"A little heaven here on earth": Launde Abbey in Leicestershire

Remember Thomas Cromwell's final words in the wonderful Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light?

"There is an abbey, Launde, in the heart of England. The air is always sweet there and it's quiet. A little heaven here on earth. And I think to myself: 'I'll live here one day, when all my work is done.'"

Launde Abbey is in Leicestershire – in Harborough District, indeed – and though Cromwell didn't get to live there, his son did and is buried in the chapel. Today it is a Church of England retreat and conference centre.

The BBC Radio Leicester's Secret Leicestershire series has two short programmes on Launde:

• History in the making
• The Cromwell connection

Paul Simon: That's Why God Made the Movies

I've long had a fondness for one of Paul Simon's more obscure albums, One Trick Pony.

This is a track from it.

The Joy of Six 1591

"Conservatives have called Burnham’s intervention 'dangerous and divisive', which could be interpreted as a denial that interference happened or just as a preference that it not be mentioned to protect delicate pro-Brexit sensibilities. Farage’s feelings were certainly hurt. He called the prime minister a liar and described the whole thing as a 'Russia hoax' – the formula Donald Trump applied to well-substantiated allegations that his 2016 presidential campaign got a helping hand from Moscow." Rafael Behr says Brexiters can't cope with the fact that Putin cheered them on.

Jack Dyson reveals how academy trusts try to justify the enormous salaries paid to some chief executives: "In July, the Department for Education named and shamed 56 trusts for high executive pay, ordering them to explain how the salaries were 'defensible' and represented 'good value for money'."

Rebekah Gear introduces her research on messy, risky outdoor play for children – and how adults stop them enjoying it. "Children expressed things such as 'I might fall', 'I don't want to get wet', and 'My teacher doesn’t let me'. These were not spontaneous fears; they were reflections of the messages the children had repeatedly heard from adults."

Wheat, apples and carrots are half as nutritious as they were in the 1960s, reports Rebecca Whittaker.

Malin Hay reviews a book on century of Hollywood flops: "The 1990s were the era of the swashbuckling action movie, but as well as The Mask of Zorro and The Mummy there were Cutthroat Island and The 13th Warrior (at a loss of around $133 million, possibly the biggest flop in movie history).

"Unlike many such cases which happen behind closed doors, Jeffrey Archer’s exclusion from the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's Cricket Ground was well documented." Seth Thévoz on Lord Archer and the MCC.

The abandoned platforms of South Kensington

Geoff Marshall is our guide to a tube station that has three (count 'em) abandoned platforms.

The exciting news is that one of them will soon to be brought back into use.

The only Tory MP to gain a seat at the last election is under threat

The only Conservative to gain seat for the party at the last general election is in danger of deselection, reports BBC News:

Leicester East MP Shivani Raja has faced an attempt to block her standing as a candidate in the next general election.

The Leicester Conservative Federation met at the end of September to vote on whether Raja would be selected to defend the seat she won in 2024.

The BBC understand she narrowly lost the secret ballot and was not readopted.

However, party officials have subsequently declared the meeting null and void, saying it was not properly constituted.

So the drama isn't over yet. 

I do recall gossip before the election that the Tories had "chosen the wrong candidate", and I think it's fair to say that Raja hasn't made a huge impact since her victory.

If she were to be deselected and stand as an independent next time, she would only be following the best traditions of the constituency.

Leicester East was won by the Tories last time largely because two former Labour MPs for the seat, Claudia Webbe and Keith Vaz, stood against the official Labour candidate.

The full result is here: note the creditable third place for the Liberal Democrat Zuffar Haq in a constituency without a single branch of Gail's.

‘They were casting out demons’: Scottish manager recalls attending exorcism with Gordon Brown to sign a player

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"This one's a doozy. The lads have really given it 110 per cent today," remarked the clerk who brought me the judges' decision.

And she was right. Congratulations to The Athletic on winning our Headline of the Day Award.

Crash! (1971): An experimental television film with J.G. Ballard and Gabrielle Drake

This film, made for BBC2 and broadcast in 1971, features J.G. Ballard and Gabrielle Drake. 

It must have been inspired by one of the linked stories – also called Crash! – from Ballard's novel The Atrocity Exhibition, which was published in 1970.

Ballard's novel Crash did not appear until 1973. It was adapted by David Cronenberg for a 1996 film that caused great controversy when it was released.

Roz Savage and her Liberal vision for a flourishing Britain

Roz Savage has written a paper called Liberalism Alive: A Liberal Vision for a Flourishing Britain for Compass. It was published last month and touches upon questions that Liberal Democrats are currently wrestling with, such as leadership and defining what we stand for.

It's well worth a read. You can download it from the Compass website.

Here's a little of what Roz writes:

Britain does not need another political saviour. It needs direction: leadership capable of describing that direction, institutions capable of learning, a state strong enough to protect the public interest, and millions of people with enough security, ownership and freedom to shape their own futures.

I see that possibility every week. It is there in the volunteer running a food pantry, in the farmer bringing a wetland back to life, in the councillor who spends three patient years campaigning to make one dangerous junction safe, and in the people quietly getting on with running community energy schemes and repair cafés and flood groups.

Most will never describe what they are doing as Liberalism, but that scarcely matters. They are demonstrating something Liberals have always believed, which is that the future is not handed down from above, but built by people.

The Joy of Six 1590

Jonathan Wilson explains why we're stuck with a Premier League in the clutches of the global mega-rich: "Clubs represent their communities and for fans support becomes an aspect of identity, a link to family and place and past, a role that has only become more significant as the influence of traditional institutions – the church, the workplace, the social club – has faded. Yet fans in England have almost never owned their clubs, which in part underlies the present crisis."

"While investors get richer, the dysfunctional market inflicts a huge cost on children in care. Young people removed from their families are scattered across the country to homes that don't even meet the most basic standards set by Ofsted. Increasingly, children are sent to homes that are not registered with Ofsted. These homes are not subject to regulatory scrutiny or external oversight. Vulnerable children are put at great risk of further harm." Martin Barrow on the government's failure to make good its pledge to end profiteering in children’s social care.

"In the debates that surrounded the bill that would go on to become the Representation of the People Act 1918, an amendment was tabled to introduce proportional representation, which was narrowly defeated." Jennifer Davey surveys the long history of debates about how MPs should be elected.

Dan Falk says eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture: "Much like its original incarnation from the late 19th century through the aftermath of World War II, its current rise is tangled up in politics, ideology, and an insidious desire to divide rather than unite people. And, as in the old days, on the unfounded notion that biology is the be-all and end-all of a person's character and worth."

"It could be the strip of dirt by some train tracks or a gravel-filled schoolyard or sometimes even guerrilla gardening on abandoned lots – a kind of living patchwork with the potential to transform an entire neighbourhood." Anna Rogers celebrates the giant power of tiny parks.

Discontinued Notes walks through a townscape of canals, flyovers and ruin porn beneath Spaghetti Junction.

Ellesmere Yard: A living relic of the canal age

Ellesmere's canal basin is at the end of a short branch off the Llangollen Canal, which used to be called the Shropshire Union Canal, but was rebranded in the 1980s in the hope that would bring more visitors.

At the point where this branch joins the main line stands an attraction I didn't know much about: Ellesmere Yard. 

The Canal & River Trust describes it:

Established in 1806, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, Ellesmere Yard is steeped in history. Originally the headquarters of Ellesmere Canal Company, it played a critical role in the golden era of canal building, helping to maintain the Llangollen and Montgomery canals, and providing a base for engineering luminaries, Thomas Telford and William Jessop.

The site has been in operation ever since, retaining much of its original charm and infrastructure, from its blacksmith’s forge and pattern room to its dry dock and workshops. Indeed, some areas have barely changed in over half a century, as if frozen in time.

The Trust is restoring the yard buildings, not only for its own use but also as spaces for other artisan crafts. This is somewhere to visit properly next time I'm in Ellesmere.

Here the first couple of photos relate to the yard, and the rest of the arm that runs to Ellesmere basin. Note to the arid cricket ground – very August 2026.

The Lib Dem leadership should listen to our MPs

Peter Black blogged this morning about the reaction to Charlie Maynard call for the Liberal Democrats to elect a new leader:

The reaction has been predictable, with the leadership recruiting the usual suspects to go public in support of Ed Davey. Their social media posts are all suspiciously similar., and also slightly ridiculous, but ... what is really interesting is how few of them have gone public in this way.

The politics.co.uk website lists just 17 out of 72 prepared to pin their support of Davey to a public mast. The rest appear to be keeping their powder dry.

There are currently 71 Lib Dem MPs, and the 17 has gone up to 18, but this is still a significant point. There are few signs that "the vast majority of our MPs ... are furious at this distraction" as some of those 18 claim.

The feeling that the Lib Dem leadership has "lost the dressing room" is widespread at Westminster. As someone said on Bluesky yesterday, wise supporters of Ed Davey continuing as leader will listen to our MPs to understand why this has happened and what can be done to put it right.

So far there have been few signs of this happening.

Dean Friedman: Ariel

I remember this so clearly from 1977 that it was a shock to find that it hadn't been a hit in the UK. It was a hit in the US and also controversial. 

How, you are asking, could such a sweet, bubble-gum pop song be controversial? Dean Friedman explains:

My first label insisted that I edit and change the second verse to Ariel, in which I refer to her as "a Jewish girl". They were convinced that radio stations in the south would use it as an excuse not to play the record. (In fact, many stations in the south insisted on  playing the full length version which included "Jewish girl".) Also, the entire third verse was edited out of the single version to make it shorter for radio. 

I fought to keep the original version  intact on the album which is why the single version is different than the album. One of my biggest record biz regrets is that I let them do it. (Not that I had a lot of say over the matter as this was my very first release.)  

In fact, when the single was released my management company received threats from the JDL (Jewish Defense League) protesting the edit. While I was never a fan of Mayer Kahane, now deceased leader of the JDL, in this instance, they were 100 per cent correct.

The video I've posted has three verses, and I remember the third verse from 1977, so I suspect the full song was released as a single over here.

And if you are thinking of the Half Man Half Biscuit song The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman, it's only fair to point out that he wrote a witty reply to it: A Baker's Tale.

The Joy of Six 1589

Chaminda Jayanetti on successive governments' failure to grasp the nettle of social care: "As far back as 1997, Tony Blair’s New Labour government launched a royal commission into adult care, only to then reject its calls for tax-funded free personal care and more support with residential care costs."

"Fascism is a strange ideology with a universe of conflicting and bizarre beliefs and rituals. Among the strongest is the ritualization of death that both mirrors and serves the main political drive of fascism: the creation of in groups and out groups. This is done through legal capture, the erosion and destruction of rights and protections, political framing of reality, fearmongering and weaponized activation, and the creation of religious cults of power, personality, and collective delusion." Jared Yates Sexton explains the fascist politics behind the public execution of Nidal Hasan.

Nick Baird asks where the Liberal Democrats' ambition has gone: "back in 2024, we were a Party on the up with a record number of MPs. The Tories were banished and in disarray. We talked, in all seriousness, about how we would be the Official Opposition after the next General Election. We looked admiringly at the Canadian Liberals who went from third place with a rump of MPs to an overall majority and thought 'that could be us'."

"I was confronted with a dilemma towards the end of writing my book because I had this line in the conclusion which I’d written a long time ago and thought was a really elegant, pithy sentence that summed up the argument of the book. But, as I was reading one of the final edits, I looked at it again and, having spent the last year immersed in AI slop on places like LinkedIn, I thought to myself, oh God, that sounds like something ChatGPT or Claude would write." Sarah O'Connor talks about her book We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work.

"Dadd seems to have been captivated by extreme contrasts of large and small, beautiful and grotesque – which are, of course, a feature of fairy folklore but had also been exemplified in earlier depictions of Shakespeare’s fairies (such as Joshua Reynolds’ famous Puck of 1789, and the fairy paintings of Henry Fuseli). Dadd, however, took the grotesqueness of fairies to a new level." Francis Young reviews the Royal Academy's Richard Dadd exhibition, which runs until 25 October.

Anne Bilson chooses 15 of the best movie car chases.

"A chap on his own gets a bit cracked sometimes": Michael Powell on Mr Colpeper

Michael Powell also had some interesting things to say about A Canterbury Tale in the 1981 interview I linked to in my post on Gone to Earth: 

I believe you once described A Canterbury Tale as a crusade against materialism?

One of the themes of the story was that. Emeric said, "Why don't we make a film about the sort of ideals we are fighting for?" Obviously, one of the most interesting characters in a discussion of that kind is the complete materialist played by Dennis Price.

At the climax he does get to play in Canterbury Cathedral.

Yes, but he's only one of the pilgrims. They all gt their desire. The girl finds her young man whom she thought was dead. John Sweet learns that his fiancée has gone to Australia with the WACs, Dennis Price plays the organ before going overseas and probably getting killed. All get their desire except Mr. Culpepper.

I find that the three pilgrims who get their desire are all learning. They have their traditions behind them, like Dennis Price who wants to play the organ properly. The American is interested in the English heritage. Eric Portman also reveres England but his other side is "The Glue Man", pouring glue on English girls to stop them fraternising with GI's.

The trouble with a man like that is that he's a loner. If he had a wife she'd have told him not to be so silly and taken his glue away from him. But he's a typical Englishman in that way. I tried to indicate that by the type of things he was interested in. You see in his room mountain climbing and walking scenes – things you do alone. So a chap on his own gets a bit cracked sometimes – monomaniac.

The film is set just before D-Day, which still lay the best part of a year ahead when it was shot, and I have always feared the two sergeants did not survive the war.

I would have liked to have heard Powell's account of the first of two scenes that run under the closing titles, as it points to a blessing for Colpeper too. Because of the time when the film was set and made, however, these scenes, where we see first soldiers and their girls flocking to one of Colpeper's lectures and then the boys playing football rather than war, can only indicate a possible future.

Reform councillor breaches rules by being leader of his own political party

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It sometimes seems the judges never sleep, but you have to hand it to them. In making our Headline of the Day Award to the Independent, they have alerted us to a whole new way for Reform to lose a councillor.

Beware the pitiless quicksands of Rutland Water

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Now here's a story:

Kish Modasia from London, out for a walk at Rutland Water, got more of an adventure than she bargained for when, with very little warning, she got stuck in mud almost up to her waist and needed to call emergency services.

You can hear Kish telling BBC Leicester’s Andy Dayman all about the drama that unfolded on BBC Sounds.

h/t Rutland Ned.

Charlie Maynard resigns from Lib Dem front bench and calls for no confidence vote in Ed Davey

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So the gossip about disaffection with the party leadership at Westminster was accurate.

Earlier this afternoon, the Financial Times broke the story that Charlie Maynard, Liberal Democrat MP for Witney. has resigned as the party's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and asked other Lib Dem MPs to join him in a vote no confidence in Ed Davey's leadership/

The FT website can be hard to access, but Traders Union now has the story too.

While Traders Union concentrates on the party's poll ratings, the FT, I think rightly, sees more significance in our continuing inability to gain press or public attention in a crowded field.

It is some MPs' frustration at this, along with the current leadership's top-down style, that I believe has brought us to where we are today.

Peter Kellner: Zack Polanski should have won at a canter

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Peter Kellner sets last night's result in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election in its historical context:

Only three times in the party’s history has a Labour government been able to cheer a by-election night as a boost to its prospects of remaining in office.

The first was retaining Kingston-upon-Hull North in January 1966, ahead of its big national victory two months later. The second was four months ago, when Andy Burnham won Makerfield (though some ministers were happier than others).

Sagal Abdi-Wali has not just defeated the Greens in a local by-election. She has defied history. Four weeks ago, I argued that Holborn & St Pancras was a contest Zack Polanski should win. 

Going back more than half a century, Labour has a truly dreadful record defending its own seats when it is government and faces a by-election challenge from the left or centre-left. The average swing against Labour in such contests was 24 per cent.

On those figures, Polanski should have won at a canter.

And later he writes:

It was no mean achievement for Labour’s Abdi-Wali. Her share of the vote was down just 3.7 points on the general election. 

This was the tenth time that Labour has had to defend a seat when it has been in government and the main by-election challenge has come not from the right but from either the Liberal Democrats or the Greens. Abdi-Wali has retained a higher share of the vote than any of her predecessors. 

Only Virendra Sharma, in 2007, came anywhere near, and he won Southall during Gordon Brown’s honeymoon as a new prime minister. 

Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker discuss Gone to Earth and its restoration

The 64th New York Film Festival, which closes on Sunday, saw the world premiere of a new restoration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1950 film Gone to Earth.

This is one of their less celebrated films, but as it was shot in the Stiperstones in Technicolor, it is a favourite of mine. Because of my Shropshire obsession, I have made two people watch it with me and both enjoyed it.

Here Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker discuss the film and its restoration. One thing I didn't know before watching this is that both Powell's parents came from the Welsh border. In an interview he once said:

All my family on my mother's side come from Worcestershire and Shropshire (my father's side is from the Welsh Marches), so I was quite keen to do it as I knew the people, the country, the voices. It was a very good story but rather melodramatic.

The restoration of Gone to Earth was also shown in London this week. Someone who was there told me on Bluesky:

The restoration has greatly improved it. You are drawn into the story, and largely held by it, rather than being distracted by the decayed grading of previous versions. The sound has been cleaned up too, so the dialogue is more involving. Lovely touches of humour emerged.

Matt Brittin and Manon Dave need a traditional BBC arse-booting

Many have spent the day unsure whether to be outraged by BBC senior management or point at it and roar with laugher.

Here's director general Matt Brittin, quoted by Deadline:

"I love the BBC. It’s full of words and discussion and slide decks and framing and reframing and reconstituting, and going around the houses, and actually, I'd like us to celebrate activity less, and outcomes more. And getting faster to outcomes that make a difference to an audience.

"Not [just], 'We did this great marketing campaign,' but actually, 'It drove up watch time usage and active accounts,' right? Or, 'We did this piece of journalism, and it changed the law, and it landed with these audiences.'"

And here's Manon Dave, "head of future world design in the corporation’s Media Tech unit", from the same report:

Dave told colleagues that he spent time on holiday redesigning iPlayer without any internal limitations. He wants the streaming service to become a place where audience members say, "I want to iPlayer and chill," though it is not clear if this means retaining the sexual connotations of the original "and chill" internet slang.

Dave’s vision for iPlayer included an AI agent called Iggy, which helps recommend and summarize iPlayer content, and can speak to audiences in different languages. Other ideas Dave presented to staff included a personalized "hero" picture at the top of iPlayer's home screen, which picks out algorithm-led content recommendations based on past viewing habits. He also demonstrated "Vegas mode," allowing viewers to "roll the dice" and see what iPlayer selects for them.

At one point, we are told, Dave referred to the director-general as "my big homie".

What to do with this pair?

Fortunately, my alter ego has the answer. In the last Liberator of 2025, Lord Bonkers described a traditional BBC arse-booting:

I don’t suppose you’ve had the pleasure of being present at this ceremony, where a bad hat who has evaded the stern eye of Sir John Reith and talked his way into the corporation, is ejected forthwith, but the way of it is this. 

The Chief Commissionaire, traditionally a former RSM from one of the Guards regiments, boots the miscreant the length of the longest corridor at Broadcasting House and out through the revolving doors. That corridor is lined with BBC luminaries, who tut and look disappointed in the bootee. 

You might spot, for instance, John Snagge, Grace Wyndham Goldie, Alvar Lidell, Franklin Engelmann, Katie Boyle, Moira Anderson, William Woollard, Angela Rippon, Lauren Laverne, Richard Osman, the Frazer Hayes Four, the more senior Teletubbies and several generations of Dimblebys in the throng.

Woman ‘posed as substitute teacher to insult students because she hates kids’

Metro wins Headline of the Day and may just have identified a phenomenon that explains some of my own school experiences.

The Joy of Six 1588

"Tony Blair once observed that the first step from opposition to government is an honest analysis of why you are in opposition. Kemi Badenoch and the people around her don't seem to have done that - or if they have, they’ve come up with the wrong answer." Andrew Cooper goes to the Conservative Party conference.

Samantha Asumadu reports that Times Higher Education has given no coverage to the allegations against James Orr, the  Cambridge academic and former Reform UK policy chief whose foundation receives Hungary-linked funding. By coincidence, THE signed a partnership with Viktor Orbán’s government.

Achim Hildebrandt et al. examine David Goodhart's claim that a split between Somewheres and Anywheres lies at the heart of many contemporary political conflicts. They find little evidence to support it.

"Creepy. That’s the word for the rising right-wing interest in family policy, exemplified by a recent administration proposal to pay $9,000 each year per child for women to stay at home with their children. The money would come from, and deplete, an existing federal programme that helps working parents pay for childcare." Mitchell Zimmerman says the Trump-Vance family policy reeks of white supremacy and misogyny.

"With their bold transpositions of anachronistic elements, both works can be seen as unconscious, pre-bellum statements against the soon to emerge behemoth of post modernity which would come to be an all-encompassing cultural filter." Corse Present considers Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns and David Rudkin's Penda's Fen.

Geoff Lemon says cricket won't stop taking about the 2018 sandpaper scandal until the Australian authorities give a full account of what happened.

Roman Leicester wasn't built in a day 2

Four years ago I wrote:

What with one thing and another, it's been two years since I posted something from this series. So let's carry on the with the first part of its treatment of Roman Leicester.

It's time we had the second part. Its YouTube blurb says:

In part 2 of this episode exploring the archaeology and legacy of Roman Leicester, we examine the lifestyles of Ratae's former residents, uncovering amazing stories of love, life and death in the town.

Plans resubmitted for controversial 'state-of-the-art' crematorium next to Northampton secondary school

There's nothing sinister about this. Nothing sinister at all.

Our Headline of the Day Award travels down the A508 to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

Cleaners From Venus: Illya Kuryakin Looked at Me

A wonderful homage to the Sixties as they were or should have been. Rita Tushingham. Harold Wilson. David Hemmings. David Bailey. The Avengers. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

A portrait of the last days of independent Penge

A film made by the Penge Rotary Club in 1964. It provides a useful corrective to the view, widespread on Bluesky, that we all lived in shoeboxes and ate gravel until about 20 years ago, while showing us why the Sixties had to happen.

The former canal mentioned is the Croydon Canal; note too the children playing cricket without being organised by adults and an unexpected appearance by the Crystal Palace dinosaurs.

As to the palace itself, my father remember being woken as a small boy in Horsham, West Sussex, in 1936 to see the glow on the northern horizon that was it burning down.

Then steel yourself for an appearance by the feared Penge Formation Dancers, before the demise of Penge's council is mourned.

As ever in such films, it is the street scenes that are the most interesting.

How John Prescott blocked the full redevelopment of Ellesmere canal basin

I last visited Ellesmere canal basin getting on for 30 years ago, when I recall it being quite derelict. I was there again this summer and found it changed. But not as changed as it might have been.

There was a new supermarket, a derelict canal warehouse with a top ghost sign (someone told me there had been plans to convert it into a restaurant but they had fallen through) and lots of empty space.

If you want to know why it hasn't been more comprehensively redeveloped, and a BBC News feature from 2004 is enlightening:

For 15 years there has been a hole in the heart of the north Shropshire town of Ellesmere.

Ever since the Dairy Crest creamery shut down, efforts have been made to develop what is a prime canalside site, but all have failed.

In 2003 it looked as if things might finally change with the latest plans to redevelop the 50 acre site on the canal wharf.

Property developers Burbury Investments, which bought the site when the creamery closed, submitted plans for a retail village on the site.

It included shops, a supermarket, garden centre, caravan park, a 60 bed hotel, a wine bar and housing, with its own access from the A495.

The plans were enthusiastically backed by Ellesmere's Chamber of Trade and the Town Council, and permission was granted by North Shropshire District Council.

A vote run on the Ellesmere Community website showed roughly 85 per cent support for the scheme, with 15 per cent against.

But the town had reckoned without John Prescott. He called in the planning application and then ordered a public inquiry. The inquiry, chaired by a government inspector, sat for a week and recommended approval. Then Prescott overruled the inspector. The developers went to court, but there challenge to Prescott's decision failed.

At the time of writing in 2004, the site was "empty and dotted with derelict and overgrown buildings". That would have been fun to explore. It's much tidier today, but not what it might have been.

Here are some photos I took in August. This is the first of what will be a series of posts looking back on my holiday.

The Joy of Six 1587

Cathy Mongaghan says Essex County Council's Operation Vanguard shows what can happen when a party built on amplifying fear and division takes control of the institutions needed to turn its political story into public policy: "Reform warned people that asylum seekers made their communities unsafe. Reform won power in Essex. Reform then spent council money putting private security on the streets in response to the presence of asylum seekers. The fear came first. The policy followed."

James Murray asks what true pragmatism look like in an age of climate crisis: "How is the rational choice the one that drives up emissions that are triggering climatic tipping points and increases reliance on fossil fuels when volatile fossil fuel prices are the primary source of the current economic pain?"

"A mother whose toddler was removed from her care over a petty crime she committed 20 years ago has finally been reunited with her son after a months-long court battle." Amy-Clare Martin reports on the continuing inhumanity of New Labour's flagship Imprisonment for Public Protection law.

Mark Follman on how ChatGPT fed a mass shooter's violent fantasies and helped plan a massacre.

No, we don't have a lizard brain lurking beneath our rational minds, Hannah Critchlow reassures us.

"Like Stanley Kubrick, Wilder mastered a variety of genres and displayed a range rarely seen in the profession. Ace in the Hole was a scathing satire of the newspaper industry, Witness for the Prosecution a hugely influential courtroom drama and The Lost Weekend dealt with alcoholism in a way that was unprecedented in the 1940s." Darren Richman looks forward to a celebration of Billy Wilder's remarkable career.

Colin Milburn at Lord's in 1968: The first test innings I remember

The first test innings I can remember is Colin Milburn hitting the Australians all round Lord's in 1968.

And here it is, with John Arlott adding his comments.

The innings in question took place on the second morning of a rain-ruined match, and Milburn was the top scorer in England's first innings with 83.

England then skittled Australia in their first innings (David Brown 5-42) and made them follow on, but didn't have time to force a win. The full scorecard is on cricinfo.

"Chop chop ya bam" Grandson of Big Mags Haney jailed over 'sadistic' machete attack

I can't begin to imagine what went on in their chamber, but the judges have awarded Headline of the Day to the Daily Record.

Ian Anderson on the old hippies who used punk to get on in music

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Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull has given Louder a guided tour of the band's many albums.

When it gets to 1978 and Heavy Horses, he says:

You have to remember, this was at the time punk’s final embers were burning out and you had bands like The Police and The Stranglers, who were, collectively speaking, a bunch of old hippies. The brave new world of punk rock had perhaps become commercialised at that point. But bands like those two used punk as a means to get their foot in the door, just as I did with the blues in 1968.

And he has a point. Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers was in a school band with Richard Thompson, who became a founding member of Fairport Convention in 1967. Andy Summers had been on the scene since since the early Sixties and was 35 when The Police formed.

That's him on the left in the photo above with Zoot Money, photographed in 1964.

Lawrence Hogben, Pressure and the meteorologists of D-Day

Lawrence Hogben (1916–2015) was of the meteorologists who produced the vital weather forecasts before the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. This, of course, is the process dramatised in this year's film Pressure.

In 1994, Hogben wrote about those days for the London Review of Books:

"Everything on the Normandy beachhead will hang on your weather," said the D-Day planners, assuming that we meteorologists had total control of the elements. "Just name us five fine, calm days and we’ll go."

A hundred years of weather records suggested there was no hope of their getting this. They limited their demand to "a quiet day with not more than moderate winds and seas and not too much cloud for the airmen, to be followed by three more quiet days." 

On top of this, the military insisted on a late full moon for the parachutists, plus a tide that would be high three hours after pioneer forces had landed at dawn to clear paths through the beach mines and other obstacles. 

Tides and moon being fully predictable, they would determine possible dates. July would be too late, and May too early. That left just four possible days: 5, 6, 19 or 20 June. We worked out the odds on the weather on any one of these four dates conforming to requirements as being 13 to one against. So meteorologically, D-Day was bound to be a gamble against the odds.

The planners had originally wanted to know how far ahead a correct weather forecast could be made and who should make it. "We can make it, one, perhaps two days ahead," said the Meteorological Office. "We can make it up to five days ahead," said the American Air Force. "But do they know anything about the sea?" asked the Royal Navy, who made no promises. 

To satisfy pride, and to get the best possible forecast, the solution was to form a committee made up of the three groups. However, fear that loud-mouthed Americans might shout down mild British civil servants, or even battle-hardened naval officers, brought about an administrative compromise. 

The D-Day forecast became a telephonic affair: the six forecasters would stay in three separate centres, joined to one another, and to Eisenhower’s headquarters, by GPO telephones (which worked). A non-forecaster 'presenter' would moderate our debates and then explain our agreed forecast to Ike and his staff.

And, as Hogben goes on to explain, this unlikely approach produced an an accurate forecast. Eisenhower was persuaded to stage D-Day on 6 June rather than his original preference of 5 June, and the waiting a fortnight until the next possible dates would have led to a military disaster.