Sport News 24/7 By James Mackney  @JimMackney  @TLE_Sport When José Fonte arrived from Crystal Palace in January 2010 for a sum in the region of £1.2 million it was with an air of bemusement; after all Fonte had decided to step down from the Championship with Crystal Palace to join Southampton in League 1 midway through the 2009/10 season. He scored his first goal for the club the following season in an emphatic 4-0 over Bristol Rovers, when he opened...

By Amy Sharpe Over the last eight years I have veered between two hairstyles: overly-straightened, and a Russell Brand bird nest. Despite many a woman telling me they ‘would kill for curly hair’ all my life, I’ve yet to embrace my curls. Mainly because I haven’t got a clue what to do with them. But, sitting in Lee Stafford’s apartment as he flexed his fingers through my spirals, I sensed I was about to be made to embrace them. “Do...

  By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Europe is getting back on track, according to Schroders' Senior European Economist Azad Zangana, who believes the unclogging of the banking sector along with falling oil prices and quantitative easing is prompting better-than-expected results. Despite Greece being nowhere nearer to agreeing the terms of its next bailout, raising the likelihood of a forced exit from the eurozone, peripheral markets have seen little contagion and there is even room for optimism in Europe. Firstly, Zangana argues, the weaker euro...

By David Binder With the election mere days away, and with all manner of policies, arguments, counter-arguments, slogans, tweets and hashtags swamping us, you could be forgiven for not knowing who to vote for. One way to help navigate this dilemma is to ask ‘what matters to me/my family/my dog/my community/town/country/universe (delete as appropriate), and then look at what each party seems to be saying on that issue/s and proceed on that basis. I’ve written before (here and here on why I believe...

By Simon Westwell, Lettings Manager for Petty Estate Agents With the pension regulation changes that have taken effect in April 2015, Petty’s is already seeing a boom in interest in the buy-to-let market across East Lancashire. The new regulation allows people aged 55 and over to access part or all of their pension pot, and as this comes at a time when stocks remain volatile and interest rates remain low, the prospect of owning a rental property becomes all the...

By Zoe Sinclair The new offer of shared parental leave looks simple enough. New mums take the first two weeks off after the birth, but the remaining 50 weeks can be shared between mum and dad. Finally the UK has caught up with Scandinavia, where shared leave has been working well for decades. But what does it really mean for you, your partner and your jobs? Despite all the supportive noises from employers, a major worry is what their real...

By Stephen Mayne Is it possible to escape the past and do we ever really want to? Now on their sixth feature together, Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss turn to the dark depths of Germany’s recent history to delve into a noir infused world of blind hope and half-truths. As Hoss’ concentration camp survivor struggles to reconcile new and old lives, Phoenix, hinging on a clever conceit, steadily picks up momentum towards a subtly powerful conclusion. The film opens with Auschwitz...

By Stephen Mayne  It was film that brought me to Elliott Smith, and it’s in film that director Nickolas Dylan Rossi finds him again. I was 15 and in search of something when I first came across the scene in The Royal Tenenbaums where Luke Wilson tries to take his own life. Playing over it is Needle in the Hay, a devastating song off Elliott’s second solo album. The intense pain and beauty had me hooked. That’s how it is with...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) have created an infographic to demonstrate the role political parties play in enabling a flourishing life. With the impending General Election just two days away, the group of leading academics have completed an audit of the political parties’ manifestos in order to assess their stance on UK and global poverty. The results showed the Green Party goes the furthest in their stand against poverty with a score of 3.9 out of...