I've worked within walking distance of the New Wolsey Theatre pretty much since I moved to Suffolk and yet, for no particular reason, I'd never been into it, let alone seen a performance (and it does apparently have a decent café). But we'd had a strong recommendation to go and see the touring production of "Little Shop of Horrors" and, as we were free last night, and tickets (although not many) were available, we thought, "why not?". And I'm glad that we did, because we would otherwise have missed an incredibly spirited and utterly enjoyable show. It's a joint production ...
Written for Terence Towles Canote's 10th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon. What's the most frightening thing you've seen on television? I can remember an episode of Sexton Blake, shown during children's hour on ITV, in which Tinker, the great detective's resourceful young assistant was measured for his coffin by a sinister undertaker while he was still alive. A bit of research tells me that the Sexton Blake story involving Mr Tapp the undertaker was screened in two parts when I was seven years old. Don't listen to the Haunted Generation mob and their claims for the Seventies: we Boomers ...
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: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRUKCon leadFieldwork WeThink 24% (-1) 47% (+4) 9% (-1) 6% (nc) 11% (-1) -23% 21-22/3 Opinium 25% (nc) 41% (nc) 10% (nc) 8% (+1) 11% (nc) -16% 20-22/3 Techne ...
The Guardian reports that new figures show that sending ministers and officials to Rwanda has cost the government more than £400,000 before a single deportation flight has taken off. The paper has calculated that ministers have spent a total of £413,541 on travel in the two years since the policy to send asylum seekers to Kigali started to be developed. The total is based on government transparency releases. It includes trips by senior government officials and a succession of ministers and home secretaries including James Cleverly, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel. They add that this week it emerged that Cleverly ...
Worth watching if only for the great quote from Winston Churchill.
One of the rock solid, unwavering givens in the world's diplomatic playbook has cracked – the 76-year-old bipartisan US support for Israel. There will be repercussions for Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, Europe and the Middle East. Since before 1948, support or opposition to Israel has been one of the world's key political fault lines. Which side a government chose played a major role in determining their position on a host of other issues. At the fulcrum of this fault line was support for successive Israeli governments from Republican and Democratic American administrations. More than $4 billion a year ...
When I tweeted my post about the Guardian's ranking of the Ealing comedies, someone replied that Passport to Pimlico is her favourite among them and that Margaret Rutherford's performance in it is wonderful. That reminded me of a story from the memoirs of T.E.B. 'Tibby' Clarke, who wrote the screenplay for Passport to Pimlico. He had written the part of the professor with Alastair Sim in mind, but when the time came to make the film, Sim was not available. The more that alternative actors were suggested, the more strongly the filmmakers felt that Sim was irreplaceable. Then someone had ...
Residents recently contacted us about concerns around pedestrian safety crossing the slip road from Hawkhill to Perth Road near Sinderins, to the immediate west of the shops on the north side of Perth Road. As one resident advised us : "Many vehicles turn at a reasonable rate, preparing to slow up. Several, however, come around the bend at speed. Recently my husband had stepped off the pavement when a car sped round the bend with the driver looking right towards oncoming traffic, completely unaware of the pedestrian on his left hand side. This is not the first time this has ...
