This is a difficult set of stories to review, as short stories can be spoiled in the way novels (at least good ones) really can't – most consist of a single central idea or image, and without Of the four stories nominated for the Best Story award in the Hugos, three of them are so ...
Southport Air Show 2011 is in it's 20th Year and this year's show must be one of the best. For once we were blest with good weather. It was dry and sunny, if a little chilly; but the visibility was perfect for an air show. As a very amateur photographer it was also perfect with good cloud formations as backdrops. It always gives me a buzz to see our resort bursting at the seams and that was the case today. Everyone has their favourites with The Red Arrows at the top of most peoples list. But for me the Vulcan ...
That sad news about Amy Winehouse has reminded me of the sadder side of discovering the career of Steve Winwood. It was realising how many of his collaborators of the sixties and seventies, from Jimi Hendrix down, died ridiculously young. It makes you wonder if the idea, which goes back to the Romantics, that an artist should be an alienated and self-destructive figure has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I don't know about you, but when I see newspaper front pages like this... ... a front page which is nothing other than a contemptible and deliberately cynical lie... I can't help but feel that the current situation – much debated at present – that the broadcast media should be regulated, while the print media ...
The row over the tourist tax rumbles on. I saw yesterday that the Guardian felt the need to add into a story about the possible St Pirans Day bank holiday a reference to the tourist tax debate and there is a letter in today's Local Government First magazine from Indie councillor John Keeling about the issue. I support what John has said about the tourist tax being a red herring when we should be concentrating on a change to the way councils are funded and keeping business rates. But it doesn't help when an experienced councillor such as him can't ...
Collected links from around the webHow a Business Dies - Tim Worstall's business is in trouble. This pleases him. One of the things that teaching myself loads of economics is doing is to become even more keen on, and accepting of, the affects of change. Policy makers need to help people as jobs and companies come and go when technology changes, protectionism is stupid. And I really want some nice warm LED lighbulbs to replace the bloody awful sneeze-inducing flourescents that are ubiquitous these days. (tags: economics progress technology) Newspapers run scare stories on MPs' allowances-shoddy journalism and subbing Look ...
There are times when advertising and opportunism are completely inappropriate. In matters relating to someone's death, for example. A series of tweets from Sky Sunrise presenter and all round cheeky chappie presenter type Eamonn Holmes showed brash insensitivity in the face of a tragedy. It really wasn't the time to go advertising: I mean, for heavens' sake, it's a tv news channel. Of course it would be covering this tragic event. That did not need saying. And he didn't react too well to criticism, either, when someone took him to task for it: But, the thing is, if it was ...
Henry Porter and Toby Helm report in tomorrow's Observer: Rupert Murdoch's News International launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company's bid for BSkyB, high-level sources have told the Observer. Lib Dem insiders say NI officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened, last autumn, to persecute the party if Vince Cable, the business secretary, did not advance its case. According to one account from a senior party figure, a cabinet minister was told that, if the government did not do as NI wanted, the Lib Dems ...
Sat 23rd
20:15
Update on the latest twists and turns in the contest to become the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor of Lo...
It's been a fascinating — and characteristicaly bizarre — last 48 hours in the contest to become the Lib Dems' London mayoral candidate. There was the first hustings, reported here on LDV by Simon McGrath, which attracted comments from Brian Paddick, and some robust thoughts from Lembit Opik's campaign manager Ed Joyce. Further controversy was sparked by Peter Black's blog-post yesterday, Lembit Öpik and the rewriting of history, highlighting a paragraph in Lembit's manifesto which attributes his defeat in Montgomeryshire 'to the incident in which Mick Bates drunkenly assaulted a paramedic in January 2010, which became public two months later.' ...
I would be lying if I said I was shocked by the news that troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead. At the time of writing, there's no indication that drugs or alcohol caused her death but it's not an unreasonable assumption that they did. I am incredibly sad, though. Whatever the circumstances, the loss of a young life is terrible and wrong. Some people, many of whom I like and respect, expressed views on Twitter in reaction to the news of Amy's death that in some way she was less deserving of our sympathy than those who died ...
When I went to bed last night, the news from Norway was bad enough. At that point, 7 had died at the site of the Central Oslo explosion & the toll from the Utoeya massacre was around 20. When I woke up this morning, that figure had risen to over 80. I feel so much for every single parent who saw their sons or daughters off to that camp. Norwegian culture seems in many ways so much more mature than ours & it punches above its weight in its contribution to peace & tolerance in the world. Young people being ...
Had a pleasant morning in Stanton Drew with the new Councillor Jeremy Sparkes. We went knocking on doors to listen to residents and find out their views on issues. On the national scene the main talking points were the sad news from Norway and the continuing saga of the Murdoch press. On the first we clearly need much more stringent rules on gun ownership and on the second we clearly need a much more diverse ownership. On local issues the main concerns were the speed of traffic in the narrow lanes and the need for improved bus services between the ...
On 3 July 1969, 18 September 1970, 4 October 1970, 3 July 1971, 5 April 1994 and today we lost some of the iconic names in music. In order they were Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jim Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, they all died aged 27. Jones 27 and 125 daysHendrix 295 daysJoplin 258 daysMorrison 207 daysCobain 44 days Winehouse 314 daysAll of them were part of or breakthrough acts of their times. All of them were undoubtedly talented. Although Morrison's death was recorded as heart failure there was no autopsy carried out ...
I don't think I've ever written a piece expressing my feelings about a great tragedy. It seems almost intrusive, and what good can words do? But today I feel the need to say something. I've just got back from a week away, in which I was all the usual things (wet, tired, ill) and was doing my best to avoid news broadcasts - I was born in Stepping Hill Hospital and spent the first half of my life living five minutes' walk away, and the wall-to-wall coverage of it as a murder scene made me queasy. Then this morning I ...
I'm off for a week in the fabulous Lake District (where I am thrilled to announce IT IS NOT RAINING) so the blog may go a little quiet for a while. I am of course in TIm Farron country so I shall report back on any sightings of the great man. I'll no doubt be Tweeting at richard_morris_ (note the double underscores) so do follow me for updates on the Windemere Airshow, Ambleside sports, frequent weather updates and all the Lib Dem and hackgate titbits my notoriously bad T Mobile signal allows me to gather. Cheers
Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice Bizarrely, I was watching dancing coal miners dressed in tutus when I heard the news of Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation last Sunday evening. A little trigger went off in my mind. Suddenly, the unthinkable had become thinkable. "Cameron will be next" I thought. OK. We're now in the "long grass" of the parliamentary recess. Cameron put in a "Tory Trebles all round", barn-storming performance at the dispatch box on Wednesday. He must have been thankful it was jet-lag proof Johannesburg he had come from (where he met a different type of Tutu) and not New ...
Heard again for the first time in a long time when on holiday! A classic from 1979. Also liked Voyage's "Souvenirs", their hit from 1978.
You can now read my blog on my Facebook page - www.facebook.com/dundeewestend.As of yesterday, I now have over 400 followers on Twitter http://twitter.com/dundeewestend. Many thanks to all of you! Updates will also soon be available on Google+.
I spent (some of) the day off on Thursday and more time today updating the elections site, which is now up to date for all 18 Northern Ireland constituencies (East Belfast, North Belfast, South Belfast, West Belfast, East Antrim, North Antrim, South Antrim, North Down, South Down, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Foyle, Lagan Valley, East Londonderry, Mid Ulster, Newry and Armagh, Strangford, West Tyrone, and Upper Bann). OK, that just leaves the 101 local government electoral areas, and then projecting those results onto the parliamentary/Assembly seats; and then the whole thing will start again when the new constituency boundaries are ...
Sat 23rd
16:27News International's William Lewis, BBC's Robert Peston, and the alleged act of theft which aimed to...
Rewind to December 2010, and you will recall the furore which greeted the revelation by the BBC's Robert Peston that Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable had been secretly taped by undercover Telegraph hacks "declaring war" on Rupert Murdoch and his bid for BSkyB. Vince was almost forced to resign, responsibility for handling the bid was handed over to a Murdoch-friendly Tory, and the Telegraph was embarrassed by the implication that they had censored the story in order to avoid assisting media rival News International. A report in today's New York Times sheds a new and extraordinary light on that ...
It appears even the UN have started thinking that peace talks and negotiations is a better route to resolving the crisis in Libya, rather than the gun-ho Team America approach NATO have been taking. The UN have appointed Abdul-Elah al-Khatib as a special representative to negotiate on behalf of the rebels. I'm sure I've been banging on about peaceful negotiations for five months now. NATO have been fighting a war on behalf of the rebels for too long now. The pretence that they are just maintaining a 'no-fly zone' were dropped gradually, and now the UN, while not deliberately criticising ...
So, it's summer, which means us school employed non-teacher types get time off. And, unexpectedly, this li'l stepdad found out yesterday that stepdaughter is at Dad's all next week so I have a completely free week with no plans (and very little money). So I'm tidying, and have even managed to clear the office desk to plug the lovely little netbook into the big flatscreen monitor and decent keyboard. This is a Good Thing. Except, I've got very very used to the netbook over 18 months. It's got a 1024*600 display, and I'm used to seeing everything, including webpages, on ...
Dulwich is 1/8th of Southwark Councils population and about 1/4 of its land area. In the past Southwark Council HQ was dead centre in the middle of the borough at Southwark Town Hall. This is/was where council assembly and most other committee meetings occurred. Southwark Labour party have decided to sell Southwark town hall and relocate all meeting to Tooley Street – just about as far north as you can get from Dulwich without getting your feet wet. To compound things our Dulwich Housing office is being relocated to a new office in Harris Street covering the south of the ...
About the only thing to emerge during Ed Miliband's time as Labour Leader so far, which could be called a policy, is the belief that the cuts the coalition are implementing are being delivered "too fast and too deep." Essentially Labour are saying they would cut by less and later. The purpose of this article is to discuss the "too fast" part of this argument. The first six months of the coalition's time in office saw higher than expected growth and higher than expected inflation. Neither of these were really caused by anything the coalition did in those six months, ...
Consolidated: Best Novel 1) The Dervish House by Ian McDonald 2) Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold 3) Feed by Mira Grant 4) The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin 5) No Award 6) Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis Best Novella 1) The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang 2) "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A. Landis 3) "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window" by Rachel Swirsky 4) "Troika" by Alastair Reynolds 5) "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon" by Elizabeth Hand 6) No Award Best Novelette 1) "Eight Miles" by Sean McMullen 2) "The Emperor of Mars" by Allen M. Steele 3) No Award 4) "Plus or Minus" ...
When I was a young boy, innocent and more concerned about cartoons than politics, my family became a victim of terrorism. At the tender age of five, mother's cousin was assassinated by co-ordinated ambush by the Provisional IRA. ITN lunch ... Continue reading →
I haven't actually finished this, but I've simply lost interest; despite having read the two previous volumes in the series (this is the tenth) I can't remember why I was supposed to care about any of the characters, and I'm going to do something else with my time. Which concludes my reading for the Best Graphic Story category of this year's Hugo Awards. My votes will be as follows: 6) Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler 5) Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio 4) No Award ...
So I think that this is probably all that needs to be said to the Murdoch's and News International with regards to the phone hacking scandal: That is all.
Today The Times has an article which refers to my post about the 'Crime Prevention UK' scam. Sadly I can't find it on the online version so you will have to go and buy it yourself!
Like everyone I am shocked by what has happened in Norway. It's an appalling tragedy and the more you hear of the details the worse it is. But it isn't just the scale and appalling nature of what happened that for me is what makes it such a tragedy. It's where it happened – not ...
Delighted though I am to see the ongoing humiliation of Rupert Murdoch, I fear that the story is not going to end well. There are two big issues: the disgusting journalistic techniques of the tabloid press, and Murdoch's stifling control of the media (analysed with gloom by none other than Charles Moore in his piece this morning, "I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right"). The closure of the News of the World solves neither problem. It deprives Murdoch of some of his share of the overall media scene, but he remains dominant; and while of course ...
Bizarrely, I was watching dancing coal miners dressed in tutus when I heard the news of Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation last Sunday evening. A little trigger went off in my mind. Suddenly, the unthinkable had become thinkable. "Cameron will be next" I thought. OK. We're now in the "long grass" of the parliamentary recess. Cameron put in a "Tory Trebles all round", barn-storming performance at the dispatch box on Wednesday. He must have been thankful it was jet-lag proof Johannesburg he had come from (where he met a different type of Tutu) and not New York, with its jet-lag on ...
Until a year or so ago Ian Darke was part of Sky's Big Four of football commentators (along with the #1 Martin Tyler, Rob Hawthorne and Alan Parry) and was the clear #1 boxing commentator with the network. Then everything changed. Everything changed with one call... That call of the Landon Donovan Goal for ESPN/ABC brought Darke to the attention of the network. They had loaned Martin Tyler and Ian Darke from Sky Sports for the World Cup and Darke was causing waves. Fans were raving about his excitable nature and the way he calls games. People were comparing him ...
I'm not sure whether the Labour and Conservative Euro MPs know where Consett is. Fiona Hall, our hard working Lib Dem Euro MP, and leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at Brussels, certainly does. I'm always delighted to see her here, and Thursday was no exception as we knocked some doors and spoke to local people as Fiona sought some answers to questions that she's really keen to explore; Who do people really blame for the financial mess the country has found itself in? What do people feel about Nuclear Power? What are the local issues on people's minds? It ...
Last month I spoke at the National Liberal Club at an event marking forgotten Liberal heroes, with each of us picking our own person to remember. Thanks to the technical wizardry of Lib Dem Voice's Alex Foster you can listen to the podcast of my 12 minute talk over on Lib Dem Voice (and you can read more about the person I picked here or hear Nick Robinson's 15 minute program on the person here).
Lib Dems, and probably others in education, have been saying for an age that the idea of Academies was not a good one. Splitting some state school provision off from the local authority in whose area it resides is divisive and costly. Michael Gove and his Tory pals have tried to accelerate the programme of change by applying pressure in all kinds of ways. Now the truth about the cost of the
Plaid Cymru AMs and activists have already been on social networking sites to condemn this article in today's Western Mail as evidence that Matt Withers knows little 'about Plaid and Welsh politics' or even that it is 'inaccurate' and 'full of lies'. So clearly, some of it must be right. It is worth pointing out by the way that the article was written by Martin Shipton and not Matt Withers. Did Bethan Jenkins actually read it? The paper says that political sources both within and beyond Plaid have spoken to them about the crisis facing the party as potential leadership ...
This morning's Western Mail article attacking Aled Roberts for using English in Assembly business really misses the point. Worse than it demonstrates a lack of understanding on the part of some Labour AMs of the bilingual society they are meant to be in favour of. I will make two points: 1. Aled Roberts' first language is Welsh and most of the time he will work through the medium of Welsh. Obviously that will not be the case when he is working with a non-welsh speaker. The point remains therefore that it was perfectly reasonable and natural for him to access ...
Many people love to criticise initiatives such as High Speed 2 (HS2) which will improve the rail infrastucture to those in London and in other areas of the Country. When Ealing Council said it was objecting to the scheme it was endangering the jobs to our area. Clearly in the short term infrastucture schemes like HS2 or Crossrail can give new jobs whilst the scheme is being built and also when the schemes are completed. For Ealing I can see that by Ealing saying no and trying to pretend to like large rail schemes, it will possibly stop the whole ...
TREE DEPARTMENT QUESTIONED BY CLLR PREECEAinsdale councillor Haydn Preece has hit out at council Tree Department officials, wasting money in Ainsdale village. Three weeks ago Councillor Preece urgently reported an up rooted tree in Station Road. The tree a maturing, substantial sapling, sadly had been blown over during a stormy night. Cllr Preece coincidentally was catching the first train to Liverpool and emailed the council tree department at 5:30am. Cllr Preece said "I was horrified that evening to see the tree had not been re planted and given a chance to re-establish itself. Instead a bare hole was left with ...
Last year the chief of Hampshire Police attended a Q&A session in the Council chamber. The meeting was attended by a number of Parish and Borough councillors. The Police took some criticism that they were never seen in some of the Parishes and were to town focussed. When the Chief explained that extra police were being used in the town centre to prevent violent crime, some seemed appalled. It
It was bad enough when I went to bed last night. At least 17 killed in total and many injured and unacounted for. This morning, the news has spoken of an unimanageable hell. As well as the 7 killed in the Oslo blast, at least 84 people, mainly young members of Norway's ruling Labour Party, have been killed in a murdering horror-spree on the island of Utoeya. Arrested and it would appear the orchestrator of both events is Anders Behring Breivik who has a biography of shorts already on this BBC News website article. Will The Sun apologise for this ...
As a Londoner I have never lost my enthusiasm for the city. I would not have joined the Liberal Democrats if I did not passionately believe in the core values that the Party has to offer. The only way we are going to gain seats in London is by working as a team, having clear objectives and methods of campaigning and fund-raising, and a co-ordinated approach which I believe will see us getting our message across. I believe I will generate media interest as I have a good story to tell and will improve Liberal Democrat representation across London as ...
I was going to write something about the tragic and evil events that have recently taken place in Norway. But, as always, there are those who can say things far better than I ever could. And so I'd instead like to point you towards the words of Stephen Glenn which I feel are incredibly apt and which deserve a wider audience. You can read what he's said here. He's written in both Norwegian and English and I strongly suggest you go and read it all. But if not, here are some extracts: The only way I can even attempt to ...
After my last post, a counter view from Obnoxio the Clown on how the free market works and, if one agrees with him, why it wouldn't lead to socialism. I should warn readers that in Obnoxio's post I didn't spot one swear word! NB. Regular readers of the clown's blog will know he does like to use fruity Anglo-Saxon language.
Yesterday I completed another first and something I have wanted to do for a long long time. I spent a very enjoyable day being an archaeologist in deepest darkest Surrey unearthing the remains of a Tudor building. In order to be ...
It is counter-intuitive, for most people, but Kevin Carson over at the Center for a Stateless Society argues that an unfettered free market will lead to socialism. The piece has something for everyone: people who dislike capitalism, people who like free markets, people who like socialism and perhaps most importantly Star Trek fans. As a non-economist, I have no idea how good the theory is but practically given the way our economy and political world is constructed it is a long way off. Then again, the adventures of Captain Kirk and crew are in the distant future.
Yesterday I was out in the middle of the Surrey countryside being an archaeologist for the day and therefore cut off from the world of TV and social media. More of that in another post, but it meant that I ...
The death toll in Norway is far worse than I thought last night. At least 84 young people are confirmed dead in the shootings on Utøya and seven after the bombing in central Oslo. When I heard this morning of ... Continue reading →
Politicians in all parties will sometimes say they want an enabling State. The idea that the State enables people to run their lives, achieve their potential and generally get on with things has a lot of appeal. It answers the impulse of the individual to be in control, while setting out a role for the State that no longer looks after you but offers a helping hand. But what should an enabling State do? I suspect there are different models to an enabling State. The social democratic model would involve the State identifying problems and providing money to people to ...
Everyone agrees that Ed Miliband has had a 'good war' over the phone hacking scandal. Yet the polls haven't moved in his direction. Before the story broke, the Ed Miliband question had been: where does Ed want to take the Labour party? Now it appears to be: how come when things go well for Ed, the voters still don't see him in a better light? No doubt the answer is complex. It is probably partly because he, and the Labour party, have yet to answer the first question. This is a deliberate strategy by Miliband who wants time to develop ...
After the events of the past twenty-four hours, that is the headline that I would expect to see shortly. And why would that be? I'm a Returning Officer with a lot of experience, especially of elections where there have been teams campaigning in support of a preferred candidate. In such circumstances, there is a golden rule - you, the candidate, are responsible for the acts of your campaign team, and will be held accountable for them. Normally, of course, this is an issue where selection rules have been broken, or opponents defamed. Defaming third parties is not, as a rule, ...
britishrailways.tv
The B1050 near Willingham will be temporarily closed on Sunday for vital improvements and patching to take place. Material taken from the road will be recycled and used in the repairs which follow discussions with the local Willingham Parish Council. The B1050 will be closed from Bridge Farm lay-by to its junction with the A1123 roundabout between 7am and 6pm on Sunday, July 24. A signed diversion will be in place using the B1050/ A14/ B1094/ A1123 and vice versa. The Council would like to apologise for any inconvenience and ask motorists to allow plenty of time for their journey. ...
Jeg beklager for mine norske dette har vært oversatt via Google translate. Men på denne vanskelige tiden føler jeg at jeg trenger å snakke med venner i Norge og andre i deres eget språk, så vel som å la mine engelsktalende lesere kjenner mine tanker. I apologise for my Norwegian this has been translated through Google translate. But at this difficult time I feel I need to speak to friends in Norway and others in their own language, as well as letting my English speaking readers know my thoughts. Jeg prøver å forstå hva som har foregått i Norge i ...
Following requests from residents that the very top part of Hyndford Street be added to the list of streets for future pavement upgrade under the Unadopted Footways Programme, the City Engineer has advised me : "I can confirm that the section of Hyndford Street north of Blackness Avenue will be assessed in 2012/13 and added to the Unadopted Footway priority list after assessment."
Rather well done this ...!
Cyanide, Uranium, and Ammonium Nitrate: When Kids Really Had Fun With Science Whatever happened to the home science set? Well, they're still very much in abundance, but let's compare them to science kits past! (tags: education science)
The Bujold Nexus - A Civil Campaign Companion CONTENTS Editors' Introduction ; References and AbbreviationsPart I: The Major Intertexts - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice - Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre - Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract - Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night - William Shakespeare Part II: 'A comedy of biology and manners' Part III: Annotations, by chapter Afterword: LMB's continuing romance with romance (Hope this is better than the Bujold Companion which came out a few years back.) (tags: sf) Eccleston explains why he left Doctor Who | Bad Wilf Why Christopher Eccestone left: "My face didn't fit and ...
I've been keeping late hours baking but as I was getting ready to turn in, the news began breaking about the extent of the awfulness in Norway. As I write, 80 are confirmed dead at a summer camp for youth members of Norway's ruling Labour party. It's terrible, terrible news, all the more vivid for me for the thought that this meeting must have been a similar sort of thing to the dozens run by our own party over the years. None of us would ever have considered Activate, or a Liberal Youth meeting a target for such an atrocity. ...
Note from Herts County Council HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL TEMPORARY CLOSING OF A4147 FOLLY LANE, ST ALBANS NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of A4147 Folly Lane, St Albans from its junction with Normandy Road westwards to its junction with A5183 Folly Lane, a distance of approximately 665 metres, except for access. The purpose of the Order is to enable the installation of a new pedestrian crossing and associated works to take place. It is anticipated ...
.... if they want our business, why don't they take over this empty store????
John Dodd at the site of the new pitch Construction of the new 5-a-side football pitch for youngsters is well under way at Crossens Rec. John Dodd is pictured above at the site. The cost has come from a Playbuilder grant available for keep-fit projects for youngsters. Crossens Community Association, which has its headquartersat the former library on the recreation ground, suggested a five-a-sidefootball pitch would be the most popular youth attraction. Lib Dem councillors took up that idea and now building work on the pitch has started. The five-a-side pitch for young people will be anotherimprovement for Crossens Rec, ...
