The Rat Inn is getting absolutely shredded on the local 'Hexham Matters' Facebook page, from people of all political persuasions.

As a local councillor I have to fact check every social media post I make, I know there will be uproar if I get a single tiny fact wrong. That's the world we live in. To write a highly contentious book without fact checking at all is 'brave'.

And eight years ago.

#Manchester today....

On the plus side I'd be feeling *a lot less worried* if I lived in Greenland rn.

Never understood the attraction of Dubai. I do now.

Stormy Seaton Sluice
#Northumberland

Whilst the economic back drop has been bad for the last 18 years, is it also the online age which draws politicians into worrying about how stuff plays out above actual delivery? Which is a self fulfilling downward spiral?

😬 I'm sensing more than a little schadenfreude here!

It kind of felt like safeguarding territory, he'd been knocking back the Kool Aid,in trebles.

Chatting to a guy recently telling me how the £ & $ were absolutely doomed, the end is nigh, they were failing soon, as there was 'Nothing to sustain them,' etc and he was putting all his savings in crypto. It was a bit like talking to a member of a cult.

It's not colour photography weather atm!

When I first worked in housing people could recall back in the 1980s being given several options of council house to move into. These days you could be one of several hundred people applying for one house.

If you look at housing delivery the only time enough houses were built in the UK was during the era of mass council building.

Surely, the fact that this is being spread far and wide online means this would qualify as harassment under the 1997 Protection from Harrassment Act.

Absolutely agree with all of this and the importance of the public realm. I think about these themes a lot at the moment.

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Stockport Council got lots more engagement on its Facebook post on the Mersey Valley Way. Over 200 interactions.

No, it wasn't! 🤣 That was my first thought, that doesn't happen in the Cheshire M&S.

It got a bit 'tasty' in my local M&S this morning as two blokes started squaring up to each other in the cheese ailse and everyone paused shopping to watch 👊🏻. The staff had to put the call out to security.

If you haven't hit send and had that moment of GDPR panic induced nausea you've not lived. I put this issue alone down to one of the reasons poor mental health is so widespread.

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I'm also reflecting that 30 years later I'm increadibly grateful the delayed train I was waiting for this evening was a Northern one.

I used to reflect that Stevenage station on a Sunday evening is the place anyone who thinks it's 'grim up north' should be sent, for eternity.

Undoubtedly. One of the most unequal.

Well, here's the official take from the council's recently published Housing Needs Assessment...

'Everyone in London is moving to Manchester' SPECIAL REPORT: As Manchester city centre's development shows no signs of slowing down, town is busier than ever with more visitors and 100,000 residents. But a tension between the old and new establi...

It's filling up with Londoners, apparently: 'Everyone in London is moving to Manchester'

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

Seeing first hand how difficult it was claiming housing benefit made me favour the idea. Anything to make life easier for marginalised people is a good thing, and this will. It might make processing claims quicker too.

That was definitely the opinion of The Northern Echo commentariat, which was much amused.