The Joy of Six 1080

Rupert Read argues that Vaclav Havel’s critique of technophilia and of its assumption that "everything is going to be OK" has a lot to teach us about what our collective response should be to the climate and ecological emergencies.

"The politics of relief pursued by Bolton’s Labour Party left little scope for recognising workers ... as individuals with ambitions and aspirations. By contrast, Conservative candidates in Bolton mobilized a politics of experience, rooted in place, which enabled them to speak in more respectful, empathetic terms. Where Labour referred to the "unfortunate unemployed," Conservative candidates discussed the "evil of unemployment," refusing to define local workers by their current circumstances, instead addressing them as "men and women out of work". Research into Labour politics in the Bolton of the 1930s by Rebecca Goldsmith has contemporary resonance.

The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole is reviewed by Richard Smyth: "His enthusiasm is catching (at least at first): you can’t read without wanting to have a wander yourself through these dripping microclimatic wonderlands, among trees ‘heavily garlanded with beardy lichens’, the ‘spreading filigree of liverworts’ and the ‘translucent fronds’ of polypody ferns."

mudlark121, on Past Tense blog, remembers the campaign against another oil refinery on Canvey Island: "On Saturday 19 May 1973, 700 Canvey Islanders organised an 'oil-mada', hundreds travelling by ship, boarding the boat at Tilbury, with banners and posters and ‘graveyard’ crosses, sailing up the Thames, to put hand a protest letter to the prime minister at 10 Downing Street."

Alan Moore is interviewed by Miles Ellingham about his new book of short stories: "Take Northampton: we had mammoth hunters here, we had Romans, we were the centre of the country in terms of how the Saxons saw things. We had the Normans, but we fell out of favour because of Hereward the Wake, a local terrorist who used to be one of the great English legendary heroes when I was growing up."

Miles Malleson is remembered, if at all, as a bit-part player in British films. But, says Graham McCann, he should be remembered as a committed Communist organiser and a sex pest too.

Purple Horizons: Nature recovery in the West Midlands

Extending across 10,000 hectares on the North-West fringes of the West Midlands conurbation, the Purple Horizons project is restoring and connecting fragmented heathlands to create a mosaic of heathland, wetland, woodland and grassland landscapes.

The area will be vital for the recovery and long-term resilience of the area’s reptiles, birds and pollinators, and will help connect Sutton Park with Cannock Chase and local wildlife trust nature reserves.

Purple Horizons is one of five nature recovery projects launched by Natural England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in May. I hope it thrives, though the government now seems more interested in landscape despoliation.

Simon Hughes makes phone-hacking claim against the owners of the Daily Mail

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From the Guardian this evening:

The Daily Mail’s parent company is facing its first legal claim for phone hacking, after the former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes filed a case against the newspaper publisher.

Hughes is alleging that Associated Newspapers – the owner of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline – misused his private information. He is expected to claim that the newspaper publisher employed a private investigator who improperly accessed his voicemail messages.

The paper says this is the first time the publisher of the Daily Mail has faced a legal claim based on allegations of voicemail interception.

August Strindberg and Gravesend star in Trivial Fact of the Day

The Swedish dramatist August Strindberg once lived in Gravesend. That's our Trivial Fact of the Day taken care of.

I discovered it through my admiration for Freda Jackson. The video above shows her in the town with Michael Redgrave to present a plaque honouring the centenary of Strindberg's birth.

A paragraph in The Stage (Thursday 20 January 1949) tells us exactly what was going on:

Strindberg

The centenary of the birth of August Strindberg falls on Saturday next. The occasion is being marked by the placing of a commemoration plaque on Gravesend Pier, where, in 1893, Strindberg first set foot on English soil and was welcomed by J T. Grein. 

The plaque is the gift of Anthony Hawtrey, together with Michael Redgrave, Freda Jackson, and the members of The Father company now playing at the Embassy, and to open at the Duchess on Monday next. 

Sponsored by the Strindberg Society, it is to be carried down the river in Sir Alan Herbert's boat and presented to the Mayor of Gravesend.

J.T. Grein was an impresario and critic who helped establish modern theatre in London. 

Anthony Hawtrey was an actor and the director of the Embassy Theatre in Swiss Cottage, from where many productions transferred to the West End, including No Room at the Inn, which made Freda Jackson famous and which he directed. 

Alan Herbert was better known as A.P. Herbert and was a considerable figure of the day.

The plaque is though to be in storage somewhere in Gravesend, while there is talk of selling the pier to Uber Boat, which runs a service from it to the City of London.

Arts Fresco is back!

It's been stymied by Covid and even the death of a queen, but Arts Fresco - Market Harborough's street theatre festival - was finally back today. 

Perhaps it wasn't as big as in the past, or as it would have been if it could have been held last month, but the organisers did wonderfully well to rearrange things at such short notice and were rewarded with a golden autumn day.

Apologies for the date stamp on some of the photos.

Björk: Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)

Crystalline is a song from Björk's eighth album, Biophilia, and was released as a single in June 2011. Two remixes of tracks from the album by the Syrian musician Omar Souleyman.

The Guardian profiled him in 2015:

Omar Souleyman was a prolific wedding singer with more than 500 live albums to his name before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. As his country became increasingly unstable, Souleyman fled to Turkey, where performing for couples tying the knot was no longer an option. Yet he continued to write songs of love and positivity as a welcome distraction from the horrors of war, and in the process found himself something of a star in the west.

His thumping Arabic songs aren’t the kind of world music that normally gets played in the background at barbecues, yet neither have they made their way on to the average 2am rave playlist. In fact, his dizzying use of ululating keyboards, pounding synthesised beats and throaty vocals pays homage to dabke, a Middle Eastern line-dance synonymous with weddings and other celebrations.

"They can feel the music and the rhythm of the songs," he says of his western audience, "and that fills me with pride. I’m so happy to be able to do this; few Arabic or Syrian singers have the opportunity to play festivals, or even perform outside the region."

Souleyman was arrested in Turkey a year ago on terrorism charges related to alleged membership of the Kurdistan Workers’ party. He was released two days later.

Steve Race, Honor Blackman and David Hemmings at Liberal Party HQ during the February 1974 general election

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The blurb on Getty Images dates this photo to 26 February - two days before polling day.

Behind the scenes of David Lean's Great Expectations

A search for more footage of Freda Jackson turned up this video. Anthony Wager played the young Pip in David Lean's classic adaptation of Great Expectations, which was released in 1946. 

The film first shows him at home with his family and, if it's not evidence of what children were like in 1946, it is at least evidence of how people liked to think they were like.

So we see the boy washing up and feeding the chickens to show he is not spoilt. It's interesting that there's no sense here that some jobs are for boys and some for girls.

And as so often in vintage films or photographs, some elements have aged faster than others. So, while a whiff of modernity still clings to those Thirties windows, the children look thoroughly quaint to us.

Then it's over to the film set. First we see Anthony doing his lessons - again, we're reassured he's not getting above himself - and then there are some wonderful shots of the actors taking lunch in full costume. Somehow they look even more Dickensian here than they do in the final film.

Finally, Freda Jackson appears. She plays Pip's sister Mrs Joe, who has brought him up "by hand". Here she douses him under the pump and I get the impression that if you were doused by Freda Jackson you stayed doused.

Anthony Wager, latterly appearing under the name Tony Wager, had a long acting career, but never reached these heights again. He died in 1990 at the age of 58.

There is a touching little site that honours his memory. It was posted by his sister Marilyn, with whom we have seen him at the start of this film.

Caroline Pidgeon cannot drive sheep over London Bridge

Congratulations to Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the London Assembly since 2018, who has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London.

Sadly, despite what is widely believed, this honour does not bring with it the right to drive sheep over London Bridge.

As Murray D. Craig, Clerk of the City's Chamberlain’s Court, once explained:

Can you take sheep over London Bridge?

The answer is no because the City of London Police are not keen on this custom in the 21st century. This is not altogether surprising because of all the busses, taxies, commuters, Boris cyclists and anti-capitalist protestors crossing London Bridge and while it is an amusing thought of Freemen in smocks and crooks and Little Bo Peeps, it would cause absolute traffic chaos!

We laugh at the custom today but in the Middle Ages it was a very different story - it was a valuable economic privilege. It was not so much that you could take sheep over the bridge but that you did not pay the toll. You would be taking the sheep to the Wool Exchange or Smithfield Meat Market for sale and not paying the toll would considerably enhance your profit margin.  

You could take cattle, pigs, hens, ducks, geese - indeed any livestock over the bridge and not pay the tariff but in the medieval period the sheep was queen of the beasts because the wool and cloth trade was the bedrock of the English economy. It is said that as more sheep went over the bridge than any other animals put together that the bridge was built and maintained on the back of the sheep.

Man admits to spreading porn images around villages

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this tale of life in High Leicestershire:

A man has admitted to leaving pornographic images around three Leicestershire villages over a "significant period of time".

Hundreds of the images, which were printed onto A4 paper, have been found around Billesdon, Tilton on the Hill and Hungarton, police said.

Officers arrested a 62-year-old man from Oakham under the Indecent Displays Controls Act 1981.

Reader's voice: What this post needs is a pay off involving a village in that part of the county.

How about: "It's a good thing he didn't leave those images in Tugby"?

That'll have to do.

Uncovering the secrets of the Cromford Canal

An enjoyable trip to the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire as Paul and Whitewick follow the abandoned Cromford Canal.

The canal once connected with the wider canal system at Great Northern Basin near Langley Mill, but Butterley Tunnel collapsed somewhere in the middle long ago, so full restoration is unlikely.

Oh, and "Erewash" has three syllables. Sounds so much better.

Research suggests profit-making children's homes offer poorer care

For-profit children's homes provide poorer quality services for children in care than homes run by Local Authorities, according to research from the University of Oxford’s Department for Social Policy and Intervention. 

Based on the use of Ofsted ratings, the research has been published in Social Science and Medicine.

The researchers, Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, Benjamin Goodair and Professor Jane Barlow, analysed more than 13,000 children's home inspections by Ofsted. They found that:

• For-profit children's homes are generally rated of lower quality than other provision types.
• For-profit children's homes violate more requirements and receive more recommendations.
• Local authority Ofsted ratings are negatively correlated with for-profit outsourcing.

Most children's homes in England are now operated by for-profit companies.

Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, Carlsberg Foundation Visiting Fellow from the department says:

"It is well known, huge profits are being made by companies running these homes, but the response has typically been that the quality of the services justify the costs. Our research suggests quality is not the same in both sectors and should be of concern to commissioners."

Read more on the University of Oxford website.

The Joy of Six 1079

Matthew Pennell explains why our economic situation is seriously bad and why the government's reponse appears absurd.

"Nowhere in the world does tradition confer intellectual status as it does in Oxford and Cambridge. Impressionable teenagers (I accuse myself!) grow towards the myth like plants towards the sun - even in this era of pink-haired gender revolutionaries, Oxbridge is filled with preposterous tweed-jacketed 19-year-olds. Many will perpetuate their affectations into adulthood." James Marriott says Oxbridge is to blame for the British affliction of mistaking fusty learning for intellectual heft.

Mark Conrad lays bare the brutal reality of county lines: "The grim and uncomfortable truth of the modern war on drugs is that while the ultimate crime bosses are often wealthy and middle-aged, their frontline foot-soldiers are predominantly adolescents. Often very young. Think primary school age."

"Why does Gabor have poor impulse control, hyperactivity and tuning out? Because he’s got ADHD. How do we know he’s got ADHD? Because he’s got poor impulse control, tunes out, and he’s hyperactive. Why is he hyperactive, tunes out and has poor impulse control? He’s got ADHD. How do we know he’s got ADHD? Because — you know, it’s circular, it doesn’t explain it, it doesn’t explain anything." Gabor Maté on the circularity of the ADHD diagnosis.

"Pringles, skittles and a ham sambo: check. Camera, phone, pen and notepad: check. Steely determination: let's see." Siobhan Osgood explores Dublin's suburbs, looking for lost railway stations.

James Devereux looks at John Cleese's book on creativity.

Conservative-controlled East Yorkshire votes for Lib Dem motion against fracking

The is evidence today that the Conservative leadership's enthusiasm for fracking does not extend even to their own councillors. Tory-controlled East Yorkshire council has voted overwhelmingly against fracking within its boundaries.

Drill or Drop? reports:

A Liberal Democrat motion committed the council to write to Liz Truss, her business secretary and the climate minister reinforcing the county’s opposition to fracking in the county.

A full meeting of the council in Beverley this afternoon voted by 49 votes in favour, with none against and six abstentions.

There were no speeches against the motion and it was supported by the council leader, Jonathan Owen.

That "anti-growth coalition" in full

Jonathan Gullis lasted a year as a Conservative councillor and told people to vote Labour when he resigned

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No one seems to have picked up on the early political career of our new minister for school standards.

Jonathan Gullis, for it is he, was elected as Conservative councillor for the Shipston-on-Stour ward of Stratford-on-Avon District Council in 2011

He resigned the following year when he got a teaching job in London, but things did not go smoothly.

Labour List reported at the time:

Conservative politics in Shipston-on-Stour has entered the world of Catch 22, with a Tory councillor saying he’ll resign when they find someone to replace him – and the local party saying they can’t replace him until he’s resigned.

The blog linked to a story in the local newspaper, but the link is now dead.

A month later Labour List revisited the story:

In the end, the hapless councillor - Jonathan Gullis - resigned three hours too late for the by-election to replace him to be held on November 15th (the date of the PCC elections). That error cost the local council in excess of £5,000 when the by-election is held two weeks later. 

So annoyed is Gullis at the way he has been treated by the local Tory Party – he’s now urging local people to vote for Labour, instead of the Tories, in the by-election: 

"I back Jeff Kenner, the Labour candidate. There was no love lost between Jeff and I in election campaigns, but if the town wants someone with passion and pride in Shipston, Jeff Kenner is their man at this stage."

Again, there is a link to the local paper that no longer works, but this time you can still read the report in the Cotswold Journal.

So the Tories aren't just scraping the bottom of it to find ministers: they are struggling to find loyal parliamentary candidates.

Man 'drops kebab in horror' after finding HUGE rare spider at his home

Our Headline of the Day Award sees another win for the Leicester Mercury.

The judges were particularly pleased that it relates to a story from Leicestershire - Oadby to be precise.

Absolute scenes at the Conservative Party Conference

 Enjoy our exclusive live coverage...

Lord Bonkers 30 years ago: "Can Lloyd George Do It?"

"You didn't do it last month" said Lord Bonkers. "Do what?" I asked. "You didn't reprint something from my diary of 30 years ago. They'll be letters."

So here is something from the old boy's diary in the September 1992 issue of Liberator.

Wednesday

I must confess that I have not succeeded in following every twist and turn of Liberal economic policy. Once Free Trade was the pith and marrow of our cause, but later the likes of Milton Keynes came to the fore with quite other ideas. (Keynes, I recall was the author of a pamphlet entitled Can Lloyd George Do It? - a singularly redundant question in the eyes of many a Liberal lady.) 

Thus I am confused when I hear my younger colleagues saying that we should seek an accommodation with the Socialists while displaying greater enthusiasm for the free market than do the Tories. As ever we Liberals should seek the mean, and I advice those who are so fond of capitalism to go to live in Russia and see how much they are for it then.

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

Market Harborough canal basin on an autumn afternoon

I took these photos yesterday afternoon. While I was out, Chelsea went from being a goal down down to a 2-1 victory. There's a moral there.