There’s a lot coming from a new government in a hurry to solve some big economic problems. Not all of it has gone very well and some changes need to be rethought. More on this later.
Most of us have only known one monarch in our lifetimes: no-one alive has ever known an Accession Council - and we're all getting used to a National Anthem for a King not a Queen.
Gloucester Day- the first Saturday in September- celebrates the relief of the Siege of Gloucester in 1643 from King Charles 1’s army of 30,000. Many cities would have surrendered: Gloucester, against the odds, did not fold and London came to our rescue.
For those who remember the abandoned Norville specs factory on Hatherley Road in Tredworth of a generation ago, followed by an arson attack a decade ago - leaving a half burnt down crumbling mess of red brick – it’s now a new community garden.
This evening’s hustings in Cheltenham are a debate for the two candidates to be our next leader, and a decision moment for many Gloucestershire members in a county with all six MPs currently Conservative.
I’m told some local politicians occasionally refer to the Gloucester City Council as the ‘Vanishing Council’. It is quite true our Council has fewer employees than it did when I arrived at the end of 2006, and that in turn was fewer than in say the 1980s.
This is the 12th year since I had the mad idea of creating a Gloucester History Festival, and it’s going to be – as every year should be – slightly different, and I hope great fun: with overall themes of Families and Innovations.
I almost literally grew up in a school in East Africa my mother ran. She was later, like my elder sister, a primary school Deputy Head for many years. My other sister was, and one niece and our elder son are, teachers: another niece is an army instructor and a third a yoga instructor.
