Watch – SNP announce plans for a second independence referendum
The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has told her party’s conference that a bill for a new referendum is due to be published. The previous referendum ended in defeat for the SNP with 55 per cent of voters opting to remain part of Britain. However, a wave of nationalism spread through the country after the vote, virtually wiping out Labour north of the border in the last general election. She said: “So, I can confirm today that the Independence Referendum Bill...
Frack off! Brits turn their backs on controversial shale gas extraction
The Government has just overturned a council decision and will allow fracking in Lancashire, regardless of the concerns of the public, and local officials who are against the controversial process. The decision has led to some people saying it signals an attack on local democracy by central government. There are also plans for another site in Doncaster with the decision expected next month. Now a YouGov poll has indicated that support for the energy extraction process is at only 37.3%,...
Still Loved: Dealing with the Loss of a Child as a Father
By Chris Mates As you may or may not be aware this week is Baby Loss Awareness Week. Involving twenty-one pregnancy and baby loss charities in the UK it's a special opportunity to mark the brief lives of babies lost in pregnancy or soon after birth. If I'm truly honest I wouldn't have been aware of this event and the significance of the month ahead had it not been for my own personal experience. Two years ago my wife and...
Beer of the Week – ORA Gioele
Strength: 5% Brewed: Modena, Italy Having scoured England, Scotland and Italy in search of the finest ingredients, ORA is an Italian craft brewery located in Modena. Launched around ten years ago initially as a pastime, Daniele Costa Zaccarelli began to brew beers in his garage and over time learnt the importance of ingredients, eventually changing the water and malts used to substantially improve the quality of his beers. After five years of working on the recipes, ORA now has two...
Oops! School sends text with c-word in to hundreds of parents
Most of us have done it, but only to friends or family members, but one school managed to accidentally send the c-word to hundreds of parents. St Dunstan's School has since apologise for making the slip-up in a message asking mums and dads to fill in a form.The text was also written in next speech, that might not have impressed the parents either. However, instead of requesting students' 'country' of birth, they failed to type the 'O' and 'R', giving...
Never Too Old To Volunteer – 65-y-o woman travels to Africa to support child abuse victims
In January 2016 65 year-old, Shelagh Harris embarked on a unique experience to South Africa to help at child victim abuse charity, a once in a lifetime chance to give something back to the needy, this is her story... I had recently retired when my daughter asked if I would like to go to South Africa with her and volunteer. We had enjoyed a number of weekend breaks together; time for informal chats, pampering and re-charging of our batteries. I...
Online scams leads to £400 million increase in fraud during first half of 2016
The digital world is not a safe place and a huge increase in scams and online attacks, show that financial fraud in the first half of 2016 increased 25 per cent to £399.5 million. The figures were released by Financial Fraud Action (FFA UK) today and the sums of money that are being swindled on a daily basis, on-line, are astonishing. However, the amount of money that is actually attempted to be stolen is much larger. On-line security systems at...
PMQs 12TH October – Brexit is the answer…but that’s not one of the 170 questions
“The long march to freedom” has begun, the only problem is the Prime Minster doesn’t know the way or if the Promised Land is a toxic landfill site, or a nirvana where unchained UK citizens are served by carefully selected foreign people. As you can imagine most of the new, and old, opposition leader’s questions were on Brexit and Theresa May’s plans for it. Only this morning 170 questions from the Labour party over Brexit landed on her desk. A...
England without Rooney: Brave new world or foolish mistake?
Sport News 24/7 By David de Winter - Sports Editor @TLE_Sport @davidjdewinter I watched England labour to a fairly fortunate draw in Slovenia last night in what, before the match at least, felt like a new beginning for the national side. Captain Wayne Rooney was dropped to the bench after an inauspicious start to the season for both club and country. This was heralded as a watershed moment for England (mostly by the media), ushering in a new era of...