I have just finished putting together a talk on the Tanfield bridlepath which runs from the Tanfield Steam Railway in Sunniside to the Dunston Staiths. The railway which ran along it serving the local mines closed in 1962. The route however is peppered with history. The railway used a gravity incline system for moving the full coat wagons to the Teams where it was loaded onto ships. The same
The news in this week's media on health is bleak. Yesterday, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that a bad flu season was piling pressure on to services that were already critically overstretched. He claimed that somewhere between 300 and 500 people are dying as a consequence of delays and problems with urgent and emergency care each week. The British Medical Association said pressure on the NHS is "intolerable and unsustainable". The Society for Acute Medicine said "urgent action" is needed to bring the health service back from the brink. The head of the NHS Confederation ...
Responding to a leaked email revealing London Ambulance Service crews will now only wait 45 minutes at hospitals before handing over patients due to the current NHS crisis, the Liberal Democrats have called for a major incident to be declared across London. Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: "This move shows the shocking reality of the NHS crisis and is yet further proof that a major incident must now be declared across London. "The Health Secretary must act now to save the capital's hospitals from being overwhelmed. Corridors and waiting rooms are already full with patients coping with severe ...
The UK is suffering because of the "outright incompetence" of government ministers, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Alexei Sayle explained the reason for Britain's incompetent leadership almost 40 years ago.
Tue 3rd
13:47
Woman in tears of laughter after accidentally printing huge green Asda logo onto her head
The judges of our Headline of the Day Award compliment DevonLive on a strong start to the new year.
The LibDems have received widespread media coverage, including in the Guardian and Times, after highlighting that people are turning to DIY medicine because they can't get a GP appointment. The Guardian report says: Almost one in four people have bought medicine online or at a pharmacy to treat their illness after failing to see a GP face to face, according to a UK survey underlining the rise of do-it-yourself treatment. Nearly one in five (19%) have gone to A&E seeking urgent medical treatment for the same reason, the research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats shows. One in six (16%) people ...
My thanks to all the volunteers in the South Liverpool Zero Waste Community for all they are doing to save waste, save the environment and provide food for people who need it. Yesterday on Bank Holiday Monday I was out ... Continue reading →
Many congratulations to James Kempton, who has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list. James was the first out LGBTQ+ Leader of Islington Council (2006-09) and Islington's first LGBTQ+ LibDem councillor. He is an education and leadership consultant. The Islington Humap site says about him: James' major achievement during the decade of LibDem control in the Town Hall (2000-2010) was leading the transformation of Islington's education system which had once been condemned as among the worst in England. Based on this track record, James was appointed Chair of the schools and children's services inspectorate, Ofsted and went ...
Mon, 17:49: Warriors' Gate, by Frank Collins (and John Lydecker / Stephen Gallagher) https://t.co/PA0MhVhnDu Revisiting a classic Who story, along with the books by @brooligan and @cathoderaytube, and the memories of @NrnIrnGirl1981 . https://t.co/pZMKU4xgfL Mon, 20:30: Daily Duotrigordle #306 Guesses: 35/37 2️⃣6️⃣ 2️⃣7️⃣ 2️⃣8️⃣ 0️⃣4️⃣ 2️⃣9️⃣ 0️⃣5️⃣ 3️⃣0️⃣ 3️⃣1️⃣ 3️⃣2️⃣ 0️⃣6️⃣ 0️⃣7️⃣ 3️⃣3️⃣ 0️⃣8️⃣ 0️⃣9️⃣ 3️⃣4️⃣ 1️⃣0️⃣ 1️⃣1️⃣ 1️⃣2️⃣ 1️⃣3️⃣ 1️⃣4️⃣ 1️⃣5️⃣ 1️⃣6️⃣ 3️⃣5️⃣ 1️⃣7️⃣ 1️⃣8️⃣ 1️⃣9️⃣ 2️⃣0️⃣ 2️⃣1️⃣ 2️⃣2️⃣ 2️⃣3️⃣ 2️⃣4️⃣ 2️⃣5️⃣ https://t.co/hh9bUo9zle
The Daily Mirror reports: A Tory councillor has triggered fury after suggesting an alleged rape victim was "likely" to be a prostitute. Shaun Slator used a New Year's Eve tweet to target the complainant who reported being attacked in a South London park in the early hours of December 30. Underneath a Twitter post of an online media report headlined "Woman raped in Plumstead park in early hours" – and which included a police comment – he wrote: "More likely that it's a punter that didn't pay." Confronted by the Mirror, defiant Mr Slator, who sits on neighbouring Bromley Council, ...
The Guardian reports that calls are growing for third parties to be allowed to make complaints to Westminster's sexual misconduct watchdog, after concerns were reignited about parliament's culture by a Labour MP who privately shared a list of 20 MPs to avoid. The paper says that after a number of sexual misconduct and bullying scandals have led to suspensions and resignations of sitting MPs, some parliamentarians and unions say they remain concerned that witnesses cannot make complaints: Complaints to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Service can also only be made by those working on the parliamentary estate or in constituencies, ...
As its the school Christmas holidays, Fraser's usual Tuesday surgeries at Ancrum Road Primary School and Blackness Library do not take place, but we can be contacted at any time on Dundee 459378.
I recently came across a website devoted to the work of the children's writer Joan Aiken (1924-2004). Here she is writing in the London Review of Books in 1980: American orphans, on the whole, did have to work extremely hard. The log-cabin-to-White-House fable was implicit in all their stories: if only you chopped up enough kindling and shooed the chickens off the porch with sufficient vigour, you would end up putting yourself through college and at least become a teacher, if not President. My comfortable family-buttressed childhood was cheered by comparison with the hardships of a whole series of American ...
