The trampolining pigs of Shropshire

From the Shropshire Star:

B-oink, b-oink, b-oink – Shropshire’s very own flying pigs have been getting in some last-minute practice ahead of their stage debuts this week.

Three little pigs from Pigs in Clover in Cardeston, near Shrewsbury, are set to wow the judges of hit TV show Britain’s Got Talent at the audition stage in Birmingham on Thursday.

I mentioned this story to someone at work. She suggested that the pigs could become "the new Susan Boyle".

Private rail companies to get worse - Daily Telegraph does not care

On Saturday I reported that East Midlands Trains is to introduce a penalty fares scheme on some of its stations so that someone found travelling without a ticket will be charged a penalty fare of £20 or twice the full single fare – whichever is the greater amount – to the next station at which the train stops.

The same day's Daily Telegraph carried the alarming news that these rates are soon to rise to £50 or twice the single fare.

Except it didn't.

Because the paper's story, written by Rebecca Lefort, began:

Foreigners let off train penalty fares

Ministers plan to more than double the fines for most people who travel without a valid ticket. But under current regulations there is a clause allowing ticket inspectors to waive the rules for passengers who do not fully understand the ticketing system because they are visiting from abroad or speak poor English.

This means foreigners may escape the penalties, which are due to rise from £20 to £50, or double the cost of a single ticket if it is greater.

The discretionary policy is recommended for train operators despite another rule which requires them to produce leaflets and display signs about fares in other languages in "areas where a large number of people do not speak English as their first language."

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: "This is absolutely absurd. We would not expect to be let off fines overseas because we didn't speak the language."

It is clear that the Telegraph's prejudices - hates foreigners, likes big business - outweigh the interests of its readers.

And in reply to Sir Andrew, if I found myself in a country where I did not speak the language and got on the wrong train as a result, I hope I would be let off any fine.

Besides, to return to my original post, why should private companies be allowed to fine their customers in the first place?

Chamali Fernando resurfaces in Cambridge Tory primary

The Cambridge-based Conservative blogger Richard Normington has the shortlist of candidates for the Tory selection in the seat and the short biographies they have published.

Among them is a figure who will be familiar to readers of this blog...

Chamali Fernando

Chamali Fernando – “more than just a Cameron cutie!”

A hard-hitting, no nonsense, seasoned doorstep campaigner who may be small but packs a mean punch, is hoping to be your Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge.

Chamali achieved instant national recognition as the youngest candidate to be shortlisted by a mainstream political party for the role of Mayor of London.

During her eight years of hard graft and notable success as a barrister, her broad legal practice has enabled her to help people in the private, public and corporate sectors.

Chamali, a former resident of Cambridge, passionately believes this city can lead the fight back in changing the fortunes of our nation, through its international reputation for excellence in academia and innovation in business.

Where Chamali has had the single greatest impact in her voluntary activities has been in her frontline role for the Coalition for an International Environmental Court. She has presented to leading political figures on the immediate need to create this court to safeguard the future of our planet.

Outside work, Chamali enjoys amateur dramatics, architecture, cooking, netball and outdoor life.

So when selecting your Conservative PPC for Cambridge, VOTE CHAMALI FERNANDO - your action-packed candidate, determined to become your MP.

You would not know from this that Chamali was a member of the Liberal Democrats as recently as July of this year.

I am prepared to believe that Cambridge Tories are a little more in the swim of things than their comrades in Norfolk, so I don't expect a row along the lines of Trussgate if Chamali wins the primary.

But isn't she being just a little economial with the truth?

Take it away Chamali...

Britblog Roundup 251

At Philobiblon.

Film of Jo and Laura Grimond's wedding

Click on the picture for another gem from the British Pathe website. This one shows the wedding of Jo and Laura Grimond. Note that it is billed as the "wedding of Miss Bonham-Carter," showing who was the better known figure in 1938.

And you get a glimpse of Margot Asquith at the end too.

I met Laura Grimond when she came to Market Harborough in the 1980s to rally the troops. I could also have met Jo when he did a meeting in Kew in the 1983 general election, but being young and foolish I chose to go canvassing instead.

J.W. Logan and "Free Speech Hall"

Another glimpse of my hero J.W. Logan is provided by James Moore's The Transformation of Urban Liberalism:

In the Harborough constituency Liberal lecturers were frequently refused access to Anglican schoolrooms where they wished to hold meetings. Eventually the Liberal Association became so frustrated with the situation that parliamentary candidate J.W. Logan built himself a portable meeting room which he took from village to village.

The mobile contraption - dubbed the "Free Speech Hall" - obviously worked and following its introduction the local clergy were less reluctant to hire out school halls to Liberal candidates.

David Hemmings: Anathea

As well as being Britain's coolest actor for a short while in the 1960s (thanks to Blow Up), David Hemmings could sing. As a boy he played Miles in the original production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw and in 1967, at the height of his acting fame, he recorded an LP while he was in Hollywood making Camelot.

In his memoirs Hemmings is dismissive of the whole project:

The angel purity of my childhood voice had long since been scarred by singing in Bierkellers, as well as by tobacco and whisky ... Thank God, the record company bought my bluff. They gave me the ten grand and over the next few weeks I popped into the studios now and again and laid down some tracks, some of them perfunctorily written by me in the car on the way to the the sessions; none of them remotely memorable.

But maybe it is a little more creditable than that. Unmann-Wittering Blog writes:

Recorded in a rush, the magnificently titled 'David Hemmings Happens' (Hemmings’ favourite saying was ‘if nothing is happening, make something happen’) is a carefree and careless record, part-improvised, part-karaoke, part jumble sale, all fascinating. Several of the tracks were more or less made up on the spot, with Hemmings speaking / singing / rapping improvised stream of consciousness lyrics, and he also turns in a decent if occasionally wayward version of ‘Reason to Believe’. 

Byrds and psychedelic pomp pop enthusiasts will probably say that stately Gene Clark era Byrds leftover ‘Back Street Mirror’ is the best song, but the best performance is on ‘Anathea’, an apparently ancient folk song that had been recently revived by Julie Felix. The track has an amazing energy, a mix of droning sitars and cosmic Roger McGuinn guitar, all topped off with a dramatic and eloquent vocal from Hemmings as he recounts the timeless, tragic and deeply odd story of a girl, her brother and the evil judge who destroys them both. Marvellously doomy stuff.

While we are doing actors who can sing surprisingly well, try the late Edward Woodward singing a song by a very young Elton John (who had obviously been listening to Scott Walker).

Paul Elgood to fight Hove for Lib Dems

From The Argus:

The Liberal Democrats have announced their candidate for Hove MP in the next general election.

Paul Elgood, the Lib Dem leader on Brighton and Hove City Council, was selected by the party at a meeting on Thursday night. Councillor Elgood stood for the Hove seat in the 2005 general election, more than doubling the Lib Dem vote to 8,002.

Wasn't there a Frank Sinatra song about Hove the second time around?

My Lib Dem News article on the bloggers unconference

Alex Foster treated the day with commedable seriousness

From Friday's issue.

Techies and Norse blood at Bloggers' "Unconference"

Liberal Democrats do not like being organised. Nor do bloggers. So when the first get together for Liberal Democrat bloggers took place last Saturday, it was inevitable that it would be billed as an “Unconference”.

And where should such free spirits meet but Edinburgh? As G. K. Chesterton once wrote, "It seems like a city built on precipices, a perilous city. Great roads rush down hill like rivers in spate. Great buildings rush up like rockets."

The select group of bloggers who made the journey to the Scottish party’s office at Clifton Terrace, in the centre of the city near Haymarket railway station, were rewarded with a full and entertaining day.

We argued about the best blogging platform to use, discussed ways of blogging on the move from your mobile phone and were given expert tuition on making podcasts by Liberal Democrat Voice’s Alex Foster.

The Unconference was well supported by the Liberal Democrat great and good, with three parliamentarians looking in to be interviewed.

John Barrett, who will be standing down as MP for Edinburgh West at the next election, was in bright form and upbeat about our prospects in Scotland at that election. He has long been a blogger himself, and spoke about his experience of using that blog to keep his constituents informed.

Interestingly, he does not allow comments on his blog, fearing it would descend into the sort of madhouse you sometimes find online, but is happy to correspond with individual voters by email.

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem MP for East Dumbartonshire, arrived from the airport having just delivered a speech on the global economic crisis to a United Nations conference in New York. She needed no technical advice from anyone at the Unconference: as well as a website she has a Youtube channel to which she uploads campaign videos. We watched one of her presenting a constituency petition on climate change at the front door of 10 Downing Street.

In between these two MPs, we were visited by Tavish Scott who is the leader of the Liberal Democrats at Holyrood.

His Shetland background and constituency gives him a very different perspective on politics. Here is a man who once travelled with a troupe of Viking in full regalia – the Jarl Squad – to the opening of the Scottish Parliament.

You could feel this Norse blood stirring as he spoke with contempt of Scottish Nationalism in general and Alex Salmond in particular. He was clear, though, that if devolution is to continue to flourish then Scotland would have to start raising a large proportion of its own tax revenues. And he was adamant that England must find a way of combating its own democratic deficit.

Tavish also reminisced about his time in the Whips office at Westminster with future stars like Ed Davey, Adrian Sanders and Norman Baker. He made the experience sound rather like a situation comedy – think The Thick of It meets Men Behaving Badly.

A regular series of unconferences for Lib Dem bloggers would help us learn from one another, encourage debate among Liberals and enable us to find ways of helping the party during and between elections.

But wherever these unconferences are held, it will be hard to compete with the cakes on offer at this first event or with Edinburgh itself.

As Alexander Smith wrote in 1865:

“Living in Edinburgh there abides above all things, a sense of its beauty. Hill, crag, castle, rock, blue stretch of sea, the picturesque ridge of the Old Town, the squares and terraces of the New these things once seen are not to be forgotten.”

Wikio Top Lib Dem Blogs, December 2009

Two new entries this month which means there are now 15 rather than 14 Lib Dem blogs in the top 100 (Himmelgarten Cafe has dropped out). Welcome to Sara Bedford's Always Win When You're Singing and Dazmando's Bracknell Blog.

I have included Charlotte Gore because her blog sailed under the Lib Dem flag throughout November. It will be interesting to see how she does without it.

More fallers than climbers this month. Play up school!

1 (5)	Liberal Democrat Voice	Non mover
2 (14)	Charlotte Gore	Falls 1
3 (15)	Mark Reckons	Falls 3
4 (32)	Liberal England	Falls 5
5 (41)	Caron's Musings	Climbs 3
6 (44)	Quaequam Blog!	Climbs 2
7 (45)	Stephen's Linlithgow Journal	Falls 11
8 (46)	Liberal Vision	Falls 18
9 (62)	Peter Black	Falls 9
10 (64)	People's Republic of Mortimer	Falls 10
11 (65)	Miss S B (Jennie Rigg)	Falls 1
12 (76)	Andrew Reeves' Running Blog	Climbs 15
13 (91)	Always Win When You're Singing	New entry
14 (90)	Lynne Featherstone	Climbs 3
15 (100)	Bracknell Blog	New entry

Why privatised railways offer passengers less freedom

Today's Leicester Mercury reports:

Fare-dodgers will be hit by new penalties if they board a train without a valid ticket.
East Midlands Trains is introducing a new penalty fares system on Monday.
Individuals travelling without a valid ticket for their journey face a penalty fare of £20 or twice the full single fare – whichever is the greater amount – to the next station at which the train stops.

We are all against fare dodgers, but there is a little more to this story than that.

Because the train operating companies have had to agree to pay the government huge premiums to run the service. This has led to cuts in staffing levels, but it has also led to an enforced recasting of the way the public uses the railways.

In particular, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do what generations of passengers have taken for granted: turn up at a railway station a few minutes before the train you want departs and buy a ticket at a reasonable price. Either you order your ticket in advance or you pay through the nose: no wonder they have problems with people not paying.

It is one of the ironies that archetypal institutions of the free market system, such as fast food restaurants, require us to behave in a very disciplined manner if they are to operate at all. When Starbucks came to Market Harborough they brought leaflets telling us the language we should use to order our coffee.

For a picture of how private rail companies ought to operate, read Euan Ferguson on the Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway:

'Now, the train's going to be moving off in that direction," says the guard, bending solicitously over a sweet little bundle of embroidered tea cosies which turned out to be a shawl wrapped around a lady of rather more than a certain age. "Do you want to go to the opposite seat, face forward, see the countryside? Oh, don't worry about the ticket stuff; we'll get that sorted later.

Why can't we all pay on the train without being treated like criminals?

House Points: Eno, Ono, British Waterways

Today's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Jo Gilberston had a piece about the British Waterways sell off on Lib Dem Voice yesterday.

I also have an article about the Lib Dem bloggers unconference in this week's issue. I'll post it here sometime over the weekend.

H2O heave-ho

On Monday Robert Flello intervened on Linda Waltho. Observers at Westminster have been waiting for this as avidly as cricket fans once waited for Lillee to be caught Willey bowled Dilley.

It took place during an adjournment debate Waltho had called about Britain’s inland waterways. The restoration of Britain’s canals has been one of the success stories of recent decades, but the network now faces a double threat.

British Waterways, the body that looks after the canals, is facing a funding cut of around £10m, reducing its annual grant to £47.8m. And now the Treasury is eyeing its property portfolio, which could be worth anything up to £16 billion.

So in the short term there is a danger that the canals will suffer as vital maintenance no longer takes place. And in the long run a danger that they will be exploited commercially to an extent that destroys the sense of their being a place apart that attracts us to them in the first place.

This process is already taking place. In his excellent book Real England, Paul Kingsnorth writes about the campaign to save Castlemill Boatyard in Oxford. It was the city’s first wharf and is now its last public boatyard.

According to Kingsnorth, “it is a lifeline for the community of 200 people who live permanently on boats in the city. Boat painting and servicing, craning, welding, emergency repairs – Castlemill provides the kinds of things you need within reach if your boat is also your home.”

But that community had to fight plans by British Waterways to level the site and build 46 flats and a waterside restaurant. Aided by the Environment Agency’s discovery that the area is liable to flooding and the city council’s plan to use the new Sustainable Communities Act, it looks as though Castlemill will be saved.

If the sale of British Waterways property holdings goes ahead then these battles will be fought all over the country and local communities will lose most of them.

Back to Waltho and Flello. They remind you of the old joke about introducing Yoko Ono and Bono at a fashionable party. Throw in Nick Clegg’s adviser on youth affairs and it gets even better: “Ono, Bono. Bono, Eno. Eno, Ono.”

An interview with Clement Davies

Click on the picture to go the British Pathe site and a 1950 interview with the Liberal Leader.

Peter Thornton to fight Penrith and the Border

From the Westmorland Gazette:

Kendal-born small-holder and councillor Peter Thornton has been chosen to fight the Penrith and The Border constituency for the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Thornton, who represents Kirkby Stephen on Cumbria County Council, declared himself ‘delighted’ to be chosen by local party members.

Camden toilets recall Richard Attenborough's Pinkie

Exciting news from the new Fortune Green Blog:

West End Lane toilets are set for a starring role in a new film of the Richard Attenborough classic Brighton Rock.

The toilets were scene of a famous Spotlight victory when the Lib Dems re-opened them as one of our first acts of getting the reigns of power in Camden in 2006. (Blair gave independence to the Bank of England, Obama closed Guantanamo, we reopened the toilets!)

The further adventures of Colin Rosenstiel and his bicycle

In February Colin Rosenstiel, Lib Dem councillor from Cambridge and general doyen of the party, was in the news because of an unfortunate contretemps involving his bicycle and an ambulance.

So today's Cambridge Evening News has a familiar ring:

Colin Rosenstiel, a councillor for Cambridge City Council for more than 30 years, was forcibly ejected from the 15.45 King's Cross to Cambridge train on Tuesday after he disputed a request from a ticket inspector to take his bike to a different carriage to avoid overcrowding.

Colin says in his defence:

"My bike was in an optimal position in relation to other passengers. I was trying to explain that staying at the back of the train avoids the crowds at Cambridge station but staff would not listen to me ... One thing that annoys me is the abuse of power."

The Goddard Arms reopens

Back in August I wrote:

During my recent travels across England by bus I was ... struck by the number of closed pubs I was seeing - in town as well as the countryside.

The most notable closure was the Goddard Arms in Swindon's old town. This creeper-clad (creeper-dominated, in the photo above) building must have featured in a thousand prints of The Inns of Olde Englande.

There is good news today in the Swindon Advertiser:

The doors to the Goddard Arms swung open once more last night at its grand opening following a £2m refurbishment.

The Old Town landmark on High Street shut down on August 31, 2007 and was sold off to a then-unnamed property developer.

But after more than two years of lifelessness the 16th century building was revived by the Barracuda Group, which has transformed the Grade II listed main building into a 11-bedroom hotel with a restaurant and bar.

Not quite a pub then, but it is certainly better than having it closed.

An RBS director explains his position on bonuses

Vardzia

Fascinating pictures on BLDGBLOG:

Vardzia is a ruined honeycomb of arched passageways and artificially enlarged caves on a steep mountainside in Georgia. It is on a "tentative list" for UNESCO World Heritage status.

The new Wikio rankings

Wardman Wire has the overall rankings and Subrosa the political rankings.

I'll do the Lib Dem list when the new rankings go live on the Wikio site.