Thanks to Alan Stafford for posting this. He is the author of Too Naked for the Nazis, a biography of Wilson, Keppel and Betty. That title must refer to a story I have blogged about myself.
In November I blogged about the threat to the 747 bus from Leicester to Uppingham. Yesterday came news that Leicestershire and Rutland County Councils have stepped in to save it. The Leicester Mercury reports: A bus service has been saved thanks to an emergency subsidy of £60,000. Leicestershire and Rutland County Councils have agreed to spend £60,000 to ensure the Leicester-Uppingham 747 bus service operates for another year. Bus firm Centrebus has said it would discontinue the service on January 8 because it was not cost effective. However the councils' subsidies will now extend it to January 2018.But, as the ...
This is the fourth blog I have done about obesity this year so you might think I am obsessed. You would be right. As the saying goes 'obesity is the new tobacco'. Obesity is a killer either directly or by ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images George Eaton writes for the New Statesman In last night's council by-elections, the Lib Dems won two seats off the Tories in Teignbridge (which was 54 per cent Leave) and a seat off them in Taunton (53 per cent Leave), with dramatic swings in both cases.Such impressive results in Leave constituencies, he suggests, mean that the Liberal Democrat strategy of being the party of Remain may not be as limiting as some have argued. Eaton notes that only one of our top 30 Tory targets is a Remain seats with a Leave MP - that's Lewes, ...
Yes I know the ordering of these new trains for the Merseyrail franchise has been announced more times than even the building of the new Maghull North Station i.e. tens of times at least over goodness know how many years! [IMG: cz0jdu3xuamv87_] However, another milestone was reached today with the Merseytravel Committee of the Liverpool City Region agreeing to actually pursue the purchase of them. So far so good and no one can be anything but pleased that some of the oldest railway rolling stock in the UK is going to be renewed. HOWEVER, and its a big however, the ...
Billionaire Larry Tanenbaum has announced a major donation that will not just fund neuroscience, but support a new way of doing it With the help of Tanenbaum's gift of 20 million Canadian dollars (£12million) the 'Neuro', the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, is setting up an experiment in experimentation, an Open Science Initiative with the express purpose of finding out the best way to realise the potential of scientific research. It is hard to be against 'open science'. Openness - the public sharing and challenging of knowledge - is held up as one of the foundational ideals of science. During ...
[IMG: squeeze-image] While promoting the merits of your candidate is at the core of Lib Dem campaigns, a vital part of the campaign is to squeeze the votes of 3rd, 4th or subsequent parties to back your candidate rather than your main opponent. Most people have a party that would normally be their first choice of who [...]
This question has been raised by various contributors here lately, since the Referendum result revealed the depth of anti-EU feeling in the country. Some have wanted changes so radical that, if carried out, the EU would scarcely be recognisable afterwards. However, I realised that even those promoting more modest reforms had very varied ideas, which did not neatly split Leavers and Remainers either. Broadly, opinions seemed divided as to whether competency or constitutional reform was the main issue to be tackled. Competency arguments have focused on the EU's painful attempts to deal with the vast influx of migrants and refugees ...
Today is the day that Save the Children asks us to wear Christmas jumpers and donate £2 towards their work across the world. We thought it was only right that we should get into the festive spirit to follow the example set by our Scottish leader. Here's Willie Rennie with the other Scottish party leaders looking uncharacteristically bashful. I managed to snap the Scottish Political leaders wearing their Christmas Jumpers at lunch in aid of Save the Children #christmasjumperday pic.twitter.com/h2no2W82Zz — Joe McGurk (@Unite_Joe) December 15, 2016 As you can see from the photo above, mine is a gingerbread man ...
The 15th December was a final 'Super Thursday' for local by elections in 2016 (there are two by elections next Thursday and a third on Wednesday but next week is not on the same scale) with lots of Liberal Democrat interest. We had principle council by elections in England, Scotland and Wales as well as [...]
The Liberal Democrats have just had their best year of Council by-elections in 20 years! It ends a year of enormous growth for the Liberal Democrats, with fantastic by-election results, and tens of thousands of new members. People across the country are now voting to reject a politics of fear and division and instead voting for hard working Liberal Democrat Councillors who represent the united, open and tolerant Britain we live in. Not since 1996 when records began have the Liberal Democrats been getting better results. Then John Major was still the Prime Minister, the Spice Girls were heading to ...
Last night's three gains from the Conservatives take the Liberal Democrat tally in 2016 so far to a net gain of 28 seats.
Every day, we learn something else which proves that the Remain campaign was right all along. The Leavers brushed off any concerns as scaremongering but, in fact, the hit our economy will take if Brexit goes ahead is huge. We see from the Autumn Statement that we'll be about £200 billion worse off by 2021. This week, a report highlighted that inward investment from US companies will drop like a stone. From the Independent: Nearly 40 per cent of US businesses with a base in the UK say they are considering moving elsewhere in the EU because of Brexit, according ...
[IMG: mycouncillor-by-election-results-2016] Christmas has come early. This week Liberal Democrats are celebrating a great end to 2016. This Thursday we won 3 Council by-elections to make 2016 the most successful year ever for Liberal Democrats in local Council by-elections. We've written you a quick story for your MyCouncillor site so you can let your residents know how [...]
The Daily Mirror has the story that includes a reference to my old Sefton Council sparing partner now Bootle Labour MP Peter Dowd – see link above In the words of my dear old Mum 'he could make a Parson swear' – Boris I mean. My thanks to Roy Connell for spotting this story.
[IMG: No automatic alt text available.] Big gains in the English South-West this week. This is where the Tories made biggest inroads into the Liberal Democrat vote in 2015's general election after throwing huge amounts of money at it (still under investigation). In a new IpsosMORI/Evening Standard poll, Liberal Democrat ratings have gone up from 10% to 14%.
This week Sadiq Khan revealed that three redundant water cannon, bought controversially by his predecessor, are to be put up for sale, with the proceeds going towards helping to tackle gang crime. It is a decision I totally endorse and welcome. Back in 2014 Boris Johnson decided to purchase three second hand water cannon from Germany. We now discover that £322,834 of taxpayers' money has been spent by the Met Police on purchasing these 25 year old vehicles, and then transporting, fitting out and repairing the machines. The scale of the foolishness, and quite frankly arrogance, in purchasing these water ...
To judge by the stories coming up in my Facebook feed, you would think that Britain's Labour Party was in its death throes. The party is further away from winning national power than ever, but it is far from dying. Something more subtle is happening. The chatter arises from the two most recent parliamentary by-elections, ... Continue reading The Labour Party is not dying, but it is in retreat →
If anybody was still harbouring hopes that the promised £350 million a week for the health service as a result of us leaving the EU was going to materialise then they would surely have had their illusions shattered by today's Telegraph. The paper says that Brussels' chief negotiator has warned Britain will be presented with a £50 billion "exit bill" by the European Union as soon as Theresa May triggers Article 50: Michel Barnier has told colleagues that the UK must keep paying "tens of billions" annually into the EU budget until 2020. The bill would include the UK's share of ...
Twitter When you're used to vast privilege, heading towards equality feels like discrimination miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 15-12-2016 posted The Blood is the Life for 15-12-2016 to my dreamwidth blog Twitter RT @tristanreveur: "How do you plan on acting in Trump's America?" Pale, stale males are the last group it's OK to vilify | Simon Jenkins | Opinion | The Guardian RT @cmccrudden: Current mood: Twitter RT @cmccrudden: Current mood: Twitter RT @po8crg: Best neologism of December 2016 Thousands with progressive and mental illnesses lose their disability benefits in cruel Tory cut - Mirror Online RT ...
Fri 16th
09:58
The Independent View: Urgent Call for European Commission to reconsider its Dublin Transfer recommen...
In the same week that the world marked Human Rights Day, the European Commission announced plans to resume the so-called "Dublin transfers" of refugees back to Greece. If this recommendation is adopted at this week's meeting of European leaders in Brussels (commencing in February of next year) EU member countries will start returning refugees who arrive on their territory back to the country of their first entry into the European Union, wherever that may be. Dublin transfers to Greece from other Member States have been suspended since 2011 following two judgements of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and ...
The Labour Party have announced that in the new year, there will be a Jeremy Corbyn "re-launch", one positing him as a "left-wing populist". The first thing to say is that, ironic given the content, this story is so achingly Corbyn era Labour in its design it hurts: telling the Guardian you'll be doing something you haven't done yet but surely will do soon enough in the hopes that if and when you do come around to doing the thing in question the Guardian at the very least notices. But now let's seriously debate the issue this announcement raises: can ...
My records say this was taken in Northamptonshire, but it does look very like a back way into Bonkers Hall.
From Blether Tay-Gither : Our December meeting will be held on 20th December in Madigan's Tea Emporium at 7pm. The theme this month is Festivals from Around the World. Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!
Fri 16th
07:29
I despair as flawed data gives first glimpse of revised Rocks Green supermarket proposals
Council planners have published a tantalising first glimpse of the revised supermarket proposal for Dun Cow Road at Rocks Green on the outskirts of Ludlow. No plans have been released yet. New technical data suggests the revised proposal will be 17% smaller than the scheme that was considered by the South Planning Committee in October.... Continue reading I despair as flawed data gives first glimpse of revised Rocks Green supermarket proposals →
EU defence, Brexit and Trump: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Great title, also serious analysis from @CER_London. (tags: eu ) A Note From Chris O'Neill about Evernote's Privacy Policy The CEO responds. (tags: evernote internet privacy ) UK exports have boomed since the Brexit referendum, but mostly to the EU The UK is enjoying an increase in exports to the EU, driven in the main by a fall in the pound caused by a fear that it will not be freely trade with the EU in the future. This is a cake that cannot continue to be both ...
LD Antonie Koch 145 Labour 20 Majority 125 Turnout 16.5% Lib Dem gain from Independent
Every Thursday night now there's a bit of a weight of expectation now. We are winning so many by-elections that you just will the trend to continue and wonder if it can. Tonight it did in pretty spectacular style. The night started sedately enough with Alaric Rose holding Exeter ward in Kidlington. Then the big news from Blackdown in Somerset – in the heart of Taunton Deane, a seat won by the Conservatives in the General Election from us. Blackdown (Taunton Deane) result: LDEM: 71.2% (+49.9) CON: 22.5% (-30.4) IND: 6.3% (+6.3) Other Ind and Grn didn't stand this time ...
