All of which brings me to what this book is actually about. Namely, a blow by blow summary of all the ways the system is working ineffectively.
There is a virtual event to launch the White Cliffs Community Rail Partnership next Thursday, 20th May, at 2pm. The partnership covers the nine stations between Westenhanger and Sandwich (including Folkestone West and Folkestone Central), and you can hear their exciting future plans and ideas. The event is open to all with an interest in trains, railways, tourism, sustainable travel or has ideas how stations can play a bigger role in our community. Join the MS Teams event by copying and pasting this address to your browser dover.gov.uk/whitecliffscrp . You will then be asked to either launch the MS Teams ...
Current The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant City of Blades, by Robert Jackson Bennett All the Fabulous Beasts, by Priya Sharma Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens: Exploring the Worlds of the Eleventh Doctor, by Frank Collins Last books finished Schindler's List, by Thomas Keneally Cloud on Silver by John Christopher DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party, by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles Next books Wonder Woman: The Golden Age, Vol. 2 by William Moulton Marston The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women, ed. Alex Dally MacFarlane
Oh boy, there is a never dull day in British politics! It is very true that a week in politics can be actually quite long and eventful. The dust hasn't settled yet and so much has already happened since last week's elections. It was incredibly interesting to see how people across the country voted last week and how the election result might impact the future of the UK. I am not a famous political strategist, however it is true that the political landscape in the UK is changing, that's for sure. The "Red Wall" collapsed. The by-elections in Hartlepool showed ...
Since Brexit happened, a lot of energy that was focused on halting our exit from the European Union has gone into a new project which can be defined as the "progressive alliance". The idea is that Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens (and in some iterations, the SNP) make a pact for each party to stand down in an array of seats at the next general election, paving the way for whomever got the best result there in 2019. This would then eliminate the problem of "progressive" votes cancelling each other out and the Tories being able to come ...
It would be hard to further embarrass former Tory Prime Minister David Cameron after the publicity given to his grilling by parliamentary committees yesterday, but this quotation, from "Britain Alone " by Philip Stephens, made me smile. Quoting an unnamed official on what Cameron thinks about the world the response is: In [Cameron's ]mind "the world is somewhere where you take your holidays." (p340) Most of the following "information" is taken from an article by Peter Geoghegan in the "London Review of Books" 6th May 2021. It was in a speech made in February 2010 (just before he became Prime ...
Lib Dem president Mark Pack has been writing on his blog about the outcome of the 6 May elections. "We've had a huge set of elections in difficult circumstances. It was a massive combined effort of volunteers and staff, candidates and agents, helpers and donors, to get several hundred Liberal Democrats elected. Thank you to everyone who played their part in an impressive team effort... "The May elections showed it was a good time to be an incumbent government in all three nations, especially thanks to the enhanced profile each government has had from its regular coronavirus press conferences. Add ...
Thu, 21:28: The 14th Mons International Political Posters Triennale; and flints. https://t.co/A2vQj5idLy Thu, 23:05: Injustice brewing here, as the lovely fast-paced Smith and Jones, introducing Martha and the Judoon, is losing to yawnfest Ambassadors of Death, at least three episodes too long and director seems obsessed with showing us Ronald Allen as Cornish. (Both have good music.) https://t.co/kjCk7c7ib2 Fri, 09:30: Whoniversaries 14 May https://t.co/1LONMyvKJu Fri, 09:30: Whoniversaries 14 May https://t.co/ugbEitJ0tY Fri, 10:45: RT @EscapeTraken: 10 years since 'The Doctor's Wife' first aired. 14/05/2011. #DoctorWho https://t.co/chapKIKKaG
I particularly pick up on this speech because, as a bureaucrat, I understand that having rules that work, that can be applied and are transparent as to their intent, is important. This is what Ros said yesterday... The Bills contained in this programme will no doubt receive the thorough and robust scrutiny of this House, but as we pass them we will no doubt be delegating dozens of new powers to government and government Ministers, because the volume of secondary legislation has grown enormously in recent decades. The process of EU exit and Covid-related emergency law has added to that. ...
I first met Trevor Smith fifty years ago when I arrived at the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust – now the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust – in 1970. I was Pratap Chitnis' assistant and Trevor ran the Acton Society Trust which was, in effect the Trust's research arm. We were in touch sporadically thereafter, meeting for the last time at Geoff Tordoff's funeral in June 2019. Trevor joined the Liberal Society at the London School of Economics in 1955 when the party was almost at its lowest ebb. He fought the 1959 general election in Lewisham West – at 22 ...
New polling from the Mile End Institute, as reported on by Phil Cowley: The public's spending priorities, post-pandemic. More, almost everywhere – except for international aid (obvs). pic.twitter.com/1x2uzfMueZ — Philip Cowley (@philipjcowley) May 14, 2021
The more I read about the so-called 'hostile environment' being imposed by this conservative government, the more disturbed and uncomfortable I become. I do not want to be associated with these policies, which are more akin to a police state than the democratic country I grew up in. In its latest incarnation the 'hostile environment' is now targeting European citizens arriving in the UK for job interviews and other legitimate business reasons. The Guardian reports that Europeans with job interviews are among those being denied entry and locked up, in some cases they are being sent to immigration removal centres ...
Now that the May elections are over, here are the good housekeeping tasks which wrap up the contest properly and help get the next campaign off to a good start: Get the election expense returns in on time. Even if you did nothing in a campaign beyond nominating a candidate, the paperwork still needs completing and returning. Recycle leftover leaflets and securely dispose of any leftover personally addressed literature. Top-tip: have at least two of you do this and take photos before doing so as there are rules about excluding undelivered literature from election expenses. It's therefore a good idea ...
A friend of mine recently mentioned an issue with regard to an area of woodland to the west of the River Alt within Sefton Borough in the Civil Parish of Sefton. The issue is about a carved wooden owl which had, I think, been provided/erected as a piece of public artwork (on a concrete base) probably when the woodland was laid out/created around 2002. The owl has keeled over or even been pulled over as this photo illustrates:- The area concerened is the green shaded one with the location of the carved owl where the red circle is drawn. My ...
i) births and deaths 14 May 1925: birth of Ysanne Churchman, the voice of Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon (Third Doctor, 1972) and The Monster of Peladon (Third Doctor, 1974), a Spider in Planet of the Spiders (Third Doctor, 1974), and returned at the age of 92 to reprise Alpha Centauri in The Empress of Mars (Twelfth Doctor, 2017), which must make her the oldest person to have been creatively involved with the show in any medium also 14 May 1925: birth of Tristram Cary, who wrote incidental music for six First Doctor stories and two later ones. ...
Fri 14th
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It was a bloke's world in the Super Thursday elections - why do so few women stand for public office...
With thanks to the Fawcett Society and the Democracy Club, we can analyse the gender of the more than 21,000 candidates that stood last Thursday. Just one third were women (33%). Of the major parties, the Greens had the highest proportion of women at 43%, followed by Labour (41%), the Lib Dems (31%) and the Conservatives (27%). This article sets out the data and asks why relative few women are standing for elections. It does not provide any answers. My first thought was bias against women in the selection process. That may well exist. But of the 1,285 candidates whose ...
Residents have highlighted with me the fact that the railings at the walkway and steps over the rail line at Riverside Drive, just south of Newhall Gardens/the Botanic Garden, are badly in need of repainting. I have raised this with the City Council asking that necessary liaison takes place with Network Rail to get this attended to.
There's a new garden dedicated to the NHS at the Old Hospital Green, Andover Road in Newbury. Newbury Town Council's Council's Green Spaces Working Group led a team of volunteers in planting plants, herbs, and shrubs which are widely known for their medicinal qualities. The scheme was designed by local resident and garden designer, Fran Lawton who said, "The idea of a medicinal garden on the site of the old hospital was a very natural decision. To keep up with this theme the layout of the garden was inspired by antibodies. The inherent shape of the antibodies allows the immune ...
