Embed from Getty ImagesNorman Bowler played an early television hero of mine, the detective Harry Hawkins in Softly Softly: Taskforce. He later surprised me by turning up as Frank Tate, the star of the relaunched ITV soap Emmerdale. But back in the Fifties he was a member of the hard-drinking Soho set - you can see him remembering those years in an interview clip about the painter John Minton. This photograph shows her with his first wife Henrietta Moraes. They are standing in front of a painting of Bowler by Minton. Henrietta was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 ...
I remember Forever Green as gentle Sunday evening viewing. It starred the popular John Alderton and Pauline Collins, first seen in Upstairs Downstairs, as a couple who move to the country and come across all sorts of matters of environmental concern. The first series dates from 1989, which was a year of advance for Green politics in Britain. In the European Parliament elections, the Greens finished third, polling more than double the vote achieved by the Social & Liberal Democrats, as we then were. Maybe there was something in the air that year. I've watched only a couple of episodes ...
In November party members will be voting to elect our next Party President. At Lib Dem Voice we welcome posts from each of the candidates – one to launch their candidature (like this one) plus a maximum of one per week during the actual campaign. [IMG: Prue Bray sitting at desk with bundle of Focus leaflets] In my 30 years in the Lib Dems, there have been times of celebration and times when it felt as though I was one of a small band carrying the candle of Liberalism through the darkness. Our recent success is wonderful, but now we ...
At the lowest point in its history, during the early and mid 1950s, the Liberal Party almost ceased to exist. Its decline from one of the great governing parties of the nineteenth century was rapid; the last solely Liberal government came to an end in 1915, the last Liberal Prime Minister left office in 1922, and thereafter Liberals only participated in government during the National emergency coalitions of the 1930s and 1940s (until 2010). The party was reduced to contesting only just over 100 seats in the 1951 and 1955 elections, and fell to a mere five MPs in 1957. ...
"Most of the older children have been sent to so-called re-education camps scattered throughout Russia, where they are subjected to relentless propaganda aimed at erasing their Ukrainian identity. Younger children have been placed with Russian families, renamed, stripped of their language, and put on a path toward permanent adoption. These acts are not only morally reprehensible but also flagrant violations of international law."Irwin Redlener says Russia must return the children it has abducted from Ukraine. Peter Sagar reports that universities in the North of England are missing out on government funding to designed to help attract leading researchers to the ...
For better or for worse, money makes the world go round. It plays a greater role than probably anything else in determining what we do and how we live. Indeed, it influences to a significant degree the very course of our lives. But it is possible, for many of us, to achieve a state where our personal finances no longer dictate our life choices. This is known as financial independence. Financial independence is not something that I've invented. In fact, the financial independence movement is already fairly big in the USA and is gathering momentum in Europe, too. However, it ...
Mon 25th
09:55
Trains replace rail replacement buses in bank holiday weekend first from Birmingham New Street to In...
The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award, so we're celebrating the bank holiday with this cheerful shot of Birmingham New Street.
[IMG: Participants in Studio Europe group photo] As a long-standing campaigner within the Liberal Democrats and someone who has represented the Young Liberals internationally, I've often said that liberalism is not just about policy. It's about practice. That principle was reaffirmed at Studio Europe 2025, a gathering of young Liberal leaders from across the continent. It offered a valuable opportunity to reflect, collaborate, and sharpen the political tools we need to defend and renew democracy. For our Party, the program also highlighted something more profound: that meaningful European exchange is not just a cultural or diplomatic nicety. It is essential ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 25 AUGUST 2025 Blinshall Street (at Douglas Street) - road closure from Monday 25 August for 5 days for carriageway patching works. Fyffe Street (at Polepark Road) - road closure from Monday 25 August for 5 days for carriageway patching works. Forthcoming Roadworks Lochee Road (at Park Street) - temporary traffic lights from 9.00am on Monday 1 September to 6.00am on Tuesday 2 September for Scottish Water work. Riverside Avenue (near Wright Avenue) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 15 September for 2 ...
Yesterday's Observer raises questions about the amount of time MPs spend on their second jobs and how much they're paid. The issue arises after Nigel Farage, who tops the list of high-earning MPs, was paid £280,000 by Direct Bullion, his second-highest set of earnings after the £402,000 he has earned from his work for GB News. Direct Bullion, which was founded by Paul Withers, a former Royal Navy electronic warfare technician, encourages savers and investors to buy gold, and has been advertising on multiple channels. The paper says that an archived version of the company's website, dating from after the ...
