The Third Leader: Spring time
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sparkling, or rather still, news from Pocklington, where Mr and Mrs Hobson are now selling water from the spring in their back garden. The launch of Di Aqua is a tribute to several traditional Yorkshire mineral qualities, including grit, as the Hobsons sunk more than a few bore holes and more than a few thousand pounds before bottling the water.
And, for obvious, aboriginal reasons, there is always also an epic quality to water, its extraction and exploitation. One thinks of Moses in the Desert, Jean de Florette in Provence, Derek Trotter in Peckham, and Dasani, the Coca Cola product drawn from the famous tap in Sidcup. Oh, and hosepipe bans passim.
So perhaps Mr and Mrs Hobson have missed a bit of a trick with the name, even though it links with their jewellery business. Well, yes, Hobson's Choice; but I was thinking of past entrepreneurs, who would already have been planning a rival to Bath, Cheltenham, and nearby Harrogate: Pocklington Spa.
It does have a ring to it. But then so did, for a time, Beulah Spa, in the south London uplands, and other lost waters with names like Cairnwell, Lyncomb and Glastonbury, victims of the almost final decline in taking the waters in later Victorian Britain.
The Bath Spa has finally opened; might not this be Pocklington's moment? A claim other than being the last place in England to burn a witch should be welcome. But water, as we know, is an uncertain business. It's unlikely, and heaven forfend for the Hobsons, but we might just decide to stop paying for it twice and give the tap a turn again. Cheers.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments