This time Jago Hazzard is not looking at the railways' past but their future. He reports on GWR's trial of a battery-powered train on their Greenford branch in West London. The results look encouraging and, as Jago says, this could be a cheap method of electrification for such lines. You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page. And why not follow his YouTube account? I know I do.
Both Peter Black and Lord Bonkers have referred to the problems of public procurement. It is a major problem and one that would have had our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors scratching their heads in bewilderment. Whenever they wanted to build say a railway, they would get an Act of Parliament passed authorising all the necessary work, the finance and land acquisition, appoint contractors and get on with it. This didn't only apply to new undertakings. A recent TV documentary based round Leeds told us that a local building contractor was appointed to sort out the land and tracks round Leeds ...
Following on from yesterday's report of her sacking as the Party's Spokesperson for Women and Equalities, and Scotland, Christine Jardine has published what can only be described as a classy response... Dear Ed, It is with sadness I am responding to your decision to remove me as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Women and Equalities, and Scotland following the Welfare Bill votes. I wanted to thank you for all the support you have given me over the past 8 years. Please know I wish my successors all the best, and I will do anything I can to aid them in ...
There was a simpler time, when a Returning Officer turned up, ran a contest between whoever had put their name forward, and the members who had bothered to turn up made the decision. The administration was more onerous, given that things had to be posted to people, and more expensive to Local Parties as a result, but it was at least simple. It wasn't necessarily fair, or consistent, and more often than not the prize for winner was to come a distant third in the subsequent General Election, so there wasn't much harm done. Now, it can be technically more ...
In April of this year, I wrote an op-ed responding to Chris Whiting on the need for liberals and socialists to work together. At the time, I opposed this idea, citing the ideological differences between socialists and liberals, and how we should reject cooperation. In the following months, I've come to realise that I was wrong. In today's political climate, cooperation is essential to combating extremism. The likes of Farage and Badenoch thrive on division among progressives, and my opposition to working with socialists only feeds into their desires. I've also gone on a political journey, similar to Chris. The ...
As a solo consultant, you've probably heard of the 'elevator pitch'. The idea that, if you have thirty seconds in a lift with a potential client to convince them to hire you, you have a natty spiel that will seal the deal. It's also a comon feature of networking events and such like. And it's something that people can agonise over to a degree that is probably bordering on the unhealthy. You should, of course, be confident in talking to people about who you are and what you do. But the idea that we need a perfectly phrased, one-size-fits-all elevator ...
Chris Perry is absolutely right to suggest in Lib Dem Voice that 'Widening income inequality and increasing poverty are the great social evils of our time.' But part of addressing the issue has to involve imposing an additional tax 'burden' on the very rich. In the run-up to the General Election last year Ed Davey defended the Lib Dem proposal to raise an extra £5.2bn from capital gains tax, with a new rate of 45 per cent for gains of more than £100,000: Most people will pay the same or less. If you are very, very wealthy — 0.1 per ...
Thu 10th
09:27
In bitter duel with Armenian church, PM Pashinyan offers to show he is not circumcised
"Your move, Armenian church," as one of the judges remarked. Euro News wins our Headline of the Day Award.
"I remember being disappointed by Elidor," writes Adam Mars-Jones in his essay on Alan Garner for the London Review of Books. Well, I remember loving Elidor and still admire it, in part because reading it, in contrast to some of Garner other work, does not make you feel as though you're being hit over the head with a compendium of folklore. He is disgraced beyond rescue, but William Mayne used to handle such material with a lighter touch - see his treatment of the legend of the Richmond drummer boy in Earthfasts for an example. Mars-Jones's central complaint about Elidor ...
Although our Tuesday ward surgeries do not take place over the school summer holidays, we are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight as usual to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
When one thinks of the huge effort and investment that went into building what is now the aging infrastructure of this country - canals, railways, sewers, roads, housing etc - the question has to be asked why can we no longer deliver on that scale? We still have the vision, but not the ability to implement it. A perfect example of that is HS2 (or any railway project for that matter), which is taking far longer to build and costing far more than was ever envisaged for it. The Guardian reports that the boss of the high-speed rail project has ...