Here is the second and final part of this film about the long-abandoned Nutbrook Canal in Derbyshire. You can watch part 1 here. I remember going to a meeting of the Old Union Canals Society in 1977 where there was an illustrated talk about the Nutbrook and its remains. It would be interesting to see those slides again today - I am sure there was a lot more of the canal left when they were taken. And, of course, the Nutbrook was the subject of a classic track by Ike and Tina Turner.
Before Gavin Williamson was sacked we were all occupied with Jeremy Corbyn's foreword to John Hobson's Imperialism. There is a radio documentary on Hobson, Lenin and anti-imperialism on the BBC website, where the blurb begins: Historian Tristram Hunt explores the surprising tale of a largely forgotten English journalist and economist, John Atkinson Hobson, and the book he wrote which inspired Lenin. Hobson was a bourgeois liberal - the sort of writer one might think a communist hardliner like Lenin would despise. But as Tristram discovers, Hobson's attack on the economics of the British Empire caught the exiled Lenin's attention in ...
An interesting spot by political scientist James Denison, using the respected Eurobarometer data.
Wed 1st
20:20
First successful recall petition means there will be a parliamentary by-election in Peterborough
[IMG: Official portrait of Fiona Onasanya crop 1] Former MP Fiona Onasanya For the first time, a recall petition under the Recall of MPs Act 2015 has been successful. There will be a parliamentary by-election in Peterborough. The Speaker has announced that the Recall Petition in #Peterborough has been successful. As more than 10% of the constituency's electorate signed the petition, Fiona Onasanya is no longer an MP and there will be a by-election in Peterborough. pic.twitter.com/DGkTtjY5uO — UK House of Commons (@HouseofCommons) May 1, 2019 In the 2017 general election the Peterborough result was: LAB Labour 48.1% CON Conservative ...
Following the sacking of Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary over the Huawei leak, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable has called for a thorough criminal investigation into breaches of the Official Secrets Act. He said: This story cannot begin and end with dismissal from office. What is at stake is the capacity of our security services to give advice at the highest level. This must now be referred to the Metropolitan Police for a thorough criminal investigation into breaches of the Official Secrets Act.
Gateshead Lib Dems have been experimenting with short videos about the local election campaign. This video is about Paul Diston, who is battling Labour in Pelaw and Heworth ward (Labour majority of 102). Vote for Paul tomorrow!
Third page: I've read at least two collections that include this story (Angels and Visitations and Smoke and Mirrors) but it hadn't particularly lingered in my memory. Now it definitely will, as Colleen Doran's intense and detailed illustrations bring it to life - a brief tale about growing up and how it's not all it's cracked up to be, combined with a monster under the bridge. (Ah, but who is really the monster?) She successfully catches the narrator as a boy, a teenager and a grown man, with the changes of time to the physical and personal landscape around him. ...
Read the book - it's Hobson's choice. Has the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition actually read J A Hobson's "Imperialism"? That is the question posed by today's Times. J A Hobson (not to be confused with J R Hartley) "Imperialism: A Study" 1902. As I remember it was a green book with a black spine or was it a black book with a green spine? I think our copy went in the book cull of 2017 when we moved house. It probably went to Oxfam - going the same way as "Green Eggs and Ham" and the "Very Hungry Caterpillar". ...
I put the finishing touches to our latest Whickham area eFocus this morning. We decided to make it entirely about the local elections as it is polling day tomorrow. The local news stories we have will be held over to the next edition which will go out over the weekend, complete with a report on the elections. You can read eFocus on this link.
Much Lib Dem campaigning time in Gateshead has been focused on our top target seats but we also have developmental wards as well. Today, we had a team in Lobley Hill and Bensham ward delivering leaflets for Nick Seaborn, the Lib Dem candidate. I delivered two patches - one in Festival Park and one in Lobley Hill. No one any of us spoke to was voting Labour! Long may that continue.
The reason I'm very much less active online right now is that we have had a section 21 notice from our landlord, who wants to move back into this house, so we have *checks calendar* a little over 7 weeks to find somewhere else to live and move into it. The fact that this has happened just as daughter is taking her GCSEs is, of course, the icing on the cake... We've looked at a few places to rent, and they have been uniformly awful. The one yesterday was so riddled with damp that there were drops of water running ...
Wed 1st
12:30Social Mobility stagnates, with those from poorer backgrounds having life-long disadvantage
The report out yesterday from the Social Mobility Commission deserves a closer look. It says that inequality is entrenched from birth. Lib Dems have argued for years about equality of opportunity – that some are born into families which provide many more opportunities and better life outcomes, a great many others are born into families stuck in a cycle of poverty, low pay and diminished life chances. When I read Sir Anthony Atkinson's book several years ago, Inequality, these points were made and the revered economist gave ideas as to how he thought they could be tackled. But year in, ...
Responding to the judgement on the legal challenges to the Conservative government's decision to permit Heathrow to apply for expansion of its airport with a new third runway, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said:"It is a pity that the judicial review process has ended in this way, but the fundamental environmental and economic issues remain. Expanding Heathrow is the wrong decision for the country and for South West London, where air pollution, air traffic noise, and congestion are already a blight. "With climate change looming large in the public mind, I still believe that the expansion will be ...
Wed 1st
11:00
Are the Tories and Labour actually close to making a deal on Brexit? Here's why that would be bad fo...
Rumours are floating around the bubble that May and Corbyn are on the verge of agreeing a Brexit deal and are only waiting until after the local elections to make this public. While it's best not to put too much faith in this sort of thing, it does make sense of recent events: Number 10 saying they are expecting the talks with Labour to end the middle of next week, which sounds a lot like May's sort of literalism, while Corbyn had to spend a reasonable amount of political capital to get the commitment to only consider putting another referendum ...
Tue, 12:56: RT @KaroliinaAinge: Is this a cultural difference thing between the US and Europe? How can anyone think this is a good idea?! https://t.co/... Tue, 14:35: RT @AngieMcKeown: I am looking forward to this tomorrow 👍 https://t.co/j8FZJhrfuX Tue, 16:05: Europe's populist contagion https://t.co/BzVGcWk2JY The increased anti-vaxx risk. Tue, 17:11: Social Risk: Does Your Company Know its Social Footprint? https://t.co/PxH1VyMQog Important thoughts from... https://t.co/48SRxo1AGC Tue, 18:47: Tuesday and April Books https://t.co/4jkRNsIfaJ Wed, 10:45: RT @pmdfoster: @MikeAnson @BorderIrish @NickyMorgan01 @GregHands @ManufacturingNI @MichaelAodhan @Freight_NI It's a fair question....arguab... Wed, 11:54: RT @LMMyles: Is this the greatest Big Finish cover art there's ever ...
It has been some time since I have heard George Orwell's 1984 cited, and even longer since I have used the author's name used in the context of the language he invented for the book of doublespeak. It is noteworthy therefore to see a report this morning in which a former high court judge reference the novel when commenting on universal credit. As the Guardian reports, Sir Stephen Sedley has described universal credit as "Orwellian" because of its tendency to create and exacerbate misery for claimants even while it professes to be rescuing them from hardship. His comments about the ...
Responding to the news that one of Britain's largest care home groups, Four Seasons Health Care, is on the brink of administration, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Judith Jolly said: "For the many thousands of residents and staff at the Four Seasons Health Care, the news that the group is set to go into administration will be deeply worrying. "Another social care crisis in unfolding on the Tories watch as they repeatedly delay confronting the funding and structural problems in social care. "Questions must now be answered by the Conservative Government as to how such a major care home group could ...
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Completing my first ever marathon, one mile at a time.
The nationwide rallies of Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party are well underway. In forming the party as a top down organisation Farage has succeeded in his long quoted desire to lead a party free from the internal democracy. At the rallies Farage appointee Richard Tice acts as the warm up act for the main event. Tice is articulate and borderline smooth. If he hadn't made his name in business we could have seen him in a Conservative cabinet or even Hollywood. Clearly a key player in this new political formation. The entry of 'The Nigel' into the arena is the ...
The United States continues its economic strangulation of Iran. The idea is to prevent Iran from exporting its oil, it's main financial resource, to the world. On April 23, Donald Trump announced that, in May, Waivers will not be renewed for China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece. On November 4 last [...] The post Are we heading for a fourth Gulf War? appeared first on Radix.
