Martin Wainwright's Guardian obituary of Michael Meadowcroft

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Michael Meadowcroft, who wrote so many obituaries himself, is remembered in the Guardian by Martin Wainwright, the son of a fellow Yorkshire Liberal MP:

Michael Meadowcroft, who has died aged 84 after a short illness, was a Yorkshire Liberal politician and activist of great resource and flair. He constantly wrong-footed Labour in its former heartlands in Leeds as a nimble source of new ideas, closely in touch with voters and patient at working with them to get local problems solved.

He served as a Liberal party member of Leeds city council from 1968 to 1983, and then as an MP for Leeds West for four years.

Meadowcroft was famously the only MP in the city’s history who led a weekend jazz ensemble in the main shopping precinct, pausing between numbers to discuss political issues with passers-by.

Exuberantly self-confident, he was a natural challenger with less interest in becoming part of any status quo. But he was steeped in Liberal philosophy as well as being a rigorous organiser, central to the party’s adoption of "community politics" during its resurgence under the charismatic leadership of Jo Grimond in the 1960s.

Crossbow stops play at The Oval - Lord Bonkers comments

Like all cricket fans, I was shocked when a crossbow bolt was fired on to the field at The Oval yesterday.

But Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England:

I recall a tense finish many summers ago in a match between my own XI and the Elves of Rockingham Forest. Clodagh Rodgers straightened one, hit the High King of the Elves on the back leg and bellowed an appeal. 

The umpire, Judge Christmas Humphreys if I recall correctly, put up his finger, whereupon an elven arrow was shot clean through his hat. He called the batsman back. 

I did not make a fuss, as it is best to keep on the right side of the elf fellows. Besides, Richard Wainwright cleaned up the tail with some short-pitched bowling.

When George Foulkes tried to zap Space Invader machines

On 20 May 1981 George Foulkes, then a Labour MP and now a member of the House of Lords, introduced a bill to give local authorities powers to control Space Invaders machines:

That is what is happening to our young people. They play truant, miss meals, and give up other normal activity to play "space invaders". They become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them, as they play the machines. 

It is difficult to appreciate unless one has seen it for oneself. I suggest that right hon. and hon. Members who have not seen it should go incognito to an arcade or café in their own areas and see the effect that it is having on young people.

He went on:

In Dudley, in Worcestershire, a 13-year-old schoolboy is reported as having stolen £106, which his grandmother had collected for her funeral, in order to play the machines. Two schoolboys in Barnsley blackmailed a classmate, who had bought stolen property, to get money to play the "space invaders". 

A Sheffield mother is quoted as saying that a Jekyll and Hyde change came over her 14-year-old son when he became hooked on "space invaders". In London, a 13-year-old vanished from his home for 10 days, visiting arcades to play the machines. 

Also in London, a 17-year-old boy was so desperate for money to feed the machines that he turned to blackmail and theft, demanding £900 from a clergyman with whom he had previously had sexual relations. 

Those examples show the force for evil which can arise among young people from addiction to "space invader" machines.

Personally, I would have been more worried about the clergyman than the Space Invaders here, but this was the 1980s.

Foulkes was denied leave to introduce his bill by 114 votes to 94. But among those voting for it were Liberal MPs David Alton and Richard Wainwright and party's leader David Steel.

Credit to Michael Brown (now a journalist) who spoke against and to the Tory MP who asked Mr Speaker how it would be possible to deal in future with the sort of trivia that has just wasted 22 minutes of the time of the House.

Six of the Best 170

David Boyle on The Real Blog celebrates the "genius" of Nick Clegg's bank share giveaway: "The Thatcherite privatisations involved a minority who did not exercise their ownership rights. This plan will involve a majority and the possibility of popular control."

Birkdale Focus has been reading Matt Cole's new biography of Richard Wainwright.

Edmund Burke is generally claimed as the intellectual father of British Conservatism, yet for most of his career he was a Whig and he was the most important ally of Charles James Fox. Liberal Vision has been reading his prophetic Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Next week, the London School of Economics hosts an Index on Censorship debate under the title "Injunctions are a necessary evil: Privacy, free speech and a feral press." MEDIAPAL@LSE looks at the issues.

Sptialfields Life meets the 97-year-old writer Emanuel Litvinoff.

Those who believe the world is going mad will find plenty of supportive evidence on Wartime Housewife: "Boy the Elder came home from school today with the following information. There are nine hundred children at his school between the age of 11 and 14 and they have a large playing field with lovely country views … which they have not been allowed to use for recreation at lunch or break time. They have now been told that they may use the field in groups of no more than twenty two children at a time and, if they do manage to get a go, they have to wear hi visibility tabards."

Joyce Wainwright remembered

Yesterday's Liberal Democrat News carried an obituary of Joyce Wainwright by her son Martin, the Guardian journalist.

There was also a report of her death in the Yorkshire Evening Post:

Joyce Wainwright was married to the late Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, who represented the West Yorkshire seat of Colne Valley from 1974 to 1987, and for an earlier period from 1966 ...

Despite being an MP’s wife at a time when the role was mainly a supportive one, Mrs Wainwright was an outspoken activist and campaigner in her own right ...

Mrs Wainwright shared her husband’s enthusiasm and commitment to Liberal politics. She was an active member of Yorkshire Women’s Liberal Federation, and chairwoman of Colne Valley Women’s Liberal Council.

The 20 firsts meme

When I started blogging memes were all the rage. They are not so common these days, so it is quite nostalgic to be tagged for this one by Iain Dale.

First Job
A Saturday job at a gents outfitters when I was in the sixth form. Soon transferred to the secondhand book trade, which was more me.

First Real Job
Working for Chess magazine in Sutton Coldfield after leaving university.

First Role in Politics
Secretary of York Liberal Students, 1979-81.

First Car
I have never owned a car, but I do have a licence so I am a real man.

First Record
The first single I bought, age 7, was Kites by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, which is pretty damned cool. I am less proud of my first LP - Band on the Run by Wings.

First Football Match
Hemel Hempstead Town vs Harwich & Parkeston in the Athenian League, c. 1968.

First Concert
My first pop concert must have been a freshers event at York. I can remember The Pirates, Bram Tchaikovsky and Mike Absalom playing.

First Country Visited
Holland and Belgium on a primary school trip in 1970.

First TV Appearance
Apart from being in the audience for the wrestling on World of Sport, it was winning the BBC East Joint Account quiz with my Mum in 1978.

First Political Speech
At my first meeting of Harborough District Council in 1986.

First Girlfriend/Boyfriend
Pauline Walker, when I was 4. She had an impressive collection of Kenny Ball EPs.

First Encounter with a Famous Person
Singing on the stage with Danny La Rue in one of his pantomimes, aged about 8. (For some reason there were not many children in the audience to ask up.)

First Brush With Death
Trying to swallow a threepenny bit as a toddler.

First House/Flat Owned
The one I am in now in Little Bowden, Market Harborough.

First Film Seen at a Cinema
I think it was Snow White.

First Time on the Radio
Interviewed for Radio 4 at the 1984 Liberal Assembly in Bournemouth.

First Politician I Met
John Farr, who used to be Tory MP for Harborough, once toured our school without talking to anyone. So it must have been Richard Wainwright and David Alton when I arranged for them to speak at York.

First Book I Remember Reading
Ladybird Key Words 1a: Play With Us.

First Visit to the London Palladium
That is a pleasure I still have in store.

Iain also asked me to tag five more bloggers to complete this meme. So...

• Niles's Blog
• Paint the Town Orange
• Stephen's Linlithgow Journal
• Himmelgarten Cafe
• Lavengro in Spain

It is traditional for at least some of those tagged to ignore the meme.