Hello and welcome to Thursdays Levy Letter. I hope your days going well and youll be able to join me tonight for Look North at the usual time of half past six on BBC One.
The Long wait is over as Hull's new shopping centre opens its doors today. We'll be getting the opinions of consumers in the city, and asking would it make you come to Hull? After years of struggle there's finally some good news for Lincolnshire dairy farmers, one of the winners in the supermarket price wars, but we'll be finding out on Look North tonight if ordinary consumers are losing out. We'll be reporting on the sad end of a once thriving workplace as demolition gets underway at the site of the former Birdseye factory in Grimsby. And the 4th best restaurant in the country is in Lincolnshire! Yes it's beaten establishments run by some of the top celebrity chefs. We'll be sampling the delights of Winteringham Fields tonight. The weathers looking good in Hull as I write this, but who knows how long thatll last! For the detailed forecast for the whole region, watch the programme tonight Picnic If you live in the Alford area of Lincolnshire you might like to know about a picnic being held this Saturday the 22nd in Alford Memorial Park. Theres an open invitation to everybody from Sarah Devereux, the Mayor of Alford, the events free, and there will be live music throughout the day, birds of prey and animals, a bouncy castle, children's entertainer, spinning, face painting, and much more. Sarah says, I wanted to put on an event to celebrate our new park in Alford and do something where the whole community could get together and just enjoy a fabulous day, you can bring a picnic and just relax and enjoy the activities. So come on how can you resist?! It is free and its in such a beautiful market town with such a wonderful community. So there you go, it sounds like a great day out and good luck to Sarah and the people of Alford with that. Over 21s If youre over the age of 21 and you get asked to prove your age when buying alcohol, you can probably count yourself lucky, it doesnt happen to me these days! But how would you feel if you were asked for ID despite being 54 years over the legal drinking age? Incredibly, thats what happened to a man in a well known supermarket when he tried to buy two bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. Hes 72 years old, and he was asked to confirm he was over 21, a question which he refused to answer on principle. Now apparently staff in the store had been trained to ask anyone buying alcohol if they were over 21, even though of course the legal drinking age is 18, but I struggle to see how a 72 year old man could have been mistaken for an underage drinker. When Mr Ralls refused to answer the question, he was confronted by the manager of the store who took the wine back to the shelf and refused to serve him! Thats an incredible story, isnt it? If thats happened to you then tell me about it, I cant believe that its a very common occurrence though. You can reach me as always on [EMAIL PROTECTED] If youve got a story or a picture that you want us to see then you can send that along too. Old School Ties Theres a story here that you might be interested in, or even surprised by or not. These days, of course, its not supposed to matter what school you went to when youre applying for a place at university, but a new report by an education charity claims that the school a pupil attended is still a bigger factor than their A-Level results when trying to get into a top institution. According to the report which analysed admissions between 2002 and 2006, state school pupils are missing out compared to those from independent schools. Admissions from the top 30 state schools to Oxbridge were just a third of what would be expected on ability, while at the top 30 independent schools more pupils got in that would be expected on academic merit. One of the top figures in the charity claimed that the figures dont necessarily mean theres favouritism from the Universities, but it could be that state schools dont prepare their students as well, or that they dont raise their aspirations high enough. Family culture and expectations could also play a part. Of course I didnt go to university, and I didnt go to one of the countrys top schools so I dont know if I would have got in, but this does seem to suggest a sort of imbalance, doesnt it? Maybe you went to a lower ranked school but you still got into Oxford or Cambridge, or maybe the opposite! Let me know what you think at the usual address, and whether you agree that the school you go to affects your prospects in higher education, and if so, why? Its an interesting subject and Im sure most people will have something to say on that one. Well thats it from me. I hope you can join me for the programme tonight, Look North on BBC One at half past six. Have a good day, bye for now. Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
