2646: Too many (In memoriam) – solution
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The unclued lights were the cooks known as the TWO FAT LADIES at 18/2 who were 25/8 and 29A/38/3) and the HAIRY BIKERS at 14/3 who are/were 31 and ‘In memoriam’ 26/10. First prize R.A.
From our UK edition
The unclued lights were the cooks known as the TWO FAT LADIES at 18/2 who were 25/8 and 29A/38/3) and the HAIRY BIKERS at 14/3 who are/were 31 and ‘In memoriam’ 26/10. First prize R.A.
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The publication this week of the Cass Review into gender-identity services for young people marks a welcome return to reason in an area of medicine which for the past few years has been driven by identity politics. No one is denying that there are those who deserve psychological – and in some cases physical – help to cope with their condition. But the explosion in the number of children treated on the NHS for gender-identity issues (and in many cases being given powerful drugs with severe side effects) should have set alarm bells ringing long before it did. The NHS first set up its Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock Clinic in 1989, and for the first two decades of its existence it was a small outfit with a low profile.
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Home The review by Dr Hilary Cass of gender-identity services for people under 18 called for an end to prescribing powerful hormone drugs; warned that children who change gender may regret it; and found that many had experienced trauma, neglect and abuse. More than 150,000 patients had to wait more than 24 hours in A&E before getting a hospital bed last year, a tenfold increase on 2019. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, suggested that Labour could plug the gap in its spending commitments by getting more taxes sooner from non-doms. Five Bulgarians admitted in court to stealing more than £50 million in fraudulent claims for Universal Credit. Britain held talks with the European Commission on making Gibraltar part of the Schengen area.
An Arizona Supreme Court ruling upheld a 160-year-old law that criminalizes all abortions with the exception of those where a woman’s life is at stake this Tuesday. The “brutal, backwards and barbaric” ruling, as Democratic representative Shontel Brown colorfully puts it, relied on a law passed before Arizona was a state and women had the right to vote.Just a day before the ruling was made, presidential candidate Donald Trump made his “leave abortion policy to the states” announcement. The move, which was seen as morally bankrupt by some pro-life organizations, was hailed by others as strategically savvy. Making the election less about abortion and more about immigration and the economy, to put it simply, helps Trump.
Former president Donald Trump announced on Monday that he believes abortion policy should be left to the states to decide and reaffirmed support for exceptions for rape and incest, declining to endorse much-discussed national limits on the procedure.The statement, which was shared on Truth Social, is set to disappoint pro-life organizations throughout the country. Many feared the Trump campaign would continue to move further away from traditional pro-life positions, including refusing to back policies such as a fifteen-week ban. Susan B.
The Biden administration is bracing for a second Trump term by rolling out a rule that would complicate Donald Trump’s pledge to fire tens of thousands of federal workers if he wins in November. The new rule is also a huge gift to the public-sector unions that Joe Biden needs firmly in his corner.The latest edict, issued by the US Office of Personnel Management, is an almost direct response to Trump’s stated plans to purge the bureaucracy. That’s not how the OPM is framing it, of course; instead, OPM deputy director Rob Shriver said it “is about making sure the American public can continue to count on federal workers to apply their skills and expertise in carrying out their jobs, no matter their personal political beliefs.
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Unclued lights were characters in DAD’S ARMY which was set in WALMINGTON-ON-SEA.
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Screen tests Sir: As somebody whose teaching career coincided with the digital revolution, I must take issue with Sophie Winkleman’s well-meaning but blinkered views on screens in schools (Actress’s Notebook, 30 March). I shall ignore the several familiar yet unsubstantiated opinions presented as facts, but I cannot let ‘straight back to books, paper and pens’ go unchallenged. Adults involved in education have often, lamentably, seen it as their job to prepare children for the world they themselves grew up in, rather than the one that awaits the next generation. The comment, ‘Well it worked for me!’ boils my blood.
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Ballot points Michael Gove hinted that the general election could be on 14 or 21 November. Have we had a November election before? – General elections were held on 15 November 1922, when the Conservatives won a 74 seat majority and on 14 November 1935 when the National Government won a majority of 242. – There have been no general elections in November since then. – Prior to the first world war, general elections were not held on one specific day but were spread over several weeks. General elections spanned November in 1806 (Whig victory), 1812 (Tory), 1868 (Liberal) and 1885 (Conservative). Raw facts How many times was sewage discharged into rivers and the sea in 2023?
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It was bound to happen sooner or later: a guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow presented an artefact which derived from the slave trade – an ivory bangle. One of the programme’s experts, Ronnie Archer-Morgan, himself a descendant of slaves, said that it was a striking historical artefact but not one that he was willing to value. ‘I do not want to put a price on something that signifies such an awful business,’ he said. It’s easy to understand how he feels. The idea of people profiting from the artefacts left over from slavery is distasteful. Yet, as Archer-Morgan said, it is not that the bangle has no value: it has great educational value.
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Home The Hate Crime and Public Order Act came into effect in Scotland, making it a crime to communicate or behave in a manner ‘that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive’, with the intention of stirring up hatred based on age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. The Scottish government offered online training to 500 Police Scotland ‘Hate Crime Champions’. The author J.K. Rowling named ten people who call themselves women that she called men. Police Scotland said complaints had been received about her, but that but no action would be taken. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said: ‘We should not be criminalising people saying common sense things about biological sex.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seemed to shock a CNN reporter when he said in a recent interview that he could make the argument that President Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than former president Donald Trump. “Him trying to overthrow the election clearly is a threat to democracy,” Kennedy said about Trump. “But the question was, who is a worse threat to democracy and what I would say is... I’m not going to answer that question, but I can argue that President Biden is.”Kennedy pointed out that he recently won a court case in which he accused the Biden administration of weaponizing federal agencies to censor the political speech of Americans.
As believers around the world observed the holiest day of the Christian calendar yesterday with traditional Easter celebrations, the administration of the self-proclaimed “devout Catholic” president of the United States issued a proclamation acknowledging Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility” and banned religious-themed art from the White House Easter egg decorating contest.President Biden is evidently proud of his Catholic heritage, as he frequently touts his faith and attends Mass. Yet many of his policies, on abortion and LGBQTIA-related issues, for instance, directly contradict Catholic doctrine.Biden is receiving all kinds of flack in response to the White House proclamation.
Speaker Mike Johnson is extending a high-profile olive branch to one of his biggest intra-party foes of the day: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Johnson made her one of the impeachment managers as the House hands the reins of the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas to a less-than-excited Senate. Just days ago, Greene was performatively threatening to oust Johnson hours before Congress headed into a multi-week recess. Now, she’s joining with a group of Republicans in asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to expeditiously schedule an impeachment hearing for Mayorkas. It’s not just Greene who is obviously being helped out by Johnson with this announcement.
A studio apartment at the upscale Illume apartments in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood currently rents for $1,747 a month. The complex boasts rooftop pools, “luxe quartz countertops with modern tile backsplashes” and the chance to “pamper your pup at Luna’s pet spa.” Not mentioned on its sleekly designed website: “escaping gunmen running through the courtyard.”“We have been informed by the police that there is an armed suspect in the area,” the building emailed residents Tuesday afternoon. “We strongly advise all residents to stay inside their home with the door locked until further notice.”A statement from the Capitol Police said, “Our patrol officers spotted a vehicle that was connected to a previous shooting that occurred in MPD’s 2nd District.
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During Easter weekend four years ago, the country felt on the verge of catastrophe. The prime minister was in hospital having just come out of intensive care, the Covid-19 death toll was at more than 1,000 deaths a day, and hospitals were trying to cope with a flood of patients. It had been estimated that 90,000 ventilator beds would be needed; we had only 10,000. That weekend, no one went to church and no one visited family: instead we sat inside, preparing ourselves for the horror to come. Science is always evolving, never settled. Our understanding changes as we gain new information No one knew, then, that the virus was already in reverse. No one knew that 10,000 ventilators would prove enough or that the emergency Nightingale hospitals that had been set up would not be needed.
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Home Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister, told parliament that China was behind a cyber attack on the Electoral Commission in August 2021, getting access to 40 million voters’ details. Three MPs, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Stewart McDonald and Tim Loughton, said they had been hacked and harassed by China. The government sanctioned two individuals and a company. A Chinese battery manufacturer, EVE Energy, had been in talks about building a gigafactory near Coventry airport. Scott Benton MP, from whom the Conservative whip had been withdrawn, successfully applied to be Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead in place of Chris Pincher, thereby provoking a by-election in Blackpool South.
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Twelve unclued entries comprise six ‘joined’ pairs which are symmetrically placed in the grid: FLESH & BLOOD, CHEAP & NASTY, TIME & TIDE, SLINGS & ARROWS, ALPHA & OMEGA and WEAR & TEAR.
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Lock, stock and barrel Jeremy Hunt committed the Conservatives to maintaining the Triple Lock in their manifesto. How much is the policy costing taxpayers? – The Triple Lock – which guarantees a rise in the state pension equivalent to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest – was introduced in 2011. Since then the state pension has increased with CPI six times, average earnings three times and 2.5 per cent three times. – The basic state pension is currently £156.20 per week. Had it increased only with CPI it would now be worth £140.90 and had it increased only with average earnings it would be worth £141.20. – The total state pension bill this year is £124.3 billion.
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Copping out Sir: Both the Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Andrew Billings and your recent correspondent John Pritchard are partly right (Letters, 16 and 23 March). Policing has gone wrong for two reasons. First, the massive cuts in staff instigated by Theresa May as home secretary resulted in a large number of the most experienced officers leaving. Even the replacement of these officers under Boris Johnson took time and could not make up for the loss of experience. Secondly, the inspection regime under the Inspectorate of Constabulary fails to address the crimes that matter to the public. During the years I was PCC for the Thames Valley, I made household burglary, theft, violence on the streets and rural crime our priorities. That was what the vast majority of the public wanted.