These have been quite exciting and perhaps even traumatic times in the last few years for Timothy James Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdadale and formerly leader of the Liberal Democrat Party. Having been elected as the member of parliament in 2005 and re-elected in 2010 2015 & 2017 and being selected as Party Leader 2015-17.
Tim was born in Preston in Lancashire and attended Newcastle University where he gained a BA in Politics in 1992 In his early life and student years he will admit to being interested in a cross section of British politics and while at Newcastle, became President of the University Union Society also being elected to the National Union of Students National Executive. Having previously joined the Liberal Democratic Party at the age of sixteen.
Prior to his success in 2005 he made his first appearance in the political arena by contesting North West Durham in 1992 finishing third to Labour and the Conservatives. Then served upon Lancashire County Council 1993-2000 and also as a councilor for Leyland Central Ward on South Ribble Borough Council 1995-1999. His next attempt was the marginal South Ribble constituency seat in 1997 General Election in which he again finished in third place. He was also the Liberal Democrat candidate for the North West Region in the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections.
In 2001 Farron contested the Westmorland and Lonsdale seat of the Conservative Tim Collins for the first time, coming second but in the process greatly reducing the Conservative majority. Between 2004-2008 he served as the councilor for Milnthorpe on the South Lakeland District Council.
It was during and after this time he established himself in the hearts and minds of the people of South Lakeland and became the seemingly tireless worker for and on behalf of the voting public. From fighting to preserve the future of the threatened Westmorland General Hospital and championing local housing schemes, to more simple and mundane problems like helping people to get their bins emptied.
In 2005 once again he contested the Conservative seat held by Tim Collins and this time won by a narrow margin of 267 seats, taking a seat which had previously been held by the Conservatives for over 100 years. In 2010 this was increased to a majority of 12,264 with his power base now being firmly established. Also in 2010 he tried and failed to gain the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, narrowly losing to Simon Hughes by 20 votes. He then tried and succeeded in winning the position of President of the Liberal Democrats.
In 2015 he became one of only eight Liberal Democrats to win election and later replaced the then party leader Nick Clegg.
For the 2017 Elections, he had to fight a difficult campaign facing many detractors and people disputing and even deriding the party manifesto with such claims as the intended plans to legalise the use of cannabis and also brothels, and the party's Pro-Europe stance. However he held his seat with a reduced majority and increased the party's seats from 9 to 12 with a reduced number of votes. Afterwards he declared he would step down as Leader of the Party, because he; "had become torn between living as a faithful christian and serving as a political leader."
He remains the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
The Three Shires Stone, a simple carved limestone pillar, which stands upon the Wrynose Pass, in the English Lake District, marks the place where the three traditional counties of Cumberland, Lancashire and Westmorland, all met. Cumberland and Westmorland, no longer exist and this part of Lancashire has been reduced, now all brought together in the new Cumbria, established as long ago as 1974. Presently the stone lies broken and damaged, awaiting repair.
The stone, which was quarried in the Cartmel area in the south of the county, was carved in 1816 by a William Field who then held the post of Furness Road Master. Furness, being formally the area of Lancashire covering the areas of Barrow and lands to Cartmel. The stone was erected in it's present position in 1860.
In it's recent history the stone appears to be the unfortunate victim of vehicular damage, such as something like a larger van or landrover, crashing into the structure. This occurred once before in 1997 and with careful masonry repairs being needed. This time the damage is thought to be considerably worse and much more careful and thoughtful repair will be needed.
The stone is also classed as a monument and is Grade II listed. In England and Wales there are three grade listings, with most structures falling under the Grade II listing.
Clappersgate is a small hamlet about a mile to the west of Ambleside standing on the River Brathay and probably as the name suggests Gate of Clapper. Historically the village was once classed as a "Port" due to the old wharf, which was used for the loading of locally produced slate and shipped down to Bowness and Lakeside. Although everything is on a small scale, with narrow river access and transport a few short miles, it was at one time, an important waylay point of embarkation. These days with slate being transported by road, the wharf is now part of a large villa called "The Boathouse."
At one time Clappersgate supported a mill, an Inn or Ale House and a shop, with a couple of farms in the area. Brathay Parish Church still operates today, though stands on the left bank of the river Brathay which did place it in Lancashire, the right bank being Westmorland, now both sides are in Cumbria.
Also worth mentioning is Brathay Hall, home and meeting place of a few worthy artists and writers, of the Wordsworth, Coleridge, Harden group.
John Paul Jones, father of the US Navy, performed many daring exploits in his career, perhaps not so auspicious was his raid on the Cumbrian coast.
On the night of April 22 1778 at the height of the American Revolutionary War of Independence the US ship Ranger, stood about two miles off the Cumbrian Coast, North West England. In two longboats with about thirty armed men a'board, Jones and his second in command Lieutenant Meijer commanded one and Lieutenant Wallingford of the US Marines and Midshipman Ben Hill in the second. Their plan was to destroy as many ships as possible in the port of Whitehaven.
Almost straight away the plan ran into problems, with rough waters, strong winds and several unreliable crew members. Their first objective was to make a landing further up the coast and silence a gun battery, however this was aborted due to the sea being to rough and the coastline to rocky. For Jones and Meijer, they were to silence a further gun battery, which guarded the harbour, by scaling some walls and capturing the guards and in this they were successful. As for Wallingford and Hill, their mission was to attempt to burn as many ships as possible, in the northern end of the harbour.
Meanwhile Jones and another Midshipman Joe Green, then set out to "spike" some guns at a further battery, whilst sending his crew off to burn the ships in the southern part of the port. As this was taking place, Wallingford and Hill had made a successful landing and headed straight to a queyside Ale House, supposidly to take hostages, secure the building and find flame for their incendiary. Though upon seeing the inhabitants were ordinary seamen like themselves, forgot all thoughts of violence and joined them in making merry.
Later, when Jones found no ships a'flame, due to his men having no means of fire, he took matters in hand and a light was eventually gained from a nearby house. A suitable coal ship, The "Thompson" was located and a barrel of tar thrown into the hold and a fire was started, though this method was less successful with a couple of other ships. While this was happening, it seems another one of Jones's crew, David Freeman, slipped away to alert the townspeople to the danger of the fire and the town was able to muster a number of fire engines with which to contain the fire. Any prospect of a major disaster was averted.
In all this confusion the would-be saboteurs, along with three prisoners, were able to return to their ship and make good their escape.
The mission could easily be seen as a failure, but as a moral booster, the action was a great achievement. Yet in another way England came to realize the dangers facing their ports and guards were increased and ports became more fortified, more ships were put on patrol duties and military enrolment increased.
Captain Scott's Fruitcake has been recovered from the Antarctic, wrapped and in a sealed tin, and is said to be still edible after more than a century! In actual fact, a New Zealand based charity, known as The Antarctic Heritage Trust, found the cake, whilst carrying out a two year conservation programme at Scott's base camp and landing stage on Cape Adare. The cake, discovered in a batch of more or less severely corroded tins, was quite a surprise find for the team, probably left behind by Scott's Northern Party, who conducted geological research and spent the winter of 1911 there.
The Fruitcake, a variety favoured as a high-energy food, produced by the famous biscuit makers, "Huntley and Palmer" was also said to be a favourite of Captain Scott.
Captain Scott, Captain Oats, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Edward Wilson, all died on their return journey from the South Pole to the base camp on the Terra Nova.
Sat in a branch of my local bank, I was impressed by a notice informing me that my account would now be accessible by voice recognition. Although a couple of days later, I was even more startled to read how someone had gained entry to such an account, simply by imitating the voice of the account holder! Merely a "teething problem" the bank may well be inclined to comment, putting no one's mind at rest. But then, when you think about matter's of security, there are always going to be a lot of disreputable types out there, trying to access your personal data and more particularly, your money.
If you're like me, then no doubt you are walking around with a notebook containing the average twenty-plus passwords you need to conduct your secure on-line life, be it Banking, Social Media and your personal life and websites. We are constantly being reminded to change our passwords, add a telephone number and include an address, date of birth and so forth, next they'll be asking for your National Insurance Number, supposedly to at least make your account seemingly more secure!
It can be very annoying trying to remember all the various spelling and misspelling of a password, some can be just to complicated to recall exactly, if you are not conversant with say the two or three most used. Ideally, some might say, it is advisable to change a password every three months and not by just a couple of digits. We are told to compose each password with various letters, upper and lower case, numbers and symbols, to make random spellings. Although most people would create a password something like; "john@abc123" which would be relatively simple to work out. A good idea is to use a short sentence of mixed words, such as; "Solitude Hired Kidnapper Magnate"which would take a hacker several lifetimes to de-code, whereas something more typical like; "AmbA$$Ador+8" could be calculated in a couple of days, (a fact which has been verified by a government agency) Although the majority of people are more likely to use something a little more conventional like; "12345"
Tuesday August 8 2017 Saw the passing of Glen Campbell, popular and country music star at the age of 81. He passed away with his family by his bedside at a care home in Nashville, suffering from Alzheimer's.
His musical career spanned over six decades and produced many memorable hits including; Wichita Linesman, Rhinestone Cowboy and Galveston and many more. He sold some 45 million records, had a dozen Gold Albums and at least 75 chart records.
Glen Travis Campbell was born in Billstown, Arkansas in 1936, the seventh son of a family of twelve children. He is said to have started playing on a $5 guitar at the age of four and remarkably in his early years was playing a few gigs and even doing appearances on local radio shows. He dropped out of school at the age of fourteen and moved to Wyoming, where he would pick up some work playing guitar with his uncle Dick Bills in his group, the Sandia Mountain Boys.
Later he moved to Los Angeles and found regular work as a session guitarist at the American Music Co, where he also made a minor recording; "Turn Around, Look At Me" which attracted the attention of Capitol Records, and they signed him to the label. Here he was able to sharpen his "picking" abilities and was much in demand working with major stars like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the Monkees as well as renowned producers such as Phil Spector and Jimmy Bowen.
A lucky break came about for Glen in 1964 when he was invited to tour with the Beach Boys, due to the illness of Brian Wilson, Glen was able to replace Brian on bass and high harmonies. After a notable period with the group he was then able to follow this up with the success of his recording; "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" written by Jimmy Webb, who also wrote "Galveston" and "Wichita Linesman."
Glen also found some fame in film and television, following an appearance on the Joey Bishop Show, and "The Summer Smother's Brother's Show" for CBS. This in turn led to "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" which drew audiences of 50 million viewers, between 1969 and 1972. Interestingly Glen Campbell was offered the part of "La Boeuf," a Texas Ranger, in the John Wayne film, "True Grit" a part originally planned for Elvis Presley. The film, directed by Henry Hathaway, was a commercial success and won John Wayne an Academy Award, although Hathaway later said he was unhappy with Campbell's performance and later said his acting was "wooden" and only chosen for the part so that he could record the title track. Nevertheless Glen received a Golden Globe nomination for "Best New Actor" for his part in the film.
This could have signaled a change of direction for the singer, but in 1972 his television show was cancelled, coupled with a fall in his popularity, said to be due to his fondness for alcohol and drug abuse. At least the singer was still able to produce chart topping hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy" 1975 and "Southern Nights" 1977. However, along with falling record sales, he was heavily featured in various gossip columns and it was not until the later 1980's when he was able to break away from his life in Los Angeles, completely defeat his habits and addictions and became a Born Again Christian.
With his no holds barred, Autobiography, interestingly titled; "Rhinestone Cowboy" and later in 2005 being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2011 he announced he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, this period saw an increase in his recorded work before the condition worsened and in 2012 he was awarded "A Lifetime Achievement Award, by The Recording Academy. In 2014 there was the release of a documentary; "Glen Campbell, I'll be me," featuring the song; "I'm not gonna miss you," which gave him an Oscar Nomination and The Grammy, for "Best Country Song."
