As part of its contingency planning for the UK taking part in the this year's European Parliament elections after all, the Electoral Commission has put together a timetable for the contest. Note in particular that nominations would close on 25 April, just a month away at the time of writing. That heightens the chances that The Independent Group would sit out the contest as finding a credible slate of candidates, some of whom might win, in such a short time would be very challenging. It helps explain why the noises coming out of TIG are not about them seeing these ...
The Grantham Canal was not officially closed to navigation in 1936, but all traffic had already ceased when this photograph was taken two years earlier. On the far left is the railway bridge, now a road bridge, over which Karla defected to the West in Smiley's People. A little upstream, on the far bank, you can see a lock and bridge where the canal joins the Trent. This is the lock I came across last summer. Behind it are Nottingham Forest's City Ground and then Trent Bridge cricket ground. On the near bank of the river you can also see ...
Thanks to Brexit, politics has gone from being something that a few geeks cared about, to something which animates the nation.
I have been much pr-occupied with other matters this week and haven't been able to take in a blow-by-blow account of the Brexit shenanigans. However, there are one or two things which deserve comment. First, I did't actually hear it, but Mrs May addressed the nation and told is that it was our patriotic duty (my emphasis) to persuade our MPs to support her Brexit deal. The is to turn the truth on its head. Remember, this whole Brexit folly was instigated not in the national interest, but to protect the Tory Party from seepage to UKIP. So what Mrs ...
The year 1922 was the year my father left school at the age of 17. My grandfather had three sons and two farms, so he'd always planned that his third son (my father) would get a town job and therefore he was sent to the grammar school. The obvious course was to follow his uncle [...]
Idling adds to the amount of exhaust fumes in the air we breathe. The Royal College of Physicians estimate 40,000 deaths a year in the UK are linked to air pollution, with engine idling contributing to this. London and Ealing appears to suffer more than other locations, especially the Uxbridge Road. The fumes contain harmful gasses that contribute towards climate change as well as other harmful gasses such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide which are linked to asthma and other lung diseases. In London we have so many cases that can be reduced. If every car, van, taxi and ...
someone told me Brexit would go away if I closed my eyes. How could I not put that to the test?
Today we celebrate the anniversary of "The Great Escape" immortalised, of course, by the great Steve McQueen. The story itself was grossly over played and the reality was much grimmer than the fantasy. British men were determined to escape and ... Continue reading →
I've not been well and need cheering up. Plus it's my birthday tomorrow. So I think it is time for another Spencer Davis Group track. High Time Baby was the B-side of the band's first number one single, Keep on Running. The fuzz box on Muff Winwood's bass gets through a lot of work on this side too and Steve Winwood is on piano. The writing credit of Winwood/Davis/Winwood suggests it emerged from a jam within the group. I have heard the drummer Pete York say he is a bit miffed that he was not credited as a writer on ...
Sun 24th
11:55
A week in, the early signs are very promising from the Lib Dem registered supporters scheme
One week on from the vote to create a registered supporters scheme for the Liberal Democrats, how are things looking? Party HQ has been promisingly prompt with the first wave of support material for local parties. More importantly, several thousand registered supporters have already been signed up, with 2,000 in just the first 24 hours alone. Those people are geographically spread. No surprise that places such as Oxford West & Abingdon are near the top of the list for the number of supporters signed up. But over nine in ten constituencies have had at least one supporter so far, and ...
Comedy can sometimes be a powerful method of highlighting the futility and awfulness of war. One thinks of Richard Attenborough's directorial début, Oh! What a Lovely War, for example. And that was what Turkish film director Can Ulkay had in mind when he made his latest film, Turkish Ice Cream, a drama mainly set in a hick [...]
Sat, 12:45: RT @jonworth: "I haven't talked to a single EU leader" https://t.co/AYrnDAvSbP Sat, 12:56: Emilia Clarke, of "Game of Thrones," on Surviving Two Life-Threatening Aneurysms https://t.co/xaruKkGLet Crumbs. Li... https://t.co/RL3pu63Q6k Sat, 14:35: RT @alexwickham: The full extraordinary "Murder on the Orient Express" showdown between Theresa May and her whips office: https://t.co/hJBh... Sat, 14:48: Why do people not see this? https://t.co/sw4idqf0DJ Sat, 15:23: RT @TTresadern: "Series 11 made Doctor Who political" - a response Starting with the revived series, here's a list of every political them... Sat, 16:05: RT @harikunzru: Most rubbish of all, from a European perspective, was the total ...
News in of another Liberal Democrat selection, this time from the south west with consultant surgeon John Timperley picked for Tiverton and Honiton constituency.
On Thursday 21st March, Lib Dems, right at the start of spring, won the Esh and Witton Gilbert by-election in Co Durham. Though in a Labour heartland, it was actually a Lib Dem defense. Predictions based on individual by-elections are unwise as some local issues not relevant elsewhere can affect the result. Nevertheless, the strong rise in the Lib Dem vote and the fall in the Labour vote were
Sun 24th
10:06
Parliament to consider debate on banning netting of hedgerows after petition hits 100K signatures
All eyes have been on the Revoke Article 50 petition, which will comfortably pass 5 million signatures. Another petition I have been supporting aims to ban developers from netting hedges. The aim of developers is to 'prevent' birds nesting before hedges are cleared by bulldozers and trees felled with chainsaws. Netting is an ugly practice. It not only looks ugly but it traps all manner of wildlife. At just after 10.00am this morning, the petition passed 100,000 signatures. That means it will be considered for a debate in parliament. We must all lobby our MPs to ensure that debate happens. ...
With the Prime Minister apparently facing a cabinet coup as she struggles to deliver the impossible promises of the 2016 referendum, with up to two million people crowding the streets of London to deliver a final say, and with nearly five million people now having signed the petition calling for Article 50 to be revoked, it is little wonder that the Government has little time to do anything else. However, the focus on Brexit has meant that other, important priorities are being neglected, not least the environment. I am sure that those thousands of school pupils who went on strike ...
At Conference last weekend, my maiden speech as Vice President was in support of a Motion on a race equality policy paper: Eradicating Race Inequality produced by Merlene Emerson, Baroness Hussein-Ece and the Race Equality – Policy Working Group. I talked about my experience, as a young barrister, of seeking to comfort a Caribbean grandma who couldn't bear to watch her young, black grandson being sentenced for possession of a knife. A knife he'd felt forced to carry to protect himself from gangs. I assured her then that her grandson would be treated fairly, but had no idea that my ...
Sadly, I couldn't get to London yesterday for the People's Vote rally. I had too much to do up here in Gateshead for the local elections. And I also have two baby goats I'm raising by hand at the moment as well! While my absence may go unnoticed other than by a few friends, the absence of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour "Leader", was more widely noticed. Even those Labour members who believe the Beloved
A bit late as I've been busy with other activities but this is my conference video diary from York last week. I was there for the while conference though I stayed overnight only on the Friday evening. The video covers the rally, Parliamentary Candidates' meeting, supporter scheme debate, Vince's speech and a few other issues as well.
The papers are full of speculation that Theresa May's days as Prime Minister are numbered. So far so like every other day for the past year or so. If current reports are to be believed, up to 11 members of the Cabinet are poised to replace her with David Lidington, Michael Gove or Jeremy Hunt pending a leadership contest in the Autumn. This was always the danger though. If she got her deal through, she would always have been quietly – or not- dumped later this year and the new leader would preside over negotiations with the EU on a ...
In a tweet last night, Layla Moran set out what happened at the 2013 Autumn conference. There had been rumours and speculation about it for some time. https://twitter.com/LaylaMoran/status/1109528327453331456 This is a clear indication that she is very seriously considering standing for the party leadership when Vince Cable steps down later this year.
From Blether Tay-Gither : Our March meeting will be on Tuesday 26th March at 7pm at The Bach, 31 Meadowside. Join us at Blether Tay-Gither this month to remember and celebrate the life of Fiona MacLeod. Fiona was originally from Perthshire, spent some of her childhood in Ireland and had lived for many years in Brittany, she regularly returned to Scotland to tell her tales and was Blether's guest just last October aboard the Frigate Unicorn for the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, where some of us heard her for the first time and saw what a lively and vibrant teller ...
