The poor Lambeth church providing choristers for cathedralsSo many areas of our national life are now dominated by the products of private schools, from journalism via county cricket to film and theatre acting, that it's heart-warming to read this in the Guardian. St Paul's Cathedral school, one of the UK's most prestigious private schools, has long been associated with the musical elite. So was seven-year-old N'raeah, from south London, nervous about auditioning for its internationally renowned choir? "No," she said, beaming. "Everybody's counting on me to sing beautifully." And sing beautifully, she did. N'raeah is the fourth chorister from St John the Divine, Kennington (SJDK) to win ... (more) |
Dickens was never a slog for the Victorians: Are we reading him the wrong way?That Guardian list of the 100 best novels of all time has given the anti-Dickens tendency fresh legs. They tried him at school and hated him. He was paid by the word - that's why his books are so long. I will admit that my love of Dickens has probably been helped by the fact that I didn't study him much at school. There was a play based on the early chapters of Nicholas Nickleby when I was 12 (I read Wackford Squeers as it happens) and a passage from Hard Times three of four years later. That was all. ... (more) |
Jim Wallace's memorial service - 5th June 2026[IMG: Portrait of Jim Wallace] We are all still mourning the loss of Jim Wallace earlier this year. Alex Cole-Hamilton dedicated his acceptance speech when he won his Edinburgh North Western constituency with a vastly increased majority to Jim, recalling his last conversation with Jim a few days before he died. We all wish he could have been around to celebrate our election success when we more than doubled our 4 MSPs elected in 2021. We will have the chance to remember Jim at his memorial service which will take place on Friday 5th June 2026 at Dunblane Cathedral at ... (more) |
Time to embrace our Welsh identityAs Shaun Ennis wrote about his frustration about the lack of progress in the North of England by our party, he should be lucky that he isn't living in Wales. As a party and a movement that was once the dominant voice of Cymru, seeing our leader Jane Dodds eke through the sixth seat in Brycheiniog Tawe Need at last week's Senedd election showed what a parlous state the party is in Cymru at the moment. Overall, the situation has not improved since 2016 where our votes remain low and the number of seats won to match. We were lucky ... (more) |
Patrick Duff: Foolish PeopleStranglelove were my favourite slightly obscure Nineties band, so they have featured here three times: Time For the Rest of Your Life, Elin's Photograph and Beautiful Alone. Patrick Duff was the band's lead singer. Wikipedia records that after they split: Between 2000 and 2004 Duff went on to travel the world as a solo artist with WOMAD Festival, collaborating with a number of artists, most notably the then 81-year-old veteran African master storyteller and musician Madosini, with whom he lived and worked in the township of Langa, in Cape Town.Then: The following year [2006] Duff was commissioned by Bristol City ... (more) |
Stand aside in Makerfield, but make Burnham earn itJosh Simons resigned his Makerfield seat this week. Andy Burnham confirmed within hours he would seek the NEC's permission to stand, and the NEC has now cleared him to do so. A constituency most people couldn't have placed on a map last week has become the most consequential by-election in a generation. The question now is whether the Liberal Democrats should stand a candidate. My answer is no, but not as an act of charity toward Labour. As a conditional offer, grounded in a straightforward calculation about what is most likely to advance the things we actually care about. What ... (more) |
Why are we so timid?The Liberal Party I joined in 1964 was not a timid party. Under Grimond's leadership, it wanted major changes to the UK. It wanted devolution, voting and parliamentary reform, sexual and racial equality, supported joining the EEC, wanted nuclear disarmament and wanted more cooperatives amongst many other things. And it wasn't afraid to say so. Fast forward to today and we seem afraid of our own shadow. We say little or nothing on controversial issues for fear of offending anybody. Dig a little deeper and you find we probably support the same things that we did before but you'd never ... (more) |
Promises, promisesThe BBC reports on a promise by one of Plaid Cymru's new ministers that the arts in Wales can expect "increased funding year-on-year", after years of being "in crisis". They add that Plaid Cymru's Heledd Fychan told them that the arts, culture and heritage sector did not get adequate support from the previous Labour Welsh government.She is promising to reverse that trend and that this is "clearly a priority" for new First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, with her being given a seat around the cabinet table to represent it: "We can't promise huge investment overnight, but I will clearly put ... (more) |