This mobile electronic billboard was parked in the Northampton Road this afternoon, and I later saw it driving down the High Street. One of the big problems with the privatised railways is that they are, for the most part, monopolies. But if it's this much cheaper to travel to London from Rugby with London Northwestern Railway than to travel there from Market Harborough with EMR, then maybe it is a realistic alternative. Your move, EMR.
It's nearly time for the Lib Dem Disco and, in accordance with tradition, we are publishing the set list. Ed Davey dropped a fairly big hint at the rally tonight that he might put in an appearance. Could we hear Sweet Caroline? If so I am manifesting video. UPDATE: I do not need to manifest after a wonderful friend Vita sent me this: Sweet Caroline at Lib Dem Disci Anyway, here are the DJ set lists. Good luck to them all. David Chadwick MP: Murder on the dancefloor, (Sophie-Ellis Bextor), Blue Da Ba Dee (Eiffel 65, ft – Gabry Ponte) ...
I'm usually in the pub during the rally and catch up on You Tube later. Tonight I listened to Al Pinkerton open the event while I was chopping coriander stalks to go in a chlli. So far, after Al, we've had Max Wilkinson's shocking admission that he doesn't like Abba, Pippa Heylings describing some doorstep encounters and Josh Babarinde describing the experience of having his mother and Ed Davey critique his bungee jump and Sarah Olney talking about her terror on that rollercoaster. I am missing Conference terribly. The livestream is fine, but it's nothing compared to being in the ...
Reading a recent London Review of Books, I came across Ruby Hamilton's review of three books by Celia Dale: The appeal of Dale's writing is clearly the same fetishisation* of English nastiness that bolstered the interwar 'golden age' of crime writing, ruled over by Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, or the postwar Ealing comedies, best represented by Dennis Price in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949): "It is so difficult to make a neat job of killing people with whom one is not on friendly terms." I like Hamilton's take on the those women crime writers. ...
The Guardian's pre-conference interview with Lib Dem leader Ed Davey is one of many times in the last few days when "constructive" has been said by a Lib Dem MP. As in being a constructive opposition to Labour: Ed Davey has said it is "frustrating and surprising" the government does not yet have a plan for the care sector, as he pledged that the Liberal Democrats could be a more effective opposition than a divided Conservative party ... Davey said the Lib Dems would try to work constructively and cross-party, contrasting this with a bickering Conservative opposition he said "doesn't ...
Jonathan Meades says beaver tastes "like spaniel dipped in cod liver oil", so I don't see selling off the whole colony to a fishmonger as the way out of Lord Bonkers' troubles. You will say that he doesn't mention that possibility in this entry, but I know how the old brute's mind works. Wednesday What to do about the beavers? Back in the Sixties I might have asked Violent Bonham Carter's boys to have a quiet word with them: "Nice dam you've got here. Pity if anything happened to it" - you know the sort of thing. But those days ...
Trump lost. In the words of his acolyte Senator Lindsey Graham: the debate was a "disaster." Not surprisingly, Trump has refused to debate Kamala Harris again, making it one of the few times that he has turned down the opportunity to blow his horn. The former president did land a few punches in Tuesday's verbal brawl. In fact if you listen to the first and last ten minutes then you might come away thinking that Trump won. But the political theatre will be remembered for how he was mocked, rattled and lied, lied and lied. Millions around world sniggered or ...
Lib Dems are gathering in Brighton and there's a mood of optimism and celebration. Our spectacular General Election result has given us 74 reasons to be cheerful – 72 MPs, an adorable guide dog and the restoration of our third party status. We have had to deal with a fair few lean years so we might be forgiven a bit of shameless gloating. There will come a time when we have to make decisions about our strategy to deal with the new political environment. Conversations will take place in earnest in bars and fringe meetings. There is a feeling that ...
The Friends of Riverside Nature Park AGM is on Tuesday 24th September and takes place at Campy Growers in Camperdown Park at 7pm. More details in the poster - all welcome!
The Guardian reports that a 31-year-old controversially made a peer by Boris Johnson set up a PR firm that accumulated more than £2m in assets in just 12 months - and includes the former prime minister as one of its clients. They say that Ross Kempsell - now Lord Kempsell - is listed as the sole director of the firm Hyannis Strategy, which also has a contract with news channel GB News, which the ex-Tory leader is due to join as a presenter and commentator: The elevation of Lord Kempsell, Mr Johnson's former spokesman and tennis partner, to the House ...
