This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog.. Not me, but the Who's musical Tommy from 1969 - lyrics that are beyond the horizon of memory for most of us. But equally, 2021 ought to be a pretty good year. Eventually. There should be a mini boom which perhaps may not be such a good experience for anyone buying a home... Over Christmas, I have been thinking a little more about this elusive optimism. And it seems to me that we also have a couple of issues which may prevent this optimism coming to fruition. The first of these ...
Just when you think that the Tories couldn't sink any lower than their opposition to providing help to families with free school meals during the holidays, they have gone one further. All over social media, there are pictures of the sorts of food packages that are being sent to children who would normally qualify for free school meals. What are you supposed to eat the noodles *with*? Plain udon is not a meal. https://t.co/FcbkuYleK5 — Charley Hasted (@CharleyHasted) January 12, 2021 A policy working group is currently working out a UBI model for the party to adopt. I think it ...
On Sunday we brought you the news that Christine Jardine's Private Member's Bill to give NHS workers the right to remain in the UK. Sadly, today, the Tories killed that hope by cancelling all sitting Fridays until the end of March. Christine's Bill proposed that all health and social care staff from outside the EU would be granted indefinite leave to remain, enabling them to avoid the hellscape that is our immigration system and granting them rights enjoyed by British citizens. Christine vowed to fight on, though: Like the rest of our wonderful NHS and care staff, hundreds of thousands ...
(Accidentally posted in draft form yesterday - this is the real thing.) Second paragraph of third chapter:"Good afternoon, honourable students."When I first read this the year it was a Hugo finalist (2010), I wrote:didn't really grab me I'm afraid. It is a tale of time police and overlapping universes and histories, broken up by some reflections on the evolution of the solar system presented in rather odd powerpoint format. I wasn't really convinced either by the astronomy or the mathematics of deep time, and they appeared to be the point of the story. On the other hand, the story does ...
Lib Dems have vowed to fight for healthcare workers' rights after a Bill to give them the indefinite leave to remain was effectively axed by the Tory government. Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine tabled the Immigration (Health and Social Care Staff) Bill 2019-21, which was due for its second reading on Friday. But the Government have decided to axe all sitting Fridays until the end of March, meaning dozens of Private Members Bills will effectively be killed off. Ms Jardine's Bill proposed that all health and social care staff from outside the EU would be granted indefinite leave to remain, ...
The Government should introduce subsidised postage for small businesses to help them cope with the cost of trading online, according to the Lib Dems. Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the Treasury, will call for it to be included in a government support package for businesses in an adjournment debate she has secured in Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday). Christine will also call for the Government to come up with a long term strategy to help businesses cope with the enormous burden of debt that many will now face. Previously, Christine met Minister Paul Scully and wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak ...
Tue 12th
16:06
Business Local Restrictions Support Grant, Additional Restrictions Grant & National Lockdown Gra...
[IMG: Money ()] Since the start of the previous national lockdown period on 4th November 2020, there have been a number of business grant schemes available for businesses in the district. However, we have tried to keep this as straightforward as possible, so have combined these into two broad schemes - the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LSRG) and the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). The recent national lockdown this January has brought an additional grant - the National Lockdown Grant, which is available to businesses eligible for an LSRG. Local Restrictions Support Grant The LSRG is available to businesses that are ...
Embed from Getty ImagesLady Sybil Grant,. you may recall, "spent much time in a caravan or up a tree, communicating with her butler through a megaphone". And this is the tree she spent her time up. It's on the Pitchford Estate in Shropshire and is claimed by them to be the oldest tree house in the world. There's much more about Lady Sybil, daughter of the Liberal prime minster Lord Roseberry, from Epsom & Ewell History Explorer and on the Pitchford Estate site.
The increasing polarisation of politics across the globe is concerning for many reasons. The storming of the Capitol felt like a defining moment in this trend, while our government's hollow pleading for the nation to unite over their shoddy Brexit deal has done nothing to bring opposing sides together. One area where this polarisation is becoming increasingly worrying is over Covid-19 measures. The world is not made up of Covid-denying conspiracy theorists and authoritarian-loving lockdown fanatics, but whenever a debate crops up, the position you take on that debate will inevitably see you lumped into one of those categories. Most ...
Email isn't new. It has been around for only one year less than me but is still only patchily used by local parties even though more than four in five voters use email.
There was, I admit, more than a little disappointment when the Conservatives gained Bosmere from the Liberal Democrats in 2017. After all, it had been Ros's seat from 1993 to 2005, and whilst it had been defended successfully in 2013 - as much thanks to a UKIP intervention as anything else - the margins had become ever more dependent on piling up votes in Needham Market and hoping that the losses in Barking and Somersham and Ringshall weren't too much against us. But, with a new candidate, selected rather too late in the day to establish a track record outside ...
Mon, 15:02: The Grass is Singing, by Doris Lessing A short depressing book about a disastrous marriage between two white colonists in the future Zimbabwe; vivid psychological portraits, though rather plays into racist stereotypes. #nwbooks https://t.co/RQpUy2SMfq https://t.co/dMjue7oWjw https://t.co/c1gHv6FskIMon, 16:02: Ms. Marvel Vol 2: Generation Why, by G. Willow Wilson I had reasonably high hopes for this which weren't quite realised. Fairly standard adventure in New Jersey, and a crossover with Wolverine (well-known, but not to me). #nwbooks https://t.co/CqhAw4cFvp https://t.co/rUygCuFqQ5 https://t.co/r1bP6IOz6WMon, 17:02: '"Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman', by Harlan Ellison The writing is intense and vivid. However, it has not aged ...
Over the last year the pandemic has brought home just how much time we spend - and waste – travelling. How many hours are eaten up stuck in traffic or on trains or buses, just going about our daily lives. Instead of responding to our needs, towns and cities demand that we shape our lives to suit them, and too often that means long, inconvenient, polluting trips. How much better would it be if all the places you needed to visit regularly were within 15 minutes of your home: shops, cafes, restaurants, medical centre, park, playground, leisure centre, cinema and ...
Amongst all the dire news about COVID 19 this morning a number of the papers are featuring this gem about a British lorry driver having his ham sandwich confiscated by customs officials. As petty as this may seen, it represents the reality of Brexit. We are no longer part of a single trade area and if we want to enter the EU then the same rules apply as if we were travelling to the USA or Australia.However, this truth has not yet pervaded the consciousness of a great many people. Presumably that is why there was a Dutch TV network ...
In May last year Twitter decided to place a small flag underneath a post by Donald Trump, which suggested that his claims of massive fraud in the 2020 election (which hadn't happened yet) were "potentially misleading". This substantial understatement from a platform that had otherwise only lightly moderated their platform led to enough outrage that alt-right figures surged towards "free-speech" platform Parler. But in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Capitol building, this platform - at the centre of the insurrection - quickly collapsed in on itself. In the ensuing wreckage is a goldmine of information for any ...
i) broadcast and production anniversaries 12 January 1974: broadcast of first episode of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, billed simply as Invasion. The Doctor and Sarah land in a deserted London under martial law, and are attacked by first a pterodactyl and then a tyrannosaurus rex. 12 January 1980: broadcast of fourth episode of The Horns of Nimon, ending Season 17 prematurely. K9 rescues the hostages and the Doctor and Romana blow up the Nimons' complex. 12 January 1982: broadcast of fourth episode of Castrovalva. The Portreeve turns out to be the Master, and the whole of Castrovalva based on Adric's ...
The Boxing Day shift from tier three to four, along with the move to lockdown last week, has changed the business situation and the need for support has never been greater. In particular, non-essential retail businesses and business premises delivering close contact services may now be eligible for support at level four. A one-stop information guide for business with advice from Dundee City Council, support organisations, Scottish Government and other agencies can be found here. If you are already in receipt of grants from these funds you do not need to re-apply. The City Council will automatically alter grant payments ...
The blurb on YouTube explains: This is an edited version of a film made in 1960 to show how British Waterways were upgrading their broad waterways for more commercial traffic. At that time the container revolution had not really started, but within ten years container ports including inland container ports enabled goods to tranship quickly and without all the handling shown here. At the heart of the film is a trip up the Trent with nice shots of Newark and a river freight depot at Nottingham.
