It's fair to say Nick Tyrone is not impressed by the Liberal Democrats who are fasting to show solidarity with Muslims: "In the Ramadan stunt, they have found something that will come across as pandering, virtue signalling and hucksterish to a large section of the electorate, and yet also manages to miss its intended target and potentially offend the people it was being used to suck up to." Article 39 says the government is using the Covid-19 crisis as an excuse to remove protections for children in public care. "Fatal overdoses have plummeted, from more than 350 a year in ...
So far in this astonishing episode, the world's financial systems have held up well. Remarkably, lessons have been learned from the Great Financial Crisis, both in the behaviour of policymakers, and in the resilience of banks. But many claim that the Euro is especially vulnerable. Are they right? The crisis so far has not been ... Continue reading Will the Euro survive the Coronavirus crisis?
Sun 26th
18:53
Ludlow calls for free parking until October to help our town recover from #coronavirus
Ludlow Town Council, Ludlow Chamber of Commerce, and the Shropshire Councillors for Ludlow and Clee have written to the leader of Shropshire Council to call for free parking in the town's car parks to be extended. Free parking is available across all car parks owned by Shropshire Council until the end of June. Councillors and traders in Ludlow are calling for that concession to be extended until the end of October. No one expects trade in rural market towns to instantaneously spring back into life as lockdown ends. We need to do everything we can to support our independent shops ...
You can guess from the question in the headline the post I was about to write. I was thinking in particular of the point I often make in talks with local parties about how in the Liberal Democrats we can be prone to misunderstanding "campaigning" as if it the same as "electioneering". There's much more to campaigning than saying 'we need to achieve X and the only way to do that is to vote for me' – and doing campaigning successfully in the broader sense of how a pressure group would does in turn lead to even more successful election ...
Covid-19 has taught us who the key workers are. And they are not the people we thought even a few weeks ago. But then Oliver Goldsmith got there 250 years ago in his poem The Deserted Village: Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay: Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
I had a nightmare last night. I won't go into details because people will start doing deep analyses of my psyche, but I can reveal that it left me with a strong sense of injustice. (It had nothing to do with James Corden, though). I don't often have bad dreams and it is a long time since I have had an anxiety dream like this one. I have been very fortunate in not having experienced any serious mental illness in my life. I did develop post-natal depression, and I reacted with stress when I found myself in a job I ...
One of things about lockdown is that one needs some structured exercise. Of course we have the garden, but there is limited amount of lawn-mowing one can do and although other gardening activities are undoubtedly tiring, it's harder to measure what good they are doing us. So we go out together for a walk - [...]
Over the last four weeks, the numbers of NHS workers losing their lives to Coronavirus have risen. The figure now stands at well over a hundred. And then there are the other frontline workers: bus drivers, carers, teachers, to name but a few, who are risking their lives to help others. I want to ensure that the Government recognises their bravery and courage. I've been calling on them to introduce a Coronavirus Compensation Scheme, to look after the families of frontline workers should the worst happen. Over 8000 people and 50 cross-party MPs have supported the campaign so far. And ...
Well, it seems like no time at all since I posted about the thirtieth day of lockdown; and yet my twenty-day and ten-day posts already seem in the remote past... I said last time that it felt like we are nearer the end than the beginning. That's still true, at least that the beginning of the end is now in sight. The Belgian government announced on Friday that there will be a gradual relaxation, starting on 4 May, tomorrow week, with offices opening though teleworking will remain the norm; on 11 May most shops will reopen, on 18 May most ...
The question of what the Liberal Democrats should look like, and stand for, in a post-coronavirus world is being increasingly asked. Indeed, we already have hints of the future directions of Labour and the Conservatives and it would not be surprising to see both indulge in the politics of nostalgia and advocate a return to their favoured status quo in response to this health crisis. In the case of the Conservatives this may translate into a continuation of the neo-liberal agenda that has dominated so much economic thinking for the last forty years (a call for 'Reaganomics' has already appeared ...
Looking through the posts on my local mutual aid Facebook group in Hackney, I once again came across a person enraged by the amount of people she came across on her daily walk through her local park. We've all seen these posts on social media, candid pics of people sitting down on the grass to enjoy a moment of sun with comments condemning them for jeopardising everybody's health. "So, you are angry at them for doing the same thing as you." quipped one commenter. With social distancing not going anywhere soon, is there something more sinister going on with people ...
Sun 26th
11:28Six additional homes to be squeezed into the high density Fishmore Quarry development which lacks op...
Shropshire Homes has applied to squeeze more homes onto the former quarry site on Fishmore Road. It currently has approval for 73 homes and the plans are to add an extra five. This will give this a brownfield site a density of 43 dwellings a hectare. The Foldgate Lane greenfield development is by contrast a mere seven dwellings a hectare. Fishmore Quarry will provide just 4.5 sqm of accessible open space for each household. Foldgate Lane will have 850 sqm of accessible open space per household. It is a tale of two housing estates and a tale of our times. ...
Sat, 12:56: Jeffrey Sachs on the Catastrophic American Response to the Coronavirus | The New Yorker https://t.co/y8Sg48zcTq Tremendous. Sat, 14:41: RT @CrisiscenterBE: Samen gaan we veilig vooruit, door stap voor stap elkaar te beschermen en de juiste basisreflexen toe te passen. Hou vo... Sat, 14:48: Jenny Turner � Reasons for Liking Tolkien: The Hobbit Habit � LRB 15 November 2001 https://t.co/Pn7PLgXC7o Great long piece. Sat, 16:05: Will the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Relationship Ever Reach a Breaking Point? https://t.co/3dDBGkbj5a Arguably, it has now done so. Sat, 20:48: The Chris Murphy Doctrine: Trump, coronavirus, and foreign policy https://t.co/NRUItFFdhv We can only hope. Sat, ...
TEENAGERS - KICKING YOUR HEELS?If so would you like to join the Armadillo zoom sessions, where you can meet up on line and take part in all sorts of social activities. Run by the team who run the Armadillo, funded by Yate Town Council - its FREE
Sun 26th
10:40
Parliamentary scrutiny of a Unitary Cabinet government during the coronavirus crisis - Part 3
Read Part 1 Read Part 2 Even in the society of the independent-minded Dutch, a distinct "rallying around the flag" effect can be seen. The leaders of the populist parties questioning established politics (Geert Wilders, PVV, and Thierry Baudet, Forum for Democracy) or the capitalist aspects of Dutch health care and general government (the Socialist Party) used the first new-style plenary Corona debates for sharp, often ad hominem, attacks with overblown rhetoric on Prime Minister Rutte and his ministers. The debate lasted from 14.00 until around 22.00. The Health minister collapsed at the rostrum from overwork and resigned the next ...
It is possible to tell when a government is in trouble during a crisis, when they field a minister at their daily press conference to spin a spurious good news story. We have officially just passed 20,000 deaths from Coronavirus, the chances are that this is an underestimate, and yet the Home Secretary decides that now is the time to stand up in front of the media and boast that the level of shoplifting has fallen compared to the year before. Well, yes, that is because you have quite rightly closed most of the shops. As the New European reports, ...
He is now 17 and singing as a baritone, but between the ages of 12 and 14 Aksel Rykkvin was the most celebrated treble in the world. For once the American term 'boy soprano' seems justified. Here he is at 13, singing Albinoni in Italian with a small baroque orchestra in his native Norway (he has an English grandmother). I love everything about this video. The staging, the exotic instruments and Aksel's wonderful singing. With most boys of this age you are on the edge of your seat in case they make a mistake. But such is his confidence and ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has massively hit the finances of many charities across the country Many events, which would have raised millions of pounds for many worth causes have had to be cancelled. On Sunday 26th April, the biggest one-day fundraising event in the World - the London Marathon - should have taken place. It is estimated that the UK charity sector will lose £4bn as a result of the pandemic. The idea behind the 2.6 Challenge is to use the numbers 2.6 or 26 to create activities to raise awareness of and much needed funds for local charities. Each week ...
East of England Liberal Democrats have had a great idea: starting up a new podcast to help keep members and supporters informed, engaged and motivated during the coronavirus crisis. You can listen to the interview I did for it, including why we need to build a core vote for the party and how I first joined the Liberal Democrats for the least glorious of reasons imaginable: You can catch all the episodes of the podcast here. As you may be able to tell from this and also recent episodes of Never Mind The Bar Charts, I've recently got a proper ...
For those of you not following the minutiae of the Liberal Democrat party at the moment, which I imagine is almost all of you, Ed Davey is leading many members of his brigade, MPs and councillors, to fast for Ramadan. Your first question here should be: why exactly? Has Ed Davey and many other Lib Dems converted to Islam? Well, no. They appear to be doing it as some sort of solidarity gesture with British Muslims. In the tweets and videos on the subject, they keep referring to "showing Muslims they aren't alone" in what they are doing. This is ...
Coming from a coal mining family (both by grandads were miners and two of uncles as well) I've long taken an interest in it and not so long ago I picked up a fascinating Knowsley Council information sheet (in Kirkby Gallery) about mining in the Prescot area. It seems that mining in the area commenced as early as 1510 but the first solid evidence comes from a court roll in 1552. Prescot was above some very rich coal seams that were near the surface so easy to access. Seemingly a new shaft was sunk each year but each one had ...
Further update - for Sunday 26th April - from and Councillor Fraser Macpherson (West End) and Councillor Craig Duncan (Broughty Ferry) NON-COVID: IF YOU NEED HELP, CALL THE NHSPeople are being encouraged to seek medical help for urgent health issues which are not related to COVID-19. During the lockdown, patients have been delaying seeing their GP, and there has been a urgent cancer referrals and families getting their children vaccinated. The campaign will encourage people to call their GP surgery, or 111 out of hours, if they have urgent health concerns. In emergencies, they should still dial 999. CASHThere is ...
