Opinion

Good news, energy costs are coming down. Or so we are told. The global oil price has fallen by more than 40 per cent since June, when it was $115 a barrel – apologies to those who do not use dollars or measure things in oil barrels, so think of an oil barrel as 35 UK Gallons or 280 pints.

‘All children, except for one, grow up’. So says J M Barrie in the first line of his classic novel Peter Pan.

On Monday, it was revealed that the Labour former home secretary Jack Straw and Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind had been caught by a journalists’ sting operation, which showed them offering their services and connections to a fake Chinese company.

Would you like to learn more about an easy way to reduce waste, meet like-minded people and help others in your local community?

YouTube celebrated its 10th birthday on February 14 – 10 years which have seen it go from strength to strength.

Has Bury St Edmunds become a victim of its own success? Along with businesses and those who work in the town centre, I am thrilled our town has flourished. But how much further can Bury grow before its creaking infrastructure collapses under the pressure?

There are signs of the approaching spring, even though winter has yet to release her grip. A growing dawn chorus of song thrush, woodpigeon and great tit underlines that many of our resident birds have already started to establish breeding territories.

I was delighted to read of the success of Bury St Edmunds rugby club who, at the time of writing, are at the top of National League 3.

A quick update for anyone who – like the Blue Peter tortoise – has recently been liberated from hibernating in a cardboard box. If you are looking about you through large blinking eyes, here’s what you may have missed.

Five years ago, in the difficult days after the recession, it seemed hard to think that in 2015 we in West Suffolk would be on the road to economic recovery. It was harder still to imagine that we could in fact be flourishing under a wave of enterprise.

These are tough times indeed in the corridors of power.

I went for an inadvertent swim the other night, walking back from my late night foray to the local store in search of all the things I had forgotten to buy in an earlier shopping trip.

I very nearly stopped short of writing about football in this week’s column. My plans to dedicate 450 words to Bury Town were almost ended by the grotesque amounts handed out to Premier League sides for television rights on Tuesday – £5.14 billion according to reports.

Our old dog died more than two months ago, but last week she came back to bite us on the derriere.

On this day in 1975, the National Union of Mineworkers finished negotiations with their industry paymasters and accepted a pay rise of 35% for miners in the UK. It was the result of months of dispute between the boards, and part of the escalation of union power which would lead to the famed ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1988-89.

Thousands of ducks spend the winter at Lackford Lakes nature reserve and during this time, they look the smartest.

The courts have a tough job these days – what was acceptable a few years ago is frowned upon today. Sentencing options are broad but there are guidelines and, in reality, little wriggle room for today’s finest legal brains.

I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions as we started 2015 after failing in previous years to stick to anything. But now I am wondering whether I should have.

In my last column, I covered some tips for managing your time on social media better. Before heading off, here are a few more things to keep in mind to ensure you are more efficient with your participation and continue to work toward your goals.

It is during these cold winter months that we are treated to the sight of starling flocks and their amazing pre-roost ‘murmurations’.