Yesterday's post was a bit sombre, I guess, but as a way of feeling my way back into this blogging malarkey, it was a start. Perhaps a look forward might be interesting though - no promises, mind! My role as a Parish Councillor became more "interesting" in 2023, as I'm now a remote councillor, following our move to (unparished) Ipswich in September. I would have been prepared to stand down and leave the opportunity to someone else, but Council want to keep me, and I'm content to stay so long as they want me. And whilst I suspect that this ...
Back in the Eighties there was a big house in the village of Marston Trussell, some three miles from here, that used to open as a second-hand bookshop on Sunday afternoons. I walked there once and came away with two books. One was a paperback copy of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which I was never to read but kept on my shelves, as you do, in the hope of absorbing its contents by osmosis. And the second was After Bath, the only children's book by Vaughan Wilkins. Wilkins usually wrote historical novels and was obviously popular between the 1930s ...
How pollsters treat those who say 'don't know' is currently the biggest cause of differences in the results from different firms.
Tue 2nd
17:59
The Intruder (1953): A companion piece to The League of Gentlemen and another children-and-bombsites...
This is not a proto version of Royston Vesey, but another film about how soldiers fared after the second world war in which Jack Hawkins plays the Colonel. But, unlike in The League of Gentlemen, its not Hawkins who has turned to crime at the start of the film but one of his wartime NCOs, played by Michael Medwin. Hawkins comes home from an afternoon of golf to find that Medwin has broken into his house with burglary on his mind. The rest of the film uncovers what has happened to Medwin to place him on the wrong side of ...
Politics Home has been asking MPs to share their New Year's Resolutions. Two Lib Dems responded. Jamie Stone has pledged to offer a second constituency office in the town of Wick: "After the boundary changes my constituency will be the biggest ever in the UK," he said. "Constituents deserve proper representation and support from their MPs and their teams, and that is why in the future there will be not one but two constituency offices in the northernmost mainland constituency in the UK." Sarah Dyke wants to "work even harder" on behalf of her constituents. She only officially entered Parliament ...
Back when not only Ted Heath but also Margaret Thatcher were cited as pro-Europeans and the Conservatives wanted closer cooperation on foreign policy across the EU.
So often the principles of liberalism are – rightly and reasonably – tempered in Liberal Democrat campaigns by the need to couch our message in forms appealing to voters. I believe that the next election is one of those rare moments of confluence where the core messages of liberalism are exactly what voters want and need to hear. The unapologetic promotion of liberal principles will give the country the hope, the promise and the solace which the large majority of voters and citizens now seek. Whatever the complexion of the new government, it will inherit a wrecked economy and a ...
I believe that when countries and people with different histories, philosophies, religions and cultures collaborate there can be mutual learning to enrich ourselves and develop innovative paradigms for meeting 21st Century challenges as humanity evolves. Dr Yeow Poon Dr Yeow Poon It is with deep sadness that we wish to announce the passing of our Hon President Dr Yeow Poon after a two year battle against pancreatic cancer. He was a giant of man and will be greatly missed by all, not least his colleagues and friends at Chinese Liberal Democrats. Born in Malaysia, Dr Poon attended university in the ...
THe Guardian reports that the Home Office is yet to make decisions on thousands of asylum applications from before June 2022 despite Rishi Sunak's promise to clear the legacy backlog. The paper says that caseworkers have been offered financial incentives to help hit the prime minister's target of processing 92,000 cases from before June 2022. But in a statement released on Monday, the department said 4,500 complex cases from the backlog were still subject to further investigation: In December 2022, Sunak pledged to tackle the remaining legacy asylum backlog by the end of 2023. The backlog had more than 92,000 ...
With thanks to Neil Kerr for the use of his fabulous image!
