Talk about an eyeopener... Mike Martin, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, is Arthur Snell's latest guest on his Behind the Lines podcast. And he paints an alarming picture of Britain's armed forces. You would hope that the Conservatives would at least care about the defence of the realm, but it turns out they left defence in as big a mess as every other area of government. The Navy, for instance, has aircraft carriers, but no planes to launch from them, and at any one time can have only five ships at sea. If the RAF had to fight ...
A gem from the Labour Party for the Colchester constituency in 1951: [IMG: Colchester 1951 Labour leaflet. Photo via Matt Hudson http://twitpic.com/cddurb] A very different world where "competition" is put up there as so bad as to be grouped with "unemployed" and "war". You can see all the other leaflets in this occasional series about political leaflets here.
The government needs to look beyond the 'bonfire of red tape' narrative if it's to solve the housing crisis, argues Labour MP Chris Hinchcliff. Erica Jackson lives in a country where her neighbours can be dragged off by masked men: "From the start, the administration set their sights on targeting marginalised and minority groups. They propagated false narratives to incite prejudices, violence, and convince their supporters to justify the unjustifiable. The biggest scapegoats and, in MAGA's mind, tools for pushing more tyrannical edicts and actions are America's vast immigrant population." Hannah Cloke says that England's water crisis calls for more ...
When I was a district councillor in the 1980s, I served on the IBA committee which oversaw the commercial radio station Leicester Sound. One of the programmes I got into the habit of listening to was John Shaw's Here Be Dragons on Sunday evenings. Shaw played a lot of folk and world music, and this is a record I remember from that time. Collister has a wonderful voice and the song's bleak sentiments appeal to me.
Wed 4th
09:12
Transitions, Transversions and Deletions in mitochondrial DNA and their relevance to Parkinsons, ALS...
I aim to write this blog so that people don't need a detailed understanding of genetics to read it. I assume people know that genetics involves DNA being used to produce proteins. DNA is comprised of four nucleotides. Two of these are purines Adenine (A) and Guanine (G). The other two are pyrimidines Thymine (T) and Cytosine (C). They pair in two pairs A to T and G to C. Each pair is called
Tomorrow, there is a Scottish Parliament by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse which was caused by the very sad death of the wonderful SNP MSP Christine McKelvie in March. Our candidate is my brilliant friend Aisha Mir who had done such a great job of representing the party in challenging circumstances. Reform is throwing the kitchen sink at this campaign. Nigel Farage, again being anywhere but Clacton, came to visit earlier this week. Christine Jardine, our Scottish Affairs spokesperson, criticised him for avoiding the media during his brief visit, though I could have lived my life quite happily without the ...
Adam Smith was elected as a Reform UK councillor for Hackleton and Roade ward on West Northamptonshire Council. But he is now listed as an independent. The NN Journal reports: A spokesperson for the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) Reform UK group said: "Following a number of concerns regarding the conduct of councillor Adam Smith, the whip has been suspended pending an internal investigation. We cannot comment further at this time." That now makes it seven councillors from the May elections shed by Reform UK. The previous six are Donna Edmunds (suspended by Reform UK and then quit the party), Luke ...
Many thanks to the residents who recently raised with us the fact that a bollard on south side of Perth Road outside the Red Cross shop was missing, creating a trip hazard. We reported this to the Roads Maintenance Partnership and received the following helpful reply : "The inspector has had this missing bollard made safe and raised an order for a replacement to be installed."
The Guardian reports that legal analysis of the government's new planning bill has found that more than 5,000 of England's most sensitive, rare and protected natural habitats are at high risk of being destroyed by development as a result of the legislation. The paper says that it has examined the threat the bill poses to 5,251 areas known as nature's "jewels in the crown", leading to some of the country's most respected wildlife charities calling for a key part of the bill to be scrapped: The areas at risk from Labour's planning changes include cherished landscapes such as the New ...
