Remember Thomas Cromwell's final words in the wonderful Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light? "There is an abbey, Launde, in the heart of England. The air is always sweet there and it's quiet. A little heaven here on earth. And I think to myself: 'I'll live here one day, when all my work is done.'" Launde Abbey is in Leicestershire - in Harborough District, indeed - and though Cromwell didn't get to live there, his son did and is buried in the chapel. Today it is a Church of England retreat and conference centre. The BBC Radio Leicester's Secret ...
I've long had a fondness for one of Paul Simon's more obscure albums, One Trick Pony. This is a track from it.
"Conservatives have called Burnham's intervention 'dangerous and divisive', which could be interpreted as a denial that interference happened or just as a preference that it not be mentioned to protect delicate pro-Brexit sensibilities. Farage's feelings were certainly hurt. He called the prime minister a liar and described the whole thing as a 'Russia hoax'- the formula Donald Trump applied to well-substantiated allegations that his 2016 presidential campaign got a helping hand from Moscow."Rafael Behr says Brexiters can't cope with the fact that Putin cheered them on. Jack Dyson reveals how academy trusts try to justify the enormous salaries paid to ...
By now, many of us have become accustomed to the seemingly relentless escalations in the occupied West Bank. Almost daily, we hear of violent settler attacks against Palestinian communities, amid record levels of forced displacement, home demolitions, illegal outpost construction and arbitrary arrests. We must never accept this as normal, so consumed by the latest outrage that we lose sight of what these escalating, incremental developments amount to. For behind the daily violence and dispossession, Israel has been entrenching its control over Palestinian land, destroying the territorial basis for a two-state solution, piece by piece, until it is too late ...
The Independent reports that MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum has confirmed that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum but judged the impact modest, warning that excessive focus on Russian trolls could amplify their influence. However, McCallum has cautioned against aiding Russian propaganda after Andy Burnham outlined Moscow's attempts to meddle in the 2016 Brexit referendum, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin's online trolls would be "delighted" should the controversy surrounding the Prime Minister's statements continue: The spymaster verified that Russia targeted the vote, whilst simultaneously pointing out the "comparative unimpressiveness" of such operations. He added that Britain must ...
