England before the War was still a class-ridden place and when a widowed Suffolk landowner, Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), has "feelings" that there might be something buried under the odd mounds on her property she initially treats the local amateur excavator, Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), like one of her servants. He holds his ground, determined [...]
Squabbles, soft diplomacy, hard diplomacy, and even harder economics are all playing unseemly and seemly roles in the life-saving scramble for coronavirus vaccines. The pandemic offered an opportunity for global cooperation to combat a global problem. It could have been a template for tackling other globalised problems such as post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change and future pandemics. But vaccine nationalism has—in the words of World Health Organisation (WHO) Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – brought the world to the "brink of a moral failure." So far the developed world has done a reasonably good job of vaccinating its citizens. Excluding Palestinians, ...
The Hackney Citizen reports: Another consequence of the serious cyber attack on Hackney Council has emerged today, with the Town Hall asking registered postal voters to submit new applications ahead of local and regional elections in May. Organised criminals hacked into the council's systems last October, causing extensive disruption that even affected the local property market... Now, the Town Hall has revealed that the damage extends to parts of its elections computer system, forcing it to ask postal voters to resubmit their applications... According to the council, there is no evidence that any postal voting data was stolen in the ...
Fri 29th
18:44
Ludlow pub fined for breaching lockdown restrictions - I am not allowed to tell you which pub
A fixed penalty notice has been issued against one of the smaller pub type venues in Ludlow town centre. There has been a stream of complaints about this venue using dodges to get around the social distancing and subsequent lockdown rules. The legals at Shropshire Council say the business cannot be named and I cannot comment. The council's press release and my legal advice are below. But it is not one of my locals. The locals I so miss. It is not one of our historic or anchor venues. I must say no more. Cautionary note from Shropshire Council legal ...
Current Koko Takes a Holiday, by Kieran Shea Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger Sugar and other stories, by A.S. Byatt The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto Last books finished Watling Street, by John Higgs Greybeard, by Brian Aldiss The Princess Bride, by William Goldman T.K. Whitaker, by Anne Chambers Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake Next books The Autumn Land, by Clifford D. Simak A Buzz in the Meadow, by Dave Goulson
Mike German is standing down as the Party Treasurer so HQ is advertising the post. It emphasises that the role is voluntary and that the holder is elected by the Federal Board. There is a full job description here and the deadline for applications is 12th February. Mike has been splendid in the job – amusing us all with his entertaining fund raising speeches at Conference as the buckets circulate before the Leader's speech. He will be a tough act to follow, but given the breadth of experience and professional skill within the party there should be members who can ...
To claim that 'we' are united when a majority of Scots are now apparently favouring independence seems controversial. But 85% of the UK population is English, and even the minority populations do seem to share a certain unity. Compare our national spirit with that of Americans today. The new US President has to restore unity in a country where 74 million people voted for his populist predecessor who was prepared to tear up democracy there. Also compare it with the bitter divisions we remember too well in our own country in 2019 - families and friends divided, parties split, Brexiteers ...
Thu, 14:52: RT @bagatsen: @nwbrux Will you be doing tweets of daily vaccination numbers in Belgium? I looked at RKI for Germany, and on the present pac... Thu, 15:01: Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice This book really is the most utter tosh. I can see how it fits in the literary genealogy linking Bram Stoker and Buffy, but Stoker is less pretentious and Buffy is much funnier. #nwbooks https://t.co/iyGKsmYyhM https://t.co/UfJi6SNzWX https://t.co/ztOs2sIOYx Thu, 15:07: RT @bagatsen: @nwbrux Gah! And I thought that Germany was not doing well with the roll-out... Yes, waiting a bit seems wise. Thu, 15:30: Troilus ...
Data last date 24/1/2021 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 Dallingtons1620.01.2021364 The
Data last date 24/1/2021 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
As the local elections come down the track, sooner or later, it is worth rehearsing the philosophy of why Liberal Democrats fight to win. In 1980 Bernard Greaves and Gordon Lishman were insisting in their "Theory and Practice of Community Politics" that the latter aimed "to secure for individuals within their communities greater control over their living environments and a deeper sense of involvement in decisions affecting their lives." This was echoed twenty years later by Tony Greaves who spoke of a strategy concerned with asking "what can we actually do to change things in this patch on the ground?" ...
The coronavirus crisis has pushed the overall rate of prison deaths to a record high, new figures have revealed. The Liberal Democrats are calling for the Government to release all low-risk prisoners serving short sentences to tackle the spread of Covid-19 in prisons. The latest Safety in Custody statistics, released yesterday by the Ministry of Justice, show that 109 prisoners died between October and December 2020 - a 70% increase on the previous three months and the highest quarterly total on record. Since March 2020, 71 prisoners have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, and 51 of ...
I've been lucky to come across the two photos* below of the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway at the Old Roan via a couple of fellow local railway enthusiasts. Old Roan 49434 With The Returning SLS** Special 6th June 1959 Old Roan S&CLER A59 Bridge Demolition c1966 The S&CLER stations had closed to passenger trains back in January 1952 but rail access from the Liverpool end was retained until 1960 to serve private sidings on the site of Altcar & Hillhouse Station. Part of the curved embankment that the train in the first photo is travelling over is still ...
Yesterday I got a very interesting email from Reach PLC the owner of the Echo, Mirror and a host of other local and national newspapers. A couple of weeks ago I filled an online survey about lockdown. I assume thousands ... Continue reading →
Anybody who thought leaving the EU would cut bureaucracy for businesses must surely have been disabused of that notion by now. The latest Brexit fiasco is reported in the today's Independent. THey say that ministers have admitted up to 142,000 tonnes of food could be wasted over the next six months because of Brexit border disruption: An estimate drawn up by the government as an "illustration of what we could reasonably expect" suggests food, drink and feed equivalent to 96 million whole chickens may end up being thrown away. It comes as fishermen protested outside Downing Street earlier this month ...
As well as interesting age data in the latest release by the British Election Study, there is also a positive finding about the long-term trend on immigration. As other polling has shown, the long term trend in British public is towards a more liberal view on immigration, even jn more recent years: This latest drop is in spite of the mode switch, which if anything might be expected to lead to more conservative answers on this type of question. (Expect plenty of analysis of interviewer effects...) — Matt Singh (@MattSingh_) January 27, 2021
i) births and deaths 29 January 1930: birth of William Emms, author of TV story Galaxy 4 (1965) and the widely and justly forgotten Sixth Doctor book, Mission to Venus (1986) 29 January 1959: birth of Phil Nice, who played a hiker in Torchwood: Miracle Day (2011) and Henry the astronaut in Kill the Moon (Twelfth Doctor, 2014). 29 January 1976: birth of Mark Clapham, author and co-author of various Doctor who novels and books. 29 January 1988: birth of Catrin Stewart who played Jenny Flint in various Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor stories 2011-14. and with apologies for mixing fandoms: ...
Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 will take place from Monday 22nd February until Sunday 7th March. As a member of Dundee Fairtrade Forum, I am keen to see Fairtrade Fortnight being promoted in the city. Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 will focus on the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with. Farmers and workers in developing countries are feeling the impact of the climate emergency now despite having contributed to it the least. Fairtrade works to raise the voices of producers and prioritise what they need to respond to the environmental crises unfolding in already ...
