If an American child dreamed of being a star, they would run away to Hollywood. In the Britain of 1958, children had to make do with Ealing. Here's a story from the Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer for 17 January of that year that came up when I was searching for something else: The boy who ran away to be a film star His adventure proves to be far from glamorous Twelve years old Dennis Mallard, who appears very briefly in the new Harry Secombe film "Davy," thought his film career was not developing fast enough. He ran away from ...
In his second mock "Annual Awards" in his "Strike" newsletter commentator Ian Dunt names "Unholy" as Podcast of the year and comments on the . . ." grotesque trend" in the UK's reporting of the Israel Palestine conflict in that: "... Israeli lives are personalised. They are made real. But Palestinian lives are anonymised, turned into rubble along with their homes." Equally of note to me is the disproportionate quantity of time and space devoted to the suffering of Israelis compared to that of the Palestinians. Last week, after the shooting on Bondi Beach in Australia, in which 15 people ...
Here's a holiday treat: a South Bank Show documentary from 1980 that follows Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince as they rehearse the first West End production of Sweeney Todd. It had opened on Broadway the year before. Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovat are Denis Quilley and Sheila Hancock - look out for wine expert Oz Clarke and Michael Staniforth (Timothy Claypole from Rentaghost) in supporting roles.
I was away from home last weekend. Sadly, it was for another family funeral. This time it was David's aunt Mollie who passed away. The funeral was near Evesham, close to Mollie's smallholding. Getting there on time was the big challenge of the day. A train journey last Friday that started at 8.30am in Newcastle got us to Evesham spot on time, despite having to catch two connections. And then the
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 Find Out Now 18% (nc) 14% (nc) 12% (+1) 17% (nc) 30% (-3) -16% (4th, vs Ref) 24/12 GB ...
Labour's capitulation this week- raising the Agricultural Property Relief threshold from £1 million to £2.5 million after fourteen months of pressure – reveals the weakness of defending arbitrary numbers rather than principles. This should matter to Liberal Democrats. We've opposed Labour's reforms without offering an alternative. "Scrap the tax" isn't liberal – it's opposing for opposition's sake. We're ceding ground to Labour's incoherent incrementalism and Conservative privilege defence. The opportunity Labour has created Labour doesn't know what problem they're solving. The threshold they inherited was unlimited. They proposed £1 million. Now it's £2.5 million. They claim to protect "ordinary family ...
[IMG: Thank You spelt out on letter tiles] Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay. As we come to the end of the year it's a good time to give thanks once again to two folk who are a source of much of the information about council by-elections and councillors switching parties which feature in my own output: the Election Maps UK Bluesky account and the Open Council Data website. If you've enjoyed my coverage of by-elections or Liberal Democrat Newswire, you too have been indirectly dependent on them both. So why not give them a little thank you this Christmas with ...
If you're coming to Swansea, then you have to visit the indoor market. Situated between Whitewalls, Union Street, Oxford Street and the Quadrant shopping centre, it is the best place to go for cockles, laverbread, fresh vegetables, fish and meat, as well as many other products, including an electrical goods store that can give advice and find you anything you need. I make a point nowadays of visiting markets whenever I go to a new place. I grew up revelling in the delightful chaos and colour of Birkenhead market, only to see it now relocated and constrained within sterile, shuttered ...
