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The Brexit withdrawal bill and 'healing'
The conclusion of the Commons stages of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in just three days last week, with a majority of 99, gives the impression of a government in a hurry to deliver. Which it clearly is, in the sense of its self-imposed deadline of 31 January – though it seems in a little less of a hurry to deliver the 'healing', which cause Johnson espoused immediately post-election and then repeated in his New Year message. Though his wouldn't, of course, be the first government to preach reconciliation and practise division – Thatcher did something similar in, and then following, 1979.
While the election has settled the principle of Brexit for, er, a generation, there remains a number of problems about what Brexit looks like which will continue beyond 31 January and as the future trade relationship is settled. Chief among these is that, while the 2016 referendum was, as Chris Grey has continued to argue, a vote against something, there has, opinion polls and politicians' assertions apart, been no attempt to define what it might have been a vote for. Labour's stance of seeking a fresh deal and then putting that to the electorate remains, in this context, the right stance to have taken in principle, however much it turned out to be electorally unpopular – though that is a battle now lost. In seeking that definition, there is a number of battlegrounds set out in last week's passage of the Bill through the Commons which indicates the government's general direction compared to the previous version (full list here):
– workers' rights being removed from the Bill and re-located to a suggested new Employment Bill. The concern remains that this will be used to drive workers' rights downwards in a race to the bottom
– a clause giving ministers the power to direct the courts on the interpretation of EU law and to allow lower courts the power to overturn rulings by the European Court of Justice, something of particular concern to those of us worried about workers' rights
– a removal of the right of unaccompanied child refugees in the UK to be reunited with their families
– a rejection of a series of clauses to improve citizens' rights and a potential withdrawal of teeth from the 'independent' monitoring authority, which has already attracted the attention of the European Parliament, whose role in approving the final withdrawal agreement remains critical
– a rejection of the attempt to impose in the Bill a requirement to seek continued participation in Erasmus, the EU programme facilitating study abroad
– a refusal to consider mitigating the impact on firms in Northern Ireland of the volte face over the presence of a border down the Irish Sea and checks on goods crossing that border east-west, together with the inclusion of 'Henry VIII' powers on the parts of the withdrawal agreement focusing on Northern Ireland
– a refusal to countenance a block on the negotiation of future trade deals until parliament had approved an overall mandate. Taking back control did not, it seems, encompass much of a vision for the role of parliament vis-à-vis the government.
The Lords are, given the outcome of the election and the super-majority that the Johnson government now possesses, unlikely to mess around with any of this too much, although Lord Dubs certainly isn't giving up and the Lords Constitution Committee is sounding the alarm on lower courts being able to overturn ECJ decisions.
On any one of these issues, a government in possession of a desire to effect some actual reconciliation, and even 'healing', could have made some moves towards meeting the demands of the MPs sponsoring amendments and to limit the extent to which people not only working but building their lives in this country could be viewed as people rather than as an economic resource with all the division and rancour that entails – but, no.
The response to some of these is that further legislation will be brought forward – but there are no guarantees on that and the content is inevitably currently unknown. The response to others is that meeting such demands would have 'weakened the hands' of negotiators and that progress may still be made on them, presumably via trade-offs. That highlights that such issues as workers' rights continue to be seen as potential bargaining chips – a matter of disgrace. In others, we need to remember that meaningful negotiations, outside the area of a free trade agreement, have all but finished. Furthermore, in terms of understanding, it represents a failure to understand that modern negotiations is based on conversing about the achievement of mutual gains in which your strategy remains hidden but in which your aims are very much disclosed – and, frequently, strengthened by demonstrations of extensive popular support.
There was a potential win – or even series of wins – for the government here which it has simply chosen to ignore.
Instead, we have the spectacle of Brexit ultras in parliament, whose numbers have increased as a result of the election and the deliberate selection of Tory candidates committed to Johnson's approach, and who are little more now than lobby fodder, seeking to grind its victory humiliatingly into the faces of opponents. Furthermore, we have the ludicrous, time-wasting spectacle of a public debate over whether Big Ben should strike at 11pm on 31 January, with at least the early crowdfunding of the requisite 'bungs', i.e. ahead of Mark Francois's donation appearing to fall somewhat flat ('bob a job' has got expensive these days, although it's probably marginally more cost effective than Francois climbing up there to do the job himself). Not only that, but there is the approval (from the Mayor of London) for a 'Leave Means Leave' event in Parliament Square on 31 January, whose triumphalist tone and nature can only be imagined at this stage but which also just chances to coincide in the same place with a gathering of far-right street thugs being planned by the English Defence League. Likely to be a joyous occasion, I'm sure. But, if they want to celebrate it, then they can own what happens in its wake.
Healing it's not. But then, healing is far from the minds of the ultras and, by definition, this government. Offering anything to the 48% of us who voted 'in' in 2016, or to the majority of the electorate which voted for remain parties in the 2019 general election, or to the probable majority of people who would now vote 'in' (currently the same as the general election outcome, incidentally) – such as dynamic alignment of rights, the Norway model, Canada+++ or, heaven forfend, single market membership – would be seen as a betrayal of the one true Brexit. Thus, the call for reconciliation is entirely superficial. The 'People's Government' is just for Leavers – or, at least, that section of Leavers which also voted Tory, given that the Tories' electoral base has become predominantly Eurosceptic.
Oh – and #ReleaseTheRussiaReport. We all know at this stage of Brexit that it's more embarrassing (probably most of all for Johnson himself) than revelatory. Even were it the latter, it won't now stop Brexit; as Brittany Kaiser's (otherwise extremely useful) whistle-blowing revelations that Robert Mercer funded both Leave.EU and Vote Leave campaigns will also not do. Unfortunately. Nevertheless, people being defrauded and then having the wool pulled over their eyes is never an edifying spectacle – and prolonging the period in which the report is not released is just compounding it.
By Calvinin Politics, Workers' rights January 16, 2020 1,246 WordsLeave a comment
Brendan: a photographic footnote
A couple of photos taken this morning – at about 1025 – from the garden steps into respectively the north-east and south-east corners of the garden. These show, firstly, that either yesterday evening's high tide (c. 2120) or this morning's (c. 0930) brought some seaweed debris into the furthermost corner of the garden, either as a result of overlapping sea water or as a result of being ejected from the sea by strong waves driven by the wind to crash on the shore; and, secondly, showing that there is also a small amount of seaweed debris washed right across the shore road.
The winds were gusting above 60mph right through the night until 0700, and high 50s thereafter, but they were coming from the south-west so ought not to have been responsible for bringing seaweed debris this far; it's more likely therefore to have been the high tide. We can see that there is still plenty of debris floating around in what is a sluggish and heavy-moving sea; and, yes, that is one of our gang of starlings standing centre left perusing the potential future lunch opportunities arising from the new situation.
The water level is very high, given that the rock in the sea left of centre is virtually submerged. Normally the shore line here follows the line of the rocks at centre right, and curving into roughly the lower horizontal third of the photo (and above the fence line); currently it's blurred by the amount of debris. Seaweed debris on the shore is common, especially when the sea has been churned up by strong winds; above the shore, much less so and usually only after the sorts of extremes we had yesterday. And pretty rarely as much as this.
We still have plenty of height to the house above this level, but any sign of encroachment by the sea above the shoreline is clearly a serious matter.
By Calvinin Photos, Postcards, Seasonal rhythms January 15, 2020 January 15, 2020 315 WordsLeave a comment
Book Review: The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places
Neil Oliver's recent history is one of those works of non-fiction which does exactly what it says on the tin.
Born out of people coming up to him and asking about the places they should visit, this is Neil Oliver's attempt to crystallise the history of these islands into a series of short essays about the most remarkable finds, events and structures which tell the story of the people who have lived here. Starting with footprints uncovered briefly in the mud at Happisburgh in East Anglia, which may have been up to 950,000 years old and at a time when this 'long island' was joined to the rest of Europe and there was no sea Channel, Oliver pursues his narration chronologically, proceeding up to the Millennium Dome and the Scottish Parliament building before back tracking slightly to relate in the final two essays to structures which highlight the main two aspects of his theme.
The first of these is that these islands have a history of bloody conflict and that:
We have arrived where we are in these islands at the end of a long and bloody road… The path back to that chaos is quick and straight and easily taken. Like it or not, believe it or not, we live protected by a shelter made only of our old mistakes. (p. 403)
And, we might add, for as long as we continue to recognise those mistakes as such.
Secondly, standing on the shingle beach at Dungeness 'under the weight of the biggest, bluest sky… pebbles slipping and sliding beneath my feet while the sea rolls', is that these islands are fragile, at 'nature's mercy most of all.' (p. 406)
Published in 2018, amidst a risingly intemperate political discourse about our post-Brexit future and against a background of increasing concern about climate change, manifest to island nations most evidently in rising sea levels and plastic pollution, it is easy to identify the prompts for the centrality of such themes.
Oliver is not a trained historian and this is not a work of scholarship – he studied and worked firstly as an archaeologist before re-training as a journalist and finding his niche in broadcasting – and the language of the writing, as the above quotes testify, is poetic, often spiritual in nature and even romantic (as, perhaps, befits what is a self-confessed 'love letter to the British Isles' and p. 410). The essays – from two up to (rarely) eight pages – start with some contextual, frequently contemporary, analysis as well as descriptive detail about the selected location before Oliver seeks to use his undoubted empathy to put himself not only in that place but in that time, to use his imagination to project what it would have been like there, at that particular point, and then to provide some observations about the significance and continuing resonance of the site. Nevertheless, this is never an over-romanticised piece of work.
Oliver is careful with his choices, ensuring that the nations and regions which make up the British Isles are fairly represented (Ireland and Wales each have eight selections and Scotland 22, while the islands in our archipelago are represented by Orkney, Isle of Man, Skye and Iona, the Channel Islands and the Aran Islands), and that London and its immediately surrounding area (with ten) do not dominate. Frequently, the choices are coastal – for evident reasons of maritime history and the invasion, raiding and incursions, and plantations to which these islands have been subject – thus ensuring that the 'peripheries' occupy the central locations they deserve. He is also careful with his language, often referring – as he acknowledges – to 'these islands', partly as a result of the evident political challenges of naming and labelling conventions and border issues; but also because he has come to the view, as a result of his travels, that the shared histories of the people of the 'long island', the flow of the population movements which have resulted during that history and the sheer longevity of the land in the face of the brevity of such human concepts as borders across a topography, nations and national identities, are such that:
Instead of any sense of different countries, I see only one place. (p. 409)
A view that will, no doubt, continue to prove as controversial as Oliver himself has been in recent years. Clearly, a perspective of someone who is, first and foremost, an archaeologist. He is, nevertheless, also absolutely correct to recognise that 'The flow of new arrivals has never stopped' (p. 407); we are all migrants, and we always have been. At a time when the far right is seeking to 'claim' sites such as Avebury and Wayland's Smithy (the latter not covered by Oliver here) simply because they are representative of the melting pot of cultures and traditions that migration represents, this is an important assertion.
The collection is evidently an entirely personal one – the final selection mostly self-selecting as a result of some places registering with him more than others during his almost constant travelling around these islands. As such, there is almost zero point in personal quibbles with Oliver's choice of locations to tell the story that he himself wants to tell. (I can claim to have visited no more than one-third of the hundred sites selected.)
Nevertheless, there is a heavy focus on politics and power struggles, and military might, somewhat to the exclusion of social and economic history and the selection is therefore a little conservative. The history of people is clearly there – it underpins many of the essays – and, while there are entries for the great famine in Ireland (Abbeystrewry Cemetery, Skibbereen), the highland (and island) clearances (Bettyhill), on the struggle for workers' rights (Tolpuddle) and on the birth of the industrial revolution (Ironbridge), entries on the creative and literary tradition outnumber these. To tell a more rounded tale, I would have liked to see something on Peterloo (and see other references passim on Keith's site), the 200th anniversary of which only just post-dated the publication of this work, or the Chartist Movement or on suffragettes, in which Emmeline Pankhurst's youth at the outset of her involvement (she was just 14 when she attended her first meeting of the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage) also bears a striking resonance with some of today's environmental activists, not least in reactions to them.
This is not just a personal preference, however: protest – and reactions to it – to achieve social change is also part of our bloody history, and a major one at that. Furthermore, it's also a part of the mistakes that we've made which help to shape the shelter under which we live today, while the accommodations that we have reached as a result of such actions amount to one of the reasons why the social peace that we enjoy in general is both hard-won and often fractured as a result of the mistakes that societies like ours, still ridden with class and other hierarchical structures, continue to make.
There remains plenty of room for protest action as we continue to shape the social aspects of our shared destiny, and anywhere that it is absent from the pages of history books represents an unfortunate omission, whatever the qualities of the surrounding work.
By Calvinin Books, Reviews December 17, 2019 1,211 WordsLeave a comment
Communications in transition – the continuing need for dialogue
The third of my columns for Stage, Screen and Radio, the quarterly journal of BECTU, the union for creative ambition, appeared in the Autumn 2019 issue ('Celebrating Young Creatives'). Members of BECTU can download the magazine from the website – I'm on p. 24. Now the Winter issue has hit the streets, I thought it was about time to re-publish the text of #3, minus Tony Kelly's cartoon pointing up my words. Not a member of the union and want to see the text in all its glory? Here's how to join.
For 15 years now, Ofcom – the regulator for the communications industry – has published an annual overview of the state of things in its Communications Market Report. This has always been required reading for its broad-sweeping analysis and its essential facts and figures on what remains a rapidly changing industry. Continuing a trend began last year, though, it is now truer to say that it's required viewing: the comprehensive report of yore has gone the way of 'big data' with the 2019 CMR now consisting of a set of charts, each accompanied by a 'key message' bullet point.
A picture might well be worth 1,000 words – but art consisting of little more than graphics is going to leave the reviewer somewhat unfulfilled. It might suit the view that today's wealth of access to news, stories, comment and images, along with too little time, has left us with the attention span of a goldfish. Or that, to capture people's attention in these days, you have to hit them up with something punchy and direct. I don't necessarily buy either one, although there are elements of truth in both. More prosaically, the reason for the switch is likely to be a lack of available resources. And that's a shame.
Some of the key points to emerge from the 2019 CMR are:
telecoms prices and revenues continue to fall in real terms
there is a continued shift away from fixed-line to mobiles for telephone calls; and from mobile to web-based messaging services for text communications
revenues are static for commercial TV broadcasters, amidst a reduction in advertising revenues associated with a drop in viewing hours
public service broadcasters continue to spend less on generating new UK content (excepting the effects of the 2018 World Cup)
the reach for radio remains high and the time we spend listening to the radio nevertheless remains the same year-on-year, while digital radio broadcasting continues to expand.
Right across communications, the internet continues to wreak (creative) havoc. Telecoms companies and TV and radio broadcasters alike are facing continued declines in revenues while somehow justifying the substantial investment required, whether this lies in generating new content or in the pipes and airwaves that carry that content to us, at home or on the move. Rightly, we expect that experience to be seamless and to deliver us the same quality wherever we are even though we have been enticed into a world in which we expect to pay increasingly less for it.
Substantial investment is taking place, of course: in telecoms, more and more fixed broadband connections are 'superfast' and more of us are on faster mobile connections.
But investors demand both absolute dividends and predictability in them over time. And, when revenues are declining and there are plenty of free-riders around, continuing that level of share-out can only come from squeezing more and more out of workers whether this be in terms of effort or in terms of demands for further and greater concessions in our terms and conditions of employment.
Indeed, the share of national income going to workers continues to fall, with impacts in left-behind communities and in more of us in work feeling the pinch. And, when more of us are in work than ever, that's a disgrace.
Just as in the transition to a low-carbon world, workers in communications are in transition too. This presents difficulties, and these can only be confronted, and resolved, through dialogue. In organised trade unions, we are not only aware of the importance of this, but we have the opportunity to do something about it. However, the message of dialogue needs to be more widely understood if workers are to start increasing their share.
By Calvinin Communications December 16, 2019 703 WordsLeave a comment
Disappointed, bruised and sore.
That a manifesto seeking to tackle social and economic injustice was rejected in favour of empty slogans; that lies, and the practise of lying, have been rewarded; that our democracy is incapable of dealing effectively with obfuscation and the deliberate avoidance of scrutiny; and that the healing which these nations which make up the UK need has been cast aside, to be replaced by further division, hatred and exploitation.
It was indeed a 'grim' night in which the balloon of my hope and optimism was punctured at about 22:01, before I finally called it a night just after 04:00. The only bright spot all night (there were two, really, but the failure of The Brexit Party to gain any seats, especially in Hartlepool, is rather meaningless in the circumstances) was the success of Matt Rodda in Reading East, the constituency of my birth. Rodda has been around for a while and his Tory opponent was new, and this might provide a partial explanation to his increased majority. However, a marginal drop in the Labour vote share seems to indicate that, whatever the situation nationally, Rodda – surely confronted with the same issues on his doorstep – is doing something right from which Labour might learn once its – essential – review gets underway.
Here's a few initial thoughts about the implications of what happened last night.
1. Brexit will happen on 31 January 2020. There's no way that this will not now take place. This was, after all, a Brexit election and Johnson's determination to talk about nothing else than 'get Brexit done' – when he elected to speak at all, that is – clearly permeated into people's consciousness, at least in key Tory target areas. Ultimately, this was a successful strategy, pains me though it does to say it. 'Brexit, stupid', as someone else might once have said, and keeping it simple, clearly worked.
However, we should note that Brexit remains a democratically-unpopular option. The votes cast for 'leave' parties added up to 14.98m, according to my quick calculations from the BBC election results website this morning, compared to a vote for parties committed to a re-negotiation/second referendum or remain of 16.63m (among the 16 largest parties attracting votes of 10,000+). So Johnson's sloganeering was, across the UK as a whole, not successful. In the meantime, this therefore remains an utterly divided nation (note: the breakdown in favour of re-negotiate/remain is 53:47).
2. Labour's pivot to re-negotiate to provide a Brexit which hit jobs and living standards less, and then to put this to a second referendum, was clearly not a success. It was either not understood or else it was dismissed – it doesn't really matter at this point which. In hindsight – though some will claim foresight on this – this was perhaps only likely to work as part of a coalition (or understanding) between 'remain' parties. That was never going to happen and there is an argument that, looking at Brexit in isolation, Labour would consequently have been better on a platform that was, at least audibly, closer to one which 'respected' the 2016 referendum.
3. In the absence of any such understanding, tactical voting to keep the Tories out was a clear failure. The notion that tactical voting had more traction that it evidently did underpinned my optimism in my post below, as well as my anticipation of the fall of some big (Tory) guns. Neither happened. Evidence published only on Monday this week that people were quite attracted by the idea, though had little idea of the online tools available, ought to have provided sufficient warning (not least of the need to escape your own social media bubble once in a while). Nevertheless, it was not even close for any of the big guns – Raab, Duncan-Smith, Redwood and Johnson himself – and this looks a failure of the MRP technique which, at constituency level, had given gaps to the nearest challenger in these cases as low as one percentage point, whatever its apparent success at UK-wide level in predicting the scale of the Tory majority. In short, MRP got a little lucky.
4. We are heading for a constitutional crisis sometime in the life of this (up to) five-year mandate, once Brexit occurs. Neither Scotland nor Northern Ireland voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum; yet Northern Ireland now has more Sinn Féin/SDLP MPs (the former of course not taking their seats in Westminster) than unionist ones, while the SNP's share of the vote in Scotland was 45% (a rather interesting figure in the light of the 2014 outcome of IndyRef1).
Much here depends on just what sort of government Johnson actually leads – and it is, by the way, a disgrace to democracy that Andrew Marr, the BBC's former political editor, can post on the BBC Live pages this morning, and having interviewed Johnson only a week last Sunday, that 'The biggest question in British politics this morning is, who is Boris Johnson politically?' (at 07:34, currently p. 5/21). A 'softer' Brexit than the one envisaged under the previous government would, to some degree, head off some aspects of this challenge, in the sense of minimising the impacts of a Brexit which left us isolated from the EU. Were we to end up at the end of the transition process without a sensible free trade deal with the EU – i.e. one which protected jobs, working conditions and environmental standards – then Brexit will increase these constitutional pressures.
In that context, there would be a clear argument under which lending a vote to a nationalist project, where the focus was a re-joining of international social and economic structures in the face of a disastrous Brexit, may well have merit in terms of protecting the Scottish working class against such impacts. The SNP has a platform of seeking IndyRef2 in 2020, but that's not incompatible with the timetable under which a free trade deal with the EU would need to be approved. It's also quite clear that the only free trade deal with the EU which can be negotiated in that timescale is one which effectively minimises the impact of Brexit. Whether Johnson can cast aside his erstwhile buddies in the ERG to deliver that remains to be seen. So, 'wait and see' before making any such pivot would be a wise move – but, for me, it remains a more substantial possibility than hitherto.
5. A rather thin Tory manifesto contained a particular hostage in its promise to 'look at' judicial review from the perspective of 'ensuring that [it] is available to protect the rights of the individuals against an overbearing state, while ensuring that it is not abused to conduct politics by another means or to create needless delays' (p. 48; emphasis added). This is a clear reference to the – evidently embarrassing – cases brought by anti-Brexit campaigners this summer (Gina Miller and Jolyon Maugham. That the cases were won against the government is evidently troubling were any such 'look' now to emerge with restrictions on the courts' capacity to hold the executive to account. This is one of the essential checks and balances in any democracy and, where these are cut back, democracy will suffer. Any look at the example of Poland, where the governing party is attacking the judiciary, much to the consternation of at least the previous European Commission, is clearly illustrative. A UK outside the EU would, clearly, mean no such censure were the government to embark on such action after January 2020. This is clearly not the reason for Brexit, but a government that turns out to be hardline will see it as one of the bonuses of leaving.
In the meantime, I'm off to listen to some Smoove. Loud, I think.
By Calvinin Politics December 13, 2019 December 13, 2019 1,288 Words2 Comments
This has certainly been one of the more interesting election campaigns in recent memory. By turns chaotic and mendacious, but nevertheless enthralling, I'm looking forward to an outcome on Friday morning which proves it (as well as to enjoying plenty of Portillo moments).
The last 24 hours has perhaps seen the worst of things as regards the dark arts with the beginning of the Tory advertising blitz via Facebook, coinciding with the re-generation of sock puppet accounts as a diversionary tactic to the horror of a boy lying on a hospital floor as there was no bed for him, and in the face of Johnson's own dissembling and point blank refusal to look at the image when faced with it (now with 11m views…), coupled with a non-story about an adviser being punched.
From a policy point of view, there are two issues that need to be addressed here: firstly, the willing take-up of Dominic Cummings's rouble-sourced bait by journalists who ought to know better; and secondly the dominance of the social media platforms, especially Facebook but also, albeit to a lesser extent, Twitter, in terms of the news we see and what, in a time-pressed world, we come to regard as truth.
Robert Peston and Laura Kuenssberg ought to know better, but rather than pin the blame on them in a conspiracy theory about the modern state of the BBC in the clutches of a vile government, I think the main problem lies with the failures of journalism under pressure of a 24-hour news cycle. Before t'internet came along, the time pressures where a journalist had a story to break would be somewhat less and publishing timetables tended to lend more time for fact checking in advance of publication or broadcast. Nowadays, journalists making their living in the field, and who have a story but fear being scooped, tend to report everything and then – occasionally – backtrack when proved wrong. Evidently, that's often too late once tweets and posts have been shared and then amplified via individual networks.
Journalists need to be less afraid of being scooped and to take greater time to establish the facts before engaging with their social media accounts – or at least to qualify their messages with an acknowledgment that the situation is still being checked. I for one am quite happy if the news comes to me fact-checked and accurate, if a little slower; although I acknowledge that this understates the adrenaline rush realised by those among us who are the 'first' to tell us something. We also need to break the consensus that people spreading such stories are not 'sources' in the accepted journalistic sense and can be identified in the public interest. That might, however, need a little more solidarity between journalists if the cosy relationship between spinners and relayers is to be broken.
Secondly, James Mitchinson, Editor of the Yorkshire Post, got it spot-on yesterday in his response to one reader who took issue with his paper's coverage of the story of what happened at Leeds General Infirmary. In a discombobulating world, when we do not know who to trust and when we have been led actively to distrust those institutions to which we formerly looked for honesty, it is very easy to be led astray. This is of course where Facebook – particularly – comes in since it has scooped up much of the local advertising revenues on which local journalism used to rely and whose loss has starved local papers of resources and journalists. The dispute over job cuts at the Herald has much to comment on this, also.
The genie can't be put back in the bottle, but the unchecked abuse of its powers out in the wild can and should be better controlled, not least in terms of the potential for the manipulation of opinions during an election, as well as in terms of the stealing of identities and their use by/sale to hackers. When Facebook has such control but so little interest in exercising it responsibly – sock puppet accounts are as good as any other when it comes to the numbers proving continued growth to the investors – the only answer can be better regulation. Clearly it's own – largely algorithm-based – actions to remove false accounts are not working and neither, does it seems, are its fraud reporting mechanisms (while Twitter's are scarcely any better) while certainly it needs to have something in place which stops people impersonating and misrepresenting others and stealing data. This means that Facebook itself also has to put more of those advertising revenues into human intervention to ensure its user accounts are genuine.
(And the government needs to publish that Intelligence and Security Committee report into meddling in UK referendums and elections – it's clearly already too late for this election, but there are lessons to be learned in respect of future ones.)
The Western Isles electoral seat – Scotland's smallest, and a protected constituency under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 – was held in the last parliament by the SNP, with a majority of about 1,000 votes over Labour in second (and the rest nowhere). In Alison MacCorquodale, we have a good candidate from North Uist (and an active trade unionist, to boot) highly capable of building on the efforts of Ealasaid MacDonald in 2017 in making this a two-way, non-Tory marginal. Touring this southern end of the constituency at the weekend, the equal matching of red and yellow lamp-post favours was highly encouraging. All of which means I can vote Labour with both my heart and my head. Only Labour has the manifesto committed to ending austerity, re-building the NHS (and keeping Trump's hands off it) and achieving real change for people.
Other people don't have that luxury where a Labour candidate is neither the sitting MP nor the nearest challenger. If that's you, and especially in those narrow marginals which will make a substantial difference to the outcome on Thursday, do vote for the candidate best placed to eject the Tory. There is a plethora of tactical voting websites to help you make your mind up, the latest addition being the @ledbydonkeys campaign to GetJohnsonGone. Others include Best for Britain's tactical voting site Get Voting.
Do consult at least one of them and, even if you do, for one reason or another, have to hold your nose while putting your 'x' in that box, ensure that we wake up on Friday morning with a series of 'Were you up when…?' exits, Johnson gone, advisers with egg all over their faces and a future awaiting us in which we can together start to put right the things that have gone so wrong in the last nine years. Vote for hope.
Book Review: Cartes Postales from Greece
I dug out Victoria Hislop's 2016 collection of short stories from my unread bookshelf to take on our recent trip to Crete. Popularly described as one of the UK's most ardent philhellenes, and these days at least a part-time resident of Crete, Hislop is a well-qualified companion with whom to discuss – over the written page – modern Greece and its tragedies, as well as its heroism, its lyricism and its love of songs and stories.
The stories in Cartes Postales – quite simply, postcards – were mostly written while Hislop was travelling in Greece, alongside Alexandros, a photographer whose images lavish the pages. They were not taken to illustrate, but to act as a prompt with Hislop tending to spin her stories out of the things that they both saw on the journey. Some of the latter are new, some are modern twists on old stories (the Venus di Milo makes an appearance as does, from a Cretan perspective, Icarus and Daedalus), others are founded in the continuousness of the search for meaning in natural signs with which to prompt human decisions at various crossroads (such as at the Oracle at Delphi). As such, most of the stories have a timeless appeal, even if imbued through a modern lens, not to say a glass of wine.
As in any short story collection, some of them work (Je Reviens being a particularly good example, twisting the fortunes of the people who inhabit modern Greece with the threads of its recent past; while Et In Arcadio Ego is menacing and disturbing), while others do not (Air on a G String is filled with the dreadful romanticism that Hislop seems to have rescued from the floor of Richard Curtis's writing room). We encompass otherwise the macabre (Honeymoon), the elegiac (Man On A Mountaintop) and the dramatic (The Boy In The Silvery Suit).
The difference to most normal collections are that the short stories are all linked, all being tales told to a traveller in tavernas, guest houses and in town squares. The traveller in question is not Hislop, except perhaps by some kind of displacement, but Anthony, a man on the run from a failed relationship but whose process of letting go entails the sending of a series of postcards, and finally a notebook, from each stopping point to the address of his lost lover, who has since moved away. There, they are received instead by Ellie, a young woman at something of a crossroads herself; and, intrigued, she decides to head for Greece. After that, well, Richard Curtis may yet be on the phone.
So here we have the first problem: the conceit of the structural idea is bold, but its execution in practice is breathlessly, remorselessly romantic in tone. The contrast between this and many of the stories is sharp, but the effect is not interesting since the romanticism of what is essentially the plot – and a rather thin one, at that – both undermines and subtracts from the stories themselves.
The second problem is a minor, practical one: Anthony is on the run but spends the year finishing writing a book on the sculptures of the Cyclades which, as it transpires, actually plays little role in his re-building of his sense of self. The difficulty is, he spends no time in the Cyclades on his journey, which is based virtually entirely on the mainland, and precious little of that in Athens – and, even there, he doesn't appear to go to the museum where Cycladic art has been stolen re-located. Perhaps his research notes were all complete but, if it was me, I'd be wanting to visit one, probably both, and regularly, as I was finalising my work. Consequently, the threading of the stories relies on a hook which is both extremely insecure and which, ultimately, actually has little meaning.
Thirdly, the ageless appearance of the stories is fine at a superficial level, but it leaves the characters on the page inhabiting a yesterday world. This affects particularly the women characters who are disappointingly realised, being usually young girls, femme fatales or old crones (while the men are, although not as ubiquitously, portrayed either as weak-minded old fools or young, strong and silent types). There is nothing new about such an objectification of women (and, indeed, men) in literature, although I choose to read modern women writers to escape that sort of thing. It's not as though Greece – and specifically Crete – has no examples of strong women, both in revolution and in modern times, on which Hislop could draw but the collection here ignores those in favour of sexist stereotypes. Easier, for sure, but ultimately a lot less challenging. I would have liked to see Hislop go a lot further in the direction where Et In Arcadio Ego seemed to be taking her.
In this yesterday world, modern Greece does appear, but only in the linking sections between the stories whereas a collection which really wanted to tell a story of the modern realities of the country would have made the old stories resonate in a more contemporary fashion with some of the photographs. All we are left with, therefore, is a flavour, a taste of the Greece of kafenion and zacharoplasteion – but one drawn more from the Greece of the travel pages than the reality of the modern stories told, to take just one example, by the graffiti-laden walls which we could see even in downtown, and somewhat sleepy, Rethymnon on our visit. The impression is thus of a throwback; of a recall of, and desire for, happier times; and, ultimately, of somewhat middle-class concerns and mores and standards.
Even for holiday reading, I'm looking for a bit more than that.
So, as this is also a bit of a postcard, as well as a review, here's some graffiti on a bit of shabby house. I'm a little nervous about capturing graffiti in a foreign language because impressions can mislead and my Greek is, well, holiday Greek. Here, however, I think the loose translation would be 'Under Heavy Manners'. And absolutely right, too.
By Calvinin Books, Postcards, Reviews, Travelling November 29, 2019 November 29, 2019 1,018 WordsLeave a comment
Death in the morning
A little after eight this morning. I pad through, dressed, to the kitchen where the sun, already two-thirds of the way across its path between the turbines and the low hills to the south, is already fully up above the horizon. It's one of the last times I see this before the hills obscure the sunrise until much later in the day, and I rejoice in the scene and its warmth. Slightly further north and east, a small rain shower casts down in long, thin, smears of dark grey as the sun, a full disc but nevertheless hazy, casts its warm glow into the kitchen, illuminating with a timeless orange light the surfaces and the walls. There is little wind and the rain, a brief interlude in what will be a warm, almost cloudless, balmy day, is soon gone.
Overhead, one of the headland's flock of ravens floats down towards the bay, feet dangling below, but held so, in a straight line from which, given the lack of wind, it barely deviates. I imagine it, a few seconds ahead, landing on one of the rocks exposed by the retreating tide, to bask in the sun and, maybe, plan its day just as I am doing. Though it does, already, appear a little more purposeful.
It lands. Not on a rock, though. It has already planned its day and breakfast is its next item. It lands on top of something on the sand and immediately jabs downwards. Its target moves. It's not dead. Shocked out of my slumber by the violence of the thrust and by the – clearly erroneous – belief that ravens prefer their food already matured as opposed to fresh, I grab my binoculars from the lounge window shelf. Its prey continues to struggle as its adversary continues its stabbing motions, irregularly and infrequently, long moments between, like each one was already the last.
The prey continues to move. It's a bird, of some kind – though I can't make out what, even with the binoculars. It staggers about in its own defence, under the weight of the raven on its back, looking like a young, unfledged chick, though it surely can't be, not at this time of year. Then the raven flies off, landing ten yards or so to the left, its back turned nonchalantly on its prey, bored with the struggle or else regaining strength before returning to the affray. The target vainly continues to flap its wings, ineffectively, seeking to make progress in any direction and I'm reminded somehow of the lumbering efforts on land of a penguin. It seeks, slowly, to raise itself to a height, to convince its attackers that it is not injured, that it is proud and able to defend itself, and capable of doing so.
It does not convince, or make progress. For whatever reason (an earlier assault, most likely), it cannot fly away. A second raven joins the fight – except that this already uneven contest is not a fair fight. The two are not evenly matched in a struggle for supremacy, with death the honourable outcome for the loser. If it's a murder of crows, then what is it of ravens, joining up in a tag team against something already weak and virtually defenceless?
The ravens do not compete. They work together. The second one also stabs away at the prey, infrequently and irregularly, surprised at having to make another attempt to subdue, until the first attacker rejoins it. They stand side-by-side, momentarily in converse about what to do next. It cannot get away. It will not. The second raven, too, flies away a short distance before the original bird resumes the attack. Steady, not frenzied. Determined and resolute, not panicky. Remorseless, and not giving up.
The prey continues to struggle, long wings flapping, lurching about, trying to martial something, anything, with which to respond to the onslaught it is under, the raven's beak continuing, repeatedly but oddly irregularly, its stabbing motions, interspersed with periods of rest, as a fighter in between rounds. Gulls circle overhead – but they do not join in. A flock of fifteen or so dunlin edge closer across the sand in wedge formation, interested onlookers to the scene before them but perhaps, mostly, glad it's not them. The prey is significantly larger than them and, as it moves, I see a longer bill and am reminded of a cormorant.
The bird spins, facing its attacker and, for a moment, I imagine that this is its best chance, to use its own bill in its own defence. Inwardly, I cheer it. Except that it has not spun round; it has been spun. And its beak is no match for that of a raven which, eventually, delivers some sort of coup de grace before, again, flying away some short distance to recuperate, to distance itself from the murder it has had to commit, to quieten its senses.
Called briefly away from the scene, I return some time later. The prey is now headless, its neck a bloody stump, its body slumped behind like the contents of a small sack. The ravens are long gone. With a white chest and black body, I think, after all, it was probably a guillemot. I'm reminded of how defenceless it appeared and cannot escape the thought that it was a chick. It would not be the first time this year that I have watched a predation, but this one has left me oddly and disturbingly moved. Most likely, the bird was already injured – in some way – and the ravens, opportunistic scavengers, have moved in to finish the job and, perhaps, have been surprised by how long it took them.
A surround of white feathers on the sand, lying so many and motionless in the lack of wind, bears testimony to its plucking and appear, in some way, in small tribute to its last stand. Not the white feathers of cowardice, these. Meanwhile, the gulls continue to fly overhead, not interested in the murder committed on the sands below them, or apparently in its product, before the rising tide eventually sweeps away the body, and the evidence, and the feathery tributes, out to sea and into the wider food chain, and all returns to peaceful normality.
By Calvinin Seasonal rhythms November 8, 2019 November 8, 2019 1,048 Words2 Comments
Cretan Hop
(No, not that one – Ed). A title I've had which has been in search of a post since, well, ages.
One of my blogs below referenced thinking about warmer climes – and we have just come back from two weeks in Crete with temperatures in the mid to high 20Cs (that's 70-80F if you like old money). Indeed, it was a bit of a chilly and cold-inducing shock coming back to a Scotland with clear skies (though with someone having stolen all our wind – for three days now!) and icing sugar snow dusting the mountain tops of most things north of Ben Lomond.
So, Crete: my second visit, but this time to the west near the historic city of Rethymno, having spent one week out to the east at Elounda in 2005. This time, e-bike cycling tours; walking; gorges; mountain villages; olive groves; more (rebuilt) monasteries and churches than you can shake a stick at; history (and yet more history); elliniki kafe sketo; learning a bit of Greek; history; 800 photographs (give or take); a beach or two; olive groves; ouzo and raki; lighting candles; the holy trinity of church, taverna and kafenion; mantinades (a form of Cretan rap music) and a bit of Cretan folkloric dancing; wonderful food; wars and liberations; and olive groves. Oh, and some history – wrapped not least around some more monasteries. Here's a side door to one of them – evidently still in use and looking out towards the monastery's inevitable olive groves.
Further photos may follow, once I've sorted them out a bit.
But for now, on the beer front, it was a little disappointing to see that the craft beer revolution largely continues to pass Greece by (this being my first visit to any of the Greek islands since 2008); Greek breweries – even local ones on Crete – continuing to churn out the sorts of lager which has the merit in a hot country of being cold and wet – though that's about the limits of it. There was rumours on some restaurant menus of a locally-brewed dark ('red') beer but no actual sign of it, at least not this late in the year. A few hops are always welcome and, on return to Glasgow, I enjoyed a taste of what a few hops can do for a lager with Drygate Breweries Bear Face, available on draught even at the airport.
It was also somewhat disappointing to discover that the Greek government apparently has financial schemes to assist with renovating village houses in the Venetian style [NB no actual links to anything have yet been found after my return for the purposes of this post] – a noticeable bit of revisionism which ignores both the centuries-longer Ottoman period as well as that the Venetians were also occupiers, albeit apparently somewhat more enlightened as well as less repressive. Of course, to take such a view clearly understates the sensitivities concerning the role played by the Ottomans in recent Cretan history and around the key events in its liberation struggle – and, as it seems, not only then. Back to the future, then ('twas ever thus). The key is no doubt the physical association of Crete with Europe and European values which, some 120 years after Crete gained its independence, and only after a bloody and lengthy struggle, is still regarded, taking the long-term view of history, as something which needs to be asserted.
There may also have been some dancing (happy 60th birthday, Seema!). After all, what's a holiday without a hop or two? I don't think there'll be photos of that, though.
By Calvinin Postcards October 31, 2019 October 31, 2019 600 WordsLeave a comment


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Q: Leaflet - what to do when your maptiles don't load? I'm using Leaflet, and using OSM's tile.openstreetmap.org tile server. However, sometimes my application does not load the maps tiles. It seems OSM's servers are having some problems sporadically, which is out of my scope of fixing. So, my question:
Is it possible to wait an X amount of time for the tile server to load the requested tiles, before trying to contact another URL for its tiles?

A: I don't think Leaflet supports this out of the box. However, I think you can implement such a behavior using events such as tileloadstart and tileload: http://leafletjs.com/reference.html#tilelayer-tileloadstart
For example, you could start counting time the first time a tileloadstart is fired using setTimeout, and cancel it (using clearTimeout) once a tileload is fired. If nobody cancels the setTimeout, swap the base OSM layer for another one.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Солсбъри ( []) е град в Англия, графство Уилтшър и е център на Дисктрикт Солсбъри с историческото име Сарум. Градът има население от 45 000 души (2006). Солсбъри е разположен на устието на реките Авон и Вилей.

История
Първите свидетелства на живот в околността на Солсбъри са от желязната епоха. Каменните кръгове от Стоунхендж и Ейвбъри свидетелстват за ранна мегалитна култура в околностите на Солсбъри. През 4 век пр. Хр. на върха на едно близко възвишение е създадено келтското селището "Сарум" наречено по-късно "Стар Сарум" (Old Sarum). Селището се е намирало в непосредствена близост до храмовете на друидите – двата каменните кръга на Стоунхендж и Ейвбъри.

По време на римляните Сарум е преименуван на Sorbiodunum. Градът е разполагал със значителни привилегии и със значителна военна част. През 552 г. кралят на Уесекс, Кинрик, превзема града. По време на англосаксоните градът се разраства и става един от центровете на англосаксонското кралство.

След нормандското нашествие през 11 век "Стар Сарум" е включен в графството на граф Солсбъри (Salisberie) откъдето идва и днешното му наименование. Граф Солсбъри построява и разширява на мястото на каменната, дървена крепост. Под норманско владичество градът става център на архиепископия. 1067 е започнат строежа на старата катедрала в "Стар Сарум" както и дворец за архиепоскопа. През 1092 е завършен строежът и на двете сгради, но 5 дни след осветяването на катедралата избухва пожар, който я унищожава. През 1100 за допълнителна защита на крепостта е изграден донжон. 1190 е завършен строежът на втората катедрала. За защитата на крепостта Стар Сарум са били изградени и 4 вала. Стар Сарум е разполагал и с постоянен гарнизон, които е трябвало да защитава града при нападение.

Стар Сарум се развивал, но природната му даденост – той се намирал на естествено защитен, но малък хълм, не му позволявало неговото разширение. За водата от кладенеца, който се намирал на хълма е трябвало да се плаща данък, което допълнително усложнявало положението на средновековните му жители. Архиепоскопията и управителите на крепостта често водели спорове, един от които довел 1219 до вземането на решение за преместването на катедралата.

През 1220 е започнат строежът на катедралата. Тя е преместена от върха на възвишението, където е разположена крепостта, в нейното подножие на брега на река Ейвън в Нов Сарум (New Sarum), където се намира и до днес. Жители на Стар Сарум го напускат масово заедно с архиепископа, като преместват своите постройки и къщи от Стар Сарум в Нов Сарум. Седем години по-късно, през 1227 Нов Сарум получава правото да бъде град и е преименуван на Солсбъри. Колкото повече се разраствал Солсбъри, толкова по-бързо западал Стар Сарум. Не след дълго "Стария Сарум" е изоставен напълно. 1258, след 38 години строеж е осветена новата катедрала.

През Средновековието Солсбъри е един от основните центрове на текстилната промишленост в Англия. По това време в Солсбъри е основан колеж, който не след дълго се превръща в един от водещите в цяла Европа. През 17 век, по време на Английската революция, градът и околността стават на няколко пъти център на бойни действия, от които търпят големи загуби. Това е и причината за упадъка на Солсбъри, а когато и индустриалната революция подминава града, той запада още повече и не успява да се съвземе. И до днес градът и регионът се характеризират със своето селско стопанство и не разполагат с голяма промишленост. През втората половина на 20 век туризъмът става основен поминък.

Забележителности

Основната забележителност на града е огромната готическа катедрала. Строежът на катедралата е започнал през 1220 година и е завършен през 1258 година. В катедралата се пази и един от четирите запазени ексземпляри на "Велика харта на свободите". Централната кула на катедралата е 123 метра висока, която я прави катедралата с най-висока кула в Англия. Кулата е пристоена през 1315 година към централния кораб на катедралата. По време на надстрояването на високата кула не са били взети предвид промяната на статиката на носещите греди поради тя което е заплашена от срутване. Носещите греди се укрепват допълнито през следващите векове, за последно през 2000 година.

Върху едно от възвишенията над града са разположени останките на норманската крепост "Стария Сарум" (Old Sarum). Близо до града са разположени каменните кръгове на Стоунхендж и Ейвбъри. Те са представители на т.нар. Мегалитна Култура на Британския остров.

Известни личности
 Родени в Солсбъри
 Робърт Сесил (1864 – 1958), политик

 Починали в Солсбъри
 Антъни Идън (1897 – 1997), политик
 Фил Лайнът (1949 – 1986), музикант
 Едуард Хийт (1916 – 2005), политик

Литература
 Edward Rutherfurd: Sarum, ISBN 3-426-03005-5
 Jean Plaidy: Passionate Enemies
 Old Sarum, English Heritage (guidebook) London (2003)

Източници

Външни препратки
 Официален уебсайт Солсбъри
 Катедралата в Солсбъри
 Сайт за туризъм

Градове в Англия
Уилтшър

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


None at this time check back soon!
Employment does not mean the immediate and permanent loss of benefits and assistance. To fully understand how employment will interact with SSI and SSDI benefits you will want to have a benefits analysis.
To begin to understand general information around work benefits and you, read over this friendly workbook. Print copies are also availible by request to your SSA.
Social Security's Ticket to Work Program is a free and voluntary program available to people ages 18 through 64 who are blind or have a disability and who receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. While participating in the Ticket to Work Program, beneficiaries can get the help they need to safely explore their work options without immediately losing their benefits and find the job that is right for them. You can read more about Ticket to Work at the Social Security website here.
This is a myth. First, as long as you keep receiving a benefit check of any amount, you will keep your health insurance. If you earn enouhh that your Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) checks stop, Medicare can continue for up to 93 months. If you currently receive Medicaid, you should be eligible to continue to receive Medicaid even after you stop receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits due to work. To be eligible you need to meet certain requirements, which include earnings below a threshold amount set by your state. Even if your earnings exceed the state threshold, you may still be eligible and should talk to your State Medicaid Office.
This is also a myth. If you use your Ticket to help you go to work, Social Security CANNOT perform what is know as a Continuing Disability Review (CDR) to see whether you still have a disability. Even if you would otherwise be scheduled to have a disability review, Social Security will postpone your review while your Ticket is in use and you are making progress toward your work goals.
3. If my checks stop because I go to work and then I have to stop working because of my disability, I will have to reapply for benefits all over again. It took me forever to be approved for benefits and I cannot afford to wait that long again. As a result, I should not try to work.
Again, it's a myth. You will not need to reapply if your benefits ended within the past five years due to your earnings and you meet a few other requirements, including that you still have the original medical condition or one related to it that prevents you from working. This is a work incentive called Expedited Reinstatement. You may even be able to receive up to six months of temporary cash benefits in addition to Medicare or Medicaid coverage while SSA conducts a medical review to determine if your benefits can be reinstated.
Social Security conducts national Work Incentive Seminar Events (WISE) Webinars online each month for beneficiaries with disabilities and their families to learn more about the Ticket to Work Program and available work incentives through accessible, informal, learning opportunities. The goals of a WISE are to encourage SSDI and SSI beneficiaries to explore their work options and join the workforce. Check out and register for the next monthly webinar here.
Medicaid Buy-In for Workers with Disabilities (MBIWD) allows individuals with disabilities to earn money from a job (income) and to keep their Medicaid health care coverage. Ohio Medicaid Buy-In for Workers with a Disability (OMIWD) is an Ohio Medicaid program that provides health care coverage to working Ohioans with disabilities. OMIWD was created to encourage Ohioans with disabilities to work and still keep their health care coverage.
Am I eligible for MDIWD?
Contact your local Job and Family Services office to ask for an application for Medicaid Buy-In for Workers with Disabilities OR click here and select form 7103. Fill it out and return it as requested on the form.
Erie County residents can also contact Disability Rights Ohio or call 614-466-7264 for more information about MBIWD.
Can MBIWD consumers receive long-term care and waiver services?
Yes. Consumers are permitted to receive long-term care and waiver services while enrolled in MBIWD.
Do MDIWD consumers have to pay a Spenddown?
What happens if an MDIWD consumer lose his/her job?
MBIWD consumers that lose their job will have up to six months of MBIWD coverage if they meet certain conditions.
The ABLE Act of 2014 allows people with disabilities (with an age of outset up to 26) and their families the chance to create tax-exempt savings accounts.


The letter, written by two school children from Robert Ferguson School, Carlisle, invites him to the Cumbria Youth Climate Change Summit 2019, which is taking place at the University of Cumbria on Thursday 18 April.
Around the world, young people are making their feelings known about climate change.
According to Graham Frost, Head Teacher at Robert Ferguson School, Cumbria's youth are increasingly speaking out in lessons and at school council meetings.
He arranged the summit as an opportunity for them to join together collectively to share their thoughts and concerns about a range of environmental issues, including: global warming; renewable energy; fossil fuels (including fracking); deforestation; loss of biodiversity and extinction; recycling; pollution and single use plastic.
More than 62 children from over 30 schools across Cumbria have signed up to attend. Two children per school will give a two minute presentation representing the collected views of their peers, outlining what they think businesses, local councils and the Government should be doing to combat climate change.
The event will be entirely student-led, although there will be opportunity for three adults to give a response to the views of the young people. Celia Tibble, Cumbria County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Hazel Graham, Chief Executive of Cumbria Action for Sustainability have confirmed their attendance. A further place is reserved for a Government representative.
Head teacher, Graham Frost, an MA alumnus of the university, agrees with the sentiment of the school strikes first popularised by Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, but he wanted to give the youth of Cumbria a supported means to communicate their concerns.
He said: "I hope that the event will result in immediate actions being taken locally and nationally in response to the young people's concerns and recommendations.
Awareness of the impacts of climate change appears to be building momentum of late. The news of this summit comes weeks after Carlisle City Council passed a motion to declare a climate emergency and shift to net-zero carbon for all its activities by 2030. It is only the second local council to do so this year, following South Lakeland District Council on 26 February.
Last week, MP for Workington, Sue Hayman, also declared an environment and climate change emergency in the House of Commons.
The event is being hosted by the Learning, Education and Development (LED) research centre at the University of Cumbria, which supports educational practitioners to develop research-informed practice and publish high quality research that impacts on policy and practice.
Pete Boyd, Professor and Director of the LED research centre was keen to lend his support to the event.
He said: "We are excited to provide a venue for this event that will provide a voice for young people across Cumbria.
As awareness of climate change builds with young people more events and activities are being planned across the county.
Hello Future, a university-led collaborative project intent upon encouraging young people into higher education, is hosting its own event to engage young climate activists in July.
Hello Future, recently nominated for an Educate North Award, are offering engaged year 12 pupils a free residential course at the Derwent Hill outdoor centre, Keswick, which includes onsite accommodation, food, equipment, travel and activities inclusively.
To request a place via the Hello Future Facebook page before 17 May 2019.
Any schools that wish to attend the Cumbria Youth Climate Change Summit 2019 can register through Eventbrite.


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7 December 2011updated 27 Sep 2015 5:37am
"My mommy doesn't need fixing", says 8-year-old to Michele Bachmann
"Shameless" maybe but this little boy shines light on Bachmann's strained relationship with the LGBT
By Mark Jenner
When it comes to Michele Bachmann and the LGBT community, it's fair to say that relations are fairly frosty. Look no further than the Minnesota Congresswoman's support for a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex civil unions. Then there was an exchange in town hall in Iowa where Bachmann explains to the leader of the Gay Straight Alliance at the local high school that's its fine for gay people to marry, erm, so long as it's not with a person of the same sex. And of course there is the clinic co-owned by Bachmann and her husband, much maligned over its pretentions to "pray-the-gay-away" as this undercover video from Associated Press highlights.
So when an eight-year-old boy named Elijah wandered up to Bachmann during a recent meet-and-greet event in South Carolina — where the congresswoman was promoting her new book Core of Conviction: My Story — she hardly expected him to be an undercover assailant acting as the vanguard of this ongoing battle with the LGBT community.
As the video shows Bachmann is first unable to hear little Elijah, and learns over the desk to get as close as possible to him. The whole thing was like asking someone to come closer and closer and then shouting "boo!" except this time it wasn't "boo" but something that was equally shocking: "My mommy, miss Bachmann, my mommy's gay but she doesn't need any fixing." It's worth watching this video just for the look of utter shock on Bachmann's face. The mother — apparently encouraging the boy's statement — is then shot a look which, "if looks could kill, would have left Elijah an orphan" (as LGBT website Dallas Voice memorably points out.)
Later Bachmann took to the airwaves with Glenn Beck to call this act "shameless", excoriating the mother for her eagerness to use her child as a political pawn. Critics on Twitter also vented anger at what looked like a child being forced to deliver a prepared line. Beck asked: "How do you navigate in that kind of world where you're being — I think — set up to look like a homophobe. Are you a homophobe?" Bachmann vehemently denied being so and stated that the "agenda-driven community wants to climb up on my platform and make their issue my issue and paint me as someone that I'm not."
But the (unidentified) woman who videotaped the confrontation, disagreed with the idea that the boy had been forced by his mother. She told Chicago Now that the boy was the one who wanted to approach Bachmann:
"His mom was going to say something to her, but she got nervous and told me she wanted to leave. We were about to step out of the line but Elijah cried out, "Nooo!" He grabbed onto her coat and pulled her back in the line, saying he wanted to talk to her….[W]hen we got up to Michele, he got a little stage fright. His mom just didn't want him to not say it because he was afraid, because she knew he would regret it if he didn't."
Whatever the motive the LGBT community can comfort themselves with the thought that Bachmann's chances of winning the Republican nomiations — barring a miracoulous turn-around in fortunes — seem pretty bleak. After all it's not Elijah's mum that needs fixing, it's Bachmann's views.
Mark Jenner
What would Beatrice Webb do? Essay winner announced
Is this a transgression too far for Herman Cain?
"My mommy doesn't need fixing", says 8-year-old to Michele Bachmann

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Q: How to get user name instead of SID during WMI logcollection I'm looking for a possible solution to convert a Windows user SID to a username.
I am running WQL queries against some local namespace and would like to know if there are any possibilities to get a username instead SID like an event viewer. I am using WBEMTest for testing.
Screenshot for reference.

A: SELECT * FROM Win32_AccountSID should get you a list you can match the SID to the name.


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ESL - Séjours linguistiques
1 Rue du Miroir, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Mon - Fri 9am - 12pm, 1pm - 6pm
Studying French in Strasbourg
Strasbourg is a picture perfect town in a region that borders Germany known as Alsace, and ever since the European Parliament has moved its headquarters there, it's become a bustling town that attracts thousands of tourists who come to get a glimpse of its magnificent gothic cathedral and immaculately maintained vieille ville, la Petite France.
I had the pleasure of attending a language school with people from all over the world, which made for a very festive atmosphere, and we were more interested in learning about each other than conjugation. Nevertheless, it was a great place to soak up the French language and culture.
http://0dysseusjournal.blogspot.com/2012/08/french-for-beginner.html
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AFROBEATS
Afrobeats: Taking The World By Storm
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Jibola
UK-Based Afrobeats Artist, Jibola Returns With 5 Track EP 'Vibe To Five'
Jibola, UK Based top Nigerian artist is back again with yet another dope audio and visual, after numerous hits and winning the best Artist in diaspora award 2015 and featuring top shots with likes of Jawon, Ruggedman, Reminisce and much more. Now he went on to another smash hit Now he went on to another […]
UK-Based Nigerian Singer/Songwriter, SHY Returns With 'Gbesunmobi'
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Skiibii
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Yemi Alade releases her anticipated single "Charliee"
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17 times celebrities were very outspoken about masturbation
"Know your body, know yourself, know what feels good"
By Ali Pantony and Sarah Ilston
Long gone are the days when masturbation was thought of as a men-only game; in fact, reports suggest that 89% of women admit to self-pleasuring (and over half of us own a sex toy because, well, they are pretty great).
Perhaps to you, masturbation is a very private topic that you don't usually casually slip into conversation with your best friends, but let's face it, the more we talk openly about it, the less of a taboo subject it becomes. Men talk about it all the live long day, and we all know that their sexual satisfaction has been a priority for decades previous. By normalising the conversation around female orgasms and female self-pleasure, we increase the chance of women exploring their own bodies and upping their own sexual satisfaction and curiosity.
That's why when we noticed these high-profile celebs talking about masturbation super openly, we were so here for it. After all, A-listers have the right to a damn good orgasm, just like the rest of us...
Presley AnnGetty Images
"A friend told me about this website called OMGYes, which is dedicated to female sexuality," Emma said while in conversation with Gloria Steinem. "I wish it had been around longer. Definitely check it out."
Queen of candid, Amy Schumer made a joke about 'alone time' during the MTV Movie Awards in 2015.
She said: "Magic Mike XXL. It like, really is magic. Anytime I watch those guys, at least two of my fingers disappear."
Todd Williamson
Speaking to Net-a-Porter, Shailene once said: "As a young woman you don't learn how to pleasure yourself, you don't learn what an orgasm should be, you don't learn that you should have feelings of satisfaction. I've always had a dream of making a book called 'There's No Right Way to Masturbate. If masturbation were taught in school, I wonder how [many] fewer people would get herpes aged 16, or pregnant at 14?"
We don't know about you, but we would buy that book right now.
Everyone's dream BFF Chrissy Teigen once tweeted: "what the fuck? who DOESN'T masturbate in a porn theater? are there any other options? no one is eating sour patch kids and dibs."
"[When I was five] I used to have an oversized stuffed animal that had like a potbelly, and I'd laid on it. And I was like, 'whoa, oh, oh, ignition, hello!' Yeah, I was like, 'This is awesome if I kinda hump this stuffed animal.' I just knew that it was amazing. What I was feeling was awesome and I just rolled with it — to this day… Self-love is the best love. [In my book, We're Going to Need More Wine] I also talk about thinking that because that's where I thought the fun was, I thought that my clitoris was my vagina. It just never occurred to me to do a deeper dive, because that was amazing. What else could there be?" She said on Sway's Universe
"I didn't begin enjoying sex until I started masturbating. Before that, I really wasn't sexual. I bought my first vibrator three years ago. It's a shame I didn't discover it sooner. Now I give Rabbit vibrators to all my girlfriends. They scream when they unwrap it. The best gift I can give them is an orgasm."
Kevork DjansezianGetty Images
"I was definitely raised with [purity culture]. In all honesty, I used to feel guilty for masturbating. Oh my God, this extreme guilt! And that lasted way too long. Or maybe I masturbated too much! It's okay to look back in retrospect and be like, it wasn't good that I felt bad about touching myself. And it isn't bad that I want to share my love with my boyfriend. I'm 32 years old, I'm an adult, I can do that!"
The actress told Bust.
Jada Pinkett-Smith
On Jada's Facebook Watch show, she said this about female pleasure:
"My grandmother taught me about self-pleasuring because she wanted me to know that that pleasure was from me. She didn't want me to fall into the hands of a man, and if he gave me pleasure, to think that that was him. And she taught me at 9!… I was really into it at one point. Just because I was in an exploration state and I was abstaining from men… I actually think I went through kind of an addiction, too, with it. And then one day, I was like, 'Enough. You're having five orgasms a day.'"
Anna Kendrick once tweeted: "Ugh - NEVER going to a Ryan Gosling movie in a theatre again. Apparently masturbating in the back row is still considered 'inappropriate'."
Bertrand Rindoff PetroffGetty Images
Turns out, when us normal folk were, umm, 'celebrating' National Masturbation Month in May 2012, we weren't the only ones.
Ri-Ri posted on Twitter: "'May is National Masturbation Month' more like 2012."
And we basically want to retweet it forevermore.
Miley Cyrus has never been one to shy away from saying exactly what she thinks, and the same goes for the topic of a good ol' menage à moi.
She once posted on Instagram a photo of a hand in her shorts with the caption: "A masturbate a day keeps the haters away."
According to Gurl, Aubrey was filming the scene in her movie The To-Do List where she's touching herself and ended up, well, really touching herself.
"And then I went and I touched myself," she said. "I asked the director what should I do and she said, 'masturbate, like it says in the script.'"
In her single 'Love Myself', Hailee sings: "Pictures in my mind on replay/I'm gonna touch the pain away." We don't think we're reading too much into it to say we know what she's talking about.
Mike MarslandGetty Images
Michaela once tweeted this (and we're still not over it):
"Guy: So...what do you do for fun?
Me: I really enjoy flirting all night then coming home alone, to my couch, where I masturbate in solitude, turned on by an alternate life in which I'm braver and more entitled to men's bodies. You? *Sips diet coke*
In 2011, Maggie starred in Hysteria, a movie about Mortimer Granville, who devised the first ever vibrator. Gyllenhaal apparently got sent so many sex toys after this, she had to start giving them away to her friends. And here she is, saying the word vibrator A LOT on day time TV.
Remember Britney's banger Touch of my Hand? And the lyrics that say: "Another day without a lover/The more I come to understand/The touch of my hand."
No prizes for guessing what she's talking about.
Singer, model and Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen once told the Guardian: "I'm a promoter of masturbation. Don't sleep around – learn yourself first! Guys do, but girls don't. And that's why girls have so many bad experiences. But you can know your body, know yourself, know what feels good. You don't have to give yourself away just to have sexual relevance. Because I don't think sex is something people should be afraid of. It's part of human nature, so I don't think it should be so shameful – particularly for girls and young girls."
24 ways to heat up your sex life
Ali Pantony Ali is a freelance journalist and author of Almost Adults, out in summer 2019.
Sarah Ilston Sarah is the Deputy Editor of Red Online, covering everything from beauty and fashion, to health, wellness, travel and the royals on a daily basis.
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Blanket Protects DEF from Freezing, Overheating
By Ed Wodalski
Wraparound diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) heaters from Powerblanket LLC offer temperature control for IBC (intermediate bulk container) totes, pumps and dispensing units. Utilizing radiant GreenHeat technology, the blanket enables equipment to be safely and consistently warmed without compromising the chemical integrity of the DEF, which begins to break down at approximately 30 degrees F and freezes when it drops below 12 degrees F.
GreenHeat technology distributes heat to the entire blanket surface, providing a uniform barrier that protects DEF from freezing or gelling, while maintaining maximum pumpability. The blanket also shields DEF from damaging UV rays, protecting the fluid even when cold weather is not a concern.
"With our technology there are no hot spots. When you're dealing with chemicals, it's important not to overheat them," says Brad Terry, Powerblanket LLC president and chief operating officer.
Terry says the idea for the Powerblanket came from DEF manufacturers, who sought a way to keep pumps, gaskets, handles and pumping systems at an optimal temperature for proper operation, as well as maintaining the temperature of the urea-based DEF without overheating it.
Producers tried submersible heaters, but found it resulted in localized boiling around the heating element, which ruined the DEF. By applying heat externally to a DEF container, Powerblanket eliminates the potential for contamination, localized boiling and purity failures.
Terry says the concept of GreenHeat technology originated with a concrete contractor who was looking for a way to work during the winter and an electrical engineer in Salt Lake City. Together they collaborated with the University of Utah on developing a heat-spreading system.
Weighing 100 pounds, the heating blanket can be installed or removed by one person in about 10 minutes. Standard blankets are rated to -10 degrees F, while Arctic versions are rated to -40 degrees F.
Certified to UL, CSA and ETL safety standards, the blankets are available for 275- and 330-gallon tote sizes. Custom sizes are available. The TH275D 275-gallon wrap measures 217 1/2 inches long and 49 1/4 inches tall, while the TH330D 330-gallon wrap measures 217 1/2 inches long and 55 3/4 inches tall. Both size wraps include 69 1/4-inch-long and 40 1/2-inch-wide tops, a universal HDPE pump housing, two extended pump rack brackets and a preset digital thermostat (120 VAC).
The company also offers DEF drum, bucket and pail heaters, as well as the Hot Box bulk storage enclosure. Engine and automotive warmers are available. 801/506-0198; www.powerblanket.com.
Blog: Gas & Oil Trade Show Showcases New Technologies for Oilfield Workers
TOTE Systems releases line of secondary double-wall bulk storage tanks