European relations

David Cameron is setting out to renegotiate the terms of our relationship with Europe.  Now, he says he's doing it because he wants a fairer deal for British people, which might be true, but we have to ask the question: why's he only doing it now? I reckon there's a simple reason, and I will explain it by way of a story.

Little Timmy goes to bed every night at 7pm, and he wants to stay up later. It seems fair to Little Timmy's mum, and she agrees to a later bedtime, but his dad says, 'No, 7pm is late enough'.

Well, this goes on for years, until little Timmy is 16 years old, and he's still going to bed at 7pm, and mum has had enough.  She takes dad into another room, and lots of shouting takes place, and eventually mum and come out of the room and dad says: "Well, I think you're old enough now to have a later bedtime Timmy, how about 7:30pm?"

If things are going okay for someone, it's not until they're threatened that they'll act. That's just the way it is.  Apparently, there are now enough people complaining about Europe that the Government has to do something.

If you want to see something change, you have to tell people, you have to shout about it, you have to be heard.

In other news

Here's Joey Essex failing to identify political figures.


  Why not test yourself, and remember, you can only laugh at him if you do better...

Labour Leadership's Lucky Dip

According to the BBC, the race is on for the job of deputy leader of the Labour party. Caroline Flint, Tom Watson, Ben Bradshaw, Stella Creasy and Angela Eagle are competing to replace Harriet Harman.  It's almost as exciting as #BGT, but with less controversy -- unless Eric Pickles is going to be used as a stunt-candidate in place of a candidate who's afraid of heights...

The winner will be announced at a special conference on 12th September; this is running at the same time as the elections to replace Ed Miliband as leader. What timing! this must be a busy time for Labour.

Well keep you updated as this goes on and good luck to all in the race.

Local News

New pylons will link sources of electricity including the proposed new nuclear power station at Moorside into the grid in Cumbria and Lancashire. The route they have been proposed runs over land around the coast of Cumbria and under Morecambe bay.

I now what you're thinking, they look bad and sound strange when your under them, but they do serve a purpose after all, and the pylons are going to be following existing low voltage power lines anyway so its not all that bad. They're going from Carlisle to Moorside and the company aims to submit an application for the new connection in 2017.

If the plans go ahead the work is expected to start in 2019.  

Well done West Lakes

Pupils at West Lakes Academy have played a blinder, and got themselves a place at the finals of Rock Challenge.

Their interpretation of the Maleficent story won them twelve awards, including performance skills and stage crew.

I'm sure Angelina Jolie would be delighted for them all. Let's ask her.

Is the lynx jinxed?

It's been a couple of months since I shared the story that efforts were underway to reintroduce the lynx to the Lake District. So this seemed like a good time to update you on where things are.

The update is... there is no update.

Having checked the local news and the national news nothing has been said on the story since March. Which leaves some unanswered questions:

Is the lynx doomed to stay out in the cold?

And why is it that something that was big news back in March is no news at all now?

I think it's probably because the media -- the newspapers and TV companies -- are the ones who set the agenda, who decide what's newsworthy, and they make that decision based on what will sell papers, or get people to tune in to their channel.  When there's nothing to say, they say nothing.



Now I know how frustrating it can be not knowing, so ~I promise, as soon as I hear anything, I'll let you know.  Just remember, legislation and consultation take a really long time...

And remember, if you rely on a newspaper to tell you what's big news, you might miss the bigger story.

Don't shoot the Messenger

Speaking of the bigger story, the news round here is that there's a trainee in the Youth Regeneration team (making the team two people instead of one).

Jon Messenger has come from Gen2 on a three month traineeship, and he assures me he's really enjoying being here.

Now, at 23, you might think he's a bit old for a Gen2 traineeship, but let's be honest, if you're looking for work experience, you're never too old for help.

Over the next three months, Jon will be helping to tackle all those knotty problems, like social media, project management, and how to empower grumpy teenagers.

In the news this week

Pretty much everybody has heard that Alton Towers was closed last week after a horrible accident on the Smiler.

Now, as Leah Washington recovers from an operation to remove her leg, visitors are queuing up to get back into the theme park for the first time since it closed.  Those visitors include Craig and Jess Cooper who are spending part of their honeymoon at Alton Towers, and who claim that the park would be at its safest after the recent tragedy.

It's interesting that what is probably Leah's worst week ever has helped make Craig and Jess's best week ever.

A quick note to the Cooper's though: things aren't always as simple as you might think.