Good news this week: the Oxford Preservation Trust has raised £900,000 to preserve the city's Rowley Road railway swing bridge. You can see the bridge in action in the video above, which was shot in the 1970s, while Derelecition in the Shires explains its genesis and history: Oxford used to have two railway stations side-by-side, the GWR station served London, Birmingham and the Cotswolds while the neighbouring Rewley Road LMS station served Bicester, Bletchley, Bedford and Cambridge. Just north of both stations is the navigable link between the Thames and the Oxford Canal, the picturesquely named Sheepwash Channel. Oxford Rewley ...
One of the minor triumphs of the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse has been the light it has cast on the Liberal Party in its last days. On 13 March 2019 Sal Brinton, Des Wilson and David Steel all gave evidence on those parties' response to allegations of sexual abuse against Cyril Smith. Steel's evidence was strongly criticised in the inquiry's resultant report, but it is Des Wilson's evidence that interests me here. As younger readers may not have heard of him, here's how Wikipedia describes his involvement with the parties: In many ways an anti-establishment radical, he joined ...
After the frightening implications of yesterday's entry it is a relief to see Lord Bonkers returning to what he does best: giving hospitality and passing on the fruits of his experience to a new generation. Saturday It has long been my custom to invite new leaders of our party to stay at the Hall so I can measure the cut of their jibs and impart a little of the wisdom I have gained over the course of a long career in public service. The latest in this long line of guests is, of course, Ed Davey. We pass a sociable ...
This week the East Lothian Party held our AGM via Zoom and even before the event we knew we had a problem. The Convenor, me as Vice Convenor, our Treasurer and our Secretary had given notice that we were not prepared to stand again. The three long time office bearers felt they had done their bit but two of them also shared my disillusionment, as a relatively new member, with the policies, direction and leadership of the Scottish Party. We were aware that with these resignations the East Lothian Party would fold, so I wrote to our membership of over ...
Let me tell you about the glorious and lost Doctor Who story, The Daleks' Master Plan. Broadcast in 12 weekly episodes in the winter of 1965-66, with a prequel episode five weeks earlier, it was a peak of ambition for the black and white era of the programme. Due to the BBC's failure to realise that its own product was of future value, it was one of the first stories to be purged from the archives, as early as 1967-9. Two episodes were retrieved from a Mormon temple in London in 1983, in circumstances that remain unclear. A third turned ...
Sat 21st
12:22
Shropshire Council to make most car parks free after 11am from 3 December to 17 January
This is welcome. Shropshire Council has announced that most car parks will be free over Christmas and the New Year. This will include Castle Street, Galdeford and Smithfield car parks in Ludlow. Free parking will be from 11am each day until 8am the next morning. This move aims to attract more visitors into Shropshire's towns after the second lockdown ends on 2 December. This is a crucial time for independent traders who have had a tough year. Similarly, pubs, cafes and restaurants desperately need a boost before towns like ours enter the quiet season between New Year and Easter. We ...
Sat 21st
11:59
How bullying casts a long shadow...a post updated with reflections on Priti Patel and Dominic Cummin...
It is ten years since I first wrote this, and I share it every year during Anti-Bullying Week. I could write something else, but it took some emotional energy to write the first time and I'm not really up for putting myself through that again. Let's not put up with anyone being treated like this, whether at school, in the workplace or within politics. It's important that anyone in any sort of leadership role in any organisation has the skills to recognise and intervene to stop bullying and support those affected by it. It casts a very long shadow and ...
Sat 21st
11:11Boris Johnson accelerates drive to electric vehicles as Ludlow Town Council consults on street charg...
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson announced his ten point plan for a green industrial revolution. While not as great as he made it out to be, especially as only £4 billion of the £12 billion pledged is new money, it was nevertheless a welcome move from a government that had pushed roads to the top of its transport agenda. The prime minister's ten point plan seeks to increase power from offshore wind; increase low carbon hydrogen power; new nuclear power; green public transport, cycling and walking; zero emission jets (really?) and green ships. The plans also seek to accelerate the shift ...
Fri, 12:21: RT @tconnellyRTE: New: Member states have been told by the European Commission that 95pc of the EU-UK future relationship treaty has been c... Fri, 14:12: RT @pritipatel: Resorting to bullying & intimidation is not the type of the leadership or behaviour anyone should sanction or endorse. In a... Fri, 15:16: Two books about Cyprus: 30 Hot Days, by Mehmet Ali Birand, and Glafkos Clerides, by Niyazi Kızılyürek Birand is endorsed by Archbishop Makarios & Rauf Denktash; Kızılyürek is endorsed by Birand! #nwbooks https://t.co/a6mGUT2XfA https://t.co/ihpkQmn0Af https://t.co/WJeUImV9wL https://t.co/hhHqfh2IrH Fri, 16:05: No, judges don't overturn elections because of isolated irregularities. https://t.co/LFIBB5IRLw ...
The Fulham West by-election 1938 was won for Labour by Edith Summerskill, taking the seat from the Conservatives by 52%-48% in the face of widespread predictions by pundits that the Tories would hold on. Why mention this?
Every morning I walk to the shop to get my paper, and every morning I find myself dodging dog shit and the plague of disposable masks that has hit every community in the UK. It is a blight that cannot be allowed to continue. In this regard I agree with Joanna Whitehead in the Independent, who references a study published in Environmental Science and Technology journal, which estimated 194 billion disposable masks and gloves are being used globally every month as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. She says that for medical staff on the frontline, single-use makes sense as ...
It seems fitting that this year on 21 November we celebrate #AskHerToStand Day at the same time as Kamala Harris makes history as the first female Vice President elect in the USA. Whilst the world and our lives have changed so dramatically since our own Parliamentary Election 12 months ago, for me the memories are still very fresh (or is it raw?) as I remember my experience as a first-time candidate. Deciding to stand wasn't an easy decision – not only was I standing for election for the first time in the middle of a very wet, cold winter, but ...
i) births and deaths 21 November 1924: birth of Malcolm Hulke, co-author of The Faceless Ones, The War Games and (uncredited) The Ambassadors of Death, sole author of Doctor Who and the Silurians, Colony in Space, The Sea Devils, Frontier in Space, and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and writer of seven novelisations (DW&t Cave-Monsters, DW&t Doomsday Weapon, DW&t Sea Devils, DW&t Green Death, DW&t Dinosaur Invasion, DW&t Space War and DW&t War Games) and co-writer of The Making of Doctor Who. See in particular this long and fascinating blog post: Doctor Who and the Communist: the work and politics of ...
Movie Screening and Discussion - Kiss the Ground Thursday 26th November at 6pm Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on a new, old approach to farming called "regenerative agriculture" that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world. The movie screening will be followed by a discussion, details of how to watch the movie and join the discussion will be sent to you before to the screening time. Full details available here.
