Thursday, December 07, 2023

Paddy Ashdown didn't have a British passport when he died

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Embed from Getty Images "I was a passionate European, I still am and so was Paddy. In fact when he died he didn’t have a British passpo...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Whoever wrote that never employed Meadowcroft

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Where else to end out latest week at Bonkers Hall but beneath the slender spire of St Asquith's? There was time for a stiffener at the B...
2 comments:

Keir Starmer was right: How Margaret Thatcher bankrolled a generation of left-wing entrepreneurs and artists

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I don't subscribe to the Telegraph, so I may not have read everything Keir Starmer had to say about Margaret Thatcher earlier this week....
Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Shane Warne watches a 13-year-old Rehan Ahmed bowl

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Leicestershire's Rehan Ahmed was England's most economical bowler in today's 50-over international against the West Indies, with...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A foul-smelling bird of uncertain temper

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Lord Bonkers loses no opportunity within the party's inner counsels to oppose any move for us to have a new logo. The reason, I now real...
Tuesday, December 05, 2023

The Joy of Six 1184

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Armenia is facing its most precarious moment in three decades. The loss of Karabakh, a region with a centuries-old history of Armenian habit...

Garry Kasparov visits Bobby Fischer's grave

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Bobby Fischer's victory over Boris Spassky in their 1972 match in Reykjavik put chess on the front pages of the world's newspapers. ...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: All over the herbal tea market like a boss

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One day we may discover what befell those nuns to cause the sudden closure of the Bonkers Hall Safari Park. I have, incidentally, never been...

Santa facing eviction amid planning row with local council

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Embed from Getty Images Our coveted Headline of the Day Award goes to the Bristol Post  for this seasonal story from Frome. Ho ho ho!
Monday, December 04, 2023

The part-abandoned Tooting, Merton & Wimbledon Railway

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Jago Hazzard is our guide to this South London line. Parts of it are still in use, and more remains of the abandoned stretches than you may ...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A feathered headdress on state occasions

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Lily Gladstone is related to William Ewart Gladstone on her mother's side, while on her father's side she is descended from Red Cro...

Euro 2024 draw: Uefa investigates after sex noises disrupt broadcast

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Embed from Getty Images BBC Sport wins our Headline of the Day Award and the judges suggest your read the story below: Uefa says it is inve...

Three letters to the Guardian about that letter to the Guardian

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There are three letters in Monday's Guardian in response to the recent letter to that paper from 30 more or less senior Liberal Democra...
1 comment:
Sunday, December 03, 2023

Lord Bonkers' Diary: I toss the volume aside

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If I look back on this entry in years (or perhaps only months) to come, I shall have no idea what the old boy was on about. Wednesday I sett...

A.P. Dangerfield: Conversations (In a Station Light Refreshment Bar)

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I wrote about John Carter when choosing his glorious faux Beach Boys record Beach Baby , which was a hit in the US too: The song was written...
Saturday, December 02, 2023

Lib Dem campaign staff gather to counter the threat of Edmania

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Embed from Getty Images Lucy Fisher, for me at least, emerges from behind the Financial Times paywall to report: The prospect of party lead...
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Lord Bonkers' Diary: "Beelzebub’s Brownies"

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Now it can be told...  Email elves@rockinghamforest for your own supply. Tuesday The housing debate at Bournemouth, as you may have noticed,...
Friday, December 01, 2023

Discovering the Norbury Brook with John Rogers

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Another lost London river walk with John Rogers. As his YouTube blurb explains: This week we follow the beguiling Norbury Brook as it wends ...

The Joy of Six 1183

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"I am a Liberal Democrat because of my belief in liberty and social justice, and I expect those who lead the party to be expounding the...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: We have talked of little but Europe ever since

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The new Liberator is on the magazine's website - you can download it free of charge from there. I've just realised that I have forg...
1 comment:
Thursday, November 30, 2023

A podcast on Ladybird Books and L. du Garde Peach

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We should soon have the answer to the question of who murdered the Princes in the Tower.  A YouTube channel says it will be posting the Seco...
1 comment:

Charles Masterman and the Imperial War Museum's art collection

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Embed from Getty Images If you are interested in 20th-century British art then one of the best places in London to visit is, perhaps unexpec...

Alistair Darling's politics were not as dull as people are saying

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I'm sorry to hear of the death of Alistair Darling. We owe him our gratitude as, together with Gordon Brown, he did much to stabilise th...
3 comments:
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Once Upon a Time in Leicester

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This starts with footage of Leicester's trams set to Leone's theme from Once Upon a Time in the West, surveys the city's lost sh...

30 senior Lib Dems call on the party to be less cautious - and the leadership fluffs its reply

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Thirty senior Liberal Democrat members have signed a letter to the Guardian arguing that the party under Ed Davey is being too cautious and ...
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The real bombsites of A Canterbury Tale

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Study the bombsites in A Canterbury Tale closely and you realise that a lot of matte painting and model-making has gone into producing them....
Tuesday, November 28, 2023

"Malcolm Saville made me an archaeologist"

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Thank you to the reader who sent me the link to an account of a talk given at the Hay Winter Festival by the archaeologist  Miranda Aldhouse...

Microwave starts fire at Blists Hill Victorian Town

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The Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award by a distance. Chuckles were heard from the judging room, but I feel sure that in th...