In search of the Lost Gunthorpe Toll Bridge over the River TrentGunthorpe Bridge on the A6097 is the only road crossing of the River Trent between Nottingham and Newark. Built in 1927, it replaced an earlier toll bridge that opened to traffic in 1875. In this video, Trekking Exploration- subscribe and like, my pretties - goes in search of the toll house and of the bridge's abutments on either side of the river. (more) |
so now we're pretending we don't know what causes inflation??The mark of a stupid person is not their inability to understand things. It is their thinking they understand something that much smarter people do not. Which means I myself must be extremely stupid, because I think I understand, roughly, what causes inflation and yet Lord Mervyn King implies he does not, or at least the central bankers of the world don't. King is so much brighter and more accomplished than I am in this field of study that there is not a metric to capture it. Moreover, Gillian Tett, a quite terrifyingly accomplished FT writer who has been on ... (more) |
ALDC By-Election Report, 4th DecemberThis week, there were six local by-elections, of which three were Liberal Democrat defences. In Watford, we secured a decisive win and defended this borough council seat. Congratulations are due to Councillor Callum Robinson and the local team for winning in Watford. Watford Borough Council, Tudor Liberal Democrats (Callum Robertson): 821 (52.6%, +4.3) Reform UK: 433 (27.2%, +17.8 ) Conservative: 148 (9.3%, -10.5) Labour: 111 (7.0%, -16.4) Green Party: 77 (4.8%, new) Liberal Democrats HOLD In East Devon, we were able to ensure this seat remained Liberal Democrat, with a solid win over Reform UK. Congratulations are also due to ... (more) |
The Joy of Six 1445"Whether it is the private contractors paid enormous sums of public money to bring prisoners to court failing to bring prisoners to court, or technology procured at vast public expense simply not working, or entire court buildings being shut down because the roof is falling in, the Crown Courts every single day endure absurd, entirely-fixable inefficiencies which contribute significantly to the backlog of work."The Secret Barrister explains that abolishing most jury trials will not touch the main causes of delay in the legal system. Paul Bernal argues that banning children from social media is a very bad idea: "For the ... (more) |
The "right" to a jury trial - a Scottish perspectiveAll the debate in the press on the "right" to a jury trial in England (and Wales?) has been interesting from a Scottish perspective. In Scotland, the vast majority of criminal cases are tried in the local Sheriff Court and an accused has no right to a jury trial in the Sheriff Court. Rather, it is the prosecutor and not the accused who decides whether there will be trial before a jury. To explain.... In Scotland, the there are three levels of first instance criminal courts: The Justice of the Peace Courts (minor matters with very limited sentencing powers). The ... (more) |
Lib Dems gain another councillor seat in Geoffrey Cox's constituencyThe principal authority council by-elections this week started off with a rare Tuesday contest: Long Eaton North (Derbyshire) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 28.1% (-7.7) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 27.2% (+4.2) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 21.8% (-2.7) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 11.8% (+4.5) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 5.8% (-3.6) [IMG: 🏘] DCP: 5.3% (New)Reform HOLD.Changes w/ 2025. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-12-02T23:57:31.335Z Congratulations to new councillor Fran McElhone. For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here. These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections as it's ... (more) |
West End Christmas Fortnight - weekend activities! #dundeewestendSaturday 6th December From 10am - Land O'Spex Christmas Family Workshops at Gallery 48, West Port - Festive crafts with Cara Findlay and Sooz Gordon. Your workshop hosts will guide you in creating seasonal mark making and paper-based crafts. Easy activities for all the family to enjoy. Booking is essential - please visit https://landospex.com to get your free tickets (limit to 4 per person). Choose from one of three sessions - 10am to 10.45am/11am to 11.45am/12noon to 12.45pm. 10am to 12 noon - Harris Academy Christmas Fayre - including stalls - all welcome! 10am to 12 noon - Festive Crafts ... (more) |
Labour's march towards authoritarianismThere is a pattern developing here. The Guardian reports that UK Labour Ministers are seeking to ramp up police use of facial recognition to fight crime and are asking people how it should be used to form new laws. They are proposing a 10-week consultation that will ask for views on how the technology should be regulated and how to protect people's privacy, as well as creating a regulator to oversee police use of facial recognition, biometrics and other tools: Policing minister Sarah Jones described facial recognition as the "biggest breakthrough for catching criminals since DNA matching" saying that it ... (more) |
StatisticsI've just been looking at the statistics for my blog. In November, there were 46,742 viewings. Overall, there have been 1,780,942 viewings of the blog and posts since I first set up the blog in February 2006. By next year I hope to have exceeded 2 million though possibly not by the blog's 20th birthday in February. Finally, I have produced 3802 posts so hopefully I should go over 4000 in 2026. (more) |
A minute's silence for ColinSunniside History Society met last night for the first time since our former chair, Colin Douglas (pictured above), passed away. We held a minutes silence in his memory before starting the meeting proper.As this was the December meeting, we had our Christmas quiz and a buffet. As is now our normal practice, I wrote the history quiz. There were four rounds: soap operas, British Prime Ministers, (more) |