BBC News reports: Beavers have returned to a Shropshire river for the first time in 400 years. The Severn Rivers Trust introduced a pair to the River Clun in the south of the county on Monday afternoon. It hopes the pair will have offspring and can help transform the natural environment through their dam building. The beavers have been released into an enclosure, but the story quotes Joe Pimblett, the chief executive of the Severn Rivers Trust "If you're a nature lover and you've got an interest in the rural environment this is huge, this could be the precursor to ...
The tax system in the UK exacerbates age inequality and puts an increasingly unsustainable burden on Gen Z and Millennials. A millionaire like Rishi Sunak pays an effective rate of 23% tax on his £2.2m income. And yet, someone in their late 20's earning, say, £55,000 will pay 51% of every extra £ they earn (40% tax + 2% NI + 9% Student Loans). And we wonder why younger voters are disengaged and demographic time bombs arise. In percentage terms, the tax burden rises, falls hardest on the struggling middle income, and then reduces, as wealth becomes sufficient to afford ...
That's the headline on George Eaton's New Statesman piece on the Liberal Democrats' ambitions for May's local elections - and he's not talking about Lord Bonkers' tactic of lurking outside rural polling stations in his gorilla suit. Eaton has been talking to party "strategists" - the insiders must have been taking a rare day off. He tells us they: speak of "Project 312" - the number of councillors held by the Tories in seats they lost or narrowly won at the general election He set's these forthcoming local elections against the results of the last general election: At the last ...
Today is the Trans Day of Visibility. It's a day I've felt cynical about in past years. The discussion around trans rights gets seen a lot. Whether it's philosophical or academic debates on "what is a woman", we're also seeing the persecution of trans rights currently being seen most visibly under Trump's government, but also the slow and steady dismantling of trans healthcare (particularly for under-18s) from Labour and Wes Streeting and legal protections in the UK through the courts emboldening transphobia. But seldom in that visibility are actual trans people. There are a number of names involved in "the ...
A Very Public Sociologist has no time for Laura Kuenssberg's 'gotcha' style of interviewing: "Every time Laura Kuenssberg interviews anyone newsworthy, her goal is to generate "controversy" rather than shed light on a topic or, heaven forfend, produce a piece of journalism that might help demystify politics." "The rapid rise of megafarms in Norfolk raises urgent questions about the cost of cheap food. Intensive livestock farming may meet demand, but at what environmental price? From water pollution to biodiversity loss, the evidence is stacking up against these industrial-scale farms."Owen Sennitt looks at the latest campaigning and legal moves. "Ekrem İmamoğlu, ...
Consulting is a people business. It's a people business because we're people drawing on our own personal skills and expertise. It's a people business because we're dealing with people and helping them to buy and to benefit from our services. And it's a people business because everything that our clients and their organisations do relies on people to make it happen. Dealing with people isn't like plugging an accessory into your computer. They don't just connect and get on with whatever it is you want them to do. People need to form a relationship first, before they can start to ...
With my thinking dulled with pain killers and not properly reading the emergency motion, Restoring International Development Assistance – Liberal Democrats I didn't put a card in to speak. The speeches were excellent, and it was one of those times when I was very proud to be a Liberal Democrat. While increased defence spending is essential to support Ukraine and ensure the UK's security, it cannot and should not be met through unfair measures like cutting our Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the 0.7% of GDP agreed under The Coalition, to 0.5% under the Conservative Government, to Labour's proposal of ...
British politics, in its endless ebb and flow, has a way of entangling the most basic human instincts with the intricate mechanisms of power. There's a sense of theatre to it, a drama that plays out not just on the grand stages of Westminster, but in the quiet corners of pubs, the buzzing of conversations in local shops, the heated arguments at dinner tables. It's the stuff of everyday life, at once far removed from and deeply connected to the headlines that flood the national consciousness. It's hard not to feel, at times, that the British political system is a ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 31 MARCH 2025 Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed until August 2025 for construction works. Douglas Street (Blinshall Street to Brown Street) - temporary traffic lights until August 2025 for construction works. Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until August 2025 for construction works. Scottish and Southern Energy Networks Elmwood Cable Renewal Scheme - temporary traffic lights and road closure from Tuesday 4 March for 12 weeks - insofar as it affects the West End Ward : ...
Nation Cymru reports that new statistics published by Public Health Wales have revealed widening inequalities for cancer survival rates, and improvements stalling over the last 10 years. They say that official data from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit of Public Health Wales confirms that 63.1 per cent of patients aged 15-99, diagnosed from 2017-2021, survived their cancer five years from diagnosis, but, this rate has remained stable without improving since the 2014-18 diagnosis period: Before then, five-year cancer survival had been steadily improving for several decades. Survival from cancer one year after diagnosis dropped significantly to 71.9 per ...
