You know that film I'm always going on about? Well a version of it has appeared on YouTube. I say "a version" because this one last only an hour, whereas Talking Pictures TV has show one ("with previously lost scenes restored") that lasts at least 20 minutes longer. It's a dark film - in both senses of the word. As I blogged recently, like Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, No Room at the Inn was inspired by the death of Dennis O'Neill in 1945. You can see this in the way that at least some of the children are not, as ...
One hundred days of fear. One hundred days of death. One hundred days of annihilation of cities, towns and villages. It is 100 days since Russia launched its bloody wave of killing and destruction in Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine is not a war somewhere off. It is in the biggest country in Europe and is on the delicate border between the EU and Putin's Russian sphere of influence. The impacts on Europe are immense and growing. From the need for countries such as Poland to house millions of refugees to the need to urgently rewire economies dependent on Russian ...
Welcome to the latest in my occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – another study on the impact of Twitter on election campaigns. As with the last one I covered on this topic, this one also finds a positive impact for tweeting candidates: The aim of this paper is to study the influence of Twitter on candidates' electoral performance, in the context of the 2019 Greek Parliamentary election. We are particularly interested in candidates' Twitter activity and visibility. We apply an innovative method of analysis of each candidate's potential reach, taking into account the followers and the ...
As we celebrate our Jubilee Bank Holiday with a traditional Bank Holiday rain storm, perhaps it gives us some time to reflect on the future of the monarchy. It's also a good time because change has to be in the ... Continue reading →
There is a lot to celebrate this weekend. I hope that most of us will have an opportunity to rest and relax a bit! However, it is incredibly sad that today marks 100 days since Russia started its invasion on Ukraine. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 4,169 civilian deaths during Russia's military attack on Ukraine as of June 1, 2022. Of them, 268 were children. Furthermore, 4,982 people were reported to have been injured. However, the real numbers could be higher. There were approximately 13,000 non-fatal injuries. At least ...
The planning saga for development in the grounds of Linney House has been long and tortuous. A succession of applications from 2012 to 2019 proposed between three and eight homes on the site. Two planning applications were approved. One for three homes, the other for four. Not satisfied with this number, developer James Hepworth applied for eight homes but this was rejected by a planning inspector in February 2021. Hepworth has since sold the site to Shrewsbury-based Charter Homes. Charter proposes to proceed with the existing permission for three homes. However, it proposes to change the design of the houses ...
The royalists are right: it has brought the country together. And there won't have been many Corbynites in the crowd outside St Paul's. Later. He was booed as he left too. UK prime minister Boris Johnson booed relentlessly as he left St Paul's cathedral following the jubilee Thanksgiving this lunchtime π pic.twitter.com/Pj4jCTHmD0 — π°πππ π¬πππππ πππππ δΉζ²»ε₯₯ε¨ε° (@George62989794) June 3, 2022
Thu, 12:56: RT @ukiswitheu: Mumsnet: Why should we believe anything you say, when it is proven that you're a habitual liar? Boris Johnson: Well..I..er... Thu, 16:05: RT @meaghano: who's gonna tell them https://t.co/zrCJ7cdLYT Thu, 18:48: The Pilgrimage ofοΏ½Egeria https://t.co/udryyYSRxp Thu, 20:48: RT @DonnaDotPaella: I don't know if you guys realize that there is now a (very famous) precedent for how saying publicly that you are a vic... </ul
Yesterday was a day of pageantry, cheering crowds and an unforced display of respect for the monarch from many in our nation. Boris Johnson's government has now crowned that achievement with proposals that will make the UK a laughing stock worldwide. Proposals to bring back imperial measurements fly in the face of modernity and the needs of enterprise. But they suit the needs of this out of touch government, which seems to believe that if we bring back crowns on beer glasses and allow grocers to sell only in imperial measures it will lift the popular mood. Although this scheme ...
I had an inkling that 2022 would not be a good year for a foreign holiday, so I booked a fortnight in Cornwall instead. Nevertheless, those who have paid for a bit of sun are quite rightly agrieved at the way they are being treated by travel companies, who, it seems, can cancel at will, with only the offer of vouchers for a future excursion as recompense. In many cases passengers are being taken off the plane, minutes before they are due to depart. I don't blame them for being angry, but they should remember that they don't need to ...
I'll be giving a talk this month at the Conway Hall all about political opinion polls, their history, their mystery and their wonder. It's on the evening of Monday 13 June. Soup analogies likely to be feature, plus why George Gallup wasn't as great as conventional wisdom says and how racism led to generations of historians and pundits being misled by polling. Get your tickets here and there'll be a chance to ask plenty of questions as well as to buy my polling book, Polling UnPacked, after. Get polling news and analysis by email Sign up here if you would ...
A planning application has been submitted to convert the former maternity unity at Ludlow Community Hospital to workshops and office space (22/02263/COU). The building was put up for sale last October and there was concern that it might be converted into apartments, a use that would not be compatible with the hospital uses on the site. This is good application from entrepreneurs Johnny Bergius and Ed Godrich who have been looking for a home for an adventurous concept. The plan is to host an eclectic mix of small businesses, offices, artists, craft studios, filmmakers and the like. There is also ...
