Is the market for flats in England/Liverpool dead?So, what is happening with the market for flats in Liverpool? In June, the property website Zoopla issued data showing that the average price of a house was up 43% since 2016 across the UK, but flats had increased by only 10% over the same period. Zoopla said, "uncertainty around leasehold in England is affecting the pricing of flats versus houses" and that flats were taking longer to sell as a result. Most flats listed for sale in England are leasehold. And the long list of scandals and controversies associated with this form of ownership - from high service charges ... (more) |
Zack Polanski on the Fringe[IMG: Iain Dale and Zack Polanski] My weekend at the Edinburgh fringe continued with Iain Dale's All Talk event with the Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski. I'm usually one of the younger people at Iain Dale's shows. This time I felt positively geriatric. The audience was very young. The event didn't have to be moved to the bigger theatre, like Nicola Sturgeon's earlier that day, but the smaller theatre was full. Polanski talked about his decision to change his name to one that reflects his Jewish heritage. He had thought originally that his family ... (more) |
X-Ray Spex: Germfree AdolescentsThis is wonderfully bleak. So bleak it reminds me of Vanbrugh College snack bar on the original campus at York. (more) |
Nether Hambelton emerges from beneath Rutland WaterThe remains of a lost Rutland village can currently be seen because of the drought, reports ITV News: Low water levels at Rutland Water reservoir in the East Midlands have uncovered the remains of the buildings which were once part of the village of Nether Hambleton. Residents in the hamlet, along with other small villages including Middle Hambleton, were relocated to other areas before the buildings were demolished and the area flooded in the 1970s to create the reservoir. Lord Bonkers has been known to give those who believe the reservoir dates from the 1970s the disparaging label "Rutland Water ... (more) |
The targeting of journalists is a real threat to democracyThe Guardian reports that the businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks is facing calls to lay out the extent of his surveillance of journalists, described by an industry body as an "attack on our democracy". The paper says that the News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, has raised concerns after Banks appeared to admit over the weekend to hiring private investigators to spy on a Sunday Times journalist. They quote New Statesman who have said that Banks instructed Precision Risk and Intelligence, a private investigations company he once owned, to examine Gabriel Pogrund, the editor ... (more) |
Café with a view #20: Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre[IMG: The view from the cafe at Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre] The view from the cafe at Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre. It's been a while since one of these, so time for another cafe with a view, this time over in east London. It's the cafe at the Bedfords Park Nature Discovery Centre (Broxhill Road, Romford RM4 1QH, but best reached by a walk through Bedfords Park itself). The cafe itself is a fairly standard, small park cafe. But the views are anything but standard, giving you a vantage over the Thames estuary and all the way through ... (more) |
Stanley Unwin is now remembered by a blue plaque at his old home in Long BuckbyHere's the great Stanley Unwin on Pebble Mill at One in 1985. He had the sense to know that his unique act worked best in short doses. That way he kept his audience comftybold, two-square on their botties. The latest news from Long Buckby is that a blue plaque has been installed on the bungalow in the High Street where Unwin lived for many years. I once went to the village to photograph his and his wife's grave. I feel another journey coming on. (more) |
Eddie Waring's "Dark Satanic Mills End" was at Hilton Park, LeighEmbed from Getty ImagesI've a memory of Eddie Waring, the BBC's rugby league commentator between 1949 and 1981, referring to the "Dark Satanic Mills End" at one ground. I thought it was Leigh's and, having found the picture above, I think I was right. The photo was published in Picture Post in 1949, and the caption on Getty Images says: A group of young supporters accompany Rugby League players Bill Kingdon and Cec Ryan across allotments to the Kirkhall Lane rugby ground in Leigh, Lancashire. In the background is the Parsonage Pit. In 1947 Leigh Rugby League Club started playing ... (more) |
Write a guest post for Liberal EnglandI love publishing guest posts here on Liberal England. Why not try writing one yourself? It could be on where the Liberal Democrats should go from here, on politics more generally or... anything really. Why not an article about a local campaign or quirky piece of history? Please drop me an email if you'd like to discuss your idea first. I'd hate you to spend time on a piece I really wouldn't want to publish. Here are the last 10 Liberal England guest posts:Understanding the views and worries of the city of Oxford Lib Dem - William LaneLocal councillors changing ... (more) |
north easterlyIt started fresh: its playful fingers bringing light relief from days of searing heat and nights of tropical oppression; and then turned gradually cool, a friendly face (but false), relentless, like the wife you've wronged ...who's next inexorably chill, that morning on a damp hillside whose thin sun promises but does not burn the mist which penetrates your bones Then sharply roused it veers and backs, now half a gale itself with Baltic louring at its shoulder, scouring every crevice of your shelter, scraping grit across fresh wounds on skin chafed raw ...until the vagaries have gone; until true north ... (more) |