Needham Market - an unlikely home for a conspiracy theorist?

There was, I admit, more than a little disappointment when the Conservatives gained Bosmere from the Liberal Democrats in 2017. After all, it had been Ros’s seat from 1993 to 2005, and whilst it had been defended successfully in 2013 - as much thanks to a UKIP intervention as anything else - the margins had become ever more dependent on piling up votes in Needham Market and hoping that the losses in Barking and Somersham and Ringshall weren’t too much against us.

But, with a new candidate, selected rather too late in the day to establish a track record outside the town, the seat was narrowly lost to Anne Whybrow, the former Conservative county councillor for Stowmarket South who herself had lost in 2013 by one vote to a UKIP candidate now serving a fourteen year sentence for murdering his wife.

It turned out that she wasn’t well, and perhaps hadn’t been expected to win, and her sad death just fifteen months later led to a by-election which... we didn’t win... by 19 votes.

Her replacement, Kay Oakes, had political form in Needham Market, and thus was probably a good choice. It turns out though, that she might not have necessarily been that good a choice.

This week, she was exposed on social media for retweeting comments supportive of the Washington rioters and, as it turns out, being an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump. Indeed, she retweeted conspiracy theories suggesting that the invasion of the Capitol was an antifa act.

What I found most intriguing, however, was her defence;

I would like to apologise for ‘liking’ a small number of posts on Twitter which suggested, inaccurately, that those other than the obvious perpetrators were behind the events at the US Congress. 

It can sometimes be too easy to be taken in by conspiracy theories on social media and my judgement on this occasion was wrong. 

I hope that all those who know me realise how hard I work on behalf of our community and how dear to me our part of Suffolk is.

I suppose that we are being asked to accept that despite her apparent gullibility, and the ease with which she can be persuaded to endorse and promote conspiracy theories, she can be trusted to take decisions on education and social care on the basis of fact rather than fiction.

And if you’re willing to accept that, I’ve got a nice bridge in Brooklyn that you might be interested in purchasing...

Cabaret night - Needham Market style...

Three times a year, the Barrandov Opera holds a short series of gala evenings and Ros and I usually attend one of them. Now I’d be the first to admit that opera is not entirely my first musical choice, but the opportunity to hear emerging talent from around the world in little old Needham Market is not one that can be missed.

And so, last night, with friends, we were there for a night of culture, with a Serb soprano, Polish mezzo-soprano, Korean tenor and Polish baritone, singing a selection of arias, accompanied at the piano by Peter Bailey, the one constant over the years.

I’d also admit that the image of opera as consisting of robust, slightly immobile people singing about absurdly ludicrous plot twists is one that has stuck with me - opera can feel like it’s being done to you from a distance. But, at the Barrandov, set out dinner style, with the performers moving amongst you, gives a completely different feel to the thing. And, as was the case last night, when the performers actively engage with the audience, and give the impression that they are utterly relaxed and enjoying themselves, it brings home to you that music is as much about context as it is content.

Our guests had heard of the Barrandov Opera, but how one gets tickets is not entirely obvious - there is a website but numbers are very limited (about 150 per evening), and regulars like ourselves tend to book more than a year in advance. They were, quite reasonably, expecting a stage, so when, during the opening number, the soprano wandered down a flight of stairs into the audience, laid her hand on our friend’s shoulder and lingered for a few moments whilst she sang, it was clear that this wasn’t your normal concert experience.

The performance is broken into three parts, between each of which part of a buffet supper is served - nothing overtly complex, salads, quiche, salmon and local ham carved from the bone, plus lots of dessert and a cheese board should one be so inclined.

There’s a bar, so you can ensure that you’re suitably refreshed, with quite reasonable bar prices none of your Royal Opera House “how much!” sort of thing.

And there’s no sound system, what they sing is what you get, but as you’re never more than twenty yards away from the action, and opera singers can really project, it is opera in the raw.

So, if you happen to be free in mid-April, mid-September, or the weekend before Christmas next year, and you’re in the area, you might want to sort out your tickets now...

The day the Morris Men came to Needham Market

Having lived in a big city for many a year, and having spent all my money on whisky and beer (I like whisky but I'm not so fussed about it), my experience of morris dancing is, to be honest, a bit metropolitan. It's all very well, but just rather bucolic, and that word is used in an ironic sense in this instance.

However, live in the country long enough (and I mean live in it rather than just visiting it at weekends), and you begin to appreciate it rather better. It isn't simply a bunch of men with beards who drink beer, wear hats with flowers on and either wave hankies or hit sticks against each other. And yes, I acknowledge that beer is drunk (real ale, not the gassy lager stuff), and that straw hats with flowers on are de rigeur, but it is quite complex.

As a child at primary school, I was forced to do country dancing every week. Given that I went to school in a north-west London suburb, that was a little unusual but, as one got the hang of it, one began to develop an appreciation of the precision needed to do it well. Oh yes, you can galumph about, flinging your partners around, but the real joy of it is remembering all of the patterns, making sure that your timing is spot on, and ensuring that your partner enjoys the experience as much as you do.

Now, add sticks to that, and you have to be even more accurate. Those sticks hurt if you miss your target, and the clatter when they are struck against each other sounds all wrong if your timing is out. And if you do hit one of your colleagues, the beer only deadens the pain for a while.

So, when I discovered, on arrival at the fundraising launch for St John the Baptist Church, that there would be beer, some really excellent sausage rolls and morris dancing, I was rather pleased. Eight men, two accordion players, two lengths of stick - what more could you want? And, I have to say, the East Suffolk Morris Men were excellent value, giving us a goodly sample of dances under the splendid fifteenth century roof. And, in keeping with tradition, a number of them could be seen sampling the fine products of the local Calvors brewery.

In tribute to them, here they are, performing at the Suffolk Show last month...

Is there anyone who can spare the odd quarter of a million for the church roof?

I may have mentioned in the past that, whilst Suffolk doesn’t have the most exciting landscape, what we do have is built environment, in particular some of the finest medieval churches in the country. The only problem with that is that they do need rather a lot of care and attention.

St John the Baptist Parish Church in Needham Market is just one of many fine churches, but I have a particular interest as they are currently attempting to raise rather a lot of money to repair the leaky roof. Sadly, it is not simply a case of repairing and replacing tiles.

Stunning late C15 roof, St John the Baptist, Needham Market. From new Pevsner #Suffolk: West http://t.co/Z5MyHg4ChR pic.twitter.com/tAsbejorKl

— Pevsner Guides (@YalePevsner) April 16, 2015

Built in the second half of the fifteenth century as a mere chapel of ease to the then primary parish church at nearby Barking, it has a double hammerbeam roof, in which the need for cross-beams is obviated by the support of the roof's thrust on hammers along the north and south nave walls. Henry Munro Cautley, who was the Diocesan architect for St Edmundsbury and who published “Suffolk Churches and their Treasures” in the 1930s, thought it had no equal in all of England, whilst the perhaps more famous Sir Nikolaus Pevsner concluded,

The roof had to be described in detail to make everyone appreciate what the significance of Needham Market is.

He noted that it was described by Crossley as “the climax of English roof construction” and by Cautley (again) as “the culminating achievement of the English carpenter”.

Unfortunately, five hundred years of age and neglect – the roof was hidden behind a false ceiling in the eighteenth century and only uncovered again in the late nineteenth century – have taken a toll. Wet rot has been discovered and, worse still, deathwatch beetles are slowly munching their way through the timbers. As a resident of a house with timbers of a similar age, I know just how bad that can be.

But, I hear you ask, why the interest? Well, a fundraising campaign has been set up and Ros has been asked to be its Patron, something she was more than happy to do. The campaign is formally launched this evening, so I’ll be there in my consort role. And, if you happen to know anyone with a lot of money and an interest in medieval church architecture, do pass them in my direction, won’t you?

Far from the campaign trail - a night at the opera... in Needham Market?

I have, in the past, extolled the virtues of Needham Market, with its predominantly Georgian high street, a splendid non-league Tier 4 football team and a gratifying support for genuinely hard-working Liberal Democrats. I have not, and it is remiss of me to have thus failed, mentioned its opera house until now.

The Barrandov Opera, the vision of John and Carol Dearlove, is probably the smallest opera house in the country, with three brief 'seasons', one in April, another in September and the third in the run-up to Christmas. Up and coming talents perform a selection of arias and other operatic works for a small but devoted audience. Dinner is included in the (astonishingly reasonable) ticket price. After all, how much would it cost to get to, say, London, let alone the cost of tickets and dinner?

But I digress. Ros and I met up at Needham Market station, on a glorious spring evening for the short drive to our destination, with little idea as to what exactly we might expect. What transpired was a remarkably intimate night of music, song and pleasant conversation, all hosted with flair, charm and sparkle by John Dearlove himself.

Bass-baritone Darren Jeffery, mezzo-soprano Helen Sharman, soprano Dušica Bijelić and tenor Joshua Mills, accompanied by Peter Bailey on the piano, performed everything from Britten to Bizet, Verdi to Wagner to an increasingly appreciative audience, mingling with us in almost an 'opera in the round' manner. It was quite splendid.

So, if you weren't convinced as to the utter wonderfulness that is Needham Market previously, perhaps now that you know about this jewel in the cultural life that is the Barrandov Opera, you might pay us a visit...

"Needham Market rail passengers need better information", says Cllr Wendy Marchant

Commuters are waiting at Needham Market railway station for trains which will never arrive because a new information screen has not been installed, according to district councillor Wendy Marchant.

She said when engineering works are in progress, which cause services to be cancelled, passengers are left in the dark. Rail replacement buses are often provided but they run through the High Street and don’t stop outside the station so many passengers do not use them, Mrs Marchant added.

This has been going on for some time, I went down there Saturday and there was no information about replacement buses. There was a poster with small type which would have been very easy to walk straight past which was up along side several other posters.

She added that in September she was promised a Customer Information System would be fitted to help passengers.

A spokesperson for Abellio Greater Anglia said “more prominent” signs were being displayed when replacement buses were running.

He added;

We’re grateful to Councillor Marchant for her continued interest in this matter, and we are planning to arrange a follow-up meeting between one of our local managers and the councillor to discuss the progression of these further improvements.

The slow death of rural England, and why the internet isn't always helping

As a recent newcomer to my small, but perfectly formed, village, I have grown to accept that the notion of convenience in terms of facilities is by its nature more relaxed. I can't walk to the bank, or a shop, or indeed anything apart from a postbox in much less than half an hour. Admittedly, the postbox is just thirty yards from our gate...

The theory, and one that I broadly accept, is that facilities are to be located in larger villages and small towns, so as to benefit from economies of scale. However, there does come a point where the retreat becomes a straightforward withdrawal.

Needham Market is a growing community, whose population has trebled in the past forty years and is still growing. It is the focal point for a clutch of small villages, very few of which have any commercial facilities at all, apart from the odd pub or farm shop, but there are plenty of small businesses around.

Earlier this year, Barclays Bank announced that they would be closing their branch in the town. Apparently, it wasn't busy enough to justify its retention. And, in isolation, that was quite possibly true. In an age of internet banking and consumer choice, we visit our local bank branches far less than we used to. Twenty years ago, if I wanted to pay a credit card bill, I could either send a cheque through the post and trust that it got there in time (or at all), or I could go to my local branch, queue up with a while bunch of other people doing the same thing, and be pretty confident that my payment would get to my creditor in good time. Now, I can wake up at 3 a.m., think "bugger, I haven't paid that bill" and set up a bank transfer in a minute or so, at no material cost to me.

The catch is, for those people who need banks for other things - paying in takings, meeting a member of staff about a loan, or an investment, or who have a query that is more complex than "what is my balance" - you need some physical interface.

"Ah,", I hear you say, "but the market will provide. People can go to another bank instead!". The catch is, there is no other bank in town. Indeed, the nearest banks are in Stowmarket, four miles away, where a range of providers will happily accept your custom. Is it a major consideration when setting up a new business? Probably not, but it might make the difference between picking a rural location and a more urban one.

There is no doubt that access to services is key to establishing and sustaining your lifestyle, regardless of where you live. But, for those people determining how and where those services will be delivered, the likelihood that they are urban dwellers means that those of us who aren't are likely to be poorer in terms of choice and opportunity, and less likely to be able to live in our otherwise idyllic small communities otherwise.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that my choice to live in a small village comes with an acceptance that the services I receive from the State will not be as prevalent or convenient. But when even small towns are beginning to be abandoned, we should all be slightly concerned.

Letters from Creeting St Peter - an interesting canvassing concept

I spent this morning as part of the canvassing team in Needham Market this morning, where we are defending the Bosmere county division held by Julia Truelove. The response on the doorstep was pretty good, although it was noticeable that a number of previously canvassed Conservative supporters were claiming to be switching to UKIP.

The candidate herself was joined by the two sitting District Councillors, Wendy Marchant and Mike Norris, and I was intrigued to see that Mike had his most recent payslip from Mid Suffolk District Council with him. If challenged on expenses and suchlike, his response was to show them the payslip, showing his allowance as a councillor, and his effective hourly rate, a miserable £1.90 per hour. I did suggest that the council should be done under the national minimum wage provisions... I'm quite impressed that Mid Suffolk include that information, and wonder how many other councils do.

It just goes to show that not all politicians are doing it for the money... as if most of them ever were...