Having more or less vindicated my memory of having once heard a purported real "stone tape" on the radio, let me confess to a less accurate recollection. Take a look at these tweets. The girl has had mental health problems and everyone tries to convince her she never met her father. Her only help is a boy of her own age who plays the flute. I was living in Sutton Coldfield at the time, so this may be a late ATV production. Any ideas? 🙏 — Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers) October 7, 2021 Replies to them convinced me that I had ...
Brexit is going as expected. Ruined trade, broken pledges and ongoing assaults on human rights and the rule of law. It has led me to reflect on the root causes, and I mean the real baselines of what is going on. After the vote to leave but before we actually did in 2020, the British public were promised many things. That we would be free of regulation from Brussels and 'unelected bureaucrats'; a free nation negotiating exciting and buccaneering trade deals across the globe. Now, let's take that all at face value. Could this government have predicted Covid19? Well, they ...
News from Folkestone and Hythe Liberal Democrats: Two of Folkestone's most experienced councillors have announced they are ditching the Conservatives and have joined the Liberal Democrats. Peter Gane has been a Councillor for almost 35 years, and Mayor of Folkestone for 5 years. He will join the Liberal Democrat Group on Folkestone and Hythe District Council and Folkestone Town Council. Roger West has also been Mayor of Folkestone for two years, and was first elected to Folkestone Town Council in 2004. He will join the Liberal Democrat Group on Folkestone Town Council. Folkestone and Hythe Liberal Democrats Chairman Adam Rowledge ...
It was another glorious day in the Tatras, and I was up relatively early in order to grab breakfast and explore. The sky was full of swallows as, it turned out, they were staying at my hotel too, with nesting sites in the eaves and fledglings to feed. As part of my package, I was able to get free cablecar rides, so, after breakfast, I headed to the nearby station for the ride up to Hrebienok. And, having climbed another 250 metres, it seemed a pity not to go for a walk now that I'd got there, so I set ...
It's notable both how high support for Britain's involvement with the European Court of Human Rights is, and also how high...
Good news this morning: the Liberal Democrats have gained another seat on Rutland Council Council. You've not missed a rare Friday local by-election: it's that when nominations closed for the vacancy in Oakham South it was found that only one valid nomination had been submitted. So congratulations to the ward's new Lib Dem councillor Raymond Payne. As far as I know, this isn't because the Conservatives messed up their nomination paper,. It's because they couldn't find anyone prepared to stand for them. When Stephen Lambert gained the Uppingham ward from the Tories last month I blogged:At Rutland's 2019 all-out council ...
Columnist Matthew Parris has been wandering a bit in recent years, step by step getting further away from the Conservative Party which he once represented as an MP. He was MP for West Derbyshire from 1979 to 1986, leaving politics to pursue a career in journalism. Since then, criticism of the Tories and their pursuit of Brexit have two of the major themes of his columns. Parris left the Tories in 2019, saying he was going to vote Lib Dem. The week before the North Shropshire by-election, he wrote: "We've got a wrong 'un in Downing Street. Does anyone have ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @alexstubb: Brilliant by Ivan Krastev. Again. And, he is with us today, delvering our graduation address for our first MA cohort. @STG... Fri, 14:35: RT @KyivIndependent: ⚡️ Eurovision 2023 won't be held in Ukraine, contest offered to UK. The European Broadcast Union (EBU) said on June 1... Fri, 16:58: RT @trouwschmidt: 🛑BREAKING - - Netherlands supports EU candidacy status Ukraine. @WBHoekstra: 'Let's do this for the sake of Europe's unit... Fri, 18:16: November 2016 books https://t.co/GM2har1Xik Sat, 08:56: RT @JP_Biz: The NI Business Brexit Working Group, which represents main business representative groups has a statement this week's ...
Time for a change of scenery and a confession of sorts... Ostrava not, frankly, having an awful lot to detain the curious traveler in search of entertainment, it was time to set off for one of the high points of the trip, Slovakia's Tatras. Why Slovakia, I hear you ask? Well, the scenery is apparently spectacular, the air is clean and fresh and, as for the trains... The day got off to a good start as I boarded the Slovak Railways Pendolino to Poprad-Tatry. A welcome glass of Sekt was never going to be turned down, and if I can ...
Despite, or perhaps because of, its liberal roots, the modern incarnation of The Guardian specialises at times in very tortured editorials about maybe, perhaps or not quite supporting the Liberal Democrats. But in this Parliament there's been an evolution in its views, as shown by the straightforward – well, as straightforward as Guardian editorials about the Lib Dems get – backing for tactical voting and strategic choices over where to campaign in its piece about the two Parliamentary by-elections coming up on Thursday: Parties do not own their voters, who don't like being taken for granted. The electorate knows how ...
I am an immigrant. I emigrated from the United States to the United Kingdom on the 12th December 1971. I had studied for a year in Britain 18 months before and fell in love with the country and one of its citizens and moved back despite the dreary weather and traffic jams. I did not flee a Middle Eastern, African, Central Asian or East European War. I did not turf up at Heathrow claiming political persecution or risk crossing the English Channel in an inflatable raft. Neither was I escaping a life of poverty in an African mud hut. In ...
The Forfar Instrumental Band is playing at Magdalen Green tomorrow!
