The latest on "troubled Lucy Allan" from the Shropshire Star

Is being troubled worse than being embattled or beleagured?

Anyway, my favourite newspaper is the place to turn for the latest news on the Conservative MP for Telford.

The latest Shropshire Star story on her begins:

Troubled Lucy Allan has been asked to apologise for her comments about “bully boy” Labour councillors in the town – or face a lawsuit. 

The Telford MP launched a Facebook rant against “a small group of bully boy councillors, thugs and henchmen” who she claimed had hounded her for two years, before going on to name them. 

Members of the executive committee of the Telford Labour Party today published an open letter to Ms Allan in which they claim the comments made by the MP are “defamatory and untrue”.

And this morning the Telford Labour Party sent this tweet:

We can also confirm that one of our members has instructed Solicitors to act on his behalf.

— Telford Labour Party (@Telfordlabour) December 19, 2015

Elsewhere on the Star's website you can read the claims of Arianne Plumbly, who worked for Lucy Allan in her Telford office.

Jealous tree surgeon forced his way into cousin's house and attacked him in rage

Our Headline of the Day comes from the Shropshire Star.

Six of the Best 558

Labour moderates don't need a new party, they need new ideas and new purpose, argues Jonathan Todd.

Mike Smithson says that if you want the opinion polls to tell you who will win the next election you should look at the ratings of the leaders not the parties.

"Gideon Haigh summed it up in The Australian. 'The West Indies used to be baaaaaaad. Now they’re simply bad'." Peter Miller on the decline of a great test power.

Steve Galloway celebrates the restoration of Walmgate Bar and the east end of York Minster.

Inside the Box has an audio interview with Jonathan Stephens, who played Chubby Joe ("Going home for the holidays, ha ha what?") in the TV adaptation of A Box of Delights.

"Malcolm ... travelled the length and breadth of the country knocking them for six with his comedic performances as 'The Woman Who Knows', Nell Gwyn, Boudica, and the epitome of femininity the fabled 'Gibson Girl'. Flashbak on the unexpected career of the brother of Scott of the Antartic.

Mr Gladstone's orphanage at Hawarden

Embed from Getty Images

Lord Bonkers has his Home for Well-Behaved Orphans, but then it seems at one time every self-respecting Liberal politician had his own orphanage.

Caroline's Miscellany writes of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife Catherine:

As a regular visitor to the London Hospital, Whitechapel, Catherine saw at first hand the effects of the 1860s cholera epidemics on the East End poor. 

She founded an orphanage for the children of cholera victims, in a large house in Clapton. It also took in convalescent patients, and the convalescent home later moved to Woodford Hall, Essex, in 1866. Adults and children were sent here from the London Hospital in the East End to recover from illness or surgery. The home moved to Mitcham in 1900, eventually closing in 1940. 

As for the orphaned boys, Catherine sent them from Clapton to a new orphanage in the Gladstones' home village of Hawarden. Initially, she took a dozen boys from London to the village and accommodated them in a former coach house; Gladstone paid for their keep. (The couple also accommodated unemployed Lancashire mill girls and elderly women on their estate.) 

The orphanage continued for many years, and seems to have taken in other children in need of a home. A guide to the village of 1890 describes it as housing twenty to thirty boys and being 'hard by the Castle [the Gladstones' home] and across the yard'.

And this blog's hero J.W. Logan had a home in East Langton for the children of men killed on his works.

Lizard that leapt out of Christmas dinner is now prized pet for Knighton boy

Well done to the County Times for winning our Headline of the Day Award.

The poet A.E. Housman adds:

And lads knew lizards at Knighton
When I was a Knighton lad.

Hear Lynda Snell in Market Harborough tomorrow

Exciting news from the Harborough Mail:

The annual Celebration of Christmas concert will be held on Saturday (December 19) at the parish church of St Dionysius, Market Harborough ...

The reader this year is Carole Boyd, Lynda Snell from ‘The Archers’ (and all the female voices in Postman Pat among many other credits!). 

The concert starts at 7.30pm and the doors open at 6.45pm. Tickets are available from Tim Blades 07976 757352 or MH Music in Market Harborough. 

There will also be some tickets available on the door but organisers recommend that people get there early for them.

Film of the young Paddy Ashdown serving in Sarawak

I have seen this clip a couple of times before. It turns out to come from one of the Look at Life films - I have featured a few of them here in the past.

The BBC once put them together to form 30-minute programmes. The video above should play just the relevant segment of this one, where you will see "Marine Lieutenant Ashdown". (Unfortunately, someone has added a rather clunky label telling us who he later became.)

Lord Bonkers suggests that unrepentant headhunters are just what you need in a closely fought by-election.

Lord Bonkers pays tribute to Shirley Williams

Lord Bonkers writes exclusively for Liberal England:

"I am sorry to see her go, but I fear she had lost the dressing room."

Police used anti-stalking legislation against Rutland councillors

A worrying report from BBC East Midlands Today. It reminds you that Rutland County Council won the Legal Bullies of the Year category in Private Eye's 2013 Rotten Boroughs Awards.

I hope Nick Wainwright will take this further. Asking awkward questions of the chief executive is an important part of a councillor's role.

Thanks to Martin Brookes.

The Shropshire schoolmaster who said "Ni!"

Is it any wonder that the Shropshire Star is my favourite newspaper?

You would't get this in the Guardian, the Financial Times or City AM:

An 87-year-old former schoolmaster from Shropshire has a unique claim to fame – he is the inspiration for the famous Monty Python "The Knights Who Say Ni" sketch. 

Laurence Le Quesne had a habit when at Shrewsbury School of exclaiming “ni” as he scoured the library for books. 

The quirky trait amused his pupils, who happened to include a certain Michael Palin. 

He used it as a basis for the famous scene in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I also realise that I once owned a book by him on Thomas Carlyle.

Disused railways stations in Lancashire

A bumper selection, but if you want more there's Devon, Bedfordshire, North Lincolnshire, East Sussex, Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Hampshire, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Rutland. Northumberland, Shropshire, Suffolk, East Riding of Yorkshire, Norfolk, Wiltshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Durham, Glasgow, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Edinburgh, Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire.

Six of the Best 557

"In the current flare of details coming out about the Tatler Tory bullying affair, one group more than others has been scrambling for cover, and that is the Young Britons' Foundation." Random Scribbling Notepad tells us all about it.

"Pugh’s suggestion that Labour has a tendency to choose the wrong leader and to hang on to him too long is an interesting reflection in the light of the result of Labour’s recent leadership election." Keith Laybourn looks at some books on the history of the Labour Party.

Ian Marsh argues that policy convergence, cynical marketing strategies and the demise of party organisations have destroyed the infrastructures that once provided a platform for longer term policy debates.

Shadowplay remembers Fragment of Fear, a disturbing 1970 film starring David Hemmings and many familiar faces of the period.

While Sarah Miller Walters celebrates the Peter Sellers film Heavens Above.

The Gentle Author takes us to Bromley by Bow and the largest tidal mill in the world.

Historic England appeals for help over lost public art

Artworks created by some of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century, from Henry Moore to Barbara Hepworth, have already been destroyed. 

Created and sited in the open for all of us to enjoy; these pieces were made for our public spaces, our schools, hospitals, housing estates, civic areas and communities. They were commissioned and designed with a social spirit to add colour to our local places and our daily lives. 

Such sculptures, murals and architectural reliefs are disappearing for many reasons, and for some pieces, it is already too late. Stolen and melted down for their scrap value; neglected and vandalised beyond repair; sold and moved from their intended public spaces; destroyed by redevelopment, or just forgotten - location unknown. The nation's great outdoor collection of public art is in jeopardy.

Historic England is seeking help in tracking down these lost pieces.

The photo here shows The Sunbathers by Peter Laszlo Peri from 1951, It was displayed on the Southbank during the Festival of Britain, but its current whereabouts are unknown.

Hugh Walters' science fiction stories for children

Tim Peake's voyage into space has reminded me of the children's science fiction books by Hugh Walters.

As a website devoted to his work says:

If you regularly borrowed science fiction books from your local library anywhen from the 1950s to the early 1980s, the chances are that your read a Hugh Walters novel or two. 

You remember - English astronaut Chris Godfrey and his team flying to each of the planets in the solar system? 

With titles like 'Expedition Venus', 'Destination Mars' and 'Journey to Jupiter', with a Hugh Walters novel you were guaranteed nailbiting tension coupled with a wealth of technical detail! 

Unfortunately the books have been out of print for many years, and many libraries have by now disposed of their copies. Hopefully this page will evoke some memories of a classic series of novels.

As I once said of the first book in the series, Blast Off at Woomera:

They don't write stories like that any more. Particularly ones in which, as I recall, the hero visits Battersea Fun Fair and has a run in with some teddy boys, and the British space mission is led by a Wing Commander Greatorex.

Man accused of stealing crate of Lucozade on hoverboard could make UK legal history

The Guardian wins Headline of the Day.

Global warming was forecast a century ago

I retweeted this 1912 press cutting yesterday morning and immediately wondered whether I had been taken in by a hoax.

But it does appear to be genuine. It comes from the Braidwood Dispatch Mining Journal, which was published in New South Wales.

So take it as a reminder of how well established the science behind fear about global warming is.

The agreement on the climate signed in Paris was immensely welcome, though I fear some governments will expend considerable energy on trying to wriggle out of what they agreed to over the coming years.

And the controversialists and backers of dirty industry will continue to doubt the science. But as Upton Sinclair said:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Steve Gibbons Band: Tulane

Choosing Fight for My Country by Balls a couple of years ago I wrote:

A couple of Saturdays ago I saw Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings at Market Harborough Leisure Centre. The opening act was Steve Gibbons, a legend of the Birmingham music scene. 

Back in 1977, when the Steve Gibbons Band had a hit with Tulane, he was a leather-jacketed rocker - a sort of Brummie Fonz. Today he looks like a Southern gentleman, albeit one you would be wise not to play cards with for money.

So here is Steve Gibbons in his pomp. The bass guitarist in his band is another Birmingham legend - Trevor Burton from The Move.

Stop the War purges its website

There have been stories over the past week about Stop the War removing the more controversial (i.e. antisemitic, pro-dictator) articles from its website.

So thanks to The Real Stop the War for preserving those articles before they disappear down the memory hole.

St Pancras to Sheffield in 1971

More than 3 hours 20 minutes  of Midland Main Line nostalgia with a commentary explaining what you are seeing and some comparison footage of the line today.

Thrill to Market Harborough (1:39:00) still with its canopies, Leicester (1:58:30) still with its overall roof and the numerous semaphore signals and signal boxes along the route.

Mark Steel, whataboutery and polytoynbeeism

Outrageous that Corbyn goes to a Stop the War dinner - he should go to dinners held by arms dealers and offshore bankers like a proper MP.

— Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) December 11, 2015

Back in September I suggested that "whataboutery is pretty much all that enthusiasts for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party have to offer".

Certainly that trope is alive and well amongst them, judging by the number of times this has been retweeted into my timeline.

The truth, of course, is that it is perfectly possible to believe Corbyn is wrong to hang out with apologists for Putin and Assad and to believe it is wrong for MPs to allows themselves to be wined and dined by arms dealers and offshore bankers.

Still, whataboutery does represent a new departure for Mark Steel. In the past he has relied solely upon polytoynbeeism:

Mark Steel has based a whole stand up and journalistic career on this trick. His every column or routine runs in essence: "So the Tories say X do they? I expect they say Y and Z too!" And everyone laughs. 

They laugh because this technique is a form of political group grooming. It reminds you how generous and sensible you and your allies are, and how cruel and stupid your opponents are.

But then Steel had to broaden his range when he left the SWP in 2008 (but was kept on by Radio 4 even so). For, as Harry's Blog pointed out at the time:

Given that Mark Steel's comedy routine consists of reciting the editorials from last week's Socialist Worker in a "blokey" voice, I wonder what he'll do for material in the future.

So well done Mark. Maybe your comic repertoire will be so broad one day that you will be able to come out against fascists and semi-fascists like Assad and Putin.