“Low priority” sixth form funding now at “1990” levels
Not great news for 16-18-year-olds hoping to get some decent A-levels, as the government has decided that ensuring this age group gets good grades had taken a back seat, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Money has recently been clawed back from schools, after the government ditched its plan to make every school an academy and decided that the funding should be returned to central government rather than used in other areas of the educational system. Now the think-tank...
How To Make The Perfect… Glass Noodle Salad with Squid & Prawns
With National Noodle Month recognised throughout March, this week’s recipe is a fresh, satisfying Thai salad. Created by Andy Oliver (Som Saa) in collaboration with Singha Beer, the recipe is designed to be paired with a cold beer and seems ideal for the warmer months. Serving four as part of a shared Thai meal, this dish takes less than an hour to prepare and cook and can be made with pork and seafood, too. Ingredients Serves four as part of...
2017 “Superbrands” announced
British Airways has held off Apple, Microsoft and PayPal to be crowned the top business superbrand of 2017. Despite successive strikes making the headlines and unpredictable poll results disrupting the economy BA was ranked top in a survey of marketing experts and thousands of British business professionals. The airline outperformed nearly 1,500 others in the sixteenth annual poll, with Apple retaining second spot and, in its strongest performance since 2011, US tech giant Microsoft moving up to third. Fellow US tech giants, PayPal...
Taboo Review – “Best piece of television I have seen in a decade”
Having just watched the last two episodes of Taboo back to back as part of my Sunday evening wind down, I can only conclude that it is a tour de force by Tom Hardy, his writer Steven Knight ( who wrote the unusual, excellent and wonderfully named film 'Locke') his Father Ed 'Chips' Hardy, the superlative cast and the BBC. This is what TV is supposed to be, a visceral experience that leaves you desperate for the next episode. Taboo...
The day the music dies: What happens to unwanted pianos?
Getting rid of a beautiful grand piano may seem sacrilegious. But sometimes, sadly, they just aren’t usable anymore. Even working pianos can be difficult to sell, and as transporting them is a difficult and dangerous task for anyone other than professional piano movers armed with “heavy duty slippers, shoes, blankets, skids, trolleys and ramps”, they can soon become elephants taking up vital room in your home. Old pianos, particularly those that are beyond repair, are extremely difficult to sell. Robert...
Storm Doris showed what Mother Nature is capable of
Unless you live under a rock you will have no doubt heard about the devastating effects of the recent storm named Doris to visit our shores on Thursday. We Brits are renowned for talking about the weather at any given opportunity, so it was no wonder that the recent storm was the topic on most people lips over the past few days. Storm Doris made her presence known up and down the country. With gusts of up to 100 mph...
Two mums sexually abused as children by same man join forces thirty years later to ensure he stays on offenders’ register
Two mums who were sexually abused as children by the same man joined forces thirty YEARS later to ensure their abuser remains on the sex offenders register. Kate Taylor, 37, and Kerrie Jones, 35, were abused by their Catholic primary school teacher Gerard Kelly now 59, when they were just six years old. In February 1999, 14 years after the abuse took place, Kelly was convicted of indecent assault against seven underage schoolgirls – including Kate and Kerrie – and...
Jail House Rock! “Elvis impersonator stole cancer charity cash at mother-in-law’s FUNERAL”
An Elvis fanatic has been accused of stealing a charity cash sum at his own mother-in-law’s funeral. Christopher Martin Burrows, a devoted fan and impersonator of the rock legend, even belted out of his songs at the service, singing “The Wonder Of You,” however he has been accused of stealing the show and stealing a charity collection raised by mourners. Burrows, denied the charge of theft at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday 23rd February. However, he is accused of stealing...
LaLa Land: Awards and Applause
La La Land doesn’t deserve the awards, but it does deserve our applause Of his work, Busby Berkeley once said that he just “wanted to make people happy, if only for an hour”. The early 1930s was a time of great societal darkness; the world consumed by financial uncertainty & political discontent. Audiences were hungry for entertainment – they needed an escape – and Berkeley’s elaborately choreographed & unapologetically grand dance numbers, which defined such pre-Code musical classics as Dames,...