It can be difficult to keep all your rabbit holes in the air, and it's high time we went back to No Room at the Inn. This is the film that introduced me to the wonderful actress Freda Jackson. The play on which it is based was in part inspired the death of the foster child Dennis O'Neill in Shropshire in 1945, which was the case that led Agatha Christie to write The Mousetrap. (Those first three links are to labels on this blog, so scroll down for plenty of posts each time.) I recently came across an article on ...
Campaigners have not given up on reopening Whitechapel Bell Foundry, but its closure in 2017 left John Taylor's of Loughborough as the only working bell foundry in Britain. Taylor's buildings are not in good condition, and there have been efforts for some years to put together a package of funding to secure the enterprise's future and make it more attractive to visitors. So it's good to read in the Leicester Mercury that: Work to save Loughborough's historic Taylor's Bellfoundry - the last of its kind in the UK - has begun. The work aims to protect and enhance the Grade ...
Here's an encouraging article from an unexpected source: The Lib Dems count for more than their current low representation suggests. Next year, the centre party will become political kingmaker if, as seems highly likely, neither Labour nor the Conservatives win a majority in the general election. It's a role it has played for more than a hundred years. The centrists also matter in other ways beyond raw electoral calculation. At Westminster, the party stands for important but unfashionable causes - the defence of civil liberties and constitutional change - that don't find a natural home with either of the two ...
From Harborough FM: A deal has been struck between political parties to run Harborough District Council. The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Labour have reached an agreement to work together, after the authority was left in no overall control following the local elections. Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Knowles will be put forward to become leader of the council at tonight's annual council meeting. Well done to everyone who has brought this agreement about, and congratulations to Phil, whom I first met almost 40 years ago. Later. In a statement to the Harborough Mail the three groups said: We have been working ...
Boris Johnson has just paid £3.8m cash for a nine bed mansion, and yet taxpayers continue to pick up his legal bills as he seeks to defend himself in an investigation into his conduct while Prime Minister. The Independent reports that Johnson's legal defence fees for the Partygate inquiry, covered by the taxpayer, have soared again as the government again extended the contract: The former PM's legal bill has risen from £222,000 to up to £245,000 after the deal with a team led by top barrister Lord Pannick KC was extended for a second time. Labour said Rishi Sunak must ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 15 MAY 2023 Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed for 13 months for construction works. Westfield Place - traffic control for one week from Monday 15 May for street lighting works. Riverside Drive (at Airport) - off‑peak temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 16 May for DFT traffic loop repair. Blackness Road (at Glenagnes Road) - temporary traffic lights from 9.00am on Wednesday 17 May to 6.00am on Thursday 18 May for Scottish Water work. Forthcoming Roadworks Westfield Lane - traffic control ...
I have started reading Ma'am Darling, Craig Brown's book about Princess Margaret, and it is every bit as good as the reviews said it was. The book's genesis, Brown says, lay in the way Margaret cropped up in the index of every biography from her period that he opened. Here is a little run he gives from Margaret Drabble's biography of Angus Wilson: Margaret, Princess Marie Antoinette Market Harborough Given my love of a good index, I found this immediately appealing, and here I am left wondering what Angus Wilson's connection with Market Harborough was. And it has led me ...
