Cable: Tesco job losses show deep problems within retail sector Responding to reports that Tesco food counter closures and scale-backs could threaten up to 15,000 UK jobs, Leader of the Liberal Democrats and former Business Secretary Vince Cable said: Job losses on this scale are very serious. There are clearly deep problems within the retail sector, town centres have been declining for years but now out of town stores are struggling too. Perhaps British shoppers have stopped spending and we are on the verge of a serious downturn. Confidence in the economy is low and the government must provide some ...
Over the weekend, some imaginative people from our campaigns Department wandered around with a replica of a spine, with a label on it saying "property of J Corbyn" on it and took photos of it on a bus (where it actually got a seat) in a bookshop, in a cafe and having a lovely greasy vegetarian breakfast (only one egg – surely some mistake). I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when they did that. They surely must have got some really weird looks. And if they didn't there is something a bit wrong with ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 540th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-26 January, 2019), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Rochdale Labour Councillor joins the Liberal Democrats ...
Yesterday I went back to a quarter of Leicester that greatly exercised me in 2009. I went back to the area that had then been home to the Bowstring Bridge. Despite a campaign from local residents, the bridge - a remnant of the old Great Central main line through Leicester - and a neighbouring pub were demolished to make way for a new sports centre for De Montfort University. It all looked rather bleak, and more land is due to be cleared in the area to make room for housing. I don't know if that will involve the removal of ...
Responding to reports that Tesco food counter closures and scale-backs could threaten up to 15,000 UK jobs, leader of the Liberal Democrats and former Business Secretary Vince Cable said:"Job losses on this scale are very serious. "There are clearly deep problems within the retail sector, town centres have been declining for years but now out of town stores are struggling too. Perhaps British shoppers have stopped spending and we are on the verge of a serious downturn."Confidence in the economy is low and the government must provide some stability and security to individuals and businesses in the UK."
The fourth Academic Archers conference will take place from 5-7 April 2019 at the University of Sheffield. Papers in the programme include: Is Ambridge Parish Council fit for purpose? The Localism Act (2011) and its impact on decision-making and governance in a small rural community"We Should have called him Damien." A discussion of the impact of Henry Archer's early years on potential crimes of the futureQueering ShulaSpirits of the Am - A Paranormal Tour of Ambridge Full details of the conference are on Eventbrite.
Why do nations sometimes commit spectacular acts of self-destruction? Tom Scott argues that strange fervour that seized the Xhosa people of South Africa in the 1850s may shed light on Brexit. "When Jean Phillipson's family returned to Fairfax, Virginia, after living in Bolivia, the main thing her 10-year-old son complained about was the bus ride home from school. 'He wasn't allowed to have a pencil out,' says the mom of three, 'because it was considered unsafe.' Lenore Skenazy on American overparenting. Boak & Bailey are frankly gutted about Asahi's takeover of the brewing wing of Fuller's. Aam Scovell revisits the ...
Second paragraph of third chapter ("Episode 3"):Tom and John Nathan-Turner had kept the news close to their chests, so Matthew found out at the same time as everybody else. Tom went on the BBC1 evening news magazine Nationwide - the programme for which Matthew had cut up newspapers a few months earlier. He wore his tatty blue pinstripe and white shirt, open-collared, the outfit he pulled from his wardrobe whenever a nod to formality was required. He looked like somebody you wouldn't buy a used car off. It was a look which Matthew found charming. He leant against the TARDIS ...
It's now the third year of my three-year term as a member of Federal International Relations Committee, and regular readers will be aware that it hasn't always entirely gone to plan. I would argue that we haven't (formally) communicated as well as we might, and having proposed and had accepted a communications plan which didn't really take off - it did to some extent rely on my enthusiasm as Secretary, and a sense of buy-in which didn't entirely materialise - I do feel some sense of responsibility. And so, this week, I have been stirred to think about it again. ...
On this day we remember the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis in Germany and the occupied territories, along with the Roma, disabled and LGBT people deemed imperfect or undesirable by the Third Reich. I was born five years after the War, but during my childhood the black and white pictures of Auschwitz and [...]
This week, Vince wrote a pretty comprehensive column giving his take of the week over on the party website. He talked about Brexit, strangely enough, and his talks with the PM: The immediate priority from here on is to stop the massively disruptive 'no deal'(and batty ideas like calling in the army). I am baffled at the way so many people have taken up this glib phrase 'WTO rules' who clearly have no conception of what the WTO does - and its limitations. I wrote a piece for the Telegraph recently on this worthy but toothless organisation. Sensible members of ...
After the commercial failure of his album Scott 4 in 1969, Scott Walker rather retreated as an artist. He stopped recording his own songs and acceded to his manager and record company's attempts to market him as the new Sinatra. Well, he had the voice for it. The reformation of the Walker Brothers in 1975 gave him a way forward and proved to be the springboard from which he became the avant-garde artist we celebrate today - try Farmer in the City. No Regrets, which reached no. 7 in the UK singles chart that year, was the great commercial success ...
Sun 27th
11:31
Tractor with a three-legged dog on board causes £120,000 worth of damage by smashing into a no...
This time Headline of the Day goes to Aberdeen's The Press and Journal.
Sun 27th
11:02
Iain Duncan Smith used to back the idea of a second referendum when voters have the details
When Wales voted for devolution in a referendum the early stages of the Tony Blair government, the Conservatives didn't say 'ok, Wales has voted so we must do that'. Rather...
Sat, 12:56: RT @gossjam: This is an adorable bit of Tom Baker eccentricity: https://t.co/mHWyTr9YSF Sat, 13:41: RT @simonlovely: @mrjamesob Did you see this one? 😂 https://t.co/LwyYhw7Dby Sat, 14:42: RT @Barry_TheDetail: Health expert says 87% drop in nurses coming to north as a result of brexit and that it is now a cold house for foreig... Sat, 14:48: It is OK to make mistakes. Really. https://t.co/Yg1CiHLJod Yep. Sat, 14:59: The new wildlife observation tower at the Vijvers van Oud-Heverlee. https://t.co/OURu7UxLI5 Sat, 16:05: It Came From The Search Terms: Captain Awkward https://t.co/OSWtEhhhjy Great advice as ever. Sat, 17:45: Favourite Cybermen story: Let's ...
I must have been about four when my Grandma told me about the Holocaust, about the millions of Jewish people taken from their homes and families, starved and subjected to the most brutal treatment in concentration camps. The utter horror of the mass executions shocked me and helped spark in me a lifelong regard for human rights and commitment to making sure that nothing like that could ever happen again. Later on, I realised that Roma, gay people, trade unionists, disabled people and pretty much anyone else whose face didn't fit were also persecuted. My Grandma had lost her Dad, ...
Sun 27th
10:21
Shropshire Council's zero tolerance policy on parking threatens the high streets of market towns lik...
There a chill in the air in Ludlow and it is not just the winter weather. Parking enforcement officers seem to be in town most days and some evenings. Window cleaners, couriers, deliveries to pubs, local businesses delivering beds, craftsmen working on buildings. All are fair game to Shropshire Council as it clamps down harder than before on technical parking offences. Parking officers are giving no leeway. They are chilling our town's atmosphere. I have never had so many complaints about what most people still call traffic wardens as I have had in recent days. I have passed some complaints ...
It is all very well Brexiteers arguing that we have to respect the outcome of the 2016 referendum because that is 'democracy'. but where are those so-called values when the rift with Europe they crave itself becomes an existential threat to our freedoms? Of course having a third plebiscite on the subject of Europe is in no way subverting the democratic process. People have a right to pass judgement on the changed circumstances between June 2016 and today, they should be able to decide whether the deal that Theresa May has cobbled together is acceptable to them, and they certainly ...
Here are the latest general election voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters currently polling in the UK. As you can see and as has attracted some attention recently, the most frequent pollster, YouGov, is also the one currently finding the best results for the Conservatives. Three points of caution apply, however, before discounting the polling good news for Theresa May's party. First, its far from unknown for the pollster who stands out from the crowd to turn out to be the one that's right. Being nestled in the middle of the pollster pack is not a great ...
Should Universal Credit simply be abolished? That's not our policy. .Perhaps we should replace it with a new benefit, National Credit, as suggested here recently by Michael BG. But how about abolishing the Department for Work and Pensions? That is the radical idea just advanced by a man who worked in national mental health policy for more than ten years, and who latterly was seconded to the DWP for 18 months to advise on mental health across a range of policy issues. Tom Pollard of the think-tank Demos has written a short paper, Pathways from Poverty: A case for institutional ...
Several myths have become dominant in Westminster since the last general election – I will only speak of two here and only one of them in-depth. The first is that Labour are certain to win the next general election. The other, which has taken longer to solidify and is even more ridiculous, is that the Labour Party is united. I'll pick up on the latter myth. I was struck by something James Forsyth wrote in the Spectator this week. He was talking about May's difficulty in getting Labour votes for her deal and said something to the effect that it ...
Sun 27th
08:32Britain at the Polls, 1979: A study of the general election - and a set of lessons for contemporary ...
The question of how Margaret Thatcher won power in 1979 has become rather topical again as supporters of Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn argue that her victory shows you don't need to tack to the centre ground to win elections.
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2019 West Marketgait (northbound from Hawkhill to Ward Road) - closed on Sunday 27 January for crane lifting operations. REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 28 JANUARY 2019 Old Hawkhill (junction of Park Place) - temporary traffic lights for one week for water connection works. Perth Road (at Mid Wynd) - temporary traffic lights for one week for sewer repair. Forthcoming Roadworks Riverside Drive (at Discovery Point) - off-peak westbound nearside lane closure on Thursday 7 February for Scottish Water repairs. ...
In 'If This a Man' Primo Levi, an Italian Jew incarcerated in Auschwitz,, describes (pages 134/5) the reaction of "civilians" to the prisoners who are marched out each day to perform work in the areas outside the camps. . . . [We] are the untouchables to the civilians. They think, more or less explicitly, - with all the nuances lying between contempt and commiseration - that as we have been condemned to this life of ours, reduced to our condition, we must be tainted by some mysterious, grave sin. They hear us speak in many different languages, which they do ...
