This was at Medbourne near Market Harborough. The stream is notorious for rising rapidly after heavy rain.

Liberal England... "It feels like gruel": Lib Dem MPs express dissatisfaction with Ed Davey's approach liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/01/it-f...

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss tweets that Robert Jenrick is a "trojan horse" who is "getting his orders" from some unidentified shadowy force of global conspirators

I never knew that Grouch Marx and Dennis Hopper made a generation gap drama (!!) back in 1962. Marx is a concerned father trying to talk Dennis out of marrying his 17 year old daughter played by Hopper’s wife Brooke Hayward. I’m trying to picture Groucho playing Nicholson’s part in “Easy Rider!”

Judge Tony Baumgartner said a trial, expected to last about a week, would start on 13 July 2026. Mr Spencer, from Suffolk, was granted unconditional bail.

Weird that Reform is announcing the Andrew Rosindell defection without the usual press conference where we get to ask him questions for an hour.

A little bit of local Herefordshire politics as the opposition Green Councillors along with their colleagues in the Lib Dems and Independents do their best to deal with an impossible economic situation.

Once again this reporting just takes the Farage line on defections to Reform. No mention of Rosindell’s horrific track record and lunatic positions. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You can't judge 2 days ago by the standards of today. It was a different era, lots of things were accepted back then that wouldn't be allowed nowadays.

Greenland embraces the new MAGA hat: ‘Make America Go Away’

"I went to Not Now, Darling in 1969 because Bernard Cribbins was in it. Years before, when we were starting out, we played adjoining theatres. There was a passageway between them where the dustbins were and we used to sit there and talk about how we wanted to be famous and all that." Sheila Hancock

Kemi Badenoch two days ago: "I'm 100% confident" there will be no more defections to Reform

Liberal England... Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman: The Very Day I'm Gone

Also available on iPlayer for the next eleven months is this illuminating Arena profile of Leigh from 1982. Highlights include a staged approximation of Leigh's improvisation process (he would never let cameras intrude upon the *actual* process, obviously). www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

One of her early dramatic roles on screen was in the 1960 film version of Sons and Lovers, playing Polly, a workmate of the passion-seeking miner’s son Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell).

London* gets its first Reform MP: Andrew Rosindell. *Admittedly Andrew dislikes being part of London so much he has repeatedly campaigned for his constituency to be moved into Essex.

Liberal England... "It feels like gruel": Lib Dem MPs express dissatisfaction with Ed Davey's approach liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/01/it-f...

living in the US today; the new importance of Robert Jenrick's Newark constituency; Big Tech's tendrils have reached Westminster; Patrice Lumumba's life and death; the wrong way to interest boys in reading; Hayley Mills and The Moon-Spinners (1964)

Reform Party candidate defending murder of a protester. When people show you who they are...

After internet shutdowns inside Iran following escalating anti-government protests, 1,300 fake profiles seeking to influence discourse on Scottish independence, Brexit and institutional collapse went dark.

Where is the accountability for utter wrongness?

Reform's opponents need to keep punching this bruise. It's a real problem for a would-be nationalist leader when they start looking like the lapdog of a hostile power. This did a lot of damage to Oswald Mosley in the 1930s, and it could become a serious issue for Farage.

Stop the vile profiteers! Commissioner demands end to getting rich off care kids. Strong stuff, in the Express of all places. www.express.co.uk/news/politic...

Ignore the talk of ley lines if you wish, and just enjoy the Shropshire hill porn.

Writing professor: AI is great for everything except writing! Research professor: AI is great for everything except research! Plumber, probably: AI is great for everything except plumbing! Turns out we all only know it’s shit at doing the things we know how to do - what a coincidence 🤔

Me, an idiot: I'm worried about these parties that seem really hostile to darker-skinned people. James Orr, an actual associate professor at actual Cambridge University: It is impossible for populists to be undemocratic, because of the Greek origins of the word "democracy".

Take Me To Church. Ely Cathedral, 2018.

Why is the programme still being made? NOTHING good has come from it. Ever.

Now now, Spinal Jaundice is no laughing matter.

HMRC taking more than a year to pay tax rebates. It is one-way traffic. People fined for late filing of tax returns and payments. Hard to get through on phone. Letters not answered. Poor public accountability. Sweetheart deals with corporations/rich that parliament can't scrutinize.

Liberal Democrat run South Cambridgeshire District Council are installing solar panels to charge their electric bin lorries. Cutting carbon. Boosting biodiversity. Delivering a greener future.

Cary Grant's birthday. Here he is in Manchester. St Peter's Square. Chatting to a lady.

This is *always* the issue. They want to park outside their shop & never consider that businesses consistently overestimate how many customers arrive by car. Item in our local rag where a bar owner was complaining about people not being able to park for a ‘bar hop’… #BadFaith #Motornormativity

Average Sunday show interview: OFFICIAL: we are going to dip enemies of the state into acid vats HOST: how will you pay for it? OFFICIAL: tariffs HOST: critics say tariffs don't generate acid vat money OFFICIAL: tariffs have generated more money than has ever existed HOST: thank u for ur time

Incredible posting (derogatory)

California Scrub Jay 🪶

Taken from the oldest bridge in the World Heritage site, and has curved arches on one side, round on the other

When are people going to be held accountable for the nonsense slop and puff they emit.

I've always liked the 'Bridled' form of Guillemot, but to get a photo of 2 together on Inner Farne in 2019 was special!. #SuperSeabirdSunday

‘It is very hard to pray if your relationship to words themselves is as fastidious, suspicious, self-conscious and filled with doubt as Eliot’s was. The language of prayer does not entertain constant word-by-word revision.’ Colm Tóibín on Yeats, Eliot and Auden. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I'm hearing that Nigel Farage cancelled his interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning because he had bone spurs.

Deep in The Chilterns was a village called "Bix Bottom", and all that remains are the ruins of St James church and the chill of the valley itself. (Aerial photo from last week)

Exciting news! Indoor curling is now in Much Wenlock and Craven Arms, joining Telford. Have you tried this fun activity yet? #IndoorCurling https://www.shropshirelive.com/news/2026/01/18/indoor-curling-comes-to-much-wenlock-and-craven-arms/

Diana Rigg and Anthony Hopkins in London, 1972, when they were starring as Mr and Mrs Macbeth at the Old Vic. 📷 Ron Burton

This is a great piece and probably I’m super naive to be shocked that this notion of parental alienation is still such a thing www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

These so-called "patriotic" 🇬🇧newspapers who brought you Brexit were never really patriotic at all. They are driven by a disdain for Britain's European neighbours, and a fawning obsession with America. They do not really want 🇬🇧 to be sovereign. They're content being a 🇺🇸vassal.

Callanish #StandingStoneSunday

25th August 1967: Paul McCartney of the Beatles and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones sit opposite each other on a train at Euston Station, waiting for departure to Bangor. Photographer Victor Blackman.

Choral Evensong - BBC Radio 3 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...