Jon Rouse on Saving Britain's Ceramic Heritage Before It's Too Late YouTube video by Potteries Author - David W. Smith, OBE

@jonrouse.bsky.social on Saving Britain's Ceramic Heritage Before It's Too Late.

It was good to hear Jon also talk about Stoke-on-Trent’s ambitions to become a designated UNESCO Creative City and to be recognised nationally as an International Centre for Ceramics.
youtu.be/_DAViY_UGpo

This really is a great picture:

Utterly despicable.

American independent cinema owes much to Sundance king Robert Redford | Adrian Horton With his Sundance film festival and institute, Robert Redford used his considerable power to bring generations of talented film-makers to a bigger audience

American independent cinema owes much to Sundance king Robert Redford | Adrian Horton

If you ask ChatGPT it states that at least in the short term, some targeted inward migration has to be part of an integrated strategy to tackle the social care labour shortage. Perhaps ChatGPT should have written the speech or even given it!

Dismay as north of England universities miss out on share of £54m talent fund Exclusive: MP presses minister for explanation as thinktank says omission undermines innovation in the north

Dismay as north of England universities miss out on share of £54m talent fund. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Text: International law Sir, Lord Hermer’s warning is not an insult but a timely reminder from legal history (news, May 30). His reference to Carl Schmitt was not a personal comparison, but a caution against a dangerous and corrosive doctrine: that state power may override law when convenient. That principle helped dismantle constitutional safeguards in interwar Germany and must be scrutinised wherever it resurfaces. The European Convention on Human Rights was an integral part of Churchill’s postwar vision. To treat it now as a mere obstacle to immigration policy is to forget why it was created: to ensure that governments, including our own, remain ultimately subject to a substantive vision of the law. The real divide is not between Remainers and Leavers, or Strasbourg and Westminster, but between those who believe in government under law and those who do not. Richard Edwards Senior law lecturer, Exeter University

Letter in Times today

Yes it's much bleaker.

Back then department budgets were coming off a decade of increased spending. Now they've been through 15 years of painful spending reviews. There's nothing left to cut.

Clowns!

Having engaged with UNESCO UK, I’m writing a column about #Future100 prospectus commitment to build on World Craft City status to achieve ‘Stoke-on-Trent’s ambition of being designated an International Centre for Ceramics, and pursuing a medium-term plan to become a UNESCO Creative City.’

The ‘new world order’ of the past 35 years is being demolished before our eyes. This is how we must proceed | Gordon Brown We have seen the conflict and tragedy that can follow when an old era collapses. Countries that believe in multilateralism must come together now, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brown

“The ‘new world order’ of the past 35 years is being demolished before our eyes.” Wise words from Gordon Brown.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"You boy! What tariff is it today?"

I agree.

Breaking now: Ministry of Economics reporting the tariffs have not caused significant changes to our trading volumes

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded econ.st/3YbbFjq

This is brilliant!

I’m certainly with you for the quartets.

I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.

Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine regulator, forced out Top FDA official Peter Marks was forced to resign as the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

FDA lead forced to resign: “I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency…However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Need to await full facts but on face of it, this is shocking and worrying.

This is mortifying. It's the kind of calculation you would normally make about a dictatorship.

open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Tesla sales plunged 47% in February in Europe. But we can do better.

"It's time for Total Place 2.0": John Denham in conversation with Jessica Studdert - New Local The best policy that almost was? Former Secretary of State John Denham & New Local's Jessica Studdert discuss their new paper calling for a come-back for place-based budgeting as we saw in the Total P...

Good to hear @jesstud.bsky.social bang the drum again for Total Place 2.0.

www.newlocal.org.uk/articles/tot...

#BennettInst

T-level qualifications still less popular and more expensive than BTecs, watchdog finds The NAO has suggested that more popular vocational qualifications should be retained until T-levels can be fully evaluated Popular sixth-form vocational qualifications such as BTecs should be retained until the success of T-level qualifications can be fully evaluated, the National Audit Office (NAO) has suggested. In its investigation into the introduction of the new qualification launched in 2020, the NAO noted that T-levels had been less popular and more expensive than alternatives, with only 25,000 students enrolled this year, hampered by “uncertain” economic benefits. Continue reading...

T-level qualifications still less popular and more expensive than BTecs, watchdog finds

#StokeonTrent was bloody good at land reclamation.....

Westport Lake, Central Forest Park, Berry Hill Fields, the Greenway System, the National Garden Festival, and more recently Chatterley Whitfield Country Park

Let's shout about it

London councils are spending £120m a month on temporary accommodation, @tomcopley.bsky.social told @homelesslink.bsky.social’s conference on rough sleeping 👀

In case anyone was wondering, this is what it looks like visually.

UK city that's one of the most underrated named among the best for a staycation This city's love affair with ceramics saw it awarded the World Craft City status in 2024, which is why it is affectionately known as The Potteries.

Stoke-on-Trent’s love affair with ceramics saw it awarded the World Craft City status, which is why it is affectionately known as the Potteries.

@jonrouse.bsky.social

The lonely death of Dr Jagdip Sidhu He was a rising star of the NHS. Could his work have contributed to his death?

This is a fiercely sad and damning piece about the reality of one of our most admired professions. What a terrible fate for a dedicated man www.the-londoner.co.uk/nhs-doctor-s...