Liberal England

Being looked after by Mr Eugenides.

Labels: Britblog Roundup

One of the news stories of last week was the collapse of Harrow Council's attempt to prosecute a mother - Mrinal Patel - for fraud because she lied about her address in order to get her child a place at a particular secondary school.

Following that case, BBC News reported:

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has asked for a report on the problem of parents cheating to get school places.

England's Schools Adjudicator will look at the scale of the problem and whether there are enough powers to tackle cheats - and if they are being used.

This is tackling the symptom rather than the cause.

The reason that many parents cheat to get their children into a preferred school is that too many councils run schools to which no caring parent would want to send their children.

No, I don't have an easy solution. But the first step to tackling a problem is to admit that it exists.

Labels: Education

With The Duckworth Lewis Method being released tomorrow, it is time for this while it is still the best song about a spin bowler. (Thanks to Hywel, in a comment on that post, for the inspiration.) And here it is, live from Frome.

Half Man, Half Biscuit are a band from Birkenhead, known for their humorous lyrics (and humorous titles in particular) and concern with the minutiae of provincial life.

A 2001 Guardian article by Kevin Sampson gives a good portrait of the band, even if he does think that Fred Titmus is a "fiery Yorkshire pace legend".

As readers of this blog will know, Fred Titmus is a former Middlesex and England off spinner who was evacuated to Rutland as a child during World War II and the subject of a famous anecdote about amateurism and professionalism in cricket.

Lord Bonkers add: In fact, there have been many songs about spin bowlers:

• Single Bedi - Noosha Fox
• The Man with John Childs in his Eyes - Kate Bush
• Norwegian Underwood - The Beatles
• Take Me Home, Wilfred Rhodes - Olivia Newton John
• I'd Like to Teach the World to Singh - The New Seekers
• My Funny Valentine - Elvis Costello

Labels: Cricket, Fred Titmus, Lord Bonkers, Music

It's hard to warm to South African rugby, but you have to admire the names in this BBC live text report of today's third Lions test:

South Africa have replaced hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle with Bismarck du Plessis.

Labels: Awards, Rugby Union

The first editions of Nikolaus Pevsner's The Buildings of England were written after a flying visit to the county in question. So it is no surprise to come across a passage like this in the Leicestershire and Rutland volume:

Labels: Gladstone, Leicester

My latest quiz closes at 23:59 on Tuesday 7 July. To win a copy of "A Useful Fiction" by Patrick Hannan just e-mail me the answers to the five questions below:

Labels: A Useful Fiction quiz

My friend Herbert Eppel sends me this photograph of a fox drinking from the birdbath in his garden.

He also asks if I can mention the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Pro Wind Alliance.

Not sure about that, Herb.

Labels: Environment

My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.

Highway jinks

The malaise that grips this government has reached its bony fingers into every corner of Westminster life. Last Thursday’s transport questions provided a good example.

For a start it was Hamlet without the prince. Or, to be more accurate, the Greek myths without Adonis. The transport secretary is Lord Adonis and he cannot be questioned in the Commons, so MPs were forced to deal with his minions. Increasingly, the senior ministers in this government are unelected and – worse – are not accountable to anyone who has been elected either.

Then there was the content of the answers. There is a consensus between all parties about the threat of global warming. And more thoughtful critics recognise that the car has taken over our towns and cities, forcing everyone of the road and affecting our quality of life.

So you might expect the government to be giving spending on public transport priority over road building.

Not a bit of it.

There were two questions involving transport in the East Midlands. One was about the railway line from Leicester through Coalville and Ashby de la Zouch to Burton upon Trent. People have been talking about returning passenger services to it for more than 20 years. Would the minister discuss the scheme with the local MP?


No, said the minister – who, fittingly for someone called Chris Mole, has so far been entirely hidden from public notice. It is “it is primarily a scheme of regional significance” so any funding must come from the region – not that anyone elected that either.

It was a different matter when it came to widening the A14. “The Government are committed to the three-lane widening in order to deliver the improved traffic flows more quickly to the A14 around Kettering,” said the Mole. “The planned improvements are based on the needs of Kettering in terms of growth and development.”

Mr Toad would have approved.

Don’t, incidentally, expect any better from the Tories. Theresa Villiers, their shadow transport secretary, complained of the government: “In their entire term of office they have built less than 20 miles of new motorway.”

If David Cameron tries to hug a husky after that he deserves to get bitten.

Labels: House Points, Railways

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood have just finished a short US tour.

Jeff Gold went to the final concert, held at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, and has some superior videos on his blog.

Labels: Music, Steve Winwood

I think this is a welcome development. I am sure he made more sense than all those pop stars and comedians they insist on having.

More from BBC News.

Labels: Cats, Television

Jennie Rigg has the sneak preview of the July Wikio rankings for political blogs - and the Lib Dems are doing well.

Congratulations to Charlotte Gore and Mark Reckons, who have leapfrogged this blog and landed in the top 30.

Labels: Blogging, Liberal Democrats

How is Lembit's media career progressing? I hear you ask.

The Shropshire Star (as ever) has the answer:

The Montgomeryshire MP earned up to £30,000 from TV appearances, writing articles and advising the Caravan Club of Great Britain during the 2008/09 financial year. This is in addition to his annual salary of £64,766 as an MP.

Labels: Lembit Opik

Iain Dale has written the Commons Confidential column in this week's New Statesman. I don't know what the magazine's readers will make of his mundane Tory views, but after Kevin Maguire anyone would read like Proust.

There is one oddity. Iain positions himself as an arbiter of political morality - in Norwich North particularly:

I was up in my old stomping ground of Norwich at the weekend, sniffing the by-election air. The Lib Dems had achieved the remarkable feat on the same day of writing to the Tory candidate, Chloe Smith, saying they wanted a good clean campaign and, in the next breath, smearing the Green candidate, Rupert Read, as an “extremist”. How did they get a reputation as the nice guys of British politics?

This is the same Iain Dale who is still happily accusing the Lib Dem candidate, April Pond, of "whoring herself across Norfolk" on his blog.

Strange.

It is no great surprise to see National Express handing back the East Coast Main Line franchise.

British railway companies stopped making profits around 1914, yet they were supposed to raise enough from the line to satisfy their shareholders and pay £1.4bn to the government over the next seven-and-a-half years.

I doubt that National Express will be the last company to find there is no future in the privatised railway business.

It is not as if the private railway feels more free. Quite the reverse.

Ever since privatisation railway stations have been festooned with notices warning the companies' customers about their behaviour and threatening them with all sorts of penalties and reprisals if they think they can pay for the company's services on the train.

This is partly the result of giving a private company an effective monopoly and partly because those companies are desperate to raise money to pay the government and their shareholders.

Then this position is overlaid with New Labour's target culture. Never mind if you give your customers a good service, just make sure you meet the centrally decided target.

Which is why this evening it was announced at Leicester that the train I was waiting for would not call at Market Harborough, as advertised, but run not-stop to St Pancras instead. Sod the customers. Just make sure you meet the government target.

All of which explains why the privatised railway has taken far more public money than British Rail ever did, yet has in many ways less concern for its passengers than the nationalised railway did.

Labels: Railways

Mollie Sugden has died at the age of 86, says BBC News.

There is a good interview with her on Teltronic:

As most fans of the series will know, Mrs Slocombe was always deeply concerned for the welfare of her pussy. The writers got a lot of mileage out of this and it became something of a standing joke. In fact, there was even a book published a couple of years ago entitled Mrs Slocombe's Pussy.

One assumes that there was no Mr Slocombe to care for the feline. "Well it was certainly true that you never knew at one time what had happened to her husband. You always had the feeling he'd just gone off."

Labels: Comedy, Television

It just goes to show you can't be too careful.

In view of my posting about Wimbledon and swine flu last night and a comment left on it today, I had better pass on Mr Parrott's latest tweet:

Can you guys help me out and spread the word that I do not have swine flu, unlike what the Daily Mail claimed earlier. Thanks!

That'll teach me to believe the Daily Mail.

Incidentally, if you follow Travis Parrott on Twitter he will lead you to many top tennis tweeters.

Remember there is another Liberal England book quiz taking place.

Just e-mail me the answers to the five questions below and you could win one of the two copies that are up for prizes.

First, you may be interested in a review of the book just published on A Pint of Unionist Lite:

1. After whom is the Barnett formula named?


2. Who wrote: "We are bought and sold for English gold -/What a parcel of rogues in a nation"?


3. In which year did the people of North East England vote against the establishment of a regional assembly in a referendum?


4. Who said of Enoch Powell: "Poor Enoch! Driven mad by the remorselessness of his own logic."


5. Which MP is currently 326th in the line of succession to the British throne.

The quiz closes at 23:59 on Tuesday 7 July 2009.

Labels: A Useful Fiction quiz

The Daily Mail reports that three players at Wimbledon have gone down with swine flu:

The three, who are all believed to be getting better, are closely inter-connected. They are world number 29 doubles player Michal Mertinak, his fellow Slovakian, world number 22 Filip Polasek, and 25th-ranked American Travis Parrott.

Later. But see this correction.

Writing on Lib Dem Voice, Stephen Tall has noticed a point that I have made before. When Nick Clegg promises to scrap ID cuts he says that the money will be used to cut taxes. But when Chris Huhne promises to scrap ID cuts he says that the money will be used to put more bobbies on the beat.

I raised this point with Chris Huhne when I interviewed him earlier this year, saying it was hard to believe we are an underpoliced society when you are at Westminster. There every doorway seems to harbour two armed officers.

Chris's reply was that, if you make international comparisons, then Britain does have too few police. I was struck by his observation that when the police patrol in pairs they tend to talk to each other rather than to the public.

This need to change the culture of policing is at the heart of the case for having more police officers. Stephen assumes that anyone making this call must hold the view that more police employed will mean more criminals caught and punished. But those who disagree with his view need not be as simplistic as he assumes.

The culture of policing was in everyone's mind when I spoke to Chris. We met just after the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 demonstration.

As Chris said, there are concerns that the Met's Territorial Support Group has inherited some of the DNA of the old Special Patrol Group.

Labels: Chris Huhne, Identity cards, Nick Clegg

The Shropshire Star reported the other day that the Severn Valley Railway has introduced some regulations to cover its 1940s weekend because someone turned up in a previous year dressed as Adolf Hitler. The Severn Valley line runs from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth.

This reminded me of a Daily Telegraph report from 2005:

Labels: Shropshire

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is that it is up to the voters.

Just as the answer to the misuse of MPs' expenses it to require them to publish their claims, so the answer to concerns over their having jobs away from Westminster is to require them to declare these earnings and how much time they spend working for other employers.

I do have doubts over the traditional assumption that it is possible to do a good job as an MP while pursuing a career at the bar. Equally, I see no problem in John Hemming devoting four hours a month to the companies he founded before he was an MP.

But then I believe that there are too many lawyers in parliament and not enough businessmen.

Ultimately, though, it is up to the voters to decide. They may decide that it is better to have a good MP without outside interests than a mediocre one who is wholly dedicated to the task.

I am reminded of the Southampton fan who called a phone in at the time that Bruce Grobbelaar was on trial over match-fixing accusations.

He said: "I would rather have Grobbelaar trying to lose than Dave Beasant trying to win."

Labels: Expenses, Football, John Hemming

At the 2007 Lib Dem Conference I wrote a piece on the stalls for Comment is Free:

Labels: Lib Dem Conference 2007

A few years ago a friend gave me a copy of The Last Englishman - Byron Rogers' biography of J. L. Carr. A Yorkshireman, Carr was a primary school headmaster from Kettering who had great success late in his life as a novelist and publisher of eccentric small books.

One chapter of the biography deals with Carr's attempt to save the Medieval church of St Faith's at Newton - Newton in the Willows, if you prefer its more romantic name - near Geddington. When he discovered it in the 1960s it was in the process of being closed down by the diocese of Peterborough. The fittings were moved to other churches or stolen by intruders and the interior was further damaged by archaeological excavations.

Thanks to Carr's efforts the building was saved and is now a field centre, run by a charitable trust. I approached it across the fields from Geddington last Saturday and found everything padlocked when I arrived. Even when an operating church is locked you are allowed to sit in the porch to shelter - I have even been taken home and given a cup of tea by a woman doing the flowers.

Newton was also the site of a great house owned by the Treshams - whom we met recently at Rushton - but the only thing left from that estate is the 17th century dovecote near the church.



There is another, darker story from Newton in the Willows: the story of the Newton Rebels:

More from the BBC.

While I consider a posting on the parallels between Michael Jackson and Benjamin Britten, The Prague Post brings news that Alan Bennett has written a play on the relationship between Britten and the poet W. H. Auden.

Called "The Habit of Art", it will star Michael Gambon, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour and open at the National Theatre. It will also be broadcast to selected cinemas as part of the theatre's NT Live programme.

Concierge Desk explains a little more about the play:

The play tells the story of an imagined meeting as Auden and Britten meet in the 1960s towards the end of their lives. The two had worked together on the documentary ‘Night Mail’ and the operetta ‘Paul Bunyan’ but fell out with each other in the 1940s.

And Playbill will tell you more about NT live.

Labels: Benjamin Britten, W H Auden

Today's Leicester Mercury says:

Vineyard owners are keeping their fingers crossed for a bumper crop in the county this year following forecasts of a hot summer.

Wet summers in the past two years have seen some vineyards producing only a quarter of their best crop – or less.

Now, owners say the recent hot spells mixed with wet weather have produced excellent growing conditions.

It goes on to report:

David Bates, who has run Welland Valley Vineyard, at Marston Trussell, near Market Harborough, for 20 years, said: "The portents are there for a good crop, but you never count your chickens."

Welland Valley Vineyard has its own website, but I can't see where the chickens come into it.

Labels: Market Harborough

Another gem from the British Pathe website is this film of Stokesay Castle from 1936, complete with a commentary from Mr Cholmondeley-Warner.

Except that, apart from the tasteful conversion of part of the gatehouse to include a teashop, Stokesay looks exactly the same today as it did 60 years ago.

As the English Heritage page for Stokesay says:

Stokesay Castle is quite simply the finest and best preserved fortified medieval manor house in England. Set in peaceful countryside near the Welsh border, the castle, timber-framed gatehouse and parish church form an unforgettably picturesque group.

You can find Stokesay Castle on the A49 in Shropshire, just south of Craven Arms.

Labels: Shropshire

Some airhead on Radio 4's "Westminster Hour" has just told listeners that the Liberal Democrats "hold the balance of power" in Sheffield and Newcastle.

No we don't. We run both cities outright. And the Conservatives do not have a single councillor in either of them.

You would hope there would be someone on what is supposed to be a specialist political programme who would know this. Obviously not.

We asked the BBC for a comment, but they were all out buying flowers for Jonathan Ross.

Labels: Radio

This week's roundup comes from the Cafe des Tilleuls in Autun, Burgundy, and Philobiblon.

Labels: Britblog Roundup

From BBC News:

Britain's oldest Olympian Godfrey Rampling, who won medals at the 1932 and 1936 Games in Los Angeles and Berlin, has died at the age of 100.

Rampling was a member of the Great Britain 4x400m relay teams which won silver in 1932 and gold in 1936.

And, trivia fans will be pleased to learn, he was the father of the actress Charlotte Rampling.

Labels: Olympics, Trivia

Does Michael Jackson's music begin to justify the extraordinary degree of attention that has been paid to his death?

I think not.

He was clearly outstandingly talented as a boy, and next to the Osmonds the Jackson 5 sounded like the Amadeus Quartet. But they were pretty much in the Motown mainstream, and if you like late Motown then Stevie Wonder is greatly to be preferred.

I liked his Off the Wall album. It was at the time the best-selling album by a Black artist ever. And it showcased Michael Jackson as good-looking, stylish young Black man.

But after that something terrible happened to his music as well as to his face.

Thriller was simply not an album for grown ups. Aided by the rise of MTV and the pop video, Jackson's music was from then on aimed principally at children.

The former child star Mark Lester is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: "He always told me he wrote his songs for the age group of ten to 14."

It showed.

Certainly, it seems that those most affected by Michael Jackson's death are those who were children when Thriller came out.

Still, de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est, as they say on Radio 1.

Labels: Music

Yesterday I wrote that Geddington has the best surviving Eleanor cross.

A few months ago I bought a couple of DVDs at a record fair in Leicester. They contained performances by British bands from the 1960s German television show "Beat Beat Beat". And most of them have found their way on to Youtube if you look.

This is one of the best of those performances.

Creation were a highly regarded group of the period who never quite found the success they deserved.

And they were innovative too. Kenny Pickett, the singer here, would paint canvasses with aerosol paint during their stage show and then set fire to them. Eddie Phillips was using a violin bow on his guitar before Jimmy Page (or Nigel Tufnell).

Pickett did eventually achieve chart succes: he was the co-writer of Clive Dunn's no. 1 single "Grandad".

But I prefer this one.

Labels: Music, Television

Nich Starling, the Norfolk Blogger - indeed, the Norfolk Blogger - is concerned that:

a large number of doctors who want to be able to talk to patients about God and their faith ... are lobbying the GMC to allow them to do so.

He writes:

I put my faith in the doctor and years of medical training. What I don't want is a doctor giving me the impression that he or she really does not have the skills to deal with my problem and instead relies on "divine intervention".

And:

I hope the GMC will realise that a doctor espousing praying is akin to telling a patient to "keep your fingers crossed" and gives patients no confidence in the ability of the doctor.

I am not sure this latter point is true as a matter of fact: I would not be surprised to learn that many of the best doctors are practising Christians or follow some other faith.

But more importantly, I think Nich is ducking the central question here.

Offering to pray for someone can be kind, patronising, threatening, reassuring, presumptuous, thoughtful or silly, depending upon the situation and the two people involved.

The question is whether we think that a centrally determined and imposed code of conduct can account for all the subtleties here or whether we are happy to trust the judgement of the people involved.

Because we are Liberals we prefer the latter course of action, don't we?

Labels: Health

In the mid 19th Century The Vicarage was extended to become a boarding school and boasts among its pupils William Gladstone who later became the Liberal Prime Minister.

The school undoubtedly stood high in popular favour; it was always full and there was a strong flavour of aristocracy about it ... Nearly all the boys went to Eton ... Among the pupils were one cabinet minister, Lord Gladstone (son of the Mr Gladstone); two bishops, Augustus Legge of Lichfield and Edward Talbot of Winchester; three admirals, Charles Scott, Walter Kerr and Arthur Moore; and two generals, Ralph Kerr and Neville Lyttleton.

There were only twenty pupils, so that personal supervision was easy enough; we were well fed, lodged and looked after - I believe that in the twenty years or so of the school's existence no inmate of it died.

Perhaps the reason why the school kept by the Rev. William Montagu Church at Geddington, near Kettering in Northamptonshire, was shortlived was that he was unable to control his temper, despite the school's being patronized by the sons of nobility.

Labels: Charles Masterman, Gladstone

Labels: Cricket, Music