Arrest after £5k found stuffed in man's underpants

BBC News, as so often these days, wins our Headline of the Day Award.

GUEST POST 256 local councillors have changed party allegiance since 1 January

Local councillors are leaving the party under whose name they stood - and often joining a different one - in remarkable numbers, finds Augustus Carp in his latest survey for this blog

With the local government elections taking place on Thursday, here’s a quick appetiser – a snapshot analysis of recent defections amongst local government councillors. 

It’s long been my contention that defections, suspensions, resignations and flouncings out might be telling us something significant about the morale in local party groups, which surely must have an impact on their campaigning abilities. 

However, it’s been a complicated few months in the Byzantine world of local government defections of late – so much so that it’s probably best to consider the numbers for the year to date, rather than just provide an update since my last review for Liberal England (posted 2 March).

In total there have been 256 identifiable incidents of councillors changing their political allegiances since the New Year, resulting in the following net changes:

• Conservatives  -60
• Labour -90
• Lib Dems -15
• Greens +2
• Nationalists 0
• Reform UK +61
• Independents +102

I expect that most people at Christmas would have forecast an increase in the number of defections to Reform, but who would have guessed that it would be the Labour Party that would have suffered the greatest number of losses? Not losses to Reform, to be sure, but fractures within party discipline, and the actions (and inactivity) of the Labour Government at Westminster have led to pressures that could not be contained inside several Labour council groups.

Additionally, in the special category of 'Being Suspended from the Group', ex-Labour councillors lead the field by some distance. The main problem areas for Labour appear to be Nottinghamshire (particularly Beeston), Stockport, Tameside, Dudley and Wakefield, all areas where they have lost at least three councillors. In Beeston, depending on how you count them, it’s somewhere in the region of 19 to 21.

The Conservative groups to have lost three or more councillors appear to be Durham, Kent, Mid Suffolk, North Northamptonshire, Oldham and Tamworth.

For the Liberal Democrats, the only group to see more than three defections was Buckinghamshire, with some sort of personality dispute leading to the loss of five councillors, all in the Aylesbury area.

There have been 37 instances of straight swaps between political parties. That’s rather high, because usually defections are to some manifestation of Independent, although that move in itself is often a precursor to a subsequent attachment to a new political party.

The 37 'straight swaps' consist of 26 councillors moving from Conservative to Reform, 3 from Labour to Conservative, 2 from Labour to Reform, 2 from Labour to Green, 1 from Labour to Lib Dem, 1 from Lib Dem to Conservative, 1 from Lib Dem to Labour, 1 from Lib Dem to Green and 1 from Green to Conservative.

Another factor to consider, which might be hiding in plain sight, is the number of resignations from the Council before the end of a standard four year term – are the by-elections we see always for reasons of ill health or work commitments, or is it really because the group leader has a bit of a Napoleon complex? Sadly, for this category, there’s no way of burrowing into the truth behind the press releases - but there might be a story there as well.

Augustus Carp is the pen name of someone who has been a member of the Liberal Party and then the Liberal Democrats since 1976.

Mystery of bananas on Nottinghamshire road has residents a-peeling for answers

The judges were heard to grumble about "trying too hard," but the Guardian still wins our coveted Headline of the Day Award.

Beeston Weir on the River Trent

This is Beeston Weir on the River Trent. It is one of the reasons you have to leave the river to get from from Beeston to West Bridgford and use the Nottingham Canal instead.

It is a thing of beauty, but the Trent is a dangerous river. The memorials to 'Owen' here are for 12-year-old Owen Jenkins. In 2017 he lost his life saving a friend from drowning.

Where the Nottingham Canal joins the Trent at Beeston

We have seen where one end of the Nottingham Canal meets the Trent at West Bridgford. Here is the other end of the canal leaving the Trent at Beeston.

Beeston Waterfront, as it is optimistically known, combines working-class resort pubs and middle-class tearooms. So I was happy there.

Richard Beckinsale remembered in Beeston

I have been on holiday this week, but a poor internet connection at home has made it hard to upload and download photographs. Hence the number of dull political posts recently.

Yesterday I was in Beeston and one of things I went to see was this memorial to the comic actor Richard Beckinsale who, already famous, died in 1979 at the age of only 31.

The Nottingham Post explains:

Three icons of Beeston have been given a stunning lasting tribute in its town centre as part of the Beeston Street Art Festival. 

The late actor Richard Beckinsale, the late singer/songwriter Edwin Starr, and fashion designer Sir Paul Smith were spray painted by international street artist Zabou to celebrate their creative contributions. 

The street art on Station Road was commissioned by Broxtowe Borough Council as part of its Beeston Square Redevelopment project.

You can see Richard Beckinsale's This is Your Life appearance on this blog.

Exploring Southwell: Caudwell's Mill and the old railway station

After the glories of the Minster, my favourite part of Southwell is the Burgage. Here the street opens out into a wide green. One of the houses around it was the boyhood home of Lord Byron.

Keep walking away from the town centre and you will find the outskirts dominated by an unexpectedly large brick industrail building,

Its story is told by a town heritage trail leaflet:

Caudwell's Mill stands on the River Greet on the site of Southwell’s mediaeval Burgage mill. 

When Charles Caudwell, whose family originated from Derbyshire, bought the mill in 1851 he made changes, thus greatly increasing the mill’s capacity. Wheat was transported to the mill by road, rail and water. Local corn arrived by horse and cart, supplies from further afield came from the R.Trent by barge to a wharf at Fiskerton which still stands. 

The mill suffered serious fires on three occasions in 1867, 1893 and 1917. On each occasion the opportunity was taken to modernise the plant ...

Local bakers took their supply of flour from the mill, best known was ‘Mosedale’s’ Bakery and Caudwell’s ‘Greet Lily Flour’ won the Nottinghamshire’s Bakers Cup in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1912 and 1914. 

The mill was taken over by Associated British Foods, who closed it in 1977 and in 1989 the mill was converted into residential apartments,

On the near side of the Greet you will find the town's old railway station. The leaflet will help you on that too:

Southwell was connected to the Midland Railway network by a short branch line from Rolleston Junction on the Nottingham to Lincoln line on the 1st July 1847 but there was not a regular passenger service by steam locomotives until 1860. The line was extended to Mansfield on the 3rd April 1871 with stations placed at Kirklington, Farnsfield and Rainworth. 

Apart from its value to passengers the line carried grain to the Caudwell Mill and assisted the movement of livestock and livestock products such as milk. Coal was carried from the collieries to the east of Mansfield. Southwell Racecourse was also well served by special ‘Excursion’ trains. 

The ‘Paddy’ was a little ‘pull and push’ train consisting usually of the tank engine and one coach. It was held in some affection and to this day brings back strong memories ... 

The Southwell-Rolleston line was closed to passengers on the 16th June 1959 though the National Coal Board still used the line until 1968.

You can see film of the Southwell-Rolleston line on this blog and you can find the platform shelters from Southwell still in use at Beeston station.