This is a lovely video that follows the Welland for 65 miles from its source at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, through Market Harborough, Stamford, Market Deeping, Crowland, Spalding and the Wash. I once looked for the spring at Sibbertoft that is said to be the source of the Welland, but was unable to find it. The makers of this video seem to agree with the people behind the local rewilding project of 10 years ago: these days there is no sign of a flow above the village sewage works. Don't tell Lord Bonkers, but the reason the river seems to shrink ...
Sunak removes NHS from top 5 pledges Ethics advisor must investigate David Cameron's appointment Lib Dem Peer's Bill to end conversion therapy Sunak removes NHS from top 5 pledges Responding to Rishi Sunak's speech this morning, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said: By officially de-prioritising the NHS and omitting it from his top 5 priorities, Rishi Sunak has shown yet again just how out of touch he is. The Prime Minister clearly doesn't care about the millions of people across the country on hospital waiting lists or the families and pensioners struggling to get appointments with a GP or ...
Go the post on John Thaw and Redcap I wrote the other day and click to watch the while video on YouTube. You will find that one of the soldiers in the episode is a young John Noakes with a not wholly convincing Welsh accent. John Noakes, who died in 2017, presented the BBC children's programme Blue Peter between 1965 and 1978. And, having done a bit of research since blogging about Redcap, I know how he got the job. The answer is in a Leicester Mercury article from 2018:John Noakes, who was one of Blue Peter's best-loved presenters, only ...
Today, 20th November, is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we stop to think of those trans people who have lost their lives to murder in the past year. This year's list has a horrifying, 320 murders. 94% of those murdered were trans women. A further 72 lost their lives to suicide. Last year, there were no murders and suicides in the UK. This year there were 5, one murder, Brianna Ghey and 4 suicides. All lives ended too soon. Young people who should have been accepted as who they are and left alone to live their lives in ...
Mon 20th
15:24
Welcome, belatedly, to my day: 20 November 2023 - perhaps Bhutan might have a useful suggestion on l...
Greetings from a sunny Ipswich, East Anglia's Waterfront Town – yes, I know, but... Nice, crisp autumn days like these are a useful reminder of the value of happiness, a sometimes underrated notion unless your life is not that good. And I was reminded that, if levelling up was intended to make people outside London better off, and therefore happier, couldn't you instead start from the notion of making people happier and thus levelling them up? Bhutan adopted the idea of "gross national happiness" more than forty years ago and, whilst the idea has been given lip service by politicians ...
The autumn statement will be on Wednesday. The economy faces three problems: inflation is still above the 2% target, economic growth is too low and forecast by the Bank of England to be zero next year, and unemployment is rising. Inflation was 4.6% in October, and unemployment rose by 159,000 in September to 1.464 million, an increase of 0.5% to 4.3%. It was announced in September that borrowing was £11.3 billion less than forecast in March. Some are forecasting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will have £15bn 'headroom' instead of his forecast of £6.5bn. The most important task for ...
Years ago in Plains, Georgia, people had to stand in two separate lines, for Republicans and for Democrats, when they registered to vote. Rosalynn Carter told me she used to be the only white person standing in the Democratic line. The world has lost a tireless campaigner for justice and peace with the passing of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, age 96. She never lost sight of the moral calling to give a voice to the world's voiceless and persecuted, and she advocated for those with mental illness decades before it became a more socially acceptable subject. I had the ...
Any notion that the appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary would put the Tory party firmly back into the centre of British politics must surely have been rebutted by the speculation that followed soon afterwards regarding the Chancellor's autumn statement. The Guardian reports that Jeremy Hunt may well be using next week's autumn statement to announce pre-election tax cuts for the wealthy while overseeing a multibillion-pound stealth raid on the incomes of 36 million workers. The paper reports on analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank that found that cutting inheritance tax - which is paid by fewer than 4% ...
Shock poll reveals staggering number of working UK adults say they have missed work in the past year due to being stuck on waiting lists or attempting to see a GP or dentist Half of young adults (18-34) missed work last year due to NHS waiting lists Lib Dem MP warns crisis in the NHS is damaging economic growth as one in three adults missed work waiting for an appointment in the last year Party calls on the Government to use the £13bn windfall to deliver 8,000 GPs, cut waiting times and improve mental health support, among other measures A ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2023 Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until May 2024 for construction works. Seafield Road, Dundee - closed from its westmost end (in cul-de-sac) extending for a distance of no more than 20 metres in an easterly direction to facilitate a site access for a new housing development. Commencing Tuesday 22 August 2023 for 15 months. Riverside Approach - temporary traffic lights until Tuesday 21 November for C‑plan work. Lochee Road - give and take for one week from ...
