Andy Large's political miscellanea

To the Editor, I attended the SEND meeting at Holmes Chapel Leisure Centre on April 24th, hosted by our local MP, Sarah Russell . It was a truly enlightening experience—if your goal was to learn how to ignore the basic laws of economics while squinting at illegible PowerPoint slides. As a performance by our elected representative, it was remarkably amateurish. The slides were a visual disaster, though it hardly mattered since Ms. Russell simply read them to us verbatim, adding the occasional uninspiring footnote. One might expect a bit more professional polish from the person representing us in Westminster, but perhaps clear communication is "not a priority" in the current five-year plan. What was truly breathtaking, however, was the "gleeful" disregard for the fiscal burden that SEND spending and transport is placing on the national and local budget. When I pointed out that national SEND spending has already doubled over the la...

Dear Editor, I was disappointed to read Karen Richards’ comment on the High Court (and now Supreme Court) ruling that “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 means a biological female. She described it as “a nonsense decision… not worth the paper it is written on.” This is not a “nonsense decision.” On 16 April 2025 the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers that the terms “woman”, “man” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to biological sex as recorded at birth. The court’s 88-page judgment explains in detail why this is the only interpretation consistent with the wording and purpose of the 2010 Act and the limited effect of a Gender Recognition Certificate. The ruling does not remove trans people’s legal protections under the “gender reassignment” characteristic. It simply confirms that single-sex organisations and services — including the Women’s Institute — may lawfully limit membership or access to biological women where ...

Hi Tim Happy Easter to you. I want to congratulate you on the latest PC Pro. It is a classic. Very, very interesting and rewarding technology focused articles. I particularly liked the one about battery charging - good to see some more info on Silicon Carbon. The MacBook reviews were well researched and useful even though I just cannot get on with MacOS at all. I found Barry Collins' OS suggestions to be very creative. Hopefully some company can implement these, because they are needed. One final note : I am using Eleven Reader to speed through the mag on my phone when I need my hands free. It is a total game changer for me and I would recommend it to who enjoys rapid content digestion and learning. Best regards Andy Large Cheshire, UK