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The adoption of the half-holiday in North Staffordshire during the mid-1870s facilitated a dramatic increase in association football activity throughout the region. However, the game was undoubtedly still in its formative stages, with various sets of contrasting rules being applied simultaneously by clubs and players, which created a significant amount of confusion and, at times, conflict. In 1877, the Staffordshire Football Association was established to provide association football in North Staffordshire with greater governance, including establishing a cup competition and adopting Sheffield Rules. Regional football associations played a central role in the growth of the game in England during the final decades of the nineteenth century, yet few scholars have sought to investigate their functions, activities and impact. This paper begins to address this gap in the literature by examining the formative years of the Staffordshire FA and exploring how it influenced the development of the game in North Staffordshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality Symptom Rating Scale (CAPP SRS) is a relatively new measure of psychopathic personality disorder (PPD) based on the CAPP concept map of psychopathy. To investigate the CAPP SRS, we identified the most plausible formal test structure for the test using the framework proposed by Slaney and Maraun, identified an appropriate quantitative characterization of that test structure, and then statistically evaluated it based on analysis of CAPP SRS data collected from a multisite sample of 314 adult male correctional offenders and secure hospital patients in Scotland and England. Overall, the CAPP SRS survived falsification when observed test data were compared to expectations based on the unidimensional monotone latent variable or UMLV model of Holland and Rosenbaum. CAPP SRS composite scores calculated consistent with the UMLV model had good measurement precision and good external validity with respect to scores on an established test of PPD. The findings provide provisional support for the test validity of the CAPP SRS and highlight the importance of theory-driven evaluations of test validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of sport is afflicted by myths that have become entrenched in our collective knowledge and are widely perceived as being the 'truth' with many having acquired a power and resilience that has allowed them to endure and persist, quite often despite academic research to the contrary. This paper considers the traditional narratives that present Stoke City Football Club as being the second oldest surviving professional football club in England, having supposedly been established in 1863, a suggestion that was heavily promoted through the official club website and various media outlets. It assesses how this myth has become entrenched and provides evidence that drastically alters our analysis of how the club developed. The findings of the paper, especially in relation to the 'origins of football' debate, also challenge the long-held views of how football in the region developed during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a wealth of academic research focusing on the origins and development of association football in Britain during the nineteenth century, academics have failed to reach a consensus regarding the early history of the game with the emergence of contrasting ‘orthodox’ and ‘revisionist’ interpretations. Much of the current research has focused on tackling the subject on a national level and this has resulted in many towns, cities and regions across the country being overlooked when sports historians discuss the origins of modern football. One such region is North Staffordshire, more commonly referred to as The Potteries, which, despite having played a key role in the formation of the Football League, possessing one of the oldest professional football clubs in the country and an early county football association, has never been the subject of an in-depth academic study. Using a range of archival sources this paper provides an overview of the origins and early development of association football across The Potteries from the 1850 to 1870s, emphasizing the influence of Stoke City Football Club and provides a fact based resolution to the debate surrounding the club’s origin and formation. The wider development of the game in The Potteries is also explored, tracing the early informal football activities taking place at fairs, fetes and the wakes holidays to the establishment of a football culture in the 1870s following the formation of organized football clubs and the Staffordshire Football Association. This paper concludes that neither the orthodox nor the revisionist interpretations of the game’s origins can fully explain the region’s football development and that further research into the region is required to understand the significance of The Potteries in relation to the national picture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In September 2012 the Law Commission for England and Wales published a document entitled, unusually, a “Supplementary Consultation Paper”, on the subject of “Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements”.1 It was the second consultation within the Commission's current family law project. Rather than repeat what has already been said it may be easier to explain this process by reproducing here part of the Commission's summary of the paper.2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes to how police forces in England and Wales are working to manage their public image in an environment of heightened accountability and transparency are explored. The locus of control of information shaping the portrayal of the police in the news media is discussed, as is the impact of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. The findings from case studies of two police forces in the East Midlands are reported. The case studies indicate that, whilst police and media cooperation is not a new phenomenon, UK police forces are becoming increasingly proactive, strategic and professionalised in their use of the news media. For their part, the media are dependent on the news 'fed' to them on a regular basis by police press relations units. Nevertheless, thanks in particular to their use of the FOIA 2000, the media continue to play a role as independent watchdog and reporter of police activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the television drama produced by two regionally-based production centres in the 1960s and 1970s: Granada Television, responsible for Independent Television provision in the north-west of England, and BBC English Regions Drama, based at Pebble Mill in Birmingham. Granada and BBC Birmingham provide contrasting examples of regional drama production in the 1960s and 1970s, the ITV company setting out to fulfill its regional remit with representations of local culture and identities, while BBC English Regions Drama set out to commission drama from regionally-based writers, resulting in a diversity of regional representations in the dramas produced by the department. At a time when the concept of regionalism in British television seems to be at risk this is an opportune moment to look back on a period when the cultivation of regional identities in television drama was actively pursued by both the BBC and ITV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol control strategies vary between countries and reflect differences in drinking cultures. This study explored how perceived effectiveness of alcohol control strategies varies according to individual characteristics and country of residence. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 1910 university students in Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. It assessed the perceived effectiveness of 11 alcohol control strategies. Correlates included sensation-seeking, alcohol outcome expectancies, drink refusal self-efficacy, and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores. Bivariate analysis using mixed-measures MANOVA and Pearson correlations were followed by linear regression to identify multivariate correlates. These analyses revealed that educational strategies (e.g. teaching people skills to resist peer pressure) were considered more effective than restrictive strategies (e.g. raising the legal drinking age). Perceived effectiveness was greater among women and lighter drinkers. Country of residence also explained unique variance. The findings highlight the need to consider the potential impact of drinking culture in alcohol-related harm-reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every time a person is booked into police custody in England and Wales, they are assessed for risk of harm to themselves or others. National guidance is provided on what questions should be asked as part of this process; however, each year there are still instances of serious adverse incidents, self-harm and deaths in custody. The purpose of this study is to look at the extent to which the national guidance is being followed and the extent to which the risk assessment process varies between police forces. A Freedom of Information request was sent to all 43 police forces in England and Wales asking for information on their risk assessment process. This data was then analysed alongside findings from police custody inspection visits conducted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. This study provides evidence that the risk assessment process is not consistent across police forces in England and Wales. Not only does the process vary from the national guidance, the content and delivery differs considerably between police forces. The findings highlight a practical problem for police forces in ensuring that risk assessment processes are conducted to a consistent standard and reflect national guidance. The study is, to the authors' knowledge, the first time that this data has been collated and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]