2024-04-17 13:20
Another transport video that I've posted before and is overdue a repeat.This colour film shows a journey from Oxford to the National Festival and Rally of Boats held at Market Harborough hel… Read More
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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
2024-04-16 13:40
Another outing with Trekking Exploration - find out how to support this channel Read More
2024-04-16 08:55
Another video that is worth another posting.The Go-Between was filmed in 1971 by Joseph Losey. In this video, Dominic Guard, who played Leo, talks about the experience of making the film.It'… Read More
2024-04-15 13:45
I posted this video on Liberal England a decade ago: it's so good I should repost it every six months.Melton Mowbray North was the town's station on the Great Northern and London and N… Read More
2024-04-14 18:15
Matthew Pennell still says no to ID cards (and so do I): "I’ve always noticed that those who advocate for ID cards are exclusively white British males living in Britain who in pretty m… Read More
2024-04-14 11:33
This is from a hootenanny long ago.The Ronnie Scott's site tells us about Ruby Turner:Ruby Turner began a successful run as a solo artist in the late 1980s, landing a chart-topping hit with… Read More
2024-04-13 21:25
On Friday I went to see the first day of Leicestershire vs Sussexc in Division 2 of cricket's County Championship.I had planned it as a sort of existential protest against starting the crick… Read More
2024-04-13 19:59
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen it comes to American mysteries, second only to 'who shot JFK?'* comes "Did D.B. Cooper get away with it?"In November 1971, during the 'golden age of hijacking', D… Read More
2024-04-12 13:56
More biting satire: I find it hard to see Ed Davey holding on to the leadership after this. It's a good thing this entry marks the end of this visit to Bonkers Hall.How strange it is that Lo… Read More
2024-04-12 06:12
By some distance, the Guardian wins our Headline of the Day Award.Well done everybody in showbiz North London Read More
2024-04-11 21:43
"People who are gender non-conforming experience stigmatisation, marginalisation, and harassment in every society. They are vulnerable, particularly during childhood and adolescence. The bes… Read More
2024-04-11 17:51
It was the first record to be played on Radio One and reached number 2 in the UK singles charts, but the Move's single Flowers in the Rain didn't earn its writer Roy Wood a penny.Because, in… Read More
2024-04-11 13:02
Of course BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award, but the judges drew this paragraph in the report to my attention:The spokesperson said: "The simple fact is that we have removed upward… Read More
2024-04-11 10:28
Our prime minister always seems to come off second best when encountering children and games. His visit to the Bonkers' Home for Well-Behaved Orphans was no exception.I suspect the little in… Read More
2024-04-10 20:34
I don't think I've heard Asquith's voice before. This is him speaking on the People's Budget of 1909: presumably this recording was intended for distribution as a gramophone record.It is rem… Read More
2024-04-10 19:47
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award.At the insistence of the judges, allow me to point out that the case continues Read More
2024-04-10 09:15
There are those who claim that Lord Bonkers has built up large stocks of Stilton to enable him to withstand a strike by the miners, but I'm sure that's not true. Lord B. does indeed like his… Read More
2024-04-09 22:13
Because I wanted to read again what he had to say about Richard Jefferies, I ordered a secondhand copy of Raymond Williams's book The Country and the City.It arrived the other day with no in… Read More
2024-04-09 19:40
Peter Chambers argues that Brexitland by Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford provides a model that explains why Leave was able to win the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Unio… Read More
2024-04-09 11:02
I once asked the old boy about Agatha Mousetrap. His verdict: "An ingenious woman. She often wrote novels without a butler in them, so it was simply impossible to know who the murderer was."… Read More
2024-04-08 19:02
From the Leicester Mercury:The leader of the Conservative opposition on Leicester City Council has returned to Labour. Councillor Deepak Bajaj became the Tories' second sitting member when h… Read More
2024-04-08 16:05
Brook reaches a wonderful century of 69 balls with 14x4s and 2x6s. We have declared on 264-6, claiming one batting point, in order to improve our first-innings over-rate.#YORvLEI pic.twitter… Read More
2024-04-08 11:07
It seems that people attending last autumn's Liberal Democrat Conference were targeted by a fake Grindr profile asking for political gossip.I'm happy to report that the Lib Dems involved saw… Read More
2024-04-08 09:37
I'm no great fan of the way the cricket season is currently organised either. Out of fairness, however, I should say that I'm planning to a trip to Grace Road on Friday, to thwart the Englan… Read More
2024-04-07 21:04
This slideshow gives a clear sense of what Desborough lost when the town's urban district council 'redeveloped' - i.e. demolished without replacement - its high street in 1970.It also shows… Read More
2024-04-07 18:26
Andy Boddington, a Lib Dem councillor in Ludlow, explains why he won't be signing a petition on Gaza organised by a Shropshire resident: "How can you be a peace campaigner when you accuse pe… Read More
2024-04-07 10:39
Question the Liberal Democrats' targeting strategy or the leadership's reluctance to mention Brexit outside party conferences and you risk being accused of wanting to "turn the party into a… Read More
2024-04-07 09:52
The 1975 Eurovision Song Contest was not a classic. I remember the British entry, Let Me Be the One by the Shadows, as a tired song by a tired band, and the title of the winning effort from… Read More
2024-04-06 21:08
From the Shropshire Star:The chairman of the environment watchdog met with water company lobbyists for a near-£100 dinner days before proposals for a major bill hike were reported.Envi… Read More
2024-04-06 18:32
Nothing here about panicking and then passing on the contact details of friends and colleagues to God knows who.h/t Haggis_UK, who tweeted a version of this earlier today Read More
2024-04-06 09:30
The start of a new week finds Rutland's most celebrated fictional peer in sunny mood. Perhaps it's from meeting the lovely Hazel Grove again?Incidentally, having studied the local geography… Read More
2024-04-05 21:30
Jago Hazzard looks at the many HS2 stations in London that might have been but weren't.You can support his videos via his Patreon page Read More
2024-04-05 18:18
The new issue of Liberator was posted on the magazine website this morning. You can download it free of charge from there - it's Liberator 422.As well as Lord Bonkers' Diary, which I'll… Read More
2024-04-04 23:02
Last time we were in Aldbourne we saw Jon Pertwee get the better of The Master, or Mr Magister as he was known in this Wiltshire village.But before the Doctor was in Aldbourne, another BBC c… Read More
2024-04-04 19:01
They don't just have the Hallaton Helmet in Harborough Museum. Among many other things, there's a nice little exhibition about Ladybird Books and the world of work.And in the library I found… Read More
2024-04-04 12:30
Embed from Getty ImagesIt didn't take the judges long to decide this one.The Northampton Chronicle & Echo walks away with our Headline of the Day Award. And the photo above is of that ve… Read More
2024-04-04 09:00
"He is the large container ship threatening to ram into the foundation of European security established after the Second World War - the NATO alliance. Trump was reportedly only narrowly dis… Read More
2024-04-03 21:32
I went into the Harborough Museum today to see the Hallaton Helmet.BBC News explains:A "bling" Roman helmet found in a Leicestershire field offers a tantalising glimpse into a world in flux… Read More
2024-04-03 20:34
We join John Rogers on a walk from the 18th-century Novo Cemetery to Hawksmoor's St Anne's Church, Limehouse, via the Regent's Canal and then two historic locations in Poplar.John has a Patr… Read More
2024-04-03 10:46
This story dates from last summer, but I don't think Cllr Brian Long received the acknowledgment he deserved.As the Eastern Daily Press reported, the Conservative addressed a meeting of… Read More
2024-04-02 19:18
The death of the dramatist and screenwriter Trevor Griffiths has reminded me of the Seventies, when British television companies showed political dramas in primetime. Griffiths's c… Read More
2024-04-02 09:25
Matthew Green, who was Liberal Democrat MP for Ludlow between 2001 and 2005, is to fight South Shropshire at the general election.South Shropshire is made up of the old Ludlow constituency… Read More
2024-04-01 21:47
The BBC. The RNLI. The National Trust. There seems to be no British institution that the right does not despise. Hence the Daily Mail's current campaign against the Trust.Which makes this le… Read More
2024-04-01 18:53
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Conservative opponents of the bid to buy the Telegraph and Spectator backed by the United Arab Emirates got their way. An amendment to the Enterprise Act 2002, whi… Read More
2024-04-01 10:56
"Everything John Barnett said about Boeing’s problems was true. Everything. If the company had been willing to listen to him, 346 airline passengers would still be alive. And maybe Bar… Read More
2024-03-31 20:24
The current Private Eye brings news that the "spook-friendly" intelligence firm Hakluyt is helping build bridges between business and the Labour Party.In the last year or two it has hired Em… Read More
2024-03-31 12:47
Every Easter Saturday, a short service is held at the grave of William Hubbard in the churchyard of St Mary in Arden. The small disused church stands near Market Harborough railway station.H… Read More
2024-03-31 11:20
What better for Easter Sunday than a song about resurrection? This is one of the pieces I played for my mother in her last weeks, so excuse me if I get a bit teary.I didn't play it to… Read More
2024-03-30 11:33
After the judges had drawn up and pored over a family tree, they resolved to give today's Headline of the Day Award to the News Shopper.Thank you to the reader who nominated it.Photo by bink… Read More
2024-03-29 23:41
I visited Sauvey Castle many years ago. As this video shows you, it stands among the hills of High Leicestershire close to the border with Rutland.Our guides include The Walkabout Wazzock, w… Read More
2024-03-29 22:12
We think we know the history of the English country house in the 20th century. Their heyday was in the Edwardian era, but death duties and then requisition during the second world war led to… Read More
2024-03-28 22:58
Purple and his companion show us Northampton's abandoned lines to Bedford and to Wellingborough, And parts of them have definitely been abandoned rather than dismantled Read More
2024-03-28 20:32
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Rest is History podcast on history's greatest monkeys was a disappointment in that there was no mention of the Barbary ape that bit King Alexander of Greece in 192… Read More
2024-03-28 00:08
Sian Norris meets the Polish activists supporting Ukrainian women fleeing war horrors."We are in the midst of a major shift in the way we think about mental distress, away from unproven… Read More
2024-03-27 18:51
A shocking report from HFM News:There has been a big increase in the amount of raw sewage dumped into the River Welland in Market Harborough.117 separate incidents were recorded last year &n&hell…Read More
2024-03-27 11:21
Writing in the Local Government Chronicle, Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher forecast a bad night for the Conservatives in May's local elections:"If the Conservatives repeat their po… Read More
2024-03-26 22:40
The obituary for Rigby Graham quoted at the beginning of this video describes him as an "irascible painter whose idiosyncratic landscapes are among the 20th century's best".Though I me… Read More
2024-03-26 13:57
One of my favourite music podcasts is The Strange Brew, and it recently had a stellar episode that interviewed Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas.She gave a great picture, n… Read More
2024-03-26 11:49
The problem is not so much that social media has led us to support policies on the grounds that they will "upset the right people": it's that we go on to invent principles that will justify… Read More
2024-03-26 10:35
The Guardian wins our Headline of the Day Award.As the judges noted, North Korean has banned jeans since the early 1990s because it sees them as a symbol of US imperialism.Lord Bonkers's gar… Read More
2024-03-25 19:27
As local government in England subsides through lack of central funding, the Conservatives running Shropshire become more determined to build an environmentally damaging road - the Shrewsbur… Read More
2024-03-25 10:35
The Leicester Mercury has a round up of three recent UFO sightings in the county. Among them is:Last year also saw reported UFO sightings above Market Harborough when "highly reflective" obj… Read More
2024-03-24 22:14
Not Earl Stilton, who is probably an old friend of Lord Bonkers, the father of the Rutland heiress Paris Stilton and quite capable of being rude himself, but the Leicestershire settlement Ea… Read More
2024-03-24 18:54
Charlotte Thompson, who lives there, challenges the government's contention that Rwanda is a safe country: "Many Rwandan citizens are extremely proud of the position their country is in now… Read More
2024-03-24 10:18
The opening of Richard Jefferies's After London is a remarkable piece of writing. In an early essay in science fiction - the book was published in 1885 - Jefferies describes how nature takes… Read More
2024-03-23 19:28
Written for Terence Towles Canote's 10th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon.What’s the most frightening thing you’ve seen on television? I can remember an episo… Read More
2024-03-23 08:40
When I tweeted my post about the Guardian's ranking of the Ealing comedies, someone replied that Passport to Pimlico is her favourite among them and that Margaret Rutherford's performa… Read More
2024-03-22 19:52
Remember my post about Danny Chambers and the world's oldest ever dog that wasn't?It concerned a press story about Bobi, a Portuguese mastiff who died last year, supposedly at the age 31 yea… Read More
2024-03-22 19:04
You'll find this one in the small town of Earl Shilton, which lies 10 miles south west of Leicester.I believe it used to stand in the centre, but it's now on the corner of a road called Doct… Read More
2024-03-21 22:16
Andrew Pulver has ranked all 19 Ealing Comedies for the Guardian. In the process, he notices some films that even I have not seen. But I've seen most of them, so here are a few thoughts on h… Read More
2024-03-21 13:09
Bob Hardy, the late Bishop of Lincoln, once described his diocese as "two thousand square miles of bugger all". But it used to be even bigger. In 1837 it reached as far south as Hertfor… Read More
2024-03-21 11:51
I often retweet Matt Green's videos, but this one is particularly good so I'm blogging it.Reader's voice: You mean you can't think of anything to write. Anyway, don't we stand for office rat… Read More
2024-03-20 23:16
Embed from Getty ImagesI've been prospecting in Shropshire.Much Wenlock?Yes, there are always women around the camp.Exciting news from the Guardian:A metal detectorist in Shropshire has unea… Read More
2024-03-20 21:27
Chris Grey on the right's desire to recover a past that never was: "This is also almost invariably what lies behind contemporary demands to 'get my country back', with Allison Pearson writin… Read More
2024-03-20 17:24
Here's an unexpected sight in our local outlet for remaindered books. For, as well as being a prolific author and publisher of volumes on esoteric subjects, Rupert Matthews is the Conservati… Read More
2024-03-20 11:19
Blogging about the Church Langton Chappie, I mentioned St Mary and St Hardulph at Breedon on the Hill elsewhere in Leicestershire.This video shows that church, and in particular its rem… Read More
2024-03-19 19:04
The conventional wisdom is that house prices are so high in Britain because we do not build enough new houses. It also holds that this is because of restrictive planning laws and self-centre… Read More
2024-03-18 21:38
I loved the Outer Hebrides. When I was there in the summer of 2008, the colours of the sea and sand rivalled the Caribbean and the drowned landscape made it feel like, in the words of the Ru… Read More
2024-03-18 11:46
Closing the educational achievement gap should be a priority for the next government, argues Kevin Latham: "This includes ... making a long-term commitment to funding a national in-school tu… Read More
2024-03-18 10:56
He lives high on the wall of the passage that leads from the chancel to the vestry at St Peter's Church Langton. You have to turn a light on to take his photo - and they ask you to remember… Read More
2024-03-17 22:32
The publicity surrounding Earl Spencer's early memoir A Very Private School, which details his abuse at Maidwell Hall, reminds me of one of the most important posts on this blog, though it's… Read More
2024-03-17 15:57
From the LTM Recordings website:January 1981: hotly tipped for top, Jane Kennaway tapes an all-important Top of the Pops appearance for her debut single IOU, a deserving indie hit now reissu… Read More
2024-03-16 19:14
I went to The Langtons this afternoon. I wanted to try the reopened Bell at East Langton, believed by many to be an inspiration for the Bonkers' Arms, and to pay my respects at the grave of… Read More
2024-03-16 12:23
Helen Salisbury says it’s time to push back against the destruction of general practice in the NHS: "The down-skilling of general practice is often euphemistically referred to as a 'di… Read More
2024-03-16 04:28
Britain's wackiest seat is probably Leicester East. It's represented by Claudia Webbe, who was parachuted in by the Corbynite high command in time for the 2019 election and then thrown out o… Read More
2024-03-15 22:09
After I posted that brilliant Peter Serafinowicz impersonation of Terry Wogan, a reader sent me another example.Though it takes us into the realms of fantasy, this one is spot on too.Ye… Read More
2024-03-15 13:25
I now believe it's likely that Rishi Sunak will put off the general election until the last possible moment, which is 28 January 2025.It's only human for him to hold on to office in the hope… Read More
2024-03-15 11:02
George Dobell is my favourite cricket journalist. He is fair, loves the game and is not afraid to be critical of its authorities.His daily videos during the test series in India were enjoyab… Read More
2024-03-15 00:06
Here's some canal goodness: last summer's Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally.I was at Braunston the day before the rally took place and chatted to the people on board Raymond, who must… Read More
2024-03-14 12:18
The French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom has been revealed as the company behind the planned open access railway between Euston, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.An announcement on the company's w… Read More
2024-03-14 11:22
Embed from Getty ImagesLiberal Democrat leader targets senior Tory seats at UK general electionruns the headline on the Financial Times interview with Ed Davey today.Older Lib Dems will imme… Read More
2024-03-13 22:59
There's a story on BBC News about the Trent Rivers Trust receiving a £834,000 grant from the Environment Agency to protect homes and businesses in the eastern side of the city.Pro… Read More
2024-03-13 22:14
There's news of a possible replacement candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the South Shropshire constituency.Matthew Green, who was Lib Dem for the largely identical Ludlow seat between 2… Read More
2024-03-12 23:14
This just in from the Shropshire Star:Charities and private citizens should have the power to take polluting water companies to court because the Environment Agency cannot keep up with the i… Read More
2024-03-12 22:01
Exciting news from the Great Central Railway:Join us for this spectacular weekend as we reunify the Great Central Railway and the Great Central Railway Nottingham for a celebration of the 12… Read More
2024-03-12 12:28
"The erosion of democracy in Hungary took time, and the political takeover came from within, in part, because the pushback by the political opposition was ineffective and at times apathetic… Read More
2024-03-11 22:22
Thanks to the latest number of The Why Don't YouTube Newsletter, here is a parody of Blankety Blank from the 2003 Comic Relief.A skim of the comments on YouTube reveals that the panelists ar… Read More
2024-03-11 19:57
There's disappointing news from Shropshire: Chris Naylor, the Lib Dem due to fight the South Shropshire constituency at the next election has stood down for health reasons.The news comes in… Read More
2024-03-10 22:09
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries canal boats across the River Dee near Llangollen in North Wales. At 336 yards long and 126 feet high, it is the longest and highest navigable canal aqueduct… Read More
2024-03-10 18:06
I've seen it claimed and now I have confirmation from the beast's horse's mouth. The Liberal Democrat peer and former MP Paul Tyler is a direct descendant of the Cornish hero Bishop Jonathan… Read More
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