Billericay Dickie had a love affair with Nina in the back of his Cortina. Mr Asquith, it seems, had one with the socialite Venetia Stanley in the back of his prime-ministerial 1908 Napier. Today's Observer has an article on Precipice, Robert Harris's forthcoming novel about the summer of 1914 and Britain's entry into the First World War. Asquith wrote to Venetia Stanley three times a day, and those letters have been central to Harris's research for his new novel: "I became fascinated by this aspect of Asquith's story," said Harris. "We can account for so much of his time in ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Welcome to the 123rd edition of The Week in Polls (TWIP) which follows up last week's dive into the history of Conservative leadership election polling with a look at the current contest. Find out more by reading this edition of The Week in Polls here, and you can sign up below to receive future editions direct to your email inbox:
This graced the UK singles chart in 1974, when all about it was Mud. And Gary Glitter. A year later, and the Isley Brothers' soul might have been tinged with disco, but here the additional styling is rock. Note the gratuitous closing guitar solo, which you get on many Seventies hits - Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, for instance. I don't remember the solo from the time, so I suspect it was shorn from the radio version. Summer Breeze was written by the US duo Seals and Crofts, who had a hit with it over there in 1972.
United States The Kamala Harris bandwagon continues to gather momentum. Going into this week's Democratic National Convention "The Economist" poll tracker put her three points ahead nationally. The convention dividend should add another two to three points easily. Kamala's rapid rise, however, has less to do with her policies and more to do with vibes. Her main attributes are that she is younger than Joe Biden, pro-abortion and anti-Trump, which, for the Democrats, is more than enough. In her 40-minute conference speech a few foreign policy hints slipped out. On the Middle East she supports Israel while sympathising and empathising ...
Earlier this week I lost my grandmother, and while it's been a deeply challenging week, especially for my mother and grandfather, I've been struck on numerous occasions with the way in which the British state came to our aid- and made the process go as perfectly as we could have asked for. The healthcare she received was beyond excellent and was done with a kindness and compassion that still surprises me in its depth. My sister heads off to medical school in about three weeks, and I very much hope that that is the kind of Doctor that she turns ...
As residents know, we have repeatedly raised the poor road condition in Marchfield Road where Michael is photographed. Some of the poor road surface both here and in Marchfield Terrace and Marchfield Crescent we were previously advised were 'non-actionable' in terms of low pothole depth but the bottom line here is that the roads here are badly deteriorated. We have therefore reiterated our call to the Roads Maintenance Partnership to consider inclusion of these streets in a future capital programme for resurfacing.
