Ross Hutchinson, the weatherman on Tyne Tees TV, was a visitor to Sunniside over the Jubilee weekend. He was there to plant a tree on the Whinnies Community Garden (see video above) and he took the opportunity to visit my Nearside allotment to see my goats and poultry. He's a keen supporter of animal welfare and keeps a number of animals himself. It was great to see him in Sunniside.
I have a memory of hearing an item on the radio about recordings made from the walls of a pub that revealed ghostly music. I date the memory to the 1970s and a BBC Radio news magazine programme, most likely the Today programme on Radio Four. The recording featured music from something like a harmonium and was made, I thought, in the cellar of a pub in Sheffield. Having tweeted about that memory this evening, I am pretty sure I did not imagine it. Two people - Andy Lewis and Duncan Hill - immediately put me on to a doctoral ...
The battle is hotting up in Devon. The Conservative candidate Helen Hurford has this week come out from hiding and has been allowed to speak to the national media. The i has the story. I couldn't help raising a smile when Hurford started talking about herself in the third person: "Helen Hurford has a six-point plan to deliver... and she will fight with all the gusto and passion that she has." That sounds like she was reading from one of her own leaflets or a script from CCHQ, only she had forgotten that it was about her. In contrast to ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is now out. As it starts: Welcome to my latest weekly round-up of British political polling, with this week a look at the fuss kicked off by allegations over YouGov's polling in the 2017 general election. First though, a look at the national situation... You can read it in full online here and you can sign up to receive future editions here.
Sun 12th
16:57
Would you consider supporting the civil society advisers' ask on carbon pricing to the G7?
On the 8th June an Environmental Audit Committee session heard that "To meet 1.5C, we need to think about the impact of our production in the global context. 60 % of oil and gas reserves globally need to stay in the ground. For the UK, we need to see a 6-7% reduction in production annually." Michael Lewis, Chairman of E.on, stated that insulating 19 million houses would save the equivalent energy output of 6 nuclear power stations, and tweeted that putting solar panels on new-build houses was a 'no brainer'. What we don't need is new oil and gas field ...
I have been out and about all this week doing work for some of the Party's controlling Council Groups but also helping at the Tiverton & Honiton by-election. It was in the Tiverton HQ that the person who first recruited ... Continue reading →
This government is stuck on the letter "B". Build Back Better. Bus Back Better. And now Benefits to Bricks. And, of course, there is the perennial Boris Bluster. The speech Boris Johnson gave in Blackpool on Thursday seemed to be more about keeping Johnson in his home at No 10 than getting others into homes. Although billed as a "housing speech" it was more a rambling justification for Johnson's position. Although the main topic was meant to be housing, we heard of olive oil and bananas, Suez and Ukraine, inflation, policing, health, cost of living, riots and much more on ...
The Anti-Nowhere League come from Tunbridge Wells and they are disgusting. This is the title track from their first album. As it dates from 1982, you can see they were late to the punk party. Maybe that's why it has a heavier sound than the one you associate with the punk bands of five years earlier. I believe the young people call it hardcore punk. The League disbanded in 1987, but reformed in 1992 and are still around today.
Sat, 14:48: RT @AnnaJerzewska: A must-read - on NIP and next week's bill from @tconnellyRTE "A dual regulatory regime for agri-food would be seriousl... Sat, 15:09: Meet the man battling to fix Europe's trains via an epic 40 day journey https://t.co/bhtx8uep0i Go @JonWorth! Sat, 16:05: RT @Mij_Europe: The penultimate paragraph is also fully divorced from reality. The problems in NI are the consequence of the deal the Brexi... Sat, 16:48: Great speech (summarised in the linked thread). "I offer some modest thoughts as to what both sides need to do. Just not in any expectation that they will do much ...
Nine weeks. This is how much time – according to the International Grain Council – that the world has before the Ukraine War sets the world on an unalterable course towards world famine. This is because in nine weeks Ukrainian farmers will start harvesting the winter grain crop and start moving it to portside harbours to be shipped out via the Black Sea. The problem is that those silos are already filled with 200 million tons of grain from the previous harvest because of the Russian naval blockade and destruction of Mariupol. If that grain is not moved – and ...
After another astonishingly good night's sleep, it was time to leave Germany, as I had plans. I hadn't actually done anything about them but I did have some. The EuroCity train from Berlin to Prague conveniently stops in Dresden, before heading up the Elbe valley. It has been a popular route for some time, no more so than during the Thirty Years War, when the locals had the misfortune to be on the main route between Saxony and Bohemia. As a result, various armies rampaged through the towns, leaving death, destruction and plague behind them. The "misery of Pirna" rather ...
The Liberal Democrats have criticised Brandon Lewis' refusal to commit to publishing the government's full legal advice around its plans to overhaul the Northern Ireland protocol. It comes after Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael raised the issue in Parliament last week and demanded the government publish its legal advice in full. Liberal Democrat Northern Ireland Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: "The refusal to publish this legal advice looks like yet another attempt to cover up Boris Johnson's repeated lies and law-breaking. The government must come clean and publish what legal advice was received and who from in full. "The public ...
Don't miss WestFest Big Sunday today! We'll be lending a hand at the Harris Education and Recreation Association stall. More details of WestFest Big Sunday is available www.facebook.com/events/3130303717204304
