Embed from Getty ImagesA reader tweets me and the Guardian wins our Headline of the Day Award. Of course, it could have been an unexploded WW2 bomb and a sex toy: Lord Bonkers is uncharacteristically reticent about the part he played in defeating Hitler, but I seem to recall some stories along these lines one evening when the Auld Johnston (the most prized of Highland malts) came out.
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. I had three really nice trips in March 2011: to Geneva for one of my regular lecturing gigs at the start ...
We are in the middle of Lesbian Visibility Week, and to celebrate it Pink News has produced a list of "19 incredible lesbians who're loud, proud and making the world a better place". And alongside the likes of Billie-Jean King, Mhairi Black, and Mary Trump we can find our own Lib Dem peer Liz Barker. The citation is: Baroness Elizabeth Barker. Lesbian peer and Albert Kennedy Trust ambassador who recently spoke out in the UK's House of Lords in defence of an inclusive maternity bill. Liz is our LGBT spokesperosn in the Lords and Spokesperson for the Voluntary Sector. According ...
Responding to reports that the UK has imposed cuts in aid to the UNFPA family planning programme in the world's poorest nations, Layla Moran MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development, commented: "The Foreign Secretary's attempts to hide the detail of these shameful cuts tell us everything we need to know. Millions of women and girls around the world will suffer as a result of this shocking decision. Britain is abandoning them. "The Conservative Government's decision to break its promise to women and girls around the world, let alone the electorate, is short-sighted and wrong. The Liberal ...
Responding to latest figures which show that self-harm by female prisoners reached a record high in 2020, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesperson Wera Hobhouse MP said:"Our prisons are in crisis. The amount of self-harm, especially in women's prisons, is shockingly high and rising. "Far too many women are sent to prison on short sentences for non-violent offences. In many cases these women have been victims of abuse and have suffered trauma which has led them into a life of disadvantage and low level crime, but many also have caring responsibilities. "Being in prison will set off the next round of trauma ...
Responding to the Government's statement today on Covid ID cards, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael said: "Covid ID cards are intrusive and divisive. They are not an effective way to reopen our economy or keep people safe. They would turn our country into a two-tier society, with many denied their most basic freedoms. Ministers must provide clarity on their use, especially for the pubs and restaurants on the brink that don't want them. "It is extremely worrying that the Government is still forging ahead with plans for Covid ID cards for international travel without any scrutiny. This is the thin ...
Thu 29th
16:27
White supremacy, and silencing your opposition: why are the Tories embracing fascist ideas?
On Wednesday an opposition political banner was taken down in Stanway, Essex, on the orders of Kevin Bentley, the Conservative deputy leader of Essex County Council. Kevin says he "reported" it but didn't specifically "order" for them to be taken down - in the same way that your boss might tell you about a problem but not specifically demand you fix it. This silencing of opposition is.. well, fascist in nature.Don't squirm - that's the word for it.It's also not the only instance - the Scottish Conservatives also slipped "14 words" into a Tweet about IndyRef, a famous dog-whistle designed ...
We all know about the love Liberal Democrats have of delivering leaflets. So our dream professor of politics would be one who specialises in studying leaflets. Which is why I'm delighted to say that is just who I was speaking to for the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, Professor Caitlin Milazzo of Nottingham University. We talked about how political leaflets are changing, the impact they have, how political campaigning isn't getting more negative and the evidence that female candidates are more likely than male candidates to make an important mistake with their election literature. Listen on to ...
Thu 29th
11:55
Shropshire Council rules out free park and ride buses in Ludlow to help the town recover because it ...
I ought to be used it by now. But somehow when Shropshire Council says yet again that Ludlow can't have funding because it is not Shrewsbury, it is still gut wrenching. This morning we received Shropshire Council's explanation of why Ludlow's park and ride services can't be free for a couple of weeks, paid for by the council, as they are currently in Shrewsbury. The miserable excuses from the council are that things are different in Shrewsbury. They are only different because the council has chosen to make the different. To give more to Shrewsbury while staring Ludlow of resources. ...
Gold-plated rattanto paper over old lies; bodies unburied.
Wed, 12:08: RT @Petrit: Nick Whyte went all forensic on the latest non-paper and found out the author was .... - Estonian! https://t.co/Tkn4K0gHRN Wed, 12:24: RT @bancroftian: Non-papers and the definite/indefinite article, by @nwbrux. https://t.co/ZiWYlU0dLK Wed, 13:02: Very wise on DUP situation from @stephenkb: https://t.co/VwcaLeItvG Wed, 13:08: RT @christinebelled: Yes mostly: did not help that Brexit came on top of a lot of other Foster leadership failures: RHI scandal; lack of pr... Wed, 18:10: Muse: Coraline and Celia, by Terry Dodson & Denis-Pierre Filippi https://t.co/Bgp8iwiFtD Wed, 18:27: RT @AstroMCollins: Family Statement on Passing of Astronaut Michael Collins https://t.co/6OAw7CzFaz Wed, 18:27: ...
I am sorry that the person who has led the most serious criticisms of Boris' government has had to self-isolate, i.e. Sir Ed Davey. He was right to suggest that we Lib-Dems are the real opposition. The leader of the Labour Party does not appear to be strong enough for the battles that are needed and is making a mistake if he thinks he can win public support only on the basis of sleaze. Most importantly the handling of the pandemic is key to understanding the mistaken way this government operates under Boris. What follows is a letter I had ...
broadcast anniversaries 29 April 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of The Faceless Ones. Jamie gets on a Chameleon plane, which is duly captured by the aliens 29 April 1972: broadcast of fourth episode of The Mutants. The Marshal plans to bombard Solos with ionising rockets; Varan and his men prevent him but the Skybase is damaged. 29 April 2006: broadcast of School Reunion. The Tenth Doctor unexpectedly meets Sarah Jane Smith, thirty years on. (Sob!) 29 April 2017: broadcast of Thin Ice. The Doctor accidentally lands himself and Bill in the past, at the final frost fair in 1814. However, ...
Residents will recall that, some time ago, I highlighted a site visit I had undertaken to two then void council properties in the Logie area to view the trial at internal insulation the council had undertaken to ensure the council properties in Logie have better insulation and all properties meet the Energy Efficiency in Social Housing Standard (EESSH) target. As the tenants are aware, as the oldest council estate in Scotland and its Conservation status, external insulation is not possible and an internal solution is the way of ensuring warm homes into the future. The work in the trial properties ...
| This is not the Downing Street flat refurbishment that has allegedly cost £88,000 but it is an example of work by the same designer and there is a good chance that it is a fair approximation of the final design. It is hideous, a good argument to restore the John Lewis furniture that Boris Johnson and his fiance ditched. But of course what the flat looks like is not the issue, it is how it was paid for and whether any rules have been broken in its commissioning. It seems likely that they were, or at least that the ...
The former Liberal MP Michael Meadowcroft has written an obituary of Jonathan Fryer for the Guardian: Jonathan Fryer, who has died aged 70 of a brain tumour, was a foreign correspondent and writer whose broadcasts from a total of 162 countries made his a familiar voice on BBC Radio. He also wrote about history and lectured on international politics, and spent more than half a century as a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat activist and candidate. But the obituary is more than a list of achievements: Jonathan was adopted at the age of 18 months by Rosemary and Harold Fryer. ...
