David Southwell once gave my name to the chairman of the Blaxwich Chamber of Commerce who tired to assassinate Dr Beeching in 1965, but the first railway closures took place 50 years before that. Here is P. Howard Anderson writing of the Great Northern lines in High Leicestershire in his Forgotten Railways of the East Midlands: The GNR based its passenger operations on Leicester Belgrave Road station where for some years there were daily departures for Grantham, Newark and Peterborough. The last of these three services was short lived however. It had commenced on 2 July 1883 with four trains ...
This post is part of the Rule, Britannia Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts. The Ealing ApocryphaThe Ealing comedies are among the most celebrated British films, though only a limited number of them have been admitted to the canon. That canon consists of Hue and Cry, Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore!, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, The Titfield Thunderbolt and The Ladykillers. Perhaps that is being kind to Hue and Cry, which is a tremendous film but not as well known as the others. It is certainly kind to The ...
Are you sick of hearing of the shortcomings of Northern Fail because I am. Here's the latest bit of bad news about the crisis riven provider of trains (sorry rail replacement buses) for northern England. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45069160 MP's like Tim Farron and Lisa Nandy have already called for Northern to be stripped of the right to continue to run the Northern franchise but whilst the Dept. for Transport and Chris Grayling ignore such pleas the situation keeps getting worse. Yes the present situation is seemingly brought about by train drivers refusing to work on their rest days but why on earth ...
Second frame of third page of each volume: Louis VII: Hahaha, the interest of France! Henry: Isn't that right, darling? Eleanor: Don't you take credit for that too! Henry: Hahaha! One by one, the last supporters of the House of Blois have surrendered their castles and paid me their tribute... Conclusion to the six-part graphic novel biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, my favourite medieval character. Volume 5 deals with the first years of Eleanor's second marriage to the future King Henry II of England. Volume 6 deals with the last half century of her life, telescoping five decades into 55 ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: These prohibitions are not aimed at religion itself, but at Roman Catholicism, which is widely considered as unfit for purpose. In fact, society is becoming more religious, not less. Naturally, the population occupies a spectrum of religious positions, but if you talk to those at the more spiritual end, you will see that they wish to commune with God more directly, without the distractions of so many statues, images and decorations, and certainly without the money-making and political interventions of the papacy. Yes, there is a secular element to the nationalism of the Church of ...
Sat 4th
15:44
Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain's first investigative journalist
William Thomas Stead was not only Britain's first investigative journalist, he also epitomised the profession's strengths and dark side within his own career.
There are definite advantages to living near Edinburgh and working in the city, one of them being an overload of culture or what passes for it during August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is eclectic and bold, pushing just about every type of boundary you can imagine.I haven't quite got over meeting walking genitalia on George IV Bridge a few years ago. The Fringe kicked off yesterday and I took in my first show which was part of the annual Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas series. Twice a day until 26th August, academics will present an idea and lead a discussion about ...
Those lazy days of Summer are upon us. I hope that all of you have the chance to take a break and recharge your batteries before the fight against Brexit enters its most intense phase. I'm heading away for some highland bliss in the last two weeks of August, so everyone's on notice not to do anything too exciting during that time. I get too little time to read books for pure pleasure these days so I am really looking forward to putting my feet up and getting through some of my massive "must read' pile. So far this Summer, ...
Terrorists, like revolutionaries, tend to come not from the impoverished masses but from the middle class, and usually have an above-average level of education. This was the shock central finding of Alan B. Krueger's What Makes a Terrorist when it was published a decade ago, thus challenging the widely-held assumption that poverty is the root cause of [...]
At one of my first Lib Dem conferences I signed up to the Liberal Democrat friends of Palestine. They seemed focused on peace in the Middle East, a two state solution and challenging the Israeli government on the issue of Palestinian human rights. Since then of course, we've had the interventions from David Ward, the former MP for Bradford East, whose unhelpful comments focused on Jews rather than the State of Israel. I accepted that he was probably not the best representative of the LDfP. There is much in the news about anti-Semitism at present - and rightly so. It ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @alexvtunzelmann: I don't know, but the gender politics of their names and the lifelong infantilisation they imply are truly astonishing... Fri, 16:05: An ambitious partnership with the UK after Brexit https://t.co/3ielgtHK0Q Michel Barnier lays out the agenda. Fri, 16:26: Up Jim River, by Michael F. Flynn https://t.co/dA4sYfrroU Fri, 19:34: The Aeneid, by Virgil, translated by Dryden, Fagles and Heaney https://t.co/EZzePEOswP Sat, 09:44: RT @adampayne26: EU source on whether May can persuade Macron to break from the Commission on Brexit: "I don't believe Macron is going to k... Sat, 10:45: Peter Robinson: Some refuse to talk about the ...
From the last paragraph of the Preamble to our Constitution: Our responsibility for justice and liberty cannot be confined by national boundaries; we are committed to fight poverty, oppression, hunger, ignorance, disease and aggression wherever they occur and to promote the free movement of ideas, people, goods and services. Setting aside national sovereignty when necessary, we will work with other countries towards an equitable and peaceful international order and a durable system of common security. That's a brilliant, positive statement of who we are and what we are against. It's a very clear statement in favour of free movement of ...
The proposed Lib Dem immigration policy is simply not fit for purpose. I knew this as soon as I saw the consultation questions, which were all on the theme of "immigration: threat or menace?" and "how much should we punish ... Continue reading →
It's a rather odd feeling to be writing up one of these meeting round-ups when the media is reporting (inaccurately) on the things you've been discussing! Still, here we are. FPDC met on 24th July and started by getting through the business we had deferred from our last meeting. We noted some excellent new developments from the Diversity team in HQ with how they're monitoring statistics and doing more to solicit ideas and feedback. Small changes, but the impact may be huge. We also approved a paper from Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, the Chair of the Diversity Subcommittee, to set some new ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of Scottish water manhole repair works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Glamis Drive (from Hazel Drive to Hillside Road), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 6 August 2018 for 1 day. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Hazel Drive / Glamis Terrace / Glamis Road. For further information contact 433082. Executive Director of ...
The former Budgens Store on Upper Galdeford has been for sale for several months. In the last couple of days, it has been boarded up with OSB sheets. The contractors tell me there are no plans to paint the boarding. It is an utter eyesore and makes this part for the town centre look like a rundown inner city district. The boarding is also an open invitation to fly-posting and graffiti. If it is to remain boarded up, it should be painted as a giant mural. I have contacted the property agents, Sanderson Weatherall to find out what their plans ...
