Leigh Jones

Tory party rules mean you have to be an MP to be leader.

Not impossible but a very unlikely path for Houchen!

where are YOU listening to @thewhale1851.bsky.social?

I've said it before. Oli changed the course of my life and I'm absolutely heartbroken by this.

I loved him in the apolitical Starship Troopers.

SeAH’s factory site is, of course, on the site of the infamous “£100” land deal. South Tees Development Corporation sold the 90-acre plot in 2022 to Teesworks Ltd (owned by Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney) for less than £100, although a side deal worth £15m related to the purchase had its balance paid off at the end of 2025. Teesworks instantly sold a 40-year lease on the land to Australian financial firm Macquarie for a cash sum of £90m, meaning an instant profit of £75m which was supposed to be used for future redevelopment of the site. The duo in charge have instead plundered the pot by paying themselves dividends, leaving only £2m left in the company’s coffers. The complex chain of ownership continues, with Macquarie leasing the site back to Tees Valley Combined Authority for £3.65m a year. TVCA lease it to SeAH for £4.3m a year. If SeAH vanishes, TVCA is still liable to Macquarie for an inflation-linked £3.65m a year. So far SeAH is the only tenant at Teesworks.

A little background on the site of the SeAH factory.

🔗 teesside.thelead.uk/p/teesworks-...

How SeAH Wind's biggest order was cancelled and why it's important The only tenant on Teesworks appears to be facing a storm brewing as chief exec replaced and production delayed

This week it came out that Teesworks' only tenant has lost its biggest contract because it can't supply it.

I look into what's happened, as well as the reaction to it from the Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen.

The terms of the £15m repayment was my own! 😉

SeAH’s factory site is, of course, on the site of the infamous “£100” land deal. South Tees Development Corporation sold the 90-acre plot in 2022 to Teesworks Ltd (owned by Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney) for less than £100, although a side deal worth £15m related to the purchase had its balance paid off at the end of 2025. Teesworks instantly sold a 40-year lease on the land to Australian financial firm Macquarie for a cash sum of £90m, meaning an instant profit of £75m which was supposed to be used for future redevelopment of the site. The duo in charge have instead plundered the pot by paying themselves dividends, leaving only £2m left in the company’s coffers. The complex chain of ownership continues, with Macquarie leasing the site back to Tees Valley Combined Authority for £3.65m a year. TVCA lease it to SeAH for £4.3m a year. If SeAH vanishes, TVCA is still liable to Macquarie for an inflation-linked £3.65m a year. So far SeAH is the only tenant at Teesworks.

A little background on the site of the SeAH factory.

🔗 teesside.thelead.uk/p/teesworks-...

Private Eye are brilliant but would be nice to not be told that in direct response to my own work! 😂 😂

A sensitive journalist might detect an unintended subtext.

You are replying to an investigative journalist who you follow and who shares their work on this story twice a week.

I have covered Teesworks full time for three years now.

It was.

How SeAH Wind's biggest order was cancelled and why it's important The only tenant on Teesworks appears to be facing a storm brewing as chief exec replaced and production delayed

This week it came out that Teesworks' only tenant has lost its biggest contract because it can't supply it.

I look into what's happened, as well as the reaction to it from the Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen.

this story is jaw dropping www.thetimes.com/article/e5ef...

Grasping.

Some stories are a load of shite but you think "ok I see how they've been paid to write this".

But this... Woman gets hole in pair of tights...

Absolutely top tier shite, and it came from a press agency!

Me, a local journalist: Please save local journalism

Meanwhile, local journalism:

Nadhim Zahawi posting a picture of a guy lying on the ground, who he “just walked passed” [sic].

Today we are studying the story of the Bad Samaritan

Have you listened to the latest episode yet?

Herman Melville predicting this podcast.

"this is melville putting on dark side of the moon and firing up a big ol' bifta"

if i weren't already reading moby-dick, this would have convinced me

if you never have, give it a try [along with this podcast!]

Ørsted and SeAH Wind cancel Hornsea 3 contract The Korean-owned firm is still on track to manufacturer monopiles at its Teesworks site for RWE’s Norfolk Vanguard windfarms.

Ørsted and SeAH Wind cancel Hornsea 3 contract #energysky

We definitely should be on Apple. I'll have a look this weekend!

Ahh, my eyes saw the iPad as two phones.

John, can we talk about all your phones.

THIS IS GOOD.

I might even get hold of that edition and attempt to read it.

Not sure it warrants the "EXCL" tag when the Sunderland Echo published the story first!

Yeah, Pam.

Jesus Christ they are precisely the right time frame for me to have been religiously reading Kerrang, a time in which every single also-ran rings the nostalgia bell for me, but I have absolutely zero recollection of them.

Not even a blip on my consciousness.

!! … ah

Episode 2 - The Carpet-Bag | The Whale Pod Get more from The Whale Pod on Patreon

This book has 135 chapters. Strap yourselves in, because I'll be posting about this podcast for a very long time.

🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳 🐳