Trouble up t’ Mill Road

The characters Howard and Marina from the TV series Last Of The Summer Wine, gaze lustfully into each other’s arms while pausing on a cycle ride.

#Coldplay #Kisscam #Yorkshire version.

Chris Whitty says culture-war coverage of cycling could harm nation’s health Chief medical officer for England urges people to set media cliches aside to focus on health benefits of physical activity

And Chris Whitty reminds us that cycling is, in fact, a perfectly normal thing to do, a perfectly healthy thing to do, and a cheap form of transport. No lycra necessary. (Or cycle helmets, IMO. Shhhh!!!)
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Twelve of England’s regional mayors back plan to create ‘national active travel network’ Exclusive: Unprecedented move to focus initially on helping children to walk, cycle or scoot to school safely

12 mayors commit themselves to a 'national active travel network', including our own Paul Bristow 💙. This is brilliant. We have at least four primary schools within walking distance of Mill Road.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Derek Trotter (aka Del-Boy) saying, "You plonker, Rodney!"

Derek Trotter (aka Del-Boy) saying, "You plonker, Rodney!"

Never forget what he said in 1970.
bsky.app/profile/snig...

Why is Rod Stewart making Glastonbury political? Artists should just shut up and perform

Rod Stewart at Glasto

Rod Stewart takes the stage at Glastonbury...

Rachel Reeves must think big to fund Labour’s ‘battle-ready’ Britain. Tweaks and tinkering won’t do | Polly Toynbee The whole tax and spending ship is an unseaworthy rustbucket. This spending review is a chance to fix it, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There’s a group of Labour MPs whose vision for the country appears to be equality of misery: businesses made less dynamic and taxed more than under the Conservatives, child poverty continuing to rise as it did under the Conservatives.

Britain’s quirkiest railway station Sunday 1st June 2025 Horray it’s June; so that means Sunday blogging is back as the BusAndTrainUser.com enhanced summer timetable kicks in for the next three months from today. I’ve been meaning to…

It’s June; so that means Sunday blogging is back for the summer and what better way to kick things off than a visit to a quirky railway station.

busandtrainuser.com/2025/06/01/b...

First last day Saturday 18th February 2023 It’s the end of an era for buses in Southampton today as First Bus closes its bus garage doors for good bringing to an end 143 years of bus operation that can be t…

Did we mention Bournemouth? History repeated itself for Go South Coast, following First Bus' withdrawal from Southampton in Feb 2023. First's orderly departure allowed a well-planned update to Bluestar’s network. busandtrainuser.com/2023/02/18/f...

More buses for more Saturday 14th October 2023 Poole based Morebus recently put 28 brand new ADL Enviro400 MMC buses into service on its busy high frequency route m1 which crosses the conurbation linking Poole, Bourne…

And this one, on how Andrew and his team built and developed the high-frequency services across BCP to the extent that a single-decker every 3mins still didn't have the capacity for crowd-shifting, so high-spec double-deckers were needed. busandtrainuser.com/2023/10/14/m...

More more in Bournemouth Sunday 7th August 2022 Thursday 4th August 2022’s stark announcement Bournemouth’s buses dramatically changed colour yesterday following the sad news on Friday 29th July the town’s Yellow Bus…

For a flavour of Andrew's achievements, you could hardly top Roger @busandtrainuser.bsky.social French's blog on how the More Bus team replaced the Yellow Bus services in BCP in record time. busandtrainuser.com/2022/08/07/m...

Obituary: Andrew Wickham, Go South Coast - routeone Go South Coast Managing Director Andrew Wickham died over the weekend of 24/25 May after a long illness. He was 58.

And an obit from routeone. www.route-one.net/news/obituar...

Saluting Andrew’s amazing career….RIP Sunday 25th May 2025 I’m so sorry to update today’s blog (written yesterday) with the devastating news Andrew sadly passed away in the early hours of this morning. Rest In Peace Andrew. This very s…

Andrew Wickham. A sad and untimely loss to the bus industry.
Brilliant tribute from Roger @busandtrainuser.bsky.social
French. busandtrainuser.com/2025/05/25/s...

Sad news of the death of a man who has done so much for MoreBus, local Public Transport and the wider #BCP community.
#RIP Andrew 🙏

Clegg talking shit as usual.

"Unless we fill the magic box with Elton John songs it won't be able to diagnose cancer."

The AI "industry"doesn't need anything produced by the creative industry. All the potential applications of AI are ones that utilise databases of facts.

So moving. Appreciated your writing in @theguardian.com, bought the book, enjoyed the film...

‘We tell stories in order to live, but also that the dead might live again’ | The Observer The loss of his parents 30 years apart led Sarfraz Manzoor to reflect on the duty we have to tell others’ stories – with Bruce Springsteen playing a walk-on role in keeping their memory alive

I have a piece in The Observer today. It is about my parents’ deaths, grief and how stories help to keep the dead alive. I haven’t written for Observer Review for a few years so was glad to be back in its pages. observer.co.uk/style/featur...

And the outcome…

bsky.app/profile/priv...

In the new Private Eye out today, MD highlights serious concerns about the media's role in the Lucy Letby case.

How weak evidence, media spin, and police-funded PR helped build the case against Lucy Letby, only in the new Private Eye, out now.

A photo of the front cover of issue 1649 of Private Eye magazine with the caption "on shelves now." The front cover reads "STARMER TO HALT MIGRATION TO REFORM" and features an image of Keir Starmer in a hard hat and lifejacket on a boat at sea, with a speech bubble saying "Stop the votes!" The bottom of the cover includes the line: "Labour plan to prevent undesirables entering Downing Street."

Starmer to halt migration to Reform

The new Private Eye is out now

There’s one slight issue with Labour’s immigration plans: they’re completely untethered from reality | Jonathan Portes The government’s new policy will take us back to an uglier, more dangerous place – and it’s not even supported by the data, says professor of public policy Jonathan Portes

Meanwhile, it’s all fallacious…

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Co-op cyber-attack: stock availability in stores ‘will not improve until weekend’ Group in ‘recovery phase’ and working closely with suppliers after customers complain of empty shelves

Grim for the Co-op www.theguardian.com/business/202... Surprised there’s not been more in Westminster on this given the number of small communities dependent on single food shops incl co-ops.

1. Starmer’s a KC.
2. ‘Cab rank’ rule.
3. Current client Morgan McSweeney.

There’s one slight issue with Labour’s immigration plans: they’re completely untethered from reality | Jonathan Portes The government’s new policy will take us back to an uglier, more dangerous place – and it’s not even supported by the data, says professor of public policy Jonathan Portes

"The UK is very good – much better than most European countries – at integrating migrants, because most Britons, and most migrants, want integration... The rhetoric and policy we saw yesterday will take us backward to a much uglier, and more dangerous, place."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump’s border intimidation is coming for US citizens too – ask streamer Hasan Piker | Owen Jones The leftwing, pro-Palestine streamer’s interrogation by airport officials on his return to the US shows a chilling escalation of the war on free speech, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

The detention of Hasan Piker is the latest example of something we all need to be talking about:

The biggest assault against free speech in the West for 70 years 👇

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Chart of May 2025 local election results, summarised above.

And, particularly when you look at the numbers.

Labour -187
LibDem +163
Green +44

Conservative -674
Reform +677

Looks like Conservative losses to Reform; Labour losses to LibDem and Green.