First at the Chowdene action dayI was the first to arrive at the Gateshead Lib Dem action day this morning in Chowdene ward. That meant I had the first choice on which patch I was to deliver. Somehow I ended up with the biggest patch which also contained a huge number of houses with long flights of steps just to get to front doors. The good news is that I managed to get the whole patch delivered. (more) |
The by-election tea leavesThere was a by-election in Penn Hill in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole on Thursday. The result was:Lib Dem - 1,278, 43.6% (+0.9)Con - 764, 26.1% (+1.0)Reform - 521, 17.8% (new)Labour - 135, 4.6% (-6.7)Restore - 106, 3.6% (new)Green - 65, 2.2% (-6.5)Ind1 - 55, 1.9% (new)Ind2 - 7, 0.2% (new)So what do the by-election tea leaves have to say?The Conservatives seemed rather excited about this (more) |
Do we have Elizabeth Anscombe to thank for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?When it comes to famous clashes of philosophers, Cambridge has Wittgenstein's poker and Oxford has the night that Elizabeth Anscombe bested C.S. Lewis in debate. Reviewing A.N. Wilson's biography for the London Review of Books back in 1990, C.H. Sisson took seriously the idea that this rout had much to do with Lewis's turn to writing for children:Lewis was unpopular 'in the English Faculty in Oxford, and indeed in the University at large'. 'He disliked his colleagues at Magdalen.' 'Even colleagues who were Christians ... noticed that his variety of Christianity did not extend to meekness, or even necessarily to ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1603"More than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and up to ten thousand are missing under the rubble. More than a hundred thousand Palestinians have managed to leave. The survivors are corralled into a concentration area along the coast, living in dense tent encampments among ruined buildings, mountains of rubbish and rivers of sewage, under the constant hum of drones."Eyal Weizman reviews Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's film Naza. Gaby Hinsliff says the Russell Brand verdict is a landmark in the judicial system's understanding of consent: "For too long, cases involving young ... (more) |
Observations of an Expat: Post Election WorriesThe confetti has settled, the champagne is flat and the celebratory balloons have floated to the ground. The midterm elections are over. MAGA and Trump have been well and truly trounced. Now is the time to worry about what Donald J. Trump will do in the next two months while he still has a sycophantic Republican Congress for the next two months—especially in Iran. The new Democrat-controlled Congress does not start business until January 3rd. One of its first orders of business will be to start circumscribing the president's war-making capabilities. The Constitution gives Trump considerable leeway in foreign and ... (more) |
Methodism at Horton, GowerHorton is a very pretty little village in South Gower, set on a steep hill that stretches down to the beautiful beach. It shares the bay with Port Eynon which is located at the Western end. Like many Gower villages its roots are mainly agricultural, but Horton also has a long connection with the lifeboat and Methodism. In the centre of the bay are two orange buoys that mark the remains of the Prince Ivanhoe. The Prince Ivanhoe was used a pleasure craft, but on the 3rd August 1981 it hit something just off the edge of Port Eynon Point. ... (more) |