Embed from Getty ImagesThe Derby Telegraph wins our Headline of the Day Award. On one occasion, the fellow officer who stopped him is reported to have said: "Who do we think we are, sir? The police and crime commissioner for Nottinghamshire?"
This article is one of a set of essays about climate adaptation being published by the Green Alliance today. There is a launch event with the Environment All Party Parliamentary Group today. Somerset is on the front line of climate change. Agricultural land makes up 66 per cent of the county and 91 per cent of the Glastonbury and Somerton constituency, so it is key to the nation's food production. Without urgent intervention, the UK's food security is under immense threat. The scale of the problem is clear from the extreme weather we've experienced in 2026 alone. When Storm Chandra ...
Brexiteers may have claimed that leaving the EU would enable £350 million a week to be invested in the health service, but the reality has proved to be completely opposite. The Independent reports that a leading economist has warned that the billions that the UK has lost to Brexit could wipe out NHS waiting lists and create a world-class service if recouped. The paper says that Nick Bloom, a professor at Stanford University, said up to 8 per cent of GDP was wiped off the UK economy by leaving Europe, through lost trade, increased red tape and delays in pushing ...
I remember the day as if it was yesterday. 3rd October 2025 significant for two reasons; number one it is my mum's birthday, and number two it was the day we were introduced to the debilitating illness known as a hemiplegic migraine. Now let me start this by stating that a hemiplegic migraine is extremely uncommon. While migraines themselves affect roughly 15% to 20% of the population (about 10 million people in the UK), the hemiplegic variety affects 0.01% of the population or around 1 in 10,000 people. I work from home most of the time and my wife preferred ...
FM confirms government will put forward options to include MSPs in child protection scheme Chancellor's Speech – Wales still an afterthought to Labour David Chadwick Launches Bid to Protect Cross-Border Patients FM confirms government will put forward options to include MSPs in child protection scheme Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today said that the Scottish Government must press ahead with measures to ensure that MSPs are subject to the same child protection and vulnerable adult checks as teachers and social workers. In Scotland, Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) checks are a legal requirement for anyone with a regulated role, ...
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance took place today. I can't find a video of the proceedings, so here's a short one from 2016. Wikipedia explains: The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is a folk dance which takes place each September in the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. It is performed by ten dancers, accompanied by a musician playing an accordion and a youth with a triangle. Six of the dancers carry reindeer horns; the remaining four take the roles of a hobby horse, Maid Marian, a fool, and a youth with a bow and arrow. On Wakes Monday the ...
Betty Harris Square Telford. Photo: Telford Council A new square has been named in honour of women who worked in Shropshire coalfields, reports BBC News: The area in Telford has become Betty Harris Square, after her experiences "as a 'pit girl' became one of the most powerful accounts of women's working lives during Britain's industrial past", the council said. It added while she was not from Telford, her story represented thousands, many whose names were unknown, who worked in east Shropshire coalfields. More than 1,000 people voted for the name after residents were invited to vote from a shortlist of ...
Angela Rayner's announcement of a pause and rethink on much of the Government's local government reorganisation is welcome. For months, those of us who believe passionately in genuinely local government have watched with increasing concern as plans have developed which would abolish district and Borough councils in large swathes of England and replace them with March larger, more remote unitary authorities. Today offers an opportunity to think again. District and Borough Councils are at the heart of the communities they serve. They empty our bins, decide planning applications, support our town centres, provide leisure facilities, put on community events, and ...
For those of us in local government at whatever tier, the Government's proposals for local government reform, requiring the abolition of principal authorities across England and their replacement with a smaller number of unitary authorities, have caused much activity. But the news emerging that the proposals are to be suspended and, in some cases, scrapped, will come as a huge surprise to many. We're waiting for an official response from the Party but, in the meantime, Justin Griggs, head of communications at the National Association of Local Councils, writes: Based on information released ahead of the statement, decisions relating to ...
Liberal Democrats will not stop Reform by warning people about it. To understand why people listen, we must understand what Reform offers that too many feel they no longer get from us. We have spent years failing young men — and by the time many reached adulthood, they had already spent years being failed as boys, especially when they were white and poor. Reform has noticed. It is turning our blindness into political support. Education shows how early that failure begins. Boys fall behind from the start, are heavily overrepresented in special educational needs, more likely to be suspended or ...
Who are the goons in balaclavas who turned up in Dover and Portsmouth? Hope Not Hate explains: "In 2016, he [Danny Tommo] pleaded guilty to attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to two years in prison after taking part in an armed attempt to abduct a man during a drugs-related dispute." Rosemary Runswick argues that the Liberal Democrats should fight the Holborn and St Pancras by-election hard and answers her critics in the comments. Cathy Young pays tribute to Gloria Steinem: "The vision Steinem shared in 1971 of a humanist and egalitarian future may have been simplistic in its idealism. But ...
The Guardian reports that fewer than 1% of businesses in England use more water than the daily needs of 10 million people, as millions of households face hosepipe bans and three-quarters of the country is in drought. The paper says that businesses across England use 2.6bn litres a day from the public water supply, which includes potable and non-potable water provided by water companies. According to Mosl, the organisation that operates England's business water market, in total, businesses account for about 30% of public supply use, with two-thirds of their consumption in water-stressed areas: Tracking industrial water use appears difficult. ...