26 June 2026
Bedford Ian has been looking at recent goings on across Bedford Borough and tells us what he thinks of it all…
Quiet heroes
The train collision has dominated Bedford’s headlines for days.
Read: All our coverage of the Bedford train collision
Behind every update, every press conference and every investigation are the people who arrived long before the cameras.
Police officers, firefighters, ambulance crews, air ambulance teams, NHS staff, railway workers, and volunteers.
We’ll probably never know the full extent of what they saw that evening. Nor should we.
But we do know that dozens of people made it home to their families because complete strangers had the training, professionalism and courage to help them when it mattered most.
We rightly spend a lot of time holding public bodies to account in this column.
This week, it’s only right that we also acknowledge when they get things right.
Bedford owes every single person involved in that response a debt of gratitude.
On behalf of the team here at the Bedford Independent, I’m privileged to say: thank you for being there for all people in Bedford, even when they were only passing through.
Let’s hope they never have to face a night like that again.
Black marker
Progress Publishing’s recent ‘Redaction Day’ campaign, where they blacked out chunks of their news stories to illustrate the terrifying reality of a world without independent local journalism, went down brilliantly with 95% of you.
Read: Bedford Independent and Bedford Clanger redact stories to warn “no news is bad news”
Thank you for standing with them, sharing the articles, and understanding the core message: no news really is bad news.
Then, of course, there was the remaining 5%.
It turns out that, for some, trying to highlight the existential threat to local reporting by demonstrating its absence is a bit like explaining algebra to a Bedford Park swan.
The team was treated to a delightful flurry of digital panic, featuring comments from baffled readers demanding to know: “How am I supposed to know what’s going on if you block parts of the text out?”
Well, precisely. Gold star for observation to the chief inspector of the blindingly obvious. That was, quite literally, the entire point.
But the absolute crown, the undisputed, platinum-plated trophy for missing the mark entirely, goes to the literary critic who boldly complained, “By blocking parts of the headline, you’re forcing people to read the article.”
The horror! The sheer, unadulterated cruelty of it all.
Imagine a local news outlet, nefariously scheming in the dark corners of the Borough, deploying advanced psychological censorship tactics just to force its audience to read the actual reporting.
Read: If our redactions annoyed you yesterday, good. That was the point
It’s practically a human rights violation. How dare the editorial team here expect anyone to move past a 10-word headline before firing off a furious, uneducated comment on social media?
I hope they apologise unreservedly for this trauma.
Mayor’s mumblings
On Monday evening, I tuned in to a special report from the BBC’s Look East team at Bedford Train Station to hear the human stories of the tragedy.
It was rather painful to watch, but not always for the reason you’d expect.
Mayor Tom Wotton (Conservative) is, by all accounts, a cheery chap and rather the optimist, but I had really hoped that someone at the council might have advised him that the smiley, merry one-liners should have taken a back seat in what has been a sombre time for our Borough.
Such crackerjacks as “plonking some double-decker buses on” followed by taking pleasure in what will be a “fantastic enquiry” belong at events such as that River Festival he tried to cancel.
Not a train collision that took a life and left others with life-changing injuries.
While it’s only fair and proper to point out that the mayor did thank the emergency services and the Bedford community on multiple occasions, I’m not sure the Trump-lite shtick was particularly well-suited to a major incident like this.
ベッドフォードはクソじゃない。*
You know the feeling: Your mates text you from the pub round the corner to invite you to come for a pint, but you’ve already got your PJs on, and the effort all feels a bit much.
Not so, Tokyo-based DJ, Spinnage (aka Hideo Teramoto).
Finding out that his favourite House label, Freerange Records, was planning to hold their 30th birthday celebrations at Herd on St Cuthbert’s Street, he decided to book a week off work and make the pilgrimage from Tokyo to Bedford. Because, of course, you would.
Writing on his blog, Hideo said: “There was a scene I wanted to touch, people I wanted to meet, even if it meant travelling a long way to get there.”
Leaning heavily into the significance of the word ‘pilgrimage’ to describe his trip, Hideo became inspired by the scallop shell symbol of the Santiago de Compostela in Spain – one of the best-known and well-travelled pilgrimage routes in the world.
In its honour, he slapped a Shell Oil logo sticker on his suitcase, a logo that was designed in the year of Spinnage’s birth, 1971. The Universe certainly seemed to be on his side.
Arriving at Herd, the weary traveller was immediately greeted by Jimpster, the head of Freerange Records and DJ Matt Masters. Drinking pints and chatting, Hideo marvelled, “The world I had admired was right there in front of me. Honestly, how was this even a reality?”
So what’s the moral we can take from this story?
Basically, if someone can make the effort to travel over 7,000 miles for a night out in Bedford, there really is no excuse not to enjoy the music, theatre, comedy, exhibitions, art and culture right on our doorstep.
Because if this story is proof of anything, it’s that Bedford really, really, really isn’t shit.
Read: The Bedford Clanger’s What’s on guide
*Bedford isn’t shit
Bregret
Happy tin anniversary, everyone! This week marked 10 years since the UK voted to leave the European Union, prompting many to look back at the historic decision.
Among the commentators was the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, who certainly did not mince his words. He described the departure as a “colossal mistake” and offered a rather vivid medical analogy.
Stubb said: “It is not only shooting yourself in the foot, but it’s like amputating your leg without a medical reason for doing it.”
Recent polling data from YouGov suggests that a clear majority of the British public is starting to see it the same way.
Their research indicates that 57% of Britons now believe the UK was wrong to leave the EU, a figure that surprisingly includes 23% of those who originally voted for it.
Furthermore, 55% of people state they would support rejoining, though that appetite drops to 35% if the UK had to rejoin without its previous opt-outs, leaving 43% opposed.
A broader 59% would prefer a closer relationship with the EU without fully rejoining the single market, while a cautious 31% think rejoining would actually improve their personal household finances.
Yet, amidst all this national soul-searching, a remarkable silence has descended upon North Bedfordshire. Our very own staunch Brexit champion, Richard Fuller MP (Conservative), seems to have lost his microphone.
We haven’t heard a single peep out of him regarding this momentous anniversary, leaving local Bedfordians to wonder if he still shares that unshakeable faith in our amputated economic leg.
Despite the pound still not having returned to its pre-Brexit level, UK GDP per head is between 6% and 8% lower than it would have been without Brexit, and business investment is estimated to be close to 18% lower than it would have been under Remain.
Read: How Brexit has made Britain poorer – in charts (The Guardian)
If you fancy a trip down memory lane to see how we got here, a resurfaced clip from November 2025 shows LBC’s Lewis Goodall desperately trying to pin Fuller down on whether his party misled the public.
Watching public officials dodge accountability with Olympic-level agility is always a treat.
However, as the bills keep rising, Bedfordians might prefer a straight answer over a masterclass in political silence.
See you soon,
Bedford Ian.
PS: If you see anything Bedford Ian might find amusing, let us know at news@BedfordIndependent.co.uk.
