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Ministers are considering replacing council tax and stamp duty with a new national property levy which could hit Tory Shire heartlands hard, it was claimed today.

Lennie Pennie, 21, from Fife, has attracted thousands of fans who watch her recite poems from her bedroom in what she says is a bid to keep the minority language alive.

Boris Johnson has accused Labour 'trolls' of 'intimidating and threatening' Tory MPs on the crunch issues of Universal Credit and free school meals.

Long-time technology reporter/commentator Kara Swisher weighs in on the de-platforming of U.S. president Trump, arguing Trump "was only following the rules set for him and it was entirely the fault of the tech companies for giving him the kind of latitude that allowed him to go that far." Like a parent who gives a child endless bowls of sugar and then wonders why their kid is batshit crazy, tech has pretended to be obtuse to the consequences of their products and the choices that have been made about them. For years I have written that these companies have turned themselves into the digital arms dealers of the Internet age, amplifying and weaponizing everything. They might have cleaned up the Trump mess, but they also made the Trump mess possible by architecting systems that thrive on enragement. Most of all, they have tried to duck responsibility. I have always been amazed by Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg's statement that he did not want to be an "arbiter of the truth." My question for him: Why then did he build a platform that requires it? Even more importantly, we must examine the power that these companies wield and how to deal with that going forward... [W]hile justifiably putting a sock in Trump's toxic pie-hole, they also showed how swiftly they could end whole businesses, as was the case with the right-fave social media platform Parler.... [T]here is nothing that Parler was doing that companies like Facebook were not guilty of too and in larger measure and for a very long time. While I would not go as far as calling the company a scapegoat, as it did allow its system to be used in dangerous ways, it certainly got a lion's share of the hurt that rained down on tech and that others probably deserved even more. This brings us to the issue at hand: Power. Tech companies have too much of it, but it should be looked at through the lens of market concentration that results in the dampening of innovation needed to inevitably upend the leaders. Such a situation demands substantive and bipartisan action to deal with each company differently and with different remedies, which include fines, enforcement of existing laws, new regulation and, yes, antitrust action. That has already started, which is good, as has a series of dopey attempts to repeal Section 230, which provides broad immunity to digital platforms. What it needs is reform...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In England as a whole, 2.3 million doses have been given out

Trump wants to use the small-dollar donors who had powered his second presidential campaign - and who have given hundreds of millions to his doomed bid to overturn Joe Biden's victory.

Lindsey Graham said Nancy Pelosi is to blame for pro-Trump protesters breaching the Capitol earlier this month, claiming it is the House Speaker's job to provide Capitol security.

A group of five people were seen enjoying a sit-down picnic in Greenwich Park, London, next to a series of bicycles leaning against a tree.

Polly's most popular Instagram photo has 1,483 likes

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has revealed she is considering implementing regulations that would prohibited residents who have not vaccinated from entering certain venues

Take a look at this weeks Mis Essex Camera Club.

Two of the men helped pull the severely injured driver to safety

Father Naz, 49, had been at the shops with his wife Kumar when the armed robbers burst into his family home in Walthamstow, London, and terrorised his five children on January 11.

There are some hilarious place names in the county

"American automakers are asking the U.S. government to help solve a debilitating shortage of computer chips that is closing auto factories worldwide and could restrict production until the fall," reports Bloomberg: The American Automotive Policy Council — a lobbying organization for General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and the U.S. operations of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV — is agitating with the U.S. Commerce Department and the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden to press Asian semiconductor makers to reallocate output away from consumer electronics and build essential chips for cars. "We have requested that the U.S. government help us find a solution to the problem because it will diminish our production and have a negative impact on the U.S. economy until it's resolved," Matt Blunt, president of the AAPC, said in an interview Friday. "We are not primarily concerned with where blame may lie for this global shortage, if it lies anywhere, but we just want a solution. And the solution is more automobile-sector semiconductors." The shortage forced Ford to shut a sport-utility vehicle factory in Kentucky this week, and it is closing a small-car plant in Germany for a month. Fiat Chrysler has had to temporarily stop output at plants in Mexico and Canada. More production is expected to be idled in the coming weeks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SPECULATION is mounting in Colchester after a crime scene cordon was put in place and forensic officers were seen entering a home. Eyewitnesses claim police officers have been searching bins and drains and speaking to residents in Laing Road since roughly 4am today. One local reported seeing scene of crime officers and as many as eight police cars in the area. Stay with us for updates.

SPECULATION is mounting in Colchester after a crime scene cordon was put in place and forensic officers were seen entering a home. Eyewitnesses claim police officers have been searching bins and drains and speaking to residents in Laing Road since roughly 4am today. One local reported seeing scene of crime officers and as many as eight police cars in the area. Stay with us for updates.

The series will follow the novel written by Essex-born author Sarah Perry

SPECULATION is mounting in Colchester after a crime scene cordon was put in place and forensic officers were seen entering a home.

SPECULATION is mounting in Colchester after a crime scene cordon was put in place and forensic officers were seen entering a home.