Six of the Best 270

Mark Gettleson, on Conservative Home, argues that a Liberal Democrat meltdown would kill the Tories' chances at the next election: "The Coalition has united the centre-Left and split the centre-Right for the first time in a century."

A new report from Big Brother Watch looks at how the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act has been used by both local and public authorities in recent years: "A decade on and more than three million authorisations later, our research found how there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how and why the powers are being used – and a clear need for the Coalition to go further to protect civil liberties."

Again on Conservative Home (Reader's voice: Are you feeling all right?), news that Eric Pickles is increasing the rights of bloggers to attend council meetings.

The Greasy Spoon celebrates Rex Whistler and The Tate Gallery Restaurant.

"Sometimes extraordinary events can reveal extraordinary qualities in human beings and Nina Bawden proved herself to be truly extraordinary, not only as a top class novelist but also as a woman with moral courage who risked everything to stand up for justice." Spitalfields Life pays tribute to the novelist and children's writer, who died this week.

Internet Curtains follows the River Leen Greenway from Bulwell to Basford in Nottinghamshire.

Spencer Perceval was assassinated 200 years ago today

Considering he is the only British prime minister to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval is surprisingly little remembered. That assassination took place on 11 May 1812.

The Victorian Web gives details of his life before he became PM:

Perceval was educated at Harrow and Trinity , Cambridge, being awarded his College's Declamation Prize for English. He was awarded an MA in 1782 and was called to the Bar in 1786, practising on the Midland Circuit. He became Deputy Recorder of Northampton in 1790, the year in which he married Jane Spencer-Wilson in 1790: the couple had six sons and six daughters. Between 1794 and 1803, during the French Wars, Perceval was a member of the London and Westminster Light Horse Volunteers. 

In 1796, Perceval became MP for Northampton, a seat which he held until his death in 1812. During his time as an MP, he held a number of government posts including that of Solicitor General (Jan 1801-April 1802), Attorney General (April 1802-February 1806) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (March 1807-May 1812). 

Perceval was always a supporter of the government and this brought sinecures which kept him solvent until his legal career took off. He was the chief legal adviser to the Princess of Wales in the hearing of misconduct held in 1806; although she was found guilty of 'grossly indelicate conduct', Perceval was instrumental in arranging her reconciliation with George III. Always anti-Catholic, Spencer Perceval opposed Grenville's government's attempt to introduce concessions to Catholics in Ireland in 1807, thus contributing significantly to the fall of the ministry.

Perceval was appointed prime minister in October 1809. History Today has an article about his murder less than two years later, written by Richard Cavendish:

In his book The Assassination of the Prime Minister David Hanrahan gives a vividly detailed account of that sunny Monday afternoon in May when at about a quarter past five the 49-year-old Spencer Perceval entered the lobby of the House of Commons on his way into the chamber. A man who had been sitting quietly by the fireplace stood up, walked towards the prime minister, took a pistol out of his overcoat and fired it at Perceval, hitting him in the chest. The prime minister staggered and fell, crying out ‘I am murdered!’ 

There were naturally moments of complete astonishment as the man who had fired the shot walked back to the fireplace and sat down again. He made no attempt to get away as an MP called William Smith (future grandfather of Florence Nightingale) and several others carried the stricken Perceval to the Speaker’s apartments, where they sat him on a table, holding him up. He said nothing more and uttered only a few sounds that Smith described as ‘convulsive sobs’. By the time a doctor arrived Perceval was dead. The pistol ball had struck him in the ribs. 

In the lobby meanwhile the murderer was seized and his pistol was taken from him. It turned out that it had been hidden in a specially made pocket in his overcoat.

Bellingham was publicly hanged a week later, though the evidence rather suggests that his insanity pleas should have been accepted. He was a businessman who had been falsely imprisoned for debt in Russia and was unable to get ministers to take up his case.

The Conservative MP for North West Norfolk, Henry Bellingham, is a direct descendant of John Bellingham. Henry lost his seat in 1997, partly because of the intervention of the UKIP candidate Roger Percival. Despite the different spelling of their names, he claimed to be a descendant of Spencer Perceval.

Six of the Best 130

Liberal Democrat Voice has news of the decision of eight former Liberal Democrat candidates take part in Labour’s policy-making process. That decision is announced in an article by Richard Grayson in an article in the forthcoming issue of Liberator. (The magazine's website appears to be offline at present, so for a year's subscription - eight issues - send a cheque for £25 to Liberator Publications, Flat 1, 24 Alexandra Grove, London N4 2LF.) I am never going to oppose dialogue between parties, but own view is that is the Liberal Democrats' policies we should be worrying about.

Elsewhere, cross-party co-operation is not going so smoothly. Richard Kemp reports that right-wing newspapers, cheered on by one Conservative politician at least, have been digging into his and his wife's personal finances.

Lib Dem blogger Stratagem XXXVIII hopes the Localism Bill create a new era of architecture for the people.

Henry Farrell reviews The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World by Evgeny Morozov for the THES: "It is presumably rather inconvenient for Morozov that he is trying to publicise this book at a moment when social media and al-Jazeera are working together to disseminate revolution from Tunisia to Egypt and perhaps elsewhere."

Unmitigated England visits the Abbey Pumping Station in Leicester. This was one of the museums threatened with closure in Leicester City Council's programme of spending cuts, but the latest news is that they will not be closing after all.

Want to see paintings of leading philosophers and literary theorists menaced by bears? Gordon Lester obliges.

Leicester City Council used Ripa powers to monitor Bowstring Bridge protests

Regular readers will be familiar with the ultimately unsuccessful campaign fought last year to save Leicester's Bowstring Bridge and the neighbouring Pump and Tap pub.

Today's Leicester Mercury reports:

Leicester City Council used controversial snooping laws to monitor the under-siege Bowstring Bridge site, the Mercury can reveal.

The authority said it applied to use a swivel and zoom function on an on-site CCTV camera to gather evidence after a council officer raised concerns over demolition workers' safety.

It was one of at least 22 covert investigations, or monitoring operations authorised by the authority in the past 12 months under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) – introduced in 2000 to oversee councils' use of surveillance.

The council said it used the powers at the Bowstring Bridge, in the city's West End, because of the risk of trespass, criminal damage and public disorder at the site.

The Ripa was introduced to fight terrorism, but thanks to a series of extension to it introduced by Labour home secretaries we now see it being used against neighbourhood conservation campaigners.

It is also hard to believe the council is being honest. I am sure they were worried about delays to the demolition project and the costs that might result. I can even believe that they might have been worried about the danger to people protesting where heavy plant was being used.

But to argue that they needed to use these surveillance powers because of the threat of public disorder stretches credulity too far.

Finally, note from the Mercury report that these powers were resorted to by Adrian Russell, the council's "director of environmental services" - that is a paid official, not an elected councillor.

I am sure Mr Russell is good at his job - no doubt he started in charge of the paper clips at Worksop Rural District and worked his way up. But to have such powers at the call of someone in his position is a democratic outrage.

Noel Harrison: The Windmills of Your Mind

Which singer from the 1960s competed for Britain in two Winter Olympics?

The answer is Noel Harrison, who was part of the skiing team at Oslo in 1952 and Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) in 1956.

He is best known for this song, which was used on the soundtrack of the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair in 1968. Written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand, it won the Oscar for the best original song that year.

Harrison specialised in the songs of people like Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour - he had a hit in the USA with Aznavour's A Young Girl - and Leonard Cohen. He also enjoyed some success in America as an actor, with a leading role in the spin-off The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. This article gives a good picture of his career.

Noel Harrison is still performing today at the age of 75. His accent, both now and in his heyday, is an interesting study - public school leavened with notes of Anthony Newley cockney.

And, of course, Harrison is famous for being his father's son. He is the son of Rex Harrison by Colette Thomas, the first of his six wives. Rex Harrison won the best song Oscar the year before Noel with "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Doolittle and a very different singing style.

Rex Harrison's other wives included the actresses Kay Kendall and Rachel Roberts. Another of them, born Elizabeth Rees-Williams (Katherine Parr to his Henry VIII) has had four husbands. Her first was Richard Harris and she is now married to Jonathan Aitken.

Her father David Rees-Williams, later Baron Ogmore, was a minister under Attlee, but went on to join the Liberal Party. He was its president in 1963-4.

You see how it all fits together?