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 biggest professional development of the month was that I got entangled with the politics of Georgia (the real one, not ...
The Guardian reports: The Liberal Democrats have called for the ministerial code to be made legally enforceable by stripping Downing Street of the power to override decisions about breaches and preventing Johnson from acting like an "elected dictator". Following the prime minister's quashing of the finding that the home secretary, Priti Patel, breached the code by bullying staff, as well as his refusal to take action against Dominic Cummings and Hancock for breaching Covid rules, the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said the situation was "untenable". He will push for a change in the law so that punishments can be ...
WOMAD - the independent World of Music and Dance festival became the latest victim of the Coronavirus last night. Organiser and musician Peter Gabriel said on the event's website: It is with great regret that we are cancelling WOMAD '21 today (28th June). Without the simple support of a government insurance scheme or the guarantee of Test Event status, we cannot continue and put WOMAD's long term future at risk. We feel that our audience, artists, staff, and contractors, who have been amazingly supportive throughout all this, will understand the need for us to act to guarantee our survival. The ...
Mon, 16:05: Sensible from @timfarron. https://t.co/THxTUIiExg Mon, 16:32: RT @WHOPolDirector: Wild poliovirus weekly case update from @WHO: No new case. More: https://t.co/Fa6tv3r3VF In 2021:#Afghanistan: 01, #Pa... Mon, 18:06: All Among The Barley, by Melissa Harrison https://t.co/ak2YfgKWL7 Mon, 21:49: RT @worldcon2021: We're happy to announce Linda Deneroff has accepted the WSFS Division Head position. She will be responsible for administ... Tue, 09:30: Whoniversaries 29 June https://t.co/6JywkxDPVD Tue, 10:45: RT @eoinmacl: No prizes for guessing which 2 Irish MEPs... 'Bogus monitoring typically involved MEPs ... invited by autocratic host-govern...
Liberal Democrat Newswire #150 looks at the lessons for the Liberal Democrats from Sarah Green's brilliant by-election victory.
What is political liberalism in the United States? That's the topic of the Liberal Democrat History Group's next discussion meeting, at 6.30pm on Tuesday 6 July. All are welcome. The original conception of liberalism in America was the protection of people from arbitrary power, support for the free market and advocacy of religious tolerance. Many of these concepts found their place in the American Declaration of Independence and in the constitution of the emerging United States. The Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton (who may have been surprised to find himself, 230 years later, starring in a rap musical), John ...
Readers will remember the end of my term as a member of the Party's Appeals Panel for England or, at least, how it ended. I was astonishingly discreet about the actual details which were, in truth, a bit wounding - having a Regional Executive debate your future in front of you as though you weren't there is never likely to be anything else. Talk of appointment on a temporary basis whilst they took stock, complaints about a lack of transparency (it's an Appeals Panel, for pity's sake...), as a means of demonstrating respect for a volunteer doing a job which ...
Shropshire Homes has submitted new plans for stabilisation of the mudstone quarry face. The southwest section of the face will be stablished with a green wall created with wire boxes filled with granular material. A slope above the wall will protect housing on Castle View Terrace. However, the critical issue of how to stabilise the quarry face below the Castle View Terrace meadow have not yet been resolved. Previously, the top of the face was to be reprofiled with the loss of part of the meadow. The developers are still working on a solution and I fear it may still ...
As Brexit and the government's immigration policies continue to suppress much economic activity it was inevitable that Ministers would come under pressure to try and sort it out. The latest organisation to lobby for change is the CBI. As the Guardian reports, the UK's biggest business lobby group has called on the government to relax post-Brexit immigration rules to help companies struggling with staff shortages to hire more workers from overseas. The paper says that the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) believes the government needed to immediately update its "shortage occupations list" to include several areas where employers are finding ...
births and deaths 29 June 1943: birth of Maureen O'Brien, who played Vicki in 1964-65. 29 June 1980: birth of Katherine Jenkins, who played Abigail Pettigrew in A Christmas Carol (2010). 29 June 1999: death of Declan Mulholland, one of the few Northern Irish actors to appear in Who, as Clark in The Sea Devils (1972) and Till in The Androids of Tara (1978). 29 June 2000: death of John Abineri, who played van Lutyens in Fury from the Deep (Second Doctor, 1967), Carrington in The Ambassadors of Death (Third Doctor, 1970), Railton in Death to the Daleks (Third Doctor, ...
A resident recently advised as follows : "We frequent the playpark near Magdalen Green regularly and have noticed a lot of nettles around the equipment. We appreciate that council has made the choice to let some grass grow longer and are complete on board with that but it makes it hard to enjoy the park when there are large nettle bushes around these attractions." This is a very valid concern and I raised this with environment management to have nettles/weeds near play equipment removed. Additionally, a resident also recently pointed out : "I am just emailing about the gate at ...
Britain was a little wary of rock 'n' roll in January 1957. The previous autumn had seen the film Rock Around the Clock spark riots across the land, and next month the stars of that movie, Bill Haley and His Comets were to land in Southampton, bringing real-life rock to Britain. The consequences were uncertain. In the lull before the anticipated storm, the spotlight turned on various dancehalls that were running lunchtime rock 'n' roll events. These were simple affairs: admission cost threepence, tea and soft drinks were available, records were played, and people danced. A good time was had ...
