At the turn of the 20th century, there were 79 collieries at work in the Somerset Coalfield. The last two closed in 1973, when the nearby Portishead power station was converted from coal to burning oil. And you do get the impression from this film of one of the two, Kildersdon Colliery near Radstock, that the end is nigh. The technology is Victorian: a steam locomotive and a self-acting incline - the weight of a filled coal wagon descending the incline was used to pull an empty back to the top. You can read more about the operation of the ...
Peter Geoghegan talks about the mysterious Paul Marshall, who began working for Charles Kennedy in his SDP backbencher days and is now a right-wing media mogul, on the latest London Review of Books podcast. This follows the LRB article on Marshall that I blogged about the other day. Here Geoghegan discusses why it is that Marshall is prepared to lose so much money funding media organisations from the cerebral Unherd to the nakedly populist GB News. He is also impressively well informed about old debates within the Liberal Democrats. Could it be that he's been exploring the archive of back ...
Ed Davey appeared on the most recent episode of Pod Dave the UK, talking to Coco Khan. Watch his 13 minute interview here. He talks about his stunts and why it is important to connect with people and why he calls out Donald Trump. He called Nigel Farage a "plastic patriot" saying he's doing more Trump's bidding than acting in the UK's interests. He also reacts to being called a "snivelling cretin" by Elon Musk * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
Today at PMQs, Ed Davey asked Keir Starmer to request the extradition of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to face trial. Watch here. https://youtu.be/pH98_k47kgA?si=onqlNOKaT2s1Hn4y Iam Sollom and Richard Foord also asked questions. We'll have more details later.
Each bright afternoon thins curtains a little more, fades pictures to pale
"We are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America's government and influence and the preservation of Russia's."Garry Kasparov on the Putinisation of America. Noah Berlatsky and Ilana Gershon argue that undemocratic workplaces sowed the seeds of Trumpism: "Many American workplaces are hierarchical. Decision-making is opaque. Mechanisms of accountability are either nonexistent or weak and deceptive. Yet, at the same time, many workers are enthusiastically told how democratic their workplaces are, much to their frustration. Workplace culture in the US teaches employees that arbitrary rule ...
Many thanks to the residents who contacted us about a trip hazard at the east end of Scott Street. Directly outside the back door of Queen Anne pub, there was a metal cover missing from the ground. We reported this to the City Council's roads maintenance partnership asking that the appropriate utility company was contacted to have a new cover fitted. We are pleased to say we received a prompt response as follows : "This missing cover has been temporarily made safe and has been reported to Scottish Water."
The Independent reports that the housing minister has promised that the centuries-old leasehold system in England and Wales will be abolished before the next general election. The paper says that the sale of new leasehold flats will be banned under government plans to make commonhold the default tenure, handing homeowners greater control over their properties: After years of complaints from leaseholders about crippling costs and deteriorating buildings, housing minister Matthew Pennycook vowed an end to the "feudal" system. He said homeowners have been subject to "unfair practices and unreasonable costs" for too long, with measures set out in a commonhold ...
