Jason Evans 🏴 🇪🇺
@EvansTheCrime
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Proud to be the court and crime newsmonger on my hometown paper, South Wales Evening Post @walesonline. Biscuits, tea, and Neath RFC.
Joined February 2011
If you like drinking tea, eating biscuits, and reading court stories, why not make yourself a cuppa, grab a packet of biscuits, and head over to my Facebook page where you can do just that ⤵️.
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Detaining people on camera to make a party political broadcast on the eve of local elections stinks to high heaven.
BREAKING: The first people set to be removed to Rwanda have been detained.
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Former solicitor and *checks notes* current Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab explaining that “guilty” is a “very loaded term”. His move into politics was clearly a big loss for the law. As, indeed, it was for politics.
The car crash interview of the year as Justice Secretary Dominic Raab shamelessly defends the indefensible . Superb from @susannareid100 @GMB
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Politicians who don't want the ECHR to apply to them are exactly the kinds of politicians the ECHR is designed to protect us from.
It’s leave or remain. I’m for leave.
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I report from court five days a week, week-in week-out. Been doing so for donkey’s. And never committed contempt. The rules are simple, and are there to ensure the integrity of proceedings. He was convicted of contempt of court because he committed contempt of court. #journalism.
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Boris Johnson is in Wales to launch the Tory's Welsh manifesto - but has refused our request for an interview. If we'd been the wife of a Russian millionaire offering a big cash bung for a game of tennis with him, I dare say the answer would be different.
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📸 Can we take a minute to appreciate this brilliant photograph from Abertawe / Swansea's Wind Street last night. Outstanding work (as usual) by @athenapics.
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The ECHR is there to protect people from politicians who abuse their power and position for their own nefarious ends. Those who want to scrap it are precisely the kind of politicians it is designed to protect us from. They are not to be trusted.
Let's make 2024 the year where we start the process leading to ECHR exit.
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If by 1945 he means quarter to eight, then still no.
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You join me at Swansea Crown Court where a judge has just said: “His downfall was ejaculating at the bus stop.”.
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Half a million Aussies sign a petition calling for a public inquiry in Rupert Murdoch's media dominance. The petition was launched by former PM Kevin Rudd who has described Murdoch and his influence as a "cancer on our democracy". (Via @BBCWorld)
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Home Secretary Suella “I have a dream” Braverman is accused of embellishing her lawyer’s CV by claiming she contributed to a seminal law textbook when, according to author, she just “did some photocopying”. (By @BarneyDavisES for @EveningStandard) .
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I was in court today and there was this lad who’d been caught with his fingers in the till but he got off because his mates didn’t like the fact he’d been caught so they stopped the prosecution, and he just walked out of the dock. No, not really. That would be an outrage.
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The lovely word "chopsing" has just been used in a case at Swansea Crown, and it's made my day.
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Here at Swansea Crown we have a young man up for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence. He's unrepresented, and the judge is having a long chat with him. He tells the judge he wants to be locked up: "To be honest I would rather be in jail than sleeping on the streets".Grim.
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Someone should write a report on Russian influence.
Russian disinformation designed to deliver Brexit & Trump was also intended to weaken & destabilise the West. This is literally the ‘Russian toolbox’ that the ‘official’ describes here. But half the country - and all of the Govt - remain psychologically incapable of admitting it.
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Tom is going to be tamping when he finds out which party spent 14 years bringing the entire criminal justice system - policing, the courts, probation, prisons, metal health services - to its knees.
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In all my years covering the crime and court beat I have not heard of a single incident of food parcels being traded for drugs. Not one. Ever. But I have covered countless cases of dealers exploiting the poor, the hungry, and the vulnerable.
Here, @AngelaRayner is either being disingenuous or really hasn’t a clue what goes on in her constituency. I hope for the sake of her constituents it’s the former. I know in my constituency that, as tiny as a minority it might be, food parcels are sold or traded for drugs.
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Disingenuous and dangerous nonsense from the PM. Delays in the criminal justice system haven't been caused by "lefty human rights lawyers" but by a decade of swingeing budget cuts, and a series of reforms ranging from the half-arsed to the negligent.
Boris Johnson criticised for 'shameful' attack on lawyers
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I've been locked in vending machine at Swansea Crown Court by bad people. Send £5,000. It's a matter of life and death.
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My thoughts and prayers are with the Telegraph at this difficult time.
🔴 A state-educated Welsh speaker is to be the acting BBC chairman after Richard Sharp’s resignation
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A Welsh doctor and former Parachute Regiment medics has designed an emergency ventilator which could have a major impact in fight against coronavirus. The devices are already being manufactured in Ammanford, and the firm reckons it could make 100 a day. 🏴
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It’s almost as if slashing police and CPS budgets, axing 20,000 experienced officers, closing half of all magistrates courts, and cutting the number of days judges sit wasn’t a great idea.
Record numbers of victims of crime including rape are withdrawing from prosecutions because of court delays and falling conviction rates.
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If you're going to annoy coppers by pulling up to their vehicle and cranking the volume on the NWA classic "Fuck tha police" on your car stereo first ensure - and I cannot stress this bit enough - first ensure there is no warrant out for your arrest.
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Seems like a good idea. Car number plates have certainly stopped the problem of dangerous drivers.
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I see Swansea cinema and cafe Cinema & Co, which is "taking a stand" against Covid safety measures, didn't take a stand against pocketing £52,000 in Covid support money.
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🏴 58 years ago today 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a coal spoil tip collapsed onto Aberfan and engulfed the village school. One of the darkest days in Wales' history. Remember Aberfan / Cofiwch Aberfan.
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For some reason the “justice scorecards” won’t tell you how many local courts the government has closed in the last 10 years, nor how many police officers it axed, nor how much it slashed police, CPS, probation, court and prison budgets. Can’t think why.
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And you are interviewing the leader of a party with precisely zero MPs because?.
"If we don't do something serious, we are going to run out of money - we are going bust.". Reform UK leader Richard Tice speaks to @EvanHD about how the party would implement their policy to cut the UK's public spending. | #BBCPM
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Dear Home Office, You seem to have forgotten to mention the decade of slashing budgets for police, CPS, courts, legal aid, probation, and prisons which has left the entire criminal justice system on its knees. An oversight, perhaps?.
Today, we’re announcing the biggest increase in funding for police in a decade. This will provide forces with the resources they need to tackle serious violence, online child abuse and organised crime. Read more:
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Forget Paul Hollywood, the gold standard for bread week remains Paul Swansea’s bread lion from 2015. #GBBO
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This @Telegraph rewrite of my court story is also wrong: The pair weren’t spared jail because of the good grammar, and the judge didn’t praise them for the texts. Had the Telegraph actually been in Swansea Crown they would know this.
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Given the price of fuel at Pont Abraham services, this is good news for Wagner.
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Police are appealing for information after 11 men wearing white were robbed in the Landore area of Swansea this evening. #SWAMCI.
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North Korea are calling, they’d like their paper back please.
"The health of Boris Johnson is the health of the body politic and, by extension, the health of the nation itself" | writes @allisonpearson. #Covid19 #coronavirus #Covid19UK.
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Brilliant piece by @BarristerSecret on the UK government’s dangerous attack on the judiciary - part of a pattern of such behaviour from populists and ne’er-do-wells around the world. ”If we lose judicial independence, we lose the rule of law”
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The discovery that his estranged son is connected to a consignment of cocaine washed up on the beach is the start of a dark personal journey for divorced former junior customs officer turned private detective Mattew Hancock. Hancock, coming to Sunday evenings on ITV2.
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Deeply misleading headline on this @thetimes rewrite of my court story: ”Good grammar” most certainly did not keep them out of jail - given their ages, lack of previous, and relatively small scale of the dealing they were never likely to be locked up.
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You join me at Swansea Crown where a judge has asked a witness to clarify how many she means when she talks about a couple of days, noting that “a Welsh couple” is often more than just two.
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If you want to know what the next big public scandal is going to be, it's right here - the rotten Single Justice Procedure. Justice done on the cheap and behind closed doors which is leading to horrible injustices. (Chapeau to @kirkkorner for doing so much to expose it) ⬇️.
This poor man from Shropshire was prosecuted by the DVLA after his sister & her son took their own lives in the space of 24 hours. He owed £6.67. It's fast-track justice.It's likely no prosecutor saw this letter, the tragic circumstances weren't known & the case wasn't withdrawn
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This is not true. The cases were brought by the Post Office as private prosecutor.
Keir Starmer was head of DPP between 2008 and 2013. He allowed the prosecution of Sub Postmasters during the Horizon scandal. He needs grilling over it. All credit to PeterExPat for pointing this out.
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100 per cent this ⬇️.
It's telling that Michael Gove can be part of one of the most dishonourable governments in British history and then be given a cosy BBC podcast called 'Surviving Politics.'.As if the whole thing is a game.
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Breakfast of Champions down at Verdi’s in Mumbles.
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More woke renaming nonsense from the out of touch tofu eating elite. How do you even pronounce it? Ridiculous. The Prime Minister and I will continue to call it the England Coast Path.
To celebrate the #Coronation and recognise a lasting legacy for people and nature, we’re renaming the iconic #EnglandCoastPath: . 👑 King Charles III England Coast Path 👑 . Once complete, it will be the longest #NationalTrail in the UK! . Read more:
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October 21, 1966, was the last day of class before the half-term holiday at Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan. At 9.13am a colliery spoil tip collapsed and engulfed the school killing 116 children. Aberfan will never be forgotten.
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If you’ve suddenly got £2.5bn a year to improve the lives of teenagers I guess you could spend it on housing, mentoring or mental health services but a much better use of that money would be to give them a 12-month community order with an unpaid work requirement.
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Police in Swansea are appealing for information after a football club lost its way. It was last seen in the Landore area in 2014. If found, please return to the Liberty Stadium. #Swans.
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Highlight of the morning here at Swansea Crown: The Scouse gent appearing on videolink who, when asked by the judge what his plans were upon release from prison, said he was going home to his children in Liverpool - this seemed to come as news to his Swansea partner sat in court.
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You join me at Swansea Crown Court where a defendant has deliberately shat all over himself down in the cells.
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Effortless and completely bonkers segue from Hilary Clinton to the bankruptcy of a hairdresser. #OneShow at its finest.
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Brilliant book by that @mrjamesob off of the wireless. It will absolutely ruin your weekend, mind you. Don’t think you can fully understand the bin fire the UK has become without reading it.
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Raising a cuppa to our friends and allies in Europe. Can somebody in Brussels please leave an outside light on? We'll need it to find our way home again. This isn't goodbye, it's just au revoir.
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Lord Davies of Gower showing his true colours by siding with violent, racist rioters.
@DPJHodges But Labour blocked the Rwanda Bill 130+ times, of course it’s politically justified!.
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To use a technical phrase, this is just a load of old bollocks. The maximum sentence available for theft is already seven years. The problem isn’t the lack of a new offence, it’s the lack of police officers, forensics, CPS resources, lawyers, and courts.
🔴 Theft of a pet is currently treated as a loss of an owner's property, but ministers want to acknowledge the emotional distress it can cause .
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The women’s toilets at Swansea Crown Court are out of action. They have now been shut for nine days, with women having to use the disabled toilets downstairs. If HMCTS needs a plumber, I can give them the number of my mate Steve.
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Here at Swansea Crown only two of the four courts are sitting today. The court covers the whole of south west Wales from Aberystwyth to Pembroke to Port Talbot - a population of around 730,000 souls. Thankfully people have stopped committing crime, so we are okay. @CourtsIdle.
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You join me ay Swansea Crown Court / Llys y Goron Abertawe where a gent in the dock has just shouted at one of our periwigged friends who is cross-examining him: "I don't have to say shit to you. You are doing my fucking head in - excuse my French, judge".
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You join me at Swansea Crown Court / Llys y Goron Abertawe where one of our periwigged friends has just said: "The defendant accepted the male seen on the CCTV looked like him, but he said it is a male by the name of Shit Neck for whom he is often mistaken".
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Feel free to read the original version of this story on our website - it the advantage of being written by somebody who was actually in Swansea Crown Court for the hearing.
Student drug dealers are spared jail after impressing judge with the spelling and grammar in their text messages
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South Wales Police chief constable Peter Vaughan spent his last shift before retirement on the beat in Cardiff with his son, Scott.
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And yes, @MailOnline is wrong in its rewrite as well - The pair weren’t SPARED jail because of the grammar In the texts. PS The judge said nothing about education - but I guess you’d actually have to be in the court to know that.
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You join me at Swansea Crown where His Honour has just said this to an unrepresented defendant in response to a hopeful request: "I can tell you I am not going to issue a witness summons for the Home Secretary to come here and explain why she is not going to legalise cannabis.".
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Dyfed-Powys Police have committed to all its officers & staff being able to converse in Welsh at level 1 standard (basic) from April: “It’s key that our officers and staff are able to display basic Welsh linguistic courtesy to our residents and to one another”. #StDavidsDay 🏴.
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BREAKING: Bounty bars have replaced Kit Kats in the Swansea Crown Court vending machine. More on this developing story as we get it.
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Outstanding blog by @BarristerSecret on the five-year manslaughter sentence given to Anthony Williams at Swansea Crown - a sentence which some are calling to be reviewed as “unduly lenient”. I urge everyone interested in the case to read this ⬇️
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Police in Watford are appealing for information after 11 men dressed in white stole three points in a smash & grab raid. The leader of the gang is believed to be a Portuguese man known as Carlos the Jack. #Swans.
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That moment an unrepresented defendant gets to his feet at Swansea Magistrates Court, declares he is a “natural person”, and says he will take his grievance with the DVLA to the Court of Equity.
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Boast of the Morning from a disqualified driver when arrested at the wheel of his car in Carmarthen: "I have been driving everywhere - I have even been to Mountain Ash." #IHaveEvenBeenToMountainAsh.
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Any Labour MPs who vote for the Brexit bill this evening will do so because they have one main priority - protecting jobs. Their own jobs. Not yours, and not mine. Theirs.
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You join me at Swansea Crown Court where one of our periwigged friends has just used the glorious word "chopsing" in opening a case. 👌.
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If you're going to try to spring your wife from jail by hijacking a helicopter do not - and I cannot stress this bit enough - do not book the chopper with your own name then spend the flight being airsick. (Via @DanielBoffey for @guardian)
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This story says a jury at Swansea Crown heard the pair sold drugs to fund their lavish lifestyle. That is pure invention. There was no jury, because there was no trial. I know ‘cause I was (the only reporter) there. Feel free to read the original story👇.
The two-year gap meant the offence went way over the custody threshold.
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Absolutely nails Pembrokeshire.
A McFamily feast of Welsh accents. Got sent this on Whatsapp, but here's the full video on Tom's tickytocky: #Wales
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I see there’s a column in The Times today on Brexit and the break-up of the UK (“our precious Union”) which makes not a single mention of Wales. About sums it up, really.
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The sad day has finally come: The final blast furnace at Port Talbot steelworks shuts down today. An awful day for the steel town and for south Wales. Latest here ⬇️
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Breakfast of Champions at Verdi’s in Mumbles 👌
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When they use Cardiff Crown Court as a filming location for Swansea Crown Court. #ThePembrokeshireMurders
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The most serious offenders aren’t released at halfway point of sentence - under dangerous provisions they can apply for parole at 2/3 point, but it is only granted if they are considered to no longer pose a risk. Disappointing to see the Lord Chancellor misrepresenting the law.
For the most serious violent and sexual offenders, I’m announcing at Conservative Party Conference tomorrow this Government will abolish automatic early release at the halfway point. #cpc19.
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She’s gonna be furious when she finds out which party has been in power for last 12 years, slashing police budgets and introducing a series of half-arsed reforms.
Priti Patel says unsolved burglary statistics are ‘deeply troubling’
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You join me at Swansea Crown Court where one of our periwigged friends has just said: "I'll be honest with you. I'm not going to lie. I've got half an ounce of coke under my balls, it's for personal use.".
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Sad day at the Desk of Crime as Swansea’s Espresso “Twin Town” Bar closes its doors for the last time. I shall miss the Italian / Welsh staff, the characters who frequented it, and the Swansea Specials - bacon, sausage & egg baps with a cup of tea (“weak or strong”) for £2.50.
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They must be walking very slowly - this picture was taken in 2013.
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Study finds that if we do leave the EU, every person in Wales will lose the equivalent of £743 unless the UK Government radically changes its spending and investment priorities. *Looks at Westminster*. Yup, we’re screwed.
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*Scenes* here at Swansea Crown as a sergeant is brought before the judge to explain why a straightforward burglary - defendant's blood and fingerprints found at the scene, and where he was was seen selling the copper piping he stole - has taken almost two years to come to court.
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Congratulations / Llongyfarchiadau to @SwanseaUni pro-vice chancellor Hilary Lappin-Scott, awarded an OBE for services to microbiology and the advancement of women in science. #NewYearsHonours
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By the time it’s built it will link an independent Scotland and a united Ireland.
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Surely one of the finest postcards ever sent.
Went to the top of the Eiffel Tower yesterday but resisted temptation to push Eric over as he had all the money.
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