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Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning, Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile I don’t really understand enough about the properties of concrete to really have much of an idea about the whys and wherefores of using RAAC in schools and public buildings, but I do know …

 We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. We are at that time of year when school halls are filled with pupils opening envelopes to greater or lesser degrees of joy and relief, as they receive their A level and GCSE results. …

any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. I thought long and hard about whether to start this piece of writing, on this topic and in this way. First off, I want …

We can make our lives sublime And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time We all know what we mean by our ‘carbon footprint’. Goodness knows we’ve been talking about it long enough, and businesses are spending masses of time, and bags of cash, in trying to …

And from the midst of cheerless gloom I passed to bright unclouded day Higher for longer. That’s what’s happening to interest rates in the UK which, thanks to the actions of the Bank of England last Thursday, are now higher than they have been at any point in the past …

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day… the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question. Wow, it’s a bit grim out there. For once, I’m not just talking about …

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety. Some weeks there are so many things happening ‘out-there’ that require comment, that I’m never sure where to start, nor which to choose. This is one of them. So, this week’s missive will be something of a smorgasbord, a picnic, if …

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. Like any right-minded middle-class girl, I went to the sea-side on my holidays. Shame it was the weekend where the south coast was beset with 45 …

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery Has the UK home-owning love-affair with all-things DIY and renovation cooled? Have the charms of the new bathroom, the redesigned garden or the outdoor kitchen paled in …

On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones. Looking back over the last few UK Prime Ministers, each one of …