This morning's perusal of the Guardian's brought forth a small sigh, as there just below the A level story sat the headline "UK green economy four times larger than manufacturing sector, says report". Now, I have been marinating myself in sectoral data for months to write this monster, and pretty much know every sectorContinue reading "Sectoral boasts, or a few dumb ways of sizing up the economy"
Here's a lovely thing. The Slovenian Presidency of the EU has made available a book from each of the 27 EU member states for us all to read. Nine of them are picture books, and there's a graphic novel; seven are represented by short stories, four are rather bravely represented by poetry, three have novels and the last three are represented by essays. I had a sleepless night the other night and fairly quickly worked through the nine picture books. I think all of them require a decent-sized screen to really appreciate; but I also think all of them could ...
Tue 10th
16:54
A Lib Dem council hands over the keys to the district's first council houses in 30 years
The keys to the first new Council Houses from the Liberal Democrat team at Teignbridge in South Devon have been handed over to the delighted tenants. Built on the site of 'pre-fab' block garages, the two houses show what 'modern council houses' can be and are the first 'council houses' for nearly 30 years in the district. Highly energy efficient, with heat source air pumps and good-sized rooms, the two new houses in Newton Abbot are the first of an ambitious programme to build over 100 council houses. Soon to be finished are five flats, also on council-owned land in ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog... About ten years ago, I was talking to someone from The-Pub-Is-The-Hub - Prince Charles' outfit for advising community pubs. They told me how the best economic unit for a community pub to survive economically wasn't 10,000 people in the catchment area or even 2,000. It was 500. That was a revelation to me, and the beginning of a fascinating search for other examples when smaller units survive better economically than bigger ones. Maybe some hint of that was also why Private Eye editor Ian Hislop has been presenting a BBC radio ...
Mon, 12:56: Janet Dailey and the Curious Case of the Missing Author https://t.co/32mxc72RON To start your week: the dead writer who is still writing (or not). Mon, 17:11: U.S. health-care system ranks last among 11 high-income countries, researchers say https://t.co/MVrpl0xcWn No big surprise. Though would have been interesting to see Belgium in the ranking - all our larger neighbours are there! Mon, 20:43: 510 days of plague; or, who's a silly boy then? https://t.co/JoFBmcsexw Tue, 07:06: RT @EdLlewellynFCDO: My farewell letter to British citizens living in France, as my term as Ambassador concludes tonight 🇬🇧🇫🇷 https://t.co... Tue, 10:45: We should ...
To say that the release of the IPCC's report on climate change has caused much more of a stir than most green policy reports tend to would be a massive understatement. The headline take away of 'code red' for humanity in relation to the environment dominated the news in the UK on the day the report was released. The report is fascinating, at least if you're used to normally reading fairly dry and not very well thought out green policy reports like I am (there are good ones as well – unfortunately, there are a lot of bad ones out ...
Readers may be interested in the Guardian story entitled "LBC's James O'Brien wins Ofcom battle with Institute of Economic Affairs": The Institute of Economic Affairs has lost a two-year battle with LBC radio presenter James O'Brien over claims the registered charity is a politically motivated lobbying organisation funded by "dark money". The IEA complained to media regulator Ofcom that the radio station had made a series of inaccurate and unfair suggestions that the organisation is a professional lobby group of "questionable provenance, with dubious ideas and validity" staffed by people who are not proper experts on their topic. The free ...
There is still so nuch to do and which can be done to tackle climate change, but is it too late? The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change, the world's leading authority on climate science, seems to suggest that it may be. That is especially so because there are still few signs of any concerted international action on this issue, or even agreement on the best way forward. We can all do the little things but without radical change on an international level we are hitting our head against a brick wall. The Guardian reports on the ...
Herbert, not their real name, is a friend of mine who has had a mixed lockdown. Whilst happy to be away from people so as not to get the Coivd virus the effect of the isolation has been to make them very wary of re-connecting with the outside world. Getting jabbed twice has obviously been important but due to relatively young age, Herbert has only very recently had a 2nd jab, whilst working from home since March 2020. Herbert does go out but only wearing a mask. They've even been in shops though with little confidence and possibly too much ...
Libraries across the city will have extended opening hours from Monday. Details for Blackness Library are below :
In Liberator 408 we've done something a bit different by running extended pieces by Layla Moran and Michael Meadowcroft on Liberal Democrat strategy. Layla argues for a progressive alliance with Labour and the Greens, while Michael calls for the party to make itself matter again across the widest area possible. See which (if either) you think is right. Issue 408 of Liberator can be downloaded free of charge from the magazine's website.
