The Joy of Six 1443

"Companies that have collaborated with immigration enforcement agencies in various ways to aid Trump’s mass deportation initiative – whether through allowing ICE to raid their parking lots, taking on contracts with DHS, or a variety of other actions – are starting to feel the rumblings of a consumer revolt." Adrian Carrasquillo says a backlash Is brewing against companies that help Trumps's ICE.

Rowena Mason maps the depressing journey of Motability cuts from right-wing social media to Rachel Reeves' budget.

Matt Simon finds that urban farms and gardens ease food insecurity, boost mental health and create communities.

"Getting Franklin’s story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science – some of which are still present today." Matthew Cobb and Nathaniel Comfort argue that the role of Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of DNA is still misunderstood.

"By the early 1940s, Watson had also become increasingly uncomfortable about the methods used in dairy and egg production, and so began to exclude all animal-based foodstuffs from his diet." Margaret Brecknell introduces us to Leicester's Donald Watson, the founder of the modern vegan movement.

Frank Collins reviews the 1947 film It Always Rains on Sunday. He says its director, Robert Hamer "seems to have regularly fought a corner for women working in film at Ealing, a studio often criticised for its very male view point of the world, and [Googie] Withers is a strong presence in many of his films.

The Joy of Six 1441

"His central idea, as he has written before, is that people should own their data. Personal data is any data that can be linked to us, such as our purchasing habits, health information and political opinions." Alex Zarifis on Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the future of the internet.

Sarah Lyons on the ubiquity of violence towards women: "The one man present was in total shock, he had never heard women talk so candidly like this before, the way we talk amongst ourselves, and he genuinely could not comprehend how much violence we had all collectively endured He left that night visibly shaken, changed."

Niamh Gallagher reviews a history of the Great Famine: "There is no doubt that food was available in Ireland throughout the crisis – just not to those who needed it most. The year 1845 was a vintage one for oats; in 1846, 3.3 million acres were planted with grain, and Irish farms raised more than 2.5 million cattle, 2.2 million sheep and 600,000 pigs, most of which were exported to Britain." 

"For a man who said he hated politics, it is exactly his uncompromising sense of right and his engagement with the world that will make his legacy everlasting." Kenny Monrose pays tribute to Jimmy Cliff.

Jude Rogers says the Eighties television series Edge of Darkness speaks to the Britain of 2025: "As well as trusting its viewers with the complexity of its plot, much of the making of Edge Of Darkness was also audacious. It pioneered the use of Steadicam in its first episode, following Peck from his hotel room in the lift, through the foyer, down the stairs to a basement garage to meet shadowy government attaché Pendleton."

"Early 1645 Parliamentary forces seized Shrewsbury. In June 800 Parliamentarian men pushed south towards Ludlow, attacking Stokesay en route. The garrison were heavily outnumbered and defending what was now essentially an ornamental castle. A bit of back and forth parlay and the garrison surrendered." Keep Your Powder Dry has a survey of Civil War sites in Shropshire that confirms Stokesay Castle was built chiefly for show.

High Flying Around: Memories of the 1960s Leicester Music Scene Volume II by Shaun Knapp

In Leicester this afternoon, I called in at the launch of Shaun Knapp's book High Flying Around: Memories of the 1960s Leicester Music Scene Vol II.

As the publisher's website says: 

High Flying Around Volume II continues the remarkable story of Leicester’s 1960s arts and music scene via the people who were there. Their memories and reminiscences bring back to life the buildings long since demolished, the groups who packed out the venues and the people who filled the halls and clubs.

Find out how some of the biggest names in music performed in some of Leicester’s smallest and long-lost venues, revisit the 1969 free festival, and discover the incredible stories of Leicester band Gypsy and the 1960s creatives. Discover the importance of the college and university circuit, the arts lab, the city’s underground music, folk and poetry scenes and the music that influenced Leicester playwright Joe Orton.

Leicester women tell their stories about life in the city during the 1960s, while singer/songwriter Ryan Dunn explains how the decade influences his songwriting and fashion.

Dipping into it, I find plenty of new bands to research and the odd anecdote I might share here.

And, yes, my home town gets at least one mention:

The first time we played in Market Harborough was at a place called the Embi Club, on St Mary's Road. The building had a great doorway, which was the entrance, then you went to the back building through a small yard. That was where the club was. The club itself was long and it looked like a few rooms had been knocked into one. It was a very busy venue. Jethro Tull had played there as did Edwin Starr. I later learned the site had been an old cinema. the Oriental, which opened in 1921. The interior decor consisted of Egyptian mummies Chinese dragons, palm trees and pyramids.

The main building had, I think, gone by the time I moved here – the length of it ran behind what is now the House of Art tattoo studio and probably a couple of other vanished buildings – but the exotic domed entrance on St Mary's Road lasted through the Seventies.

The Joy of Six 1431

"Nine of the groups are being run from Sri Lanka, three have admins in Nigeria, and the admins of six other groups appear to be located in Mexico, the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Kosovo. The remaining eleven have hidden their locations, but conform to the same pattern of fake address – AI memes – gaming video creator, suggesting they are similarly moderated." Katherine Denkinson explains how foreign entrepreneurs are monetising the clicks of British racists.

Rebecca Hamer on the common thread that links abusers, from grooming gangs to Jeffrey Epstein and his friends.

"His speech on Monday was a sprawling grievance tour, hitting every GB news talking point: immigrants, net-zero, lefty lawyers; all responsible for our economic woes and declining living standards." Zoe Gruenwald deconstructs Nigel Farage's big speech.

"In July 1616, nine women from the small South Leicestershire village of Husbands Bosworth were hanged after being found guilty at the Leicester Assizes of bewitching the teenage son of the Lord of the Manor." Margaret Brecknell says the case of the so-called Witches of Husband Bosworth shines a spotlight on the atmosphere of fear and superstition sweeping the entire country during the reign of King James I.

Rob Goulding reports on disagreements over the restoration of the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire. This marvel of Victorian engineering lifts boats from the River Weaver to the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow show that Orson Welles notorious 1938 radio dramatisation of War of the Worlds did not cause hysteria across the US and ask why this legend persists.

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David Howarth knows how to make the BBC less afraid of Nigel Farage: "Proportional representation would free the BBC from fear, but more than that, since under PR many parties would enjoy a reasonable prospect of entering government and so of supplying the secretary of state for culture, the BBC would have better incentives to maintain impartiality among democratic parties."

"Calling Andrew entitled is beside the point. He was raised with no economic purpose and now he finds himself as a connector to whom no one wants to be connected. 'I have no idea who he will socialize with,' one Norfolk grandee told me. 'All his friends are Chinese spies.'" Tina Brown claims to have the inside story on how King Charles pulled the plug on Andrew.

AI is supercharging abuse against women journalists, but Megha Mohan argues that it doesn’t have to be that way.

"For a period beginning in the 1960s and ending around the turn of this century, the preferred form of the homicidally inclined was the drawn-out danse macabre of serial murder. This was especially true in America’s Pacific Northwest, where an astonishingly large number of serial killers, from Ted Bundy to Israel Keyes, from the Green River Killer to the Shoe Fetish Slayer, from the Werewolf Butcher of Spokane to the Beast of British Columbia, grew up or operated." James Lasdun on the serial killers of Seattle.

Stephen Prince introduces us to the 1970 book Filming the Owl Service (1970), which is "long out of print and rare as hens' teeth to find second hand, which is a shame as it is a fine companion piece to the series, full of rather lovely photographs, artefacts, anecdotes, background story, prop sheets and designs from the filming and the series itself".

Robert Hartley explores the Leicestershire connections of George Stephenson, the father of railways.

The Joy of Six 1424

"By learning from Farage, the Greens risk becoming more like him in form, even if utterly different in content. And in politics, form matters. A democracy shaped by perpetual outrage and binary framing cannot easily sustain pluralism, however noble the cause. If we pick fights and make enemies now we will build a future full of fights and enemies." Mike Chitty worries that Zack Polanski has learnt too much from the populist playbook.

Caspar Hobhouse argues that Ukraine needs support from the European Union to transition towards a long-term energy system that is resilient, flexible and secure.

Rachel Sylvester on William's plans for a downsized monarchy.

"Kate Murphy’s work has changed how we think about the history of women’s roles in radio and television production forever. Had she not had the opportunity to make the transition from maker to scholar of BBC programming, and to do the serious detective work of tracking down these women’s stories via the archive, our understanding of women’s roles in the BBC would still be partial and centred on the stories of 'great men; that Asa Briggs and others have told us." Helen Wheatley joins the campaign against the BBC's decision to effectively close its Written Archives Centre to independent researchers.

Owen Hatherley reviews two books on the postwar architecture of South-East London: "It is stark, unpretentious modernism, but James and Audrey Callaghan were very unhappy to leave it for Downing Street when he became chancellor in 1964; it had, Audrey said, become 'like a second skin' – designed wholly around their needs and wants."

"Watkins based his thesis on three decades of legwork, on his interest in archaeology, history and architecture, and on his research into etymology, folklore and legends. And it’s hard for the non-expert not to be affected by his enthusiasm and sheer piling-up of what he sees as supporting evidence from these different disciplines." Chris Lovegrove looks at Alfred Watkins' The Old Straight Track, the book that gave birth to "ley lines" on the centenary of its publication.

Anne Scott-James in Picture Post, a man's suit and 1941

Embed from Getty Images

Anne Scott-James was the women's editor of Picture Post during most of the second world war. This photograph of her dates from 1941 and was published as part of a feature with the headline Should Women Wear Trousers? 

I don't know if this was a serious piece on wartime clothes rationing or just a bit of fun, but  it's a wonderful photo.

Throughout my boyhood Anne Scott-James was, together with Dilys Powell, Frank Muir and Denis Norden, one of the regular panellists on the BBC Radio 4 quiz show My Word.

She was the daughter of the Liberal journalist Rolfe Scott-James and the mother of another journalist, Max Hastings.

The Joy of Six 1423

"The study, which examined nearly 300 child-arrangement case files and observed over 100 hearings, found that domestic abuse featured in almost nine in ten (87 per cent) of cases. Yet judges routinely treated it as background noise. In over half of those cases, courts ordered unsupervised overnight contact between children and alleged abusers." England and Wales's family courts aren’t just failing survivors, they are complicit in state-sanctioned abuse, argues Zoe Grunewold after a reading a report by two academics from Loughborough University.

George Foulkes says broadcasters are warping our politics by failing to subject Nigel Farage to the scrutiny that other politicians rightly experience.

"Along with restoring trust in the church’s safeguarding processes, Mullally must also heal divisions within the church’s hierarchy over leadership culture. In the weeks leading up to Welby’s resignation, both he and the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, were accused of using 'coercive language' by the bishop of Newcastle, Helen-Ann Hartley." George Crozier on the many challenges facing the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

"Today, Denmark's wolf population is estimated to be just over 40 wolves, with at least seven breeding pairs known to have produced cubs. Yet even this small number has sparked fierce debates over livestock and public safety in one of Europe's most intensively farmed countries, with views on wolves seeming to reflect wider political divides across Denmark." Kristian Kongshøj and Troels Fage Hedegaard explain why 40 wolves have shaken Danish politics.

Ellen Hawley sets out the long history of curry in Britain.

Mike Taylor champions an undervalued Paul Simon album: "One of the most striking qualities of One Trick Pony as an album is how understated everything is. There are no big, heart-on-sleeve emotions, no vocal histrionics. Many of the songs have a stumbling quality, and almost all of them feel gentle. Every time a song starts to seem like it has a clear emotional shading, something undercuts it – whether it’s Simon’s idiosyncratic vocal delivery, a flash of colour from the band (and all of them are superb), or a switch in direction in a bridge or chorus."

Daisy Cooper accuses Nigel Farage of wanting to water down women’s rights

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, has called on Nigel Farage to explain why a US anti-abortion advocacy group helped arrange a meeting he had in London with Trump administration officials and diplomats.

The Guardian says the meeting took place in March between Farage and a delegation from Trump’s state department. According to the New York Times, it was overseen by the US embassy and brokered by the Alliance Defending Freedom  group. The meeting discussed abortion rights, free speech and online safety laws.

The Guardian reports goes on to say:

In response to the meeting, the Liberal Democrats accused Farage of working with Trump officials and anti-abortion campaigners who want to water down women’s rights and urged him to explain what was discussed.

Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader, also called on the government to summon the US ambassador to get to the bottom of "what looks like a blatant attempt to interfere in the UK’s domestic laws".

"Nigel Farage needs to come clean … and explain if his party would weaken women’s rights if he came to power," she said.

"The Liberal Democrats will stand up against these attempts to turn Trump’s America into Farage’s Britain and roll back the clock on decades of progress."

The Joy of Six 1422

"The British physicist has dedicated herself to increasing diversity and accessibility within the STEM community, with a special emphasis on women of all backgrounds. Among her many advocacy initiatives are, of course, her Wikipedia biographies, which she began writing in her 20s. In less than a decade, she has created more than 2000 articles for the online encyclopedia, focusing on women and underrepresented scientists who have been overlooked or forgotten by history." Eva Baron on Jessica Wade's work to further the recognition of women scientists.

Clive Simpson says the Lincolnshire Fens desperately need new flood defences: "Most of the area’s pumping stations and sluices were commissioned in the 1960s and recent Environment Agency studies show what would happen if those pumps stopped: vast swathes of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire would be under 1.5m of water. Combine this with rising sea and tide levels, and it’s clear why the issue is urgent."

The Riyadh comedy festival was an ultimately doomed attempt by the Saudi government to buy the kind of authentic grassroots culture it is unwilling to countenance, argues Jonathan Liew.

"For centuries, such creatures were cast as messengers of fate, straddling the boundary between the natural and the supernatural. Yet today, the omens these animals bring are no longer warnings of ghosts or witchcraft, but of something far more tangible: their own survival." Jessica Lloyd May and Matthew Jones find the medieval folklore of Britain’s endangered wildlife – from hedgehogs to nightjars – is developing a new meaning.

Nicola Skinner finds pet-sitting provides the ideal single-parent holiday.

Ben Finlay chooses ten autumnal British albums – I strongly approve of his number 1.

The Joy of Six 1414

"The speech made Labour and Starmer less popular, especially among Labour’s own voters. It significantly boosted immigration as an issue in people’s minds. There is no evidence it helped to reduce support for Reform, or convince Reform voters that they should vote Labour." Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte have researched what happens when mainstream parties capitulate to the far right.

Claire Wilmot examines how the far right has embraced deepfake technology: "A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe 'because of migrants' told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren't real, but I was missing the point: 'It's about us showing everyone what’s really happening.'"

"Alarmingly, the new data show an accelerating pattern of decline in our bird populations, whether on our farmland, wetlands, uplands or seas, as they are pushed past their limits. Notably, seabirds have crashed in number, many hit hard by avian influenza, on top of a cocktail of growing pressures." Helena Horton finds that wild bird numbers continue to fall in UK. with some species in dramatic freefall.

"Elizabeth I and Mary I are the only women named in the national curriculum, while in 2023 women appeared in just 6 per cent of GCSE and A-level history exam questions." Richard Adams reports on research from End Sexism in Schools.

Pamela Fisher on the days when Nanpantan near Loughborough was an inland holiday resort.

Seth Thévoz asks an important question: which London club did Doctor Who belong to?

The Joy of Six 1413

Peter Black says the Liberal Democrats must continue to oppose national identity cards.

Wealthy donors are increasingly funding political campaigns, eroding the public’s trust in the political process. The government has the opportunity to reverse that trend by limiting the allowed individual donation amounts and capping campaign spending by political parties, argues Rose Whiffen.

"Our results showed that being bullied was associated with significant reductions in extrovert traits and conscientiousness (that is, being dependable and organised). The drop in conscientiousness could be because the target feels demotivated by the unfairness of being bullied – or the bullying may even take the form of removing meaningful tasks from the colleague." Samuel Farley, David Hughes and Karen Niven have researched how bullying can affect your personality.

Cambridge Town Owl introduces us to Cambridge's Elspeth Dimsdale, a pioneering woman Liberal parliamentary candidate.

Moon In Gemini calls Barry Lyndon (1975) a masterpiece: "He is despicable in many ways, but are the aristocrats he so desperately wants join really that much better? Do they snub him because he is cruel to his wife and stepson, or because he isn’t one of them?"

"He was so worried about being late, for example, that he would invariably arrive hours ahead of time – he once had to scale a wall at Lord’s after arriving so early that the ground was still locked. In 1984, confused about the regulations during an early-season Benson and Hedges Cup tie between Scotland and Yorkshire at Perth, he called two tea intervals. Whether it was bomb scares or pitch invasions, reflecting greenhouses or errant pigeons, they all conspired to trouble him." David Hopps has written the Guardian obituary of the umpire Dickie Bird.

The Joy of Six 1394

“What Ofsted found was a total breakdown of safeguarding, with staff unable to cope and most not qualified to provide the care these vulnerable young people so desperately needed. Living conditions were poor, staff were untrained and poorly supported, and worst of all the young people faced clear risks to their wellbeing.” Jane Haynes has been reading Ofsted reports on three small private children's homes in Sandwell, Coventry and Telford.

Patrick Barkham reminds us that brownfield sites can be havens for wildlife: “In its ruination, this brownfield site beside the Thames in Essex has become one of the most nature-rich places in Britain, home to 3,200 species including endangered shrill carder bees, pantaloon bees, water vole, cuckoos and long-eared owls.”

Emanuel Maiberg reports on the policies Wikipedia is enacting to counter AI slop.

“When the women of England are enfranchised and the State acknowledges me as a citizen, I shall, of course, pay my share willingly towards its upkeep. If I am not a fit person for the purposes of representation, why should I be a fit person for taxation?” Historic England celebrates the career of the suffragette and Punjabi princess, Sophia Duleep Singh.

"Do not be lulled into complacency by the family-film aesthetics. When Mom the Sheepdog instructed Babe the Pig to dominate other animals by abusing them, demeaning them, and telling them what to do, and Babe refused because disrespecting another living creature would be wrong? That moment might have radicalised a generation." Roxana Hadadi on how Babe put radicalism into a family favourite.

Sonic Bookshop nominates seven essential books on British folk and folk rock in the Sixties and Seventies.

The Joy of Six 1392

"The general intention of the Act’s drafters is clear: they wanted those who supported terrorist groups to be given long jail terms; they wanted those who campaigned against proscription to remain free. But this is another line that the police are now crossing. Among those arrested in London on 19 July were protesters carrying placards which read ‘Ban Starmer not Palestine Action’, although saying that Palestine Action should not be banned is the one speech act the Act expressly permits." David Renton on the challenge to the banning of Palestine Action.

Liberal Democrat Women responded to the Women and Equalities Committee consultation on misogyny and the manosphere.

"To encourage young people to flourish as learners, we need to help them value non-formal and informal learning contexts. Hobbies are great for this. Hobbies are serious leisure activities which young people find interesting and fulfilling. They are serious because hobbies require perseverance to gain experience, a skillset and a knowledge base." Ioannis Costas Batlle reminds us that learning doesn't just take place in the classroom.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has admitted it has no evidence to show the Hundred as attracted new fans to other forms of cricket, reports Simon Burnton.

Roads.org.uk argues that Britain's first motorway is unclassified, tolled and links a small Dorset village to a chain ferry.

Graham McCann remembers a forgotten comedian: "Paul Squire was a comedian who shot to fame in 1980 with the ITV talent show Search For A Star and a spot in that year's Royal Variety Performance. He was promptly hailed as 'television's newest superstar', handed his own series by ITV in 1981, starred in another show for the BBC in 1983, and then, little more than one year later, he found himself ostracised by television so completely that he spent the rest of his career playing working men's clubs and the cruise ships."

The Joy of Six 1371

"In cases of adult rape, it takes the police an average of 344 days to decide whether to press charges (for all other crimes, it is 41 days). During this period, victims have no right to independent legal advice or representation unless they pay for it themselves. The court backlog of rape cases is at a record high. Court dates can be scheduled and then postponed with as little as 24 hours’ notice – I’ve heard of this happening to a victim more than twenty times." Lili Owen Rowlands volunteers with a rape crisis helpline.

Charles Wright looks back on Kemi Badenoch's two years as a member of the London Assembly: "Interestingly, she went on to compare the treatment of 'white and middle class' protestors with the tougher treatment of those arrested during the 2011 London riots, who she said were 'young, relatively working-class and poor, including a 'high proportion of ethnic minorities. 'Why is it that they can get away with criminal damage that young black people doing exactly the same thing get strict sentences for?'"

"Farage isn’t here to build anything. He’s here to brand himself. He wants viral clips, retweets, headlines. He wants you angry, not informed. He’s a master of the bait-and-switch - say something outrageous and emotionally charged, then let others waste time debunking it while he soaks up the spotlight." Owen Williams on what Nigel Farage wants from Wales.

David Baines, Labour MP for St Helens North, says it was well past time that a Rugby League player - Sir Billy Boston - was knighted.

Underground Culture 12 celberates the days when bands got it together in the country: "First and foremost on this list, Traffic began the getting-it-together-in-the-country trend by renting a remote cottage in the Berkshire village of Aston Tirrold in April 1967, just two months after the Band located to the Big Pink house near Woodstock."

"[Captain] Richard Todd ... was one of the first British officers to land on D-Day. Todd was part of the British airborne invasion, that took place June 5 through June 7. During Operation Overlord, Todd’s battalion were the reinforcements parachuted in after the gliders landed and captured Pegasus Bridge to prevent German forces crossing the bridge and attacking." Comet Over Hollywood surveys the actors who saw action on D-Day.

The Joy of Six 1367

The government needs to look beyond the 'bonfire of red tape' narrative if it's to solve the housing crisis, argues Labour MP Chris Hinchcliff.

Erica Jackson lives in a country where her neighbours can be dragged off by masked men: "From the start, the administration set their sights on targeting marginalised and minority groups. They propagated false narratives to incite prejudices, violence, and convince their supporters to justify the unjustifiable. The biggest scapegoats and, in MAGA’s mind, tools for pushing more tyrannical edicts and actions are America’s vast immigrant population."

Hannah Cloke says that England's water crisis calls for more than just a few new reservoirs: "We need a complete overhaul of the way we use water. We need to plug leaks, cut down on waste and use water more than once in our homes and buildings before sloshing it down the drain. We need to catch more water wherever it falls – not just in the river basins that are linked to big reservoirs."

Secret cameras are marketed as harmless gadgets but are used by stalkers and abusers, reports Anna Moore.

Richard Blair - George Orwell's adopted son - remembers his childhood: "At the beginning of June, following his wishes, I left Jura and was placed in the care of Lilian Wolfe, who ran a ‘colony’ at Whiteway, near Stroud. Whiteway had been an anarchists’ colony during the First World War and was a strange place to accommodate me but as far as I can recall I was perfectly happy there and even attended a local kindergarten for a few weeks."

Newly published by Little Toller, Brightening From the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory by Ken Warpole tells stories of arcadian dreams among the plotlands of Eastern England.

Robert Smyth Academy has a house named after J.W. Logan's Suffragette daughters

My old school the Robert Smyth Academy, as it's now called, produces a Welcome to Your New School brochure. In it we learn:

Pastoral care and guidance is at the heart of our school system. Your child will join one of four established college groups and this community will include key staff who will support their progress through school.

Is the brochure aimed at pupils or parents? Anyway, these colleges sound like the houses the school had in my day.

And the good news is that one of the colleges is called Logan College:

Logan college is named in celebration of the lives and work of local sisters Isobel and Nora Logan, who were both heavily involved in women’s rights and suffrage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Isobel and Nora were daughters of this blog's hero J.W. Logan MP.

The Joy of Six 1358

"Quite apart from winning Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Shropshire outright, the Lib Dems are set to lead Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Devon councils, with the possibility of a deal in Hertfordshire, and a long shot at power in Cornwall." Matthew Pennell reviews the local elections.

Rei Takver reports that the new Reform UK constitution gives its chair sweeping, unchecked authority within the party.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead on a report that shows women in the North of England face deep inequalities: "Northern women work longer hours for lower pay, are more likely to live in poverty, have fewer qualifications, and face a shorter life expectancy than women in other parts of the country. They are also more likely to take on unpaid caring responsibilities."

"International research has demonstrated that IM [independent mobility] benefits children physically, psychologically, cognitively and socially. IM allows children to explore their environments, at their own pace, based on their own decision-making processes. As such, IM increases children’s confidence, autonomy, social skills and capacity to move around public space while strengthening their bonds to and familiarity with place." Katherine L. Frohlich and Patricia A. Collins survey research on links between children’s right to the city, their independent mobility and public health.

"Well before the term 'nepo babies' entered the cultural lexicon, Bogdanovich cast a real father and daughter as Moses and Addie. ... Bogdanovich had recently worked with Ryan O'Neal on What’s Up Doc, though he actually approached the actor’s eight-year-old daughter Tatum to audition first, at Platt’s suggestion." Sara Batkie celebrates Peter Bogdanovich's film Paper Moon on its 50th birthday.

Jeremy Benson walks the canal towpath from Leicester to Market Harborough.

10,000 women may have been deported from Britain to Ireland in forced adoption scandal

Women and babies were deported from Britain and incarcerated in Irish state institutions because the mothers were unmarried, reports ITV News after a year-long investigation.

Its report on the scandal covers one such case and then adds:

From 1930 to the late 1970s the numbers making a similar journey were so high, officials in London called them PFIs – ‘pregnant from Ireland’.

The British authorities saw them as a burden on the taxpayer and put pressure on the Irish state to address the situation, while the Catholic Church in Ireland feared the children would grow up in non-Catholic families.

The result was a repatriation scheme – it was supposed to be voluntary – but women have told ITV News they were effectively deported from Britain and their journeys were organised and paid for by the state and the Church.

By analysing official records of the organisations behind forced repatriations, and speaking to experts in this field, ITV News has discovered that as many as 10,000 women and babies may have been deported from Britain to Ireland between 1931 and 1977

The children, now adults, often only found out they were British citizens decades later.

The involvement of the Catholic church does not surprise me: there's nothing like a hierarchical organisation for fostering human wickedness. And churches, like business corporations, tend to behave as badly as they are allowed.

There may even be something about an organisation set up to do good for others that makes it more likely to foster bad behaviour.

I remember a former chief executive at work telling me he had never met such Machiavellian people as when he worked for a health research charity. The reasoning, presumably, is that such a desirable end justifies any means.

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Andrew Page draws some lessons from Mark Carney's victory: "What we saw in Canada is that, when political leaders focus on the issues voters care about, minds (and voting intentions) can be changed. It also became apparent that the populist tactics previously employed by the Conservatives ceased to work once the incumbent party found a way of reconnecting with the electorate." 

"The Conservatives are defending a high watermark, a freakishly good result for them in 2021 created by the short-lived vaccine bounce that put wind in their sails for a few months." Matthew Pennell previews tomorrow's local elections.

Commenting on the suicide of Virginia Giuffre, Emily Maitlis says "We have to believe women while they’re alive."

City Monitor asks why Britain has let trams fall by the wayside: "People won’t leave their cars at home until there is an efficient, reliable and comfortable alternative. Trams provide that alternative. No other form of public transport allows you to travel about town smoothly and quietly, doesn’t emit noxious exhaust fumes, doesn't need a parking space, runs so frequently that you don’t even need a timetable – and actually enhances the urban environment."

Johnny Meynell explodes a popular myth about the 1970 FA Cup final: "No show-jumping took place at Wembley Stadium in the days, weeks, or even nine months before Chelsea took on Leeds United for the right to lift the FA Cup on April 11."

"It’s a surprise to arrive in Bexhill, prepared to take a look at one of the most famous examples of English modernism, the De La Warr Pavilion, all white walls, glass and steel, and to encounter a group of buildings with a whiff of the Mughal empire about them." Philip Wilkinson visits the Sussex coast.