Editor’s Pick of the Week: Yungblud pours pints in Harrogate, Ripon pub in ‘wokery’ row

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You spend time lovingly crafting theatre reviews and writing serious news, only to find that a story knocked out in minutes about a rockstar pulling pints trumps your best efforts.

The power of celebrity was highlighted this week when an article about Grammy-winning artist Yungblud doing little besides serving Guinness and signing autographs at his sister’s pub in Harrogate was our best-read article of the week.

In the spirit of giving the punters what they want, we dished up more Yungblud stories here and here.

It’s also been an eventful week at the Black A Moor in Ripon, which has new owners and a new name.

The Stray Ferret revealed the pub near Ripon Races was being rebranded the Furlong and Furrow because, the owners explained, “Black-a-moor is an archaic, offensive term for a Black person”.

Other media soon picked up on our coverage and by Thursday, The Sun said locals had branded it ‘woke gone mad’.

A talent show in Ripon was cancelled due to a lack of entries, and the debate over whether Kirkgate should be pedestrianised, and indeed whether the current hours of pedestrianisation should be enforced more rigorously, continued to rage.

You may have noticed we have published more opinion pieces recently. One of this week’s offerings asking whether Knaresborough is neglected rattled a few cages. Let us know if you have something you’d like to get off your chest.

In perhaps this week’s least surprising news, another delay was announced for the £82.5 million Kex Gill road realignment.

The June 3 completion date has been replaced by a vague ‘mid-summer’ pledge and motorists heading from the west for July’s Great Yorkshire Show could be stuck in traffic lights.

The council press release dressed it up as: ‘Much-needed Kex Gill scheme enters final stages’ and included upbeat quotes from Councillor Malcolm Taylor, the highways head honcho, saying it was “extremely encouraging to see such strong progress”.

In other political news, Cllr Gareth Dadd, the council's Conservative deputy leader, announced he will be stepping down after next year’s elections, which will take place on May 7.

Finally, if you’re reading this before 3pm today (May 2), good luck to Harrogate Town in their season finale against Barnet. If you’re reading it after 5pm, congratulations for staying up / commiserations for relegation. We’d love a North Yorkshire derby against York City next season.