Government must reverse £30m aid cuts to Southern Africa to help tackle new variant The Liberal Democrats have demanded that the government reverse aid cuts and launch an emergency Covid support fund, to help countries in Southern Africa contain the new variant spreading there. Analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found that the UK is slashing aid to Southern Africa and Zimbabwe by £30m next year, or by over a third (35%), a move the party described as "cruel and short-sighted." In addition to this, UK aid spending on global health funding has been slashed by £243 million, from over ...
Current The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien Shanghai Sparrow, by Gaie Sebold Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney The Last Defender of Camelot, by Roger Zelazny (the 2002 collection, not the 1980s one of the same name) Last books finished Exploding School to Pieces: Growing Up With Pop Culture In the 1970s, by Mick Deal - did not finish Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve The Story of Sex: From Apes to Robots, by Philippe Brenot and Laetitia Coryn River of Gods, by Ian McDonald The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, by J R R Tolkien, ed. ...
How did it come this? Tens of migrants drowning in the Channel. There is a sense of inhumanity about current events. A sense of unreality. A sense that the horrors of humanity at its worst is lapping up on the shores of the Channel. Alive. But often dead. There is a sense of unreality about our government's response. And that of the French leadership. This is people's lives. People escaping the horrors of conflict and political suppression. People who want their children to go to school. People who want to set up thriving businesses. People who want to pay their ...
(This was the last review I had written before I went down with COVID. if you have been wondering how I kept up my daily book posts for the last week, it's because they had all been written some time before...) Second paragraph of third story ("Eve of the Fomorians", by Robert Mammone):All Danny saw was the faintest edge of the moon: pale and ghostly and sickle sharp, sailing dreamily through the gathering clouds. The faint hiss of waves running onto the shingle beach reached him, as did the lonely clanging of the buoy in the harbour, nodding and bowing ...
Well, I am very glad to say that I feel a bit better today, and spent most of the afternoon downstairs. F ventured forth to the supermarket, armed only with a long shopping list, but seems to have survived the experience. I did some mild blogging and even cleared this morning's work emails, though that still leaves me more than a week in arrears. I generally write my book posts a couple of weeks in advance; tonight's is the last that was written before I got the bug. But I expect to be able to do some catching up at ...
Thu, 12:56: Characteristically witty and incisive from David O'Sullivan. https://t.co/XQUMyN5o3w Thu, 15:54: RT @OctothorpeCast: @JohnCoxon, @BohemianCoast, and guest @MargueriteS_IE are live from Novacon 50! We discuss @worldcon2021, @Glasgowin202... Thu, 16:40: RT @iainjclark: This explains why, until recently, most crimes were committed by women Thu, 16:42: What an idiot. https://t.co/jWZ7ONgPga Thu, 16:55: RT @davidallengreen: MP who accuses female Doctor Who of causing crime wave has his own approach to time travel... https://t.co/HSIyPi9PMq Thu, 16:55: RT @EmporersNewC: It's not just that he said it. He wrote it down. This was a considered argument. This ludicrous statement is an example o... Thu, 16:56: ...
Fri 26th
10:39
North Shropshire Tory candidate: health provision is a commodity and NHS staff not heroes
No one is surprised that the state of our health services has emerged has a major battleground in the by-election. Nationally, GPs and hospitals have been buckling under the strain of dealing with Covid-19 and the backlog of diagnoses and treatment. Here in Shropshire, our hospitals have suffered decades of mismanagement, pipedreams and scandals. The Conservative candidate for the North Shropshire by-election has a consistent track record on the NHS. He has written about NHS staff not being heroes and that he felt embarrassed by Clap for Heroes . Health services, his opinion, are commodities to be bought and sold. ...
Boris Johnson doesn't do irony, or at least that is the impression he gives, otherwise why would he be trying to blame other countries for his government's failure to properly manage our borders? It may well be that he doesn't understand what managing borders involves. It does not, for example, mean that we pull up the drawbridge, build a big wall and repel all those we don't like, though Priti Patel and he certainly give that impression. Management in this context is putting in place and taking responsibility for proper and humane controls, the swift and efficient evaluation of entrees, ...
Twelve principal authority council by-elections this week, along with the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election.
