A new local? I think so!

CAMRA estimates that in 2012 18 pubs closed permanently every week. If you like going to the pub, as I do, that's a travesty. Undoubtedly, some of the pubs that closed will have been not very good pubs. Some, though, will have been perfectly good pubs from a customer point of view, but which have not been run profitably, or profitably enough, to be sustainable.

The reasons that perfectly good pubs close are varied and manifold. If you drink lager, supermarket deals often come in at not much more than 50p a can, whereas a pint in the pub can be nearly £4 (or more, in central London). It's worth noting, of course, that a can is smaller than a pint, but psychologically it's an eightfold increase per 'drink' for the privilege of drinking it in the pub.

I don't drink lager (much), but the differences are still stark. Supermarkets often sell lager at 3 bottles for £5 - £1.67 per bottle. Home Bargains sells some bottles at £1. At my local, a pint - which is 68ml bigger than a bottle - is £3.80. 

To me, there's little comparison, especially with ales. Lager from a can tastes pretty much identical to lager from a keg, but bottled ale - even if it's bottle conditioned, which most aren't these days - doesn't come close to a cask pint. It's not just the physical product, though. To me, there's something special about going to the pub. The atmosphere, the people, the sense of occasion are all up there with the beer itself. The extra money's not for the beer, it's for the experience of drinking in a convivial and enjoyable atmosphere, which you just don't get from opening a bottle from the supermarket.

Of course supermarkets aren't entirely to blame for pubs closing. We live in times of austerity, so we are told, and people simply can't afford to go out as often as they used to. In some areas, closing pubs are a consequence of a changing demographic that doesn't use pubs, whether for cultural, religious or other reasons. In these instances, the closure of pubs is simply a case of supply and demand - and is the market working exactly as it should.

PubCos are also blamed - sometimes, I think, unfairly, for the closure of pubs.

In London, property prices are so high that closed pubs are often snapped up for conversion into apartments, meaning that once closed a pub is gone and forgotten forever.

But whatever the cause, pubs are closing. I think that's sad, because I like pubs. I can't afford to go as often as I'd like, but here in Bow we are blessed with some excellent pubs. My personal favourites include, in no particular order, the Coborn Arms, who very kindly play Bradford City for us whenever they're on SKY, the Eleanor Arms, with its Minestone of Sound, and the Lord Tredegar, with its amazing beer garden and Sunday lunches.

We also have lots of closed pubs nearby. There are two on my street. And as we all know, once a pub closes, especially in London, it rarely reopens. So imagine my delight when I found out that a pub not far from where I live was to reopen. I happened upon it by chance when driving past on my way to work, and a quick Twitter check confirmed that the former Duke of Wellington in Bromley-by-Bow had been bought by Antic London and was to reopen as the Galvanisers Union.

Let's give full disclosure here:

Would I prefer that the pub reopened under its original name? Yes

Would I prefer that the pub used an apostrophe? Yes

But here's the positive: a closed pub has reopened. What's more, it's being run by the same people who run the Leyton Technical, a pub I was in not two weeks ago, which I found very much to my tastes.

After establishing that tonight would be opening night, I resolved to go. On walking from my flat to the pub by an admittedly slightly convoluted route I passed no fewer than six closed pubs:

The former Bromley Arms, Fairfield Road. Now converted to apartments. The Caledonian Arms was also on Fairfield Road, but in the opposite direction to the pub I was travelling to - and passing that would have been convoluted!

The former King's Arms, Bow Road. Now converted to a hotel.

The former Rose & Crown in Stroudley Walk has been converted into the somewhat unconventional combination of a Piri Piri Chicken shop and an Espresso bar

This former Seven Stars is now flats

This former Taylor Walker pub (note the tiling on the wall), the Imperial Crown, is now apartments

This former Bass Charrington pub is another example of a pub turned into flats

And until today, the Duke of Wellington would have made a seventh closed pub on this route. But as I approached, I could see the lights on (no signage up as yet). When I first moved to London, this pub was open but it looked like a real dive. Now, without any boarded up windows, it looks very inviting:

I love the signage on these doors harking back to when pubs had a lounge (or saloon) and a bar (or tap room):

And the Lounge's opposite number:

Between the pub closing and reopening the whole block had a complete refurbishment, including painting of the brickwork. Because the pub was boarded up at the time, it didn't extend right into the windows. The effect of this now the windows have been replaced adds real character to the pub and is a unique part of its history:

Here's the entrance:

 

And guess what...I arrived at the pub at 6:15, a quarter of an hour before it was due to open. Which means I got the very first pint pulled off the newly opened Galvanisers Bar. I opted for a Dark Star Hophead, and damn nice it was too:

Given it was the first pint drawn off in the pub I was slightly disappointed to be charged for it, but I'll accept a pint in lieu on my next visit in recompense.

So what of this newly reopened pub? In my opinion, this should be a success. Amazingly friendly staff, a good selection of real ales on cask and in bottles and, as I understand it, food coming soon, this pub has everything it needs to be successful as long as it can draw the punters in. I certainly enjoyed myself here and have already recommended it to my friends.

I'll certainly be back. Soon.

Is this the return of the pub? I most definitely hope so.

A pictorial tour of Bradford city centre - part 1

A pictorial tour of Bradford city centre Part I - RETAIL

This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I got my camera out well over two years ago, meaning to pop back to take the few remaining shots I wanted before uploading the photos to my blog. I didn’t get round to getting back with my camera until over a year later (when due to the Bradford Sky Ride I wasn’t able to get the best shots anyway). The sheer enormity of the task caused me to procrastinate further, and it’s only now that I’ve got round to putting it in any kind of order ready to go on the web. I’ve split the tour into parts for ease – and can’t guarantee when the next instalment will be ready – but today’s post will concentrate on Bradford’s department stores and markets.

The stories behind these buildings are a combination of research, reading and a fair amount of folklore. Unfortunately, I don’t have sources for many of them due to them being from articles, books, blogs and websites that I either don’t still have, lent out, lost the link for, etc. So don’t take these histories on face value – the stories are there for interest only.

I hope you enjoy these snaps!

Manningham Lane Retail Park

We begin our tour with this horrendous photograph of a fairly uninspiring looking retail park at the extreme north of Bradford city centre (I was unable to get a face-on picture due to the skyride). The unprepossessing edifice does nothing to belie the fascinating past of this plot of land. The site on which Manningham Lane now stands was in its previous incarnation the home of Busbys Department Store – known as the “Harrods of the North”. A photograph of the Busbys store from the 1930s is shown on the Telegraph and Argus web site.

Busbys was known among Bradford’s children as the store where the real Santa Claus visited – clearly, those who were taken elsewhere were hoodwinked into seeing an imposter!

The store’s edifice was adorned with the slogan, “The Store With The Friendly Welcome”, and speak to Bradfordians of a certain generation and they will confirm that the slogan was accurate. Rumour has it that the store’s founder, Ernest Busby, was torn between setting up in London and Bradford, but chose Bradford because it was projected to be more successful than a London store at the time.

The store was taken over by the Debenhams department store chain in 1958 and eventually closed in 1978. It was razed to the ground by fire in 1979.

Brown, Muff & Co

Brown, Muff & Co was Bradford’s second department store and by all accounts was more upmarket than Busbys. The company was bought by the Birmingham based Rackhams Group in the 1970s which was in turn subsumed into the House of Fraser chain.

Notice the Bradford boar above this former entrance to Brown & Muff. Bradford Council does a far better job of telling the legend of the Bradford Boar here,

The store ultimately closed in 1995 to be replaced with a selection of businesses including Dillon’s Bookstore, a Birthdays card shop, Boots the Chemists, Virgin Records and Wendy’s Hamburgers. I’ve been told – but can’t verify – that the Bradford branch of Rackhams was profitable, but that the House of Fraser Group was suffering at the time from a cash-flow crisis which required it to release funds. How much truth there is in this story I have no idea, but if it is true it is almost as sad an end to a Bradford institution as the fire at Busbys.

Once the Muff family had made their fortune, they moved from Bradford to Ilkley and simultaneously changed the family name from Muff to Maufe, inspiring the famous Bradford sense of humour to concoct the following ditty:

Here in Bradford it’s enough

To be known as Mrs Muff

But out in Ilkley, next the Wharfe,

’Tis better to be known as Mrs Maufe

Sunwin House

Bradford’s third department store was built in the 1930s as the Co-operative Emporium. The name ‘Sunwin’ was chosen as the building is on the junction of Sunbridge Road and Godwin Street. Yorkshire Co-operatives used the name Sunwin for all of its department stores – with the exception of the Shipley branch which was called Victoria House, and for other businesses such as its car dealerships and security alarm division. The name lives on in the form of Sunwin Support Services, which is the Co-operative Group’s in-house maintenance division.

When Yorkshire Co-operatives (which was based in Bradford) merged with United Norwest to form United Co-operatives with a head office in Stoke on Trent, the combined group decided that it no longer wished to be in the department store business, resulting in the retail estate being sold. The Bradford branch was sold to the T. J. Hughes department store chain, which closed following the company’s liquidation.

Unfortunately, Bradford seems to have been the major loser in the merger between Yorkshire Co-operatives and United Norwest.

Lingards

Bradford’s fourth department store, Lingard’s, was one of the the city’s few casualties of the Luftwaffe, but reopened after rebuilding. Ultimately taken over by United Drapery Stores, who had a second store in Kirkgate known as Ludlow’s, the store ultimately closed its doors for the final time in March 1977. UDS had planned to take a department store unit within the new Kirkgate (Arndale) Centre under the name Allders, but never moved in.

Lingard’s today operates as an amusement arcade and nightclub, a shadow of its former self.

Bradford’s markets

Time was – not all that long ago – that Bradford had four permanent municipal markets within the city centre. I recall visiting them all as a child but the number of markets now stands at two.



 The Kirkgate Shopping Centre contains the Kirkgate Market, and itself replaced the original Kirkgate Market on the same site. The original market was built in 1878 and was enormously popular with Bradford’s shoppers. There was huge opposition to the (then) Bradford Corporation’s plans to demolish it and the rumour goes that the demolition began on Good Friday, 1973, so that by the time anybody could get through to somebody to complain four days of demolition would have passed thus rendering the damage irreparable . The replacement – the Kirkgate Arndale Centre (now known as the Kirkgate Shopping Centre) – was built by the Arndale Property Trust, which was also responsible for the demolition of the Swan Arcade to make way for Arndale House in Charles Street.

The large and distinctive iron gates from the old market were supposedly kept for ‘safekeeping’ to be reinstalled after the build, but they went missing following demolition and have never been found. A similar story is attached to the Talbot dog that once adorned the Talbot Hotel in Darley Street.

A photograph of the original Kirkgate Market can be found at this link. Baxendall’s Café, which can be seen in the T&A’s picture, can be found in the ‘new’ market too.

Rawson Market was the city’s meat market. It was vacated temporarily by the council in the 1990s for a full refurbishment, with the stallholders temporarily decanted into a temporary Rawson Market. Ultimately, the council ran out money mid-conversion and had to abandon the project, with the stallholders being moved (again) into John Street Market.

After a failed plan to launch an Asian themed market on the site, it was finally purchased by Manchester based Modus properties, who redeveloped the remnants of the building as a shopping centre anchored by the Wilkinson chain.

James Street Fish Market abutted Rawson Market and closed at the same time. This was one of its understated entrances, the other being at the top of the same street. The market was linked by a walkway to Rawson Market. You can see from the picture that the council haven’t bothered to remove the sign yet – a clear indictment of their respect for our city centre!

John Street Market ultimately took over the former stalls of both Rawson and James Street Markets and was subsequently rebranded the Oastler Shopping Centre – a completely ridiculous name that gives a totally wrong impression of what is inside. This is nevertheless a fantastic market with several decent butchers and greengrocers, as well as a Morrisons supermarket, which was deemed controversial at the time of construction but allowed the Corporation to build the market without recourse to borrowing.

This is the temporary market built to house the stallholders uprooted from Rawson Market during its ill-fated refurbishment. Ultimately the businesses were moved into John Street Market, which can be seen in the background. The temporary market has lain empty since. It strikes me that this would be the perfect location for the ‘Bradford souk’ idea that keeps raising its head – it’s already designed as a market with all of the internal infrastructure in place.

Putting this together has taken several hours, so whilst I will upload some more of the pictures I’ve taken, this may be some time away. If there’s any part of aspect of the city centre you’d like me to feature next, let me know and I’ll write the next post around it!

As divisive in death as in life - why I won't be dancing on Thatcher's grave

It should come as no surprise that the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death at the Ritz Hotel yesterday has provoked such a huge reaction across the world. The difference in the types of reaction shows that she is as polarising in death as she was in life – at one end of the spectrum people are figuratively dancing on her grave; at the other end is a call to respect the dead and remember that, even if we didn’t like her policies, her children and grandchildren have lost a mother and a grandmother.

It smacks of hypocrisy to have respect for somebody in death for whom one held little respect when she was alive. Thatcher may have died, but the effects of her policies live on today, both in terms of the aftermath of her decisions all those years ago, which have made a lasting impression, and the policies of the current ConDem coalition which should leave nobody in any doubt that Thatcherism is alive and well.

Thatcher’s Conservative government’s policy of selling the country’s council housing stock, while prohibiting local authorities from using the revenue generated to replace them, has left a generation without access to affordable homes.

Her anti-unionism decimated whole communities centred around the manufacturing and mining industries, many of which have still not recovered today. Even civil servants at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham were prohibited from joining trade unions. But Thatcher’s anti-unionism wasn’t restricted to employees of the civil service and nationalised industries – her support of Rupert Murdoch’s controversial move of News International from Fleet Street to Wapping kyboshed the careers of not only of those printers who worked for the Sun, but those of every other Fleet Street newspaper, which swiftly followed suit.

The privatisation of our railways has left Britain with the most expensive train fares in Europe, with many of today’s ‘private’ rail franchisees being European state-owned operators, and one by a company which, despite receiving millions in public subsidy, has its head office domiciled in a tax haven. The privatised water companies have also been found to have engaged in tax avoidance, and the privatised gas and electricity firms have put consumers at the mercy of swings in wholesale prices.

The atrocious decision to cut free milk from children over seven in schools won’t have led to her own children going without – she could afford it – but how many children whose families weren’t so fortunate had to forego vital calcium so essential for growing teeth and bones?

Her decision to axe the metropolitan county councils almost certainly had far less to do with their efficiency than the fact that the heavily industrialised areas of Tyne & Wear, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, South and West Yorkshire, and the West Midlands had an ideology incompatible with her own. It was an affront to democracy.

Sadly, the consequences of Thatcher’s actions weren’t confined to these shores. Her refusal to implement economic sanctions on South Africa allowed the appalling Apartheid regime to continue, causing untold unnecessary suffering and death in the country. One person died yesterday. How many died as a result of her inaction?

Margaret Thatcher's is not a life I think that we should celebrate, but I will not be dancing on her grave either. We cannot pretend in death that the actions of a the Iron Lady when she was alive did not happen, and I can honestly say that there is no love lost. I certainly don’t think she should be given a ceremonial funeral, which is to all intents and purposes a state funeral without the hassle of obtaining parliamentary consent. I hope that her policies rust with her.

Why Workfare will do nothing for the Employment Crisis

I was delighted to learn that Cait Reilly has been successful in her legal challenge against the government’s ‘Workfare’ scheme in which benefit claimants can be required to work unpaid for up to six months or risk having their benefits axed.

The government attempts to justify the scheme by asserting that, under it, claimants gain valuable, transferrable, employment skills while businesses get to trial staff on a risk-free basis at no cost to them. Sounds like a good deal, right? No.

The scheme effectively amounts to requiring claimants of Jobseekers’ Allowance, worth £56.25 per week, to work for free for up to thirty hours a week for employers in the private sector. As the government can make benefits contingent on attending Workfare placements, that amounts to total consideration of £1.88 per hour. Even in the entry-level positions that Workfare generally places people, the companies would have to pay someone they actually employed to do the job at least £6.19 per hour, which is the National Minimum Wage.

The Workfare system does nothing to cut the benefits bill, because it is the government, and not the employer, that foots the bill for the benefits while the claimant is on placement. This effectively amounts to the taxpayer subsidising private enterprises by providing a workforce free of charge.

But what of the supposed enhanced employment prospects of the claimants put into these placements? Only 3.5% of people referred to the work programme have been able to find paid employment lasting six months or longer. What can we make of the balance of 96.5%? Are they, as our leaders might suggest, scroungers and shirkers (such emotive and pejorative language being par for the course in the ConDem Coalition)? Did all of the 96.5%, as some might say, just "go through the motions" and not learn from the experience, that being the reason they can't get a job?

There are an estimated 463,000 positions currently available, and these are being chased by 2.68 million people currently in the dole queue. That’s nearly 6 applicants for every single job, before you even consider people currently in work and looking for their next position, which makes every vacancy even more sought after.

Ms Reilly wasn’t in paid work, but she already had an unpaid placement in a museum that was very relevant to her existing skills and experience and no doubt would have been valuable in helping her to secure paid employment in her field of expertise. To force her to give up one unpaid position in favour of another one stacking shelves in Poundland, which is far less relevant to her skills and experience, is beyond perverse.

This isn’t about pride or a belief that the position was below her (she has since taken up a paid position in a supermarket) but the principle that if work is available it should be paid. If Poundland need a shelf-stacker, a cashier, a cleaner or anything else they should employ and pay one.

Which is precisely why Workfare won’t do anything for the employment crisis. Why would any employer hire and pay a member of staff if they can get one for free from the government? Every Workfare placement is one less job on the market, and therefore one less opportunity for a claimant to enter paid work. Workfare itself is constricting the supply of jobs, meaning that the volume of applicants for every vacancy won’t be heading south any time soon.

Farewell, Nawaab. It was good while it lasted.

I received some sad news a couple of weeks ago. My favourite Indian restaurant has closed down for good.

Nawaab, on Manor Row in Bradford, was closed the last time I was back home before Christmas, with a sign on the door advising that it was being refurbished. This was of course a disappointment at the time - mainly because I was hungry - but I looked forward to going back when I spent some time in Bradford over the Christmas holidays. I took a look at the place on my way to the tweetup at the Sparrow. I was gutted to find not only was it not open, but that the sign advising it was closed for refurbishment was gone.

I scrambled around for some optimism. "Maybe they replaced the windows and didn't put the sign back up," was about the best I could come up with. In truth, I knew deep down what the situation was, but didn't want to accept it. But I got the truth when I visited Nawaab's sister restaurant in the Bradford suburb of Tong.

I asked what was happening with Nawaab in Manor Row and was told in no uncertain terms it had closed for good. It transpires that the Nawaab restaurant group actually sold the Bradford restaurant - despite it being the original - three years ago. The new owners had been trying to get it to work but couldn't manage it. The waiter I spoke to blamed it on Bradford's city centre economy - or, to be more precise, the lack thereof.

If you're in any doubt of my genuine love for Nawaab, you can read my review on Tripadvisor, written in April last year. And I am genuinely sad that the restaurant's closed because I really, really liked the food. But worse than that is what it means for Bradford.

To be fair, Nawaab had been pretty quiet for a good few years. I remember going about ten years ago and it was packed to the rafters. They used to give a discount to Bradford City season ticket holders and on matchdays it was full of football fans on their way back from Valley Parade. Slowly but surely the numbers dwindled. On a few occasions our table has been the only occupied one. It was surely only a matter of time. 

The top end of Bradford had been in decline for years - the relocation of Christopher Pratt's department store to the city east of Pudsey probably being the most devastating blow I can think of in recent-ish times. 

But confidence seemed to be slowly returning to the area. Manningham Lane Retail Park - for years a scruffy hole of a place - got a full refurbishment and new tenants including Toys R Us, Dreams and Jollyes - not the most exciting of retailers, but better than Netto and Poundstretcher which came before them. The Sparrow Bier Cafe opened around the corner, and most recently a new wine bar, the Courtroom, opened on Manor Row. Added to the existing businesses - including furnisher Table Decor and coffee shop Feroni's, things seemed to be looking up,

It could even have been the stalled development of Westfield, at the bottom end of the city centre, that was making the top more attractive to businesses.

I'm sad that I can't eat my favourite curry any more (it's also worth mentioning that Gordon Ramsay-featured Prashad has left Bradford proper and moved out to Drighlington, a village with a Bradford postcode but in Leeds Council's area) but am hoping that it's not a sign of what will happen - again - to the area. With any luck, this will be an isolated incident and will not have an adverse effect on the surrounding businesses which have expressed confidence by investing in the area recently. 

I damn well hope so.

Bradford's had more than its fair share of knocks. It really can't afford another.

Possibly the best roast lamb you'll ever eat

I fancy myself as a bit of a chef.

There. I said it. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t fancy the unsociable hours or undoubted stress of working in a professional kitchen, but I do like to try and do my best cooking for me and my wife, and especially relish the challenge of trying to cook up a masterpiece in the single electric oven in the tiny kitchen of our east London flat.

We had friends over last night – we didn’t strictly intend to, but had taken a trip to Borough Market and returned with a beautiful half shoulder of lamb from the Ginger Pig and an obscene quantity of ultra-fresh veg from Turnips. Our friends had been away for the weekend and I figured they wouldn’t fancy cooking so we timed the food to be ready for when they’d get back. Turns out it was a good plan: several bottles of good red wine later and the prospect of work the next day for three of us (I had the day off today) we ended the night agreeing it was a success.

Lamb is quite possibly my favourite Sunday roast meat – but, saying that, on the right day beef or pork cooked the right way could feasibly take that accolade. The bonus with lamb, and especially lamb shoulder, is that it’s so easy to cook and really difficult to get wrong. I’ve cooked this particular recipe several times and it produces delicious, fall-off-the-bone, melt-in-the mouth meat every single time. My mate reckoned it was quite possibly the best lamb he’d ever tasted. I’m sure he was being polite, but let’s put it this way: there are no leftovers for me to heat up today (which is a real shame because it’s probably even better the next day). So to share the love I thought I'd share my recipe. You're welcome.

Of course I wouldn't have thought to post this unless my friend had made such kind comments. I wouldn't dream of describing my own work with such unabashed praise. In the interests of balance I think it's only fair that I point out that my Yorkshire Puddings were appalling. They didn't rise at all and through too much time in the oven could have quite easily been used as a missile of some kind, so therefore I won't be publishing a recipe for them. The roast potatoes were good, though there's not really enough to making them to call it a "recipe". Perhaps one day.

Shoulder of lamb is a tough, sinewy, fatty joint. Almost every other part of the animal should be cooked in such a way that a good veterinarian could get it running round a field again in a matter of minutes. Shoulder (and of course shank) is different. To break down all the collagen and get that tender falling-apart texture it needs to be cooked long and slow. My inspiration for this recipe came from this excellent one of Jamie Oliver’s, but I found that the juices dried out and burnt in the bottom of the roasting dish, meaning I couldn’t make a gravy with them. I’m a garlic fiend, so I’ve upped the garlic, and whilst I may fancy myself as a chef, a gardener I ain’t – I’ve lost track of the number of rosemary plants I’ve tried and failed to keep alive, so the herbs are dried.

I can’t stress enough the importance of the quality of the meat. I’ve cooked this both with Ginger Pig and Tesco meat and it’s always twice as nice when I use meat that’s been prepared and hung properly, and not injected with water and goodness knows what. The Ginger Pig is a wonderful butchers with a couple of branches across London. The meat comes from their own farm in North Yorkshire, and I’ve never had a bad joint of meat from there. There is a difference in price – we paid about £12.50 per kilo for bone-in shoulder; Tesco charges £7. Half a shoulder (approx. 1 kg) easily fed four of us – so you’re looking at £1.40 extra per person. Well worth it, in my opinion, for extra enjoyment we got from the meal.

Other people I’ve cooked this for have asked whether you could cook this with leg of lamb. The recipe would work, but you shouldn’t do it. Leg of lamb is much more expensive than shoulder, and is naturally less fatty and more tender. It simply doesn’t need to be cooked for so long. It also won’t turn out as well – it’s the fat in the shoulder that keeps the meat so moist and the sinew and collagen that gives the shoulder so much more flavour – cooking this with leg of lamb won’t only be more expensive, it will be less tasty too. Take the cheaper route, and use shoulder, for best results.

And under no circumstances allow your butcher to remove the bone – this helps with heat exchange, moisture retention and adds flavour.

It’s all too tempting to use the bottle of plonk someone left behind at a party to cook with. Resist the urge. Never cook with anything you’re not willing to drink. I don’t know what makes people think that something unpalatable in a glass will somehow become delicious when cooked. If you’re going to invest in a decent joint of lamb, don’t for goodness’ sake ruin it by skimping on the wine. This recipe doesn’t call for much, and you can drink the rest with dinner. If you don’t drink alcohol, you can use lamb stock.

We served this as a Sunday roast with roasted herbed seasonal root veg, roasted garlic and roast potatoes. We also served Yorkshire Puddings which failed spectacularly, which my wife puts down to karma for serving them with the wrong meat.

Ingredients (serves 4)

·         One half-shoulder of lamb

·         One bulb of garlic

·         Rosemary

·         Mint sauce or jelly

·         Red wine

·         Water

·         Rapeseed oil

Preheat the oven to its highest possible temperature.

We used smoked garlic which I picked up on a recent trip to France. It’s difficult to find in the UK (it’s available at Borough Market) but standard white garlic works equally well. Because of the long cooking time, the full bulb doesn’t overpower the dish, but feel free to reduce it if this seems too much. Break the bulb into cloves and slice each clove into spears.

Put your lamb on a chopping board fat-side up. Score the fat in a criss-cross and stab the lamb all over with the point of your knife – on the bottom and sides too. Poke the spears of garlic into the holes you have just made.

Pour some oil into the base of a high-sided roasting dish just larger than your joint. Put the joint into the roasting pan and turn it over so it is fully covered. Sprinkle your joint with rosemary all over on both sides.

I find red wine can really overpower the flavour of the meat, so mix about half a wineglass full of wine with the same amount of water to prevent the lamb tasting exclusively of wine. Make this mixture, and add in a couple of teaspoonfuls of mint sauce. You could, of course, use fresh mint, but being no gardener I didn’t have any to hand. Mint sauce works well. Pour this around the meat (not over it).

Cover the meat tightly with foil to prevent moisture escaping. I did four layers. That might be a bit excessive, but be confident it’s adequately sealed. Put the meat in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 140°C. Leave it there for four hours.

Remove the meat from the oven and place on a chopping board. Cover with the foil and leave to rest for an hour. When you’re ready to serve, use two forks to pull the lamb apart.

Allow the fat in the roasting pan to solidify and remove it. If your kitchen is as hot as mine, you might need to put the roasting pan into the fridge (once cooled) to achieve this. The remaining juices/wine can be used to make the gravy. There’s no magic to this – pour it into a pan and, depending on the volume, add water. Add in lamb stock, mint and you’re ready to go.

It's not often I agree with Gerry Sutcliffe - but the BBC must stay in Bradford

I like the BBC.

I won’t pretend that the BBC is perfect – it certainly has its problems. An immensely complex management system, unnecessarily aggressive (and I suspect borderline legal) licence fee collection tactics, and Eastenders all count towards its problems.

But the BBC does produce some fantastic output. The editorial independence afforded to its programme makers is unparalleled – no other broadcaster in the world would allow one of its presenters to give its top dog the grilling that James Naughtie gave George Entwistle on Radio 4’s Today programme when he was appointed to Director-General. The coverage given to the BBC’s own failings in the Jimmy Savile affair wouldn’t have happened if it was ITV.

The BBC’s independence puts it, in my eyes, above any other broadcaster in the land. The licence fee is worth every penny for Radio 4 and Question Time alone. Everything else is a bonus.

Which is why I am so disappointed about the Corporation’s decision to close its Bradford studio. I actually want to support the BBC. I want it to work, and I want it to work as well as it does now. Closing one of its regional studios will bring it further away from its listeners – and the BBC simply can’t afford to be out of touch.

But this planned closure has further consequences. The National Media Museum, in which the Bradford studio is housed, is struggling against a 50% reduction in footfall over the past decade. The removal of this studio will deprive the Museum of a live, working exhibit. The closure of the BBC Bradford studio could be the nail in the coffin of this fabulous Bradford institution. The relationship isn’t just one way – the BBC benefits from a fantastic city centre location ideal for broadcasts based in Bradford and its surrounding district.

Bradford already suffers from negative media perception and underrepresentation. Moving the BBC out will necessarily and unavoidably amplify that. The damage will be irreparable. It’s bad enough that the BBC has named its West Yorkshire radio station after just one of the three cities in the county – leaving Bradford behind altogether just adds insult to injury.

This decision is a bad for the BBC and bad for Bradford. We must reverse it for both of their sakes.

What can I do?

Within ten minutes, you can help save the BBC, without even leaving your computer. Follow the below 3 point plan:

·         Contact your MP online using http://www.writetothem.com/ and tell them you want to keep the BBC in Bradford. This will send an email to your MP so you don’t even need a printer or a stamp!

·         Tell the BBC you’re unhappy. There’s a handy form at https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor

·         Spread the word. Blog. Tweet. Talk. If you’re using Twitter, use the hashtag #BBCinBD