I've long known that the comedian Richard Murdoch had family connections with Market Harborough, and that he had his appendix out at the cottage hospital here. You can see it (the hospital, not the appendix) in the photo above. But this rabbit hole has proved to be more interesting than I expected. Let's start with a story from the Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail for 17 February 1939: Richard Murdoch's Huge Fan Mail Every day large boxes of chocolates. letters and other gifts are arriving at the Market Harborough and District Hospital for Richard "Stinker" Murdoch, BBC "Band Waggon" ...
Sat 26th
18:42
After 78 days' suffering the relief is incredible: Nadine Dorries has resigned as an MP
Nadine Dorries has resigned as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, more than 11 weeks after she announced that she was to do so 'with immediate effect'. Her resignation letter attacks Rishi Sunak viciously: Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened. What exactly has been done or have you achieved? You hold the office of Prime Minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. You have no mandate from the people and the government is adrift. You have squandered the goodwill of the nation, ...
After previously saying she'd resigned with "immediate" effect but, er...., not going, this time Nadine Dorries says she's sent off a resignation letter.
The previous post argues that to stop the rot in the quality of our government and lives and achieve the modest competence worthy of a rich developed nation we need to ditch our arrogant delusions of exceptionalism and subject our institutions to root and branch examination and fundamental reform. Should there be any doubt as to the reality of our exit from the list of leading nations some figures cited by an Edinburgh GP, Gavin Francis, in a "Long Read" in last Thursday's Guardian (24th August) provide the dismal evidence. In 1950 the UK was in the top six countries ...
The accounts of political parties with an annual income or expenditure of above £250,000 for the financial year ending 31 December 2022 have been published by the Electoral Commission. The results show that the SNP and Conservative show a fall in income, while the Liberal Democrats and Labour are in a much stronger position. Figures show that the Liberal Democrats attracted £1 million more in donations than it did the previous year, a sign of success and donor confidence. What is crucially important is that the party has been able to bring in a significant rise in donations at an ...
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, The Week in Polls: "*" 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 ...
David McRaney's book on how people can be persuaded to change their minds has come out to impressive reviews and good sales.
We recently received a complaint about this hugely amateurish way of highlighting no parking in front of the Balgay Cemetery store and office. We therefore asked environment management at the council to clean this mess off and put up professional 'no parking' signage.
