I've blogged before about the C.W. Allen and the phantom airships of 1909. It turns out that excitement was running so high that the Daily Express sent a special correspondent to Market Harborough. Here is part of his report. THREE EYE-WITNESSES "Express" Special Correspondent MARKET HARBOROUGH, Tuesday Night The mysterious airship with blazing headlights, which is reported to have been seen flying by night round Peterborough and across East Anglia, is being eagerly watched for again to-night. This strange aerocraft, with its suggestion of Mr. H. G. Wells'"War in the Air," has fired the imagination of the countryside, and the ...
In this episode of Lost Railway Towns, we travel to Coalville, Leicestershire - a town built on coal and railways. Once thriving when coal was king, Coalville was at the heart of Leicestershire's industrial revolution, its collieries and railway lines powering Britain's factories and furnaces. We uncover the story of Coalville's lost railways, the lines that once linked the town to Leicester, Ashby and beyond - and explore what remains today. Despite decades of talk about restoring passenger services, Coalville's station remains closed, a ghost of a once-busy transport hub. Joined by Steve, a lifelong resident of Coalville, we hear ...
HFM News reports that the Conservatives have seized control of Harborough District Council this evening: A motion to remove Liberal Democrat leader Phil Knowles and replace him with Tory group leader Simon Whelband was approved by 17 votes to 16 at an extraordinary council meeting tonight. Councillor Knowles had led a 16-strong coalition of Liberal Democrat, Labour, Green and independent councillors since 2023, although that number fell to 15 last week following the death of Labour councillor David Gair, who represented Lutterworth. As Phil Knowles has been saying in recent weeks, with investment in leisure centres and a community grant ...
There is something increasingly puzzling – and politically dangerous – about the way that Keir Starmer governs. It is not simply that things go wrong on his watch; every Prime Minister faces crisis, missteps, and the odd unforced error. It is that, time and again, Starmer appears oddly detached from the very events shaping his premiership. As if politics and government are things that happen to him, rather than things he actively directs. That sense of detachment is beginning to harden into something more troubling: a complete lack of curiosity. Effective leadership demands an almost relentless inquisitiveness – a desire ...
With the progation of Parliament approaching fast, it's something of a "hanging around" week for those on the red benches, waiting for the Commons to respond to Lords amendments, either by rejecting them outright, accepting them in part, or negotiating a settlement. You can never be entirely certain how it might all work out, and with the Government distracted by events elsewhere... Bills As it was last week, the week is dominated by "ping pong", starting on Monday with what is described as "consideration of Commons amendment and/or reasons" on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Children's Wellbeing and Schools ...
Governments don't just underestimate culture, media and sport, they depend on them, while systematically failing to sustain them. In the UK, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport stands as a formal acknowledgement that these sectors matter. In practice, it has become a symbol of something else: a gap between rhetoric and reality that has gone unchallenged for too long. That gap is indefensible. The creative industries contribute £145.8bn to the economy, around 5.5% of GDP and the wider DCMS sectors account for close to a tenth of all economic output. They employ millions, grow faster than the wider economy, ...
More reflections while still off-line. Peter Mandelson This afternoon (written Monday 20th April) Sir Keir Starmer is to explain to the House of Commons he Government's mis-handling of the appointment of Lord (I think he's still a lord) Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the US. Somewhere in Bagehot's famous account of the British Constitution he writes, in justification of the Monarchy, that the people "love a marriage more than a ministry." That is probably still true today. What is certainly true is that the British media much refer to titillate the public, and therefore promote their profits or viability, with ...
I appreciated Gareth McAleer's article in Lib Dem Voice on the economic power-up to be had from rejoining the EU, but while I support his desire to rejoin I think a different approach will be more effective. Economic arguments are always difficult and precision hard to achieve. As the saying goes, an economist is someone who if you ask for a telephone number gives you an estimate. It would be better to say that rejoining the single market will be of obvious economic benefit and leave others to fill in the billions. The alternative view, the Boris Johnson idea that ...
James Sherr, the former head of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, is a very distinguished analyst who understands the condition of Russia better than almost all the commentators on that subject. Over the years I have learned that his views of Russia ring more and more true. One idea that I find particularly compelling is the idea that Russia is in many ways an unreformed absolutist state, more similar to the time of the early Stuarts in Britain than to any modern political system. Furthermore, far from modernizing Russia, the Soviet period set back Russian political reform ...
I have written today to written to the Chief Constable and Leader of the Council asking them to desist from the use of classical music blasted out in Whitechapel to try and control street gangs. The use of music in this way is a Stalinist approach to dealing with a problem which is based on an inverted snobbery which will perpetuate a 'them and us' attitude to classical music. Other totalitarian regimes that use music are this way is China and North Korea. Do we really want to follow the appalling example of regimes like those? I have instead asked ...
Last week, the government forced through parliament the controversial "cumulative disruption" power, which enables police to ban protests on the grounds that they take place repeatedly. This attack on the fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression has been strongly criticised by the UN and human rights organisations. Introduced by the Lords as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, this legislation was not subject to full debate and scrutiny in parliament, MPs were denied a separate vote on the cumulative disruption amendment, and the vote on the bill was pushed through before the conclusions of the independent review. This ...
It's coming to that time when nobody wants to leave anything to chance, when the pressure is on. Yes, I'm talking about the end of the football season, with titles, promotion and relegation still to be decided. I spent part of yesterday at Portman Road, as Ipswich Town fought out a rather nervy 2-2 draw with promotion rivals Middlesbrough, in front of nearly 30,000 spectators, and was struck by the similarities with a political campaign. You bring together the best team you can muster, prepare as best you can, determine the appropriate strategy to defeat your opponent and hope that ...
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