Guilsborough Guardian Issue 2
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GUILSBOROUGH GUARDIAN 2020 Christmas1 Edition WELCOME TO THE GUILSBOROUGH GUARDIAN! Welcome to the Christmas Edition of the Guilsborough Guardian. With Christmas around the corner and this peculiar year coming to an end, it’s time for a new issue. With puzzles, sports and films reviews, there is something here for everyone, and with the Guardian gaining new members, it will all be better than the last. We hope you enjoy and as always, your feedback and suggestions are always important to us so feel free to contact us. I’m sure most of you are excited for MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE Christmas, and the season of gift giving, but this year is most likely GUILSBOROUGH GUARDIAN going to be different to us all. Remember the most important thing is to wash our hands regularly and follow the Covid rules in place. Please don’t forget to kick back and relax too, as after this year, we are all going to need it. As always, we wish everyone the very best in the New Year and hope you have a wonderful Christmas break. In this issue, different items associated with holidays are hidden thoughtout the issue. Can you find all 10 items? They are listed on page 26. Good luck! CONTENTS News – Page 3 Politics guide – Page 5 Sports –Page 7 Dr Who Specials – Page 12 Jingle Jangle – Page 22 Scrooged – Page 23 Polls – Page 24 Some Inspiration – Page 25 Puzzles – Page 26 2 NEWS BY ELLIS ASHER BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS STALL According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson there is a “strong possibility of a no deal Brexit”. The PM has advised businesses to prepare to leave the EU come January 1st regardless of a deal. The government has claimed a no deal Brexit will leave the UK with an “Australia style” option where we have no trade deal with the EU but will be fully independent from it. Talks are scheduled to end on Sunday however there is the possibility of extending them past this. Regardless of the outcome of the talks, the UK looks to be bracing for change and uncertainty. KETTERING SCHOOL ART TO BE MOVED TO HIGH STREET As part of a £4 million campaign to revitalise Kettering’s high street, the locally known “Kettering mosaic” is going to be displayed on High Street. Originally created by Kenneth Budd, the mosaic was displayed on the wall of the Kettering grammar school until it was removed in 2007. Ever since it has been looking for a home in Kettering and according to it’s owners, Kettering civic society, it is to be displayed on the high street as a piece of local art and culture and as a part of the redevelopment of the area. This particular artwork is special to the area and even has a low budget documentary in the works about it. E-SCOOTERS HIT NORTHAMPTONSHIRE E-Scooters schemes are being launched all over the Northamptonshire area in a bid to lower carbon emissions. These e-scooters are able to rent around the area of Northampton Town and now the scheme has given 50 E-scooters for use in central Kettering. Highways England and Northampton council claimed the E-scooters had “30,000 rides last month” but acknowledge “There will be people who leave them irresponsibly” and claim they “have an incentive scheme to help with that.” The next thing will be e-bikes that will be launched on January 13 next year, NHS Workers will also be given discounts of 75% and the scooters and bikes are cleaned every day to prevent the spread of Covid-19. 3 There are still sceptics; in Paris a similar e-scooter program was considered a failure as there were no parking areas and as such the city became seemingly littered with unused e-scooters. There have also been a significant number of accidents involving E-scooters, especially their use on the road in Northampton. Whether these scooters will be good for the environment or if they will do more harm than good remains to be seen, but for now, Northamptonshire seems to be taking a step into the future, or rather a scoot. MAJOR EXPANSION PLANNED FOR DAVENTRY Over a thousand homes have been awarded planning permission on Malabar Farm on the A425/Staverton Road south of Daventry. If completed this would be a major expansion to the area. According to the applicants the homes come with new shops, community areas and a community centre, and plenty of links to the town centre. In a statement an agent for the applicants said, “The level of objection to this scheme has been incredibly low, which we consider in part is down to the inclusive approach we have taken to this application.” There are however concerns as the builds will be located on the other side of the A425 from the rest of Daventry and many are worried that access will be limited. SCHOOLS TO CLOSE EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS The government has said that schools are to be allowed to close earlier, and that they have to be closed at least six days before Christmas eve so that teachers wouldn’t have to work with the NHS track and trace systems over the holidays. For most schools this means that instead of breaking up on the Friday 18th they will be breaking up on Thursday 17th. This follows a U-turn in policy as in November MP’s claimed they weren’t going to close early at Christmas. This, however, was made optional and Guilsborough will not be closing. 4 A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO POLITICS BY ELLIS ASHER The Guilsborough Guardian politics section strives to be something that is simultaneously a valuable, relevant resource of valid information and also easy to understand for the average reader. Many people have strong opinions on how to make the world a better place but can see the world of politics as either boring, confusing or not for them. So, in this article I would like to explain the basics of politics to the best of my ability so that we can have more, fully developed ideas in the Guilsborough area. We will start with leanings, most people have heard of left and right wing leanings, it will likely help to picture it as a line at first, left and right wings are a spectrum, on which lies a set of values. The right wing will tend to favour tradition, capitalism and generally speaking tend to support free markets and more traditional values systems however as we will see later this isn’t always the case. The Left wing tends to favour change, social justice, equality and generally believe that the market (companies) requires restrictions to benefit the people. Seeing things as just Left and right however isn’t always an option, my favourite method of picturing political viewpoints is the political compass, where as well as the strait line from left to right there is also a vertical line, with the horizontal line representing economic policy leanings and the horizontal line representing leanings regarding the amount of government control. By adding another dimension we make room for more diverse political positions. As such I will be referring to it’s terms to define political leanings. Examples of this include Right Wing Libertarians, who believe that the government should have less power over people’s lives and also believe the government should loosen both taxes and restrictions on companies. There is plenty of common ground to be found with both Left wing libertarians who believe in social justice and equality but also believe that the government needs to have its power reduced and common ground can also be found with more authoritarian right wingers who also believe the market should be less restricted. It boils down to simply if people are in favour or against restrictions on companies (left and right) and if people value the individual or the collective (authoritarian and libertarian). This is an essential distinction else you could claim that both Stalin and Ghandi were alike or that The US is a ‘Far Right country'. Without this distinction between economic and social policy a political understanding can only go so far, for example someone can be very in favour of free markets and the individual and be considered ‘far right however these people would often be associated with the 5 German National Socialist Party, of which they share no likeness and may be metaphorically further away from that ideology than some people who would consider themselves left wing. Right wing parties in the UK include The Conservative Party and UKIP, whilst the Left Wing parties include The Labour Party and The Green Party. The 3rd largest party in the UK is the Liberal Democrats, or just the LibDems, they can change their stance frequently so it is best to see where they stand on issues you feel are important to you. On election years, when each party competes to gain power the parties will often publish “party political broadcasts and publish a shiny new manifesto, all of these will be publicly available and are the most reliable tool to finding out who best suits your views. You should bear in mind that you don’t have to find a party and often you will not completely align with everything your chosen party says. This is generally a good indicator that you are a good independent thinker and you should keep doing what you are doing. Independent thinkers often go on to do good things as is evidenced by history. Terminology is a big thing in politics and often people will use very complex words as over-complicated ways of describing something simple.