Six things Census 2021 dataset TS012 told me about England and Wales

1) The Welsh in England like to be near Wales

On Census day, 21 March 2021, there were 478,700 Welsh-born people in England, making up 0.8% of the population, with some in every lower-tier local authority area. But the highest proportions were found in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire (6.4%), Shropshire (5.8%), Herefordshire (5.3%) and Cheshire West (4.1%) – which are all also the four lower-tier local authority areas of England that border Wales. The pattern is clear from the map, although this uses upper-tier local authority areas, with 2.8% of the population of Gloucestershire born in Wales.

Continue reading “Six things Census 2021 dataset TS012 told me about England and Wales”

My NUJ freelance training courses in September and October

Book now for for the next online editions of my National Union of Journalists freelance training courses, First steps in freelancing on 30 September and Winning and negotiating freelance work on 14 October. Click on a date for further information and booking.

First steps in freelancing: Friday 30 September. NUJ members £40, student members £30, non-members £110.

Winning and negotiating freelance work: Friday 14 October. NUJ members £50, student members £40, non-members £130.

Climate change stays above stormy British politics

As one of the first cohort of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, I was struck by how politically uncontentious climate change is in the UK compared with many other countries. For example, May saw Labor’s Anthony Albanese win power in Australia’s elections partly by promising to “end the climate wars” and accelerate action to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading “Climate change stays above stormy British politics”

Online NUJ freelance training in July

Booking is now open for the next online editions of my National Union of Journalists freelance training courses in July. Click on a date for further information and booking.

First steps in freelancing: Friday 8 July. NUJ members £40, student members £30, non-members £110.

Winning and negotiating freelance work: Friday 22 July. NUJ members £50, student members £40, non-members £130.

Adding climate to the journalistic environment

I am one of the first cohort of journalists in the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, run by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute. This involves taking part in a series of online seminars and discussions with journalists from around the world.

Our first seminar was by the Reuters Institute’s Wolfgang Blau, former chief operating officer of Condé Nast and co-founder of the network. (He has since delivered a public lecture covering the same ground, which you can read here.) Blau pointed out how badly climate change fits with journalistic (and perhaps human attention) values: it’s not new, it’s not local, it’s not simple, it’s not usually personal, it’s a long-term process rather than a specific event and it’s hard to get an exclusive out of it. Continue reading “Adding climate to the journalistic environment”