Ventnor Blog

It was Geri who represented the Jazzers on Radio 4 today.

You and Yours presenter, Peter White, did a telephone interview after some of the people who haven’t been paid put their feelings across, including Ian Shaw from this years Jazz Festival (although he’s been promised that the cheque is in the post).

(more…)

Today we got a phone call telling us that the Ventnor Jazz Festival and the Folk and Blues Festival will be the subject for discussion on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme tomorrow at midday.

Given it’s the stations consumer affairs programme, it will be investigating the problems of the previous years, where some of those involved have spoken of non-payment, you know what we’re talking about.

(more…)

We’ve all probably seen the rise of social networks and their replacement by others, as the fashion changes.

Many devoted their lives to MySpace when it arose, collecting as many MySpace ‘friends’ as possible to show others of their ‘friends’ just how ‘popular’ they were.

(more…)

VentnorBlog fave, Dame Ellen MacArthur, has been up in the Smoke impressing the heck out of everyone she came across.

The write up in The Telegraph couldn’t have been more complementary in its praise.

(more…)

Good to see some responses in today’s Indepedent newspaper by two residents of the Isle of wight, Wendy Varley and Rupert Besley, to Steve Beynon’s belated letter to the paper which appeared last week.

Follow the link to read in full. The fourth letter ‘SMALL CLASSES BEST’ by Dr Richard House, Research Centre for Therapeutic Education, Roehampton University is also an interesting read for those who chose to send their children to SMALL rural schools.

If you feel like you need a break from work — and who doesn’t every now and again? — and want to make your brain ache a little, let us introduce Pongout.

It’s a combination of two old video games, Breakout and Pong.

(more…)

We’re really proud to give you an update on VentnorBlog’s traffic levels - translated into English, how many people have been looking at VentnorBlog.

Having started VentnorBlog as a bit of light fun, it’s grown over the past two and a bit odd years (some odder than others!), into this time-eating monster that we’re really proud to say, has resulted into a site that appears to have been embraced by Islanders, ex-Islanders and visitors alike.

You may have noticed last week the Isle of Wight County Press disclosed (for the first time we’ve noticed) how many hits they’re getting on their Website on a monthly basis.

To say it made us smile, is somewhat of an understatement.
(more…)

Many thanks to Island parent, Wendy Varley for sending in her response to Steve Beynon’s letter in The Independent this week. Ed

The appearance in yesterday’s The Independent of a letter from Steve Beynon, Director of Children’s Services at Isle of Wight Council, taking issue with the article they ran on 13 March about the schools reorganisation begs the question: if he was unhappy with the article, why did he wait a month to raise it with them? (more…)

It’s a shame that The Guardian has to parade its level of ignorance of what the Isle of Wight is like these days, by publishing articles like Johnny Dee’s today.

Writing about the monarchy, clearly makes dear Johnny feel like he’s actually part of the royalty, as he adopts his best regal tone, opening a paragraph with, “One suspects.” He continues, “this was all the idea of some judicious aide tasked with finding the least exciting place on earth.”

(more…)

It’s often mooted that mile for mile, the Solent is the most expensive stretch of water to cross in Europe and after hearing about some of the fares being charged by Wight Link last weekend (dramatically increased from the weekend before £110) it’s quite believable.
(more…)

We read in the Guardian today that ITV2 has won the rights to broadcast footage from the Isle of Wight Music Festival this year.

It’s a shame to see the festival leave the confines of terrestrial Channel 4.

Given that ITV2 is only available via satellite (don’t have it), cable (don’t have it), or freeview (which we can’t get down here in Ventnor) looks like we won’t be watching any of the TV coverage this year

Well done to the CP for their thorough, detailed approach to reporting the news.

We see on their site today, they’ve managed to bang out two whole sentences on a story about how sunny it is on the Island.

We’ve heard that their next story will investigate the toiletry habit of bears, particularly within wooded areas.

IW Radio Disc Jockey Alex ‘Big Al’ Dyke was keen to quash rumours this morning, that he is leaving IW Radio for a rival station.

Speaking to media sources on the Wight he spouted:

(more…)

The dear old Chronicle covered the story about the new inhabitants of the corner ‘clock’ shop. Shop keepers and residents are outraged, it tells us - unsurprisingly given what a mess the place looks.

They use two photos at the bottom of the article in an attempt to illustrate the difference between the clock shop and the re-launched Bon Bon sweet shop (French Affair as was). (more…)

We all know that there’s a wide and diverse talent living on the Wight, but did you know how diverse?

The Southern Daily Echo has a piece (heck they even had her on the cover) about Island resident Lady Onna, who describes herself as a fashion designer, artist, model, and rubber fetishist.

(more…)

Thank goodness the need to listen to Alex Dyke’s phone-in show has been removed, now the initial public consultation was ended by the vote at County Hall last week.

Not having to listen to him yesterday makes us realise how much better life is without him. It’s like removing a poison from the room.
(more…)

Last week we covered the extensive piece that Steve McCormack published in The Independent on the proposed reforms of schools on the Island.

We’d done our reporting of the coverage on the basis of the online version of the article.
(more…)

Thanks for the tip from Wendy that the front page of The Independent Educational supplement has a three quarter page article on the planned changes to the educational system on the Island.

It’s a pretty extensive article which brings in quotes from many of the major players in the debate and is well worth a read, giving an overview of the current state of play as per last week.
(more…)

If you’re following the schools reforms issue closely, make sure that you tune into BBC South Today who should be covering the ’schools consultation’ story from 6.30pm tonight.

Wow … hold the phone! The County Press have video on their Web site! We know, we know, it’s very thrilling isn’t it?

Once seen as old fashioned stick-in the-muds, the CP has gone all modern on us and is showing a video of the birth of a two-toed sloth (best not to watch it while eating your lunch though).
(more…)

The CP appear to be as big a fan of Johnny Fitzgerald Bond as we are.

Not only did they call him a ‘Johnny come lately’ in a headline last week, but in Charlotte Hofton’s piece this week (page 19) about the Education debate in the council chamber two weeks ago she brings him into focus again.

(more…)

We already know about the revolting views of Alex Dyke (have you noticed his pathetic attempt to draw back from the end of his career by playing only Black music now?).

David Holmes, the failed MP candidate from 2001 wannabe (getting 1,423 votes vs 25,223 for the winner), who does the morning programme with Alex Dyke, has launched an attack on the Council Chief Executive, Joe Duckworth.

Holmes started it with, “Joe Duckworth drives around the Island in a 4×4. Why does such a small man need such a big car?”

He then went on with “He’s greedy little piggy with his nose in the trough. He is paid £150k a year - why are we paying his hotel bills?”
(more…)

We just switched on to listen to the Alex Dyke phone-in at 12:55 on IW Radio and were stunned when we thought we heard him say — when referring to a Radio 4 continuity announcer — “I don’t want to hear a black man on Radio 4.”

We may have missed the context of this comment, but it’s pretty hard to imagine what context this could be used in, that would make it acceptable.

We know he tries to be a shock jock and we’ve heard a few comments by him in the past that have been pretty close to the knuckle … but were stunned by this one.

Anyone else hear this and can fill in the detail?

UPDATE: We’ve been in touch with IW Radio this morning (28.Feb) to follow up on this. They hope to get back to us later today about it.

The Isle of Wight Council contacted us today to let us know that they couldn’t see VentnorBlog. Given the lack of access to the site, we can only assume that they imagined a mass walkout of council staff if we didn’t fix it, given VB’s apparent popularity there, both inside and outside the press office.

The Council’s Internet content filter had kicked in after we wrote a piece about a band that will be playing at Bestival that contained an Anglo-Saxon word.
(more…)

The Isle of Wight Council is concerned over the editorial titled ‘Does Democracy Count?’ which is due to be published in the forthcoming March versions of the Isle of Wight Beacon magazine.

It makes reference to the education reforms.

Parts of the article are factually incorrect despite the council highlighting these errors to The Beacon’s management team prior to its publication.
(more…)