John Rogers describes this walk on YouTube: A walk with writer Iain Sinclair in Tilbury on the River Thames in Essex, exploring some of the territory covered in his forthcoming book The Gold Machine. This fascinating Essex walk through Tilbury Town and along the Thames foreshore to the Bata Factory in East Tilbury goes to the heart of the landscapes that have inspired much of his work since his book Downriver published in 1990. John has a Patreon account to support his videos and blogs at The Lost Byway.
The Liberal Democrats and others endorse Proportional Representation as a panacea to the problems inherent with First-Past-The-Post. FPTP is designed to discourage electoral participation, whether due to the spoiler effect of voting for minor parties, the adoption by major parties of fringe policies simply to win votes, smear campaigning supplanting positive campaign promises, or the disconnect between vote and seat shares. Is it any wonder that at the last five general elections, more than thirty per cent of eligible voters abstained from voting, not wanting to make unsavoury compromises or believing that their votes did not matter? Our current electoral ...
Second paragraph of third story ("The Black Eggs of Khufu", by Tom Dexter):It was the third time he'd asked. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart's journey had taken close to a week to reach Cairo, and Ahmed was certain that this fact was about to be brought up again, but the site of the black granite slab proved to be enough of a distraction.Really enjoying the expanding universe of the hidden history of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. This is a collection of short stories and out-takes from the novels, all decent enough, some really memorable - "Ashes of the Inferno" by Andy Frankham-Allen, the overall show-runner ...
What is it about Afghanistan that causes Western policymakers and commentators lose all sense of perspective? A striking example of this phenomenon is former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who has described President Biden's policy as "imbecilic" in an outburst on his website – or at any rate that regime's attempt to justify it. This ... Continue reading Trying to get Afghanistan into perspective
It is tempting for UK political figures unfamiliar with the wars in Afghanistan, to view recent events as a 'surprise loss for the West' that is 'all the fault of President Biden'. Neither is true. I will attempt a summary. The war was 'lost' many years ago. Talebs and other insurgents controlled a majority of the country after the first five years. By the end of 2009 ICOS (Western-funded) reported that the Talebs had a controlling presence in 97% of the country, and had de facto control of Districts representing almost two thirds of territory. Certainly when I first arrived ...
The contrast was striking. It was 12:30am in the morning. Croatia is really hot over the summer and therefore a late night walk is usually a relief. It was midnight and the outdoor sport courts were full of children. Kids were playing (with some parental supervision) beach volleyball, football and basketball. Of course, I did join in! Some would say that this leaving children out so late in the night is rather naive. So was it irresponsible parenting? Personally, I don't think so. In Britain, I often feel that we lost the ability to "spontaneously" organise various youth projects and ...
Amidst the shambles that is the Johnson Government's response to the collapse of the former Afghan government, the focus is – quite rightly – currently on getting as many people out as quickly and efficiently as we can whilst the incoming Taliban administration is willing to allow it. But, having set the wheels in motion, and determined who we want to evacuate and how many we should offer sanctuary to, we need to turn our attention to the question of why we should intervene in the affairs of another sovereign nation and how we can effectively achieve any set of ...
Sun, 15:48: The History of Mr Polly, by H.G. Wells https://t.co/koJkeN404o Sun, 19:57: RT @davidallengreen: 'Decaf Nation - a passing anecdote about Brexit' Have now blogged about this at https://t.co/QPOCgeBwoe Sun, 22:30: "Well, I'm back," he said. (@ Tarmac in Zaventem, Vlaams-Brabant) https://t.co/MTlUo3jTi4 Mon, 10:45: How to fall in love with Belgium — a convert's guide https://t.co/Ef5P5X12Y3 @garethharding has got there at last.
As the holiday industry struggles to recover from a disastrous covid year, they cannot be helped by companies providing the tests needed to get on a flight abroad boosting their own profits. As the Independent reports, more than 80 private travel testing companies have been warned over listing prices on the government's official website which are lower than those offered on their own sites at the point of checkout. A review by the English Department of Health and Social Care found that 82 of these companies - which makes up around 18 per cent of all day two and day ...
Listening to a BBC Radio 4 broadcast recently, somebody commented that liberal democracy has failed us. The context wasn't clear. I thought about it for a while and have decided to put pen to paper. In the context of Brexit, there could be an argument that liberal democracy has failed us, but I wonder if this idea is purely superficial. We are now experiencing shortages of workers in delivery, waste disposal, health and social care, food picking, etc. I have been personally impacted by the fact that some car parts are hard to come by and have been waiting for ...
Mon 23rd
08:26
Covid Watch 157: Twin peaks in third wave as cases continue to rise in Shropshire - testing is vital...
We saw twin peaks of during the second wave of Covid-19 infection. The first came in November after perhaps too much socialising and eating out over the summer. The second in December as infection rates soared to the highest level reported, helped by the Christmas relaxations. The vaccination drive, which went better than many could have hoped, soon brought infection rates tumbling down. But as lockdown restrictions were eased, rates shot up and the third wave was upon us. The first peak was over by the end of July but if we thought that was the end of the third ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 23 AUGUST 2021 Larch Street - closed from Wednesday 18 August for 6 days for road resurfacing. Riverside Drive Taxi Rank - closed overnight (10.00pm - 7.00am) on Saturday 28 August for work at the Railway Station. Brook Street between Brewery Lane and Brook Close - 2 way temporary traffic lights from Tuesday 24 August for 3 days Forthcoming Roadworks Annfield Row (at Annfield Street) - closed from Tuesday 31 August for 5 working days for Scottish Water work. Blackness Avenue - closed from ...
Matthew Pennell says the Lib Dems should put bricks and mortar before Facebook. It was a day at school I'll never forget: one of my Politics A Level classmates had a taboo revelation for us. It was Adam. You'd like Adam, he was nearly a foot taller than me but he was a gentle giant, soft round the edges in an otherwise waspish alpha male wannabe environment. Sharp intake of breath ... then he told us he'd joined the Young Conservatives. Mic drop - none of us were expecting that. Adam was a genuinely nice guy, it seemed absurd to ...
