Our production of eFocuses - our email newsletters to residents - has been on overdrive recently. The Low Fell team has been the most productive. A few be viewed of our recent editions can be viewed on the following links:Low Fell no. 69Low Fell no. 68Low Fell no. 67Whickham no. 138Whickham no. 137Whickham no. 136Meanwhile Whickham edition 139 is nearly ready to go. The circulation list has had
Talking Pictures TV showed this the other day: This film is a tribute to Britain's women teachers, standard bearers of an education Nazi-ism would destroy and it tells of one tiny village school typical of hundreds, at Ashley Green in the leafy countryside of Buckinghamshire. I'm not sure we can trust it as an accurate picture of Britian in those dark days, but we can trust it as a picture of how we wanted to be seen. And an appealing picture it is. Ashley Green is real but reminds me of a fictional Buckinghamshire village from the same era: the ...
Almost 1300 drivers still on roads despite receiving 12 points or more, Liberal Democrats reveal The Liberal Democrats have today revealed that 1278 drivers with 12 points or more on their record are still behind the wheel and called for an examination of whether persistent offenders are being properly dealt with. Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson Sarah Olney has warned Ministers that people's safety is at risk and said, "it's important that repeat offenders and dangerous drivers are kept off the roads." With a fall in car use because of the Government's efforts to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, the Liberal ...
Just an update really – plenty going on at the moment. Brian the Barrington Bear is coming out this Friday in eBook, soft cover and hardback. Will post everything you need to know here on Friday! And I've recently heard that a piece I submitted to Moxy Magazine will be published. It's all about an... Continue reading Re-Boot
These are the fruits of some recent googling of this blog's musical hero. First, proof that music pulls the girls no matter what from the anonymous writer of Scribblings: Just before my family moved south to Sussex I went, with a couple of friends, to their youth club at Great Barr Comprehensive. There was a kid standing at the piano over in the corner of the gymnasium whilst the rest of us were playing table tennis or snooker. He must have been one of the last people at his school to switch from shorts to long trousers. Usually, I'm sure ...
Quirky British comedy has long been one of my favorite cinema genres and the charm and at times outrageousness of Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's What We Did on Our Holiday (available via BBC iPlayer until 5 September) hit the spot for me now just as much as when I saw it on the big [...]
At the time of writing this, we have 17 days left of the leadership election and here is my confession: I cannot wait for it to be done. Whilst we have two fantastic candidates standing for us, you would think from the comments being slung around by some members on social media that there is some vast ideological difference between the two. I had the pleasure of chairing Liberal Reform's Leadership Q&A this weekend and really enjoyed the debate. We discussed everything from nationalisation to the housing crisis, from party structure to the Orange Book. And you know what? There ...
This is the text of a letter I sent to the Newark Advertiser this week: Dear Sirs Robert Jenrick seems determined that his legacy to Newark will be to be remembered as the worst MP this town has ever had. Not content with making a large personal contribution to the air of sleeze that dominates this government, he has now unveiled plans to change the planning system to take away all control from local people and local democracy, and to place all the power in the hands of large builders. Robert has suggested that the landlord who owns the property ...
I am delighted that we have been able to help the residents on Peache Way. Their communal bins were simply not up to the job so the borough council have agreed to issue each house there with their own wheelie bins, and the landlords are creating hard standing areas on each property for them to live. This should solve a long standing problem for the residents.
A hundred years ago today, in a porcelain factory outside Paris, a Treaty was signed which effectively dismembered the Ottoman Empire, handing large tracts of land over to Britain, France, Greece and Italy, establishing an Armenian Republic and raising the possibility of an independent Kurdistan. This was a far more drastic settlement than Germany's losses [...]
Developers have come in with plans for 5 houses on Crowthers Farm, which will totally change this much loved green footpath. In order to get access they are planning to put in a new drive right down by the bollards, so vehicles will be using the whole path. And now, in a sudden change of plan they propose widening the tarmac into what is now the hedge along the south of the path. This is so refuse and other large vehicles can get onto the site and be able to turn. Their plan is that large vehicles will do a ...
Bravo Tim - at long last a clear and radical Lib Dem message on the scandal of social housing (Press Release 06 08 - 'Jenrick's planning reform won't solve housing crisis'). We must pursue this with all possible force, because it is manifestly right and, in purely political terms, it highlights a massive void in the policies of the other two main parties. As Tim says in his response to Jenrick's lamentable proposals, there may be a shortage of affordable property to buy, but the real scandal concerns the least well-off. It is they who are condemned to rent insecure, ...
Sun, 12:56: RT @CelestialGinger: I am halfway through season 2 of Sex & the City and I don't understand how this show about four single New York career... Sun, 14:48: RT @hradzka: One of those stories, which I shall now tell, was the story of how Jon Pertwee got a pet cheetah. Sun, 14:55: I block rude people. https://t.co/HuDkV3cRDZ Sun, 15:47: RT @SFFANZ_News: SJV Award Statement: The following is a statement from John Toon, President of SFFANZ.... As President of SFFANZ, I would li... Sun, 16:05: Dear Philosophers, You Can Trust the Feminist Consensus: Gender-Critical Radical Feminism is Bogus... https://t.co/7Dq8x1xTVh ...
Blocking pupil grade appeals could deny opportunities "for years to come" Government should encourage universities to "exercise leniency" for 2020 admissions Lack of test and trace leaving local authorities blind-folded with regional lockdowns Government must provide practical and financial support ahead of schools opening fully Blocking pupil grade appeals could deny opportunities "for years to come" Responding to news that schools, but not individual pupils, will be able to challenge the GCSE and A Level grades awarded, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran said: This completely fails to get to grips with the issue. If individual pupils are not able ...
Following on from yesterday's post about how the friends and allies of Boris Johnson have somehow secured lucrative government contracts, the Independent reports on another astonishing, but altogether different phenomenon. The paper says that Tate and Lyle Sugars is in line to save £73m from a post-Brexit trade shake-up, after campaigning to leave the EU and donating money to the Conservatives. The company has secured "a sweet deal" that will also see cane imported from countries with lower employment and environmental standards. The allegations come from Greenpeace, but the firm said it was "a complete fantasy" that it wanted to ...
I've said before that the piecemeal reorganisation of what was once the huge county council (with numerous small district councils such as West Lancs Borough) area of Lancashire has ended up leaving a mess of everything that has not already become a unitary authority. Former BBC and Liverpool Post reporter Political commentator and writer Nick Hancock debating with Sefton's Cllr. Iain Brodie Browne. Below, via the link, respected north west journalist Jim Hancock updates us on the tortuous 'progress' towards a resolution (scroll down to 'Driver's Umbrella'):- jimhancock.co.uk/hancocks-half-page/ Lancashire should have been sorted out as one whole package The process ...
i) births and deaths 10 August 1929: birth of Peter Diamond, who was fight arranger for eight stories between The Dalek Invasion of Earth (First Doctor, 1964) and The Dæmons (Third Doctor, 1971), and played a number of minor parts of which the most important was Delos in The Romans (First Doctor, 1965). 10 August 1939: birth of Kate O'Mara, who played the Rani in The Mark of the Rani (Sixth Doctor, 1985) and Time and the Rani (Seventh Doctor, 1987). 10 August 1996: death of Rex Tucker, who directed The Gunfighters (First Doctor, 1966) but had also been an ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT Please note that most works are subject to change and late completion due to the restrictive measures in place following UK and Scottish Government advice that only emergency/urgent works and those considered essential should take place during this period. Forthcoming Road Works Strawberrybank - closed from Thursday 17 September for 5 working days for wall maintenance works.
