River Thames from Eynsham Lock, Eynsham to Sandford Lock, Sandford-on-Thames
Status: Severe Flood Warning
Received at: 21:21 on 21-Jul-2007
The River Thames from Eynsham Lock, Eynsham to Sandford Lock, including Wytham, Lower Wolvercote, New Botley, Osney, Grandpont, New Hinksey, South Hinksey and Kennington
Recently the Google Earth images of Oxford got much, much better. This, for example, is the part of town where you might run into Enkidu on your travels. That’s the canal going down the left-hand-side, where he’s been spotted on a number of occasions now; and there’s St Barnabas Church along the bottom edge, with Jericho’s Albert Street cutting through the top right-hand-corner.
William Ballinger, trade unionist, ILPer and anti-apartheid politician. A blacksmith, Ballinger joined the ILP in 1916 and became secretary of the Motherwell and Wishaw trades and labour council in 1921, later serving as a parish and town councillor. He emigrated to South Africa in 1928 to be adviser to the largest black trade union there, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union. The union collapsed shortly thereafter, but he continued to work with black trade unionists, publishing a series of 1930s pamphlets on the politics and economics of race in South Africa. His wife Margaret was elected as a native representative for the Eastern Cape in the House of Assembly, going on to become the first president of the South African Liberal Party; William was elected as a native representative in the Senate in 1948; both Ballingers left parliament in 1960 when the Nats abolished the system of native representation. Born Birmingham, 21 September 1892, died Cape Town, 20 July 1974.
Ernest Mandel, Belgian Trotskyist, born in Frankfurt, 5 April 1923, died in Brussels, 20 July 1995.
Ted Grant, Militant, born 16 July 1913, died 20 July 2006.
Julian Bell, socialist poet; born in Bloomsbury, 4 February 1908, died in the military hospital at El Escorial near Madrid, 18 July 1937.
The Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, in partnership with Compass, is to appoint a one year Political Research Fellow commencing October 2007. The Fellow will conduct research of a socialist orientation on themes to be agreed with the Trust and Compass.
The Fellow will work from the Compass office in central London and will receive an award in line with ESRC research rate of £14,300.
Applications are invited from people with a relevant degree and/or research experience. The deadline for applications is 13th August 2007.
More details here.
From the end of what may be the greatest scene in the greatest film ever made: Rouget de Lisle teaches the Marseillaise to the people of Paris, in Abel Gance’s Napoleon:
As Europe drifted towards war in the Summer of 1939, the Chicago Sunday Tribune was asking the questions that matter: just how tall were the men guiding their nations’ destinies?
Here are the shorties, the rest are over the fold:
[With many many thanks to PM for sending this my way!]
I’m delighted to say that someone is letting off fireworks in North Oxford, which I am assuming is in honour of Bastille Day. Vive la République!
Over here. The humiliation!
(Did they ever withdraw the whip from Lord Archer?)
Today’s the fortieth anniversary of the death of Tommy Simpson, the first (and only?) really great British cyclist, who collapsed and died near the summit of Mont Ventoux in the 1967 Tour de France.
Richard Williams has a good piece in today’s Graun; and do read William Fotheringham’s Put Me Back On My Bike if you get the chance: it’s a cracking book, certainly the best book on cycling that I’ve read, but one that’s not just for the cycling nerds out there. In fact, anyone interested in the social history of postwar Britain in general and the popular culture of the 1960s in particular should enjoy it. And, look, there’s a new edition, too, so it’s bound to be in the shops.
(There’s even been speculation that Bradley Wiggins has gone on the attack in today’s stage from Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse by way of symbolic tribute to the man; we’ll find out, no doubt, at the end of the day’s racing.)
I’m quite glad I didn’t see the TV pictures of the last hour or so of today’s stage in the Tour de France. The BBC reported that
1602: It’s race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov’s turn to hit the tarmac, apparently after colliding with a following vehicle. He shakes his fists in frustration and replays show a nasty graze to the right buttock, which looks like it will be exposed for the rest of the stage.
And the Guardian Over-By-Over commentator (or whatever it’s called when it’s cycling rather than cricket) had this:
4.23pm: With 10km to go, Vinokourov is pushing really, really hard to try and re-attach himself to the peloton, which is a minute ahead of him. He had six riders with him, but now he’s on his own and making a huge effort that’s bound to take it out of him as far as future stages are concerned. To make matters worse he has a patch of skin missing from his right buttock that looks about six inches square. He’ll be sitting gingerly at the dinner-table tonight.
Yuck. And Vino never made it back to the peloton, falling from twelfth to eighty-first in the CG. He must be very annoyed.
Thanks to this page, I’ve managed to get live pictures of the Tour de France from Serbian TV onto my computer screen, together with the audio commentary in English from Eurosport (my Serbian’s not too hot). I think this means that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
