Saturday, December 06, 2025

Sally Ann Howes couldn't cry for toffees: Why have child actors got so much better?

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Embed from Getty Images I watched the 1945 Ealing period drama Pink String and Sealing Wax the other day. In it, the always-wonderful Googie...

Like Mr Bumble, one master of Brixworth Workhouse ended as an inmate of his own establishment

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Replying to a comment on my post on Brixworth, I referred a the writer to a page on Brixworth Workhouse . Having done a little more research...
Friday, December 05, 2025

In search of the Lost Gunthorpe Toll Bridge over the River Trent

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Gunthorpe Bridge on the A6097 is the only road crossing of the River Trent between Nottingham and Newark. Built in 1927, it replaced an earl...

The Joy of Six 1445

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"Whether it is the private contractors paid enormous sums of public money to bring prisoners to court failing to bring prisoners to cou...
Thursday, December 04, 2025

Elvis Costello and The Attractions: Watch Your Step

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This is immaculate. And doesn't he know it? It's a live performance on American TV in 1981, introduced by someone who's been spe...

Folk horror, Saxons and the workhouse: Brixworth on a sunny winter's afternoon

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I went to Brixworth yesterday afternoon. It's a large village between Market Harborough and Northampton famous for its Saxon church. (Th...
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Man sought over trousering of hedgehog statue

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BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.  The judges were also impressed by the photograph provided by Lincolnshire Police .
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Write a guest post for Liberal England

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The nights are drawing in. There’s nothing to watch on any of the 94 TV channels. Doom scrolling is all you have left for fun. Don’t despair...
Wednesday, December 03, 2025

Walking Charles Dickens' London with John Rogers

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Here's a seasonal treat: a tour of the areas of London associated with Charles Dickens – or at least some of them -– in the company of J...

National Trust seeks to buy land around the Cerne Abbas Giant

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The National Trust has launched a £300,000 appeall to buy the land surrounding the Cerne Abbas Giant, reports BBC News . The site it hopes t...

The Joy of Six 1444

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"The mansion tax will impact less than the top 0.7 per cent of households. At a time when Britain’s public services are stretched to br...
Tuesday, December 02, 2025

Boarding on Insanity documentary to be shown at Westminster

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There will be a special screening of the film documentary Boarding on Insanity at Westminster on 19 January. The evening will be hosted by ...

After three years online, Leicester Gazette launches a print edition

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Leicester Gazette is one of a new generation of local news outlets born out of the collapse of local newspapers and the right-wing bias of m...

The Three Tuns in Bishop's Castle has reopened

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Good news from the BBC News Shropshire pages: A historic Shropshire pub has reopened under new ownership, five months after it shut and was...
Monday, December 01, 2025

A chance to see Frankie Howerd's Bottom

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Put your titters away, because I'm talking about Shakespeare. In 1957 Frankie Howerd was invited to appear as Bottom in A Midsummer Nigh...

We're building walls to separate social and private housing again

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The segregation of the classes is back, and it's not done only by price. Here's a report by Jessica Murray and Michael Goodier from ...

The Joy of Six 1443

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"Companies that have collaborated with immigration enforcement agencies in various ways to aid Trump’s mass deportation initiative – wh...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Dame Agatha Mousetrap

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And so another week at Bonkers Hall draws to a close. It looks like Keir Starmer is in the clear for a while, but I still wouldn't accep...
Sunday, November 30, 2025

J.W. Logan left an estate worth £13m in today's money

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My hero J.W. Logan – nicknamed "Paddy Logan" for his strong support for Irish home rule – died in 1925. He had been Liberal MP for...
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Magistrate Dr Delicate censured for swearing

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BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award. The good doctor's response was a bit "I'm sorry if you feel you've been sworn...
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Lord Bonkers' Diary: He should ask an eagle to do it

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On Friday it was Peter the Painter: today it's Gandalf the Grey. You meet all sorts in Rutland. It sounds as though Meadowcroft would ha...

Marianne Faithfull: Sunny Goodge Street

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This is beautiful. Sunny Goodge street is a cover of a Donovan song and appeared on Marianne Faithfull's album 1966 North Country Maid. ...
Saturday, November 29, 2025

A portrait of Tom Stoppard (1937-2025)

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Embed from Getty Images The playwright Tom Stoppard died today. There will be plenty of obituaries, but there is a good portrait of him in t...

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A strange episode

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Was Peter the Painter at the Siege of Sydney Street? Did he survive it? Was he still alive in Rutland this summer? It's possible, if he ...
Friday, November 28, 2025

Susan Stranks on appearing in the 1949 film of The Blue Lagoon

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Talking Pictures screened the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon the other evening. It was an adaptation of the 1908 novel of the same name by Henry ...

The Joy of Six 1442

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"The costed tax rises at £26bn are remarkably similar to the £27bn tax increases proposed in the Lib Dems manifesto last year. ... This...
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Lord Bonkers' Diary: A young Marines officer called Ashdown

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It's hard to imagine Emlyn Hooson or Nancy Seear playing the shots that led to England's demise in the Perth test. Perhaps they shou...
1 comment:
Thursday, November 27, 2025

GUEST POST Understanding the views and worries of the city of Oxford Lib Dem

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William Lane has discovered a new political category: the Oxford Liberal Democrat. Who is she and what does she want from us? It was with g...
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A Very Private School by Charles Spencer

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A Very Private School: A Memoir Charles Spencer William Collins, 2025, £10.99 There used to be two prestigious prep schools near Market Harb...
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Lord Bonkers' Diary: "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"

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Yes, what did happen to Liberal Democrat High Command to make it do a reverse ferret on ID cards? Whatever it was, the delightful Hazel Grov...