I am delighted to see that Coventry Rugby Club have applied to be approved as eligible for promotion to the English Premiership under the rules about stadium capacity. As they sit at the top of the second tier, for now things are looking up although there is a lot of the season still to go. I have written here before about the travails of being a Coventry rugby supporter. I am always tempted to blame myself. Fifty years ago when I really became aware of their existence as my maternal grandfather was a supporter they were one of the great ...
John Rogers posted this walk at the end of October. His description on YouTube says: A beautiful autumn walk in South London. Walk 3 of the Capital Ring starts at Crystal Palace Park and goes through Penge, Alexandra Park Sydenham, Cator Park Beckenham, and our walk ends at the wonderful Beckenham Place Park with sensational views. The Capital Ring is 150-mile circular walk divided into 24 stages. This walk was around 7.5 miles with rail and bus connections at either end starting at Sydenham Station and ending at Beckenham Junction. Best of all, we get to see the Crystal Palace ...
John Masefield's The Box of Delights is many things, and one of them is a crime novel. Shedunnit, an excellent podcast on women crime writers, has made a previously subscriber-only episode available to everyone. It looks at The Box of Delights as crime fiction. Kay Harker, after all, is trying to report a nasty case of scrobbling, but like many amateur detectives in fiction, he finds that the police don't take him seriously. The podcast emphasises that The Box of Delights is a long book - there's a lot in it that didn't make it into the television adaptation. And ...
Amnesty International's 293 page report, 'You feel like you are subhuman' (5 December) stands as the first devastating indictment of Israel's genocide of the people of Gaza since last January, when the International Court of Justice deemed genocide 'plausible' and applied legally binding orders concerning Israel's conduct (which were ignored). Page by agonising page, Amnesty chronicles the disproportionate actions and language of Israeli leaders, soldiers and others that, in its view, clearly demonstrate intent to destroy Gaza and its people. Two years ago, Amnesty published its report, 'Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians', another forensically detailed analysis of Israel as occupying power. ...
Within the next few weeks the Labour government will publish its promised white paper on Devolution. Reports so far suggest it will extend combined authorities with directly-elected mayors across the rest of England, abolish the remaining district councils and move to unitary councils covering parts of combined authorities - in practice a new two-tier system in which the relationship between combined-authority mayors and unitary councils will remain to be settled. There's unlikely to be any significant change in financial control from the centre or tax reform. A move towards three-year settlements for central funding of local and combined authorities is ...
Gateshead Lib Dems recently published edition 190 of eFocus on NE16, covering the Whickham area. Key issues covered include:Dunston Pool under new management;Local Remembrance services and parades;Whickham North and Swalwell by-electon result;Concern over Sunniside woodland;Christmas lights switched on by Peter Pan in Whickham;Whinnies Community Garden Christmas Fayre;Christmas tree lights switch
It's now a Christmas tradition that I quote from the article Who's the Boss? "The Elf on the Shelf" and the normalization of surveillance by Laura Pinto and Selena Nemorin:Through play, children become aware about others' perspectives: in other words, they cultivate understandings about social relationships. The Elf on the Shelf essentially teaches the child to accept an external form of non-familial surveillance in the home when the elf becomes the source of power and judgment, based on a set of rules attributable to Santa Claus. Children potentially cater to The Elf on the Shelf as the "other," rather than ...
The politics of climate change has got a whole lot uglier. 'Saving the planet' may make for good speeches to the party faithful but the political costs are now becoming more apparent. The planned job losses in the car industry, including the closure of the Vauxhall (Stellantis) plant at Luton, have made the vision of 'green jobs' more difficult to sell. The industrial strategy I oversaw in the Coalition involved expansion of the car industry and a highlight was going to the USA to head off closures of Vauxhall's plants and get a commitment to UK expansion. Now the industry ...
Friends of Sunniside Community Hub put on a great event on Saturday evening to light up the Christmas tree outside Sunniside chapel. Unfortunately I was double books as I had a prior engagement in Newcastle. It meant my offer of using some of my goats cunningly disguised as reindeer at the event could not go ahead. I've looked through the photos and video taken by people at the event. It
We had another action day in Gateshead over the weekend. This time we were in Bridges ward, now one of the most marginal in Gateshead. Following the by-election in the ward in September, Labour have a majority of only 65. Sunday saw us delivering our latest Focus across the ward. I took 3 patches and delivered 2. At some point I will fit in delivering the final patch.
The Mirror wins our Headline of the Day Award, though the judges did point out that Cliff recorded Move it, which has a claim to be the great British rock record, and that celebrity chefs are ten a penny these days.
Michael's surgeries take place today and are as follows : Thursdays at 5.45pm prompt - West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC and Victoria Park Primary Schools) Thursdays at 6.30pm prompt - Harris Academy reception area All welcome - no appointment necessary!
There is an interesting thread from Lizzie Dearden, a Home affairs and security journalist, formerly of the Independent, on the full cost of the Tories' farcical Rwnada scheme here. She provides a table showing spend in millions of pounds, reproduced at the top of this post. She says that of the £715m spent, which does not include wider costs to the asylum system such as slower decisions and rocketing hotels costs: 💷£270m was to Rwanda's Economic Transformation and Integration Fund (unrelated to people being sent) and £20m was for operational spending by Rwanda; 💷£95m was went on "investment to optimise ...
