The Leicester Mercury wins our Headline of the Day Award with this magnificent effort. It would, the judges remarked, have been the headline of any day.
The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald reports on the Lib Dem selection for the new Police and Crime Commissioner election coming up in Wiltshire and Swindon: Wiltshire and Swindon Liberal Democrats have switched their candidate for the re-run of the Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner election in August. They have today announced that Wiltshire councillor Dr Brian Mathew will replace their previous candidate Liz Webster who is not seeking the nomination for personal and family reasons. The re-run was called after the Conservative Party disbarred their candidate Jonathon Seed for the poll on May 6, saying that a 30-year-old ...
Responding to Priti Patel's speech this morning on immigration, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "No amount of tough talk and bluster from the Home Secretary can hide the fact that she has utterly failed to get a grip on the UK's broken immigration system. Years of Home Office failure, coupled with hostile policies and rhetoric from successive Conservative Home Secretaries, have shattered public confidence. "Instead of fixing the broken system, Priti Patel is pressing ahead with damaging plans that will create more chaos and make it harder for British employers to recruit the workers they need. "She ...
On last week's Question Time on the BBC, there was an exchange between Michelle Dewberry, former Apprentice winner and Brexit party political candidate, and shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy. It is probably the most clear cut example I've ever witnessed of where continuity Remain went wrong somewhere around early 2018. Dewberry starts in on Nandy, chastising Labour for having fielded an openly Remain-flavoured candidate in the Hartlepool by-election. She then moved seamlessly into critiquing Labour as being "more concerned with identity politics than they do about representing what used to be their base, the traditional working class". A little later ...
Beautiful Merovingian metalwork from a very nice exhibition, "The World of Clovis", in the Royal Museum at Mariemont, of which I was previously unaware. There's lots of other lovely material there, but it was the metalwork that really caught my eye - here are two fibluæ, a reliquary and some rings and things. These last are from a grave known as The Lady of Grez-Doiceau, which is just down the road from us here. Here's a teaser for the whole exhibition. (In French, sorry.) I went with two work colleagues, one of whom decided to order a five-cheese pizza for ...
The criminal hijacking of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, with a Belarussian anti-government activist on board has led to calls from across Europe and beyond for firm action to be taken against the Belarus Government led by Alexander Lukashenko, whose agents advised the flight crew that there was a bomb onboard, and then seized Protasevich and his partner, Sofia Sapega, whilst the plane was on the ground in Minsk. Layla Moran was quick to call upon Dominic Raab to respond; Today we've seen the lengths Lukashenko will go to in order to undermine fundamental freedoms and crack down ...
At our 2020 Autumn Federal Conference members voted to commit the party to campaign for a universal basic income and called on the Federal Policy Committee to work on the details of the implementation. For the past three months a working group, including members from England, Scotland and Wales, has heard from external experts and campaigners on how a UBI could be implemented and paid for in a socially just and equitable manner. In our discussions the working group has tried to discern what members may have had in mind in voting for UBI as a broad policy whilst balancing ...
The clear line dissects A horizon drawing the view Everything else Left to others to construe And here are old favourites With anecdotal charm The chance meeting in quiet rooms Shapes of another time, another place Of older artscapes we have Wandered in Lyme Bay & Exmouth All along the coast Each footstep piled Like stepping-stones These landscapes we fossil For memory bones A washing line of memories Pinned up, black & white Reminding me of another day Stitching it all together While we unpick meaning Letting our lives fall Moments windblown Petals on a lawn Old walls and footsteps ...
For me personally, a huge advantage of living in the UK is the fact that I've had so many opportunities to meet so amazing (and inspiring) people, who migrated to Britain from all corners of the world. Many of them I call friends. Due to the pandemic, I feel that we often miss some important stories. This week, my eye caught a report about the Home Office's appalling failure to protect and support the victims of the Windrush scandal. I wonder whether statistics (see below) show the inefficiency of the Home Office or whether they clearly demonstrate an implementation of ...
Mon 24th
09:25
Interested in attending the Congress of European Liberals in two weeks time? Then read on...
The 41st ALDE Party Congress, will take place from 11-12 June 2021 online. Preliminary information about the programme, political deadlines, venues and logistics is available on the ALDE Party website. The UK Liberal Democrats are currently the second largest voting bloc in the ALDE Party. The Congress is the largest event of the year for ALDE and it is a policy-making event, with policy motions submitted by member parties for debate and voted on during the Congress. The ALDE Party Congress is the biggest annual event gathering Liberals across Europe with; Over 650 members of Liberal parties from around the ...
For those of us who had started to doubt our memory when UK Tory Ministers denied that the government had ever had a herd immunity approach to containing Covid, it is good to see that at least one prominent government advisor shares our view that those Ministers were misleading us, even if that advisor is Dominic Cummings. The Guardian reports Cummings reiterated his argument that herd immunity was the UK government's initial plan to respond to coronavirus, saying public documents back up his claims despite ministers' dismissals: In a likely curtain-raiser to a much-anticipated appearance next week before a Commons ...
i) births and deaths 24 May 1944: birth of Fiona Walker, who played Kala in The Keys of Marinus (First Doctor, 1964) and Lady Peinforte in Silver Nemesis (Seventh Doctor, 1988). 24 May 1945: birth of Graham Williams, producer of the 15th to 17th seasons of Doctor Who (the fourth to sixth Fourth Doctor seasons, from Horror of Fang Rock to Shada); also co-author of The Invasion of Time and City of Death, and author of the unbroadcast story The Nightmare Fair which brought back the Celestial Toymaker (and was released in audio format by Big Finish in 2009). 24 ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 24 MAY 2021 BT Cable Renewal Programme - rolling off peak temporary traffic lights at various locations for 2 weeks - streets affected in order are: Strathmore Avenue (at Hospital Street); Loons Road (at Gardner Street); Logie Street (at Ancrum Road); Glamis Road (at Ancrum Road); City Road (at Pentland Avenue); Charleston Drive (at Yarrow Terrace); Glamis Road (at Elmwood Road); Blackness Road (at Seymour Street) and Perth Road (at Pennycook Lane). Perth Road (at Riverside Drive) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 17 ...
