Latest helpfulness...
Pledges and poverty
Poverty is a problem the world over, something from which no country is protected, regardless of how supposedly wealthy it is.
Chills, bills and bellyaches
October means Halloween. Ghosties, zombies and surly teenage trick-or-treaters - all pretty scary. But you know what? Not as scary as something else millions of us are going to do this month - buy heating oil to keep our homes warm.
It is now a demonstrable fact that the price of heating oil is scarier [...]
Words are still free
It’s no secret that soaring living costs have had us obsessively checking our bank balances and becoming more acquainted with our local pound shops of late. But what is less widely known is that we don’t have to suffer the financial angst alone.
Trouble selling your house? Try the direct internet route
If you’re trying to move house, the statistics don’t look good. Government figures show the number of homes sold in August has halved since last year, plunging to just 62,000 - the lowest level since records began in 1959.
Stem the rising tide
We are all protective of our neighbourhoods.
None more so than in the UK, you might think, where an Englishman’s house is his castle, and the tabloids preside over a febrile parochialism which gives order and strength to society.
Clear your plates
It’s World Vegetarian Day! Hurrah! (With less gusto at the back - save your energy.)
Four years till 2012: get your kit on
This summer’s Olympics was pretty inspiring stuff. I’m not ashamed to admit that I welled up with pride at Britain’s unexpected success on a number of occasions.
Contaminated manure: the bad smell lingers
In July, we reported on how veg growers across the country have had their crops ruined by ‘bad’ manure.
The most likely cause is aminopyralid, a hormone-based weedkiller that is used on grassland. It appears to have found its way through horses’ digestive systems into manure and onto people’s allotments and gardens.
Work / life balance - a good trick if you can do it
Yesterday my seven year-old daughter called a family meeting with her father and me. The topic: why aren’t we spending enough family time together? Being a creative kind of a girl, she’d produced a flyer for the meeting.
(Green) jobs for the boys
Things might not look great for the world economy right now, but according to the UN there is going to be one cast-iron certainty in the job market over the coming decades.
