Profile avatar
leighsus.bsky.social
Freelance journalist. Investigations, writing, broadcast, newsreading, BBC Radio Newcastle etc Editor, The Teesside Lead. 🔗 https://theteessidelead.substack.com Used to work in music. Ex-Yorkshire Post Teesworks expert. Oh, and once I saw a blimp.
1,268 posts 13,018 followers 411 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
Posts 28 Comments 22

In today's Teesside Lead... Ben Houchen to stand down as chair of development corporations after government intervention. Plus an exclusive... TVCA spent over £30,000 sending staff on overseas trips in a single week last month.

submitted 1 hour ago • 2 comments

When I first came to Hackney Wick 12 years ago it was scary because it was deserted and badly lit. Now it's scary because it's absolutely packed with people ten years younger than me.

submitted 11 hours ago • 1 comment

"AI art is bad for so many reasons and should be avoided at all costs... unless it allows me to take part in a quirky social media trend. Then it's fine." - A surprisingly large number of people

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Port Talbot - abandoned 🇬🇧 Scunthorpe - saved UK Labour hardly making friends in Wales ahead of #Senedd26

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Funny juxtaposition of headlines in this morning's Financial Times.

submitted 1 day ago • 16 comments

That is not what the visa application process looks like

submitted 2 days ago • 10 comments

Something about this - the mundane observations and imagining Adrian’s very public descent into a full horror meltdown - is very funny to me

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

I see we're back to credulously reporting the "millionaire migration" claims of a company that sells migration services to millionaires. I have contacted the people behind these studies and they wouldn't tell me the underlying numbers. Only HMRC actually knows how many millionaires have moved.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

the only logical takeaway from this is that this is the start of an grimly inevitable series of events that will end up with a President Beast

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

The latest in UK Labour not paying attention to what's happening in Wales.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Less than six months after launching, The Teesside Lead has today passed 1,000 subscribers. 🎉🎉🎉 Posts usually get much more visibility than that, but I'm incredibly pleased to have grown so quickly. Not just hyperlocal news, but hyper niche, and finding an audience. Thanks to all subs! 🍻

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Hartlepool Nuclear power station moved to enhanced regulatory attention #energysky

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

What I absolutely love about this new Spiritworld album is that it asks a very important question - what if Slayer were rhinestone cowboys?

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

In case you missed it... My thoughts on the government taking action against Tees Valley Combined Authority, and TVCA's response.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

In case you missed it... My thoughts on the government taking action against Tees Valley Combined Authority, and TVCA's response.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Today's Teesside Lead... Tees Valley Combined Authority are trying to paint this week's Best Value Notice as the end of the Teesworks saga. The government insists it's just the first step to getting answers. Plus: Ben Houchen caught lying in last week's Cabinet meeting about FOIs.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Great weather for taking pictures of your beautiful cat.

submitted 6 days ago • 3 comments

Today's Teesside Lead... Tees Valley Combined Authority are trying to paint this week's Best Value Notice as the end of the Teesworks saga. The government insists it's just the first step to getting answers. Plus: Ben Houchen caught lying in last week's Cabinet meeting about FOIs.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

I kinda feel like "deliberately scuttling the United States" is a bit of a heavy-handed metaphor right now.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

People are rightly tearing this apart, but it seems to me that the bigger picture is that it's the next step in a chain of logic that leads to "a war will help revitalise both our depressed economy and our aimless young men."

submitted 7 days ago • 5 comments

YOU GUYS.

submitted 8 days ago • 320 comments

Really interesting from @stephenkb.bsky.social I’ve said it many times, but just picking up the GM model and plonking it somewhere else is harder than it sounds, as this week’s TVCA best value notice shows (the third CA to be given one) on.ft.com/3G8ahru

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

It is 2002. I am 18 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis. It is 2008. I am 24 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis. It is 2020. I am 36 years old. We are in a once-in-a-generation economic crisis. It is 2025. I am 41 years old. We are in a—

submitted 10 days ago • 434 comments

The Government has just published its Best Value Notice for Tees Valley Combined Authority. "After considering the mayor’s response to the [Tees Valley] review... the government is issuing the Best Value Notice to ensure further improvement at the authority."

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

I just did the numbers and this assumption looks to be completely right. Let’s pause for a minute and consider how INSANE this is. 🧵

submitted 10 days ago • 87 comments

Ben Houchen is currently on holiday in the Costa del Sol.

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Excl: Ministers to serve best value notice on Ben Houchen’s Tees Valley Combined Authority due to continued governance concerns on.ft.com/3G2Ht3E

submitted 10 days ago • 5 comments

Newsquest's use of AI - to churn out stories based on press releases - goes against everything local journalism should be about. I'd love to hear, confidentially, from any "AI-assisted" reporters, or from other Newsquest journos about whether they have been freed up to "pound their beat". DM me

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment