By Mark Brill, senior lecturer in Digital Communication and Future Media at Birmingham City University Social Media has become a key battleground for political campaigning. Ahead of the upcoming UK election the main parties are putting social media at the core of their campaigns. The question is, how will all that activity impact on the final vote on June 8th? The first significant use of social media in elections was Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008. Hiring a team...

Recently, I found myself in Surbiton, where I had arranged to meet an old friend who lives in deepest commuter-land. I had never visited the place before. Indeed, I have to confess that it was well into my adult life that I discovered it was a real place at all; previously, I had assumed it was a fictional entity, invented by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde for The Good Life. The name just seemed so apt, Surbiton, with its hint...

“Go fuck yourself” Sven Ratzke says, kindly. Ratzke has cleverly managed to be both Dutch and German, and therefore merrily walks the line of being very easy to chat to whilst taking absolutely no nonsense from anyone at any time. Ratzke has been touring the world as the creator and star of Starman for the last two years, and in June it’s finally coming to London. At this juncture a writer will normally tell you what their interviewee is wearing,...

Technology is evolving a huge range of markets, and with automation and artificial intelligence beginning to take the limelight, there are a huge number of ways that this is affecting investment management. Investment management is extremely important when it comes to building up a successful portfolio across a range of assets, and reports of new technologies and software being introduced is said to making this easier than ever. Here, we’re taking a look at the changes in the industry and...

Strength: 5.7% ABV Brewed: Žatec, Czech Republic Brewed in the cellars of a 14th century castle in the historic Czech town of Žatec, CELIA produces two different beers. Both are notably vegan-friendly and gluten-free, thanks to a silicon filtration technique used during the brewing process. As a result, the brewery takes great pride on providing beer that doesn’t leave drinkers feeling uncomfortably bloated, without compromising on flavour. CELIA Dark, a dark lager, for instance, is hand-crafted and brewed with premium...

A new video has been leaked showing the moment President Trump plagiarised a speech from Legally Blonde when addressing university students in the US. The video, made by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, reveals striking similarities between Trump's words and the graduation speech given by Elle Woods at the end of the 2001 comedy film. Speaking at Liberty University in Virginia on Saturday, Trump says in Fallon's clip: "You must go forth into to the world. Passion, courage in...

Theresa May will be jumping for joy at the latest job market figures that show the UK unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest in 42 years - but don't be fooled. The Tories have become attuned to using unemployment figures to mask other worrying economic trends since the aftermath of the financial crisis. During their tenure the number of unemployed people has fallen dramatically, which would seem impressive to the untrained eye, but is merely icing sugar on top of a...

By Linda Marric King Arthur: Legend of the Sword or to give it its full name, “lock stock and a whole load of Arthurian cockney nonsense”, is the latest offering from Guy Ritchie. Directed by Ritchie himself and staring Charlie Hunnam, King Arthur is not so much an epic fantasy adventure, but more of a mammoth production of boorish, noisy and not to mention unnecessarily silly going-ons. Despite earlier misgivings, the film opens with a spectacular CGI infused battle which...

A mix of fussy eating and diverse family eating patterns is creating a mountain of food waste in Britain and making meal preparation increasingly taxing for British parents. Millions of parents are cooking more than four times a day, according to new research, with those from multi-generational and larger families cooking up to ten differing meals every day. A quarter of the 2,000 parents polled admit that in order to meet different family schedules they are forced to play chef several times...