Gosh, such fuss about a bust of a foreign political leader! Or rather, why should the presence or otherwise of a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office really say so much about the future of United States/United Kingdom relations? Indeed, does it say anything other than the new President wanted to decorate it with things that mean more to him? Yes, that's one of the things that is exercising right-wing commentators this week. Rather than address the fact that the United Kingdom has one of the worst death rates from Covid-19 in the world, or that we borrowed £31.6 ...
Embed from Getty ImagesEd Davey says Gavin Williamson is the worst education secretary in living memory. He's right, of course. But then Williamson is not alone in not deserving a place around the cabinet table. Priti Patel resigned as secretary of state for international development when it emerged she had been holding meetings with Israeli officials without informing anyone in London. Yet somehow today she is home secretary. Jacob Rees-Mogg is such a liability that he had to be hidden from voters during the last general election, but he is still leader of the House of Commons. But maybe their ...
Trump is gone. He boarded Air Force One on Wednesday and flew off into the Florida sunset. Biden is now the President of the United States and has called for an end to the "uncivil civil war" of the last four years. In his departing speech before a diminished crowd, the outgoing president promised (or was it threatened) that he would be back "in some form or another." And he probably will. Perhaps not the "The Donald" personally. His legal and financial problems ranging from the impeachment trial, to tax evasion, to fraud, to money laundering, attempted subversion of election ...
Fri 22nd
17:44
NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group Consultation Letter on end of GP Services at Orchar...
[IMG: NHS GP Registration forms] Email received from NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group this evening: "NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for making sure patients have access to GP practice services, is engaging with patients of Orchard House Surgery in Lydd about the future of services at that site. "Orchard House Surgery in Lydd is currently managed by a group of GPs, who have made the decision to stop services there after 30 April 2021. "It is the CCG's priority to ensure that all patients registered at Orchard House Surgery can continue to ...
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia. November 2009 was an extraordinary month of travel for me. As previously noted, I woke up on the morning of 1 ...
Fri 22nd
17:16
Covid Watch: Ludlow Racecourse Vaccination Centre to open at beginning of February as National Healt...
This was unexpected. Shropshire Council's portfolio holder for health, Dean Carroll announced this morning that the Ludlow Racecourse Vaccination Centre will open at the beginning of February. National Health England (NHE) had been refusing to release this information and Dean stuck his neck out to make the announcement this morning. It was not due to the end of next week. I take my hat off to him. NHE and the Shropshire CCG believe that the best way of keeping everyone informed is to tell them as little as possible as late as possible. And blame everything onto the complexity of ...
Current Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake T.K. Whitaker, by Anne Chambers Watling Street, by John Higgs Greybeard, by Brian Aldiss Last books finished The Lowest Heaven, eds Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin Endgames: Political Cartoons and Other Stuff, 2015-2020, by Martyn Turner The Food of the Gods: And How It Came to Earth, by H. G. Wells Next books Koko Takes a Holiday, by Kieran Shea The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto
Brexit is not over. Nor have the Liberal Democrats given up on the issue - nor should you. Ed Davey and others have taken the tactical decision that the campaigning priority now should be on the government's incompetence across the board. The Conservatives now 'own' Brexit, and are struggling with the consequences of sacrificing free access for the illusion of sovereignty. They would love us to come out at once for rejoining: that would allow them to return to blaming 'remoaners' for somehow sabotaging Brexit, and avoid having to explain how they got us into this mess. Voters are tired ...
Fri 22nd
14:19Covid Watch: Over 80s in south west Shropshire will initially be asked to go to Church Stretton for ...
It was the NHS's worst kept secret. Shropshire is way behind many other areas in vaccinating it's over 80s. Just 49 per cent of over 80s, including those in care homes, have been vaccinated. Just across the border in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, 73 per cent have been vaccinated. Only seven of 42 areas in England are doing worse than us. The Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group blames this on the complexity of the vaccine and logistics. It has not explained why this is suddenly becomes more complex when the vaccine crosses the border into our historic county. All the over 80s ...
A press release brings the news: Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife, Wendy Chamberlain, has urged the Home Office not to deport a 70-year-old grandmother. Valentyna Yakoleva fears she will die if she is deported to the Ukraine, where coronavirus is out of control. Mrs Yakoleva has lived in the seaside village of Tayport, in Fife, for ten years while helping to raise her grandchildren. The Home Office intends to send Mrs Yakoleva back to the city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border, where she has no family. Lib Dems have called for a stop to deportations during the ...
Following on from my post yesterday, there is an interesting article in the Financial Times from a few days ago in which Robert Shrimsley speculates on what Brexit means for then future of Ireland. As he says, this year marks Northern Ireland's centenary, but, given the effects of Brexit, few are betting on there being a 125th birthday: The Brexit terms keep Northern Ireland inside the EU customs union and single market for goods, weakening its legal and commercial ties to the UK. The first weeks of Brexit have amplified this. British retailers halted some supplies while they grappled with ...
I recently had Covid-19 myself and although it was not a serious case compared to many others, it knocked me for six and I was unable to do anything for several weeks. The first symptom I noticed was losing my sense of smell. Over the following 48 hours, I became very unwell. I suffered from severe headaches, which made me feel nauseous and every time I stood up, I had terrible vertigo. I could barely walk, so all I could do was to take painkillers, drink hot water with ginger, honey and lemon, and stay in bed. I requested an ...
Thu, 12:20: RT @lukeharding1968: Breaking: the European Court of Human Rights has found Russia guilty of ethnic cleansing of #Georgian civilians during... Thu, 12:56: A Brexit lesson: EU's benefits, largely invisible, hurt to lose https://t.co/7hEbD0CY0w #takingbackcontrol #nothingbutaconsiderableupside Thu, 15:02: Nebula Award Stories Number Three, ed. Roger Zelazny Zelazny seems to have taken the job of editing this collection seriously, and his introductions include lengthy quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Czesław Miłosz. #nwbooks https://t.co/rUBj6H64BL https://t.co/5kqPkxrCzg https://t.co/zSw1tONDyv Thu, 15:24: Caricature, by Daniel Clowes I love the way Clowes takes us into his characters' worlds, and at the same time using the ...
It's easy to criticise our party's policy-making process and the amount of policy we produce. Such criticism feels a tad unfair. It's amiss to suggest that members voluntarily producing detailed policy in their spare time prevent our party from winning its target seats. Our candidates ought to help us win by making our policies relevant to their constituents. Are we missing an overarching theme that ties our policies together? Absolutely. As mentioned in the Thornhill review, our leader's job is to develop that vision and articulate it. Is now the right time to roll that out? Well Lockdown 3 probably ...
Data last date 17/1/2021 This table reports a forecast based upon fitting hospital admissions to a gompertz curve starting in November. Xmas will skew these figures, but it is a mechanism for forecasting demand. td{border-left:1px solid black;border-top:1px solid black;}table{border-right:1px solid black;border-bottom:1px solid black;}Peak admissionsPeak DateThe Dallingtons2525.01.2021501
Data last date 17/1/2021 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
i) births and deaths 22 January 1940: birth of Sir John Hurt, who played the War Doctor (The Day of the Doctor, 2013). 22 January 1950: birth of Pamela Salem, who played Toos in The Robots of Death (Fourth Doctor, 1977) and Rachel Jensen in Remembrance of the Daleks (Seventh Doctor, 1988). 22 January 1993: birth of Tommy Knight, who played Sarah Jane Smith's adopted son Luke in the Sarah Jane Adventures. 22 January 2008: death of Kevin Stoney, who played Mavic Chen in the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1965-66), Tobias Vaughn in The ...
I am pleased to advise of a new programme that has been launched in the city for households facing fuel poverty as a result of the pandemic. The Fuel Well Dundee Programme will support people on a low income whether they are in or out of work, on reduced incomes as a result of COVID-19, or are already experiencing fuel poverty. People may have heating systems or home insulation that is inadequate and causing high energy bills or are struggling with other financial or coronavirus related issues. The scheme can help with top up payments of between £40 and £100 ...
