The Joy of Six 1559

"Violence has prevailed against the freedom of the press. I was denied the right to report on the disgraceful acts which later unfolded after I left for my own safety – and that is wrong. Violence against anyone should be condemned, that's a fact. But violence against a person simply trying to report is an obstruction of truth." Henry Durand tries to report on the mob violence in Thetford.

Carole Cadwalladr introduces a timeline of The Nerve's investigation of Nigel Farage’s biggest funder, Christopher Harborne, and argues that Farage is a symptom, not a cause, of forces reshaping politics across the world: "Farage has never known anything like it. There are now questions which even he can’t dodge. Questions even the BBC is finally asking. And his luck seems to be running out. A hasty plan to throw off a parliamentary investigation by quitting parliament before he could be sanctioned has spectacularly backfired in the biggest own goal of his career."

Rebecca Nicholson reviews the pitch-dark documentary series Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which is currently on BBC iPlayer: "As a vlogger, she and her husband, Kevin, made a living from YouTube, posting videos on the popular channel 8 Passengers, now defunct, about Mormon family life and parenting their six children in the picturesque city of Springville, Utah. But in 2023 Franke was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison."

"This is a pattern seen repeated throughout our society and system: a government quick to make 'hard choices' that involve easy solutions, but seemingly entirely unwilling or unable to take on the tougher opponents and ... seek harder more essential solutions." Paul Rowlston argues that Britain's proposed social media ban for under-16s tackles a symptom while leaving the real problem untouched.

"Caricatures of the Luddites as history’s losers are simply false," says Brian Lewis. "We have not stopped talking about them ever since."

Giles Wilcock looks back to 1919 – the last time cricket's county championship faced a serious threat: "When the war ended, the Bradford League remained attractive, and the Lancashire League began hunting for star names to compete. And because of the unique circumstances of the 1919 season – two-day games and relatively low county wages – they were often successful."

The Coasters: Yakety Yak

Isn't this brilliant? It has everything, from a situation every Fifties American teenager would have been familiar with to an irresistible catch: "Don't talk back." 

Yakety Yak was written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who were responsible for many great songs, and performed by the Black doo-wop group The Coasters.

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

The union of a black vocal group with two Jewish songwriters was one of the most propitious in rock history. Leiber and Stoller’s witty, street-smart 'playlets' were sung with sly, clowning humor by the Coasters and accompanied by the hot, honking 'yakety sax' of King Curtis. 

The Coasters parlayed their R&B; roots into rock and roll hits by delivering Leiber and Stoller’s serio-comic tunes in an uptempo doo-wop style. Beneath the humour the songs often made incisive points about American culture for those willing to dig a little deeper.

Leiber has described the Coasters’ style as "a white kid’s view of a black person’s conception of white society." In fact, their success showed how thin was the line between rhythm & blues and rock and roll in the Fifties. 

"Our songs…were R&B; hits that white kids were attracted to," Leiber said in a 1992 interview. "And if people bought it, it became rock and roll."

A blue plaque for Traffic's Jim Capaldi in Marlow

Jim Capaldi, singer, Traffic's drummer and Steve Winwood's longtime writing partner, is now remembered by a heritage plaque on his former home in Marlow.

It was unveiled on Sunday 2 August, which would have been Capaldi's 82nd birthday.

Among the people who gathered to see the plaque unveiled were Capaldi's wife Aninha and their daughters Tabitha and Tallulah, and figures from the world of music including Steve and Muff Winwood and Bob Harris.

The plaque, which  was installed by The Marlow Society, commemorates the home where Jim lived from 1971 until his death in 2005.

Photo from the Jim Capaldi Facebook page.

For International Cat Day: This is Sylvia by Sandy Wilson

One of the books I saved from my mother's house was This is Sylvia by Sandy Wilson. This review from the Brechin Advertiser (25 January 1955) explains all.

A nonsense book that is something quite new is the autobiography of that successful musical comedy star, Sylvia. Sylvia hesitated when her friends urged her to write her memoirs. She had lived her nine lives to the full, they said, so why not give her story to the public? Hester Briggs finally persuaded this great-great-granddaughter of a Sultan to take the plunge and tell her story up to now. As for the future, well as Hester said, Sylvia may only have got as far her eighth life yet. 

This is Sylvia (Max Parrish, 8/6) is the work of that remarkable young man, Sandy Wilson, who wrote the book, the lyrics and the music of the most successful musical comedy produced London for many years, The Boy Friend. As might have been expected from this talented author, This is Sylvia is like no other book, for this story of a cat of doubtful parentage, undoubted talents, ignorant but wise, popular and, of course. beautiful, embodies all that was ever meant by the successful musical comedy star the '30s and '40s. It is a candid story, full of wickedness, fashion, and foible, cunningly exposing the fatuity and elegance, follies and grace, weaknesses and strength of those who whirl among the bright lights. 

Each of the 54 illustrations, drawn Sandy Wilson himself, is a brilliant satire, and there can be few readers who will not delight in these memoirs of the recent past which he has successfully through Sylvia’s catty lips.” 

I suspect there are many contemporary references in This is Sylvia that we no longer get, but as a small boy I just loved the drawings of the cats.

Think of this post as my contribution to International Cat Day – though, strictly speaking, every day is International Cat Day.

Raven: Phil Daniels and archaeology encounter nuclear waste

Nuclear site dig will change prehistory, says archaeologist

says the headline on a BBC News article about Sizewell C.

A nuclear power station being built on an ancient site? That sounds like the plot of an ITV children's serial from the Seventies.

And I was pretty much right, because the largely forgotten series Raven from 1977 dealt with plans to store nuclear waste use an ancient cave system. I'm not sure I remember watching it, but I did have the book.

So here's the first episode. Note the strong cast: Phil Daniels, Michael Aldridge and Patsy Rowlands.

Before I found this, I was going to use a short video about the series. It's fine, except when it claims that, by dealing with environmental issues in 1977, Raven was "way ahead of its time".

People write with such certainty about decades they don't remember. But often their version of the past is as wide of the mark as that you find in the AI nostalgia accounts they love to correct.

The uncanny on the western front in the first world war

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Malcolm Gaskill reviews A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith during the First World War by Owen Davies in the London Review of Books (4 July 2019):

It’s a well-known story that British soldiers at Mons claimed they really did see angels – but that story, too, turns out to be unfounded. In September 1914 the Welsh writer Arthur Machen published a story called The Bowmen in the London Evening News. In it, spectral archers from the Battle of Agincourt come to the aid of the British Expeditionary Force at Mons. 

To his dismay the story was widely taken as truth, and a "snowball of rumour" hardened into "the solidest of facts". "If I had failed in the art of letters," Machen wrote later, "I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit."

It’s ironic that the Great War’s most famous supernatural story was the creation of Arthur Machen when there were so many real reports of supernatural phenomena on the front line. In A Supernatural War, Owen Davies leads us from the conflict into a haunted world filled with magical thinking and uncanny experiences.

And the angels of Mons were only one of many encounters with the uncanny during the war:

From the outbreak of war, tales of the uncanny abounded. French Catholic troops at the Battle of the Marne and Russian Orthodox troops at the Battle of Augustov reported seeing the Virgin Mary. "Sport is more in my line than Spiritualism," a British officer wounded at Mons remarked, "but when you have experiences brought under your very nose again and again, you cannot help thinking that there must be something in such things."

Battlefield apparitions were nothing new: Roman legionaries saw Castor and Pollux; troops fighting in the Crimean War saw saints. Walter Scott thought this perfectly natural: "One warrior catches the idea from another; all are alike eager to acknowledge the present miracle, and the battle is won before the mistake is discovered." What made the First World War different was not just its mechanised slaughter, but the way it slammed together old and new habits of thought.

Nascent disciplines like psychology, sociology and social anthropology were quick to identify atavistic traits in 20th-century people. Granville Stanley Hall, the first president of the American Psychological Association, thought the Angels of Mons a fascinating expression of societal stress. "No war," he said, "was ever so hard on the nerves." 

The French historian Marc Bloch was thrilled to observe in the trenches "a wonderful renewal of oral tradition". Men moving up and down the line would exchange a few words, often passing on rumours that were groundless but hugely significant for the hearers.

There's more about the angels of Mons in an article by Dr Miriam Bibby on Historic UK.

The Joy of Six 1558

"Someone who attended a private school in London or the South East is 24 times more likely to become a permanent secretary than someone educated at a state school in the North. For a seat in the House of Lords, the gap is 23-fold. That is not class inequality plus regional inequality. It is what happens when they multiply." Nick Harrison asks if No 10 North will change who runs Britain.

Janice Mak says American schools are increasingly questioning whether every student needs a laptop: "This distinction between passive consumption and purposeful use is increasingly shaping school policy. Updated policies also reflect an emerging emphasis on age-appropriate screen use, student well-being and ensuring that technology can support, rather than replace, direct instruction and student collaboration."

Adam Sherwin reports on the plans to turn off Freeview television and the threat that poses to Talking Pictures TV.

Scott Barry Kaufman argues that the role of luck in successful lives is far greater than we realise.

"Do not be lulled into complacency by the family-film aesthetics. When Mom the Sheepdog instructed Babe the Pig to dominate other animals by abusing them, demeaning them, and telling them what to do, and Babe refused because disrespecting another living creature would be wrong? That moment might have radicalised a generation." Roxana Hadadi discusses the politics of Babe (1995).

"From the end of the Victorian period, Broadstairs was strategically marketing its Dickensian connections through postcards, guide books and festivals. In 1897 Alfred Harmsworth (founder of the Daily Mail) was one of the organisers of a ‘Dickens Village’, which recreated scenes including Defarge’s wine shop, Peggotty’s boat, the Great White Hart at Ipswich and the Old Curiosity Shop. The festival was successful enough to be repeated the following year." Carolyn Oulton on the long history of Dickens tourism in Broadstairs.

Before Paddington Bear there was Mary Plain

If the Paddington phenomenon has Gone A Bit Far, as Lord Bonkers would put it, is there an alternative bear whose adventures we can enjoy?

There is. A post on Scones and Chaises Longues has reminded me that I enjoyed the Mary Plain books when I was very young:

Readers of a certain age (mine) may remember Gwynedd Rae's Mary Plain books. I have fond memories of sitting on one of the little wooden chairs in the children's section of Bromley Public Library, working my way through the adventures of the bear cub from Berne while my mother chose her novels from the grown ups' shelves.

The series was old before I first encountered it (I don't quite date from 1937...although the last Mary P book was not published until 1965), and I did wonder how it would read now, all these decades later. I needn't have worried; I enjoyed Mary Plain on Holiday just as much, in fact probably more, than I had before, because now I could also appreciate Rae's skill in creating stories that entertained children whilst also amusing their long suffering parents; their dry wit that would have flown straight over my six year old head.

Mary Plain is a small bear from the Bear Pits at Berne. And no, as a 6 year old I had no idea what Bear Pits were, nor indeed that Berne was even a place; no matter. Mary is an orphan who has grown up with her grandparents, her small cousins Little Wool and Marionette, and a large extended family. How she came to be living with her friend the Owl Man (he wears horn-rimmed spectacles) in his smart London flat is explained in the first book, Mostly Mary (though there is a diagram of Mary's family tree at the beginning of Mary Plain on Holiday.)

Mary is extremely full of herself, very inquisitive and always getting into trouble.

I assumed the book was Swiss, because Mary Plain came from Berne, and even now I remember her egotism, which was that of a small child.

An unworthy part of me wonders if Michael Bond read these books too.

Ian Christie on the pioneer British filmmaker Robert Paul

Here's another film lecture from Ian Christie. We've seen him on Gothic London, and here he talks about the forgotten London film pioneer Robert Paul.

Paul, who was born in Islington in 1869, vividly portrayed the variety of London at the end of the 19th century, conscious of its historic appeal but also emphasising the modernity of which he was a part.

Huge wasp nest takes over wildlife trust's office

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this story from Norfolk.

A wasp comments: It said "wildlife" on the door, and we're wildlife."

To their credit, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's staff appear to view things in much the same light.

GUEST POST In praise of outgrounds: How cricket in small towns made a roaring comeback

The Hundred may be struggling for spectators, but cricket's One-Day Cup is thriving by using grounds that do not usually see professional cricket. Matthew Pennell explains why.

Neath, Mansfield, Gosforth, Farington, Arundel, York and Cheltenham. Towns and cities you wouldn’t normally link together, but what they have in common is they all hosted sell-out games of cricket in the first week of the One-Day Cup. 

These are a combination of brand new, rediscovered or longstanding outgrounds that are proving very popular with fans. This is despite relative indifference from the ECB and county squads being depleted by the existence of franchise cricket being played on test match grounds.

This year sell outs mean a crowd of between 4,000 and 6,000. Now, football fans might be dismissive of such numbers, as they're equivalent to fourth-tier attendances in the English league, but they represent a historic high for cricket and many outgrounds are in small towns where no other professional team sport is played. 

For perspective, in 2003 the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) got very excited at crowd numbers for the first season of T20 cricket (played on county or test match grounds at evenings and weekends). These averaged around 4,000 and were far higher than the tournament it replaced, the Benson & Hedges Cup, which had an average attendance of 1,100 in 2002. At the time ECB Marketing Manager, Stuart Robertson crowed in Wisden magazine, "We are delighted by the response we have had so far."

I doubt we'll see such a positive statement from the ECB about bumper One-Day Cup attendances. It’s somewhat awkward for them that numbers are up for the Cup in provincial grounds, but down for their precious franchise tournament.

In many ways outground cricket is the antithesis of the Hundred. Crowds are dedicated and knowledgeable, you're likely to bump into parents of players (hello David Fulton’s dad), ex-players (hello Martin McCague – you are as wide as you are tall), BBC local radio commentators (hello friendly BBC Radio Gloucestershire team). It’s a pleasure to rub shoulders with people who don’t have to ask what’s going on and have been to every home game this season, so have seen every player talked up into England reckoning.

Outgrounds are small enough, without the surge in popularity, to create a good atmosphere, Maidstone with 800 people spread evenly across the grass bank didn't feel sparse. As cricket in England is not played in enormodomes the competition isn't so much about numbers as experience.

Which is the prettiest ground? Certainly Abergavenny, Arundel and Tunbridge Wells would be in with a shout (please comment below if you think I’ve missed a good one). I remember the Guardian making a

point of covering every county game at Abergavenny, despite its remoteness, because the surroundings were so lovely.

Food is a big factor in the cricket experience, I recall cupcakes and cakes supplied to a hospitality marquee by club volunteers at Guildford at reasonable prices, coupled with relaxed rules and regs about bringing your own provisions. Across the piece, it's great value for money – you’re not getting ripped off by ticket prices, car parking charges or catering.

While administrators talk of T20 and the Hundred bringing new fans to grounds, it's also the case that franchises alienate many established fans and the bigger counties absolutely need to play in several venues to reach out to their entire catchment area. In an ideal world the 18 counties would play at more than 60 venues a season, visiting several locations not covered by football or rugby. For example, Yorkshire play in Leeds, Scarborough and York. They could easily sell out in another half dozen venues, and some members would say they’re ignoring South Yorkshire altogether.

Is this year a one-off or part of a trend? Certainly the early summer heatwave in Europe has encouraged staycations and our own summer weather has made people more confident about getting a full day's play. Hopefully in a few years time I'll revisit this and talk of counties wrestling with fitting more temporary seating in the grounds that are bursting today.

Matthew Pennell blogs at Return of the Liberal.

Finlay J. Macdonald visits the Flannan Isles and their lighthouse

This television film about the Flannan Isles, their lighthouse and the mysterious disappearance of its three keepers in 1900 was made by Finlay J. Macdonald in 1970. The light went over to automatic operation the following year.

I once had bed and breakfast at Breasclete on the west coast of Lewis, and the owner was the grandson of one of the men aboard the Hesperus when it went out to the isles to see what was amiss with the light. It had not been seen to shine for 10 days.

The film will tell you what they found there.

Finlay J. Macdonald was a writer and broadcaster. He read his three books about growing up on Harris between the wars on BBC Radio 4 in the 1980s and they proved a great success.

I still recall his tale of a visiting school inspector being most impressed by the children's knowledge of the Bible. That was because she could not see their teacher, who was standing behind her and giving them the right answers by holding up her fingers.

Inside Southwark's Green/Lib Dem coalition council

BBC News has posted a positive write up by Susana Mendonca of the Green/Lib Dem administration that has run the London Borough of Southwark since May's local elections.

At those elections, the Green Party won 22 seats and the Lib Dems 12, then used their combined majority to take control. Southwark is the only London borough currently being run by such a coalition.

The Lib Dems secured three posts in the leadership team, including that of deputy council leader which is filled by their group leader Victor Chamberlain.

Chamberlain told BBC News: 

"The more we started talking, the more we realised that we had a lot in common, that we shared similar values and aspirations for our borough, and actually we wanted to build a borough that is more affordable, that is safer and that is greener.

"I think we found it really very constructive to work as two parties that both bring great ideas to the table."

The article also quotes the deputy leader of the opposition Labour group, who seems rather fixated on process:

"Apart from a number of meetings being cancelled, we've had two proposed cuts, one being the Nest which is a free mental health support for young people and a dementia service being cut, but it's been reversed because the Labour group, along with residents have pushed back.

"It's quite clear that they don't know what they're doing and actually this [coalition] was done in a rush."

The Joy of Six 1557

Stefan Wolff, Elīna Šteinerte and Hervé Ascensio have investigated Russia’s military indoctrination of Ukrainian children in its occupied territories: "The headteacher of the local school, accompanied by heavily armed soldiers, went from house to house to question parents who do not send their children to school and had not yet applied for Russian passports. He threatened them with the removal of their parental rights. He also said their children would be placed in institutions if they didn't yield to the pressure to do so."

"The university’s own financial reports show that 16 members of the University Executive Board are paid an average of £241k – a 27 per cent increase over three years while the institution has been going through financial difficulties. We have also seen the recruitment of highly paid and non-academic 'professors of practice', who are often industry figures without teaching and research experience. New managerial roles with grandiose titles such as 'associate pro-vice chancellor for education and student experience' have been created across the institution." John Heathershaw takes us inside the crisis at the University of Exeter.

"Deaths, misconduct in public office, rat infestations, and a climate of fear." Emma Guy reports on Leicester's privately run HMP Fosse Way.

Gawain Towler explains Rupert Lowe's sudden interest in cooperation with Reform UK: "A  man of sixty-eight, a man elected twice on the coattails of Nigel Farage, who has spent eighteen months declaring that his purpose was the destruction of Nigel Farage, has looked at 8.7 per cent in a nationally ignored by-election and concluded that his moment is now or never. It is not unity he wants. It is relevance, and he is in a hurry for it."

"Works such as Robert McFarlane's The Old Ways, Tom Cox's 21st Century Yokel, Benjamin Myers' Under the Rock, and Edward Parnell's seminal Ghostland explore the connection between the self, the landscape, and the stories and histories that permeate and in many ways 'haunt' these landscapes." Scarlett Butchers considers the role of environmentalism in recent 'folkish' English writing.

Fed Kandi photographs the public art on the campuses of Lougborough University and the University of Leicester.

Man vows to "never travel to Lincolnshire again" after Humber Bridge fines

The judges were aghast. What, never again see Lincoln Cathedral or the stone buildings of Stamford?

Nevertheless, they gave Hull Live our Headline of the Day Award for its tale of a pissed off hedgehog rescuer.

The hidden history of Euston, a lost canal and Cumberland Market

John Rogers takes us on a walk through a quarter of Camden that surprises even him.

His blurb on YouTube says:

From the Euston Station redevelopment, the site of the Euston Arch and the Bree Louise pub we go looking for a reservoir of the New River. In this area, North Gower Street, we have Speedy's Cafe and the filing location used in the TV show Sherlock for 221b Baker Street. 

From here we go to Cumberland Market, once London's last hay and straw market and look for the location of the Canal basin that served the market right until the 1930s. 

This fascinating Hidden London History walk then follows the route of the Cumberland Arm of the Regent's Canal to the point where it joined the main course of the canal.

John Rogers has a Patreon account to support his videos and blogs at The Lost Byway.

Northwood Lane, Bewdley: The Elan Valley Aqueduct, The Singing Detective and Jonathan Meades

Fire broke out beside the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) bear Bewdley yesterday, reports the Shropshire Star. I don't know if it was caused by a spark from a train, but many preserved lines have gone over to diesel-only operation because of the tinder-dry state of lineside vegetation this summer.

This fire took place near Northwood Lane, which is a long road that runs beside the River Severn north of Bewdley. And this post  is about three things you can see along its course.

The first is an aqueduct that carries drinking water from the Elan Valley reservoir in Mid Wales over the River Severn on its way to the Frankley Reservoir in  Birmingham. This 73-mile pipeline, which opened in 1906, was a wonder of its day. 

You'll find it marked on the endpaper maps of many books about the Welsh Border, and I suspect it was the inspiration for the plot about a Shropshire reservoir being blown up by German spies in the first of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books, Mystery at Witchend.

You can see the Aqueduct over the Severn and the rails of the SVR in the photograph above. Now on to two television connections...

There is a station beside Northwood Lane, and it was used as a location for Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. It's in the scene where the young Philip Marlowe returns to the Forest of Dean after his mother's death in London and is met by his father, who is played by Jim Carter. You can see a photo of them above along with photos photos of the station and level crossing.

And then there's Jonathan Meades...

You may remember his film Severn Heaven, which visited the Bewdley plotlands. This is an interwar community of some 160 self-built properties, which appears to be under threat at the moment. 

I had a wander round it some years ago myself, getting off the train at Northwood Halt.

Prince Philip sent 12th-century font to Charles’ boarding school in the 1960s

The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Apparently the font wasn't academically gifted, but it had character and played in the front row for the first XV. It later became a management consultant. 

Our photograph shows this very font, now to be found back at Upton Cressett in Shropshire.

BBC Radio Leicester's Secret Leicestershire on Oakham Castle

It's not in Leicestershire and it's no secret, but Oakham Castle is the subject of the latest short programme in BBC Radio Leicester's Secret Leicestershire series.

The programme talks about the wider castle site, not just the wonderful Norman great hall you see above.

If you want to know more about the archaeology of this fascinating site, you can listen to an online lecture by Matthew Morris from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, who has led digs there.

The Joy of Six 1556

"Dartford Warblers skim across the heather before diving into the vegetation, defying all but the quickest observers. At dusk Nightjars churr from the isolated trees or fly overhead, the males clapping their wings in display flight." David Jobbins mourns what has been lost to the fire at Dunwich Heath.

Sam Power explains why Reform UK will find it hard to shake off questions about its donors: "An important thing to note is that the legal onus rests almost entirely on the donor. The party in receipt of the donation simply needs to show that it has conducted a permissibility check on them. In the case of Reform, some of its biggest donors (like Tice) are effectively woven into the party apparatus. This makes it much harder for the party to be seen to be one step removed from the money."

An increasingly narrow English curriculum, with its emphasis on phonics and 'teaching to the test', is squeezing reading for pleasure out of our primary schools, experts in the field tell Lydia Chantler-Hicks.

Rebecca Johns finds that British scientist James Lovelock warned executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels in the 1960s. Rather than share his reports with the public, claims an imminent legal case, Shell responded by funding the Global Climate Coalition – an industry group that pursued multimillion-dollar influence campaigns promoting climate denial and misinformation.

Leanne Tritton reports on the fate of Shrewsbury's Shirehall, the modernist former home of the Shropshire County Council.

"Dirk Bogarde came in for some stick from certain quarters for his portrayal of General Sir Frederick 'Boy' Browning, who was under considerable pressure from Monty to deliver Operation Market-Garden. Dubious about taking Arnhem, Browning stated that they’d be going 'a bridge too far.' He said this before the operation, but there is no scene with Montgomery in the film, instead Bogarde gets the line after the snafu, coming across like an aloof clever-dick 'told you so' type." Tim Pelan looks back to to 1977 and the making of A Bridge Too Far.

Buzzcocks: Promises

Steve Diggle, Buzzcocks' guitarist, described the birth of this song in an interview he gave to Malcolm Wyatt:

"Promises was my song, but I left the verses at home! There’s a demo where we’re having a bit of fun and I’m making the verse up as I go along. As I was doing that, Pete was by the mixing desk, so it was just me, John (Maher, drums) and Steve (Garvey, bass). 

“We were working out which songs we had, and Pete [Shelley] said, 'I think I've got some verses for that melody.'

"The difference was that it was going to be a socio-political song about promises made by the Government. I said, 'You’ve turned it into a f***ing love song!'

"Having said that, it worked out well all round. That’s the thing with lots of the songwriting, particularly later on. We complement each other."

Promises, one of a great run of Buzzcocks singles, reached no. 20 in January 1979.

Under the Influence? A new report on alcohol at Westminster

When the newly elected Hannah Spencer – the Green victor in this year's Gorton and Denton by-election – voiced her shock at the role alcohol played at Westminster, other MPs and social media users queued up to patronise her and assure us that everything was fine there.

But perhaps they will pay more attention to a new report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies entitled Under the influence? Perspectives of alcohol in the parliamentary workplace among UK MPs and staff. 

You can read a media release on the institute's website and download the report from there too.

The release says:

Westminster is a unique workplace where alcohol is woven into the working environment. Staff members based in constituency offices were far less likely to report being offered alcohol at work meetings or events compared to staff based in Westminster and MPs, and participants also drew stark comparisons with the presence of alcohol in other workplaces.

The foreword is written by Beccy Cooper, who was a public health consultant before she won Worthing West for Labour in 2024. She says:

Two findings stood out to me. Almost one in ten respondents reported a negative experience because of someone else’s drinking at work, and 70 per cent either didn’t know, or weren’t sure, how to raise a concern about a colleague’s drinking. 

That combination – real, measurable harm, and no clear route to address it – is exactly the kind of gap we need to address. While social and networking elements are important in a healthy workplace, colleagues describing how the drinking culture plays a distinct role in career progression raises significant concerns about wellbeing, inclusion, and professionalism. 

The Guardian story on Under the Influence? emphasises its tales of excess and the claim by one MP that other members have had their stomachs pumped after consuming so much alcohol that they ended up in hospital.

I am reminded of another British institution that has seen better days: cricket.

This is from a blog post I wrote in 2017:

In the course of my day job I went to an event on the psychology and wellbeing of military personnel.

A session on mental health saw general agreement that the biggest issue facing the Forces in that field was alcohol misuse. ...

Cricket shares many features with military life – slightly awkward male camaraderie, periods of boredom followed by periods of nerve-shredding excitement, public school officers – and alcohol seems to play the same central role in it.

Alcohol is used as a reward and a consolation, to oil the wheels of socialisation and quite possibly to ease the nerves of the battle-scarred too.

One of the attractions of political activism for me, I will admit, was that after delivering, canvassing or committee meetings generally ended in the pub. In fact, there was a theory that political meetings all ended an hour before "Last orders", no matter when they began.

These days pubs are open later but no one can afford the beer prices, so I suppose everything has changed. By the sound of it, the only place where nothing has changed is Westminster.

You don't have to be a Puritan to think it has the wrong attitude to alcohol.

Bodhana Sivanandan breaks another world age record in chess

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England's chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan broke another world age record last week, reports Leonard Barden in the Guardian. At a tournament held in Aix-en-Provence, she achieved her first international master norm at the age of 11 years and four months. 

This made her the youngest female player to achieve this feat, beating the record of Judit Polgár, who later became the highest-rated female player in history. She didn't manage it until the age of 11 years and 9 months.

International master is the title one below grandmaster in chess. To achieve it a player must achieve three such norms, which are acquired by playing at the required strength in a tournament, and reach a high enough rating on the international list.

Bodhana is also two-thirds of the way towards becoming a woman grandmaster. If she achieves her third  norm for this in the next year, she will beat the record for the youngest holder of the title.

The separate title of woman grandmaster was introduced to give the stronger women players something to strive for. Whether it's down to nature or nurture, few of them are able to qualify for the grandmaster title the best male players hold.

But Judit Polgár became a grandmaster, and it's significant that her father (something of a chess Richard Williams) never allowed her or her sisters to play in women's tournaments but always had them competing with the men in open tournaments.

The appearance of a talent like Bodhana, and the large increase in the number of girls taking up the game, gives you hope that these separate titles will one day disappear.

The white horses of Lutterworth

I went to Lutterworth today and was taken by these four white horses on a grassed bank at the bottom of the town's main street, which climbs the hill from a bridge over the River Swift.

As the plaque says, they are the work of the artist and sculptor Graeme Mitcheson, who was inspired by Lutterworth's role as a staging post for the coaching trade in the 18th century.

The town council had the horses installed to mark the diamond jubilee of Elizabeth II.

The Joy of Six 1555

Benjamin Goodair says Andy Burnham is right to want for‑profit firms out of social care: "The majority of social care in England is run for-profit. The consequences of this go far beyond unfair profiteering. It actually worsens many of the core problems with England’s social care systems – making it less available, of worse quality and widening inequalities."

Children from poorer families do worse at school. Nadia Siddiqui explains why and what can be done to narrow the gap in attainment.

Steff Aquarone makes the case for a minister for coastal communities: "Too many coastal towns face lower than average wages, poorer transport connections, seasonal economies, shortages of affordable housing and increasing pressure from coastal erosion and climate change. Despite their enormous contribution to our economy, our heritage and our identity, they are too often overlooked when national investment decisions are made."

"Growing up there in the early 60s, the countryside never seemed too far away. We kids were often out and about, playing in the woods, making dens and tree swings, watching cows graze in farmers' fields and scrumping in nearby orchards where Warwick University and Cannon Park shopping centre now stand. There were brooks to jump across (or fall into regularly in my case) and an old Roman ford near to the busy A45." Ruth Cherrington celebrates Coventry's Camley Estate.

Ben Duckett is puzzled that attendances for cricket's Hundred tournament are falling, despite the presence of more star names, reports The Sports Encounter. What he and the games administrators need to grasp is that British sports fans' attachment is to teams, not to individual players.

Claire Madge has been to see the Richard Dadd exhibition at the Royal Academy: "There is no moment of finding 'madness' in Dadd's work, whether it was completed before his breakdown or after. Even the eyes of his figures from scenes of Hamlet completed in 1840 and the strange fairies that ring a sleeping Titania from 1841 show an artist with an ability to capture the uncanny and one who could easily get lost in the detail even before his psychosis came to the fore."

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The nation’s prison governors

With this final postcard from Trescothick Bay, our latest week with Lord Bonkers' Diary draws to a close.

What did become of Freddie and Fiona? What should the Liberal Democrats' new strategy be? Who will win the 2.30 at Wincanton? The answers to these questions will no doubt be revealed when next we visit Bonkers Hall.

Sunday

My long career in public life has convinced me of an important truth: a man who will cheat at golf will cheat at anything. It was therefore no surprise to me when President Trump – can that really be his name? – pressured the organisers to cancel the suspension of the American team’s star striker at the World Cup. 

It’s beginning to look as though the Reform Party will have to pull a similar trick with the nation’s prison governors in order to field a full slate of candidates at the next election.

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

Earlier this week...

• Searching the rock pools for "sea anomalies"
• Wandering Bodmin Moor at full moon and devouring constituents
• The arid south of Rutland
• "Hooson, we have a problem"
• He would sit there like a stuffed haddock
• Clip the wings of the Russian Bear

Foxes need to be humble - Chaplin

BBC Sport wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Personally, I've not heard many complaints about foxes being overproud. They more often involve dustbins.

Will Nigel Farage be made to pay for sharing that photograph?

Here's an unexpected twist: the man who took the photograph of that "Making plans for Nigel" T-shirt is suing people – one N. Farage in particular – for using his work. It has, after all, been spread all over the internet.

Alan Robertshaw, whose videos I post here occasionally, takes the opportunity to give us a quick guide to copyright law.

My advice to fellow bloggers is to steer clear of photographs from the big agencies that cater for newspapers, because they will find you and invoice you.

Trapped pigeon freed from netting under bridge in Shrewsbury with ‘verbal encouragement’ by firefighters

Our Headline of the Day Award goes to an old friend of this blog, the Shropshire Star.

When I showed the judges this photograph, which has the bridge in question at its centre, albeit in the background, they said: "Oh well, I suppose it will have to do."

Shropshire Hills project receives almost £1m from National Lottery

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded £993,475 in development funding to Shropshire's Landscape Connections project.

A report on the Heritage Fund website explains:

The project brings together farmers, communities and young people to improve habitats and strengthen ecological networks across one of England’s most treasured landscapes. With almost £1m in development funding awarded and the potential for a further £8.9m in delivery funding, the project will support long-term stewardship while helping more people connect with nature and heritage.

Over the next decade, the project aims to work with more than 200 landowners across the Shropshire Hills, delivering four large-scale river restoration projects alongside 120 smaller capital nature restoration initiatives. Local communities and parish councils will be supported to deliver Shropshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, while funded traineeships for young people will help secure the landscape’s future for generations to come.

Through Landscape Connections, fund has already invested more than £2.7m in development funding to projects in the Solway Coast and Marine area, the North Pennines, and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, with the potential for almost £25m in delivery funding to follow.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Clip the wings of the Russian Bear

I would point out that Lord Bonkers is more against Landlordism in principle than in practice, but my rent falls due on Lady Day.

Saturday

It was my old friend John Arlott who claimed that Manchester is the only city in Britain where they have lifeboat drill on the buses. No doubt the damp climate has encouraged its mayor to march on London to claim the crown – or at least the tenancy of 10 Downing Street. 

Yes, there is something Medieval about the whole affair; it’s like an episode from a school textbook on the reign of King Henry VI Part 2. 

What will this Burnham do when he gets there? I am told he is Sound on trams, which is to his credit, but hardly constitutes a programme for government. Were I to be asked – and my advice is often sought on such questions – I should counsel him to clip the wings of the Russian Bear, defend our universities (both ancient and modern) and give the scourge of Landlordism both barrels, but the Labour Party has always been in thrall to its social superiors.

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

Earlier this week...

• Searching the rock pools for "sea anomalies"
• Wandering Bodmin Moor at full moon and devouring constituents
• The arid south of Rutland
• "Hooson, we have a problem"
• He would sit there like a stuffed haddock

An Ian Christie lecture about Gothic London on film

This a terrific lecture by Ian Christie, whose writings did much to bring the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger back to prominence.

His Gothic London begins with early Dickens adaptations, made because there was a ready public for them. And Dickens, after all, was a cinematic novelist before cinema was invented.

Then we go though Jekyll and Hyde, Jack the Ripper and the London fog to reach the early Hitchcock. The exoticism of Limehouse, with its opium dens and Chinese population, also figures. 

Next we take in the Blitz and this blog's favourite topic of bombsites, before returning to Dickens in the shape of David Lean's peerless Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Carol Reed's 1970 film of Lionel Bart's Oliver!, says Christie, was the first colour adaptation of a Dickens novel.

And we end with some modern Gothic takes of London, including Death Line and From Hell.

Reform UK's opaque finances: Now the Lib Dems raise questions

Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrat cabinet office spokesperson, has referred Richard Tice to the parliamentary standards commissioner over an undeclared loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage’s aide George Cottrell.

The Guardian reports that Tice, the Reform UK MP for Boston and Skegness, received a loan of nearly £80,000 from Nigel Farage’s aide George Cottrell some months after he was elected parliament.

This transaction, says the newspaper's report, caused bankers to raise concerns with authorities.

In her letter to the commissioner, Lisa Smart wrote:

"Mr Cottrell is not merely a private acquaintance of Mr Tice, he is an official adviser to Reform UK and Nigel Farage (demonstrated by his use of Reform UK business cards).

"It is highly implausible that the loan would have been negotiated without their party political connection, given this is the central basis of their relationship."

The Guardian has also reported today that George Cottrell transferred $2m to his mother days before she made large donations to Reform UK.

The Joy of Six 1554

"The idea that England has always been governed from a single political centre is surprisingly recent. Westminster may now appear almost inseparable from the state, but for much of English history, government was far more mobile." Stephanie Brown says Andy Burnham’s No 10 North has a precedent in medieval York.

Nafeez Ahmed examines the links between George Cottrell’s Reform UK network in Montenegro and sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

"When social workers become involved with a family, the focus is often on parenting, safeguarding concerns or family relationships. But new research suggests that one of the strongest drivers of repeated involvement with children’s services is something more basic: whether families have enough money to live on." Rick Hood explains the findings of his research.

Jennifer Rubin Grandis confronts the systemic bias in academic publishing: "I’ve been studying sexism in academic medicine since 2019, and I’ve learned from countless interviewees that my experience as a woman in medicine is common. Women are rarely mentored well—in fact, when they ask for advice from senior faculty, they’re often discouraged from submitting their papers to high-impact journals, despite making just as many scientific discoveries as men."

Boak & Bailey recommend pub crawling as a way of practising psychogeography.

"Few science fiction relationships stick in my mind better than the love/hate between Dr. Zachary Smith and Robot in the original 1960s version of Lost in Space." J.G. Follansbee on one of television SF's great double acts.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: He would sit there like a stuffed haddock

Proof, I think. that Lord Bonkers reads this blog. The theory that Starmer was never meant to be prime minister, but was put in place as a move in Labour's civil war, comes from a Guardian article by Neal Lawson, and I have referred to it here more than once.

Friday

That Starmer fellow didn’t amount to much, did he? Cook, with her generous heart, always thought the best of him and refused to “listen to incinerations”; for myself, there’s an old Gypsy saying that holds… To be honest, I can’t remember what it holds, but I know it would be just the job here. 

My sources in the Labour Party tell me that the man was never meant to be prime minister: the idea was that he would sit there like a stuffed haddock while Mandelson and McSweeney Todd purged the party of anyone who believed in what Labour used to believe in. Then, after an honourable defeat in the 2024 election, he would have made way so that “Streeting” they used to go on about could become PM next time round. 

The moral is don’t appoint temporary leaders, as they may turn out not to be temporary at all. Vinnie Jones’s disastrous stewardship of the Royal Ballet should have alerted everyone to that danger.

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

Earlier this week...

• Searching the rock pools for "sea anomalies"
• Wandering Bodmin Moor at full moon and devouring constituents
• The arid south of Rutland
• "Hooson, we have a problem"

Cliff Richard and the Drifters: Move It

John Lennon once said: "I think the first English record that was anywhere near anything was Move It by Cliff Richard, and before that there'd been nothing."

It takes an American podcast to take Cliff and the Shadows (as they soon became) seriously: We Say Yeah!

Jonathan Meades: Remember the Future (1997)

The news that the Jodrell Bank telescope may soon be no more sent me back to a piece by Jonathan Meades:

Concorde was seen in the sky over West London for the first time in late June 1969. Less than a month later Neil Armstrong stepped from Apollo 11 onto the moon. The future had arrived. It was tangible, it was thrilling, it was now. We came to believe that we were all part of an adventure without end. This was just the beginning, the new beginning. 

What we didn’t realise was that this was it. A peak had been achieved. The only way was down.

And from there I went to this television film of his on the same theme.

I don't agree with all he says here, but then what Meades offers in his work is not so much a set of beliefs as an attitude. And it's that attitude we love him for.

Our universities aren't just managerialist: they're authoritarian

Britain's universities aren't just getting rid of the arts and humanities: they're getting rid of collegiate governance too.

Here's Krzysztof Nawratek, senior lecturer in humanities and architecture at the University of Sheffield, writing in Times Higher Education:

I started my university career in Poland in 1988, a year before communism collapsed. I joined an underground anti-communist student association, went on strike and saw my hierarchical, conservative university slowly crumble.

However, even within the oppressive communist regime, Polish universities held on to one core belief: the university belonged to its academic community. Rectors and deans were elected. Senates and faculty councils had real authority. Leadership was temporary and accountable to those it served. The university did not belong to its managers; in fact, it’s hard to say if there was any real management at all.

When I moved to the UK in 2008, I expected universities not just to be more autonomous but more democratic. Instead, I found institutions that were independent from the state but whose autonomy lay with their executive teams and governing bodies, not with the university as a whole.

British universities are clearly part of the late capitalist system,¹ and critics typically point to their neoliberal agenda and managerialism. But I think that description no longer fits. British universities are becoming not so much managerialist as authoritarian. 

This might sound harsh but I am not talking about dictatorship. The atmosphere of fear and expected obedience reminds me of my time as a student in Poland but the reason I use the word authoritarian is more banal: leadership is immune to any actionable feedback from below. Consultation still exists but nothing anyone says can change the decision or remove those who made it.

This trend away from democratic decision-making towards managerialism and ultimately authoritarianism can be seen across British society, not just in universities, but in local councils, professional bodies and even sport.

At the heart of it lies the belief that democracy, discussion and consultation are inefficient, but that belief is mistaken.

As it's Karl Popper's birthday, let me quote again his greatest British populariser, Bryan Magee:

Before Popper it was believed by almost everyone that democracy was bound to be inefficient and slow, even if to be preferred in spite of that because of the advantages of freedom and the other moral benefits; and the most efficient government in theory would be some form of enlightened dictatorship. 

Popper showed that this is not so; and he provides us with an altogether new and deeper understanding of how it comes about that most of the materially successful societies in the world are liberal democracies. 

It is not – as, again, had been believed by most people before – because their prosperity has enabled them to afford that costly luxury called democracy; it is because democracy has played a crucial role in raising them out of a situation in which most of their members were poor, which had been the case in almost all of them when democracy began.

That comes from Magee's intellectual biography Confessions of a Philosopher.

Notes

1. I am suspicious of the expression 'late capitalism': it suggests a claim to knowledge of the future, or at least a confidence in how it will turn out, to which the writer is not entitled. I fear that what will come after late capitalism is even later capitalism.