All Saints, Margaret Street, is an extraordinary Victorian church in the London district of Fitzrovia. Somehow its architect, William Butterfield, fitted the church, its vicarage and a choir school on to its restricted urban site. Laurence Olivier was famously a pupil at the choir school, and the other day I found another old boy of note. It's Tony Hart, the beloved children's television presenter and artist.
Crossing the High Street with care It was the Needham Market Civic Service yesterday and, in my capacity as Chair of one of its neighbouring Parishes (but mostly as Ros's husband), we were part of the formal party. That requires us to process up the High Street from the Community Centre to the Parish Church for the service. I'm sure that, in past years, the High Street was closed and we processed down the middle of the road, Mayors of the surrounding towns in their regalia and robes, their Consorts by their side but it all seemed rather more low ...
This week, Lib Dems have been out in force across the country in the local elections. Ed's been in Essex Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has been in Chelmsford campaigning ahead of next month's local elections. His party is hoping to hold on to the city's council after winning there in 2019 https://t.co/J70tI8SYsW pic.twitter.com/A2bDGH34dc — BBC Essex (@BBCEssex) April 16, 2023 If you don't have elections in your area, do go and help somewhere else. You might help elect more Lib Dem Councillors.
Before we start, we know that many of our readers will be way too busy to do anything other than campaigning on Tuesday or any other nights ahead of the local elections. We assume that this event will be recorded and if we see it online, we'll post a link so that you can listen at your leisure while stuffing blue letters, responding to casework emails or doing data entry. Anyway, you may be aware that a load of pro electoral reform organisations, co-ordinated by Make Votes Matter, are running a mass lobby of Parliament to call for proportional representation ...
Next Sunday, at 3pm, the Government will send a test message to every mobile phone in the country to check out its new emergency alerts system. This is all well and good, but it could alert abusive partners to concealed mobile phones. With that in mind, domestic abuse charity Refuge has issued advice to anyone affected, and we should all share this with as many of our networks as possible ahead of the test. Here is their video posted on You Tube: https://youtu.be/I2MBcHwmiy8 It is good that the Government has incorporated Refuge's advice into its own preparations, with its own ...
Nick Drake was famously obscure in his brief lifetime, but a few years ago his work was in danger of becoming clichéd, regularly turning up as backing music on BBC programmes. That threat seems to have passed, or maybe I just watch less television these days. Anyway, a more promising development is the announcement of The Endless Coloured Ways, billed as: a collection of songs by legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences. From Fontaines D.C to Guy Garvey, and Aurora to Feist, ...
Oadby and Wigston Council is an unusually small council, being less than the size of a Parliamentary constituency.
After January's fence miracle, it's time for another one, this time courtesy of Thames Water of some finally banished graffiti.
Today's Guardian lays bare the opportunities for the Liberal Democrats at the local elections because of the failure of the Government to settle nurses' and junior doctors' pay claims. Campaigners in the so-called blue wall seats - where affluent, liberal Tory voters have been drifting away from the party - have already reported their surprise at finding that the NHS has emerged as the main concern on the doorstep rather than more familiar issues in the seats, such as tax cuts. "The NHS is the most salient issue on the doorstep for 2019 Tory voters, and now their failure to ...
I have just listened to a discussion on Radio Wales in which a former Labour adviser argued that the advert out out by Labour, accusing Rishi Sunak of failing to put paedophiles in prison has been succsesful because it is being talked about in pubs. Putting aside the fact that pub talk is a hardly a measure of competence and success, in my experience very few people are in fact discussing it, but of those who are, it is hardly doing Labour any favours. The Observer reports that an an Opinium poll has found that the controversial "attack ad" has ...
France It is a case of mixed messages coming out of Paris. On the one hand, we have President Emmanuel Macron telling homeward bound journalists that Taiwan should not be a European concern and that France (and Europe by extension) should not let its China policy be determined by American "extremists". On the other hand, while Macron was speaking after his state visit to China, the French frigate Prairial was steaming through the Taiwan Straits while the Chinese Communist Party was flexing its muscles with an encirclement exercise of the island. France, is unique as the only European nation with ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email: "*" indicates required fields Email* Enter Email Confirm Email If you submit this form, your data will be used in line with the privacy policy here to update you on the topic(s) selected. This may including using this ...
There's a quiz night next Saturday at Logie and St John's (Cross) Church at 7pm. Contact details for the church if you are interested in attending are available at www.logies.org/contact-us
