An excerpt from a forthcoming film short about Robert Clayton's photo book Estate - colour documentary photographs shot a generation ago.
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation LD prospective candidate – Keith Malvern
I have a soft spot for The Age of Insecurity, a 1998 book by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson. In part this is because, having bought a copy and sat down to read it, I found that I was quoted in it. Since you ask, that quote runs: In a letter to the Guardian on 15 September 1997, Jonathan Calder wrote: "Labour is effectively recasting unemployment as a form of individual delinquency."So I can claim to have identified early on a trend that has continued right up to Iain Duncan Smith and his Work Capability Assessments. The other reason I ...
I came across a Labour Party leaflet the other day that had been delivered in an area of Southport and it did make me chuckle. [IMG: Sefton Logo] An article in it featuring the Labour Leader of Sefton Council starts off by saying 'I recently visited Southport'. Well, if those few words don't confirm what Southport folk have always thought i.e. that they are in the far flung rarely visited part of the Borough (a Borough they have never wanted to be a part of, I might add) I don't know what does. And when I say rarely visited I ...
Good news as James McGrory was very highly rated by the journalists he dealt with doing media work for the Liberal Democrats over the last few years*: Pleased to be joining the @StrongerIn campaign as Chief Campaign Spokesman. We're stronger, safer and better off in Europe. — James McGrory (@JamesMcGrory) December 8, 2015 * He was also called "popular" by the Daily Mail. But don't hold that against him too much.
Sometimes getting information is a painstaking business of trying to find the question that gets the information you really want to know. The exchange below may all sound very dry and technical, but it contains one vital piece of information. Whatever decision is to be made after this "consultation" is completed, whenever that is, all councillors will get the opportunity to vote on it. I think two good things come out of that: It proves that teaching assistants have been right to seek to involve their councillors in thinking about this issue, and the more information we all have the ...
What a rare thing – a blog post. At the end of another writingful year I thought it worth noting a few of the achievements now likely to vanish into posterity. There are, after all, so many words out there, mostly words about words. Like book reviews. I have written six this year, the most Continue reading I have written six book reviews this year →
Chichester Hall film day on 19th December: one day, two great Christmas films! Get your tickets now at Sandgate Village Shop or LOAF, both on Sandgate High Street. [IMG: Film flyer - 3pm Winnie the Pooh's Christmas Adventure, 7.15pm Miracle on 34th Street] Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
Conz (full name Constantijn van Cauwenberge) is one of the up and coming Flemish comics writers, so far untranslated into English as far as I can tell (you can get it in French as Quelque Part Les Étoiles, "Somewhere the Stars" rather than "The Second Kiss"). I first encountered him as author of one of the better shorts in Brussel in Beeldekes. Some smart Anglophone publisher should snap him up; this trilogy is a very nice Bildungsroman, set in Belgium and ten years later in Australia; viewpoint character Ringo (real name Maurice, but his two best friends are John and ...
As many people are aware, the old speed cameras in Birmingham haven't been operational for a while. They were an old, pre-digital design that was expensive and time consuming to operate. Now Birmingham City Council, working in partnership with Solihull MBC, West Midlands Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner, has bought a new Digital Speed Enforcement (DSE) Camera System. It is anticipated that this camera system will 'go live' in Spring 2016, with implementation activities to commence shortly, including a significant public communication exercise. These cameras will be located at 7 sites (as listed below) across Birmingham and will ...
Rarely has the run-up to Christmas been overcast by such big black clouds: France is still reeling from the appalling bomb attacks last month and communities of different ethnicities and faiths are apparently becoming more suspicious of each other on both sides of the Atlantic. Violence in Israel-Palestine has been on the rise and the [...]
Let's make the Town Hall the heart of democracy in Liverpool As many of my regular readers will know I have, for a long time, been concerned at the huge democratic deficit in Liverpool. The Mayor is simply not accountable ... Continue reading →
To win the Republican nomination you need to be a very right wing. The Republican base who vote in primaries tend to be very right wing. The influence of the Tea Party has exacerbated this situation. So Donald Trump is doing very well in the GOP ("Grand Ol' Party" = Republican party) polls for the 2016 Presidential nomination. The more he says that Muslims need to be tracked on a database, the border needs to be closed to them and a border wall needs to be built by Mexico, the more the Republican core adore him. I've lost count of ...
Each week I review the five best and two worst things happening in and around the party over the past seven days. The verdicts are, of course, only my personal opinion: GOOD KIPPERS FOR SUPPER IN HUNTINGDON: After a few quite weeks on the council by-elections front, the party stormed back into action with this trouncing of... More 5 Good – 2 Bad: My Review of the Lib Dem Week
Since the summer, people have been contacting the Focus Team about problems with their Freeview TV signal following the installation of new 4G phone masts in the place of old 3G ones. There is a service, at800, that was set up to help with these problems. However, they won't help if you have access to an alternative service on one TV - such as Sky or Virgin Media - even if you have other TVs in the house that can only use Freeview. We've also heard of a number of cases where the filters they've supplied have not been enough ...
Hardball questions for the next debate – Some real tough ones for the Republican candidates for US President. Terrorism: Et tu, Google! – Nick Harkaway tears apart some of the nonsense being spouted about encryption and surveillance by those who should know better. A New Threat Such As We Have Never Seen – Flying Rodent offers a scale for judging the credibility of military action based on the level of bullshit advocating for it. Party mechanics: why Labour would struggle to oust Jeremy Corbyn – Tom Quinn (my MA supervisor) looks at the internal mechanics of any attempt by the ...
Fri 11th
13:25
LibLink: Lord Anthony Lester: With human rights under threat, there is a pressing need to celebrate ...
For Human Rights Day, Anthony Lester wrote for the Huffington Post. He addressed criticisms of it made in the media: Last week The Times ran an editorial calling on Parliament to "end the absurdities of the Human Rights Act". It argued that the Human Rights Act is redundant because "the country of Locke and Blackstone already had an unmatched body of law to protect the truly vulnerable". That is surprising given the many cases where our law failed to do just that. As a barrister, I have represented newspapers on many occasions using the Human Rights Act and the Convention ...
Alexander Betts, who is now Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, began working with refugees 16 years ago. His experience and evidence points to an important point about the influx of refugees across borders. The evidence is that refugees do not have to be a cost to the societies which let them in. Rather, welcoming refugees and giving them economic opportunities helps the countries that let them in. Watch Alexander Betts's TedX talk on refugees Here is his compelling talk:
Keith, Graham and Iain would like to wish all our Jewish residents a very happy Hannukah as the festival nears its end. We have greatly appreciated the warm welcome shown to us from the Yeshurun Synagogue over the last year. [IMG: History-of-Hanukkah-festival-Happy-Hanukkah-for-Kids]
It is inevitable given that it became the issue that defined his premiership – the failed invasion of Iraq will be seen as Blair's great legacy. He got plenty of other things wrong too, but for all his words about a progressive majority, his inaction on electoral reform paved the way for majority right wing government. Had he been brave enough to face down the conservative forces in his own party we could have seen the 1999 Jenkins commission proposals implemented. He wasn't. In his excellent autobiography, Ming Campbell recalls his wife Elspeth whispering to Blair at John Smith's funeral, ...
[IMG: coastlands3col2] The Theatre in the Rough Festival is a producer of new writing by young people from Greater Merseyside. They've commissioned a new audio project, which has unearthed the hidden histories and secret stories of communities along the Sefton coast. Coastlands, is a series of six unique audio documentaries, created through a year-long collaboration between local theatre-makers and the general public. They combine documentary recordings with original writing, soundscapes and drama to capture a unique panorama of the towns and villages that form the 22 miles of Sefton's coast. The six episodes last just under half an hour each: ...
The case of Nissar Hussain and his continued persecution for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity has again resurfaced, with a recent demonstration in his support being held in Bradford on 5th of December. This follows an brutal attack on Mr Hussain in November which left him hospitalised. I have usually supported Muslims in the UK and further afield in their right to practice their religion in peace but also must speak out when incidents like this occur. As a spiritual person, I see the advantages of living in Britain's secular society. We are all free to practice our religions, ...
So, David Cameron is putting off the evil day when he has to make a decision about Heathrow. Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon has reiterated her opposition to a third runway: Londoners will be angry at delay when the obvious conclusion is that expanding London airports will be too polluting and too disruptive. If the evidence doesn't support a third runway then the answer must be "No!" "Sadiq Khan is as flexible on airports as a pair of flip-flops: he used to support Heathrow, now its Gatwick. Who knows how long before he flops back to supporting Heathrow? Zac ...
Whatever else I could ever say about Vladimir Putin, I do have to admit he is a political genius. What's really remarkable about this is that he has effectively ruled a country for almost the entirety of the 21st century to date in which this has not been an essential skill. For in what is effectively a dictatorship, an ability to work the electorate is not actually vital. However, Vladimir has been from the start a man with much more global aspirations. He has achieved a widespread acceptance for certain ideas throughout western Europe – starting on its fringes, but ...
The Times reports that Jeremy Corbyn is coming under increasing pressure to sever all links with the Stop the War Coalition following the decision of Caroline Lucas to do precisely that last week. The latest revelation is that Corbyn's constituency office was in the same building as the peace group's workplace: The revelation yesterday compounded moderate Labour MPs' concerns about the "toxic" relationship between the anti-war group and Mr Corbyn. Labour parliamentarians have called on their leader to distance himself from the group after it posted online last month a blog headlined: "Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist ...
There has been a lot of talk recently along the lines of 'What are the Lib Dems actually for?' or 'Are the Lib Dems now irrelevant'. Such talk has intensified in the wake of the Syria vote in the commons. Yes, it was a shocking decision to support air strikes. However there are still plenty... More The Friday 50 – This Is What The Lib Dems Are For
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (a very pretty fishing village in North East Fife) made his maiden speech unexpectedly early. I had been taking to him a few weeks ago and he had said it probably wouldn't be till January. He couldn't resist the temptation to come in on the Scotland Bill, especially as he'd chaired two commissions on how more power could be devolved to and beyond the Scottish Parliament. Here is his speech in full: My Lords, I am not entirely clear how to respond to that but I think that the good people of Pittenweem will make their ...
Yesterday, I had an excellent and enjoyable meeting with the tenants of the Ancrum Place and Morven Terrace Sheltered Housing. I am very grateful to the three council officers who attended to update the attendees about the current housing rents consultation and on the consultation on 20mph speed limits in residential areas. There was a lively question and answer session and a number of other local issues were discussed and I am following up any problems raised that need attention.
Our local policing team are investigating reports of men with backpacks knocking on doors at night. Older and more vulnerable residents in particular find these callers very unsettling. There are reports of the men being verbally aggressive. It is thought they are selling overpriced household goods. It is possible they are also looking for opportunities [...]
Awesome competition for fans of BRIAN BLESSED Parliamentary Beard of the year poll. I voted @StewartMcdonald; even tho he's SNP his beard is v pretty The story of Wordpress's nonces Male privilege & a basket of tampons The top 14 Beatles - surprisingly, I have no arguments with this list Gaydar for bisexuals? Bi-fi Vincent Price on racial and religious hatred. For my anon commenter: that identifier is fine, but the content of your comment is a little... I think I can see what you're getting at but you might want to perhaps word it slightly more comprehensibly, and preferably ...
Well, this is a bit of all right. Market Logan (Harborough) result: LDEM: 45.2% (+9.0) CON: 34.0% (-1.3) LAB: 9.2% (-5.9) GRN: 6.3% (-7.1) UKIP: 5.3% (+5.3) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 10, 2015 Good increase in vote share. Look what happened to Labour and Green vote. It looks like the Labour vote has gone to UKIP, though. But UKIP tanked elsewhere. This is even better news: Huntingdon East (Huntingdonshire) result: LDEM: 45.0% (+13.8) CON: 31.8% (+5.9) UKIP: 15.6% (-16.9) LAB: 7.5% (-2.9) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 10, 2015 Nice work, Stevo Greenall @caronmlindsay get down to Huntingdon east #libdemfightback I just took the seat back from UKIP ...
Tony de Brum: The emerging climate champion Go @MinisterTdB - a fantastic guy who I loved working with! (tags: climatechange marshallislands ) The Salty Truth About Ceres' Mysterious Bright Spots MgSO4! (tags: astronomy asteroids ) Brontë Sisters Power Dolls Hooray! (tags: literature ) No vindication here. Only survival. @peatworrier on the Alastair Carmichael verdict. (tags: libdems ) EU court annuls Morocco trade deal over W Sahara Hooray! (tags: eu westernsahara )
Fri 11th
01:43
'If people want a ramp they should dip into their own pocket' claim by Conservatives as Clarence Par...
The replacement ramp for Clarence Park has been agreed by the City Neighbourhoods Committee in the teeth of opposition from local Conservatives. The £120,000 project replaces the much used and much loved ramp from the park onto Hatfield Road, used by dozens of commuters every day as well as many other local people. Lib Dem [...]
