Lansbury's Lido

I have been using GoodReads to catalogue all the books I own, have read or want to read. Found the link to it from Steve Hayes' blog . Seems a good thing to do, to be able to see what you've read and to be able to share reviews with friends and others on the site. However, logged in this morning to add a new book and all my books have disappeared! Nowhere to be found. Defunct. Empty. Had only managed to catalogue about 30 books so not a great loss but disappointing nonetheless. So have now decided to register at LibraryThing and start all over again! If anyone else is a member who visits here then feel free to add me as a friend. Seems they have a limit of 200 books before they ask for cash so we'll see how it goes. Can anyone recommend any other online book catalogue type sites? ** Update - GoodReads have now emailed me thanking me for setting up my new account, using my original username. Not sure what the hell's going on there but it seems that my account h...

Jim over at The Socialist Way has just started up a forum for discussion around socialist issues. As Jim puts it: So let me cut to the chase, I would like to start a new forum for socialist bloggers and individuals who are socialists or just interested in discussing any posts in more detail, or just sharing any ideas or information that would be of general interest. The proposed forum would be open to anyone interested in developing and sharing a better understanding of what socialism is or what socialism means to any individual from a personal perspective, it would not be affiliated or take any particular party line. My initial thoughts are that the forum would be small to start off with and likely would remain a manageable size that is comfortable for all concerned, and with as little labour as possible, but we would need a moderator; I am happy to fulfil this role and set-up the forum to start off with. This is just an idea that I've been thinking about for some time and I am...

So it now appears that Iran has been building a second nuclear enrichment plant which appears to have upset a broad range of countries. Those who have piped up with complaints include the UK, US, France, Israel. In fact our very own Miliband has not ruled out military action. That's very good of him. The UK may have the second furthest 'military reach' but we have neither the manpower nor the political will to do so. This whole issue of nuclear power and nuclear weapons seems to bring out the imperialist in the Western nations who themselves have both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. We seem, and I say 'we' as we are a democracy, we seem to consider ourselves to have some innate right to decide upon who else joins the cosy nuclear club and feel we have the right to interfere in other countries sovereign policies. We rant against the Iranians for their supposed secrecy yet across the UK and US territories I wouldn't be surprised it if there were 'secre...

Harpymarx has a good post knocking James Purnell's waffling about giving unelected representatives more power within government. Gets my goat it does. Anyways, a good excuse for playing Billy Bragg's No Power Without Accountability. And while we're at it here's the great Solomon Burke, None of Us are Free.

Almost finsihed reading "George Lansbury - At The Heart Of Old Labour" by John Shepherd so I'm now looking for some new train-time reading material. My requirements are that it can be read in both 15 minute sections and extended periods, covers something 'political', ideally pitches one man or woman against oppression with or without a happy ending, fiction or non-fiction, left of centre and can keep me awake. So far I've gathered the following as likely candidates: In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw Norfolk Red: The Life of Wilf Page, Countryside Communist by Mike Pentelow Freedom: Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Amnesty International The Devil and Mr Casement: A Crime Against Humanity by Jordan Goodman If anyone can suggest which of those make good reading then please let me know or if you have any other suggestions? Feel free to have a shufty at my recent reading list at Goodreads.com, link below. ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife I was all set for an early start to pay a visit to the city of Hull this Sunday. But administrative issues ( almighty cock-up ) have meant I can't go until Monday. I like Hull.