…not when that crisis can potentially help you clamp down a bit tighter on freedom: Baroness Neville-Jones, a former security minister and chairman of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, and Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Army commander and terrorism expert, said the security services need to focus on the “inspiration” that comes from internet hate preaching. But hang on! Aren’t they still in the dark about…. The police and security services are still attempting…
….so why should anyone pay the slightest attention to your opinion? Ukip’s recent rise in popularity and the increased fervour behind talks of an EU referendum has placed the matter of the UK’s future within Europe at the forefront of the mainstream agenda. But when I read these headlines, something just doesn’t ring true. David Cameron’s claim that the people of Britain are unhappy with the relationship between Britain and…
Ellie Mae O’Hagen on those disquieting austerity poll results: This week’s crisis is brought to you by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which has released a report showing that attitudes of the British public towards poverty have hardened – and the most marked shift has been among Labour voters. Whoops! These days only 27% of Labour supporters cite social injustice as the main cause of poverty, down from 41% in 1986.…
Three cheers for the Black Horse Pub: … when hundreds of people enjoyed a fun day after a 5km walk to raise money for the Chartwell Cancer Trust. Among the revellers helping to pay for staff who work at the Chartwell Unit at Princess Royal University Hospital, Locksbottom, was 90210 television star Shenae Grimes. Three boos for the Black Horse Pub: Drinkers were casually enjoying a Friday night drink when…
Tesco has defended its decision to label a children’s chemistry set a boys’ toy, despite criticism from gender equality campaigners. Oh. Those. Campaigners from Let Toys Be Toys, an online pressure group that is calling on retailers not to limit children’s development by promoting separate “boys’” and “girls’” toys, said that Tesco’s labelling of its “Action Science Chemistry Set” was sexist. A bunch of people with too much time on…
…it’s creating dependency: Imagine a world where a parent will go without food so their children can eat. It may sound like something from a Victorian novel, but this is the reality in 2013 – and the reality in North East Lincolnshire. Yes, this is yet another in the rapidly-becoming-tedious series of woe and disaster articles in local newspapers over changes to the benefits system. Record numbers of people are…
Katherine Stewart has reservations about Muslim teaching methods, and the damage they may be doing to vulnerable young minds: Much of fundamentalist home schooling is driven by deeply sexist and patriarchal ideology. The Koranic movement teaches that women need to submit to their husbands and have as many babies as they possibly can. The effects of these ideas on children are devastating, as a glance at HA’s blogs show. “The…
The body of a 52-year-old woman who fell to her death in the Pyrenees was devoured by Griffon vultures before emergency services were able to retrieve it. Furious locals are demanding that authorities take action against the endangered carrion-eaters after they left only the woman’s bones, clothes and shoes for burial. What sort of action? Convert them to vegetarianism? ‘When we first went out in the helicopter looking for the…
The local authority said the judge ordered Mr Catt to pay the council’s costs in relation to one of these. The amount of these costs has not yet been agreed. But Mr Catt said: “I am protected from costs by legal aid. That’s what they do not like.” Yeah, well partly that’s because spending public money is seen as their job, I suppose. Me, I’m not too happy about it because I’d…
A formal complaint was made to Lancashire Police about ‘Babs’ who has been at the centre of a growing row in Clitheroe. Some residents have been calling for her removal from public view in the window of The Time Train retro shop where she has been standing for the past five months. And by ‘some residents’, I suspect we are talking about (as with the recent Enid Blyton controversy) a…
RSPCA Inspector Steven Craddock said: “We believe they were dumped around teatime on April 22. “If anyone saw a vehicle or horse box in that lane around that time and took a note of the registration number we would like to speak to them. “ Why worry about the car registration? Aren’t horses supposed to be registered? Check the tattoo or microchip! Oh. Wait. Bit odd, then, that the RSPCA…
Children should get lessons in prison life to stop them becoming involved in crime, according to the Duke of Westminster’s daughter. Lady Edwina Grosvenor, who has dedicated her life to prison reform, today called for the classes to be included in the national curriculum. Why does everyone with a tuppenny-ha’penny cause or idea feel they have the right to demand it be shoehorned into the bulging national curriculum? Surely children…
The Kennel Club has warned that dogs are being increasingly “marginalised” in society, and treated as a “nuisance” that must be controlled and restricted by the authorities. Like…smokers, maybe? Under the rising number of “dog control orders”, the animals are being banned from large areas of parkland, beaches and other public spaces on which they have traditionally been able to exercise. The effect, according to the Kennel Club, has been…
At a licensing meeting held yesterday it was revealed how the authority area was now the second worst in Yorkshire and the Humber for such violence, with figures showing: Up to 40 per cent of arrests are associated with alcohol misuse – that is 140 arrests per month linked to alcohol abuse. Ah, those weasel words – ‘linked to’. We all know just how they use that phrase, don’t we? Of…
Or just more woeful handling of public money, mixed with a little soupcon of identity politics? A controversial plan to scrap the free parking enjoyed by more than 10,000 Blue Badge holders in the New Forest is today at the centre of a new row. Civic chiefs have been accused of wasting public money after accelerating plans to replace equipment installed only nine years ago. It seems they need to…
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