Something a bit different from John Rogers. As he explains on YouTube This is a video of my project for Brent 2020 London Borough of Culture in collaboration with the wonderful Kensal Rise Library which ran from January 2020 to January 2021. Kensal Rise Has A Story tells the story of the streets around Kensal Rise Library through the voices of local people and is part of the inaugural Brent Biennal I explained the project in an interview with Art Review It's a geographic sound map or trail of Kensal Rise. The form the project takes has partly been informed ...
This post covers the key events in the 1990s which I included in my presentation on the 70 years of HM The Queen's reign to the Sunniside History Society earlier this month.1990 Poll Tax comes into operation National Garden Festival in Gateshead is opened by Princess Anne Agriculture Minister John Gummer publicly feeds a hamburger to his five-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the
It's one of the things about moving from a city to a small village as I did more than a decade ago, you become much more aware of how communities survive and thrive. In a city, because the level of population churn is greater, you may not gain a sense of continuity, and of individual contributions to civic society. That's not to say that it doesn't exist - there are no end of community groups operating in our towns and cities - but it can easily feel impersonal. In our small towns and villages, however, where the presence of local ...
Business energy bills announcement: a temporary sticking plaster IFS debt analysis: Taxpayers footing the bill for Truss's ideological obsessions Conservatives handing banks a £6 billion tax cut, new research reveals Calls for an Investigation into Failed Welsh Government Insulation Schemes Demands Welsh Government 'Names and Shame' Property Developers Failing to Act on the Building Safety Scandal Dental Crisis: Only 34% of Patients in Southwark Have Been Seen by an NHS Dentist in Past Two Years Business energy bills announcement: a temporary sticking plaster Responding to the government announcement on bills for businesses and the public sector, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, ...
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I mentioned yesterday that as a little boy I lived in the new town of Hemel Hempstead. That has left me with an affection for the humane modernist style of architecture that predominated there. There is at least one building in Market Harborough in that style. The wooden boards on the upper floor of this dry cleaners in the Coventry Road are typical of it.
The long awaited application to demolish the derelict Dunston Hill Primary School and replace it with 35 affordable homes was debated and agreed at the last planning committee meeting on 31st August. This video covers the presentation by officers, an objection from an officer and questions from councillors before the vote at the end (which was unanimous).
I was rather pleased with this entry, and then I realised what a narrow audience it would appeal to. It's people who loved John Le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or the television adaptation of it (but perhaps not the film) and who remember Ming Campbell's leadership of the Liberal Democrats and formed the same view of it I did. As I explained recently, those letters from Paddy have their origin in The Goat Hotel, Llanfair Caereinion. Wednesday Yes, I miss Paddy Ashdown. I miss his correspondence - those envelopes marked 'Top Secret: Burn Before Reading' that arrived by every ...
A short post to say more or less what the title says – as may have been obvious from my wanting to get my thoughts on policy process reform in order recently, I'm running to be a member of the Lib Dem Federal Policy Committee. The FPC has fifteen directly elected members and a similar [...]
Steffan Aquarone has been chosen to fight North Norfolk for the Liberal Democrats at the next general election. This is the seat held for the party by Norman Lamb between 2001 and 2019. The Eastern Daily Press reports that Steffan won 93 per cent of the votes of local Liberal Democrats in the selection process.
A council press release brings the news about Liberal Democrat run Eastleigh Council: Eastleigh Borough Council has been named Council of the Year in a UK-wide awards scheme recognising excellence in service delivery. The authority scooped the top accolade in the 2022 APSE Service Awards. APSE – the Association for Public Service Excellence – is the organisation dedicated to promoting quality in the delivery of frontline services to communities by UK local authorities. Their awards receive hundreds of submissions every year and only outstanding councils, that have met the stringent criteria of the expert judges, are shortlisted for Council of ...
North Norfolk Liberal Democrats have selected entrepreneur and proven local campaigner Steffan Aquarone to be their parliamentary candidate to take on the Conservatives.
Editor's Note: This was submitted on 9th September but held back because of the death of the Queen. Queen Elizabeth II One of my other hats is leader of the local cub scout group. As such, an important part of my job is explaining the cub scout promise to incoming cubs. The second line was, until this week, "to uphold scout values and honour the Queen." Now it will be "honour the King." But regardless, of the gender of Britain's monarch, my explanation of the importance of that line will be the same. It is that the monarch is the ...
Tue, 12:56: RT @jmclarke1854: Nice to see my book being put to good use! A royal burial (though not the one you're thinking of) and how a monk helped... Tue, 16:05: RT @gossjam: Josette Simon on the breakfast news looking BEYOND amazing. https://t.co/XFDB6DBX4s Tue, 16:33: Daily #219 1️⃣6️⃣⬛0️⃣8️⃣ 1️⃣7️⃣⬛2️⃣0️⃣ 1️⃣0️⃣⬛1️⃣1️⃣ 0️⃣4️⃣⬛0️⃣5️⃣ 0️⃣6️⃣⬛1️⃣2️⃣ 0️⃣7️⃣⬛1️⃣3️⃣ 1️⃣4️⃣⬛2️⃣1️⃣ 1️⃣9️⃣⬛1️⃣5️⃣ https://t.co/1E46GFXTgD #sedecordle Tue, 20:48: RT @pmdfoster: Brutal @ft Martin Wolf column on why it's a "fantasy" to suppose cutting taxes and deregulating will transform UK economic p... Wed, 00:19: Political Animals, by Bev�Laing https://t.co/rshFPE6oie Wed, 10:45: RT @lithub: "For all the flaws of the legal ...
We have now arrived at the 1980s in my presentation to Sunniside History Society about the main events of the 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. 1980 The SAS storm the Iranian Embassy building, killing 5 out of the 6 terrorists. One hostage is killed by the terrorists before the raid and one during it, but the remainder are freed. The storming is broadcast live on television US
Paying tribute to the Queen As Ed Davey said in paying tribute, For many people, including myself, The Queen was an ever-fixed mark in our lives. As the world changed around us and politicians came and went, The Queen was our nation's constant. The Queen represented duty and courage, as well as warmth and compassion. She was a living reminder of our collective past, of the greatest generation and their sacrifices for our freedom. My thoughts and prayers today go especially to the Royal Family. And they also go to people in every corner of the world whose lives she ...
There have been so many false dawns, lies and broken promises that it almost feels indecent to mention yet another failure from the Brexit camp, and yet we must if only to keep track of the huge confidence trick that has been played on the UK public to enrich a few billionaires who did not want to be subject to EU regulation in the way they move their money about. I am sure many can remember the claim about how easy it would be to do a trade deal with the EU and yet here we are six years after ...
This was part of a paper which would have been discussed at the Liberal Democrat Conference which we had to cancel because of the death of the Queen. It's a great outline to the thought and principles which motivate our ... Continue reading →
