Team Sky will target stage wins for the rest of the Tour de France as their Tour leader Bradley Wiggins recovers from a broken collarbone and prepares for a possible assault on the world championships at the end of the season, the team said.

Asked where Wiggins’s departure on Friday leaves him, Geraint Thomas said simply “off the front”, meaning that he will be looking for a chance to get in any escapes.

“It would be a shame to go under the radar, get our heads down for a few days,” said Thomas. “The days when there will be breakaways will go soon, it’s the next few days, so we have to turn it round right away and race hard. If Bradley was still here we would be doing a job for him, but now we have a chance to get up the road.”

When asked what he had told the team after Wiggins’s return to Britain, Sky’s team principal Dave Brailsford said: “I said to the guys this is an opportunity for them.”

“The likes of Geraint and Edvald Boasson Hagen were going to commit themselves totally to Brad, now they have an opportunity to ride with free will, with abandon, looking for stage victories. We need to see what development opportunities there are, what people can learn for their careers in the longer-term.”

Wiggins was flown out of a military airport near Châteauroux on a private flight to Manchester on Friday night. The flight left late, meaning that it was not possible to operate on his broken left collarbone, but the operation was expected to take place on Saturday.

The fracture is clean, and while a plate will remain in place for up to two years, most cyclists with similar injuries may resume training on a home trainer after five days, returning to the road after 10 days.

There is speculation that Wiggins may race the Tour of Spain in order to prepare for the world road time-trial championship in Denmark at the end of September. The Vuelta starts on 20 August and there is speculation that a possible comeback race for the triple Olympic gold medallist could be the Tour of Denmark from 3-7 August.

“I’d fully endorse [Sky' senior sports director] Sean Yates’s thoughts on Brad riding at least one grand tour this season,” said head coach Shane Sutton, who has been responsible for Wiggins’s preparation this season together with the former Australian swimming coach Tim Kerrison. Wiggins was expected to race the Tour of Britain from 11-18 September but would have to miss it if he opted for the Tour of Spain.

Sutton said that much of the team’s racing programme for the end of the season would have to be re-evaluated in the light of Wiggins’s withdrawal from the Tour.

“I would like him to consider the Vuelta, not just riding it but being competitive. We need to see how Brad feels about it. He’s well up for the world time-trial and off the back of what he has done this year, 10 days off the road isn’t going to be a lot.”

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This article titled “Team Sky riders to be let loose as Bradley Wiggins undergoes surgery” was written by William Fotheringham at Super-Besse Sancy, for The Guardian on Saturday 9th July 2011 10.10 UTC

Team Sky riders to be let loose as Bradley Wiggins undergoes surgery is a post from: worldwormweb

This article titled “The Sun, and republicans, are upset by councils’ street party rulings” was written by Roy Greenslade, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 11th April 2011 10.47 UTC

The Sun carries a leader today arguing that council “killjoys” are threatening to wreck royal wedding street parties due to “town hall red tape”. The Sun says:

“Most of the councils taking such a preposterous hardline are Labour run – and are hiding their Stalinist hatred of all things Royal behind a smokescreen of health and safety.”

It’s more than a little unfair to refer to republicans (and Labour party members) as Stalinists.

But this problem with councils and street parties can cut both ways. The Labour-run Camden council has refused permission for the anti-monarchist group, Republic, to stage a “not the royal wedding” street party in Covent Garden.

According to a statement on its website, Republic believe the council initially gave them the go-ahead to use Earlham Street for their event.

It says that the police and the council “had confirmed as late as Tuesday that they had no problem with the nature of the event and were happy that there were no public safety concerns.”

Republic’s executive officer Graham Smith called the decision “a disgraceful attack on the rights of republicans to make their voice heard.”

But a spokeswoman for Camden council denied that permission had been previously granted. She told me that there were “strong local objections” to the party, plus concern from the police about possible disorder.

In a statement, she said: “Many local businesses were opposed to the event taking place as it would directly contradict the royal wedding theme in terms of their merchandise.”

Sources: Republic/Camden Council press office

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This article titled “Ever fancied being a nosy parker? Now’s the time to fulfil your dream” was written by David Mitchell, for The Observer on Saturday 4th September 2010 23.02 UTC

September is the best month for snooping. Nosy Peeping Tom Parker can sneak his steepling flasher mac almost anywhere if he takes advantage of the country’s various “open weekends”. Next weekend in Northern Ireland and most of England, the following one in London, and throughout the month in Scotland and Wales, schemes known variously as “Heritage Open Days”, “European Heritage Days”, “Open House”, “Doors Open” and “Open Doors” are running. They should really agree on a single brand. Something catchy like: “That weekend when you can get into places where you’re usually not allowed.” But maybe that would only lead to more uncomfortable conversations about anal sex within ailing marriages.

But what a wonderful opportunity! It’s a backstage pass to the theatre of Britain. We get to lift the curtain and discover, behind the terrifying wizardry of government, Nick Clegg desperately pulling levers and pedalling while David Cameron sips martinis with our alien lizard overlords. So don’t waste it.

Most of the places advertised on the “Heritage Open Days” website seem to be churches. Nice try, guys, but everyone knows you’re always open – that’s your whole thing. It’s a bit late to look exclusive now. But look beyond the flying buttresses and guided tours of crypts and you’ll find some unforgettable days out:

Blue Peter nuclear bunker, Derbyshire

The windowless studio environment from which Blue Peter has always been broadcast was selected so that it could easily be replicated under post-apocalyptic conditions.

“In the 1950s, nuclear war seemed inevitable,” remembers a former head of children’s television. “The BBC felt responsible for maintaining the nation’s morale as it gradually succumbed to radiation sickness.”

The John Noakes-era set, in this subterranean, reinforced-concrete complex deep beneath the Pennines, is complete with a stuffed Shep double and 30% of the nation’s reserve supply of double-sided sticky tape.

“We actually recorded a dry run under full emergency conditions, with the cast medicated to simulate the effects of a nuclear winter. The sight of Lesley Judd throwing up all over the advent crown really brought home to me the horrors of war.”

Prince Charles’s synagogue, Londonderry

As part of his commitment to be a “Defender of Faith”, Prince Charles commissioned the building of a private synagogue at this hotspot of the Troubles five years ago.

“The sovereign is already an Anglican in England and a Presbyterian in Scotland,” explains the prince. “But in Northern Ireland to be either, or indeed to be Catholic, is divisive. So, when I’m king, whenever I’m in Ulster I shall be Jewish.”

According to the prince, the new place of worship has been the product of extensive research among “many of the vaguely Jewish people I know who are also into homeopathy” and, in keeping with his royal highness’s architectural views, looks like a top-of-the-range Barratt home that’s missing its Lexus. His aides insist that the prince is utterly focused on his geographically specific espousal of Judaism and even, according to an equerry, “working on a sort of Woody Allen voice”.

The stuffed body of the original David Hare, National Theatre, London

When the original David Hare died very suddenly in 1970, only a few weeks after being introduced to the public as the “next good playwright”, a decision was taken by the Arts Council just to get a new one and not tell anybody.

“And I think the replacement has done pretty well, considering. I mean, some of those plays are absolutely fine,” says the council’s then chief. But the corpse of the original Hare was carefully preserved “in case we needed it for press conferences”.

When that proved impractical, the stuffed remains were left gathering dust in the props store until they were discovered 18 months ago by a PhD student. Restored to something like its former glory, and dressed in a Hamlet costume, the cadaver is now installed in pride of place in dressing room 93 where Hare’s outstretched finger, warning of the vagaries of theatrical fortune, is often used to hang pants.

The Innocent Smoothies chill zone, Buckinghamshire

An award-winning employer, Innocent Smoothies converted this Grade II-listed, 14th-century leper colony for their copywriters and advertising creatives to recuperate after months of writing blurb for the mashed fruit giant. Their head of human resources explains: “People think it’s an easy job, composing wholesome and kooky phrases about fruit but, after a few weeks, even the strongest of the team get to the point where they can’t stop retching.

“We discovered that, while the only sugar in our product is naturally occurring fructose, the nature of our branding was giving members of our team a rare form of psychological diabetes.”

The interrogation rooms at MI6, London

On the weekend of the 18th and 19th, the Secret Intelligence Service will be conducting guided tours of its state-of-the-art interrogation suites.

“I don’t like to call them torture chambers,” jokes the service’s head of maintenance, “but that’s because I have to sleep at night!”

Advance booking is recommended but these tours are not for the faint-hearted: “My kids loved it last year though – they’re big fans of Horrible Histories. I think it’s a great day out for anyone who’s fascinated by those grisly stories of Catholics on the rack at the Tower or the waxworks of traitors being hung, drawn and quartered at the London Dungeon. This brings all that ghoulish titillation bang up to date.

“People come here expecting some sort of wacky bondage cell so they’re quite surprised to see all the syringes! They also find it odd that the whole place isn’t wipe clean – I think they imagine a sort of horrific wet room, screams echoing off the tiles and so forth.

“But really these days, we forgo all that gore. It’s quite a tidy process. The only bodily fluid we routinely have to deal with is tears.”

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This article titled “Qwitter: was it something I tweeted?” was written by Rob Fitzpatrick, for The Guardian on Wednesday 7th July 2010 19.30 UTC

If you are interested in testing your resistance to psychic pain, may I recommend Qwitter? This is a service that emails you daily to impart who has “unfollowed” you on Twitter in the last 24 hours – who, among all the new friends you have acquired online, has decided they no longer want to read your hilarious 140-character posts. If Twitter is the bright, open heartland of limitless conversation, then Qwitter is the abandoned wheelie-bin behind the boarded-up kebab shop of failure, a place where the limitless conversation ends.

The email arrives heralded by the strapline “Your latest Twitter Qwitters!” – has there ever been a more unwelcome exclamation mark? – and your eye is immediately drawn to that day’s number. Today it was small: just one, a T-shirt company. Why was a T-shirt company following me? More to the point, what did I do to make a T-shirt company unfollow me? Losing something a step up from a spambot (an automated identity that posts malicious links) is nothing; much worse is when the rejections come in groups. Last week I lost six in a day. Six entirely (as far as I can see) unconnected people decided they could live without my sun-bleached pictures of Dulwich park and excitable Spotify recommendations. To be Qwit is to be reminded that someone has stopped listening, stopped caring. It’s as if they have, very quietly, put the phone down on you while you are still talking.

In the past I have unfollowed many people, recently jettisoning a number of blowhard wafflers, a young rapper constantly plugging his CD, and a maddeningly ponderous website editor. I’ve dropped people I have interviewed, worked with and even like, in an attempt to keep the online noise down a little. And not one of those decisions was personal – apart from maybe the website editor. I just wanted something else from my Twitter feed. So I know how ridiculous it is to feel bad about being digitally dumped. Yet this distancing still stings. What did I say? What did I do? Don’t go, you feel like shouting, tomorrow I might tweet a blurry picture of my lunch or even say something mildly amusing about a Coronation Street character.

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