Mansfield today is waking up to the stunning news that their headline-hunting MP, Ben Bradley, has been appointed to the Women and Equalities Committee in the House of Commons.
When I arrived in the UK in November 2019, I was delighted that finally after 18 months of a hard and dangerous journey, I arrived to my dream land looking for human rights, freedom, justice and freedom of speech.
In Derby, a property that houses asylum seekers and run by Serco – yes, that Serco – is in such appalling condition that the city council is arranging an urgent inspection. According to the Guardian, photos show missing ceilings, an unusable shower full of rubble and with cracked or missing tiles, rusted pipes and walls […]
In my East Midlands, progressively-inclined corner of the internet, I come across daily complaints by members of the public that their Tory MP has blocked them on social media.
Since 2001, Lord Anthony Bamford and his family (who run the manufacturing company JCB) have put almost £14 million into the British political system. This included funding the Eurosceptic leadership campaigns of Iain Duncan Smith (2001), David Davis (2005), and Boris Johnson (2019) along with putting £1.3 million behind pro-Brexit groups before the 2016 referendum. […]
Some of you may already know of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians. More, I suspect, will not. She wasn’t somebody we learnt about at school, unlike Boudicca or Joan of Arc. I confess that I know of her mainly through ‘The Last Kingdom’ – the BBC/Netflix adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s novels. But Æthelflæd should be […]
You will have noticed, no doubt, the furore about the possibility of a new coal mine in Cumbria. This would be built (dug?) on a brownfield site to mine for coal under the Irish Sea to produce coking coal for steel-making, 85% of which would be exported. Domestically, our need for coking coal is likely […]
Leicestershire and Rutland European Movement has conducted research into the impacts of Brexit in the local area. The findings reveal some hard truths about the future for small businesses in the region.
Levels in Rutland have doubled over the past week whilst Corby currently has the highest number of cases of any area in England. Of the 15 areas in England where cases are currently rising, 7 of them are in our region – Corby, Kettering, Boston, Rutland, East Lindsey, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.
‘We are in the same storm, but not the same boat.’ The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in health. People living in the most deprived areas of the UK are more than twice as likely to die from contracting Covid-19, than people living in the least deprived areas. However, what we see now with […]
Robert Largan, MP for High Peak, has one of the thinnest majorities in the House of Commons. According to the Sunday Times, it seems he also has one of the thinnest of skins. On the 10th January, they revealed that he has written a letter to the owner of the well-known website They Work For You, […]
“our website is filling up with digital and online activities”. Some of this is work designed to be digital and interactive, and some might be made for Zoom. There is experimentation and some work that is more traditional, audio only work and also film.
Today, there will be an opposition day debate on this issue in the House of Commons, followed by a vote. Perhaps mindful of the damaging and on-going fallout when most Tory MPs voted against the motion on free school meals, the government is urging them to abstain today.
They used to say where there’s muck there’s money and it seems this is becoming increasingly more relevant to the plastic we throw away as rubbish each year. Of 13 billion plastic bottles used every year in the UK, only 7.7 billion (59 percent) are collected for recycling And yet empty plastic bottles can be […]
will debate whether frontline workers should receive support for long Covid, the still poorly-understood consequence of Covid-19 which leaves many unable to work.
With the end of the Brexit transition period of 31 December 2020, businesses are learning about the workings of the new deal agreed with the European Union that came into effect on 1 January 2021.
Step outside, Christmas time can be a lovely sight. Just taking a walk outside of the house in your local area can lead to the most amazing light displays. You don’t have to travel far to enjoy the wonders of the festive spirit of lights. At least not in Kibworth Harcourt in the Harborough district […]
Photographs by Rob McDonald Photography, with permission. Living Advent Calendar: This year, the community of Harpur Hill, on the south side of Buxton, has created a living Advent calendar. Every evening during Advent at 6.30 pm, another house in the neighbourhood lights up a numbered window. Ours was number 8. People have put in a […]
Other My little town articles My little town – Buxton My little town – Kibworth Harcourt
The promise of fusion power has been dangled for many years (research having been done since the 1920s) and critics suggest the promise is always around the corner. However, the world’s largest prototype is being constructed by a world-wide consortium, ITER, with the first tests not due until 2025.
The East Midlands is the very heart of England and from Glossop to Grimsby, from Boston to Brackley, every town celebrates Christmas in its own special way. This year, some cherished traditions have been put on hold (Melton Mowbray’s Christmas tree festival) while some new innovations have taken off (Leicester’s They Can’t Cancel Christmas short film). Here at […]