Words Dept.

A selection of my latest bookmarks. Withnail & I farmhouse sold for £265,000 – Telegraph Charlie Brooker's crisp reviews – "It's like a lame TV movie about onion bhajis, starring Adam Woodyatt, with a soundtrack consisting entirely of library music, broadcast directly on to your tastebuds." Adrian Monck: Alfie Patten: the PCC and payment to parents [...]

The Policy Exchange, a “centre right” think tank, has suggested in a new report that people in Liverpool and some other places in the north should abandon their cities, which are “beyond revival”, and move down south. While that is undoubtedly a daft suggestion aimed at stirring up controversy, the fact remains that Liverpool is [...]

While it’s probably advisable not to get sucked into the largely fatuous online “debate” Channel 4 is trying to stoke up, I found it a bit daft that Manchester was rated the 17th worst place to live in a “Best and Worst” list on Channel 4 last night. As is usual with this annual feast [...]

Someone sent me a croissant and some jam in a lunchbox today. It’s about the weirdest thing I’ve ever been sent in the mail. It also came with a mug, a teabag and a sachet of instant coffee. Luckily there was a letter to explain. The idea was that instead of dragging me out to [...]

I’ve just watched Andrew Gilligan on Channel 4′s Dispatches present a compelling story about a property developer who donated £5,000 to the Manchester Labour Party a few weeks before being chosen as preferred bidder for a casino in the city. None of the councillors involved declared an interest, although they were subsequently cleared of wrongdoing [...]