Sunniside History Society had their monthly meeting last week. With Christmas around the corner, there was a buffet which included an edible Christmas wreath (see above). We also had the annual quiz, which I put together. I have been writing and editing Focuses for nearly 40 years and as a result I have built up a big collection of photos around Gateshead. So this formed the basis of the quiz -
Robert Aikman and L.T.C.. Rolt were among the pioneers of the movement to preserve and restore Britain's inland waterways. I believe they had fallen out by the time of the Inland Waterways Association's first Festival of Boats, which was held here in Market Harborough in 1950. Both wrote ghost stories. Aikman is celebrated as one of the modern masters of the genre, while Rolt is rather forgotten. I did read some of Rolt's stories years ago. My memory is that his set ups were good, with railways and canals prominent, but let down by too much dialogue with quaint locals. ...
Yesterday was a good day for the Liberal Democrats in council by-elections, but as an East Midlander (albeit one born in Hampshire) I can be forgiven for concentrating on our gain in Lincolnshire. Billinghay Rural (North Kesteven) Council By-Election Result: 🔶 LDM: 41.1% (New) 🌳 CON: 29.5%* 🙋 IND (Liles): 26.1% (New) 🙋 IND (Brand): 3.4% (New) *Previously elected unopposed. Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative. Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) December 14, 2023 The victorious Lib Dem candidate was Adrian Whittle, whose father was a Conservative district councillor hererabouts for 11 years. Adrian himself was a Tory ...
We continued our incredible end of the year with one of the best weeks for local council by-election results that we have ever celebrated. 7 principal council seats were being contested across 6 wards this weeks - and we won 5 of them! This included 3 Lib Dem holds and 2 Lib Dem gains. Even the two seats that we didn't win saw us miss out only very narrowly with a great improvement in our result from last time. There are so many fantastic results to delve into it is difficult to know where to start! The first of our ...
Former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris has been commenting on the BBC on the news from the High Court about the damages awarded to Prince Harry for phone hacking by the Mirror Group. Evan Harris was speaking for the Hacked Off campaign, which he founded in 2011 with, among others, Hugh Grant. Piers Morgan has stated again today that he knew nothing about phone hacking when he was editor of the Daily Mirror and that he is a victim of "old foes with an axe to grind". Morgan then attacked Prince Harry in the robust fashion that we have come ...
I am delighted to announce that Ron Beadle has been selected as the Lib Dem candidate for the new Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency at the general election. The constituency includes two strong Lib Dem areas - Whickham (3 wards) and Low Fell (one ward) - as well as Saltwell, won by the Lib Dems from Labour in the May local elections this year. It means nearly half the residents of the
The most depressing thing about the contest to succeed Mark Drakeford is that all the likely contenders announced so far share collective responsibility for his nanny-state, semi-authoritarian style of politics that saw him: * try to ban vaping in public and now proposes that vapes are only made available on prescription, even though there is no evidence of harm from second-hand vapours; * waste millions of pounds of public money in purchasing the regularly flooded Gilestone Farm as a new home for the privately run Green Man Festival: * invest over £120m in the black hole that is Cardiff Airport; ...
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