Best Of

I have just worked out that my phone can be used as a radio. I'm trying to snooze through the heat whilst listening to Radio 4. It's oddly pleasant.

Why has it taken you 15 years to work that out, lol.

I used to read books instead of listen. It wasn't until listening to YouTube on earphones whilst working that I realised I could do both. Since I now have a tablet, there was never any need to use my phone for listening. But when my wifi went down on Makerfield election night, the need for a non-wifi-based medium became pressing, so I checked my phone and laptops to see if they had a radio. The phone did, and that's how it started.

This is why I have two SIM cards in my phone, if one internet goes down I have a backup.

Entirely off thread, but I'm having a lovely day. My daughter and I are cycling coast to coast in aid of her trip nezt year to do voluntary work in Cambodia. 50 miles today, 50 milea tomorrow. The weather is being implausibly kind and the North of England ia beautiful. There is much of Northern Cumbria which is new to me - Silloth is surprisingly impressive with its views over the Solway - and, in the sunshine, the lanes and small villages between the Lake District and the Solway are gorgeous, with wide views to Scotland, the Pennines and the Cumbrian Fells. I particularly enjoyed the band of sandstone villages south of Carlisle.
We are now in Haltwhistle, opposite the Centre of Britain hotel and just down the street from the Centre of Britain launderette. Haltwhistle is full of exuberant teenagers, presumably revelling in GCSEs and A Levels being over and the joy of being young and free and at large in the summer.

All downhill from here. Except for the absolute bastard of a climb up to the Stanegate tomorrow morning to avoid the A69.

Here are our bikes at Silloth, dipping their wheels in the Irish Sea (sort of - it seemed above and beyond the call of duty to pilot them all the way out to the waterline given the tide, and they needed to be rescued from sinking into the wet sand shortly after this.
(It would have been a poor start to the adventure to lose our bikes to quicksand.)

Not far from my home patch where I have been for 35 years. A few miles from your photo there used, incredibly, to be a railway bridge across the Solway linking remote England to remote Scotland. An old friend of mine, who died in this century aged 101, was on that railway journey over the Solway on the day it closed to passengers in 1920.

I saw that on an old map the other day and was marvelling that there was ever a business case for that! People from Annan must have really, really wanted to go to Silloth. Incredible that you know someone who used it.

It never made money! IIRC the main purpose was the transport of iron ore/coal, and I think it remained open for goods for a time after closure for passengers. The bridge itself - the footings can still be seen on both sides - remained until being damaged by ice floes in the 1930s and then taken down. I have often heard stories from older Cumberland people of Scots walking the bridge to drink on Sundays. My late father in law, b 1922, remembered well the bridge still in place.

The track of the line passes very obviously right through Annan, desolately fenced in. It ought to be but isn't a wonderful footpath. Worth a trip for fans of obscure bits of railway history, as are the footings at Bowness. The book on it is Sinton, 'Solway Junction Railway'.

Starmer has three important international Summit meetings coming up.

1. NATO on 8th July in Ankara
   
2. EU on 22nd July in Brussels
   
3. G20 on 15th Dec in Miami.
   

I suspect that Burnham will agree to Starmer remaining PM to attend the first two, but will want to introduce himself on the world stage at the G20 in December.

I think that could be a bad idea. It will reduce Burnham's time to the next election by about 20% compared to say July. I quite like the idea of SKS as Foreign Minister, with them going to 22nd July EU in tandem.

I think he needs to hit the ground running, and I think he is better prepared than Mr Starmer was; though I'm not sure how much better that is.

I'd even suggest that a midsummer period in Parliament - as in 2024 - would be a good idea if it is possible.