I've just watched the 1945 Ealing film Painted Boats. It's not an Ealing comedy, but it is hardly a drama either as the plot is so weak and the film wants to educate as well as entertain. Yet there is much to enjoy. Above all you would watch it today for the footage of the canals in wartime. You could frame many of the shots and put them on your wall. It is very much of its period, or a slightly earlier period, in that the narrator Louis MacNeice wrote some verse specially for the film. The nearest thing to ...
Photo of a Great Dane by edustalker at Morguefile.com You've heard of Operation Save Big Dog, the push (prop. B. Johnson) to safeguard the position of the prime minister. So it's natural that the Conservative MPs who want to see Boris Johnson go have named their campaign Operation Rinka. Rinka, you will recall, was the Great Dane owned by Norman Scott, the man Jeremy Thorpe was tried with conspiring to murder. She was shot dead in what the jury apparently believed was an attempt to frighten Scott. The Guardian has heard that Johnson now has opponents from across the party: ...
In her Scotsman column this week, Christine Jardine looks back at the Queen's reign and her contribution to our national life. She looks at the laws the Queen has given assent to over the past 70 years: In 70 years, the Queen has given Royal Assent to around 4,000 pieces of legislation. Among them are some of the most significant in British social history on abortion, race relations, equal rights, same-sex marriage and devolution. And the fact that the Queen is female helped the cause of women's equality: Even in the 'Swinging 60s', a decade marked by social and sexual ...
Embed from Getty ImagesLast December there was a political earthquake in North Shropshire as Helen Morgan gained the seat for the Liberal Democrats with a 34 per cent swing from the Conservatives. But there was nothing metaphorical about yesterday's earthquake. Centred on Wem, it measured 3.8 on the Richter scale. The Shropshire Star says: People across the north of the county, as well as parts of Telford, reported doors slamming and furniture moving for a few seconds when shocks were felt just after 3.30pm. And the paper's photo caption adds that "homes in Whitchurch wobbled".
A recent Financial Times op-ed argued that the UK should now recognise that the Ukraine conflict has imposed aspects of a war economy on the UK - shortages, rising prices, disruptions in supply - which require serious changes in economic policy. The business pages of the serious press urge higher public investment, spending on education and apprenticeships to raise our woefully-low labour productivity, and government intervention to promote innovation, resilience against supply-chain shocks and sustainability. Defenders of the NHS point to its much lower spending and staffing per head than comparable European countries half that of Germany and the Netherlands, ...
Mon, 12:56: Missed this at the time! Interesting that gender gap statistically insignificant for all parties - least so for UUP with all-male Assembly team. SDLP and TUV age stats are frightening. Can't quite believe Greens *so* unpopular in youngest cohort - small sample size here surely? https://t.co/ICJAt7VzlQ Mon, 14:50: Daily Quordle 126 1️⃣5️⃣ 7️⃣4️⃣ https://t.co/Cm9zc2fDBW https://t.co/RILwYghOaL Mon, 15:01: Daily Octordle #126 🔟🕚 9️⃣8️⃣ 🕛4️⃣ 7️⃣5️⃣ https://t.co/j7MjyMDtNS Mon, 16:05: No quick fix: EU foreign policy needs unanimity rule https://t.co/zqCZmD9sdH Am inclined to agree. Mon, 19:14: August 2016 books https://t.co/JZTIaH913w Mon, 19:38: August 2016 books https://t.co/9lEenJvQmh https://t.co/bc6mOdGqu7 Mon, 20:48: RT @gideonrachman: ...
It is a bit galling to get back from a weekend at the Hay Festival to find that the whole basis of serving the public has been turned upside down, even more so when the changes are self-serving and being brought in by a Prime Minister, who never really embraced the Nolan primciples in the first place. As the Independent reports, the PM has rewritten the Ministerial Code of Conduct to avoid having to resign if the inquiry by the Commons privileges committee into whether he lied to parliament over lockdown-breaching parties at 10 Downing Street rules against him. In ...
Residents have complained to us that foliage from the trees in the Peddie Street industrial area is significantly impending the pavement on the south side of Annfield Street - see photos : We have therefore asked the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership to contact the site owners to have the foliage cut back.
