Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve
02/08/2010
National Marine Week in Dorset 7th – 15th August 2010. The UK's marine environment provides a haven for some of our most fascinating wildlife, such as basking sharks, seahorses, puffins and dolphins. Each year The Wildlife Trusts celebrate the UK's amazing sea animals and plants during National Marine Week. This is your chance to explore the seashore, discover dunes and wallow with whelks.
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...Stand Up For Your Rights - By David Hollister
30/07/2010
My name is David. I am not an alcoholic. But in common with most middle-aged men, I do enjoy a pint. A report made to HM Government recently suggests the drinkdriving limit being cut from 80mg to 50mg in an attempt to save lives. Very laudable but flawed in the extreme because no-one actually knows how to measure their intake.
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Freedom Of Purbeck Parade
27/07/2010
For the first time in over 30 years, the Freedom of Purbeck District was given to the officers and soldiers of the Armour Centre in Wareham on July 11th. Crowds packed the streets to wave flags in support of not only the currently serving soldiers, but also in support of the Old Boys Association, the Junior Leaders Regiment and the Royal Armoured Corps.
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Richard Drax, MP
26/07/2010
It’s been a busy and fascinating two months. Major events across the world, including the BP oil spill, Gaza convoy, spy exchanges and of course the continuing war in Afghanistan have dominated the headlines and our attention in the House. While nearer to home, two major shooting incidents, an austere Budget, our woeful football team and the activities of a few of my colleagues have created endless column inches in UK newspapers.
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Definitely Not A Cockerel - By David Eyles
16/07/2010
Those who know me will agree that when equestrian matters crop up in conversation, my eyes tend to glaze over and the brain slips gently into neutral. Nevertheless, the arrangements in this household dictate that every now and then, I have to take an interest.
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Hot Potatoes... By Martin Pook
12/07/2010
I have always believed in political shopping. I know that some people don’t think it makes any difference, but I am sure that in the case of South Africa, much in the news at present, it did. The entire world shunned the apartheid regime except… Israel, which supplied armaments to keep the regime going in exchange for hard currency.
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Dry Stone Walling - By Pete Beaumont
08/07/2010
I have encountered stone walls in Scotland and in Western Europe, but only recently have I had the chance to appreciate their real significance and importance when I talked to Lydia Harris, the dry stone walling specialist at Durlston Country Park.
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Wareham's Wonderful Walls - By Ben Buxton
05/07/2010
Over the past couple of years, the jungles of gorse and scrub covering Wareham’s North Walls have been cleared, making them fully visible for the first time for decades. Viewed from the meadows and the bypass, you can see how the rampart was built on the top of a natural river cliff above the meadows, and the effect is most impressive.
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Clealls Of Corfe... By David Hollister
26/06/2010
I’m sure that you saw ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ on TV on June 14th when Mary visited Clealls Stores in Corfe Castle and ‘worked it over’. My initial reaction was outrage for the way in which she dismissed out-of-hand the business which had been put together and run profitably for so many years by John and Carol Elmes, calling it ‘a cluttered mess’.
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Robert Owen's Struggle... by Jolyon Gumbrell
03/06/2010
Robert Owen’s struggle to bring fairness to the banking system. Long before the Credit Crunch of 2008, Swanage resident Robert Owen was lobbying government so regulations could be put in place ensuring that the banks treated their customers fairly. He helped set up a not for profit company limited by guarantee called SAFE, which stands for Struggle Against Financial Exploitation, as a pressure group to help people who had become the victims of fraud perpetuated by the banks.
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Buzzwords Instead Of Service - by David Eyles
28/05/2010
In the old days, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was tucked away in the backwaters of Whitehall. It had a lowly, humdrum reputation and was sometimes thought of as a place where civil service careers went to die. Despite this, a good many staff were there because they knew and actually enjoyed their subject, and reinforced this by being rather good at it.
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Interesting Times... by Martin Pook
28/05/2010
We live in interesting times. I am not sure whether the money that was lost in the credit crunch ever really existed, but I am sure that we are all going to pay it back, and that means you and me. The new government ministers will take a miniscule pay cut, as
will top civil servants, but let’s be honest, they won’t really notice. I’d be more inclined to believe that they meant business if Theresa May wasn’t being driven about in the latest Jaguar that we couldn’t buy even if we could afford it.
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