A Lanson Boy celebrates the way that Cornwall's Lib Dem MPs have united against the regional variation of public-sector pay. He quotes Stephen Gilbert from St Austell and Newquay: "Local pay threatens to institutionalise the structural problems in the Cornish economy where we have lower than national average wages but have higher than national average costs on housing, water and fuel. We need to work to close this gap and we will not do so by a rush to the bottom in public sector pay."
The All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group has just celebrated its third anniversary, says Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West).
The University of Huddersfield website reports on a recent conference to mark the bicentenary of the Luddites: “We need to reclaim the Luddites. They have been airbrushed out of history, isolated and stigmatised.”
Did Michael Powell invent the 'Hitchcock climax'? US Intellectual History considers the relationship of the two great British film directors.
Love and Garbage has the latest police bulletin on their hunt for Paul Gambaccini: "We urge you not to approach him, particularly if you have ever had any involvement in the music industry. In fact, it is best not to approach him if you have ever played any musical instrument (down to the humble maraca or triangle in a school band) or sang in public. If you see a television station that Mr Gambaccini is not on, or a radio station he has not appeared on, please contact us immediately. The likelihood is that he will be there in minutes and we can arrange for officers to be in attendance to try to bring this reign of pop terror to an end."
That Gambaccini one made me laugh entirely too much, especially this line -- "We believe that following his last bout of instant paid-for obituarising in response to the death of cheeky Monkee Davy Jones Gambaccini indulged in a spending spree"
ReplyDeleteI actually did a radio appearance, on Radio Belfast, talking about Davy Jones, after one of their producers contacted me (because of my book on the subject), and her specific words were "We need somebody -- anybody -- who isn't Paul Gambaccini and can talk about Davy Jones for ten minutes".