Long ago, I heard a book called Mortimer Also read on Jackanory. Jackanory? It was a television programme in which someone sat down and read you a story. No animation. No special effects. Just a few illustrations if you were lucky. Mortimer Also concerned a test match umpire and a mouse who lived in his cottage. The umpire did not want anyone to know his eyesight was failing, so the mouse would on his head, peer out through a hole in his panama and yank his hair to signal whether or not to give a close lbw appeal. I know ...
At the end of last year, Ian Kearns and I published a short report called Citizens' Britain: a radical agenda for the 2020s. The title was in homage to Paddy Ashdown's book of the same title from 1989, and the core of the approach remains exactly the same: we see the task of liberalism today as being to put more power in more people's hands. We quote Paddy to start the report: "A society cannot be free and is very unlikely to be successful for long unless the men and women in it have real power to determine their own ...
Second paragraph of third story ("Poison Pen"):The net result was that Jim Barksfield was doing what he had always vowed he would never do. He was now a pen-pusher, a form filler and successor to the man who had so regularly irritated him over the previous years with his seemingly dogged obsession with procedure, PR. and budgets. Now, and for the foreseeable future, he was himself to be that same irritant to others and he found the role uncomfortable.A collection of stories by Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor. Most of them are non-sfnal stories about crime and the law, though ...
H.G. Wells' 'end of the world' fantasy saw civilisation saved by a friendly virus, but in 1951 a new type of apocalyptic fantasy appeared in cinema screens. In The Day the Earth Stood Still humanity was given an ultimatum: put aside petty squabbles and come together, or be annihilated. Michael Rennie's authoritarian 'alien' was clearly a depiction of human reason triumphing over the insanity of armed conflict, and the film reflected the founding principle of the United Nations; endless wars were the problem the human race faced. We are now living the reality, and the problem isn't wars. We face ...
Excellent to see these weekends continuing, migrated to a digital format: The Campaign for Gender Balance (CGB) is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Future Women MPs' Weekend, to be held online 20-21 February 2021 The weekend is an intensive training weekend for aspiring female MPs; designed to equip you with the knowledge you need as a candidate. Please note that this training is aimed at inexperienced candidates. If you are an experienced candidate there will be other CGB events in the future which may be more tailored to your skills and needs. As well as ...
The Liberal Democrats have been in coalition in Holyrood. We've been in coalition in Westminster. We are in coalition in the Welsh Senedd. What can the party learn from those previous experiences, and how can those lessons be applied to any future hung Parliament in Westminster? I'm teaming up with the most excellent Lib Dem Podcast to record a special live panel discussion on Friday 12th February 2021, from 4pm. We've got an awesome panel with direct first hand experience of how coalitions do and don't work: current Welsh coalition minister Kirsty Williams and two survivors of the 2010-15 Westminster ...
Last March, we didn't know what we were getting in to. We just knew we had to get in. Up to our knees. Up to our necks. At times overwhelmed. The Lib Dems are in opposition in Shropshire so we could not be decision makers. Our duty in a Lib Dem stronghold was to tell the town and its hinterland - an audience of more than 25,000 - what was happening. Tell Covid it as it is. We have lived with a tension. Criticising one of the slowest local rollouts of vaccination in the country. Seeking expert advice from the ...
That "Patriotism is the last Refuge of the Scoundrel" is probably the best known of the sayings of Dr Johnson. Apparently an outside advisory body has recommended to the Labour Party that it should become more overtly patriotic by wearing suites and wrapping itself in the Union Jack. I admit to being rather in favour of formal, or at lest, appropriate dress, but have been unhappy for some time about the ostentatious flaunting of Union Jacks by government spokespersons in their "briefings." Flags may be useful in meetings between international leaders, but we know that Westminster is British - there's ...
Thu 4th
13:24
Big negative impact on British exporters caused by exit from single market and customs union
A party press release brings the news: Today a new poll by YouGov/HSBC has found that 42% of British exporters said the exit from the single market and customs union has had a "negative impact" on their business. Responding to these findings, Sarah Olney MP, Liberal Democrats spokesperson for Business, Trade, and Transport, said: Boris Johnson has betrayed British business in his bodged Brexit deal. These new findings serve as a harsh reminder that this Government showed no interest in securing a trade deal which would work for the British people. It was a deal signed purely out of political ...
The EU'a faux pas over vaccines has brought home to the UK Government the previously unacknowledged contradictions in the Brexit deal, previously heralded as giving the UK full trading independence. The Independent reports that the prime minister on Wednesday threatened to invoke the protocol's Article 16 exit clause if it was the only way to ensure free flowing trade between the province and Great Britain: The prime minister's Brexit deal has already led to significant disruption between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, including shortages of some goods. In the House of Commons, DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr confronted the PM ...
It's that time again, as another Parish Newsletter is circulated to a breathless readership... Another year has come to Creeting St Peter, and not in the manner we all might have hoped, with all manner of restrictions upon us, and with the pandemic still dominating our lives. I hope that all of you are coping as best you can, but don't forget, if there is anything that the Parish Council can do to help, be it having someone to talk to, or shopping or prescriptions that need collecting, we'll do what we can. Indeed, many of you have supported friends ...
Reacting to Carers UK yesterday delivering a letter from near 5,000 carers calling on the Chancellor to acknowledge unpaid carers' contribution throughout the crisis, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey MP said: "People looking after loved ones during Covid are doing a remarkable job, in very difficult circumstances. They deserve much more support. "Millions of unpaid carers have faced serious financial hardship during the pandemic, and the Government's plan for an extra 5p a day is frankly an insult. "That's why Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to support carers properly, by raising Carer's Allowance by £1,000 a ...
Liberal Democrats have renewed calls on the Government to restore community policing and youth services, as new official figures show that police-recorded crime rose by 20% after the first lockdown was lifted last summer, returning to pre-Covid levels. Responding to the figures, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "The steep rise in crime last summer is alarming. The Government must act fast to prevent a similar surge when the current lockdown is lifted. "For far too long, Conservative Ministers have been trying hard to seem tough on crime, but failing to do what works to actually prevent it. ...
Wed, 12:56: RT @davidallengreen: How Theresa May casually decided that Brexit meant the United Kingdom would leave the single market and customs union... Wed, 14:48: RT @confusion2021: Hello All! We bring you news! After many committee discussions and conversations with the hotel we are now committed to... Wed, 15:30: All's Well That Ends Well, by William Shakespeare The modestly born but intelligent Helena fulfills her reluctant husband's conditions, by tricking him into having sex with her while thinking that she is someone else. #nwbooks https://t.co/wKCyJnavN4 https://t.co/jB9X9m9C5x https://t.co/fC2537B2Uf Wed, 16:05: RT @acommonlawyer: My favourite French story of this week, French foreign ...
Here at LDV Towers we would like to expand our team to include more party members. As well as being on the lookout for a new Day Editor, there are also some specialist tasks which, if filled, would greatly enrich what we have to offer. Book reviewer: willing to read and write about books that will be of interest to our readers Arts reviewer: as for book reviewer but focussing on film, theatre and art YouTube video maker: able to conduct and produce short videos, mainly interviews with fellow Lib Dems Social media co-ordinator: able to promote Lib Dem Voice ...
i) births and deaths 4 February 1919: birth of Peter Butterworth, who played the Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler (First Doctor, 1965) and The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1966). 4 February 1948: birth of Stephen Wyatt, as far as I know the only alumnus of Clare College, Cambridge, to have written for Who (Dan Zeff, a contemporary of mine, has directed); he wrote Paradise Towers (Seventh Doctor, 1987) and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (Seventh Doctor, 1988). 4 February 1951: birth of Dez Skinn, founding editor of Doctor Who Magazine. 4 February 1980: death of David Whitaker, ...
Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education has responded to the concerns I have raised over proposals by the University of Dundee that would see the merger of three academic schools - Schools of Humanities, Education and Social Work and Social Sciences - into one, with the loss of 34 academic jobs and potentially other support staff jobs. Whilst indicating that universities are autonomous institutions and Scottish Ministers nor the Scottish Government has locus to intervene directly, the Minister does say that "in the spirit of the Scottish Government's Fair Work policy, our view is that compulsory redundancies ...
