Me at the 2018 Harwich Shanty Festival I admit that the sudden outbreak of sea shanties on something called TikTok has been fascinating. Not new, but fascinating nonetheless. It's not new because, for those of us who have discovered the Harwich Shanty Festival, the idea of shanties as entertainment has been there for a while. Admittedly, Ros and I came about the Shanty Festival by chance to some extent. As Ros was Deputy Chair of the Harwich Haven Authority, we visited Harwich fairly regularly, Ros for work, me for the occasional very nice dinner or New Years's Eve night out ...
Jewish Chronicle reports: The founder of an organic foods company who was shortlisted to stand as a London mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats has been expelled from the party following a complaints panel hearing into comments she made about Jews. Geeta Sidhu-Robb was pitted against councillor Luisa Porrit to land the party's nomination to challenge current Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in elections scheduled to take place in May. But she was suspended in September after footage of her using a megaphone during the 1997 election campaign in Blackburn emerged in which she urged Muslim voters not to vote ...
The creators of Doctor Who comics were for a long time the most male of the various parts of the Whoniverse. I noted in a history of the 1964-79 strips that the first mention of women in a creative capacity was on page 570 of a 603-page book, on work done in the 1990s. The first woman credited in the main Doctor Who Magazine comics series was Annie Halfacree (now Annie Parkhouse), who did lettering for the Sixth Doctor strips starting in 1984. The first woman to write a Doctor Who comic appears to have been Kate Orman, with a ...
Aliens won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1987, beating in order Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Fly, Little Shop of Horrors and Labyrinth, in that order - a year when all the contenders were cinematic. Weirdly, I'm not entirely sure that I have seen Star Trek IV; I have definitely seen Little Shop of Horrors though. IMDB users rate Aliens ahead of the other contenders, top of the year on one ranking and fourth on the other. I'd certainly rate it ahead of Little Shop. Two returnees from Hugo or Oscar-winning films. Most obviously, Sigourney Weaver ...
In September last year I called for a task force to be established within the Council to look at the size and complexity of the stalled development scene in Liverpool. I also asked for a report under the 'Councillor's Right ... Continue reading →
The Daily Telegraph has had to publish a correction after the press regulator IPSO ruled that it had published a piece from Toby Young containing false claims about coronavirus. As The Guardian reports: An article by Toby Young for the Daily Telegraph was "significantly misleading" when it said that catching a cold could protect people from coronavirus and claimed that London was approaching herd immunity, the press regulator has ruled. In a decision published on Thursday, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) complaints committee ordered the Telegraph to publish a correction over the column, which was appeared in July last ...
Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of both 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us, along with maintaining the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. The next general election is most likely several years away, but political polling of voting intentions for a general election is in full swing. Half-a-dozen firms are polling regularly, with a handful of occasional surveys from others too. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @johnnythin: #Archaeology31 The problem of the 'hiddenscape': a challenge for archaeologists is to develop models capable of predicting... Fri, 13:07: A thought for Belgian friends at a loss for something to do this weekend - the lovely exhibition of Jean-Michel Folon's sculptures at Villers Abbey @abbayedevillers is open until 21 February. https://t.co/WOcuKFIiw7 Fri, 14:19: RT @DavidHenigUK: There is a sense of disbelief about the new trade problems between Great Britain and the EU / Northern Ireland. Which we... Fri, 15:00: Titus Alone, by Mervyn Peake I'm afraid I was simply not convinced by Titus Alone. In fact, ...
Following my blog over a week ago when I wrote about the Brexit campaign group Leave.eu moving its internet registration to the Republic of Ireland in order to be able to keep its .eu suffix after the UK quit the European Union, it appears the move was not as smooth as they would have liked. The Guardian reports that the group's EU domain name has been temporarily suspended. This development comes after the Irish businessman in whose name the pro-Brexit campaign group's domain name is registered denied having any involvement with the organisation. Visitors to the site are now greeted ...
Sat 16th
09:54
Whoniversaries 16 January: Peter Butterworth, Romans #1, Terror of Autons #3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
i) births and deaths 16 January 1979: death of Peter Butterworth, who played the Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler (1965) and The Daleks' Master Plan (1966) ii) broadcast anniversaries 16 January 1965: broadcast of "The Slave Traders", the first episode of the story we now call The Romans. The Tardis crew are relaxing in a Roman villa. The Doctor and Vicki decide to walk to Rome, and the Doctor takes on the identity of a murdered musician. Barbara and Ian are captured by slavers. 16 January 1971: broadcast of third episode of Terror of the Autons. Plastic daffodils are ...
This page forecasts when each NHS Trust will have peak Covid admissions. The calculation is done by fitting admissions to a Gompertz Curve. The data is slightly out of date. Some adjustments have been made between areas for transfers, but not enough. Data last date 10/1/2021 This table reports a forecast based upon fitting hospital admissions to a gompertz curve starting in November. Xmas
Data last date 10/1/2021 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
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has advised that there has been a concerning increase in the number of people who have been injured and have sadly died due to fires within the home. This has been the case in Dundee where there have been 2 fatal fires this year. Over the previous 3 years, there were not any fatal fires in Dundee. The service has identified that the key common factors are people over 50 who smoke and have mobility issues or live alone or use medical oxygen. Therefore the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is targeting its focus ...
