Mountain rescue plea after man's Snowdon climb in pants

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The wacky decoration of houses in Bishop's Castle

One of the things that made Bishop's Castle perfect when I first visited it was that it wasn't too perfect.

Yes, there were fine Georgian houses, but there were always a couple of them patched up with corrugated iron. My mother says Bath was like that in the 1950s.

Time moves on and the town has grown neater. There is now a fashion for decorating those houses' external plaster in a wacky fashion.

The bubbles have been there for years, but there was a lot that was new this summer.

The trailing creeper is rather lovely and the jigsaw pieces are witty, but I thought the zip fasteners are in danger of going too far.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Night-time cricket against the Elves of Rockingham Forest

Lord Bonkers sees history made at Edgbaston and gives us a further insight into his uneasy relationship with some prominent local inhabitants.

Wednesday

Here in Rutland night-time cricket is well established thanks to the Elves of Rockingham Forest and their torches, even if I will swear they shine more brightly when the Elves are batting. Still, it is best not to fall out with these fellows, as I found when I suggested they were achieving reverse swing by underhand means. ”High Elven Magic” my foot! They were using a bottle top to lift the seam.

Where was I? Ah yes, it is best not to fall out with the Elves: last time I did it took simply ages to persuade them to turn my gardener Meadowcroft back into Meadowcroft from being a frog.

Day-night cricket is, however, a new venture for the England test team, so I thought myself something of a pioneer when I had myself driven to Edgbaston for its first such test. I was delighted that a whole row in the Hollies Stand was dressed as me, complete with false moustaches, even though I was in dressing gown and pyjamas myself. I was proud to lead them in many choruses of… well, of the songs played by my stables carillon, as it happens.

The only trouble is that I could have sworn the ball was a lurid pink, which clearly cannot have been the case. I have therefore made an appointment to have my eyes examined. (Could it be that Nanny was right after all?)

The general view was that I should see an optometrist, so that is what I am going to do this afternoon. It will be a pleasure to meet someone who always looks on the bright side of things.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10.

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary

• Instead of Big Ben
• Muhammad Ali vs Tubby Anstruther

Timon: Now She Says She's Young

From this 1968 track, a later version of which was released as a single under the title And Now She Says She's Young, you would think Timon was a star child - a sort of Liverpudlian Nick Drake - who faded with the decade.

Not a bit of it.

In the early 1970s Timon, born Stephen Murray and by then known as Tymon Dogg, move down to London and became a part of the underground scene. He shared a Westbourne Grove squat with and went busking with a young Joe Strummer.

Tymon Dogg played on a couple of Clash tracks and was later a member of Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros.

And he is still around today. Here is Tymon Dogg at a 2012 William Blake festival.

Inside the old Dainite factory, Market Harborough

Don't try this at home kids.

There are some notes about the building on the Historic England site.

Six of the Best 725

Will Tanner dissects the Conservative Party's problem with young voters.

"Across the country, students are being taught a narrow version of economics where real-world economic issues barely feature." Ten years on, Laura Bannister and Daniel Lapedus wonder if today’s economics graduates could predict and prevent another Northern Rock.

Sarah Carr and Danny Taggart ask if we need a truth and reconciliation process for psychiatry.

"The Holodomor has become a totemic symbol in Ukrainian nation-building efforts; Russian oppression has consolidated a nation once internally divided by dialect, political culture and religion. For the first time in history, Ukraine (however corrupt and impoverished) seems a viable state." Donald Rayfield reviews Anne Applebaum's book on the Ukranian famine.

adragonsbestfriend describes the launch of the Cambridge women’s branch of the Young Liberals’ League in 1910. It elected Eglantyne Jebb as its first president.

"Historians are at a loss to explain why the village suddenly appeared, much less why it was equally as suddenly deserted." The Abergavenny Chronicle on the mystery of a lost village on the slopes of the Sugar Loaf.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Muhammad Ali vs Tubby Anstruther

Today the old boy remembers his success as a boxing promoter.

Tuesday

Did you see the fight between Mayweather and McGregor? While it was not as one-sided as the pundits predicted, I was painfully reminded of the night I arranged for Muhammad Ali to fight the heavyweight champion of Rutland, Tubby Anstruther.

That one didn’t go the distance either, but it did put the Empire Pool, Oakham, on the map as a venue for boxing.

What great nights they were! Henry Cooper. Alan "Boom Boom" Minter. Vanessa Redgrave.

Above all I remember Sugar Ray Michie, a tasty welterweight who later won Argyll and Bute for the Liberals. We Liberal Democrats could do with some of her fighting spirit today.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10.

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary

• Instead of Big Ben

Half Teletubbies, half The Prisoner: The Wintles, Bishop's Castle

Half Teletubbies, half The Prisoner, The Wintles stands on the edge of Bishop's Castle. It was developed by a decade ago by The Living Village Trust:

We thought the best way of proving that it is possible to design a new village with the ambiance and attractiveness of a well loved place was to build it. We were very clear that we didn’t want to create a pastiche of an old village which would be a pointless exercise. We wanted to build a contemporary village with a very human feel to it.

It is not a village. It is part of the town - Bishop's Castle is too small to have suburbs.

And wandering around the town to kill time before for dinner, I explored The Wintles. It came on to rain, so I spent a while there sheltering.

In all that time I saw no one. It was the summer and people will have been on holiday, as I was.

But there was something odd about it's quietness. I had the same experience and feeling in Leicester's new suburb of Hamilton.

Maybe I just grew up in an age where children played out and have lived into one where they do not..

I can remember there being signs up in Bishop's Castle protesting against the development at The Wintles, though it may not have been this scheme in particular the writers had in mind.

Looking through my files I do not have photos from that era, but - as the last one here shows - I do have photos of these houses being built.

How I foresaw the European referendum campaign (with some help from Stanley Unwin)

There has not been a Liberal Revue at the Liberal Democrat Conference for a while now, but in a couple of its later appearances I did a Stanley Unwin tribute act.

The first of these explained Vince Cable's taxation policy when he was our shadow chancellor.

The second tackled Ming Campbell's call for a referendum.on Britain's membership of the European Union.

I forget why he made it - it's all a long time ago.

Anyway, my explanation went something like this.

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. 

No questions? Deep joy.

And that was pretty much how the campaign turned out. Except that someone did mention bananas and we lost.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Instead of Big Ben

The arrival of a new Liberator does not just mean a few tempting morsels from Radical Bulletin. It also means it is time to spend another week in the company of Lord Bonkers.

I'm very sorry, but there is nothing I can do about it.

Monday

When I heard that Big Ben was to be silenced for four years, I wasted no time in telephoning the Director General of the BBC to suggest they broadcast the chimes from St Asquith’s instead. Their tone is certainly distinctive and, though the clock is apt to run a little slow, that can easily be remedied by adding pennies to the pendulum (or is it by taking them off?)

I fear, however, that I received short shrift from the DG: "It’s not in London, is it?" After giving him my opinion of Simon Mann’s cricket commentaries and John Humphrys’ disinclination to retire, I put the phone down on him.

Incidentally, a more radical choice would be the stables clock here at the Hall. It is complete with a small carillon and plays tunes such as 'The Land,' 'Woad' and 'Hurrah for Lord Bonkers!' on the quarter. (The horses seem to like it.)

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10.

A flythrough of the bone crypt at Rothwell

I have never found the courage to enter it, but the crypt is open to the public on Sundays from 2.30pm to 4.30pm from Easter to the end of September.

That's what I wrote a year ago in a post about the slightly unnerving news that some of the bones in the crypt under the church in Rothwell, a small town between Kettering and Market Harborough, date from as recently as 1900.

But now you don't have to travel to the church to view its bone crypt. You can just watch this flythrough of a 3D model produced by the University of Sheffield.

Understanding the appeal of Donald Trump

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I have just got back from London and a lecture by Professor Steve Reicher. It was a joint event put on by the British Academy and the British Psychological Society.

Professor Reicher's argument was that if we are to understand the appeal of Donald Trump (and of other authoritarian populists) we have to get away from the idea that the people who voted for him are merely wicked or stupid.

An audio recording of the event should appear on the British Academy site soon. I will post the link when it does.

In the mean time, I recommend an article Steve Reicher wrote for the Scientific American with Alex Haslam, which covers much of the same ground.

They conclude:

When we put it all together, these figures tell us something important about leadership in general and about the 2016 leadership contest. They underline the point that leadership is never about the character of individuals as individuals. 

This is the "old psychology of leadership" that our own theoretical and empirical analysis has called into question. Instead leadership is about individuals as group members -whose success hinges on their capacity to create, represent, advance and embed a shared sense of "us." 

Reflecting on the implications of this analysis for the specifics of this election, we can see that many Trump voters knew full well that their man was a reprobate, that they deplored his crudities and that they saw him as a risky choice. 

And yet in a world where the system is seen to be against "us" and where things appear to be driven in the wrong direction by "them," the really irrational thing to do is to vote for the conventional candidate who represents sticking with that system.

Liberator on the departure of Tim Gordon and other party gossip

The new Liberator has arrived, so it is time for a taste of the gossip in Radical Bulletin.

There is a piece on tensions in London between new Liberal Democrat candidates, who thought their job was to increase the Lib Dem vote in their own seats, and the party's ruthless targeting strategy.

And one on the departure of Tim Gordon:

His political experience extended little beyond having unsuccessfully contested an Islington council seat in 2006, and while Gordon won genuine plaudits for his financial management - keeping the party afloat while it might well not have - his touch was less sure on political matters. 

Among the problems at HQ were that Tim Farron never put his stamp on it. It has largely been run by Clegg-era holdovers without any sense that Farron had his own people there to deliver what he wanted.

You can subscribe to Liberator online or by going along to our stall at the Lib Dem Conference.

James Fox and Richard Ayoade

As a senior member of a theatrical dynasty, James Fox has an unofficial role as father-in-law to the stars - Billie Piper for a while and Richard Ayoade.

The other day I found this film that Fox and Ayoade made for a development charity. It shows Fox sending himself up admirably.

Campaign to save former railway weighbridge at Bishop's Castle

I have read that nothing remains of Bishop's Castle station - the terminus of a wonderfully eccentric line that ran from Craven Arms and necessitated reversal halfway through the journey.

But when I was in the town a few years ago I thought that this building looked as though it might have been something to do with the railway. It was in just the right part of the town too.

And I was right, because the Shropshire Star reported last month:

A drive to save one of the only remnants of an ill-fated Shropshire railway line is to be launched. 

The former weighbridge building in Bishop's Castle is one of the only signs that there was ever a railway line linking the town with nearby Craven Arms, which was closed and mostly torn up in 1935. 

Today that building is crumbling, but now a historical society want to get a campaign underway to save it for posterity, with a meeting to whip up interest scheduled for next week.

The Lib Dem establishment does not want an anti-Brexit motion debated at Conference

A post on Liberator's blog yesterday began:

After 400+ party members signed a petition to trigger a special conference to debate a Stop Brexit policy, the powers that be in the Liberal Democrats agreed to a compromise where they would enable the policy to be debated at autumn conference in Bournemouth in exchange for the petition being withdrawn. 

But now, at the last minute, it seems that the party’s Federal Conference Committee (FCC) has broken a promise to remain neutral in a crucial conference vote this Saturday and will now oppose the attempt to suspend standing orders to allow a Stop Brexit policy motion to be debated in place of a scheduled “consultation” session on Brexit.

You can read the full story in a post by Andrew Hickey on his blog Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

What all those members who joined the Lib Dems because they are against Brexit will think, I tremble to think.

It seems that even with our opinion poll rating in single figures (and low single figures across much of the country) the party establishment is still most concerned with not upsetting the votes by being too controversial.

Dancing around in a bra in front of your neighbours may be weird but it's not a crime, court rules

The Daily Telegraph wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Write a guest post for Liberal England

This is a reminder that I welcome guest posts on Liberal England.

And as you can see from the list of the 10 most recent guest posts below, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects.

If you would like to write a guest post yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea.

• What the US can do to end the Gaza conflict - Daphne Holmes
• "You're all the same" - Katie Barron
• The trouble with Seamus Milne - Tim Hall
• Save the University of Leicester's Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning - Sally Birch
• The peculiar contradictions of Scotland’s Named Person scheme - Simon Calvert
• The straight line of racist politics from 19th century South Carolina to Donald Trump - Phil Noble
• How can a Liberal talk to a hate addict? - Katie Barron
• The Second World War families who took evacuees into their homes - Gillian Mawson
• What happened to the 8th Lincolns at the battle of Loos? - Nigel Atter
• The importance of respectful relationships between teachers and pupils - Sean Warren and Stephen Bigger

Moonraker, Dolly's braces and the Mandela Effect

Do you remember the scene in Moonraker?

Dolly helps Jaws out from wreckage of the ski-lift. He looks at her showing his metal teeth. She smiles back, showing the braces on her teeth.

His heart is softened and he is eventually redeemed by his love for her.

Except... that scene never happened. When Dolly smiles she shows nothing more than her teeth.

I thought I remembered seeing braces, but I was wrong.

Equally, I thought that Brian Dennehy, the American actor who starred in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect in the 1980s was dead. But he is still with us.

Both these are favourite examples of the Mandela Effect. This is the idea that our memories do not always fit the public record, not because they are faulty, but because that record is somehow falsified.

The Mandela Effect gets its name from the fact that many people were convinced that the death of Nelson Mandela had been announced many years before he was released from prison.

It seems pretty clear that this is because people's memories of the death of Steve Biko have somehow become muddled up with their memories of Mandela.

I suspect this is an American phenomenon. Opposition to Apartheid was central to the British left when I was young - I even heard Biko's friend Donald Woods speak when I was at university - and Britain has many historic links with South Africa.

Dolly's nonexistent braces seem to have lodged themselves in our minds because the scene would have been wittier if she had worn them.

And there was a false report of Dennehy's death in the US, though I have no idea how I came across it.

I have seen it suggested that the Mandela Effect is a creation of the internet. Once, if we looked something up and found our memory was wrong, we would probably have accepted it.

Today, we can go online and find a community of people who have just the same memory as us.

And that must prove something really weird is gong on, right?

Chess world is rocked by row over player's shorts

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From the Toronto Star:

Canada’s chess federation has filed a formal complaint over the treatment of a Canadian grandmaster at a signature event just minutes before he was to play one of the biggest matches of his career. 

Anton Kovalyov, 25, said in a Facebook post he pulled out of the World Cup in Republic of Georgia last weekend because an organizer complained to him about his shorts and called him a gypsy. 

The Chess Federation of Canada has protested against Kovalyov’s treatment to FIDE, the World Chess Federation, as well as to the organizers of the $1.6-million event. 

Kovalyov said an organizer berated him about his shorts just minutes before his third-round match. 

The Ukrainian-born Montrealer, currently a university student in Texas, had worn the shorts in previous rounds without incident. 

"The issue were not the shorts, but how I was treated," he wrote.

I have a soft spot for the the organiser in question, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, because he was one of the last people to play my favourite opening, the Modern Defence, at the top level. But is fair to say he is a controversial figure.

Oh, and the Daily Telegraph reminds us that a Hungarian player complained about Nigel Short's shorts at an event in Serbia in 1987.