Click on the still of Stokesay Castle above to view a film of Bridgnorth Camera Club's 1960 treasure hunt on the BFI's Britain on Film site.
"We can often make flippant and incorrect assumptions of the standards of previous times, especially when we are seeking to retrospectively justify failures. but my own experiences from that time tell me something different." Andrew Page does not buy the arguments of David Steel's defenders. Stephen Unwin explores how some of the most civilised and intelligent thinkers have supported eugenics - one of the most dark and barbaric philosophies in modern history. University College London has been accused of disregarding Jeremy Bentham's final wishes, reports Ruchira Sharma. Chiara Betti looks at the life of Agnes Baden Powell, artist and founder ...
Wed 26th
20:22
Storm Dennis: Criticism of councillors and town council as it discussed the flood on Monday
Most members of Ludlow Town Council attended the extraordinary meeting of Ludlow Town Council on Monday evening. Viv Parry was very critical of other councillors for not turning out to help on Sunday 16 February. Glen Ginger took a different view and said only trained people should help in an emergency. But councillors overall though the town council could do more, including completing its emergency plan, work on which seems to have stalled. There was agreement that there could be improvements to flood defences on Temeside. I told the meeting we need to do work on the Lower Corve also. ...
The BBC reports: Former Liberal Democrat leader (sic – he was leader of the Liberal Party) David Steel has quit the party and the Lords after an inquiry said he "turned a blind eye" to claims of child abuse. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse criticised political groups for not acting on complaints. It accused Lord Steel of an "abdication of responsibility" over accusations against the late MP Cyril Smith. Lord Steel said he was quitting because he wanted to avoid "distress" for his family and "turmoil" for his party. The former MP and MSP also said he was ...
Press Briefing: Johnson plan tears through UK business – Davey Speaking ahead of the UK Government releasing its negotiating position in Brexit trade deal talks with the EU, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: "Never before has a country entered trade negotiations with the aim of making trade more difficult and more expensive. Yet Boris Johnson doesn't seem to care that he's gambling with other people's jobs and businesses. This is a scorched earth policy. "The lack of consultation with businesses, civil society and Parliament shows the sheer arrogance of this Tory Government. This is a trade ...
This is the last Wednesday roundup for a few years; because of the leap year I'm moving to Thursdays from next week. Current The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of Scandinavia's Utopia, by Michael Booth Small Island, by Andrea Levy The Golden Fleece, by Robert Graves Last books finished Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Rosewater Insurrection, by Tade Thompson The Wicked + The Divine vol 9: Okay, by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Matthew Wilson & Clayton Cowles Next books Babayaga, by Toby Barlow Red Notice, by Bill Browder
Writing in a public Facebook post, Shaun Roberts has announced his departure as the party's Director of Campaigns & Elections: I wanted you to be among the first to know about a decision I've made to resign as Director of Campaigns & Elections. Working at the Liberal Democrats is a tremendous privilege but the time comes for everyone at some stage to consider what they want to do next. We've had some tough times and also some truly fantastic moments over these last few years - from winning by-elections in Richmond Park and Brecon & Radnorshire to delaying Brexit several ...
House of Lords reform has been a cornerstone liberal democrat policy since I can remember and has been a hot topic in the country for the last year. Whether it's the issues of unelected hereditary peers, promoting political cronies, or the many expense scandals. All parties now agree that if you had to design a second house today, you wouldn't choose the one we have now. So if you could design the second house from scratch, what would it look like? Well, I'm going to have some fun and describe how I think it should be —my own House of ...
What has become received wisdom is that modern politics in the West is too removed from people and their every day concerns. That parties have become too remote. While there is truth in this, the solutions all parties have taken on board to combat this problem have been the wrong ones in reaction to this issue and have even made things worse. While all parties have made the mistake I am about to lay out, the parties of the Right have done it way less and it has directly benefited them at the ballot box. The way parties have tried ...
I have met few people whom I would classify as a genius, but David Hockney is certainly one of them. Moreover, he was immensely helpful and kind to me when I was researching my biography of Christopher Isherwood in the mid-1970s. They were close in California (location of "The Bigger Splash" and other iconic Hockney [...]
Tue, 12:56: Do you remember LiveJournal? It was part of my teenage identity. https://t.co/iBvkmgzG5W Ah yes. I actually still u... https://t.co/oEsolkETGp Tue, 16:05: Anti-Semitic carnival polarizes Belgian politics https://t.co/ITKGP65Fs5 This is appalling. Another reason why I could never vote for N-VA. Tue, 17:43: A Major Step Toward Ending South Sudan's Civil War: https://t.co/yT6UKj3BsN @CrisisGroup Tue, 20:21: RT @davidallengreen: What is the point of Brexit commentary? Sisyphus every day rolled a boulder uphill, for it to fall back each time Pr... Tue, 20:48: RT @OzKaterji: I think sometimes we as a nation forget that the fourth season of Celebrity Big Brother ...
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is consulting about its "Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan". This document suggests lots of local minor improvements, but in our area it doesn't contain anything that resembles a strategy. The walking part is mainly about how people get from one shopping area to another, from Chipping Sodbury to Yate Shopping Centre and then along Station Road. The cycling section hasn't considered any of the major issues that local cyclists want, like the link to the Bristol to Bath Railway Path and improvements to the Goose Green Cycleway. We don't know about any ...
Following the January Lydiate Parish Council meeting this is the maintenance schedule for Kenyons Park:- Click on the graphic above to enlarge it for reading This photo is from April 2012 when new play equipment was being installed at Kenyons Park
Nobody is saying that the new Chancellor of the Exchequer is toxic, after all even us political geeks can barely remember his name, but it might not have been a good idea to alienate a well-known household brand in the first few days of his tenure, even if he does represent a Yorkshire constituency. Of course the first thing that sprung to my mind when I saw this picture was a question: he does know that Yorkshire tea is not grown in Yorkshire, doesn't he? However, others saw it differently and the poor handler of the brand's twitter account was ...
The great strategist B H Lidell Hart wrote: "The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old one out." We can take from this many of the problems facing our party today. Following a decade of relative failure, we face an existential crisis and are in dire need of a rethink. Many, including me, have written here in recent months about specific failings we've made, things we've overlooked or miscalculations that have occurred. But I think that much about how we operate as a party is fundamentally flawed – because we ...
