Les Fleurs De Lys: Circles

This great 1966 single is a Pete Townsend song, originally recorded by The Who and to be found on the B-side of Substitute. And it's produced by Jimmy Page.

Les Fleurs De Lys originated in Southampton, issued several singles but never recorded an album. They had an ever-shifting membership, which an article on Add Some Music to Your Day does its best to catalogue.

Two people playing on Circles are of particular interest. The guitarist Phil Sawyer joined the Spencer Davis Group after the Winwood brothers left, though he didn't stay with them long. And Pete Sears, who played both bass and keyboards, backed Rod Stewart during his best years (the early Seventies) and then joined Jefferson Starship.

King Charles III once appeared in a Joe Orton play

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I knew that Prince Charles, as he then was, acted in revues when he was a student at Cambridge, but I discovered only recently he also appeared in a Joe Orton play.

Over to the Trinity College website and a page about his acting career there:

Dr Parry also cast the Prince as the padre in Joe Orton’s play [The] Erpingham Camp, originally written for television in 1966 and set in a holiday camp where the campers rebel over the strictures of the manager.

The performance was well reviewed. Student-turned theatre critic Valerie Grosvenor Myer wrote of a "pleasantly poised portrayal" by the Prince in The Guardian:

"His voice is not strong, but it is very clear, and is face is mobile: his look of shrinking pain when one of the characters used a four-letter word was extremely funny. 

"And there was a certain piquancy in the future supreme head of the Church of England taking part in a ritual where this institution is shown as pretty effete … it’s not every festival which offers the spectacle of the heir to the throne getting a custard pie full in his face."

There's a Wikipedia page on The Erpingham Camp, which was broadcast on ITV in June 1966.

The Joy of Six 1402

"Almost all workers (98 per cent) at SOSE [South of Scotland Enterprise] believed the four-day week trial improved motivation and morale, while there was a decrease in workers taking time off sick and a 25 per cent fall in those taking sick days for psychological reasons." A Scottish government trial of a four-day working week finds that it improves productivity and staff wellbeing, reports Joanna Partridge.

Sam Whewall, Avril Keating and Emily Clark say young people in seaside towns are being left behind and set out what could be done to help them: "Our professionals made two key suggestions for improving the lives of the young people they work with. The first is to invest in safe spaces and leisure activities that are available outside of the short summer season. ... The second suggestion is to invest in and rebuild youth services."

Jonquilyn Hill on the rise of the wellness industry: "Nowadays, in many parts of North America, wellness is everywhere and anywhere, and the definition has really ballooned to include anything and everything. If we ask one wellness guru to define wellness, we’ll hear a different answer from another one."

"There has been a rise in privately operated tournaments set up as little more than vehicles for illegal betting. Organisers are theoretically expected to monitor betting markets for signs of suspicious movements, but problems with manipulation have been manifest." Steve Menary reveals that cricket has been flooded with betting sponsorship since the Covid pandemic.

Adrian Teal examines the eccentricities of the great portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough.

"'The Wolves are running…' is the mysterious message the boy Kay Harker is given by the old Punch and Judy man in Masefield’s The Box of Delights; it was a potent image from Joan Aiken’s childhood reading, complete with snow… and re-reading the book became one of the Christmas traditions that remained with her until she was able 'to write the wolves out of her  subconscious' and into her own story many years later." Lizza Aiken traces the links between The Box of Delights and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Did Victoria and John Brown have a child and did my family know?

Regular readers will know that my great great grandmother's siblings Sandy Campbell and Johanna Campbell were both trusted servants to Queen Victoria at Balmoral. So I take a particular interest in the subject of this podcast.

I remember reading a paper that pointed out that Conservative historians hotly denied that Victoria and John Brown were lovers, while left-wing historians sniggered at the idea. The author hoped they were lovers and it made Victoria happy.

In this podcast Fern Riddell describes her researches and discoveries, which make you think that - maybe, just maybe - there was such a child.

And if Victoria and John Brown did have a child, it's not ridiculous to think that Sandy, a friend of Brown from their boyhoods, and Johanna, the housekeeper at Victoria's retreat even from Balmoral, must have known.

Leicestershire Reform's cabinet member for children and families is a full-time student

Photo by Grant Davies on Unsplash

Leicestershire. Northamptonshire. Nottinghamshire.

The carousel of stories about East Midland Reform-run councils goes round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down.

So it's back to Leicestershire and a reminder from the Leicester Mercury that Reform UK's cabinet member for children's and families' services, Charles Pugsley, is about to start the second year of a computer science degree at the University of Nottingham.

Does Pugsley, who was 19 when he was appointed in May, have the time for both these roles? His Conservative predecessor in his cabinet position, Deborah Taylor, has her doubts:

"I know how demanding being lead member for Children Services is. I did the role for five years.

"It was full-time and more, and you need to show up for our children and be there. It is not a role you can do at arms length. You either fully commit or you don't do the role.

"There is nothing worse than not showing up and not caring for our vulnerable children. They need stability, a familiar face, and be their trusted adult for them to turn to whenever you are needed."

Pugsley's reply, quoted by the Mercury: is:

"I am fully committed to children’s services and will continue to undertake this role and give it the attention and time it requires alongside continuing into the second year of my degree."

The second year of a degree course tends to have fewer exam pressures than the first of third, but we shall see if this proves possible.

Labour is carrying out a massive local government reorganisation without any evidence it will work

 Angela Rayner told the Commons in June that: 

"Local government reorganisation will lead to better outcomes for residents and save a significant amount of money that can be reinvested in public services and improve accountability."

But a story on BBC News reveals that the government has undertaken no analysis to back up these claims.

Instead, it has relied upon a 2020 report commissioned by the County Council Network (CCN) that claimed £2.9bn could be saved over five years.

But then the CCN was never going to come out in favour of smaller councils. And this BBC story seems to be occasioned by that organisation's fear that county councils could be replaced by smaller unitary authorities.

I like district councils, and my five-year spell as a district councillor is one of the things I am most proud of. So I prefer the take of the chair of the District Councils' Network, Sam Chapman-Allen:

"It's astonishing that the government has undertaken no independent analysis before embarking on the biggest reorganisation of councils for 50 years.

"Mega councils, with populations of half a million people or more, could be imposed on areas when there's no independent, up-to-date evidence to justify councils of this size, and many large councils created previously are struggling financially."

If this reorganisation does result in such mega councils, it will weaken the link between councillors and voters. And which party will benefit from that? Reform UK.

But then if you want to forecast what this government is going to do next, a good trick is to assume that it is actively trying to maximise Reform's chance of winning the next general election.

Labour at the moment puts me in mind of Robert Conquest's Third Law of Politics:

The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

Passenger fined nearly £100 after cat ‘miaows too loudly’ on train

The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award for this story from France.

Reform UK chose woman from Yorkshire who had been dead for six months as their Croydon mayoral candidate

This just in from Inside Croydon:

Following the General Election, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s then party chairman (until he had a falling out with Farage; there may be a pattern here), sent an auditor into the branch, making serious recommendations over financial records, the holding of branch meetings and the staging of campaign events.

Versions vary, but it appears that at the start of 2025, Reform UK’s HQ imposed on its Croydon branch an "approved" candidate to challenge Tory Jason Perry to become the borough’s next Mayor.

Her name was Sharon Carby, 70, from Bradford.

Carby had died in July 2024.

Fewer than 10 Reform members were present at this selection meeting.

One said of Carby, "I haven’t met her but I’ve been told she’s absolutely brilliant!"

Ike and Tina Turner: Nutbush City Limits

This was a Radio Luxemburg, under-the-bedclothes record for me in 1973. At first I wasn't sure I liked it: then I was knew that I did.

Liberal Democrats call on Nigel Farage to sort our Nottinghamshire's Reform UK council

NEW: 'No idea, genuinely': Watch as Reform economic chief gets confused over existing relationships between Notts County Council and regional leaders.

Cllr James Walker-Gurley, a new Reform cabinet member in Notts, sat down with us last week. It didn't go well.@laurenamonaghan pic.twitter.com/6SjvTFtejL

— Andrew Topping (@AToppingJourno) June 23, 2025

Today's Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats have written to Nigel Farage to demand that he steps in to reverse the "dangerous and chilling" decision by Nottinghamshire's ruling Reform UK group to stop talking to local newspapers and the BBC.

The Lib Dems, says, the paper, have suggested that the move may breach local government’s code of conduct, which calls on elected officials to "submit themselves to the scrutiny".

But why has the Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council ordered his councillors not to talk to journalists?

The Guardian suggests there are two reasons. The first is an interview the new Reform cabinet member Cllr James Walker-Gurley, a new Reform cabinet member, gave to Notts TV in June. You can see it above.

The second reason is a story in the Nottingham Post about disagreements between Reform councillors on the reorganisation of local government within the county.

Well, it's not the media's fault if a cabinet member appears not to be on top of his brief, and the Nottingham Post story was a perfectly reasonable one for a local newspaper to run.

Incidentally, Notts TV, a local television station, is closing down tomorrow, but that's not Reform's doing.

The Grantham Canal from West Bridgford to Cotgrave

A walk with Towpath Treks along the western half of the Grantham Canal. We see where the canal joins the Trent at West Bridgford and then follow it as far as the former mining town of Cotgrave.

Although it has been closed for the best part of a century, the canal looks eminently restorable. The major obstacle will be that the route near West Bridgford has been lost to a road scheme, so a new way of reaching the Trent will have to be found.

And then there are the bridges. In the 1950s, 46 of the 69 that cross the canal were lowered as part of road improvement schemes.

So though it looks possible, restoration will be expensive. See The Grantham Canal Society site for the latest news.

Man who put Welsh town on map with Man v Horse and bog snorkelling dies aged 90

In a return to form, the Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The judges' thoughts are with the people of Llanwrtyd Wells at this difficult time.

Nottinghamshire's ruling Reform UK group is refusing to talk to the local media

Nottinghamshire County Council's ruling Reform UK group has cut off all contact with the Nottingham Post and the related Nottinghamshire Live website. Because this policy includes Local Democracy Reporting Service reporters, the BBC and other local newspapers are also affected by it.

Oliver Pridmore writes on the Nottingham Post site:

What has prompted this unprecedented turn of events? It was my recent article on the ongoing discussions about local government reorganisation (LGR).

The article included a claim that two Reform UK councillors said at a public surgery that they could be suspended from their county council group if they did not vote for Councillor [Mick] Barton's preference of a bigger Nottingham council covering Broxtowe and Gedling.

The article repeatedly referred to the fact that this was merely a claim and noted who that claim had come from. We also went to both Councillor Barton and the two Reform UK councillors concerned ahead of publication and explicitly told them about the claim.

Councillor Barton did not wish to comment on the claim directly, whilst the two Reform councillors who allegedly made it both sent identical messages which did not explicitly deny the claim. The article was published on Thursday (August 21) and news on how Reform have decided to react was confirmed on Tuesday (August 26).

The news comes just a couple of months after Reform's Ashfield MP Lee Anderson launched a dangerous attack on Nottinghamshire Live for running too many "negative" stories about his party. A piece on the cost of a by-election caused by a Reform councillor resigning days into office prompted Mr Anderson to describe some forms of public scrutiny as "pointless" and to disparage local journalism as not being a "proper job".

These bullying tactics are a reminder of how much Reform politicians admire Donald Trump. Yet we saw only yesterday the important role the local media can play in exposing wrongdoing by local councillors - in the case it happens that it was a Reform councillor involved.

The Joy of Six 1401

Natasha Lindstaedt on the new 'iron curtain' being built across Europe: "Every European nation bordering Russia and its ally Belarus is accelerating plans to construct hundreds of miles of fortified border to defend against possible Russian aggression. The reasons are clear. The post-cold war European security framework – which relied on strengthening international institutions and trade, Nato expansion and US military guarantees – is being eroded."

American liberals should speak out John Bolton's behalf, argues Noah Berlatsky.

"Much of what’s known as 'AI' has nothing to do with progress – it’s about lobbyists pushing shoddy digital replacements for human labour that increase billionaire's profits and make workers' lives worse." John Chadfield says AI is a total grift.

Polly Atkin considers The Salt Path and the dangers of publishers endorsing quackery: "Publishing is so attached to the idea of a narrative arc that peaks with healing that it simply cannot encompass the truth: if it were that simple, no one would be ill. If we could all walk or swim or wild ourselves better, one in five of us would not be disabled. After all, Thoreau, the godfather of walking literature in the US, still died of TB."

Annie Whitehead has been watching King & Conqueror: "Does it matter that they got the history so wrong? In this case, I think it does, because so much is wrong, and especially as it shows the women in such bad light (Emma irredeemably evil, Matilda a torturer). There were powerful women at the heart of this story and they’ve been done a disservice."

"In February 1748, customs officer William Galley and Daniel Chater, a witness travelling to Chichester to give evidence against the gang disappeared.  Due to the fear of reprisals, few people spoke out against the smugglers." Jenny Bettger uncovers the dark history of the Hawkhurst Gang in West Sussex.

Reform Corby councillor resigns after alleged racist tirade

Robert Bloom, a Reform UK member of North Northamptonshire Council, has resigned his seat after allegations of a racist tirade against a neighbour.

The Northamptonshire Telegraph says of Bloom, who was elected for the Lloyds and Corby Old Village ward in May: 

A neighbour told this newspaper that he shouted the word 'n*****' at her repeatedly, said he would set the far-right English Defence League on her and told her there'd be 'black body bags'.

The Telegraph goes on to report:

The detailed allegations have been put to Cllr Bloom’s representative who said he did not deny any of them. He said: "He is standing down as a councillor. It has obviously all got a bit too much for him."

A Reform insider told this newspaper that the public should be reassured that Cllr Bloom had no links with the EDL, a defunct far-right Islamophobic group led by Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

It was a tall order to be more obnoxious that Northamptonshire Conservatives, but Reform looks as though it's up to the task.

Good news for media-savvy dormice in Shropshire's Hope Valley

The new Stiperstones Landscape National Nature Reserve is good news for dormice that live in the woods of Shropshire's Hope Valley.

BBC News quotes Tom Freeland, English Nature's head of nature reserves, as saying that the cooperation between organisations that the new reserve encourages will make it easier to provide more suitable habitat for the creatures.

He says:

"Now listed as vulnerable, the loss of hedgerows and changing woodland management practices has seen hazel dormouse numbers plummet in the last two decades.

"We're carefully managing the woodland at Hope Valley to create and maintain more favourable habitat for dormice.

"By working with our partners we can turn small islands of wildlife-friendly habitat into one unified sanctuary for nature that reaches across the Stiperstones landscape for the benefit of vulnerable species like the hazel dormouse and many more."

The hazel dormouse is a fancy name for what was formerly called the common dormouse. Perhaps the mice have got together and decided on a relaunch?

It's certainly better branding than the name chosen by another kind of dormouse that was introduced to Britain in 1902 and can now be found in and around the Chilterns. That's the edible dormouse.

A photograph of Norman Bowler in his Soho years

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Norman Bowler played an early television hero of mine, the detective Harry Hawkins in Softly Softly: Taskforce. He later surprised me by turning up as Frank Tate, the star of the relaunched ITV soap Emmerdale.

But back in the Fifties he was a member of the hard-drinking Soho set - you can see him remembering those years in an interview clip about the painter John Minton.

This photograph shows her with his first wife Henrietta Moraes. They are standing in front of a painting of Bowler by Minton.

Henrietta was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 Great Lives programme with Maggi Hambling, and you can read her Independent obituary from 1999. 

It all makes the Soho of those days sound a thoroughly miserable place.

Forever Green: Gentle environmental drama from 1989

I remember Forever Green as gentle Sunday evening viewing. It starred the popular John Alderton and Pauline Collins, first seen in Upstairs Downstairs, as a couple who move to the country and come across all sorts of matters of environmental concern.

The first series dates from 1989, which was a year of advance for Green politics in Britain. In the European Parliament elections, the Greens finished third, polling more than double the vote achieved by the Social & Liberal Democrats, as we then were. Maybe there was something in the air that year.

I've watched only a couple of episodes - this is number 6 from series 1, so I didn't get this far - but one thing that has surprised me slightly is the show's sympathy for alternative medicine. Imagine what the quote-tweet guys would do with that on Bluesky.

The year 1989 wasn't the start of green politics in Britain: I would date that to 1971 and the founding of Friends of the Earth, which had a talent of media-friendly stunts in its early days.

The Joy of Six 1400

"Most of the older children have been sent to so-called re-education camps scattered throughout Russia, where they are subjected to relentless propaganda aimed at erasing their Ukrainian identity. Younger children have been placed with Russian families, renamed, stripped of their language, and put on a path toward permanent adoption. These acts are not only morally reprehensible but also flagrant violations of international law." Irwin Redlener says Russia must return the children it has abducted from Ukraine.

Peter Sagar reports that universities in the North of England are missing out on government funding to designed to help attract leading researchers to the UK.

Michael Vazquez and Michael Prinzing on their research, which shows that philosophy graduates rank higher than those who studied any other subject on verbal and logical reasoning. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues, such as curiosity and open-mindedness. (At this point I shall look modest and say nothing.)

"There’s an expectation that if you’ve done well, in entertainment particularly, you know… 'which college did you go to?' – meaning which college in Oxford. I've had that a few times. I enjoy saying ;Woodham Comprehensive School'." Mark Gatiss talks to The Bee about his childhood, family and work, his advice for writers, Bookish – and the life-changing phenomenon that was Terrance Dicks; Doctor Who novels.

Rhakotis Magazine reviews the reopened Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester: "The architectural refurb has sensitively brought the 70s stylings back to life, adding much needed light and improving access. ... Although [it is] on a much smaller scale, I would place it in the same rank as London’s Southbank Centre or Barbican."

"So why am I worried about her? Because for reasons I cannot fathom, her literary reputation seems to be lagging behind those of her English contemporaries, namely Muriel Spark and Anita Brookner." Jessica Francis Kane champions the work of Penelope Fitzgerald.

Trains replace rail replacement buses in bank holiday weekend first from Birmingham New Street to International

The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award, so we're celebrating the bank holiday with this cheerful shot of Birmingham New Street.

The real Oliver Twist - with a note on the 2007 Liberal Democrat leadership contest

Literary characters are usually created from a wide range of sources, but I can claim to have worked with the model for someone in Malcolm Bradbury's Eating People is Wrong. 

And on the Guardian website today Nicholas Blincoe advances the claim that Oliver Twist was based on his ancestor Robert Blincoe.

Robert Blincoe became famous on the 1830s after publishing his autobiography, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe. It told of a childhood spent in a workhouse and as a worker in a cotton mill from the age of seven.

Nicholas Blincoe writes:

Robert Blincoe’s memoir has remained in print since the late 1960s and the claim that it is the source for Oliver Twist has become well established. There is solid textual evidence for it. The workhouse chapters that open each book introduce the same events in the same order, ending with a dramatic confrontation with the local chimneysweeps. 

I discovered that the 1828 edition of the memoir had been published on Fleet Street, out of a bookshop that Dickens passed daily, running between his shorthand shifts at a courtroom near St Paul’s and his night shifts at parliament, where he worked for a rival to Hansard. Dickens was employed there when Doherty’s work was debated, and when Robert appeared as a witness at a parliamentary inquiry.

Now he has published a book called Oliver Twist & Me, which has been described as: "A fascinating family and social history and a savage indictment of the role of child slavery in the growth of the Industrial Revolution."

When I saw the name Nicholas Blincoe, some faint blogging bells rang. Sure enough, I found that he had written an article for the Guardian website during the 2007 Liberal Democrat leadership election in which he attacked Chris Huhne while declaring himself a member of Nick Clegg's campaign team.

I find that I wrote at the time:

The silliest point occurs where Blincoe accuses Huhne of being posh. This is a childish insult at the best of times, but in a contest where both candidates attended the same public school it is simply ludicrous.

Get me. But you have heard James Graham on the subject.

Anyway, the Clegg campaign disowned Blincoe - apparently he had given Clegg some advice on arts policy in the past - and their man went on to win the election.

It was all a long time ago and, as someone who is so obsessed with Oliver Twist that he's published two book chapters on it, I like what Blincoe has to say about the book today:

Thinking of Robert’s memoir as a group effort has made me reassess Dickens’s work. In the period around publication of Oliver Twist, he created his own legend as the great singular author. 

But his writing continues to hold such power because it blossomed into a multiverse thanks to contributions that came later, like Oliver!. Dickens lives not because he is unique, but because he has become part of a collective endeavour. God bless us, everyone.

In fact, I think I shall buy Oliver Twist & Me.

Call for Nottinghamshire cooling towers to be preserved

In Nottinghamshire, decommissioned cooling towers still stand at West Burton and Ratcliffe-on-Soar.

There are no plans to preserve any of them, but BBC News reports that the Twentieth Century Society wants to see at least one set of towers preserved.

Catherine Croft, the director of the Society, says:

"I feel really sad when I see cooling towers come down.

"It's just something that has been part of our landscape, part of the history of the 20th Century that's going to be gone forever.

"We've had a really positive response to the campaign with people saying how much they like cooling towers and how they use them as way markers along familiar journeys."

My photograph shows the towers of Ratcliffe-on Soar power station. It was taken at Trent Lock, Long Eaton, which is where the Erewash Canal meets the River Trent.

The Orange Bicycle: Hyacinth Threads

Orange Bicycle, under various names, followed the well-worn path from skiffle to psychedelia in the Sixties. As Robb Storme and the Whispers, they were the first group to play behind the Iron Curtain.

An early member of the band was Lewis Collins, who became famous as Bodie in The Professionals.

Hyacinth Threads, a 1967 single, continued their pattern of being more notable in mainland Europe than at home, and made number one in France.

They folded in 1971. Their keyboard player, Will Malone (who certainly earns his money here) became a producer and arranger - he was responsible for the strings on The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony.

Another band member, John Bachini, went on to work in television, He received an out-of-court settlement from Celador Productions, ITV and others after claiming one of his game show formats had been plagiarised to create Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

That's on Wikipedia, so we know it's true.

British Airways attendant found naked and on drugs in onboard toilet

We have our Headline if the Day - well done, BBC News.

If it's any consolation, the gentleman it refers to, Haden Pentecost, wins Name of the Day,

Can you put flags up? Can the council take them down?

Alan Robertshaw explains the law on putting flags up and taking them down.

I remember staying at Crackington Haven when I walked the South West Way - or The Salt Path, as I now realise it was.

Sandy Campbell and the Royal Family after Queen Victoria

We left my great great grandmother's brother in 1900 with a post about his being presented with a pair of binoculars by Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia.

He enjoyed another burst of press coverage in 1907. Here's the Aberdeen Press and Journal for Monday 22 July 1907:

The Queen comes early to Deeside, along with Princess Victoria. Both are keen trout anglers, and will spend most of their time on the lochs in and around Balmoral, which have from time to time been re-stocked and improved with both "natives" and Lochlevens. 

The young Princes of Wales will soon be at Abergeldie, and, with Old Sandy Campbell as their special guide, they are expected to make some grand baskets on Loch Muick and its feeders. 

Campbell, although in retirement, is, like Donald Stewart, somehow or other indispensible. They knew the wiles of the fario and where the big "boys" lie. They know the side of the loch which is most favoured to-day; and was not Donald the favourite keeper of the King, the Prince Wales, and his late brother in days gone by? 

The Queen in 1907 was Edward VII's consort Alexandra, and Princess Victoria was their daughter, the Princess Royal. The Prince of Wales in that era was the future George V. so perhaps the "young Princes of Wales" was an inaccurate reference to the future Edward VIII and George VI, who were then lads.

"The fario" are trout, while the Prince of Wales' late brother is Prince Albert Victor, seen by some as a candidate for being Jack the Ripper.

Moving hurriedly on, another report appeared in The Sphere on Saturday 31 August 1907. It describes a visit to Balmoral by Queen Alexandra, which was shorter than usual because of the illness of the Princess Royal:

Old Sandy Campbell and her favourite breed of collies are granted a morning interview, for it was the father of this half-collie, half-deerhound, that found the King, then Prince of Wales, when he was lost with his gillie one misty day among the hills. Sandy still keeps up the breed, and a shaggy but hardy cross it is and well named the Balmoral collie.

In 1900 Sandy's dog was called Sir William Wallace (not to be confused with our own Lord Wallace of Saltaire), but I don't know if he was, or was related to, the dog that found the future Edward VII.

Finally, The Sphere published an article about Edward VII on Saturday 12 October 1907. In it we read:

There is nothing he likes better than a crack with old Sandy Campbell, his gillie and guide in his younger days when stalking on "dark Lochnagar," or with Donald Stewart, who taught him first to shoot straight and hit his first stag.

Sandy Campbell died on 20 May 1912, aged 76.

The Joy of Six 1399

Rei Takver reports on fears that Labour’s new data access law would allow a future Reform UK government to replicate an Elon Musk-style DOGE data-grab: "If Reform gains power in 2029, campaigners say it could use Labour’s data access law to carry out its policies, which include a crackdown on immigration, the radical downsizing of the civil service, eliminating 'government waste', and decimating the UK’s net zero projects."

The British right is adopting an increasingly extreme form of ethnic identity politics, while failing to explain what the rest of us are supposed to be so worried about, argues Jonathan Portes.

Toby Buckle insists American liberals should stop trying to act as the referees of political debate and recognise that they are partisans for one side of it: "The liberalism of the early twentieth century was a project aimed at social reform. That of the mid-century – of the New Deal, Great Society, and civil rights eras  – while certainly complicit in many of the evils of its world, was also a creed with a strong sense of its own values. Far from being content to 'neutrally' enforce existing rights, it sought to expand them and create new ones."

Katy Holland says The Sound of Music has never been popular in Austria because it challenges the way the country likes to paint itself as a victim of Nazi Germany: "Austrian officials, sensitive to the implications of wartime collaboration, initially objected to the use of swastika banners in Salzburg to depict the Anschluss, and relented only when filmmakers proposed using archival footage of Hitler being welcomed by cheering crowds in the city."

"Slag heap debris on the English coast has apparently been fusing into a new kind of sedimentary rock. A team of geologists studying the beach recently 'found a series of outcrops made from an unfamiliar type of sedimentary rock. The beach used to be sandy, so the rock must have been a recent addition.' ... Based on inclusions of trash amongst the sediments, such as a discarded coin, some of this rock could not have been more than 36 years old.'" BLDGBLOG has news of rapid geological change.

"There is only ten years between the two tv adaptations but technically a lot apparently happened in that ten years. The Children of Green Knowe looks as fresh as ever; it’s very difficult to believe that it is thirty years old. A Traveller in Time, only eight years older, looks visually awful." Maureen Kincaid Speller compares and contrasts television adaptations of two children's books.

Derwent village is emerging from beneath Ladybower Reservoir

The current drought is having a striking effect in Derbyshire, where the village of Derwent is emerging as the waters of Ladybower Reservoir recede. This video from Trekking Exploration (like and subscribe) shows us what can be seen this week. There will be more to come if the drought continues.

Derwent was drowned by the reservoir, which was constructed between 1935 and 1943.

The spire of the village church was originally left standing above the water and people tried to swim out to it. This was deemed too dangerous, so the church was dynamited.

We see what remains of the church today in the video, and the photo below - which I've always found deeply sinister - shows the reservoir when the church could still be seen.

Now it's tenants, not homes, that are under the hammer

Reviewing Nick Bano's Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis for Liberator, I wrote:

Fifty years ago, private landlords, from Rachman to Rigsby, were derided and the breed seemed to be on the way out. Now daytime television shows have would-be buy-to-let landlords as their heroes.

I've a feeling I lifted at least some of that from the book.

Now James Bloodworth has expanded the point into a very good blog post:

Homes Under the Hammer first aired in 2003, the same year that home ownership in Britain peaked at 70 per cent. Until the mid-1990s the private rental market made up just 9 per cent of UK households. Since then the number of private rentals has more than doubled. As of 2023, around 19 per cent of UK households - about 5.4 million homes - were privately rented. 

Today there are 2.8 million landlords in Britain, and the average age of a private renter in England has risen to 41. Meanwhile, home ownership has fallen to 65 per cent, and fewer than one-third of Londoners aged 20–39 own a home.

As the economy has changed, so has Homes Under the Hammer. In its early years the programme would often feature people who were simply looking for a place to live. These days buyers are usually more interested in the sales value or ‘rental yield’ of the property, which they view as an ‘investment’. 

Every episode follows more or less the same formula. A middle aged married couple rip the character out of a two bedroom house and turn it into a white-and-grey HMO (houses in multiple occupation) with 12 bedrooms. A woman named Michelle turns a derelict public toilet into four holiday lets. A property developer named Lenin (yes really) boasts of making a 15 per cent yield on a terraced house in Stoke-on-Trent.

It's well worth reading the whole thing.

I recently posted a video here in which Nick Bano sets out his arguments on the evils of landlordism.

Reform's chaotic stewardship of Leicestershire County Council is costing the public money

Who, we have been wondering, will replace Joseph Boam, who was sacked by Reform UK as Leicestershire County Council's deputy leader and cabinet lead for adult social care?

The answer, reports the Leicester Mercury, is two people:

Kevin Crook, councillor for the ward of Glenfields, Kirby Muxloe and Leicester Forests, will be taking on the deputy leader role and will also head up the new heritage, libraries and adult learning portfolio. Councillor for Stoney Stanton and Croft, Carl Abbott, will be taking over as lead member for adult social care.

And the result of that is that the council's Reform cabinet (the party has minority control of Leicestershire) grows from eight to nine members, in turn increasing how many Reform councillors can claim the special responsibility allowance.

The days when Reform was going to sweep into authorities and save a fortune in spending with their DOGE tactics are far behind us.

The Mercury quotes Michael Mullaney, the leader of the council's Liberal Democrat group:

"To sack the deputy leader of the county council after just three months suggests a chaotic situation in the Reform leadership of the County Council. Now we also see that he is to be replaced by two new cabinet members who will now do his job.

"This is happening at a time when the county council is facing a huge deficit and therefore potentially big cutbacks to vital local services. This Reform cabinet reshuffle so soon after they took office has been chaotic and costly for the people of Leicestershire at a time when they need effective leadership from the county council."

The BBC series The Marksman (1987) is back on YouTube

Years ago I blogged about The Marksman, a BBC drama that became controversial after the Hungerford Massacre of 1987. Some sources even say it was never broadcast because of it, but I know it was because I remember watching it.

It was a revenge drama, with David Threlfall returning to Liverpool from Spain to uncover the killers of his young son.

The cast list was impressive: Threlfall, Richard Griffiths, James Ellis, Leslie Ash, Craig Charles. And the theme music was by Richard Thompson, aided by some poetry written and performed by Charles.

Yet when I wrote about it in 2011 I said there was not a scrap of it or of Thompson's music to be found on the net. Since then, the series has come and gone from YouTube a couple of times.

The reason for this post it to say that it's back on YouTube - on the excellent Classic British Telly account.

Play the video above and you'll see a short extract, but you can watch the whole of it, and of parts 2 and 3, on YouTube.

Richard Dawkins and T.H. White are distant cousins

This, just in from out Trivia Desk, wins Trivial Fact of the Day.

The Wikipedia entry for this blog's hero T.H. White tells you that that one of his great great grandfathers was a clergyman and author from Cape Colony, part of what later became South Africa, called Abraham Faure.

Go to the Wikipedia entry for Abraham Faure and you find that he is also a great great great grandfather of the scientist Richard Dawkins.

There's a bus service between Craven Arms and Builth Wells

I'd no idea this bus service existed until I saw it waiting for passengers on the approach to Craven Arms station the other week. The X48 starts from there and runs via Knighton and Llandrindod Wells to Builth Wells.

It's an odd service in that it more or less parallels the Heart of Wales railway line, though it you want downtown Builth Wells it's a better bet. Trains call at Builth Road, which is a couple of miles from the town.

And the difference between the train and bus fares may not be as great as you expect. If the X48 is run by a Welsh company the £3 maximum fare will not apply.

Buses from Craven Arms don't travel all the way to Builth until later in the afternoon, so if you are planning a day out you'll have to settle for Llandridnod. And that is what I shall do next time I have a holiday in Shropshire.

Why? As Mallory said of Everest, because it's there.

Later. Thanks to Jo Kibble on BlueSky for putting me on to a blog post from Bus and Train User that explains what the X48 is all about. The whole point of it is to parallel the Heart of Wales Line, as it was introduced after the service on that line was reduced. Rail tickets are valid on the bus and are actually a little cheaper than the bus fare.

The Joy of Six 1398

Denis Mikhailov, a Russian dissident lawyer now exiled to Poland, explains how Trump’s generosity to Putin only entrenches his tyranny: "For Putin, this meeting was not a platform for negotiations, but above all an instrument of political legitimisation. On the one hand, it was an opportunity to show the world that he is still being received, that he is capable of holding dialogue on equal terms with the President of the United States, despite the warrant of the International Criminal Court and his de facto political isolation."

"Your politically engaged supporters inhabit the networks where these narratives form. They populate the WhatsApp groups, the comment sections, the office conversations where political meaning gets made. When you demoralise them, you surrender these spaces to your opponents. The passionate few shape the context in which everyone else encounters politics." AE Snow discusses the government's failure to get its message across. 

Magda Osman says that though laws are being introduced across the world to reduce 'psychological harm' experienced online, there is no clear definition of what it is.

"Pubs help people feel connected to a local place. When they close, they can become sites of mourning, a painful reminder of change and decline. One resident of a former colliery village in Nottinghamshire said of the pub she had once worked in – now derelict, fire damaged and vandalised as it awaits redevelopment – that despite her wish that it had remained open it was now better to 'knock it down' to 'put us out of our misery'." Thomas Thurnell-Read and Robert Deakin have researched what is lost when pubs close.

"As editor of The Nation in Trinidad during the 1950s, C.L.R. James campaigned for the Barbadian Frank Worrell to be appointed as the first full-time black captain. The selectors' 'whole point was to continue to send to populations of white people, black or brown men under a white captain', James later wrote in Beyond a Boundary." Tim Wigmore on race, cricket and the history of the West Indies.

Dave Haslam champions a forgotten film  - The White Bus: "Scripted by Shelagh Delaney in 1965, it’s directed by Lindsay Anderson. The cast includes a very young Anthony Hopkins, and Arthur Lowe who had already played a role in Coronation Street but would go on to star as Captain Mainwaring in the hit TV series Dad’s Army."

Express gives Ed Davey's comments on Trump star billing

Embed from Getty Images

Sky News came to a screeching halt minutes into the lunchtime show as they issued some major breaking news - and it's another huge blow for Donald Trump. 

I hang, of course, upon my leader's every word, but I'm really blogging his comments about Donald Trump and Ukraine because of the extraordinary way they were framed by the Express. 

For what was that major breaking news?

Minutes into the afternoon show, host Wilfred Frost halted the show to share Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey's thoughts on the US president's relationship with the Russian leader. 

The politician revealed: "I really feel that Donald Trump just wants to do a deal with Putin and he's not really bothered about the real interests of Ukraine or indeed, the security of Europe, including the UK."

You'd never catch the BBC treating an opposition party leader who isn't Nigel Farage like that, would you?

Anyway, Ed went on to say:

"So I think we need to work for peace, of course we should, but we should be behind Ukraine and President Zelenskyy and helping to strengthen his negotiating hand by saying we're prepared to support his military effort even more.

"I really worry that Ukraine has not been at the table so far, let's hope that it will be in the future, but we don't want any pressure to be put on Ukraine. It's vital that we get these security guarantees that the UK and our allies have been pushing for and that America is part of that.

"There's hints of the right direction, but the question is at what price is President Zelenskyy going to be asked to pay for that and I fear that these suggestions that they give up land to President Putin are just unacceptable.

"The idea that you reward an aggressor, that you appease someone as awful as President Trump is completely wrong. We've seen it in history, it doesn't work, it doesn't bring sustainable peace and that's why we've got to be so strong behind the Ukrainians."

XTC: Love on a Farmboy's Wages

Do I detect the influence of another son of Swindon, Richard Jefferies, here?

And did anything come of this proposal?

An idea has been put forward by Barry Andrews, of Swindon-grown band XTC, to create an installation which, through sound, music and large computer-generated moving images, evokes the atmosphere of Jefferies' post-apocalyptic book, After London.

Tom Gordon on how to get more working-class people into politics

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, is the guest on the Spectator's latest Coffee House Shots podcast.

He talks to James Heale about his campaign to improve working-class representation in politics. Tom, newly elected in 2024, explains how getting his mum involved in local politics in West Yorkshire led him to think about the structural issues that exist preventing more people from getting involved in politics.

It sounds as though Tom would welcome contact from Liberal Democrats who share his interest in this important issue. 

Community Land Trust launches appeal to buy White Grit Meadows

Two sites owned by the Middle Marches Community Land Trust are included in the new Stiperstones Landscape NNR. Now the trust is appealing for funds to help it buy a third:

Help us acquire five acres of botanically rich meadow at the foot of Corndon Hill, where plants such as Heath Spotted Orchid, Dyers Greenweed and Devil’s Bit Scabious abound.

The area we wish to buy consists of 4 small fields totalling 5 acres, bounded by tall, thick hedgerows, with some small stands of Alder and Goat Willow trees.

The site is situated at the foot of Corndon Hill just inside Wales at an altitude of 1000 feet (300 metres) in the hamlet of White Grit.

White Grit is a small, quiet, scattered village directly on the border with Shropshire. The nearby village of Priest Weston, despite being in England, actually lies to the west of White Grit. To the east is the A488 road, and the nearest town is Bishop’s Castle.

The mining community which thrived here in the 19th century gave rise to this area of smallholdings and a series of species-rich meadows, some of which remain today. 

Read more on the Middle Marches Community Land Trust site, where this photo comes from.

Reform UK sack Joseph Boam as deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council

A local political story broke on social media over the weekend and now Leicester Gazette has written it up:

Joseph Boam, who was appointed deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council after his election win in May, has been removed from his role by council leader Dan Harrison.

It goes on to discuss some rumoured reasons for Boam's dismissal, without coming to any definite conclusions. Reform itself has said nothing about why the decision was taken - the party runs Leicestershire with a minority administration.

As well as losing the deputy leadership of the council, Boam has told Leicester Gazette that he is also no longer the cabinet member for adult social care.

The Gazette has talked to the Liberal Democrat leader on the council, Michael Mullaney. He said:

"There are many things that need sorting in Leicestershire, the problems with social care and special educational needs. The potholes in pavements and roads. These can only be solved if there is a united, determined group running the county council. 

"Removing your deputy leader so soon after the election is a sign things are not going well in the new Reform administration and that there are serious splits and divisions."

The appointment of Boam as the council's adult social care lead at the age of 22 raised some eyebrows. Its 19-year-old lead for children and family services, who is also studying full time at university, remains in position.

The Joy of Six 1397

"I asked the Appellant why, in the light of this citation of non-existent authorities, the Court should not of its own motion strike out the grounds of appeal in this case, as being an abuse of the process of the Court. His answer was as follows. He claimed that the substance of the points which were being put forward in the grounds of appeal were sound, even if the authority which was being cited for those points did not exist." Matthew Lee looks at the problems the increasing use of AI are causing the judicial system.

Paul Kirkley fears British stories are in danger of vanishing from our TV screens: "ITV managing director Kevin Lygo has admitted it probably wouldn’t get commissioned now. Why? Because a miscarriage of justice against British postmasters doesn’t have sufficient global appeal to attract the foreign investment and international sales that are increasingly the topline requirements of any UK drama."

Kathryn Rix looks back to the Pontefract by-election of 1872, which was the first British parliamentary election to use the secret ballot: "In contrast with the unruly behaviour which had often marred previous elections, seasoned observers declared that 'they never saw a contested election in which less intoxicating liquor was drunk' and there were no allegations of bribery or other corrupt practices. So quiet and orderly was the town that 'it hardly seemed like an election'."

Teaching philosophy in prison is a rowdy, honest and hopeful provocation, says Jay Miller.

Koraljka Suton celebrates Quentin Tarantino's postmodern masterpiece: "One of the many reasons why Pulp Fiction is widely regarded as a postmodern classic, lies in the brilliance of its screenplay. In true postmodern fashion, Pulp Fiction plays with narrative structure, presenting us with three interconnected storylines told out of chronological order and centering on a different protagonist each."

"Ahmed is a technicolour player, an energy bath bomb with a textbook technique. The Spin has been lucky enough to watch him razzle-dazzle two hundreds in the flesh this year – both against Lancashire, one at Old Trafford, one at Grace Road, opponent-draining, sparkling innings so much better than the previous blind boundary biffing. He added another against Kent, another against Glamorgan and became the first Englishman to take 13 wickets and score a century in a first-class game since Ian Botham in the Jubilee Test of 1980, after taking Derbyshire to the cleaners with both bat and ball." Tanya Aldred argues that Leicestershire's Rehan Ahmed deservers a place in England's Ashes squad this winter.

Hitler and Mussolini both claimed to have killed Nessie

The Loch Ness monster became a popular newspaper story in the 1930s. The result of this was that, in an attempt to undermine British morale, both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy claimed to have killed Nessie.

The Aberdeen Press and Journal reported in December 1940 on Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' 'Monster Fairy Tale', saying: "It is reported from Glasgow, via Stockholm, that the Loch Ness monster has struck a mine, and its body has been found washed ashore in pieces on the west of Scotland." 

Perhaps unsatisfied with the lack of reaction from that news, a The World's News article published in 1941 reported that Italian newspaper Popolo d'ltalia claimed an Italian pilot had "bombed and destroyed a huge, serpent-like animal on the surface of Loch Ness". 

The illustration above shows Ruttie, the Rutland Water Monster. Lord Bonkers tells me she was wounded in an encounter with a U-boat, but made a full recovery.

The Towers of Trebizond was partly written at Butlin’s in Skegness

I'm an admirer of Rose Macaulay's writing, and wouldn't share the critical judgement in this old London Review of Books article by Claire Harman. Still it does contain an irresistible trivial fact and a good joke at her expense:

Perhaps The Towers of Trebizond is the only one of Macaulay’s 23 novels in which a satisfactory balance between style and content is achieved. A charming detail is that this cosmopolitan story was partly written at Butlin’s in Skegness, where she had taken Gerald O’Donovan’s granddaughters for a holiday. 

Macaulay was not a snob, though she was taken up by snobs all her life, and relished a very active social life. Macaulay’s greatest claim to fame was the most perishable: she was a ‘golden talker’, valued by literary hostesses from her first appearance in print onward, and described by Naomi Royde-Smith in terms equally applicable to a patent corkscrew, ‘welcome at any dinner table, invaluable at weekends’.

So irresistible that it's our Trivial Fact of the Day.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds featuring Kylie Minogue: Where the Wild Roses Grow

Another record I heard on holiday. It was released as a single in 1995 and is also on Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' ninth studio album, Murder Ballads.

Far Out magazine explains how this unlikely collaboration came about:

Cave was obsessed with Minogue at the time, as he once recalled, and wrote the track with the singer in mind. He explained, somewhat concerningly (via Molly Meldrum presents 50 Years of Rock in Australia), “I had a quiet obsession with her for about six years. I wrote several songs for her, none of which I felt was appropriate to give her. It was only when I wrote this song, which is a dialogue between a killer and his victim, that I thought finally I’d written the right song for Kylie to sing. I sent the song to her, and she replied the next day.”

And Kylie Minogue herself talked to the Guardian about working with Cave:

A CD of the track – featuring Blixa Bargeld singing her lines – was sent to her parents’ house, where she was staying, and a game of phone tag ensued. Cave was also at his parents’, so the prince of darkness and the queen of sunshine were busy leaving messages with each other’s mums. 

“The first time I met Nick was at the recording studio in Melbourne,” she says. “I speed-read a biography to understand him a little bit. And there was some interesting stuff in there. But everything I did with him was just so tender and epic and close. He’s so amazing and loving, and it’s one of my favourite things I’ve ever done.”

Lib Dems call for a review of the law after Palestine Action arrests

Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesperson, has asked the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation to urgently examine the "troubling precedent" of the use of the Terrorism Act to arrest large numbers of people expressing support for Palestine Action.

In the letter to Jonathan Hall KC, she said: 

"While we recognise the serious nature of this group’s activities, including criminal offences, such as vandalism of military equipment and RAF aircraft, aggravated burglary and violent disorder, and some cases awaiting the conclusion of trials, we are deeply concerned about the use of terrorism powers against peaceful protesters in this context."

Meanwhile, reports BBC News, Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has written to the home secretary and Metropolitan Police commissioner Mark Rowley.

Her letter said

"We are concerned that some recent responses may not strike the right balance between security and fundamental rights. Heavy-handed policing or blanket approaches risk creating a chilling effect, deterring citizens from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly through fear of possible consequences."

Yesterday, I wrote a post suggesting the government's proscribing of Palestine Action has been counterproductive. 

I could have added that if people come to believe that government throws about the label "terrorist" to freely, they will be less likely to believe it when it warn us of groups that certainly are terrorists.

The Joy of Six 1396

"Opportunities to object are limited. Roadblocks and checkpoints have been established at either end of the only lane in and out of the village. Cars are searched with sniffer dogs and ID demanded. All footpaths have been closed off, and unless you live here you stand no chance of getting in. Secret Service agents keep a watchful eye on the hordes of police who are doing their bidding. In short, we’ve been completely sealed off from the outside world." An anonymous contributor to The Oxford Clarion describes life in the Cotswold village of Dean during JD Vance's visit.

Shaun Thompson was wrongly identified as a criminal by new police cameras. He explains why, if this technology is rolled out across the country, or is used at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival, as planned, such injustices will disproportionately affect Black people.

"Climate action does not just need good policy, it also needs good psychology. Understanding and addressing how people perceive climate measures is essential to avoid backlash and build lasting public consent." Wouter Poortinga looks at the psychology of winning public support for climate policies.

"The conference circuit, once lively with questioning and dialogue, now contends with a new problem: the 'ghost academic'. These are scholars whose names appear in conference programmes and proceedings, whose abstracts are listed, yet who never turn up to deliver their presentations. They accrue the CV line, but never share the substance." Anne Tierney and Doug Specht say the obsession with metrics in academia is imperilling the tradition open intellectual exchange that was the hallmark of scholarly life.

JacquiWine on Rose Macaulay's The World My Wilderness. Here is Macaulay's description of a London bombsite: "They climbed out through the window, and made their way about the ruined, jungled waste, walking along broken lines of wall, diving into the cellars and caves of the underground city, where opulent merchants had once stored their wine, where gaily tiled rooms opened into one another and burrowed under great eaves of overhanging earth, where fosses and ditches ran, bright with marigolds and choked with thistles, through one-time halls of commerce, and yellow ragwort waved its gaudy banners over the ruins of defeated businessmen."

Patrick Glen looks back to the Isle of Wight Festival of 1970: "The lineup included the Who, Miles Davis, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, the Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Sly and the Family Stone and Gilberto Gil; Jimi Hendrix played one of his last performances before his death."