LOCAL NEWS ROUNDUP 11
Time for another
review of the British locals.
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Aberdeen Evening Express, July 26:
Grieving Sarah and Alan Currie find deep comfort in leaving ornaments and toys at their baby daughter's graveside.
The couple also erected a pink wooden fence around the headstone and put gravel down to stop weeds coming through.
Windmills, a lantern, solar light and Winnie the Pooh toys are also on display.
But they were appalled when they saw council signs telling them to strip little Paige-Leigh's graveside of these items.
The Mastrick couple said they have been told graveside ornaments must be removed for noise and health and safety reasons.
Council sources said some of the small ornaments and tributes are hard to spot when ground maintenance, such as grass cutting, is carried out.
If the items were caught by a mower or strimmer, they could smash or splinter posing a risk to council staff and visitors to the cemetery...
Question: how many worker hours are lost each year and how much compensation is paid out to members of the public injured by flying graveside Winnie the Poohs?
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Next, a great moment in local law enforcement, from the
Manchester Evening News, July 26:
A BOY was left in a sweltering car for more than four hours outside a court after his mother was jailed for not sending him to school.
Emma Wardle, 30, had left the 11-year-old while she appeared before magistrates in Salford charged with failing to make sure he attended Dukesgate Primary in Little Hulton.
She was jailed for two months after the hearing was told that the boy had been to school just once since Easter.
While Wardle was being led down to the cells, her son was left waiting for her in the car. He was eventually spotted by a probation officer who noticed he was upset.
He took the boy inside the court and gave him a drink before contacting a social worker. Police are now investigating what happened...
Seems simple enough: he was left in a car for four hours.
...Wardle and her son were due to fly out on a two-week holiday to Turkey today.
Ironically, for
that he wouldn't have had to miss school: it's the summer holidays, of course.
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But it wasn't "summer holidays" last week in many places, however. (In Britain, "summer" is usually only the last week in July through the first week of September; the kids get more weeks off during the year than do American kids though.) This great moment in educational administration is courtesy of
the Milton Keynes Citizen, July 20:
...Witnessed by the Citizen, around 100 vociferous students at Denbigh School ignored teachers' orders to stay in school during the soaring heat and made a run for it out of the main entrance shortly before midday.
Furious teachers managed to round up most of the children – who were chanting 'we want half a day' – to return to class within five minutes of the break-out.
But small pockets of youngsters escaped towards the Shenley Church End shops and, despite a teacher's best efforts to search them out, did not return to school.
The Citizen was alerted to the incident by calls from several pupils angry that they had to remain in school while nearby Shenley Brook End School was closing early due to 'excessive heat'.
Ironically, one of the suspected instigators of the Denbigh protest was sent home half an hour later as his punishment...
Well, those administrators and teachers sure showed him!
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Leicester Mercury headline, July 26:
'DON'T LET BURGLARS IN DURING HOT WEATHER'
So we are only to let them in when it's cold outside, apparently.
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Another great moment in law enforcement, courtesy of
the Cambridge Times, July, 21:
TWO police officers are on sick leave from March Police Station after allegedly being caught having sex in a patrol car...
Well, presumably it was a great moment.
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The
Banbury Guardian, July 19:
A NEW Banbury business has helped a beauty queen become Miss England.
Eleanor Glynn had turned to Urban Candy for help after her hair was cut too short.
The 20-year-old, who had then just been crowned Miss Oxford, found out about the new hair extension business via its website and was its first client...
You probably first read her name here first! . . . in
local news roundup 10 -- before
she won the title.
However, don't think for a minute the above is merely a lame attempt to see if you were paying attention. Not at all. I believe simply that it is imperative that Americans back at home get every scrap of information which might help them better compete in the global economy.
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North Wales Chronicle, July 26 (short-lived link):
A PORTHMADOG sergeant has been training a special unit of the Iraqi police service.
Sgt Nick Jones, 35, of the Queen's Dragoon Guards recently returned from the province of Al Muthanna in the war-torn country...
...Sgt Jones, a soldier of 11 years, said: “It's crucial to keep their enthusiasm up, and it's really good to see how much they can improve within the space of a few days.”...
...He is presently stationed at Osnabruck, Germany, but will soon return to Wales to take on the post of recruitment sergeant in Wrexham.
He said: “I’m looking forward to sharing some of my experiences with the next generation of soldiers.”
Sounds
like yet another full of "dissent", and merely awaiting a chance to desert.
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Wolverhampton Express and Star headline, July 19:
Help for needy to be axed
My God, the nanny state is doing
everything nowadays.
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Oxford Times, July 25:
The cracking crime-solving at Oxford's St Aldate's police station has been officially recognised with a plaque.
Unfortunately it's not for any of the city's real-life crimefighters.
The Inspector Morse Society has erected the plaque to mark the station's importance in the fictional super detective's career which has brought thousands of tourists to Oxford...
That bit is for my sister, whom I'm sure will be pleased to read about that.
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Also
in the Oxford Times, on July 25:
Police were last night searching for an injured man who left a lengthy trail of blood along the Thames towpath in Oxford.
Police cordoned off a long stretch of the towpath after being alerted to a pool of blood of a bench near Iffley Lock at 8am yesterday.
They discovered a trail of blood along the towpath and then found a blood-stained bicycle at the Tandem pub in Kennington, more than a mile away...
Yes, the spirit of Inspector Morse does live on.
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Cheshunt and Waltham Mercury News, July 21:
THE only Methodist church in Waltham Abbey is set to close due to a lack of support after almost 35 years at the site.
St Paul's Methodist Church in Rochford Avenue will hold its last service on Sunday August 20, but a decision on the future of the church building will not be made until September.
There has been a Methodist church in the town for almost 200 years but now followers of the Christian denomination will be forced to travel to Hoddesdon Methodist Church in Middlefield Road or to Epping, Loughton or Harlow...
They needn't restrict themselves to just those locations. For example, although some might consider it a bit out of the way to travel to on a Sunday morning,
there is however another very large place of worship being planned . . ._____________________________
Yeovil Express, July 26:
A WORRIED Burnham couple are praying for the safety of their ten-year-old grandson who is stuck in Beirut as the violent conflict in the Middle East rages on.
Ashcott Drive's Tony and Edna Moore told the Weekly News youngster Michael and mum Nayla could "hear the bombs going off from their house" as Israel attacks parts of Lebanon.
Daughter-in-law Nayla took her son out to see her family earlier this month, but they were not among the 180 Britons evacuated from the Lebanese capital on the Royal Navy's warship HMS Gloucester on Thursday.
There is simply no getting away from this. . .
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The
Newcastle Sunday Sun, July 23:
...Linda Aloush, originally from Gateshead, said: "Nothing will make me leave while my son is still in the Army. Tell everyone we're all fine . . . scared, but fine."
As Linda was speaking an Israeli jet flew overhead on a military operation against Hezbollah as the conflict escalated. Earlier an enemy rocket landed just 100 metres from the family home in Ramat Yishay, about 40 miles from the border.
Others in the village have not been so lucky and were bombed. But Linda said living in constant fear was a price she was prepared to pay while her son Ricky, 21, was still conscripted into the Israeli army...
...Linda, 51 ... lives with her husband Victor in the small village 20 miles from Haifa. She settled in Israel after meeting Victor in Paris...
...Ricky will finish his three-year conscription in the army in a couple of months. She said: "He is a prison guard taking care of the Hezbollah suicide bombers.
"He is an only child, and they don't put only children on the front line, but everyone is a target now...
. . . just no getting away from it. . .
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Enfield Independent, July 21:
The fine weather is sure to pull in the crowds for an open-air production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's dream this week.
Members of the award-winning Principal Theatre Company are treading the boards in the magical grounds of Forty Hall in Forty Hill, Enfield, where family and friends can enjoy a picnic while watching a performance of fairies and mismatched lovers come to life in beautiful surroundings...
...Actress Lynda Bellingham, an active patron for the Principle Theatre said: "This is what British summers are all about. What better way to enjoy a wonderful summer's evening than by going to Forty Hall and having a picnic while watching a great play?"...
. . . So it's necessary to finish with a small reminder that it is summer, and there are still nice things going on in this world.
[Previous roundup is
here.]