• Knife crime: how former offenders can make great mentors for at-risk teens

    Sean Creaney, Edge Hill University It’s widely reported that there’s been an increase in street violence, particularly in London – with the number of knife and gun crimes rising. While the causes are complex and multifaceted, victims and perpetrators of serious youth violence often lack a relationship with a trusted adult. One way to help…

  • Why you shouldn’t take antibiotics for colds and flu

    Carol Kelly, Edge Hill University Winter is well and truly on its way. For many, this conjures up images of log fires, mistletoe and festive feasts. But it can also mean cold, damp mornings, short hours of daylight and the dreaded cold and flu season. Tickly throats, headaches, fevers and generally feeling rotten are the…

  • County lines: the dark realities of life for teenage drug runners

    Grace Robinson, Edge Hill University; James Densley, Metropolitan State University , and Robert McLean, Northumbria University, Newcastle “County lines” is a term used by the police to describe a growing practice among criminal gangs: when demand for drugs fails to meet the supply in major cities, gangs travel to remote rural areas, market towns or…

  • Crime and nourishment – the link between food and offending behaviour

    Hazel Flight, Edge Hill University; John Marsden, Edge Hill University, and Sean Creaney, Edge Hill University It is well known that eating a balanced diet is of vital importance for maintaining good health and well-being. It is also one of the great social pleasures of life. Yet, far too many young people in prisons are…

  • Potatoes are out of favour – but they have strong roots in a healthy lifestyle

    Hazel Flight, Edge Hill University Potatoes are apparently far from being flavour of the month. Rejected by young people and “clean eaters”, sales are plummeting. But what has the potato done to deserve being treated so distastefully? Reports claim that millennials prefer rice and noodles, and think that potatoes will make them fat. According to…

  • Wildlife winners and losers in Britain’s summer heatwave

    Paul Ashton, Edge Hill University George Orwell, upon returning from Spain in June 1937, remarked that what made England distinctive was the green of its landscape. Anyone currently making this same journey could be forgiven for thinking they were still on holiday, as the endless weeks of hot and dry weather have combined to produce…

  • Liverpool judge’s decision recognises that ‘home’ still exists for the homeless

    Clare Kinsella, Edge Hill University Stephen Gibney, a Liverpool man, has been sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment for urinating on homeless man Richard Stanley, while he slept rough in Liverpool City Centre. District Judge Wendy Lloyd handed down the sentence not just for degrading Stanley as a person, but also for attacking his home. Justice…

  • What Facebook isn’t telling us about its fight against online abuse

    Laura Bliss, Edge Hill University Facebook has for the first time made available data on the scale of abusive comments posted to its site. This may have been done under the growing pressure by organisations for social media companies to be more transparent about online abuse, or to gain credibility after the Cambridge Analytica data…

  • Parents are pulling children from RE lessons – so they don’t learn about Islam

    Paul Smalley, Edge Hill University Religion has always been a feature of schooling in England. The Education Act of 1944 made the study of Religion the only compulsory subject in school and it was to be accompanied by a “daily act of worship” for all pupils. Back then religion was largely synonymous with Christianity. But…

  • Eurovision Song Contest 2018: Olá Amigos!

    All Aboard, Eurofans! It’s that time again… This is the 11th year of my Eurovision Song Contest blog. I’m not blogging from sunny Lisbon this year, no – it’ll be sunny Southport/Ormskirk for me once again. As with last year this won’t stop me from getting suitably Eurovision giddy, and sharing my thoughts on the…