Timbuktu is a name that resonates in the minds of many people who have never set foot in Africa, let alone in the Sahel, symbolising the most far-flung, exotic place on earth. But of course it is in reality a community, with ancient traditions as a hub for cross-Sahara trade in salt, gold, ivory and [...]
What's this? Friction between Lord Bonkers and the Well-Behaved Orphans? It's all too reminiscent of the Mutiny of 1928. Friday Despite the security precautions I take to prevent undesirable characters - estate agents, advertising executives and, above all, Liberal MPs from the 1970s - getting into the Home for Well-Behaved Orphans, its young inmates have always proved distressingly adept at getting out. I come across a group of them by the village pond feeding dry bread to the Bird of Liberty as it swims about squawking. They enquire after my health as they have heard that the elderly are particularly ...
Some brilliant flying by the air ambulance today - touching down on a small open space in Blaisdon. They are doing a brilliant job. Did you know the air ambulance is a charity? It relies on donations to keep flying: you can donate at https://greatwesternairambulance.com/donate/
The story of how Fox News approached coronavirus is not a happy story, as Trevor Noah and the Daily Show recount.
Ten days since my previous update, a briefer set of notes on what has been happening. First off, I had a bad bug last week - I had actually had an upset stomach a few days previously, and thought I had recovered, but then started a course of antibiotics on Monday evening and perhaps that over-triggered the body defences; at any rate, I slept very badly on Tuesday night and woke on Wednesday knowing I was not getting out of bed that day. On Thursday I felt even worse and of course worried that I was coming down with the ...
Honor Blackman - Cathy Gale in The Avengers, Pussy Galore in Goldfinger and much else besides - died today at the age of 94. There is an obituary on the Guardian site. Back in the 1960s, Honor Blackman was a prominent supporter of the Liberal Party. The photograph above shows her campaigning in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency in the 1966 general election.
[IMG: My Generation X worry for Generation Z youngsters] As a baby boomer, intergenerational clashes have always left me feeling uncomfortable. It's not a comparison of like for like. Some boomers enjoyed free education... The post My Generation X worry for Generation Z youngsters appeared first on Ambitiousmamas.
Looking at the sort of people it turns out - David Cameron,. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Charles Moore - it is tempting to call for the place to be closed down. But I have a better idea. Eton was founded by Henry VI Eton College as a charity school to provide free education to 70 poor boys. So let's return it to its original purpose of educating the poor.
Still life with yogurt The big supermarket delivery which I ordered three weeks ago arrived this morning. In fact I have been looking forward to it for days – I am getting excited about quite simple things now. When the doorbell rang I said a heartfelt thank you to the driver for doing such an important task. He told me that he really appreciates it when customers thank him; some of them don't and are quite rude. Unbelievable! I had been checking the order during the week before, noting items that were out of stock and adding new items. But ...
Government threats to ban exercise outside the home are dangerous, illiberal, and utterly foolish on medical grounds. "Never threaten something you can't carry through on." is a good rule of negotiating generally – and following through on this would break the UK's virus effort. On purely practical grounds, it's unenforceable. Even if patrolled by martial law, you can't coop people up across the hundreds upon hundreds of miles of rural England and Scotland. The manpower isn't there. And doing it only in cities would very reasonably breed resentment - and thus it breeds contempt for the whole lockdown and erodes ...
It's not just non-British NHS workers who should get indefinite leave to remain. Our party has rightly come out and argued that doctors, nurses and paramedics at the frontline who are not British citizens should not just have their visas extended by one year (as reported in the Independent, but be given an indefinite leave to remain in the UK. This offer is to be welcomed, but we need to go further. There are many community care workers working unselfishly with disabled and elderly people in their own homes, community centers and retirement centres throughout the country who have come ...
I for one am mightily relieved that Labour now have someone in charge who looks credible and authoritative. I say this as a citizen and as a Liberal Democrat. As a citizen... having a weak opposition party is in no one's interest. It opens up space for a weak government. We've seen that happen in recent years and are living with the consequences now. There is no getting away from it, under FPTP Labour are the alternative government. We should all care about what sort of government they might form. And Starmer is clearly a big improvement. Corbyn, the lifelong ...
Last week I featured how Liberal Democrats in Hull and Camden are helping residents in their areas through coronavirus. Today, it's Eastbourne, one of the local parties that has been making the most phone calls in the last week: A new community call centre has been launched in Eastbourne to support elderly people forced to shield themselves during the coronavirus pandemic... The community call centre is operated remotely by Eastbourne Liberal Democrat party councillors and volunteers. It has already smashed its target of reaching 1,000 elderly residents across town, and is now working to provide support to 5,000. Josh Babarinde, ...
Sun, 12:20: RT @ONECampaign: We Stand with Everyone! ❤️ We're launching a new campaign today to stand in solidarity with everyone around the world in... Sun, 12:56: RT @Emily_Rosina: Don't panic guys, the others Doctors are on their way. But first, this... Join @neilhimself for a live tweetalong of 'Th... Sun, 13:17: RT @AnMailleach: She never went to Belfast in the 1970s, did she? Sun, 14:45: RT @JuliaRobertsTV: My past catching up with me - this is so funny😂 - I'm the young one btw ... it was 40 years ago! Sun, 14:48: Threat of catastrophe stalks developing world https://t.co/rzYbEhE9Hq ...
I blogged a couple of weeks ago about the seeming demise of one of Melling's unique sandstone built bus shelters – The one close to the Pear Tree Pub on Prescott Road. Here's a link to that posting:- Moving on and on one of my solo fitness cycle rides during our lock-down a couple of days ago I saw this:- This is the bench right next to the other Prescot Road sandstone bus shelter that's near the junction with Cunscough Lane. You can't see the shelter in this shot but this is it:- A view from inside the shelter ...
In the English collective memory Covid-19 and Brexit are pre-eminent. Further away, we have had Suez and Dunkirk. Etched deeper into the English psyche is the Somme and Gallipoli. In the mists of time, buccaneering adventurism marked the first Elizabethan age which set the beginnings of an Empire. This has entrenched the view that this plucky little offshore island can see off all-comers with a game of bowls and a hopeless cavalry charge. Meanwhile, back in the real world the evidence paints a very different narrative! Let's just recall that Henry VIII had just severed English ties with the predominant ...
The BBC report that National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown. Refuge, the charity which runs the helpline has said that it received hundreds more calls last week compared to two weeks earlier: Campaigners have warned the restrictions could heighten domestic tensions and cut off escape routes. The charity said pressure on other services and awareness campaigns could have also led to the increase. One woman, who fled her abuser a few days ago, told the BBC life had become intolerable since the lockdown started. 'Tara', who asked ...
Yesterday, the new leader of the Labour Party – and how good does it feel to say that, regardless of what you think of Starmer? – made his initial shadow cabinet picks. They were just the top jobs but they still give us some indication of what Starmer's leadership is going to be like, at least the first stage of it. It gave me the impression of someone who knows he has the left of the party waiting to jump down his throat and call him a Lib Dem as quickly as they can and is looking to avoid this ...
On both sides of the Atlantic, the rhetoric around the fight against the Coronavirus has become increasingly bellicose. Having initially tried to pass the whole thing off as a "Democrat hoax" President Donald Trump has now switched to wartime mode, though he can't resist the temptation to take swipes at domestic political rivals, such as [...]
In response to the issuing of regulations by the Government giving details of new ways of working by councils to keep the democratic process intact, I have written to the City Solicitor, Chief Executive and Labour, Green and Liberal Leaders ... Continue reading →
Those of you who know me will recognise that I'm hardly a monarchist. That said, I see nothing unusual about a head of state addressing their nation at a time of national crisis. It would be unprecedented if they didn't. While I didn't watch Her Majesty's speech yesterday evening I read the text of it later. I understand reading something can give a different imprssion to what a live recording does, but I failed to see how those words generated the kinds of responses I saw on social media. "First rate", "the best speech you'll hear all year", "not a ...
Remember the Battle Fund Yate Town Council set up. One of the grants from it has gone to Green Community Transport: The Town Council has pulled all the money it can together for the fund, and is looking to see if there is any other money it can transfer. It means some things planned for later in the year won't happen, but the town councillors from the focus team reckon it is vital to get whatever we can to the local front line now.
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The planning saga at Linney House takes a couple of new twists as developer appeals to planning insp...
Planning is often a tactical game. The property developer behind a series of applications to build houses on the garden of Linney House has asked the planning inspectorate to decide on his 2019 plans to build eight houses. That means this scheme cannot be determined by the Southern Planning Committee, though the committee will be asked what decision it might have made. At the same time, the developer has applied to start building an existing permission for three houses. James Hepworth has no intention of building this scheme. But he needs to dig some foundations to show that the development ...
Corbyn's out and Starmer's in. What does it mean for us? I feel it means a contemplation of our relationship with other parties. I feel we need to open a discussion about what happens next, even if it goes nowhere. Now, don't get me wrong. I think we should stand firm to our liberal values, and I certainly don't think we should become synonymous with any other party. When a voter puts their cross in the Liberal Democrat box, they should be assured they are voting for the Liberal Democrat candidate. Nor do I think electoral pacts are necessarily the ...
The other day I uncovered a stress ball that I had long forgotten about and had it not had 'Sefton Travel Team' stamped on it I would have struggled to know where it had come from. I'm guessing that it came from my time as a Sefton Councillor, or even as Council Leader. It was probably given to me as I'm a train nut and maybe by someone who thought I was exhibiting stress at the time! Yes, it's in the shape of a metro/transit type carriage of a generic type:- But being a train nut I was tempted, having ...
Another work week starts, although the meaning of that is becoming even more fuzzy than it was in any event. Perhaps the need for more people to work from home will create more flexible working conditions for us going forward?... 2 big stories The Prime Minister is in hospital, as a "precautionary measure". The speech marks are because, given the criteria for admission into hospital, he shouldn't apparently be in there. Whatever the case though, I wish him well. The Guardian considers here who runs the country in his absence; In his role as first secretary of state, the prime ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 6 APRIL 2020 Nablus Avenue (at the rising bollard) - closed overnight (7.00pm - 6.00am) on Wednesday 8 April for Scottish Water manhole repair works.
