Davey: Starmer should visit new Canadian PM and stand in solidarity against Trump "turning the screws" on Canada Chamberlain: Remove barriers for women by supporting unpaid carers Cole-Hamilton: Long Covid still harming lives five years since pandemic Rennie demands urgency as half of Scotland's universities fall into deficit Davey: Starmer should visit new Canadian PM and stand in solidarity against Trump "turning the screws" on Canada As Mark Carney is announced the new leader of Canada, Ed Davey has called on Starmer to head to Ottawa to stand in solidarity with the country's new Prime Minister in response to Trump's ...
The next Focus in Whickham has arrived. It is a joint Focus across the three Whickham wards. Delivery has already started. I was out on Thursday. I'll be back out this coming week.
On Wednesday last week, I gave my long awaited talk on the history of UK tv adverts to Sunniside History Society. It went down very well. There was a big demand to replay the Hamlet cigar photo booth advert from the late 1980s. The advertising industry has come a long way from the Gibbs SR advert (the first UK tv advert broadcast in 1955) and nowadays it is often the case that the adverts
Last week the Gateshead Lib Dem exec meeting took place. A wide range of issues were discussed and agreed, chief among them being the local election campaign for next year. Obviously I am not going to write here what decisions were taken - I'm not in the habit of tipping off my Labour readers! Nevertheless, the campaign for the all-out elections next year is shaping up well.
Good news about A Canterbury Tale, which now seems firmly established as my favourite film. It passes the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test? This has become an accepted measure of the representation of women in a film. It asks whether the work features at least two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. A great many celebrated films fail this test, but A Canterbury Tale passes. It does so because of the scene above. Sheila Sim, a Land Girl, goes to work for a woman farmer played by this blog's heroine Freda Jackson. Their wide-ranging conversation ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Welcome to the 151st edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP) which takes a look at a new(-ish) book about both the problems with and possible solutions for modern political polling. Then it is a summary of the latest national voting intention polls and a round-up of party leader ratings, followed by, for paid-for subscribers, 10 insights from the last week's polling and analysis. This time, those ten include how Reform's new supporters since the 2024 general election differ from their supporters ...
A few years ago the Braybrooke Beer Co. set up a brewery at a farm outside the Northamptonshire village of that name to produce lager. The company was formed with the London market in mind, but you can buy their beers at the Beerhouse in Market Harborough and no doubt it has other outlets beyond the capital. They have just opened a taproom at the brewery, and there is a surfaced path leading to it from the Brampton Valley Way - the old Market Harborough to Northampton railway. On Friday, I set out to walk that path. I was surprised ...
Back to the Somerset coalfield and a story that caught my eye in the splendidly populist and scandal-seeking John Bull magazine. Well, it would be. The headline was the arresting: Naked boys as pit-ponies! Unusually for the British Newspaper Archive, the scan of the story below is difficult to read in places, so let's go over to the House of Commons on 29 June 1926, where Ellen Wilkinson, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough East, has raised the same story: My purpose in rising, although I realise that there are many on these benches much more qualified than I am to ...
The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts is another in the occasional series looking back at previous party leaders with Duncan Brack. This time we pick over Jeremy Thorpe's career – securing Britain's place in Europe, leading the Liberal Party to national prominence and then mired in scandal. What to make of it all? Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Our previous episode about Jo Grimond – www.markpack.org.uk/161656/jo-grimond-podcast/ Our interview of Jeremy Thorpe – www.markpack.org.uk/1486/jeremy-thorpe-interview/ Jeremy Thorpe and Jimi Hendrix – Other photos of Jeremy ...
This is a track from Birds Requiem, a 2013 album by the Tunisian composer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef. This is how the album is described on his website: Without forgetting the artistic identity that he forged through his experience and permanent search for sonorities, Dhafer Youssef carries on transcending genres. His quest leads him to clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici and Kanun player, Aytaç Dogan. Dhafer Youssef's voice accompanies Hüsnü Senlendirici's clarinet and Aytaç Dogan's Kanun. Nils Petter Molvaer's trumpet reinforces the atmospheric mood. Eivind Aarset's guitar, Kristjan randalu's Piano, Phil Donkin's double bass and Chander Sardjoe 's drums create ...
It's almost 3 years since I first had Covid, an experience which has made my life a lot smaller. My road to recovery from Long Covid has been erratic and very, very slow. It's only now that I'm properly starting to enjoy life as I used to – in small doses. I have to be very careful about planning, pacing and prioritising – which is exhausting in itself. I consider the effect on my life to have been profound, but I am also aware that I have got away relatively lightly. Those who got Long Covid in the earlier days ...
Life's first lesson was: They will leave you. Inflected on the arc of tears...
Germany Friedrich Merz is steaming ahead—and he hasn't even formed his government. The string bean leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is certain to be chancellor as soon as he has formed his coalition with the Social Democrats. But that will take several weeks of political haggling and the fast moving and fast deteriorating international scene dictates that the power house of Europe must be involved NOW. So, next week the German parliament is being recalled to amend the federal constitution to allow the government to increase borrowing to boost the economy by investing in infrastructure and to pay ...
With thanks to Neil Kennedy and Dundee Memories, a McCabe delivery cart in the Hawkhill.
The Guardian reports that dozens of backbench Labour MPs are unhappy with plans to cut billions from the rising welfare bill, with ministers holding meetings to convince them that the changes to disability benefits are necessary. The paper says that Labour MPs have told them that there were deep concerns within the parliamentary party that the changes would take money from the poorest, which was not what they had entered government to do: No 10 said the prime minister was in agreement with Reeves, who told Sky the welfare system was "letting down taxpayers" because it cost too much. "We ...
