Sam Stafford was in Manchester recently and took the opportunity to catch up with old friends of the podcast Ian Wray, Claire Petricca-Riding and David Diggle, and new friends of the podcast Charlotte Leach and Louise Fountain.

Over the course of an hour or so they enjoyed a good ol’ fashioned 50 Shades ramblechat. They talked about the increasingly rancorous nature of planning and whether a sense of fractiousness and febrility is driving the rise of Reform as a political force. They also talked about New Towns and Ian’s 'Northern Arc' proposition, and, towards the end, they swapped holiday reading recommendations.

Some accompanying reading.

The Rise of Reform

How Britain's high street decline is fuelling Reform UK's rise: 'There's a sense that politics has failed'

We won’t let residents block big new towns, says planning minister (£)

On New Towns

‘We have to move’: historic village of Tempsford reels from plan to swell its 600 residents to 350,000

A ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for the UK’s next wave of new towns

The reality of the Northern Arc

The Planning Alliance

Life on the Front Line III

The 50 Shades Book Club

When The Circus Leaves Town - Dave Proudlove

Nairn’s Towns - Ian Nairn

Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

A waiter in Paris – Edward Chisholm

The Danish Way of Parenting - Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl 

Why We Get The Wrong Politicians - Isabel Hardmen

Great British Plans – Ian Wray

Some accompanying viewing.

Nairn across Britain

Nairn's Journeys - Football Towns (Huddersfield and Halifax)

Some accompanying listening.

Episode 36. Can the British plan?

A Fresh Dawn For North Cheshire - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

Any other business.

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...

'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.

Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here.

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