Country diary: Clinging to a crag in a place of constant change | Eben Muse 13 December 2025 at 00:30

Country diary: Clinging to a crag in a place of constant change | Eben Muse

13 December 2025 at 00:30

Neath, south Wales: This quarry built the abbey and the nearby terraced towns – and it’s different every time I visit

The way to Neath Abbey Quarry is a perfect stranger to me this morning. It’s been three years since my last visit, and the maze of the path has shifted; old tree trunks have turned to mulch and the brook carves a different channel. My companion and I shoulder big bouldering pads, poorly proportioned for tight manoeuvres, yet we bump, turn and pivot our way through. Thanks to the late sunrise, we’re gifted a lingering coda of the dawn chorus, coming from a holly thicket heavy with berries. A goldcrest fizzes around ahead of us, seeking bugs startled by our approach.

Like every old quarry, this place has been host to much change. Once it was just a plain old hill, then a source of building blocks for monks and their abbey. Much later, it was extracted again for the terraced towns of the south Wales coalfield. Once that need had faded, climbers found the place, hacking paths through the tangle and stringing ropes up its face.

Senior opponents of assisted dying bill urge Lords not to deliberately block it 11 December 2025 at 12:52

Senior opponents of assisted dying bill urge Lords not to deliberately block it

The Guardian

By:Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor

11 December 2025 at 12:52

Letter says there is danger of Lords losing legitimacy as more than 1,000 amendments tabled, delaying any vote

Senior opponents of assisted dying legislation have called on peers not to hold up the progress of the bill through parliament, warning there was a serious danger of the Lords losing democratic legitimacy.

Many supporters now admit the bill is in serious danger of running out of time in the Lords before the end of the parliamentary session, meaning it will fail to pass, because of the slow pace of considering more than 1,000 amendments means the bill will probably run out of time for a vote.

There is a fund to create jobs in the poorest areas, and Labour has quietly gutted it. This is what betrayal looks like | Larry Elliott 11 December 2025 at 06:00

There is a fund to create jobs in the poorest areas, and Labour has quietly gutted it. This is what betrayal looks like | Larry Elliott

The Guardian

By:Larry Elliott

11 December 2025 at 06:00

It’s a scandal laid bare. A stark new report highlights the price paid in Britain’s former industrial heartlands for this silent piece of ministerial vandalism

The Welsh valleys have some of the highest numbers of people claiming incapacity benefits in the whole of Britain. In Abertillery, Maesteg and Merthyr Tydfil, getting on for a quarter of the working-age population is not employed – in large part due to long-term ill-health. If the government was serious about reducing the growing welfare bill, it would be starting here and in the other parts of the country blighted by deindustrialisation and poverty. It would identify the parts of the country most in need – Wales, Scotland and large swaths of northern England – and love-bomb them.

Yet instead of devoting more money to regional economic development, ministers are doing the opposite. In one of its less-publicised policy moves, Labour has quietly gutted the fund designed to create jobs, a scheme inherited from the Conservatives. The silent demolition job on regional policy is laid bare in a new report by Steve Fothergill, national director of the Industrial Communities Alliance, an umbrella group for the local authorities worst affected by the hollowing out of Britain’s industrial base and the closure of the coalfields.

Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist

Jailed Welsh women and their children face an additional trauma | Letters 10 December 2025 at 13:02

Jailed Welsh women and their children face an additional trauma | Letters

The Guardian

By:Guardian Staff

10 December 2025 at 13:02

Mary Wrenn points out that women given custodial sentences in Wales are sent to prisons in England, which has a negative impact on families

Simon Hattenstone, quoting Ministry of Justice figures, says “the self-harm rate in women’s prisons in England and Wales was at a record high” (Report, 3 December). It is worth remembering that Wales does not have a women’s prison. Women given custodial sentences in Wales are sent to prisons in England (Cheshire or Gloucestershire, for example). This clearly has a negative impact on families, especially children.

The Welsh government’s preventive and trauma-informed approach favours the creation of residential women’s centres as a community-based alternative to short prison sentences. A pioneering project in Swansea, in development with the Ministry of Justice, is shockingly delayed. It can’t come soon enough for the hundreds of Welsh women (the majority of whom are themselves victims of domestic abuse or trauma) currently serving sentences several hours away from their families.
Mary Wrenn
Llandenny, Monmouthshire

Scotland’s looser rules on assisted dying could lead to ‘death tourism’, say senior politicians 10 December 2025 at 12:11

Scotland’s looser rules on assisted dying could lead to ‘death tourism’, say senior politicians

The Guardian

By:Severin Carrell Scotland editor

10 December 2025 at 12:11

Cross-party group of MSPs says bill going through Holyrood could attract people from elsewhere in UK

Senior Scottish politicians fear there could be a risk of “death tourism” from terminally ill people travelling from other parts of the UK to end their lives in Scotland.

A cross-party group of MSPs, including the deputy first minister, Kate Forbes, said the looser controls on eligibility written into an assisted dying bill for Scotland could attract people who are unhappy with stricter rules planned for England and Wales.

Biggest reforms to policing since the 1960s ‘being threatened by lack of money’ 9 December 2025 at 19:20

Biggest reforms to policing since the 1960s ‘being threatened by lack of money’

The Guardian

By:Vikram Dodd police and crime correspondent

9 December 2025 at 19:20

Home secretary’s plans for a radical reshaping of policing in England and Wales could be delayed due to lack of funds

The home secretary’s ambitions for the biggest reforms to policing since the 1960s are being threatened by a lack of money, with plans being considered for the creation of Britain’s FBI and slashing the number of forces.

Shabana Mahmood believes a radical reshaping of policing in England and Wales is needed, with the number of forces covering local areas being reduced from 43 to as low as the “mid teens” over time.

Storm Bram batters Britain and Ireland with strong winds and heavy rain 9 December 2025 at 16:22

Storm Bram batters Britain and Ireland with strong winds and heavy rain

The Guardian

By:Steven Morris

9 December 2025 at 16:22

More than 300 flood warnings or alerts across UK as homes left without power, sporting events cancelled and transport disrupted

Flights, trains and ferries were cancelled, motorists faced long delays and thousands of properties were left without power across the UK and Ireland after Storm Bram brought heavy rain and strong winds.

By Tuesday night, there were more than 300 flood warnings or alerts across the UK and sporting matches and festive events were cancelled because of the weather.

‘Bring it on!’: growing support in England for four-day week in schools 9 December 2025 at 07:05

‘Bring it on!’: growing support in England for four-day week in schools

The Guardian

By:Sally Weale Education correspondent

9 December 2025 at 07:05

Why proposals for a shorter working week are winning over teachers and parents – despite the logistical headaches

“A wonderful idea”, “Bring it on!”, “Yes!”, “Brilliant!”, “Absolutely”. If enthusiasm were all it took to change policy, a four-day week in England’s schools would be all but guaranteed.

A Guardian report this week saying that the 4 Day Week Foundation has urged the government to pilot a four-day working week in schools in England and Wales to boost teacher wellbeing and recruitment attracted hundreds of thousands of readers.