Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Community

Many historians of the First World War consider that two battles in the summer of 1918 were the final turning points in the eventual outcome of the war and of the settlement which followed it. The second Battle of Marne was in July, and the even more significant Battle of Amiens was in August, exactly...

‘How did we do?’ (on a scale of one to ten, where ‘ten’ is excellent and ‘one’ is poor?’) ‘Would you recommend us to your friends?’ You can hardly buy anything now, or make use of a service, without an email popping up asking such questions. Some go further into detail about delivery, courtesy or...

Gardeners have been told by government ministers not to bring back plants from holiday, in order to stop them inadvertently introducing an invasive species into the UK. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials are becoming increasingly concerned about water-borne threats such as the Dikerogammarus villosus, or killer shrimp; Didemnum vexillum, the carpet sea...

Millennials have the most negative outlook on the future.  A quarter of them believe that depression is normal in older age, and two in five of them believe that dementia is inevitable. A survey by the Royal Society for Public Heath (RSPH) has also found that half of women and a quarter of men say...

August is a month when wars tend to start. For example, both the First and Second World Wars erupted in the month of August. Also, on 13th August 1961, East Germany’s Communist regime built the Berlin Wall, separating the city’s eastern and western sectors.   Then on 20th August 1968, tanks invaded and crushed Czechoslovakia, ending...

Looking at Your Community – July 2018 (all articles) All in the month of JULY 50 years on from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 70 years of the National Health Service In praise of Emily Bronte Waterloo!  What’s in a Name?  Diary of a Momentous Year: July 1918 – WHEN FRIENDS COME TO HELP Poverty in...

All in the month of JULY It was: 200 years ago, on 30th July, that Emily Bronte, the British writer, was born. She was best known for her novel, Wuthering Heights. 175 years ago, on 19th July that the British steamship SS Great Britain, was launched.  Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was the longest...

Outer Hebrides to get its first mosque The first mosque in the Outer Hebrides is due to open this summer, despite the objections of local church leaders. The plan faced fierce opposition from the local arm of the Free Church of Scotland. A derelict house is being converted into a mosque for the small Syrian...

In praise of Emily Bronte Novelist Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights, was born 200 years ago, on 30th July, 1818, in a small country town in Yorkshire, moving shortly afterwards with her family to nearby Haworth, where she remained until her death at the age of 30. Her mother and two oldest sisters died...

70 years of the National Health Service The National Health Service began operating 70 years ago, on 5th July 1948, when Sylvia Beckingham, 13, was admitted to hospital in Manchester to be treated for a liver condition. It was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan by Labour Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan to bring good...

Stop! Hedgehog! Hedgehog ‘warning signs’ are going up on our roads, at animal casualty black spots. The aim is to stop the drastic decline of their population –  around 100,000 of them are killed on our roads every year, and it is feared that this level of mortality is unsustainable. The People’s Trust for Endangered...

50 years on from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Britain, the USA, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 50 years ago, on 1st July 1968. It came into effect in March 1970, and some 190 nations have now signed. India and Pakistan have never signed the treaty but have admitted...