Banned in London

The Manifesto Club has launched a Google map, titled Banned in London, which reveals the 435 special zones that now cover half the area of the British capital.

Writing on Spiked, Josie Appleton says:

In these areas, people can be fined or prosecuted for activities that would otherwise be perfectly legal - including leafleting, protesting, dog walking, gathering in groups, or drinking. Similar zones have been enacted by local authorities across the UK. In London and most other UK urban areas, there are four different kinds of zone: no-dog zones; no-leafleting zones; alcohol-confiscation zones; and dispersal zones. London also has the distinction of a fifth zone – a restricted protest zone, in the vicinity of the Houses of Parliament.

And she goes on to explain:

Worryingly, these banned zones are being enforced not only by police, but also by a growing force of unaccountable officials. There are now hundreds of council officials with powers to fine people for unlicensed leafleting or walking dogs in the wrong area. Several London councils also contract private security companies to patrol the streets and issue fines.

Does Cameron's lurch to the right give Nick Clegg an opportunity?

I was depressed by the changes David Cameron made in his reshuffle, particularly the way they marked the death of any support for localism or green politics in Tory circles.

However, writing in tomorrow's Guardian, John Kampfner argues that those changes have presented Nick Clegg with a welcome opportunity:

What has been found to work is when, publicly but politely, one leader says: "We advocated A, they advocated B, but we agreed to settle on C." All surveys in Europe suggest that the public respects an open airing and settling of differences. 

Yet the Lib Dem leader consistently dismisses this notion. Instead he has fluctuated from the mistaken love-in on the lawn and the kamikaze mission over tuition fees, to visceral anger over Cameron's undermining of the AV campaign and House of Lords reform. 

This month's reshuffle presents Clegg with an unlikely opportunity. He can now have no doubt about Cameron's intentions. The Conservative rump of the cabinet is as red meat as it could be – authoritarian and sceptical about climate change. Some of Clegg's team were taken aback by the changes. They shouldn't have been. 

With the coalition entering the second half of its projected five-year lifespan, the Lib Dem leader needs each and every day to tell the public what his party is seeking to do, what it will put up with, and what it won't. This can be done without petulance – at least on the Lib Dem side. If Tory backbenchers, in denial over their failure to win in 2010, wish to force an early election or go into minority administration, let them.

Liberal Democrat Conference: A reminder

Despite the vote at Conference last year, you will again have to be approved by the police before you can attend this year's event.

Once again, I call upon late Gordon Jackson to demonstrate the wrong way of presenting your papers.

Kate Bush: The Kick Inside

Having had for some years a cupboard full of LPs and nothing to play them on, I decided to act. I had either to take them down to the charity shops or buy something to play them on. I chose the latter course and am now the owner of a cute little portable record player.

Most of my collection consists of secondhand classical LPs (always wonderful value for money), many of them bought from Yarborough House in Bishop's Castle. But I also have the LPs I bought as a teenager and there is something wonderful about being able to play them today.

Songs of the Wood by Jethro Tull turns out to have been played to death - it jumps all over the place - but The Kick Inside by Kate Bush still sounds good.

In fact it sounds better than it did, because the needle on our old family portable used to pick up Kate Bush's voice in adjacent grooves and the title track sounds strange to me without that odd pre-echo.

In a 1978 interview (that was when Kate Bush still gave interviews) she explained the genesis of the song:

"That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you'."

"The Kick Inside" was also recorded by Julie Covington, but I cannot find that version on YouTube.

The search for Richard lll press conference, 12 September

This is the press conference held by the University of Leicester in the city's Guildhall on Wednesday at the which the discovery at Greyfriars was announced.

My sources tell me that the Leicester's mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, was originally a sceptic about the project. But he looks like a cat who has got the cream here.

Grumpygate rocks Telford & Wrekin Council

From the Shropshire Star:

Tory group leader Andrew Eade stormed across the council chamber to confront Labour rival Clive Elliott and told him: “We can sort this out outside.” 

Councillor Elliott, a member of the Labour Cabinet on Telford and Wrekin Council, had said: “What does he do for his Special Responsibility Allowance? 

“Even the seven dwarves went out to work. I can see some of them here: Sneezy, Sleepy, Dozy, Happy, Doc and Bashful. 

“What I don’t see is any leadership from Grumpy.”

Councillor Eade said to mayor Kevin Guy, chair of the meeting: “Either you shut him up or I will” before getting up to stand next to Councillor Elliott. 

He said: “Do you want to come and talk about it outside? Come on. We can sort this out outside.”

Thanks to a tweet from Harry Cole for the happy coinage 'grumpygate'.

More open days at the Richard III dig site in Leicester

Such has been the interest in Leicester's Richard III dig that three further open days at the Greyfriars site have been announced:

• Saturday 15 and  Sunday 16 September: 11.00am – 4.00pm
• Wednesday 19 September: 5.00pm – 7.00pm
• Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 September: 11.00am – 4.00pm

There is also a Richard III exhibition at the nearby Guildhall and guided walks around the Leicester sites associated with Richard.

More on the city council website.

GUEST POST The difficulty of getting started in farming

Joshua Metcalfe suggests some ways of making things easier for the next generation of farmers

People in developing countries depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet are increasingly challenged in their ability to produce sufficient food for their families and for markets. As the world’s population continues to grow, expected to reach nine billion by 2050, nearly 1 billion people remain undernourished and by 2050 farmers will need to double crop and meat production to meet demand.

More volatile and extreme weather, pests and disease only exacerbate the problem. Investment is needed to attract fresh blood, and increase access – access to natural resources, knowledge and information, technologies, research and extension services - to name just a few.

Although it is still an important industry, farming seems to have fallen out with the younger generations in Britain. In an attempt to move the population forward past governments and the entertainment industry have sown the seeds of professional career pride. We are born to fill a pair of smart office shoes, born to sit behind a desk and type away for 50 years until we are finally granted permission to retire. This is not a life I’d choose, which drives me to find an alternative: farming.

The agricultural industry is one of the most difficult to venture into. The very nature of the sector deters most due to the long hours required, the physical labour and the endless depths of knowledge needed.

But the sector needs new blood. With the average age of farmers being well over 60, 20 years down the line their boots will have to be filled. Our farms must keep up with the growing demand of our domestic population as well as that from further afield in Europe. What astonishes me is that nobody seems interested in following in their footsteps. The process of which could be made much easier by calculated government intervention.

Funding is the biggest issue. Enormous initial set up costs can look very ugly on one’s bank statement. Plus, even when the business is established, there is no guarantee of money coming in as any number of problems can factor in and can easily destroy livelihoods.

Interest free overdrafts could be provided to larger sums than usual for first generation farmers, offering them a strong financial wind-block for the times when hatches must be battened down. Banks can go further in assisting by offering low interest long term business loans to prospecting farmers, and if not the banks then the Government. Education comes under the umbrella of funding. The vast majority of courses at agricultural college have no government funding available, and at £10,000 a year in some cases, it leaves the hopeful farmer stuck between a rock and a very hard place.

Access to land is another tall hurdle presented to the budding farmer. The current nature of business and practice within the sector dictates that well-established and successful farms become greedy and lease or buy more and more land each year amassing truly enormous estates. Farmers need to understand that snatching opportunity away from starters will prove to be detrimental to the industry they passionately and proudly work in. Local councils must stop selling their tenant farms; they must be reserved for new starters.

One statistic that exemplifies this great land grab comes from the dairy sector: In 1992 there were 22,000 dairy farms active; today that number has dropped to 6000. This huge reduction is indicative of a trend that only recently has bucked; that trend being near industrialisation of the sector, estranging it from its organic roots in the local community.

Encouragement is essential. This will require government intervention and further regulation by bodies such as the NFU. Codes of practice in business need to be introduced and adhered to by the established farms. Funding must be made available to budding farmers. Assistance must be offered but it is also imperative that it is not made easy.

The lifestyle of a farmer is one of the most demanding and acquiring the means to instigate your venture into the industry must be equally as demanding; but it must be made available. The British agricultural industry is the most advanced of its kind in the world and it must have a future. With good forward thinking, intervention and assistance it can long continue to be as productive and profitable as it has always been.

Joshua Metcalfe blogs at I Want to be a Farmer. You can also follow him on Twitter.

Those missing monarchs in full

They were digging up the road outside my office in Leicester today. Perhaps, emboldened by the apparent discovery of Richard III in  the city, they were looking for another king?

To help them, the BBC Leicester pages have posted a guide to the English kings whose bodies have gone missing.

They are:

• Alfred the Great (he may be somewhere under Winchester)
• Harold II (who was shot in they eye at the Battle of Hastings - what happened next is unclear)
• Henry I (it might be worth searching under Reading)
• Stephen (last seen in Faversham in Kent)
• Edward V (he may be buried in Westminster Abbey, but may well not. Richard III adds: They always drag that up, don't they?)
• Oliver Cromwell (shurely shome mishtake?)
• James II (and VII of Scotland - he died in exile in Paris, and his tomb was sacked in the French Revolution)

The article also suggests that Charles I was mislaid for a good while:

Workmen rediscovered the vault by accident in 1813 and found a velvet draped coffin with the missing monarch's name on it. To satisfy their curiosity, a group of notables opened the casket and, sure enough, found a body with a detached head and a pointy beard.

Headline of the Day

Could the Daily Mail be emerging as a rival to the Shropshire Star?

Saddam lookalike attacked by gang who tried to kidnap him and force him to impersonate the dictator in porn film 

I suspect that Saddamporn is something of a niche market.

Gareth Epps on The Westminster Hour

Gareth Epps, my Liberator colleague, was interviewed by Carolyn Quinn on last Sunday's The Westminster Hour. You can hear the interview on the BBC website.

More from Gareth Epps on his blog.

Stop mental health discrimination: Back the Bill

Tomorrow morning at 9.30 the second reading of Gavin Barwell's Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill in the Commons. This video explains why MPs should support it.

Six of the Best 276

"The failure of leadership was compounded by the way in which the authorities reacted to the disaster. As the report makes clear, the attempts to evade responsibility, the prevarication of certain officers and officials, and the conduct of some parts of the media turned a tragedy into a scandal and prolonged the agony of the families who lost loved ones." Matt Gallagher writes on today's report from the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster."

Jonathan Fryer attended Nick Clegg's equal marriage celebration.

"Malls offer a false sense of community, kicking you out when the shops close at 5pm. The high street on the other hand is a place for all." On NewStart, Gilbert Rochecouste talks to Clare Goff about ways of revitalising Australia's towns.

"The brilliant, infuriating, persistent, renegade psychiatrist Thomas Szasz has died." Mind Hacks pays tribute to the author of The Myth of Mental Illness.

Heresy Corner on Channel 4's decision to pull a second screening of Tom Holland's documentary  In The Shadow of the Sword.

Victoria Walden reviews Michael Rosen's biography of Roald Dahl for the TES.

"Have you washed your hands, Tompkins?" CCTV in schools

Big Brother Watch received a lot of publicity this morning for its report Class of 1984: The extent of CCTV in secondary schools and academies.

That link will take you to the full report, and there is also an article about it on the Big Brother Watch website:

This report highlights an issue that has not been subject to any real public debate and we hope by highlighting the scale of the situation a proper debate can now take place about not only how to regulate CCTV, but also why surveillance continues to increase unchecked when there is still no academic research that suggests it is having a positive impact. 

We make three key recommendations in the report, which are: 

- The Home Office code of practice for CCTV cameras should apply to all publicly funded bodies 

- The Surveillance Camera Commissioner must have the power to enforce the code of practice and penalties for breaching the code must be available 

- The Government should commission an independent review of CCTV use in schools to explore the evidential basis upon which cameras have been installed. This should include ensuring any school using CCTV has appropriate policies in place so teachers and parents are fully aware of why surveillance is being used, when footage can be viewed and by who. 

The surveillance experiment of the past twenty years has failed to reduce crime or improve public safety. As schoolchildren across the country are now expected to accept surveillance for the formative years of their education, it is time for a different approach.

Have they found Richard III under a Leicester car park?

Extraordinarily, the answer may well be yes. Not only that, if I have understood the excavations correctly, they found him in the first trench they opened.

The video above explains how the dig has been conducted, and here is the opening statement that Richard Taylor, the University of Leicester's director of corporate affairs, made at this morning's press conference at Leicester Guildhall:

“The University of Leicester applied to the Ministry of Justice under the 1857 Burials Act for permission to exhume human remains found at the Grey Friars site in Leicester. 

“The work was conducted by Dr Turi King from the University’s Department of Genetics and Dr Jo Appleby and Mathew Morris of our School of Archaeology and Ancient History. 

“We have exhumed one fully articulated skeleton and one set of disarticulated human remains. The disarticulated set of human remains was found in what is believed to be the Presbytery of the lost Church of the Grey Friars. These remains are female, and thus certainly not Richard III. 

“The articulated skeleton was found in what is believed to be the Choir of the church. 

“The articulated skeleton found in the Choir is of significant interest to us. Dr Jo Appleby has carried out a preliminary examination of the remains. There are five reasons for our interest:

1. The remains appear to be of an adult male. 

2. The Choir is the area reported in the historical record as the burial place of King Richard III. John Rous, reports that Richard ”at last was buried in the choir of the Friars Minor at Leicester”. 

3. The skeleton, on initial examination, appears to have suffered significant peri-mortem trauma to the skull which appears consistent with (although not certainly caused by) an injury received in battle. A bladed implement appears to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull. 

4. A barbed iron arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton’s upper back. 

5. The skeleton found in the Choir area has spinal abnormalities. We believe the individual would have had severe scoliosis – which is a form of spinal curvature. This would have made his right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left shoulder. This is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance. The skeleton does not have kyphosis – a different form of spinal curvature. The skeleton was not a hunchback and did not have a 'withered arm'. 

“Both sets of remains are now at an undisclosed location where further analysis is being undertaken. 

“I need to be very frank. The University has always been clear that any remains would need to be subjected to rigorous laboratory analysis before we confirm the outcome of the search for Richard III. 

“We are not saying today that we have found King Richard III. What we are saying is that the Search for Richard III has entered a new phase. Our focus is shifting from the archaeological excavation to laboratory analysis. This skeleton certainly has characteristics that warrant extensive further detailed examination. 

“Clearly we are all very excited by these latest discoveries. We have said finding Richard was a long-shot. However it is a testament to the skill of the archaeological team led by Richard Buckley that such extensive progress has been made. 

“We have all been witness to a powerful and historic story unfolding before our eyes. It is proper that the University now subjects the findings to rigorous analysis so that the strong circumstantial evidence that has presented itself can be properly understood. 

“This is potentially a historic moment for the University and City of Leicester.”

The project is being filmed by Channel 4 (local rumour has it that the BBC turned the idea down) for a documentary that will be shown later this year.

Things have moved on since June, when I came across the legend that Richard was buried under Greyfriars in Leicester.

Badgers: Stop the Cull

Why Roger Helmer had to leave the Harborough Innovation Centre

Amid a heap of bluster, the UKIP Roger Helmer MEP admits in the Leicester Mercury that he has indeed been obliged to move his office out of the Harborough Innovation Centre because he had no right to be there in the first place:

"I have to admit I'm not a start-up tech company and a senior person from Oxford Innovations, which manages the centre, came to see me, apologised, but said I would have to leave."

Helmer's attempt to blame my old colleague Simon Galton neglects the fact that Harborough District Council is run by the Conservatives.

The Mercury found that, characteristically:

Coun Michael Rook, the Tory leader of the council, was unavailable for comment.

Still, well done to him for enforcing the rules.

Leah McGrath Goodman interviewed about Jersey on The Keiser Report

Back in July I blogged about the American journalist Leah McGrath Goodman, who had apparently been banned from the United Kingdom for seeking to investigate the treatment of children in public care on Jersey.

Here she is interviewed about her experience on The Keiser Report. The item begins at around 12:35, though the whole programme is interesting. The financial and political set up on Jersey is made to sound extremely odd.

Leah McGrath Goodman has written more about Jersey on her own website today.

Those new Lib Dem PPSs in full

News reaches me from Westminster about the appointment new Liberal Democrat parliamentary private secretaries.

Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham, has been appointed as PPS to Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.

Lorely Burt, MP for Solihull, has been appointed as PPS to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.

Stephen Gilbert, MP for St Austell and Newquay, has been appointed as PPS to Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey.

Tessa Munt, MP for Wells,  has been appointed as PPS to Business Secretary, Vince Cable.

Simon Wright, MP for Norwich South,  has been appointed as PPS to Education Minister, David Laws.

They've all done very well.

Later. It has been pointed out to me that Tessa Munt has held this post for some months. Someone had better tell Lib Dem HQ, who kindly sent me this list.

Into the Mouth of Hell exhibition, Wallsend

In 1816, as part of the celebrations of the final defeat of Napoleon, a state visit to the Britain was arranged for Tsar Alexander of Russia. He was accompanied by his 20-year-old younger brother the Grand Duke Nicholas - the future Nicholas I.

According to North-East History Tour, Nicholas expressed a wish to visit a coal mine:

Arriving at Wallsend on 16th December 1816, he was given a prolonged tour of the colliery site, before being invited to change out of his glittering finery and into a deputy-overman’s outfit, prior to being escorted to the gaping hole that was the pit-head. 

The chosen mode of descent for The Grand Duke was considered the safest of its day. This involved the riding of a large iron hook at the end of a long rope, by which he was told to cling to firmly, whilst keeping himself clear of the black and dripping walls with a short stick during his long, slow drop. 

At the time, Wallsend Colliery was one of the most profitable in the land and produced the very finest quality coal. The visit was meant to impress and enlighten, but ended up delivering a little too much in the way of information. For when Nicholas was brought to the very edge of the pit and looked down into the abyss, he stepped back hurriedly, holding up his hands in horror, exclaiming in French, “Ah! My God! It is the mouth of hell! None but a madman would venture into it!”

While I was at Segedunum museum, which stands next to the site of the old Wallsend colliery, there was an exhibition that took its name from this incident. "Into the Mouth of Hell" marked four major mining disasters that took place on Tyneside between 1812 and 1862. In particular, it commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Hartley Colliery Disaster, in which 220 men and boys died.

The fullest description of this incident and the community in which it took place is to be found on the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society site:

No man knew the people of these single-storey rows better than the colliery viewer, Joseph Humble. The viewer's duties were those of a manager who would be responsible for the day-to-day running of the pit, hiring workers, and so on. It was fitting that he had been chosen as census enumerator for much of the area in 1861: he would have known many of the families personally and would have their confidence in recording their details. Incidentally we have been able to find a good number of the miners' families in the 1861 census, but by no means all. Many would have moved into the area at the annual spring hiring in May, and in particular there was a big influx of new families from Scotland up at Quarry Row. 

Joseph Humble played a vital role during the anxious days following the closing of the shaft. He it was that kept communications going between the rescuers, led by the renowned 'sinker', William Coulson, and the anxious families at the pithead. He it was that was asked to go down once the way was open and see for himself the huddled rows of bodies with sons cradled for protection in their fathers' arms. 

His words poignantly expressed the grief sensed by all around him: "Oh, my men, my canny men, they would have done ought for me and there they are all lying dead and cold".

The exhibition has now closed, but at South Shields Art Gallery you may be able to see John Robson's 1930 painting "The Hartley Men", which makes the disaster look like an outing from a progressive school of the period gone horribly wrong.