READERS will know that if something's new and exciting, this column won't touch it. But thrust an historical document about bygone yesteryears down our memory lane and we can't get enough.

One such manuscript has landed on our desk, and fascinating reading it makes too. It dates way back to spring 2003 and appears to be an election address from a candidate hoping to be voted on to York council on May 1 in that very year.

This Liberal Democrat chappie, aiming to be Osbaldwick's representative, is a man of noble principles. "He is a keen environmental campaigner and takes a particular interest in transport and land use issues in the area," the leaflet tells us.

The Churchillian prose just keeps coming. "Its sic about pride in our City" is one stirring headline.

"Just as we are stewards of our planet for a short time, so at local level we bear responsibility for conserving our City's heritage," it states.

"York's unique built environment is important to us. Of equal importance is its setting. We think that conserving the green belt around York - and restricting new building to previously developed land - is worth fighting for."

Here comes the rousing finish. "So we're at odds with both Labour and the Conservatives who have voted to reserve land for the erection of an additional 5,000 houses in the green belt, many of them located on our side of the city.

"One of our main priorities is to stop them!"

If the visionary behind these words, by the name of Jonathan Morley, were around today we could not resist voting for him.

By a curious coincidence, the present member of Osbaldwick is also called Jonathan Morley.

Unlike his 2003 namesake, who was all for protecting undeveloped land, today's Coun Morley favours the Derwenthorpe scheme which would see 540 homes built over wild meadows in his ward. That's despite hundreds of the people he represents being implacably against such environmental vandalism.

Strangely the person pictured in the 2003 leaflet - gazing protectively over those very same meadows set to disappear thanks to the council's approval for Derwenthorpe - bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2005 member.

Could they, by any chance, be related?

BACK to Prince Monolulu, the fancy dress racing tipster. Having lived in York all his life, Frank Jackson has attended the races precisely once, when he was in his teens - and there he and his mate encountered the unmistakable character.

"We were following Prince Monolulu down this lane. He had his long skirt thing on and his feather headdress," said Mr Jackson, who runs a plastic engineering firm near Grimston Bar.

"Coming up the other way and quite a way off were two blind men, one with a violin."

However all was not what it seemed. The "blind" beggars immediately recognised Prince Monolulu and hailed him as Charlie - or some similar, less-than-regal name.

Monolulu "was a wide boy," is Frank's verdict. "He was selling little bags with tips in. I think they were half a crown apiece, which wasn't cheap in those days."

RARITY Restaurant's month-long lobster festival "was declared a resounding success" the Diary learns. Not, we suspect, by the lobsters. No fewer than 211 were scoffed at the George Hudson Street venue.

Updated: 10:49 Friday, July 15, 2005