Still plugging away with story, back on track, deadline extended, buoyed by encouraging email from Freya North #blatantnamedropping # Also, am busily growing Victorian whiskers like Yardley in Lagaan: http://bit.ly/1YNIIi It's awfully hard work. Energy-sapping. # Feel like I'm pulling teeth. My short story heroine has just thrown a shoe at a copper & will shortly escape into building site. What larks. # Draft one written. 6728 words. Will have to ask questions about rights and suchlike before sending it to publisher tomorrow, though. # RT @BritsOnPole Remember Henry Surtees with a donation to Headway http://bit.ly/6qLRw # Very pleased to ...
I might be being very presumptuous even suggesting it, but anyone thinking of suggesting any postings of mine or thinking of nominating my blog for any Lib Dem Voice blog awards shouldn't bother. Last year I wrote in Iain Dale's guide to political blogging that I felt the awards were too self congratulatory, rather too on message, and the judges rather self selecting in that the same people and the same "friends" get chosen every time. Those of you from the provinces (and I use that term loosely) and who don't get to conference really don't matter. Yes, I am ...
I owe James Graham a drink, but that's not going to stop me responding to his latest post, where he complains about libertarians and their reaction to the Jo Swinson 'ban airbrushing' fiasco. By the end of this post I'm hoping you agree with me that this is a completely pointless and unnecessary fight - yet tackling James head on is something I'm absolutely determined to do - he's the strongest of the LD blogosphere's social liberal wing and I like a challenge. James, please, do kick us off: Frankly, if we did all live in a state of complete ...
I wrote a few days ago about Agent Orange and how I thought he was an employee of Cowley St, but after reading his blog and looking through the intelligence that my news desk has received I am happy to say Agent Orange has my support. The Lib Dems as a party is currently being run by a corrupt bunch that really is pushing the word Liberalism to its limits and are more covering lies with the term then showing it in its true meaning. The crooks in the party include members of the Federal Executive, the President of our ...
I apologise for not blogging over the last two days but Virgin Media have been pis**ng me about by not sending up any connection to my modem. If you are asking, did you ring them up? No is the simple answer. My experience with Virgin Media is that they have very poor customer services and they don't sort out the problem at all. Virgin Media gives a better service on the Internet then any other provider, but when it comes to outage they have a record for long periods.
Not in this councillor's attic there isn't, but emptying it today in readiness for laying new insulation was revealing in other ways. The battered old roasting tin which I thought I'd binned years ago turned up in a cardboard box. Anyone want an old rucksack with external frame? Or a hifi set with a dodgy volume control and a damaged amplifier? Or a cabinet for holding such a hifi system? Or
Look, it's perfectly simple. You are meant to nominate postings from British blogs. That can mean written in Britain or by Britons abroad or about Britain. But there has to be something British about them. Instead, what do I get? A posting from December of last year, that's what. But it is from the Jersey-based blog Voice for Children and touches upon the failures of institutional childcare on the island. As the national press lost interest when no skeletons of orphans were produced, it had better go in. Someone suggests I include an aggregator for tweets. But if you are ...
We've been told that South Glos officers are preparing a report about last November's fatality at Rodford Way for the Cabinet Member responsible and the Director of Planning, Transportation and Strategic Environment. We have asked for the report to be released to our local councillors at the same time - we want a LOCAL input, before someone takes a decision and it's all set in stone. Watch this space...
As part of the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards 2009 Liberal Democrat Voice have set us all a meme to list our favourite posts since 1 September 2008 so as to assist others in nominating for the category of best posting on a Lib Dem blog. I do not believe that I have anything on this blog of sufficient quality to compete in this category and cannot come anywhere near reaching the level of last year's winner from Alix Mortimer but nevertheless I have trawled my blog and found a few that may be worth reading through again: ...
The debate about the future of pensioner bus passes is hotting up. The Government has been sneaky letting people think it is being benevolent giving everyone over 60 a free bus pass, when actually it is costing a lot of Councils a lot of money and some that are popular destinations or have good bus stations an awful lot of money. However there is danger of the scheme being thwarted...
Just a quick one today as I have an infection that's swelled my tongue up to the size of my head and given me a migraine... Big Finish have reduced the prices of a load of their Doctor Who spin-off series to a fiver – when you buy them you get a DRM-free MP3 download immediately [...]
Us Liberal Democrats are great cheerleaders of devolution, letting local politicians make decisions about the communities they serve. The BBC reported recently that IVF couples living in 80% of primary cares trusts (PCT) are not able to receive the 3 free cycles of IVF treatment that the Government recommends. They are calling it a postcode lottery.Postcode lotteries are happening all over the
An excellent post that is well worth reading - Who do they think they are talking to?
{Computer eating a credit card. Credit: GarethJMSaunders on Flickr} It's time to offer up my credit card to the computer gods and get a portable computer. But which one? I'm partly writing these notes for my own benefit - but also making them available to all to see in case anyone has suggestions they'd like to share. (Oh, and of course if you work for a firm which sells computers and would like to show your social media savvy by jumping in and offering me your latest offer with extra chocolate on the side, please do...) What are my requirements? ...
In 1973 I became a teenager and acquired the habit of following the singles chart obsessively. This one reached no. 4 in January of that year and was doubly unusual: it was an instrumental and it was by a Dutch band. Focus had a second track, Hocus Pocus, lower down the singles chart, which made them even more unusual. Listening to them today Hocus Pocus is in danger of being silly because of the yodelling and falsetto singing, exciting though the instrumental sounds are exciting. But Sylvia is still wonderful, with a lyrical lead guitar and a Hammond organ in ...
Two paramedics were treating a 70 year old woman in the back of an ambulance in Banknock in Stirlingshire when they were attacked. A gang of youths threw a bottle of buckfast (classy) through the window which then hit the paramedics and the patient. This mindless attack then resulted in a second ambulance being sent out to transport the patient to hospital. For crying out loud, how on earth can teenagers think this is acceptable? and according to the BBC they were drunk. Unfortunately by the time the Police had arrived the gang had scattered - well let us hope ...
Out campaigning in Whickham today and a great response from residents. There is still a lot of anger over expenses but a recognition that the Liberal Democrats are the challengers to Labour here and are the only party which has active local councillors working all year round for them. I can't help but pay tribute to Gateshead Thunder's tremendous result in France last night. Despite having problems getting to Toulouse (http://www.thunderrugby.com/news_article.php?id=209), the team won convincingly 20-48. This gives our local Rugby League team a great chance of staying in the Championship. The "six pointer" next week against Leigh will be ...
It is National allotment week and the Independent today has done a two page spread. They also carry the story that Hilary Benn is going to announce a new food policy tomorrow which will put much greater emphasis on Britain being more self sufficient in food. This is in the context of the expanding demand from the BRIC economies who it is supposed will attract a large proportion of the worlds food production to satisfy their growing middle class. Not since the Dig for Victory campaign in the Second World War has Britain even approached self sufficiency-and for all the ...
Having been away for a week, I didn't comment on the proposals to ban the airbrushing of models which will be debated at the Lib Dem conference next month. The real problem about commenting on this is that we have yet to see the full proposals. The Lib Dem blogosphere, particularly the Libertarians, love to get terribly exercised at the prospect of banning things. It's just not liberal! we are constantly reminded, or more precisely, it is Fundamentally Illiberal (complete with scary looking capitalisation). Personally however, I tend to take a more evidence-based approach before banging on about John fucking ...
Hi All, Well the Progressive Politics blog isn't dead after all ! It is fair to say that the Green Party does have some impressive figures elected to public office, most especially the persuasive and media-friendly Caroline Lucas. I rather like Jean Lambert and Peter Tatchell too. However, it is also fair to say that the local Greens and I are as unimpressed with other as could be. I'll leave it at that. I'm not in the business of personalising differences. In short, the Euro elections are a difficult time always for me to be a Lib Dem. The ALDE ...
Two stories from the Observer here: David Cameron's new alliance in the European Parliament hit fresh controversy last night when it emerged that its Polish leader had spoken out in favour of the Lisbon Treaty, which the Tories say would be a disaster for Britain and Europe. The revelation is likely to shock Conservative eurosceptics, who believed that the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), headed by Michal Kaminski, which includes the 25 Tory MEPs, was being set up by Cameron specifically to campaign against the kind of federal Europe that they insist the Lisbon Treaty would create. and ...
August isn't the most topical month for a Eurovision Song Contest posting. At May's content, juries were reintroduced to combat allegations of political voting, with each country's votes being decided half by phone vote and half by a jury of "industry experts". The European Broadcasting Union has now revealed what the results would have been if voting had been by jury only. Norway would still have won, although not by as huge a margin. Here are the jury and actual votes side-by-side. Position Jury votes Telephone votes Actual result 1 Norway (312) Norway (378) Norway (387) 2 Iceland (260) Azerbaijan ...
Welcome to the 129th of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (2nd August – 8th August 2009), together with a hand-picked quintet, mostly courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget, by the way, you can now sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox – just click here – ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Screwing Up by ...
On my way to Chester two days ago, I gave up on trying to listen to my iPod above the racket of the train wheels, and picked up a free copy of The Metro from the seat opposite. The front-page story was entitled "Child rape" teen is saved by Bebo. It's a story about a 15-year-old by who had sex with an 11-year-old girl whom he thought was the same age as himself. He was charged with rape, although the girl had in fact agreed to sex (if you can really say that an 11-year-old has the capacity to agree ...
Off the plane and into the studio... Mark Littlewood will be appearing on the Westminster Hour 10 pm tonight on radio 4. He will be commenting on the recent Liberal Democrat document "A Fresh Start for Britain" (which sets out the principles on which the Lib Dem General Election manifesto will be built) and discussing the future of the party.
Now that the Tory's primary in Totnes is over, I thought I'd add a couple of extra thoughts following my previous post on the subject. The first is that, following the discovery that the candidates each had an expenses limit of £200, it is hard to see how this was much of a test at all. Despite the fact that "hundreds" of people are reported to have attended the hustings, the fact that a total of 16,000 people voted suggests that this was little more than a beauty contest. I'm all for spending limits, but this was clearly ridiculous. What's ...
Being a Councillor in a town with a lot of old streets and a lot of new developments mean parking issues tend to come up quite frequently. So, I found this article on the wider costs of providing parking spaces quite interesting, especially in the light on some of the experiences we've had. Of course, much of the article is from an American perspective, and their experience of the issue is much different to ours as a lot of their infrastructure - indeed, a lot of their cities - was mapped out after the rise of the car, which can ...
I always thought that the practice of keeping prisoners shackled as they gave birth was barbaric and could not believe that it went on until 1996 with the now sainted Ann Widdecombe justifying it. I always think that the punishment part of a prison sentence is being deprived of liberty, of the ability just to nip out whenever you want and of being in charge of your own life. Living in such circumstances would be one of the worst things that could happen to me, restricting the amount of time, to almost next to nothing, that I could spend with ...
Hot on the heels of my Machiavellian guide to Blogging, I though I'd do a follow up - an equally Machiavellian guide to Politicianing. If you've ever fancied yourself as Prime Minster, or even fancy volunteering your services to a party to become backbench vote fodder, this is the guide for you. #5 - Look the Part Every wannabe politician must start with the basics - great suit, great hair and if you're a man no facial hair. If you're ugly (or look shifty/tired), consider getting plastic surgery. Don't overlook cosmetic dentistry, either - A winning smile can do wonders. ...
I recently raised residents' complaints about the condition of the south side footpath on Perth Road - between Thomson Street & Step Row. I have had the following feedback from the City Council : "The area inspector checked this section of footway on the south side of Perth Road between Thomson Street and Step Row and noted a small number of areas where the footway surface was in less than perfect condition however these areas are too shallow to fill with temporary material. In the short term he will continue to inspect this footway on a regular basis and monitor ...
I fall for it everytime:I was feeling optimistic as I strolled up to Carrow Road on a sunny afteroon-the mood was so upbeat- series of disappointing leage campaigns seemed in the past, not least because gone were the loan players instead a new team been built with lots of new faces, seemingly, many with epxerience of lower league football. Will this be our season?- back towards the championship this time with momentum going in our favour for a change? So what happens next (good question for A Question of Sport? Colchester hardly looked like chapmions but by half time were ...
Just a quick reminder that there are two events in Manor Park this week. On Tuesday 11th, there's a nature trail from 11am until 12.30pm. Please book in advance by contacting the park managers, Glendale : Tel: 020 8318 3986 or Email: lara.al-jabi {at} glendale-services.co(.)uk var mailNode = var linkNode = document.createElement('a'); linkNode.setAttribute('href', tNode = document.createTextNode("lara.al-jabi {at} glendale-services.co(.)uk"); linkNode.appendChild(tNode); linkNode.setAttribute('id', "emob-ynen.ny-wnov@tyraqnyr-freivprf.pb.hx-46"); mailNode.parentNode.replaceChild(linkNode, mailNode); And on Wednesday, there's the free dog mirco-chipping day.
Back in April I blogged about how Twitter was being given the credit for helping to fuel a revolt against the Communist government in Moldova. The protests were against the conduct of parliamentary elections, won by the Communists. The protests secured new elections in late July, following which a non-communist government has just been formed: Moldova's four pro-Western parties say they have agreed to form a coalition government, following polls on 29 July. The Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party, Democratic Party and Our Moldova Alliance won a combined total of 53 seats in the 101-member parliament. They say they want ...
I've written a new post on the Social Liberal Forum website about postcode lotteries. Speaking of the Social Liberal Forum, have you joined our social network on Ning yet? We're trying to build this over the summer with a view to encouraging more local activity and help with things like the website. Why not register and say hello?
Cross Culture Mission Charity Launch I was invited to attend this official launch of a new charity based on the Roundshaw Estate in Wallington. The aim of the charity is to divert young people away from gun and knife crime. Their motto is unity in diversity. Our local MP Tom Brake had also been invited [...]
I've been amused by Peter Mandelson's ostentatious portrayal of how he manages his work life balance over this weekend. The papers are, of course, whipped up in a frenzy about the fact that mobile reception at the villa of Nat Goldsmith can be a bit dodgy, and, horror of horrors, Mandelson might end up practicing his dark arts via an Albanian mobile phone network. I want to be reassured that no extra public money is being spent so that Mandelson can have an extra few days in the sun, but otherwise I doubt we're in any great danger. And anyway, ...
"Follow the evidence": the first rule of finding the truth, and often the most difficult. Much as we might like to think otherwise, we all filter evidence through our own preconceptions, beliefs and philosophies. Not doing so turns out to be bloody hard work. And so it turns out with the AIDS epidemic in sub-saharan Africa, according to Elizabeth Pisani, author of The Wisdom of Whores. Standard explanations for the spread of AIDS, explaining why the disease is rife in South Africa, yet far less common in Asia for example, juggle a range of variables like inequality of wealth, overall ...
I have just finished delivering a petition in Whickham about Labour's cuts to flower beds in the village. Labour calls them "efficiency savings". They can't bring themselves to he straight with people about what they are doing. Anyway, I am now off to the recycling centre to take a pile of cardboard and then I'm off to the allotment to pick potatoes. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Both Sunder Katwala and Grant Shapps are quite wrong: not only is local variation a price more than worth paying for local control, but it would end the phenomena of postcode lotteries. "Postcode lottery" is a cliché, and a peculiarly British one. Why is it, for example, that the only references on Google to "zip code lottery" I can find are articles in the US referring to the UK? Surely Americans, with their far greater local control of public services, would be screaming about the phenomenon and demanding a massive centralisation of services? Yet strangely they don't. Can it be ...
Well done to the Independent on Sunday for digging on this story. Roger Helmer, Conservative MEP for the East Midlands claims homophobia doesn't exist, in fact he writes on his blog "Straight Talking" that homophobia is "merely a propaganda device designed to denigrate and stigmatise those holding conventional opinions". This coming from the same Tory MEP who defended homophobic Michal Kaminski, the head of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group which the British Tories are now part of in Europe. Although Michal Kaminski and Margaret Thatcher have something in common, no not Section 28, it is their admiration for General ...
A rather belated post on the Harry Potter film, which I saw the other week.
A 1982 Peter Davison tale of jungle weirdness, Doctor Who: Kinda is still the source of ferocious arguments (just wait 'til it's out on DVD and they explode across the special features). Is this is brilliant piece of art, or does it just have the most rubbish 'snake' ever broadcast? Is it a Buddhist metaphor, or borrowed from Ursula le Guin? Is it mind-expanding or mind-deadening, philosophically intriguing or just new age socialism? I answer some of these questions in a highly partial and occasionally spoilertastic way... "You will agree to being me... This side of madness or the other." ...
Bahrain seminar August 6, 2009 Over the many years that we have been holding these twice a year seminars, we have discussed the whole catalogue of human rights abuses that have been inflicted on the people of Bahrain, for which there has always been the same basic cause: the requirement by a widely unpopular hereditary dictatorship to maintain itself in power. And to do that, the al-Khalifa family has used every technique in the book, plus one extra that isn't even in the list covered by the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. There has been extrajudicial execution; arbitrary ...
This blog post was originally published in January this year but my readership figures were low at that time and I thought I would give it another outing. With all the on and off speculation there has been ever since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister about whether and when he will or won't call an election, something has been bugging me. We don't have a presidential system in this country and yet it is the PM and him/her alone who is tasked with taking the decision about when an election should be. Now I personally think that we should at ...
In principle, a month today — on the quaintly symbolic date of 09-09-09 — the first line of Dubai's much anticipated Metro system will open, but with only 31 days to go, there are growing fears that many stations just won't be ready in time. Certainly the ones I looked at last night as I walked [...]
Twenty-five years ago in Buxton's Pavilion Gardens, the SDP were debating a worthy paper on equality at their annual conference, when a novice speaker Ann Brennan came to the podium. Brennan punctuated the pomposity of the discussion by making some pithy observations on the foibles of the Guardian-reading delegates and the high-falutin language used in many of the policy documents. "The most refreshing speech we've heard so far", commented Sir Robin Day wryly. In fact Mrs Brennan's performance was not entirely spontaneous. She had received coaching from Max Atkinson, who was then an Oxford academic. Professor Max Atkinson went on ...
A ROW erupted this week after Labour's feisty second-in-command, Harriet Harman , declared that one of the party's two top jobs should always be held by A WOMAN. High-flying Harman says we blokes can't be trusted to run things by ourselves -- a bit like when your missus won't let you do the shopping, because she thinks you'll buy Pot Noodles instead of pasta and Carling instead of carrots. And let's face it, you would, wouldn't you! Some "feminists" have been jumping for joy and think it's a great leap forward for women. Others are sceptical, saying you can avoid ...
Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice is inviting Lib Dem bloggers to nominate their favourite posts from their own blogs over the past year. This is aid the judging in the "best posting" category in the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards. He writes: This is actually my favourite award for the simple reason that it recognises writing talent, pure and simple. By which I don't mean that the prose has to be worthy of a Booker nomination; rather that the article has to attract, engage and provoke readers - elevate our thinking, if you like.Last year the New ...
More questions about police tactics at the G20 protest have to be answered. The police are supposed to be the servants of the public. The government is supposed to be the servant of the public. That's how British society works. That's what makes Britain great.
Interesting story from Engine Alpha: Last week saw the debut of "Live Music," a short five-minute animated film about an electric guitar named Riff who falls in love with a violin named Vanessa. It's kind of a rock version of Romeo and Juliet, complete with mocking cymbals, keyboards, and other musical instruments. What's interesting about this film is that it wasn't made by Pixar, even if the radical plot and setting seems so like them. Nope, "Live Music" was made entirely by animators around the world, collaborating on the project over the Internet. The upstart animation group Mass Animation, led ...
SFL President Brown McMaster made the following ridiculous statement yesterday: "If [Livingston had] appealed in due time, we'd have put the three games off, there's no question of that. But there comes a point when we need to make a call. "we've done our best to avoid fixture chaos. Mr McGruther was asked he (was certain he) could fulfil all 36 fixtures in the First Division next season and he said, 'No'. " We thought the lowest risk was to have them in the Third Division." Looking at the time table of events you can see just how ridiculous this ...
I suppose I should be glad that my gym gives out free copies of the Daily Mail, because if they hadn't, I'd never have known that they were posing the question of 'Should Britain invade Zimbabwe?' For those of you wondering what might happen if Britain was to invade Zimbabwe, you'll be glad to hear that everything goes wonderfully well and the whole thing's over within a couple of hours, as soon as the Paras have arrested Mugabe and Trevor Phillips has been brought in to run the country instead. No, that last bit is seriously in there, which perhaps ...
Today my friends and Lib Dem colleagues, Suzanne & John Fletcher, celebrate a total of 50 years of continuous service on Stockton council. That's quite an impressive achievement in itself. Looking back over all the things, small and not so small, which they've changed in that time is even more impressive. Nagging away until recycling is now part of the borough's life style, there's a proper
Sun 9th
08:20
I question i found on the net with answers people mailed in, whats your view? i have lived under Tha...
What will Britain be like under a Conservative government? I know it's not a foregone conclusion but it seems inevitable now that David Cameron will be our next Prime Minister after the next election. Are you optimistic that if they are the next government they could bring about change? I'm in my 30s and I remember the [...]
Yeah I know hardly a newsworthy title until you find out that it wasn't a bottle of Buckfast, which luminary did the smashing, what the bottle was being smashed against. On Friday I was mischievously saying that Alex Salmond was acting like Shakespearean Scottish Royalty. Now as I've been off in the wilds of Kinross I find that he's been smashing bottles of champagne against the brow of ships. Yeah I know there is far more to Royal duties than propelling the odd bottle of Moet across a slipway to a new vessel but on this occasion I think Alex ...
Usually I concentrate this blog on historical things that have hung around and survived or on things that happened and can stillbe traced back or seen today. A couple of times I have captured everyday scenes to find them changed the following week or month. This is a scene (or three) that I passed and thought would be of interest. Already a few weeks later the site has moved on in development so here goes the pictures I got... It's the construction of the lift and bridge at West Hampstead Thameslink station - this will give access to the station ...
The rest of The Voice's Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we're made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot (for the moment). And as it's a Sunday, it's also time for another instalment of singing. 2 Big Stories UK 'may have 40-year Afghan role' So reports the BBC: The UK's commitment to Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years, the incoming head of the Army has said. Gen Sir David Richards, who takes over on 28 August, told the Times that "nation-building" would last decades. Troops will ...
According to the Western Mail the future of Lampeter University hangs in the balance and is dependent on a large cash grant from the Welsh Government if the life-saving merger with Trinity College is to come off. They say that the university is in a desperate financial plight, with plans to merge with Trinity University College, Carmarthen, from autumn 2010, only possible if Lampeter makes nearly £2m in savings. To achieve this, it has set out plans for 46 full-time equivalent redundancies, including 29 from the academic staff. The unions have written a joint letter to education minister Jane Hutt, ...
Personally, I welcome the proposal to make all mobile phone masts subject to full planning permission and I cannot see the validity of the phone companies' argument that to do so will somehow prevent them improving coverage across Wales. It is not as if they are doing much now to make it easier for customers to use their mobile phones in Wales' many blackspots, whilst their reluctance to share masts and to allow roaming between operators actively disadvantages their customers and the communities they are meant to serve. The current planning system of "prior approval" for masts is confusing for ...
The general election forecast is for 225 seats for Labour and 343 seats for the Conservatives which implies a Tory government with a much smaller majority of 36 than the 192 being bandied about in the mainstream press this week, which would mean that the next Conservative government will not be able to implement many [...]
Experimental drug saves two men with inoperable prostate cancer By Fiona MacraeLast updated at 8:37 PM on 21st June 2009 Comments (12) Add to My Stories Killer: Prostate cancer cells Two men with inoperable prostate cancer have made dramatic recoveries after being given a single dose of an experimental drug. Both men are now cancer-free and their doctors [...]
Sun 9th
05:38This story worries me why do we have a situation where so many of our pensioners are struggling to l...
Taking up benefits 'could reduce pensioner poverty' Published by webmaster for 24dash.com in Bill Payments Monday 16th July 2007 – 8:43am Half a million pensioners could be pulled out of poverty if the Government ensured there was a full take-up of means-tested benefits, a report said today. If elderly people claimed the full Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit [...]
Again, as I said before, but for those just coming in, who I link in my blogroll on the right is very much an arbitrary thing – everything linked there is something I think is good, but not everything I think is good is linked there. With that in mind, on we go... Leonard Pierce is [...]
I've blogged a couple of times about Hiroshima, but we should not forget Nagasaki which was also bombed on this day 64 years ago. It's amazing to think that because it had been cloudy at Kokura the planes had been diverted to Nagasaki. At 11 ...
It is some time since I inflicted by obsession with the Spencer Davis Group on you, so here goes. While I was at the launch of The Gates of Troy on Thursday I bought another book. (Waterstone's are no fools.) It was Keep on Running: The Story of Island Records. In his contribution Joe Boyd recalls: I was taken to a Birmingham pub where Steve Winwood and the Spencer Davis Group (managed by Chris Blackwell) were playing. I was astounded: the were playing "beat group" (no one used the word "rock" in those days) versions of folk songs, Leadbelly blues ...
I don't think it is just Lancaster that has a rush hour problem although if you live in Morecambe it looks like the traffic congestion between Morecambe and Lancaster is the worst in the country. If you live here then even shift workers may be stuck in traffic. You may be able to nominate your town as a contender for the title worst traffic in the country so let's think about how we could deal with the problem. One answer is to build a bypass. This is not the cheapest or best answer but it does help those who want ...
Saturday: Scary Charlotte? {Posted by Picasa} Wicked Uncle Costigan? {Posted by Picasa} Scary Charlotte? {Posted by Picasa} Wicked Uncle Costigan? {Posted by Picasa} Scary Charlotte? {Posted by Picasa} Wicked Uncle Costigan? {Posted by Picasa} Scary Charlotte? {Posted by Picasa} Wicked Uncle Costigan? {Posted by Picasa} There's only one way to find out... FIIIIIIIIII...ind out who wins Liberal Democrat BOTY of the Year! My money's on Mr Mark Reckons, anyway... .
