Nationwide from 1970: A haunted Sheffield nightclubIf you want a portrait of Britain in the Seventies, you can't beat Nationwide. This was a news magazine programme shown every weekday evening after the six o'clock news. It began with news from your region and then went national to tackle both serious and lighter subjects. The regional presenters featured in the national segment too, and people of my generation will still recall nanes like Mike Neville in Newcastle, Bruce Parker in Southampton and Ian Masters in Norwich. And I think they were all men - very Seventies. Nationwide covered the three-day week, the drought, the Silver Jubilee and ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1424"By learning from Farage, the Greens risk becoming more like him in form, even if utterly different in content. And in politics, form matters. A democracy shaped by perpetual outrage and binary framing cannot easily sustain pluralism, however noble the cause. If we pick fights and make enemies now we will build a future full of fights and enemies."Mike Chitty worries that Zack Polanski has learnt too much from the populist playbook. Caspar Hobhouse argues that Ukraine needs support from the European Union to transition towards a long-term energy system that is resilient, flexible and secure. Rachel Sylvester on William's ... (more) |
Mathew on Monday: True patriotism means standing up for people, not waving flags!It seems that, these days, there's somewhat of an arms race – some might even call it a race to the bottom – over who can appear the most 'patriotic.' Politicians of every stripe (including, yes, some of our own... think Tim Farron at the recent Conference rally) are falling over themselves to wrap their speeches – and sometimes even themselves – in the Union Jack. There's talk of "our great nation," of "British pride," and endless declarations and protestations of love for "this country of ours.", of "British value," which according to some MPs seems to amount to little ... (more) |
Foxton Locks to reopen after the drought - for just a weekA major victim of this year's drought has been the canals of the Midlands, with many lengths of them closed to boats. Among the closures are the two flights of staircase locks at Foxton near Market Harborough. Now BBC News reports that they are to reopen - but only for a week. The Canal and River Trust said the site, near Market Harborough, will be open for a week between 27 October and 2 November. The locks will be open from 10:00 BST to 15:00, with the last boat allowed in at 14:00. The locks between Foxton and Leicester will ... (more) |
We need to be providing more truly affordable homes and infrastructure, not lining developers' pocketsCast your mind back to last July. Remember the pledge from Keir Starmer to be a "government of service"? Many people in July 2024 were hoping for more from the Labour government after the nightmare years of Conservative administrations failing to provide enough truly affordable homes and allowing developers to cut corners when it came to paying for the infrastructure needed to support new housing. Well, if the recent leaked memo becomes national policy this government could be shaping up to be even worse than the Tories! A Labour government memo is looking at slashing developers' affordable housing and infrastructure ... (more) |
Wherever he goes, the whiff of corruption follows like an acrid cloud of cigarette smoke: five times Farage's friends have been caught out.Picture the scene, your close political ally is arrested for taking bribes to shill on behalf of a terrorist state, then someone you describe as "like a son" to you has to do eight months in a US prison for wire fraud, then you have to hand back £200,000 in unlawful donations. Then the icing on the cake hits as your partner is revealed to be at the centre of an EU fraud scandal. You would rightly be thinking that person should be allowed nowhere near the leavers of government on the grounds that they clearly lack the judgement to ... (more) |
Why do new railway stations provide so little and cost so much?There's trouble at the new Worcestershire Parkway station, says the Ledbury Reporter: Fed up commuters have called a railway station near the city "the worst in Europe" and also criticised the site's facilities. People who use Worcestershire Parkway have complained that it lacks a warm waiting area, platform seating, and only has two toilets for the whole station. And new railway stations generally provide few facilities for passengers and are remarkably unattractive. Despite this lack of comforts, they are remarkably expensive. A report in the Malvern Gazette from 2020 says this station cost £22m. Worcestershire Parkway has platforms on two ... (more) |
The ALDC Liberal Democrat Town and Parish Councillors Conference - at the coal face of local democracy[IMG: 4 parallel white vertical lines on orange background ALDC logo] Saturday saw the third annual ALDC online Conference for Town and Parish Councillors, an event which has developed as an opportunity to reach out to the Cinderella tier of local government, although we're more likely to have the budget for a glass slipper than our principal authority colleagues do these days. Opened by Sarah Green MP, Town and Parish Councillors from across England, including some pretty heavy hitters at the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), came together to discuss some of the big issues that face the sector ... (more) |
Weekly Road Report - West End Ward #dundeewestendDUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2025 Tait's Lane (Hawkhill to No 6) - closed from Wednesday 15 October for 10 days for Scottish Water work. Nethergate (at South Tay Street) - overnight (9.00pm to 6.00am) temporary traffic lights from Monday 20 October for one week for BT work. West Marketgait (at Nethergate) - overnight (9.00pm to 6.00am) nearside northbound lane closure from Monday 20 October for one week for BT work. Blackness Road (near Glenagnes Road) - temporary traffic lights from Tuesday 21 October for one ... (more) |
Brexit continues to have negative effect on the UK economyThe Independent reports on a warning by the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, that Brexit will have a negative impact on the UK's economic growth "for the foreseeable future". The paper says that Bailey, who was speaking at the G30 40th annual International Banking Seminar on Saturday, said that the economy is, however, likely to adjust and find balance again in the longer term: The event in Washington, DC saw Mr Bailey highlight a decline in the UK's potential growth rate from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent over the past 15 years. He linked this to lower ... (more) |