A cautionary tale Despite the huge ramifications of her decisions, only so much is publicly known about "patient 31". We do not know her real name or many details of her life before February this year. Nor despite extensive investigations by public health authorities, do we know how she contracted the covid-19 virus. However, we [...]
I'm not going anywhere any time soon, so I though I would look back to see what I was blogging about on this day in past years. 2019 Lord Bonkers questioned the Liberal Democrats' fondness for giant orange diamonds. 2018 I announced that I had discovered this anthem for Brexit... 2017 A general election campaign was underway and I posted the top 20 Lib Dem targets, based on the results in 2015. We were to win seven of them, plus one from outside the list - Layla Moran in Oxford West and Abingdon. Trouble is, we also lost five of ...
Memories of our last holiday So the Government is getting worried that people are making plans for a summer holiday this year. I have long ago given up any hope of having one. We had planned a rather special holiday in July this year which would have included a visit to the Passion Play at Oberammergau. As I mentioned in an earlier diary the play has been postponed for two years. The deep irony is that the play is performed every ten years as a thanksgiving for being spared the plague nearly 400 years ago. We are also hoping to ...
A press release from the Liberal Democrats brings news of a push by the party's MPs to ensure that the impact of coronavirus on BAME communities is handled better: The Liberal Democrats are calling for new measures to improve monitoring of coronavirus in BAME communities and to ensure scrutiny of the Government's recently announced review of the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on BAME groups. Citing the need for "swift and decisive action" which "will save lives" Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, the first MP of Palestinian descent, and Munira Wilson, the party's Health spokesperson, are calling for immediate steps to ...
Lib Dem councillors have read with interest a report that has been published for 'determination' next Friday on the review of 20 MPH roads in the City. Normally reports would go to the Cabinet and we 'can call them in' ... Continue reading →
Stay fit at homeSport England have set up a Join the Movement campaign because of the importance of us all keeping as fit as we can. They're inviting everyone to 'Join the Movement' and get or keep active with the help of their campaign.Using #StayInWorkOut on social media, it is designed to provide inspiration and trusted information to the public about how to get active in and around the home during the coronavirus pandemic.It has ideas for everyone whatever your previous fitness level.https://www.sportengland.org/news/join-movement
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it many challenges, including the question about how Muslims can still join together, observe Ramadan, and break the fast (Iftar) whilst still exercising social distancing. Being apart at this time - especially from family and loved ones - seems alien to our values, but it gives us the opportunity to celebrate together in a different way. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims do not eat or drink during the hours of daylight. It is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, undertaking good deeds and spending time with family ...
There's an active and friendly Liberal Democrat community on Reddit, the social network site which is often nicknamed 'the frontpage of the internet'.
Second paragraph of third chapter:After they married, they'd continued to work on the same projects for a while, but there was never any doubt that Paul's father was the bright light of the family. The genius, the famous man. He was also crazy.One of a bunch of books I picked up at Novacon in 2013 and am only now getting around to reading. This was way better than I had expected. It's set in a world almost exactly like ours, except that science has proved the age of the universe to be only 5,800 years. Our hero, a dynastic palaeontologist, ...
It was around 3am at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield when our worst fears were confirmed. Nick had lost. He was the better candidate and had served his constituency, our Party and our country with distinction. It was a crushing feeling for all of us who were there and had worked so hard over the previous weeks to re-elect our former leader as the MP for Sheffield Hallam. Two and a half years later it was me up there on the stage at the Harrogate Convention Centre having stood as the candidate for Harrogate & Knaresborough. It remains ...
Swift's famous essay (A Modest Proposal, published in 1729) is, of course, entirely satirical. Its humour merely makes it an even more devastating indictment of a capitalism deracinated from any morality. We now live in a world where Swift's capitalism is the norm, now economically transformed through a pandemic. Perhaps it is time for another 'modest proposal'. On March 11 the Chancellor delivered his budget. It envisaged 1.1% economic growth this year and allowed £30 billion towards coronavirus. At the time no one seemed to think this unreasonable. It is now just over one month on and the latest economic ...
Sat 18th
11:20
New advice to police will allow us to use socially distanced space and exercise more effectively #co...
The primary message is to stay at home. But we can exercise and engage in essential activities outside the home. There has been confusion about what we can do and what is forbidden. In the first ten days of the lockdown many people didn't know what was being asked of them or just decided to ignore advice and party on. A minority of police actions, including flying drones to film walkers and threatening to check shopping baskets for non-essential goods, threatened to undermine the long established principle of policing by consent. Now there is greater clarity from police. This will ...
Fri, 12:56: My Wild, Totally Surreal Experience Covering a Trump Coronavirus Briefing https://t.co/O8uYCoeXu3 Brilliant reporting. Fri, 13:18: RT @Emily_Rosina: 🚨 INCOMING #SUBWAVENETWORK MEMBERS 🚨 This is not a drill. DAVID TENNANT & CATHERINE TATE will be live tweeting with us... Fri, 13:18: RT @DaveKeating: #LockdownBelgium is working. The curve has been flattened, in time to not exceed the available ICU capacity. The key wi... Fri, 15:03: RT @davidallengreen: Twenty-eight days later, many now know the reality of what a "Month of Sundays" is like Fri, 16:05: "It'll all be over by Christmas" https://t.co/yYeIOH1gvM @cstross: "No it won't." Fri, 18:53: RT ...
With the vast majority locked down at home and surviving on line, it was inevitable that a number of unscrupulous individuals would seek to exploit that and, as the Independent reports, this is happening in spades. The paper says that Google is being forced to block 18 million of the messages per day, as cyber criminals attempt to use the outbreak to lure people into fraud and other attacks: The messages may come from people posing as authorities looking to spread useful advice, for instance. Or they look to take advantage of people working and studying from home by appearing ...
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. Although most attention understandably and rightly is on other things, the polling companies are now up and running again in this Parliament with semi-regular voting intention polls. 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 Con lead ...
By now most Liberals are convinced of the moral impetus to eradicate poverty, and many are now realizing that the easiest way to resolve this is to "give people money". Slowly, we are detaching ourselves from the idea that people should be forced to work in exchange for their rights – and waking up to the need to meet Socialist means for providing Social Security (large, state-driven delivery models) with a Liberal alternative. A Universal Basic Income is not a panacea, but it's a surprisingly useful tool for delivering both Liberal outcomes and meeting our Human Rights obligations. And with ...
Maghull Signal Box in 1968 I'm delighted to have the permission of Antony Graham to use his historic railway photos in my blog postings about railway matters in the locality of the heading of this posting. I hope you'll enjoy the photos and stories surrounding them over the coming months..... I'm starting off with a location which is very well known to me as I lived in Maghull for 33 years and was involved in the campaign to try to save the former Maghull Signal Box from demolition in 1993/4 whilst I was Mayor of the Town. The Signal Box ...
I received the sad news this week that Dr. Peter Bowman had been taken by COVID-19 in the prime of his life. Peter was Head of Economics at the School of Economic Science (SES). The SES was founded in 1938 by Labour MP Andrew McLaren to teach courses on economics with a focus on Land Value Taxation policies. McLaren's political hero was Campbell-Bannerman, and he often repeated CB's pledge "... to make the land less of a pleasure ground for the rich, and more of a treasure-house for the nation ...". The MP was firmly against the welfare state, believing ...
From Marie Curie : If you, or someone you know, is affected by a terminal illness and concerned about coronavirus (COVID-19), our Support Line team are ready to help with the information you need when you need it. Call free 0800 090 2309 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am to 5pm. Your calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.) You can also find more information on our website here. Support provided across the whole of the UK.
