The street in Australia named after my great great grandfatherMy family history stuff is put away and I'm far too hot to go and look for it, so this is written from memory, but I think it's right. I've posted a lot about my great great grandmother's brother Sandy Campbell and also about her sister Johanna Robertson Campbell. Both were senior members of Queen Victoria's staff at Balmoral. But what about my great great grandmother Jane Clark Campbell? She died aged only 22, having already had an illegitimate son with a man called Alexander Calder. The boy, my great grandfather, was brought up by the Campbell family in Scotland, ... (more) |
The rigged system Freda Jackson overcame to become an actress in the 1930sI wrote about the actress Freda Jackson's background on Central Bylines: Jackson was born in Nottingham in 1907, the daughter of a railway porter. She was educated at High Pavement School and the city's University College. In 1933 she was teaching English and Drama at Haywood School, Sherwood, and spending her evenings acting with a local theatre group, when a letter to the director of its repertory company won her an audition at Northampton's Theatre Royal. Yesterday's purchase Repertory at The Royal: Sixty-Five Years of Theatre in Northampton 1922-92 tells us what happened after that successful audition: Miss Jackson's status ... (more) |
Farewell to the Fabulous Flick Rea, MBEAt most funerals you go along with your slither of the story and learn so much more about the person, that you never previously knew. At most funerals the family have been busy organising and deciding readings and hymns. At most funerals... Let's be honest, the funeral of Flick Rea was never going to be like other funerals... First, it was the hottest day of the year, decade... ever and heck did we sweat under the relentless sun. Second, the funeral was planned in detail by Flick herself, the readings, who should read them, the hymns, even the photos for ... (more) |
Liberals and the unions: time to talk again"But you're a Lib Dem, I thought your party didn't like unions." I've had that said to me more than once when I mentioned that I'm a member of both the Liberal Democrats and UNISON. I understand why people assume it: trade unions tend to get filed alongside Labour and the politics of the left. But it misses a long shared history between the unions, labour relations, and British liberalism. The history is real, not a footnote. William Gladstone gave unions legal recognition and protected their funds in the Trade Union Act of 1871. Winston Churchill, as President of the ... (more) |
Lib Dems pick Richard Kilpatrick as candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election[IMG: Richard Kilpatrick] A press release from the Liberal Democrats brings the news: Richard Kilpatrick has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Greater Manchester in the upcoming mayoral election to replace Andy Burnham. Richard has pledged to tackle the cost of living crisis, improve public services and deliver desperately needed housing for the region. Richard is deeply embedded in the Greater Manchester community, having lived and worked in the area for over 10 years, as well as serving as a councillor in Didsbury West since 2018 where he currently lives. Formerly in teaching, Richard has more recently spent ... (more) |
Andy Burnham's NHS record: Devolution, delivery and the limits of local powerAndy Burnham often describes health and social care devolution in Greater Manchester as one of the most important reforms of his political career. Few politicians have invested more effort in the idea that local leaders can improve public services by bringing decisions closer to the people they serve. Yet ten years after Greater Manchester became the first English region to take control of a devolved health and social care budget, an important question remains: has the experiment delivered the improvements its supporters promised? Since 2016, Greater Manchester has exercised significant influence over the planning and integration of NHS and social ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1538Kevin Collins asks how modern Britain would cope with a drought on the scale we experienced in 1976: "The public of 1976 learned to cope with these unusual weather conditions, and per-person use of water dropped from an estimated 190 litres per day in 1972 to 95 litres in 1976. This was a generation with direct or family experience of the hardships of the second world war - including following government restrictions on food, clothing and fuel rationing, which finally ended in 1954." Roger Mosey finds the latest BBC cuts mystifying: "As misinformation and disinformation swirl around the globe, audiences ... (more) |