Good practice in palliative careNote that this post includes end of life details which you may want to avoid. The Assisted Dying Bill has raised questions about the quality of palliative care under the NHS. Whatever your views on assisted dying it should never be a substitute for good care at end of life. Recently I and my family have had a positive experience of palliative care in an NHS hospital, and I am wondering how widespread this is. My husband, Ian, died last month in Kingston Hospital. It was not unexpected – he had spent almost half of this year in hospital, six ... (more) |
The Hillsborough Law is finally going through ParliamentAs a long-term councillor in Liverpool, I am delighted that the Hillsborough Law is going through Parliament at least. After decades of inaction and partial actions the sadness about those who died will be partly assuaged by the fact that their suffering, and those of others, will be vindicated with this law. My friend, David Alton was an MP at the time and since he joined the House of Lords has continued to work on a cross-party consensual approach to bring this law into being alongside people from other Parties and, most important of all, the relatives of those who ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1435"The real scandal here is the behaviour of the board. As Patrick Barwise and Peter York detailed in their 2020 book The War on the BBC, the British right has been trying to cow and weaken the BBC for decades, for both political and commercial reasons. But this time is different because the chief saboteurs were board members, chiefly Sir Robbie Gibb. On the Today programme, former Sun editor David Yelland justifiably described this week's events as 'nothing short of a coup'. The call is coming from inside the house."Dorian Lynskey says the BBC is the biggest prize in the ... (more) |
Needle drawStick your needle in. Seek in vein a flow of blood from my stone cold arm (more) |
Trivia dump: Woman wakes to find she's bought an emu eggA BBC News story was shortlisted for Headline of the Day - Woman fulfils childhood dream of rearing an emu- but lost out to a demonic jumper. The story beneath it does deserve some sort of award though:A late night shopping spree turned into a dream come true for one animal lover after she successfully hatched an emu egg. Rhi Evans, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, has no memory of buying the egg but woke one morning in 2022 to an email confirmation from eBay saying it was on its way.We've all been there. This item gives me an excuse to repost ... (more) |
"Demonic" Wind in the Willows jumper banned from Westminster AbbeyToday's Headline of the Day Award, which is sponsored by the Great God Pan, goes to the Guardian. Photo by Linsey Teggert, whose jumper it is. (more) |
Lib Dems hold another council seat in constituency gained in 2024Five principal authority council by-elections this week and let's start with a successful Lib Dem defence, once again showing the party's ability to see off Reform and hold a seat in a way that other parties struggle to do: [IMG: Hannah Griffin and Olly Glover] Ridgeway (Vale of White Horse) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 43.1% (-15.0) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 24.4% (-17.6) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 19.9% (New) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 11.9% (New) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 0.8% (New)Liberal Democrat HOLD.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-11-14T00:14:48.255Z Thank you to Guy Meurice for standing here. For what all this ... (more) |
Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition special events #dundeewestendFrom the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Drawing on the University's outstanding collection of nearly 300 works by the extraordinary artist, poet and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay, the current exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery, Ian Hamilton Finlay: Works on Paper, draws you into an enticing but dangerous world of prints and poems, sails and sundials, gardens and guillotines. There are special events coming up to accompany the show: Tuesday 18th November at 5.30pm - we're delighted to be one of the first venues to screen a new film about Finlay, The Boat in the ... (more) |
Labour to reject amendments to planning bill that protect natureThe Guardian reports that housing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction. The paper says that the amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building: Under the draft legislation proposed ... (more) |
A conspiracy theory from Neal Lawson: Keir Starmer was never meant to be prime ministerEmbed from Getty ImagesThere influence on the far right means I don't enjoy conspiracy theories as much as I used to, but let's give a hearing to Neal Lawson in the Guardian: Wes Streeting was always meant to be their Labour prime minister. The plan, hatched by a tiny clique of rightwing faction fighters, was this: find a candidate on whom they could fake a continuation Corbynism project to win the leadership. Then kick the ladder away from the people who backed them and the promises they made. At the next general election, given the scale of the Tory majority ... (more) |