When the newly elected Hannah Spencer - the Green victor in this year's Gorton and Denton by-election - voiced her shock at the role alcohol played at Westminster, other MPs and social media users queued up to patronise her and assure us that everything was fine there. But perhaps they will pay more attention to a new report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies entitled Under the influence? Perspectives of alcohol in the parliamentary workplace among UK MPs and staff. You can read a media release on the institute's website and download the report from there too. The release says: ...
Embed from Getty ImagesEngland's chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan broke another world age record last week, reports Leonard Barden in the Guardian. At a tournament held in Aix-en-Provence, she achieved her first international master norm at the age of 11 years and four months. This made her the youngest female player to achieve this feat, beating the record of Judit Polgár, who later became the highest-rated female player in history. She didn't manage it until the age of 11 years and 9 months. International master is the title one below grandmaster in chess. To achieve it a player must achieve three ...
Pardon my scepticism, but I do not think Trump's recent announcement about Hamas's disarmament is the diplomatic breakthrough that some commentators are claiming. For a start, there is Trump's well-known tendency to jump the diplomatic starting line before the starter has entered the stadium. It is a tendency that has scuppered several delicate diplomatic negotiations. Usually, Trump's over-egged statements are designed to deflect from his failings elsewhere. Success in Gaza shifts focus away from the Iran War, confirmation hearings and the rising price of petrol. Or he may be trying to push either Hamas or Israel into a deal. In ...
The BBC reports that a 19th Century toll house with links to a series of historic riots in Wales during the 1800s is set to go under the hammer at auction. The news site says that the Gate House in Llannon, near Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, was the former money collecting building for the tolls, but was later turned into a two-bedroom detached cottage. Like others in Carmarthenshire, it was a target during the Rebecca Riots, a series of protests against conditions in the rural areas of Wales between 1839 and 1843 led by men with blackened faces disguised as women: ...
