How can Labour split the coalition? Easy, says SNP Tactical Voting: "by pushing for PR that Lib Dems won't be able to resist voting for and the Tories, particularly those on the backbenches, will fight tooth and nail against."
Birkdale Focus looks back to the 1945 general election. The Liberal candidate in Southport was Bob Martin - yes, that Bob Martin. Despite his nice wet nose, he did not win the seat.
When will Prime Minister David Cameron reaffirm and extend the Wilson Doctrine on the protection from snooping on constituents' communications with their elected representatives? asks Spy Blog.
Strange Maps looks at London's Twitter activity expressed as a relief map: "The centre of the map, and of London’s tweeting community, is the area of Central London comprising Soho Mountain and Picadilly Rock. Traffic (or altitude) radiates out from that summit fairly evenly through Westminster Rock, Waterloo Hang, Hydepark Steep, Victoria Point and Smithfield Moor. The even pattern is interrupted by a small elevation labelled Liverpool Street Hill to the east, Hackney Downs Hill further north-east, Peckham Crag to the south-east and a freestanding hill complex to the west (Holland Park Hill, White City Peak and Earls Court Hill). A smaller, single elevation to the south is called Battersea Hill."
Today I met Backwatersman for the first time. To mark the occasion I am linking to a post on his blog Go Litel Blog, Go ...: "The decline of the out ground is one of the great shames of our cricketing era. Flicking through the fixture list for 1960 (the year I was born) we see the names Ilkeston, Burton-on-Trent, Ilford, Pontypridd, Llanelli, Stroud, Dudley, Snibston, Nuneaton (Griff Colliery), Coventry (Courtauld’s), Cowes, Worksop, Neath, Loughborough, Hinckley, Ashby, Worthing, Hastings, Maidstone, Bournemouth, Blackheath, Kettering, Wellingborough, Clacton, Dover, Harrogate, Portsmouth … Mostly gone now, like names from a pre-”Beeching” railway timetable, and like them they could, with a little effort, be rearranged into a mournful sort of poem of lament."
Worksop boasted *two* out-grounds; there was Worksop College, and Worksop Town where I once saw the great Garfield Sobers play (he didn't do much, and in fact there was only Jack Hampshire that got anything out of the spin-friendly pitch that game).
ReplyDeleteHere in God's Own County, we've lost a hell of a lot of out-grounds; only Scarborough and Harrogate are still used other than HQ. It's a shame to see Park Avenue relegated to just one non-first-class game per season; while it's never been plush, it was always a grand place to watch competitive cricket and the view of the game was always excellent.
Have indeed voted for your blog; the regular posts about cricket, trains, architecture, films, broadcasting and Ray Davies have made sure of it. A much more enjoyable read than the usual Westminster Village pablum, and rather refreshing to see a fellow LibDem who couldn't give a monkey's about Doctor Who and comics. Don't ever change.
You are Terribly Kind.
ReplyDeleteI once saw Leicestershire play Warwickshire at Hinckley. The ground was not signposted and took some finding.
Never had the delights of watching a county game at Hinckley, though I can firmly state that Courtaulds at Coventry is an out-ground that I'm sure nobody will miss being dropped from the calendar, even cricket fans based in Cov. Even grimmer than Acklam Park, Middlesbrough.
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