Geoffrey Lakeman

Dear friends, thankyou for all your kind wishes, I am so much better and will be heading out to restart our tour tomorrow in Totton
I've eaten all the fruit +vegetables, had all the vitamins, done all the saunas and steaming and am ready to venture out again
Thankyou for your patience-Kathryn x

Onwards! Keep buggerring on Colin !

Lift Dickie Bird Up Where He Belongs - Scott Doonican & Kathryn Roberts YouTube video by The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican

RIP Dickie Bird
A #tyke legend
#Barnsley #yorkshire #cricket

Reform spent £350 on champagne at luxury lunch, election spending figures show Other expenditures include £989 stay at London hotel but party sources say costs not incurred by Nigel Farage Reform UK footed the bill for a £350 bottle of champagne at a luxury lunch and a £989-a-night hotel with hundreds of pounds in room service, its election campaign spending data shows. Receipts submitted to the Electoral Commission show instances of high spending at top London venues in the first half of last year. Continue reading...

Reform spent £350 on champagne at luxury lunch, election spending figures show

“Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner.

But none of us remember witnessing colleagues die of hunger"

How Starmer Told His Cabinet To Stop Beating Themselves Up – Then Cracked The Whip On Rebel MPs The prime minister is preparing to set out his vision for the UK.

Keir Starmer told the Cabinet: “The Tories get 96% of things wrong and focus on the 4% of things they get right, whereas Labour gets 96% of things right but agonise over the 4% we get wrong”

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-s...

Rod Stewart: ‘We’ve got to give Nigel Farage a chance’ The singer talks politics, potholes and having a policewoman wife as he prepares to play a ‘noisy, sexy and energetic’ Glastonbury set on Sunday

Heaven help us

www.thetimes.com/culture/musi...

Sting slams Brexit as an ‘act of folly’ during French TV appearance

'We're only just beginning to understand how stupid it was”

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/sting-t...

Kemi Badenoch calls for end to windfall tax on oil and gas companies The Conservative leader said the windfall tax on the oil and gas sector should end and new drilling licenses are needed.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for an end to the oil and gas windfall tax

Imagine her shock when she finds out energy companies have made BILLIONS in profits while millions can't afford heating

How out of touch can you be?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tories Ditched Net Zero Commitment While Receiving £250,000 from Oil Investors and Climate Deniers The Conservatives received a hefty sum from oil and gas investors and those with roles at anti-climate campaign groups during the period when the party rolled back a key climate commitment. New record...

Kemi Badenoch will today announce that she would ditch the windfall tax on fossil fuel companies that have amassed massive profits in recent years.

In other news, the Conservative Party recently received £250k from oil investors and climate science deniers…

Judge says Trump "illegally" deployed California National Guard to LA California Gov. Gavin Newsom has slammed President Trump's move as "purposefully inflammatory."

Judge says Trump "illegally" deployed California National Guard to LA

www.axios.com/2025/06/13/t...

Who would have guessed

David Beckham’s knighthood shows the unique - and utterly absurd - power of the British class system | Zoe Williams As the Beckhams finally get what they’ve apparently always wanted, what does it say about the institutions that put so much energy into blocking them? And what does it say about the rest of us, writes Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

David Beckham’s knighthood shows the unique - and utterly absurd - power of the British class system | Zoe Williams

Musk and Trump are enemies made for each other – united in their ability to trash their own brands | Jonathan Freedland What one did to Twitter and Tesla, the other is doing to the United States of America, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

Musk and Trump are enemies made for each other – united in their ability to trash their own brands | Jonathan Freedland

Reform UK inflaming hostility towards Muslims, leading British Muslims warn Chorus of disapproval comes after party chair, Zia Yusuf, resigned over a row about banning the burqa Leading British Muslims are warning that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is increasingly inflaming hostile sentiment towards Muslims after chair Zia Yusuf resigned over a row about banning the burqa. His departure was described by the co-chair of the British Muslim Network, a new civil group representing the community, as a “stark illustration” that many in Reform do not view British Muslims as valued equal members of society. Continue reading...

Reform UK inflaming hostility towards Muslims, leading British Muslims warn

Trump v Musk: the two worst people in the world are finally having a big, beautiful breakup | Arwa Mahdawi The bromance might be over but Trump has kissed and made up with his enemies before. Enjoy it while it lasts

Trump v Musk: the two worst people in the world are finally having a big, beautiful breakup | Arwa Mahdawi

Trump keeps being overruled by judges. And his temper tantrums won’t stop that | Steven Greenhouse A word of advice to Trump: dozens of judges keep ruling against you because you’ve flouted the law more than any previous president

Trump keeps being overruled by judges. And his temper tantrums won’t stop that | Steven Greenhouse

Cadets who met all Air Force Academy graduation standards denied commissions because they’re transgender Three students graduated from the prestigious service academy after years of hard work, but Trump’s military ban prevented them from getting their commission.

"They stood, diplomas in hand, having met every standard of physical endurance, academic excellence, and military discipline. But when the time came for the US Air Force Academy’s class of 2025 to commission as second lieutenants, 3 cadets were quietly held back..."

www.advocate.com/news/transge...

Opinion | Is This the Beginning of the End of America’s National Parks?

“The group estimated that reducing the operating budget by $900 million, as the Trump administration wants to do, would require closing 350 of the 433 parks, monuments, historic sites and other locations overseen by the Park Service… we would be witnessing the dismantling of a century-old system”

Donald Trump’s digital landgrab His attempt to grab control of the internet is perhaps the biggest threat of all

“At present, Trump is personally suing multiple television channels that have criticised him. He is, as president, threatening those same channels with losing their broadcast licences”

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/james-ball-d...

Tory peer proposed delay on heated tobacco ban after Philip Morris visit Industry giant paid for Lord Vaizey’s trip to Switzerland before he tabled amendment to tobacco and vapes bill A Conservative peer proposed delaying the UK’s proposed ban on heated tobacco, weeks after a leading cigarette company paid for him to visit its research facility in Switzerland. The tobacco and vapes bill would gradually raise the age at which consumers can buy cigarettes and other tobacco products, making the UK the first major economy to chart a course towards phasing out tobacco altogether. Continue reading...

Tory peer proposed delay on heated tobacco ban after Philip Morris visit

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes Prime minister over 2006-09 and former Likud member says Palestinian victims are at ‘monstrous proportions’ The former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said that Israel is “committing war crimes” in Gaza, saying “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers”. Olmert, who served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote in an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper and website Haaretz that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success”. Continue reading...

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes

Nigel Farage is voters' last choice to be PM - as he's branded 'political fraud' In embarrassment for Nigel Farage, YouGov released a poll on his popularity ratings as he took to the stage to claim voters were behind him in a major press conference

Nigel Farage is voters' last choice to be Prime Minister - as he's branded 'political fraud'

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Inside Ukraine’s secret, hidden apartment concerts In the USSR, everything was behind closed doors — even music concerts, as they were considered a threat to the regime. Veronika attends one of the apartment concerts held to elevate Ukrainian culture.

open.substack.com/pub/countero...

Trump left West Point after his speech instead of staying to shake the hand of every graduating cadet, as is longstanding tradition. If Obama or Biden had done that, we would never the hear the end of it. But it's Trump, so reporters don't care.

Meanwhile some families are trying to work out if they can afford shoes for their kids and some are missing meals because obey are skint.

Nigel Farage said he’d ‘bought a house’ in Clacton – it’s actually owned by his girlfriend Reform UK leader said he’d ‘exchanged contracts’ to buy property last November, but it’s in name of Laure Ferrari

This will probably come as no surprise to anyone but..

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Israeli troops fire ‘warning shots’ at 25 diplomats visiting occupied West Bank Shots force delegation representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt and UK, to run for cover * Middle East crisis – live updates Israeli troops have fired “warning shots” at a group of 25 diplomats who were visiting Jenin, in the Israel-occupied West Bank, on an official mission organised by the Palestinian Authority to observe the humanitarian situation there. The Israeli military said the visit had been approved, but the delegation “deviated from the approved route” and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to distance them from the area. Continue reading...

Israeli troops fire ‘warning shots’ at 25 diplomats visiting occupied West Bank