Danny Chambers has backed the call for a colony of penguins to be moved from the Sea Life London Aquarium. The Liberal Democrat MP, who practised as a vet for 16 years before being elected for Winchester at the general election, is the focus of an article in today's Express. The paper prints the statement he issued after seeing the way the gentoo penguins were being kept:In the heart of London, I witnessed grown penguins confined to dark and cramped conditions underground. Little freedom to roam and no glimpse of sunlight. I thought to myself, is this really befitting of ...
Felicity Footloose claims to be the only acrobat who juggles knives while hanging upside down: "Some days I can't even do it myself!" And she was doing it in The Square at Market Harborough for Arts Fresco Lite. This was a fund-raising event for the town's annual street theatre festival Arts Fresco, which is finding funding harder to come by these days. You can see the highpoint of her act in the photo above, and see her and a couple of other acts who took part today in the photos below.
I'm close to completing that Book Challenge meme: Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. You can see my choices so far on Twitter and Bluesky. One of them is Inventing the Victorians by Matthew Sweet. Not only is it beautifully written, it also reinforced a view I had come to not long before I encountered it: namely, that the Victorians were far less Victorian that we imagine. The caricatured view we have formed of them serves a way ...
These just in. In her London Review of Books review of Barbra Streisand's memoir My Name is Barbra, Malin Hay records: By the time she returned home her 'path was set', and she arranged to graduate early from Erasmus Hall High School (where her classmates included Neil Diamond and the chess champion Bobby Fischer, who dressed 'like some sort of deranged pilot'). Did he really dress like that? When Fischer burst on to the international scene aged 15, he dressed like any other American teenager of the Fifties and wore a T-shirt. A few years later, he agreed to fly ...
The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts sees a return to the show for Sam Freedman. This time he's got a new book out, about how our government is broken – and what to do to fix it. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It by Sam Freedman: Amazon, Waterstones, UK Bookshop (affiliate links). Sam Freedman's Prospect articles. The Mill. Sam Freedman's newsletter. The myth of Budget poll bounces. Theme tune by Hugo Lee. New to listening ...
So, it's that time of year where it will be conference shortly, and once again there will be Glee Club. This year I'm asking for a hand, because as I did back in 2015 I'm having my hair shaved off for charity. In 2016 I came within 10 hours of losing my right foot to a horrific infection. The team at the Nuffield Hospital in Oxford did a brilliant job and saved it with 3 operations, 36 stitches and grams (yes grams) of antibiotics. So now I'm returning the favour, raising money for the Nuffield Hospitals Trust. The target is ...
The Guardian reports that cabinet ministers have grave concerns about Rachel Reeves's plan to axe the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners. The papers says that frontbenchers believe the government will have to announce extra support in the budget or even earlier to cushion the blow for some of the people worst affected by the cut: The new Labour intake's WhatsApp group had had a string of messages about the issue, MPs said. Labour backbenchers have been spooked by the volume of correspondence they have received, with one saying they had gone from receiving a trickle of ...
Foreign policy analysts are sifting through documents and speeches and even casting a few runes and studying used tea leaves to determine what foreign policy directions a Kamala White House may take. It is still a bit murky. Constructive ambiguity, is one of the buzz soundbites of 21st century diplomacy and is heard often in the Harris camp. But outlines are appearing, especially in contrast to a Trump foreign policy. The transactional diplomacy favoured by the former president is out. Gone – and hopefully forgotten – will be days when American support was tendered only when Washington could point to ...
AbilityNet and telecommunications company BT Group are working in partnership to help improve the digital skills of older and digitally excluded people across the UK. Over the last year it has delivered free training to over 5 000 older people across the UK through local trainers that it has employed to deliver the sessions. It already operates in Glasgow and Edinburgh but will now be adding Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and surrounding areas for this year's sessions. The aims are not only to provide free training but to help older people become more confident using technology, feel less lonely and isolated ...
