Leigh Jones
@leighsus.bsky.social
Freelance journalist. Investigations, writing, broadcast, newsreading, BBC Radio Newcastle etc Editor, The Teesside Lead 🔗 https://theteessidelead.substack.com Moby-Dick podcast: 🐳 @thewhale1851.bsky.social Teesworks expert. Oh, and once I saw a blimp.
People's private lives are to be mourned and celebrated by those who knew them as they seen fit. I see little to mourn or celebrate in this public life.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · yesterdayLiddle's ex-colleagues find it easy to defend his mainstream journalism as a lark But a conscious effort to ignore what his Millwall-Monkey stuff revealed."Even the Jews were allowed to smoke at Auschwitz" was reported. His "niggermeat, not wogmeat" comments + most virulent sexist threads were not
The Eisteddfod is the centrepiece of Welsh language culture. When the winners of the poetry comps are announced the say the fake name the work was submitted with. A person stands up to fanfare. Edwards fantasised this would be his redemption. His response here to a child sex abuse victim is vile.
Huw Edwards criticised for entering National Eisteddfod poetry competition
A sex abuse survivor says the ex-BBC newsreader winning would've been "catastrophic" and wants the rules changed.
bbc.co.uk
Haters focusing on Liddle's violence toward his pregnant partner, his galloping racism, or his repeated defences of paedophilia, should remember to mention he was also one of the worst writers to ever do it. A calorie-free hack of the first water. Just absolute dogshit, back to front.
If I had a public body of work stretching back 40 years and nobody shared any of it when I died I'd be pretty gutted with my life, I think.
In this I look at why Ben Houchen can't just give loads of people money. But as somebody who's reported on him closely for years, I also look at what I think he's likely to do in order to try and do something the government really doesn't want him to do.
Can Ben Houchen use devolution to give tax rebates to everybody in Teesside?
Early exchanges between No10 and the Tees Valley test the limits of giving more powers to regional mayors
teesside.thelead.uk
After Andy Burnham said he'd give mayors the power to retain income tax, Ben Houchen said he'd use it to give his Tees Valley constituents tax rebates. Is this something he can actually do?
Can Ben Houchen use devolution to give tax rebates to everybody in Teesside?
Early exchanges between No10 and the Tees Valley test the limits of giving more powers to regional mayors
teesside.thelead.uk
And @leighsus.bsky.social is considering what the more powers for Mayors will mean for the Tees Valley and some early manoeuvres by Lord Houchen
Can Ben Houchen use devolution to give tax rebates to everybody in Teesside?
Early exchanges between No10 and the Tees Valley test the limits of giving more powers to regional mayors
teesside.thelead.uk
After Andy Burnham said he'd give mayors the power to retain income tax, Ben Houchen said he'd use it to give his Tees Valley constituents tax rebates. Is this something he can actually do?
Can Ben Houchen use devolution to give tax rebates to everybody in Teesside?
Early exchanges between No10 and the Tees Valley test the limits of giving more powers to regional mayors
teesside.thelead.uk
If we're doing Covid discourse, I got it before the first lockdown, and before we even knew losing your sense of taste and smell was a symptom. If I had the health issues I have now back then it might have killed me 🤷🏻
“Sometimes knowing things is a curse, isn't it?”
The Whale Pod@thewhale1851.bsky.social · 7d ago🐳 EPISODE 22 🐳 After a fallow week we're back and talking about the word "Caramba!", flavours of autism, how to find a specific whale, and the intense terror of your panicked soul trying to escape your doomed body. All round happy stuff. Listen wherever you get your podcasts from 🐳🐳
When the last lot of devolution measures were rolled out, Tees Valley wasn't given more powers because of its checkered past. No 10 has told me today's new measures are being given to all mayoral authorities.
Jennifer Williams@jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 5d agoA bit on something that’s worrying me as.ft.com/r/9fe0cfe2-f...
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, who was Matt Hancock's Spad for years then ditched him in October 2020 in the middle of the pandemic in order to be boss of the UK music industry's lobbying group with no prior experience in the music industry, has some thoughts on how royalties should work.
I wrote my undergraduate dissertation about social construction. Everything is socially constructed. All of reality is understood on a subjective level because of social relations and interactions. This is an insane proposition for a TV show.
Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · last wk.Channel 4 has announced documentary “The Great ADHD Myth?” It “seeks to determine whether ADHD is a genuine neurodevelopmental disorder, or a social construct.”
A great moment in podcasting history... Leigh's cat attacks Pete... 🐳 patreon.com/thewhalepod
also featured: whale migration, c19th fantasies of comprehensive knowledge, the old Benedict Anderson / Benedict Cumberbatch chestnut, maps, souls, Men's Mental Health, neurodiversity discourse as the ruin of all honest human passion, me getting bitten off Leigh's dickhead cat
The Whale Pod@thewhale1851.bsky.social · 7d ago🐳 EPISODE 22 🐳 After a fallow week we're back and talking about the word "Caramba!", flavours of autism, how to find a specific whale, and the intense terror of your panicked soul trying to escape your doomed body. All round happy stuff. Listen wherever you get your podcasts from 🐳🐳
How much effort goes into a live national radio news show @lbc.co.uk? More than you might think…
Genuinely astonishing it's taken this long for two men with a podcast about an 1851 novel to talk about autism.
The Whale Pod@thewhale1851.bsky.social · 7d ago🐳 EPISODE 22 🐳 After a fallow week we're back and talking about the word "Caramba!", flavours of autism, how to find a specific whale, and the intense terror of your panicked soul trying to escape your doomed body. All round happy stuff. Listen wherever you get your podcasts from 🐳🐳
ANDY BURNHAM'S NORTHERN STATUS REVOKED. PM loses credibility, mandate, after failing to make tap-in joke about The Fall in small talk with pensioner.
Ben Phillips@benphillips76.bsky.social · last wk.Love everything about this conversation between the new Prime Minister and a care home resident who didn’t realise he was.
Context here: Still bemused this isn’t national news. bsky.app/profile/alis...
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 2w ago25 tonnes of nurdles, more than 1 billion nurdles, were spilled into the Tyne last week and are washing up on our beaches, north and south of the Tyne. Likely one of the largest ever plastic pollution events in the UK. There is remarkably little mention of this on here.
For this week's Teesside Lead, Sarah Sinclair spoke to the friend of a boy who drowned at Seaton Carew 23 years ago. It follows the deaths of two men a few weeks ago who went into the water to save children, only 5 days before lifeguards were set to begin patrolling.
“Jordan’s death wasn’t taken seriously”: recent tragedy revives 23-year fight for Seaton Carew lifeguards
A comprehensive review of water safety has been instigated by the council after further deaths
teesside.thelead.uk
For this week's Teesside Lead, Sarah Sinclair spoke to the friend of a boy who drowned at Seaton Carew 23 years ago. It follows the deaths of two men a few weeks ago who went into the water to save children, only 5 days before lifeguards were set to begin patrolling.
“Jordan’s death wasn’t taken seriously”: recent tragedy revives 23-year fight for Seaton Carew lifeguards
A comprehensive review of water safety has been instigated by the council after further deaths
teesside.thelead.uk
This example seems trivial but if the central government says it's puts a focus on places outside the centre, everybody else - whether local institutions or inward investment etc - also focuses on places outside the centre.
Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 2w agoNumber 10 North already making a tangible difference! www.ft.com/content/cdb3...
The Prime Minister might need to have a word with his newly-appointed Secretary of State for Wales.
if someone on benefits had said this, every journalist in the country would be going through their fuckin bins right now
Sky News@news.sky.com · 2w ago'£50 doesn't even buy a meal': What people think of Burnham's electricity VAT cut
Just seen The Odyssey. Here's my review in numbers... 30 - people in the screening 2 - people walked out after an hour (what were you expecting?) 10 - people who went to the toilet 2 - people who had watches that beeped every hour
If we're going full throttle with devolution, journalists and our editors really need to get up to speed, and quickly. Bus fares in Durham are already capped at £2.50 because of funding from the area's metro mayor.
Jo Kibble (Political Animal)@politicanimal.bsky.social · 2w agoA fine example of why the BBC should not publish vox-pops (“‘Bus fare cut is no good for those who drive’ says Durham man” is literally the headline here) without challenge or context. Buses, famously the preserve of the managerial classes.
