Chris Lloyd
Dunnocks, trollops and tattyboggles
3:16pm Thursday 7th February 2019
THE bird world is in a flap. The dunnock, that drab little sparrow which hangs out in hedges, has been outed as a “trollop”.
Be open and frank: we're scunnered
1:58pm Thursday 31st January 2019
OPEN and frank. Often in this column, I pick on a topical word and try to work out what it means.
Chris Lloyd: What Nissan could learn from the humble snowdrop
7:00pm Thursday 24th January 2019
WINTER has finally gripped my car in its icy grasp this week. Most mornings I’ve had to chip off the frost, both inside and out, while cursing man’s failure to invent a can of de-icer that is not impossibly cold to hold.
Is Brexit the Zinoviev of our time?
3:46pm Thursday 17th January 2019
“WHAT a crowded, tumultuous and changeful House the crisis assembled!” said The Northern Echo on its front page the day after the Government suffered the heaviest defeat in Parliamentary history.
Middlesbrough versus Newport: a tale of two transporters
4:06pm Thursday 10th January 2019
IT was great to see Rodney Parade rocking on Sunday, as lowly Newport knocked the high-flying foxes of Leicester City out of the FA Cup, a feat for which they were rewarded with a plum tie in the next round against mighty Middlesbrough.
Can Shelagh help save Barnard Castle's precious Witham?
10:42am Wednesday 9th January 2019
A DRIZZLY grey morning in Barnard Castle. The pavement outside the Witham Hall, the grand buff building in the centre of the main street, is gleaming wet and is being swept by a woman with a broom. Pigeons, she explains, roost in the classical portico overnight and leave their own welcome mat outside the community arts centre’s front door.
Chris Lloyd: If HMV goes, Darlington town centre will lose part if its soul
5:30am Friday 4th January 2019
SIR EDWARD ELGAR was an early adopter. If he’d been alive today, he would be streaming music through his wireless headphones.
What's in a name: can Teesside take flight once again?
4:53pm Thursday 20th December 2018
SAY you’d just landed at a newly renamed airport in Middleton St George, your wheels touching down at the start of the runway in the borough of Stockton and your plane coming to rest at the end of the runway in the borough of Darlington. Then you jumped into a taxi and said “take me to Teesside”. Where would you end up?
19th century petroleum hair wash engulfed pregnant woman in flames
1:53pm Thursday 13th December 2018
“RARELY has a more sensational story been heard,” said The Northern Echo 110 years ago.
After so much political drama, very little has actually changed
8:13am Thursday 13th December 2018
After 24 hours of great drama, in the end, are we back where we started? Chris Lloyd watches the dust settle following Thursday night's vote of confidence
Chris Lloyd: Last call for Teesside call sign
4:07pm Thursday 6th December 2018
WE live in a topsy-turvy world. We see it on a national level, where those who really want to remain in the EU may plunge us into a no-deal abrupt exit, and those who really want to leave may vote against a deal by which we more-or-less leave and so we end up staying forever.
Shooting at a casino leaves four dead in new Darlington movie Sparrowhawk
5:40pm Thursday 29th November 2018
Mike Tweddle's new film makes its hometown debut on Monday in Darlington. He tells Chris Lloyd why Sparrowhawk is more than just a flight of fancy
Death by hairwash: when shampoo fumes proved fatal
5:00am Friday 23rd November 2018
PERHAPS I should be writing about the right-wing’s apparent failure – indeed humiliation – to muster 48 names so Jacob Rees-Mogg can begin the process of ousting Theresa May. Perhaps I should be writing about why the Democratic Unionists think it is acceptable for Northern Ireland to have different laws to the rest of the UK on, say, abortion but not on trade.
Chris Lloyd: Mrs May stood on the burning deck of HMS Deadlock
6:25pm Thursday 15th November 2018
BRITAIN is now in deadlock. It looks mathematically impossible for Theresa May to get her deal through Parliament. There is no majority for her deal, for a no deal exit, for a second vote, for remain, for anything…
Chris Lloyd: Brexit lets the cat out of the bag
3:54pm Thursday 15th November 2018
THE great political drama of the week has been enhanced by some colourful language. Theresa May’s unwinnable deal has been described as “a £39bn pig in a poke” which will turn Britain into a “vassal state”.
Chris Lloyd: Theresa May battling on for her Brexit deal
8:30pm Wednesday 14th November 2018
IT is hard not to feel sorry for Theresa May. She is like the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail who keeps getting his limbs cut off but, undeterred, bounces back for more.
In rhyme: the time war declined
3:26pm Thursday 8th November 2018
EVERY day throughout the First World War, The Northern Echo carried an entertaining and poetic advert for Chairman cigarettes tucked away at the bottom of the one of its four pages.
Chris Lloyd: Why some Brits are desperate to find a bit of Irish in them
1:20pm Friday 2nd November 2018
SAY what you like about Brexit but it has been good for genealogy. I’ve met two ladies recently in Darlington library researching their family trees to see if there was enough Irish for them to qualify for an Eire passport.
Cake: Can you have it and eat it?
10:08am Tuesday 30th October 2018
REPORTS of the death of austerity have been greatly exaggerated. Prime Minister Theresa May promised to be killing it off, but after yesterday’s Budget, it is still very much alive, with the effects of eight years of cuts which have gone deep into the quick of Britain’s public services still raising their heads, zombie-like, for years to come.
Warding off the evil spirits of shaggy scalycap
5:48pm Thursday 25th October 2018
HALLOWEEN is coming. In our street, the kids have already put up a “enter if you dare” streamer, and the bright orange pumpkins are being carved into hideous, gap-toothed faces.
Strange and trivial fascinations, usually with a historical bent, in a never-ending quest to understand today’s world.
Hannah Chapman
Opinion on the issues of the week by The Northern Echo's editor.
Mike Amos
Stories of the characterful people and colourful places that make the North-East.
Chris Lloyd
Strange and trivial fascinations in a quest to understand today’s world.
Peter Barron
Weekly columns from The Northern Echo's former editor.
Chris Moncrieff
Weekly political comment from political correspondent Chris Moncrieff.
Harry Mead
An offbeat view of the week's events and how they affect the region.
Julia Breen
Anti-injustice, pro-equality, sometimes ragey.
Jo Morris
Regular ruminations of a 30-something reporter from Teesside.
Ben Houchen
Monthly column from Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen.
Mike Barton
Durham Constabulary Chief Constable Mike Barton's monthly column on policing.
