The Dublin Dispatches - Day FourDay four was Wednesday, and it became apparent I was running out of activities to do. Dublin is a compact city, and everything is within 10 minutes walking distance of everything else. Before I came away to Dublin, I decided I'd purchase a book from everywhere I travel in the future, and with Dublin being my first location, I went book hunting. One of my favourite aspects of Dublin is that it isn't short of bookshops. It does love its literary history after all. Time to buy books I walked into the Easom on O'Connell Street and browsed the Irish ... (more) |
NHS staff and Brexit: things may not be so bad for Wales after allrefers.) The Fullfact charity has put continental Europeans' flight from the NHS into perspective. The skills drain started before the referendum and includes UK and non-EU citizens. So the trouble is likely to be more with the NHS as such (though Brexit is not going to help) and if Wales creates a distinctly separate identity and attractive image for the NHS here, we may reverse the trend on this side of Offa's Dyke. (more) |
Councillors Advice Centre - Thursday 28th SeptemberLib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Daniel Lewis, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtown. We will be at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30 to 11.30am on Thursday 28th September. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am to 12:00. (more) |
The making of The Innocents (1961)Christopher Frayling is our personable guide to the making of Jack Clayton's masterly adaptation of Henry James's story The Turn of the Screw. There is also a good discussion of the film, complete with Peter Wyngarde, on the BBC Radio 3 site. (more) |
Liberal Democrats gain Oadby Uplands ward from LabourCongratulations to Lily Kaufman and the Liberal Democrat team in Oadby and Wigston for winning the Oadby Uplands ward by-election yesterday. The full result: Lily Kaufman (Lib Dems) 435 Labour 384 Conservative 295 This was the seat held for Labour by Gurpal Atwal until his resignation in the summer. Oadby Uplands is a two member ward. The Lib Dems already held the other seat. The result is particularly gratifying because Oadby and Wigston has been run by the Liberal Democrats since 1991. The Leicester Mercury quotes John Boyce, the leader of the council: "I'm extremely pleased. We perform well as ... (more) |
Lib Dems react to Theresa May's Florence speechVince said that it was no wonder the Brexiteers were terrified of giving the people a say on the deal: Both the Conservatives and Labour have now essentially converged on the same position, which is to kick the can down the road and simply delay the economic pain caused by an extreme Brexit. Neither are prepared to fight to keep Britain in the single market and customs union or to offer people a chance to exit from Brexit Voters were promised £350m a week for the NHS, instead Theresa May is admitting the UK will have to pay a hefty ... (more) |
A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor ArnasonSecond paragraph of third chapter: Midway through the afternoon we turned onto another trail. It led north into an area of low hills. The soil was sandy. The trees were small and scrubby. Here and there we came upon outcroppings of a sandy rock, yellow or dull orange. The trail was barely visible: a faint line that wound among the rocks and trees. It led finally—in the late afternoon—to a shack, made of long branches leaning against rock. Skins were stretched over the branches. Smoke came out of a hole. What a sad little dwelling place! I enjoyed A Woman ... (more) |
Mathew's Musings 22 September 2017I've been to the vast majority of both spring and autumn party conferences since I joined the Lib Dems back in March 2010 and I can honestly say I enjoyed the one that ended in Bournemouth, on Tuesday, the best. I think I'm finally starting to work out the ebbs and flows of conference; when best to put in a speaker's card with a chance of actually being called; when to take time out with friends and not fill your whole rota with yet another fringe meeting (as good as they almost always are); how to network with like-minded fellow ... (more) |
Emotions in Politics and BrexitToday I return to a subject that I have discussed before, that of Emotions in Politics, with some of my previous posts on this subject here, here and hear. However I am interested today in how it impacts the strongest political issue of our times, namely Brexit. When I floated the provisional idea for this post on twitter, another user thought it would be dangerous to cast people who feel one thing and hence vote based on that one way or another as being Type A or Type B, which is a fair enough objection. My hypothesis is, that if ... (more) |
On New Political StrategiesThis post is a political one, and discusses party strategies, but I think it has more applicability than just to Lib Dem partisans (which means that unlike the internal-fighting posts of last week, I'm going to charge for this on ... Continue reading → (more) |