Chris Stanbra

Over the hill Essex boy. Not as overweight as I was. Lib Dem activist. Corby Town councillor for Oakley Ward.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Finally, Ed Davey calls for the UK to join the European Union's Single Market,

"A new growth and defence partnership with the European Union. A bold new deal that will make Britain richer, safer and stronger, including a customs union, but also crucially taking Britain back into the single market."

"Tearing down the barriers to trade. Ending the mountains of paperwork, the cost, the delays, the queues. Giving our young people the chance to study and work, live and love anywhere in the EU. Undoing the damage of the Johnson Farage Brexit deal that has held our economy back for so long."

"Giving British businesses the certainty they need to invest, to hire and to grow. Giving Britain's economy the boost it needs after years of stagnation. Crucially, giving Britain's public finances a growth dividend. Tens of billions of pounds that we would use to cut the cost of living, to fix the NHS and to strengthen our armed forces."

"And this new partnership must go beyond trade and growth. In the age of Putin, Xi and Trump, this must be about defence and security too. No country can be prosperous and free if it is not safe."

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

LibDems: Fix The Brexit Chaos

Calling for the UK to rejoin the EU Single Market

This is the cheering outside the event

[0007meYES 🐶 @ITSONLYME7000]

When the Former PRIME MINISTER Gordon brown is also in the queue as well hahaha #FIFAWorldCup #HAITI #ScotlandWin #FIFAWorldCup2016

[Jill Webb Kindred Spirit Fanzine @jillwebb2005]

Hooray! 🙌 I’ve finished going through all the song suggestions for the #1983singlespoll

A grand total of 246 tracks will be battling it out - and there are some crackers in there!

Thank you to everyone who responded.

The poll will start on Thursday night.

See you then!

[Chris Stanbra @Corbychris]

@jillwebb2005 Thanks! Looking forward to the polls.

[Election Maps UK @ElectionMapsUK]

There are 60 Council By-Elections and 6 Countermanded Elections taking place over the next 4 weeks...

[Andrew Radd @oldmanradd]

The continuity of county cricket summed up at Wantage Rd today. @zaib_05 and Nathan McSweeney shared a 261-run stand for @NorthantsCCC, breaking a record set 60 years earlier by David Steele and Mushtaq Mohammad who were watching from the balcony. Franchises don't give you that.

[Chris Stanbra @Corbychris]

@annmarielawson1 My grandson was doing the same only yesterday

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

Everyone knows Dunkirk. 338,000 men rescued from the beaches, the "miracle" that saved Britain.

Almost nobody knows what happened 8 days later, 100 miles down the coast. This story was buried for years, and once you hear it you will understand why.

While Dunkirk was being evacuated, the 51st Highland Division was deliberately kept in France. Churchill wanted to prove to the French that Britain would not abandon them. So 10,000 Scotsmen kept fighting along the Somme while everyone else went home.

They fought well. Too well to retreat in time.

By June 10, Rommel's 7th Panzer Division, moving so fast the Germans called it the Ghost Division, had cut them off from every port. The Highlanders fell back to a tiny fishing town called Saint-Valery-en-Caux, with cliffs at their backs and the Royal Navy on the way.

A second Dunkirk. That was the plan. Operation Cycle, ships waiting offshore.

Then the fog rolled in.

The ships could not reach the beaches in the dark and mist. And by morning, Rommel had artillery on the cliffs above the town, firing down on anything that floated. Men climbed down cliff faces on ropes made of rifle slings trying to reach boats. Some fell. The rescue never came.

On June 12, 1940, Major General Victor Fortune surrendered the 51st Highland Division to Rommel. There is a famous photo of the two men standing together, Rommel grinning, Fortune staring into the distance like he is somewhere else.

10,000 men marched east into 5 years of captivity. In parts of the Highlands, nearly every family knew someone in the bag. They called it the lost division, and for decades many Scots quietly believed they had been sacrificed.

Two details worth knowing.

Fortune was offered better treatment as a general. He refused privileges and stayed with his men for the entire war, organizing care for the sick and keeping discipline in the camps. He was knighted from a hospital bed after liberation.

And in September 1944, the rebuilt 51st Highland Division was given one specific assignment, at the request of its commander. They liberated Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The pipers played in the same square where their brothers had surrendered four years earlier.

Dunkirk got the movie. These men got the long war.

Worth remembering them today.

[Robert Peston @Peston]

Nigel Farage has told Nick Ferrari that Supertramp’s “Logical Song” is one of the half dozen songs that have defined his life. But he thinks the band were American - which would be true if Portsmouth and Swindon are in the US!!! “I just like Supertramp and I think a lot of the music we had in the 70s was pretty trashy frankly, and here were these young Americans who were actually musicians.”

[Nick Lowles @lowles_nick]

An Imam’s home was firebombed in Bolton. Fortunately he and his family are safe….

…but where is the media and political outrage? Where are the angry social media influencers?

Britain is heading in a very dangerous direction if we don’t stand against ALL racism and hatred

[Jill Webb Kindred Spirit Fanzine @jillwebb2005]

Watch this space folks!

[Ed Davey @EdwardJDavey]

There it is. Vote Tory get Farage. Vote Lib Dem to stop them both.

[Footy Scran @FootyScran]

🏆 Footy Scran World Cup! 🏆

Starting this week, who’s going to win?

Mexico for us! 👀 🇲🇽

[Chris Stanbra @Corbychris]

This.

[Sorcha Eastwood MP @SorchaEastwood]

Words matter and words are important. Especially when they come from elected reps. At times of tension you can choose to lead or you can choose to follow. You can choose to calm or you can use to fan the flames. What happened in Belfast last night was beyond evil. However the terrifying violence being inflicted on people and property tonight is sickening and honours no one. It is absolutely disgusting. It is scary and it is not who we are. People are being manipulated and used for clout whilst communities are trashed. They will walk away from the aftermath of violence and pain. Sinister forces are at work and we must call this out. All of us. No ifs no buts.

[Corby Town Council @Corby__TC]

Corby Pride: Parade Route Advisory

https://t.co/QN6F0xFbSY

[GB News @GBNEWS]

‘Dog-whistle stuff that is pretty desperate from a really sad Conservative Party.’

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper, criticises Kemi Badenoch for wanting to scrap the legal equality duty for public services.

📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604

[Chris Stanbra @Corbychris]

@Alishacmlewis Ken Clarke?

[Historic Cricket Pictures @PictureSporting]

Greg Chappell batting in torrential rain, Prudential Cup, The Oval, June 6th 1977. Patrick Eagar's picture captures the absurdity of the finish of the ODI in low, evening sunshine and driving rain. Water was dripping off the caps of the fielders and batsmen and drying the ball was pointless. Both sides agreed to play to the end as they did not want to come back the next day to finish the game, as was usual back then, as it was the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in London