My occasional news-aggregation blog Scoop.it: Good News from Stoke-on-Trent & North Staffordshire is now continuing at WordPress, at Good News from Stoke & North Staffs.
Archive for the ‘Stoke-on-Trent’ Category
“Scoop.it: Good News from Stoke-on-Trent” – moved
18 Apr 2018 at 15:36
David Haden
Comments Off on “Scoop.it: Good News from Stoke-on-Trent” – moved
Postcards from Stoke
A new photoblog, Postcards from Stoke showing vintage picture postcards from Stoke and across north and mid Staffordshire (and the nearby Peak and the bits of Cheshire bordering Staffordshire).
Rural Staffordshire is not declining
29 Sep 2017 at 14:17
David Haden
Regeneration, Stoke-on-Trent, Zeitgeist
Comments Off on Rural Staffordshire is not declining
It’s often rather casually assumed that rural places everywhere around the world are in deep decline, and I heard the same story again on a recent podcast. It’s an easy and slipshod elite metropolitical explanation for recent populist votes — “oh, those old rural yokels, in declining places, everyone leaves, only the dumb racists are […]
Dull Brum
24 Nov 2016 at 08:09
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Dull Brum
A stunning level of boring uniformity and dullness was on show to the press yesterday, as Birmingham’s bosses officially backed the Coventry bid for City of Culture. Expect better odds on the gritty bid from Stoke-on-Trent as the winner of City of Culture, from today.
A Midlands Engine mis-fire
18 Nov 2016 at 06:28
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on A Midlands Engine mis-fire
Midlands Engine chairman Sir John Peace appears to favour Coventry for City of Culture, while forgetting about the equally major bid by the West Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent… “Sir John said the Midlands is readying itself for a “golden decade” which will include the arrival of HS2 in 2026. Birmingham has also put its name […]
Middle Earth, a major Tolkien biopic
15 Nov 2016 at 23:57
David Haden
Birmingham, Entertainment, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Middle Earth, a major Tolkien biopic
I’m pleased to hear that a very major Birmingham / Staffordshire movie is going ahead. Directed by James Strong (Downton Abbey), Middle Earth will explore Tolkien’s early life, his romance with Edith Bratt, and the loss of nearly all his friends in the war. The screenwriter will be Angus Fletcher, and The Lord of the […]
Moanbook
The perils of keyword-based affinity algorithms: Facebook thinks that lots of my acquaintances like Stoke-on-Trent City Council, therefore I should start a Facebook group for them. I know better, looking at the top candidates for membership of such a group. Talking about the Council doesn’t mean they like it, quite the opposite in fact.
Kenneth Clark
Wonderful to see that there’s a major new biography of the great Kenneth Clark, Kenneth Clark: Life, Art and Civilisation. Country Life has a review of the book. The review gives a nice anecdote about the impact of Clark’s magnificent Civilisation series, on art appreciation in Stoke-on-Trent… “Even when the programmes were first broadcast, in […]
Karen Bradley, new Culture Secretary
14 Jul 2016 at 19:29
David Haden
Artist(s), Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Karen Bradley, new Culture Secretary
Very good news that a local West Midlands MP, Karen Bradley MP (Staffordshire Moorlands), has been appointed as the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. She’s based in the north of the West Midlands, just north-east of Stoke-on-Trent. Here’s my quick 60-minute ‘instant analysis’, for what it’s worth… Bradley grew up seeing […]
Nine days after Leave
02 Jul 2016 at 08:38
David Haden
Birmingham, Regeneration, Stoke-on-Trent, Zeitgeist
Comments Off on Nine days after Leave
Nine days on from the vote to Leave, I thought I’d try to sum up what has happened that actually matters: * The Vote. In the largest vote in British history, the people voted to leave the EU. The Leave results were in middle-class as well as working-class areas, deeply rural as well as urban […]
About those ‘Euro billions’…
29 Jun 2016 at 06:48
David Haden
Comments Off on About those ‘Euro billions’…
My local newspaper The Sentinel is reporting today that Stoke-on-Trent… “may miss out on £157m of European cash” from the 2014-2020 funding round. That’s a paltry £22m per year. It’ll be easily replaced… “… the West Midlands paid in £3.55 [to the EU] for every pound it gets back [in European grants]” — said by […]
The Leave vote in the West Midlands: an infographic
25 Jun 2016 at 05:28
David Haden
Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Zeitgeist
Comments Off on The Leave vote in the West Midlands: an infographic
Here’s my quick re-tabulation of the BBC local results, to show only the West Midlands. It demonstrates the ‘Leave’ vote surging across rural and metropolitan areas alike, in what was the biggest popular vote in British history. Of course, some are already trying to re-frame the narrative on the vote — feebly squeaking about voters […]
“O brave new world…”
24 Jun 2016 at 06:35
David Haden
Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Zeitgeist
Comments Off on “O brave new world…”
“O brave new world, that has such people in it!” — Shakespeare, The Tempest.
The Bluedot Festival
24 Apr 2016 at 14:56
David Haden
Entertainment, Stoke-on-Trent, Techie
Comments Off on The Bluedot Festival
The famous Jodrell Bank telescope, located 15 miles north of Stoke-on-Trent on the Cheshire plain, is to be home to a major new three-day festival on 22nd-24th July 2016. Electronic music maestro Jean-Michel Jarre will headline the event’s music stage, along with Air, Underworld and Caribou — with Brian Eno doing projection-mapping onto the iconic […]
Cat Hampurr
Stoke-on-Trent based cat subscription company Cat Hampurr. A different cat, boxed and delivered to your door each month. No… it’s not actually quite as cool as that. They actually send you a monthly box of tempting kittie-nibbles and feline fun stuff.
The new White Paper on Culture
23 Mar 2016 at 17:32
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on The new White Paper on Culture
The government’s new Culture White Paper has just been published. Here’s my quick summary of points which seem relevant to the West Midlands, and which were not raised in the recent budget speech… * “A new cultural citizens programme [to] be led by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund [which] will reach across […]
Budget round-up for creatives
16 Mar 2016 at 18:37
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Budget round-up for creatives
A round-up some of the key points from today’s Budget speech in Parliament, likely to be of interest to creatives and small businesses… * There will be tax-breaks for museums and galleries which devise and tour major new touring exhibitions. No details, but presumably it will work in the same way as existing help for […]
Local robo-journalism
06 Oct 2015 at 14:31
David Haden
Creative industries, Stoke-on-Trent
Comments Off on Local robo-journalism
A classic example of how not to do robo-journalism… wrong categories, no evidence of human curation (other than the appaling header graphic), several jobs are actually out of the area and on others the deadlines have passed.
Inside the Spode factory
Inside the Spode factory, Stoke-on-Trent, 26th September 2015:
L.S. Lowry and Arthur Berry: observers of urban life
20 Aug 2015 at 12:51
David Haden
Comments Off on L.S. Lowry and Arthur Berry: observers of urban life
The major show L.S. Lowry and Arthur Berry: observers of urban life premieres at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, until 10th January 2015 (£5).