Factchecking Trump serves as much use as factchecking someone who's taken too much acid. "...but despite such claims experts remain sceptical that time is a spiral, emanating backwards from our future collapsed sun, and maintained by a race of highly intelligent seahorses."

This week's Dispatch is out now...

In this week's newsletter we pay a visit to the Folkestone Community Fridge...

Now that's a signing...

Delighted to say we've had a number of new paid subscribers signing up this week - thank you to each and every one of you! If you agree with Andy, and think the Dispatch is just what Folkestone needs, why not join them today? folkestonedispatch.substack.com/subscribe

This is kind of an amazing fact about In Our Time. I pray the BBC don’t intuit this as a call to “inject more youth” into the show in the post-Bragg era. The stuffiness is what the kidz like!!

In Our Time is worth the licence fee alone. Huge shoes to fill. The BBC better get this succession right, or we riot...

In this week's Dispatch we talk to the organisers of the Folkestone Tap Takeover - three days of great craft beer being served at venues across the town

When centrists adopt far-right rhetoric, they don’t make themselves stronger. They make themselves look inauthentic, legitimise the far right, and shift the political debate onto terrain defined by their opponents. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Ah, so we've reached the point where a free press holding power to account is now 'activism'? Perfectly healthy, absolutely fine, nothing to worry about here, no siree...

I wonder why?

is it only asylum seekers our Labour Prime Minister would object to living next to or would the sentiment apply to black and brown people in general? if merely the former, would he like to explain how he knows people he sees, say, in the street, actually are asylum seekers and not citizens?

I think I make it pub time...

Reminds me of a former colleague who once described a pond as a 'small collection of water'...

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to support us by becoming a paid subscriber. You are amazing and we cannot thank you enough If you believe Folkestone needs and deserves a strong, independent source of local journalism, why don't you join them? folkestonedispatch.substack.com/subscribe

@davidhewson.com Hi David, in the process of finalising our first ever visit to Venice, would love some recommendations for eating and drinking away from the tourist traps, places where locals/students are to be found. Any tips gratefully received!

Anyway, I'm no longer on local papers, I'm on Substack, where even minimum wage would make me feel like Scrooge McDuck diving into a pool of cash... Every little helps, though, if you want to support local journalism... folkestonedispatch.substack.com

Most reporters on local papers are basically making minimum wage. This would be funny if it wasn't so depressing...

The NUJ has responded to Reform's refusal to speak to Nottinghamshire Live by affirming journalists’ right to report without fear or favour. Media scrutiny of elected politicians is fundamental to the functioning of a healthy democracy. www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nuj...

In this week's newsletter we report on the extent of council tax arrears in Folkestone & Hythe...

A day of shame for the UK. A political party proposes mass deportations and the response from other political parties is not to condemn this as going further than even Mosley or the National Front.

Looked at the news. Mostly grim. Think I might listen to a silly podcast and do some gardening instead

fundamentally the problem is that if you think "hotels are where I stay on holiday and I like being on holiday so living in a hotel must be fun and it's not fair others get to do it and not me" then you have the intellectual reasoning of a little child and it's going to be hard to engage with you

This is a remarkable piece. @rhysdgriffiths.bsky.social is doing some mightily impressive work on the @folkestonedispatch.substack.com.

Obviously the smears against this man are incredibly libellous - and it says a lot about access to the law that he wouldn't be able to afford to Lord McAlpine these fuckers - but at what point does the government clock that it needs to get a grip on this raging online fire of fascist hate?

Like the folks at Napier Drop In, quoted in this piece today...

Absolutely extraordinary story from @edjennings.bsky.social on who Kent's new Reform councillors are hanging out with:

In this weeks Kent Current I started talking to Dan Abnett about the various IP's that he has worked on. Starting with #DoctorWho And spoke with @rhysdgriffiths.bsky.social about the @folkestonedispatch.substack.com www.kentcurrent.news/p/the-prolif...

Napier Barracks was expected to be closed next month. Now it looks likely it could be used to house asylum seekers into next year...

We're lucky to have journalists trying different models of providing local news in Kent and Medway. This article is definitely worth a read. If you haven't subscribed to @localauthority.news, @kentcurrent.news or @folkestonedispatch.substack.com yet, take a look. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/r...

So would reducing prices, but we never seem to discuss that for some reason. www.thetimes.com/article/52a8...

📚 This week's newsletter is out now, with an update on the future of Folkestone library...

I went to the ballpark on June 17, and got quite, quite drunk. I am concerned I did something in the haze that offended the baseball gods...

Did… did a fish write this

Forza @localauthority.news!

I am lucky to have an office (well, a hot desk in a co-working space) but it is incredibly close to the harbour and the chance to sit and have an ice cream in the sunshine with all the other holiday-makers. This makes concentration a little difficult on days like this, let me tell you...

Ahead of the new season starting on Saturday, we sat down with the @fifc.bsky.social chairman to hear about his ambitions for the club... folkestonedispatch.substack.com/p/folkestone...

Genoa's new away kit launch looks like someone showed Suella Braverman how to use AI

In this week's Dispatch we speak to That Folkestone Artist. We suspect this interview could spark some debate...

My latest, exploring with numbers how the millennial household budget is basically incomprehensible to retired boomers.

Not for the first time I am begging angry people to put the phone down, walk through actual streets, go to actual pubs, stand on the touch line at local sports clubs, browse Saturday markets, chat with ramblers on footpaths and rediscover beauty & contentedness.

🏳️‍🌈 In this week's newsletter we speak to Folkestone Pride about this weekend's celebrations...

This week's newsletter is out now - and in it we speak to some of the people behind the restoration of the Leas Lift...

How is anyone supposed to do any work when the test match is this good? 🏏

Great to get some coverage for the Dispatch and the mission we're on to provide a new, independent source of journalism for the town. Made in Folkestone, for Folkestone

I’m no expert but I would’ve got a person to do it.

This week's newsletter is out now...

Just seen a job ad for an 'AI assisted' reporter (cue old man shaking fist at cloud). I am proud to say the @folkestonedispatch.substack.com - including any typos, appalling grammar, general cock-ups within - is produced entirely AI-free. The buck stops with me, not a bleedin' robot

📨 In this week's newsletter we speak to @tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social about his first year in Westminster...