Today I met Backwatersman at Grace Road, Leicester, to watch the third day of Leicestershire vs Sussex. I arrived after lunch, having called in at Lyric Lounge first, and was able to watch Leicestershire lose their last five wickets and succumb to an innings defeat.Of [Graham] Greene's female cousins, Barbara Greene emerges as the most intriguing. Berkhamsted-educated, she was friendly with Baroness Moura Budberg, a Russo-Estonian exile living in London (and mistress, among others, of HG Wells).Another interesting character is Raymond Greene, one of Graham's elder brothers. Thomson claims that he conquered Everest in 1933, which would have been news to Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing.
he enjoyed obstetrics and, years later, took a retrospective pride in having delivered Antonia Fraser.
Paul Crossley reports a "political earthquake" in North East Somerset, where the Liberal Democrats gained seats in local by-elections in Keynsham and Radstock. It is striking that, 40 years after the closure of the Somerset coalfield, the Tory vote remains so low in the latter town.
From the Harborough Mail website:Worrying stuff, particularly when you read the quote from a parent:An 11-year-old boy has been excluded from school after brandishing a knife in front of horrified fellow pupils.
The boy was found with the knife while on a school bus which was parked at Uppingham Community College waiting to take pupils home to villages in the north of Harborough district, including Skeffington, Tilton on the Hill and Tugby.
That is until you read a little further."Children on the bus were absolutely horrified by it. My children came home frightened to death.
"There are a lot of worried parents as a result of this."
I think Viva is barking up the wrong tree here. There is far more cruelty involved in the factory farming of more conventional animals than there is in killing squirrels. They have a happy time leaping from bough to bough and playing with their nuts until their final moments.A north London grocery store is committing "wildlife massacre" by selling squirrel meat, an animal welfare group has claimed.
Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (Viva) accused a branch of Budgens of supporting a "barbaric and needless cull" of grey squirrels.
An independently-owned branch in Crouch End has been selling the meat for four months.
"What gruesome product will be next to grace our food aisles? Blackbird, field mouse or mole?"she merely confirms that actors are usually more impressive when someone else writes their words for them.
Thanks to Londonist and BritishRailways.tv.
We're thinking the Traffic video was at Quex, not here - shame...And:
we've just been looking in the galleries that were here in 1967 and the floor and windows seem too different.Quex turns out to be the Powell-Cotton Museum at Quex Park in Kent. Compare the video below with the one for Paper Sun and you will see that the Horniman people are right. A musical mystery solved.
Coming home from Leicester on Sunday I decided to walk home the pretty way. This involves going along Glebe Road, site of the former brickworks and now home to the Welland Valley Vintage Traction Club.
A Timely Reform looks at the questions BBC2's Newsnight failed to ask - in case the answers spoiled the piece knocking the Lib Dems that they presented last night."It's the most exciting thing I've ever done since having two children. I'd spent 20 years in opposition, and until this project my crowning achievement was getting a bench put in by a bus stop."
A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.There is a video on the Guardian website explaining the online tools the paper has created to help readers understand the files.
You may remember - how could you forget? - my coverage of the unsuccessful campaign to prevent the city council and De Montfort University demolishing Leicester's Bowstring Bridge.
The Real Blog calls for a Big Society or Co-production Guarantee to enshrine the coalition’s rhetoric. It would "back innovators against bureaucracies, and would back local against the centre. But it would also back local people against streamlined corporate power."
Last year I visited to Rushton Triangular Lodge. I was back in the village again today.
You wouldn't know it from the mainstream media, but yesterday was a good day for the Liberal Democrats in local by-elections - a gain in Torbay and several holds elsewhere. Helen Duffett has the details.
This rather horrible statue is the object I went to Gaddesby to see many years ago. It depicts Colonel Cheney who is also remembered by a plaque that sits above in the chancel of St Luke's Church:
Nick Clegg stood in at prime minister's questions today. Nick Thornsby's Blog was impressed: "I thought Nick Clegg handled himself extremely well, looking reasonable, intelligent and fluent. Jack Straw proved a difficult opponent, though not because he scored some big hits against Clegg. Frankly, Straw’s line of questioning was just plain weird. He went on for far too long on some technical points that, if we’re honest, nobody really knows or cares much about."
From the Total Politcs website:You have until 31 July to vote. Many thanks to anyone who includes Liberal England in their list.It's that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September.
For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as this blog, and that of our publisher, Iain Dale.
For three days and three nights, New Walk Museum will become Lyric Lounge Leicester!The Lyric Lounge will also come to Nottingham and Loughborough later in the year.
A whole range of free activities will run from 10am until 10pm and take place across the museum. In the day, chill out with coffee, tea, books and films, draw with festival artist in residence - Tim Clarke, or choose from an impressive host of poetry workshops and happenings - from ‘Get Stuffed!’ to ‘The Decadent Romantics’ and the amazing ‘Combust Circus’ company. Be entertained with music and poetry over ‘Lyrical Lunchtimes’ and mid morning ‘Bites’, chat to The Book Doctor, or take to the mic yourself.
In the evening catch everything from WORD! with Mark Gwynne Jones and the Psychicbread, to John Hegley - The Godfather of performance poetry. John will be performing his brand new show, ‘The Adventures of Monsieur Robinet’ - against a back drop of museum objects.
With a line up that includes poetry from the internationally acclaimed, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and music and lyrics from the likes of Kenny Wilson, Mike Sole and ILUVLYRICS, ‘Lyric Lounge Leicester’ invites participation from people of all ages and is definitely not to be missed.
Longstanding readers will know that my favourite writer as a child was Malcolm Saville. His books are where my love of the Shropshire hills first came from."The country in which this story is set is real, but if you are ever lucky enough to explore it for yourself you will not find Witchend."Up to a point Lord Saville.
A south Shropshire adventure camp, set up 50 years ago, is enjoying its busiest years ever – but supporters fear the credit crunch could hamper plans to finish refurbishment work.
The Longmynd Adventure Camp ... has had its busiest half-year ever.
“It’s extremely heartening to see the camp being used by more groups of special needs children. Once our wheelchair path opens in early August we plan to welcome even more.” said president Don Rogers.
A massive £36,000 fundraising drive has reached the half way total. but trustees still need to raise another £18,000 to complete the refurbishment of the camp’s mess hall.The article goes on to give contact details, should you feel moved to donate to the camp.
Andrew George, Lib Dem MP for St Ives in Cornwall, is campaigning against unfair banking charges:"It is not unusual for bank customers to find themselves hundreds of pounds overdrawn within a few weeks of initially straying just a few pence overdrawn. Such abuse by high street banks which were themselves bailed out by poor taxpayers is morally unacceptable."
As quoted in the Guardian:"Maybe it's the shape of the missiles but every time Trident is mentioned there is an outbreak of priapism on the Tory backbenchers. There is a real risk that the whole strategic defence review will be skewed because of the obsession with Trident. It makes no sense whatsoever to exclude Trident, the strategic deterrent, from a proper strategic review."
Lib Dem party members Richard Nixon and Gary Johnson with a banner they unfurled at a recent council meeting to show their anger at Mr Poole's defection, outside Pittwood House in Scunthorpe.
Of course, any event in which David Beckham takes part, and speaks for a period of time, and appears to be enjoying himself, or at the very least, not in hell, that's news, right?Why does a 37-year-old educated at Godolphin & Latymer School and Lincoln College, Oxford, feel the need to write like that? Why is she allowed to do so on the news pages of a national newspaper?
The band, the piano, the poofs, all the furniture had started to look a bit old-fashioned, a bit Royal Variety performance. But the format wasn't broke, and nobody's even fixed it. We've just stamped on it and made a mess. And in due course, it will reappear on ITV, still not broken, and hopefully we'll have more sense next time.Yet when I looked at the website earlier this evening I found that the article now ends in a different way. The web version concludes:
I wonder how often the Guardian does this? There is nothing sinister in it, but it is striking that it is the web version that carries Williams' more considered thoughts and the printed version that was apparently written in haste and later thought better of.The band, the piano, the poofs, all the furniture had started to look a bit old-fashioned, a bit Royal Variety performance (who invented the musical interlude? Logie Baird?).
But actually, the format wasn't broke, and nobody's even fixed it. We've just stamped on it and made a mess. And in due course, it will reappear on ITV.
It doesn't do to get mawkish – it's not the end of the world, certainly not for Ross, who is generally thought to feed on adversity and get a bit lazy in good times. But it's hard to shake the feeling that he was cut down for no good reason, just for the insult of his riotous, unstoppable thriving.
Andy Crick has a major problem with the coalition government: "My problem is that, notwithstanding some of the measures in the budget, like the dodging of a meaningful capital gains tax increase, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with much of what is being done. This is a difficult position to be in when I want to maintain my independence and critical faculties."
I have visited Gaddesby twice before. The more recent occasion, though it is some years ago now, was to play chess for the Leicestershire in the village hall here. We played most of our home games in the old Leicester City Council staff social club, but for some reason we played our match against Nottinghamshire here.The Decorated west end of the south aisle appears to have been designed at the end of a riotous 14th-century party. It is one of the most eccentric compositions on any English church.
As rectors there is no reason why they should have been responsible for the work in the aisles.
This week's acting editor of Liberal Democrat News was Adrian Slade - the man who auditioned Peter Cook for the Cambridge Footlights.
on 22 October 1940 the surface building was hit by a bomb and severely damaged. It was subsequently demolished and little evidence of the station's existence appears above ground today. The bricked-up platforms are still accessible to London Underground staff via an anonymous door off Whitechapel Road.David Leboff has gone through that anonymous door to make a film about the station for the BBC.
Both the Conservative MP for Harborough Edward Garnier (Solicitor General, no less) and Liberal Democrat councillors in Market Harborough are campaigning against closure of the town's magistrates court.
Are they all supporting spending cuts at a national level and opposing them locally?
There is something of that, certainly. But I think there is more to it than that.
As far the coalition has a shared ideology, it is a scepticism about big, centralised solutions. So it is legitimate to ask whether moving every trial to Leicester will save money and whether doing so will meet the need for justice to be seen to be done.
My former headmaster did famously fall asleep on the Bench at Harborough court once, but I still support local justice for local people.
Read Hamish Macdonell in the Caledonian Mercury to find out why, when the bookies start taking bets on next year's Holyrood election:“They couldn’t possibly do that,” say the strategists and plotters, “Not even the Liberal Democrats could be in power in two places at once, in two different coalitions, with two different partners pursuing radically different policies.”
Ah, but they can and, given half a chance, they almost certainly will and here is why.
it might be worth thinking about the following: Iain Gray as First Minister, Tavish Scott as his Deputy, Nicola Sturgeon as Leader of the Opposition and the Tories in post-election meltdown trying to choose a new leader.
Langton's in Church Gate is a good furniture shop, but the building has seen better days. In fact it now resembles Reginald Perrin's employer Sunshine Desserts.Finally on the east side of Church Gate, the premises occupied by Langton’s (81 Church Gate) at the corner of Gravel Street are of interest. They were built as a garage (Castle’s Motors) in the 1930s, probably at the time when Gravel Street was extended.
It is in Art deco style – popular for such uses at that time - and features a tower that acts as a prominent local landmark.
Open Culture brings the welcome news that all of Andrei Tarkovsky's films can now be watched online:Shot between 1962 and 1986, Tarkovsky’s seven feature films often grapple with metaphysical and spiritual themes, using a distinctive cinematic style. Long takes, slow pacing and metaphorical imagery – they all figure into the archetypical Tarkovsky film.Whatever that last phrase means.
Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, Mark Pack detects Paul Burstow's hand in the new NHS white paper.
As well as two sets of ruins and the statue of Cardinal Wolsey, Leicester's Abbey Park contains a miniature railway.
Meanwhile, the public are unlikely to be enthusiastic when faced with an overall record of running down the state to the levels that made voters so willing to embrace New Labour in 1997 after nearly two decades of slash and burn.Was the state run down in the Thatcher and Major years? A briefing produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies for the 2005 gives the true figures:
During Margaret Thatcher’s premiership public spending grew in real terms by an average of 1.1% a year, while during John Major’s premiership it grew by an average of 2.4% a year.The fact that such increases feel like a policy of slash and burn to social liberals suggests that there is a problem with their views. As I have argued before, they need to think harder, not about their differences for the Conservatives, but about what differentiates social liberalism from socialism.
Pendle-based Lord Tony Greaves is the first major Lib Dem politician to break ranks with his party because of the initiatives and policies being introduced by the Conservative/Lib Dem pact.Later. For the sake of clarity, I had better add that I posted this because I thought my readers would be interested to know what Tony has said, not because I agree with him.
He is particululary unhappy at policies in relation to education, health and cuts to local services.
Lord Greaves, who lives in Winewall, near Colne, has written a weekly column in the Lancashire Telegraph for more than six years.
However, he announced yesterday that he felt unable to continue the role, fearing the column would only develop into a vehicle for his rants against the political party he has represented for the past 40 years ...
Announcing his decision not to continue the column, he said: “I am frankly appalled by the stream of bad news that is coming out of the government. If I continue to write these columns they will inevitably consist of weekly attacks on my own party which I'd rather not do.”
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Simon Hughes, today distanced his party from education secretary Michael Gove over the contentious decision to cancel 700 school rebuilding projects.
Hughes said he was not entirely comfortable with the handling of the announcement, adding it would be "a nonsense" to build the new free schools proposed by Gove using cash that could have improved existing buildings.
claimed Patrick Wintour in this morning's Guardian.
I don't suppose anyone is "entirely comfortable" with the handling of the announcement - certainly not Gove himself.
But I am not convinced that Simon Hughes can single-handedly distance the party from anything. And, more important, I do not see why it would be a nonsense to build new schools with cash that could have been used to improve impressive buildings.
If existing schools are decrepit then, of course, improving them should come first. But, as I have pointed out before, it is by no means clear that all the new schools being provided under the Building Schools for the Future programme are needed for this reason.
Nor, where urgent replacement is needed, is it clear that this programme offers the most cost-effective way of doing so.
Beyond that, one of the reasons I am a Liberal rather than a socialist is that I want to see variety and innovation in the public sector. So I am find it hard to be concerned that money is going to set up new schools.
And, much as we all love Simon , I have a limited appetite for hearing those who were privately educated themselves insist upon conformity in the public sector.
Writing in the Observer, Henry Porter praises the coalition government: "Despite George Osborne's budget, despite what we know is coming down the pike in the way of spending cuts, unemployment, the erosion of pensions and the possibility of a deeper recession, the coalition is popular, or at least tolerated, because the daily exercise of power seems more humane, reasonable and commonsensical than at any time during the last five years under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown."
