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 ...
As you will know if you follow me on social media, I did a grand tour of the menhirs and dolmens of western Belgium on Monday, accompanied by J, my partner in crime. Here they are in the order that we visited them, with maps and a couple more pictures as well. 1) The first place we stopped was the museum in Velzeke, which reportedly had had a broken menhir in the grounds in 1993. The museum was closed and there was no trace of the menhir. My cousin Michael, who lives nearby, recommends the museum for a future visit. ...
I am not aware of any scheduled meetings at Blyth Town Council in March Keep an eye on the website if anything is arranged www.blythtowncouncil.org.uk
I recently published some thoughts on the economics of the pandemic. This wasn't one of my more coherent offerings, but somehow I needed to break the ice. I wrote about the short-term question of government stimulus. I made a throwaway remark about the pandemic throwing up deeper issues as well. I want to open the ... Continue reading Rethinking economics – what we should learn from the pandemic but probably won't
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. The big event of May 2010 was the British general election, which brought an end to 13 years of Labour government ...
Fri, 16:26: 7461 Belgians got their first vaccination yesterday, including U and her sister B. https://t.co/gZPYBKuvt2 Fri, 18:14: Friday reading https://t.co/shqkWFsyZi Sat, 09:30: Whoniversaries 27 February https://t.co/yp5RPHgsIy Sat, 10:06: RT @pmdfoster: Yes. It's not just the ERG that has no interest in confronting the output of fact-free politics. It's a whole-Westminster sh... Sat, 10:21: RT @AntonyShepherd: @pmdfoster @nwbrux The posh boys look down their noses at "trade" as being beneath them. Sat, 10:45: For what it's worth, that is my assessment too. Certainly failed to make much impact in the Brussels commentariat. A man whose time has passed, in part ...
It is never pleasant hearing home truths, and no doubt the views of Sylvie Bermann, France's former ambassador to the UK will attract controversy, but if we don't heed the words of these outside observers, we will never learn. The Times has an interview with Bermann in which she puts across her views forcibly and without the usual diplomatic filter: Despite her close contacts with the British intellectual and artistic world as well as the politicians, the Brexit vote came as a shock. "No one saw it coming, including the Brexiteers who always told me, 'It's never going to happen. ...
Liverpool's Liberal Democrats have tabled a requisition calling a special meeting of the Council on March 3rd to discuss, for the 6th time whether or not to abolish the Elected Mayoral system in Liverpool. Lb Dem Leader Cllr Richard Kemp ... Continue reading →
i) births and deaths 27 February 1946: birth of Tom Chadbon, who played Duggan in City of Death (1979) and Merdeen in The Mysterious Planet (1986), and also various Big Finish roles including Harry Sullivan's younger brother Will in the second Sarah Jane Smith series. 27 February 1976: birth of Nikki Amuka-Bird, who played Keryehla Janees, aka Beth Halloran, one of the Sleepers in the 2008 Torchwood episode Sleeper, and Helen Clay / the Glass Woman in Twice Upon a Time (Twelfth Doctor with First Doctor, 2017). ii) broadcast anniversaries 27 February 1965: broadcast of "Escape to Danger", third episode ...
[IMG: Mike Tuffrey campaigning in Putney] With the biggest set of local and national elections across the UK coming up on 6th May, the UK Government has finally issued guidance which will enable activists in England to deliver leaflets and canvass, subject to some restrictions, from a week on Monday, 8th March. From 8 March, therefore, people who are campaigning in support of the electoral success (or against the electoral success) of candidates or political parties, or relating to a referendum outcome, will be allowed to deliver leaflets and canvass electors in relation to the elections and local referendums taking ...
The three Tayside local authorities, including Dundee City Council, have worked together to help establish safe, anonymous online support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Called Togetherall, it is for young people aged 16 to 24 across Tayside and is a supportive virtual community. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people will suffer with mental health problems at some point in their lives. Talking about mental health, or just feeling overwhelmed by everyday worries and concerns, can be difficult, especially for young people. Trained professionals are available 24/7 through Togetherall, which offers a choice of safe therapeutic ...
Sally Dawson pays tribute to Maureen Colquhoun, Britain's first openly lesbian MP, who died earlier this month. She sat for Northampton North between February 1974 and 1979.The coming Holyrood elections should be about the life draining from Scotland's hills and glens and the need for rewilding, argues Adam Ramsay. "Politically speaking, Popper had lived through much. He had seen the dissolution of the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He was part of the subsequent intellectual revolution that, among other things, produced the Vienna Circle, of which he was a peripheral part. He witnessed first-hand the rise of the Nazis and, with equal ...
Sat 27th
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Creeting St Peter - some thoughts from outside of the Parish Council box on Gateway 14
As the Chair of the Parish Council, my brief has been to stick very much to the Gateway 14 planning application itself, attempting to focus on what is in it, how it might best be altered, what is wrong with it, rather than the actual concept. With that in mind, I encouraged the formation of a separate Campaign Group which could roam more freely without the limits that a Parish Council might feel to stay within, and they have really taken the ball and run with it, with a Twitter account and enthusiastic use of other social media. But it's ...
