Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Liberal England in 2014: Part 3

Read part 1 and part 2.

July

Suddenly I was an authority on New Zealand footpaths and John Buchan. What is more, I found a video of Cyril Smith and Geoffrey Dickens dancing to Bananarama.

By changing buses at East Midlands Airport I was able to visit St Mary and St Bardulph's at Breedon on the Hill.

Down in London, I interviewed Tim Farron and Ed Davey at the Social Liberal Forum conference.

I also looked at the scandal of Sir Peter Morrison,


August

I explored what will soon be the new campus of Northampton University but is currently a site of fascinating industrial dereliction.

The rapid degeneration of Lord Janner's health was noted, and I discussed the troubled image of the RSPCA among pet owners.

I wrote an article about Charles Masterman, one of my political heroes, for Liberator. Meanwhile Lord Bonkers introduced us to the inflatable Julian Huppert.

Homophobic monks were everywhere and I argued that the housing shortage was the fault of builders not councils.


September

My friend and Liberator colleague Simon Titley died.

I wrote about the remarkable ancestry of the Labour leader John Smith and recalled the dark side of Doctor Barnardo.

If I kept a writer's notebook I would have put this exchange in it. And I wrote about my forebear who defied Queen Victoria.

I found that I had performed on the same stage as Steve Winwood (about 18 months after he did).

Still in showbiz, I wrote about Brond - a long-forgotten Channel 4 series - and got a tweet from John Hannah.

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