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This year’s General Certificate of Secondary Education results are out and they’ve got worse for the first time in twenty four years. The percentage of students who got the top grades was down from 69.8% to 69.4%.   That’s bad news!  Standards are no longer improving, fewer students are achieving better results and the quality of … Continue reading GCSE results

Affordable housing is a phrase that has slipped into the vernacular; it was all over Radio 4 this morning.  It makes sense doesn’t it?  We should be providing housing that is affordable, that people can buy or that people can rent.  But all housing is affordable as long as it is occupied.  As long as … Continue reading Affordable Housing

London, ah London, the centre of the known universe, the most happening city on the face of the globe, the place where all life exists.  If it doesn’t happen here then it hasn’t existed, everywhere else is in its shade, nothing happens in its purlieus.  It’s a polyglot, a veritable tower of babel with millions … Continue reading London

I’ve realised that I am addicted to electronic communication.  I just can’t get enough of it.  I’m on emails, tweets, texts, chat and even the odd poke or tag, basically anything I can get my grubby e-paws on.  Desktop, laptop, smart phone, they are all the same to me.  I don’t really know how it … Continue reading Addicted

If it is your birthday to day, Happy Birthday and I hope that you have a good one but you need to brace yourself because today there is a 13.6% greater chance that you will die than on any other day of the year.  Don’t just take my word for it, it has been proven … Continue reading Happy birthday, you’re more likely to die

It is also a well-known fact that beer and football are a (very) few of the things that occupy men’s minds.  Watching football makes you thirsty and drinking beer makes you start talking about the beautiful game.  Beer and football were made for each other.  It is unlikely that you need an excuse but just … Continue reading Enjoying international football

A mile, or so out of Elsdon village at the edge of the Northumberland National Park, just over the road that snakes over Carter Bar from England into Scotland you will find something that you wouldn’t expect to see in this part of the world, a herd of Alpacas.  A little bigger than a Vicuña … Continue reading Alpacas

So that's it over then, the summer of sport.  I'd been so looking forward to it ever since the turn of the year, so much to get excited about and so much to watch.  There were the usual big annual events such as Wimbledon and the Tour de France but also some massive tournaments including … Continue reading Summer of sport

It was unseasonal.  It was late summer but a cold and damp wind was blowing down from the Cheviots, chilling Winter’s body through his cheap and tattered clothing.  It made no difference to him now though; he could not feel the cold as he was long dead, swinging by the neck from the crude gibbet … Continue reading Gibbet