Jim Ford was a founder member of OPSTA (Ormskirk Preston & Southport Travellers Assn) or OPTA (Ormskirk Preston Travellers Assn) as it was originally constituted. He'd certainly been at meetings ever since I joined and that must be 30 years+ and counting. Jim was an interesting man and you could not but like him. I've heard him described as an ideas man and that fits him well. I last met him only days before he died when we had an OPSTA Committee meeting in his Southport garden surrounded by his model railway. Little did we know then that Jim would ...
Gladiator won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1999, and four others: Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Costume Design, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. It lost in seven categories, three each to Traffic and to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won both Hugo and Nebula that year. Of the other four Oscar nominees, I have not seen Traffic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Erin Brockovich, though I have seen Chocolat. 2000 was a difficult year for us, and apart from Chocolat, the only other 2000 films I have seen to the end are Almost Famous, Chicken Run and The ...
Sat 23rd
12:30
Scottish Lib Dem social justice spokesperson Bruce Wilson highlights childcare problems
Former marine Bruce Wilson is the Scottish Lib Dems spokesperson for veterans and social justice. In this week's Daily Record he wrote about the need for high quality childcare as a key element of a fairer society. As the father of three children under 7, he and his wife know only too well the crippling costs of childcare: While my eldest is in school and goes to after school club, there is no way for me and my wife to afford mortgage payments, bills and childcare for our twins, despite having decent salaries. Nursery costs to cover full time work ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @Scott1Gray: Funny how it felt like a century between The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, but it's like we just had The Day of the D... Fri, 14:14: When Eurocrats flirt.... https://t.co/93cOYpNn4n via @YouTube Fri, 16:24: My initial take on the new electoral boundary proposals for Northern Ireland, as published in yesterday's @BelTel BelfastTelegraph. https://t.co/flUr390nSK Fri, 18:59: "Fire Watch", by Connie Willis https://t.co/4zpGc7U80z Fri, 20:48: RT @hayward_katy: The #Protocol on IRL/NI was agreed 2 years ago, with a key objective of avoiding a hard @BorderIrish But what has #Brexi... Fri, 22:15: RT @JeffDudgeon: Fantastic to see ...
In some ways it is reassuring that the extravagant £2.6m Downing Street briefing room is getting some use, but is it really appropriate to turn it into a private cinema for the Prime Minister and his entourage, especially when he is still using No. 10 Downing Street for lobby briefings? The Guardian says that Boris Johnson attended a screening of the new James Bond film 'No Time To Die' in this room after work hours on Thursday. It transpires that other films have been screened here as well and, although costs are met through voluntary donations and by donors, that ...
It's not often I've felt the need to thank Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley for anything. I am kind of glad, though, that he felt the need to write to Ed Davey on House of Commons paper to complain that we didn't use an all-women shortlist when we selected Bobby Dean as our candidate for Carshalton and Wallington, because Ed's blistering, beautifully crafted response showed a new side to him. Davies' attitude is surprising given that he's actively campaigned against measures to protect women for some time. Back in 2017, Laura Bates wrote a brilliant article in the ...
A perfect storm appears to be gathering over Glasgow to obstruct the COP26 Climate Change Conference which starts on 31 October. Two hundred countries, 100 hundred world leaders and 30,000 participants from politicians to climatologists, to diplomats to businesses and to pressure groups will turn the Scottish city into a logistical nightmare for a fortnight. But that is an insignificant issue and a tiny price to pay if the world's governments come up with a workable plan to reduce global temperature rises to the target of 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2050 or, hopefully, sooner. Unfortunately, that appears increasingly unlikely for ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of carriageway resurfacing works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Grosvenor Road (between Shaftesbury Road and Perth Road), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 25 October 2021 for 2 working days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available Perth Road / Rockfield Street. For further information contact 433082. Executive Director of City DevelopmentDundee City Council
"What happened on that Friday and in the days after, when police rounded up even more kids, would expose an ugly and unsettling culture in Rutherford County, one spanning decades. In the wake of these mass arrests, lawyers would see inside a secretive legal system that's supposed to protect kids, but in this county did the opposite. Officials flouted the law by wrongfully arresting and jailing children." Meribah Knight and Ken Armstrong report a horrifying case from the US. Jonathan Jones on the government's reliance on secondary legislation to drive Brexit and efforts to curb the Covid pandemic. He calls ...
