The branch from Leiston to Saxmundham opened in 1859 and was extended the four miles to Aldeburgh the following year. Passenger services survived until 1966, so (pace Em and Stu) you can include it among the Beeching cuts to the network. The 'I'm Backing Britten' campaign of 1968 came too late to save it. And there is a village at Thorpeness - a select early 20th-century holiday village - but it is some way from the halt that was opened to serve it. Watch the video and you will see that the line from Leiston to Saxmundham remains open for ...
More evidence of how the long-term trend in British society continues to be one of our country becoming more liberal.
And it's only just gone six! From the Independent: Matt Hancock has been placed under investigation by parliament's standards commissioner - for allegedly "lobbying" the sleaze watchdog to influence its findings. The parliamentary commissioner for standards confirmed on Wednesday afternoon it was looking into the former health secretary's conduct for "lobbying the commissioner in a manner calculated or intended to influence his consideration of whether a breach of the code of conduct has occurred". From South Wales Argus: A Conservative member of Pembrokeshire County Council, alleged to have said that all white men should have a black slave, has withdrawn ...
I am honoured to have been chosen as the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for the new boundaries of Harpenden and Berkhamsted. The Conservatives have let us down and I'm here to break down that blue wall and be a local hard-working MP! [IMG: 🔶] https://t.co/HsSn7T4JmU pic.twitter.com/CQZDKl6KcS — Victoria Collins [IMG: 🇺🇦] (@TweetingCollins) April 12, 2023
The Liberal Democrats have chosen local entrepreneur and environmental campaigner Victoria Collins as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the new Hertfordshire seat of Harpenden and Berkhamsted. The Herts Advertiser reports that she has named her priorities as: saving chalk streams and our canal from sewage dischargescutting ambulance waiting timestackling the cost of living and supporting local businesses. She told the newspaper "I am proud to stand for Parliament for my local area and am determined to give this constituency a strong voice in Westminster. "The towns and villages in this new constituency have been taken for granted for too long ...
Party bosses will doubtlessly have been delighted by a recent article in the i, detailing the plan to win the Blue Wall at next month's local elections. Forsaking a 'clear ideological message for voters to rally around', we will instead champion a barcharts and beaches strategy - convincing voters we are the best placed to beat the Conservatives alongside ideologically-light, hyper-local criticisms on sewage in waterways and NHS waiting times. If the i article had one underlying message, it was that any attempt to build up a core vote has disappeared. We are now Blue Wall mercenaries, offering a chance ...
To make you laugh this lunchtime. Tim Farron has just posted this on Twitter. My life is complete. I am in the latest @vizcomic pic.twitter.com/gGgAzreykD — Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 11, 2023 Someone had taken time out of their day to write to Viz, a Farron favourite, to say: I walked past Lib Dem MP Tim Farron in London this afternoon and he was exactly the height I imagined him to be. All too often, politicians turn out to be a lot taller or shorter in real life than you expect so it was a refreshing change to see one ...
kerria wallflower hardy geranium, rose, (behind rose) knapweed, phlox, lungwort and small daffs (flowering now over) getting ready for summer pulmonaria (lungwort) birdbox and bluetit (taken from indoors hence the blurry image) new leaves on the little tree rosemary in full flower tulips new leaves for the elephant ears (bergenia) grass seed beginning to grow on new lawn area
We all knew that legislating to require ID at polling stations had nothing to do with voting fraud, and everything to do with suppressing turnout amongst certain classes of voters more likely to vote against the Tories, but its good to see one senior Tory at least, acknowledge that fact. The Mirror reports that an ex-Tory Cabinet minister has warned that turnout at next month's local elections risks being reduced by the introduction of mandatory voter ID. The paper says that David Davis believes that the controversial multi-million pound policy risks having a "more deleterious effect" on voting than the ...
As Joe Biden visits Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Christine Jardine writes in the Scotsman that we should not take the huge step forward to peace for granted. She started by looking at how we got to the agreement: Progress towards the Belfast Good Friday agreement had begun shortly before Christmas 1993 with the Downing Street Declaration. The joint statement by Prime Minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds stated it was the right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide between the UK or a United Ireland. It also acknowledged the ...
