NYnet, the organisation responsible for expanding high-speed fibre optic broadband across North Yorkshire, has admitted that a quarter of homes in Richmondshire won’t get a lookin.

BT won’t connect villages with fewer than 300 homes because it’s not commercially viable. So that’s every village other than Reeth in Swaledale, as well as Carperby, Aysgarth, Preston, West Burton, Constable Burton, Finghall and lots of others missing out. It’s well short of the 90-100 per cent coverage talked of last year.

Will it be commercially viable to deliver letters to these villages when Royal Mail is privatised?

On a happier note, we went on the Wensleydale Railway to see the site of the planned new platform near Northallerton on Sunday.

It was baking hot and the train trundled quite slowly – I saw a bumblebee overtake us at one point – but what a remarkable achievement to run the first passenger train between Northallerton and Redmire since 1954.

Another success story was the Richard III celebrations in Middleham where the king spent much of his youth. Although he was the last king from the House of York and highly regarded at the time for improving the lot of the North of England, it’s interesting that he’s spoken of today with fondness.

According to the ten minutes of research I’ve done, this was a man who was asked by his brother, Edward IV, to look after his two sons. Fair enough, but when Edward died he declared that his brother’s marriage was invalid, his two sons were illegitimate and he was actually the rightful king.

The two boys then disappeared from the Tower of London where they were being held, with many historians believing Richard either ordered their murder or did the task himself.

If Shakespeare is to be believed, he killed lots of other people, including his wife and brother, although Shakey may have used plenty of artistic licence.

Either way, I’m not sure he was a man to be fond of.