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PERHAPS half the readers of this column might not have been born 50 years ago. Others old enough will recall the mood prevailing in January 1971 across East and West Pakistan a feeling of child-like accomplishment, of a new-found confidence as our dyslexic nation tottered towards democracy.
The month before, in December 1970, the country had voted in its first ‘free and fair’ general elections, overseen by a military president, Gen A.M. Yahya Khan. He expressed his determination to hand over power to the elected representatives of the people. The results put paid to his avuncular hopes.
Published:
5:10 PM December 29, 2020
Gift bags are going to be given out to the elderly to help them over Christmas. Picture: Keith Brofsky
- Credit: Getty Images
Several thousand gift bags containing clothing, blankets and hot drinks are being handed out to elderly people facing the choice of either heating their homes or eating.
Organisations including Age UK, based near Black Fan road, Welwyn Garden City, are distributing gift bags to help Hertfordshire’s elderly to keep warm this winter.
The bags being handed out are supplied by Small Acts of Kindness, the charity which aims to reduces loneliness and isolation for older people.
Death of a Headmaster | BBC Sounds
OTHERtone with Pharrell, Scott and Fam-Lay | Google Podcasts
Twenty-five years ago last week, Philip Lawrence was stabbed. He was the headteacher at St George’s school in Maida Vale, north-west London, and had stepped in to protect a pupil who was being attacked at the school gates by teenagers from another school. Lawrence died later the same day. One of his former pupils, broadcaster Edward Adoo, presents
Death of a Headmaster, a touching and fair-minded Radio 4 documentary about Lawrence and his legacy.
“He was stabbed through the heart by someone who didn’t care about the values of the heart,” says Lawrence’s widow, Frances. His death “decimated” her life, along with those of their children, and her testimony is both devastating and inspirational. After the stabbing, there was “an outpouring of vitriol against young people”, so she set up the Philip Lawrence awards to celebrate positive actions by teenagers.