Timothy Garton Ash says Poland is learning that restoring democracy is even harder than creating it. "The Tories are in arguably the worst state we've ever seen a major party in. They lead on just one major policy area, defence, and even then Labour came within a 1 per cent lead here in December. Dylan Difford has shown just how much worse the Tory position is than 1997 when they at least led on three major policy questions ahead of the election." James Austin explains why a Conservative wipe-out at the next election is becoming more of a possibility... ...which ...
Wed 24th
21:01
The telescoping of time in the West: Joey Starrett could have lived to watch the film Shane
The reality of the American frontier and its celebration by the cinema were remarkably close in time. Buffalo Bill was a major figure in the real West and lived to appear in films about it. Or take Shane. This classic Western is set in 1889, and Brandon deWilde was nine when he played Joey Starrett. Which means that his character would have been 73 when the film came out in 1953. Where would he have watched it? In a city somewhere? Or did he do what Shane told him and stay to farm his parents' land? It's hard to think ...
Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran had a question to the Prime Minister today. She challenged him on Thames Water, who are putting charges to her constituents up, despite providing a terrible service. She said: Thames Water is a shambles. During the recent flooding in Oxfordshire, it dumped sewage from 270 sites along the Thames in one week. Waste was backing up into people's homes because of drains that it had not unblocked, and it could not even refill its own reservoir because the rivers were too dirty. Rather than offering a rebate for this shoddy service, Thames Water ...
Natural England has drawn up a proposal to expand the existing Stiperstones National Nature Reserve in Shropshire by up to 5,000 hectares - that's a chunky 20 square miles. A press release from Natural England and DEFRA explains the plan: The proposal is to extend the existing Stiperstones National Nature Reserve, by joining up with landowners and partners to significantly increase the land declared as a National Nature Reserve by up to 5,000 hectares. The Stiperstones National Nature Reserve is made up of a wild landscape of uplands, lowlands and woodland that attracts birds including red grouse, red kite, skylark, ...
We've seen how the storms currently battering the UK have left thousands without power. This can have life-threatening consequences for disabled people, who need their electricity supply to power essential equipmen such as breathing machines. The BBC spoke to one woman who reported being without mains power for 13 hours. Michaela Hollywood said that without her generator, she would not have been able to breathe: I am incredibly lucky to have a generator – that is enough to power my equipment – so it gives a little bit of comfort for me, but that's not the case for others," she ...
It's difficult to feel sorry for a Tory, but really, anybody who takes on the mantle of leading that party must be a masochist. There is no loyalty, while everyday they must face a crisis-management situation, not because of what is happening in the country, but to counter the many plots and betrayals amongst their own colleagues. What is more, when those plots emerge in the light of day, there is an air of unreality about them, as if the instigators don't live in the real world. Hence the latest news that former cabinet member, Simon Clarke (who?) believes that ...
Poverty in the UK is deepening. We knew this, we can see it all around us in the rise of expanded food banks, the active community charities, the special price reductions on basic supermarket foods and the increase of homelessness. But now Joseph Rowntree Foundation in its annual report on poverty levels reveals the grim facts. More than one in five people in the UK, 22%. 14.4 million, are living in poverty, having less than 60% of the UK average for the type of household they are in after adjusting for housing costs. And 6 million of them were in ...
We recently received a complaint about deterioration of the road condition in Invergowrie Drive on the west side towards the top of the street. We therefore reported this to the Roads Maintenance Partnership to ensure this was repaired, which has since been carried out.
