Those Lib Dem targets for the next general election in full

Embed from Getty Images

Michael Mullaney, who was our candidate in Hinckley and Bosworth on Thursday, has tweeted a list of the Liberal Democrat near misses at this election. They form a handy list of targets for the next election.

The second column gives the number votes we were adrift of the winner, and the third the percentage swing needed to win it next time. It is this latter figure that determines a seat's ranking in the list.

All these seats are held by the Conservatives except Burnley, which is held by Labour.

                                                                         %

Godalming and Ash                         891         0.81

Farnham and Bordon                     1349        1.27

Hampshire East                              1275        1.27

Shropshire South                            1624        1.57

Dorset North                                   1589        1.60

Romsey and Southampton North   2191        2.19

Cotswold North                               3357        3.34

Torridge and Tavistock                    3950        3.89

Burnley                                            3420        4.31

Hamble Valley                                 4802        4.35

Hertfordshire South West                4456        4.62

Salisbury                                          5285        5.27

Buckinghamshire Mid                      5872        5.44

Sevenoaks                                       5440       5.45

Hinckley and Bosworth                    5408       5.66

When I blogged about Gordon Birtwistle, who was our candidate in Burnley having been MP for the town between 2005 and 2010, I wondered about his claim that the contest was between him and Labour, But he turned out to be quite right.

Labour council group leader in Leicestershire joins the Lib Dems

Good news from Leicestershire this morning. Charlotte Green, leader of the Labour group on Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and the only Labour councillor in the new Hinckley and Bosworth constituency, has joined the Liberal Democrats.

The Lib Dem candidate for Hinckley and Bosworth is Michael Mullaney. Announcing the news on Twitter, he said Charlotte knows only the Lib Dems can beat the Tories there, so she urges Labour supporters to vote tactically to get the Tories out.

Paul Simon: Anji

Composed and played by Davey Graham, Anji was the track that every acoustic guitarist wanted to master in the Sixties. 

Acoustic Guitar explains:

Singer-guitarist Wizz Jones recalled Graham playing it at the Continental Coffee Bar in London’s Soho district around 1960—Anji, the song’s namesake, was Graham’s barista girlfriend who worked there. “Other people have claimed that they’re the Anji the song was written about,” Jones says, “but they’re lying.”

For many players, “Anji” was the portal from simple folk to new possibilities. Its author was a cool, military-mannered bohemian of Scottish and Guyanese ancestry, who dazzled young solo guitar players such as John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, and Bert Jansch with his command of various idioms, from blues to Indian ragas. “Davey was the one—the guru—who really inspired a whole generation of European guitar players,” Jones says.

And here is Paul Simon demonstrating his mastery of the tune live on Granada in 1967.

Simon also performed tt on the Simon and Grafunkel album Sounds of Silence and sampled its introduction for "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" on the same record.

As we once discovered for this blog, Davey Graham was born at Bosworth Hall in Leicestershire.

Good news about Little Bowden Junction signal box

'Whatever happened to Little Bowden Junction signal box?" I asked back in July.

The box used to stand on the Midland main line in Market Harborough. It was taken down and then re-erected at the Coventry Steam Railway Centre, which later became the Electric Railway Museum, in 1987.

That museum closed in 2017 and its site was redeveloped. I could fine no mention of what happened to the box.

The good news, which comes from the chairman of the Suburban Electric Railway Association, is that the whole collection from the Coventry museum was preserved.

Little Bowden Junction box was taken to the Battlefield line in the west of Leicestershire. It is there awaiting reassembly at Market Bosworth or Shackerstone.

Police hunt for 'naked James May' spotted on bridge in Bosworth

Today's Headline of the Day Award is a home win.

Well done to the Leicester Mercury.

Lib Dems gain Hinckley & Bosworth and strengthen their hold on Oadby & Wigston

There were two Liberal Democrats triumphs in yesterday's local elections here in Leicestershire.

In Hinckley & Bosworth we gained nine seats from the Conservatives to take control of the council. The balance there is now 21 Lib Dems, 11 Conservatives and 2 Labour.

We previously had control of the authority between 2007 and 2015.

In Oadby & Wigston, which we have held since 1991, we gained five seats - four from the Tories and one from Labour.

The balance now is Lib Dems 24 and Tories 2.

And they are lucky to have two. Oadby & Wigston Conservatives spend their time feuding, joining Ukip and indulging in endless negative campaigning on social media.

It's no wonder that people have become less and less inclined to vote for them over the years.

Since you ask, in Harborough we gained four seats from the Conservatives, who remain in control.

Permission granted for test track on part of Bosworth Battlefield

This evening the planning committee of Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council approved a planning application from the Japanese engineering firm Horiba Mira Ltd to build a test track for driverless vehicles on part of Bosworth Battlefield.

The decision was deferred from last month's meeting after heritage organisations began to express their concern.

I am finding it hard to feel happy about this decision.

It seems to arise from a small council's natural anxiety to please a major local employer and from the lack of an initial outcry from the heritage lobby.

The conclusion seems to be that sites of national importance should be protected at a national level.

Council defers decision over test track at Bosworth Battlefield

From the Leicester Mercury this evening:

Councillors have voted by some distance (12-2) to defer making a decision on the track. 

They hope the big brains at Horiba can go away and come up with something the BOTH delivers their track and preserves the battlefield in its entirety. 

But Horiba have been pretty clear tonight there’s only one plan that can deliver the technical requirements the track demands. It was the one on the table and councillors just passed up the opportunity to approve it.

The planning authority for the area is Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

Car testing track set to be built on part of Bosworth Battlefield

There was alarming news from the Leicester Mercury earlier this week:

Councillors are set to approve the development of a £26million Leicestershire testing track for driverless cars. 

Mira Technology Park wants to build the facility on 83 acres of land next to its existing vehicle testing centre at Higham-on-the-Hill near Hinckley, partially within the registered Bosworth Battlefield site. 

Heritage watchdog Historic England says it fears the scheme could cause some harm to the battlefield where Richard III lost his crown and life in 1485.

The track is government funded and planning officers at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council have recommended that the application be approved.

There is some local controversy, according to the Mercury, over the road access to the track, but that is all.

Is a historic battlefield really the only place it can be built? You can sign a petition against the development.

Ruling Conservative group on Hinckley and Bosworth in disarray

The Leicester Mercury reports that two leading Conservatives on Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council - Chris Boothby and Stan Rooney - have stood down from the council's executive:

Councillor Rooney, the council’s lead member for planning, has quit the post and stepped down as member for Burbage, Sketchley and Stretton. 

Councillor Boothby has been removed from his post as executive member for housing and community safety services after falling out with Coun Rooney and council leader Mike Hall.

You can read the Tory leader's explanation of these events in the Mercury article. Apparently Boothby has "done some fantastic work" and Rooney "was doing a great job".

Stuart Bray, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, gives good quote:

“The ruling Tory group is deeply divided and are too busy falling out amongst themselves to properly serve local residents. 

"They were already unpopular with residents for their brown bin tax and record high council tax levels. This latest internal spat shows that Mike Hall cannot control his own group let alone run a council."

The Liberal Democrats had control of the council between 2007 and 2015.

Roger Helmer to quit the European Parliament

Reaction to the news that Roger Helmer is to stand down as one of the East Midlands MEPs is meeting with a mixed reaction across the region.

Reports are reaching us of wailing and gnashing of teeth in Market Bosworth and the more remote regions of Kesteven, while there has been dancing in the streets of Matlock.

As we go to press there are Facebook rumours of outbreaks of public disorder in Cropwell Bishop.

But I thought it would be appropriate if Liberal England paid its own tribute to Mr Helmer. He has certainly given us plenty to write about.

He first spoke of retiring from the European parliament in 2011 when he was still a Conservative. But when the Tories declined to allow him to be succeeded by a self-proclaimed expert on UFOs and alien abductions, he decided to say on and cross the floor to Ukip.

In August 2012 he was obliged to move his office from the Harborough Innovation Centre, a facility for start-up tech companies opened with the help of public money. "I have to admit I'm not a start-up tech company,” he admitted.

That same month he was a few seconds from providing this blog with a scoop.

In August 2013 he told Stephen Nolan of his belief that girls aged under 16 could consent to sex.

And in October 2014 he performed the considerable feat of discovering a Thai massage parlour in Lutterworth.

Since then things have been quieter. But, truly, we shall not see his like again.

A few minutes later. A report on the Guardian site suggests we may not have heard the last of Mr Helmer:

Roger Helmer, a key member of Ukip’s top team, is resigning from the European parliament, ahead of a demand to repay around £100,000 of EU money for alleged misuse of public funds.

Davey Graham was born at Bosworth Hall

When I visited Bosworth Hall in Market Bosworth - there it is above - I wrote:

The Dixie family fortune was lost in the 19th century, and the house and estate were sold in the 1880s to pay gambling debts. After the estate had changed hands a few times, it was bought by Leicestershire County Council and became a hospital - Bosworth Park Infirmary - in 1931. 

When the hospital closed in the 1980s, it was converted into the Bosworth Hall Hotel.

What I didn't know then is that the great guitarist Davey Graham was born at Bosworth Park Infirmary. There is even a plaque on the building commemorating the fact.

I learnt this, my Trivial Fact of the Day, from a page on Hinckley Past & Present. It lists all the blue plaques in that part of Leicestershire. (If you know of any more, please let them know.)

Davey Graham? You know, Anji...

The Battlefield line in West Leicestershire

Yesterday I visited the Battlefield Line in the west of Leicestershire. Some heritage lines are preserved and polished to within an inch of their lives: this one is not like that.

Its slightly homely nature gives you an idea of what branch lines must have been like in the last days of their operation.There were no steam locomotives running yesterday - just a couple of ill-matched diesel multiple unit cars.

For that reason I recommend a visit to the Battlefield Line. It will also take you to within a short walk of the Battle of Bosworth visitor centre.

It was good to see the building from Leicester Humberstone Road station in its new home.

And it was sad to see 45015 mouldering away beside the line at Shackerstone. (It is not owned by the Battlefield Line people themselves.)

The danger now is that Leicester and the county will grow apart

View image | gettyimages.com

I have another first person column in the Leicester Mercury today.

First Person: The danger now is that Leicester and the county will grow apart

The eyes of the world were on Leicester as we reintered Richard III, but one of the best parts of the week of celebrations was good precisely because it did not just involve the city.

Taking Richard’s bones to the site of the Battle of Bosworth and to the villages associated with it seemed an odd, almost primitive, idea when it was announced. But it turned out to be a triumph.

What we saw on the BBC News channel and heard on BBC Radio Leicester that Sunday was a civic England - councillors, ex-servicemen, Scouts and Brownies – some feared had been lost in the ‘modernisation’ and the turbo-capitalism of the last two decades.

What we also saw, as the cortege set off from the city, toured a distant party of the county and then returned was Leicester resuming its place at the ceremonial centre of the county.

That is how it should be, but rarely has been since the city broke away from the rest of the county to become a unitary authority in 1997.

Overnight, Leicestershire went from being an ancient authority whose boundaries everyone understood to being a doughnut. There was a hole in the middle where its historic county town ought to be.

The danger now is that the city and county will grow apart. One multiracial, multicultural, multieverything and close to a Labour one-party state. The other a chunk of Tory England dressed in Barbours and living off Stilton and pork pies.

There are a lot of stereotypes here  (though, come to think of it, I own a Barbour myself). Two Leicestershire districts are run by the Liberal Democrats and it’s not long since the party ran Leicester in coalition with the Conservatives.

But we do need something to bring Leicester and its county back together. And, as  the county cricket team is no longer up to the job, maybe Richard III can help?

I’m not suggesting we dig the old boy up again and take him to see Twycross Zoo or Foxton Locks. But there have been suggestions that the magical Leicester Glows event that finished the celebrations should become an annual fixture.

That is a great idea, and it will be an even better one if the event keeps the countywide spirit alive. Maybe someone could ride in from Bosworth with a flame to start the thing off or we could find some other part of the county’s history to connect with it?

However it is done, it would be good see Leicester at the heart of the county again.

Paying my respects to Richard III

Alarmed by stories of long queues, I arrived at Leicester Cathedral at eight this morning. That proved early enough to beat the rush and it took me only an hour to pay my respects to Richard III and leave.

It was such an English queue that you could buy a cup of tea as we snaked around the Cathedral Gardens, and someone close by was making a lot of money selling white roses.

When you got inside the cathedral, Richard's coffin, with its black pall and a servicemen at each corner, looked entirely regal.

We were a modern crowd, with phones and cameras and tablets - someone's phone went off with Call Me by Blondie as its ringtone while I was trying to be all solemn - but I like to think we did the King proud.

It has been a remarkable week for Leicester and Leicestershire. 

When the plans for taking Richard's bones around the Bosworth battlefield and the villages associated with it were announced, I wondered if it was a good idea. But it turned out to be an act of genius and I found myself ridiculously moved.

This, I think, had less to do with Richard III and more to do with the community involvement. Councillors, ex-servicemen, Scouts and Brownies... 

What we saw on BBC News and heard on BBC Radio Leicester was the sort of civic England you fear had been lost to modernisation and the turbo-capitalism.

Because the day was not about celebrating Richard III or the monarchy: it was about celebrating our pride in Leicester and Leicestershire. In the end, the day was about ourselves.

And then Richard's return to Leicester in triumph, rather than naked over the back of a horse.

Let no one tell you that history cannot be rewritten.

Rev comes to Market Bosworth

From the Leicester Mercury:

An unholy row has erupted after a parish priest announced that a ceremony to mark his civil partnership is to be staged at his church. 

A local parishioner has said that the service to celebrate the partnership between the Reverend Dominic McClean and his male partner at St Peter’s Church in Market Bosworth amounts to a “gay wedding”.

Thanks to...

It's like a a real life episode of Rev - http://t.co/qiJPxzSrA5 - row erupts over parish priest's civil partnership service at church
— Ned Trifle (@nedtrifle) September 15, 2014

...for giving me an excuse to use one of my photos of St Peter's, Market Bosworth.

Richard III to be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015

The remains of King Richard III, reports the Leicester Mercury, will be reburied in the city's cathedral on March 26 2015.

The newspaper goes on:

Channel 4 will broadcast the service live and as well as showing highlights later that evening. 

The ceremony itself will be by invitation only, but organisers have suggested a large screen could be placed outside St Martins for the gathering crowds to watch the royal occasion live. 

The seven day programme of events will commence on Sunday, March 22. 

The University of Leicester will transport Richard’s remains from Leicester to Bosworth - the location of his death at the hands of Henry Tudor’s army - to remember his final moment. 

The lead-lined coffin which will hold the fragile 500-year-old skeleton will then be carefully transported to a number of villages in the county which featured in the last days of his life.

Bosworth Hall, Dr Johnson and George II

This is Bosworth Hall, where Dr Johnson lodged while he was teaching at the town's grammar school. Now a hotel, it was built by the Dixie family during the reign of William and Mary.

The Dixie family fortune was lost in the 19th century, and the house and estate were sold in the 1880s to pay gambling debts. After the estate had changed hands a few times, it was bought by Leicestershire County Council and became a hospital - Bosworth Park Infirmary - in 1931.

When the hospital closed in the 1980s, it was converted in the Bosworth Hall Hotel. Though that website is convinced the hotel is in Warwickshire, it is really in Leicestershire.

Wikipedia has a story about Sir Wolstan Dixie, the fourth baronet, who was "legendary for his ignorance":

A neighbouring squire ... objected to Dixie barring access to a footpath across his land. The ensuing fight must have been memorable, for Dixie at least: when he was presented to the Germanic King George II at a levee as Sir Wolstan Dixie “of Bosworth Park”, the king, wanting perhaps to show some knowledge of important English battles, said, “’Bosworth-Bosworth! Big battle at Bosworth, wasn’t it?’ 

‘Yes, Sire. But I thrashed him’, replied Sir Wolstan, oblivious of any other fight than his own”

This reminds me of a story told of the late Otto Hardy from Loughborough, who took his chess very seriously. (Since you ask, we met once in the county league and I won.)

One day, as he was about to go into a building in Leicester to play a county match, he was stopped by three Liverpool fans, who were festooned in red scarves, in town to see their team play Leicester City and unsure of the way to Filbert Street.

"Excuse me, mate, do you know where the match is?" they asked.

"Oh yes," replied Otto, "it is upstairs on the first floor."

The Batter of Bosworth wins Chip Shop of the Day

Read more about today's winner, to be found in Station Road, Market Bosworth, in this Leicester Mercury article.