Our Liberal Democrat constitution is clear. Liberal Democrats exist “to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”.
On a hillside an hour or so outside of Donetsk, men equipped with stretchers, body bags and green rubber gloves were doing the best they could. The wreckage and debris from MH17 had scattered far and wide, and so had the remains of the 298 crew and passengers. Some of the bodies were intact; many were not.
Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s “Operation Decisive Storm” doesn’t look very decisive today. Three months after the Saudi defence minister unleashed his American-made bombers against Iran’s Shia friends in Yemen, the best his own allies in the country can do is tramp on to the apron of Aden’s wrecked airport and proclaim a little victory.
Sex is important to wellbeing, offering many benefits, both physically and mentally, to keep us happy, healthy and satisfied.
Female journalists reporting in hostile environments around the world see sexual assault as a major concern.
David Cameron’s new MPs, the ones who won him a majority, are in a chipper mood as they head off for their first holiday after being elected. Some of them are surprised even to have won their seats, others are excited they’re in a fully Tory government. “My constituents wanted me to take full-blooded Toryism with me to Westminster,” one remarked to me recently. “And I’m surprised to be able to go back to them this summer and say I’m actually doing that.”
The SNP has expressed negligible interest in animal rights until now, when it spotted an opportunity to pick a fight with the Westminster Government. Until recently, Nicola Sturgeon was adamant her party’s MPs wouldn’t even vote on this issue.
The late Robin Williams once described golf as “the only sport where white men can dress up like black pimps and get away with it”. Golf is indeed something of an esoteric pastime with a rather eccentric dress code, but for four days every year it occupies a more central role in the nation’s sporting calendar. The Open Championship, taking place at the sport’s ancestral home in St Andrews as I write, is a captivating, singular and colourful event – and not just for the diamond sweaters and checked trousers. Читать дальше...
On the day the government is due to deliver its green paper on the future, nobody can be in any serious doubt that the Corporation is under siege. It started the day after the election when the Daily Express headline made it clear that the BBC “must now pay the price for its blatant anti-Conservative bias”.
The minions are taking over. Advertisements for the upcoming film are plastered across the side of every bus in Manchester. Minion merchandise is rampant. There are minion makeup tutorials on YouTube. I was even in a tattoo parlor and a man came in to ask the artist working on me if he could have one of the diminutive yellow creatures inked on his wrist.
I must declare an interest – I am a lifelong pedestrian. But then again, so is every motorist once he/she emerges from the tin cocoon and becomes a butterfly.
Criticism towards the National Police Air Service London (NPAS) on Twitter usually seems to focus on the nocturnal flight activities which keep the residents of London awake. But this time they have come under fire for posting an image of a person (they hint at being a comedian). The Tweet by @NPASLondon brags: “Whilst on tasking in central London this morning we spotted a certain energetic funny man…Can you guess who?...”
Fight Club is to not only get a sequel in the form of a Fight Club 2 comic, but a musical/"rock opera" on Broadway.
This is vintage Alan Ayckbourn and forty years on reveals more of the depths hinted at when this wine was young. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Scarborough theatre in which his talent has been nurtured over four decades, Ayckbourn has, for the first time since 1974, directed a new production of this early play.
Three cheers for excellent ordinary architecture. Five of the six buildings shortlisted for British architecture's annual Oscar, the 2015 Riba Stirling Prize, haven't got a trace of designer bling about them. There is a faint odour of political correctness about the selected projects, but the key thing is that most of them serve ordinary people, and ordinary daily life.