Birmingham City Council vs local historians

Some graves yesterday

What is it with West Midland graveyards and the authorities?

On Saturday I blogged about the thwarting of the locals' attempts to preserve a historic gravestone at Bishop's Castle.

Now comes news that Birmingham City Council is frustrating the Jewellery Quarter Research Trust's effort to compile an online database of thepeople buried in the city's Warstone Lane and Key Hill Cemeteries.

ITV News reports:

The voluntary group’s website, is still under development, and contains database with lists of graves and in some cases biographies, obituaries and photographs or portraits of the deceased ...

They say they receives hundreds of visitors on their website each week from around the world, ranging from historians to people researching family histories. 

But they have now been banned from taking photos of each gravestone unless they apply in writing for permission on a ‘case by case’ basis.

The report also quotes a spokesman for the council:

Permission for this request was declined on the basis that once this information is held by a third party then the council will have no control over how it may be used in future, without a formal agreement in place.

Which must mean it never issues press releases, because it has no control over how they are used either.

If you asked Birmingham City Council to fund this work, they would (quite truthfully) tell you that their finances are under unprecedented pressure.

Which makes it a shame that the only departments they still fund are the ones that stop other people doing things.

Anyway, enjoy the Jewellery Quarter Research Trust website.

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Lord Bonkers' Diary: A shadow cabinet maker

As I mentioned in yesterday's post on the botched attempt to oust Nick Clegg in 2014, the new Liberator is out.

Which means, whether we like it or not, it is time to spend some more time at Bonkers Hall.

A shadow cabinet maker

My cabinetmaker calls this morning to effect some repairs to one of my Sheraton sideboards. They are occasioned by too vigorous a celebration of the anniversary of Graham Tope's victory at Sutton and Cheam – really, once the members of the Liberal Democrat Women’s executive committee get a few pints of Smithson & Greaves Northern Bitter down them no piece of furniture is safe.

I always enjoy watching a skilled tradesman at work, but I am puzzled by the man he has brought with him. At every turn he exclaims "You’re doing that all wrong" or "I wouldn’t do it like that". When the fellow is out of the room, I ask who he is. "Oh," comes the reply, "he’s a shadow cabinet maker".

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West 1906-10.

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How Nick Clegg was nearly toppled in 2014

Embed from Getty Images

The new Liberator is out, which means a limited amount of copy from it is available on the magazine's website.

From there you can download a PDF of an article by Seth Thévoz - "A Very Nearly Successful Coup."

It tells the story of the attempt to topple Nick Clegg as Liberal Democrat leader and argues that it came far nearer to succeeding that was generally realised at the time:

What destroyed the coup was when the second wave of MPs got ‘the wobbles’. A disciplined media grid had set out a detailed timetable of MPs who would go public in waves of two or three at a time, staggered with other parliamentarians, to build a sense of momentum. 

On day one, a members’-led open letter calling on Clegg to resign was released as per the plan. (This was never a petition as claimed – it was an open letter which envisioned 20 signatures. It accidentally secured over 400.) 

On day two, the first two MPs went ‘over the top’, publicly calling for Clegg’s resignation, and were joined by a third MP who wasn’t scheduled to declare until several days later, jumping the gun.

Then on day three, we were badly let down by one MP. The response of his colleagues was “If he’s not going, I’m out” – which spread like a chain reaction among MPs and peers. The activists roped in to do the MPs’ dirty work were left holding the baby.

The moral is clear. If you want to know what is going on in the Liberal Democrats you should subscribe to Liberator.

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Disused railway stations in Bradford, Calderdale and Wakefield

A varied selection from this part of West Yorksshire.

I can remember Altofts being open - it closed in 1990.

There are lots more of these videos on this blog. Find them on the Disused Stations label.

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