The Tories are revolting. After Thursday's dramatic loss to the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham, MPs are warning Boris Johnson that the proposed planning reforms will lose them seats. Many Conservatives didn't like the proposals before Thursday but I suspect many MPs hadn't paid attention amid the challenges of the pandemic and other excuses. Some in the South East had given voice to their concerns but there has been no open rebellion until now. And now that is mostly on WhatsApp according to the Times. HS2 certainly came home to roost on Thursday. Protected areas in the Chilterns, north ...
Something odd has happened today in that I find myself banned from using some Facebook features for the next 6 months. It seems I can't comment on other members postings neither can I share postings from my own Facebook page or that of Maghull in Bloom News for which I am the admin. I genuinely have no idea what this is all about. If I have offended someone who has felt it appropriate to ask Facebook to bring in this ban I would appreciate some clue as to what I have done to cause offence. Otherwise, I can only presume ...
Small villages like Creeting St Peter tend to rely heavily on a small number of people who are willing to take on key, often unsung roles. That's especially true if the population is younger and thus busier with work, children and all of the other aspects of modern life that reduce the time available to do other things. In our case, there are two organisations which tend to dominate civic life - the Parish Council and the Parochial Church Council. For the latter, there is the perpetual struggle to maintain the fabric of a historic building, i.e. the church itself. ...
On 31 May 1889, a dam collapsed 14 km north of Johnstown, in southwest Pennsylvania, and 2209 people were killed in the consequent flood. It was the worst death toll for a single accident in US history. (More died on 9/11 and at Pearl Harbour, but those were not accidents; and extreme weather and disease have also been more deadly.) The large earthen dam had originally been built by the Pennsylvania state authorities forty years before, to feed the canal system, just in time for the canals to be replaced by rail. It was sold to a group of Pittsburgh ...
Commitment to free trade has been one of the core elements of British liberalism for nearly 200 years. It went along with peace through open borders and shared prosperity, with opposition to aristocratic landowners and cheap food for the working man. There's a picture of John Bright (joint founder with Richard Cobden of the Anti-Corn Law League) in my living room, inherited from my wife's Liberal forebears. The economic liberals who left the Liberal Party in the late 1950s to set up the Institute of Economic Affairs still do believe. For them it's an article of faith as much as ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @feliciaday: Tips on stopping grinding your teeth? I have a mouth guard but I literally...ground through it :/ Fri, 16:05: RT @justinamash: Plot twist in the fourth act... https://t.co/tHzDCxmqzE Fri, 17:11: RT @guybanim: To quote @Tom_deWaal "If you want to understand what's happening in NI, don't bother with the newspapers, just read @nwbrux "... Fri, 18:38: Friday reading https://t.co/6ZUpLcTOHt Sat, 09:30: Whoniversaries 19 June https://t.co/M6T9QhGska Sat, 09:41: RT @tconnellyRTE: NI Protocol: Chilled meats and Frost thawing? https://t.co/faUJu7yWCp Sat, 10:45: 😂🤣😂🤣😠https://t.co/KaGIY6jPKA
Gateshead Council were planning to remove barriers that had been installed in various town centres throughout the borough. It was dependent on the government's announcing of the end of covid restrictions. As this is delayed, implementing the plans are on hold. We now await the government's next announcement about ending restrictions on 19th July.
In May, my brother Andrew lost his short battle against cancer. Yesterday was his funeral at Mountsett Crematorium near Dipton, Durham. We were restricted in the number of mourners able to attend but we ensured he had a great send off. RIP Andrew.
North Korea's Kim Jong-un doesn't often admit problems. How could the hermit kingdom/nuclear-armed rogue state admit failures or even difficulties? Such a thing is an oxymoron as North Koreans, by definition, live in a socialist paradise. So, when the Great Leader goes before the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, swallows his pride, puts his reputation on the line and basically says "the food situation is tense," it is a political earthquake in North Korea. It also means that North Korea is in a famine situation or, at the very least, heading rapidly in that direction. The following day, ...
i) births and deaths 19 June 1916: birth of George Pravda, who played Denes in The Enemy of the World (Second Doctor, 1967-68), Jaeger in The Mutants (Third Doctor, 1972) and Castellan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin (Fourth Doctor, 1976). 19 June 1997: death of Julia Smith, who directed The Smugglers (First Doctor, 1966) and The Underwater Menace (Second Doctor, 1967) and but is of course better known and the creator of EastEnders. 19 June 2017: death of Brian Cant, who I knew as one of the great BBC children's presenters of the 1970s but before then had appeared in ...
Yesterday Lib Dems were in a state of high excitement have won the Chesham and Amersham by-election by a mile and a half. Although I don't often publish national political stuff on this blog, the result was game changer. It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention it. And the comments made by the defeated Tory candidate show how of touch the Tories have become. How arrogant they have become. There was a 25% swing to the Lib Dems in Chesham and Amersham on Thursday. That is huge. Ludlow constituency has been Lib Dem in the past. We ...
The BBC reports a dramatic twist in a long running saga: Seven people have been charged with electoral offences by police investigating a missing £10.25m loan to Northampton Town Football Club. The six men and one woman have been charged over donations made to Northampton South Conservative Association in 2014. It is alleged they failed to ensure the true source of the money was disclosed. They are due to appear before Northampton Magistrates' Court on 16 July. The hearings will take place almost six years after the launch of Operation Tuckhill, the police inquiry into the disappearance of money loaned ...
A big shout out goes today to Helena, a Blackness Primary School Parent! Helena is a self employed gardener and garden designer running her business called Gorgeous Gardens by Helena. At the latest Friends of Blackness Zoom meeting, Helena kindly offered to improve the area in Pennycook Lane directly opposite the school entrance. On her behalf, I checked that the area is in City Council ownership to ensure owner consent and what a lovely job Helena is making of the area - looking superb. Many thanks Helena!
The Mirror reports that the Tories have announced plans to place constraints on the Electoral Commission, which has been investigating the funding of Boris Johnson's flat refurbishment. The Commission believe that the plan to strip it of its powers will 'fetter' its ability to do the job it was set up for: The agency overseeing election financing stressed the importance that its "independence is preserved" as ministers announced the plans on Thursday. Constitution minister Chloe Smith said the proposal would ensure the commission is "fully accountable to Parliament" and would provide "clarity in law" that the watchdog "should not bring ...
Historic England introduces this video on YouTube: Using photographs from Historic England's Archive, KS2 students learnt more about their local heritage. The students carried out oral history interviews with people who constructed Coventry Cathedral and together they visited the building.
