On Tuesday 30 August, 5 live is taking a detailed look at the issue of housing in Britain. It's becoming more difficult for first-time buyers, and council house waiting lists are getting longer. How do you plan to make a long-term home for your family? Throughout the day, we'll be reporting on how the housing market is changing, and what it means for you.
A couple of years ago my Uncle Gerald died of cancer, and the last time I saw him he was in his bed, physically reduced and in considerable pain. A couple of years before that, he'd been in good health, singing at my wedding.
I don't tell the story for sentiment's sake. While the process was sad, it was also matter-of-fact and grimly ordinary. Four in 10 of us are now expected to get cancer, and most people reading this will have lost someone to it. Strip away the mythology that cancer has acquired in our culture and you're left with a disease - or more accurately a wide set of diseases - that goes about the business of killing thousands of us every year, without prejudice.
Tip for the title
Man United. As much as it pains me to admit it, they always manage to regroup without dipping in quality. Man City could push them close though.
Tip for the title
Manchester United. They are the team to beat. I know they have lost the experience of Scholes and Van Der Sar but Sir Alex Ferguson bought well with players such as Young, Jones and De Gea (and possibly Sneijder?)
Tip for the title
Manchester United. If you bet against them winning the title at the start of every season since the Premier League began then you've got it wrong 12 out of 19 times and I think they're still the team to beat. A lot depends on how quickly David De Gea settles and builds up an understanding with the back four but Ashley Young has added to a plethora of options going forward, Rooney and Hernandez are lethal and if they get Wesley Sneijder as well then tie the ribbons on the trophy now. Man City will be their closest challengers.
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Post categories: football
|06:00 UK time, Monday, 15 August 2011
Tip for the title
Man Utd, with a weary sense of inevitability, because they were the best last year and have strengthened at least as much as anyone else, if not more.
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Jo Tongue is the executive producer for 606, which goes out oin Saturdays and Sundays at 18:00. You can follow @tonguetweets on Twitter
Tip for the title
Manchester United. The side's been in transition for a while now but I think this could be Fergie's next great side - Young, Cleverley, Welbeck, Smalling are all going to help them to the title this year.
Conor McNamara is one of 5 live's football commentators. You can follow @ConorMcNamaraIE on Twitter
Tip for the title
I think both Manchester clubs will battle it out for the top two places, with Chelsea third and Arsenal fourth.
The Blackburn Rovers striker Jason Roberts will be presenting 606 this season, starting tonight. You can follow @jasonroberts30 on Twitter
Tip for the title
Manchester United. They're special, and they're good at winning. I know it sounds a bit silly, but they simply know how to win games. They've bought some great players too, and I think they've got a good chance of dominating.
Anna Foster presents Weekend Breakfast, and is also 5 live's north-east England reporter. You can follow @annaefoster on Twitter
Tip for the title
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Manchester City. They're pushing so hard for it now, making incredible signings, it can surely only be a matter of time before they break that stranglehold. I know they're hardly the underdog nowadays, but I love to root for the less obvious choice, so City are my tip for the top this season.
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Post categories: politics
|17:28 UK time, Thursday, 11 August 2011
The collective posture of Westminster in August tends to border on the horizontal.
The pace slows, the volume of debate quietens, the place all but empties.
But this week has provided a jolt to the summer slumber.
"Cover your face! Cover your face!" a teenage girl ordered her friends, as she handed out scarves freshly looted from a clothes shop. Nearby, a boy in his mid-teens, hood pulled tight over his face, was commanding his friends through a loud speaker, rounding them up before their next assault.
It was Monday night. I was in Woolwich, south-east London. My hometown. Born there, schooled there, still live there.
I was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt while standing among the rioters on Oxford Road in Manchester late last night. What distinguished me from the majority of them was the fact you could see my face.
Most others had balaclavas or scarves covering their faces as they moved effortlessly from shop to shop. Their attempt at anonymity was their blatant badge of criminal intent.
Shaved heads, tattoos and England shirts. Beards, designer trainers and hoodies. But they weren't breaking into Currys and running off with TVs. Groups of mainly young men in Enfield and Southall, patrolling their local streets - "helping the police", as they put it.
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Post categories: 5 live blog
|16:10 UK time, Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Arriving in Hackney at around half past six on Monday evening, it felt like the pause button had been pressed on the violence and rioting of an hour or so earlier.
But what we encountered was a mood I had never come across in the UK before.
The former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage retired from professional football last season, and is a regular presenter of 606. You can follow Robbie on Twitter
Tip for the title
Manchester United. They may have lost Paul Scholes but they've got Wayne Rooney - he'll be the best player in the league this year. Javier Hernandez will have an even better second season, and they have a future England captain in Phil Jones. They've added more pace, and it's the most important asset in the Premier League.
Over the next week or so, various 5 live presenters, commentators, pundits, reporters and producers will post blogs looking ahead to the new Premier League season.
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Post categories: 5 live blog
|09:57 UK time, Friday, 5 August 2011
The latest audience figures show good results for speech radio in the UK.
The Rajar figures for quarter 2, 2011, cover April, May and June.
The figure for 5 live is 6.54 million listeners per week. The combined total audience reach for 5 live and 5 live sports extra is 6.7 million.
Sports extra maintained an audience of 800,000 listeners per week.
