We popped into The Minories whilst in Sunny Colch. I would hesitate to call it an art trail, but being right next door to Firstsite, and well, it would be rude not to have an extra serving of art or arse.

The current Anglian Abstract exhibition is very much of the art variety, rather than the anal. It celebrates modernism in East Anglia. This is a landscape that is often captured in watercolours, and not rigid, geometrical patterns. Anglian Abstract adds a little balance.

Many of the works on show are either models, or 3D in presentation. The artwork leaps out at you, not waiting for you to chin stroke and come up with some crap about what it represents.

It all felt very earthly, even for a medium that can be cold in outlook. It all felt very analogue and not of the modern world, despite the modernism tag.

Artwork with straight lines can work wonders for an OCD obsessed amateur art critic.

Sue Webster’s Birth of an Icon at Firstsite has the type of bombastic exhibition title that you would expect from a confident artist. Tell It Like It Is, etc. Thankfully she just about gets away with it.

Birth of an Icon is no doubt a little playful, a tongue in cheek description to herald her first major solo exhibition. It comes right out of the punk playbook that the exhibition celebrates.

Basically it’s an exhibition spread over four gallery spaces, documenting how the first four Banshee albums shaped the artist. There’s some incredible detail with the various artefacts on show.

The main gallery walls resembles the contents of your loft being carefully curated and put on full public show. It’s a timeline of late 70’s, early 80’s post-punk culture, all presented in not quite a lineal style.

What works really well is the orange string that joins up the dots. It can be confusing at first, but it makes all the connections, showing how different artists, scenes and experiences are all related.

I worked my way along the timeline, surprised to see that Bowie was nowhere to be seen. Ah, don’t worry; there he is in some of the few, final spaces, showing how he helps to hang it all together.

The second gallery space has a stunning collection of DIY punk leather jackets, all bastardised showing love for the Banshees. A third room has some self-portraits of the artist whilst pregnant in her 50’s. The final space was a little too happy clappy for me with scented candles.

Oh - and I bloody loved the Crazyhead reference.

“This story was one-sided”

Cycling campaigners criticise BBC coverage of “irresponsible e-bike users”

High water down at the Hythe as I cycled through on Friday morning. Which can only mean one thing: Haven Road is flooded, innit. I don’t quite understand the physical geography of why Haven Road cops it, whilst King Eddie Quay somehow gets away with no extra water. I don’t think the stalled Hythe Taskforce does either. I’m just grateful for having a safe passage and the opportunity for a few cheeky sunshine snaps.

Everyone loves a big old red boat, right? There’s no finer sight than the Colne Light Ship on a crisp autumnal morning. Sure, the Estuary Wilds sun rays may highlight the urgent need for a paint job. But the Hythe has always been a little rough and ready.

Gotta say that the result from the New Town & Christ Church by-election for Colchester City Council was something of a surprise: a Labour HOLD.

For the record:

ALLAN, Angus (Tory) 200

BOURNE, Richard (Lab) 800 ELECTED

CHILD, Simon (Reform UK) 600

MCCORMICK, Alex (Green) 401

PARTRIDGE, Ian (Indie) 38

WHYBOURN, Chantelle-Louse (LD) 657

First things first: the final totals of 200, 800 and 600 for the Tory, Labour and Reform candidates suggests that the counting took place in bundles, or the good folk of New Town & Christ Church are OCD in their voting habits.

Note that no one called for a recount, natch.

The Labour HOLD - and by some fair margin - is a surprise. I’m not telling you anything new when I say that the party isn’t exactly experiencing a national love in.

Locally on the ground in Sunny Colch, and the picture is a little more mixed. There is the view that Colchester Labour has some good eggs, along with some rather unpleasant characters.

It’s the same for most CLP’s around the country, tbh.

Factor in that the seat became vacant after City Councillor Pam Cox managed to get elected as the MP for the Colchester constituency over a year ago, and the Labour HOLD is actually quite remarkable.

If ever there was an opportunity for the national party to get a good old kicking locally, then New Town & Christ Church was a gift horse.

Reform is the other obvious talking point here. They have come from nowhere locally, with little to no organisation or local party structure.

Never underestimate the foot soldiers and data that are required to fight a successful local campaign. Starting from scratch and blagging 600 votes is a bloody good effort, not to mention a rather frightening one.

If Essex devolution ever happens and the new Unitary authority finally gets set up, then you can see how three party politics in the city has come to an end.

Elsewhere and it’s difficult to comment on the level of tactical voting that may - or may not - have taken place.

The progressive vote with the Greens, Labour and LibDems is strong. If any of them can be arsed to enter into informal coalitions, then this is the way to stop Reform at this level.

I wonder how many votes were lent by the electorate to each of these three parties with a view to crowning the progressive poster boy or girl?

Playing 3D chess at the ballot box is a dangerous game.

Overall it means that there is no overall change in the seats at Colchester City Council:

Conservative - 19

LibDems - 14

Labour - 14

Green - 1

Indies - 1

The LibLab love in limps on, although behind the scenes relationships are a little more ahem fractured.

The 29% turn out yesterday was poor, btw. It was pissing it down all day to be fair.

Just kick it until it breaks, etc.

A pleasant early autumnal walk along the Trail towards Sunny Colch. Not a bad little place to live, etc.