After observing the unedifying General Election campaign nationally and being involved in several local Hustings, I have to honestly say I am feeling very uninspired and pretty low about the overall state of English politics. In my view, we face an unprecedented global ecological challenge and a menacing destabilisation of democracy. Together these two call for an intense campaign to de-carbonise as soon as possible on the one hand, and a profound and radical overhaul of our political and economic systems and structures on the other. This means we need to set out detailed programmes to...

Exeter School has been awarded the prestigious Royal Navy Cup by the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) Devon Branch for the sixth time in nine years.

This is the second year in succession that Exeter School has received the Cup.

The Cup is awarded for the number of lifesaving awards which include demonstrating confident and skilful rescues in simulated incidents.

In the last years, ten Year 10 Exeter School pupils have gained their RLSS Survive and Save Silver Awards, and six Lower Sixth pupils and thirteen staff have achieved the National Rescue Award for swimming...

Premiership Rugby has announced that Round 21 of the Aviva Premiership Rugby, next weekend 9/10 May 2015, is being dedicated to Restart Rugby the official charity of The Rugby Players' Association (RPA).

As a mark of the strengthening partnership between Premiership Rugby and the RPA, Round 21 has been renamed the Restart Rugby Weekend, the first of its kind.

Restart Rugby is a charity that raises funds for those rugby players and their families who are in need.

A number of initiatives are being staged to promote Restart amongst clubs, supporters and Aviva...

People are being urged to check with their insurance firms before paying traders for household repair works.

In one recent case, a trader charged £11,000 for work that the insurance company then declined to reimburse, because they valued the work at under £2,000.

Devon and Somerset Trading Standards has issued the warning, stating that consumers can be left out of pocket when insurance companies don't reimburse the full amount paid to a trader.

The situation can be avoided, say Trading Standards Officers, by following simple steps before committing to work....

Over 110 people attended the April networking lunch which was held at the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink. The event was sponsored by Living Coasts and Paignton Zoo and the presentation topic was sustainable fishing in the South West. The speakers included Felicity Sylvester who has over 25 years’ experience of teaching and demonstrations about seasonal local caught fish and shellfish. Felicity was a partner in Sylvester Seafoods - a trawling, potting and mussel collecting business in Appledore in 1980s and has sold a wide range of Devon smoked fish at local markets and online...

Devon and Cornwall Police have reffered an incident to the Police Complaints Commission after a man died in hospital folling an incident in which he was restrained by officers.

The 38-year-old man - died in hospital following an incident in Paignton.

The incident happened at around 9pm on Wednesday 29th April when police were called to a disturbance outside of the bar on the Esplanade in Paignton involving an altercation between two men and door staff.

During the incident the 38 year-old man, while being restrained, became unconscious and following CPR by officers...

Newly-hatched African penguin chicks at Living Coasts are being named after stars and constellations.

Staff at Torquay’s coastal zoo and aquarium are using the pattern of spots on the belly of a young penguin – unique to each bird – to help find names.

Keeper Chris Dunn: “The idea is to take photos of the young birds’ spot patterns and compare them to star constellations. It’s not always easy to find good matches, however one chick has a row of four spots that matches the basic pattern of the constellation Aries. Conveniently, that’s quite a nice name for a penguin, too...

Exeter City signed off the 2014/15 season with a 2-1 home victory against Dagenham & Redbridge, to secure a 10th-place finish in Sky Bet League 2.

All of the goals came in the second period, as Jimmy Keohane struck a beautiful opener before Tom Nichols was gifted a tap in for number 15 of the campaign.

Former Grecians striker Jamie Cureton – who was named as Daggers captain for the afternoon – halved the deficit in stoppage-time but it was City that claimed the win.

James Hamon was the first of the goalkeepers to be called into action as Jodi Jones slipped a...