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The composer Jim Parker has died - you can read his obituary in the Guardian. He was a hugely successful composer of music for television, but I remember him for two of quirkier projects. The first, Captain Beaky and his Band, was briefly a cult in the early Eighties and explains why the Gloucestershire fast bowler David Lawrence, after first being nicknamed Syd Lawrence after the bandleader, came to be known as Hissing Syd Lawrence. More substantially, Parker composed the music to which John Betjeman read his poems on four LPs, beginning with Banaba Blush, between 1974 and 1981. As ...
The UK's division of government powers and functions between the centre and local government has for decades been recognised as a major source of our inefficiency. Germany, where the massive powers reserved to the Lander have long been one of the reasons for its economic pre-eminence, is seen as the example to follow. France, despite its Napoleonic inheritance, has followed suit and devolved considerable powers to its regional governments and town councils. Yet in Britain, despite the example of the late Victorian municipalities, and their gas, sewage systems, concert halls and waterworks etc., the flow has been and continues to ...
The ballots are in, the votes have been tallied, and the defining issue of the next General Election has been determined by 495 voters in Uxbridge & South Ruislip. Is it the Cost of Living, the NHS or the imminent breakdown of the global climate system? No. To paraphrase Clinton's campaign strategist, James Carville (drum roll please): "It's the automobile, stupid." Tories and Labour alike have rushed to endorse the new zeitgeist, the Tories because it distracts voters from those issues that really matter and Labour because they are timid and always let the Tories set the agenda. As issues ...
Good news from the Guardian: Wild camping is once again allowed on Dartmoor after the national park won a successful appeal against a ruling in a case brought by a wealthy landowner. Camping had been assumed to be allowed under the Dartmoor Commons Act since 1985, until a judge ruled otherwise in January. It was the only place in England such an activity was allowed without requiring permission from a landowner. The case hinged on whether wild camping counted as open-air recreation, leading to a long debate in the court of appeal. That question gave rise to some top judging ...
It would be a huge understatement if I was to say that the inflation, the current energy and the cost of living crisis is negatively affecting people's lives. There is no doubt in my mind that we are not even close out of the woods and as predicted by many economists, the aftermath of the ongoing hardship will continue for many months, if not years. The consequences of government policies, since COVID but also in recent years, has dominated many of my conversations with my friends and colleagues. There are thousands of stories of people, who are having to make ...
In the last few days I have had more surprises than I can cope with. They have been, both, good and bad. Both have unsettled me when, in fact, I should be in a state of equilibrium having had good and bad surprises in equal measure, if you see what I mean. Life doesn't work ... The post The Element of Surprise in Midlife – Good or Bad? appeared first on A Midlifer in London - a baby boomer trying to stay relevant .
Bridgnorth's rare inland funicular railway, which has been closed since just before Christmas when problems were found with a wall beside the line, seems no nearer reopening. A report in the Shropshire Star earlier this month said: While one section of the wall has now been repaired, work is yet to start on an second section that needs to be fixed before the attraction can open safely. Bridgnorth Town Council are awaiting the signature from the operator of the railway to authorise the works. Owner of the Railway Malvern Tipping said the delay is due to his insurer's solicitor needing ...
So where is that PPE the UK Government spent billions of pounds on during the pandemic? Well. according to the Mirror, NHS-owned PPE worth at least £225 million which never made it to the UK has been burned in China, releasing nearly 6,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere: Analysis found incinerating the mountain of plastic-laced equipment would have pumped out as much carbon as the electricity consumption of 3,750 UK households for a year. The UK ordered more than 30 billion items of protective-wear when the pandemic struck - with hundreds of millions of items coming from firms in ...
From Sheena Wellington : Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail Wednesday 2nd August at the Wighton Centre in the Central Library 1pm - 2pm Our annual chance to see and hear the best of the emerging crop of traditional musicians. These talented and lively young folk are always a delight to meet. Admission free, donations welcome.
