Those nice people from Trekking & Towpaths have returned to the old Market Harborough to Northampton line to explore the railway tunnels at Great Oxendon. They have already covered the tunnels at Kelmarsh, which lie three miles to the south. Like Kelmarsh, Oxendon has two parallel single-line tunnels. The up tunnel carries the Brampton Valley Way, but Trekking & Towpaths first explore the abandon down bore. There are some striking mineral colours on the walls and the accompanying music is suitably dramatic. Incidentally, the line from Market Harborough to Great Oxendon climbed a steep gradient - you could hear the ...
Liberals are in the news every week - here we try to highlight the... well, the highlights. This week: The BudgetEnding Conversion 'Therapy'Federal UK
In his speech to Scottish Spring Conference, Willie Rennie reached out to disillusioned SNP voters who may be upset by the division in their party and the SNP Government's failures in so many areas. He set out what I reckon is the Scottish Liberal Democrats most bold and radical offer for 22 years. It really has that vibe of reform about it. Free human rights based social care, a job for every teacher on the register if they want it, a housing first approach to homelessness, economic regeneration are all part of the package to put recovery first. He also ...
Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1989, and three others: Best Actress (Jessica Tandy as Miss Daisy, at 81 the oldest ever winner), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It lost in five categories, all to different films; that year's Hugo winner, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, won one (Best Screen Editing) and lost two. That year's other Best Picture nominees were Dead Poets Society, which I have seen, and Born on the Fourth of July, Field of Dreams and My Left Foot, which I haven't. IMDB users rank Driving Miss Daisy 16th on one ...
Considering here just everyone living in Britain, all of whom Liberal Democrats value, what kind of equality should we seek for them? And what matters most for public policy? Equality of treatment in health and social care, I suppose we expect and the nation demands, not just our party. So far there is no disagreement. But equality of educational opportunity for all children and young people? We haven't got that in our country, far from it. For Liberal Democrats to campaign for it when we aren't prepared to reduce the privileges of the private schools perhaps limits our efforts, but ...
Fri, 12:24: A must-read post for anyone interested in the functioning of government in the UK. The government may not have admitted liaibility formally, but the terms of this settlement make it clear that they knew they were going to lose, and lose badly. https://t.co/eX69xHX5eZ Fri, 12:33: RT @pmdfoster: @FinancialTimes @DavidHenigUK @DefraGovUK @beisgovuk @See_Chem_Bus @GreenAllianceUK @SoilAssociation @BreastCancer_UK @CHEMT... Fri, 12:45: RT @cmclymer: Hi, it's me, your neighborhood reasonable adult. I heard Dr. Seuss books were "banned" in a Virginia school district, which s... Fri, 12:56: RT @BritishSave: Eustice wrote to the EU about 'surprise' over shellfish. EU wrote back showing ...
We're a year on from the first COVID death in Britain though that figure has now topped 124,000. The case rate (and death numbers) are mercifully falling in most places and the roll-out of the vaccine in the UK has been truly impressive when compared with the situation in most European countries. However, many people [...]
Here's my latest monthly report back from the party website, a complement to my report to Spring conference: Campaigning steps up... I've just been in touch with one of the Liberal Democrat councillors for the ward up the road from me to line up a Focus delivery round on Monday, 8 March. That's the date from which the latest change in guidelines in England comes in. It gives the go-ahead to a much wider range of leafleting and also to doorstep canvassing. We will all still need to be mindful of keeping our distance, wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and ...
i) births and deaths 6 March 1972: birth of Julian Simpson, director of The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People (Eleventh Doctor, 2011). ii) broadcast anniversaries 6 March 1965: broadcast of "Crater of Needles", fourth episode of the story we now call The Web Planet. Ian and Vrestin meet the Optera; Barbara tries to link with the invading Menoptera but they are massacred by the Zarbi. 6 March 1971: broadcast of sixth episode of The Mind of Evil. The Thunderbolt missile and the Keller machine are both destroyed, but the Master escapes. 6 March 1976: broadcast of sixth episode of ...
Trump supporters continue to sport MAGA hats and shout "Make America Great Again" at rallies. It is a catchy slogan which has captured the conservative American imagination. It is here to stay whether Donald Trump is in or out of the White House. But what does it mean? What makes America great and, perhaps more importantly, what makes it un-great? The answer is complicated by the difficulty of wedding individual perspectives to universal truths. But I think it is important to search for it, so I have asked the opinion of a number of people with whom I have worked ...
I am grateful to the residents who recently highlighted to me that the pillars at Seabraes where the lemmings statues are have unfortunately been vandalised with graffiti.I raised this with the City Council's environment team requesting that the graffiti is removed and pleased to say this was done towards the end of last week.
As if it were not bad enough that a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) last year, had concluded that Covid contracts worth £18 billion to secure essentials such as PPE equipment in the initial months of the pandemic were plagued by "inadequate" documentation, that a number "were awarded retrospectively or had not been published in a timely manner, and that this had "diminished public transparency", we now have accusations that the Prime Minister has misled Parliament on this very subject. The NAO also stated that the lack of adequate documentation meant they could not give assurance that government ...
Sat 6th
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Welsh Liberal Democrat leader pledges to "Put Recovery First" at forthcoming Senedd election
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds will today address her party's Virtual Spring Conference, vowing to "Put Recovery First" by focusing on the economy, people's mental health and the environment as Wales begins to emerge from the current pandemic. Addressing the party's virtual conference, she will say: "At this critical moment in our future anything other than securing our recovery from Covid and the havoc it has reigned on every aspect of our lives would be foolish." Key policy announcements will include: committing to a trial of a Universal Basic Income committing to building 30,000 new affordable homes scrapping unfair ...
