Pele once said: "The three greatest goalkeepers I have ever seen are Gordon Banks, Lev Yashin and Peter Bonetti." And the commentator on this newsreel report of a 1966 FA Cup tie suggests that on this showing he is perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world. So goodbye to another of my early sporting heroes.
Look, we're doing fine at this, we just need to keep it up. There are small numbers of people flouting the rules, and people sailing close to the wind who are played up by the media and nasty people on social media. The truth is compliance is high. OK there are some people not getting [...]
I was sad to hear of the death of Tim Brooke-Taylor. He is one of those comic figures who has always been there as far as I am concerned. I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again. The Goodies. I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The Goodies was one of my favourite shows when I was a young teenager and I now suspect that is the age you had to be to enjoy it. There were some repeats a few years ago and the quality of them was desperately uneven. But when the three of them - Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill ...
When Villanelle shot Eve in Rome as the climax of series 2 of Killing Eve we knew the older woman could not really be dead, not least because a series 3 was in the works. But I doubt if any of us imagined that Eve would turn up working in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant in [...]
I've jumped ahead in my sequence of Hugo and Oscar-winning films because Raiders of the Lost Ark was on TV the other day, and I thought, why not? Raiders won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation for 1982, beating Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Outland and Time Bandits. I think the only other one I've seen is Time Bandits. IMDB users rank it the top film of 1981 both here and here, with that year's Oscar winner, Chariots of Fire, some way down - I find that a little odd, I thought Chariots was a very good film; but I'll discuss that when ...
So half the world is on pause, global economies are threatened, world leaders have succumbed, and even Brexit has been knocked off the front pages, all due to a tiny organism not visible to the naked eye. You have to give nature some respect, it certainly knows how to bite back. Maybe we should be [...]
I have been in self-isolation now for four weeks. During that time I have only been out of my home once, and that was to take a walk on Box Hill on Day 2. Even before the national lockdown started we realised that trips out were no longer an option, and that has, of course, been confirmed by the daily texts my husband gets from the government. Of course, we are very fortunate, for many reasons. Firstly, we have plenty of space in our house. It was our family home and we have never downsized. Our sons both live some ...
In the last few days some right-wing websites have taken to sharing some "news" about the new Labour leader, Keir Starmer. They allege that Starmer "helped paedophile Jimmy Savile escape justice" during his time at the Crown Prosecution Service. Normally few would notice what these websites produce. I refuse to link to them for reasons that should be obvious, but regrettably many on the Left have been sharing these vile smears on social media - including many of my Labour friends and one or two Lib Dems. I shouldn't have to correct what I would imagine is so obvious a ...
There is an issue of trust in our politics at the moment – and it's a little more complex than you may think. For most of us it's obvious that the way to win back trust is to simply stop lying to the public – but, taken another way, maybe the lesson is that we should lie more often? It seems that the Institute for Economic Affairs have taken the latter lesson. Some context: The IEA has long hated "Minimum Unit Pricing" – a policy we champion and a policy that took effect in Scotland in May 2018, which is ...
Back in the day there were three Blake's 7 annuals, for the years 1979, 1980 and 1981. By 1982, of course, the show had ended with everyone being killed, so there wouldn't have been much point in another annual. The first two of them are pretty easy to get hold of; the third is rarer but accessible for the determined. No writing or art credits are given for any of the three, which is a big shame because the writing is OK and the art in places rather good. They were published by World Distributors, who also did the Doctor ...
I have today written to the Chief Executive of Liverpool Council to ask him to re-establish a light touch system of discussion and scrutiny of key decisions with the Council relating to the Coronavirus pandemic It is now three weeks ... Continue reading →
The NHS Nightingale Hospital shows us the value in supporting a properly funded armed services. The UK currently has a target of spending 2% of GDP on the armed forces, however, that figure includes a lot of spending that doesn't directly go on the armed forces. Hopefully, the professionalism of the armed forces in getting resources from A to B and setting up the field hospitals will show why it is important that we increase funding on the armed forces going forward, to make up for spending cuts that have occurred since 2010. As COVID spread across the country, it ...
Deliverability is a clunky word for an important concept when it comes to digital campaigning. It's the idea that simply sending an email doesn't mean it ends up in someone's inbox. All sort of factors can get in the way of the email being delivered, and if it's not delivered it has no chance of being seen. Bang goes the impact of your email campaigning. Hence the importance of having a high delivery rate. The simplest factor is whether or not email addresses are accurate. That's one of the reasons why it's sensible to store email data in the same ...
Britain's official death toll from coronavirus topped 10,000 yesterday, but in fact the true figure is considerably higher, as the government only releases statistics relating to deaths in hospitals. Some people who have self-isolated with symptoms have died at home but what is probably an even greater number are passing away in care homes. The [...]
Sun, 12:56: A Successful Failure: 50 Years Later, Former Astronaut Jim Lovell Reflects On Apollo 13 https://t.co/PCQWwGbqlY He is 92. So impressive. Sun, 14:26: #LockdowninOudHeverlee 4: Sacred places - Chapels, spring and tumuli A look at some of the holy and formerly holy... https://t.co/CseR18afXx Sun, 14:47: RT @wwhyte: Oh man. Leave my childhood alone, COVID-19. Sun, 14:48: RT @rdanielkelemen: Many have been rightly criticizing the EU for its disjointed response to Coronavirus, for not doing enough to help Ital... Sun, 16:05: A rare Reddit moment of catharsis. https://t.co/m0AxEnWTzv Sun, 17:24: RT @BillOddie: Fifty years and he only got cross with ...
Our Health Crisis – My Perspective When Government first started using wartime phraseology at the start of our present lock down my thoughts went straight away to propaganda. What will be true amongst what we hear from now on I pondered and what will be that which political leaders want us to hear/believe? Yes of course we are always subject to propaganda it's what politicians of all colours and indeed many journalists/newspapers/media outlets do day in day out when things are 'normal'. However, in times of 'war' this gets ramped up and governments sometimes with collaborating media outlets produce agendas ...
We have seen this scenario before: big banks having been bailed out by the government, then failing to live up to expectations to support businesses through a downturn. Of course they deny it, and certainly, while I was an Assembly Member during the post-2008 crash, I was told by one bank that they were doing all they could to help companies struggling with liquidity problems. The reality was very different, as evidenced by cases I took up on behalf of some of the businesses in my region. Now, here we are again. The Government has set up a scheme to ...
As if Brexit was not enough of an economic self-inflicted wound, the pandemic has struck at our very soul. It is predicted that the world will have changed after the pandemic with the irony that China, where the virus originated, strengthened economically (although not in perfect shape because of "Belt and Road Initiative" debts owed by others and global supply chains broken), the USA weakened and Britain and the European Union, divided from each other, struggling not to become a plaything of those two superpowers. However, this is not to say Tom Arms' recent LDV articles on the crisis should ...
We hope you are able to enjoy the warm weather this weekend while staying at home. If you do have to make an essential journey, you may find the following travel updates useful.BusWith the Stay at Home restrictions in place and staff shortages, local bus operators are running reduced services. Don't rely on timetables at the bus stop, in the apps or the real time displays. Instead check the latest timetables online:First BusStage CoachThe bus operators are also looking for feedback from key workers on the services:First BusStage CoachDon't forget that if you are a Diamond Travel Card holder, the ...
As residents will gather, much of my large amount of current contact from constituents at present is around issues related to the current health emergency and I am always very pleased to assist anyone in the West End in any way I can. I would, however, add that day to day issues unrelated to the current COVID-19 emergency continue and I am happy to report these. Residents do appreciate that non-urgent matters will be attended to by council departments after the current health emergency has passed. Residents have reported to me the need for a wee repair required to one ...
