I was at Hillsborough a couple of weeks ago, Wednesday fans were great. I fear we’re on the same path to administration unless our owner sells up.

I’ve been trying for 6 months to transfer a (very small) pension from early in my career into a more recent one. Absolutely tortuous process where apparently no one is allowed to use email, only physical letters.

LiveScore is good for exactly this - just watched the clip on there.

Plan for the rest of this disastrous season is to ignore Leicester’s impending relegation and just pretend it’s 2016.

I blame the (terrible) Baz Luhrmann film.

Should it really be that surprising that an elected politician with a democratic mandate to build a tram is pushing for a tram to be built? Only if you view elected mayors and strategic authorities not as sub-national governments but as delivery vehicles for Westminster-designed policies.

How A Secret Government Report Delayed Leeds' Long-Awaited Trams The long wait in Leeds for a tram network was recently extended yet again. Noah Vickers uncovers the real reasons for the latest delay

This is super interesting for a bunch of reasons but the suggestion from NISTA that West Yorkshire's tram proposals are based “around a political agenda rather than a recognised programmatic approach” is particularly revealing.
www.politicshome.com/news/article...

“There is no difference between segregated light rail and buses running on already congested roads. I am very clever.“

It's still the case that HAs generally have access to more sources of capital than councils, often at lower interest rates. But the big change since 2018 - and the reason councils are building again - is that the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap was removed.

There‘s been quite an increase in councils building houses themselves over the last decade due to changes in how they can borrow against future rent income. About 10,000 new homes were completed by English councils in 24/25.

Bat For Lashes - Daniel (Official Music Video) YouTube video by Bat For Lashes

m.youtube.com/watch?v=9yEj...

They Are Gutting A Body Of Water - sludgy shoegaze stuff. Latest album is their best yet imo.

The new Shabaka album is great if you like slightly ethereal jazz like Alice Coltrane.

The Nourished By Time album from last year if you like a bit of introspective, synthy RnB.

Not sure about this to be honest. In my experience there is a small but not tiny percentage of supporters at many clubs who have been radicalised in recent years by a combination of Covid, Twitter and cocaine.

The cover of Cuddy by Benjamin Myers. It’s about St Cuthbert, Northern England, and a bunch of other stuff.

Happy St Cuthbert‘s Day to all fellow citizens of the Northern Powerhouse. Feels like a good day to big up my favourite British novel of the 2020s so far.

I know, must have taken a few days to film those scenes. You are spot on about Mackenzie Crook’s character, he played it perfectly.

It’s so great. And much of it was filmed near us so the Wickes up the road will now forever be known as Tool Box.

Absolutely fair enough. Could have done without Henry this series really but there’s still enough going on elsewhere to keep me hooked.

This season has been hit and miss but ep 6 is one of my favourite ever episodes. Episode 5 pretty good as well. Essentially more Eric = better Industry.

I think Steve Walsh (then Leicester chief scout) is credited with that one. I was there for Kante's debut at Bury in the League Cup where Ranieri played him on the right wing, before he realised quite what he had on his hands.

Dude sent (further) mad after wife divorced him because he was on the internet too much. Many such cases.

Second episode is absolutely crackers. Seems to have divided opinion, but I loved it.

This is a great piece on my old (now neighbouring) constituency.

Thanks!

I read The Sense of an Ending a few years back and enjoyed it, but not quite enough to dig into the Barnes back catalogue. What would you recommend?

It’s a ‘Manchester over country’ line though, which I can really get on board with.

I’m less interested in the politics of it than the principle I guess. It’s an important job with serious responsibilities and leaving halfway through a term has serious consequences for policy and delivery.

I’m a bit surprised your piece doesn’t acknowledge the devolutionist argument in favour of blocking Burnham from standing - that only under exceptional circumstances should a mayor be allowed to walk out of a job that 420,000 people elected him into.

Police and Crime Commissioners and elected mayors Members of the House of Commons may stand for election as a Police and Crime Commissioner. However, if they are elected they must resign their seat before taking up the post of Police and Crime Commissioner. If a Police and Crime Commissioner becomes a Member of the House of Commons, he or she is automatically disqualified from holding office as Police and Crime Commissioner. Members of the House of Lords are not disqualified from being a Police and Crime Commissioner. Directly elected mayors are not disqualified unless they also exercise the functions of Police and Crime Commissioners.

It’s in the Cities and Local Government Act 2016. Here’s the relevant bit in Erskine May.