The View from Cullingworth
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"A little bit of business here, a little bit of business there": Burnham's mission to save the High Street is doomed
Hoagy’s little old lady sits in our memory as an image of something lost. We’d like her back without giving up buying on our phone and loading up the…
Aug 11
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Simon Cooke
8
3
2
Musings on Britain's lack of productivity growth (and why we ain't been remotely neoliberal since the '90s)
Britain’s problems are that, since at least 1997, and probably since 1990, the nation’s governments have done the opposite of ‘neoliberalism’.
Aug 6
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Simon Cooke
8
5
4
English devolution is fake. A Yorkshire Day rant
Mayors simply act as local agents for Whitehall in the same way that No 10 North isn’t radical let alone devolution, just Whitehall making Whitehall…
Aug 1
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Simon Cooke
13
1
2
July 2026
What Lord of the Rings nerds can teach Odyssey purists
The Odyssey, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, succeeds because it takes the ancient narrative and twists it to suit a modern cinema audience. And it…
Jul 29
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Simon Cooke
8
2
2
We should sort out the pipework of democracy - scrutiny and accountability - before we reorganise local government
Reforming local government should start here - with accountability, scrutiny and challenge - rather than with grandiose debates about geography and…
Jul 27
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Simon Cooke
14
2
Burnham and Thatcher: the triumph of a teenage vibe
The average age of a Labour Party member is in their mid-fifties, Burnham speaks directly to their deeply held teenage belief in the Thatcher Myth
Jul 19
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Simon Cooke
17
2
2
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est (or maybe sometimes not)
Using a book, "Deus Irae", I look at whether (or when) it is OK to speak ill of the dead
Jul 13
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Simon Cooke
5
1
1
"We were once the richest city in the richest county in the richest country in the world". Why regeneration doesn't work.
There have been, in broad terms, three types of central government regeneration programme: Shiny Boosterism, Hugging Communities and The Big Party. They…
Jul 8
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Simon Cooke
24
11
5
June 2026
I'm sorry but if you build it they still won't come: the failures of investment-led economic policy
Everyone is expecting Andy Burnham to move into Downing Street and that with a northern accent running the country our long forgotten, crumbling…
Jun 21
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Simon Cooke
14
2
3
When, for the kids, they tried to ban Dungeon's & Dragons: a lesson for today's politicians about moral panic
We are about to take away social fun from teenagers for the same reason that Patricia Pulling and B.A.D.D. tried to stop my generation from rolling dice…
Jun 18
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Simon Cooke
5
2
3
Why do there seem to be so many mad and bad migrants? PTSD, mental health and the migrant journey
Are violent men more inclined to migration, are those who survive the ones prepared to be violent, or does the process of migrating lead to people being…
Jun 10
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Simon Cooke
8
8
2
How being in a victim group (but not an actual victim) got to be so powerful. And why it has to stop.
The murder of Henry Nowak has brought this to a head. Not because his murderer was a sikh but because his murderer (and that man’s family) played his…
Jun 4
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Simon Cooke
12
1
5
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