yeah me too, love Rhubarb, you ought to get the walks in Rhubarb triangle book and check out the Rhubarb cheesecake recipe , made it a couple times and its to die for. Just been looking at all the events for the festival and my mouth watering, maybe Wakey T have missed a trick by not having an element of the event there today, especially the Rhibarb Beer

btw appalled by the article in the guardian re the festival, the City and the way she mentions our team

Typical nasty, mean-spirited guff from an Uncle Tom Guardianista trying to ingratiate herself with her new posh friends.

As someone else has mentioned, at a time when small businesses are being asked to take up the slack in economic terms, a festival like this provides an opportunity for local businesses to showcase what they do in a positive way and potentially, grow their business; it's irresponsible for a journalist to denigrate that by sitting at her laptop and pounding out a load of innacurate, supercilious bile and it's even more irresponsible for the paper to publish it.

I'd encourage everyone to contact the Guardian and express their views - I will be.

I already have done.

Asked if am email mentioning her & this article is sufficient to count as an official complaint or if I have to request a form ect..

If I have to go down a specific procedure to complain about this article I'll post details on here.

Can we invite her to BV?

I will gladly build the stocks myself and supply any amount of various veg to pelt her with, what an utterly vile stuck up bitch, may she suffer with thrush till leaves this planet.

Where's the smiley hitting another smiley with a piece of 4x2 when you need one! This will have to do for now!

From an outsider looking in, in that I haven't lived in Wakefield for twenty years, I think Wakefield is doing pretty well. I live in a city that is extremely similar in terms of population size, industrial history, and administrative importance, and Wakefield beats it. Apart from the big cities, which are getting by on coffee outlets and fancy pubs, it is common to hear about town and city centre centres dying, with proper shops being replaced by poundshops and charity shops. Wakefield is just like everywhere else, but still it opened its new sy shopping centre, and the top of the precinct near the cathedral is still a glorious place to be on a sunny day.

She waffles on about Sandal Castle and the Chantry Chapel. I spent a lot of my childhood playing at Sandal Castle, and it is better preserved now than it was then, but she needs to learn her history. My understanding is that Sandal Castle was largely uncovered not long before the seventies, so rather than letting it crumble, the city unveiled it and preserved it for the city. What does she want: it rebuilding in breeze blocks?

The Calder bridge hasn't changed in decades, and so what does she expect with the Chantry Chapel? Blame whoever designed the access into the city all those decades ago, not the city now.

To me, the city has hardly changed, and that is no bad thing. Any problems it portrays in the city centre are no different to anywhere else in the country. It's a sign of the times. I can remember my mother doing the weekly shop in Hillards off Northgate. Who would go into the city centre to do any shopping now, other than for treats and browsing?

As for the rhubarb festival, if they were selling the stuff from little stalls in a twee little back street in Camden, with signs written in chalk, she would be cooing over it, waffling on to her mates about how authentic it is.

Your past is what makes you. The fact that she is ashamed of it tells us more of her own self-image that it does about Wakefield.

My message to her is this: I've written things that have been read by more people and in more countries than you ever have, and I'm proud to put Wakefield in my biography. It made me the person I am: a Yorkshireman who likes drinking bitter, who looks after his brass, and likes spending his weekends watching rugby league. I go to London sometimes and meet high and mighty types who I know will think I am an uncultured oaf, but you know what, I don't enjoy their company. They drink wine I don't understand, guffaw a lot and talk about rugger. I can deal with that. Why can't you?

maybe we should send a few of the boys round to have a word?

A letter to the grundian from the club wouldn't be a bad idea, "disappointed by the image portrayed of the club " and inviting the "journalist" to be a guest at a game to get a better view of the current position of the club.

Her mate probably got it up cheapside every Saturday night after coming out of rooftops and she didn't that's her problem

Kerching!

People love rhubarb in the Limousin region of France where I live.
Served in some quite sophisticated restaurants.
So maybe Wakefield should twin with somewhere here and become sophisticated enough for the supercilious twit who wrote that article.
Had rhubarb yogurt for breakfast yesterday, bought from local supermarket.

Sandal Castle was was excavated in the mid sixties and not left to rot.
I know that because I worked as a volunteer on the dig.

When you read the comments, she's there trying to defend herself and keeps going on about the social deprivation and neglect of Wakefield, I'd love to know where exactly is all this neglect and social deprivation. I know we've got a few areas in town that could do with sorting out and most of it is going to be but what Cities around the country don't have their more run down parts and also have problems around City Nightlife, which Wakefield has improved vastly since the 80's & 90's.
I'd make a guess the article has been written to get a bit of attention for herself and the only thing she could think of, is to pick fault with her home town while writing a article about Rhubarb, makes sense. It especially makes you laugh since it's written by someone who is now living in London, which has far far more areas of neglect and social unrest than the whole of Yorkshire.

It really does tell me more about the writer of the piece that the town itself to be perfectly honest. The article seems to be particularly lazy and dishonest for the simple fact that in my life time, I've never seen so much regeneration around the place as there has been the last 5 or 6 years and continues to be, the City's unrecognizable in some parts to what it was 10 years ago.
Poor article from a immature girl.

I wonder if she is familiar with the M1 and M62 running through Wakefield? If so, maybe she should go play on one of them.

I am proud to say i come from wakefield and i was born and raised leeds