I was convinced that nothing remains of Melton Mowbray North, the town's lost railway station. But when I went to look for it I did at least find traces of the embankment that took the line over the Scalford Road and got an idea of where the rails had run after that. And this also gives me an excuse for reposting the video at the bottom of this post, which shows the station in its final days, and linking to a photograph of its ruins a few years after that.
Walked out of my first CLP in almost 10 years of membership. Final straw was someone, who I respected for all his campaigning efforts, claiming Jeremy Corbyn 'did us a favour' and it was therefore a 'success'. We lost a quarter of our MPs. I said so and left. We need to wake up.— Beth Miller (@BethMiller91) January 31, 2020Corby, traditionally a marginal seat, was held by Labour between 1997 and 2010. At December's general election, where the Labour candidate was Beth Miller, it was held by the Conservatives with a majority of over 10,000. The constituency has an interesting ...
Sat 1st
20:22
GUEST POST With Valour and Distinction: The 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment in the First World...
Nigel Atter introduces his new book on the campaigns of the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment between 1914 and 1918. When people consider the First World War they may think about the losses on the first day of the battle of the Somme or the atrocious conditions at Passchendaele. Few, I believe, would turn their attention to Mesopotamia, now modern day Iraq. And yet thousands of men fought against the Ottomans in the blistering heat, plagued by flies and disease. My new book With Distinction and Valour: The actions of the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment 1914-1918 details the military operations on ...
In January we published the first of our 2020 manifesto drafts on Education from my colleague Cllr Liz Makinson. It has been well received. We are issuing here the draft of our planning and regeneration policy from our spokesperson, Cllr ... Continue reading →
Along with my trek through the series of Oscar-winning films, I'm also revisiting the Hugo and Nebula/Bradbury winners of the same year. Although Worldcons had been presenting a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation since 1958, 2001: A Space Odyssey was only the third film to win, in 1968 (after The Incredible Shrinking Man won the inagural 1958 Hugo and Dr Strangelove won in 1965) - five of the first ten ballots were won by TV series (The Twilight Zone three times and Star Trek twice), two were No-Awarded and two years were simply skipped. There was some serious competition in ...
So it has finally happened. At 2300 GMT last night Britain formally left the European Union. There will now be an 11-month transition period during which we still follow EU rules and regulations before properly striking out on our own, though I would not be surprised if that transition period were extended, despite what Boris [...]
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Sat 1st
11:55
The detail behind the YouGov poll showing Ed Davey ahead in the leadership stakes - thanks to @ProfT...
Last Tuesday, I referred to a New Statesman article about a YouGov poll showing Ed Davey well ahead in the future Liberal Democrat leadership contest. I mentioned in the piece that I was unable to find the data behind the poll. Julian Heather (@JulianHeather1) kindly messaged Professor Tim Bale at Queen Mary, University of London. Professor Bale then kindly tweeted a link to the data for the poll, which is here. The slide shows that 1028 Liberal Democrat members were interviewed between "20th – 6th January 2020". I am not sure whether that should say "20th December 2019 – 6th ...
Fri, 12:17: RT @nickbarnes: A clear-sighted look back at Brexit from my old friend Nicholas Whyte @nwbrux https://t.co/DKxpl0SLj5 . An optimistic (over... Fri, 12:56: RT @JeremyCliffe: Anti-EU press for next 5-10 years: "OUTRAGE as [inevitable consequence of Brexit] happens" ("[Brexiteer columnist name]... Fri, 13:53: RT @djm4: Every word of this, with the slightly different perspective that I am a UK citizen and will remain so, and try to continue the fi... Fri, 15:23: RT @SamanthaJPower: This is a striking fact. But there have been only 2 impeachment removal votes (Johnson and Clinton), and in both cases,... Fri, 18:36: RT @Mij_Europe: ...
Sat 1st
09:40Our President writes: I'm immensely proud of how we've stood up for our values over Brexit
Our Party President, MarkPack, sent this email to members yesterday evening: For the last four years, the Liberal Democrats have proudly fought to stop Brexit. I am immensely proud of everything we did. We stood up for our values. We campaigned so hard. But I also accept that at 11pm tonight, we will no longer be members of the European Union. Our European story is not over. Tomorrow our fight continues, to make sure Britain has the closest possible relationship with our allies in Europe. Today, I want to take stock of everything we did achieve in our fight to ...
Sat 1st
09:16
Here's why I think the "Remainers are the ones really responsible for hard Brexit" theory is so wron...
A popular thesis, doing the rounds of SW1, is that Remainers via their intransigence have made a harder Brexit than would have otherwise been coming our way inevitable. I think there are several massive problems with this theory to say the least. For a start, Theresa May's Brexit, at least what we know of it from the speeches she gave as prime minister combined with her Withdrawal Agreement, looked like a pretty hard Brexit. It wasn't like she'd put Norway Plus on the table and the purist Remainers destroyed it; she wanted to leave Single Market and end Freedom of ...
Waking up this morning, it is so easy to feel crushed. To abandon hope. To retreat into our own lives and our own worries. Yet to do so is, in the end, to give victory to those who want that smaller vision.
Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of 101 Ways To Win An Election, and the maintainer of the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. The Parliament may not have been in place long, but the polling companies are already gearing up with their regular voting intention polls. Here's what they've found so far. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers to frequently asked questions about political polling. General election voting intention polls Pollster Con Lab LD Grn BXP ...
[IMG: https://www.facebook.com/bihistory] As well as reminding (or teaching!) you of a little dollop of our bisexual history each day, they give an easy way to remind other people about your bisexuality - retweeting about famous bis or bi events is a subtle reminder but one no-one can accuse you of "ramming it down their throat" over, you're just retweeting a happy birthday message to Anna Paquin or Sara Ramirez or what have you. And for allies it's a really easy way of gently showing support through the year. I'd love people to submit more dates for the calendar. Maybe you ...
NHS, Maghull in Bloom and project partners meet at The Dell – 31st Jan 2014 I've blogged about this prominent piece of land at the heart of Maghull a couple of times before in 2011 and 2014 – here are links to those postings:- What I did not do was to follow up on the last posting but contact from a Lydiate resident recently has reminded me to do so. The resident was talking to me as they are of the view that some of the tree branches overhanging Liverpool Road North may well be a danger to ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2020 Riverside Drive at Tay Rail Bridge - narrow lanes for one week for landscaping works.
