Talking Pictures TV continues to be a national treasure. A couple of weekend ago screened an extraordinary British film from 1948. Based on a 1945 play, No Room at the Inn deals with a woman who is paid to take in wartime evacuee children, but spends the money on herself and leaving the children to live in hunger and squalor. It has a strange, dark, fairy tale atmosphere and the screenplay is partly the work of the poet Dylan Thomas. What really makes the film is the performance of Freda Jackson as the villainous Mrs Voray. A witch to the ...
Here in England, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is under fierce attack from his backbenchers over both the four-week lockdown that is coming to an end, and the system of tiered restrictions that will replace it, which means that almost everybody will still be subject to heavy restrictions. These critics are, for the most ... Continue reading Three things lockdown critics just don't get
"There is a perception that we are too managerial, trying not to stray too far from the middle of the road, transformed into precisely the milquetoast, anodyne, irrelevant party that we spent years trying to persuade people that we weren't." Gracchus questions Liberal Democrat strategy. "If any prime minister in the past had shown such a determined ignorance of the dynamics of global capitalism, the massed ranks of British capital would have stepped in to force a change of direction. Yet today, while the CBI and the Financial Times call for the softest possible Brexit, the Tory party is no ...
Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 46) Selected Prose, by Charles Lamb (did not finish) Mahatma Gandhi: His Life and Times, by Louis Fischer sf (non-Who): 7 (YTD 99) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick Borderline, by Mishell Baker SS-GB, by Len Deighton Painless, by Rich Larson The Time Invariance of Snow, by E. Lily Yu Blood is Another Word for Hunger, by Rivers Solomon More Real Than Him, by Silvia Park Doctor Who: 5 (YTD 16) The Nth Doctor, by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier The Official Doctor Who Annual 2021, by Paul Lang Doctor Who: Mission to the ...
One of the most troubling trends in local government finances in recent years is the move by councils into commercial property. Not actually building much, although it's hardly unheard of, but buying it, using low interest rates to borrow large sums of money. The theory is that, with returns on commercial property higher than interest rates for borrowers, councils can earn a profit in the investments, using the funds to support local services. It hasn't gone unremarked, and I wrote about this in December 2018. Of course, since then, the pandemic has had some dramatic effects on commercial property, with ...
Ed Davey has slammed the Government for failing to build a plan to "bring the virus under control and keep people safe" and warned that Ministers must address growing concerns before his Party can vote for the new system.
COVID-19 - the pandemic that has swept around the world and brought modern civilisation to its knees - should have been a moment in which the British people rallied together. Even Nicola Sturgeon has turned her eyes from much-coveted Scottish Independence to deal with managing the pandemic. We really need to be able to trust our politicians, in our hour of need. This Conservative Johnson Ministry, however, has repeatedly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted - and with an attitude so careless, one wonders if they actually believe they could walk out on Oxford Street and shoot someone, only to ...
In 1999, the scientific researcher Melita Norwood was unmasked as a Soviet spy. She was interviewed by a barrage of media in the front garden of her suburban home, but as she was so elderly and frail the government decided not to put her on trial. That rather odd little tale, sad in its own [...]
Mon 30th
13:06
How we championed a growing anti-discrimination campaign and made our council a more inclusive emplo...
In November's Full Council, Hull City Council (HCC) unanimously passed a motion calling for a proactive, zero-tolerance anti-discrimination policy and backed a campaign for the law to be changed to make this mandatory for all organisations. In the summer, the former president of Hull University Union founded a campaign called @MakeDiversityCount following her experience of racism in her role - and how the university was not equipped to deal with it. Her story and subsequent petition calling for all organisations to have a clear, robust and effective policy prompted me to investigate the situation at HCC, which she was pleased ...
Just how powerful is Global Britain, as the country walks out of the EU door? The question has taken on a certain urgency given the disturbing events of the last few days regarding Iran. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the country's most senior nuclear scientist, was assassinated on the outskirts of Tehran on Friday. The Iranians immediately blamed Israel, which is not as outrageous a claim as some the Islamic Republic makes. Tel Aviv has made no secret of its wish to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions - as it did earlier with Iraq - and Dr Fakhrizadeh was not the first leading Iranian ...
Sun, 12:10: Interesting stamp on this second-hand book. Any thoughts about what "CVRA" could mean? I suspect an institution with a library for residents/guests, and the "C" may stand for "Castle". "8 18" probably means the book was withdrawn from the collection in August 2018. https://t.co/c8F4kZaPM3 Sun, 12:56: RT @DaveKeating: An MEP from #Orban's #Fidesz party has resigned, saying defending #Hungary's #RuleOfLaw position "has become an ever-great... Sun, 14:48: RT @DavidGauke: My piece for the @FT on the OBR's assessment of the economic impact of Brexit. Even with a deal, it will be a hard Brexit &... Sun, 14:58: B ...
While we remain in the dark as to how exactly the Taxpayer's Alliance is funded at least we now have more idea as to the source of income for one Welsh thinktank, which has been making its mark recently. Wales on line reports that the Centre for Welsh Studies think tank has received funding from a United States-based global network organisation that seeks to promote right-wing free market ideology across the world. They say that the Centre for Welsh Studies (CWS) has been under pressure to reveal the origins of its funding, and earlier this month was at the centre ...
Editorial note – I forgot to add the critical link to the motion, which has now been restored to its rightful place. Apologies to all... As Liberal Democrats, we have long supported the abolition of an unelected House of Lords and its replacement by an elected second chamber of Parliament. However, there is little chance of it happening soon, or even in the next ten years. Until that time, we must carry on with the current House of Lords and at some stage the Leader of the Liberal Democrats will invited to nominate people to sit the House of Lords ...
Mon 30th
08:30
Whoniversaries 30 November: Unearthly Child #2, Invasion #5, Dragonfire #2, Silver Nemesis #2
End of another month. I've started reposting these to the Facebook Doctor Who group, where people seem to like them broadcast anniversaries 30 November 1963: repeat of "An Unearthly Child" and first broadcast of "The Cave of Skulls", the first and second episodes of the story we now call An Unearthly Child. The Tardis has landed on a primitive world where the travellers are taken captive by cavemen. 30 November 1968: broadcast of fifth episode of The Invasion. Isobel, Jamie and Zoe enter the sewers and are confronted by a deranged Cyberman. 30 November 1987: broadcast of second episode of ...
I thought that I'd start the day with music, and this seemed to be perfect, the first of the Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, written by Thomas Tallis in 1567. The words seem most appropriate for the joys of a Day Editor... Man blest no doubt who walk'th not out In wicked men's affairs, And stand'th no day in sinner's ways Not sit'th in scorner's chairs; But hath his will in God's law still, This law to love aright, And will him use, on it to muse, To keep it day and night.
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2020 Hawkhill - lane closures for 3 weeks for street lighting column installation works. Abbotsford Street (at Blackness Road) - closed from Monday 30 November for 3 days for BT work. Blackness Road (at Abbotsford Street) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 30 November for 3 days for BT work. Forthcoming Roadworks Riverside Drive (at Railway Station) - layby and taxi rank closed from Monday 7 December for 5 days for SGN service connection. Blackness Road (at Rosefield Street) - off-peak temporary ...
Mon 30th
06:58
Covid Watch: Will you have a coronavirus vaccination when it becomes available? New Ludlow survey
There is good news on the vaccination front. Three contenders could be approved for use in the UK before Christmas. They have been developed in a record time. That shows what can be achieved when the world's best scientists get the money they need. Not everyone is comfortable with the speed of development. Not everyone understands the scientific processes that is being undertaken. But we must all make personal decisions on how to protect our heath and how to protect the health of others . Whether or not to have a flu jab. Whether to give a child MMR. Whether ...
