Continued on next monument: A tribute to Timothy WestOr, to be precise, a tribute to Timothy West and Bradley Hardacre. There were three seasons of the Channel 4 comedy Brass in the early 1980s. It was written by two Coronation Street veterans, John Stevenson and Julian Roach, in the days when that soap contained some of the funniest writing on British television. Brass was a parody of everything from Charles Dickens' Hard Times, via novels by the likes of A.J. Cronin and Francis Brett Young to the works of Catherine Cookson, which were everywhere at the time it was made. An old Guardian article recommending the boxed set ... (more) |
Lib Dems launch official Bluesky accountUnsurprisingly given Elon Musk's recent antics, more and more Lib Dems are looking at giving Threads and/or Bluesky a try. There is now an official Lib Dem account on Bluesky. One problem with starting off in a new place is finding other people to follow, so here are a pair of threads where Lib Dems have been introducing themselves on each: Lib Dems on Bluesky, along with a list of Lib Dem MPs on Bluesky Lib Dems on Threads If you are interested in political polling, you may also find this Bluesky list useful. I suspect a reader or two ... (more) |
Vin, 92, turns his mobility scooter into Chitty Chitty Bang BangThe story soon disappears behind its paywall, but it was enough to win the Shropshire Star out Headline of the Day Award. The judges were particularly impressed by the fact that Mr Wardman comes from Craven Arms and the video above. (more) |
Book Week Scotland 2024 - LG Thomson in Conversation #dundeewestendFor Book Week 2024, Blackness Library has LG Thomson in conversation with Andrew Forrester, discussing her latest book 'Bitter Fruit'. It takes place next Monday - 18th November - at 2.30pm. It is a free event but you must book - (more) |
Budget threatens social care in WalesNation Cymru reports on the view of Care Forum Wales that social care in Wales could collapse as a result of a £150 million triple whammy in the Budget. The organisation, which represents care homes and independent care providers has warned that the controversial measures announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves pose a "greater threat than Covid" to the sector and fears care homes and domiciliary care companies will inevitably be forced to close: The only way to avert the impending crisis, according to CFW chair Mario Kreft MBE, was for the social care sector to be granted an NHS-style exemption ... (more) |
Two questions raised by the John Smyth affairThe announcement that Justin Welby is to hand in his mitre was inevitable. I've formed the impression in recent years that his lack of candour and lack of action over the crimes of John Smyth have made it harder for the Church of England to act against abusers more generally. I am left with two questions. The first is to ask if there wasn't something unchristian about the practice of the Iwerne Trust (and of the Titus Trust that succeeded it) of holding camps only for boys from expensive public schools. Their ambition was to change society by changing its ... (more) |
What did political parties do on polling day before 1945?I once heard a story about polling day in the Brecon and Radnor by-election of 1985, which saw a gain for the Liberal Alliance candidate Richard Livsey. A hirsute Young Liberal was telling on the day at a remote rural polling station when an old farmer arrived and challenged him. "What are you doing? I always take the numbers for the Liberals." It turned out that he had for years been coming here on polling day for an hour or two, taking voters' numbers and then going home with them. This was a folk memory of political organisation. All that ... (more) |
Hunting for Liberator Drive, Market HarboroughI had started to receive reports of a Liberator Drive on the new Farndon Fields estate here in Market Harborough. Google Street View wasn't much help: the road was on the map, but the houses were too reccent for Google's van to have been there. So I went to look for it. And here it is, though any road that's called 'Drive' and points at open fields is unlikely to remain a dead end for long. Here, while we're at it, is the website for Liberator magazine too. The Farndon Fields estate is the sort of place you don't go ... (more) |
West End Ward Tuesday Surgeries #dundeewestendFraser's weekly ward surgeries take place later today and every Tuesday during school term time. They are as follows : Tuesdays at 5pm prompt - Blackness Library Tuesdays at 5.45pm prompt - Ancrum Road Primary School All residents welcome - no appointment necessary. (more) |
Business betrayal and falling living standardsOf all the measures announced by Rcahel Reeves in the budget, the decision to increase employers' national insurance contributions is the one that is going to cause her the most problems. This is evidenced again by an article in the Independent in which leaders of Britain's biggest business organisations have accused the Labour government of "betrayal". The paper says that Barclays Bank has warned that the increase will hit workers' living standards, with economists at the bank claiming that the policy will cause real incomes to take a hit, as companies pass on the cost of the levy through lower ... (more) |