Earlier this month I gave a talk to the Sunniside History Society about locations in the area which have a link to the 2nd World War. Included in the talk was a section about Ravensworth Castle in Gateshead. It wasn't not a real castle. Instead, it was a stately home built in the later Victorian period. By the later 1930s it was empty and suffering from mining subsidence. Lord Ravensworth
Hooray! I recently delivered my last patch but one for the current Focus on Sunniside. What is left to do is one very small bundle of 15 for Ravensworth. This is a large country estate so in terms of walking, it is the biggest patch. In terms of actual numbers to be delivered, it is the smallest. I will deliver the patch later this week.Lead story in the Focus is the need to restore Kindred
An Englishman's Castle was a three-part BBC drama that starred Kenneth More and was screened in 1978. It was set in an alternate 1978 where Britain had been conquered by Nazi Germany. I don't remember it from the time and have long wanted to watch it. The other day I found all three parts on YouTube, namely: part 1 part 2part 3 If you want a blow-by-blow account, then Archive TV Musings is the site for you. Here I offer some more random thoughts. To begin, I have a Kenneth More problem: I don't like him when he plays the ...
I'm late to the party on last week's Guardian interview with Zach Polanski, but I've still decided to come. Reading it today, I find it's not the first time the Guardian has allowed the politician to present a carefully edited version of his past without challenge. Zoe Williams1 tells us that Polanksi: started by joining the Lib Dems, and standing as a councillor in north London in 2016. "That was for one very clear reason," he says. "Proportional representation - it's always been really important to me." He joined the Greens the following year... But Polanski didn't stand in a ...
We live in strange political times. Polarised politics, suffocating social media, a faltering economy. People want certainty in an age of ever swifter geopolitical change. Some fall for the easy answers of the hard Right and the uncompromising Left. Where does that leave the moderate Centre? Sat on the fence? Stuck in the middle of the road, primed to become roadkill? Never prepared to give an opinion or pick a side? Always waiting to see which way the wind blows before choosing a direction of travel? That is certainly how some see us. Are they wrong? Are we just the ...
We have reached a key moment in British politics. The recent local election results show that the two party system is well and truly broken. Of course we have been claiming that for many years, but the scale of the losses for the two main parties – both at the same time – were, according to John Curtice, unprecedented for local elections. A lot of that was down to big Liberal Democrat gains, but most of that was down to the anti-liberal Reform UK party, who are now threatening to destroy the Tory party and to take away Labour's working ...
The Liberal Democrats have always been at their best when they're brave - when we shout about things we believe in, even if they go against the current trend. Things that can tap into a seam of public opinion that is sympathetic but whose members have been wondering whether they are the only ones to think what they're thinking. At the end of a week that has seen Keir Starmer do his best Enoch Powell impersonation with his 'island of strangers' speech, we have an opportunity - nay, a responsibility - to stand up for immigrants to the UK. This ...
Fresh from a canal holiday made difficult by unannounced closures, Peter Chambers looks at the many challenges facing the Canal & River Trust. The British have been using waterways for a long time: we are told that the canal called the Fossdyke was created by the Romans. Things started to get busier as entrepreneurs such as the Duke of Bridgewater and Josiah Wedgewood raised capital for specific ventures that would pay for something that by-passed the toll roads of the day - iron mining and pottery in their cases. This was the start of the first Industrial Revolution in the ...
Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not "dragged back" by Badenoch and Farage £5bn from Youth Mobility Scheme would give Government "nowhere to hide" on winter fuel payment, say Lib Dems Davey on care visas: 'Don't leave our loved ones in the lurch' 2024 worst on record for ambulance equipment faults Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not "dragged back" by Badenoch and Farage Ahead of the UK-EU Summit, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has urged the Prime Minister to be "bold and ambitious for our country" and ignore "dinosaurs fighting old battles" in ...
It's tempting for consultants to think that we have all the answers. Indeed, it's tempting for our clients to think that we have all the answers, too. But we don't just rock up and give everyone the right answers. We don't necessarily even have the right answers. What we do have, though, is the right questions. And our success as consultants is determined by our ability to ask these questions and to listen carefully to the answers. I call it slow consulting. Slow consulting has three components: Listen. Think. Act. Listen is about paying attention to what is going on ...
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) tends to be called MND (Motor Neuron Disease) in the UK. It is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease because he was a famous baseball player whose career was ended when he died of ALS in his 30s. There are perhaps two main versions of ALS Familial (or inherited) and Sporadic which does not appear to be inherited. MND is perhaps a broader category which includes
Mon 19th
07:30
Welcome to my day: 19 May 2025 - Keir, you can only take progressive voters for granted if they don'...
Watching the Starmer administration thrash about as it attempts to put Reform "back in their box" has been an increasingly unedifying experience over the past few weeks. And yes, it's probably time to treat them like any other opponent now that they're in a position of power in a number of county councils, but apeing them on immigration policy isn't exactly doing that, is it? I am not naive, however. Many Reform voters (in fairness, most voters) pay little attention to the day to day of modern politics. They don't care who runs local services unless things go wrong, have ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 19 MAY 2025 Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed until August 2025 for construction works. Douglas Street (Blinshall Street to Brown Street) - temporary traffic lights until August 2025 for construction works. Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until August 2025 for construction works. Scottish and Southern Energy Networks Elmwood Cable Renewal Scheme - temporary traffic lights and road closure from Tuesday 4 March for 19 weeks insofar as it affects the West End Ward : Ancrum ...
The BBC reports that care sector bosses have warned that care homes could be forced to close over proposed immigration law changes. The warning comes after a new UK government white paper proposed care workers on sponsored visas would need to remain in the UK for 10 years before gaining the right to live and work here indefinitely - double the current requirement of five years: According to Social Care Cymru, around 88,000 people work in Wales' care sector, with approximately 15% to 20% coming from overseas. Oakville Care Homes, which operates four homes across south Wales, employs more than ...
