By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Ministers will give the go-ahead for an expansion of fracking across Britain; allowing drilling in national parks and other protected areas in "exceptional circumstances,” however ministers retain power to veto plans. Fracking involves blasting water, chemicals and sand at high pressure into shale rock formations to release the gas and oil held inside. Environmentalists argue that the process can cause contamination of the water supply and earth tremors. The government will invite firms to...

  By Clare Miller So, my baby William has just turned 18 months. The early baby days of breastfeeding, bouncers and sterilizing bottles are well behind us, although at the time it felt like they would last forever.  William is now officially a toddler, he no longer has the baby ‘look’ but instead a little boy is emerging. One who can say a handful of words; who can walk, climb and dance a little jig when excited. Of late he...

  By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor   Sara Davison is a life and business expert whose own personal experience led to her desire to specialise in heartbreak and divorce coaching, creating a unique programme to support individuals with the tools, techniques and advice needed to journey through break-up and divorce. Here, she talks to  The London Economic, about how to cope in the workplace during a relationship break-up. For most people juggling a career and a family home life can...

  By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A nationwide ‘Summer of Sport’ survey commissioned by High and Mighty, has revealed that the UK’s women would most like Dodgeball to become a new Commonwealth Games sport followed by Quidditch and Surfing. When it comes to looks, women think that men look sexiest when they are swimming, followed by athletics and rugby 7’s. Interestingly men agree that other men look sexiest in the pool. Other top choices for bro-mance include: Athletics and Football. Additional results...

  By J T Coombes @GMagnaCarta "The thinking that created the problem is quite incapable of solving it." Albert Einstein Compulsion is inherent within the human condition, often pushing us to extreme and destructive behaviour that is beyond comprehension. It is stimulated by many things, including the derivatives of harmless aspects of Nature. A poppy is a beautiful flower until turned into opium, grape and grain are nutritional foods until distilled into alcohol. Both then fuel the destructive compulsions of...

By Matthew Sanders, film critic This is not a music biopic like Ray or Amadeus. This is a fictionalised account of Jon Ronson's former life with Frank Sidebottom and his erstwhile band. Frank Sidebottom was a creative genius and a cult figure created by the late Chris Sievey. He was legendary in his own circle, and although his music never made it into public popular culture his large papier-mâché head certainly did. The story follows a struggling musician (Jon played...

By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq September 1977 saw the release of The Stranglers lament, “No more heroes”. When Jean-Jacques Burnel and Hugh Cornwell wrote it, at the height of punk, they bemoaned the lack of inspirational figures in public life. Their parents’ generation had plentiful heroes of course, having lived through the Second World War. The celebrities that the era produced must have seemed to Cornwell and Burnel shallow and lacking the determination and resolve of the previous generation, finding notoriety...

  By Elsa Buchanan The European Union has added more to its dangling bunch of carrots with a renewed offer of its Special Privileged Partnership (SPP) - a form of enhanced trilateral agreements - promising unparalleled support for Israel and the Palestinians if a peace accord is signed. But while the EU has successfully used greater political and trade ties to promote peace in the Balkans in the past, experts warn the member states’ offer is ill-timed, widely overlooked, and...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor David Ward, a Liberal Democrat MP, has been forced to apologise after suggesting on Twitter, that he would consider firing rockets into Israel if he lived in Gaza, again highlighting the dangers of elected officials using social media. Originally he refused to say sorry and he faced losing the party whip.  On Tuesday, Mr Ward was accused of inciting violence after he tweeted: "The big question is - if I lived in Gaza would I...