2016-12-20 20:42
It is a great tragedy that a tiny number of people, whom I regard at best as foolish and at worst as wicked, are trying to erase the tiny sum of money—£500 million—spent on… Read More
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Liberal England Blog
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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
2016-12-20 09:00
Andrew Newton was told to look for Norman Scott in Barnstaple, but went to Dunstable instead.I don't suppose he ever got to Whitstable Read More
2016-12-19 21:29
The London and North Western Railway Society tells us the history of Uppingham station:The London & North Western Railway opened this short branch in 1894. Five trains were provided dail… Read More
2016-12-19 19:35
Good news in the Leicester Mercury: it seems the former Black Boy pub in the city may yet be saved.The paper's report says:Planning officers at Leicester City Council have ... thrown a spann… Read More
2016-12-19 09:12
Niklaus Pevsner writes:Could these leaves of the English countryside, with all their freshness, move us so deeply if they were not carved in that spirit which filled the saints and poets and… Read More
2016-12-18 21:30
Bridgnorth has just beaten Market Harborough to win the Large Market Town category in this year's Great British High Street Awards.I am not one to bear a grudge. even if Bridgnorth &nbs&hell…Read More
2016-12-18 19:46
Embed from Getty ImagesEd Balls' weekly displays of high-class dad dancing have won him redemption. No longer a discredited, defeated politician he is now a loved celebrity.What will he do n… Read More
2016-12-18 13:28
Embed from Getty ImagesOn Thursday the Liberal Democrats recorded large swings to win council by-elections in three West Country.This is immensely encouraging, all the more so in view of wha… Read More
2016-12-18 11:51
Choosing a Sensational Alex Harvey Band track in 2014 I wrote:Alex Harvey was once voted Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele and his band opened for an early version of the Beatles.Here he is… Read More
2016-12-18 09:00
The sudden rise of the lead mining industry in this remote part of England in the mid 19th century meant that the Stiperstones area has the feel of the Wild West. Shanty villages were thrown… Read More
2016-12-17 19:32
"We are entitled to understand the legal framework in which we are operating because on the basis of that framework decisions will be made which will affect people in this country for genera… Read More
2016-12-17 18:01
Yesterday there was a news item in the Northamptonshire Telegraph:Steam engine enthusiasts are being warned that a locomotive which was scheduled to pass over the Harringworth Viaduct tomorr… Read More
2016-12-17 09:00
"Kirby Muxloe Castle is a wholly unexpected pleasure." I wrote in July 2010 Read More
2016-12-16 21:54
Thanks to Alan Stafford for posting this. He is the author of Too Naked for the Nazis, a biography of Wilson, Keppel and Betty.That title must refer to a story I have blogged about myse… Read More
2016-12-16 20:38
In November I blogged about the threat to the 747 bus from Leicester to Uppingham.Yesterday came news that Leicestershire and Rutland County Councils have stepped in to save it.The Leicester… Read More
2016-12-16 19:26
Embed from Getty ImagesGeorge Eaton writes for the New StatesmanIn last night's council by-elections, the Lib Dems won two seats off the Tories in Teignbridge (which was 54 per cent Leave) a… Read More
2016-12-16 09:00
My records say this was taken in Northamptonshire, but it does look very like a back way into Bonkers Hall Read More
2016-12-15 22:16
Another video from Londonist. Matt Brown is an engaging guide as we follow London's most famous lost river Read More
2016-12-15 17:11
Embed from Getty ImagesNick Clegg launched his latest Brexit Challenge paper today. This one looks at the need for justice and home affairs cooperation between Britain and the EU. The Indepe… Read More
2016-12-15 14:52
"The idea that America would follow its first black president with Donald Trump accorded with its history. I was shocked at my own shock. I had wanted Obama to be right." Ta-Nehisi Coat… Read More
2016-12-15 11:04
Embed from Getty ImagesGood news in the Evening Standard:The Liberal Democrats have jumped to their best poll rating in five years after the Richmond Park by-election, an exclusive poll reve… Read More
2016-12-15 09:00
Well done, St Mary Magdalene Read More
2016-12-14 21:38
Another video from Holden Webster, who runs the Shropshire Railways website.This one discovers the southern end of the Severn Valley Railway. The SVR was built to join Shrewsbury to Worceste… Read More
2016-12-14 19:57
Embed from Getty ImagesRussia is helping Trump’s campaign, yes, but it is not doing so solely or even necessarily with the goal of placing him in the Oval Office. Rather, these efforts… Read More
2016-12-14 11:33
Taken at Rites of Spring at Leicester Guildhall in 2012 Read More
2016-12-13 17:54
"For Trump as for Putin, reality is something that can be molded or outright dismissed when it would prove damning. It is now up to U.S. institutions, the media, and the American people to d… Read More
2016-12-13 09:00
Sutton Bridge, where England regained the Ashes in 2009 Read More
2016-12-12 22:09
Embed from Getty ImagesLichfield is on my long list of Places I Must Visit Again One Day Read More
2016-12-12 21:18
Embed from Getty ImagesThere's a story in today's Guardian suggesting that athletes in individual events are more prone to experiencing depressive symptoms than are athletes in team events.I… Read More
2016-12-12 09:00
It's Arts Fresco 2009 and The Ant Orkezdra is marching along Adam and Eve Street Read More
2016-12-11 21:11
Paul Emmines has conducted interviews with three members of the cast of the classic BBC adaptation of John Masefield's A Box of Delights:Foxy Faced Charles (played by Geoffrey Larder)Sylvia… Read More
2016-12-11 18:33
On Friday I posted a video of the Flying Scotsman crossing the Welland Viaduct and quoted Wikipedia to explain where you can find that remarkable structure.Its entry included this detail:Bef… Read More
2016-12-11 11:34
When I heard the start of this tracked use to introduce a programme on Radio 4 Extra, I thought it must be by some mellowed-out West Coast hippies and date from around 1970.It turned out to… Read More
2016-12-11 09:00
From my post Too few people know about Richard Jefferies (February 2010):This photograph shows the top floor of the house at Coate, which is where Jefferies wrote as a young man. I took it w… Read More
2016-12-10 23:18
This BBC documentary was made just after Garry Kasparov won the world title, which he was to hold until the year 2000.Many of the people interviewed here - Bobby Fischer, Viktor Korchnoi, Be… Read More
2016-12-10 22:02
Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Democrats have confirmed that the party’s MPs will vote against any motion which backs the unconditional invocation of Article 50Liberal Democrat Voice anno… Read More
2016-12-10 19:23
"Richmond Park must be an inspiration for those wanting an open, tolerant Britain – and we must shout loud enough to wake the government from its sleepwalk towards a trade war," says S… Read More
2016-12-10 09:00
Situated below the A488, this church is easy to miss. But it's worth stopping Read More
2016-12-09 23:38
Let Alan Plumb be your host.And let Wikipedia tell you about the Welland Viaduct:Welland Viaduct lies on the Oakham to Kettering Line and carries the twin track non-electrified line between… Read More
2016-12-09 20:43
Embed from Getty ImagesLast night, in a Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council by-election, the Conservatives held Trench ward with an increased majority.Not a big surprise, you may think. Bu… Read More
2016-12-09 09:00
From this Northamptonshire village's website:Geddington’s history reaches back to pre-history. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and its status in medieval times is very visible in… Read More
2016-12-08 22:40
Click on the still above to go to the British Film Institute site and let Eric Hall be your guide.York looks fine here and I am pleased to see the sign of Pickering's bookshop in The Shamble… Read More
2016-12-08 21:22
Researchers from universities in Glasgow and Liverpool have reconstructed the face of Scotland's warrior king Robert the Bruce, says BBC News.Lord Bonkers tells me that researchers from the… Read More
2016-12-08 20:14
A pot plant yesterdayJacob Rees-Mogg was eloquent in the House yesterday afternoon:Those who are appealing now to parliamentary scrutiny are in fact rejecting an Act passed through this Hous… Read More
2016-12-08 09:00
A train pulls into Northwood Halt Read More
2016-12-07 23:04
Lovely footage of these two lines and their intermediate stations shot in their final days in the 1960s.Holden Webster explored the remains of the remains of the Coalport to Wellington line… Read More
2016-12-07 22:19
I fear the answer may well be yes.Yesterday I blogged about the postponement of the access improvements at Market Harborough station.In that post I went on to discuss the promise of better t… Read More
2016-12-07 21:48
Douglas Carswell, Ukip's only MP, sent a tweet ridiculing the judges during Gina Miller's original Article 50 court case. I replied asking what he proposed putting in the place of an indepen… Read More
2016-12-07 21:30
@CCHQPress @LibDemPress pic.twitter.com/ZyodOR6ps7— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) December 7, 2016This Telegraph article has all the action.And this is a good point to say that the Lib… Read More
2016-12-07 09:00
This sculpture by Elisabeth Frink can be found near St Paul's Cathedral in London Read More
2016-12-06 22:19
This is still as funny as it was when it first appeared.It's those moments of peace and birdsong at the start that do it Read More
2016-12-06 20:49
"His answers to Marr was like me at the despatch box pissed out of my skull at the Oxford Union. And I have done that a few times. But I am not the Foreign Secretary." Jerry Hayes on Boris J… Read More
2016-12-06 19:27
In November the transport minister Paul Maynard refused to confirm that the Midland main line will be electrified north of Kettering.Today came news that as a result the long-promised access… Read More
2016-12-06 09:00
Taken a couple of hours before University of Leicester archaeologists found the skeleton of Richard III Read More
2016-12-05 21:36
This was one of the many idiosyncratic lines around the country owned by Colonel Stephens.The blurb for this film on Youtube gives its history:The line was built to convey golfers to the Rye… Read More
2016-12-05 21:07
During the Richmond Park campaign the Labour candidate tweeted:At yesterday's #LonLab16 conference,the biggest applause I got was for saying 'Brexit is bad for Britain'.Can anyone disagree w… Read More
2016-12-05 21:05
Embed from Getty ImagesIt wasn't fashionable even then, but I had time for Michael Gove while he was education secretary.His Kulturkampf against the teaching profession was unnecessarily agg… Read More
2016-12-05 09:00
Just a cat looking into your soul. Nothing to see here Read More
2016-12-04 19:43
Richard Morris shows that the argument that people do not vote against their own economic interests is wrong because it relies upon an inadequate understanding of human psychology.He witness… Read More
2016-12-04 11:25
Another choice inspired by the repeats of Top of the Pops from 1982.This still sounds good, and has a very early-1980s sound and even a meaningful video - though it's hard to say quite what… Read More
2016-12-04 09:00
Little Bowden, actually Read More
2016-12-03 23:20
This is St Barnabas Church in Jericho, Oxford, and the Oxford Canal.Despite what Inspectot Morse and Lewis would have you believe, it is a desirable part of the city.I was there a few years… Read More
2016-12-02 21:48
1984: Peter Ackroyd (and I'm pretty sure it's *that* Peter Ackroyd) predicts cultdom for The Box of Delights. pic.twitter.com/mm6CHLY1cN— Phil Norman (@MrPhilNorman) November 29, 2016T… Read More
2016-12-02 21:43
Congratulations to Leicestershire's David Sprason on being appointed UKIP's national spokesman on welfare and social policy.Regular readers will recall that, while still a Conservative, he s… Read More
2016-12-02 20:17
pic.twitter.com/hNCIfYgLEc— Northampton Chron (@ChronandEcho) December 1, 2016 I have covered the saga of David Mackintosh (Conservative MP for Northampton South and former leader of t… Read More
2016-12-02 09:00
He stands atop of the gate pillars at Boughton Hall, on the edge of the village.The other pillar has an equally fine griffin Read More
2016-12-01 21:54
The poet Burns writes:Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,The hills of the Highlands for ever… Read More
2016-12-01 21:27
Embed from Getty ImagesBefore the cool kids tired of Pokemon Go I wrote:It is good to see children out on a summer evening exploring the streets and seeing things the adults around them cann… Read More
2016-12-01 20:37
Embed from Getty ImagesThe European referendum and the American Presidential election went his way, but last night Vladimir Putin's man failed to win the world chess championship.After their… Read More
2016-12-01 20:02
We know that Lord Bonkers was an early champion of the Rutbeat sound and that the real David Watts (the one we all wish we could be like) came from Rutland.Now, thanks to Ned Rutland on Twit… Read More
2016-12-01 19:15
In my day we didn't get chocolates in our Advent calendars. We got little pictures - perhaps a drum or a ball - with the highlight being the Holy Family behind the final (double) window,And… Read More
2016-11-30 22:09
"During moments of national trauma, the public turns to the BBC for shared experience and understanding," says Ioan Marc Jones He examines the different ways the corporation handled Aberfan… Read More
2016-11-30 21:12
From the Evening Standard today:Zac Goldsmith limped into the last hustings of the Richmond Park by-election an hour late after being struck by his own car. The former London mayoral ca… Read More
2016-11-28 07:56
Two years ago I fell in love with The Elephant Will Never Forget - John Krish's ridiculously moving account of the last day of London's trams in 1952.Nine, Dalmuir West, made by Kevin B… Read More
2016-11-27 19:46
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Mirror.Well done to all involved Read More
2016-11-27 11:14
The BBC's repeat of Top of the Pops from 1982 - or at least of those episodes that have not been Yewtreed - is one of the highlights of the week.The show recently featured the forgettable&nb&hell…Read More
2016-11-26 22:05
This is the other half of Holden Webster's exploration of this interesting little line. (Part 1 is here.)I visited Ditton Priors years ago and once blogged my memories of the visit:Ditton Pr… Read More
2016-11-26 19:24
"Trump’s behavior, if successful, would supply proof of concept that he can destroy norms unimpeded. He has already dismantled the twin guardrails against presidential kleptocracy, tax… Read More
2016-11-26 18:09
Years ago I contributed a book chapter arguing that the abuse of children is rarely a new discovery. History shows that it is regularly discovered and then forgotten again.So I was not too s… Read More
2016-11-25 21:58
Mountsorrel station took some finding. I imagined it down in the valley somewhere near the River Soar, but it was a long way from the village and up a hill.On the way I passed Mountsorrel Qu… Read More
2016-11-25 21:18
Vote Leave Watch has helpfully put together a collection of the most extravagant promises made by the Leave campaign during this year's Euro referendum.Here are some examples:"Asylum and Imm… Read More
2016-11-25 20:07
There's time for a quick plug for the weekly Cricket Badger email - you can sign up here:“Recently we have struggled to identify the periods that are difficult," said Steve Smith. We… Read More
2016-11-25 19:27
Thanks to Kiron Reid for tweeting this extract from a House Points column that I wrote for Liberal Democrat News back in 2004.As Rees-Mogg did not make it to Westminster until 2010, I am ast… Read More
2016-11-24 21:15
Nice Belvoir!Is Leicestershire England's least known county?The blurb for this film, produced for the local branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England in 1970, claims it is. M… Read More
2016-11-24 17:41
Peter Phillips, the former Liberal Democrat councillor for Bishop's Castle, has received a lifetime achievement award from the West Midlands region of the party.Its secretary, Kathryn Ball… Read More
2016-11-23 23:01
The Butter Market was put up in 1793 by Sir John Danvers to replace Mountsorrel's medieval market cross.Danvers had moved the cross to his estate at nearby Swithland Hall, where it still sta… Read More
2016-11-23 22:27
Not all is well on Leicester City Council, as a guest post on this blog about bullying there once showed.Today the Leicester Mercury tells us that three complaintsare currently being in… Read More
2016-11-22 21:33
On Saturday I arrived at St Margaret's bus station in Leicester with the intention of catching the 747 bus to Houghton on the Hill.But it runs only every two hours and there was still an hou… Read More
2016-11-22 21:04
Embed from Getty ImagesHe's back.The Leicester Mercury reports:[Damon] Kelly, a member of a religious order which calls themselves The Black Hermits, has appeared in Dunoon Sheriff Court, in… Read More
2016-11-22 20:46
The canal and church at Braunston © Chris DownerI was sorry to hear of the death of William Trevor yesterday - I have read many of his superb novels and short stories over the years.As… Read More
2016-11-22 20:06
This is the end of the first programme in the great man's 2009 series Off Kilter.For the story of how Trump got his development passed by the planning authority, see another post on this blo… Read More
2016-11-21 21:52
I have moaned before about the inexorable spread of the high-visibility vest.The latest group I have seen succumb to this plague are the Scouts. Still they were picking up conkers in the par… Read More
2016-11-21 21:20
The Leicester Mercury reports:Several community hospitals are to close along with a county birthing centre under radical plans to cut NHS costs across Leicestershire and Rutland. The su… Read More
2016-11-21 20:53
A year ago the Mountsorrel branch reopened and I decided to go and look for it myself today.I found Mountsorrel station some way uphill from the centre of the village. A poster claimed herit… Read More
2016-11-21 20:52
This is the former Mountsorrel Hall in Leicestershire. This striking 18th-century brick building in a village built largely from the local granite was at first a private house but later beca… Read More
2016-11-21 19:59
"I believe that the Liberal Democrats provide a strong platform for building a centre-left politics in rapidly changing times. The Party’s mission of seeking to create a society that b… Read More
2016-11-20 21:18
The Gentle Author writes:Often when I set out for a walk from Spitalfields, my footsteps lead me to the crossroads outside the Bank of England , at the place where Richard Jefferies –… Read More
2016-11-20 12:07
One of the unexpected discoveries from the obituaries of Leon Russell was that he co-wrote Superstar, the song made famous by the Carpenters.Wikipedia tells the story of the song's genesis:A… Read More
2016-11-18 21:57
Click on the still above to view this short film on the British Film Institute website.There the blurb runs:15-year-old Peter Ross may not have gone on to be the next Stirling Moss and would… Read More
2016-11-18 21:17
The Democrats ran Hillary Clinton because it was "her turn", argues Rachael Larimore, and that was a big mistake.Olivia Goldhill calls on philosophers to engage with contemporary political d… Read More
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