Madeleine Finlay travels to the Rothbury estate in Northumberland, in north-east England. It’s a piece of land that has been in the same family for 700 years, but now it has been put up for sale and the UK’s Wildlife Trusts are trying to raise £30m to secure it intact. To find out what makes the area so special, Madeleine speaks to Katy Barke, the head of nature recovery for Northumberland Wildlife Trust. She also hears from Sam Turner, a professor of archaeology at Newcastle University, who is trying to work out how the land has been used across the centuries. This work will inform the strategy for nature recovery on the site. And Rosie Pearce, a farm liaison officer, explains how the project could bring more wildlife-friendly farming practices to the estate Northumberland nature recovery project takes shape with biggest land sale in 30 years Continue reading...
Reform UK’s finances have come under scrutiny like never before. What do we know about the party’s funding – and why do so many awkward questions remain for Nigel Farage? Anna Isaac explains For a while this year, it looked like nothing could stop Nigel Farage getting to Downing Street. Not the allegations of schoolboy racism, not the dodgy Cameo videos or even the £400,000 he trousered for advertising gold bullion. But at the end of April, the Guardian’s City editor, Anna Isaac, delivered a game-changing scoop. That Farage had been given a £5m gift, as he termed it, from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harbourne. Continue reading...