As anyone who has been gripped by the Netflix series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story will attest, in certain cases power and influence is all you need to get a "not guilty" verdict. The trial was a case of hard evidence on the side of the State versus a heavily bankrolled legal team batting for the defendant. OJ's blood was found at the crime scene, the DNA was a direct match, strands of hair consistent with Simpson's were found on...

Warning: this is what it looks like when irony dies. And it's not pretty. Outlining the reasons the SNP are calling for another Scottish independence referendum now that Scotland faces the threat of being dragged out of the European single market as well as out of the EU, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon explained: "Our precious union of nations is the most successful that the world has ever seen... We've worked together, we've prospered together, we fought wars together. And we have a bright future.... We should...

An extraordinary search and rescue dog from Cheshire was honoured today (Thursday 16 March 2017) by leading vet charity PDSA for his devotion to duty in some of the world’s most challenging regions. At a special ceremony at Manchester Town Hall, Border Collie Bryn became the latest recipient of the prestigious PDSA Order of Merit* – the animals’ OBE. Bryn’s award is in recognition of his exemplary service as a search and rescue dog, working with Cheshire Fire and Rescue...

David Hockney is one of the most iconic living artists in the world and as he approaches his 80th birthday the Tate Britain has gathered a huge selection of his works. His career has spanned six decades and the versatile artists working in various forms including drawing, print, photography, painting and digital creations. Hockney has always embraced new technology and used it to bring a new style to his masterpieces. I spend virtually all my time running the site (violins...

The Electoral Commission has handed a fine of £70k to the Conservative party for not reporting electoral expenses appropriately. The level of fee is tiny and will easily be covered by the party machine. Even though the party made “numerous failures” during the 2015 general election and three by-elections, it hasn’t led to criminal prosecutions. It could have swayed the outcome of the election, but a fine was seen as appropriate punishment by the EC. The Tory Party’s 2015 UK...

A Ukip canvasser who was caught on camera urinating on an elderly woman's fence will not face court action after he sent her a letter of apology. CCTV shows the man, who is wearing a Ukip rosette and a flat-cap, relieving himself at the side of Marjorie Pinches' house in Stoke-on-Trent, on her 73rd birthday. Another camera caught the moment she confronted the man who was distributing political leaflets before he tried to push his way into her house to...

A famous Banksy once valued at a million pounds which "fell" off a wall appears to be for sale on Facebook. The elusive artist created 'spy booth' depicting three 'spooks' snooping on a phone box with listening devices near GCHQ in Cheltenham, Glos., in 2014. But it was reduced to a pile of rubble when builders worked on the wall above the artwork and it collapsed last summer. Building owner David Possee took the bits to the council for safekeeping,...

Nemo the world's luckiest goldfish was saved after it escaped the jaws of a cat and survived 20 minutes out of water on a doorstep - close to a vets. The 12cm-long fish is thought to have been snatched from a garden pond by a cat who fancied it for its supper and left it outside a house. But he was found still barely damp and carried in a shoebox to a nearby branch of City Vets in Exeter, Devon...

When we think about the lifespan of a business, we less commonly think about the end of the cycle. Nevertheless, it is a critical phase: business life spans have shortened dramatically in the last 100 years. In this rapidly changing environment, being able to recognise and bring a business's life span to an end is in fact a key business skill and not a terminal failure. ONS data tells us that in 2015 there were almost 2.7million active businesses operating...