The frustration of the 8am battle on the GP surgery phonelines is one many can relate to. It can take days to secure an appointment – so it’s not hard to understand why there is often little sympathy for those who manage to book an appointment – and then fail to turn up. You don’t …
The whiteboard in Alison Gwynn’s office offers a pretty straightforward message. As far as the chief executive of North East Screen is concerned, film and TV production equals jobs and investment for the region, at the kind of levels which are not to be sniffed at. And while I’m not going to betray the kindness …
On the day, my book, How To Build Your Own Record Pressing Plant: The True Story of Press On Vinyl was published last November, I found myself sitting in the Teesside vinyl record factory’s boardroom looking across the TeesAMP Business Park as dusk settled over Middlesbrough’s less famous – but equally iconic – Newport Bridge. …
When I tell people I have a camper van, they often go a bit misty eyed. “Ahh, a camper van”, they might say. “I’ve always wanted one of those”. I have realised that particular reaction is really about a fantasy of freedom. The freedom to just set off and not know where you’re going to …
Headteachers said it ages ago. Ordinary teachers said it. School governors said it. Many (not all) parents said it. Some, but too few, MPs said it. The right-wing media never said it. But now, at long last, a committee of MPs has finally done so. At the end of January, the influential Commons Education Select …
The North Shields Cultural Quarter was launched with songs, dance and speeches and an insistence this was something for the long term. North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) has invested in three culture and creative zones — the others are in Newcastle and Berwick — with funding until 2027. NTCA elected mayor Jamie Driscoll has …
South Shields café and arts centre, SeaChange, is at risk of closure after energy bills and supplier costs rocketed by up to 400% and 100% respectively. The venue is run by autistic and neurodivergent staff. Manager, Sarah Farrell, has launched a social media campaign to save SeaChange after the spiralling costs placed its future under …
Over the past week, a regional story that has been bubbling away for years finally received some wider media attention with the report on the Teesworks project, one of the highest profile regeneration schemes in the UK. The land at the centre of the row was once the home of Redcar’s steelworks, dubbed the largest …
As Simon Le Bon prepared to accept the greatest honour in Duran Duran’s storied career, in front of a 12,000-strong live audience and millions more across the globe, he didn’t look like a man overcome by joy. Overwhelmed by emotion, maybe. Where there should have been a beaming smile and an aura of blissful pride, …
More years ago than I care to remember, I took strong drink one carefree afternoon in the Post Office buffet establishment in central Newcastle. The next day I was due to leave for Norwich where, at the time, I was in exile in Norfolk. I was young and daft, which is by way of sort …
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