It was probably a surprise to many people in Britain that Turkey has sent a significant consignment of medical supplies — predominantly personal protection equipment (PPE) — to Britain, though presumably a welcome surprise. Actually, this is not the first time this has happened, as 10 days ago another such shipment arrived at RAF Brize [...]
Good news. The BBC is repeating Michael Wood's series The Story of England, which uses the history of the Leicestershire village of Kibworth to tell that story. The first episode will be on the red button at 4pm tomorrow and shown on BBC4 on Wednesday at 8pm. The first episode is already available on the BBC site. I own the DVD of the series but will probably watch it on Wednesday. Let's end with a bit of trivia. I remember reading long ago of a Manchester Grammar School production of King Lear in which Lear was played by Robert Powell, ...
Come this time of year, though, the garden throws off the shackles of winter and springs to life. Continue reading →
Second paragraph of third chapter:"You wanted to see me, sir?" She turned her gaze on the chubby member of the duo.This is a gloriously bad book. I think I was moved to get it after reading a negative review somewhere. I should have known better. Our heroine is assigned to a mission to locate four missing astronauts. She is twenty-six, and already a spaceflight veteran. Her second in command a disgruntled male colleague who thinks women belong in the kitchen. He rescues the situation when she freezes with panic, and also freaks her out by peeking when she washes. So ...
School's out and Mums and Dads have been converted into teachers. Our Children's spokesperson, Cllr Liz Makinson, is suggesting that schools could be doing more to help their absent pupils access great stuff on the internet but should not be ... Continue reading →
The latest edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire (sign up here) has this piece form me looking at the party's strategy and direction. Party members get to set those in our party and here's my contribution to our debates. Feedback very welcome. Beware the temporary becoming permanent At any previous point in our history, if the government had banned public gatherings of more than two people - ending political protests, trade union picket lines and even just sunbathing with friends - liberals would have been outraged. Indeed, often were outraged in response to similar massive curbs on our liberty. But with ...
I love Orkney. I've only visited it three times and would love to go more often but it is a bit of a trek to get there from London. But these days I get a lot of pleasure from exploring it again online and in my imagination. The first time we went to Orkney we drove the full distance from London to Scrabster on the northern coast of mainland Scotland, near John O'Groats. We took several days to get there, stopping off for a break in Inverness. The ferry trip from Scrabster to Stromness was beautiful, as we passed the ...
The past two months have been flavoured with fear, insecurity, and a collective sense of grief over the death and suffering of our neighbours and fellow humans. US President, John F Kennedy, inaccurately reflected in 1959, "When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters — one represents danger and one represents opportunity." The danger certainly feels apparent today, but the systemic problems that crises like the Coronavirus Pandemic reveal and create are a useful starting point to building a brighter Britain. If we are going to do so, we will need to more than give our ...
Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and hope that Martin Lee, the Leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested wrote HRH Prince Charles in his diaries as Britannia left Hong Kong on 1 July 1997. Prince Charles's scepticism harks back to years of brain drain as young professionals lined up to migrate in the 1990s. The Hong Kong people will never give up in fulfilling their destiny to protect their way of life. For those who remained in Hong Kong, they tread carefully. Their only firewall now between Red China and the Island was the Sino-British Joint ...
Two new scam notifications have reached me from a reputable source. Here they are for your information
At the risk of upsetting the readership, the Liberal Democrat party is at a crossroads. Since the merging of the SDP and the Liberal party in the 1988, never has our party been under so much threat and at so much risk of being irrelevant. Having attended the party conference for the first time last September in Bournemouth, I was actually amazed. The positivity surrounding the conference was palpable, and yet, as an organisation we looked tired and jaded. We talked about a new beginning, but, outside of stating that we were going to reverse Article 50, we didn't have ...
The Liberal Democrats have launched calls for the Government to support their 'Frontline Support Package', a five-point plan to give frontline workers the support they need and the recognition they deserve as they get us through this appalling coronavirus crisis. The package, includes measures to scale up the procurement of PPE as well as a frontline service reward. This would recognise the risks our frontline workers are taking throughout this crisis, just as the Operational Allowance does for Armed Forces personnel deployed to dangerous areas. Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: "The fight against coronavirus is seeing ...
The Guardian reports: The government is under pressure to reveal how it responded to four key recommendations made three years ago after a major simulation exercise found the NHS would not cope in the face of a flu pandemic. The recommendations are revealed in the June 2017 minutes of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group - Nervtag - which advises the government on pandemics. They were made after Exercise Cygnus, a three-day simulation involving national, regional and local government bodies, conducted in October 2016. Little is known about the exercise - or the confidential recommendations that followed ...
Sun, 12:03: RT @alexvtunzelmann: I know the argument against this (so does Marie, see her follow-up tweet), but I really think it would make sense. I w... Sun, 12:56: This Is the Book That Outsold Dracula in 1897 https://t.co/nyVePqWDuO Review of _The Beetle_ by Richard Marsh Sun, 14:48: RT @JoeBiden: Donald Trump left our country unprepared and unprotected for the worst public health and economic crisis in our lifetime — an... Sun, 15:59: Muddy Lane, by Andrew Cheffings https://t.co/x48aKoeZ9B Sun, 16:05: RT @KeohaneDan: "flu epidemic which raged from July 1917 to March of 1919, when it suddenly and mysteriously vanished, ...
Following on from Saturday's post about scammers seeking to exploit the lockdown, the Guardian reports that the cybersecurity firm Mimecast has identified around 700 suspicious scam websites impersonating the world's most-popular streaming service that appeared between 6 April and Easter. Netflix has also been a target of these fake sites: The newer Disney+, which started its international rollout in earnest last month launching in western Europe's main markets including the UK, was mimicked by four new websites in the same one-week period. Some of the counterfeit sites can look extremely convincing, selling subscriptions or free accounts to harvest personal and ...
[IMG: HMRC Furlough Scheme Site] You can now claim online for a grant for 80% of your furloughed employees' salaries, up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee, per month, through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This scheme will be open until the end of June 2020. Before you make a claim: please read all the available guidance on GOV.UK before you apply gather all the information and the precise calculations you need before you start your application - if you have a payroll provider, they will be able to help you with this you can find out more in ...
Mon 20th
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This will be the biggest impediment to Labour winning another election - and it's not the Corbyn gan...
The one thing that has managed to break up the news cycle a little bit over the past couple of weeks, away from CoVid and the government's handling of it, has been the latest shitstorm within the Labour Party. The departing Corbynistas have burnt the crops behind them like fleeing Russian peasants, trying to send this message: if we can't have the Labour Party, no one can. I like many others have speculated that the ongoing bad behaviour of the far left will keep bringing Labour down, no matter what Starmer does. And this is obviously going to happen, given ...
I've read the Sunday Times article of yesterday and at face value our PM, our political leaders and Public Health England are being said to have been 'asleep at the wheel' with more than a little evidence to back that up. Yes it's just one side of a story but tellingly that story was blasted out by a usually Conservative supporting newspaper. Frankly, to me, the lengthy article reads like it was well researched although unsurprisingly not all sources are disclosed particularly the inside No.10 political ones. I'm sure Conservative leaders will seek to say that the article is a ...
Education update • Schools - remain closed except for vulnerable children, children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and children of key workers but to be used only as a last resort. For Easter term break we are pleased to say all schools will have provision for key workers, and some will be open on the Bank Holidays, please contact your local school to find out what is available. In addition, we will be providing places for the children of NHS staff on Saturday (11 April) and Easter Sunday (12 April), where South Gloucestershire schools will be contacting NHS ...
Prior to the lockdown kicking in, UK employment was remarkable. The decline in unemployment is something that should be applauded and something that begun when we were in Coalition. The benefits of employment are well known such as having more money to spend and improved mental health. One of the reasons for this strong growth is people taking up roles within the gig economy, such as Uber, Deliveroo or Just Eat. The negative attitude towards the gig economy needs to go and I will present multiple reasons why. Firstly, the academic evidence on the gig economy highlights the benefits that ...
It's a new week, just like the last one... 2 big stories Today sees the official launch of what must be one of the biggest spending projects in recent government history, as the Job Retention Scheme goes live. Guaranteeing up to 80% of the salaries of furloughed employees, up to a limit of £2,500 per month for up to four months, I don't even want to guess how much this will cost. But with possibly as many as nine million employees without work, it's at least a brave stab as salvaging something from the wreckage. If you're an employer, the ...
With thanks again to Suzy Scott, the dundeebuses.info bus timetables summary during the COVID-19 emergency has been again updated. You can access the full information here.
