Harborough less affected by boundary changes than expected

HFM News has the news about the Boundary Commission's final proposals for Leicestershire. The idea of a radical redrawing of boundaries within the county has been dropped, with the result that the Harborough constituency will keep its spine of Oadby, Wigston, Kibworth and Market Harborough.

As the trend has been at many boundary views now, the proposals would mean more villages will be moved into other constituencies. 

Fleckney, Saddington, Husbands Bosworth and the Kilworths would move into the South Leicestershire constituency, while villages in the north of the District, along with Hallaton and Melbourne, would become part of a new Rutland and Stamford constituency.

I'm happy to see this. The original proposal was that the Harborough constituency would have the same boundaries as the Harborough local government district. But that is a swathe of rural Leicestershire with few transport links.

Keeping the traditional Harborough constituency much as it is will also encourage the Liberal Democrats. In 2005 we came within 4000 votes of winning here, and these boundary changes look favourable to us.

All we have to do now is return the Labour Party to third place and establish ourselves the clear challengers once more,

You can read the final proposals for Leicestershire and make your comments on the county council website.

Nurse accused of amputating man’s foot for her family’s taxidermy shop

The Washington Post wins our Headline of the Day Award.

After thanking a reader for this nomination, the judges were heard muttering "only in America".

Gavin Williamson: The signs were all there

Here's Gavin Williamson addressing the 2017 Conservative Conference as government chief whip:

"I don't much like the stick. But it is amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot."

This short clip doesn't do justice to the weirdness of his delivery of the whole speech.

In which I scoop Channel 5's documentary on Leonard Rossiter

Channel 5 recently screened a superior documentary on the career of Leonard Rossiter - you can watch it on its catch-up service My5.

If features a few clips from what it bills as a "never seen before interview" with Rossiter. Except that readers of this blog may well have seen the interview before, because I linked to it last year. Maybe that's how the documentary's researchers found it?

In that post I suggested Rossiter had a talent for turning up in films where you don't expect to find him, and the video above - from a 1967 Michael Caine thriller - is another example. There's even a little bit of Eric Portman in the middle as a bonus.

The documentary does not shy away from Rossiter's reputation for being a perfectionist and thus difficult to work with. But I suppose that depends on who you were.

I got talking with the theatre director Braham Murray at a Leicester event marking the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton's death. Murray had rescued the reputation of Orton's play Loot with a production in Manchester after it had flopped in the West End.

He mentioned Rossiter for some reason and said what a wonderful man he was. I referred to his reputation, saying something like: "They say he turned up word perfect on the first day and expected everyone else to be too."

At which Murray, always the director, bristled slightly and demanded: "And what's wrong with that?"

Perth museum naming poll chooses 'Perth Museum'

Congratulations to BBC News on winning our prestigious Headline of the Day Award.

You wait ages for a story about a Shropshire bus ending up in a field and then two come along at once

Friday wasn't the best day for bus transport in Shropshire.

The 501 from Ellesmere to Shrewsbury ended up on its side in a field after the driver took evasive action to avoid an oncoming lorry.

Neal Hall of Lakeside Coaches, which runs the service, told the Shropshire Star:

"The driver had to take evasive action and the bus ended up in a field. There were 10 passengers on the bus but none received serious injuries."

The company, based just a few minutes away, was able to provide a replacement bus.

"We had another bus out within 20 minutes and all the passengers were able to continue their journeys."

And the 297 from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth left the road on the outskirts of its destination.

This time the Star says:

So far no explanation has been given as to how the bus - which narrowly missed a road sign - ended up in the field.

A spokesperson for Arriva said: "We’re aware of an incident where one of our vehicles entered a field which was level with the road surface. As far as we were aware no passenger required hospital treatment although a first responder attended as a precautionary measure.

"The vehicle was recovered with minimal damage. We are investigating the cause of the accident."

The Joy of Six 1087

Doug Cowan argues that Liz Truss and Boris Johnson should not publish resignation honours lists.

Ruth Swailes writes about the crucial importance of her friendship network when her husband was diagnosed with cancer and fears that spending cuts mean young parents in the future will not enjoy the same support.

Levelling up, it seems, is back, so what do the people of Barnsley want from it? Suzanne Hall asked them: "The people we spoke with contrasted today’s job market – characterised by low-skilled, low-paid, precarious employment – with the thriving industries of yesteryear. And while they recognised the downsides of the heavy industries, and didn’t necessarily want them to return, they did want something to take its place."

"It was a mercy killing, of course. The BBC have finally put Mark Lawrenson out of his misery. And to nobody’s astonishment, his response is sour and graceless: Lawrenson is claiming he was sacked for being an 'old white man', yet another noble and blameless victim of the tyranny of 'woke'." Taylor Parkes says good riddance to Mark Lawrenson.

A London Inheritance takes us to the disused high-level station at Highgate: "After the war, the lack of finance, along with a reduction in passenger numbers conspired against any further electrification or expansion of the northern rail lines and whilst the Northern Line was not at risk, traffic through the hhigh level station was such that routes through the station gradually closed, with the last passenger train running through Highgate high level station to Alexandra Palace in July 1954."

Mike and Bernie Winters deserve to be remembered more kindly, suggests Graham McCann. "If they are remembered at all these days, tend to be remembered: as the butt of better double acts' gags, and the bullseye that hecklers hit."

The Mutton Birds: The Falls

Another New Zealand band. Is New Zealand music the new New Zealand wine? It seems to share some of its virtues: approachable yet sophisticated.

It turns out that The Mutton Birds flourished in the 1990s and were based in Britain for a while.

A New Zealand review of their valedictory greatest hits album said:

The Mutton Birds created something that hadn't quite existed in New Zealand for some time - a pop-rock band for grown-ups, people who thought that lyrics mattered, but were happy to hoof around like the students they once were ...

That, of course, meant that to survive the Mutton Birds had to fly the coop, picking up an enthusiastic fan base especially in Britain and Europe - and, oddly, among Scottish thriller writers: Christopher Brookmyre's Not the End of the World had a character who raved about While You Sleep; Ian Rankin named one of his Rebus novels The Falls, after a song from final album Rain, Steam and Speed. 

And it was hearing an interview with Ian Rankin on BBC Radio 6 Music that put me on to them.

Now listen to a present-day New Zealand band, The Beths.

Shrewsbury plaques condemn Tory MP over sewage in the Severn

Campaigners have installed blue plaques around Shrewsbury, accusing its MP Daniel Kawczynski of 'shamefully' voting to dump raw sewage into the River Severn.

Kenny Anderson, a spokesperson for the Shrewsbury River Action Group, told the Shropshire Star:

"You wouldn’t leave a toilet overflowing for 28 years and we shouldn’t do the same with our waterways. The River Severn river lies at the heart of Shrewsbury.

"We all swim in it, boat on it, fish in it, and walk along it on a daily basis. So why isn’t our MP fighting to stop it from being turned into an open sewer?"

Photo stolen from @ChamberlainLuke on Twitter. 

A Thames mudlarker on the history of Market Harborough's Dainite

This is impressive. The find of a rubber button on the Thames foreshore leads Old Father Thames back to its place of manufacture: Market Harborough. Thanks to @solarpilchard for spotting this.

Blandford's Flour Mill still stands: alone, listed and derelict, it awaits a rescuer.

Gavin Williamson emerges as new contender to be the first minister to leave Sunak's cabinet

Those with money on Suella Braverman will have been brought up short by this story in the Guardian:

Gavin Williamson is facing a complaint that he sent "vile" and "threatening" messages to former chief whip Wendy Morton, raising questions over Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint the twice-sacked Tory.

Morton is believed to have made a formal complaint to the Conservative party over claims of Williamson’s behaviour to her in the final days of Liz Truss’s government. 

A source told Tortoise Media that Morton had passed on "vile and threatening messages" she had received during the time she was chief whip, which she considered had a misogynistic undertone.

Serious punters will be aware that Williamson has form.

Williamson has been sacked twice. Theresa May forced him to step down as defence secretary after an inquiry into a leak from the national security council, raising security fears, and Boris Johnson ousted him from cabinet over his handling of the exam fiasco when he was education secretary.

The Guardian, however, quotes him as saying he "strongly refutes [sic] these allegations".

Williamson was brought back by Boris Johnson and then Sunak as a reward for helping with their successful leadership campaigns.

Read more on Tortoise Media (scroll down to find this story).

Photo by GaborfromHungary at Morguefile.com

Halloween today and Bonfire Night 50 years ago

Photo by dieraecherin at Morguefile.com

I've given up writing why oh why? posts and columns about the way Halloween has supplanted Bonfire Night as a popular festival during my lifetime.

Partly it's because Bonfire Night was itself formed when anti-Catholic prejudice was grafted on to earlier traditions. And partly because, as I had the sense to write four years ago:

I am reaching the age where you have to be clear whether you are playing an old fogey or have really become one.

Clear with yourself, that is, as well as clear with your readers.

So in looking at a hymn in praise of Trick or Treat by Paul Westmoreland in the Guardian I shall concentrate on something else: his deep-rooted assumption that parents will accompany children on their trick or treating.

If you are looking for modern British Halloween to be a festival of misrule, you are going to be sadly disappointed.

As I wrote in the early days of this blog, things were different 50* years ago: 

At the age of 11 I lived in village (though it had largely been absorbed by the neighbouring New Town) in Hertfordshire. Each year a large bonfire was constructed on the Moor - a local open space - by the residents. I expect the Scouts or someone like that got involved too, because it was an impressive stack with lots of wood in it.

I recall that my group of friends got together and decided what time we would light it on the evening. And we did light it. It seemed perfectly natural to us that boys our age should do it, and presumably no adult was concerned enough at the prospect.

Not only that. Because it was 1971 or so, there was a dustmen's strike and a large refuse heap was piled up near the bonfire. Inevitably, at some point in the evening it was set alight or caught a spark. A fire engine arrived to put it out, and as one of the firemen said: "Sorry lads, but it's too dangerous."

Things aren't what they used to be. Of course they're not. They never were.

But we should be aware that there will be losses as well as gains involved in progress or modernity or whatever you want to call it.

And not every person who mourns the passing of the old ways is being solipsistic or selfish: there can be a sadness that young people are missing out on experiences we had somewhere close to the heart of personal nostalgia.

Is there a lesson here about our failure to understand, and thus have some hope of countering, the motivation of some Brexit supporters? 

* 51 actually, but 50 makes a better headline.

The inescapable boom of Kwasi Kwarteng

Not being a Sun reader, you may have missed this entertaining extract from Harry Cole and James Heale's Out of the Blue - a biography of Liz Truss that turned into an account of her spectacular implosion:

In early January, Johnson’s chief whip Mark Spencer was hosting Scottish secretary ­Alister Jack on a day’s shooting at an estate in Devon.

Between drives, the tweed-clad pair were in a Land Rover with others, when Jack’s phone rang.

As he was behind the wheel, Jack answered on the built-in hands-free.

On the other end was the inescapable boom of Kwasi Kwarteng, voicing fears the PM was on his knees.

“If it all goes wrong, what happens? Are you a Liz guy?”, Kwarteng asked Jack, with the eavesdropping chief whip flitting between silent laughter and seething incredulity.

“No, no, no I am not,” replied Jack.

“Oh,” said a disheartened Kwarteng, “so you are a Rishi guy?”

“No, let’s be clear Kwasi, I am a Boris guy,” hit back Jack. “And furthermore I have the Chief Whip in the car with me.”

Collapse of stout party. Liz Truss phoned not long afterwards to assure tall concerned that Kwarteng had got carried away and was not canvassing Cabinet support on her orders. Which only strengthened their conclusion that he was.

After this you would have expected Truss to have concluded that Kwarteng was not a man to entrust with a job requiring subtlety or sound judgement - such as running a whelk stall, for instance.

Not a bit of it. She made him her chancellor, with results we shall still be paying for years from now.

Trying to walk Britain's mystery footpaths

Paul and Rebecca Whiteiwck have discovered footpaths that do not connect with any other public rights of way. So how do you use them?

In this video theytry to walk these mystery footpaths and look into how they have come into being.

If you enjoy their videos, you can support Paul and Rebecca through their Patreon page.

The Joy of Six 1086

"The idea of the 'illegal' asylum seeker is a falsehood that has been actively peddled by the Home Office and the Home Secretary in recent years. When people talk about asylum seekers coming to the UK 'illegally', what they really mean is asylum seekers arriving via informal and unofficial routes, such as crossing the Channel via small boat. However, asylum seekers are legally allowed to come to the UK even when making an 'illegal entry'." Amelia Susserott explodes the myth of the illegal asylum seeker.

Peter Hain says British politicians have failed Northern Ireland: "What a colossal, devastating failure by British politicians over Northern Ireland. The current impasse - with the Northern Irish Assembly still suspended and another set of elections now required, the second since May - is the product of terrible neglect by the British government starting in 2010, accelerated and deepened by Brexit, which has shattered the delicate power-sharing balance required for functioning Northern Irish institutions."

A growing number of children with mental health problems are being treated on adult psychiatric wards as services struggle to cope with a surge in demand, reports Shanti Das.

James West is critical of the way the media covers climate change: "This is one area where many people with no qualifications in science, with largely arts and humanities training and who have no authority in science, feel able to express opinions on climate science and expect to be taken seriously."

"Watching that scene we, the excited children of black Jamaican migrants in Luton, let out a collective 'Yes!'. Sidney Poitier was one cool dude on and off screen - and we loved, absolutely loved Virgil Tibbs, the actor who played him and all he stood for." Colin Grant surveys the career of Sidney Poitier.

Robert Edgar traces the roots of folk horror back to Thomas Hardy.

No, Tony Benn didn't say that about governments and refugees

There's a very good quotation that pops up on Twitter from time to time. It runs:

The way a government treats refugees is very instructive because it shows you how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it.

Almost invariably, these words are attributed to Tony Benn, but he did not say them. Rather, they were written by the Scottish journalist (and sometime Lib Dem Holyrood candidate) Neal Ascherson.

The history of the quotation is as follows.

In 1996 Ascherson wrote an article on the al-Masari affair in the Independent, where he said:

The al-Masari affair overflows in all directions with moral relativism. My own view is that to expel a political asylum-seeker because his country threatens to cancel business contracts with Britain is absolutely wrong. 

And it is not only wrong but dangerous in the long term to us all. This is because of one of the Laws of Politics that I wrote long ago into my little black notebook: "The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared".

And in 1999 Francis Wheen paraphrased Ascherson to produce more or less the quotation we know today:

We should always watch how politicians treat refugees, Neal Ascherson once wrote, because that's how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it.

Neal Ascherson, incidentally, has passed 90 and is still going strong. You should be able to read some of his articles on the London Review of Books site before its paywall kicks in.

The Bargee: The last days of commercial narrow boat traffic on the Grand Union Canal

The Bargee - described by one writer as one of the three great canal movies - is one the Talking Pictures TV Encore site at the moment.

Written by Galton and Simpson, it stars Harry H. Corbett as a canal boat skipper with a girl at every mooring and his mate is Ronnie Barker. Beyond that, Eric Sykes is miscast (couldn't they get Nicholas Parsons?) and Hugh Griffith is as scary as ever. Miriam Karlin is scary too when crossed.

The real stars here are the canalside locations. In particular, the swing bridge at Winkwell, by the Three Horseshoes pub, was the goal of family walks when I was a little boy living on Boxted Road in Hemel Hempstead.

Take away those locations, and its just another not particularly funny British film comedy. But I'm glad I've seen it.

The Bargee was released in 1964 and the last working boats on the Grand Union tied up for good in 1970.

Former world chess champion who called for an end to Putin's war is in hospital in Moscow

Embed from Getty Images

Mystery surrounds the condition of the former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, who is widely reported to have suffered multiple head injuries and to have been placed in an induced coma.

He is variously reported to have fallen over or been attacked - ChessBase has a page with the various reports. There is even one quoting his wife as saying the whole story is nonsense. 

It may be no coincidence that Karpov has called for an end to the war in Ukraine:

He told a TV channel in Kazakhstan: 'I wish [the war] would end sooner, so that peaceful people would stop dying.'

He added: 'In the end ordinary people are the victims. Ordinary people fight, politicians and generals decide, and ordinary people fight, civilians die.

'I am not even talking about soldiers and officers. No, I could not imagine at all that Russians and Ukrainians would go to war. I have many friends in Ukraine.'

Karpov became world chess champion in 1975 when Bobby Fischer declined to defend his title and remained champion until Garry Kasparov defeated him in a match in 1985. 

As a young man Karpov was seen by the regime as the ideal Soviet citizen: the son of a worker from a city in the Urals and not Jewish. 

Before the Soviet Union dissolved, he served as a member of the Supreme Soviet Commission for Foreign Affairs and the president of the Soviet Peace Fund,

He later reappeared as a supporter of Vladimir Putin and has been a member of the Duma since 2011. He backed the annexation of Crimea.

Alex Wagner will fight Shrewsbury and Atcham for the Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats have selected Bowbrook councillor and NHS campaigner Alex Wagner to stand for Shrewsbury and Atcham at the next general election.

reports the Shropshire Star, whose readers will know that Bowbrook is a locale in the North West of Shrewsbury.

Shropshire Lib Dems have achieved wonders in local elections over the past few years, and that record of success had a lot to do with the party being able to come from third place to win the North Shropshire parliamentary by-election last December.

Shrewsbury is a seat that both the Lib Dems and Labour will have in their sites, not least because the sitting Conservative member is the egregious Daniel Kawczynski.

Alex told the Star:

"People here deserve the very best, yet often have the worst services in the country. Our NHS services are in the fourth-division, our roads are crumbling, and it feels like we don’t have a voice at Westminster.

"There needs to be a local choice on the ballot paper next election who is dedicated to banging the drum to get Shrewsbury a fair deal. I’m putting myself forward to do just that.

"North Shropshire has a fantastic, hard-working Lib Dem MP who has been tireless in fighting for our county - I want to follow in Helen Morgan’s footsteps and beat the Conservatives here too."

A little Halloween chill from Shropshire

I used to have bed and breakfast regularly at a house in Shropshire whose core was medieval - it's not the one in the picture..

The owner told me she had once found her young son sitting on the landing with his colouring book.

When asked why he wasn't using his bedroom, he replied matter-of-factly: "The people are being a bit of a nuisance."

Now read another ghostly story from Shropshire that involves children.