The strange ride of Alan Amos

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Augustus Carp, our Defections, Principles and Opportunism Correspondent, has drawn my attention to the remarkable career of Alan Amos. What follows comes from research by Mr Carp, backed up by investigations of my own Wikipedia.

Amos was first heard of as a Conservative councillor in Ealing, sitting between 1978 and 1987. He unsuccessfully fought Walthamstow at the 1983 general election, but had more joy four years later, when he was elected for Hexham in far-off in Northumberland.

He was to become a victim of John Major's Back to Basics campaign, or rather of a briefing given to the press by the now-forgotten figure of Tim Collins - he was the Tory MP Tim Farron defeated to gain Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005.

As far as Major was concerned, Back to Basics was about bringing back the three Rs in school and the timely repairing of pot holes. But when asked by journalists if it was also about private morality, Collins said yes.

The result was the appearance of a never-ending stream of scandals (or minor incidents dressed up to look like scandals) involving Tory MPs. And Amos was involved in one of them, having the misfortune to be arrested for what sounds like cottaging on Hampstead Heath just before the 1992 election. 

Amos was not charged, but he accepted a police caution for indecency, and stood down as MP for Hexham. Perhaps this might have been survivable by the Nineties, but in the climate engendered by Back to Basics he was toast.

While at Westminster, Amos was known for his vehement opposition to abortion and his enthusiasm for corporal punishment. So it was a great surprise when, in 1994, he announced he had joined the Labour Party. In 2000 he was the star of a Guardian article about the former right-wingers who were now approved Labour parliamentary candidates.

And he was given a seat to fight, losing to Peter Lilley in Hitchin and Harpenden in 2001. He was elected as a Labour member for the Millwall ward of Tower Hamlets in 2002, but lost four years later as the yuppies invaded the Isle of Dogs. In 2008 Amos was elected to Worcester City Council.

In May 2014, with the Council hung, he resigned from the Labour Group to become an Independent, allegedly because Labour hadn't put him up for Mayor.  At the Council AGM in June, Amos accepted the Conservative nomination for Mayor, and as Mayor he then voted for council control to change from Labour to Conservative.

A year later, hours before his tenure as Mayor came to an end, Amos announced he was rejoining the Conservative Party. In May 2024 he was to find himself returned as the last remaining Tory on Worcester City Council.

And, a few days ago, Amos resigned from the Tories to become an Independent once again.

So, over the years, Amos has gone from Conservative to Labour to Independent to Conservative to Independent. What comes next? Will he perhaps rediscover his enthusiasm for reactionary social policies and join Reform?

Meet C.W. Allen: Market Harborough's champion walker of the Edwardian era

Remember C.W. Allen, the "pedestrian holder of the 2,000 miles road record" who saw a phantom airship over Kelmarsh? He turns out to have been quite a figure in his day: the newspapers were full of reports of his feats and appearances.

Here is an account of a visit he paid to Great Malvern in 1905, which was recycled by the Worcester News a century later:

How To Walk And The Boots To Wear was a headline in the Malvern Gazette 100 years ago.

It came as Mr C W Allen, the champion long-distance pedestrian of the world, gave an exhibition of his powers in Malvern.

"At six o'clock in the evening, he started from Mr Oliver's boot stores on the Promenade and walked along the Belle Vue Terrace, through the Wyche cutting, round the hills by West and North Malvern, down Trinity Bank to the Graham Road and up Church Street to the starting point," the paper reported.

"This walk, which is practically an afternoon's walk to an ordinary individual, and has plenty of difficult ascents, he accomplished in the marvellous time of 49 minutes, or at the rate of eight miles an hour.

"A considerable number of people watched him en-route and the critics had to admit that in spite of the rapidity with which he travelled, it was a fair and square walk with no suspicion of breaking into a run.

"Mr Allen wore a pair of Oliver's celebrated boots and stated that he never had any others to beat them as regards wear and ease and comfort."

But then Allen, whose forenames I have yet to discover, was a great one for endorsing things. He endorsed the tonic Phosferine tonic in the makers' advertisements, even when he had joined up as an air mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps during the first world war.

Another Phosferine advertisement gives Allen's home address: 43 Nithsdale Avenue, Market Harborough.

The illustration above is one of a number of postcards of Allen that the CardHawk site has sold in recent years. You will see that in this one he is endorsing Harboro Rubber Soles, which were made at the Dainite Mill in St Mary's Road by the Harborough Rubber Company.

Later. A reader has researched this (thank you!) and his full name was Charles William Allen. He was a commercial traveller working for a boot manufacturer, so he was a walking advertisement.

Allen was originally from Stroud. His first child was born in Market Harborough, but he had left the town before the 1911 census and was living on Jersey in 1921.

It occurs to me that he may have seen that airship because he was off his tits on Phosferine.

South Shropshire Lib Dems and the future of England fast bowling

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The England selectors have included the uncapped Nottinghamshire seamer Dillon Pennington.in their 14-man squad for the first two tests against the West Indies this summer.

Pennington joined Notts at the end of last season, having played for Worcestershire before that. And his profile on Cricinfo reveals that he is originally from Shropshire:

Dillon Pennington possesses the natural strength and height to become an imposing fast bowler of international quality. He was part of Worcestershire's satellite academy in Shropshire - coached by Paul Pridgeon - which has been so prolific in producing young players in recent years.

And Matthew Green, who was Liberal Democrat MP for Ludlow between 2001 and 2005 and is fighting South Shropshire in the current election, recently revealed on Twitter:

Thrilled to see Dillon Pennington @DillonPenningt4 called up to the England Test Squad. I had the pleasure of captaining him for his first games in adult cricket, when he played for Much Wenlock CC in 2012.
Always a delight to see others who are #Shropshire born & bred, excel. https://t.co/p6HkQRW89q

— Matthew Green (@MatthewGreen02) June 30, 2024

Shropshire Lib Dems are on such a roll at the moment they're even finding fast bowlers for England.

Summer's here at last! The first schoolboy wearing a skirt story is in

Just as it doesn't feel like Christmas is coming until we've seen a news story about a crap Santa's Wonderland, so it's not summer until the first boy has gone to school in a skirt as a protest against not being allowed to wear shorts.

And summer 2024 is here, reports the Kidderminster Shuttle, thanks to the head boy of a school in Worcester:

Nikita Tkachuk, who has just finished his GCSEs at Nunnery Wood High School, protested as he believes it is unfair that boys must wear long trousers during summer months.

He wanted the uniform to include tailored shorts but the school said it does not have plans to change its uniform policy at this time. 

The 17-year-old, originally from Ukraine and now living in St Peter's, had the support of his classmates when he turned up in the school skirt. ...

According to Nikita, the scorching heat during lunchtime made wearing long black polyester trousers 'unbearable.' 

He said, unlike girls who could wear skirts above the knee, boys attending Nunnery Wood School are required to wear full-length trousers. 

The Wonder Stuff: The Size of a Cow

Let's start with the trivia. Miles Hunt, the guitarist and songwriter in The Wonder Stuff is the nephew of Bill Hunt, a horn player who followed Roy Wood through The Move, ELO and Wizzard.

And The Wonder Stuff shared those bands's West Midland heritage, coming out of Stourport at the same time as Pop Will Eat Itself. Members of both bands had already played together in once called From Eden.

The Wonder Stuff album everyone bought was Construction for the Modern Idiot, the last the band released before splitting in 1993 - they were to reform a few years later. But their best-loved single was this, and it comes from the earlier Never Loved Elvis.

Wikipedia quotes praise for The Size of a Cow:

Record Mirror made "The Size of a Cow" its single of the week upon release, with Peter Stanton's review describing the song as "a rampant jingly-jangly-organ affair that trips at a happier than happy pace".

Reviewing Never Loved Elvis in Vox, Keith Cameron described the song and "Caught In My Shadow" as "paragons of pop virtue", noting "huge melodic sweeps, artfully clever lyrics and nagging hummability".

Music & Media linked the song to contemporaneous singles by the Milltown Brothers, R.E.M. and Susanna Hoffs in what they heralded "the return of the classic pop tune".

Writing in 2017, Jon Bryan of Backseat Mafia described "The Size of a Cow" as "the equal, if not better, than almost any other guitar-pop song of the 90s".

Talk of "the return on the classic pop tune" puts you in mind of Britpop, and The Size of a Cow feels like an earthier, beerier essay in that genre. Most important of all, it still sounds good.

The climate crisis just got real: Worcestershire CCC may have to find a new ground

From BBC News:

Worcestershire may have no choice but to move home if water levels continue to rise at New Road, their County Championship base since 1899, chief executive Ashley Giles has warned.

The promoted Pears' short-term mission is to have the pitch fit for the first home game on 19 April against Durham.

But Giles says that, as Pears CEO, his first job is also to "consider the club's long-term sustainability".

"The situation is worsening, and we need to keep an eye on it," he said.

Speaking in the county's own new Three Pears Chat video, which was launched over the weekend, Giles said: "The stats say in the last 20 years we've had as many high floods as they did in the previous 100."

Those quotations are taken from Three Pears Chat, Worcestershire County Cricket Club's new monthly videocast. If you stay on this site to watch it you will see the relevant portion of the discussion.

The New Road ground at Worcester has a special place in the affections of cricket fans of a certain age, as this was where countries on a test tour of England traditionally played their opening first-class game.

And I can recommend the tea and cakes in the Ladies Pavilion.

The disastrous tunnels of the Leominster Canal

Another trip with Paul Whitewick to the remains of the badly engineered and never completed Leominster Canal.

Last time we looked at the remains of the canal's aqueducts: this time the emphasis on tunnels. 

The most important tunnel of all - the one that would have taken the canal to the Severn at Stourport - was never built.

There's more about this waterway on the Friends of the Leominster Canal site. There's more from Paul and Rebecca Whitewick about their railway and canal explorations on their website.

The breathtaking remains of the Leominster Canal

I once had bed and breakfast in the Teme valley near Tenbury Wells, and was told that the track running behind the house used to be the Leominster Canal.

Paul Whitewick goes looking for more substantial remains, and what he finds is nothing short of extraordinary.

There's more about this waterway on the Friends of the Leominster Canal site. There's more from Paul and Rebecca Whitewick about their railway and canal explorations on their website.