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Rachael Unsworth

@leedstours.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.8K following 1.3K posts

Urban geographer & walking tour guide in Leeds 🌍 - local, in a global setting www.leedscitywalkingtours.co.uk Researcher, writer ('Leeds: Cradle of Innovation'), presenter, Leeds Phil & Lit, musician 🎻 European Professional chat posts only

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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 6h
Yet another email purporting to come from someone you know, usually someone rather senior, whose computer is rather ancient? Why wouldn't the sender who want to ask one thing just ASK it in the email instead of asking permission to pose the question? No super-sleuth needed to detect pong of rat.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 7h
Taken for this afternoon's cloudscape. It happens that you can see 5 out of 7 buildings to hold the title 'tallest building in Leeds': 1. Leeds Parish Church - Minster since 2012 3. Office, City Sq - now hotel 4. W Riding House - now Pinnacle 6. Altus House 7. Cirrus Point Out of view: 2. LTH 5. BWP
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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'll be talking about 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' at Howden & District u3a, east Yorkshire, on Thurs Oct 29th, 10.30am. The Shire Hall, Market Place. howden.u3asite.uk/home/
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
What a contrast between the 'Sunk Island' area of the north side of the Humber Estuary on 22 July ... ... and the middle of Leeds the next day. But both scenes were made by people.
The former ‘Sunk Island’ of the north side of the Humber Estuary, viewed on a July day.
Land reclamation began in the 1660s. By the 1770s, the former island was joined to the mainland.
'Huge skies' = nothing in the way.

Office building on The Headrow/East Parade/South Parade, designed by William Bakewell, a Leeds architect for Pearl Assurance. Grantie-clad ground floor with Portland stone above.
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Reece Dinsdale @reecedinsdale.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If you would like to help me help #SaveSquareChapelArts, then click on the link on the post below and scroll to the bottom. There you will find a list of all the useful things you can do. Let’s make some noise! Thank you.
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Edmund Lee @edsrlee.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Latest addition to @natlibscot.bsky.social excellent online map collection is a layer of high resolution #lidar images optimised to highlight archaeological sites 🏺showing as subtle earthworks. Amazing imagery! More info here... maps.nls.uk/additions/#205
maps.nls.uk
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On 27 September 1726, the first known public concert in Leeds was held on the upper floor of the First White Cloth Hall – opened in 1711 for the trading of undyed cloth. Half a crown 300 years ago is about £22 in 2026.
Source of historical information: https://discoveringleeds.wordpress.com/origins-of-leeds-classical-music/ 
Geoffrey Mogridge

Image: 
http://www.callsarchitecture.co.uk/portfolio/first_white_cloth_hall_leeds.html
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On 27 September 1726, the first known public concert in Leeds was held on the upper floor of the First White Cloth Hall – opened in 1711 for the trading of undyed cloth. Half a crown 300 years ago is about £22 in 2026.
Source of historical information: https://discoveringleeds.wordpress.com/origins-of-leeds-classical-music/ 
Geoffrey Mogridge

Image: 
http://www.callsarchitecture.co.uk/portfolio/first_white_cloth_hall_leeds.html
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sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is great and Burnham on the money re Russian threat and who is vulnerable. Trump on the other hand… www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
New UK agency to fight ‘information warfare’ from likes of Russia, Burnham tells UN
PM aims to ‘stem poisonous tide’ of disinformation and deepfakes with National Centre for Information Defence
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The north side of Duncan St in dramatic light at 18:20 this evening. An ornate Edwardian range of buildings, mostly designed by local architect Percy Robinson and with much of the detail in terracotta.
Ornate Edwardian buildings in Duncan Street, Leeds, many with turrets, glowing in evening sunshine against dark grey clouds.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Hesperanthas in the limelight this month. Self-seeded in the broken concrete of the courtyard behind the old coach house where I live in north Leeds. #GardensHour
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
While waiting for the next eastbound train at Edgware Road, I spied saplings of Tree of Heaven.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Why?
Half a sausage roll on the sunny sandstone paving of Briggate, Leeds - a street dating from a 1207 decision by the Lord of the Manor. 
Still the main commercial street of Leeds after more than 800 years.
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AdyBee 🐝 @adybee.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
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Ancestral Enquiries - Tony Smith 🌳 @ancestralenq.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Glasgow Life, the charity that manages Glasgow's museum & library collections has bought the archive of the Third Eye Centre & Centre for Contemporary Arts that contains material gathered over 50 years. 👇 BBC News - Charity buys archive of Third Eye centre and CCA www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Charity buys archive of Third Eye centre and CCA
Exhibition records, photographs, films, posters, flyers and artists' letters chart the story of two organisations that were central to Glasgow's art scene.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Hacks @privateeyenews.bsky.social discuss their book choices: Mother Tongue The Faber Book of Reportage Tickle The Public - 100 Years of the Popular Press We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families  Towards The End Of The Morning  Scoop New Grub St
youtube.com
The Hacks Book Club: Private Eye writers pick their favourite books about journalism
YouTube video by Private Eye Magazine
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Emily Cassidy @enviroem.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
People are always surprised to learn that packaging, processing, and transportation are almost always small contributors (<10%) of food-related GHG emissions. The TYPE of food we eat -- meat versus plants -- is a MUCH bigger factor.
Bar chart of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the lifecycle production of different foods. Beef and lamb are the highest emitting. Farm-level emissions and land use change emissions are the greatest contributors to lifecycle food emissions.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
My dear old friend, historian Julian Jackson, published a biography of de Gaulle in 2018. 2026 🎬 'De Gaulle: Résistance'. Director Baudry collaborated closely with Julian. Simon Russell Beale as Churchill. Millions of tickets sold in France. Out now in UK - eg: www.myvue.com/cinema/leeds...
Still from 'De Gaulle: Résistance' with Franco-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian as de Gaulle (right) and Simon Russell Beale as Churchill (left). Inspired by and drawing on Professor Julian Jackson’s 2018 book 'A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle', directed by Antonin Baudry.
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Liz @willsmanonename.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The Society for #OnePlaceStudies has a free helpful guide to getting started. Re choosing your place, make it somewhere you have a passion for, which isn’t too big, & think about how you will access the records you need 👉🏻 www.one-place-studies.org/wp-content/u... #OnePlaceWednesday
The cover of The Society for #OnePlaceStudies 
guide to getting started
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LBC @lbc.co.uk · 10/08/2026
...Still too soon for spoilers? @simonmarksfsn.bsky.social reporting a Harry Potter story has left listeners devastated and Simon can't keep it together.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Output from the heavenly watering can accumulating - at last - in a shady corner of an urban garden. #GardensHour
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Just been out into the courtyard to listen to rain falling on the plants and a trickle of water running into the butt that's been empty for weeks.
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Reader @readermagazine.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The main section of North Yorkshire's landmark new A59 Kex Gill route, replacing a stretch of road repeatedly hit by landslips, is set to open to traffic by early September.
readermagazine.co.uk
Main section of new A59 Kex Gill route set to open within weeks
The main section of North Yorkshire's landmark new A59 Kex Gill route, replacing a stretch of road repeatedly hit by landslips, is set to open to traffic by early September.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Join me for a walking tour at 14:30 on Friday 18 September: 'Protest & riot in Leeds' www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/protest-an... That evening, Jonathan Pie will probably be even more polemical at City Varieties.
eventbrite.co.uk
Protest and riot in Leeds
A walking tour exploring the concept and causes of protest and the sites of uprisings, confrontations & disorder through the ages
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
After a recent visit to Harewood House I reflected on the term 'south terrace'. Our 'south terrace' is but a slender strip. The late Victorian electric tram system led to a surge in demand for suburban housing. 4 Edwardian terraces (60 houses), were built on the sunny side of the early C19 house.
The Terrace at Harewood is Grade II*-listed:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1226148?section=official-list-entry
The formal pattern of the parterre was cleared away in the late 1950s but reinstated in the 1990s. It comprises a neatly clipped symmetrical pattern of box hedges and pyramids with herbs planted in the beds within the pattern.
The stature of Orpheus by German-born British artist Astrid Zydower stands on the former site of a large Victorian fountain. This was the central feature of the scheme designed by architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860). The architect went on from this commission to overseee the architectural competition for Leeds Town Hall. He strongly recommended selecting the design by Cuthbert Brodrick (1821-1905) and then suggested the addition of a tower.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just been to the unveiling of new artworks at Temple Newsam: commissions from Miriam Hanid and Yusuke Yamamoto. Inspired by the historic collection and its setting - house and grounds. Get along to see these breathtaking and moving creations + film about the making of them.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I have to share a boisterous spray of roses on the climber by my door that’s grown up from a wee shoot inside 8 weeks. Now over 5ft - I know cos the scrumptious scent of that central bloom is at the level of my nose. Do you know its name? Plant ID on iPhone no good 😔
Climbing rose with deep salmon buds that open to salmon mousse and lighten to lychee colour. But I don’t know the name.
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Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Salvador Dalí & Walt Disney’s Short Animated Film, Destino, Set to the Music of Pink Floyd
openculture.com
Salvador Dalí & Walt Disney’s Short Animated Film, Destino, Set to the Music of Pink Floyd
Dalí long gone and Disney gone longer still, it came out. The delayed arrival of Destino had to do with money trouble at the Walt Disney Studios not long after the project began, and it seems that few...
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 30/07/2026
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
A recent trip to Goole, the port on the River Ouse close to The Humber estuary, which opened in July 1826. Coal and goods came along the Aire & Calder Navigation and Dutch River - canalised River Don. Looking N close to Aire St Bridge with St John’s spire beyond a general cargo boat in Aldam Dock.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I do occasionally escape from Leeds. Here’s a sea-sculpted piece at Spurn Point, the long spit of sand that curves from the Holderness coast into the Humber estuary. Marine erosion mimicking Barbara #Hepworth.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
From @leedscivictrust.bsky.social volunteers’ summer party at Moda, Quarry Hill. With much background chatter, here’s a quick summary of the succession of Tallest Buildings of Leeds. Old Leeds Parish Church had been the tallest structure for centuries. The new one was soon overtopped, and then …
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
‘Grade slip’: Old M&S skirt size 12, measuring 28”. (Note St Michael label - branding that was dropped in 2000.) Recent skirt supposedly size 8, yet the waist is 35” - that’s 25% bigger.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
GOAD Insurance Plan of Leeds 1886, showing details of building structures & uses – major elements of fire risk. Sheet 7 includes the eastern end of Wellington St and Thirsk Row, location of the Hepworth warehouse. Available to view in Leeds Central Library. www.mylearning.org/stories/the-... 3/3
GOAD Insurance Plan 1886 - key with 11 patches in yellow, blue or pink showing which sheet covers which area.
Also the detailed Sheet 7, including the eastern end of Wellington St and Thirsk Row - location of the Hepworth warehouse.
The Fourth White Cloth Hall was still in existence when this fire insurance plan was made. It lasted only 30 years from when the Third White Cloth Hall was chopped in half by the railway viaduct. The site was then cleared and the Metropole Hotel opened in 1899.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hepworths’ warehouse was close to 3 stations. The premises were rebuilt & occupied by the firm until the 1920s. Hepworths started retailing in 1890 and had >140 shops by 1906. Firm lasted until 1980. Retail side survives as ‘Next’. 2019-20:: building refurbished & opened as Tailors’ Corner. 2/3
Excerpt from 1920 OS map showing the location of Hepworths’ warehouse. From 1920, their main premises were on Claypit Lane. The building is still there, opposite the First Direct Arena.

Also a photo of the premises built in the early 20th century to replace the 1881 building that had been destroyed by fire. By 2020, when this photo was taken, the building had been refitted as modern offices and relaunched as ‘Tailors Corner’ (with no apostrophe after Tailors, much to my disappointment.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
OTD 1906, fire destroyed the warehouse of tailoring entrepreneur Joseph Hepworth (1834-1911), who started manufacturing clothing in Leeds in 1864. The neighbouring hotel was also badly damaged. 3 firemen were injured that day. 1/3
ALT: A print of Hepworths’ 1881 warehouse - showing mainly the Thirsk Row frontage, and the shorter side on Wellington St. 
Also a drawing of the blazing building  - made into a postcard.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Read 3 posts on the 200th birthday of the Port of Goole. The inland waterways were so crucial to building the pre-industrial economy & went on carrying heavy cargoes cost-effectively in the railway era. Trade still comes through Goole, though its heyday has passed. V interesting to visit last week.
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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 20/07/2026
Is welfare spending ''out of control''? It's estimated to be 11.1 per cent of GDP this financial year. That's just 1.1 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen by 0.9 per cent of GDP since 2012-13 ⤵️
chart showing Social security spending as a proportion of GDP, by category: GB
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Today's newsletter - some thoughts on Rishi Sunak (and some other prime ministers') views on how they managed their time and what the lessons for Burnham as he forms his government are:
ft.com
Bad cabinet appointments will steal Andy Burnham’s precious hours
Incoming leader would do well to take Rishi Sunak’s advice on maximising your time as prime minister
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Excellent
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Barbara Kempf 🇧🇴🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇪🇺#BLM #HE #FBPE 💚 @musicayamor.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
leeds.greenparty.org.uk/2026/07/20/a... Our open letter to Andy Burnham on the day he becomes Prime Minister. Please share this far and wide. 🙏
leeds.greenparty.org.uk
An Open Letter to Andy Burnham - Leeds Green Party
On the day he becomes Prime Minister, Leeds Green Party has penned an open letter to Andy Burnham, demanding real commitments for our city.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Coal was exported through Goole docks from coalfields of W & S Yorkshire until 1986. Powered tugs pulled a ‘train’ of coal barges. From 1865, the hoist lifted Tom Pudding containers & tipped coal into a ship’s hold. Peak 1953: >2.45m tonnes exported – over 90% of Goole’s activity at the time. 3/3
Photo taken July 2026 west towards the Knottingley & Goole Canal (the eastern end of the Aire & Calder Navigation) showing the coal hoist used to unload barges into sea-going vessels. Coal was the main commodity handled by the port until 1986.
Historic photo of 'Tom Puddings', the specially designed coal barges with containers that coudl be lifted out so the coal could be tipped into a shop.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Goole had only 2 docks in 1826, just before the railway era began. By 1912, 6 more docks had been added. Though traffic still comes through the port, trade has declined because it can't accommodate larger sea-going vessels. 2/3
Part of Ordnance Survey map 1892 showing the port of Goole after more than 60 years of development.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
OTD 1826 the port of Goole opened. Built to scale up & speed up trans-shipment of waterways cargo heading to & from the North Sea (c.80km away), this became England’s biggest inland port. From Goole, it’s 13.5km downstream on the River Ouse to the Humber estuary. 1/3
Part of Ordnance Survey map first edition 1853 showing Goole's development since the new port opened on the right bank of the River Ouse in 1826. The eastern end of the Aire & Calder Navigation - this part known as the Knottingley & Goole Canal, a completely new channel to avoid the meanders of the River Aire - comes in from the west. It's parallel with the 'Dutch River' - a new course for the lower reaches of the River Don.
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
My American daughter is always trying to catch up with her paper edition of @economist.com My granddaughter, age three and a half, trying to persuade her mother to get her some more special 'kinetic sand': "Mum, The Economist says that if kids want something they should have it, ok?"
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Rob Shaw @whatisrobshaw.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Our very excellent RA on our Urban Sensory Pollution project has got themselves a permanent lecturship, so we're hiring! We're looking for an independently-minded ecologist, env scientist, phys geographer or similar. Details: jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl... #ecology #geography #environmentalscience
jobs.ncl.ac.uk
Research Assistant/Associate (Sensory Pollution)
Research Assistant/Associate (Sensory Pollution)
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Rachael Unsworth @leedstours.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
OTD 1626 Leeds Borough Charter was granted. The Borough boundary was widened to be same as parish: 32.8 square miles. Powers to: 🦉 Create Corporation – later LCC – headed by Alderman John Savile, whose family crest had 3 owls 🦉 Manage cloth trade 🦉 Hold courts and enforce local laws
LEEDS400 logo - marking 400 years since the granting of the Charter by Charles I.

Family crest of the Saviles with 3 owls on a black sash. The image is painted on glass - one pane in a display of family crests in Leeds Museum.

See: https://wyascatablogue.wordpress.com/the-leeds-charter-of-incorporation-1626-whats-it-all-about/

The Savile family, originating in the Anjou area of France, had been awarded land by William the Conqueror after 1066. As well-established cloth merchants, it's possible that the owl had been chosen by the Saviles because of the association with the owl as a symbol of Minerva/Athena, the classical goddess who represented wisdom, knowledge, strategy and industry. Cloth making is one of the most ancient and fundamental of industries. So then the three owls became part of the early version of the new Leeds crest. The later development of the Leeds coat of arms is discussed here: https://www.leedsowltrail.com/leeds-coat-of-arms/
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
PSA.
Count Binface Appreciatio... • Join
Nina C Baker • 3h • O
X
If anyone is thinking to do actual campaigning in Clacton, it is ESSENTIAL that you get agreement from Count Binface. This is not a joke. We do not want to get him into trouble.
All expenditure in support of a candidate MUST be accounted for by the candidate even if they didnt pay it out themselves. Otherwise he would be breaking the law for not declaring the expenditure in his post-election expenses return to the authorities.
Also any leaflets have to say who printed and published them, even if not produced by CBf himself. And the costs (even if donated by supporters) MUST be agreed by CBf so he can include them in his expenses return.
I should add that I do know what I am talking about - I was a member of the Greens and stood for election for many years, sometimes even successfully! CBf needs to be squeaky clean on this sort of thing, compared to Frogface.
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Tim Morton @timmorton2.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
This is what the #ClimateCrisis looks like #StopRosebank #StopJackdaw
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