The Ragged Optimist 11
Time for change
It’s Monday morning, and it’s going to be an interesting week. We have a General Election in the UK this week, and it looks like Labour are about to form a government on a platform of ‘change’. After years of chaos and Conservative Party infighting which has meant that since 2016, the government has (quite literally) achieved nothing, we should have a stable government with a large enough majority to actually do things.
Anyway, read on for beaver news, spy history, sea forests, and chance to use my studio in Margate over the summer. All written to help you start the week with a dose of happiness, hope, and optimism. This week’s photo gallery is all London, as we’ll be looking that way a lot in the next seven days.
A fascinating piece of historic research turned an overlooked page with a list of names into the index for Queen Elizabeth I’s spy network. I love archives, and the idea that in them we can find things that connect in ways that mean we have to shift our view of history.
Shoresearch is a citizen science project, run by the Wildlife Trusts, which was inspired by work done by Kent Wildlife Trust. The starting-point was the realisation that while we knew the coast was changing, we hadn’t recorded the baseline data to understand how. Volunteers are trained to identify and record the wildlife on a citizen science survey of the intertidal shore.
I’m fascinated by the way that, underpinning the UK, are these small, committed groups that actually make a difference to the places we live - often overlooked because we’re watching Westminster workplace gossip.
Our Sea Forest (iPlayer link) is an absolutely inspiring documentary film about the rewilding of the Sussex Bay seabed, and it has won an award in Canada. I love the idea of the Sussex Bay as an undersea counterbalance to the South Downs National Park. I’m from Sussex stock, born in Shoreham-by-Sea and brought up in Worthing, so it’s my landscape, the one I’m most connected to.
This Quadrophenia ballet from Sadler’s Wells, with music by Pete Townshend and costumes by Paul Smith, looks wonderful. Click the 'play trailer' link. Clean living under difficult circumstances is a good philosophy for life. While I never took 1990s Mod too seriously, and certainly never subscribed to the battle re-enactment version (Paul Weller haircuts, bad polo shirts, Untouchables ‘reunions’), there’s still a bit of it in the way I live today.
Urban beavers! “100% beaver,” says Stoke-on-Trent wildlife ranger, after sighting.
The Cairngorms National Park are also planning beaver releases. Last year, they released wildcats, who have given birth to kittens - the first born in the wild for years.
In a big blow to the fossil fuel industry, the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of grassroots and climate campaigners and quashed Surrey County Council's decision to grant planning permission for 20 years of oil drilling. The case was brought by Weald Action Group, a coalition of local campaign groups.
Weald is a lovely Sussex word, coming from the old Saxon word for forest or woodland. Isn’t it wonderful that history is embedded in place names like this?
Marks & Spencer has partnered with clothing repair and alterations experts, SOJO. They’re investing £1m from the M&S Plan A Accelerator Fund to offer repairs and alterations from August. M&S already run a collection scheme with Oxfam, which lets customers get points on their store card for donating old clothes.
I am based at Marine Studios, est. 2009 by Kate and Rick as Margate's first coworking space and an incubator for social enterprises and arts projects ever since. We're five minutes from the station, and five minutes from Turner Contemporary and the Old Town.
As I'm going to be away a lot over the summer, I'd like to offer friends the opportunity to use my studio for research, R&D on a new project, writing, or as a place to record. It's a dark, quiet space on the first floor. You might want it for a couple of days, a whole week, or for regular visits between July and September. You could be local, or coming down to Margate to visit.
It's full of stuff - there's a large archive relating to Margate, Ramsgate and the Isle of Thanet that you can use. There's a collection of books and ephemera about the print industry, letterpress, and paper-making. And there are lots of vintage board-games. You can join in our regular, inquiry-based First Fridays, meet a community of interesting people, and enjoy views over Main Sands from the meeting room opposite my studio.
There's no charge - and I'm up for conversations about how it might be used. The only conditions are that my stuff is looked after, and that you don't upset other studio users. Interested? We have First Friday this week, 6-9pm, if you want to visit and have a conversation.