2023-09-27 09:50
UNIMPRESSED: Prue Leith As it does so often, the Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award Read More
Blog Directory > Politics Blogs > Government Blogs > Liberal England government Blog >
Liberal England Blog
liberalengland.blogspot.com
Tags:
lamb dhansak
pulling faces
lloyd george lawrence
hamper
wellbehaved orphans
liberal
violent bonham carter
naseby square
disaster
lepus
Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year 2014"Well written, funny and wistful" - Paul Linford; "He is indeed the Lib Dem blogfather" - Stephen Tall"Jonathan Calder holds his end up well in the competitive world of the blogosphere" - New Statesman"A prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" - BBC Radio 4 Today programme"Charming and younger than I expected" - Wartime Housewife
2023-09-26 21:06
Thirteen bungalows are being demolished at Naseby Square in Market Harborough so that new 'affordable' homes can be built on the site.I happened past this afternoon and took these photos.Har… Read More
2023-09-26 09:51
I'm pleased to see that Ruttie remains in rude health, and it wouldn't be a visit it to Bonkers Hall without the Well-Behaved Orphans. And so another week with Rutland's most celebrated fict… Read More
2023-09-25 22:51
These days I can't stand such programmes, but when I first became interested in politics as a young teenager I listened avidly to Any Questions? on BBC Radio 4.So a few random memories of so… Read More
2023-09-25 08:23
When I tweeted a picture of a couple of my Liberal Party membership cards from the 1980s, something about the map on them attracted the attention of the President of the Liberal Democrats.&n&hell…Read More
2023-09-24 22:09
Here's my column ('Sighcology') from the Summer issue of the Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy.The theme of the issue was 'David', and these are the thoughts I ca… Read More
2023-09-24 10:37
Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper) is a British painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. He co-founder the art movement Stuckism, a rebellion a… Read More
2023-09-24 09:57
One of the many things that surprises me about Lord Bonkers is the friendship he once enjoyed with the notorious London gang boss Violent Bonham Carter. I suspect their relationship was rath… Read More
2023-09-23 17:09
"Neil Oliver and his pals see themselves as radical, romantic revolutionaries, but they are really nothing more than a dismal combination of David Icke and Liz Truss. They have nothing usefu… Read More
2023-09-23 08:39
At least Freddie and Fiona don't have a new job this time, so they're a little less like Julian and Sandy.ThursdayDinner with Freddie and Fiona. I arrive at their top-floor flat to find they… Read More
2023-09-22 20:05
This post was written for Terence Towles Canote's 10th Annual Rule, Britannia Blogathon, where you will find plenty more articles on British cinema.What is the most successful piece of casti… Read More
2023-09-22 10:40
The saga of the Conservatives' proposed North West relief road for Shrewsbury has taken a farcical turn:From BBC News:Councillors voted to back £95m of extra borrowing, after the figur… Read More
2023-09-22 09:57
Have a Go was a radio quiz hosted by Wilfred Pickles that attracted 20 million listeners a week. I don't remember it, but I was surprised to find that I might have done, as it ran from 1946… Read More
2023-09-21 20:55
Buddy Anderson traces his path from Conservative voter to Liberal Democrat councillor - and a Liberal Democrat councillor in Market Harborough at that. On… Read More
2023-09-21 09:26
As I have been writing this column since before most of my readers were born, it seems allowable to repeat an old joke from time to time. Besides, the Rutland partridge is an important part… Read More
2023-09-21 08:55
Let's face it: the Independent isn't what it was. But it's still managed to win our Headline of the Day Award.The judges add that they have long been reading about the potential of phages in… Read More
2023-09-20 21:46
Time for a dive down one of this blog's rabbit holes: Norman Bowler, man about Soho in the 1950s and later a star of Softly Softly: Task Force and Emmerdale.Wizbit was children's programme… Read More
2023-09-20 20:35
Embed from Getty ImagesAn extraordinary story from Inside Croydon:The Tory Government’s policing minister, Chris Philp, the MP for Croydon South, is a member of a social media group in… Read More
2023-09-20 11:00
No sooner does Lord Bonkers divine a social problem than be proposes a solution. Here, that solution is characteristically robust. So welcome to another week with the old boy.'Scrobbled', it… Read More
2023-09-20 09:46
The excellent Five Leaves Books of Nottingham - you'll find their shop in an alley near the Council House - have brought out a new edition of Nikolaus Pevsner's The Leaves of Southwell.Gilli… Read More
2023-09-19 19:12
The new issue of Liberator has been posted on the magazine's website in time for the Liberal Democrat Conference. It's issue 419 (September 2023) and you can download it for free.I'll start… Read More
2023-09-19 17:28
Embed from Getty ImagesTwitter yesterday was full of people arguing that, because Russell Brand - who denies all the allegations made against him on Saturday's Dispatches programme - was bei… Read More
2023-09-19 11:48
Here's an interesting clip from Ash Sarkar's interview with Rory Stewart for Novara Media.Stewart's membership of this shadowy foreign policy forum Le Cercle, or rather his failure to declar… Read More
2023-09-18 12:15
"Liz Truss almost wrecked the British economy in her 49 days as prime minister, and is now working on a book, Ten Years to Save the West, to be published in April next year. Margaret Thatche… Read More
2023-09-17 18:55
Until last night's Dispatches, I had never seen Russell Brand's comedy act. I now look back on those days with affection. But that doesn't mean I wasn't aware of him. As I complained in… Read More
2023-09-17 09:30
Calexico are a band from Tucson, Arizona, whose music is infused with the desert and the Mexican border. And Black Heart is a track from their 2003 breakthrough album Feast of Wire.The music… Read More
2023-09-16 22:40
Augustus Carp look at the latest figures on councillors who change their political allegiance.It’s been just over four months since the last round of local elections in England, so it… Read More
2023-09-16 20:44
I wrote this about Mid Bedfordshire back in July:Labour has won vanishingly few seats like this one in recent decades, and Lib Dems will grumble about a strong Labour campaign being the Tori… Read More
2023-09-15 22:44
Today is the anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth on 15 September 1890. That has made me think about her play The Mousetrap and its roots in the notorious killing of a child, Dennis O'Neil… Read More
2023-09-15 19:36
Embed from Getty ImagesWriting for The House, Sean Kemp gives an amusing account of recent Liberal Democrat history:At one point as a party spinner I found myself trudging round the lobby ex… Read More
2023-09-14 21:17
Tibshelf Sidings was once a busy spot on the railway and part of Britain's coal distribution network. Numerous sidings and a junction were sprawled out alongside the Erewash Valley line in D… Read More
2023-09-14 20:22
This just in from Kibworth Beauchamp Parish Council:An emergency footway closure and prohibition of waiting and loading is required on High Street, Kibworth Beauchamp for approx. 15m either… Read More
2023-09-13 21:59
This is the Wilko branch in Market Harborough, which will close on Sunday. I feel sorry for the people here and around the country who are losing their jobs. You can be sure the top man… Read More
2023-09-13 17:23
In his Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises, A.N. Wilson remembers a conversation with the Queen Mother:Katherine and I had just been to an exhibition of portraits of the Queen, and I aske… Read More
2023-09-13 08:43
It may have lost our data, but the Electoral Commission has found some balls.Here's the Guardian on the commission's new Report on the May 2023 local elections in England:Hundreds of thousan… Read More
2023-09-12 22:11
The latest The Rest is History podcast deals with the school story. I could have done with a little less about the presenters' own private schools, but they are right to say these stories we… Read More
2023-09-12 18:00
Floella Benjamin asks why young people are hung out to dry after they leave the care system: "Increasing the number of care leavers in higher education is something we should all get behind:… Read More
2023-09-12 13:13
Embed from Getty ImagesThanks to a reader for pointing out that the current Mid Bedfordshire by-election is not the first in the constituency. One was held there in 1960.The Conservative Ala… Read More
2023-09-11 19:47
Forcing people to show photographic identity before they could vote in May's local elections led to racial and disability discrimination. That's the conclusion of a report published today by… Read More
2023-09-11 11:47
The television scriptwriter John Stevenson died last week. He was the leading scriptwriter for Coronation Street in the days when, because it was driven by character rather than issues, it w… Read More
2023-09-10 21:53
I've just been listening to a radio programme about the broadcaster and philosopher Bryan Magee.He's been blogged about here several times, and I collected most of what I had to say in a pos… Read More
2023-09-10 15:52
Arts Fresco, Market Harborough's annual street theatre festival, took place today. It was hot, and the crowd and the number of acts seemed lower than in its glory days of a few years ago, bu… Read More
2023-09-10 08:05
This is the final track on Carly Simon's No Secrets, an LP I love perhaps more than it deserves because, along with Paul Simon's One Trick Pony, it reminds me of my first days in my own hous… Read More
2023-09-09 16:21
Schools have a lot to worry about besides crumbling concrete, says teacher, councillor and Lib Dem PPC for Cambridge, Cheney Payne.Fred Skulthorp discusses the reasons for, and consequences… Read More
2023-09-09 11:39
Our Headline of the Day comes from the Leicester Mercury.The judges observed that it's probably not a good idea to build a solar farm in the shade Read More
2023-09-08 22:44
Sad news tonight: the impressionist Mike Yarwood, one of the giants of 1970s television, has died.The last time most of us saw him was as a guest on Bob Monkhouse's extraordinary programme… Read More
2023-09-08 21:16
Here are some notes on 10 British films that are not as well known as I think they ought to be. It's not a top 10 - they are in chronological order - and I'm sure there are plenty more, part… Read More
2023-09-08 08:58
Residents of the Shropshire hamlet of Homer are up in arms about the council trimming a hedge there.The story in the Shropshire Star ends:"We think the hedge is beyond the council's remit. M… Read More
2023-09-07 23:09
This evening the Liberal Democrats have gained the Worfield division of Shropshire Council from the Conservatives with a 33 per cent swing.The result: Lib Dems 400, Conservative 392, Labour… Read More
2023-09-07 22:52
Over to the Save Ham Lands and River site:Thames Water has outlined a scheme that would involve digging a tunnel to convey treated sewage from Mogden Sewage Works, via Twickenham, in a… Read More
2023-09-07 21:25
ITV News wins our Headline of the Day Award.The judges also commended the post it quoted from the Facebook page of the Seaside Café at the North Sea Observatory:If anyone heard… Read More
2023-09-06 21:26
A tour, in the company of Jago Hazzard, of some of the stations that have existed at various times in this quarter of London .You can support his videos via his Patreon page Read More
2023-09-06 20:02
"Calling people out triggers feelings of shame and defensiveness which entrench difference and deepen divisions. Calling people in acknowledges somebody’s starting point, encourages ca… Read More
2023-09-06 17:24
Remember that snap, allegedly taken in Staffordshire, claimed to be "probably the best photo of British big cat that exists"? The latest issue of Fortean Times reports that research has… Read More
2023-09-05 20:57
I was browsing the British Newspaper Database the other day looking for something else, when I came across this story in the Nottingham Evening Post (22 June 1966):Former Top Liberal Held on… Read More
2023-09-05 10:58
As well as The Rest is Politics, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart have a second podcast called Leading. And the latest guest on that is our own Ed Davey.The billing for the show runs:What… Read More
2023-09-04 20:25
Enjoying a day off walking, John Rogers takes to the tidal Roding in a coracle and narrowly avoids becoming a sacrifice to the river god.John has a Patreon account to support his videos and… Read More
2023-09-04 17:29
Taylor's was a chip shop and fish restaurant in Adam and Eve Street, Market Harborough. Some claimed it was one of the oldest chippies in the country, and for that reason it got mentioned in… Read More
2023-09-03 20:40
Celia Hibbert, a councillor from Wolverhampton, was the Labour candidate for the Harborough constituency at the 2017 general election.Now, reports Birmingham Live, she wants to join the Libe… Read More
2023-09-03 10:00
In April 1968 Pink Floyd announced that Syd Barrett was no longer a member of the band. His mental health had been deteriorating for a while - his problems exacerbated by heavy use of drugs… Read More
2023-09-02 20:27
"We rarely recognise how deeply the car is cherished in British political culture. We mock the American attachment to giant vehicles and vast multi-lane freeways, and their non-existent publ… Read More
2023-09-02 17:41
As it's a new month, Lord Bonkers is keen that I should tell you what he was doing 30 years ago. So here is an extract from the diary that appeared in Liberator 215, the September 1993… Read More
2023-09-01 20:42
When I posted the USAAF photograph of Market Harborough in 1943 or 1944, one of the features I singled out was the prisoner of war camp in Farndon Road.I was down there this morning, and I'm… Read More
2023-09-01 19:06
Byline Times has an eye-widening article about Festus Akinbusoye, the Conservative candidate in the Mid Bedfordshire by-election.It's worth reading the whole thing, but let me draw your atte… Read More
2023-08-31 20:55
A sweet little film that shows the bombsites of Canterbury in 1945. Like Sheila Sim in my favourite film, young John struggles to recognise the city's old street pattern among the ruins.But… Read More
2023-08-31 19:13
Yesterday I blogged about the emergence of a new political party in Leicester. So what's been happening today?Here's the Leicester Mercury (or Leicestershire Live, as it calls itself online)… Read More
2023-08-31 14:28
"Basic Income was proposed by Paddy Ashdown as a fundamental component of his Radical Agenda for the 1990s, a book published in the late 1980s. It is liberal because it recognises the agency… Read More
2023-08-30 22:11
HFM News reports:Five men have gone on trial accused of stealing rare art work worth over £1.5m from a stately home near Market Harborough.The paintings, including two worth half-a-mil… Read More
2023-08-30 20:31
The former senior Leicester Labour Rita Patel has announced the formation of a new political party: One Leicester.Patel was one of the Labour elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby's assistant mayo… Read More
2023-08-30 10:06
I included an interview with Isabella Tree in a recent The Joy of Six because her book Wilding is such an inspiration:It tells the story of the daring wildlife experiment that Isabella and h… Read More
2023-08-29 19:46
Siobhan Baillie, the Conservative MP for Stroud is in not water. The Stroud News & Journal has the story:Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie has issued an apology and says it was never her intenti… Read More
2023-08-29 11:56
There's something amusing about a tiny socialist party that finds it has become rich by sticking to its principles. It's the stuff of a political Ealing comedy.BBC News reports:A tiny social… Read More
2023-08-28 17:59
"The never-not-mentioned 'slick campaigning machine' of the SNP was true in about 2006-11, but after the landslide 2011 election and especially after the referendum, complacency allowed it t… Read More
2023-08-28 00:19
This may look dated now, but it in its day it was ground breaking. When the BBC tried to sell The Master Game, a series of televised chess tournaments, to other national broadcasters, they w… Read More
2023-08-27 10:03
Bessie Smith (1894-1937) was the Empress of the Blues. She was the highest-paid black entertainer of her day and had her own railway carriage. This thread will tell you all about it, and the… Read More
2023-08-26 19:46
I've long known that the comedian Richard Murdoch had family connections with Market Harborough, and that he had his appendix out at the cottage hospital here. You can see it (the hospital… Read More
2023-08-26 17:54
Nadine Dorries has resigned as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, more than 11 weeks after she announced that she was to do so 'with immediate effect'.Her resignation letter attacks Rishi Sunak vi… Read More
2023-08-25 20:36
Embed from Getty ImagesGeoffrey Wheatcroft writes in today's Guardian:For a century and a half the Tories had a plausible claim to be “the natural party of government”. Today, th… Read More
2023-08-25 09:58
Embed from Getty ImagesRedrup on the up - Lib Dems secure controversial Wootton Bridge seatran the headline on the Isle of Wight Radio website.I welcomed news of another Liberal Democrat loc… Read More
2023-08-24 20:57
BBC4 is currently repeating the wonderful 1976 dramatisation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius on Wednesday evenings, three episodes at at time. The first six are now up on iPlayer.I've been sta… Read More
2023-08-24 20:04
"Last year the large tortoiseshell butterfly, thought to be extinct in the UK, formed a breeding colony at Knepp. The estate is also home to all of the UK’s five owl species, 13 of its… Read More
2023-08-24 13:22
Embed from Getty ImagesAnne Applebaum writes for The Atlantic about the mood in Putin's Russia following the murder of Yevgeny Prigozhin:Everyone who is still part of the inner circle alread… Read More
2023-08-23 20:51
The best bowling figures ever recorded across the two innings of a test match are Jim Laker's 19 for 90 for England against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956.This short film tells the story… Read More
2023-08-22 18:33
Jamie Graham has drawn up his list of the top 65 British films. When I saw that he had A Canterbury Tale at number 2, I feared for him. I have learnt to my cost that this is not a film you s… Read More
2023-08-22 09:11
The heavily trailed announcement about government support for chess has been made this morning - you can read the press release online.Forget the stuff about chess tables in parks, which wil… Read More
2023-08-21 11:02
Robert Buckland, the Conservative MP and former justice minister, makes the case against withdrawing from the European Court of Human Rights: "This is a profoundly mistaken view, which misun… Read More
2023-08-21 10:05
Embed from Getty ImagesThe journalism trade website Hold the Front Page has a story about the prime minister's visit to the East Midlands last week:Regional journalists were banned from phot… Read More
2023-08-20 23:10
Embed from Getty ImagesFrom today's Observer:The family of one of Britain’s most famous prime ministers will travel to the Caribbean this week to apologise for its historical role in s… Read More
2023-08-20 11:55
"What the dickens am I listening to?" I hear you ask.Jakartajive, who posted this on YouTube, explains:With Peter Asher and Gordon Waller, you know you're getting classy pop music - that's a… Read More
2023-08-19 20:04
Was Michael Parkinson the greatest chat show host on British television? He certainly has a strong rival for that crown, and one who was active during his Seventies prime.Here's Mavis Nichol… Read More
2023-08-19 18:52
Embed from Getty ImagesI don't know what your family's like, but it looks like I've got a cannibal and a pirate in mine.In June I made the worrying discovery that I may be related to one of… Read More
2023-08-18 19:31
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Tory worldview holds that private schools care about high standards while teachers in the state sector want all to have prizes whether they have earned them or not… Read More
2023-08-18 11:11
When I posted a USAAF aerial photograph of Market Harborough during the war, I noted the large oval in Welland Park and asked if it was a long-vanished cycle track.The answer to my question… Read More
2023-08-17 22:48
The Derbyshire villages of Derwent and Ashopton were demolished and then drowned when the Ladybower reservoir was constructed in 1944.In dry summers their remains are revealed by the re… Read More
2023-08-17 10:21
"Both ideologies involve a shocking indifference to evidence and data. They reflect a bulldog belief that Britain will always be better off pursuing its own path, rather than engaging with s… Read More
2023-08-16 22:43
United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) reconnaissance aircraft flew hundreds of sorties over England during the Second World War. The Historic England Archive holds a USAAF collection of over… Read More
2023-08-16 11:06
Embed from Getty ImagesDuring the Somerton and Frome by-election campaign Sarah Dyke and Ed Davey visited Burrow Hill Cider Farm and listened to the concerns of its owners.It must have… Read More
2023-08-15 20:55
One of my favourite stretches of canal is the five miles from Cromford to Ambergate in Derbyshire's Derwent Valley. I first came across it in 1977, which was when our English teacher had wan… Read More
2023-08-15 12:34
The most deprived 20 per cent of local authorities are getting a smaller share of local government and police funding than they need, while the least deprived 20 per cent are getting a large… Read More
2023-08-14 21:11
Mathew Pennell looks at the new Liberal Democrat policy document on housing: "I have a vision for housing, I hope it’s based on the most important aspects of the housing crisis … Read More
Subscribe to Liberal England
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!