London tram driven the wrong way through Croydon town centre

Ian Visits wins our Headline of the Day Award for what turns out to be a piece of good news:

The successful trial gives London Trams much greater flexibility during the engineering works. Instead of forcing passengers onto the inevitable replacement buses, trams can be repositioned through the town centre to continue serving routes to New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham Junction.

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"To everyone's surprise, Orbán conceded early – before 9.30pm – and cheers erupted from all corners of Budapest’s centre. One small but mighty party was organised by the centrist Momentum Movement. On the large screen was the prime minister glumly telling his supporters that it was over, and the defeat was 'painful'. In the crowds were dozens of people giving him the finger." Marie Le Conte was in Budapest when Viktor Orbán fell.

Eyal Weizman on the destruction of Gaza: "Two and a half years after 7 October 2023, most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture, wells and the soil itself – has been destroyed and made toxic by bombs, artillery, tank shells and sappers. The most systematic destruction was caused by D9 bulldozers made by the US company Caterpillar. These giant armoured machines stabbed their blades into the ground, churning up fields, felling orchards, flattening homes, tearing through roads and ploughing through cemeteries."

"France builds 300,000 homes every year. If that number sounds familiar, it's because that's the target that the UK misses year after year. So far this century, a new tramway has opened in France every six months. Is this a coincidence, or are they linked?" Thomas Ableman describes what happened when a group of transport and housing aficionados took British policymakers to France to see first hand the country’s fast growing tram network.

Matthew McManus says the right wants voters to be stupid: "In Poisoning the Minds of the Low Orders, his great book on early modern conservatism, Don Herzog notes how British conservatives relentlessly argued that the lower orders ought not to be educated lest it provoke 'insubordination'."

Diana Resnik reports on two new studies that suggest wind turbines pose very little risk to birds.

 "I’m always amazed by the technical knowledge that CFF kids seem to have, too. In our next film, The Cat Gang, a small boy's suspicions about another gang of smugglers are raised by one of the villains wanting a battery for his car. 'Most modern cars have 12 volt batteries, so why does he want a 6 volt battery?'. He’s about eight..." Bob Fischer and Vic Pratt review a new DVD compilation of Children's Film Foundation gems.

The lost streets of Park Hill, Sheffield

Any regular user of Sheffield station will be familiar with the Park Hill flats on the hillside above it. Until they were built between 1957 and 1961, this was an area of terraced houses, shops, pubs, a cinema and at least one church.

In this video Tour Obscure climbs the hill to see what remains of this old landscape. The really good news is that there are two more videos in this series.

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Andrew Page draws some lessons from Mark Carney's victory: "What we saw in Canada is that, when political leaders focus on the issues voters care about, minds (and voting intentions) can be changed. It also became apparent that the populist tactics previously employed by the Conservatives ceased to work once the incumbent party found a way of reconnecting with the electorate." 

"The Conservatives are defending a high watermark, a freakishly good result for them in 2021 created by the short-lived vaccine bounce that put wind in their sails for a few months." Matthew Pennell previews tomorrow's local elections.

Commenting on the suicide of Virginia Giuffre, Emily Maitlis says "We have to believe women while they’re alive."

City Monitor asks why Britain has let trams fall by the wayside: "People won’t leave their cars at home until there is an efficient, reliable and comfortable alternative. Trams provide that alternative. No other form of public transport allows you to travel about town smoothly and quietly, doesn’t emit noxious exhaust fumes, doesn't need a parking space, runs so frequently that you don’t even need a timetable – and actually enhances the urban environment."

Johnny Meynell explodes a popular myth about the 1970 FA Cup final: "No show-jumping took place at Wembley Stadium in the days, weeks, or even nine months before Chelsea took on Leeds United for the right to lift the FA Cup on April 11."

"It’s a surprise to arrive in Bexhill, prepared to take a look at one of the most famous examples of English modernism, the De La Warr Pavilion, all white walls, glass and steel, and to encounter a group of buildings with a whiff of the Mughal empire about them." Philip Wilkinson visits the Sussex coast.

Once Upon a Time in Leicester

This starts with footage of Leicester's trams set to Leone's theme from Once Upon a Time in the West, surveys the city's lost shops and factories, before ending with the numerous institutions in which Leicester people might find themselves incarcerated.

HMP Gartree near Market Harborough and Leicester Belgrave Road, the city's lost railway terminus, are in the mix too.

Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit.

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Jane Dodds argues that Wales can thrive with a basic income: "A basic income has five core characteristics: It’s paid in cash, so it’s money you can spend on whatever you want. It’s paid regularly, so you know the next payment is coming. It’s for individuals, with each person getting their own basic income, paid to the individual not the household. It’s unconditional, so you don’t have to work or make any promises to get it. It’s universal, so everyone gets it."

The single transferable vote breaks open one-party fiefdoms. Don't take my word for it: listen to Scottish Conservative councillor Dave Dempsey.

Becca Massey-Chase says making local public transport free at the point of use isn't a fantasy, it's a popular way to help communities and the climate – and it's already a reality in cities around the world.

"If the decline of the UK regional press since 2008 instead had happened to schools, police, fire stations or hospitals there would rightly be national outrage bordering on revolt." Dominic Ponsford on an overlooked tragedy.

"Martin was on a mission to bring down the unjust from their perches to the level of the populace." Max Adam looks at the art of the 19th-century painter John Martin and how in his epic landscapes of apocalyptic scale reflected his revolutionary leanings.

Dan Thompson visits Arlington House, the futuristic tower block that marked the start of 1960s redevelopment in Margate.

London from the Regent's Canal in 1924

Click on the image above to new a gem on the British Film Institute site.

This 1924 film shows a journey through London along the Regent's Canal from the docks in Limehouse through east London, under Mile End Road, past Whitechapel, Kentish Town, King’s Cross, Camden Lock and London Zoo to Paddington basin.

There are good shots of trams and buses in the streets surrounding the canal too.

The tram shelter that never saw a tram

When I blogged about the tram shelter at Humberstone Park I wrote that there are several more such shelters scattered across Leicester.

I also said there was one that had been put up to serve a tram route that was never built.

Here is that shelter. It stands above the canal on Western Boulevard, deep in De Montfort University country,

An old Leicester Mercury article explains the history of the shelters. They were given to the city by the hosiery manufacturer Robert Rowley.

That article also says that someone was given planning permission to sell coffee from the Western Boulevard shelter, but nothing more came of the idea.

I am sure the students would appreciate a coffee shop here, but then a tram service into the city centre would be useful too.

Leicester's only Tory councillor is knocked down by a tram

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We have seen Jack Hickey, the boy chairman of Leicester Conservatives, promise the city a tram system (though we have not heard him say how be proposes to pay for it).

We have seen that the city's only Tory councillor, Ross Grant, does not think much of the idea.

The latest news is that this opposition may have cost Grant the chance to defend his seat next year.

The Leicester Mercury reports that the city Conservatives held a selection meeting last week and Grant was not chosen to fight his Knighton ward:

The Mercury asked Leicester Conservative chairman Jack Hickey why Coun Grant had not been re-selected. 

He said: "Ross didn’t attend the meeting. 

"We have selected two of the three candidates for Knighton." 

The Mercury asked Mr Hickey if Coun Grant would be the third candidate. 

He said: "It’s possible. 

"But Ross has to start attending meetings and he has to start supporting Conservative policies. 

"He has gone a bit maverick lately." 

Do read the whole report. It shows that Leicester Conservatives' boy chairman has a unique approach to winning local elections.

Leicester Conservatives fall out over promise of a tram system

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It's quite something to have a split over your local election manifesto when you have only one councillor, but Leicester's Conservatives have managed it.

Last week I blogged about their election promise of a tram system from the city that would reach as far as Market Harborough.

Today, reports the Leicester Mercury, the city's only Tory councillor, Ross Grant, poured cold water on the idea:

“Nobody mentioned it to me. I wasn’t consulted at all. 

“If somebody had, they would have been told that I have been consistently against having a tram system in Leicester. 

“It would be horrifically expensive. 

“There are far less expensive ways of trying to deal with traffic and pollution problems. 

“You could get an entire fleet of hydrogen-fuelled buses which would have the advantage of taking people to where they actually want to go rather than just along a rail route. 

“Within my ward I don’t see how you could run a tram track down Welford Road. 

“The disruption would be immense.

It would be great to see trams back in Leicester, but I suspect this is the last we shall hear of the idea from the Tories for a while.

If they want to revive it one day, they will need to produce detailed plans. All we had from them this time is the report of a conversation at a photo opportunity with Chris Grayling.

Leicester Tories promise a tram to Market Harborough

Forget Daventry Conservatives and their canal. Leicester Tories are promising a tram to Market Harborough.

The Leicester Mercury quotes their chairman Jack Hickey:

“I discussed our ambitious plan with Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in Parliament recently, and he was enthusiastic about the benefits of light rail in Leicester and keen to listen to the business case for the project.”

Mind you, Mr Grayling doesn't look very enthusiastic in the accompanying photograph.

And you can understand it. Hickey was the man who complained that activists coming to Leicester West to campaign for his Labour opponent in last year's general election were trying to "skew the vote".

I would love to see trams return to Leicester just as I would love to see the Grand Union reach Daventry. But there would be many problems with the idea, even if the city could raise the capital to build a system.

Nottingham's trams - "I’m furious Nottingham has a tram and we do not" says Hickey - have been reported as losing almost £1m a week.

This at a time when the county Conservatives tell us they cannot afford a modest town bus service in Market Harborough.

Then there are the practicalities.

As the city's Labour mayor told the Mercury:

"We have done studies before and all parties have agreed the geography of the city – which is very different to Nottingham’s, is not suitable for a tram. 

"Weaving them out in and out of the city would be very, very difficult."

Still, full marks to the Tories for coming up with a startling idea to get some headlines.

They have to do that when, like the Liberal Democrats, they have only one councillor in Leicester.