Local history in the Whickham and Sunniside area has lost one of its greatest figures. On Sunday Colin Douglas passed away. Colin had been one of the founders of the Sunniside History Society in 1992 and a mainstay of the organisation for over 20 years. He discovered the bell pits at Lotties Wood, Sunniside and was one of the people behind the Fugar Project which drew out the history of the
The follow up to Rachel Reeves' huge raid on employers last year was expected to be more subdued, after all a 3% increase in employers National Insurance Contributions (NICs) did have the expected effect of slowing wage growth and a slowdown on new jobs, what we couldn't have expected until a few weeks ago is that she'd come back again for it. Not for employers NICs, mind you not directly, but via the limit on Salary Sacrifice. When we have a Pension Commission ongoing on outcomes for current workers saving into private pensions, and have had an excellent piece by ...
William Lane has discovered a new political category: the Oxford Liberal Democrat. Who is she and what does she want from us? It was with great interest that I read the latest piece from Rose Runswick over at the New Model Liberal blog, as it made an excellent case that the Lib Dems have exhausted their potential pool of Tory-Lib crossover voters. This is a point I have also made in the past, but I refrained then from recommending a subsequent shift in the party's approach as I am not a Lib Dem member. Things have changed, however, and it's ...
I'm sure many of you will be aware of the budget and already digested multiple takes about it. I haven't bothered writing about Conservative budgets in the recent past as it would've been a relentlessly negative critique. I thought I'd cover off this one as there's a sense that this Labour government is getting into its stride and is trying harder to break with the past. This year's budget is a mixed bag, which makes it genuinely interesting. From a Lib Dems perspective, the costed tax rises at £26 Billion are remarkably similar to the £27 Billion tax increases proposed ...
The Chancellor hopes no one notices. Voters are starting to realise. There is no getting around it. The NHS and social care need more money - this is the lion's share of the budget and is where the government is experiencing the greatest growth pressure. Every serious analysis from the IFS, the OBR and the Health Foundation says that demand, staffing pressures and rising clinical complexity make extra funding unavoidable. If we want a system that works, the state will need to raise more revenue. The question is not whether we need to pay more. The question is how. The ...
Prompt: ""of the diseases of aging which are assocated with changes to RNA splicing" Diseases of Aging Associated with Changes to RNA Splicing Many major age-related diseases have documented links to altered RNA splicing—both via age-related drift in the spliceosome and via disease-specific mutations in splicing factors or cis-elements. Below are key examples by
I put a couple of prompts into Gemini and the following came out as answers: Impact of RNA Splicing on Endothelial Function in CVD User Query To what extent are protein changes as a result of RNA splicing changes that cause endothelial problems part of cardiovascular disease? AI Analysis Protein
The Petersfield Post reports news of 2024 general election candidate Dominic Martin: Dominic Martin has been reselected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for East Hampshire after coming within 1,275 votes of unseating Conservative MP Damian Hinds at the 2024 General Election. The result made East Hampshire one of the most marginal seats in southern England. Mr Martin, a former ambassador, claims victory for the Liberal Democrats is within reach. His career includes organising the 2013 G8 summit in Northern Ireland, leading the UK's climate change attaché network and contributing to the development of the 2010 Bribery Act. You can follow ...
A Very Private School: A Memoir Charles Spencer William Collins, 2025, £10.99 There used to be two prestigious prep schools near Market Harborough. Nevill Holt closed in 1999, shortly after the police arrived to talk to the deputy head about allegations of sexual abuse and he fled the building and hanged himself in some nearby woods. A decade later, another former member of staff was jailed for ten years for 33 sexual offences against boys aged between eight and twelve. The second school was Maidwell Hall, which closed earlier this year and is the subject of Charles Spencer's book. He ...
Yes, what did happen to Liberal Democrat High Command to make it do a reverse ferret on ID cards? Whatever it was, the delightful Hazel Grove got a very sideways move soon afterwards. There's more about this in the Radical Bulletin section of the new Liberator (issue 432). The derivation of Clarence "Frogman" Willcock was discussed on this blog last year, while "I'll fetch you one up the bracket" sounds very much the sort of thing Sid James would have said in Hancock's Half Hour. Wednesday I don't know about you, but I find myself increasingly confused over this identity ...
Our party is dedicated to resolving the cost-of-living crisis, where inflated prices and insecure or short supply are affecting our ability to afford life's necessities. However, there is a part of life being negatively impacted by inflation that goes undiscussed: death. Death is never an easy subject to talk about, nor is it one that many of us want us to seriously contemplate. We will have experienced bereavement at some point in our lives, with many of us having organised the final farewells of family members and loved ones. However, ignoring such issues ignores the problems that inflation is causing ...
It is the start of West End Christmas Fortnight today - and Winter WestFest takes place tonight. Here's a run through of the main highlights to look forward to today : 4pm to 8pm - Winter WestFest returns this year with another special Christmas Market to launch the West End Christmas Fortnight. Following on from last year's inaugural event, which included a festive lighting and projection trail up Perth Road between Miller's Wynd and Blackness Library, this year sees an exciting and major planned alteration to the format. Winter WestFest organiser Alan Wilson explains: "While our first-ever winter event was ...
An historic tweet by Justice Secretary, David Lammy from June 2020 sets out a very clear stance on trial by jury. He wrote: Jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement. Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea. Now that he is in charge of Justice, he has changed his tune. As I stated in my blog on 21 November, the government has set itself on a course whereby jury trials for all except the most serious crimes such as rape, murder and manslaughter are set to be scrapped in England and Wales. It now looks like ...
