I've definitely spent more time on this than I should, but here's how to get (most of) the 60 long-listed stories nominated for the BSFA Short Fiction Award for 2021. Yes, yes, Amazon, I know, but I get a very small bonus if you buy anything from those links. And I've changed to my own version of alphabetical order. I've raised a couple of eligibility queries below which came up in my research. Apologies if the administartors already considered those questions. No blame also if they have not - I am very appreciative of the amount of effort that goes ...
I have just sent in my response to the Wokingham Borough Local Plan Update Revised Growth Strategy Consultation. The Revised Growth Strategy now includes a Strategic Development Location of 4,500 residential units plus a business development area in the countryside next to Winnersh and Sindlesham, which I represent on the council. Here is what I have said about this particular bit of the Local Plan Update. Warning: it is ever so slightly ranty, while still trying to make points that planners have to consider.... I disagree strongly with the proposal to allocate this site for 4.500 units, of which at ...
I claim no expertise in foreign affairs; nor do I have any instant solutions on offer to avert the current prospect of war between Russia and Ukraine, which could easily expand to involve the Western democracies. But I do believe the present dangerous situation is the result of a failure of diplomacy, not in ancient history but in my lifetime, and a change of approach is needed. In defeating Nazism in the Second World War the United States suffered 407 000 military casualties, the UK 383 000 military casualties and France 210 000 military casualties.* The losses incurred by the ...
Responding to allegations from Nusrat Ghani MP who says her faith was raised by a Government Whip as a reason as to why she was sacked as a Minister in 2020, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Daisy Cooper commented: "Nusrat Ghani is incredibly brave to speak out. These very serious allegations of Islamophobia clearly need to investigated by a complaints process that is independent of the Conservative's party machine so that she and others can have confidence that her claims won't be swept aside. "With every passing day, the public are shocked by more and more revelations and allegations from Conservative ...
OK, I've probably spent way too long on this, but here's where to get the BSFA Non-Fiction award nominees. NB that I have changed the quirky alpapetisation of the BSFA annoucnement to my own quirky alphabetisation. NB also that I link to Amazon for convenience, and because of course I get a minuscule bounty if you buy anything from tose links. I have to say that one or two of these are beyond my budget. My other notes on this year's BSFA long lists: Short fiction Art Novel and YA "The Anthropocene in Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogy", by Tara B.M. ...
Between the 2017 and 2019 general elections, it became common for fans of Jeremy Corbyn to respond on social media to reports of a poor poll finding for their man with versions of 'I'll wait for Survation'.
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia. With my new job, I started a fairly intense period of travel which was only really interrupted by the pandemic two ...
I don't like to refer to the Daily Mail or the Mail on Sunday as a rule, especially as we don't often share a world view. But this morning's headline does give me a sense that I ought to respond. I'll start with the obvious stuff. Most civil servants don't work in Whitehall, indeed, increasingly those that did don't any more. The greater proportion of the Civil Service has always been based in towns and cities across the United Kingdom because that's where we interact with customers. You can't, for example, readily interview a self-employed trader and look at their ...
Second frame of third chapter: Do you think so? French bande dessinée given to us for Christmas by a friend. Carbone ("Carbon") and Silicium ("Silicon") are two artificial intelligences constructed in the near future, given humanoid bodies, and observing and participating in the gradual decline of humanity and the end of the world in environmental catastrophe. It's much slower paced than, say, Barbarella, but thoughtful as well as grim. As my regular reader knows, I'm not a huge fan of stories with anthropomorphic robots; however this somehow worked for me. You can get it here; the English translation is available ...
More on the BSFA long lists: 28 works of art are listed in the Best Art category, but no links are given, so I'm supplying them here. Of the 28, 13 or 14 are book covers (in one case it isn't clear); 6 are art installations; 4 are standalone graphics; two are graphic stories, and two are short films. I have tracked down all but one of them Found it). My other notes on this year's BSFA long lists: Short fiction Non-fiction Novel and YA Black Corporeal (Between This Air), by Julianknxx Short film Brick Lane Foundation, by Abbas Zahedi ...
My other notes on this year's BSFA long lists: Short fiction Non-fiction Art As usual, now that the BSFA long list is out, I've gone through it and counted how many people are recorded as reviewing each book on Goodreads, and owning each book on LibraryThing, and the respective ratings on each system. I have bolded the upper quartile (19 out of 74) in each column. They are ranked by the geometrical average of Goodreads reviewers and LibraryThing owners. I'm going to call attention to a few points. First, 74 is really way too long for a long list to ...
Having been active on Lib Dem social media for about eight years now, and being an admin or moderator of major Lib Dem groups for much of that time, I've witnessed many of the party's internal debates lately. I've noticed, with increasing despair, a trend in certain quarters to bemoan the fact that there are topics which people don't like being debated within our party. I would have far more patience with these internal 'free speech' arguments if it wasn't for the fact that there's only ever one thing that the people advancing them seem to want to talk about ...
Sat, 15:56: Crash https://t.co/jjY8sL6Jw3 Sat, 18:42: Saturday reading https://t.co/502OZEKDgY Sat, 19:04: RT @nicolacoughlan: Just walked into Times Square and I had no idea this was there I am both the giant yellow woman and the very small blue... Sat, 19:09: RT @nicolacoughlan: I googled it and she definitely is
Claims by the Wealden MP, Nusrat Ghani, in an interview with the Sunday Times, that, when she lost her job as a transport minister, she was told, at a meeting in Downing Street, that "Muslimness" had been raised as an problem has reopened a deep wound within the Conservative Party, who had hoped to have put claims it was institutionally Islamophobic behind it. The Guardian reports that Mark Spencer, the chief whip, has said the MP was referring to him when she accused a member of government of telling her she had been sacked from her ministerial post because her ...
The first intriguing by-election Thursday of 2022 was operating under the backdrop of "Partygate". Would the shenanigans at Number 10 cut through on the local level? Can the Lib Dems strike while the irons are hot and bring home the bacon, though it's Veganuary don't you know? Would this week's polls throw up any surprises? Here we have it, the round-up of all Thursday night's by-elections. Most notably then, Lib Dems and town council by-elections are a better match than one made in heaven. Three town council by-elections in Hatfield, Carterton and Dawlish ushered in gains, gains, gains for the ...
Will Russia invade Ukraine? Will it achieve its goals with a threatened invasion? What are Putin's goals? Mixed signals shoot out from every quarter. Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky is urging his country to not panic and at the same time be prepared for the worst and calling on the West for more help. President Biden says a "minor incursion" would mean less sanctions. The White Hoyuse and State Department then said he didn't mean what he said. Is Secretary of State Antony Blinken trying to persuade his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to accept a deal on nuclear force levels in ...
Crest Nicholson has submitted detailed plans for development of Phase 5 of the Foldgate Lane scheme (21/05961/FUL). This is the housing area nearest the retail park. Forty-two homes will be built, of which eleven will be affordable. Four of the homes will be bungalows. The total number of houses on the development has been increased from 137 to 179 dwellings. I have asked planners whether this can be done without a variation to the original outline planning permission which caps the number of homes at 137. The additional homes will increase traffic at the new T-junction onto the A49. However, ...
Fact #1 now reads a little archaically, but Fact #2 (save for the use of "man") still resonates.
From Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education : The fourth webinar in our series with Trinity College Dublin will take place on Thursday 27th January at 6pm. For further details and registration, please click the following link :
