The other day I told the story about Sir Arthur Comyns Carr and the 1958 Liberal Party Assembly. Newly elected as the party's president, he had expressed his intention not to say anything that might exacerbate tensions in China. Sir Arthur deserves to be remembered for more than that. He stood for parliament many times and his one victory saw him sitting for Islington East between 1923 and 1924. His last contest was at Shrewsbury in 1945, where he captured a quarter of the votes cast. Wikipedia says that hi expertise in National Insurance led him to co-author a book ...
The woes of Consett swimming pool became clearer tonight in a briefing for local councillors. Nearly a year after the pool closed for the first lockdown, it has been announced that repairs costing between £1 and £1.5 million are required, and these will include the provision of modular stainless steel panels to form a comprehesive new "basin" for the reconstructed pools. The problems, it is reported, all arise from "shoddy workmanship" in the construction, and have dogged the pool since the Leisure Centre opened in 2015. The pool was commissioned as part of the Academy and Leisure Centre complex by ...
Just under one in five people (17%) say they will either feel fairly or very unsafe about voting in person in this May's elections. Nearly three quarters (72%) say they will either feel fairly or very safe. Fears are, however, lower among those who say they usually vote in person (11%), and much higher among those who usually vote by post or by proxy (37%). The data comes in a new YouGov poll, which found such worries probably higher among Remain supporters (20% feel fairly or very unsafe) than among Leave supporters (13%). That suggests that fears over the safety ...
Thu 25th
18:29
Council tax in Ludlow to go up 4% for a Band D property in Ludlow from 1 April but Ludford still get...
It's that time of the year again. This morning, Shropshire Council agreed to council tax rises for the next financial year. Band D households in Ludlow will pay £2,030.25, up from £1,945.34 this year - a rise of 4.4%. Council tax has four components. By far the largest is Shropshire Council's charge, which is 74% of your council tax bill. The police commissioner takes 12%, Ludlow Town Council 9% and fire and rescue 5%. Most of Ludlow's expansion will be in Ludford parish which charges just £32.78 as its parish precept. The Ludford Question can only be resolved by merging ...
Second paragraph of third story ("Contraption"):"I never saw such a trifling young'un in all my life," she'd shrill at him and then she'd go on to say that she'd think he'd have some gratitude for the way she and Uncle Eb had taken him in and saved him from the orphanage, but no, he never felt no gratitude at all, but caused all the trouble that he could and was lazy to boot and she declared to goodness she didn't know what would become of him.I got this back in 2014 because the first story, "Rule 18", was up for ...
The Government has buckled to pressure and reworded a Bill in a manner so it now specifically excludes trans men and non-binary parents. The Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill was put together rapidly to ensure that Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, didn't have to resign her Government office in order to have a baby. [...]
Thu 25th
15:45
Ed Davey calls for Team GB to boycott the Chinese Winter Olympics over the genocide of the Uighurs
Ed Davey asked the Prime Minister this question yesterday. Boris Johnson said he was appalled by the abuse of the Uighurs, but was not in favour of sporting boycotts. What do our readers think?
The Lib Dems lost a much loved friend, mentor, agent and campaigner yesterday. Derek Barrie gave six decades of service to this party and the Liberals before it. What he didn't know about campaigning simply wasn't worth knowing. As recently as the 2019 election, the advice that he gave was a valuable part of Wendy Chamberlain's election as MP for North East Fife. He had become increasingly frail in recent years, but he died quite suddenly having been admitted to hospital last weekend. He was a brilliant friend to me and we worked so well together back in the early ...
A party press release brings the news: The Liberal Democrats are calling for the ban on asylum seekers working to be lifted, as new Home Office figures reveal that 46,796 people have been waiting more than six months for a decision on their claim. The latest Immigration Statistics, published this morning, show a backlog of 64,895 people with pending asylum claims at the end of 2020, an increase of 27% since 2019. 46,796 have been waiting more than six months for an initial decision from the Home Office, a 60% increase. Currently, asylum seekers are banned from working while they ...
So, clarity at last about the assessment of GCSEs, A Levels and vocational qualifications in England this summer. You would have thought that, after the algorithm chaos last summer, consultations about 2021 grading would have begun as soon as we went into the second lockdown at the end of October. By that point it would have been clear that students working towards GCSEs and A Levels in 2021 were going to be seriously affected by the disruptions spread over two school years. In fact, that is exactly what did happen in Wales, where Lib Dem Education Minister, Kirsty Williams, announced ...
Though V S Pritchett is widely acknowledged to be the doyen of short story writing, as a literary genre in Britain it is particularly favoured by women. It is something of a surprise, therefore, that only two stories included in this extensive collection of short stories from Azerbaijan (published in the UK by Hertfordshire Press) [...]
Wed, 12:56: RT @mrjamesob: More sparkling analysis from @rafaelbehr, including the observation that, for a succession of Tory leaders, reaping the (obv... Wed, 16:05: Just caught up with this excellent piece! https://t.co/wdYmnvSaC4 Wed, 16:48: Western Belgian megaliths! I did a tour of menhirs and dolmens south and west of Brussels on Monday. Here starts my definitive and official ranking of them, from least to most impressive. I'm breaking this up into several installments over the next few days. 1/14 Wed, 17:11: How the Disinformation Supply Chain Created a Deceptive Narrative about the Texas Blackout https://t.co/9iwEkPbPjS Interesting fake news analysis. Wed, ...
The consequences of the Grenfell fire tragedy continue to reverbaerate through public life with an estimated that 274,000 flats fitted with dangerous cladding, according to the Association of Residential Managing Agents, affecting more than 650,000 people. That figure is likely to reach into the millions when those living in lower-rise structures where problems have also emerged are taken into account. Despite that the UK Government's response is lukewarm at best, leaving many leaseholders out on a limb with no way of meeting the extra costs associated with making their home safe. The Guardian reports that a plan to protect leaseholders ...
I have making it clear that Liverpool Lib Dems will vote to abolish the position of Elected Mayor despite a revulsion about the way that Labour is behaving on the issue. Since its introduction in 2012 we have raised in ... Continue reading →
i) births and deaths 25 February 1997: death of Arthur Hewlett, who played rebel scientist Kalmar in State of Decay (Fourth Doctor, 1980) and doomed passenger Kimber in Terror of the Vervoids (Sixth Doctor, 1986). broadcast anniversaries 25 February 1967: broadcast of third episode of The Moonbase. The Cybermen take over the base, but Polly works out a way of killing them with nail varnish remover. 25 February 1978: broadcast of fourth episode of The Invasion of Time. Leela and the Shobogans combine with the Doctor to destroy the Vardans; but the Sontarans have landed.
On Monday 8th March, the Gate Church Carbon Saving Project and the University of Dundee - on International Women's Day - are presenting a free online discussion, where an inspiring variety of guest speakers will discuss their roles and experience and why they think women can be a major part of solving the climate and ecological crises. This event is being run as part of the Dundee Women's Festival and you can find out more here.
