Nevil Shute's 1948 novel No Highway starts with three stanzas from John Masefield, who died this day 1967. Therefore, go forth, companion: when you find No Highway more, no track, all being blind, The way to go shall glimmer in the mind. Though you have conquered Earth and charted Sea And planned the courses of all Stars that be, Adventure on, more wonders are in Thee, Adventure on, for from the littlest clue Has come whatever worth man ever knew; The next to lighten all men may be you . . . The acknowledgments say they are from The Wanderer. ...
The "Whig view of history" was that, on the whole, by and large, in the main, and little by little, our country gradually became more tolerant, more civilised, more free, and more democratic. Surely there were fits and starts, and a few stops along the way, but the inexorable movement was for things to get better for everyone. We can see this pattern very clearly in the development of our democracy. The happy story took the following path. The "Great Reform Bill" of 1832 sorted out the "rotten boroughs " which had few, and in some case no, population, but ...
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 adventure of May 2011 - ten years ago this month! - was the triple vote in Northern Ireland, for ...
The unquestionably disappointing results of last week's Scottish parliamentary election have got a lot of Lib Dems talking. There is a general acceptance that the party has fundamental problems, that we're facing real challenges outside of a few constituencies and that we are experiencing an existential crisis. That's not to say some of us aren't finding some positives from the campaign, especially as far as local campaigning and more positive messaging is concerned, but overall it's fair to say that the mood isn't particularly positive. Yesterday, Kit Fraser, the convenor of East Lothian Liberal Democrats, went a little further than ...
The other day my good lady wife started to tell me a story about how she went to see a huge dead whale which was being displayed in Ormskirk. At first, she thought it must have been in the 1960s but it seems it was actually in the 1970s. A little Googling later she found this on the BBC website from 2016:- www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35891577 Her search continued and bingo she found the very evidence she was looking for on the Ormskirk Bygone Times Facebook page, with photos too. Whale comes to Ormskirk – Photographer known Hard to imagine such a touring ...
In today's Guardian Marina Hyde has unearthed this quote from Boris Johnson in 2004: If I am ever asked on the streets of London, or in any other venue, public or private, to produce my ID card as evidence that I am who I say I am, when I have done nothing wrong and am simply ambling along and breathing God's fresh air like any other freeborn Englishman, then I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded I produce it. I am reminded of ...
Seventeen months ago, in a set of internal party elections whose outcome was not entirely unexpected, I lost my place on the Federal International Relations Committee (FIRC) and failed to be elected back onto the ALDE Party Council delegation, the latter despite a second bite of the cherry granted to me by the party's (relative) success in the December 2019 General Election. I wasn't that far from success in either contest but, if you haven't won, you've lost. And, in fairness, looking at who had won, and indeed at some of those who had lost, I couldn't in all fairness ...
Ed Davey condemned many of the measures outlined in the Queen's Speech yesterday, particularly the measures to make it harder for people to seek asylum in the UK – "sickeningly cruel" he called it. He slammed the Government for failing to bring forward proposals on social care again. He also described the voter suppression measures as being straight out of the Donald Trump playbook "the actions of despots." He did not hold back. Enjoy. .@EdwardJDavey on fire here. [IMG: 🔥] pic.twitter.com/abHQZ3Sqvf — The Churchill Project (@WinstonCProject) May 11, 2021 The Queen's Speech comes at a time like no other—after a ...
Why didn't the Conservatives appear to take that much of an electoral hit last week from the run of recent sleaze stories? Polling analysis newly released by YouGov gives some strong clues.
Tue, 12:56: RT @Mij_Europe: Disgraceful, opportunistic @MichelBarnier interview this AM All of the principles he defended & spoke for during the Bre... Tue, 16:05: 'She Was Fuming': How Keir Starmer And Angela Rayner Stepped Back From The Brink https://t.co/LHUezvHeuP "No deputy leader ever has become leader of the Labour Party" - actually, Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Michael Foot all went directly from Deputy Leader to Leader. Tue, 17:11: Let the money talk! https://t.co/DYmPNS2BlU @MalmstromEU on democracy in Europe. Tue, 18:47: 420 days of plague https://t.co/yosMmdXQL0 Wed, 09:27: RT @StarTigerJLN: @TurukanotheWise https://t.co/JOLEVOmxea. Wed, 09:30: Whoniversaries 12 May https://t.co/5qhCcF4WI1 Wed, 10:29: ...
Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform say: The Government is pressing ahead with proposed changes to the way we elect mayors and police and crime commissioners, first announced by Priti Patel back in March. But our friends at Make Votes Matter see this proposal for what it truly is: a backward step for democracy. They have launched a petition telling the Government that we need LESS First Past the Post, not MORE! If you agree, please sign and share the petition here.
As reported by the magazine Private Eye, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been taken to court over a debt.
Well, I suppose nobody really expected the Prime Minister to deliver on his election promises, but the latest one missing in action is actually quite important and was a key part of the reassurances behind Boris Johnson's Brexit deal. The Guardian reports that Boris Johnson has been accused of backtracking on a promise to boost workers' rights after leaving out landmark reforms to zero-hours contracts and the gig economy from the Queen's speech: Employers' groups and trade unions said the prime minister risked "levelling down on jobs" after the setpiece event used to open parliament did not include proposals for ...
One of the joys of the opening up of "non essential retail" is the opportunity to browse in bookshops, not least with respect to stuff that barely got a mention in mainstream reviews (although this got a paragraph by Melvyn Bragg in the Observer). I wasn't aware of it until last week. The singer/songwriter Billy Bragg is not every Liberal Democrat's cup of tea but he is worth taking seriously for a number of reasons. We are woefully short on political songwriting and he can do that better that most in our day, even if like most of us he ...
The Queen's Speech includes plans to reform the Official Secrets Acts. The last of these was passed in 1989, before the dawn of the internet; the first in 1911 – most of the carrier pigeons that served in the First World War had not even been born. The acts are antiquated and the Counter-State Threats Bill is intended to drag the way we tackle hostile activity from states and new types of actor kicking and screaming into the 21st century. There will be plenty in this bill to keep Liberal Democrats busy in the coming months, not least what Number ...
i) births and deaths 12 May 1968: birth of Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble in New Who from 2006 to 2010. 12 May 2001: death of Norman Kay, who composed the incidental music for An Unearthly Child (1963), The Keys of Marinus (1964) and The Sensorites (1964). ii) broadcast anniversaries 12 May 1973: broadcast of sixth episode of Planet of the Daleks. The Doctor, Jo and the Thals trap the Daleks in the ice volcano. 12 May 1996: first broadcast of Doctor Who: The Movie on a local cable channel in Edmonton, Canada. Canonical release date is 14 May ...
Dundee City Council currently has on loan a demonstration model of a new pothole repair system "JCB Road Mender" and yesterday, along with some council colleagues I attended a demo of the system in action, repairing potholes in Newhall Gardens. I was very impressed with both the speed and quality of repair - the quality can be seen in the second photo below. There's obviously a significant cost in purchasing new plant like this but the quality of repair is very good indeed and certainly worthy of consideration within the council's capital programme.
