The cultural sector has been one of the hardest hit parts of the economy during the last few months. This is mainly down to the mixed revenue streams they have been forced to adopt, as public money was cut and cut. Many smaller galleries and museums are now facing insolvency.
Have you been following Norky’s ramblings? This week he returns to his high school days in the Colne Valley and recounts some of his memories of teachers’ so-called discipline.
At a devolution summit held in Leeds earlier this year Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry talked of a “devolution dash” across Yorkshire, with a deal for West Yorkshire to be followed with ones for East Riding and Hull, and North Yorkshire and York. The West Yorkshire devolution deal – worth £1.8bn and covering Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, […]
This real-life experience of a small West Yorkshire company, before and after the creation of the single market, provides an insight into our imminent future in the event that we leave the EU without a worthwhile trading deal. The UK has more than two million small companies, possibly 170,000 of which are in Yorkshire. Ossett […]
Margaret Thatcher, surely the embodiment of Conservatism, grew up above her father’s tobacconists and grocery shop. As prime minister, she continued to live above the shop: 10 Downing Street. Throughout her time in charge of the country she demonstrated an astonishing mastery of detail. She was not exactly a consensus politician – unlike say, John […]
Anyone who has been missing their usual singing group during lockdown, or who fancies having a go at mastering opera from the comfort of their living room, can look forward to this summer’s launch of a new digital choir by Opera North. Starting in July, Opera North will be running four weekly Zoom sessions, which […]
Grandma Abson knew a thing or two. An early networker, Grandma Abson knew there was much baking expertise out there to learn from, so right from her first days in service in the 1900, through to the 1970s, she was an avid collector of recipes. In addition to her own collection, over her long life […]
After this long disruption of our lives, we are understandably looking forward to seeing our families and friends. We no doubt relish the opening up of pubs and restaurants and will obviously support this, when it’s safe to do so. We also welcome the ability to return to all our places of worship. Perhaps now, […]
How a Leeds songwriter is celebrating the city’s more isolated residents Has anyone ever written a song about you? Unless you’re Pattie Boyd or Dolly Parton’s love-rival, probably not, but that’s exactly what’s happening to a group of isolated older people in Leeds. Writer and poet Peter Spafford has already carved himself a niche as […]
The next round of devolution deals comes to West Yorkshire, with a proposal for a new directly elected mayor and £1.8bn of funding into the area over the next 30 years. The deal, signed by the region’s council leaders and the government in March 2020, will see residents in West Yorkshire vote for their mayor […]
An inner-city school in Bradford has been making the most of its outdoor space for over a year now, slowly integrating the natural environment, recycling and traditional outdoor-learning skills into its whole school curriculum. This has been part of its drive to create new and innovative world-class learning opportunities for its children. Bowling Park Primary […]
The Yorkshire Dales market town of Settle has become the UK’s first Rainbow Town, now that some of the lockdown restrictions have been lifted and businesses are permitted to open. The initiative has seen local businesses re-opening with special discounts and offers for frontline NHS staff and care workers, as an ongoing practical ‘thank you’ […]
All credit to Marcus Rashford for forcing the government to finally face up to the issue of food poverty. For a decade at least, those on the front line have watched the government rely on charities and food banks to support failures in the benefit system. The introduction of universal credit in 2013 left the […]
True stories from ‘Norky’ who comes from Scapegoat Hill, a small, isolated farming village, high on the Pennines in West Yorkshire. Over the next few weeks, he will share with us his memories of early life. You can catch up on his ramblings so far HERE. My sister Rhondda recalls one of her most embarrassing […]
A Barnsley spoken word artist has produced a poetic tribute to the town’s hospital volunteers. Jeff ‘Jethro’ Platts was asked by Barnsley Hospital Charity to produce the piece as a way of saying thank you to a much valued, but sometimes forgotten, group of people who have continued to give their time in a variety […]
Isabel and I had just had a grand night out seeing Cabaret in February. In March I started to get emails from theatres about cancelled shows. Lockdown came. I love a plan, so I set times and ‘dress-up’ for something to do and to break the blurring of day-to-day life. I heard about One Man Two Guv’nors being streamed on YouTube and Saturday night became […]
The Conservatives have few pressure points in June 2020 but they do exist. They bowed to pressure to extend children’s food vouchers because the justice of the cause was so eloquently and apolitically made clear by footballer Marcus Rashford. Johnson seems to become more terrified of Sir Keir Starmer with every passing week of prime […]
True stories from ‘Norky’ who comes from Scapegoat Hill, a small, isolated farming village, high on the Pennines in West Yorkshire. Over the next few weeks, he will share with us his memories of early life. I was born at St. Luke’s maternity hospital, Huddersfield, at 5am on the 21 June 1947. Dawn on mid-summer […]
“Put it away, put it away, put it away now!” Spoken word artist Rose Condo wants us to put away our phones. For an hour at least. In The Empathy Experiment, the Huddersfield-based poet’s third spoken word show, shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Show at the 2020 Saboteur Awards, she asks the audience to hand over […]
The impact of coronavirus on people in the UK has been very uneven. We know that men, people who are black, Asian or minority ethnic, and those with underlying health problems or who are older, are at risk of severe illness and death. People living in the most deprived communities have been hit hardest. The […]
In spite of the outcry about Conservative MPs replying to constituents’ complaints about Dominic Cummings by cutting and pasting from text provided for them by Downing Street, local Conservative MPs are at it again. A number of individuals and groups have recently written to their MPs to ask for the transition phase of our withdrawal […]
I’m working-class and I’d like to stay that way. Looking across a smoky room at my Nanna buffing the dance floor of our local working men’s club, St. Johns Terrace. Sodden beer mats, cheesy eighties music on repeat. This is her third job of the day. This is one of those stand-out memories from my […]
“One crisis at a time, please!” The chairs of 13 pro-European campaign groups from across Yorkshire have written to our region’s MPs to call for the Brexit transition period to be extended. In their open letter to the Yorkshire MPs, the groups stress that this is, “not an attempt to thwart Brexit. We simply want […]
Residents and campaigners in South East Sheffield scored a notable success on Tuesday 2 June when the planning committee rejected a scheme to build over a greenfield site in Owlthorpe. The decision came after a concerted effort by local residents, supported by experts such as Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust and the Campaign to Protect […]
Barnsley has been targeted by the Epoch Times with a special edition of its newspaper containing detailed and far-fetched anti-China conspiracy theories.
Brought up in a family of agricultural workers who travelled with the seasons across the North East and Yorkshire, Richard O’Neill is a multi-award winning storyteller and children’s author whose work has been disrupted by Covid-19. He has had to postpone his full diary of school, library and theatre bookings this year, but he has […]
Three prominent buildings in the centre of Leeds were lit purple last night as a tribute to George Floyd, the African-American man whose death at the hands of police has sparked international protests. The Civic Hall, Town Hall and Leeds City Museum were all bathed in purple light, the colour of anti-racism protests worldwide. In […]
The strange tale of the banned poem. Instagram has transformed poetry. Rupi Kaur, the world’s biggest-selling poet, made her name on Instagram. Put #poetry in your post and you’re tapping into a worldwide audience of millions. Poems are short, often little more than aphorisms but the platform, owned by Facebook, has become the go-to medium […]
Today, 1 June 2020, is a bittersweet day for teachers. It is the day that many Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils return to school and so too will they. Of course, some teachers have remained in schools throughout the pandemic for the children of key workers, but now they will be joined by […]
Come into the garden, Maud. (But book in advance and wash your hands). As the UK stumbles into the open air, organisations and attractions all over the country strive to create some sort of ‘new normal’ that works. Nowhere is this more true than with the many garden visitor attractions in our region. Normally, the week […]