The Stonton Wyville boiler explosion led to manslaughter chargesBack to the inquest into the deaths of the four men killed by the explosion of the boiler of a steam threshing machine at Stonton Wyville in 1862. The Gimson who gave evidence to the inquest, as the Leicester Guardian for 1 March 1862 reported, was Josiah Gimson from the Leicester engineering family. He described the condition of the engine which made it, or at least the way it was operated, sound dangerous (Josiah was the father of the architect and furniture designer Ernest Gimson, incidentally.) Having heard his and others' evidence, the inquest jury returned its verdict. The Leicester ... (more) |
Ed Davey takes aim at Keir Starmer and the BBCKeir Starmer risks turning into "continuity Rishi Sunak" and the BBC has Nigel Farage on so often that it risks becoming his mouthpiece - "and this is a guy who wants to destroy them". You can read these views from Ed Davey in an exclusive interview he granted Peter Walker of the Guardian. After listing the deficiencies of government policy on health, welfare and defence, he turns to Starmer's performance as a leader:"There needs to be something that people can get behind. He needs people to understand where we're going. And I don't think anyone, even his own party, have ... (more) |
PODCAST: What's happened to those who voted Labour in 2024?The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts sees me discuss with polling expert Steve Akehurst what has happened to Labour's July 2024 vote. We dive into the characteristics of those who voted for Starmer but are now flirting with Farage, as well as ask whether those folk are really the whole story. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Getting to know 'Reform curious Labour voters' by Steve Akehurst. What would make Labour defectors more positive about Labour? The problems with polling averages. Labour's problem is a ... (more) |
Emma Macdonald to fight Shetland in Scottish Parliament electionEarlier this year, Beatrice Wishart announced that she wouldn't seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament to the Shetland seat she won in the 2019 by-election and defended in 2021. This week, Shetland Liberal Democrats announced that Emma Macdonald will stand for the seat at the Scottish Parliament elections in May. Emma Macdonald has lived in Shetland most of her life after moving over as a child. Emma now lives in Voe and is married with two children and a grandson. In recent years she has owned and operated Emma-Louise's The Coffee Shop and worked in social care. She first joined ... (more) |
Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election - 30 years onIn 1995, literally thousands of Liberal Democrats came to help Chris Davies win a parliamentary by-election that was seen as a test as to whether the party could sustain a determined attack from Tony Blair's New Labour. The political skills of our campaign manager, Chris Rennard, were pitted against those of Labour's Peter Mandelson, and we triumphed. The victory paved the way for the number of elected Lib Dem MPs to more than double at the general election that followed less than two years later. The Littleborough & Saddleworth constituency disappeared then, but Chris Davies was soon after elected to ... (more) |
Goats and toddlers don't mix!I was asked recently by the Whinnies Wanderers, a toddler group based at the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside, to bring along one of our goats to their gathering on Thursday last week. I took Nettle and we settled down in the corner of the garden. Shortly afterwards I realised that the choice of a fully grown goat was not so good. Though some children were happy to stand next to (more) |
Tom Arms' World ReviewDonald Trump It has been a great week for Donald Trump. Perhaps his best ever. His "Big Beautiful Bill" has passed Congress. There is nil blowback from Trump's decision to bomb Iran and the US Supreme Court has handed him another useful decision. But within his success could be the seeds of failure. Starting with the "Big Beautiful Bill" which, among others, cuts MedicAid to an estimated 10-15 million Americans. These are the least financially advantaged (aka poor) members of society who cannot private health insurance. Many of them voted for Trump. These voters will not be entirely cut off ... (more) |
JJ Cale: ClydeNeil Young has said that JJ Cale's guitar playing was a huge influence on him. Eric Clapton recorded an album with Cale because "I've never really succeeded in getting a record to sound like him and that's what I want." He also described Cale's music as "a strange hybrid. It's not really blues, it's not really folk or country or rock'n'roll. It's somewhere in the middle." But it was a songwriter that Cale, who died in 2013, found most success. Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded Call Me the Breeze, while After Midnight and Cocaine have become essential parts of Clapton's repertoire. He ... (more) |
West Port - 1960s #dundeewestendA wonderful photo of the West Port in the 1960s, taken by the late Dr Denis Bethell (more) |
The threat to the right to protestIn my forty plus years in politics, the one thing I have learned is that there is not much difference between Labour and the Tories in their attitude to individual rights, liberty and free speech. Both will willingly use the mechanisms available to the state to suppress views and actions they disapprove of when, in many instances, there are already routes that can be taken to prevent such protests going too far. The treatment of Palestine Action is a good example of this. On Wednesday, the House of Commons was asked to vote on whether to proscribe three organisations as ... (more) |