I was back in Birtley yesterday (Saturday 20th January) to deliver another patch of Focuses. And today I was delivering in my own ward. To be precise, I was delivering in Sunniside. We are aiming to get the village delivered by Friday though the weather may be a problem tomorrow.
As part of our adaptation to urban life, Ros and I have taken to exploring the wider town, and this morning, we took a short drive to one of Ipswich's less crowded parks (especially on a windy, grey day), Bourne Park, in south-west Ipswich. It's not a park I was terribly aware of, although it can be clearly seen from the train as you approach Ipswich from London, out of the left-hand windows. So, what's there to do? The park is based around Belstead Brook as it flows towards the Orwell at Ostrich Creek (no, I didn't know that either ...
>Ian Bannen will always be Jim Prideaux from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to me, but he enjoyed a long and varied acting career. Here is one of its more outré moments. The Deserter was a 1970 Western designed as a vehicle for the Yugoslavian theatre and film matinee idol Bekim Fehmiu. He's not in this clip, but it's remarkable who is. Bannen is the languid British officer, while the grizzled old General is the great American film director John Huston and the young officer who serves them both drinks if Brandon deWilde. deWilde played the little boy Joey in Shane ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: MRPs are the Toby Jones of political polling. They might be telling us what was already known, but they do so in such a vivid way that they grab the headlines, get the emotions moving and secure the attention of politicians. Find out more by reading this edition of The Week in Polls here, and you can sign up below to receive future editions direct to your email inbox:
Victoire Ingabire Umahoza, leader of the opposition in Rwanda, explains why UK government's rhetoric is misleading and Rwanda is far from safe: "Human rights organisations have regularly reported that ordinary Rwandan citizens do not enjoy inalienable human rights. Those who dare to or are perceived to express opinions that challenge the Rwandan government's narrative suffer reprisal." William Wallace is our guide to the factions into which the Conservative Party is rapidly dissolving."The new ruralism is nebulous but tangible. Mildly countercultural, it has been buoyed by the New Nature Writing but is more than a literary phenomenon. It has slowly gathered ...
John Denver was everywhere in the Seventies. His gentle take on country music may not have pleased hardcore fans of the genre, but he was enormously popular with a wider public. Turn on the radio and it wouldn't be long before you heard one of his songs - possibly Annie's Song played by the flautist James Galway, who was everywhere in those days too. Rather more creditably, he wrote Leaving on a Jet Plane, which Peter, Paul and Mary made famous. His pleasant personality made him a favourite on television. Notably, he was a friend of Jim Henson and starred ...
Surprise, Surprise, Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to the two-state solution. The Israeli Prime Minister has never made any secret that he believes that the only guarantee of Israeli security is Israeli control of Palestinian security. On Thursday he reiterated his position. Any Palestinian state, Netanyahu argues, would be dedicated to the overthrow of the Israeli state. And even if they publicly committed themselves to peace, Netanyahu wouldn't believe them. The primary responsibility of every country is defence. Ipso facto, there can be no Palestinian state—according to Netanyahu. Most of the rest of the world believes that there are basically three ...
The Guardian reports that Rishi Sunak is facing a possible defeat in the House of Lords this week over his controversial Rwanda deportation plan as peers prepare multiple bids to thwart its progress through parliament. The paper says that the first test will come on Monday when peers debate a motion laid by former Labour attorney general Peter Goldsmith, which seeks to delay the ratification of the new Rwanda treaty until the government can show the country is safe. However, a more severe test awaits the Prime Minister when his new bill, which is now heading into the House of ...
Welcome to the first Lib Dem Newswire of 2024, chock full of news and analysis, including a podcast about Charles Kennedy.
As the Tories continue to tear themselves apart, have you checked whether any of your local Conservative MPs belong to any of the factions of the Tory Right, scheming and plotting so actively that moderate Tories have dubbed them after the mafia families of southern Italy? There's no point in putting on leaflets that many Tory MPs have lost touch with reality. But it's very useful to do some quick research on which groups particular Tories belong to, what they stand for (and against), and what they've said about key issues. Even the right-wing press has concluded that that 'plenty ...
HERA - Harris Education and Recreation Association - in addition to its spring programme of classes - is running free taster sessions in early 2024. There's a weekly Dundee Time and Place evening class that meets in the Corso sheltered complex lounge and each class covers a different topic in Dundee's history. Francis de Franco, the excellent course leader, will also be doing a free taster session on Saturday 27th January, looking at the history of shopping in Dundee. Find out more by e-mailing HERA at enquiries@heradundee.org
