2016's been a bloody awful year for anyone apart from fascists, and I'm not trying to say I've had anywhere near the worst of it. I'm just aware some people have been worried about me in the last few weeks, because my health's been extremely worse than usual. So the main thing I should say is: as when I was hospitalised with the same thing two and half years ago, while it was intensely awful, it wasn't life-threatening. Just, like all my other miserable chronic conditions, stopping any sort of quality of life. I was in hospital again, I'm out ...
Bridgnorth has just beaten Market Harborough to win the Large Market Town category in this year's Great British High Street Awards. I am not one to bear a grudge. even if Bridgnorth has never struck me as a great place for shopping Its setting above the Severn is stunning, as are parts of its townscape - the surroundings of the two churches in particular - and more places should have a cliff railway. To celebrate Bridgnorth's victory, here is film of the town in 1960 intercut with the same scenes from 2015. Note how much more industrial the banks of ...
With barely a trace of irony, a minister in the Government which has just passed the most illiberal snooping legislation talked about defending freedom in an article in the Sunday Times (£) today. Not only that, but he seems to think that the answer to any problems harming community cohesion could be resolved by holders of public office swearing an oath committing them to so-called British values of "equality, democracy and the democratic process." He spends the first 8 paragraphs of his article having a real go at Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities, setting up the scapegoats while using the language ...
Embed from Getty Images Ed Balls' weekly displays of high-class dad dancing have won him redemption. No longer a discredited, defeated politician he is now a loved celebrity. What will he do next? He could use this new public affection to restart his political career. Or he may choose to spend his time travelling round Britain on trains and making programmes about it. Some will have been surprised by this rebirth. But I find that I forecast it long before Balls' fall. For in May 2009 I wrote: Yet Ed Balls has a heart and may yet be redeemed. For, ...
This Monday (19 Dec) the International Space Station rises in the West (Bristol direction) at around 5.08 pm and goes down in the East at 5.14 pm. If there's no cloud it will definitely be visible - the pass is classed as "bright". There's another chance to see "Santa's Sleigh" on Wednesday from 5.01 pm to 5.05 pm, but it will be much lower. Weather permitting, the Monday pass will be much easier to spot. Details of other passes are available from: Just the thing for families with small children. We can't promise that you'll see any reindeer, though ...
Most of our local charity shops collect used stamps - foreign, UK commemorative or just plain "ordinary" stamps - and sell them on to dealers. Please keep all those stamps you get at Xmas or indeed any time of year and take them in. Alternatively you can drop them off to Paul Hulbert at 35 Blaisdon (he's collecting them for Cancer Research) or leave them at Dodington Parish Council for him to collect.
Sun 18th
16:06
Our town has been let down Shropshire after council refuses to appeal Foldgate Lane housing decision
The announcement has not been made but this is news that cannot wait. Planning officers agree that the planning inspector's decision to grant approval for 137 homes at Foldgate Lane is flawed in almost every respect. But the council is about to announce that it will not challenge the decision. This is the worst of... Continue reading Our town has been let down Shropshire after council refuses to appeal Foldgate Lane housing decision →
Books of political philosophy can be rather off-putting, having a reputation for often being long, abstract and hard for a novice to understand.
Current Tolstoy, by Henri Troyat Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past, by Paul Cartledge Twilight of the Gods, by Mark Clapham Next books Apostata, by Ken Broeders Last Exit to Babylon - Volume 4: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny Books acquired in last week Representatives of the People?, by Vernon Bogdanor Drawing Boundaries: Legislature, Court and Electoral Values, eds. John C. Courtney, Peter MacKinnon, David E. Smith
Embed from Getty Images On Thursday the Liberal Democrats recorded large swings to win council by-elections in three West Country. This is immensely encouraging, all the more so in view of what was reported to Lord Bonkers by one of his agents last year: "At Bridgwater and Newton Abbot, Liberal clubs lie in ruins. Bright with buddleias and rosebay willowherb, they are the haunt of feral cats and truant children. Statues of Jo Grimond have been toppled in Redruth and Combe Martin. They threw stones at me in Chewton Mendip and Langton Herring."
A quite bizarre election leaflet from the Conservatives in Devon showed speech bubbles coming out of gravestones.
The new Federal Board is responsible for setting the strategy of the party. But it can't do it alone. This strategy has to be passed by Conference – which means that the Board will have to get buy-in from across the party as outlined in Article 5.2 of the Constitution. The Federal Board shall publicise a timetable for the production of the strategy and its submission for debate by Conference. In preparing the strategy, the Federal Board shall consult widely within the party, including in particular the Parliamentary Parties (as defined in Article 9), all relevant Federal Committees, the State ...
Choosing a Sensational Alex Harvey Band track in 2014 I wrote: Alex Harvey was once voted Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele and his band opened for an early version of the Beatles.Here he is in 1965 covering the song that had launched Edwin Starr's career the year before. The title is a mark of how quickly the James Bond films entered the wider culture, and the piano player on this track is a young Steve Winwood.
Sajid Javid – leading proponent of Tory Tosh So in a desperate attempt to show some signs of life and action in a very difficult field the Tories are suggesting a "British Values Oath" for elected officials, civil servants and ... Continue reading →
Yesterday, we learned who party members had chosen to represent them on the main Federal Committees. These were the first elections held under one member one vote. Previously, only those who had been elected as Conference representatives by their local party could have a say in the direction of the party. Congratulations to all those who were elected – and commiserations to those who weren't. From 2012, Daisy Cooper and Sue Doughty led a process which led to the biggest internal democratic reform in the party's history. In 2014, Conference accepted their proposals to give every member a vote. We ...
The suggestion from Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid that civil servants and other holders of public office should swear an oath to British values is the sort of proposal one would expect to hear from a foaming-at-the-mouth, Tory back bencher, not a mainstream cabinet minister. What makes the idea even more sinister is that Javid wants it to apply to elected politicians as well as civil servants. Given that it is those politicians who would be expected to influence and frame 'British values' through policies that they have put to the electorate and for which they have a mandate, the proposal ...
Hundreds of child refugees in Calais 'have UK asylum claims rejected by Home Office' | The Independent RT @IndyPolitics: Hundreds of child refugees in Calais have had their UK asylum claims rejected by Home Office Stephen Collins on 2016 - cartoon | Life and style | The Guardian RT @stephen_collins: 2016 - my last guardian comic of the year Stop deportation of Nigerian Bisexual, Lawrencia 2 days before Christmas! RT @NottmBiTopia: Things you can do to help stop a bi woman from being deported to a country where she will be in danger. #bisexual Christmas Waste and Recycling collection dates ...
I was contacted recently by a resident raising concerns about the state of the road surface at the junctions of Foxhouse Lane and Eastway/Poverty Lane & Foxhouse Lane with Deyes Lane. As I don't represent Maghull these days on the Council (I'm a Lydiate Councillor) I passed the concerns on to a local Borough councillor. But then I picked up on further concerns about the state of this road via comments on Facebook. Today I was delivering Christmas cards and it being an early Sunday morning run the usually busy Foxhouse Lane was quiet so I had a look at ...
The sudden rise of the lead mining industry in this remote part of England in the mid 19th century meant that the Stiperstones area has the feel of the Wild West. Shanty villages were thrown together with materials like corrugated iron and their hastily abandoned remnants can still be found today.That's what I wrote in October 2010, though I am not sure that "hastily" was the right word. I have read accounts of the Shropshire lead mining area in the 1930s that say there was desperate poverty because the population was too high for the work available in such a ...
With the festive season getting underway, here is some information you might find useful over the Christmas and New Year period. Christmas Last Posting Dates Tuesday 20 December - 2nd Class and Royal Mail Signed For® Wednesday 21 December - 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For® Thursday 22 December - Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed® Friday 23 December - Special Delivery Saturday Guaranteed Waste and Recycling There are some changes to waste and recycling collection over the Christmas period. If your collection should be on: It will instead take place on: Monday 26 December Tuesday 27 December Tuesday 27 ...
One of the persistent myths about the elections for the national committees which (try to) run the Liberal Democrats is that 'the same old faces keep on getting elected'. It's a myth that comes with an obvious warning sign to the savvy: the absence of evidence. The truth, revealed if you do the maths, is in fact the opposite – churn rates of around half the elected posts, which means if anything we should worry about how high they are, not how low they are. This time round, the electorate was expanded to all party members and yes, the myth ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2016 Perth Road (West Park Road to Glamis Road) - occasional temporary traffic lights for one week for gas main/service connection works. Oxford Street (Blackness Road to Cambridge Street) - closed for one week for gas main repair.
When I heard that Dr. Henry Heimlich had died this week at the age of 90, I remembered a story I once heard when I lived in Manhattan. I…
My President Was Black Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama's presidency. (tags: Uspolitics race ) The 10 laws of Brexit @jonworth cocks a snook. (tags: ukpolitics brexit eu ) UK's first major Moomin exhibition set to open in London Hooray! (tags: finland sf ) the elf advises Estonia makes you adapt. (tags: Christmas estonia )
Embed from Getty Images This Pick of the Pops edition (particularly the first half featuring 1969) is possibly the best Pick of the Pops I have ever heard. It includes this cluster of superb tracks: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River Fleetwood Mac, sounding more like "Free" – Oh Well Jethro Tull – Sweet Dream Harry J All Stars – Liquidator Beatles' double A side – Something and Come Together Jimmy Cliff – Wonderful world, beautiful people Melting Pot – Blue Mink Stevie Wonder – Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday Kenny Rogers and the First Edition – Ruby, Don't take your love ...
