Now we're well into Advent it's high time I posted the opening titles of The Box of Delights. Job done. In order to qualify as a regular reader of Liberal England, you have to know that the cottage where the band Traffic got it together in the country in 1967 was near the Berkshire village of Aston Tirrold. Years ago, I got excited because John Masefield's first book about Kay Harker sees him setting out to discover what became of a fortune stolen from his great grandfather Aston Tirrold Harker. But Masefield's connection with the village is closer than that. ...
I looked up Innocent Sinners, my latest children and bombsites film, in the British Newspaper Archive and came across this story from the Dalkieth Advertiser: A Tale of Two Sisters It was to have been a great day for 10-year-old Helen Archer. She was due to have a test for a top part in tne Rank Organisation film Innocent Sinners. Her mother could not go with her to Pinewood for the test so her 14-year-old sister June took her along instead. Everything was set for the test scene. 'Then director Philip Leacock found he wanted an extra girl. He asked ...
Freddie and Fiona's metamorphosis into Julian and Sandy continues apace: now I've even given them a weak punchline. And I didn't know Lord B. drinks Monster either. Maybe it's cheaper than that cordial sold by the Elves of Rockingham Forest? Tuesday Popping into the supermarket for a can of Monster - that puts hair on a fellow's chest! - I come across Freddie and Fiona busily comparing tines in the soup aisle. "A mulligatawny is pleasantly warming at this time of year," I offer. It transpires that they are not planning to drink the stuff so much as pour it ...
Alliance party leader, Naomi Long, has been named as one of the BBC's 100 Women list for 2022. The list "celebrates the achievements of women internationally, from grassroots volunteers to global leaders". It includes women from a wide variety of backgrounds including sports, culture, human rights activism, politics, sports, arts etc. It is accompanied by a series of documentaries and intervews across the BBC internationally. Naomi Long, from our sister party the Alliance, has had a distinguished career in Northern Irish politics. She served as Justice Minister from 2020 until 2022. During this time, according to the BBC's citation, she ...
Mon, 18:06: March 2019 books https://t.co/OKHAGAQcO8 Mon, 19:33: RT @davidtorrance: Exactly 100 years ago today Royal Assent was granted to the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922, which completed rati...
Over on Medium, Vince Cable has written on the political ups and downs of talking about Brexit: Aside from narrow, short-term, electoral calculus there is a deeper challenge to parties to define, in broad terms, their picture of the country's identity and role in the world. The Labour Party was rescued from irrelevance when its leaders, especially under Blair and Brown, located Britain amongst the European Social Democracies. The Lib Dems were long at ease with being European. No alternative has emerged since Brexit. In many ways the country appears lost, The BMG survey found that a large majority felt ...
It's turning cold out there. Temperatures in Ludlow are expected to fall to minus 3°C overnight, minus 4°C later in the week before warming slightly from the weekend. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also issued a Level 3 Cold Weather Alert until 12 December. It's double duvet time. The UKHSA has urged people to keep warm: "If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you. Try to heat the rooms you use most, such as the living and bedroom, to at least 18°C if you can and ...
Never believe the hype, a phrase that lends itself to Gordon Brown's constitutional review with unerring accuracy. As the Independent says, Brown himself described his report as the 'biggest transfer of power out of Westminster' ever seen, unfortunately, for those of us who want to see real reform, it was just another damp squib. In particular, the absence of any proposal to reform the voting system for Westminster and other elections is a major omission. As the Labour MP Clive Lewis, a former member of the shadow cabinet, says:: "A welcome acknowledgement in the Brown report is that millions feel ...
Phil Spector released his album A Christmas Gift for You in 1963. It contained a collection of secular Christmas standards reworked in his unique 'wall of sound' style. The tune for Sleigh Ride was composed by Leroy Anderson in 1948, with the lyrics added two years later by Mitchell Paris. The Ronettes were a Manhattan girl group, led by Veronica Veronica Bennett who began an affair with Spector around the time this track was recorded. She married him in 1968, only to flee four years later. In 2008 Spector was convicted of the murder of the actress Lana Clarkson, He ...
Tonight at 6.30pm as part of West End Christmas Fortnight, Erin Farley of Dundee Libraries presents "Hogmanay in Print - the Victorian era." Hogmanay and New Year's Day have long been a popular celebration for Dundee's people, with celebrations recorded in newspapers, broadsides, photographs and elsewhere through the years. Erin shares some seasonal highlights from the Local History Centre's collections. This online event will run at www.facebook.com/WestEndChristmas
