Mike Parker
@mikeparker.bsky.social
Writer in the damp Welsh hills.
Books include All the Wide Border, Map Addict, On the Red Hill, The Wild Rover, Neighbours from Hell?
"No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker" - Ayesha Hazarika, Times Radio
Books include All the Wide Border, Map Addict, On the Red Hill, The Wild Rover, Neighbours from Hell?
"No-one maps the secrets of the UK quite like Mike Parker" - Ayesha Hazarika, Times Radio
Reposted by Mike Parker
The excellent @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social (which has done such great reporting on the flag epidemic over the last few months) delivers the goods again today with this deep dive into the Midlands mythology of Penda's Fen.
Penda’s Fen reinvents Mercia for the modern age
How an experimental British 1970s television play pioneered a folk horror revival
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 10:13 AM
The excellent @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social (which has done such great reporting on the flag epidemic over the last few months) delivers the goods again today with this deep dive into the Midlands mythology of Penda's Fen.
Reposted by Mike Parker
Again, not to go on about ai but I have a few thoughts.
1. I've genuinely never seen an actual creative get excited about using it. Someone who has actually made something before. Its people from marketing and finance backgrounds getting excited about a false sensation of making something.
1. I've genuinely never seen an actual creative get excited about using it. Someone who has actually made something before. Its people from marketing and finance backgrounds getting excited about a false sensation of making something.
November 13, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Again, not to go on about ai but I have a few thoughts.
1. I've genuinely never seen an actual creative get excited about using it. Someone who has actually made something before. Its people from marketing and finance backgrounds getting excited about a false sensation of making something.
1. I've genuinely never seen an actual creative get excited about using it. Someone who has actually made something before. Its people from marketing and finance backgrounds getting excited about a false sensation of making something.
Wonderful news! Anthony’s book is exquisite.
I’ll be in conversation with Anthony at an event in Machynlleth next Tuesday (18 Nov), discussing our writing journeys as queer men.
Details: www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/finding-a-pl...
I’ll be in conversation with Anthony at an event in Machynlleth next Tuesday (18 Nov), discussing our writing journeys as queer men.
Details: www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/finding-a-pl...
November 13, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Wonderful news! Anthony’s book is exquisite.
I’ll be in conversation with Anthony at an event in Machynlleth next Tuesday (18 Nov), discussing our writing journeys as queer men.
Details: www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/finding-a-pl...
I’ll be in conversation with Anthony at an event in Machynlleth next Tuesday (18 Nov), discussing our writing journeys as queer men.
Details: www.penralltgallerybookshop.co.uk/finding-a-pl...
A peace prize?
Yeah, you wouldn’t know it. It goes to a different school.
Yeah, you wouldn’t know it. It goes to a different school.
November 7, 2025 at 12:11 AM
A peace prize?
Yeah, you wouldn’t know it. It goes to a different school.
Yeah, you wouldn’t know it. It goes to a different school.
This is a great piece.
From here on, the monarchy dances to a new tune. Without magic blood, the performance will have to be up to scratch or new dancers will be found. That’s showbiz ✍️Ben Wildsmith wp.me/p8Mk4U-18fr
November 3, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This is a great piece.
Reposted by Mike Parker
New! After eight years of waiting, they're online! See London's unbuilt motorways as even their planners never could in our amazing, immersive Ringways Map, hosted by the amazing SABRE Maps. It *might* be the best thing we've ever done. #ringways
The Ringways Map is here
The wait is over! The full map of the Ringways, London’s unbuilt urban motorway network, is now online. Not even the system's planners had anything like this.
www.roads.org.uk
November 3, 2025 at 2:47 PM
New! After eight years of waiting, they're online! See London's unbuilt motorways as even their planners never could in our amazing, immersive Ringways Map, hosted by the amazing SABRE Maps. It *might* be the best thing we've ever done. #ringways
Reposted by Mike Parker
Amazing to think it’s only two years ago tomorrow that a British PM sat interviewing Musk on stage like a starry-eyed schoolboy who’d come face to face with his hero.
This man is clearly deranged
Elon Musk, "These lovely small towns in England, Scotland and Ireland, they've been living their lives quietly. They're like hobbits"
"And so one day, 1,000 people show up in your village of 500 and start raping the kids"
"This has now happened, God knows how many times in Britain"
"And so one day, 1,000 people show up in your village of 500 and start raping the kids"
"This has now happened, God knows how many times in Britain"
November 2, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Amazing to think it’s only two years ago tomorrow that a British PM sat interviewing Musk on stage like a starry-eyed schoolboy who’d come face to face with his hero.
Reposted by Mike Parker
I once interviewed the boy that Enoch Powell said was the only white child at West Park Primary in Wolverhampton. Lies then, lies now.
Could Katie Lam identify the London schools where "more than three-quarters of children don’t speak English to a serviceable school standard". Well done to @davehillonlondon.bsky.social for giving Lam + CPS the chance to substantiate this claim at the Tory fringe
www.onlondon.co.uk/dave-hill-ka...
www.onlondon.co.uk/dave-hill-ka...
Dave Hill: Katie Lam should learn London's language
Recent comments about the capital's school children's English skills suggest the Tory MP from Kent must try harder
www.onlondon.co.uk
October 31, 2025 at 4:42 PM
I once interviewed the boy that Enoch Powell said was the only white child at West Park Primary in Wolverhampton. Lies then, lies now.
Terrific front page from @theweek.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Terrific front page from @theweek.com
This is a lovely chat, as you’d expect from two of the best.
Is it monstrously egotistical to post about this podcast interview that I did about what I laughingly call my career?
October 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
This is a lovely chat, as you’d expect from two of the best.
And after 5 minutes of dutifully noting Plaid’s victory, Caerphilly will be quietly forgotten and they’ll be back on Reform-boosting duty for the next 6 months up to the full Senedd election. They are gagging to install Farage in no 10, and everything else will be calibrated to that end.
That scene of the Welsh BBC correspondent being the only person interviewing Caerphilly's new Plaid AM while the rest of the media interviewed Reform's loser in the background was far too on the nose.
October 24, 2025 at 7:38 AM
And after 5 minutes of dutifully noting Plaid’s victory, Caerphilly will be quietly forgotten and they’ll be back on Reform-boosting duty for the next 6 months up to the full Senedd election. They are gagging to install Farage in no 10, and everything else will be calibrated to that end.
Coventry Cathedral has the best postcode.
October 23, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Coventry Cathedral has the best postcode.
This Newsnight section on Caerphilly is abysmal.
October 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
This Newsnight section on Caerphilly is abysmal.
The festive market going up in Victoria Square is giving Birmingham a real Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang vibe.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
October 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The festive market going up in Victoria Square is giving Birmingham a real Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang vibe.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
Should think Queen Vic herself is more than happy to be surrounded by an ersatz Germany.
So true. Just spent a few days walking right across the Black Country and Birmingham, and it was an epic and thrilling experience. Saw so many great things and had countless fine encounters with the people who live there. Loved every minute of it.
The Westminster chatterati’s perception of Birmingham is so utterly deranged by this point I’m actually sitting here laughing
The way people are talking about it you’d think it was some dystopia from the Hunger Games or something
Go outside, touch grass, come to Birmingham - you’ll be fine 😂
The way people are talking about it you’d think it was some dystopia from the Hunger Games or something
Go outside, touch grass, come to Birmingham - you’ll be fine 😂
October 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
So true. Just spent a few days walking right across the Black Country and Birmingham, and it was an epic and thrilling experience. Saw so many great things and had countless fine encounters with the people who live there. Loved every minute of it.
No search function, but every cloud and all that…
October 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
No search function, but every cloud and all that…
Camping in Jilly Cooper’s Cotswold village twenty years ago, my partner went to the shop and tied my dog Patsy up by the door.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
October 6, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Camping in Jilly Cooper’s Cotswold village twenty years ago, my partner went to the shop and tied my dog Patsy up by the door.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
Suddenly, JC herself burst in. “Whose is that DIVINE dog outside?” she boomed. “What an absolute beauty!” Patsy lapped it up, Preds even more so.
Jilly was a good ‘un.
Reposted by Mike Parker
Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.
September 15, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.
The van proudly leading yesterday’s far-right march in Newtown, Powys. If you’re going to shag a flag, at least get it the right way round…
September 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
The van proudly leading yesterday’s far-right march in Newtown, Powys. If you’re going to shag a flag, at least get it the right way round…
Reposted by Mike Parker
On the same day in the Telegraph:
![The Telegraph
Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement
Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty
Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence
[Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday]
Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent
29 August 2025 8:57am BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreihe5mm7nwmwvzhtgadmsafyvsaxhrufuai2d2j2rju5zt6g2lytea@jpeg)
![The Telegraph
Money > Property > Second homes
How to avoid tax on your second home
From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net
[Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto]
Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer
29 August 2025 1:21pm BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreieuwgc2vsmyfcctmf4cnpcqckij2pqdk2gmzajpnihrsqyqmzyr5e@jpeg)
September 5, 2025 at 7:55 AM
On the same day in the Telegraph:
Reposted by Mike Parker
Diolch o galon @mikeparker.bsky.social for taking me on this beautiful journey, it’s a wonderful eye-opener.
Cymreictod is so many individual things to so many people, yet in this complicated relationship with ‘the border’ you make it make sense.
Ewch i ddarllen - such a brilliant read.
Cymreictod is so many individual things to so many people, yet in this complicated relationship with ‘the border’ you make it make sense.
Ewch i ddarllen - such a brilliant read.
September 2, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Diolch o galon @mikeparker.bsky.social for taking me on this beautiful journey, it’s a wonderful eye-opener.
Cymreictod is so many individual things to so many people, yet in this complicated relationship with ‘the border’ you make it make sense.
Ewch i ddarllen - such a brilliant read.
Cymreictod is so many individual things to so many people, yet in this complicated relationship with ‘the border’ you make it make sense.
Ewch i ddarllen - such a brilliant read.
In September, the audiobook of All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between is on Audible for £3.99.
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
September 1, 2025 at 12:36 PM
In September, the audiobook of All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between is on Audible for £3.99.
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
“A brilliant, fascinating book…funny and lyrical” said comedian Miles Jupp. And it’s read by me too, finally getting some use out my drama degree!
👇🏼
www.audible.co.uk/pd/All-the-W...
Really good piece.
UK governments find it easier to address Farage’s successive foreigner problems than to look at their own role in stoking English grievance✍️ Professors Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones
Nigel Farage and the political power of English grievance
Ailsa Henderson, Professor of Political Science, University of Edinburgh Richard Wyn Jones, Professor of Politics, Cardiff University One apparent constant in contemporary UK politics is Nigel…
buff.ly
August 31, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Really good piece.
Still very much on the hunt for this. Anyone found a copy?
This was Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's first book, the self-published How not to Dal dy Dir (2012). One theme stated is "the divisions within Wales today", which sounds intriguing (and possibly infuriating).
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
Anyone have this book, or know of it? Or have insights from their time in and around Pwllheli?
August 31, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Still very much on the hunt for this. Anyone found a copy?
Congrats to all the hard-working journos and editors who have spent the whole summer straining like constipated turtles to whip up racist riots.
You managed it, just in the nick of time! Weather’s turned, it’s back to school, and people are going to die. You must be so pleased with yourselves.
You managed it, just in the nick of time! Weather’s turned, it’s back to school, and people are going to die. You must be so pleased with yourselves.
August 31, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Congrats to all the hard-working journos and editors who have spent the whole summer straining like constipated turtles to whip up racist riots.
You managed it, just in the nick of time! Weather’s turned, it’s back to school, and people are going to die. You must be so pleased with yourselves.
You managed it, just in the nick of time! Weather’s turned, it’s back to school, and people are going to die. You must be so pleased with yourselves.