Peter Black

Rock of the night Craig-y-nos Castle (meaning:Rock of the Night), is a Scots baronial-style country house near Glyntawe in Powys, Wales. Built on parkland bes...

New blogpost: Rock of the night peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/rock...

Renewables must form basis of UK energy security The Guardian reports on the views of climate groups, academics and energy experts that the UK government must double down on its clean ener...

New blogpost: Renewables must form basis of UK energy security
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/rene...

Trump misreading history again The Independent reports that Donald Trump has criticised Keir Starmer for not allowing American planes to launch their initial strikes agai...

New blogpost: Trump misreading history again
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/trum...

Has the Home Secretary got it wrong on immigration? The Guardian has an interesting editorial on home secretary, Shabana Mahmood's plans to make it harder for migrants to gain settled status ...

New blogpost: Has the Home Secretary got it wrong on immigration?
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/has-...

Welsh voluntary sector faces perfect storm Nation Cymru reports on new research that has revealed mounting pressure on Wales’ voluntary sector, with rising demand, worsening finances...

New blogpost: Welsh voluntary sector faces perfect storm
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/wels...

Bad loser Farage plays the Trump race card The Bloomberg site reports that Reform Party Leader Nigel Farage has accused the Greens of winning the Gorton by-election by “cheating,” af...

New blogpost: Bad loser Farage plays the Trump race card
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/bad-...

Let Starmer be..... The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer is facing an ultimatum from his own party to change direction or risk a leadership challenge within ...

New blogpost: Let Starmer be..... peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/03/let-...

On the trail of Richard Burton Visit Wales has a page from 2025 celebrating 100 years since the birth of one of Port Talbot's most famous sons. Richard Burton. This is pa...

New blogpost: On the trail of Richard Burton
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/on-t...

The devastating impact of year of UK aid cuts The Independent reports that a year after Keir Starmer announced that Britain’s aid budget would be slashed by up to 40 per cent, the leade...

New blogpost: The devastating impact of year of UK aid cuts
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-...

Are the government scamming students? Labour started all this off, when they introduced a market economy into higher education, and now they are reaping the fallout from the way ...

New blogpost: Are the government scamming students?
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/are-...

Reform embracing fracking The Guardian reports that Lincolnshire’s Reform party mayor, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, has courted the head of an American oil and gas dynasty i...

New blogpost: Reform embracing fracking
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/refo...

Reform seeking to copy Trump's victimisation and persecution agenda The Guardian reports that Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s ho...

New blogpost: Reform seeking to copy Trump's victimisation and persecution agenda
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/refo...

An increased risk of flooding The Guardian reports on new data that has found that one in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas...

New blogpost: An increased risk of flooding
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/an-i...

A history trail in Mumbles For those interested in the history of Mumbles, the Story of Mumbles website has a walking trail dating back to 2006 which is well worth fo...

New blogpost: A history trail in Mumbles peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-hi...

Are Starmer's defence spending promises enough? The Independent reports on a warning by former defence leaders that Britain’s armed forces have been “hollowed out by years of chronic unde...

New blogpost: Are Starmer's defence spending promises enough?
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/are-...

U-turn or incompetence? Labour get it wrong again The Guardian is absolutely scathing about the decision by Keir Starmer to change his mind, yet again, about cancelling elections in a numbe...

New blogpost: U-turn or incompetence? Labour get it wrong again
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/u-tu...

Reform's hate agenda as they unveil Truss mark two shadow team The Independent reports that Reform UK has been accused of “pitching for the votes of misogynists, homophobes, racists and antisemites” aft...

New blogpost: Reform's hate agenda as they unveil Truss mark two shadow team peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/refo...

Action, not words, needed on Europe The Independent reports that Keir Starmer has argued for closer links with the EU, saying Britain is “turning its back” on the Brexit years...

New blogpost: Action, not words, needed on Europe
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/acti...

Pressure grows for inquiry into hounding of journalists The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer is facing calls by MPs for an inquiry into the commissioning of a report that made “baseless claims”...

New blogpost: Pressure grows for inquiry into hounding of journalists
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/pres...

All my local history posts on my blog are now gathered together here: peterblack.blogspot.com/search/label...

What next for the government on Palestine Action? The Guardian reports that judges have humiliated ministers by insisting Palestine Action should not be banned under anti-terrorism laws in ...

New blogpost: What next for the government on Palestine Action?
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/what...

A plaque to a bread maker Local history a bit closer to home this week, with the only blue plaque in my council ward. It is situated in Lynn Street in Cwmbwrla on the...

New blogpost: A plaque to a bread maker
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-pl...

A costly use of power The Independent reports that the Home Office has spent nearly £700,000 on fighting a legal battle against the co-founder of Palestine Actio...

New blogpost; A costly use of power peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-co...

It's all about the cats Nation Cymru reports that a charity has urged Senedd members not to let Wales fall behind other nations, calling on them to put cats front ...

New blogpost: It's all about the cats peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/its-...

Have the wheels come off Reform's DOGE experiment? Reform's success in last year's local council elections was very much built around their claims that huge amounts of public money is being w...

New blogpost; Have the wheels come off Reform's DOGE experiment?
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/have...

Fighting like cats and dogs Who would have thought that Starmer's government could descend to the sort of chaos its predecessor suffered? The difference appears to be t...

New blogpost: Fighting like cats and dogs
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/figh...

Camels in early medieval western Europe: beasts of burden & tools of ritual humiliation The aim of the following post is simply to collect together some of the references to camels in early medieval Europe, where they seem to ha...

Amazing what you learn on Facebook www.caitlingreen.org/2016/05/came...

They seek him here, they seek him there Where exact;y does the leader of Reform UK in Wales live and will he be eligible to stand for the Senedd? Nation Cymru claims that the Fara...

New blogpost: They seek him here, they seek him there peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/they...

McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists The website Democracy for Sales reports that the organisation Labour Together paid a controversial PR firm at least £30,000 to investigate ...

New blogpost: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists
peterblack.blogspot.com/2026/02/mcsw...