Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Community

All in the month of AUGUST Napoleon – one of the greatest military leaders Louis Mountbatten – 40th anniversary of his death 25 years of legal Sunday trading Growing crisis in social care Roadworks and more roadworks… Meditation retreats Beer of biblical proportions Plastic, plastic everywhere Our favourite (and least favourite) traditional foods ** Editor: ...

It was: 250 years ago, on 15th August 1769 that Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (1804-14, 1815) was born. 200 years ago, on 16th August 1819 that the Peterloo Massacre took place in Manchester.  Up to 80,000 people gathered to demand a reform of parliamentary representation.  Local magistrates called in the military to break up...

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, was born 250 years ago, on 15th August 1769. He is considered to be one of the greatest military leaders in history, but his origins gave no hint of what was to come. He was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, an island which up to the year of his birth had...

It was 40 years ago, on 27th August 1979, that Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was killed by an IRA bomb on his fishing boat Shadow V off the coast of Ireland in Donegal Bay.  He was Viceroy of India (1947), Governor-General of India (1947-48), First Sea Lord (1955-59) and mentor of the...

Sunday trading was legalised in England and Wales 25 years ago, on 28th August 1994. Until then, under the Shops Act of 1950, the situation had been rather chaotic, and some of the rules laughable, but Sunday had been recognised as a ‘special’ day. The Shops Bill of 1984, which would have allowed widespread Sunday trading,...

More of us need more help.  Fewer of us are getting it.  The crisis in the social care system in England continues to grow.  Local council spending in real terms is now £700million below what it was in 2010/11. The findings come in a recent report from the King’s Fund think tank, which found a...

The M6 has just achieved an unenviable status: it is now the worst road in Britain for delays. So says the recent analysis of government traffic and roadworks.  It found that motorists using the UK’s longest motorway (running from Rugby to Gretna) face delays on more than 210 million journeys during a three-year period of...

Did you know that you are eating plastic?  On average, each one of us now ingests about five grams of plastic each week – or the equivalent of eating a credit card. Such is the rather startling news from WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).  Research at the University of Newcastle in Australia has found...

Have you ever considered going on a meditation retreat?  You may want to think again. A recent study by University College London (UCL) has found that three in 10 people who go on such retreats suffer “unpleasant” episodes, including feelings of anxiety and fear.   UCL’s study also found that more than a quarter of people...

What kind of beer did people drink in biblical times, and what did it taste like? Such questions will brew in the minds of real ale lovers, as they lovingly savour their favourite real ale each weekend.  And now help is at last at hand. For scientists in Israel have managed to brew beer using...

Britain’s favourite traditional foods, according to a recent YouGov survey, are Yorkshire pudding, Sunday roast, fish and chips, crumpets, a full English breakfast and bacon sandwiches. Our least favourite are jellied eels, haggis and laverbread (a Welsh dish of seaweed). The results provoked some outcry.  Several Scottish people were upset at the low ranking given...

All in the month of JULY Walking on the moon in July 1969 Remembering Gerard Manley Hopkins   The absent-minded William Spooner Our friends across the pond Torch Trust celebrates 60 years of ministry Religious music is everywhere Does your holiday villa even exist? National ‘Don’t Step on a Bee’ Day is on 10th July...