Sun block

What is the Met Office doing issuing an "Extreme Heat" warning today? North Staffordshire was max. 80 degrees today. That's just a normal summer, or it is in those happy years when England actually gets a summer. We don't need yet another dribble of daily alarmism. Thanks goodness I grew up at a time when we lived without constant nannying and scolding and 'soft' hysteria. My advice is to get the relevant addons and filters for your web browser, and learn how to block most of it out. It's not that difficult to select and block individual bits of a Web page, or to block items with certain phrases.

Tip whiff sniffed... no more?

Don't blame me if I jinx it with this post, and flood Stoke with pong tonight. But I'll point out that the last time 'the stink' from the Silverdale tip was wafting over Stoke was in the night of 18th/19th June 2021. This means we've now gone a whole month without having a whiff of 'bad eggs' wafting down here. Which, in this nice bit of summer, is very welcome.

Meanwhile, Newcastle-under-Lyme Council are reported to be considering putting aside a £1m legal fund to take the tip owners to court. Something the owners have anticipated, as they hived it off to a ring-fenced shell company some months ago.

Conservatives take Penkhull & Stoke

Good news, the Conservatives have just taken Penkhull & Stoke in a local councillor by-election. Together with a few defections of councillors to the Conservative group in recent weeks, it looks like the Party is now bedding into Stoke quite nicely.