James Mitchinson

This is an online version of the editor’s regular newsletter. Not all of James’ newsletters are published as online articles as well. To ensure you don’t miss one, subscribe today > https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/subscriptions

We need to talk about Hull, or, more specifically, Hull and The Humber.

Like me, you will have woken to the news that Donald Trump - a man who refused to accept the outcome of the democratic process when Joe Biden took the White House from him previously resulted in a deadly assault on Capitol Hill, bringing about the most disturbing undermining of American values in modern times.

If you move about very much at all, particularly along the nation’s arterial motorway routes, chances are you will have passed one or two gargantuan, shiny-new grey-blue Amazon factories and thought something like: bloody hell, that’s massive, I wonder what actually goes on in there?

There are occasions when the words that trip off the keyboard - my own words - make me roll my own eyes. This, I already know, is one of those occasions. So … here goes: Tory MP Esther McVey has compared Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to further reduce the harmful and anti-social effects of smoking on both smokers and second-hand recipients of said smoke, to the Holocaust, where six million Jews were systematically executed by the murderous Nazi regime.

By their very nature, song lyrics do not carry the same meaning for you as they do for me. Nor will they necessarily mean the same to me tomorrow as they do today. At its point of creation, art is imbued with context and circumstance, personality and character - all of which are immutably so, yet none of which can be present in others’ appreciation of the art. So, think of the following as my Oasis experience, not yours, as I attempt to paint a picture of what the brothers Gallagher meant to me and to people like me, back then…

By their very nature, song lyrics do not carry the same meaning for you as they do for me. Nor will they necessarily mean the same to me tomorrow as they do today. At its point of creation, art is imbued with context and circumstance, personality and character - all of which are immutably so, yet none of which can be present in others’ appreciation of the art. So, think of the following as my Oasis experience, not yours, as I attempt to paint a picture of what the brothers Gallagher meant to me and to people like me, back then…

Three years ago, having neither of us been before, my wife and I started a love affair that we can’t shake off … with Cornwall’s poster pin-up tourist attraction, St Ives, but before you too fall for its charms, there’s a few things we’ve found out that you should know, too.

Leeds, a city that never fails to impress me, from its confident, sprawling London-esque city skyline to its United fans who march on together like no other fanbase, to its tech sector, its universities, its arts and its armouries - is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

A penny for the thoughts of Shabana Mahmood, the new Justice Secretary, who must be feeling like one of those poor sods who move into a newbuild house, only to find the roof leaks, the walls are cracked and the toilet flushes out onto the landing.