“Going through my search history makes me feel self-conscious. Many of the things I’ve searched for can be completely innocent or potentially explosive and used as a tool for revenge.” As I clear my internet history, sign out of my mail accounts, check my banking is secure, delete any bills, apps, and documents, double-check photos are secure and make sure messages are still disabled, I wonder who else does this week after week. My kids live between my ex-husband’s home and mine, and they share iPads between the houses. When we bought them, I set their iPads up because they […]

Confidence levels among tech startups have slumped since the start of the year as the coronavirus crisis takes its toll on the UK’s thriving tech sector. Just 32 per cent of businesses are confident or very confident that their turnover will increase in the year ahead, City A.M. can reveal. Read more: Coronavirus: British tech firms welcome government’s £1.25bn startup package This marks a quarterly drop of 42 per cent and is almost 50 per cent lower than this time last year, according to Studio Graphene’s latest Tech Tracker index. The sharp fall in confidence reflects the ongoing impact of […]

When a couple considers divorce, there’s a wash of confusion surrounding them and a mantra of “How did we get here?” repeating in their heads like a bad song. With quarantine, I’m guessing a lot more people are hearing this mantra on a daily basis. Can being locked in small quarters with someone really cause a divorce? No, I don’t believe so. But, it can cause a divorce to happen a lot sooner. The reason so many people stay together is routine. We’re all used to doing nearly the same thing every single day. We go to work (or stay […]

More than £6bn of business grants have been distributed to English small and medium sized businesses through the government’s coronavirus grant schemes. A total of 491,725 grants, worth £6.11bn, have been distributed out of a pot of £12.3bn as of last night, translating into a 49.58 per cent delivery rate. Read more: Scottish government does U-turn on coronavirus business grant scheme Grants of £10,000 are available to small businesses of any kind with a rateable value of between £12,00 and £15,000. Companies in the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors are also eligible for an additional grant that is paid per property […]

The lord chancellor says judge-only trials would be a ‘disproportionate step’ to keep the justice system moving during the pandemic, as he revealed today that he is looking at ways to bring back jury trials. Robert Buckland QC, giving evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the government’s Covid-19 response, was asked by the SNP’s Joanna Cherry QC about jury trials, which have been paused in England and Wales. Cherry pointed out that Scotland is currently looking at how to hold jury trials during the pandemic. Proposals being explored include reduced numbers in juries as happened in World […]

Breaking up is hard to do, but divorce? That takes the cake. All kinds of things can lead to a split, from the token celebrity-cited “irreconcilable differences” to a messy affair, or the loss of anything remotely close to the spark you felt in the good old days. And often, the reason you cross the line from forever to never again traces back to your dating days. “Sometimes people want a divorce for the same reason they might have had doubts of going into the relationship,” Elizabeth Cohen, PhD, a clinical psychologist in New York says. “It’s usually the things […]

The number of urgent care proceedings in the family courts has increased sharply since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Guardian has learned. Judicial sources say that a combination of the lockdown leading to families being forced to spend the majority of their time together, often in confined spaces, increased drinking by some parents and major money worries are a toxic combination, which is putting vulnerable children at risk. Some family courts have seen a fivefold increase in care proceedings cases in recent weeks. As courts are often operating remotely using phone or Skype hearings during the pandemic there […]