The power came back on just before 11 p.m... and went back off just after midnight. And then it came back on at some point in the middle of the night - my phone was plugged in to charge and suddenly sprang into life. At some point after that, it was off, but neighbours confirmed that it came on yet again at about 6 a.m. I slept through that. Morning came and the power was on, so all was good. Except that we had no broadband. Word reached us that there had been a knock-on effect from the power failures ...
Mon 11th
21:54
"Welcome to the Brexit, sir." Remainers knew British drivers' sandwiches would be confiscated but re...
The Independent reports: Border officials have been confiscating sandwiches and other foodstuffs from drivers arriving in the Netherlands from the UK after Brexit, TV footage has revealed. A Dutch TV clip showed a driver had his ham sandwiches taken away by border officials as he arrived - with one border guard joking: "Welcome to the Brexit, sir." This development should not have come as a surprise. In April 2019 The Scotsman warned: Britons travelling to the EU will no longer be able to carry meat and dairy products with them in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the European Commission ...
On Saturday, we published answers to your questions on Covid-19. We have today published the print edition. We will be constantly updating both the web edition of our Q&A and the print edition as we get further advice from the expert panel. The panel is: Dr Catherine Beanland, Portcullis Surgery Dr Caron Morton, Station Drive Surgery Rachel Robinson, Director of Public Health for Shropshire. You can download the PDF edition here. Please keep sending your questions. We can't promise to answer them all but we will do our best.
300 days on; eleven into the new year, and I've started my second week back at work - I got straight back into it last Monday, as there is really not much else to do. I must say I'm finding the start of the year hard. This lockdown has gone on much longer than the first, and crucially the weather has been less good, because it's winter. The nights are now getting shorter again, but they are still pretty long. I've already had one tweet that has gone viral: The first chapters of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the ...
It's hardly breaking or surprising news to say that Robert Caro's Master of the Senate, a volume of biography covering Lyndon Johnson's time as Majority Leader of the US Senate, is as brilliant and enjoyable as it is long. But...
Mon 11th
17:15
Insights from the 2020 US Elections: A report from Liberal Democrats Overseas North American Branch
For the past six months, while liberals everywhere were biting their nails, the LDO North American Branch were analysing data sources and talking to anyone they could to gain useful insight into the US Elections. The result is a report and Paddy Ashdown Forum / Liberal Democrats Overseas webinar entitled US Elections: Insights and Lessons for Lib Dem Campaigning to be held on Monday January 18th at 18:00 GMT. So, what are the insights and lessons learned? The LDO report distills it all down to 7 key insights. 1. The 'non-campaign' campaign: Virtual campaigning comes of age While Trump repeated ...
The failure on Wednesday of the far-right mob to prevent the formal recognition of Joe Biden winning the 2020 presidential election should not be taken as the end of the Right's insurgency, but rather another stepping stone in the building of its legend. When Trump called upon his fascist followers to muster at the Capitol on Wednesday, it was the last throw of the dice as far as his own presidency was concerned. His legal team had previously raised 62 complaints of voter fraud across the country, in states such as Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All of these ...
Data last date 3/1/2021 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
With coronavirus case numbers still growing strongly (though perhaps slowing a little according to symptom tracking) and the NHS struggling to cope with the numbers of people needing hospitalisation already, driven by the much lower case numbers of 2 or 3 weeks ago, this is clearly the most dangerous time of the whole pandemic for any of us to contract the virus; there is every chance, wherever we live, that the NHS may not be able to give us the treatment we might need. Acceleration of the vaccine programme is of course essential and the delay to second doses to ...
I wasn't surprised but I was upset to hear Keir Starmer break with Labour's General Election manifesto commitments and indeed the motions passed by the Labour Conference regarding Europe. Keir Starmer has abandoned the commitment of free movement in the EU, ... Continue reading →
The Conservative Party is now racing to disassociate itself from the US Republican Party and Donald Trump. In the Times on January 8th James Forsyth did his best to argue that Boris Johnson was a very different politician from Trump. But he did not deny that the political, personal and financial links between the American Right and the British Conservatives have been growing closer for many years, and that right-wing foundations and think tanks in the USA have worked hard to infiltrate British Conservatism. This first struck me many years ago, when at Heathrow at the beginning of a short ...
Labour's record in Government on civil liberties issues is not the best. This was the party who wanted to bring in ID cards and extend detention without trial to 90 days, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. It is no surprise therefore to find the official Labour Party line on allowing undercover agents to commit crimes while infiltrating criminal gangs to be one in support of the Conservative Government. As the Guardian reports though, this has led to a split in the party, with the leadership refusing to back a Lords amendment from Shami Chakrabarti. The former ...
Sun, 16:00: Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein A classic but very much of its time. Pacy and entertaining, but dodgy on both sex and politics. Good discussion in comments! #nwbooks https://t.co/sJDoXdJ1Ub https://t.co/IdwAlTMViD https://t.co/wmc7nCjCqU Sun, 16:30: The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett Very good; about death and growing up, and delivers its message subtly. And I loved the bit about the Nac Mac Feegle's swords glowing blue in the presence of a lawyer. #nwbooks https://t.co/T8eSBCWIH0 https://t.co/fzjE6GGwIN https://t.co/4mfir0aQCg Sun, 16:49: Well worth watching in full. https://t.co/qcjEJRwOlL Sun, 16:58: RT @GPDoran: @nwbrux he got the sword out! https://t.co/zhfDprwWCs Sun, 17:00: The ...
In debates about the nature of England and "Englishness" some, with justification, have turned to George Orwell. But there is an earlier 20th century literary figure who is worth listening to, even if only for one quotation. In 1992, for the third and final time, I stepped up to the plate as a reliable parliamentary candidate for hopeless northern seats. This was in the Eccles constituency, part of which was formerly in the Salford South constituency represented by the Liberal MP Hilaire Belloc from 1906 to 1910. The 1992 Good Beer Guide contains an entry for the Ashley Brook in ...
Good morning, everyone! You'll have to bear with me this morning, as Creeting St Peter is running on emergency generators this morning following an underground cable failure, and this has had the apparent side effect of shutting down broadband service to the village until at least lunchtime. Once I've dealt with the outstanding household matters, we'll be bringing you Geoff Reid's thoughts on an aspect of Englishness, whilst William Wallace has been provoked into comment by events in Washington and the domestic fallout here. We also have some reflections on the US elections from John Surie of Liberal Democrats Overseas. ...
i) births and deaths 11 January 1941: birth of Malcolm Terris, who played Etnin in The Dominators (Second Doctor, 1968) and the Co-pilot in The Horns of Nimon (Fourth Doctor, 1980). 11 January 1995: death of Peter Pratt, who played the Master in The Deadly Assassin (Fourth Doctor, 1976). ii) broadcast anniversaries 11 January 1964: broadcast of "The Ambush", fourth episode of hte story we now call The Daleks. The Doctor and friends escape the Dalek city, and the Thals are ambushed by the Daleks; the Doctor realises that the Daleks still have the mercury fluid link. 11 January 1969: ...
Do you have a 'real' Christmas tree that you would like to be recycled? You can request an uplift from your property and further details are available here.
