Highly respected Conservative MP and minister who served as secretary of state for Northern IrelandJames Brokenshire, who has died aged 53 of lung cancer, was the Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup and a minister in successive governments, inclu…
‘Iran was our Hogwarts’: my childhood between Tehran and Essex
Growing up in Essex, my summers in Iran felt like magical interludes from reality – but it was a spell that always had to be brokenWhen I was 12, a bespectacled boy with a shock of thick hair and his forearm in plaster gave me the first Harry Potter bo…
Essex art gallery endangered by funding crisis named museum of the year 2021
Firstsite’s ‘innovation and integrity’ during pandemic wins Art Fund’s £100,000 prizeA gallery that six years ago was placed in special funding measures because of concerns over its viability has been named winner of the world’s largest museum prize.Th…
A tale of two towns: Rochdale and Braintree expose UK’s uneven asylum system
Relatively wealthy Braintree has supported just one asylum seeker in recent months while deprived Rochdale hosted 734Labour councils house eight times as many asylum seekers as Tory areas, analysis findsSituated in the heart of rural Essex, Braintree o…