Lord Byron died exactly 200 years ago today, after falling ill in Greece while gathering an army to fight the Ottoman Empire.
Raise your game, Simon Armitage.

There is plenty to be said about his death, and you will not struggle to find that.

I, however, want to talk about.. ...something that happened long after he died, which proves that you can't keep a good heroic poet down, even if they've been dead for ages.

Let us look at one of the most bizarre stories in Byron's death, when a vicar decided to see how Byron was doing under his church.

A while back I was contacted by the English Department at the University of Milan, who were studying Saturday Night, Sunday Morning and were planning a trip to Nottingham to see where it is set. Could I guide them? Yeah, Ok. I assumed I'd walk them to Canning Circus... ...and possibly Ilkeston Road.

They turn up, on a Sunday Morning exactly seven years ago today, 25 stylish Italian young people fascinated with the urban decay that is that part of Nottingham.

And they want to walk. Canning Circus won't cut it.

Tomorrow is the 45th Anniversary of the death of Richard Beckinsale, a hero of British comedy, and, to those who knew him (and I've met many) a kind, gentle, loving man.
He was also a poet with a scary sense of his own sudden death... He grew up in Beeston and attended College House school, where a few years ago a blue plaque was unveiled. A bizarre day where a suburban East Midlands school had @davidwalliams , @michaelsheen , Kate Beckinsale and others appear for a glass of Schloer prior to the unveiling.

How does this play out on a hyperlocal level?

Broxtowe goes to the polls next year, so will be a great test of polls v reality, pre the 2024 GE

My guesses, after too many years being embroiled in such matters?

Broxtowe will be redder than ever.

THREAD 🧵

https://twitter.com/OpiniumResearch/status/1578824671335940098

I best show my working out.

Ok, here goes.

Before we get local, let's look at Wiltshire's most useless MP ( unless the metric is expense claims)

Our MP, @DarrenG_Henry , is famously useless in doing anything.
Yet he is top of the charts on one measure: how much he claims in expenses! Last year he claimed a staggering £280,936, despite not having to form out huge amounts commuting from Scotland (usually such MPs... ...dominate the top spot.

So, what has Darren been spending our money on? He's apparently not much in his Stapleford office.

He doesn't do anything, apart from vote on whatever he is told, from dumping shit in rivers to exonerating Owen Patterson.

You may have heard /seen the news. A few points to add

1. Carl Husted claimed the police 'accepted his reasonings for visiting me. This is a lie. The police gave him a harrassment warning that if he approached me again, he would be arrested. 2. Carl Husted claimed in text messages that he didn't work for @DarrenG_Henry He clearly does. This is another lie .

There is much talk on how using local knowledge, rather than centralised, broad-brush, top-down guesswork would be a better way to run the Tier system of alerts.

Here in Broxtowe, which went into Tier 3 at a minute past midnight today, that is evident more than ever. THREAD! I checked the official Covid app this morning, expecting it to read 'COVID alert level: very high'. After all, I live right on the edge of what was the most infected area of the UK recently, with cases still very high.

But what's this?

Heading into town tomorrow night for the first time in ages, to visit @NottmPlayhouse, where a guy I topped for stardom many years ago will be headlining: if you love words, then you'll love @BenNorris7, who you've probably heard on @BBCRadio4 .
Tix 👇
nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/events/a-doubl… I didn't 'top' Ben. That wouldn't be very nice. I topped him, which is nice.

THE NOT ENTIRELY OBVIOUS NOTTINGHAM ESSAY: PART 1: TWO PLAQUES.

Here's a story about two plaques in Nottm city centre, and why they might have a strange link that spans a century and created one of the most recognisable characters of all time.

So, let's see the plaques. We'll begin with the 1st. It's in Exchange Arcade (under the Council House Dome where all the posh shops are), marking onthe former home of Henry Kirke White, a poet who took the whole Romantic Poet idea of dying young to the extreme. Henry who? We'll call him HKW from here on..

Further to the tweet about The Trip To Jerusalem, a memory from years ago.
I'd been dumped, and the heartbreaker got on her train and out of my life. Forlorn, I did what any choked-up young man would do. I went to the pub. The Trip, of course. 250 million years before that, it rained hard in the Variscan mountains, a vast range that formed the Triassic uplands. The storm dislodged a bit of rock from the peaks, and rather than run down towards the PaleoTythus ocean, washed North into the river system (not actual photo)