A BIG noise was made about the announcement of the Government’s Big Society initiative this week, but, despite the fanfare, few people seem to know exactly what it entails.

THE media coverage of the Raoul Moat story in Northumberland took us all one giant step closer to the gutter where many of us seem so desperate to be and also to becoming a rather sick, voyeuristic society.

THE report by education consultant David Fletcher on the effectiveness of the board of the University of Cumbria presents a damning indictment of failures that have contributed to the university’s present position of crisis.

THE arrival of summer has, it seems, coincided with the return of the Penrith pong, the sickening odour that has afflicted the town for a generation and put it on the map for totally the wrong reason.