Sad news tonight: the impressionist Mike Yarwood, one of the giants of 1970s television, has died. The last time most of us saw him was as a guest on Bob Monkhouse's extraordinary programme, The Last Stand, recorded in front of an audience of fellow comics when Monkhouse must have known he was dying. Here are Monkhouse and Yarwood - old friends and great professionals. For some reason I can't make the video start at the point I want, so please go to 34:30 or thereabouts to see Mike Yarwood come on,
Here are some notes on 10 British films that are not as well known as I think they ought to be. It's not a top 10 - they are in chronological order - and I'm sure there are plenty more, particularly from recent decades, that could fairly be included in such a list. With those caveats entered, let's go. No Room at the Inn (1948) Inspired by the death in Shropshire of the foster child Dennis O'Neill, the same scandal that led Agatha Christie to write The Mousetrap, this had already been a huge success as a stage play. The ...
It has been an eventful week for by-elections with principal elections on both Wednesday and Thursday - and even a good town council gain for us on Monday night too! The only place to start however is on Shropshire Council with our amazing gain on Thursday night in Worfield ward - taking the seat from the Conservatives with a 33.5% increase in the Lib Dem share of the vote. The Conservative share of the vote fell by 27.9%. Congratulations to Cllr Andrew Sherrington and the Lib Dem team on winning in such spectacular fashion. Shropshire Council, Worfield Liberal Democrat (Andrew ...
Trigger warning: This post describes serious abuse of women and children. Two months ago (13 July), I shared Save the Children's report on Israel's seriously abusive treatment of Palestinian children. Unfortunately, it isn't only children. We need to face up to Israel's increasingly abusive treatment of Palestinian families. One of Israel's most dauntless journalists, Amira Hass, whose mother's Diary of Bergen-Belsen, 1944-1945 is one of the profoundest records from the death camps I know, has shocked readers of Israel's liberal newspaper, Haaretz, with a harrowing account of a raid on a Palestinian home (£) in the small hours of 10 ...
It's been in the news this week that Birmingham City Council has effectively gone bankrupt. This kind of thing is very much in my wheelhouse – in my day job, I'm a public sector finance specialist – so I thought it might be worth reflecting on how this sort of thing happens in local government and what comes next. Local authorities are established by Act of Parliament, so they can't just go bust like a commercial organisation can. But they can most definitely run out of money. Indeed, with limited control over their income and even less control over the ...
I live in a ward represented by four Lib Dem councillors, where there are 3,952 new homes (out of ∼5,200 homes in the ward), primarily built due to local plans written by the then Lib Dem-led council. However, in 1,800 conversations on the doorstep in the ward, (thanks connect), only one has contained objections to the scale of housebuilding. I'm not claiming that NIMBYism does not exist, just that it's a much less prevalent view than stereotypes would suggest and that there is a consensus that the development has improved our area. After all, this is an affluent, suburban ward, ...
'Tis the season for National Trust voting again. And once again Restore Trust have posted their very helpful list of people not to vote for. Restore Trust thinks the National Trust has a problem. Or, to be more accurate, Restore Trust wants the rest of us to think the National Trust has a problem. On the face of it, Restore Trust are very nice people. But there is a not so very hidden agenda. First of all, they claim to be independent. They claim that having an office at 55, Tufton Street is just coincidence. 55, Tufton Street houses a ...
The Independent reports that the Conservatives have accepted a £350,000 donation from a company producing colourful vapes despite a crackdown on e-cigarette products aimed at children. The paper says that Rishi Sunak's party took the six-figure sum from Supreme 8 Ltd in May, the latest Electoral Commission records show. They add that the company's director is listed as Sandeep Chadha, chief executive of Supreme Plc - which sells vape products with names like Watermelon Bubblegum and Cotton Candy Ice: Mr Sunak said earlier this year he was worried that vapes would be "attractive" to his two young daughters because of ...
Back Pedalling on Brexit Earlier this week (4th September) a Guardian editorial helpfully listed four issue on which the government has back-pedalled from implementing its much lauded Brexit "advantages." They are: 1. 1. Checks on goods entering the UK from the EU, after several postponements, will not now happen before 2024.* 2. 2. Provisions, inherited from our EU membership, which ensure equal pay for workers from a "common source" who do equal work will not now be scrapped. 3. 3.Other "social protection " laws will not now be automatically expunged from the statue book at the end of the ...
Our Parliamentary team have been doing some research into the prevalence of RAAC concrete in hospitals. It seems seven hospitals have been named as having the material in their construction, and nearly two million people live within their catchment areas, so could be potentially affected. The hospitals between them employ 43,000 staff who are therefore also at risk. Four of those seven hospitals are classed as 'mostly composed of RAAC beams'. However this is by no means the true extent of the problem, as, in total, 23 NHS trusts are affected by RAAC. Data from the House of Commons Library ...
Residents of the Shropshire hamlet of Homer are up in arms about the council trimming a hedge there. The story in the Shropshire Star ends: "We think the hedge is beyond the council's remit. Maps in the Land Registry show that the verge and hedge that has been desecrated belong to the title of the Lord of the Manor of Homer and Wigwig." She said the current "lord" resided in America after buying the title several years ago and that the verges, copses, hedgerows and alleyways in the area belong to his estate. The Lord of Homer and Wigwig was ...
Here's the latest tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held since the last May round of local elections.
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating central island and duct installation works. The Order is expected to be in force for four weeks from 18 September 2023. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Blackness Road between Rosefield Street and Rosefield Place. An alternative route will be available northbound via Blackness Road, Bellfield Street, Hawkhill, Blackness Avenue and Blackness Road. If ...
This evening the Liberal Democrats have gained the Worfield division of Shropshire Council from the Conservatives with a 33 per cent swing. The result: Lib Dems 400, Conservative 392, Labour 40. Congratulations to Andrew Sherrington and his team on a great victory. Worfield is part of the Ludlow constituency - to be renamed South Shropshire in time for the next general election. And traditionally it's about the most Conservative part of that constituency.
