The actor Barry Evans died in the Leicestershire village of Claybrooke Magna in 1997. The circumstances of his death were mysterious, but no charges have ever been brought. This video told me much I didn;t know about his career - in particular that he had grown up in care. It would be interesting to know how he managed to get to the Italia Conti Academy and then the Central School of Speech and Drama from such a background. The clips of his early work here, and the fact that he acted at the Royal Court and the National Theatre, suggest ...
To fan or not to fan? With the temperatures hitting as high as 40 degree Celsius in the UK heatwave I have been using two fans, one in the bedroom and one in the lounge, to keep me cool. Not at the same time, of course, because I can only be in one place at ... The post The cost of turning a fan on in the heatwave appeared first on A Midlifer in London .
Tory leadership candidates have been whittled down to three in the penultimate round of voting. Today's result was: Rishi Sunak 118 Penny Mordaunt 92 Liz Truss 86 Kemi Badenoch 59 You would have expected Rishi Sunak to pick up more than 3 of the 31 votes up for grabs from yesterday's eliminated candidate Tom Tugendhat. Instead, it was Liz Truss who gained most, 15 votes, followed by Penny Mordaunt up 10. Kemi Badenoch only gained one vote and was therefore eliminated. There could, of course be a fair bit of churn. Perhaps some of Sunak's vote moving to Mordaunt as ...
Embed from Getty ImagesIt's easy to forget that the Green Party's only parliamentarian besides Caroline Lucas at the time of the EU referendum, the peer Jenny Jones, voted Leave and campaigned for Leave. She made "the Green case for Brexit" in the Guardian a fortnight before polling day. Today Jenny Jones published a partial recantation on Politics Home website: I'm fed up with the government's Brexit mess. This government has made such a mess of Brexit that I think we have to start talking to the EU about options for restoring closer ties. Unlike most others in my party, I ...
Amid all the contrived excitement of the competition for the Tory leadership (which doesn't really matter becasue they're all Tories and they're all wrong) yesterday's most important political development seems to have escaped most of the media's notice. it is, in a small item on page 2 of the Guardian, that Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out any deal with the Liberal Democrats. This is interpreted as no coalition and no "confidence and supply" arrangement either. Nor with the SNP. Labour will go it alone, or not at all. Starmer's reasoning is easy to understand. Without such a committed declaration ...
How are you all coping with the heat? We are sweltering up here and I am very conscious that we are 10 degrees cooler than most of you in England and Wales. That must be incredibly uncomfortable We had to stop the dogs going upstairs because it was so warm they were panting all the time. They are basically being kept most of the time in the living room with an air conditioning thing going. I had a much better night than I expected. All humans and dogs seemed to sleep reasonably. You could tell it was it was hot ...
Mon, 12:50: RT @sturdyAlex: Tory HQ was reportedly instrumental at pulling the plug on the remaining leadership debate. Initially, the thinking had be... Mon, 19:00: April 2017 books https://t.co/hslDXfY01s Mon, 21:20: RT @Mij_Europe: Hearing that Tory campaign teams are leaking to Labour sources.. so Labour can leak to press and it doesn't look like its c... Mon, 22:09: Daily Octordle #175 9️⃣🔟 8️⃣🕚 7️⃣6️⃣ 4️⃣5️⃣ Score: 60 https://t.co/j7MjyMDtNS Mon, 22:13: Daily Quordle 175 7️⃣4️⃣ 5️⃣6️⃣ https://t.co/Cm9zc2fDBW https://t.co/ZoqXIKrrRR Tue, 08:53: Obviously I don't like any of the Conservative leadership candidates. But the fact that Johnson clearly hates Sunak means that he ...
A new analysis by the Education Policy Institute suggests that pupils from poorer backgrounds in Wales are about two years behind their peers. As the BBC reports, by the time they sit their GCSEs, poorer pupils are on average 22 to 23 months behind, with those identified as long-term poor up to 29 months behind. They add that the figures are based on results from three years ago but researchers say pupils have almost certainly fallen further behind over the Covid pandemic: The gap is at its highest - between 25 and 28 months - in Wrexham, Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau ...
It is not unexpected but it is disappointing. Shropshire Council planners are recommending that the controversial application to convert Golden Moments into a house be approved by the Southern Planning Committee next Tuesday (22/01790/FUL). I don't agree with officers' reasoning and will making my views known to fellow committee members next week. There are planning grounds for turning this application down. There is no obligation on committee members to accept the recommendation from officers, otherwise what would be the point of having a planning committee? Town centres should bustling places. They should have places to eat. Places to meet friends. ...
Tue 19th
10:04
Lord Bonkers' Diary: The Revd Hughes has taken refuge in the crypt beneath St Asquith's
This just in... A report from Rutland as it suffers or enjoys its hottest day in history. Meadowcroft's not going to like that. Tuesday We are all finding our different ways of coping with this damned heat. The Revd Hughes has taken refuge in the crypt beneath St Asquith's, where he keeps what he claims to be the knee bone of John Locke, but I have Never Been Convinced. Cook is giving out her famous ice cream to all comers on the village green. I, reminded of my time in the Tropics, have donned a solar topee and khaki shorts ...
We are losing so many brilliant liberals at the moment. Ron Waddell, who was Chief Executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats back in the 90s, died suddenly on Sunday. Somewhere in the middle of Saturday night , I was scrolling through Facebook. A photo posted by Ron on Saturday afternoon, of a cloudy saltire in the blue sky above his Derbyshire home, made me smile. Not least because Ron hardly ever posted on Facebook and it was lovely to see. It was about 12 hours later that his wife Sandra posted the awful news. In every single conversation I have ...
Many of us will have seen on social media that Barwell Lib Dem Councillor Mathew Hulbert lost his mum, Jackie, last week. We were all shocked that she had to wait 11 hours for an ambulance after a fall at her home. The picture, taken by Mathew's sister, shows a happy Mathew and Jackie enjoying a drink earlier this year. Mathew went on LBC last night to talk to Iain Dale about their ordeal. A week ago yesterday my mum fell in the early hours. She pressed her buzzer. I got to the house. She said her ribs hurt so ...
