A lament for a lost Norwich bike shop becomes a wider critique of how globalisation, mass immigration and state neglect have reshaped Britain’s high streets – and our sense of belonging. Noel Yaxley explores how path dependency, cheap labour, and failing councils fuel decay, from shuttered independents to soaring fly-tipping, and why only local pride and “little platoons” can stem the decline.

Labour’s small boats reforms are a political sleight of hand. Shabana Mahmood promises stricter asylum rules, but simultaneously opens new “safe and legal routes” for migrants, leaving Britain’s borders just as porous. With the Home Office unwilling – or unable – to enforce deportations, are these measures genuine solutions, or merely a distraction from the demographic and social consequences that are already arriving on our shores?

Ireland has elected Catherine Connolly, a president whose polite exterior masks a deep hostility to the West. From defending Assad in Syria to sympathising with Hamas, her instincts favour ideology over national dignity. As she shapes Ireland’s tone from the Áras, one must ask: will her presidency unite the country, or rewrite it in the image of radicalism?