This brief video shows the Walnut Tree Viaduct in South Wales when it was still in use - I hope you don't have a thing about heights. The viaduct, which carried coal traffic to new docks at Barry, opened in 1901 and closed in 1969. Last month I posted a video showing what is left of Walnut Tree Viaduct today.
The was a BlueSky meme the other day asking you to post a song from the year you turned 12. I chose this one - Ian Hunter sings David Bowie. Early on in it comes the lyric: "And Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks." When I was young, Marks and Sparks was both an affectionate nickname for Marks & Spencer and the abbreviation that everyone used. Today, everyone follows the company's own branding and calls them M&S. I wondered when the change took place. The earliest use of Marks and Sparks I could find in the British Newspaper Archive ...
"Children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some in almost Dickensian levels of poverty. They don't talk about 'poverty' as an abstract concept but about not having the things that most people would consider basic: a safe home that isn't mouldy or full or rats, with a bed big enough to stretch out in, 'luxury' food like bacon, a place to do homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash, having their friends over, and not having to travel hours to school." That's the children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza talking to the Guardian today about her ...
It was Gateshead Lib Dem group meeting last night. It was held on-line (our usual practice for group meetings). We discussed motions for the next full council. Deadline is later this month. Whenever Lib Dems in Gateshead meet, we inevitably discuss the next local elections, due in May next year. Candidate selection is going well, Focuses continue to be written, action days planned. All
Most of us, who are interested in politics, would be able to answer that evergreen pub quiz question: "Who was the UK's first Labour Prime Minister?" Ramsay MacDonald, I hear you cry. But when pushed to say more about the truly ground-breaking Labour government of 1924, most of us would probably be reduced to mumbling "um er". Peter Clark's book "The Men Of 1924" is an exceptionally informative and readable account of that stunning change in British politics. To borrow from the book's dust jacket, the "administration witnessed a radical departure from government by the ruling class. A majority of ...
Alexandra Hall Hall lists 10 things Britain could do if it really cared about Palestinians. "If this plan is about prevention, then nature should be central to it. The science is unequivocal: contact with the natural world supports human health in wide ranging and profound ways. It lowers stress, improves mood, and alleviates symptoms of anxiety." Andrea Mechelli et al. argue that there is a striking omission from the NHS's 10-year plan. "I recently wrote an article for the Telegraph about a series of unexplained electrical substation fires across the country. There had been eight in the space of a ...
An overwhelming majority of those who interact with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system are deeply concerned about the quality of provision that young people are getting relative to the ever-spiralling cost of the system. In policy terms, we have the worst of both worlds, SEND is expensive and delivers inadequate outcomes for those the system is designed to help. Like current welfare reform, there is an implicit systematic failure that means the cost rises exponentially but we have no actual success for the children trapped in a system that spectacularly fails to deliver for the people who ...
Just a reminder that our Tuesday surgeries today do not take place as it is during the school summer holidays. However, we can be contacted at any time on Dundee 459378 or by email at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk - many thanks! Please note that our street surgeries on a Thursday will take place as normal.
The Independent reports that Keir Starmer is facing another rebellion from his backbenchers over reforms to support for children with special needs in England, just days after he was forced into a humiliating climbdown on welfare cuts. The paper says that education secretary Bridget Phillipson has insisted that ministers are committed to reforming support for children with learning difficulties or disabilities, which currently costs £12bn a year, but has refused to rule out scrapping key documents that families rely on to guarantee specialist help: Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are statutory documents which outline the support needed to help ...
