I was convinced I had made this my Trivial Fact of the Day years ago, but I hadn't. So now I have. Ferry and Kendall both attended Washington Grammar School in County Durham. The photo above, borrowed off of the internet, shows them together in the school's under-13 side in 1957/8. Ferry, who is under the left-hand arrow, played in goal. Howard Kendall, a midfielder, played for Preston North End in an FA Cup final when he was 17 and then joined Everton, where he won a Championship medal. He later returned to the club as manager, winning two league ...
Embed from Getty ImagesAthletics Weekly marked the passing of the former Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell with a short article on his career as a sprinter: Despite being best known as a former Liberal Democrat leader, Campbell held the British 100m record in the 1960s. Menzies "Ming" Campbell, the Scottish sprinter who ran at the 1964 Olympics and held the UK 100m record with 10.2 before a successful career as a politician, has died aged 84. Campbell was dubbed the "Flying Scotsman" and occasionally "the fastest white man on the planet" and ran for Britain in the 1964 Olympics in ...
Mandatory ID cards are the latest idea to come out of the Labour brains trust, something so vital that it wasn't actually in the manifesto they published just over a year ago. It does seem that the Starmer administration now resembles a rabbit caught in the Reform UK headlights or, perhaps worse, a pointer towards another ultimately authoritarian Labour government. I have little in the way of fundamental problems with the concept of a Government-backed ID card. As a non-driver, having a widely recognised form of ID other than my passport, one I can carry with me without effort, could ...
As I have proceeded through life two government numbers have been constantly with me for me to use to conduct my relationship with the Government. The first I have had since birth and is my health service identifier. This enables me to access the services that I have needed and might need. That is not a number that I recall but is on every communication from my GP which fortunately has been by far my main use of the NHS. If I were to change GPs now, I would have to produce that detail to show my entitlement to services. ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Opinium 17% (nc) 22% (nc) 14% (+2) 7% (-3) 32% (+1) -10% (vs Ref) 24-26/9 GB Find Out Now ...
Donald Trump doesn't much like the United Nations. That was obvious from his General Assembly speech this week. He is not alone. Most diplomats who have worked with the UN have found it overly political, bureaucratic and inefficient. But at the same time they acknowledge that dissolution of the United Nations would be a catastrophe. American withdrawal would be the same because Washington supplies 22 percent of the UN budget as well as its New York home. The latter, at the moment appears possible. Or, if not withdrawal, rendering the UN irrelevant and ineffectual by not paying its dues and ...
Based in Kingston, Judy Ann MacMillan is one of Jamaica's most celebrated painters. Well-known for her acutely observed portraits, landscapes and still life paintings, she exhibits locally and internationally and in 2007 was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Caribbean Foundation for the Arts, for her outstanding contribution in the field of art. In 1962 Judy travelled to Scotland to study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. Her time in the city would have a significant impact on her subsequent career - she later wrote: "Dundee formed me and I am forever grateful for its ...
This week's local history post takes us just outside Swansea to the lovely Margam Park, home of the Talbot family, after whom Port Talbot was named. Situated near the lovely Orangery is Margam Castle which, as can be seen in the photograph, is not so much a castle as mansion. The Margam Park website tells us that the 19th Century Tudor Gothic Mansion was designed by the architect Thomas Hopper for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. It was built in 1830 - 40 at a cost of £50,000 using sandstone from nearby Pyle quarry. Listed Grade I as a mansion of ...
