“It’s a tick box exercise”: Kingston pub staff on the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme

It has been almost five years since the local council found that over half of women and girls in Kingston did not ask for help when they found themselves in danger.  

Since then, more bars and pubs have adopted the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, which allows people to discreetly ask for help in venues using the code word ‘Angela’. Local participants included The Antelope, The Waggon and Horses and nightclub Pryzm.

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Tamil New Year: Inside the local school keeping the ancient language alive

Tamil is one of the world’s oldest languages, primarily spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also one of the most spoken languages in Kingston upon Thames.

Puthandu, or Tamil New Year is marked by reflection, hope, worship and traditional dishes, such as Mango Pachadi, which combines sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavours to reflect different life experiences.

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Match-day policing in London hits taxpayer hard as costs continue to rise

The cost of policing football matches has risen for three seasons in a row since the pandemic, costing tens of millions of pounds in public money every season in London alone.

Last season the Metropolitan Police paid over £21m towards match-day policing. Despite the huge profits of top-flight football clubs, the Met has covered a vast majority of costs.

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