The 'minor seismic event' was probably triggered by extracting gas from rocks with a controversial procedure, a report says

It's just baffling. The House of Commons committee on energy has today published a report entitled “UK Energy Supply: Security or Independence?” with hardly a mention of the 200 trillion cubic feet of Shale gas recently found outside Blackpool. As Matt Ridley wrote recently in his definitive Spectator piece, these reserves – if exploited – are "enough to keep the ...

It’s not just Blackpool you know: Widespread in the Craven Basin, including the Lancaster, Garstang, Settle, Clitheroe and Harrogate districts, south Cumbria and the Isle of Man; also in North Wales, Staffordshire and the East Midlands. It is, to use a technical term, friggin’ huge mate. I’ve also found out something interesting (well, at least

Number of Labour gains in councils where whole council up for election (with changes of control): Chesterfield +23 (Lab gain from LD) Gedling +23 (Lab gain from Con) Cheshire W & Chester +19 Telford & Wrekin +16 (Lab gain from NOC) Ashfield +15 (Lab gain from NOC) Blackpool +15 (Lab gain from Con) Mansfield +14 (Lab gain from Ind) Barrow-in-Furness +13 (Lab gain from NOC) High Peak +12 (NO...

Second only to the Granita pact in the list of most memorable New Labour meals is surely Stephen Byers’ fish supper of 1996. Labour’s frontbench spokesman on industrial relations was in Blackpool for the TUC conference, and speaking to journalists over a restaurant meal, expressed the opinion that the party should cut ties with the

New figures show thousands of pounds of public money being spent on jazz workshops, "stress angels" and trips to Blackpool.

Blackpool no more, Brighton no more, Bournemouth no more, Thatcher no more. It has been central to David Cameron's successful strategy that the Conservative Party must rep

I attended my first Liberal Party Conference at Blackpool in 1968, in the days when our MPs could all fit in a taxi, rather than needing a rather large bus. Work in education prevented me attending regularly again until 1998, but I have been at every autumn conference since. For those with long memories, 1998

Yesterday Communities Secretary Eric Pickles trumpeted his department’s publication of all supply contracts above £500 as proof of the government’s new transparency. Rightly so. Given the absence of any clarity though, the press settled for reporting the blatantly flagged expenditure of £1,600 on massages for staff and £539 on an away day at Blackpool pleasure beach. ...

Its most historic attractions may well be the jokes in the end-of-the-pier show, and children rather than archaeologists dig in its sands for lost treasures. But Blackpool could soon boast the same exalted status as the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China.