Play up and play the game

From the Daily Telegraph:

A village cricketer kept on batting through a heart attack because he stood to make his first half-century of the season.

Unfortunately, Jim Young was still on 48 when he ran out of partners. An ambulance then took him to hospital in Harlow, Essex, and, later, to a specialist unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London where he had surgery.

Thanks to Tim Worstall.

Craig Murray on tour

News from the former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Liberator contributor.

During September, Craig Murray will be speaking at a number of events leading up to the Manchester 'Time to Go' demonstration on the 23rd. His schedule looks like this:

• Tuesday 5, Walsall
• Wednesday 6, Manchester (Didsbury)
• Thursday 7, Walsall
• Friday 8, Bolton
• Tuesday 12, Portsmouth
• Wednesday 13, Liverpool
• Thursday 14, Norwich
• Tuesday 19, Oxford
• Saturday 23, “Time to Go” National Demonstration, Manchester

Further details on Craig's website.

September fattens on vines

The Common Ground page for September is now in place. "Seasonal fruit and vegetables, seasonal dishes, observations of customs and the natural world."

Who built Drax?

There is an irony in today's demonstrations at Drax power station. As the late Paul Foot recalled in what must have been one of his last columns for the Guardian:

The decision to build Drax B was taken by a Labour government in 1977 after what Tony Benn - the energy secretary at the time - tells me was a "tremendous battle" with the nuclear industry and big business, which was ideologically suspicious of publicly owned industry and/or the National Union of Mineworkers.

This is something to remember when Benn complains that George W. Bush has "torn up the Kyoto treaty on global warming".

Twenty years ago the fashionable cause was to demand that the coal industry be kept open. Today it is, by implication, to demand that it be closed down. I wonder how many of the people protesting against Drax today campaigned in support of the miners' strike in the 1980s?

Hurst stays off the booze

Today's Times extracts from Greg Hurst's book do not dwell on Charles Kennedy's problems with drink and are all the more interesting for it.

The first looks at Lib-Lab co-operation in the Kennedy years, and the second looks at the relations between Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown.

Stephen Tall points out that it is possible to buy Hurst's book via Amazon and help party funds in the process, thus salving your conscience.

Knationalised knickers

Peter Black quotes Dr Molly Scott Cato, a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff, who uses her difficulties in buying a decent pair of knickers as an argument against globalisation:

"Nonclassical economics would suggest that there is a market opportunity here for somebody who produced a decent pair of underwear. I would certainly pay a premium price. But instead, all suppliers of these items are competing on price, outsourcing production to Vietnam or the Philippines, using only the cheapest materials, so that knickers are see-through and fall apart within months. This is the way the best profits are made, and the best knickers are no longer of any concern."

Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England:

Dr Molly Scott Cato (what a splendid name!) complains about the free market in knickers, but our experience with state planning was not a happy one. Knickers were nationalised by Attlee's Government in 1947 as part of the formation of the British Underwear Corporation (or BUC, as it was universally known).

Unfortunately, this organisation was notorious for its inefficiency and poor labour relations - who can forget the String Vest Strike of 1958? - and later the young Anthony Wedgwood Benn was to waste millions in an attempt to produce Anglo-French underwear.

To be frank, when Mrs Thatcher privatised BUC it was a blessed relief. As a matter of fact I bought some of the shares myself and did rather well with them.

Susanne Lamido has some observations of her own.

Liberals and child obesity

What should the Liberal Democrats say and do about increasing levels of obesity? In recent days Iain Sharpe has posted a couple of times (here and here, to be precise) looking at the dilemma the issue poses for Liberals.

Child obesity, at least, is an issue that we should take up. The trouble is that most of the policies that get debated miss the point.

For a start, we are not eating more than we used to. The picture is not altogether clear, but the most authoritative research seems to be that by Prentice and Jebb who say:

However, in sharp contrast with the suggestion that a secular drift towards high fat diets has induced people to overeat, there is evidence, based on the National Food Survey's annual measures of household food consumption, that the British are becoming fatter in spite of consuming less energy than in the 1970s. Even after adjustments for meals eaten outside the home, and for consumption of alcohol, soft drinks, and confectionery, average per capita energy intake seems to have declined by 20% since 1970.

So the answer must be more sport in schools. That is what Don Foster said for the Liberal Democrats two years ago:

We see sport as crucial to the nation's health and well being. With child obesity trebling in the past decade, it is time the Department of Health took a far greater role in promoting sport and active living.

Children were not thinner 20 or 40 years ago because of school sport. Organised games dominated the lives of boys in public schools and, to a lesser extent, grammar schools - even if many of them spent their time shivering on the wing and hoping the ball did not come near them. But for most children school sport was not that important.

Children were thinner because they burnt energy in free play out of doors. What politicians should do is look at the forces which militate against their doing so today. Among them I would list the dominance of the motor car, the removal of authority figures from public space, the panic over child abduction and a culture that has left adults afraid to exert any sort of authority over children.

The car can be tamed by home zones, with their planting and very low speed limits. We might begin to repopulate the public world by campaigning for a new generation of Routemasters with conductors in the next London Mayoral election. The panic over stranger danger is harder to tackle, but as a first step politicians could avoid stoking public anxiety.

And adult authority? Perhaps children's freedom to play in the street was always balanced by an adult's right to tell them to play somewhere else if they became to irritating. The collapse of this sort of authority has not resulted in an age of freedom for children: instead they see their lives ever more closely policed by the state and its agents.

I have developed these ideas further in an essay that forms part of a collection edited by Graham Watson and Simon Titley. It is about to be published and will be available from the Liberator stall at Brighton. Further details soon.

Banning violent pornography

I was all ready to write something about New Labour having found another thing to ban. But read further down this BBC report and what do you find?

Others, such as Liberal Democrat MP and campaign supporter Sandra Gidley, say the government should have acted sooner.

"It's absolutely the right decision. The scandal is it's taken so long to come to this decision.

"You cannot look at this sort of material and not be affected."

Other Liberal Democrats take a more sensible view. The Whiskey Priest, for instance.

Hurst on Kennedy: Is that all there is?

I was planning to write something about the extracts (here and here) from Greg Hurst's biography of Charles Kennedy in this morning's Times. But they hardly justified the excitement the paper tried to generate. There is little in them that we did not already know.

It is interesting to know that the men in sandals went to see Kennedy after the 2004 Spring Conference. And equally interesting to know that Kennedy almost went public about his drink problem the previous summer. But that is about it.

Time to move on, I think.

Later. Iain Sharpe says much the same thing.

Discipline TV

As I write this, British television viewers can choose to watch:

• Bad Lads Army: Extreme (ITV1);
• Supernanny (Channel 4).

I am certain this tells us something significant about our society, but I am not quite sure what.

You can take things too far. Today's Shropshire Star (note the redesigned website) reports:

A Shropshire man appearing in a reality television show today told of his horror as his parachute failed to open after he jumped out of a plane at 3,500ft.

Self-confessed “layabout” Gavin Woodhouse experienced the terrifying ordeal during filming of the final episode of the ITV show Bad Lads Army: Extreme - which is due to be broadcast next month.

Kennedy biography in tomorrow's Times

Iain Dale reports that tomorrow's Times will carry extracts from Greg Hurst' new biography of Charles Kennedy.

The story has just been on the BBC news too.

Later. The Times website now has the story here and here.

Happy birthday John Betjeman

Sir John Betjeman was born 100 years ago today.

A Shropshire Lad

The gas was on in the Institute,
The flare was up in the gym,
A man was running a mineral line,
A lass was singing a hymn,
When Captain Webb the Dawley man,
Captain Webb from Dawley,
Came swimming along the old canal
That carried the bricks to Lawley,
Swimming along, swimming along,
Swimming along from Severn,
And paying a call at Dawley Bank
While swimming along to Heaven.

The sun shone low on the railway line
And over the bricks and stacks,
And in at the upstairs windows
Of the Dawley houses’ backs,
When we saw the ghost of Captain Webb,
Webb in a water sheeting,
Come dripping along in a bathing dress
To the Saturday evening meeting.
Dripping along, dripping along,
To the Congregational Hall;
Dripping and still he rose over the sill
And faded away in a wall.

There wasn’t a man in Oakengates
That hadn’t got hold of the tale,
And over the valley in Ironbridge,
And round by Coalbrookdale,
How Captain Webb the Dawley man,
Captain Webb from Dawley,
Rose rigid and dead from the old canal
That carried the bricks to Lawley,
Rigid and dead, rigid and dead,
To the Saturday congregation,
And paying a call at Dawley Bank
On his way to his destination.

John Betjeman

Back to Gumley

I have found another page on Gumley, where Offa lived and Thomas Tapling died,

In defence of the Bright Young Things

Rob Fenwick has a posting looking at the weekend's press speculation ahead of the publication of Greg Hurst's biography of Charles Kennedy.

The most substantial of the stories he mentions is that in the Sunday Times. There, Isabel Oakeshott writes:

There has been widespread speculation that Campbell, the current Liberal Democrat leader, will be portrayed as a traitor who helped to engineer Kennedy’s downfall in an attempt to secure the top job himself.

Some critics of Campbell claim that he had a secret health check, just weeks before Kennedy’s alcohol problem was exposed, to confirm that he was fit to run as leader.

However, insiders say that it is not Campbell but the party’s bright young MPs who will be most negatively portrayed in the book.

I am puzzled at the logic behind this. According to the reports, Hurst will claim that Charles Kennedy was frequently unable to function as leader because of drink. If this was the case then it is hard to see what choice these "bright young MPs" or anyone else had: it was clear that he could not continue as leader.

As I said in Liberal Democrat News back in January:

Far from being disloyal, I think that when Lib Dem MPs look back on this episode they will feel that the root of the trouble was that they were too loyal for too long.

Looking ahead to Brighton, there is a lot to be said for Rob's view:

I think it was a mistake for Charles to give this speech at conference - already being dubbed the “shadow leader’s speech”. It invites a direct comparison between him and Campbell, dramatically upping the odds for Ming, and re-opening old wounds for MPs and activists alike.

Trouble at Townsend

I was in Harpenden yesterday evening watching a forgotten film by the name of Trouble at Townsend. It was based on a story by Malcom Saville (which is why the viewing was organised by the Malcolm Saville Society) and starred a very young Petula Clark.

The film is best regarded as an historical curiosity, but Harpenden is a pleasant little town and well worth a visit.

The best of British

Tim Worstall's latest BritBlog Roundup was posted earlier today.

Derby details

Anders Hanson has a post giving the background on the defections from Labour to Lib Dem in Derby South:

The boundary changes at the next general election will be quite substantial in Derby and the majority of the Lib Dems’ best areas move from Derby South to Derby North constituency. But despite this I will not be surprised to see a Liberal Democrat MP in Derby at the next general election.

See too his comment on my posting on the subject.

Derby defections

A press release from Cowley Street celebrates the mass defection of Labour members to the Liberal Democrats in Margaret Beckett's Derby South constituency.

Their decision could be particularly significant in view of the result there last time:

Margaret Beckett (Labour) 19,683 45.4%

Lucy Care (Liberal Democrat) 14,026 32.3%

David Brackenbury (Conservative) 8,211 18.9%

Majority 5,657 13.0%

However, from a distance it is hard to know what to make of the affair and to judge how Liberal our new recruits are. Iain Sharpe and Colin Ross have both suggested a need for caution, and I think they are right.

Disciplinary action at Disney Studios

Pluto demoted to dwarf status

Ming: I should have been Ming

The latest in the Let Ming be Ming debate comes from the great man himself.

The Guardian reports Sir Menzies Campbell's appearance at the Scottish parliament's "Festival of Politics":

When asked why he had spent so much of the first six months of his leadership on the back foot, he explained: "I took too much advice from sympathetic people, people who thought they understood."

By contrast, he claimed he was now listening to himself, saying: "When you are with lots of people with the best possible intentions who offer you advice, the skill is to realise the extent to which you must rely on your own judgment and have the confidence to do so.