"The Remains of the Day" film locations on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

One of my favourite films is “The Remains of the Day” released in 1993 starring Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton, the housekeeper, and Anthony Hopkins as Mr Stevens, the butler.  The story is set in the stately home of an aristocrat during the 1930s when a significant group within the British political and aristocratic establishment thought it desirable to come to an “arrangement” with Hitler’s Germany. 

Many of the film’s locations are in Somerset. Two of them, Deer Leap near Priddy and The Old Bristol Road at Stockhill Wood, are on the Mendip Hills where I spent many a visit enjoying the views and walking my much missed dog, Rosie.

There are several other Somerset locations used in the film.  The characterful George Inn at Norton St. Phillip is where Mr Benn courts Miss Kenton.  Stevens drives along Kewstoke Road past Birnbeck Island into Weston-super-Mare, which plays the part of Clevedon.  The old Grand Pier, since destroyed by fire and rebuilt, is where Miss Kenton and Mr Stevens spend time before their tearful final farewell. 

A view from Deer Leap on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.  The location of a scene in the film "The Remains of the Day".

On his way to visit Miss Kenton in Clevedon Mr Stevens’ car runs out of petrol at Deer Leap as the sun is about to set.  Stevens finds his way to a pub for the night, the actual location being the Hop Pole Inn, Woods Hill, Lower Limpley Stoke.  The next morning Dr Carlisle, who met Stevens in the pub the previous night, gives Stevens a lift back to his car.  They travel north along the Old Bristol Road past the Forestry Commission’s Stockhill Wood and Waldegrave Pool, although in reality they are heading in the opposite direction to Deer Leap! 

The Old Bristol Road at Stockhill Wood on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.  The location for a scene in the film "The Remains of the Day".

A view near Waldegrave Pool from the Old Bristol Road on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.  It appears in the film "The Remains of the Day" as Dr. Carlisle drives Stevens back to his car.

  

Dan Jarvis MP for Barnsley Central "in continuing push for Regionalisation", reports Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats.

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, has written on his blog of how Dan Jarvis, Labour MP for Barnsley Central, has used statistics gleaned from “community polls” and “consultations” to claim: “Barnsley and Doncaster made their voices heard.  Some 85 per cent voted in favour of a wider Yorkshire deal.”  This claim was made during a debate on Yorkshire Devolution.

However, Mr Jarvis seems to have tortured the statistics into giving him the answer he wanted.  What he did not reveal was that out of an electorate of almost 4 million in the Yorkshire and Humber region only 87,750 voters took part in the “polls” and “consultations”.

For more on Mr Jarvis’ “dodgy devolution dossier”, below is a link to Robin Tilbrook’s blogpost - and have a look at the “comments” section.  I entirely agree with Clive from Weston-super-Mare.  In my view the promotion of “city-regions” and “metro-mayors” for the English is not devolution, but a ploy by the British political establishment aimed at dismembering England.  Divide and Rule, a well tried British political tactic; keep the natives busy squabbling amongst themselves over financial crumbs from the Westminster table!

http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/labours-devious-dan-jarvis-and-his.html

The pier at Weston-super-Mare on the Somerset Coast.

On yet another wet and miserable January day I spent some time looking through some of my photographs and came across this one of the pier at Weston-super-Mare on the Somerset Coast.  It was taken from Brean Down on a hazy day in the spring of 2015.

The pier at Weston-super-Mare on the Somerset Coast viewed from Brean Down.

 I thought the reflections were quite pleasing.

Viewing the "Letters" columns. Politics in Yorkshire - nowt so queer as folk.

In a recent blogpost I suggested that Yorkshire might be where the first county or regionalist party gains any electoral traction.  After this letter published in The Week on January 13th I am not so sure!

Nowt so queer as folk.

To The Guardian

Simon Jenkins quotes David Cameron as saying, “we knew Yorkshire people hated the rest of us, but I never knew they hated each other”.  That’s just about the only political lesson he learnt.  The Danes probably knew the nature of the beast when they divided the county into three ridings.  There are England map T-shirts that also show the outline of Yorkshire.  Inside the county boundary is the legend “Right”, and outside, the word “Wrong”.  Yorkshire folk are united only by a sense of superiority to the rest of the world and a generalised grievance against it.  Beyond that, nowt.  Sheffield thinks the “One Yorkshire” movement is a power grab by Leeds.  Leeds thinks Sheffield has ideas above its station.  The Tory councillors of North Yorkshire would rather be seen dead than sit in a council chamber with Sheffield socialists, and so it goes.  What the Danes put asunder, let no man or woman join together.
Professor Glyn Turton, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Palace of Westminster should be given to The National Trust suggests Darren Jones, Bristol North West MP.

On January 10th an article appeared in the Western Daily Press entitled "MP suggests Parliament is for visitors".  Here are the first two paragraphs:

"MPs should move out of Parliament for good so it can be turned into National Trust visitor attraction, a West Country MP has suggested.  Labour's Darren Jones, the Bristol North west MP, says the country's politicians should swap the ornate 19th century Palace of Westminster for a building that can meet modern demands - while also pub-free.

The Government has a difficult decision to make over how the multi-billion-pound refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament is carried out, with a temporary "decant" for MPs being suggested while the work takes place."

The article prompted me to pen the following letter which was published in the Western Daily Press on January 17th. 

"I agree with Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, when he suggests that MPs should abandon the Palace of Westminster for a building that could meet modern standards (Western Daily Press, January 10).  However, I am not so sure his proposal to hand the old building to the National Trust as a visitor attraction would be welcomed by that organisation.  The multi-billion-pound cost of refurbishment and subsequent maintenance might well be too much for the National Trust to bear.

Would it not be just as well to allow the Palace of Westminster to gracefully fall into a state of picturesque ruin on the banks of the River Thames?  Let it become a monument to those politicians whose decisions created and then lost the 'empire on which the sun never set'."

S.W., Ilminster, Somerset.

The Campaign for an English Parliament exposes European Union plot to regionalise England!

Reproduced below is part of an article from The Campaign for an English Parliament. 

“Regionalisation exposed by the CEP as a devious EU tactic to destabilise the UK (& England!)

 
Many initial responses to hearing that there is a Yorkshire independence movement and a Yorkshire Party is to pour scorn on the idea as being fiscally irresponsible or plainly unworkable. This is because it is obvious that without the British government’s subsidies Yorkshire Services wouldn't function properly.

However, to simply dismiss these two organisations that have the same Liberal Democrat leadership is to underestimate the manipulation and the devious actions of the EU in supporting a new sounding name for the old EU Regionalisation project for Britain and for England. http://www.e-f-a.org/about-us/

First it is important for any patriots to realise that the EU is supporting the Yorkshire Party as it belongs to an EU umbrella organisation, called the European Free Alliance (EFA). That EU organisation gathers together 45 “Progressive nationalist, regionalist and autonomist” parties throughout Europe. This grouping can only be conceived as an EU attempt to break-up and digest those nations that the regionalist organisations work within. This is because the EU supports the Regionalisation agenda because it makes resistance to their EU federalism agenda difficult if the nation state is fighting on two fronts. (the EU commission and EU supporting regionalist voices within).

The structure in Catalonia and Spain is a good example showing how devious the EU truly is:- The EU has openly distanced itself from those Catalonian parties that have called for full independence but it fails to mention that some of these parties are also included in their EU, European Free Alliance organisation. In effect, they are funded encouraging Regionalisation behind the scenes but are publicly slapping down independence. That is because the regionalist within the nation state is an EU regionalist patsy!

Once you accept that Regionalisation is all about pushing the EU Federalist agenda then you realise that The Yorkshire Party is not about benefiting the people of Yorkshire but about promoting EU federalism. This makes the Yorkshire party dangerous because it is about creating internal divisions and arguments within England and the UK whilst the British Government are engaged in full Brexit negotiations.”

Here is a link to the whole article:

http://thecep.org.uk/c-e-p-news/regionalisation-exposed-as-a-devious-eu-tactic-to-destabilise-the-uk/

I suspect that the British Political Establishment is just as keen to see England destabilised and regionalised as the European Union.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now have their own devolved governments; any such recognition of English nationhood would be anathema to the Westminster elite who much prefer to vaingloriously cloak themselves in British nationalism while ruling over their last remaining “colony” – England. 

 

Be that as it may, it seems the Yorkshire Party has joined Mebyon Kernow as the two foremost county/regionalist parties in England.  Here in the West of England the Wessex Regionalists still persist, but have fielded only a handful of candidates in elections this century.  In the last General Election Jim Gunter stood as the Wessex Regionalist candidate in the constituency of Devizes, in Wiltshire, receiving 223 votes (0.4 per cent).  Mebyon Kernow, formed as a pressure group in 1951, did not field any candidates in the 2017 General Election saying its timing made it impractical to do so, but the Party does have four local councillors at present.

I imagine it could well be in Yorkshire, due to its size and economic clout, where a regional or county based party has any hope at all of gaining any sort of "regional" electoral success.

In my opinion, if the British Establishment succeeds in breaking England into regions we may as well return to the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy and rebuild the nation state of England from that starting point, as it was originally.

A watery winter sunset on the Wessex Coast.

Yesterday's watery winter sunset on the Wessex Coast.

Bristol's underground metro. Sheer fantasy!

After years of ponderous consultations, it seems 21st century planners, politicians and engineers have yet to re-open for passenger trains the 10 mile stretch of railway between Portishead and Bristol which their visionary predecessors thoughtfully provided for them almost 150 years ago.

In such circumstances the scheme for three underground metro lines linking Bristol Airport, Bradley Stoke and Emmerson’s Green to the city centre is sheer fantasy.

Furthermore, the cost of the scheme has reportedly increased from £2.5billion to £4.5billion in 3 months – Bristol council taxpayers take note!  The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has apparently been sounding out the prospect of Chinese funding for the project which, if his ambitious plan comes to fruition, could mean yet another chunk of England’s infrastructure being under foreign control.

Bristol’s leading politician should stop dreaming of grandiose multi-billion-pound schemes that will in all probability never see the light of day and start focusing on workable, practical ideas which could make the most efficient use of existing transport systems.  Promoting the reopening of the Portishead to Bristol railway for passenger trains would be a good beginning.   

Viewing the "Letters" columns. Consult the doctor or a vet?

Readers of this blog may have realised that I enjoy writing "letters to the editor" so, as I subscribe to The Week magazine I thought I would feature some of those letters from its 'pick of the week's correspondence' which I find amusing or pertinent.

With the NHS in the news for all the wrong reasons, as usual, patients are apparently advised of three steps to take before booking a GP appointment.  I found this letter made me smile - especially as I am fond of dogs.

The Week 6th January 2018

The doctor won't see you now.

To The Daily Telegraph

The NHS's latest advice to patients reflects the sad deterioration of the system.
My wife and I have, for some time, added a fourth step: we consult our daughter, who is a vet.  The consultation is informed and accurate, and we get a biscuit at the end.
Graeme Williams, Kings Hill, Kent.

The Church of St. Mary in the village of Seavington St. Mary, South Somerset.

This blogpost for Epiphany encapsulates the decline in the numbers of worshippers in the Church of England and the many fine churches no longer in use as a consequence.  

Drive 4 miles east from Ilminster along the Old London Road and you will find, tucked away in a picturesque hollow on the side of a gently sloping valley and sheltered by two magnificent yews, St. Mary’s Church, the parish church of Seavington St. Mary. 

Built of Ham stone the church dates from the thirteenth century, it was considerably enlarged in the fifteenth century and further altered later.

Sadly, St. Mary’s was declared redundant in 1983, but has been in the care of the Churches Preservation Trust since 1985.   

The Church of St. Mary in the village of Seavington St. Mary, South Somerset.