United kingdom debt

The hotel is barely a minute’s walk from the ferry that will take you the half-mile across the lough to Strangford village. The ferry goes back and forth from 7.45am to 10.45pm (11.15pm on Saturday, 7.30am to 10.30pm/11pm in the opposite direction). The eight-minute crossing takes you within spitting distance of the tidal turbine – a world’s first when it started generating power for Strangford and Portaferry in 2008, though it has now been decommissioned. Shorn now of its enormous wings, the turbine resembles an oversized red-and-black buoy. John who maintains the ferry told me conservationists and marine experts were arguing over how to remove it, this lot saying it needed chopped off at the foot, that lot that it had to be dug right out. “There’ll be big money involved either way,” John said: divers only have 20 minutes to work in-between the tide finishing coming in and starting to go out. … [Read more...] about Road to ruin: a gin tour of Northern Ireland

My favourite places to eat at West Bay are the Watch House Cafe – slightly scruffier but lovable sister to Hive Beach cafe – with wood-fired pizzas (from £10) and fish and chips (£15) that never disappoints, and Rachel’s, a kiosk on the harbour that serves fish from the local day boats and the sort of Dorset apple cake that your waistline wishes did not exist. … [Read more...] about Chesil Beach, Dorset: stark and beautiful, it makes your heart skip a beat

We pass the market, where Alan tried his hand flogging fruit in Welcome to the Places of my Life, a show he took to Sky (for how much, we don't know). Then it's on to The Forum, where Partridge and rogue DJ Pat Farrell escape in the film at low speed in the Radio Norwich outside broadcast van. The Forum is home to BBC Radio Norfolk. … [Read more...] about The Alan Partridge tour of Norwich

Alongside a video, she wrote: 'Another emotional clapthecarers & never has it been more needed. If this pandemic lockdown is dragging on for us, imagine what it is like for them. Shift after endlessly long shift , bravely going to work, to battle the virus and give our loved ones a chance. … [Read more...] about Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children all wear NHS blue to lead fifth week of Clap For the Carers – as MILLIONS of Britons noisily salute key workers from their doorsteps

There is a strange allure to Portland. It’s harsh in places, treeless, a challenge to our dreams of islands and visions of British seaside. Every age has left its mark. The Romans had a name for it: Vincelis. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the Vikings’ first raid on English soil was here, in 789 AD. Inigo Jones specified Portland stone for James I’s banqueting hall in Whitehall. The rich layers of history, geology and wildlife mingle and, after each visit, my affection for Portland is a little deeper cut and I want to return. • Portland’s b-side arts festival runs from 8-16 SeptemberAdrian Cooper is publisher-editor at Little Toller Books … [Read more...] about 10 island adventures off the UK coast