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Home Nurses in England belonging to the Royal College of Nursing union rejected the government’s pay offer and hurried to go on strike over the first May bank holiday and thereafter on chosen dates till Christmas. Members of Unison voted to accept the NHS pay offer. More than 196,000 hospital appointments were cancelled because of
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Who invented the clock, pray tell, time’s division, the ticking spell? An ice-cold man that hated song, who sat and thought the whole night long and listened to the starved mice brawl and beetles pacing in the wall. What invented the kiss? I’ll tell: a lovely mouth, you know full well, that kissed and did
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The unclued lights are the former and current names of various products: 2/8A, 12/36, 16/32, 17/34, 13/22. First prize David Caldecott, Bowerchalke, Salisbury Runners-up Elizabeth Feinberg, Rancho Mirage, CA, USAPearl Williamson, Dungannon, Northern Ireland
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Putting out fires The Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said it was renaming the park because the word ‘beacon’ implies carbon emissions and ‘does not fit with the ethos’. — Many hills in Britain carry the name ‘beacon’ thanks to chains of fires which were lit up to warn of approaching invasion. In Devon alone,
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Pension point Sir: I have just read Kate Andrews’s article on junior doctors’ pay (‘Sick pay’, 15 April). While not wishing to get drawn into the rights or wrongs of their strike action, may I point out that in respect of the NHS pension scheme, for the sake of balance, the employee’s pension contribution also
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The United Kingdom is one of the last countries in the world to host lavish coronation ceremonies. Europe’s new kings and queens keep these events low-key, whereas the British monarchy continues to be marked by splendour and mass popular appeal. This time last year, there were 3,874 applications for road closures to mark street parties
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Conditions of carriage The King and Queen will travel to and from the coronation in a carriage which boasts heating and electric windows. Are these uncommon luxuries? Popular Mechanics magazine in the US reveals that the King is not alone in expecting mod cons in his carriage: even the Amish employ various modern technologies in
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Home President Joe Biden of the United States visited Northern Ireland, shook hands with party leaders, talked with Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (though not about a trade agreement), and went on to the Republic of Ireland, for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael
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The couple were VICTORIA (23, 36, 37, 45) and ALBERT (2, 9, 17, 20, 46). 7 was the link. First prize Kenneth Allen, Riddlesden, W. YorksRunners-up P. and A. Hoverstadt, Lymm, Cheshire; Christopher Bellew, London W6
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Too broad a Church Sir: I am not implacably hostile to Justin Welby; I share Christian empathy with the Archbishop’s earnest struggles to attract a spiritually dead nation back to the Church of England as described by Dan Hitchens’s article (‘The lost shepherds’, 8 April). However I cannot agree with his strategy. A liberal church
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Nigel Lawson was the most consequential chancellor in modern British history. He gave the world a case study in how to overturn a failed consensus. He was guided throughout his political career by the political principles articulated when he was editor of this magazine. His legacy is so rich that it offers a wide choice
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Home Britain joined Australia, Japan and nine other countries in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the CPTPP. Kemi Badenoch, Business and Trade Secretary, said that projections of its contribution to the growth of the UK economy, of 0.08 per cent over a decade, didn’t tell the whole story. Teachers voted for
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Major mistake Sir: Douglas Murray (‘Our poor deluded MPs’, 1 April) contends that John Major is widely regarded as ‘one of the worst prime ministers in living memory’. If so, that seems unfair. Although a greyish figure, Major had to operate with a narrow parliamentary majority and a fractious party. It is often forgotten that
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Falling at fences Activists from an animal rights group were secretly filmed apparently plotting to disrupt the Grand National, protesting in part at the number of horses killed at the event. – Since 1839, 88 horses have died either during the race or were put down as a result of injuries. Four died in the
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RUNNERS (10), ANSWER (28) and MEADOW (29D) defined FIELD; PROVISIONS (18), MANAGE (38) and PASSENGER (30) defined FARE; and THRUSH (11), PICNIC (16) and COMPILER (20) defined FIELDFARE (above the grid) First prize Steve Reszetniak, Margate, Kent Runners-up Alan Norman, Impington, Cambridge; Amanda Spielman, London SW4
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The World Athletics Council has taken the decisive step of announcing that transgender women who underwent male puberty before their transition will henceforth be excluded from female events. The decision has been made, according to the council, to ‘protect the future of the female category’. World rugby has already made a similar ruling and other
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The unclued lights each contained a letter which appeared three times. First prize Janet Hill, Eastbourne, East Sussex Runners-up Gareth Davies, Langstone, Newport, Gwent; Andrew Bell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
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Home Humza Yousaf was elected leader of the Scottish National party, beating Kate Forbes by 52 per cent to 48 per cent after Ash Regan was eliminated; MSPs then elected him First Minister. Of 19 transgender prisoners in custody in Scotland, 12 began their transition ‘after their date of admission’, according to data obtained under
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He wakes. Alive. No cash. No phone. Down from their ash trees squirrels nose through drink and dope enough to stone a wood’s astonishment of crows. He stirs and gives the crows a scare. Pinned up with lamps, tar paper sky flaps open at a corner where, tipped out of dusk, moths flicker by, skim
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Fooling about When did the tradition of 1 April pranks begin? One theory is that it derives from the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria, which involved games and pranks – although that was held on the spring equinox, which falls more than a week earlier than 1 April. — In Chaucer’s ‘Nun’s Priest’s Tale’, a