NewzIntel.com

Category: Great Britain

  • MIL-OSI Global: How new Ofsted report cards could be improved – by giving parents what they want to know

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Toby Greany, Professor of Education, University of Nottingham

    Media_Photos/Shutterstock

    Change is underway at Ofsted, England’s schools inspectorate. Headline judgments that summed up a whole school in one or two words have been discarded in favour of a proposed report card system that promises to offer a more rounded assessment of school quality.

    According to education secretary Bridget Phillipson, the changes are supposed to make the system less high stakes for schools while giving parents more information. The proposed report cards give a score on a five point scale for a range of areas, including wellbeing and inclusion, among others.

    The evidence that Ofsted’s previous approach was problematic had been stacking up for some years. My four-year study with colleague Rob Higham showed how inspections were driving a culture of compliance and standardisation in schools. They were incentivising leaders to prioritise the interests of the school over the interests of particular groups of, usually more vulnerable, children.

    So far, responses from the teaching profession to the new report card proposals have not been positive. The Association of School and College Leaders’ says they will be “bewildering for teachers and leaders, never mind the parents whose choices these reports are supposedly intended to guide”, and retain the high-stakes aspects of the previous system.

    A poll of more than 3000 school leaders by headteachers’ union the NAHT indicates that nine in ten disagree with the plans.

    My recent research suggests the need for a different approach which prioritises local accountability, in particular to parents. Over the past three years, my colleague Susan Cousin and I have been working on a project evaluating how professionals in different local areas can work together to address placed based challenges in education.

    One of these challenges was how to strengthen professional accountability. The aim was for school staff to take greater collective ownership of what school “quality” looks like and how it could be improved, rather than waiting for Ofsted to tell them.

    In two areas, Sheffield and Milton Keynes, school-led partnerships – membership organisations which support collaboration between schools – decided to develop their own local school “report cards”. These were intended to offer a broad and balanced set of information for parents, governors and others.

    In both areas a core design group was brought together. This involved leaders from a diverse range of local primary and secondary schools and academy trusts who agreed a draft format for the report cards.

    These prototypes were then taken out to consultation with wider schools as well as parents and carers. Based on their feedback, the report cards were adjusted before final versions were agreed. Each area developed different versions for primary, secondary and special schools.

    What parents want

    The most transformative aspect of the process arguably came from the consultations with parents and carers. For example, in the development of the Sheffield report card, it became clear that as well as information on the school from external sources – including Ofsted reports – parents wanted to learn more about what the school was really like. This led to the inclusion of a “get to know this school” section of the report card. The project lead in Sheffield explained to us:

    What came through really clearly … [from parents and carers] was, “I want a feel of the school” … They want the quality assured stuff. But they also want a feel of the place. And that’s why in the second iteration, what we’ve got is a whole section, which is an ability for the school to show itself – photos, videos, talk about particular aspects of education, and what’s unique about their school in relation to curriculum.

    Another feature that parents wanted included was a way of understanding what other parents and students themselves think about each school. In response, both Sheffield and Milton Keynes have included sections that show the “top five positives” according to parents and carers, and “five words from children about this school”.

    Strengthening local accountability

    England’s school system has become increasingly centralised in recent decades. The role and capacity of local authorities has been reduced and national requirements and oversight, including from Ofsted, have increased.

    In the process, school leaders and staff have become disempowered, while parents and local communities have largely lost their ability to influence the quality and direction of local schools. Locally developed school reports offer a way to redress the balance.

    This approach would not remove national accountability. In both Sheffield and Milton Keynes the plan is to incorporate national data, including from Ofsted inspections, into the local reports.

    But encouraging local ownership and strengthening the voice of parents and children in terms of how school quality is assessed and reported, could help schools become more accountable to the people most invested in them, rather than the national government.

    Toby Greany receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Association of Education Committees and the Nuffield Foundation.

    – ref. How new Ofsted report cards could be improved – by giving parents what they want to know – https://theconversation.com/how-new-ofsted-report-cards-could-be-improved-by-giving-parents-what-they-want-to-know-249304

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Britain’s unearned wealth has ballooned – a modest capital tax could help avoid austerity and boost the economy

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stewart Lansley, Visiting Fellow, School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol

    Canary Wharf in London. I Wei Huang/Shutterstock

    Inheriting the worst set of public finances for decades, Labour was always going to face an uphill struggle trying to fund improvements to the UK’s public services.

    Inflated debt and recent hikes in the cost of borrowing mean the government is faced with stark choices. For it will be difficult to meet the chancellor’s own tight fiscal rules without further tax rises or cuts in public spending.

    But as the former chief economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, has warned, further spending cuts would be “deeply counterproductive”.

    One solution for avoiding ongoing austerity lies in raising a higher proportion of taxes from assets. For despite the UK enjoying a long personal wealth boom, little of this boom is the result of new wealth creation or higher productivity.

    Much of it is unearned. Some is the product of corporate wealth extraction, where dividend payments and personal fortunes have have been prioritised over the long-term health of a company. Some privatised water firms, for example, have been turned into cash cows for their owners.

    Another large part of British unearned wealth is the product of state-induced asset inflation. Since 1999, house prices in England have risen almost three times faster than incomes.

    This kind of asset inflation is a classic example of “passive accumulation”. Or, as the 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill described it, getting rich in your sleep.

    As a result, household wealth currently stands at over six times the UK’s GDP. It was three times in the 1970s.

    Yet while Britain is asset rich, its tax system is heavily based on earnings from work. Taxes on income from dividends, capital gains and inheritance make a tiny contribution to the public purse.

    This is a fundamental flaw of the tax system which does little to dent the growing concentration of wealth owned by the few. Through political inertia, the tax system has failed to catch up with the growing importance of wealth over income.

    Inherit the earth?

    The fallout from the low taxation on wealth is well illustrated by the role of inheritance.

    Levels of wealth passed on after death in the UK have been rising sharply. Over the next three decades, some millennials are expected to inherit a staggering £5.5 trillion, dwarfing all previous transfers of wealth between generations.

    The lion’s share of this transfer will go to the most affluent. The lifetime wealth of those with parents in the richest fifth will see their wealth grow by 29% – compared with 5% for those born to the poorest fifth.

    This will only intensify the reproduction of the wealth divide of the past.

    Extending the tax base is not just about fairness or revenue raising. Asset holdings are often little more than unused resources, while big inter-generational wealth transfers can play a counterproductive role in the economy.

    Over a third of the UK’s wealth is stored in property (with the rest in pensions, savings and possessions). This is mostly only realised when passed on through inheritance , where its benefits accrue to the already privileged. Little of this process contributes to more productive activity, with one of its most malign effects being to fuel higher house prices, because the money is largely reinvested in property.

    The unfairness of inherited wealth has long been recognised. The patron saint of economics, Adam Smith called it “manifestly absurd”.

    Farmers have protested against Labour’s plans for inheritance tax.
    Mark Anthony Ray/Shutterstock

    A modest and phased rise in capital taxation would help to reduce the passive role played by wealth holdings. Even small changes would release funds which could be used to improve social infrastructure from schools to hospitals.

    One approach would be to build on the existing tax system through higher rates and fewer reliefs and loopholes. The second would be to introduce new taxes.

    In her first budget, Rachel Reeves took steps to raise revenue through the first option, from both inheritance and capital gains tax. But these were too modest to alter the overwhelming dominance of tax on earnings.

    A more fundamental shift would be to reform the existing system of council tax with a larger number of tax bands at the top. Still based on 1991 property values, this is perhaps the least defensible tax in Britain. The most effective alternative would be to replace council tax and stamp duty with a single proportionate “property tax”.

    Another option would be for a modest annual 1% tax on wealth over £2 million, which has the potential to raise around £16 billion a year, or double that on wealth over £1 million.

    Such a measure could be sold politically as a “solidarity tax” to help pay for the things the UK needs. And while governments have been wary of the political reaction to higher taxes on wealth, the tide is turning.

    Those supporting higher taxes on wealth include the Conservative-aligned think tank Bright Blue and an influential campaign group called the Patriotic Millionaires. There is also growing public support.

    Continued public spending austerity would drive more years of stagnation. It would also be politically suicidal for this government, as it was for Labour in 1931 and in the 1970s. But harnessing a little more of the country’s immense private wealth would make the tax system more equitable and by providing the resources to boost social investment, ease the path to economic recovery.

    Stewart Lansley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Britain’s unearned wealth has ballooned – a modest capital tax could help avoid austerity and boost the economy – https://theconversation.com/britains-unearned-wealth-has-ballooned-a-modest-capital-tax-could-help-avoid-austerity-and-boost-the-economy-247970

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Man who conspired to commit FGM has jail sentence increased

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A man who arranged a female genital mutilation (FGM) procedure for a young girl has had his jail sentence increased.

    Emad Kaky, 48, has had his sentence increased after it was referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

    The court heard that in June 2019 Kaky arranged for a young girl to travel to Iraq for an FGM procedure and to be forced into marriage.

    Kaky’s plans were uncovered by a witness who arranged for the victim to travel back to the UK from Iraq and reported Kaky to the police.

    Kaky was convicted of conspiracy to commit FGM and forced marriage.

    The Solicitor General Lucy Rigby KC MP said:

    FGM is a sickening crime and this government is determined to stamp out the practice as part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls.

    This offender intended to inflict grotesque physical and mental suffering upon a child. The court has rightly decided to increase his sentence to reflect the severity of his crime.

    This was a landmark case, and I would like to commend the work of the CPS to successfully prosecute for the first time a charge of conspiracy to commit FGM.

    Janine McKinney, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East Midlands, said:

    Female genital mutilation is a horrific crime to subject anyone to – let alone a child.

    This landmark case sends a strong message to perpetrators – just because an offence has been committed somewhere else in the world does not stop you facing prosecution.

    During the trial we presented evidence that the defendant considered his behaviour to be normal. Today, Emad Kaky has faced the consequences of his actions in trying to get a child subjected to female genital mutilation and be forced into a marriage not of her choosing.

    The law is clear that there is no place for this unacceptable practice in society and the Crown Prosecution Service, police and other law enforcement agencies will work together to bring perpetrators to justice.

    On 3 October 2024, Emad Kaky was sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment at Nottingham Crown Court for one count of conspiracy to commit FGM outside England and Wales and one count of forced marriage

    On 24 January 2025, Kaky’s sentence was substituted for 7 years’ imprisonment after it was referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: University awarded funding to create a new ‘Aberdeen Tapestry’ The University of Aberdeen has been awarded funding for a new piece of contemporary art that will enrich UK public collections and inspire conversations about cultural identity, history, and belonging.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    Sekai Machache with Lively Blue Tapestry by Dovecot Studios. Image (c) Dovecot Studios. Photo by Phil WilkinsonThe University of Aberdeen has been awarded funding for a new piece of contemporary art that will enrich UK public collections and inspire conversations about cultural identity, history, and belonging.
    It is one of two projects to be supported by a new partnership between Art Fund and Jerwood Foundation – Jerwood Art Fund Commissions – and will see one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary artists, Sekai Machache,create anew tapestry for the Sir Duncan Rice Library.
    The Zimbabwean-Scottish visual artist will work with Dovecot Studios,the world-renowned tapestry studio in Edinburgh, to create a new piece drawing inspiration from the University’s extensive collections which span Scottish history, archaeology, science and global cultures.
    The University has been selected for the commission, which has the working title ‘The Aberdeen Tapestry, alongside Tate Liverpool in partnership with the International Slavery Museum which will work with by poet, filmmaker, and visual artist Julianknxx.
    Jerwood Art Fund Commissions programme aims to further artists at pivotal stages in their careers, while enriching public collections through new contemporary art, ensuring they remain dynamic and representative of contemporary society.
    The commissions build on Jerwood Foundation and Art Fund’s long-standing, shared commitment to fund new art and highlight the transformative power of collections in keeping museums vibrant spaces of engagement, learning, and artistic ambition.
    Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said:“Commissioning contemporary artists to create new work brings a fresh dynamic and perspective to museum collections. In today’s challenging economic landscape, dedicated support for commissions is more important than ever. Art Fund is delighted to be working in partnership with Jerwood Foundation to support these two ambitious inaugural commissions, which will inspire audiences in Aberdeen and Liverpool with powerful and thought-provoking storytelling.”
    Sekai Machache is a visual artist, film-maker and curator based in Glasgow. Known for her interest in spirituality and imagination, her practice often engages with themes of history, identity, and the visibility of Black communities in Scotland.
    Dovecot Studios and Sekai Machache began collaborating in 2022 with a tapestry for the exhibition Scottish Women Artists: 250 Years of Challenging Perception. The new commission is an opportunity to develop their collaborative practice and take inspiration from the University of Aberdeen Collections, recognised as a Nationally Significant Collection by the Scottish Government.
    Machache and Dovecot will initially work with the University teams to investigate and to engage with the Collections, which span Scottish history and archaeology, the natural, medical and physical sciences, and World Culture. This research will inform both the artist’s and the Dovecot weavers’ approach to the commission and provide opportunities for wider public engagement.
    Once Machache’s design for the tapestry is agreed, visitors to Dovecot in Edinburgh will be able to observe the weaving process, as the tapestry is created live in the Studios’ public viewing space. The tapestry will be unveiled at the University of Aberdeen’s Sir Duncan Rice Library by early 2026.
    Lisa Collinson, University of Aberdeen Collections, said:“This is an exciting opportunity for the University to work with a contemporary artist with a growing reputation and to collaborate with the artists at the world-renowned Dovecot Studios. We look forward to Sekai exploring the University’s collections as well as thinking about the challenging legacies they embody.
    “The project also offers the chance for the University community to engage with the process of creating a new work of contemporary art inspired by the collections and we look forward to displaying the finished piece – and incorporating it into the collections so it can inspire generations to come.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sutherland roads capital programme approved for 2025/26

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    A proposed list of prioritised roadworks has been agreed by Sutherland Committee Members, with a particular focus on surface dressing planned to take place this summer.

    Cllr Richard Gale, Sutherland Area Chair said: “Approaching the end of the 2024/25 programme has allowed us to recognise the good work which has already taken place to improve our considerable road network in Sutherland.

    “Looking now to the future, we recognise that our roads programme will need to be flexible to accommodate our priorities and changing circumstances such as the weather, the condition of roads, and any local developments in the area.

    “It is really encouraging to see the allocated budget being spent productively. For example, the 8-week surface dressing works planned for this summer will help to extend the life of our infrastructure and proactively preserve its condition before bigger issues arise. It is clear that the roads team has a constant overview of what is required, as well as what can be delivered within the budget we have available.”

    The works will be funded out of The Highland Council’s Capital Budget allocation for 2025/26 as part of a 3-year investment in roads totalling £21.15m. This will be distributed in the same way as last year with a strategic allocation and a base capital allocation. The base capital allocations are calculated using the distribution current formula for operational areas.

    The total local allocation for the Sutherland area is £2.3m.

    The full list of prioritised roads for the Sutherland area can be found in the Area Roads report to committee. 

    Reports are available to download from the Council’s website.

    18 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Portree Harbour repairs update

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Skye and Raasay Area Committee met yesterday (Monday 17 February 2025) and Members noted the update provided on the funding position and the draft delivery programme for the repairs in respect of Portree Harbour.

    Skye and Raasay Area Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The Portree Harbour repair/upgrade project has been progressed using the SCAPE Scotland Utilities – Works and Services framework agreement, which has identified around £2.25m of critical work in pile repairs, protection works, concrete deck repairs, slipway repairs and masonry repairs.

    “The current capital budget earmarked for the project sits at £2m, and therefore subject to ongoing discussions regarding the scope of the critical works to bring them within the available capital budget.

    “The survey identified further non-critical works that could be undertaken at the same time if budget were available.

    “Members are pleased to see the draft delivery programme presented and look forward with optimism to project planning and community engagement progressing throughout 2025 and to the critical works being delivered thereafter at a harbour that is still a hub for so much local employment and activity, which also sees cruise liner numbers rising year on year.”

    The report can be found here (Item 10)

    18 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Skye and Raasay Area roads capital programme approved for 2025/26

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Members of the Skye and Raasay Area Committee agreed a list of proposed prioritised roadworks which will be funded out of Highland Council’s Capital Budget allocation for 2025/26.

    The local allocations capital budget for 2025/26 remains to be established, which will be calculated from the approved capital budget allocation.

    The estimated local allocation for the Skye and Raasay area (based on 2024/25) is £3,001,638 comprising £521,223 for overlay/inlay works, £340,565 for surface dressing works, £50,000 for structures and £2,089,850 strategic allocation.

    Skye and Raasay Area Committee Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “It is important to take every opportunity to communicate the real scale of both the road conditions and financial challenges before us. We know the roads budget falls short of the funding needed to do everything we want with added challenges being faced with regard to the recent winter weather with rain, frost, snow and salt causing further damage to our roads, and of course the impact of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Skye annually, travelling on many un-engineered  roads never built for the number of vehicles we now see. Agreeing the capital roads’ priorities for 2025/26, helps raise awareness of what requires to be prioritised based on the road condition survey results and with the funding available, it also allows forward planning for the roads team who work tirelessly and resourcefully to do the best they can with the resources available. Clearly the agreed programme will not please everyone, and local Members will continue to push for additional resource whenever possible and work with Officers to make the best use of the funding available.”

    Cllr Finlayson added: “On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank our roads operations teams who have been working tirelessly during the recent challenging adverse winter weather conditions to clear the snow, ice, and debris from our roads. They have been committed to keeping communities connected and worked hard to keep our routes open.”

    Works for the Skye and Raasay area are identified based on a prioritised ranking.  The ranking is informed by:

    • Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey (SRMCS) data.
    • Safety inspections.
    • Service inspections; and input and feedback from Ward Members.

    Details of the capital roads programme can be found in the report here (Item 6).

    Members noted that where future variation may be experienced in the area roads capital programme this will be agreed with Members at Ward business meetings to maintain a dynamic roads programme.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Appointment of a new Senior Judicial Commissioner of the Judicial Appointments Commission: February 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    His Majesty The King, on the advice of the Lord Chancellor, has approved the appointment of a new Commissioner to the Judicial Appointments Commission.

    His Majesty The King has approved the appointment of Upper Tribunal Judge Clive Lane as a Senior Judicial Commissioner of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) for three years commencing 1 May 2025.

    The JAC is an independent body that selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals in England and Wales, and for some tribunals with a UK-wide jurisdiction.

    JAC Commissioners are appointed, under Schedule 12(1) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, by His Majesty The King on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor.

    The appointment of Upper Tribunal Judge Clive Lane was made in accordance with Regulation 11 of the Judicial Appointment Commission Regulations 2013.

    Biography

    Upper Tribunal Judge Clive Lane was admitted as a solicitor in 1985 and was in private practice until 2001. He was a Legal Chair of the Appeals Service (now Social Entitlement Chamber) from 1999 until 2007. He was appointed a Deputy District Judge (Civil) in 2001. He served as an Immigration Judge from 2001 until 2009 when he was appointed a Judge of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).

    Since 2021, he has been authorised to sit as a Judge of the High Court (Family Division). In 2024, he was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Delivering for rural Scotland

    Source: Scottish Government

    Communities surveyed on key priorities.

    People living and working in rural communities are being asked their views on what government priorities should be to improve their lives.

    A Scottish Government survey will help develop the forthcoming Rural Delivery Plan and is an opportunity to take a fresh look at to bring about change and address the issues in mainland rural Scotland. A separate National Islands Plan looks at how the Scottish Government is delivering for island communities.

    Rural Scotland accounts for 98% of the land mass of Scotland and 17% of the population.

    The Rural Delivery Plan will cover a range of areas, such as agriculture, transport, housing, health and social care, marine, land reform, population, skills, digital connectivity and economic development.

    Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands Mairi Gougeon said:

    “The Rural Delivery Plan will introduce, for the first time, a vision for rural Scotland with specific objectives and achievements we want to reach, how we intend to get there and how we will measure success along the way. This builds on our record of support for rural communities, such as preserving direct support for farmers and crofters, to improving online connectivity, and comes on the back of a lot of work with partners and communities to better understand the opportunities in our rural communities, as well as the particular challenges rural Scotland faces.

    “Our vision is for a vibrant and sustainable rural Scotland with a thriving economy where families are able to access the services they need. I would encourage all those with an interest to take part in the survey and tell their friends and family so that the Plan we produce reflects their experiences and what is most important to them.”

    Background

    Rural Delivery Plan: vision, strategic objectives and key performance indicators – Scottish Government consultations – Citizen Space

    The Survey is open until 17th March.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Food Writers set to Discover Derry’s Thriving Food Scene During LegenDerry Food Month

    Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

    Food Writers set to Discover Derry’s Thriving Food Scene During LegenDerry Food Month

    18 February 2025

    Food writers, journalists, and specialist media from across Ireland, the UK and Europe, are set to descend on Derry this week as part of a special media showcase celebrating the city’s renowned food and drink scene during LegenDerry Food Month.

    The event will offer media professionals an exclusive opportunity to sample some of the finest locally sourced produce, meet passionate chefs and artisans, and experience firsthand why Derry is gaining a reputation as a must-visit sustainable food destination.

    Some of the top food writers and high-profile influencers will visit the city to take part in the showcase event that will see them embark on a culinary journey of the city’s unique and diverse food and drink scene that celebrates its rich culture and heritage.

    During their visit to the city they will enjoy bespoke tastings, and take part in an immersive dining experience and a behind-the-scenes insight into how local food producers, chefs and crafters have been working in close collaboration to create an exciting food scene that has something for every palate. The showcase event will highlight the city’s commitment to sustainability, farm-to-table dining, and its innovative approach to modern gastronomy that defines Derry’s unique vibrant food culture.

    The media showcase forms a key part of Love LegenDerry Food Month, a month-long celebration dedicated to showcasing the best of Derry’s food and drink industry. From fresh seafood sourced along the Wild Atlantic Way to handcrafted artisan cheeses, locally distilled spirits, and innovative plant-based cuisine, Derry’s diverse offerings will take centre stage.

    Jennifer O’Donnell Tourism Manager with Derry City and Strabane District Council said: “Derry is fast becoming one of the most exciting food destinations in Ireland, and we’re delighted to welcome leading food writers and journalists to experience it for themselves. Legenderry Food Month is about celebrating our rich culinary heritage, our passionate producers, and our commitment to sustainability. This showcase will be a fantastic opportunity to share our city’s unique food story with a wider audience.

    “We are delighted to have some of the top food writers and media coming to the city this week to see for themselves how Derry is gaining recognition as a must visit food destination and to get to meet with our local chefs and food and drink producers to hear their stories of how our rich heritage and commitment to sustainability and locally sourced ingredients with a focus on land and sea and our natural resources, is allowing us to make our mark in the food tourism market,” she added.

    Robert Hull from DAERA’s NI Regional Food Programme said: “The lush landscapes of Northern Ireland provide an abundance of fresh, high-quality ingredients for its innovative chefs to create a unique food story. From grass-fed beef and free-range poultry to freshly caught seafood from the nearby Atlantic, local farmers, fishers, and artisan producers play a central role in shaping Derry’s culinary identity. This media showcase is an excellent way of not only shining a spotlight on the city and the key role it is playing in Northern Ireland’s evolving culinary landscape, but a fantastic opportunity to showcase and celebrate the quality of local producers within this region and give them the profile and recognition they deserve.”

    The media showcase event will see attendees enjoying a specialist tasting menu using home grown and produced quality produce that will be curated by some of the city’s finest chefs and complemented with locally produced drinks to amplify and enhance the overall experience.  During the event, the Walled City Brewery will officially launch their much-anticipated new Brandy ball flavoured poitin ‘Snifter’.

    In addition to the media showcase, Love Legenderry Food Month will feature a series of exciting dining experiences, chef collaborations, food trails, masterclasses, and more, inviting visitors and locals to immerse themselves in the best of Derry’s food and drink offering.

    The Love LegenDerry Food Month creates a platform for the city’s chefs and producers to showcase just why Derry features on the bucket lists of those planning food themed breaks in 2025 and to promote the city as an international foodie destination to celebrate the North West region’s outstanding food and drink and the people who produce it.

    For more info visit – www.legenderryfood.com

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Statement following confirmation of withdrawal of UK Levelling Up fund money

    Source: Scotland – City of Perth

    Following confirmation from the UK Government that they will be withdrawing the £5m funding awarded to Perth and Kinross Council in March 2024, Council Leader, Councillor Grant Laing, said: “Perth has once again been set aside by the UK Government which seems determined to ignore all that our city has to offer. After finally being awarded funds as part of the UK Levelling Up Fund, at literally the last gasp, the incoming Labour government quickly put our hopes on hold. 

    “I appreciate that the UK Government is facing financial difficulties, it’s a problem that we share. But, it feels like Perth has felt the lion’s share of this impact because it took so long for us to be recognised as deserving of funding in the first place. 

    “Despite providing shovel ready projects which would demonstrably have had a beneficial impact on the city centre, the rug has been pulled out from under us and once again Perth has been left without investment while every other Scottish local authority with a city benefitted from Levelling Up Fund support. 

    “We remain committed to continuing to promote Perth and Kinross and all that it has to offer to all possible funding sources, whether that be public sector or private investors. And, as a Council we will continue to use the limited funding we have available to deliver on local priorities for the benefit of residents and businesses.”   

    The three projects identified for funding were:  

    • Lower City Mills – visitor attraction and office space 
    • Former Ironworks, South St John’s Place – exhibition and UNESCO City of Crafts makers and retail space 
    • A Taste of Perth and Kinross – High Street micro-producers outlet 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: National Insurance: Labour should be taxing wealthy not cutting services

    Source: Scottish Greens

    18 Feb 2025 Economy

    Labour’s National Insurance hike could do serious damage to vital services.

    More in Economy

    Unless Labour’s increase on Employer National Insurance Contributions is funded it could have a devastating impact on Scotland’s services, says Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater.

    Ms Slater, who was speaking ahead of a Scottish Government debate on the increase, has urged the UK government to introduce a wealth tax which would raise far more funding while ensuring it is the best-off that are paying the most rather than causing anxiety and possibly cuts by implementing a tax increase on service providers.

    Ms Slater said:

    “Without full funding, this increase could do a lot of damage to vital services like health and social care as well as punishing small businesses and charities.

    “There is more than enough money to ensure that services are fully funded and that everyone can have security and a good standard of living, but so much of it is being hoarded by a small number of very wealthy people.

    “Labour has refused to provide clarity about how it will offset the costs it is choosing to inflict.

    “It’s a cowardly move which has been done to avoid raising taxes on the richest people, including the ones who bankroll the Labour Party.

    “Rather than saddling overstretched service providers with anxiety and extra costs, the Prime Minister and his chancellor should be asking the super wealthy to pay their fair share.”

    Analysis from the University of Greenwich shows that a wealth tax starting at a marginal rate of 1%, rising to 5% for those with £5.7 million and above (the richest 0.5%), and 10% for those with £18.2 million (the richest 0.15%) would raise over £70 billion a year.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: New Warroo Bridge construction work set to start

    Source: New South Wales Government 2

    Headline: New Warroo Bridge construction work set to start

    Published: 18 February 2025

    Released by: Minister for Regional NSW, Minister for Regional Transport and Roads

    The Minns Labor Government is investing more than $15 million to deliver a safer, stronger new Warroo Bridge in the NSW Central West with construction work set to start in March.

    A new concrete bridge will be built just a few metres upstream from the existing 116-year-old bridge timber truss bridge which is located over the Lachlan River 46 kilometres west of Forbes and 55 kilometres south-east of Condobolin.

    Warroo Bridge is a critical connector in the region as it is the only major crossing of the Lachlan River linking the Lachlan Valley Way to the Henry Parkes Way between these two towns.

    The existing narrow bridge was built in 1909 and is not suitable for use by modern agricultural equipment or heavy vehicles with higher mass limit loads.

    If the existing bridge is closed for maintenance, motorists face a 93-kilometre detour to travel from one side of the bridge to the other.

    The Minns Labor Government is investing in construction of a new bridge that will be safer, more reliable and allow for more efficient transport, particularly for freight operators in regional NSW.

    Abergeldie Contractors Pty Ltd will deliver the work on behalf of Transport for NSW, with work due to start on March 3. The new bridge is expected to be open to traffic in late 2026, weather permitting.

    The existing Warroo Bridge will remain open to traffic throughout the construction of the replacement bridge and will be removed completely once the new bridge is operational.

    Transport for NSW will continue to update the community as construction progresses. For more information on the project visit the website of Transport for NSW. 

    Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty said:

    “This new Warroo Bridge over the Lachlan River is an important piece of infrastructure that will make life easier for farmers, businesses and families in the Central West.

    “The new bridge will be safer and more reliable than the existing bridge that is now well over 100 years old.

    “This sort of investment is part of the NSW Government’s commitment to regional NSW and to driving jobs and investment across the state.”

    Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison said:

    “The Minns Labor Government is investing in the future of regional NSW by building better bridges that keep communities connected, improve safety and increase efficiency for freight operators.

    “I’m excited to see construction start on the new Warroo Bridge which will have wider travel lanes and better road approaches, increased load capacity for heavy vehicles, and improved access for wide vehicles.”

    Independent Member for Orange Phil Donato said:

    “It’s great to see the contract for this project has been awarded and construction is on track to commence.

    “Communities in our region rely on Warroo Bridge and when the new bridge is built it will make life so much easier for local residents and freight operators.”

    NSW Labor’s Orange spokesperson Stephen Lawrence MLC said:

    “The awarding of the contract to Abergeldie Contractors Pty Ltd to build the replacement Warroo Bridge is an important milestone in this project to improve transport efficiency and reliability in the Central West.

    “When construction is complete the community will have a fantastic new asset the Minns Labor Government is proud to be delivering.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

    (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany. German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country.

    A decision to negotiate the sovereignty of Ukrainians without them – as well as US President Donald Trump’s blatantly extortionate attempt to claim half of Ukraine’s rare mineral wealth as the price for ongoing US support – reveals a lot about how Trump sees Ukraine and Europe.

    But this is not the first time large powers have colluded to negotiate new borders or spheres of influence without the input of the people who live there.

    Such high-handed power politics rarely ends well for those affected, as these seven historical examples show.

    1. The Scramble for Africa

    In the winter of 1884–85, German leader Otto von Bismarck invited the powers of Europe to Berlin for a conference to formalise the division of the entire African continent among them. Not a single African was present at the conference that would come to be known as “The Scramble for Africa”.

    Among other things, the conference led to the creation of the Congo Free State under Belgian control, the site of colonial atrocities that killed millions.

    Germany also established the colony of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), where the first genocide of the 20th century was later perpetrated against its colonised peoples.

    How the boundaries of Africa changed after the Berlin conference.
    Wikimedia Commons/Somebody500

    2. The Tripartite Convention

    It wasn’t just Africa that was divided up this way. In 1899, Germany and the United States held a conference and forced an agreement on the Samoans to split their islands between the two powers.

    This was despite the Samoans expressing a desire for either self-rule or a confederation of Pacific states with Hawai’i.

    As “compensation” for missing out in Samoa, Britain received uncontested primacy over Tonga.

    German Samoa came under the rule of New Zealand after the first world war and remained a territory until 1962. American Samoa (in addition to several other Pacific islands) remain US territories to this day.

    3. The Sykes-Picot Agreement

    As the first world war was well under way, British and French representatives sat down to agree how they’d divide up the Ottoman Empire after it was over. As an enemy power, the Ottomans were not invited to the talks.

    Together, England’s Mark Sykes and France’s François Georges-Picot redrew the Middle East’s borders in line with their nations’ interests.

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement ran counter to commitments made in a series of letters known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In these letters, Britain promised to support Arab independence from Turkish rule.



    Read more:
    What was the Sykes-Picot agreement, and why does it still affect the Middle East today?

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement also ran counter to promises Britain made in the Balfour Declaration to back Zionists who wanted to build a new Jewish homeland in Ottoman Palestine.

    The agreement became the wellspring of decades of conflict and colonial misrule in the Middle East, the consequences of which continue to be felt today.

    Map showing the areas of control and influence in the Middle East agreed upon between the British and French.
    The National Archives (UK)/Wikimedia Commons

    4. The Munich Agreement

    In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier met with Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler to sign what became known as the Munich Agreement.

    The leaders sought to prevent the spread of war throughout Europe after Hitler’s Nazis had fomented an uprising and began attacking the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. They did this under the pretext of protecting German minorities. No Czechoslovakians were invited to the meeting.

    The meeting is still seen by many as the “Munich Betrayal” – a classic example of a failed appeasement of a belligerent power in the false hope of staving off war.

    5. The Évian Conference

    In 1938, 32 countries met in Évian-les-Bains, France, to decide how to deal with Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany.

    Before the conference started, Britain and the US had agreed not to put pressure on one another to lift the quota of Jews they would accept in either the US or British Palestine.

    While Golda Meir (the future Israeli leader) attended the conference as an observer, neither she nor any other representatives of the Jewish people were permitted to take part in the negotiations.

    The attendees largely failed to come to an agreement on accepting Jewish refugees, with the exception of the Dominican Republic. And most Jews in Germany were unable to leave before Nazism reached its genocidal nadir in the Holocaust.

    6. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

    As Hitler planned his invasion of Eastern Europe, it became clear his major stumbling block was the Soviet Union. His answer was to sign a disingenuous non-aggression treaty with the USSR.

    Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
    German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    The treaty, named after Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop (the Soviet and German foreign ministers), ensured the Soviet Union would not respond when Hitler invaded Poland. It also carved up Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres. This allowed the Soviets to expand into Romania and the Baltic states, attack Finland and take its own share of Polish territory.

    Unsurprisingly, some in Eastern Europe view the current US-Russia talks over Ukraine’s future as a revival of this kind of secret diplomacy that divided the smaller nations of Europe between large powers in the second world war.

    7. The Yalta Conference

    With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and US President Franklin D Roosevelt met in 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Europe. This meeting came to be known as the Yalta Conference.

    Alongside the Potsdam Conference several months later, Yalta created the political architecture that would lead to the Cold War division of Europe.

    At Yalta, the “big three” decided on the division of Germany, while Stalin was also offered a sphere of interest in Eastern Europe.

    This took the form of a series of politically controlled buffer states in Eastern Europe, a model some believe Putin is aiming to emulate today in eastern and southeastern Europe.

    Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the History Council of South Australia.

    – ref. Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-isnt-invited-to-its-own-peace-talks-history-is-full-of-such-examples-and-the-results-are-devastating-250049

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: New experiments finally prove a long-forgotten theory about how quantum particles spin

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney

    Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock

    What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades.

    At very small scales, we know the universe is made up of waves and energy fields ruled by the laws of quantum mechanics, but at the scale of the everyday world around us we mostly see solid objects following the older rules of classical mechanics. When we ask what makes something quantum, we are asking where the line is between these two realms and how it can be drawn.

    In a new study published in Newton, we answer this question in a previously undiscovered way. We show that a single spinning particle can show indubitable evidence of quantum behaviour.

    The discovery of spin

    One hundred years ago, Dutch physicists Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck proposed the idea that most tiny particles never really stand still. Instead, they suggested, electrons – elementary particles that form the outer shell of atoms – behave like minuscule spinning tops.

    The spin can be either clockwise or anticlockwise, or what physicists call “spin up” and “spin down”. This binary nature of spinning electrons means that they can be used as building blocks for quantum computers.

    However, in 1925 Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck’s spinning electron proposal caused an uproar in the physics establishment. At this time, physics was shaped by illustrious names such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Paul Ehrenfest, who laid the groundwork for the grand theories of relativity and quantum mechanics that transformed our understanding of the universe.

    After eminent physicist and Nobel laureate Hendrik Lorentz criticised the spin theory, Uhlenbeck got cold feet and wanted to retract the paper. Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit’s mentor Ehrenfest told them to persist, writing: “You are both young enough to be able to afford a stupidity!”

    Old ideas still remain

    This kind of resistance to new ideas is not unusual in physics. As Planck put it, science progresses one funeral at a time.

    Much like the scepticism about the discovery of spinning electrons, today many physicists are educated with a misconception about how spin works. Conventional wisdom, still taught in standard textbooks, tells us that spin is a quantum property that is essential to understanding the behaviour of electrons and nuclei. But at the same time, the textbooks say the rotation of the particle is still somehow perfectly described by classical physics.

    Tsirelson’s forgotten protocol

    A similar consideration applies to another textbook system, the harmonic oscillator (e.g. a pendulum). According to a 1927 theorem by Paul Ehrenfest, the way a quantum pendulum swings is indistinguishable from a swing in the park.

    Strikingly, almost 80 years later the Russian-Israeli physicist Boris Tsirelson had an idea showing that it is possible to discern a quantum pendulum from a swing in the park, provided the quantum system is prepared in a truly quantum state. At the time, Tsirelson’s paper attracted little notice.

    Another 15 years later, the research team of Valerio Scarani in Singapore resurfaced Tsirelson’s paper from the depths of the internet. Scarani’s student Zaw Lin Htoo extended Tsirelson’s idea, proving theoretically that it actually was possible to detect quantumness in the rotation of a spin.

    Bigger particles and Schrödinger’s cat

    Our team at the University of New South Wales decided to take on the challenge and prove the quantumness of a spin in a real experiment. However, we couldn’t do it with a simple spin like an electron. Because an electron is so small, it only has two possible spin states: up and down. Again defying widespread intuition, it turns out that an electron spin can only be prepared in quasi-classical states, which obey the old textbook predictions.

    Instead we used a much larger particle, the nucleus of an antimony atom. The spin of this particle can point in eight different directions, instead of just two.

    We were able to place the atom in a so-called “Schrödinger’s cat” state, in which it is in a superposition of two widely different spin directions at once.

    We then performed the Tsirelson-Scarani protocol, which involves measuring not just the average orientation of the spin, but the positivity of it – a very different kind of measurement to what is done in standard spin resonance setups. This experiment showed unquestionable evidence for the quantumness of the antimony’s spin.

    What’s next?

    Our study is important for discovering fundamental truths about the universe, and for providing clarity on what it means to “be quantum”. However, it may also have real-life applications.

    The states that we demonstrated to be quantum with the Tsirelson-Scarani protocol are exactly the kind of thing that give quantum computation and quantum sensing an advantage over classical counterparts. In the future we will focus making the most of these systems for use in technological applications.

    Arjen Vaartjes receives funding from the Sydney Quantum Academy.

    Andrea Morello receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Defence, and the US Army Research Office.

    – ref. New experiments finally prove a long-forgotten theory about how quantum particles spin – https://theconversation.com/new-experiments-finally-prove-a-long-forgotten-theory-about-how-quantum-particles-spin-250059

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University

    (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany. German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    Ukraine has not been invited to a key meeting between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week to decide what peace in the country might look like.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will “never accept” any decisions in talks without its participation to end Russia’s three-year war in the country.

    A decision to negotiate the sovereignty of Ukrainians without them – as well as US President Donald Trump’s blatantly extortionate attempt to claim half of Ukraine’s rare mineral wealth as the price for ongoing US support – reveals a lot about how Trump sees Ukraine and Europe.

    But this is not the first time large powers have colluded to negotiate new borders or spheres of influence without the input of the people who live there.

    Such high-handed power politics rarely ends well for those affected, as these seven historical examples show.

    1. The Scramble for Africa

    In the winter of 1884–85, German leader Otto von Bismarck invited the powers of Europe to Berlin for a conference to formalise the division of the entire African continent among them. Not a single African was present at the conference that would come to be known as “The Scramble for Africa”.

    Among other things, the conference led to the creation of the Congo Free State under Belgian control, the site of colonial atrocities that killed millions.

    Germany also established the colony of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), where the first genocide of the 20th century was later perpetrated against its colonised peoples.

    How the boundaries of Africa changed after the Berlin conference.
    Wikimedia Commons/Somebody500

    2. The Tripartite Convention

    It wasn’t just Africa that was divided up this way. In 1899, Germany and the United States held a conference and forced an agreement on the Samoans to split their islands between the two powers.

    This was despite the Samoans expressing a desire for either self-rule or a confederation of Pacific states with Hawai’i.

    As “compensation” for missing out in Samoa, Britain received uncontested primacy over Tonga.

    German Samoa came under the rule of New Zealand after the first world war and remained a territory until 1962. American Samoa (in addition to several other Pacific islands) remain US territories to this day.

    3. The Sykes-Picot Agreement

    As the first world war was well under way, British and French representatives sat down to agree how they’d divide up the Ottoman Empire after it was over. As an enemy power, the Ottomans were not invited to the talks.

    Together, England’s Mark Sykes and France’s François Georges-Picot redrew the Middle East’s borders in line with their nations’ interests.

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement ran counter to commitments made in a series of letters known as the Hussein-McMahon correspondence. In these letters, Britain promised to support Arab independence from Turkish rule.



    Read more:
    What was the Sykes-Picot agreement, and why does it still affect the Middle East today?

    The Sykes-Picot Agreement also ran counter to promises Britain made in the Balfour Declaration to back Zionists who wanted to build a new Jewish homeland in Ottoman Palestine.

    The agreement became the wellspring of decades of conflict and colonial misrule in the Middle East, the consequences of which continue to be felt today.

    Map showing the areas of control and influence in the Middle East agreed upon between the British and French.
    The National Archives (UK)/Wikimedia Commons

    4. The Munich Agreement

    In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier met with Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler to sign what became known as the Munich Agreement.

    The leaders sought to prevent the spread of war throughout Europe after Hitler’s Nazis had fomented an uprising and began attacking the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. They did this under the pretext of protecting German minorities. No Czechoslovakians were invited to the meeting.

    The meeting is still seen by many as the “Munich Betrayal” – a classic example of a failed appeasement of a belligerent power in the false hope of staving off war.

    5. The Évian Conference

    In 1938, 32 countries met in Évian-les-Bains, France, to decide how to deal with Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany.

    Before the conference started, Britain and the US had agreed not to put pressure on one another to lift the quota of Jews they would accept in either the US or British Palestine.

    While Golda Meir (the future Israeli leader) attended the conference as an observer, neither she nor any other representatives of the Jewish people were permitted to take part in the negotiations.

    The attendees largely failed to come to an agreement on accepting Jewish refugees, with the exception of the Dominican Republic. And most Jews in Germany were unable to leave before Nazism reached its genocidal nadir in the Holocaust.

    6. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

    As Hitler planned his invasion of Eastern Europe, it became clear his major stumbling block was the Soviet Union. His answer was to sign a disingenuous non-aggression treaty with the USSR.

    Joseph Stalin and Joachim von Ribbentrop after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
    German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons

    The treaty, named after Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop (the Soviet and German foreign ministers), ensured the Soviet Union would not respond when Hitler invaded Poland. It also carved up Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres. This allowed the Soviets to expand into Romania and the Baltic states, attack Finland and take its own share of Polish territory.

    Unsurprisingly, some in Eastern Europe view the current US-Russia talks over Ukraine’s future as a revival of this kind of secret diplomacy that divided the smaller nations of Europe between large powers in the second world war.

    7. The Yalta Conference

    With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and US President Franklin D Roosevelt met in 1945 to decide the fate of postwar Europe. This meeting came to be known as the Yalta Conference.

    Alongside the Potsdam Conference several months later, Yalta created the political architecture that would lead to the Cold War division of Europe.

    At Yalta, the “big three” decided on the division of Germany, while Stalin was also offered a sphere of interest in Eastern Europe.

    This took the form of a series of politically controlled buffer states in Eastern Europe, a model some believe Putin is aiming to emulate today in eastern and southeastern Europe.

    Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the History Council of South Australia.

    – ref. Ukraine isn’t invited to its own peace talks. History is full of such examples – and the results are devastating – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-isnt-invited-to-its-own-peace-talks-history-is-full-of-such-examples-and-the-results-are-devastating-250049

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australian houses are getting larger. For a more sustainable future, our houses can’t be the space for everything

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

    The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, from 100 square metres in the 1950s to 236m² in 2020. The average living space in Australian households is now 84m² per person.

    The way we live in our homes – our habits and daily routines – is also growing and changing with our housing, and the way we want to live can shape the size of our homes.

    For a more sustainable future, we need to embrace living in smaller spaces. This means not letting our houses be our primary space for every activity in our lives.

    Our homes and ‘space creep’

    Our houses first became bigger due to space creep, bringing more of the outdoors inside.

    Once, older children were delegated to “sleep outs”, or closed-in verandas, when new siblings arrived. Over time, these draughty and unheated spaces may have been converted into bedrooms, and houses were increasingly built with dedicated rooms for each child.

    Older children were often relegated to sleeping in enclosed verandas, like on this house in Cairns in 1927.
    State Library Queensland

    Our research shows space creep now also occurs even in shrinking, empty nest households. Garages and sheds are increasingly being converted into “man-caves” or rumpus rooms for tinkering, play and privacy.

    Some families we spoke with bought bigger houses because there was a separate “hobby room” for crafts or music, or separate home offices. People now see these spaces as integral to their home life, and buy or build houses with this in mind.

    Space creep is also linked to how we consume. We saw many old fridges and chest freezers in garages, allowing for greater food storage because people were concerned about having enough food in the house, needed to bulk buy items to save money, or because they tried to minimise trips to the store.

    The routines set in these spaces result in us consuming more space. As we, as a society, become used to these spaces, we feel like we should need them.

    COVID changed perceptions of how much space is needed in our homes. People living in apartments now describe them as feeling much smaller than they did before.

    Pets are increasingly viewed as part of the family: almost half of homes have a dog, and one third own a cat. This means either making or buying more space to accommodate pets, as well as more energy consumption.

    Studies have found we spend more time in our houses than in the past, but overall time spent in each space in the house is less. And while the spaciousness of our homes may afford privacy, we lose connection. If every family member is in a different room on their individual screens, we lose some of the benefits of a family room.

    Do we need more apartments?

    After children have left, many people prefer to age in their communities. Without better options of smaller, well-built homes in the same location, older people often hold onto the large family home.

    Planning rules and conventionally designed houses often do not offer the flexibility of subdividing homes that have grown too large. Smaller townhouses in the same area may be two stories with stairs, making them inaccessible for many older people. Older people need to be able to downsize without moving away from their communities, services and local area.

    And yet, it is not as simple or straightforward as everyone living in apartments or units. Some larger houses are still needed to satisfy certain needs, like multi-generational living.

    One in five Victorians want to live in apartments, but only one in ten do.
    Denise Jans/Unsplash

    A recent study found one in five Victorians would prefer to live in an apartment, but only one in ten do.

    In Australia, apartments suitable for families are rare. Students, young couples or young families see apartments as transient living places and not as a forever home, in stark contrast to how families see apartments in many cities in Europe.

    As our lot sizes decrease and our new houses increase in size, garden space is compromised to the detriment of biodiversity, shading from trees and stormwater runoff.

    Low and mid-density living that allows for smaller houses and units with backyards and apartments with generous balconies close to larger shared spaces, like parks and sports grounds, may satisfy the desire for privacy, serenity and improve physical and mental health through contact with nature, while reducing the risk of hotter urban environments.

    Changing priorities

    Transitioning from larger to smaller homes, and from houses to apartments, means shifting from a culture where we have an abundance of private spaces such as pools, home theatres and hobby rooms in our homes to shared social infrastructure.

    We need to see increased investment in social infrastructure – especially in greenfield suburbs with new developments.

    People might chose to have a bigger house so they can have a home gym, instead of a gym membership.
    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    It means investing in walkable community facilities where people can go to pursue their interests and hobbies and connect with others. Instead of a private hobby room, these activities can be brought into a public space. Instead of multiple living areas, families can share one living space or use outside shared spaces such as Men’s Sheds.

    Changes to construction laws may help protect consumers and help householders gain confidence in the monetary value of multi-unit living, by providing solutions for issues in apartments such as cladding, safety and insurance.

    Another important step may be the New South Wales Housing Pattern Book. The book, to be released this year, will contain the winning designs of an international competition for terrace houses and mid-rise apartment buildings that offer compact sized dwellings with flexible room sizes, private and public outdoor spaces and ample natural light. The designs will be able to be licenced for use by developers and home builders, and enjoy faster approval processes.

    The availability of high-quality designs for smaller spaces in connection with attractive neighbourhood places may help Australians reimagine smaller, higher density, good home living.

    Bhavna Middha receives funding from the Australian Research Council for her Discovery Early Career Research Award (2024)

    Nicola Willand receives funding for research from various organisations, including the ARC, the Victorian state government, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the Future Fuels Collaborative Research Centre and the NHMRC. She is a trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network charity and affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects.

    – ref. Australian houses are getting larger. For a more sustainable future, our houses can’t be the space for everything – https://theconversation.com/australian-houses-are-getting-larger-for-a-more-sustainable-future-our-houses-cant-be-the-space-for-everything-245476

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New rail watchdog to give passengers a voice and hold railway to account

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Have your say on how new Great British Railways (GBR) will work to provide reliable services for passengers across the country.

    • plans unveiled for landmark rail reform bill to establish powerful passenger watchdog
    • rewiring of our railways will end decades of poor service, waste and timetable chaos
    • unified, simplified railway will put passengers first, raise living standards and boost growth as part of government’s Plan for Change

    Plans for a landmark bill to rewire Britain’s railways, including setting up a powerful passenger watchdog to give passengers a voice and hold train operators to account, have been unveiled by the government today (18 February 2025).

    This once in a generation overhaul will establish Great British Railways (GBR), a new body bringing track and train together, delivering reliable services for passengers and catalysing growth across the country.

    Outlined in a consultation launched today, the plans will smash a broken rail system, put passengers at the forefront of all decisions made on the railways, ending major failures and disruptions like the 2018 timetabling crisis.

    Through this consultation, the government will be working with industry to rewire the railways and unite train and track, putting an end to outdated and inefficient processes which have resulted in poor performance, timetable chaos and complex fares and ticketing. It will also rightly be giving devolved leaders more of a say on the services that directly impact their towns and cities, working together to integrate transport making it simpler to travel and attracting more people to our railways. 

    The new independent watchdog will be tasked with ensuring GBR addresses the issues that consistently rank highest in passenger complaints, rooting out the problems that cause poor journeys, ensuring passengers are given clear information when they travel and help tackle the maze of confusing rail fares and tickets passengers have to navigate.

    It will hold operators to account on behalf of passengers and arbitrate where passengers are not satisfied about the handling of a complaint. Working with the Transport Secretary and GBR, it will also be given the powers to set clear standards for passengers on things like journey information and assistance, investigate persistent problems and publish reports on poor service. Where poor passenger experiences are identified, it will be able to refer this to the railway regulator for enforcement action.

    Growth is at the heart of this government’s missions and the key priority in the Plan for Change, which is why one of GBR’s guiding principles will be to work closely with the private sector to create jobs and drive investment and innovation.

    This includes investing billions of pounds in the private sector supply chain, so that improvements to the network are more coordinated, giving longer-term assurance to businesses. A long-term rail strategy will give industry certainty on what they can expect, including a long-term plan for rolling stock.

    Open access services will continue having a place on the network where they encourage growth, improve connectivity and provide more choice for passengers, as long as these benefits are not outweighed by costs to the taxpayer and impacts performance.

    Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, said: 

    Passengers have put up with broken railways for far too long. This landmark reform will sweep away decades of failure, creating a Great British Railways passengers can rely on.

    We’re giving passengers a powerful voice with a new watchdog dedicated to addressing their biggest concerns, building railways people can trust, improving our services and boosting the economy in the process – the priority in our Plan for Change.

    These plans are the next step in establishing GBR, which will end years of fragmentation by bringing track and train together in a unified, simplified railway. As part of the biggest overhaul to the network in a generation, we will be raising living standards and connecting people to work, education, healthcare and leisure, supporting growth across the country.

    The consultation also looks more widely at far-reaching reforms and how GBR will interact with the industry to effectively implement its plans to relentlessly focus on driving up standards, boosting our economy and ensuring our railways deliver the services passengers deserve.

    Laura Shoaf, Chair of Shadow Great British Railways, said: 

    GBR will fundamentally change our railways, delivering growth, connections and opportunities across the country.

    The plans set out today will mean a better railway for everyone that uses it, allowing industry to work closer together, putting passengers and customers first and providing better value for money for taxpayers.

    Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said:

    This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul how the railways are run – creating a service that puts passengers first, with more reliable trains and simpler fares and tickets.

    In Greater Manchester things are already changing.  We’re working in partnership with the government and the rail industry on plans for the next phase of the Bee Network, to join up our trains, buses, trams and active travel routes, moving from a fragmented system to one that is more accountable to our residents. We look forward to helping shape the bill, with a statutory role for Mayors and city regions in making the railways work for everyone.

    This government is already working to deliver reforms ahead of Great British Railways being set up, including simplifying fares and modernising ticketing. This includes the rollout of Pay As You Go ticketing to give passengers the ability to travel more flexibly and working with devolved leaders on plans for further expansion in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

    In addition to this, our flagship Public Ownership Act, which achieved Royal Assent last year, will improve reliability and support the government’s number one priority of boosting economic growth, by encouraging more people to use the railway. This will also save taxpayers up to £150 million a year that will be invested straight back into the railways rather than the pockets of private shareholders.

    North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness, said:

    Passengers are crying out for a rail service that works for them. We need our train services to be joined up and much more reliable – helping more people get to where they need to be for the right price.  

    The North East is poised to make the most of the opportunity that rail reform presents to transform the network. Our recent North East Local Transport Plan public consultation shows most people want an integrated network and that’s what I will deliver in North East England. We are already taking steps to integrate rail ticketing in our region with the Metro system but we are ready to do so much more.

    A railway fit for Britain’s future consultation starts today and will last for 8 weeks.

    Rail media enquiries

    Media enquiries 0300 7777878

    Switchboard 0300 330 3000

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: $23 million for new key health worker accommodation for communities in the Murrumbidgee

    Source: New South Wales Government 2

    Headline: $23 million for new key health worker accommodation for communities in the Murrumbidgee

    Published: 18 February 2025

    Released by: Minister for Regional Health

    Communities in Griffith, Deniliquin and Lake Cargelligo are set to benefit from new Key Worker Accommodation which will help attract, recruit and retain more healthcare workers to the region.

    The Minns Labor Government will invest $23 million in health worker housing in the Murrumbidgee region as part of the Key Health Worker Accommodation program.

    The $200.1 million program supports more than 20 projects across rural, regional and remote NSW.

    The funding will secure approximately 120 dwellings across regional NSW, which includes the building of new accommodation, refurbishment of existing living quarters and the purchase of suitable properties such as residential units.

    The four-year program will support the recruitment and retention of more than 500 health workers and their families by providing a range of accommodation options.

    The program is one of a number of investments the Minns Labor Government is making to strengthen the regional, rural and remote health workforce and builds on the success of the NSW Government’s $73.2 million investment in key health worker accommodation across five regional local health districts (Far West, Murrumbidgee, Southern NSW, Hunter New England and Western NSW).

    Quotes attributable to Minister for Regional Health, Ryan Park:

    “The Minns Labor Government is committed to investing in modern, sustainable accommodation options for key health workers who are the backbone of our regional, rural and remote communities.

    “Strengthening our regional health workforce is a key priority for our government and this $23 million investment in accommodation will support attraction of key healthcare workers to the Murrumbidgee.

    “The Key Health Worker Accommodation program will support Murrumbidgee Local Health District in providing high-quality health services to the community.”

    Quote attributable to Member for Murray, Helen Dalton:

    “This investment is set to significantly benefit communities across Griffith and Deniliquin. The success of the initiative in other areas such as Narrandera, Finley and West Wyalong shows that provision of quality housing can help to attract and retain essential healthcare professionals to regional and rural areas.

    “With the new Griffith Base Hospital opening soon it is also a wonderful time to be promoting our community as an attractive destination for healthcare workers looking to take the next step in their career, or enjoy a tree change to our beautiful region.”

    Quote attributable to Member for Barwon, Roy Butler:

    “Lake Cargelligo is warm and friendly community, with a dedicated team working at their MPS. Accommodation in town is tight at the best of times, so providing more places to live for health workers is essential for the community.

    “More accommodation for health workers means less pressure on local rental and housing markets. Rural and remote communities desperately need more accommodation for our key workers, and this will be a good start.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Four bridges taking shape on Singleton Bypass

    Source: Australian Ministers 1

    Singleton’s largest ever road infrastructure project is progressing well, with piling and pier work now underway on four bridges on the Singleton Bypass.

    The eight-kilometre bypass will divert the New England Highway from travelling through Singleton, avoiding five sets of traffic lights and removing about 15,000 vehicles a day from the town centre. It will ease the passage of freight, improve safety and congestion, and deliver time savings for the 26,000 motorists who use this section of the New England Highway each day. 

    The project includes the construction of six bridges. The project reached a major milestone last week when the first girder was placed on the longest bridge  – a 1.6-kilometre section on Doughboy Hollow floodplain.  

    Work is also well underway on bridges located at the southern connection, the crossing of the Hunter River and the crossing of the New England Highway at Gowrie. Piling and construction of piers will continue across the project for about three months.

    A total of 435 girders, 207 piles and 161 pier columns will be put in place over the next six months to form the bridges, while other work is continuing across the project for the relocation of utilities and major earthworks.

    The Singleton Bypass will feature eight kilometres of new highway, with a single lane in each direction, a full interchange at Putty Road and connections to the New England Highway at the southern and northern ends of the bypass and at Gowrie Gates. 

    The bypass is expected to open to traffic in late 2026, weather permitting. It is jointly funded by the Australian and New South Wales Governments, with the Commonwealth contributing $560 million and the New South Wales Government contributing $150 million.

    For further information visit: www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/current-projects/singleton-bypass-new-england-highway

    Quotes attributable to Federal Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King:

    “It’s fantastic to see the biggest road infrastructure project in Singleton’s history starting to take shape.

    “I look forward to seeing the project progress as part of this great partnership between the Albanese and Minns Labor Governments.

    “The project is also giving the local economy a welcome boost by supporting more than 1,300 jobs during construction.”

    Quotes attributable to NSW Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison:

    “Well done to the project team and its contractor, hitting the ground running with major construction starting last September. 

    “Bridge building is an important step, and motorists will soon begin to see the magnitude of the bypass taking shape before their eyes.

    “The Singleton bypass will improve the lives of people living and working right across the Hunter region through safer journeys, shorter travel times and more efficient freight transport.”

    Quotes attributable to Federal Member for Hunter Dan Repacholi:

    “It’s wonderful to see the progress of the Singleton Bypass, which will benefit so many people who live in, work in, and visit our region.

    “This is just the start of transformative work for this project, with bridge columns coming out of the ground and the start of girder installation, which will continue over the coming months.

    “I look forward to seeing the project progress.”

    Quotes attributable to State Labor spokesperson for Upper Hunter Emily Suvaal:

    “When the bypass is built motorists will avoid five sets of traffic lights in Singleton’s CBD and it’ll remove about 15,000 vehicles a day from the town centre — improving safety, slashing travel times and increasing efficiency for all road users.

    “Well done to the Transport project team and all the staff for their hard work on building this game-changing project.”

     

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Housing Delivery Authority fast tracks 6,400 new homes

    Source: New South Wales Premiere

    Published: 18 February 2025

    Released by: The Premier, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces

    The Minister for Planning and Public Spaces has declared eleven housing proposals State Significant Development (SSD) creating capacity for 6,400 new well-located homes, following recommendations from the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA).

    The proposals were recommended for State Significance following the first meeting of the HDA, which was established by the Minns Labor Government to speed up assessment timeframes, with the option of concurrent rezoning and assessment, rather than being assessed by councils.

    The HDA has received over 160 expressions of interest (EOIs) since it invited proposals in mid-January 2025. This meeting examined the first 28 proposals received.

    Some applicants submitted proposals that are already well progressed along another, more suitable assessment pathway. These have been advised that they are on the right pathway for their proposal.

    The HDA has resolved to meet fortnightly to consider further EOIs in a timely manner.

    The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure will now provide clear advice and guidance to HDA applicants on the next steps to take with their development proposal.

    In some cases, this advice includes recommending an alternative planning pathway for major housing projects that may require a concurrent rezoning but do not satisfy the criteria of the HDA pathway.

    High-quality housing projects that have detailed plans submitted within nine months and can begin construction within 12 months of approval and deliver affordable housing were given priority by the HDA, to set a clear benchmark for future EOI submissions.

    This is part of the Minns Labor Government’s plan to build a better NSW with more homes and services, so young people, families and key local workers have somewhere to live and in the communities they choose.

    The HDA builds on the Minns Government’s recent reforms to the planning system to speed up the delivery of more homes, including:

    ·       The development of the NSW Pattern Book and accelerated planning pathway for those who use the pre-approved patterns.

    ·       The largest rezoning in NSW history around transport hubs.

    ·       The largest ever investment in the delivery of social and affordable housing in NSW.

    ·       $200 million in financial incentives for councils that meet the new expectations for development applications, planning proposals and strategic planning. 

    ·       $450 million to build new apartments for essential workers including nurses, paramedics, teachers, allied health care workers, police officers and firefighters. 

    Recommendations from the HDA are published as required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 before the SSD declaration. For more information visit Housing Delivery Authority | Planning

    Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns said: 

    “These changes that we have implemented are making it easier and faster to increase housing supply near existing infrastructure, critical to delivering thousands of much needed homes for young people, families and workers.

    “This new authority that is fast tracking the approval of new homes is a major but necessary change to cut through the red tape and delays that have haunted the NSW planning system for well over a decade.

    “This is an important step that is helping to deliver thousands of new homes for those who need them, but we know that work does not stop here to increase housing supply.” 

    Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:

    “The Minns Labor Government is reforming the planning system to deliver more market and affordable housing across NSW because everyone having access to a home – either to rent or buy – is a foundation of social and economic participation.

    “The Housing Delivery Authority not only encourages new housing proposals by asking for expressions of interest, but it also allows existing proposals to receive fast track consideration by being assessed by the State rather than the local Council.

    “The Minns Labor Government is delivering on its commitment to streamline the planning system to create more homes. In just the first meeting, we have the potential for 6,400 homes. That is thousands of families, workers and grandparents finding a home.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: New laws make it criminal to incite racial hatred in NSW

    Source: New South Wales Premiere

    Published: 18 February 2025

    Released by: The Premier, Attorney General

    The NSW Government will introduce legislation to Parliament today to confront hate speech and antisemitism by establishing a new criminal offence for intentionally inciting racial hatred.

    The Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Bill 2025 responds to recent disgusting instances of antisemitic conduct and hate speech, and makes clear that inciting racial hatred has no place in NSW.

    The legislation will make it a crime to intentionally and publicly incite hatred towards another person, or group of people, on the grounds of race. The bill will establish a new section, 93ZAA of the Crimes Act 1900, with a maximum penalty for an individual of two years’ imprisonment, fines of up to $11,000, or both, while corporations can face fines of $55,000.

    The proposed offence will contain the following elements:

    • It must be a public act;
    • The public act must incite hatred;
    • The incitement to hatred must be intentional; and
    • The intentional incitement to hatred must be on the basis of race.

    To ensure the implied freedom of political communication is protected, the new offences have been drafted to apply to specific conduct.

    The new section includes an exception for directly referencing religious texts during religious teachings.

    Criminalising the incitement of racial hatred is the latest measure taken by the NSW Government to respond to acts of racial violence and hatred. Other actions include:

    • Introducing a new offence in the Crimes Act to ensure people of faith can attend their place of worship in safety and provide police with associated move on powers;
    • Introducing a new offence in 93ZA of the Crimes Act directed to the display of a Nazi symbol on or near a synagogue or place of worship, Jewish school or the Sydney Jewish Museum;
    • Amending existing graffiti offences to make it an aggravated offence to graffiti a place of worship; and
    • Ensuring that hatred or prejudice as motive for an offence will be an aggravating factor on sentence regardless of the presence of other motives.

    The Minns Labor Government also increased funding for the NSW Engagement and Hate Crime Unit, the Safe Places for Faith Communities Grants (led by Multicultural NSW), and the NSW Local Government Social Cohesion Grants Program.

    This package of measures helps crack down on the recent escalation of troubling graffiti, racial hatred and antisemitism in the community.

    It also builds on the work of the NSW Police Force, with Operation Shelter conducting more than 300 proactive patrols daily, while Strike Force Pearl has doubled its fulltime dedicated detectives from 20 to 40.

    With these reforms, the NSW Government is sending a clear message about how seriously it takes racial hatred and antisemitism.

    Premier of NSW Chris Minns said:

    “Racial hatred and antisemitism have no place in our society, and we are making it clear with this law.

    “These are strong new laws because this disgraceful behaviour must stop.

    “NSW is a multicultural state. The people of NSW already stand against racial hatred, and we are making it criminal with this law.

    “While this package confronts recent antisemitism, the new laws will apply to anyone, preying on any person.”

    Attorney General Michael Daley said:

    “Racial hatred is unacceptable – and under this new legislation, it will be a crime to publicly and intentionally incite racial hatred.

    “It is important for members of our community to be protected from conduct that causes them to fear for their safety, or to fear harassment, intimidation or violence.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: New Sydney Fish Market’s iconic floating roof now complete

    Source: New South Wales Premiere

    Published: 18 February 2025

    Released by: The Premier, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces

    The new Sydney Fish Market has reached a major milestone with the final roof panel installed on top of the 200-metre-long floating roof canopy, forming the iconic building’s crowning glory.

    With the unique and spectacular roof now completed, Sydney’s skyline is set to change forever with this new architectural marvel, just as the Opera House did when it was built in 1973.  

    This marks a pivotal moment in the project, as the focus shifts from structural work to internal finishes, bringing the building one step closer to construction completion.

    The roof’s supporting structure is comprised of 594 timber roof beams – with the longest beams up to 32 metres in length – and was completed in December 2024.

    Combined with over 400 roof panels, the roof weighs a staggering 2,500 tonnes. The roof requires some finishing touches including waterproofing, which will follow in the weeks ahead.

    Since construction began, the project has provided a major boost to the local economy with delivery partner Multiplex awarding more than $670 million in contracts to Australian suppliers for services including maritime piling, steel reinforcement and installation of the roof cassettes.

    The new Sydney Fish Market will offer a vibrant mix of retail, dining, and community spaces, including fresh seafood market, restaurants, and a seafood school. The new market will create a dynamic hub for both locals and tourists, celebrating Sydney’s reputation as a global seafood destination.

    The new Sydney Fish Market is key to the transformation of Blackwattle Bay, which will unlock a connected waterfront promenade from Rozelle Bay to Woolloomooloo, 1,100 homes on the old fish market site and more than 6,000 square metres of public space, improving pedestrian and cycling links.

    The project is also supporting over 700 jobs during construction, and a further 700 jobs once operational.

    For more information about the new Sydney Fish Market visit: new Sydney Fish Market.

    NSW Premier Chris Minns said:

    “The revamped market will be truly spectacular, offering a world-class, authentic seafood for an expected 6 million annual local and international visitors – ensuring it remains one of the most popular tourist destinations on offer in our harbour city.”

    “Excitement around the new Sydney Fish Market is growing every day as this spectacular new building, now with a completed roof, comes to life at the head of Blackwattle Bay.

    Minister for Lands and Property Steve Kamper said:

    “Today marks a significant milestone with the completion of the roof at the new Sydney Fish Market, a testament to world-class engineering and design.

    “The roof not only enhances the market’s aesthetic with its magnificent wave-like form now in place, but also the environmental sustainability of the building.

    “It is incredibly exiting to have reached this stage in the build and start work on finishes. We’re on the home stretch now and getting closer to being able to set foot in the new Sydney Fish Market, which will be an icon for Sydney and a destination for all.”

    NSW Regional Director Daniel Murphy at Multiplex said:

    “This milestone is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our construction team and partners. We can’t wait to see visitors enjoying this impressive building when it opens to the public.”

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Community Council Interim Elections results

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Issued on behalf of the Returning Officer

    Following the deadline for nominations, The Highland Council can confirm that the following community councils have received sufficient nominations and will form uncontested:  

    • Carrbridge Community Council 
    • Kilmuir and Logie Easter 
    • Portree and Braes 
    • Resolis 
    • Sinclairs Bay 
    • Tannach and District 

    Unfortunately, the following four Community Councils failed to form:

    • Bower 
    • Conon Bridge 
    • Lochalsh 
    • Smithton 

    There will another opportunity to try and form these in August 2025 when the next Notice of Election will be published.  A copy of the timetable is available here. 

    Further information is available on the Council’s website at www.highland.gov.uk/ccelections  

    17 Feb 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Key Milestones Reached in Inverness Castle Transformation Project

    Source: Scotland – Highland Council

    Issued by High Life Highland

    The Inverness Castle Experience has reached two key milestones: the completion of glazing on the new link building and the installation of the fully refurbished Rose Window in the South Tower Story Room. These achievements mark significant progress as the attraction prepares to open later this year.

    The contemporary link building, now wind and watertight, will house the Saltire Bistro, offering visitors a unique space to enjoy Highland hospitality. Designed by the renowned LDN Architects in collaboration with NARRO structural engineers, the structure draws inspiration from the Scottish Saltire, a proud emblem of national identity. Its elegant, interwoven roof beams, influenced by the expressed ceiling structures within the historic castle interiors, span the length of the building and sit between large glass roof lights, which bathe the space in natural light.

    The glazing, meticulously crafted and installed by specialist contractors, has been delivered to the highest standards under the supervision of Bancon Construction, the project’s main contractor.

    Adding to the sense of achievement, the stunning Rose Window, a cherished historic feature, has been fully refurbished and now takes centre stage in the South Tower Story Room. Suspended from the ceiling within a bespoke steel frame, the intricate window has been restored to showcase its original craftsmanship, creating a breathtaking focal point in the room where visitors will immerse themselves in the stories of the Highlands.

    Cllr Ian Brown, Leader of Inverness City and Area and Co-chair of the Inverness Castle Project Delivery Group, said: “We are delighted to celebrate these major milestones for the Inverness Castle Experience.”

    “The completion of glazing on the link building and the restoration and installation of the Rose Window highlight the project’s balance between contemporary design and respect for the Highlands’ heritage. Visitors will be able to savour the unique atmosphere of the Saltire Bistro in the new building, and marvel at the beautifully restored Rose Window as part of their journey through the experience in the South Tower.”

    Watch Jason Kelman, Principle Project Manager at The Highland Council give an update here.

    The Inverness Castle Experience project, opening later this year, will benefit from £30m investment to support its redevelopment from the Scottish and UK Governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and a range of other partners.

    The Inverness Castle project is part of the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal, which is a joint initiative supported by up to £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and University of the Highlands and Islands, aimed at stimulating sustainable regional economic growth.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Delivering Social Care reform

    Source: Scottish Government

    Changes proposed to reflect people’s needs.

    Plans to transform the way social care is delivered are being progressed as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to improve the experience of everyone who accesses social care, social work and community health services.

    Ahead of Stage 2 proceedings of the National Care Service Bill later this month, a number of amendments have been lodged, all of which are subject to Parliament’s agreement.

    As the National Care Service will now be established through both legislative and non-legislative means, with reform of social care at the centre it is proposed the Bill will be known as the “Care Reform (Scotland) Bill”.

    If agreed by Parliament, as amended, the Bill will also bring forward significant reforms to social care, including:  

    • Anne’s Law being enshrined into legislation to uphold the rights of people living in adult care homes to see loved ones and identify an essential care supporter
    • ensuring all those working in or supplying services to the health and social care sector follow the same information standards allowing easier communication
    • the creation of a National Chief Social Work Advisor post, in statute, to bring strategic leadership at a national level.

    The Bill will also retain measures to establish a legal right to breaks for unpaid carers. Ahead of the legislation, the Scottish Government has identified an additional £5 million in the draft 2025-26 Budget to support 15,000 carers to take short breaks from their caring responsibilities.

    Ministers announced in January that legislation to set up a new public body to oversee national improvements would no longer go ahead. However, work to establish a National Care Service Advisory Board is progressing and it is due to meet for the first time in March.

    Social Care Minister Maree Todd said: 

    ”Social care has the power to transform people lives, that is why it is so important that those accessing services receive the highest quality care, delivered consistently across Scotland.

    “The amendments lodged in Parliament offer us the best opportunity to urgently get to work to reform the system and have a transformative impact on people’s lives.

    “Positive progress is being made on establishing an advisory board that puts people with experience of the social care system at the heart of it, helping deliver the changes we all want to see.”

    Background

    • An essential care supporter is someone, for example close relatives or friends, who plays a vital role in providing their loved ones with regular care and support alongside staff. This includes companionship, personal support and advocacy.
    • Additional funding for Short Breaks Fund – gov.scot

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: When a bishop called on Trump to ‘have mercy’, she was following the old Christian tradition of parrhesia

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Morwenna Ludlow, Professor of Christian History and Theology, University of Exeter

    Ambrose.

    When Bishop Mariann Budde closed her sermon at the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral on January 21 she called on Donald Trump, who was sitting in front of her, “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now”.

    Trump demanded an apology later the same day from “the so-called Bishop” who he said was “nasty in tone”. Republican congressman Mike Collins even suggested that Budde (a US citizen) should be deported.

    The bishop was building on a long tradition of Christian leaders using bold speech. But the idea of bold speech goes back further – to the concept of “parrhesia” in democratic Athens when every freeborn male citizen had the right to speak freely in public debates.

    French philosopher Michel Foucault highlighted that with the decline of democracy, parrhesia came to mean boldly speaking truth to power. For instance, in the Roman Empire, it meant having the bravery to speak to an emperor, a governor, or one’s master as if one was their equal.

    Early Christians picked up on this use of the term in the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles describes the arrest of Peter and John for healing and preaching in Jerusalem and recounts that the assembled “rulers, elders and scribes” were amazed to hear such parrhesia from “uneducated and ordinary men”.

    The apostles were so popular that the council released them after vainly threatening them to keep quiet. Peter and John’s own community of followers was even said to be so inspired by their bold example that they prayed to be given parrhesia too, a prayer which was immediately answered by the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:29, 31). Parrhesia here is seen as a powerful divine gift which enables ordinary people to challenge dominant religious authorities.

    Several sermons on martyrs from John Chrysostom (who was apppointed as the archbishop of Constantinople in AD397) close with exhortations to emulate a martyr’s parrhesia. Chrysostom’s Discourse on Blessed Babylas and against the Greeks describes a bishop who reprimanded an emperor for murdering a child hostage. Chrysostom praises Bishop Babylas for moderate parrhesia, guided by reason, keeping anger and other emotions in check. It recalls the advice of the philosopher Plutarch in “How to tell a flatterer from a friend”: parrhesia must be respectful, in due measure and at the right moment.

    Babylas’s moderate parrhesia produces astonished admiration from the crowd, but it provoked the outraged emperor to order Babylas’ execution.

    Such stories set expectations for the behaviour of bishops even under Christian emperors. Scholars have shown how bishops have exploited their educational and social standing to leverage limited influence with governors and sometimes even emperors.

    Gregory of Nazianzus tells how his friend Basil, a 4th century bishop, faced down the rage of an imperial representative who “roared like a lion till most men dared not approach him”, threatening “confiscation, banishment, torture, death”. When Basil refused to back down, the astonished official declared that no-one had spoken to him with such parrhesia. “Perhaps you’ve not met a bishop before,” Basil replied. “Generally, we know our place and we submit to the law. But where the interests of God are at stake, we care about nothing else.”

    Two of the most famous examples of bishops who exercised parrhesia against imperial authority were the aforementioned Chrysostom and Ambrose (who became bishop of Milan in AD374). Both Chrysostom and Ambrose wrote substantial treatises which (among other things) defended the priest’s right to censure whomever was guilty of sin. Chrysostom warns that fear of powerful authorities causes people to flatter them rather than speaking the truth. Ambrose makes a similar point, reminding his audience that John the Baptist did not flatter King Herod, despite having reason to fear him. These comments resonate with Foucault’s observation that a speaker addressing someone more powerful must choose between flattery and parrhesia.

    Bishop Budde speaking at Washington National Cathedral.

    But the point of these examples is that by the 4th century there was a strong belief that part of the job of being a bishop was being prepared to speak boldly against wrongdoing – even if the wrongdoer was an emperor. And the power of their parrhesia was not so much the success (or otherwise) of their requests, but the way their bold speech sent ripples out into the wider community.

    It is here that we can identify resonances with the case of Bishop Budde. First, parrhesia involves a direct, public but personal appeal to someone who could normally expect to be in authority over the speaker (the Jewish council of elders, a Roman governor).

    The appeal is often made respectfully, but it is still risky and disruptive. It challenges the addressee’s declared vision of the truth, setting against it the speaker’s own sources of authority, including appeals to the divine.

    In Budde’s case too we find this tension between respect and challenge. In an interview for the New Yorker, Budde reflected that she “needed to honor the office of the President and the fact that millions of people placed their trust in him”.

    By addressing Trump respectfully, she acknowledged he had the authority to be merciful. But in drawing on the authority of scripture, Christian tradition and her episcopal role, she challenged the president’s moral authority on key questions of public policy.

    Basil’s parrhesia astonished the imperial representative, but gave his friend Gregory a model for his own episcopal ministry. Similarly, Budde had a two-fold audience in mind. She used parrhesia respectfully but firmly to challenge the authority of a powerful person who did not expect to be challenged and was outraged when they were.

    It is evident that Budde’s past experience of criticising Trump (she commented in the New York Times about Trump posing for a photo with a Bible in 2020) left her in no doubt that her “audacious” direct appeal to the president would bring anger on herself. But she also addressed a wider audience, intending that “people overhearing me talk to Trump” would hear words of solidarity and hope for them.

    The power of Budde’s speech does not depend on the success of her appeal for mercy but in the disruptive nature of her challenge to Trump’s moral authority and the way it rippled out into wider audiences, provoking astonishment, anger or praise.

    History prompts us to look harder at the power dynamics that create such varied and highly charged emotional responses. Now, as in the ancient world, it is in the absence of an open hearing for all, when bold speech is needed.

    Morwenna Ludlow will receive funding from the Leverhulme Trust for a project on ‘God and Good Speech’ for two years from September 2025. She is a priest in the Church of England and has an honorary role as Canon Theologian at Exeter Cathedral.

    – ref. When a bishop called on Trump to ‘have mercy’, she was following the old Christian tradition of parrhesia – https://theconversation.com/when-a-bishop-called-on-trump-to-have-mercy-she-was-following-the-old-christian-tradition-of-parrhesia-248494

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UK Government to Invest £2.6 Million in V&A Dundee

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Scottish Secretary confirms £2.6 million for V&A Dundee – investment on top of £20 million for Dundee regeneration projects.

    V&A Dundee is to receive £2.6 million in UK Government capital funding. The investment, to remodel and extend the Scottish Design Galleries, was announced today [17 February 2025] by the Scottish Secretary on a visit to Scotland’s design museum. 

    Speaking after his visit, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: 

    It’s fantastic news that the UK Government is investing £2.6 million in V&A Dundee. It is a great attraction, right at the heart of Dundee’s waterfront, bringing great benefits to the city. This funding will help the museum celebrate the very best of Scottish design and make the experience for visitors even better. 

    We have taken the necessary steps to mend our public finances in order to provide this funding and a record settlement for the Scottish Government, and I am very pleased that we are delivering this investment in this important national institution.  

    At the Autumn Budget the Chancellor also confirmed £20 million for regeneration and growth projects in Dundee. In all, the UK Government is investing £1.4 billion in dozens of important local growth projects across Scotland over the next 10 years. This is a key part of the UK Government’s Plan for Change, growing our economy and improving living standards in all parts of the UK.

    Director of V&A Dundee, Leonie Bell, said

    We are delighted the UK Government has confirmed £2.6 million of funding for V&A Dundee, Scotland’s design museum, to undertake a bold transformation of the Scottish Design Galleries that will bring design to life for visitors, enabling even more people to engage with Scotland’s innovative design history and its continuing influence around the world. 

    V&A Dundee is an incredible resource for people living in Dundee and Scotland, drawing visitors to the region, championing design and designers and helping to change the face of the city and contributing to economic, cultural and social growth.   

    This new funding means we can expand the story of design from Scotland and celebrate the worldwide influence of Scottish design and designers, further enhancing the visitor experience at V&A Dundee.

    The Scottish Design Galleries are the heart of V&A Dundee. They feature more than 300 objects spanning around 500 years, telling the story of Scottish design’s enduring influence around the world. This additional investment, ahead of the museum’s 10-year anniversary in 2028, will help V&A Dundee boost its contribution to local economic growth, supporting jobs and driving visitors to Tayside.

    In 2023 Dundee welcomed 1.35 million visits, an increase of more 50 per cent since before V&A Dundee opened. V&A Dundee is engaging with every school in the city and welcomed its two millionth visitor in 2024. The museum has created very significant economic impacts for the city.

    Updates to this page

    Published 17 February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Urge your MP to support Wales’ right to control natural resources

    Source: Party of Wales

    On Monday 24 February, the Crown Estate Bill will be debated in the House of Commons at its Report Stage.

    Llinos Medi MP’s amendment is the last chance to demand fairness for Wales in this Bill.

    Urge your MP to support Plaid Cymru’s amendment.

    Find your MP here

    Draft letter:

    Dear MP,

    I am writing to urge you to support the amendment to the Crown Estate Bill, tabled by Llinos Medi MP, which will be debated on 24th February.

    This amendment calls for the transfer of Crown Estate management in Wales to the Welsh Government within two years, allowing Wales to control the profits from its own natural resources. Currently, millions of pounds generated in Wales go directly to the UK Treasury, leaving our communities with no benefit. In contrast, Scotland has seen significant benefits since the devolution of its Crown Estate.

    The devolution of the Crown Estate has widespread support in Wales, and MPs should represent the interests of their constituents. I urge you to sign the amendment and support Wales’ right to control its own resources.

     

    Kind regards,

    [Your name]

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Deeply religious African countries (surprisingly) provide little state support to religion – unlike countries in Europe

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By David Jeffery-Schwikkard, PhD Candidate (Theology and Religious Studies), King’s College London

    In most of the world, countries with religious populations are more likely to have governments that support religion through laws and policies. These laws might include religious education, funding for religious institutions, and laws based on religious values. Not so in sub-Saharan Africa.

    In a recently published research paper, David Jeffery-Schwikkard, who studies secularism, argues that sub-Saharan African countries provide little state support for religion, even though their populations are among the most devout globally.

    These findings unsettle many common misconceptions about the role of religion in politics. The Conversation Africa asked him a few questions.

    How prevalent is religion in countries in sub-Saharan Africa?

    A population is normally considered very religious if most people say religion is “very important” in their lives or report attending religious services at least once a week.

    In surveys conducted between 2007 and 2018 by the Pew Research Centre, 46% of respondents outside sub-Saharan Africa said religion was very important in their lives. Within sub-Saharan Africa, the average is nearly twice that: 89%. Ethiopia and Senegal are among the most religious countries in the world. In both cases, 98% of people said religion was very important. Of the 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for which Pew has data, Botswana (71%) and South Africa (75%) are the least religious. Yet even these countries are far above the global average.

    What does this matter for how states are run?

    Generally, countries with religious populations have states that provide a lot of support to religion. This is what you would expect, since religious citizens probably want more state support for their religions.

    What this means, though, is that commentators often assume that religious citizens are a threat to secular states. This then shapes how analysts make sense of public displays of religion. One example of this is in South Africa, where many people assumed that former president Jacob Zuma, who often used religious rhetoric, would pursue religious laws and policies.



    Read more:
    TB Joshua scandal: the forces that shaped Nigeria’s mega pastor and made him untouchable

    These assumptions are especially common in analyses of religion and politics in Africa. Yet, while it is easy to identify laws or policies in sub-Saharan Africa that are religious, one can easily overlook the fact that having some of these laws is not unusual globally. In other words, having some pro-religion laws and policies doesn’t necessarily mean that countries are governed by religious beliefs.

    Thus one might focus on Ghana’s support for Hajj, while forgetting that the UK reserves seats in the House of Lords for the Church of England, and that Germany collects taxes on behalf of churches. Yet the UK and Germany are rarely seen as religious states. Some level of state support for religion does not mean that a country is governed by religious beliefs.

    Why are African countries different?

    Contrary to the global trend, countries in sub-Saharan Africa provide very little state support to religion – less than half the global average. This is as measured by the Religion and State Project at Bar Ilan University, based on the number of different types of support provided, such as reserving political positions for religious leaders or funding religious schools.

    One of the most popular explanations for the scant support for religion is that states in sub-Saharan Africa lack the necessary financial and administrative capacity. These states, the argument goes, would provide more support if only they had more money and were better able to implement their policies.

    However, data from the World Bank shows that this is not the case: overall, there is no relationship between state capacity and support for religion.



    Read more:
    Catholic synod: the voices of church leaders in Africa are not being heard – 3 reasons why

    A more plausible explanation is that religious actors in these countries tend to lack moral authority. Moral authority, as theorised by American political scientist Anna Grzymala-Busse, is the extent to which people see religious actors as defenders of the nation.

    Several factors are conducive to moral authority. These include whether people share the same ethnicity or religion, whether religious actors have control over education, and whether they have sided with the “right side” in moments of national crisis.

    Can you give an example?

    Consider Rwanda and Mozambique.

    Until 1994, the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda enjoyed moral prestige. The church controlled a significant share of the education system and had supported the independence movement against Belgium. Most Rwandans were Catholic. And indeed, the church maintained a very close relationship with the state after independence in 1962.

    Yet this moral authority was forfeited after the church was seen to be complicit in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, which claimed about 800,000 lives. Today, the government keeps a careful distance from religion, despite 90% of Rwandans reporting that religion is very important in their lives.



    Read more:
    Rwanda’s genocide could have been prevented: 3 things the international community should have done – expert

    Mozambique provides a contrast to Rwanda, yet with similar outcomes. The Roman Catholic Church denounced the liberation movement’s struggle against Portugal. The country has no religious or ethnic majority. At independence, formal education was scarce.

    There was therefore little reason for Mozambicans to see the church as a defender of the nation. On the contrary, religious institutions were persecuted after independence. Like Rwanda, Mozambique provides extremely little state support for religion, despite being one of the most religious countries internationally.



    Read more:
    Between state and mosque: new book explores the turbulent history of Islamic politics in Mozambique

    These factors – religious diversity, limited enrolment in schools controlled by religious organisations, and moments of political crisis in which those organisations can misstep – make it less likely that religious actors are held by citizens as integral to national identity. And while sub-Saharan Africa is extremely varied, common historical influences, such as the legacies of colonialism, may make these factors more likely.

    What can we learn from this?

    Clearly, we need to be more careful in how we interpret the role of religion in politics. While it might be tempting to see religious fervour as a threat to secular democracy, it is not necessarily so. A politician might use religious rhetoric, but this does not mean that it will translate into religious laws. Equally, some state support for religion is not unusual globally. Analyses of single policies need to keep this in mind.



    Read more:
    Christianity is changing in South Africa as pentecostal and indigenous churches grow – what’s behind the trend

    This research also upends the way many people normally think about secularism. Many people in Europe have become less religious. Consequently, European states are offered as models of secularism. However, this has it backwards.

    Despite their electorates being less religious, European states are more involved in religion than their counterparts in sub-Saharan African. If secularism is the separation of religion and the state, then countries in sub-Saharan Africa – which maintain a secular state despite widespread religion – are in fact the exemplar.

    David Jeffery-Schwikkard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Deeply religious African countries (surprisingly) provide little state support to religion – unlike countries in Europe – https://theconversation.com/deeply-religious-african-countries-surprisingly-provide-little-state-support-to-religion-unlike-countries-in-europe-245490

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –