Wera Hobhouse demands to know why she was deported from Hong Kong. "As we toured the site - not just the blast furnace but the iron ore and coal piles and the continuous casting works and the rod mill and the old coke ovens, shut down a couple of years ago - we began to glean that the workers here were reeling from a terrible shock. Most of them were just discovering, that very day, that Jingye was planning to starve the blast furnaces to death."Ed Conway tries to get to the bottom of what is happening at Scunthorpe. "Could ...
It's time to revisit Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's film A Canterbury Tale. Here's Xan Brooks, whose favourite film it also is, writing in the Guardian in 2011:On beginning this blog, I was going to write that the story of A Canterbury Tale is a bit like the legend of the Arthurian knights asleep on the hillside, waiting to be called forth at the hour of greatest need. But that's not quite right, because the film implicitly suggests that there is no hillside, no sleeping knights, and no magical horn to call them forth. The only world is the one ...
I have always been fascinated with politics and how the world works. Our history, our present and our future. How we co-exist in society. Being a young idealist, I first felt that the answers to the issues that we faced were through Socialism. I remember seeing Jeremy Corbyn's rise to the leadership of the Labour Party, a weary looking man who somehow was able to connect to people of different generations and backgrounds. I was inspired. I joined the Labour Party in 2016, hoping for a better future. Looking back at that time, I did see the world through a ...
The Local Authority publication the Municipal Journal has shortlisted a number of Lib Dem-led Councils for their 'Local Authority of the Year Award'. The Award recognises "councils who, through a collective effort, drive innovation and are delivering the best outcomes for their communities". What is really striking is that, of the seven finalists, all but one are either Lib Dem-run or with Lib Dems involved in running the councils. One finalist is the Lib Dem-run Council of Watford. Peter Taylor, the elected Mayor of Watford said : Delighted that Watford Council has been nominated for another Council of the Year ...
Recorded for Bob Harris's BBC show in 1972.
Our West End surgeries take place later today. This week, they are as follows : Blackness Library (Tuesdays 5pm - every week during school term time) West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC PS and Victoria Park PS) - (3rd Tuesday of each month at 5.45pm during school term time) All welcome - no appointment needed!
The Guardian reports that Labour face a wake-up call with a least 80 of their MPs at risk of losing their majorities over proposed welfare cuts. Fears have been prompted by data shared between Labour MPs who are warning the government that the changes "pose a real electoral risk". The paper says that the analysis suggests almost 200 Labour MPs have a majority smaller than the number of recipients of personal independent payments in their constituencies - a significant number in northern England "red wall" seats: Not all of those recipients will be affected by the changes - but more ...
