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10 January 2024

This England: Time to clean up politics

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain – has run in the NS since 1934.

By New Statesman

A multitasking Inverness provost was spotted washing her living room windows while taking part in a council debate. Glynis Campbell Sinclair talked strongly at the meeting before getting up to do some cleaning.

In the debate, which can be viewed on the Highland Council’s recorded meetings page online, the provost waves her cloth in front of the camera before nipping out of shot to pick up a bowl of water.

She then carries the bowl of water across the room before she begins to wash her windows. She can then be seen looking at her phone before running towards the camera to switch it off.
Aberdeen Press & Journal (Ron Grant)

Not giving up the ghost

A turf war has erupted between rival ghost-tour guides. Tudor World accused Sinister Stratford of “skulduggery” for touting for business outside its museum.

But Sinister Stratford blamed a temporary TripAdvisor mix-up over its location in the town of Shakespeare’s birth. Sinister Stratford’s Joe Rukin added: “I have to meet my customers somewhere.”
The Sun (Peter Willmott)

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Bricking it

A Lego-mad couple have spent 324 hours and half a million bricks creating a full-sized telephone box in their living room. Catherine Weightman, 60, and Mike Addis, 65, worked in four-hour shifts over two months on the 8ft creation. 
Yorkshire Post (Michael Meadowcroft)

[See also: This England: Puffed-up pastry]

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This article appears in the 10 Jan 2024 issue of the New Statesman, The Year of Voting Dangerously