Boscastle and Those Crazy Buses

So. Boscastle is extremely windy these days!

But still, even though the phone signal for O2 there is not exactly brilliant (think walking thirty minutes up a hill), you can't help but love it. The hostel has been fantastically refurbished since the floods; the people are friendly; and the local church not only acts as a sanctuary 24/7, but has free tea and coffee put out for weary travellers. You can't ask much more of a place, can you?

Liskeard, home to my friend Dan McCormack, was also well worth the visit: The Bean Cafe does excellent capuccinos, and the Tourist Information Office people seem to know pretty much everything. This could also be said of the staff at Bodmin's History Museum, though not so much of Cornish bus drivers: that's the last time I take the 584 from Camelford to Wadebridge instead of the 594! Lesson learnt for the future, methinks.

Well done to anyone who got their GCSE results by the way :-)

More updates on Friday!

The Evening Stanners

Internship Interview Ahoy!

That's right, the Evening Stanners might well be working with an MP: IF! If... he gets past the interview stage on the 31st August. Eep! But yes, if all goes well, I may well be working for Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge.

Coming up this week: Bodmin! Wadebridge! Boscastle! And maybe Liskeard and Totnes, depending on the weather. We shall see!

More updates tomorrow you groovy people: but now, to revise current Lib Dem policy. And hope I don't suddenly shout something like "VOTE TORY" during the interview. Though that seems extremely unlikely :P

Thanks for reading! Also, despite the media's desperate attempts to create a story, Charles Kennedy is not defecting to Labour: though whether he'll defect to Have I Got News For You is another question entirely.

The Evening Stanners

Go To Fowey At Once

That's an order :-D

As you can probably tell, I'm having a fantastic day off. I've just met up with an old friend from Uni, Lewis Wilkinson, and we had an excellent lunch at Tempo's Cafe in St Austell: I recommend their chocolate frappes!

I didn't really get to see much of Cornwall considering I was down here for three years studying in Falmouth, but anyone will tell you that the place becomes a lot easier to visit if you have this wonderful thing called an automobile. So what was going to be just a visit to Fowey turned into a nice detour at a delightful village called Charlestown, which has a working port, some excellent tall ships, a nice pebbly beach, and a 50's-style orange milkfloat that I would happily have bought for some ridiculous amount of money :-)

So yes, it's certainly been a delightful day. And if you find yourself in the coastal port of Fowey (which is delightful both for its narrow lanes, pretty shops and its general ambience), I sincerely recommend that you visit Pinky Murphy's cafe: there's a link to them here. Excellent atmosphere, friendly staff, and a decent taste in music; Electric Light Orchestra was just on the CD player. Yay!

All we need now is an economic boom, eh?

Thanks for reading!

The Evening Stanners

Exploration For The Nation!

Hello again! Busy times at the hostel: we've had meteor showers, thunderstorms, double rainbows, and baby rabbits in the garden. Though not necessarily in that order.

Anyway! Places I'm visiting very shortly:

1) St Austell
2) Fowey
3) Polruan
4) Golant
5) Par
6) Newquay

All in Cornwall, yay! Such an AWESOME county, which is kind of awkward when you're trying to promote the virtues of Devon. Oh well. Visit Coasters in Kingsbridge! There you are, that should do it :-)

More updates to come tomorrow people! Good times :-D

The Evening Stanners

PS Ed Balls says he'd like to meet me. Well come to Salcombe YHA then, 'cos I'm sure as heck not going all the way to Plymouth to hear you slag off the Milibands et al...

I'm Still Alive!

And to prove it, I'm in Falmouth on Monday to see Uni people, wooooo :-D

I'm sorry I'm so terribly slow, I really should update more frequently! But in fairness I've been super busy recently: the hostel takes up a lot of time, and I don't get much internet down here in Salcombe.

So here's what you need to know atm:

1. I have lots of cards: you guys are awesome :-D Except for the blokes. Blokes, you have sent me no post. GET IT SORTED.

2. I was up in London on Monday and Ipswich on Tuesday seeing my girlfriend Rachel. That's right, the poor girl has agreed to go out with me. Heaven help her. You'd think a Cambridge student would know better, wouldn't you? But seriously, she's awesome you guys, and I will stop now before I get too soppy. Eeeee :-)

3. I'm in Falmouth this Monday for one night only! So yes, do feel free to give me a shout and we shall meet up and it will be awesome. I'm thinking of doing the St Mawes ferry, but we'll have to see.

Take care people! Remember, now matter how bad your day is, at least you're not Nick Clegg. His popularity is most bogus, dudes...

The Evening Stanners

East Devon + Dorset = AWESOME

What ho!

I have just got back from a couple of days off work in Salcombe, which I used to visit Exeter (where I met up with Captain Mak Forsyth), Colyton, Seaton (via amazingly retro tram), Beer, and Lyme Regis.

Tiring stuff, no? I think Lyme Regis was probably my favourite out of the five, but they're all good places to visit. Exeter has lost the novelty factor of course - it is my Uni, after all - Colyton was delightful but small; Seaton goes downhill a bit after the tram; and Beer lacks internet access. Otherwise, I think Beer would narrowly win.

The best bit about the trip, though, was being able to stand at the top of a hill in Devon and see half of Dorset: as far as Weymouth and Portland, I believe. Crazy times!

Anyhoo, I am now in the process of trying to get work experience with the local MP in Totnes, Sarah Wollaston. To be continued, chaps (and chappesses)!

The Evening Stanners

Take a Look at my Economic Growth, Girls

Welp, so much for the recession. We hope...

Taken from BBC News

The UK economy grew by a faster-than-expected 1.1% in the second quarter of the year, according to official data.

The figure - a preliminary estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - was almost double the 0.6% growth rate expected by economists.

It was the fastest quarterly expansion since 2006, and marked a sharp pick-up in pace from the 0.3% growth of the first three months of the year.

Much of the growth came from the key services sector.

Within the services sector, which accounts for about three-quarters of the UK economy, business and finance posted its strongest rise in almost three years, rising by 1.3% over the quarter.

There was a big contribution from the construction industry, which grew at its fastest pace since 1963, in part because bad weather at the start of the year meant builders were catching up on work that should have taken place then.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

There are going to be some big swings in the quarterly numbers before the true pace of the recovery becomes clear”

End Quote

Stephanie Flanders Economics editor, BBC News

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• Read Stephanie's blog in full

The only sector to register a fall was transport and communications - down 0.7% on the quarter following the impact of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud in April.

The ONS said the last time the UK had growth of more 1.1% in any quarter was in 1999.

'Strong rise'

The Chancellor, George Osborne, said the figures proved his plan to cut the public sector was right.

He said: "In the Budget, I set out a plan to restore confidence in our economy by dealing with the deficit, starting this year, and to rebalance growth from the public to private sector.

"Today's figures show the private sector contributing all but 0.1% of the growth in the second quarter, and put beyond doubt that it was right to begin acting on the deficit now."

His predecessor, Alistair Darling, said the figures owed more to his government's policy. He said they vindicated the "measured and balanced" approach taken by the Labour government.

The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, said it was always important not to read too much into one set of figures - however striking.

What is GDP?

Continue reading the main story

• Gross domestic product
• A measure of a country's economic activity, namely of all the services and goods produced in a year

• Q&A: What is GDP?

And economists said the rise did not mean the UK economy had fully recovered.

George Buckley, economist at Deutsche Bank, said: "This is a very strong rise. It is good news to the extent that the recovery seems to be gaining traction, the bad news is that it is going to take a long time before we get back to the peak levels we saw at the start of 2008."

And the phrase "as good as it gets" summed up the view of a number of observers, including the Institute of Directors (IoD).

Graeme Leach, the IoD's chief economist, said: "The latest quarterly GDP figures were good news, but we think they're likely to be as good as it gets. We do not think this rate of growth can be maintained."

Man Graeme why you gotta be such a downer? Honestly...

The Evening Stanners