Angela Lansbury says men's sex obsession can make women gay

Headline of the Day was a walkover for the Daily Mail.

The ironstone lines of the East Midlands

Almost an hour of footage from these lost industrial railways.

Too much of a good thing?

Not to me.

Secret courts: Tom McNally in Wonderland

The Liberal Democrat leadership does not seem to have made much of an attempt to defend secret courts. Alex's Archives covers Nick Clegg's performance at his question and answer session in Brighton:

we saw pretty much every tool deployed from the box marked “evasion tactics for politicians who don’t wish to engage”.

In the secret courts vote itself, Tom McNally seems to have acted as the voice of the party establishment.

According to the Guardian:

McNally, a justice minister, indicated he was unlikely to lead a rebellion but would instead seek further concessions. He said it was to the credit of the party that it was so troubled by the issue of secret courts, but said the bill's critics lived in an Alice in Wonderland world.

This argument that party leaders and ministers have a unique connection with reality, while activists are by nature unworldly, has always seemed strange to me. Surely it is activists, with their jobs, mortgages and journeys to work who understand how most voters live?

And I don't recall any Lib Dem grandees insulting party members when they were asking them to go to Eastleigh or donate money a fortnight ago.

But the parallel with Alice in Wonderland is useful here:

"Let the jury consider their verdict," the King said, for about the twentieth time that day. 

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first - verdict afterwards." 

"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the sentence first!" 

"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple. 

"I won't!" said Alice. 

"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

"Sentence first - verdict afterwards" may well be what we get from secret courts. Take this BBC News report from 2006 (thanks to Love and Garbage on Twitter for the link):

A judge has criticised the Home Office over contradictory MI5 intelligence in secret hearings involving two terrorism suspects, it has emerged. 

The error came to light only because one barrister acted in both Special Immigration Appeals Commission cases. 

Mr Justice Newman said the "administration of justice" had been put at risk in the cases of Algerian Abu Doha and a suspect known as MK.

If anyone has been taking tea with the Mad Hatter, it is Tom McNally himself.

Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen: Midnight in Moscow

Kenny Ball, one of the big names in the trad jazz revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, died this week.

As his Daily Telegraph obituary explained:

The Trad Boom ended suddenly, with the triumph of the Beatles and Merseybeat, in 1963, but Kenny Ball’s Jazzmen were scarcely affected. The band had by then become firmly established in the world of popular entertainment. 

They appeared in every episode of the first six series of the Morecambe and Wise Show, beginning in 1968, and were the resident band on Saturday Night at the Mill (BBC One) from 1975 to 1983. They toured in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Russia they gave 28 shows in 31 days, finishing by playing Midnight in Moscow in Red Square. They played at the wedding celebration of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, at the Prince’s request. 

The jazz world, never entirely comfortable with this kind of popular success, tended either to ignore or to patronise Ball; but no one could deny that he was a highly accomplished musician, an engaging singer and a meticulous bandleader.

Here they are on Morecambe and Wise in 1970. It's as though the sixties never happened but still enjoyable.

When I was four I used to play with a little girl down the road who had an impressive collection of Kenny Ball EPs. (We were more of an Acker Bilk family.) His music reminds me of those days and our innocent and not so innocent games.

Paddy Ashdown to visit Uppingham on Tuesday

Paddy Ashdown will be at Uppingham School Memorial Hall on Tuesday 12 March (7:30 p.m.) to talk about his new book A Brilliant Little Operation, and his career, and answer questions from the audience.

More details on the East Midlands Liberal Democrats site. Booking information on upp.the.arts.

Six of the Best 330

"Whatever we think about Leveson, the libel reform bill has nothing to do with it: it’s a separate argument ... The NUJ and left media reformers should not be cheering on Labour opportunism from the sidelines but telling Putnam and his cronies where to stick it. End of story." Gauche has no time for Lord Putnam and his allies, who are putting the badly needed reform of our libel laws at risk.

Pride's Purge says the email exchanges between Vicky Pryce and the Sunday Times reveal a breathtakingly cold-hearted, manipulative woman who would do anything to get her own way. And he's not talking about Vicky Pryce.

Andrew Hickey wonders why Sebastian Faulks thinks he can step into the shoes of the greatest writer of English prose who ever lived.

"It's beautifully shot up on the Stiperstones, and around Much Wenlock. There are some marvellous trademark Powell and Pressburger set pieces - the full immersion baptism in the river, and the slow procession of the traction engine to the village show are as good as anything you will see in any of their other pictures." Out in the Shires watches Gone to Earth.

The 1950s' child star Jon Whiteley is now curator of the Ashmolean Museum, reports the Oxford Mail.

The Silly Point asks if Joe Root is bound for greatness.

Nick Clegg's lack of leadership on secret courts

The Daily Express enjoys being able to report a difficult time for Nick Clegg at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference this afternoon:

The atmosphere became more heated when activists began to challenge Mr Clegg over the Justice and Security Bill, which would allow courts to sit in secret in some civil cases. The legislation was comfortably given its third reading in the Commons last week, despite a rebellion from some Tories and Lib Dem MPs and continuing opposition from civil rights campaigners. 

One Lib Dem member questioned why Mr Clegg had "abandoned the high ground" by engaging with the proposals. And another said: "How can we call ourselves a Liberal Democratic party any more if we vote for this legislation?" 

However, the party leader said the intelligence services were currently unable to defend themselves in some civil court cases because they could not disclose sensitive material. He stressed that many changes had already been made to the original proposals, and said he was unable to do what activists wanted and block the measures because only 8% of MPs were Lib Dems.

Well, we'd like Nick to block this measure, but I think we would settle for him and the other Lib Dem MPs voting against it.

But the point of this post is to argue that Nick's discomfort is largely his own fault, even if you think he is right to support this measure.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that in the past Nick has gone out of his way to cultivate the support of civil libertarians. As Stephen Tall reminded us, Nick Clegg said in 2011:

"I need to say this – you shouldn't trust any government, actually including this one. You should not trust government – full stop. The natural inclination of government is to hoard power and information; to accrue power to itself in the name of the public good."

A bit like a teenage libertarian blogger perhaps, but that is what Nick said. You cannot blame civil libertarians for believing he really meant it.

Nor can you blame blame Dinah Rose QC for resigning her membership of the party now it appears he has changed his mind.

The second reason Nick is the author of his own misfortune is the lack of communication on the issue. The vote on secret courts took place on Monday, but - as far as I am aware - we had to wait until Thursday and a briefing from the party chief executive for any explanation.

Then, the next day, we had an article on Liberal Democrat Voice by Ming Campbell. Though Lord Bonkers had some fun this, Ming did make an attempt to  convince us. Though it is hard to see how the new measures can be at once less restrictive than the present arrangements and needed to keep matters private that would be public under those arrangements.

But where was Nick Clegg in all this? He may be right on secret courts or, as I believe, he may be wrong. What is not in doubt is that he should have done more to explain his thinking to the party.

Happy birthday William Cobbett

A short video to mark the 250th anniversary of the great man's birth.

Isabel Oakeshott wins Email of the Week

Here is Isabel Oakeshott of the Sunday Times writing to Vicky Pryce on 8 March 2011:

In theory, it's likely there is a minor risk of you being prosecuted, but we think in practise (sic) it is highly unlikely, especially if we handle it right.

Nice one, Is!

A cat sees the rotating snake illusion

Originally (I think) from Tumbling Banana. More about the rotating snake illusion.

States of Independence, Leicester, 16 March

From the States of Independence website:

States of Independence 2013 - our fourth such event - will take place on Saturday 16 March at Clephan Building, De Montfort University, Leicester. 

This year there is a strong emphasis on fiction – with three fantastic women writers – Leicester's Kerry Young, Booker-shortlisted Alison Moore and, returning to her old haunts, Sarah Butler. We have sessions on short fiction and poetry – from the Chartists to modern times. There is weird stuff on offer (literally...) and the announcement of the East Midlands Book Award shortlist. 

Reflecting the support of Creative Leicestershire, we have asked each and every session to include something on marketing – we want all our writers, presses and organisations to be artistic and financial successes! Or at least, in these hard times, to survive. 

States also includes a free bookfair representing dozens of publishers from the region and beyond.

My fourth Whipped column for Ad Lib

Here is my latest column from the new Liberal Democrat magazine Ad Lib.

It seems I never got round to posting the third Whipped here, but the interesting question is whether I shall manage a fifth one when there is nothing to laugh about in our MPs being whipped to vote for secret courts.

Whipped: From the desk of the Junior Whip

“Do you want to find out how politics really works?” asked the Chief Whip.

“Oh yes,” I replied. “That’s just what I hoped for when I got this job.”

“There’s a train to Eastleigh leaving Waterloo in 30 minutes. Be on it.”

I am writing this under the end of a hedge near Hedge End. My shoes are holed, my hands are black with ink and a Jack Russell has eaten my last canvass card.

Yet I was happy to get away. A resignation and a censuring: it was too much for me. (And if you haven’t been censured by a Scotsman, you never been censured.)

It got worse. The Chief Whip was determined the Tories would lose their vote on constituency boundaries. He even called in Jenny Willott, who was four days from giving birth. He had me standing by with plenty of hot water and Wikipedia. “You’ve seen Call the Midwife, laddie. How hard can it be?”

Now I wish I had stayed in Westminster. The only mercy is that we went for a short campaign – the Chief Whip did not want the Tories to have months to throw money at the seat. Having met their candidate, I wonder if he was right. The more the public see of her, the better we shall do.

So I know how politics really works – and I don’t like it. I never want to see another by-election, and if I become an MP I shall apply for the Chiltern Hundreds. And keep them.

Because I like the idea of being Crown Steward and Bailiff of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham. I fancy a life pottering around collecting the rents from trim brick and flint farmhouses set among beech woods, rolling chalk hills and steep- valleys.

But I must stop now. That Jack Russell has just sniffed me out.

What united Hugo Chavez and the Conservative right?

The answer, it seems, is admiration for Belarus.

Here is a BBC News report from 2006:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus, calling it "a model social state like the one we are beginning to create". 

During a visit to Minsk, he called for a strategic alliance with Belarus to counter "hegemonic" capitalism. 

Mr Chavez later met President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights.

And here is a Daily Telegraph report from October of last year:

The Attorney General today indicated that he may block any Conservative plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights warning that Britain would become a "pariah state" comparable to Belarus. 

Dominic Grieve intervened after Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, refused to rule out leaving the convention following a radical review of Britain's human rights laws. 

Mr Grayling told the Daily Telegraph yesterday that "the current human rights framework under which we are operating has gone badly wrong” and said he "ruled nothing in and nothing out" in regards to leaving the ECHR.

Dominic Grieve may not be attracted to Belarus, but it seems that a substantial element of his party is.

Tim Farron: Lib Dems are nutters and cockroaches

Story from Huffington Post. Picture from Fancy Dress Ball.

Headline of the Day comes live from Leicester

Well done to the BBC News Leicester pages:

Leicester's Phoenix Square cinema to host dental school

Liberal England asks: Is it safe?

Dissident blogger Emin Milli on the hopes for change in Azerbaijan

Emin Milli is a blogger from Azerbaijan who was imprisoned in 2009 for two and a half years for his critical views about the government. He was conditionally released in November 2010, after serving 16 months of his sentence.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty he speaks about the current situation in Azerbaijan:

Aliyev has always presented himself as a guarantor of stability in Azerbaijan. Now, he is becoming a guarantor of increasing instability. His father kept some space open for the opposition -- there were always five or six members of the opposition in parliament and he would meet opposition newspaper editors. He pretended there was a dialogue. 

Things are very different now. There has not been a single opposition member in parliament since 2010, new laws have been adopted to fine people for participating in peaceful but unsanctioned rallies, the financing of nongovernmental organizations has been made almost impossible.

the hopes for change:

Many things are changing in Azerbaijan, and the pace of change is so fast that I cannot even keep track. What changed in Azerbaijan is that the old and the new oppositions are uniting with a single candidate. Even more importantly, they will sign a document outlining their whole strategy, how they share their resources, what their common goals are, who will assume which responsibility in bringing a democratic revolution to Azerbaijan, and how the country will be run once the single candidate comes to power. This has never happened in Azerbaijan. It’s a change in narrative.

and the role of social media in the struggle for it:

A new-media revolution is taking place in Azerbaijan. Out of 9 million people in Azerbaijan, more than 1 million are now on Facebook. Research showed that 7 per cent had daily access to the Internet two years ago. This year, the same research - done by U.S. professor Katy Pearce - shows this figure has gone up to 11 per cent ... Things that would never have been public before are now read and shared by hundreds of thousands of people.

His concluding remarks are rather shaming:

Everything Azerbaijan’s democratic movement is doing now and all the changes that will happen this year will take place not thanks to Western support, but despite Western support to Aliyev’s regime. 

All we want from the international community at this stage is for the international media to pay more attention to what is happening in Azerbaijan and for the U.S. and British governments to realize that they are threatening their own military and economic interests in Azerbaijan by supporting Aliyev.

There Go the Boats (1951)

Rutland aristocrat employs disgraced former Tory MP who caned rent boys

Lord Bonkers writes: That's what comes of employin' chaps without a reference. Which one is it?

Calm down Lord B: this isn't about you.

But go to the website for Belvoir Castle and you will find that the private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland is one Harvey Proctor.

Could it be? Yes, It is that Harvey Proctor - younger readers click here.

But that is no reason why he should not be a very good private secretary. Think of him as a modern version of The Efficient Baxter in Wodehouse's Blandings series.

Six of the Best 329

John Hemming MP explains why he voted against the government on secret courts (among other things) on Monday.

Remember those shameful "Keep Calm and Rape On" T-shirts on Amazon? They never existed. I Am Pete Ashton explains.

Craig Murray warms to Palmerston.

"The British continue to suspect that they lost something special, even moral, when their society graduated from an aristocratic empire to a modern democracy. Like all nostalgics, we take comfort in a past that only seems so good because so few are alive to remember it well." Tim Stanley on History Today is unimpressed by Downton Abbey.

"A growing number of pilgrims ... are lacing up boots and sneakers to walk across America. While their treks may not have the religious underpinnings of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, Jerusalem or the current Kumbh Mela gathering in India ... they are nevertheless acts of faith and quests for existential meaning," says Kate Murphy in the New York Times.

Aqeela's House visits... well, Market Harborough actually. She took some nice photographs and I shall go and look at the town's old post office again myself.

That secret courts vote - Nick Clegg explains