Redcap was a television series about Sergeant John Mann, a member of the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police. It was broadcast on ITV between 1964 and 1966. It is significant because the lead role was played by a young John Thaw. It is interesting to compare him here with Shaun Evans' rendering of the youthful Morse in Endeavour. But Redcap is interesting beyong the presence of Thaw, because so many good actors of the period appeared in it. This clip features the great Leonard Rossiter and Mike Pratt, but in just this episode you could also have ...
I went to Loughborough today to have a look at the preserved Great Central line. Work on reconstructing the bridge over the Midland main line is underway. This will eventually connect two preserved sections of the Great Central, creating an 18-mile length of preserved rail. The shortest route from Loughborough station to the the Great Central's preserved Loughborough Central lies along the canal towpath. Walking that way today I met this heron. Always solitary and a little disreputable, I feel sorry for these birds.
This chap is an actual Horse Lollipopman. He stands by the road at Newbury Racecourse on Race Days, and when a horse needs to cross the road, he stands out into the road with his "Stop" sign and lets the horse cross the road. Pretty unique, eh?
Available to listen to for the next four days, Radio 2 have surpassed themselves with this superb documentary called "The Summer of I feel love". Introduced by Paul Sexton, the show includes interviews with Giorgio Moroder and (Englishman) Peter Belotti, who co-produced the ground-breaking track. The documentary is presented in a wonderful way, blending various ... Continue reading Great programme about Donna Summer's "I feel love"
Embed from Getty Images This week Vince Cable marked the 50th Anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality with an article in Pink News. He remembers the social context in which the changes happened. The period that saw the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 left a powerful impression on me. It was around this time that I returned to the UK from Kenya with my now late wife, Olympia. She was Indian, and we arrived in a Britain snarling with the racism of Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech. Intolerance was not merely tolerated by the ...
According to Goodreads, 5 stars mean I found this book "Amazing"... in reality my feelings are much more mixed. I've been a fan of Atwood for years, but have somehow only read a handful of her works and I was prompted into reading The Handmaid's Tale ahead of watching the TV series which I've been recording. It *is* in so many regards an amazing book - but it is, in many many places, a deeply uncomfortable read. Some of that is in the power of what is unwritten - the brutality of the salvagings is hinted at, but these showcase ...
It is dangerous for politicians to make pledges during an election campaign. I'm sure you all know what I am talking about – Stephen Tall's pledge to run naked down Whitehall. And then there was Vince Cable's hat. But Norman Lamb rashly said he would join a zumba class if he won his seat in North Norfolk, which, of course, he did. I'm quite nervous about this Zumba commitment – but I will stick to it – will be good fun! https://t.co/UmtAyqKERH — Norman Lamb (@normanlamb) June 12, 2017 But he did it! North Norfolk MP @normanlamb fulfils election pledge ...
It was good to see Sadiq Khan suggesting today that Brexit could be stopped following another public vote — a situation the Liberal Democrats and Greens favour. As Mayor of London, he has the largest political mandate of any politician in Britain and he understands just how devastating Brexit could be for the capital, not [...]
Scientists and politicians frequently face the same problems when it comes to getting information over to the public.
Embed from Getty Images In terms of our national campaign, the 2017 election was a failure. Yes, we increased our number of MPs, but this was not because of a coherent and appealing overall message, it was because of 12 very hard fought local campaigns, and good strategic pooling of resources into target seats. The leadership of the Party assumed that the main dividing line among the electorate would be Remainers vs Leavers, and so led with our vehement opposition to Brexit, but this did not resonate. Corbyn's luke-warm-at-best Remain credentials did not put people off, and this is probably ...
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Sat 29th
11:29
Maghull – Youth Coffee Bar gone, CAB gone, retired bowlers given huge price hike, long establi...
Firstly a confession, I was a member of Maghull Town Council from 1985 to 2015 and I helped get Maghull's unique Youth Coffee Bar and CAB facility set up in the 1990's so I may be a little biased here. Since Labour took over Maghull Town Council in 2011 a lot has changed and much of it I have scratched my head about wondering what the motivation has been. Do we really want a band stand on KGV Park? Certainly I have never heard an outcry for one yet the Council seem to see it as a priority issue. Was ...
I'm saddened to report that Whinnie, the little goat kid born at the end of April which we were hand-raising, had to be put to sleep recently. He had been too weak to leave with his mother, hence the reason for becoming surrogate mother for him. We were amazed he had lived so long and during his 10 weeks, he had been adopted by the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside as their mascot. He
Fri, 12:35: Deep Roy scared the heck out of me when I was 9, as Mr Sin in Talons of Weng Chiang. Nice to meet him for real! https://t.co/0QGr5A2Itz Fri, 12:46: RT @0tralala: @nwbrux Well envious. Deep Roy is cool. Fri, 12:56: Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon https://t.co/tvOCx6jBaF Extraordinary. Sat, 09:46: RT @PeterCNStewart: (Posthumous) catalogue of Gandharan sculptures in Chandigarh must be one of few academic books to be comprehensively tr...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 28-07-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 28-07-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Why religious people 'cling' to beliefs even when contradicted by evidence 'A bit of me is dying. But I can't stay': the EU nationals exiting Britain This is so desperately, desperately sad. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
If you live on Merseyside, support Liverpool Football Club or just have a passing interest in football the Sun is very much a media source that is absolutely unwelcome. Indeed, Council after Council across the region has passed resolutions against the Sun and frankly no one in the world of politics can claim not to know what it is all about. Yet despite this history we can see a photo, from 2015, on the internet which allegedly shows Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn with a copy of the Sun newspaper. Bearing in mind that virtually all the Councils that have condemned ...
If UKIP as a political party was not already a busted flush, its surviving members seem intent on making it so within a very short period of time. The Guardian reports that one of the frontrunners for the Ukip leadership is being assisted in her campaign by a far-right former BNP member. They say that Jack Buckby, who previously stood for parliament for another extremist group that campaigns openly against Islam, has been helping the campaign of Anne Marie Waters, who is standing for the latter's leadership on a predominantly anti-Islam platform. He is a former BNP member who is ...
I recently highlighted the superb job the City Council has made of Seabraes planting again this year. Another real credit to the Neighbourhood Services Department is the lovely display at Victoria Park. The style of planting has been altered to make it less labour-intensive but the quality has definitely been maintained :
"DUP vows to block Dublin bid to make Irish Sea post-Brexit border with UK" shouted a Daily Telegraph headline yesterday, above a story about how the Irish government thinks a seamless border between north and south will be impossible – because it will be, and that has always been obvious to any objective viewer – and how Leo Varadkar has stirred the pot by suggesting that the customs border be moved to the Irish Sea. This has, shall we say, not gone down well with the DUP. "We would be strongly opposed to the idea that you would create a ...
