The end is near for Desborough's Lawrence Shoe Factory

The former Lawrence Shoe Factory in Desborough is likely to be demolished later this year, reports BBC News.

As I can catch a bus to Desborough and it's unusually pleasant Costa Coffee from across the road when I'm feeling too lazy to walk into town, I went there the other day to photograph the buildings again – maybe for the last time. You can read about their history on the Desborough Town Council website.

There was the usual talk from North Northamptonshire Council's Reform UK leadership of "eyesores" and preventing antisocial behaviour, but there is no sign of the long-sought developer for the site, so it will become wasteland.

At least the derelict shop, which must once have catered for the needs of the workers here, will survive the coming destruction.

Michael Elwyn talks about appearing in Joe Orton's Loot

I once went to an event in Leicester to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton's play Loot. It doesn't feel like it, but it was almost 10 years ago.

In the post I wrote about the event, I described meeting Braham Murray and Michael Elwyn there. They had, respectively, directed and appeared in a Manchester production of Loot that established its reputation after its first staging in London had been a failure.

I recently found this video of Michael Elwyn, which may well have been recorded that day – we were all given the badge he is wearing. In it he talks about meeting Orton and his experience of appearing in the play.

William and Ed Grundy are the King's sons William and Harry

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One of the great Archers scenes was the one with Clarrie in labour with her first child:

"Eddie, if I die, I don't mind you marrying again. But not that Jolene."

After the baby had been born, she told Eddie and Joe:

"His name's William and I want the house cleaned before I come home."

It was clear that William Grundy was named by Clarrie after Charles and Diana's son William.

Which has made me realise how much the Charles III's sons resemble Ed Grundy's:

• William – upright, respectable and just a bit of a prig – is William.
• Ed – chaotic, a little dodgy but likeable – is Harry.

QED.

One of the perks of helping out with Liberal Democrat News at party conference was that I used to get to talk Cambridge Footlights with Adrian Slade and The Archers with Jock Gallagher.

In one of those conversations Jock confirmed the truth of the old Archers' Anarchists theory that Brian had murdered the real Adam when he was a boy and buried him somewhere on Bridge Farm. (They never got on.)

The Joy of Six 1465

"The evidence shows that when local people are involved in welcoming newcomers – helping to secure housing, navigate services, and build early social connections they learn local languages more quickly; move into employment sooner; and become part of community life in ways that benefit everyone." Tony Vaughan, Labour MP for Folkestone and Hythe, calls on his government to publish a clear plan for the implementation of a community sponsorship scheme for refugees.

Lewis Goodall posts some hard truths from Minnesota: "The United States under Trump is no longer our military ally (Greenland), our strategic ally (Ukraine and Russia), our political ally (a National Security Strategy which openly advocates backing far-right parties to disrupt European democracies facing 'civilisational erasure'), nor our economic ally (tariffs)."

"In its manifesto, Labour promised 'to restore and protect our natural world' and 'to unlock the building of homes … without weakening environmental protections'. Sadly, for me and many other Labour supporters, the tone of the language soon changed." David Jobbins says "growth at all costs" is threatening Britain's wildlife.

Jonathan Liew sees England's hapless cricket team as a metaphor for the country: "Of the under-19 squad currently playing in the World Cup in Harare, only four did not come through the private school system, where you are eight times more likely to have access to a turf pitch and 10 times more likely to have a qualified coach. The £35m in grassroots funding announced by Rishi Sunak in 2024 turned out not to exist."

Discontinued Notes comes across an unexpected book – a collection of short stories about wartime Germany by Antony Lambton, a former Conservative minister who resigned after a long-forgotten political scandal in 1973.

"As Colin Harper once observed, Briggs wasn’t just a singer; she was 'the bridge'. She made the ancient oral traditions of the British Isles credible, sexy, and attainable for a generation of icons, including Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, Led Zeppelin, June Tabor, Christy Moore, Richard Thompson, and Dick Gaughan." KLOF Magazine on the importance of Anne Briggs.

Mole in Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's garden at Wolferton

The Eastern Daily Press, which knows a news story when it sees one, wins our Headline of the Day Award.

An appreciation of It Always Rains on Sunday

Ealing Studios didn't just make comedies, and the drama It Always Rains on Sunday from 1947 is among their very best films.

As the blurb for this short video from the British Film Institute says:

It Always Rains on Sunday is a dark and dramatic tale set in bombed-damaged East London. The third film for Ealing by director Robert Hamer – better known for the later Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) – it takes place over one wet Sunday, and centres on the Sandigates – in particular Rose, played by Googie Withers, a housewife caught between her stable but loveless marriage and Tommy, a charismatic lover from her past (played by Withers' soon-to-be husband, John McCallum.)

It's a great ensemble cast, but I would single out Susan Shaw and Patricia Plunkett, who play Googie Withers' stepdaughters, and Jack Warner, whose wisecracking detective sergeant is a long way from George Dixon and reminds us of his range as an actor.

Shabana Mahmood shares her vision of total state surveillance with the Tony Blair Institute

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How did you celebrate Christmas? At the Tony Blair Institute they asked Shaban Mahmood along to their Christmas reception to share her dream of total state surveillance.

She talked of AI and technology having a transformative impact on "the whole of the law and order space", and told them:

"My ultimate vision for that part of the criminal justice system was to achieve, by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his Panopticon. That is that the eyes of the state can be on you at all times."

Bentham's Panopticon was a design for a prison with a circular layout that would allow wardens to observe every prisoner at all times. Though it was never built in Bentham's day, the 20th-century French philosopher Michel Foucault saw the Panopticon as the model adopted schools, factories and police surveillance.

To Foucault, a key feature of the Bentham's design was the central tower from which a single warden could see all the inmates without their knowing when they were being watched. The result would be that the prisoners would internalise the warden's gaze, even if they were rarely or never watched.

It's hard, as a Liberal, not to conclude that Mahmood was saying the quite bit of Labourism out loud.

But let's leave the last word to Foucault's mum:

Foucault: Schools serve the same social function as prisons and mental institutions.

Foucault's mum: You're still going.

Happisburgh or: Whatever happened to our fear of quicksand?

I've seen more than one person ask this question online. Quicksand was an ever-present threat in the films of our youth, but now you never hear of it.

Not quite never. Here's a story from the North Norfolk News:

A warning has been issued for quicksand around a ramp leading down to a popular beach.

North Norfolk District Council has temporarily closed the ramp at Happisburgh following the poor weather brought in by Storm Goretti.

On Saturday, the Happisburgh Coast Watch warned that "areas of very soft sand" were developing in the area.

A spokesman for the voluntarily manned station said: "If you are visiting Cart Gap Beach today, please be aware that there are some areas of very soft sand in the vicinity of the access ramp."

The newspaper goes on to report:

Last October, a woman walking towards Happisburgh via Walcott beach came into difficulty in a patch of sinking sand near the groynes.

She was left submerged "up to her thighs" before managing to pull herself out of danger and shout for help.

But it's true that we used to hear far more about quicksand. And it's even possible to put figures on that.

For that, go to an edition of the Radiolab podcast that I included in a Joy of Six long ago:

Producer Soren Wheeler introduces us to Dan Engber, writer and columnist for Slate, who ran across a strange fact: kids are no longer afraid of quicksand. To figure out what happened to quicksand, Dan immersed himself in research, compiled mountains of data, and met with quicksand fetishists. 

Dan tells Soren and Robert about his journey, and shares his theory about why the terror of his childhood seems to have lost its menacing allure. And Carlton Cuse, best-known as writer and executive producer of Lost, weighs in on whether giant pits of hero-swallowing mud might one day creep back into the spotlight.

Here's the podcast. And if you follow the link to Radiolab above you will see a graph of appearances of quicksand in films. They peaked in the Sixties.

Reform PCC for Leicestershire "asked officer to help arrange Putin-style photo with horse for election leaflet"

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Rupert Matthews, the Conservative turned Reform police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland, faced a police and crime panel meeting at Leicestershire County Council on today to answer questions about a complaint.

BBC News says the complaint was made after Matthews sent an "unsolicited" email to a serving officer. It was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which found no evidence to indicate a criminal offence had been committed. 

And the exciting news is that BBC News has been leaked a copy of the report the panel was considering:

The report states the complaint was referred to the IOPC on 4 September 2025.

It said Matthews "sent an unsolicited email to a police officer within Leicestershire Police, asking her to organise for him to have a photo taken with a horse for his next election leaflet, referencing a photograph of Russian president Vladimir Putin posing shirtless on horseback".

Rupert Matthews's office told BBC News that he had lodged a complaint about the leak of the report and that he is 

extremely frightened of horses and ... would never seek to work with them out of choice.

The Joy of Six 1464

"Events are moving so quickly that it’s worth stopping to assess where we are. The U.S. government is currently building massive detention facilities, already detaining tens of thousands of people there and elsewhere, with incompetent and deeply racist secret police sweeping undocumented all kinds of people – immigrants, those with their paperwork in order, and US citizens alike – off the street." Andrea Pitzer says the correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.

Tanya Park argues that banning social media for children misses the point: "If we’re serious about protecting children online, we need to regulate the companies, not ban the children. That means enforcing existing law, strengthening platform obligations, eliminating addictive design, and empowering young people with the knowledge and tools to navigate digital spaces safely."

James Meek visited Greenland last year as Trump was starting to make noises about annexing it.

"The Peggy who emerges from these formative years is part Girl Guide, part witch: a Gothic dreamer with a work ethic; Madame Sosostris meets the persona Atwood calls ‘Ms Fixit’. She marries a fellow Victorianist because it makes practical sense but yearns for something else. She makes her own clothes but also fancy-dress costumes and puppets." Sophie Oliver reviews Margaret Atwood's Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts."

Lolly Willowes is a work of modernism not in the sense of formal innovation but in its statement that after the first world war the old order was no longer tenable. The novel is a rejection of Victorian pieties as subversive as Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians." Henry Wessells on Sylvia Townsend Warner's novel.

Johnny Campbell goes for a New Year walk in Edale and thinks of those who fought to give us access to this landscape.

Ed Davey: Donald Trump is behaving like an international gangster and Starmer’s Mr Nice Guy diplomacy has failed

It's easy for politicians in opposition to talk tough, but Mark Carney and Emmanuel Macron have proved that you can do it while leading a government too.

Part of a prime minister's job is speaking to the nation and speaking for the nation, and I fear that, at this time of crisis, Britain is stuck with a PM who is unwilling or unable to do either. And his whole government is wearing Starmer's lack of personality like a shroud.

Anyway, Ed Davey spoke about Donald Trump in the Commons yesterday and has an article in today's Guardian:

Donald Trump is behaving like an international gangster. His threats to Greenland this week have crossed a line, blackmailing America’s closest allies and threatening the future of Nato itself. From leaking messages with other world leaders to whining about the Nobel peace prize, the US president has gone from unstable to seemingly unhinged. And our government needs to wake up.

For months, Keir Starmer has pursued a strategy of quiet appeasement. He told us that by avoiding confrontation the UK could carve out a special status that would shield our industries from the coming storm. Only a few months ago, Trump hailed the “special relationship” at Windsor Castle after being lavished with a state banquet. Now, thanks to his actions, it is nearly in tatters. Starmer’s Mr Nice Guy diplomacy has failed.

Paul Simon: The Obvious Child

This is from Rhythm of the Saints, Paul Simon's 1990 follow up to Graceland. Just as the earlier album had drawn on South African music, so this one was inspired by South America.

It's less well remembered today, but still full of good things.

Lib Dems call for fair treatment for Wales on railway investment

The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the Westminster government's Railways Bill calling for the full devolution of rail powers to Wales, reports Nation Cymru.

Both the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru argue that Wales is losing out on billions of pounds of railway investment because some projects based entirely in England, such as the Oxford to Cambridge reopening, are often classified as "England and Wales" schemes.

Nation Cymru quotes David Chadwick, the Welsh Lib Dems' Westminster spokesperson and MP for  said: 

"Wales has been treated as an afterthought when it comes to rail for far too long. While Scotland has the powers to plan, fund and deliver its own rail network, Wales is left with crumbs and warm words by both Labour and the Conservatives.

"This amendment is about fairness. It would give Wales the same control Scotland already has and stop us losing out on billions of pounds for rail projects that don’t even touch Welsh soil.

"If the Government is serious about treating Wales as an equal partner in the Union, it should back this amendment."

The other day I was wondering in a jaundiced sort of way when I'd last seen a news story about the Lib Dems in Wales that didn't concern farming, so I'm pleased to see them taking up this excellent cause.

An Observer podcast series on The Real Salt Path

If you were hooked by Chloe Hadjimatheou's reporting of the questionable veracity of The Salt Path, you may be interested to know that the Observer has now produced a series of podcasts telling the story of this exposé, The Walkers: The real Salt Path.

I walked The Salt Path myself – we called it the South Coastal Path in those days – from Minehead to Weymouth, over four summer holidays, in the Eighties and Nineties. 

Don't tell Jennie, but I left out the stretch through Torbay (my guidebook said it was allowed) because it was so built up.

The 19th-century granite trackway along Commercial Road

Commercial Road was constructed at the beginning of the 19th century to connect London's docks with the City.

As Jago Hazzard explains in this video, a smooth granite trackway was constructed along the road in 1828 or thereabouts to speed the flow of goods away from the docks.

When the trackway was taken up is even less clear, but in 1840 a conventional railway that ran parallel to Commercial Road was opened, reducing the need for it. The road, which was opened as a privately owned toll road, was taken into public ownership in the 1860s.

You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page. And why not subscribe to his YouTube channel? I know I do.

The Joy of Six 1463

Schuyler Mitchell talks to Mark Bray, a Rutgers University professor and expert on Fascism, who has fled the US with his family after being targeted because of his work: "The next day, we managed to leave – but not before being searched and interrogated by federal officers, despite facing no charges whatsoever. I’m not suspected of any crimes. I’m just a professor."

"Ofcom has repeatedly allowed GB News to broadcast biased news. Ofwat allows water companies to jack up prices enormously whilst pouring shit into our rivers and sometimes not even delivering water. And Ofgem allows electricity companies to charge some of the highest domestic and industrial electricity prices in the world." Chris Dillow on regulatory capture – the tendency of big corporations to take control of the regulators supposed to police them.

JP Spencer looks the success of the Manchester Mill news website and the potential of its model across Britain: "With the decline of many news titles, it is welcome that local democracy is getting the attention and scrutiny it deserves. ... As a big believer in the power of local decision making, we are going to need new forms of media to report on key decisions and other issues that will keep the public informed and grease the wheels of democracy."

"They didn’t poll residents about whether they felt 'interested but concerned' about automobiles. They showed them the future and made them want it. Today’s planning profession has inverted that approach. Instead of selling a vision, we survey people about their willingness to adopt one. People self-identify based on current conditions, reflecting limited beliefs about what’s possible. ... The results are predictable." Andy Boenau says campaigners should aim make freedom of mobility so compelling that people demand it.

"These files make it clear that Our Friends in the North's path to transmission would make a drama in and of itself. It had taken more than a decade for it to be successfully adapted by Peter Flannery from his own Royal Shakespeare Company play of the early 1980s." Paul Hayes digs into the BBC's archives to uncover the production history of the award-winning political drama.

Hyungwon Kang explains how 5th-century Roman glassware came to be found in high-status burials in Korea.

Vladimir Putin’s mob of war-thirsty nuns are infiltrating churches across Europe

Metro wins our Headline of the Day Award and reminds everyone that not all nuns are as benevolent as Lord Bonkers' friends at the Convent of Our Lady of the Ballot Boxes in High Leicestershire.

Thanks to a reader for the nomination.

"It feels like gruel": Lib Dem MPs express dissatisfaction with Ed Davey's approach

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Significant numbers of Liberal Democrat MPs are becoming frustrated by Ed Davey's cautious leadership and the party’s failure to spell out a national message to voters, according to an article posted on the Guardian website this afternoon:

Peter Walker quotes one MP as telling him:

"Morale is low. No one is saying get rid of Ed. But what they are saying is that those around him need to move with significant pace towards the development of a national story for the party to tell. We need to be a bit more serious about being the third party."

The unnamed MP is right about our lack of a Lib Dem narrative. We fought the last general election as a collection of by-elections – three bullet points and Labour can't win here – and we often appear still to be approaching politics in that fashion.

Walker quotes some Davey loyalists too, but he reports:

Many Lib Dem MPs nonetheless agree that the party needs a coherent national policy, particularly on the cost of living. "We need a big retail offer on the economy," one said. "We need to be more radical on this and if we are, Ed is the person to do it as he’s well liked, experienced and won’t scare people."

Is this just Sunday paper talk or a sign of serious discord in the parliamentary party? I can't be the only person who's heard of complaints that Davey's leadership is very top down.

Anyway, another of Walker's anonymous MPs sounds a warning note:

"There’s no shouting, there is no jostling for position. But there are penetrating questions being asked about our purpose and where we are going. At the moment it feels a bit like gruel. Ed needs to be mindful that it won’t take much more for colleagues to become really frustrated."

Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman: The Very Day I'm Gone

BBC Radio 3's Late Junction is a treasure, so of course the station's controllers can't stop cutting it. It once ran for two hours, three time a week: now it's only 90 minutes and only on Fridays.

As Wikipedia says:

The programme has a wide musical scope. It is not uncommon to hear medieval ballads juxtaposed with 21st-century electronica, or jazz followed by international folk music followed by an ambient track.

It was on Late Junction that I heard Carl Orff's Trees and Flowers, which is surely taken from the soundtrack of a lost folk horror classic. 

And I remember hearing Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by something called Vampire Weekend. I thought I'd discovered an obscure band to feature here one Sunday, but on further investigation they proved to be about the trendiest band in the world at that time. (Normally, of course, I'm down with the kids.)

Which brings us to Nora Brown and Steph Coleman, who I heard on Late Junction the other week. Their billing for a gig at The Harrison – a pub near St Pancras where I've been known to meet Liberator friends – in 2023 explains:

First brought together by Brooklyn’s tight-knit old-time music community in 2017, Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman share a rich musical partnership that belies their 20 year age difference. Nora is a banjo player, and has released 3 albums on Brooklyn based Jalopy Records. She has performed across the US, Europe and Japan including NPR’s Tiny Desk and TED EDU. 

Stephanie is a master old-time fiddler, having recorded with and toured internationally over the last two decades with celebrated artists such as trailblazing all-women stringband Uncle Earl, Watchhouse’s Andrew Marlin, and clawhammer banjo virtuoso Adam Hurt. 

Nora and Stephanie recorded together on Nora’s debut album Cinnamon Tree, and have performed as a duo at such renowned festivals as the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Trans-Pecos Festival in Marfa, TX, and are looking forward to performing at major festivals in Canada and Europe in the coming year including the Winnipeg Folk Festival and the Roskilde Festival in Copenhagen.

I like The Very Day I'm Gone, though I suspect it's best listened to in the late evening.

The Joy of Six 1462

"America has become a place where it is no longer entirely safe to speak freely. Where criticizing the Government can get you into trouble, perhaps even cause you to be fired from your job, or deported. Where engaging in public protest can get you arrested. Where every day you wake up with a clenching stomach, wondering what new Government outrage has happened overnight." Alexandra Hall Hall on living in the US today.

Thomas Lockwood says Robert Jenrick's Newark constituency "is now is now a live laboratory test for the future of the British right – and for the fragmentation and reinvention of British politics".

Zoe Crowther talks to Imran Ahmed, the British-born campaigner against online hate who is threatened with deportation from the US. He fears the "tendrils of Big Tech" have already reached Westminster.

Foluke Ifejola Adebisi reflections on the life and death of Patrice Lumumba. "We often decry our current African leaders, their incompetence, corruption, complete lack of willingness to stand up for the good of their countries or their people. But while we decry them – and we must do that with all that we have – let us not forget that we sometimes had leaders who gave their all to the struggle. Their blood, their lives, their spirit, their souls. Let us not forget what happened to them." 

"This myth of 'boy books' does real harm. It narrows reading down to one-dimensional stories built around aggression or dominance. The overwhelming message boys receive is that reading is fine, as long as it reinforces orthodox masculinity and does not ask you to feel too much or think too deeply." Louis Provis on the wrong way to encourage boys to read.

"Hayley Mills was quickly growing out of her childhood film roles and this was an ideal production that helped transition her into more mature teen roles." Silver Scenes celebrates The Moon-Spinners (1964).

Will Neolithic stones in garden of James Corden's former £8.5 million mansion be returned to Jersey?

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It's the question everyone's asking and it's our Headline of the Day too. Well done ITV News.

Because they were in a good mood (they're allowed an extra bottle of port on Fridays), the judges also named two highly commended entries.

The Guardian for:

‘Bigger and lower’: bull in Dutch painting once had much larger testicles

Cambridgeshire Live for:

Next stage of Fens Reservoir project delayed as questions remain over how to fill it with water

Hunting ley lines in Shropshire: Castle Ring to Mitchell’s Fold

You know how none of us believe in ley lines? Here's the fourth part of Third Rate Content's quest following one line they have found in Shropshire.

Their YouTube blurb says:

Join Third Rate content on an epic adventure from Castle Ring to Mitchell’s Fold in the Shropshire Hills! In this episode, we hike through stunning landscapes, exploring ancient hillforts and uncovering hidden prehistoric mysteries. 

Stumble with us as we discover an unmarked stone ring (approx. 100 sq ft, semi-submerged stones) not shown on OS maps, possibly a Bronze Age ring cairn or ritual site near the Castle Ring. The journey ends at the iconic Mitchell’s Fold stone circle, steeped in history and legend.

A chance chat at the car park revealed another uncharted site—could it be another secret waiting to be found? We’ll share tips on navigating this rugged terrain and hints for spotting these elusive treasures. Buckle up and I’ll see you out there. 

Like and subscribe, my pretties. Like and subscribe.

Saying Reform UK are "just the same old Conservatives" may not be the smart line some think

Reform reveal their new branding…. It’s clear: Nigel Farage’s Reform is just the same old Conservatives that ruined the country in the first place.

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— Liberal Democrats (@libdems.org.uk) 16 January 2026 at 14:19

BlueSky's hive mind has decided that branding Reform UK as "Conservatives 2.0" or something similar is a winning strategy, but I'm not so sure.

Perhaps because people who comment on such things online tend to be middle class and tend to be in the South of England - there's no real evidence for it, but it's scientific fact - the idea that Reform's voters are all drawn from the disaffected working class and backed Labour until recently has gained near-universal currency. These are people, the hive mind believes, who live up North somewhere among closed shipyards and whippets.

But as I pointed out in an article for Liberator last year, Reform swept the Tory shires in last May's local elections, and you don't do that on working-class Labour votes.

Telling these ex-Tory, newly converted Reform voters that their new party is "just like the Tories" is more likely to reassure them than alarm them. If we want them to think again, it would be better to emphasise how extreme Reform is and paint it as unpatriotic because of its dislike of British institutions like the NHS and the BBC, and its enthusiasm for Trump and Putin.

I think this is the "hopeful nostalgia" Josh Barbarinde was talking about the other day.

You could argue that Reform splitting the Tory vote will help more left-wing parties, but encouraging people to vote for far-right parties because you think it will help you in the short terms is a fool's game.

What I do like in the message from Lib Dem High Command above is "webuyanytory.com".

There is a tendency among politicos on Bluesky to announce that it doesn't matter how may Tory politicians join Reform or how disreputable they are, because most voters aren't even aware of it.

This view, too, is touched with snobbery. It may take the public a while to notice such things, but they do notice them, and once they've done so, it's hard to get them to unnotice them. It's also open to other parties to seek to speed this process, of course.

So let's stop calling Reform "Conservatives 2.0" and continue pointing out their extreme views and that they've recruited the very worst Tories.

Norfolk Tory accused of damaging walls at 15th century castle

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The judges have been hard at work, so I can announce that today's Headline of the Day Award goes to the Eastern Daily Press.

Yes: Wonderous Stories

Deeply unfashionable though prog rock is, this still sounds lovely.

The Joy of Six 1461

"The government continues to frame the cost-of-living crisis as a problem that can be solved largely through domestic policy choices. Announcements focus on price caps, fare freezes and measures like free school meals and breakfast clubs to ease pressure on family budgets. But these treat the symptoms, not causes." We need to recognise that geopolitics is driving the cost-of-living crisis, argues Anna McShane.

Harriet Walter on the effect of the government's misbegotten treatment of Palestine Action: "By accusing them of being part of a terrorist organisation rather than a protest movement, the government ensures that these people who broke machinery in factories or sprayed paint on aeroplanes or helped to plan these actions can be seen not as ordinary people who are innocent until found guilty of ordinary crimes such as criminal damage or violent disorder, but as outside forces that are deeply threatening to social order and our ways of life."

Chaminda Jayanetti says falling school rolls are not just a problem for London.

"His fabulously wry first wife, Eileen, described his landmark 1941 essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ as ‘a little book explaining how to be a Socialist, though Tory’. Even in his most revolutionary moods, Orwell was very specific about what should stay and what should go. Small wonder that he found fault with every version of socialism except his own." Dorian Lynskey reviews two recent books on George Orwell.

"She became a byword for the brutal and controlling ways of the ‘Hollywood factory’ and its tendency to swallow up child stars. You’ve probably heard that MGM encouraged Garland’s use of drugs – ‘pep pills’ to get her to work and suppress her appetite, downers to help her sleep – only to criticise her for being unreliable when she became an addict who sometimes couldn’t show up for work. Eventually, the studio dropped her. She wasn’t yet thirty." Bee Wilson on Judy Garland.

Peter Adams has good news. The Devon Heritage Orchard at RHS Garden Rosemoor is preserving traditional apple varieties, some of which were on the point of disappearing.

Leicestershire pensioner fined £225 by council for flicking snot out of van window

Ashby Hub News wins our Headline of the Day Award for its tale of crime in Coalville.

The judges were, however, concerned by the story below it. The first sentence states that the pensioner was fined for "snotting out his van window".

If one accepts that "to snot" is a verb, then

snotting out a window 

and 

snotting out of a window

are surely two different things, the former being far more newsworthy than the latter.