9XHASS Fri, 15:45: God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time, by John North The first half somehow doesn't sparkle, but the second half is a completely superb summary of the state of knowledge in medieval physics. #nwbooks ...
Sat 2nd
10:39
Covid Watch: Send us your questions on coronavirus vaccination and will get them answered by medical...
Questions are being asked about vaccination on social, print and broadcast media. When will people get vaccinated? How safe is it? Which is the better vaccine? Do we have a choice on which vaccination? Must we have two doses? Three Shropshire medical experts have agreed to answer your questions. Rachel Robinson, Director of Public Health for Shropshire, Dr Caron Morton from Station Drive Surgery and Dr Catherine Beanland from Portcullis. Please send Tracey Huffer and I your questions and we'll ask the expert medical panel for a response. You can post your questions as comments below or send them to ...
Palestinians dream of the day when they will have an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. But in the meantime, Ramallah serves as an interim centre for the administration of the West Bank as well as a cultural hub. It was pretty threadbare when I first visited 20 or more years ago but subsequently [...]
As a Kirkby, Notts born lad Larwood has always been a hero of mine and I'd previously read Duncan Hamilton's 2009 book – Harold Larwood. Then, more recently, I came across Michael Arnold's book – The Bodyline Hypocrisy. Having long thought that Larwood and his captain Jardine (not forgetting fellow Notts fast bowler Bill Voce of course) had been used and abused by cricketing authorities to serve wider political ends this book goes into such issues in great detail. Suffice to say it has confirmed my view. Statue of Harold Larwood in my (and his) own home town of Kirkby-In-Ashfield. ...
I have thought for a while that Brexit is not just about Brexit. Leaving the EU is only a step on the way for fundamental Brexiters to get what they want, which is to turn Britain into a neoliberal paradise – Singapore on Thames is exactly what they want. That being the case, populism is not going to disappear, because it is still the primary tool for securing that end. Farage has already switched from Brexit to covid: he is adept at latching on to anything that stokes resentment, and we will continue to see the politics of resentment at ...
Sat 2nd
08:30
Whoniversaries 2 January: Deborah Watling, John Woodnutt, Rescue #1, Terror of the Autons #1
i) births and deaths 2 January 1948: birth of Deborah Watling , who played the Second Doctor's companion Victoria Waterfield in 1967-8 (and also returned for the unofficial spinoff Downtime in 1998) 2 January 2006: death of John Woodnutt, who played George Hibbert in Spearhead from Space (1970), the Draconian Emperor in Frontier in Space (1973), Broton and the Duke of Forgill in Terror of the Zygons (1976), and Seron in The Keeper of Traken (1981). ii) broadcast anniversaries 2 January 1965: broadcast of "The Powerful Enemy", first episode of the story we now call The Rescue, introducing Maureen O'Brien ...
The Royal Voluntary Service in Dundee is pleased to continue to provide a lifeline to our vulnerable, older people (over 50) and or their carers. The support we have been providing (during the COVID-19 health emergency) and will continue to provide includes companionship (telephone befriending) calls and welfare checks (Safe & Well phone calls), help packs of essential food and toiletries- providing vital food for those struggling to pay for daily necessities. Read more about existing services here. For further information on any of the services mentioned please contact: Michelle Manzie, Service Manager michelle.manzie@royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk or 07834 753386. For referrals for ...
