Exeter City receive Family Excellence Award from the Football League

Exeter City are delighted to announce that the club has been awarded the Family Excellence Award by the Football League. The announcement was made at St Andrew’s, the home of Birmingham City, on Wednesday 8 May. Each of the 72 Football League clubs receives two visits a year from a mystery family who judge the club on more than 70 supporter touch-points on a matchday. The clubs have to achieve a minimum score of 75 per cent on each visit and that there must be an improvement in the second report to prove on-going commitment. Last year, Exeter City lost their status as a holder of the...

How coffee can save the world

Authored by Paigntonzoo
Posted: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 12:09pm

A Devon conservation charity plans to revolutionise the difficult relationship between conservation and consumerism.

Living Coasts, Torquay’s coastal zoo, has introduced a shade-grown, ethical rainforest coffee that – unlike most other coffees – does not threaten the habitat of rare species.

The Zoo’s parent charity, the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, has led the way in linking consumer ethics to wildlife conservation and has tried to drive palm oil – produced across South East Asia in plantations that are destroying orang utan habitat – from its catering business....

The Duchess of Cornwall to visit Devon County Show

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is to attend the first day of the Devon County Show on Thursday 16 May at Westpoint, Exeter.

It will be the Duchess of Cornwall’s third visit to the county’s largest annual event where she will be the guest of The Hon George Lopes, this year’s Show President.

Show Secretary Ollie Allen said: “We are honoured and delighted that Her Royal Highness will be with us this year and will do everything to ensure she enjoys her day.”

The Duchess of Cornwall’s first visit was in 2005, shortly after her marriage to HRH The Prince of Wales and a...

South West Water creates 20 new apprenticeships

Authored by rmoran
Posted: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 9:23am

Up to 20 new apprenticeships are now being offered by South West Water as its successful programme is expanded.

The majority of the chosen trainees will be working within the company's waste water and drinking water teams and responsible for operating and maintaining assets such as pumping stations and large treatment works. A further three apprentices will work in the technical services team and will learn how to install, repair and maintain South West Water's electrical and process control systems.

South West Water's Customer Relations Director Monica Read said: "We are...

The NUT's Christine Blower comments on the Queen's Speech

Commenting on today’s Queen’s Speech, setting out the programme of Government legislation, Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:

"The Government proposals on reforms to the National Curriculum, examinations and the deregulation of teachers’ pay are ill thought out and plain wrong. They will certainly not ensure a world class education system.

"Michael Gove now needs to stop and reflect on its plans for curriculum and examination reform. Many teachers are genuinely in despair about the curriculum proposals...

Experts dispute conclusion of PIP breast implant scandal investigation

Experts writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine disagree with the conclusion that PIP breast implants do not show any evidence of significant risk to human health.

This was the decision reported in June 2012 by the panel appointed to investigate the PIP breast implant scandal chaired by NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.

Disputing this the authors point to evidence showing that the PIP implants were found to contain a higher proportion of a group of small-sized molecules than the norm, including one referred to as D4 which has been identified as an...

Vainikolo joins the Chiefs

Exeter Chiefs may have just brought the curtain down on their 2012/13 campaign, but already head coach Rob Baxter is looking to next term with the acquisition of Fetu'u Vainikolo.

The Tongan international is the latest newcomer added to the playing ranks at Sandy Park, having agreed a two-year deal from RaboDirect Pro12 side Connacht this week. With not only seven international caps to his name, the 28-year-old winger arrives having previously featured for not only the Irish outfit, but also the Highlanders in the Super Rugby structure and Kiwi provincial sides Northland and Otago...

Poverty: Myths & Reality

News about ‘skivers’ and ‘shirkers’ is not news but propaganda. It is convenient for governments – and, indeed, some citizens – to have scapegoats for our economic problems. Stigmatizing selected groups shifts the blame.

Josef Goebbels said, "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed."

What are the causes and cures of poverty? Is poverty the fault of the poor themselves? Is it inevitable and intractable? Is employment what is needed to pull a family out of poverty? Isn’t it the case that most of the national welfare budget goes on the...

Cakeadoodledo brings cupcake heaven to Exeter

Every inch the 'domestic goddess', Kate Shirazi is Devon's very own version of Nigella but without all the innuendo, and the great news for the people of Exeter is that she has just opened up a delightful new cake and tea shop right at the heart of the city.

Just a stone's throw from the Cathedral, Kate has moved her home-based cake baking business Cakeadoodledo, first launched in 2006, into 1 Deanery Place (the road that runs between the entrance to Exeter Cathedral and Bear Street). Although slightly hidden away from the hubbub of Cathedral Green, I'm certain it won't be long...

Renewing relationships and reviewing collections with the Blackfoot Nations

A grant from the Leverhulme Trust has enabled RAMM to review its Blackfoot collections with the active participation of representatives from Blackfoot Nations in Canada and the USA.

Co-ordinated by Dr Alison Brown of the Department of Anthropology in the University of Aberdeen, staff from RAMM and the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) will be linked with the Blackfoot Nations of Siksika, Piikani, Kainai and the Blackfeet.

A series of reciprocal research visits will improve identification, interpretation and care of the museum collections...

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