u/Selpmis

At some point between 9:30am Saturday morning and noon the following Tuesday (today), the NHS have:

• Taken vials of my blood
• Labelled and bagged them
• Arranged a courier to collect them from the GP surgery
• Transported them to a pathology lab
• Booked them in and logged them on a Saturday
• Centrifuged the samples to separate the components
• Run them through multiple automated analysers across 12 different tests
• Had a biomedical scientist review and validate every result
• Authorised and released the results
• Transmitted them electronically to my GP record
• Synced them to my NHS app

Over a weekend. For free. I am genuinely gobsmacked.

Local elections take place every year, with the exception of every fourth year. Bolton Council has 60 seats in total, with 3 allocated to each of its 20 wards. In 2023, boundary changes meant all 60 seats were contested at once. This election sees the seats of those who placed second in 2023 up for grabs, as part of the normal three-year cycle.

Astley Bridge
Reform UK - Ryan Bailey (1,635 votes)
Previously Conservative Party

Bradshaw
Conservative Party - Les Webb (1,801 votes)
Held

Breightmet
Reform UK - Mike Tucker (1,890 votes)
Previously Conservative Party

Bromley Cross
Conservative Party - Charlotte Anne Cadden (1,794 votes)
Held

Farnworth North
Labour - Nadeem Ayub (1,131 votes)
Held

Farnworth South
Reform UK - Julie Pattison (1,220 votes)
Previously Farnworth & Kearsley First Party

Great Lever
Labour - Mohammed Iqbal (1,918 votes)
Held

Halliwell
Green Party - Baggy Khan (1,752 votes)
Previously Labour

Heaton, Lostock & Chew Moor
Conservative Party - Anne Barbara Galloway (2,112 votes)
Held

Horwich North
Horwich & Blackrod First Independents - Andrea Jane Finney (1,905 votes)
Held

Horwich South & Blackrod
Horwich & Blackrod First Independents - Peter Wright (1,775 votes)
Held

Hulton
Reform UK - Derek Bullock (1,939 votes)
Previously Labour Party

Kearsley
Reform UK - Roger Pedley (1,564 votes)
Previously One Kearsley

Little Lever & Darcy Lever
Reform UK - Derek Wunderley (2,040 votes)
Previously Conservative

Queens Park & Central
Green Party - Zan Arif (1,090 votes)
Previously Labour

Rumworth
Green Party - Ismail Ibrahim (2,346 votes)
Previously Labour

Smithills
Liberal Democrats - Sue Priest (1,713 votes)
Held

Tonge with the Haulgh
Reform UK - Trevor Jones (2,089 votes)
Previously Labour and Co-Operative Party

Westhoughton North & Hunger Hill
Reform UK - David Lewis (1,781 votes)
Previously Conservative

Westhoughton South
Reform UK - Glen Clarke (1,644 votes)
Previously Liberal Democrats

---

9 - Reform UK
3 - Conservative
3 - Green Party
2 - Horwich & Blackrod First Independents
2 - Labour
1 - Liberal Democrats

Link to the Local Election results in 2023, for comparison. Note: the candidate who received the 2nd highest amount of votes in 2023 is having their seat on the council contested this year.

Just binged and caught up with the whole show. First time I was aware that, in 2022, Gemma Collins was due to play Mama Morton in the UK/Ireland Chicago tour!

I've only ever known her as a reality star, but if she auditioned and got the part then I'll assume she has enough talent that translates to musical theatre especially after training and rehearsing. I think she'd make a FAB Mama Morton so I'm GUTTED that it never happened!

I managed to find a video of her performing 'Big Spender' in 2019. I think I would've enjoyed to see how she would have performed the role!

https://reddit.com/link/1syrnbr/video/dh6saant23yg1/player

Edit: To add a clip for easy viewing in app and added the year she was due to tour.