Steam at Perth in the 1960s

If you don't like trains - and there is a diesel locomotive here too - just enjoy the music.

Stoke Bruerne

Today I went to a village which, by my best calculations, I first visited 48 years ago and last visited 42 years ago: Stoke Bruerne near Towcester in Northamptonshire.

When I was a little boy my family used to take canal holidays - which was quite daring in those days. And Stoke Bruerne is not only on the Grand Union but also home to a canal museum. That museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which must mean that it had been open only a couple of years when I first visited it.

I did not go round the museum today, though I did have a coffee there when I arrived, because buses to Stoke Bruerne are few. But there was still much to enjoy: two canalside pubs (I recommend The Boat Inn), boats and locks to watch, a twee craft shop and a tea garden.

There is even an Indian restaurant, which I suspect was not there in 1965 or 1971. I was so taken with it that I first read this narrow boat's name as 'Indian Chef', reasoning it must be a tribute to the owner of Spice of Bruerne. (The museum is the taller building in the background - an old corn mill.)

One day I will visit the museum again, but in the mean time here is a piece of village and canal history from before even my time: Sister Mary Ward.

French Dressing: Ken Russell on Herne Bay pier

This video is suggested to me by @sxybio on Twitter, who is on a roll having previously sent me the story about the giant badger terrorising schoolgirls in Kent.

It is fascinating for two reasons. First, because it consists of scenes from French Dressing, which was the first film Ken Russell directed.

Despite the presence of the kitchen-sink heroes James Booth and Roy Kinnear, it is a comedy and one inspired by Jean Vigo and Jacques Tati. The French influence is strengthened by the composer of the film's score, George Delerue. He also provided the music behind the film of St John's Wood in the 1940s that I posted recently.

And it is fascinating because it was filmed on Herne Bay pier, which is no longer there having been demolished in 1980.

For another old film shot on a long-vanished pier, see Barmacle Bill and Hunstanton.

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"What I don't tolerate, is the idea that people paid to perform marriages by the public purse should be able to pick and choose who they want to marry. This amendment was put forward, not because any great number of registrars actually had an issue, but because it was a way for the right wing to argue against Equal Marriage without being called up on their homophobia. What I don't tolerate, is our Party President's view that gay people shouldn't be allowed to have the audacity to demand that a public servant do the job they're paid to do." So Sam said... gets it right on the equal marriage vote.

Chris Gilson, on the British Politics and Policy at LSE Blog, considers how the Coalition may be brought to an end.

Love and Garbage blogged about newspapers and dignity in 2011. His words are even more relevant today.

Chris Cocking looks at the use of the world 'panic' in accounts of the Hillsborough disaster.

Dads are not idiots, says Dad Pride.

"Her books show a similarly eclectic spirit. 'The Unsophisticated Arts' combines chapters on tattooing and the seaside, amusement arcades and taxidermy, each illustrated with a mixture of photographs, line drawings and paintings. It is disorderly, intensely personal and obsessive, but at the same time the book  hangs together perfectly." James Russell on the reissue of a Barbara Jones book from 1951.

Why the Liberal Democrats should pay their interns

It's time for the Liberal Democrats to pay their interns, say a list of Liberal Youth types in an open letter to the party's president, Tim Farron, published on Liberal Democrat Voice.

And they are right.

I have reached an age where I am remarkably relaxed about young people not being paid. But, as the letter says:

This is about minimising barriers, one of which is affordability. Some of us have worked in the past as unpaid interns; we know that sometimes people are happy to work for free, or feel they have to in order break into a profession. This doesn’t make it right, and it is not an option for many people.

This is a much better argument than the one Jo Swinson used when writing about unpaid interns in the public relations industry earlier this month. To her it was a question of ending exploitation.

But as Simon Titley pointed out on Liberator's blog:

The problem with interns in the PR industry is less the exploitation of interns than the exploitation of the PR industry. 

Most PR interns come from wealthy families and are privately educated. Their parents subsidise them by providing housing and income. Anyone without that sort of support would find it difficult to survive unpaid anywhere, let alone in central London where the PR industry is concentrated. 

This is the main reason why the PR industry (especially the big agencies) is dominated by the products of public schools, and young people from more modest backgrounds find it so difficult to break in. (Interestingly, the people from more modest backgrounds who do break into PR tend to do so later in life at a more senior level, having first done a proper job). 

The main benefit of tackling the problem of interns will therefore not be to end ‘exploitation’. It will be to force the PR industry to conduct entry-level recruitment more on the basis of merit than privilege.

In a way it is a bit unfair to pick on the poor old Liberal Democrats when this is a society-wide problem. But the party does need to tackle it before we go the way of the PR industry.

Or perhaps we have. I remember taking part in one of the phone conferences with Lib Dem ministers' special advisers that the party sometimes usefully organises. On putting the phone down my chief impression was how upper class everyone had sounded - and I am usually the last person to worry about things like that.

If we don't change things soon, Nick Clegg will soon be the least posh person in his own office.

Just because you murder someone, it doesn't mean your views are worth hearing

The front page of today's Guardian is the worst I have ever seen on any newspaper. Why the Guardian wants to turn itself into a propaganda sheet for a murderer, I cannot imagine.

When you are over the anger, two possible explanations suggest themselves.

One is that this is an example of the sort of self-hatred that Western liberals can fall prey to and that Christopher Hitchens used to complain. Hurt us because we deserve it, the paper thinks its readers will say.

The other is that we tend to assume that their must be something remarkable about someone who commits such a grotesque crime and that his view must therefore be listening to.

That is a fallacy, as Munira Mirza showed when writing of the videos the 'martyrdom videos' the 7/7 bombers left behind them:

What we see in these videos are not soldiers in a war, but self-righteous young men who believe that their own moral certainty absolves them of the need to explain themselves properly. 

Nobody elected Khan or Tanweer. As far as we know, they did not have relations with anyone in Palestine, Bosnia or Chechnya. Indeed, these two men did not even bother to ask their family, friends or neighbours what they thought. 

At the local mosque near where three of the bombers grew up, one of the committee members, Muhboob Hussein, reacted with anger to 7/7: ‘This is not Islam, this is not jihad, these people are not Muslim. This man [Khan] never came to our mosque....’ 

Obviously, Khan or Tanweer did not show much interest in trying to win people over to their worldview - they thought that ‘democratically elected governments’ had less claim to act on behalf of people than they did.

And we saw just the same contempt for democratic government from the idiot presented on the front page of today's Guardian.

When I blogged about Mirza's article at the time, someone left a comment reminding me of a prophetic piece by Ian Buruma that began:

Does masturbation lead to suicide bombing? One would think not. There is no more direct link to suicide bombing than there is to blindness or schizophrenia. But there may be a connection between sexual inadequacy or frustration and the pull towards violent extremism.

Almost as depressing as the Guardian front page was the discussion of the Woolwich murder on Newsnight yesterday evening. One participant, the impressive Maajid Nawaz, spoke of the need for a Western narrative to challenge the world-view of Islamism. But you only had to look at the people with him to see there was little chance we would hear it last night.

There was John Reid who, as a Communist while the Soviet Union was the greatest tyranny on this planet, never bought into the Western narrative in the first place and is now employed by the security industry - though Newsnight never reminds of us during his frequent appearances. And there was Alex Carlile, a Liberal Democrat who long ago threw in his lot with the most repressive elements of Labourism.

And, sure enough, both Reid and Carlile told us that the most important thing is that we give the state more power to inspect the affairs of law-abiding citizens and weaken the safeguards for those it accuses of crime.

If that is the first reaction of those we are supposed to regard as statesmen, then you can see how weak the West's belief in its own values has become.

Scarthin Books, Cromford

Scarthin Books is one of Britain's great bookshops, but only one of the many reasons for visiting Cromford in Derbyshire.

Enid Blyton wins Book Title of the Day

Giant badger 'causing hysteria' at Folkestone School for Girls

Kent Online wins our Headline of the Day.

Thanks to @ColinW on Twitter.

Tory deputy leader on Hinckley & Bosworth joins the Lib Dems

John Moore, deputy leader of the Conservative group on Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council in Leicestershire, has left the Conservatives and joined the Liberal Democrats, reports the Hinckley & Bosworth Lib Dems site.

In a letter to Conservative officials he said: ""Over the last 12 or more months I have found it increasingly difficult to recognise, on a national basis, the Party I have supported for the last 50 years."

Lib Dem Council Leader Stuart Bray says, "We are delighted to welcome John to the Lib Dem Group. I have worked with him over the past 6 years on Burbage Parish Council and latterly the Borough Council and have always found him a man of great integrity who cares passionately about Burbage and the area as a whole. John is a great asset to our group on the Borough and Parish Councils."

This means the political make-up of the council now stands at 19 Liberal Democrats, 14 Conservatives (including one who is currently "suspended") and 1 Labour.

Lies on the London Underground

Mike Bell to fight Weston-Super-Mare for the Lib Dems

From the Bristol Post:

Weston-Super-Mare Liberal Democrats have selected local councillor and businessman Mike Bell as their new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC). 

Mike was the party's candidate at the last General Election in 2010, increasing the Lib Dem vote by nearly 3,000 ... 

Conservative John Penrose won the seat in 2010 with 23,356 votes, Mike Bell came second with 20,665.

The seat had a Lib Dem MP (Brian Cotter) between 1997 and 2005.

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The View from the Hills offers 14 thoughts on British politics after three years of the Coalition.

"It was a gorgeously sunny and calm day yesterday afternoon on the south west coast of Wales. 13,000ft above sea level, somewhere above Swansea Airport, I was sitting hunched up in a 'plane, ready to free-fall back to Earth!" Read what happened next to Mark Cole - and he is quoted in the current Private Eye.

Ballots & Bullets finds that children with politically engaged parents are more likely to deviate from their parents’ political views.

Delia Smith is quite right to criticise TV cookery shows such as MasterChef for intimidating aspiring cooks, and to claim that Britain has lost its grip on home cooking, says Simon Titley on Liberator's blog.

"Euphemia Penman was a remarkable individual who rose to become one of the most respected managers in the emergent tram systems of late-Victorian London. In the period, given the social conventions of the time, this was without a doubt a remarkable feat for a woman." Read more about her on Turnip Rail.

Taxi has photographs of SS Ayrfield, which has become an abandoned floating forest in Homebush Bay, Sydney.

Woman trapped hand in drain cover searching for marble

Congratuations to the Stamford & Rutland Mercury on winning my Headline of the Day Award.

The Liberal Democrats won the Harborough constituency in the county elections

Lewis Baston has analysed this month's county elections results for the Fabian Society. He concludes that "these elections were not a vote of confidence in any party".

Because of the website it was written for it is chiefly concerned with the fortunes of the Labour Party, but it will still interest all politicos.

And I was particularly interested in this sentence:

The Lib Dems were ahead in some seats that were Tory in 2010, such as South East Cornwall, Oxford West & Abingdon, Winchester, St Albans, Watford and Harborough.

An explanation of the Liberal Democrat position on a European referendum

On looking through past posts on this blog I find that I provided just such an explanation as long ago as 2007 when Ming Campbell was still leader of the Liberal Democrats:

I have been asked – all polite and requesty – by Ming the Merciflold to explain to you our new polytito on the European Unibode. 

Though confdentimost, conference, if there’s a mercifold one in that marriage, it’s Elspeth. Indeedy-ho! 

Now historibold, which is of the oldest, we have the European wars. Schlesswig versy Holstein. Alsace versy Lorraine. And all huffalo dowder until the Congress of Viennit with the replay at Villy Park next Tuesday. 

In 1945 there is a new thorcus. All the natiomost of Europe join together in a peacy. 

And from this we have the joy of the Eurovision song contest. All boom and bangit with Sandy Shore, Cliff Richibold – there’s a falolloper – and the Bucksy Fizz. 

This, of course, is the home of the Norveige nul points – and sulky up the fijord ever since. 

Fundamold to this new Europe is the swap and trade it. At first we have it all back and forward across the borders with “please have your passy portit open for inspection”. 

And this is of a great waste of time, with estimate have it and 20 billion Euro a year – and that’s without the countit and the declimly point in the wrong place! 

Unfortumost – all shame and sobit – the Britly people are not keen and soldy. What they ask of the Britly passport? What of the pound and perch and of the Queen and reignit herself? 

Hear their cryimost: give me bendy bananas or death and end it! 

For this Ming has a new thorcus – ingenimost though it is. We have the referendium. 

A refererndium – moreover and extramost – not on the Constitutioner but on the whole goddam Euroimost shooting match. 

In or out, matey? That’s the question. We can’t shakeabout any longer, despite the poply song with the knees up and bunting. 

So how is run and work it, this referendium? All puzzlibod, I hear you. 

Here in Britly we have a tradition of the firsty past the post. Or as we say, the cross and stuffit. 

We Libby Dems have a prefer of the PR. And not only that, but the single and transfer it in the multimember too. 

Here we have the long ballot and the placey of the one with the favourite and two and threep – and add 07 if you want Brian to stay in the kitchy, indeedy ho! 

With the referendium the words on the bally paper – the precise and askit of the question – becomes of the importimost. 

And conference I can reveal to you – alone and exclusimost – the verbatim and word for word of it. 

And I quotey:

“Have you stopped beaty of the wife and stay in Europe. Or do you want to lose your job and employit with the folly of a no?” 

If we don’t mention of the bendy banana we’ll be home and squeakit with that one.

Tories begin defecting to Ukip over 'loons' slur

The Daily Telegraph wins my Headline of the Day Award - paywall or no paywall - and quite possibly my Headline of the Year Award too.

Lord Huron: The Man Who Lives Forever

Lord Huron, says Wikipeida, are an American indie folk band based in Los Angeles. Their debut album, Lonesome Dreams, was released in 2012 and this is the opening track being performed at a Seattle radio station. I like the guitars entwining with the Eastern percussion.

The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway: "Perchance it is not dead, but sleepeth..."

The narrow-gauge Lynton & Barnstaple Railway opened in May 1898. It was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1922 and closed in 1935.

This video shows Lyd, a replica of one of the locomotives that worked the line, running on the small stretch of the line that has been opened near Woody Bay.

There are plans to reopen the line from there to Lynton and eventually to Barnstaple as well. You can read about them on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway website.

Nigel Farage's difficulties in Scotland

I know this blog is chiefly concerned with Shropshire and railways and photographs of churches, but if you look hard enough there are some quite prophetic political posts here too.

Back in February I pointed out that UKIP's policy platform consist of a ragbag of issues designed to reflect the worldview of angry white men of a certain age.

I then went on to say:

But there is another issue that appeals to this demographic. 

Unionism used to be the Conservatives' trump card. It won them a majority of Scottish MPs in the 1950s, which is something that it is near impossible to believe now. 

Not only is Unionism less effective as a policy: the Conservatives are not that keen on it any more ... 

And if you ask an angry white man of a certain age what he thinks of the Union he will most likely tell you (if he lives in Southern England, as so many of them do) that he is fed up with paying for services in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales that are better than the ones he can use himself. 

If the Scots want independence, he will likely continue, let them have it and see how much they enjoy paying the full cost of those services themselves. 

Which makes me wonder how long the UK will stay in UKIP. Their target voters are not keen on it at all.

Billesdon Coplow

"Billesdon Coplow is a wooded knoll, 625 ft. high, and is a conspicuous landmark in east Leicestershire," says the Victoria County History. "To the south it is visible for 20 miles."

There is something the split in its centre that has always reminded me of a freshly baked loaf. And on Saturday, as I was trudging across the fields from Barkby to Beeby, it was certainly conspicuous to the South East, though not half as close as the zoom lens makes it appear.

Today's Commons debate on mental health

Last year the Commons held an historic backbench debate on mental health. Historic not just because it tackled what was once almost a taboo subject, but also because a number of MPs spoke about their own mental health problems.

The two most prominent were Charles Walker and Kevan Jones - so much so that in today's debate Jones said that they had become "the Eric and Ernie of the mental health conference circuit". (He added: "I leave it to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the House to discern which of us is Eric and which is Ernie.")

Today Charles Walker again made a significant contribution:

I remain terribly concerned about psychosis and schizophrenia. I mentioned a few minutes ago that anyone with a diagnosis of psychosis or schizophrenia is likely to be unemployed. If one is not unemployed at the time, one will end up unemployed. Life expectancy, which has already been mentioned today, can be up to 20 years shorter than for someone who does not have that diagnosis. That is not acceptable in a civilised society and should not be tolerated. I have spoken about this before in an Adjournment debate and I want to revisit it because it is so important. 

My concern, having talked to people who care for loved ones with schizophrenia—sons, daughters, mothers or fathers - is that sometimes the NHS is more interested in managing the illness than with the overall health needs of the patient. Symptoms are managed down so that patients do not make a nuisance of themselves and take up time, but when one stands back and looks at them, they are desperately unhappy. It does not matter if they are smoking 70 or 80 cigarettes a day, because they are not making a nuisance of themselves. It does not matter if they weigh 20 to 25 stone, because they are not making a nuisance of themselves. It does matter, however, because that patient is slowly killing himself or herself and we have to address that.

Four Lib Dem MPs in top 14 of private members' bills ballot

Most of the publicity about today's private members bills' ballot has concerned James Wharton and his intention to promote the Conservative Party's Euro referendum bill.

But you may be interested to learn that four Liberal Democrat MPs came in the top 14 of the ballot:

9. Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
11. Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West)
13. Mark Williams (Ceredigion)
14. Sir Malcom Bruce (Gordon)

Even Sir Robert is probably just too low in the list to have a realistic chance of getting a bill all the way to the statute book, but who knows?

Leicester summer season to celebrate Richard III

News reaches me from Leicester City Council of plans for a summer season of Richard III-themed events and activities in the city:

Leicester's Guildhall, which is home to the current exhibition Richard III: Leicester's Search for a King, will host talks from some of the key archaeologists and researchers involved in the astonishing discovery of King Richard's body. 

Visitors will also be able to relive the nail-biting televised press conference at which the discovery was confirmed, as well as savouring the two Channel 4 documentaries following the dig, at special screenings in the Guildhall. 

Younger visitors can make the most of a programme of half-term holiday activities, including making medieval helmets, swords, shields and clay castles. 

A specially-commissioned play will explore the rise and fall of Richard III in "Now is the Winter of our Discontent", while heritage re-enactment group Conflict 1485 Bosworth will thrill visitors with examples of the armour, weaponry and soldiers which would have fought at Bosworth Field itself. 

In the nearby cathedral, a series of Dean's Discussions will see some of the key academics and specialists in the discovery and identification of Richard's remains talking about their painstaking work. 

Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and Country Park will host a series of guided walks and exhibitions over the summer, and Blue Badge guides will take visitors on walks through Leicester's most historic places. 

The University of Leicester will also open its doors for a day of Richard III-themed activities, ranging from lectures, displays and workshops, through to face-painting and magic shows for younger visitors. 

Events will culminate in August with a series of activities marking the anniversary of King Richard's death and burial. These include an annual battlefield re-enactment, family events in the cathedral grounds and a commemorative evensong concert at Leicester Cathedral on August 22 - the anniversary of the battle.

It all sounds great. Why not bring your nephews?

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"The Conservative party today is a puritanical beast, railing against the iniquities of the world but struggling to find solutions. Like 16th-century puritans, today’s Tories take comfort in purity and isolation and want nothing to do with the murky waters of compromise politics." Giles Marshall asks how many Conservatives truly want to resist UKIP on the Tory Reform Group's Egremont blog.

"Childhood trauma and abuse is the smoking of psychiatry. As a risk factor for mental illness it is comparable to how smoking a pack of cigarettes per day increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease." So says psychiatrist Simon Hatcher in a guest post on The Mental Elf.

Stephen Tall enjoys "This House" at the National Theatre.

"An important clue to understanding what went wrong can found in the reaction of the museum and its architect to Wednesday’s decision. In a series of angry statements the blame was pinned on ‘naive’ councillors and rabid conservationists. There was no soul-searching, no self-analysis, no sense of mea culpa."  Campaign to Save the Marquis analyses its unexpected victory over developers in Hoxton.

Gabriel Byng argues on Huffington Post that the sale of Britain's churches should cause an international outcry.

Ken Loach's "The Spirit of '45" bad history and worse politics, says David Hayes on Inside Story.

Stiperstones and Corndon Hill Country Landscape Partnership

Good news from the Shropshire Hills AONB website:

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has confirmed a grant of £1.35 million to the Stiperstones and Corndon Hill Country Landscape Partnership Scheme, which aims to safeguard the special qualities of the countryside. This is excellent news for the local area and for everyone, including the many volunteers, who helped to prepare the bid over the last twelve months. 

The Scheme, which will cover an area of just under 200sq km defined by a rich industrial heritage as well as earlier prehistoric and medieval history, aims to conserve and restore historic and wildlife sites, help communities take part and learn about the landscape and its heritage, and improve access and training opportunities in local heritage skills.

My photograph, taken at The Bog, shows Corndon Hill over the border in Wales.