This could well be a future headline on the iPads of 2050 if the newly announced post-Olympic neighborhoods decline into poverty and criminality as has happened with previous large scale housing developments along the decades. What is the future to hold for the Olympic Park? Chobham Manor, East Wick, Marshgate Wharf, Sweetwater and Pudding Mill are the names of the estates that will take form on the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London over the next 20 years post London 2012. However, I do worry whether a series of economic and urban planning factors may well contribute to the creation ...
Back in 2007, when I wrote about The Exorcism, a television play by Don Taylor that scared me when I was 12, I said I was sure it would still terrify me today. This evening I discovered that it is on Youtube, so could someone please watch all four parts of it (part 1 is below; Youtube will offer you the rest when you have watched it) and report back? I have risked watching a little of part 1, but have not gone beyond marvelling at a suave, very seventies Clive Swift - years before he married Hyacinth Bucket. Over ...
The weekend's massacre in Hama appears to have roused the UN from its blind eye regarding Assad's Syria. But the wheels of diplomacy turn slowly and it will be weeks before any action is taken (if at all). Perhaps they need to appoint some sort of envoy who could knock heads together?
It is time for the latest in my occasional series looking at what politicians and commentators said about phone-hacking before the scandal broke. Past episodes have featured David Cameron, Jenny Jones, Boris Johnson.and Guido Fawkes. This evening we turn to the normally sensible Matthew d'Ancona, writing in September 2010. He cannot be held responsible for the Daily Telegraph subeditor who introduced his article with the words "The campaign against Andy Coulson, David Cameron's communications chief, is partisan, hypocritical and unjust," even though that is a pretty fair summation of his argument. What d'Ancona offered was paragraphs of praise for Coulson, ...
This year is the 160th anniversary of the Great Exhibition. In Victorian times Britain was very much the "workshop of the world" and the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park showed off Britain's manufacturing talent. Britain is still a major manufacturer, about the world's 6th largest. Now Parliament is staging a twenty first century version of ...
Nick Thornsby has written a post drawing our attention to an article in the Economist that argues there is no easy way out of our current economic difficulties. In Nick's own words: Much of the economic growth in western Europe and the US was driven not by economies becoming more productive, more competitive and embracing technological advances but by consumers spending more and more borrowed money. People improved their quality of life and stimulated the economy by buying things that they couldn't really afford - most notably, and disastrously, houses. In 2007 the bubble came to an end. Confidence collapsed, ...
Amy Winehouse's bereaved father yesterday met with senior MPs to urge them to "do more" to combat addiction among young people. Mitch Winehouse met Keith Vaz (Chairman, Home Affairs Select Committee) and James Brokenshire (crime minister) to discuss drugs policy and the services currently available to those who need support to overcome addiction problems. The BBC website reports that Mr Winehouse "'spoke from his heart' during the meeting" after which he concluded that "I am convinced that there's a willingness for people to change the way things are going." On one level, there won't be a person in the country ...
The ongoing economic crisis that began in 2007 may have had several distinct phases, but all have been effectively caused by one thing: debt. Or, more precisely, excessive debt. As The Economist says (hattip to Stephen Tall): Economic policy in ... Continue reading →
The JUDGEment was amongst many other outlets and frustrated disabled travelers who outpoured their disbelief in the fact that the BBC's Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May parked their electric cars in disabled parking bays whilst filming a segment for the popular Sunday night BBC2 programme. The Disabled Motorists Federation and Disabled Motoring UK were some of the biggest organisations to publicly judge Top Gear on their production choices. "By parking in a disabled bay it appeared Jeremy and James were condoning this antisocial behaviour and as some members put it - encouraging other selfish people to do ...
Today was a lovely day in central Brussels. I bought my lunchtime sandwich and gravitated towards the Cinquantenaire park (I normally go to the Ambiorix park which is nearer my office, but fancied a change). And I found my attention caught by the closed, dilapidated pavilion beside the mosque: Its a strong neo-classical building, one of the early works of the great architect Victor Horta, but firmly locked up so that the Belgian public cannot see what is inside it. And what is inside it? A huge sculpture by Jef Lambeaux, depicting the Human Passions. There are varying stories as ...
Eastrop Park is more popular than ever and on the busiest days visitors to the park look for parking spaces in areas reserved for residents. Cllr Stuart Parker has been working with Council Officers on a solution that would protect residents, without preventing visitors enjoying the park. We want your view on proposals, drawn up to create an overflow car park next to the existing car park.
[IMG: addexstreme] It seems rather ironic given that Cllr Simon Moores earns money from towing ads from a plane without any planning regulations, he is quoted in the council press release on "illegal advertising" so far the examples shown in the media, have yet to harm me in the deep psychological way that it looks to offend Thanet Council officers and those who are attracted to Cllr Moores. Apparently zealous council officers are about to wallop wrongdoers with the full force of criminal law. Leader of Thanet council Cllr Bob Bayford (who he? exactly) made a good choice in placing ...
We reported recently that the X-ray facility in the new West Gate Centre at Yate has started closing at 5pm due to lack of patients in the early evening. Focus councillors persuaded health chiefs to run a survey that asks you, the residents of the area about the hours and services you want at the Minor Injuries Unit, the X-ray facilities, and the outpatient clinics. You can click here to complete the survey online, or download a copy to print out and send to a Freepost address or drop in to the NHS reception desk at the Yate West Gate ...
So, there we have it. With only 12 hours to spare, the US Congress pulled back from leading the world's largest economy towards a humiliating and devastating default on its debts by increasing its debt ceiling by $2.4tn from $14.3tn. Source: BBC News Website Surely, it never was going to happen was it? Probably not. But leaving it to the 11th hour in such a way demonstrated just how divided the Congress is on this issue and more generally. What is quite extraordinary however is that even at this latest of moments there were so many members of Congress from ...
The Treasury Select Committee's recently published report on HM Revenue & Customs has pulled very few punches indeed. Our poor performance, combined with a sense that we make it difficult for people to communicate with us, risks the currently high levels of voluntary compliance. Now, you will note that I have taken their criticism at face value which, given that I work for HMRC, puts me in a slightly awkward position. But I'm not going to attempt to rebut their claims, for two reasons - firstly, that the evidence supplied to the Select Committee by those giving evidence to it ...
According to the Daily Telegraph today, the right is in trouble in America. Also according to the Telegraph today, the left is finished everywhere. So I guess The Telegraph think that the future belongs to the centrists. Like us. Good work everyone
With the news that the US congress has just raised the debt ceiling, and committed the nation to severe spending cuts without raising a cent of extra revenue, mere hours before it would have faced defaulting on its debt. Nations around the world, including Russia and China, are criticising the US for inflicting upon themselves an entirely unnecessary crisis which could have destroyed the entire world's economy. The damage done to America's reputation, coupled with the massively destructive impending spending cuts which will take money out of the economy and gut the defence budget, has pretty much signalled the downfall ...
They do say that politicians and journalists consider August the silly season. Parliament is away and MPs and journos are on the beaches. That gives a great opportunity to fill pages that would otherwise be empty with nonsense. My mate ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Anam at the US Capitol] [IMG: Creative Commons License] photo credit: mateoutah Cross-posted from Liberal Democrat Voice Well, you have to hand it to our American cousins. They can certainly do theatrics. The solving of the (self-inflicted) debt crisis has been a real nail-biter. At the tenth hour last night, there was a bi-partisan vote in the US House of Representatives, including the hugely poignant appearance of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. All House members were on their feet as she returned to Congress for the first time since being shot while carrying out a constituency surgery (as we would call ...
It's been a lovely afternoon in the growing warmth of the west Wales sunshine. I've been down in the so-called 'Somerfield' Car Park (it's now the Co-op) down alongside the Teifi River, fly-postering cars with flyers to remind everyone that the Car Park will be closed this coming Friday evening and Saturday for the annual Cardigan River & Food Festival. As well as leaving the photographed flyers under the windscreen wipers of parked vehicles, I also put up posters to remind car park users of the same. It was a glorious location to spend a few hours this afternoon with ...
TweetSo the City of Westminster Police now are classing anarchists are terrorists, or at least at the same level as such, and therefore should be reported to them. Quite frankly i find this a terrifying abuse of police powers, and hope somebody steps in to stop it. The police issued this brief about anarchists "Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police."" Now I'm not sure if you have to hold all of those beliefs ...
I took my daughter to Manchester Airport this morning and we welcomed home our Stockport swimmers, back from the World Championships in China. Keri-Anne Payne (below) returned from winning Gold in the women's 10km swim, to see her newborn niece for the first time. Stockport has (if I've counted right) 14 olympians and para-olympians, including a very strong group of swimmers at the Stockport Metro club. We're looking forward to cheering them on at London 2012 and hopefully seeing a bunch more medals making their way up here.
Let's imagine the following scenario. A gunman goes on the rampage somewhere on the outskirts of a capital city - let's imagine it's Windsor. He's shooting dozens of children and young people who are all camping there on a retreat. In a desperate attempt to escape, many of the children throw themselves into the Thames to try and escape, where the gunman pursues them, shooting into the water. Seeing all this unfold before their unbelieving eyes, a couple on the opposite bank drive their boat TOWARDS the scene, and brave their lives to scoop the victims out of the water ...
Well it was all a bit too good to be true wasn't it? Having gone on about how well I was coping with my election defeat, how it was time for new plans and looking to the future, and with a burst of energy going into new projects and writing on this blog, on reflection it seems inevitable that I would have some sort of crash. Well it happened. The last few weeks I've been a bit rubbish, both mentally and physically. I've had a major change to my life imposed on me and it was perhaps a bit naive ...
Hardly a day goes by without the dead British economist John Maynard Keynes being invoked, such as this article from this morning's Independent. Generally it is the critics of austerity that use his name, although this article is more nuanced, blaming George Bush and Gordon Brown for getting us into this mess by ignoring Keynes's prescriptions. And many more economists, including big names like Paul Krugman, use ideas that most people understand as "Keynesianism" even if they do not evoke the great man directly, rightly thinking it is better to appeal to logic and evidence rather than dead men, however ...
Jonathan May-Bowles is, as far as I'm aware, no relative of mine. This is good, because while I and my family have done some daft things in our time, directly attacking Parliament isn't something I'd particularly like to be associated with. 'Jonnie Marbles' jailed Sentencing May-Bowles, district judge Daphne Wickham said the aim of the attack was to disrupt proceedings, which were of "of huge importance" ... "This is a parliamentary process, which as you know conducts itself with dignity and in a civilised fashion. Everybody else in the room expected that, with one exception - you. "You attended those ...
Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown has emailed Lib Dem members to appeal for urgent donations to help with the famine in the Horn of Africa: As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation. It is a crisis that has unfolded slowly, so much so that the media has found little drama to force it to top of news bulletins – which have instead ...
Collected links from around the webNewsCorp lawyer "did not realise that paying the police was a criminal offence" FFS. (tags: Murdoch NewsCorp Hacking Jon-Chapman) Facebook will destroy your children's brains | @mjrobbins has got this science coverage spot on It's possibly true that Facebook is devouring brains and mental capacity. But not because of these badly reported science studies. (tags: science satire scary journalism) How cool is this? Gorgeous Two-Face costume made/worn by gorgeous girl Had no idea who Two-Face was until I played the Lego Batman game, Jennie 'enlightened' me. She also insists I link to this so she ...
I'm one of those people that want to pull their hair out whenever anybody tries to summarise politics with 'Left & Right'. However for perhaps the first time during my life, all the mainstream politicians of Britain have been lining up over a debate, inadvertantly forming a Left/Right divide. Here's the debate: There's growing consensus that the stagnating growth in our economy could be stimulated by a round of tax cuts. Which taxes do you cut? The Coalition Agreement committed the government to the Lib Dem key 2010 policy of raising the basic rate of Income Tax threshold to £10,000. ...
TweetIt appears that the UKUncut activist Jonnie Marbles (Jonathan May Bowles) has been jailed for 6 weeks for flinging a shaving foam pie into the face of Rupert Murdoch at a select committee hearing on phone hacking. The Yellow Bastard finds it slightly amusing that just 15 minutes before his trial, Marbles still did not regret his actions, and tweeting the following Notice the classy Hitler version of the Simpsons background to, I can't help but wonder whether this is a statement on his situation too. What ever his feelings towards his own fate, Marbles ensured that the Darth Vader ...
TweetReading through the usual left wing gutter press that masquerades itself as Political Scrapbook I was shocked to see that the site had allowed a comment of the most abhorrent and racist nature, after not long giving the Lib Dems a lecture on racism here The comment in question is on an article about Simon Hughes' dodgy parking and appears as "asian fukkers go home" One hopes the moderators of the site remove the offending comment sooner rather than later. Tut Tut Political Scrapbook!
Lots of media report that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made a big shift in policy towards the position of President Obama, when it comes to the vexed question of Israel's eventual borders with a putative Palestinian state. In other words, we're heading for another of those periods of fevered activity in the Israel/Palestine peace process, when the breathless 24-hour media will rush to report every detail of who has said what to whom when, before it dies down and we all move on to the next thing again. I am a strong believer in the possibility that something can and ...
The website 'False Economy' has today published research showing which of the 2,000 or so charities have had their funding cut by Local Authorities. You can read all about the research and its findings from Freedom of Information requests here. You ...
The fire on 1st August was at The Oaks, Roundabout Lane, off Reading Road. It started in a shed, but smoke got into the loft space of the bungalow and has caused some damage. Royal Berks Fire & Rescue told me no-one was in the house at the time, but one person has been treated in hospital. Four appliances attended. It took about 4 hours to put the fire out completely. There will be an investigation into the cause of the fire. Many fires start because of electrical faults, but apparently there was no electricity supply to the shed. If ...
Tue 2nd
13:55
Why @guidofawkes is so out of line over his e-petition to restore the Death Penalty in the UK
My blood has boiled and cooled and boiled and cooled on this topic several times over the past few days. First of all when it got the attention it first did I was not amused as the death penalty is barbaric and is essentially state sanctioned murder and that is never a good thing. However I cooled down a bit. Then I saw a few Lib Dems saying that they agreed with the death penalty on the latest House of Twits Vote looking at the numbers as it currently stands 27 people (and two Lib Dems) support the death penalty ...
Simon Hughes, Lib Dem deputy leader and author of The Hughes Report on access to higher education, recently had an op-ed in the Daily Express outlining the thoughts he sets out in that report. Here's a sample: Last week I submitted my report to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, with more than 30 recommendations on what can be done to improve access to higher education. These do not focus only on university admissions but on what can be done to encourage young people to think about university from an early age. This is crucial because from the age ...
Town Hall Meeting for Londoners Londoners can put their questions to Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg next week, in an hour-long discussion in central London. Iain Dale will host the event on Monday August 8th at 6pm, which will be broadcast live on LBC 97.3. To apply for a free ticket, fill in the form at the LBC 97.3 website. Q&A session for London Liberal Democrat members only And exclusively for London Liberal Democrat members, Nick's taking part in a Q&A session on Wednesday 10 August. This is a unique chance for London party ...
PMQs: the video game: pixelpolitics: ...with a surprise! Do your Wednesdays feel joyless and empty now Parliament's in its summer recess? Does 12 o'clock pass without event, leaving you deflated and depressed? Prime Minister's Questions is every political nut's favourite time of the week and we all deserve to enjoy it whenever we...
In October there will be several changes to bus services in Basingstoke. You can't see them by clicking on a link that isn't here. The lack of link isn't my laziness, but a lack of information. Ask when the last bus leaves, and we're left with an educated guess from those who really should know. The thing that annoys me the most is a lack of consultation. The changes should have been
Which is why its really sad to see that local authorities are cutting funding to over 2,000 charities at a time when many of the services that these charities provide are bevoming more essential. I work for a hearing loss charity ...
There is a letter in this morning's Western Mail that is not just wrong-headed but also misunderstands the position with regards to the translation of the record of proceedings (Cofnod) of the Welsh Assembly Plenary. The author starts by referring to the suggestion that we might be able to obtain a fuly bi-lingual Cofnod by the use of Google Translate. Assuming this was sustainble then this proposal would come in at a cost of about £110,000 rather than the £240,000 cost of using external translators. However, Mr. Jones believes that such talk demonstrates an 'English mindset'. He writes: It is ...
According to the front page of the Leicester Mercury two Labour councillors have called for the return of the death penalty. Barbara Potter and Sundip Meghani both represent the city on the Leicestershire Police Authority. In the interests of fairness, I shall allow the councillors to speak for themselves. Here is Sundip Meghani: "It's a complicated issue but I'm in favour of capital punishment in some circumstances. I think it may be wrong to restrict the death penalty solely to the murderers of children and police, because that gives some lives more value than others. But multiple killers should be ...
Here. I contribute about 1000 words (or about the length of one of my normal posts here) to part two of the LoEG annocommentations, mostly adding little bits about Aleister Crowley. Amypoodle, Bobsy and Zom all contribute far more (I was ill when we did this one). For those wondering where I am, I've been ...
I'm sure you will be pleased to hear that Bar Hill, Dry Drayton, Boxworth and Lolworth have all been very quiet this week with only one crime being reported in Bar Hill. This crime relates to a mobile phone being left on a dispay unit within Tesco's, and when the owner has returned to collect the phone they have found it to be missing. We have also received a report of some teenagers that were skateboarding down the hill from Oatlands Avenue towards the industrial estate in Bar Hill. PCSO Mani attended and located the group who were all given ...
Very worrying news this week that two women living in Redlands were sexually assaulted by a burglar. The Police have suggested that insecure windows and doors in properties around Blenheim Road and Donnington Road could make this area more of a target for burglars. I have written to Inspector Penny Mackenzie and John Wright, Head of Safer Communities at Reading Borough Council to ask what action is being taken to keep residents safe and reduce burglaries in our area. The July update of the Redlands & University Police Team reported: "Burglary in the area remains a high concern for the ...
As this link reveals (thanks to @PaulWaugh for tweeting it and the Education Law Blog for posting it), Sharon Shoesmith has won her latest victory in court over her dismissal from Haringey Council. Here's the entire piece. The Supreme Court yesterday refused permission for either Haringey Borough Council or the Secretary of State to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision in Shoesmith v OFSTED and others [2011] EWCA Civ 642. The Court of Appeal declared that the Secretary of State's directions, insofar as they purported to remove Ms Shoesmith from her position as Haringey's Director of Children's Services, were ...
[IMG: 1b] Registrations are now open for ALDC's Kickstart Training Weekend - 25-27 November 2011, near Birmingham. This is our main training event of the year and a great opportunity to ensure your team is a winning team at your next local elections - click here to go direct to the online booking form. FACT: In the couple of years years almost all of us face local elections of some sort. Scotland, Wales, English Mets and Districts and London in 2012, English Counties in 2013. FACT: To win in challenging circumstances your team needs the skills and information to campaign ...
Yesterday's report that those of us of modest means face a bleak old age sadly comes as no surprise to me. I've been thinking for some time that we're in a bit of a Catch 22 situation, whatever we do with pensions. The State is currently putting an unsustainable amount of money into public sector pensions. Labour, and previous Conservative Governments, should have dealt with this years ago, before it became critical to manage the deficit. Instead, they stuck their heads in the sand. The Coalition Government is trying to deal with the financial gap by asking public sector employees ...
For the latest edition of the Journal of Liberal History, I wrote up a report of our fringe meeting held at the party's spring conference on the subject of Lords reform. Here it is. Lords reform 1911-2011Conference fringe meeting, 11 March 2011, with Lord Norton and Lord Marks; chair: Baroness Scott [IMG: House of Lords. House of Lords. Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament] One hundred years on from the 1911 Parliament Act, the Liberal Democrat History Group's Sheffield conference meeting looked at the history of Lords reform - what has happened in the intervening 100 ...
This morning everyone's favourite newspaper* The Sun showed us the results of a poll they had done on politics. The results are as follows: Nick Clegg is a sheep. Ed Miliband and David Cameron are like snakes and William Hague is the only cabinet minister who is doing a good job. Nick Clegg is doing the worst job because he's evil. Sums up the piece pretty well or does it? Right at the bottom of the piece there was a graphic that showed how many of the respondents to the poll in percentage terms could recognise the cabinet members by ...
Yesterday, for you uninitiated types, was Yorkshire Day. A day to celebrate all that is great and good about God's Own County, the largest county in England, the home of Wilberforce, Moore and Bennett. In town halls and village greens all over this county, people are celebrating the identity of the county. This regional ...
Landed safely, but ye gods, overnight west-east flights still kick my arse. Hello, jetlag. Stan's travel diary will be updated one last time shortly, and the best photos to appear here when I get a moment. Volunteering at GBBF again this week, and according to my festival shirt, my latest job title is "official dispenser of mischief" - hee!
Well, you have to hand it to our American cousins. They can certainly do theatrics. The solving of the (self-inflicted) debt crisis has been a real nail-biter. At the tenth hour last night, there was a bi-partisan vote in the US House of Representatives, including the hugely poignant appearance of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. All House members were on their feet as she returned to Congress for the first time since being shot while carrying out a constituency surgery (as we would call it). It was pure Hollywood. But beneath the tear-jerking choreography let's acknowledge that it is genuinely historic for ...
On 26 May this year a First Capital Connect train on the Thameslink route caught a branch in its pantograph. When the pantograph was raised at Farringdon it shorted the power supply. The train managed to get to St Pancras but the passengers were not told to alight. As it proceeded towards Kentish Town it shorted again and the passengers were stuck in a tunnel. No information was provided and no serious rescue was mounted for a period of hours. The air-conditioning also failed. This is not unique. Indeed, on more than one occasion on the network, passengers have decided ...
San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay Spotlight: Gender Bent Justice League - Los Angeles Art - Style Council Awesome photos of gender bent superheroes. (tags: comics) Julia Roberts is almost cute enough for the media, but not quite — The Hathor Legacy Jo Swinson gets the approval of the Hathor Legacy (tags: feminism) Doctor Who: Thoughts on Eleven and His Different Darkness Fascinating thoughts about the eleventh Doctor. (tags: doctorwho)
The Daily Telegraph write Is power without popularity the best David Cameron can hope for? in which it comments on Danny Alexander and what those on the right of the political spectrum consider to be his strengths. Not necessarily what those on the left would believe to be strengths but praise for him nonetheless: Over ...
I notice that this is the one thousandth post on this blog. Something of a milestone, and not one I always expected to hit. The content has varied- mostly comments on topics of the moment, and therefore easily dated. Sometimes whimsical, and therefore easily ignored, sometimes polemical, and therefore easily discounted. Some of my pieces are a lot better than others, but when I compare with the newspaper columnists, I do not feel unduly ashamed about the overall quality. It is interesting identifying what people want to read: some pieces that I expect might strike a spark end up with ...
Received from Dundee City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating carriageway resurfacing works. The Order is expected to be in force for ten nights from 4 September 2011. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Riverside Drive from the Tay Rail Bridge for a distance of 200 metres or thereby west. Pedestrian thoroughfare and vehicular access to premises will be maintained where possible. The ...
Seen in a Council report - "...to further upskill my abilities..." Translation - 'to improve my skills!' Has plain English ceased to be a skill?
I have received residents' complaints about the poor pavement condition on the north side of Abbotsford Place towards the Blackness Avenue end (see right). Having raised this with the City Council, I am pleased to have received this response : "A Roads Maintenance Partnership Inspector has visited the location and an order to fill 2 holes on the footway has been raised. The potholes should be filled within 28 days." Given that this is an area with a lot of sheltered housing and elderly people, I am pleased that this matter is to be soon attended to.
An Elkie Brooks hit from 1978 to round off this short series of Elkie's great hits :
The removal of people's employment rights etc affects this generation only, but the proposed bonfire of planning regulations will affect our "green and pleasant land" for generations. Of course, people have to live somewhere and there is a crhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifying need for more and affordable housing, but this does not justify the invasion of green-field sites which, once despoiled by urban sprawl, will take several hundred years, if ever, to recover. As Simon Jenkins pointed out in his excellent article in the Guardian last week: "There is no "need" to build on green-field sites anywhere in Britain. There is merely a ...
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What are you grateful for? I asked myself that question on Saturday night as I sat huddled around a camp fire with friends breathing in the crisp air of a Scottish glen. How often do we stop and thank fortune for the lives we live? When was the last time you felt grateful, truly grateful? ...
This website is taking its traditional summer break. Deckchairs and sunbathers on a sunny Sunday, Brighton beach by David Hawgood Deckchairs and sunbathers on a sunny Sunday, Brighton beach (David Hawgood) / CC BY-SA 2.0
