There was a time when the best wine Britain produced was Grandma’s Nettle Variety 1957, 1.4% proof, stings only slightly, undertones of soggy dishcloths, best served with stew and dumplings and a side order of tripe. But not any longer. Ridgeview Estate of Sussex have just had their sparkling wine judged as the best in […]

The people of Norfolk are coming to terms with the idea of living underwater in the near future. That is the prospect for the county according to University College London’s Benfield Hazard Research Centre. The reason is global warming. But before you start poking fun at the poor folk of Nor, making jokes about whether […]

As usual the weather has played havoc with the scheduling at Wimbledon. This year, however, it’s BBC radio who are running behind. Because of the dry conditions there’s been little airtime void of play and as a consequence there are hours of aimless chatter to fit in before the tournament ends. The annual discussion about […]

A tragedy has struck this year’s Glastonbury Festival and it threatens to cast a cloud over the whole event, if there weren’t enough non-metaphorical clouds gathering already. Not a single band had plugged their Strats into a Marshall amp before the beer tent was struck by lightning! Witnesses were said to be distraught with many […]

The monarchy cost us Brits £37 million a year. You could get a state of the art leisure centre in Plymouth for that. Much more use, and they don’t breed.

This is all good news apparently. The Royals used to cost a whole lot more in real terms. They also did a whole lot more though. […]

If you think today is dragging that’s because it’s the longest one of the year, it doesn’t just seem like that because of Tim Henman’s first round at Wimbledon. At Stonehenge thousands of nest-heads stopped off on their way to Glastonbury to celebrate having managed to get through another year without washing. They were joined […]

Wimbledon is the quintessential British sporting event as it brings together three of our main obsessions - the weather, the class system and Brits being rubbish at sports we invented. Blighty will address each of these three main strands in turn.

Weather, of course, is why Wimbledon was invented. Clouds are watched intently as they edge […]

The Blighty family have returned from their little sojourn to the coast. In keeping with tradition we returned on the hottest day of the year. A heatwave hits the UK and we spent the day driving up the motorway dehydrating and recalling our rainy days on the beach. For anyone living outside the UK a […]

Blighty is going away for the week. Anyone in the Tenby area say hello. Blighty will be the one wearing a dufflecoat and sporting a big pink umbrella. Normal service will be resumed sometime around the 18th of June, so not long to wait really. If you find cold turkey coming on, delve into the […]

The 16th century was bad news if you were a Protestant, Catholic or neither of the above. It was hard work trying to keep track. You’d just convinced the religion police that you were a Catholic by hiding your hair vest behind a life size picture of the pope and throwing rosary beads all over […]