Reminder: Christmas Competition - deadline MondayTo celebrate and get in the mood for the festive season I thought that we could have a writing competition. As many of you (on average at least 4,500 members visit the Lib Dem Voice site every day) write articles, read them or comment I propose a Christmas Article Competition. The proposed Competition Rules are: An Article should not be more than 550 words; The article in each of the specified areas will be jointly judged by representatives identified as experts in that area by Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem editors; The starting date for the competition starts as ... (more) |
Kirkdale – New Stadler Depot for Class 777 train maintenanceI'm indebted to Keith Page for the lead to this posting, which is a video presentation of what the new Merseyrail train maintenance depot will look like when completed. The link below refers:- www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWDXbAlruko A mock-up of a Class 777 – The new Merseyrail trains that will soon replace the Class 507/508 EMU's (more) |
Gateway to CollegeFrom Dundee and Angus College : This course offers an opportunity to gain qualifications and skills that will help you move onto the right programme/onto the right career pathway. Available in a variety of formats (from flexible attendance to fully funded January-May courses to suit individual needs) Gateway to College Short Full Time is designed to develop the essential and soft skills you need to succeed in any career and at the same time lets you investigate different careers and discuss vocational interests so helping you be more informed about options open to you. Successful candidates will have the option ... (more) |
Councillors reject charges for A-Boards and call for local enforcement of pavement hazardsShropshire Council has been flirting with plans to licence every A-Board in the county. Those ideas didn't get through the Place Overview Committee yesterday. Everyone agreed that a licencing and charging scheme was the wrong approach. Instead, the committee asked officers to work with local councillors and communities to draw up clearer guidance on where A-Boards can be placed to ensure safety of pavement users, including those with limited mobility and visual impairment. We agreed it would more effective for responsibility for "policing" of A-Boards should be devolved from Shropshire Council to town councils. This is good news. Shropshire Council ... (more) |
Alfred Burke in "Public Eye"The run of the last four series of the saga of the cut-price inquiry agent Frank Marker, which briefly acquired cult status in its heyday, came to an end on TalkingPicturesTV last Wednesday night. The Talking Pictures proprietors in previewing the showings reported that the archive of the original three seasons is in no condition to be transmitted. Happily, the joint creator and major scriptwriter of Public Eye, Roger Marshall, is still alive. One wonders whether he is prepared to authorise a remake, using the original scripts, but taking advantage of advances in digital photography to produce a technically higher ... (more) |
A century of women MPs - the Liberal roll of honourDecember 2018 marks the centenary of women being able to stand for election to Parliament. The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed just a few weeks before the general election held on 14th December 2018 so only sixteen women candidates stood. Three years later the first Liberal woman MP was elected. Margaret Wintringham was [...] (more) |
14 December 2018 - today's press releaseCuriously, only one press release today, so without further ado... 'Nebulous' is but one word to describe the PM Responding to the Prime Minister's press conference, held after EU leaders withdrew sections of its draft conclusions, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said: Having watched the Prime Minister's botched attempt to negotiate with EU leaders, people up and down the country will be more concerned by Brexit than ever before. To come before EU leaders without any documented proposals is galling. Calling the Prime Minister 'nebulous' is just one word to describe her. Brexit will make people poorer and reduce ... (more) |
Market Harborough station in the early 1980sWork to straighten the track through Market Harborough station continues. Here is a photograph of the station back in the early 1980s. It was taken into the sun and through the buffers at the end of a long-vanished siding. You could do things like that on stations in those days. Curving away to the right is the platform that once accommodated trains to Northampton and Rugby. the bridge that took the line over Rockingham Road may still have been in place. When the current works at the station were imminent, I went to photograph what remained of this scene. (more) |
Michael Brooke: The later career of the first owner of The MagnetThis clip comes from the 1950 Ealing comedy The Magnet, which is of most interest today because its star grew up to be James Fox. I last posted it when I blogged about the film in the summer. But who is the other boy in the clip? The younger boy Fox cons into swapping his magnet? He is Michael Brooke, and his IMDB biography describes his later career: Bilingual, he was educated at the Lycée Francais in London and read Law at Edinburgh University and was called to the bar in November 1968. He became a distinguished and well-regarded Barrister, ... (more) |
Could the Scottish Tories back a #peoplesvote?The Scottish Tories could be about to back a People's Vote says the New Statesman's Chris Deerin. He cites a "prominent" Conservative MSP as saying: "When I look at what's going on down south, I feel appalled and embarrassed," one prominent MSP tells me. "I hate the English party. I'm horrified at the support for no deal being expressed by party members. I've stopped reading ConservativeHome." And they might back a second referendum if it is clear that Mrs May's deal can't get through Parliament: Senior Scottish Tories believe the UK is on a trajectory to crash out of the ... (more) |