Political news

• Theresa May earns £10,000 a year renting out London flat

  26-10-2017 23:54 via bbc.co.uk
  The income has been declared in the Commons register of members' financial interests.
  
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• UK foreign policy 'should put values above economics'

  26-10-2017 23:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Chairman of the foreign affairs committee says arms sales should be done in a "rules-based system".
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn 'Can Become PM' If He Wins A Few Hundred Votes In Small Towns Battleground - New Research

  26-10-2017 23:00
  Jeremy Corbyn can become Prime Minister by swinging just a few hundred voters towards Labour in 45 small towns across the UK, research from a new think tank has found.Analysis for Centre For Towns, to be launched next month, suggests that Corbyn can win the keys to Downing Street if he and his party can break out of their “Metropolitan” base in Britain’s big cities.Early findings by the group of leading political and social scientists, released exclusively to HuffPost UK, show
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn 'Can Become PM' If He Wins A Few Hundred Votes In Small Towns Battleground

  26-10-2017 23:00
  Jeremy Corbyn can become Prime Minister by swinging just a few hundred voters towards Labour in 45 small towns across the UK, research from a new think tank has found.Analysis for Centre For Towns, to be launched next month, suggests that Corbyn can win the keys to Downing Street if he and his party can break out of their “Metropolitan” base in Britain’s big cities.Early findings by the group of leading political and social scientists, released exclusively to HuffPost UK, show
  
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• Children In The UK Deserve A Life Free From Domestic Abuse - You Can Help

  26-10-2017 22:48
  Rock Against Violence tickets are on sale now, or click here to make a donation to Solace Women's Aid.I'm used to hearing horrific stories about physical, sexual and emotional abuse from the brave women that seek help from Solace Women's Aid, a charity for which I've volunteered over the last 7 years. The impacts are heart-wrenching --from broken bones to broken spirits-- especially when children are involved. In fact, it's often children that motivate mothers to finally leave their abusers.That
  
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• Probation Service Reform Labelled 'Monumental Failure' After Shocking BBC Panorama Documentary

  26-10-2017 22:21
  The Labour Party has damned the part-privatisation of the probation service as a “monumental failure” after a shocking BBC documentary revealed serious failings in the system.The Government has come under pressure after Panorama exposed how one private contractor failed to take action on more than 15,000 missed appointments over 16 months in London, according to internal documents seen by the BBC’s reporters.Offenders reportedly failed to carry out unpaid work and missed a
  
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• JFK files: What will documents reveal about Kennedy's killer?

  26-10-2017 22:17 via bbc.co.uk
  Classified documents on President Kennedy's assassination are due to be released. What will we learn?
  
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• HS2 finance chief to quit amid redundancy cover-up claims

  26-10-2017 22:05 via ft.com
  Anger in government over handling of unauthorised payments
  
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• Labour accuses Theresa May of ‘stitch-up’ over response to defeats

  26-10-2017 21:55
  Ministers will get 12 weeks to prepare statement if Tories lose the vote on opposition day motionsLabour accused Theresa May of a “great stitch-up” after the government announced that ministers would be given 12 weeks to respond when they are defeated on motions raised by the opposition.Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, said on Thursday she would take up a proposal made by the veteran Eurosceptic MP Peter Bone for a minister to be obliged to issue a response within
  
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• Unpaid internships ban to be debated in House of Lords

  26-10-2017 21:23 via bbc.co.uk
  Four-week unpaid internships crush creativity and are clearly discriminatory, says peer.
  
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• Tom Tugendhat: 'It would be great to be prime minister'

  26-10-2017 21:00
  MP tipped for promotion shares his ambitions with House magazine, saying it would be great to be PM, foreign secretary or defence secretaryTom Tugendhat, the Conservative rising star who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, has said it would be great to be prime minister, foreign secretary or defence secretary one day.The MP for Tonbridge and Malling, who is tipped for promotion at the next reshuffle, did not hold back about his ambitions in an interview with House magazine, although he
  
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• Tory rebels warn they are 'deadly serious' about forcing Brexit concessions

  26-10-2017 20:58
  Rebels warn David Davis not to expect easy ride when Brexit bill comes to the Commons, while Labour calls the process ‘a mess’Conservative rebels have warned the Brexit secretary, David Davis, that they are “deadly serious” about forcing concessions from the government on the EU withdrawal bill.As the leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, announced that the key piece of Brexit legislation would come back to the Commons on 14 November, former education secretary
  
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• Dennis Skinner Backs Richard Leonard For Scottish Labour Leadership

  26-10-2017 20:52
  Labour stalwart Dennis Skinner has backed Richard Leonard as the party’s next Scottish leader.The Bolsover MP said the rest of Labour must “fit in” with Jeremy Corbyn and that Leonard offered the best chance of winning back power from the SNP.In a video message shared with HuffPost UK, Skinner said he was sad he did not have a vote in the contest for Kezia Dugdale’s replacement.“We’ve got a new leadership in Parliament and everyone with any sense knows that Je
  
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• MP Bob Blackman defends Tapan Ghosh's appearance in Parliament

  26-10-2017 20:50 via bbc.co.uk
  The Conservative MP says he was unaware of Tapan Ghosh's previous remarks.
  
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• Daily Telegraph Admits 'Decolonise' Cambridge Curriculum Story Was Wrong As Student Lola Olufemi Condemns Newspaper

  26-10-2017 19:49
  The Daily Telegraph has admitted its story suggesting the University of Cambridge was being “forced” to drop white writers from its curriculum was inaccurate, as the black student who featured on its front page spoke out after suffering “racist and sexist abuse” as a result.The newspaper on Thursday offered a ‘clarification’ after Lola Olufemi, the women’s officer at Cambridge University Student Union, was among dozens of students to sign an op
  
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• EU preparing for no deal Brexit, says Michel Barnier's adviser

  26-10-2017 19:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Brussels does not want a "no deal" Brexit but is preparing for it "for sure", an official says.
  
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• Tories disown firebrand Hindu activist after Commons visit

  26-10-2017 19:33
  Tapan Ghosh spoke in Commons despite reputation for incendiary rhetoric about religious minorities in IndiaSenior Tories have distanced themselves from a firebrand Hindu activist invited to speak at the House of Commons last week, after it emerged he had been jailed at least five times in India for stoking religious tensions.Tapan Ghosh, the founder of Hindu Samhati, a controversial activist group based in India’s West Bengal state, spoke at an event in the UK parliament last week.Continue
  
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• Legal challenge to DUP-Tory deal fails in High Court

  26-10-2017 19:26 via bbc.co.uk
  Ciaran McClean argued the £1bn pact breached the Anti Bribery Act.
  
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• Taxman under fire for failing to probe Uber stance on VAT

  26-10-2017 19:25 via ft.com
  MPs attack HMRC over ride-hailing apps attitude to payments
  
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• How This Couple Built A House That Generates Its Own Energy

  26-10-2017 19:06
  Don't get us wrong, we like having a roof over our heads.But most of our homes produce a heck of a lot of carbon: in fact, household air pollution is the world's largest environmental health risk, according to the World Health Organisation.Which is why ex-London living couple Mike Coe and Lizzie Stoodley decided to green up their lives by building a 'self-sustaining home.' (The project took a total of five years to complete. Yikes.)The Cropthorne Autonomous House, in the Worcestershire countrysi
  
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• The Reality Of Post Sex-Change Regret

  26-10-2017 19:04
  A recent article in the Telegraph discussing the topic of sex change regret raises some interesting points. In the article Urologist, Miroslav Djordjevic, who specialises in Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS), talks about his concerns around an increase in "reversal" surgeries among transgender women.
  He highlights the fact that those who want the reversal, display high levels of depression and in some instances, suicidal thoughts.The interview seems to offer yet more evidence that those sufferin
  
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• MP Darren Jones Sports Red Nail Polish In Parliament To Raise Awareness Of Modern Slavery

  26-10-2017 19:03
  An MP has shared his pride at being “perhaps as the first male MP in the chamber” to display painted nails in the House of Commons.As fans of a good manicure know, a statement nail can speak a thousand words and Darren Jones used his pillar box red nails to raise the issue of modern slavery, which has been found to occur in some nail bars.“In one of my first constituency surgeries as a new MP, a constituent came to me with little English, tearful, unable to communicate the shee
  
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• Brexit Briefing: David Davis Told The Truth And MPs Didn't Love It

  26-10-2017 18:56
  “It can’t come before we have the deal,” David Davis said on Wednesday, when asked about when MPs will get a vote on Brexit.And with those eight words, the Government spent the next 24 hours chasing its tail.Anti-Brexit MPs were fuming that the UK could leave the EU in March 2019 without Parliament getting a vote on the final deal.The Brexit department issued a statement to try to reassure Parliament it would still have a role, but actually just reiterated Davis’ point th
  
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• Madihah Taheer, Who Fantasised About Beheading Katie Hopkins, Convicted Of Terrorism Offences

  26-10-2017 18:54
  A woman who fantasised about beheading Katie Hopkins and wanted the leader of Britain First murdered has been convicted of terrorism offences.Madihah Taheer, 22, from Birmingham, bought a large combat knife for her husband to use in a UK attack and urging him to “kill people for me”.She also allowed her debit card to be used to buy a lifelike training dummy so that her husband, Ummariyat Mirza, 21, could practise an attack, prosecutors said.The dummy was found in the couple’s B
  
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• Why Ireland Might Have To Leave The EU Too

  26-10-2017 18:52
  At some point the people of Ireland are going to have to choose between Britain and the EU. There are plenty of reasons why they might go with Britain. They are geographical, economical and political.The 30th of March 2019 marks a unique point in the joint lives of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It will be the first time in their history that one has been inside the EU and the other isn't. Before 1st January 1973 they were both outside what was then the European Community, which
  
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• How Lazy Thinking Is Ruining The World

  26-10-2017 18:52
  Two clearly unbalanced leaders are sabre rattling over nuclear war, each one threatening the annihilation of the other. This stand-off is being fought within the public sphere, making the volatility even more frightening. Trump, impulsive as ever on Twitter, has the perfect enemy in Kim Jong-un who goads and responds in equal measure. Where are the adults in the room?Major world leaders are resorting to lazy thinking that purports to have easy answers to complex problems: this approach is irrati
  
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• How You Can Support Your Employees' Mental Health

  26-10-2017 18:47
  The Stevenson-Farmer independent review into workplace mental health revealed today that 300,000 people with a long-term mental health problem lose their jobs each year.Poor mental health costs employers up to £42 billion a year, with an annual cost to the UK economy of up to £99 billion. But this should not be an insurmountable problem. There are things that all employers can do around mental health to help their employees and benefit their businesses.I'm proud to say that Aviva was
  
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• Five People Who Lost Their Jobs Due To Mental Ill Health Share Their Stories

  26-10-2017 18:21
  A total of 300,000 people with a long term mental health condition lose their jobs each year, according to a Government-commissioned report.The report also said 15% of people at work show symptoms of a mental health condition while mental ill health costs businesses £42 billion a year.The report follows a survey by the charity Business in the Community (BITC) published earlier this month, which found that among employees who had disclosed mental health issues to an employer, 15%
  
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• Black Oxbridge Admissions: Why David Lammy's Comments And Mp Coalition Fail To Highlight All Of The Real Issues

  26-10-2017 18:21
  Time and time again, Oxford and Cambridge has been under scrutiny for the underrepresentation of black students at Oxford and Cambridge. The scrutiny is often justified - it is important that we bring the issue of equal representation of black students at these institutions into the public domain, in order to find a solution to this issue. However, following the comments of David Lammy and a number of other MPs, what has frustrated myself and a number of other black students at Oxford and Cambri
  
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• Top Of The League

  26-10-2017 18:17
  Although I've got many brilliantly vivid childhood memories, my football memories of that time are patchy and vague at best. Sadly, my team Southampton's win against Man United in the 1976 FA Cup Final is a hazy highlight set against the backdrop of that long, hot draught-stricken summer. Maybe my memory of May that year's not helped by having bad concussion after being knocked unconscious on a 20-foot slide, built in those days before Health and Safety got into the playground.How many seven-yea
  
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• MP Darren Jones sports painted nails in slavery awareness stunt

  26-10-2017 18:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Darren Jones, MP for Bristol North West, defended Avon and Somerset police officers who had done the same.
  
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• The Day Of The Girl Is A Reminder To Redouble Our Efforts To Keep Girls In School And Out Of Child Marriage

  26-10-2017 18:09
  Doreen (not her real name) was married at age 13. With Alice's help, she is now back in school. Photo: Eliza Powell/CamfedLast week, on International Day of the Girl, I travelled to London to speak at the Institute for Government to a group of people deeply committed to girls' education and the leadership of young women. My speech focused on the urgent need to keep girls in school and out of child marriage by unleashing the power of young women once at risk of becoming child brides.Let me tell y
  
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• Funny Bones

  26-10-2017 18:09
  The one label I'm proud to wear is that of 'geek'. It's a badge I wear with pride cultivated through obsessively watching the likes of Tales From The Crypt, Fringe and the X-Files, and basically doing a Cathy Bates over anything and everything that sparked my imagination.To further evidence my claim - I will confess to possessing a 'wall of weird' growing up that wasn't all too dissimilar to Carrie Matheson's (Homeland) pinned maps when she was off her meds.Unfortunately, a couple of my latest m
  
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• The Euro Did Not Make Europeans Feel More European

  26-10-2017 18:06
  The American economist Richard H.Thaler was recently awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioural economics. Among his many specific contributions to the field is also his popularisation of 'nudge theory'; the idea that subtle changes to rules and policy can encourage significant changes in individual behaviour and attitudes.Take for example plastic bag charges. Evidence suggests that increasing the cost of a plastic bag from zero to a few pence (or
  
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• Eddie Izzard Releases Campaign Video In Bid To Win Labour NEC Seat

  26-10-2017 18:00
  Eddie Izzard has called on his fans to join the Labour Party to boost his bid to win a place on its ruling committee.In a video to be posted on his Facebook and Twitter accounts on Thursday evening, seen by HuffPost UK, Izzard talks about joining Labour in 1995, coming out in 1985 and his social and political activism.The actor, comedian and campaigner wants to win a place on the party’s National Executive Committee, which oversees its general direction and policy-making process, as well a
  
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• You Make A Living By What You Get. You Make A Life By What You Give

  26-10-2017 17:58
  Why did I become a mentor? Before going into detail, I'd like to share a quote which perfectly captures the reason I took that step."Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has a genius, power, and magic in it" - GoetheI had always felt that I needed to "make it" before I could start giving back. but over the last year I've been a mentor to a 9 year old boy called Nathaniel who had been excluded from school and - cliché I know - it's been one of the best experiences of my
  
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• The Latest Salvo In A War The Working Class Is Losing

  26-10-2017 17:58
  Though perhaps understandable, it would be a grievous mistake to take the unbelievably egregious cruelty surrounding the role of the government's Universal Credit in isolation. It would be a mistake because do so and we miss the salient point that this conscious and unspeakable attack on the most vulnerable in society - those who have the least and are now faced with more being taken - is part of an overarching assault on the working class by a Tory establishment whose hatred for the poor is so
  
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• Government Offers £25m To Prove 5G Will Benefit UK Economy

  26-10-2017 17:52
  The government has launched a £25m '5G Testbeds and Trials' programme to source ideas for how the next generation of mobile networks - 5G -can benefit the UK economy.The £740m National Productivity Investment Fund, announced in last year's Autumn Statement, is for the development of digital infrastructure in the UK. That includes the development of full fibre broadband and 5G mobile networks, which the government hopes can add £173bn to Britain's economy by 2030.5G allows much
  
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• 'Stranger Things 2': Eleven (Get It?) Questions We Need Answers To In Series Two

  26-10-2017 17:51
  With a whole new series of ‘Stranger Things’ almost sitting in our Netflix queue ready to be unboxed in the coming weeks (well, let’s be honest, we’ll probably have devoured all nine episodes in the next 48 hours), we can’t wait to see what The Duffer Brothers have concocted this time around.The second series - dubbed ‘Stranger Things 2’, in keeping with the 80’s horror aesthetic of the first run - looks set to be packed with more adventure, m
  
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• It's Time To Look At The Bigger Picture

  26-10-2017 17:49
  https://www.pexels.com/photo/facebook-application-icon-147413/The UK Government recently released its Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper - a long awaited insight into their plans to deliver its commitment to making the country "the safest place to be online".This is an important first step in addressing the challenges associated with the internet such as cyberbullying, trolling and sextortion. However, there is still more to do if we are to truly realise this vision and keep everyone, and perh
  
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• How VR, AR And AI Is Changing The World

  26-10-2017 17:43
  Technology ain't what it used to be, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence have dominated the tech landscapes in recent years and as these technologies become more commonplace, consumers from across the spectrum are beginning to see the benefits they can offer. Although the foundations of these technologies have been around for decades, the growth of the internet and increased processor speeds means that the reality is starting to become very much real.From virtual cinem
  
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• Why I Wrote The Book I Wish I Had At The Start Of My Transition

  26-10-2017 17:37
  If you've watched this week's episodes of New Activists, you'll know my book To My Trans Sisters, is finally out! It's the most surreal thing ever! It all started last year, when I was fortunate enough to be offered a book deal by Jessica Kingsley Publishers after I topped The Observer's New Radicals List. I was also fortunate enough to be given free reign with the book, so when it came to deciding what I wanted it to be about, I began by asking myself what I felt my community needed, and answer
  
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• Watford Grammar School Pilots Mental Health Project Getting Year 12s To Teach Year 7s About Wellbeing

  26-10-2017 16:59
  A secondary school is hoping to pave the way for better mental health education, by piloting a project allowing Year 12s to teach Year 7s about their wellbeing.Watford Grammar School is running the Mental Health Foundation’s (MHF) peer education project (PEP), which sees students become the teachers.The programme hopes to make it easier for children to open up about how they are feeling and know that it is okay not to be okay. “Part of the strategies that we had i
  
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• How Do We Get Closer To Understanding, And Reframing, The Power We Want Over Our Bodies?

  26-10-2017 16:50
  Most of us want to be able to control our bodies. That verb might sound quite condemning, and if we were to delve into semantics, I might offer 'check,' 'keep an eye on' or 'curate' as a nod to creativity. I'm also aware that that choice of verb bears my own foibles; they're strewn about it like bunting. Nonetheless, it's my firm belief that each of us, in some way, wants to foist some degree of control over our physicality. I feel that if we, as a society, considered that more deeply, and tried
  
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• National Action: Christopher Lythgoe Charged With Encouragement To Commit Murder

  26-10-2017 16:42
  The leader of a neo-Nazi terror group has been charged with encouragement to commit murder. Christopher Lythgoe, was arrested as part of a probe into banned extreme right-wing groupNational Action, Greater Manchester Police said.pic.twitter.com/FRN7pZjRFX— G M Police (@gmpolice) October 26, 2017Lythgoe, of Greymist Avenue, Woolston, Garron Helm of Gladstone Road, Seaforth, Matthew Hankinson of Market Street, Newton-Le-Willows, Andrew Clark of Marsh House Lane, Paddington and Mich
  
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• Wealth Inequality: Dimensions, Drivers And Responses

  26-10-2017 16:41
  We are a wealthy but deeply unequal nation. The richest 10% of households own nearly 900 times the wealth of the poorest 10%, and five times more than the least wealthy half of the population, who own just 9% of the UK's wealth. Critically, these inequalities are getting worse. Between 2010-2012 and 2012-2014, over half of the increase in Great Britain's wealth went to the top 10% of households. With a deeply flawed housing market and returns to capital exceeding returns to economic growth, the
  
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• Einstein's 'Theory For Happiness' Sold For Nearly A Million Pounds

  26-10-2017 16:23
  Albert Einstein might be best known for his groundbreaking theory on general relativity but his secret to happiness has fetched nearly a million pounds at an auction in Jerusalem.Watch the video to find out more. 
  
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• Paying people to house NHS patients is not a solution to our social care crisis

  26-10-2017 16:22
  
  Norman Lamb on why NHS pilot should never have been considered in the first place
  
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• Vulnerable People Should Not Have To Rely On Strangers' Care In An Airbnb

  26-10-2017 16:21
  Hospitals are, ironically, one of those places within whose boundaries we can feel a certain amount of safety. Despite usually being there at a time of great vulnerability and uncertainty, we can mostly surrender to being looked after. Even when we hear that the NHS is falling apart and short of money, we still feel like a child in its nursery, that we are intrinsically nurtured in those walls. That if we have the misfortune to need to stay there, there is always someone looking out for us. We c
  
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• Tracy Brabin's Rocky The Labrador Wins Westminster Dog Of The Year Contest

  26-10-2017 16:21
  The Labour Party swept to victory in the most important political battle of 2017 - the Westminster Dog Of The Year contest.Tracy Brabin and her chocolate labrador, Rocky, took the crown at the Kennel Club and Dogs Trust-organised event on Thursday.The duo beat tough competition from Taunton MP Rebecca Pow and rescue dog Bonnie, who came second, and women and equalities committee chair Maria Miller, who finished third with cockapoo Ted.Brabin, who represents Batley and Spen, said seven-year-
  
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