Publicans have been critical that extended Easter opening hours have not been introduced, four years after a public consultation on the matter.

There will be no change in Easter pub opening hours during the current Northern Ireland Assembly mandate, which ends on 30 March.
Restrictions on selling alcohol are in place from the Thursday before Easter until Easter Sunday.
Pub owners say rules are "archaic" and are damaging the tourism industry.
Alcohol can only be served between 17:00 and 23:00 GMT on Good Friday.
Bars have to stop serving at midnight on Thursday and Easter Saturday.
The Department for Social Development (DSD) has responsibility for pub opening hours.
In 2012, more than 2,500 people responded to a consultation about extending opening hours in pubs over the Easter holidays and allowing late-night opening at other times of the year.
During the consultation, the former social development minister, Nelson McCausland, proposed extending serving times by one hour to 01:00 on the Thursday before Easter and on Easter Saturday.
There are no plans to extend the laws on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Pub owners had hoped the new rules would be in place by Easter 2014.
But two years later there is still no legislation.
For Easter 2016 pubs will continue to operate within existing licensing restrictions.
Thursday - midnight
Good Friday - 23:00
Easter Saturday - midnight
Easter Sunday - 22:00
Good Friday - 23:00
Easter Sunday - closed
Former ministers Mr McCausland, Mervyn Storey and current minister Lord Morrow, all from the Democratic Unionist Party, have not brought forward the legislation.
John McGrillen, the chief executive of Tourism Northern Ireland, said alcohol licensing was now becoming a "major issue for the tourism industry" and the laws were no longer fit for purpose.
"Easter is a crucial period for the tourism industry," he said.
"However, the restrictive conditions mean that the hospitality sector cannot meet the expectations of many of our visitors who expect to experience a vibrant night-time economy over the bank holiday weekend."
Pedro Donald, who runs the Sunflower Pub in Belfast, said tourists are confused when they visit the city over the Easter weekend.
"They are genuinely surprised," he said.
"If they come into a pub on a Sunday afternoon, they can't get a beer - they are genuinely confused, it doesn't make sense.
"We have to explain the situation."
Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill said his members had reached "boiling point" over the fact the Assembly has not relaxed the law.
"The industry is respectful of religious belief but the debate has moved on," he said.
"It is a crazy situation when alcohol is available to purchase in supermarkets, but not in a pub."
A spokesperson for the Department for Social Development (DSD) said there had been an intention "to bring forward a Liquor Licensing Amendment Bill during the current assembly mandate".
The bill, DSD said, was to contain a "balanced set of proposals aimed at discouraging abuse of alcohol" while "also assisting the local hospitality industry".
It was to include "modest changes to opening hours on the Thursday and Saturday before Easter".
"Unfortunately, due to competing priorities, such as welfare reform and the housing bills, the current minister no longer has time to progress a bill in the current mandate," the spokesperson said.
It added that any changes to liquor licensing law would fall to the new Department for Communities to consider after May's assembly election.


If Hollywood movies are your only guide to Artificial Intelligence, we face a terrifying future in which machines become so clever that they dominate or even destroy us.

And influential figures have added fuel to the fire: Stephen Hawking says AI could spell the end of the human race while the genius entrepreneur Elon Musk says it is "like summoning the demon".
So, does this make conquest by computer inevitable?
With such a heated subject, it's worth trying to disentangle what's plausible from what's too far-fetched to worry about.
For a start, we live with AI already. The calculations behind your Google searches or your browsing on Amazon are not just ticking over - the software is constantly learning how to respond more rapidly and usefully.
This is remarkable but is described as "narrow" or "weak" AI because it can only work within the guidelines it's been given by its human inventors, a crucial limitation.
By contrast, "general" or "strong" AI - which does not exist yet - implies a more assertive ability to do things that go beyond the original human intentions, not to "think" but to improvise.
Huge obstacles stand in the way of getting there, either by mimicking how a human brain works or building sufficient processing power from scratch, let alone creating a robot with its own ideas and agendas.
For a reality check, I visited Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, to see engineers working on some of the most capable robots in the world.
They laughed at the notion of a robot army someday taking over - "I am not concerned about intelligent machines", said project leader Brett Kennedy.
His team's RoboSimian is an unnerving version of a mechanical monkey that can morph between different postures so it can either stand or crawl or roll along on wheels.
Designed to venture into disaster zones too dangerous for people to enter, such as collapsed buildings or ruined nuclear reactors, it has two computers on board, one to govern its sensors, the other to handle movements. Able to carry out tasks like driving a car and turning off a large valve, it came a creditable fifth in the Pentagon's recent Robotics Challenge.
But RoboSimian's actual intelligence is rudimentary. I watched it being instructed to open a door and saw it advance in the right direction and then judge how far its arm needs to move to push the handle. But the machine does need to be given very specific parameters.
As the robot hummed beside us, Brett Kennedy said: "For the foreseeable future I am not concerned nor do I expect to see a robot as intelligent as a human. I have first-hand knowledge of how hard it is for us to make a robot that does much of anything."
To anyone worried about AI, this would be reassuring, and is backed up by one of Britain's leading figures in AI, Prof Alan Winfield of the Bristol Robotics Lab.
He has consistently offered a voice of calm, telling me that "fears of future super intelligence - robots taking over the world - are greatly exaggerated".
He concedes that innovations should be carefully handled - and he was among 1,000 scientists and engineers who signed an appeal for a ban on AI in weaponry.
Prof Winfield said: "Robots and intelligent systems must be engineered to very high standards of safety for exactly the same reasons that we need our washing machines, cars and airplanes to be safe."
But predicting the future pace of technology is impossible, as is being certain about whether every researcher in every part of the world will take a responsible approach - and therein lies the threat.
The key and most momentous milestone - human-machine parity - is called Artificial General Intelligence, and academics are trying to assess when that might arrive and what it would mean.
One is Prof Nick Bostrom of Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute. His recent book, Superintelligence, has become one of the definitive texts laying out very clearly why we need to worry.
He quotes recent surveys of experts in the field. One suggests that there's a 50% chance that computers could reach human-level intelligence as soon as 2050 - just 35 years away.
And looking further ahead, the same study says there's a 90% chance of machine-human parity by 2075.
Prof Bostrom describes himself as a supporter of AI - because it could help tackle climate change, energy and new medicines - but he says it does have implications that are not properly understood.
"You have to think of AI not as just one more cool gadget or one little thing that will improve the bottom line of some corporation but really as a fundamental game changer for humanity - the last invention that human intelligence will ever need to make, the beginning of the machine intelligence era."
He conjures up a compelling image of mankind behaving like a curious child who has picked up an unexploded bomb without realising the dangers.
"Maybe it is decades away but we are just as immature and naÃ¯ve as this child. We really don't realise the power of this thing we are creating.
"That's the situation we are in as a species."
Prof Bostrom is now receiving funding from Elon Musk to explore these issues, and the aim is to develop a shared approach to safety.
So what about a scenario where the technology is unstoppable but the scariest scenarios - of robot destroyers - are somehow evaded because the right steps are taken in advance?
Another quieter, less obvious form of takeover may still be possible. In his book, Humans Need Not Apply, Prof Jerry Kaplan of Stanford University outlines how what starts with Amazon, building up a picture of what you're likely to buy, soon multiplies, "silently and unnoticed", so you'll be surrounded by Amazons in all aspects of your life.
"As we learn to trust these systems to transport us, introduce us to potential mates, customise our news, protect our property, monitor our environment, grow, prepare and serve our food, teach our children, and care for our elderly, it will be easy to miss the bigger picture."
Ultimately, there are risks, no doubt. The question is whether the right safeguards can be built in, and soon enough.


The husband of MP Jo Cox has urged people to "fight against the hatred that killed her" in the wake of her death.

In a powerful statement, her husband Brendan said she had a "zest for life that would exhaust most people".
He said her death marked a "less joyful" new chapter in her family's lives.
Elsewhere, her death was met with a flood of tributes, from both inside and outside the political sphere.
Mrs Cox, 41, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was attacked in Birstall on Thursday afternoon and later pronounced dead.
As news of her death spread, constituents left floral tributes at the scene of the attack.
"Today is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. More difficult, more painful, less joyful, less full of love.
I and Jo's friends and family are going to work every moment of our lives to love and nurture our kids and to fight against the hate that killed Jo.
Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it everyday of her life with an energy, and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.
She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her.
Hate doesn't have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous.
Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full."
An un-named constituent, who broke down in tears while talking to BBC Radio Leeds, said: "She was trying to make everything better for us. Why?
"I met her quite a few times, it's just heartbreaking."
Oxfam, where Mrs Cox had worked before she entered politics, said it was "devastated at the loss of our much loved and admired former colleague".
Singer Billy Bragg described her as a "compassionate, public spirited internationalist".
Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said: "I have worked closely with Jo since she was elected and I am deeply shocked that such a talented young woman has been so senselessly attacked and killed whilst working in her constituency and serving her community."
Rt Rev Jonathan Gibbs, the Bishop of Huddersfield, described her as a "woman of real compassion" and a "lovely human being".
"This reminds us of the vulnerability of the people who put their heads over the parapet, she's paid the ultimate price for that service," he said.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, said: "Jo Cox had a lifelong record of public service and a deep commitment to humanity.
"Jo was dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights - and she brought those values and principles with her when she became an MP."
David Cameron tweeted: "The death of Jo Cox is a tragedy. She was a committed and caring MP. "
She started her political career as an adviser and later became head of campaigns pro-European pressure group Britain in Europe.
Before she was elected in the 2015 election, she also worked for charities including Oxfam, Save the Children and the NSPCC.
She was attacked close to the library where she was holding one of her weekly surgeries.


Deontay Wilder retained the WBC heavyweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Artur Szpilka in New York.

The unbeaten American knocked Szpilka unconscious with a right hand, with the Pole taken to hospital as a precaution.
Britain's Tyson Fury, who holds the WBA and WBO belts, traded insults with Wilder in the ring after the fight.
On the same bill, Charles Martin won the vacant IBF title when Vyacheslav Glazkov was forced to retire in round three with a serious knee injury.
Fury was stripped of the IBF belt when he agreed a rematch with former champion Wladimir Klitschko, whom he beat in November, rather than fight mandatory challenger Glazkov.
After the fight at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, Fury climbed into the ring, eyeballed Wilder and started singing "there's only one Tyson Fury" into a microphone, adding: "What have you got to say about that, Deontay?"
Wilder, who has stopped 35 of his 36 opponents, replied: "You're just a phoney. This is just an act. You know where I am. You know what time, what place. I ain't scared of nobody. I'll come to your backyard, baby."
Fury, who has won all of his 25 fights, made the same offer as the crowd booed, adding: "Any time, any place, anywhere. I'll beat you. You're a bum."
A laughing Wilder then said: "I don't play this. You should have been an actor. You can run around like you're a preacher all you want, but you step in the ring, I promise you, I will baptise you."
A unification fight between the pair could take place in Britain or the USA later this year.
Southpaw Szpilka was "doing good" and "talking" after the fight, according to his trainer Ronnie Shields, who said: "He knows exactly where he is right now."
Wilder, 30, struggled for large portions of the fight but left Szpilka flat on his back with a powerful right hand with 36 seconds remaining in round nine.
Szpilka, whose record is now 20-2, was out cold for several minutes as he was attended to by ringside doctors.
Wilder is now due to make a mandatory defence against Russian Alexander Povetkin.
"I'm surprised it took that long, but we had 12 rounds and they can't all can't be pretty," Wilder said.
In the bill's other heavyweight title bout, Glazkov was a heavy favourite against American Martin, 29, but was forced to stop one minute 50 seconds into round three after twice falling to the canvas.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian's right leg buckled as he threw a right hand and he tore an anterior cruciate ligament.
The previously unbeaten Glazkov said: "I slipped and I felt a sharp pain in my knee and I felt it give out. I'm very upset. I want a rematch when I recover."
Martin, a southpaw, said: "He just didn't have enough power. I was going to catch up with him eventually."
Before the fight, Glazkov said he would be prepared to face unbeaten British and Commonwealth champion Anthony Joshua.
The American's record is now 23 wins and one draw, while Glazkov's is 21-1-1.


A footballer who covered the cost of damage caused by a fan celebrating his goal has said he might take up the offer of a drink in return.

Ipswich fan Ross Morgan punched a hole in the ceiling of his flat while celebrating Paul Anderson's equaliser against rivals Norwich, in May.
Anderson paid the Â£80 bill after Mr Morgan posted a photograph on Twitter.
"He said he'd buy me a drink and I might take him up on the offer," said Anderson, now with Bradford City.
"I'm glad we got it sorted out," the footballer said. "It took a bit of time though."
The delay in getting the ceiling repaired was partly because Anderson moved to the League One side in the summer, and has since broken his leg.
Salesman Mr Morgan, from Wetherby, near Leeds, said: "Ando offered to sort somebody to do it, the Ipswich kit man, but he obviously isn't with the club anymore.
"So I said I'd sort it myself and was let down by a few different people.
"It's now been repaired after a long time trying to get it sorted. He's a top bloke."
Recalling his goal in the 1-1 play-off first leg, Anderson said: "It was one of the best feelings you can ever have - it was amazing for me. The noise was unbelievable.
"There was such a buzz at the time. Ross sent me a picture of the ceiling and I said I'd pay for the damage.
"I didn't really mean for any of it to go public."
Mr Morgan said he was now trying to remain calmer during televised matches.
"I've tried to learn my lesson - especially now that Ando's left, I've got no-one to pay for any damage," he said.


Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has fled abroad, sources say, ahead of a verdict in her trial over a rice subsidy scheme.

Sources in her party say she made the decision to leave unexpectedly, shortly before she was due to appear at the Supreme Court on negligence charges.
Her lawyers told the court she had been unable to attend because she was ill.
But when she failed to appear, the court issued an arrest warrant for her and confiscated her bail.
Judges also postponed the verdict until 27 September.
Ms Yingluck has denied any wrongdoing in the scheme which cost Thailand billions of dollars. If found guilty at the end of her two-year trial, she could be jailed for up to 10 years and permanently banned from politics.
Sources within Ms Yingluck's Puea Thai Party told Reuters that she had "definitely left Thailand" but did not give details of her whereabouts.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who heads Thailand's military government, said all routes out of the country were being closely monitored.
"I just learned that she did not show up [at court]," he told reporters. "I have ordered border checkpoints to be stepped up."
Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan initially said he had no information on Ms Yingluck's whereabouts but as he left a meeting in Bangkok he said: "It is possible that she has fled already."
Analysis by Jonathan Head, BBC News, Bangkok
Yingluck Shinawatra was the most high-profile criminal defendant in Thailand and was constantly monitored by the military authorities. So how was she able to leave the country just hours before the verdict was due to be read out? Immigration authorities say they have no record of her leaving the country.
However, it is a poorly-concealed secret that some in the military government would have been happy to see her leave the country before the verdict.
Had she been convicted and jailed, she could have been seen as a victim by her supporters. The government was nervous about their reaction. Acquitting her, though, would have been equally unacceptable to her hard-line opponents, many of them very influential.
That would also have undermined the justification for the military coup which overthrew her government. So it is unlikely anyone tried to stop her leaving, or that they will try to get her back.
She could have gone to the VIP area of one of Bangkok's airports and taken a private jet out of the country or she might have driven across the border into Cambodia or Laos.
However she is most likely to have joined her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been living mainly in Dubai since he went into exile, fleeing a Supreme Court verdict, in 2008.
Ms Yingluck's lawyer had requested a delay in the ruling, telling the Supreme Court that she had vertigo and a severe headache and was unable to attend.
But the court said in a statement it did not believe she was sick as there was no medical certificate and that the claimed sickness was not severe enough to prevent her travelling to court.
"Such behaviour convincingly shows that she is a flight risk. As a result, the court has issued an arrest warrant and confiscated the posted bail money," the statement said.
Ms Yingluck posted $900,000 (Â£703,000) bail at the beginning of her trial.
Friday's turn of events took many by surprise, including the hundreds of people who turned up outside the Supreme Court in Bangkok to support Ms Yingluck.
BBC Thai reporter Nanchanok Wongsamuth said the announcement prompted shocked reactions in the courtroom, and then a flurry of activity as journalists ran out to report the news.
Ms Yingluck, who became Thailand's first female prime minister in 2011, was impeached in 2015 over the rice scheme by a military-backed legislature, which then brought the legal case.
The scheme, part of Ms Yingluck's election campaign platform, launched shortly after she took office.
It was aimed at boosting farmers' incomes and alleviating rural poverty, and saw the government paying farmers nearly twice the market rate for their crop.
But it hit Thailand's rice exports hard, leading to a loss of at least $8bn and huge stockpiles of rice which the government could not sell.
Though it was popular with her rural voter base, opponents said the scheme was too expensive and open to corruption.
During her trial, Ms Yingluck had argued she was not responsible for the day-to-day running of the scheme. She has insisted she is a victim of political persecution.
In another development on Friday, former Thai minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was jailed for 42 years in connection with the rice subsidy scheme.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says the exceptionally heavy sentence for Mr Boonsong suggests the court would not have been lenient with Ms Yingluck and it is possible she was warned about this before making her decision to flee.
Ms Yingluck's time in office was overshadowed by controversy as well as strong political opposition.
The youngest sister of Mr Thaksin, she was seen by her opponents as a proxy for her brother, who was controversially ousted by the military in 2006.
Both siblings remain popular among the rural poor, but are hated by an urban and middle-class elite.
Their Puea Thai party has - under various different names - won every election in Thailand since 2001.
Some of Ms Yingluck's supporters outside the court on Friday expressed understanding at her failure to show.
"The Thai prime minister has done her best, she has sacrificed a lot," said Seksan Chalitaporn, 64. "Now the people have to fight for themselves."
Telecommunications billionaire Mr Thaksin, who once owned Manchester City FC, has lived in self-imposed exile since leaving Thailand. It is believed he travels between homes in London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
May 2011- Yingluck Shinawatra is elected PM, and shortly afterwards begins rolling out her rice subsidy scheme.
January 2014 - Thailand's anti-corruption authorities investigate Ms Yingluck in connection to the scheme.
May 2014 - She is forced to step down from her post after Thailand's constitutional court finds her guilty of abuse of power in another case. Weeks later the military ousts what remains of her government.
January 2015 - An army-backed legislature impeaches Ms Yingluck for corruption over her role in the rice scheme, which effectively bans her from politics for five years. It also launches legal proceedings against her.
August 2017 - Ms Yingluck fails to appear at court for the verdict, claiming ill health.


The European Space Agency (Esa) has turned off one of its most successful ever missions.

LISA Pathfinder was sent into orbit in 2015 to prove key technologies that could be used on some future project to detect gravitational waves - the ripples that disturb space-time whenever black holes collide.
The satellite spectacularly surpassed the objectives set for it.
And that success led directly to the selection in June of the LISA mission.
This billion-euro venture, which is envisaged as a trio of satellites, is expected to launch between 2030 and 2034.
It will incorporate many of Pathfinder's systems, including its all-important laser interferometer instrumentation that we now know has the means necessary to catch gravitational waves (GW) in space.
"LISA Pathfinder has shown that LISA is feasible at full sensitivity, more than we could hope for," said principal investigator Stefano Vitale.
"I think it has been a stepping stone for GW astronomy, and an incredibly rewarding experience for all the team involved. Thank you, and stay tuned on LISA!" he told BBC News.
Prof Vitale was invited to send the final "kill commands" to Pathfinder, which has been conducting its measurement demonstration 1.5 million km from Earth in the sunward direction.
The commands, despatched from Esa's mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, tricked Pathfinder to reboot itself on to software that had already been corrupted.
It meant the gravity probe was locked down, unable to run its subsystems including its transmitter.
"The only way you could recover the spacecraft would be to go up there and attach an umbilical and restart from another computer," explained Pathfinder's spacecraft operations manager, Ian Harrison.
The kill procedure, more properly known as "passivating" the satellite,  ensures there is no hazard to future missions through a collision or interference of radio communications.
The Darmstadt team in April had already fired the thrusters on Pathfinder to move it away from its station - a popular location for many Sun-studying missions.
It should now drift harmlessly around our star.
"There's a very, very small chance it could return to the Earth-Moon system; it's so remote but you can't actually say it's zero," said Ian Harrison.
"The mission analysis actually looked at the planetary positions 500 years into the future."
Gravitational waves - Ripples in the fabric of space-time
Gravitational waves are the big thing in science right now.
Ground-based laboratories in the US have recently begun detecting them from coalescing objects that are 20-30 times the mass of our Sun.
But by sending an observatory into space, scientists would expect to discover sources that are millions of times bigger still, and to sense their activity all the way out to the edge of the observable Universe.
It should significantly advance our understanding of gravity and how it works; and perhaps even highlight some chinks in Einstein's so-far flawless equations.
LISA will detect gravitational waves by bouncing laser light between three spacecraft flying in a triangle formation, where the sides of the triangle are 2.5 million km long. The light beams will be measuring the precise positions of small, free-floating blocks inside the satellites.
When gravitational waves pass through the triangle, the distance between blocks of the different spacecraft should change by tiny amounts - just fractions of the width of an atom.
Laser science: Lisa Pathfinder's technology demonstration
LISA Pathfinder's laser and gold-block monitoring system was shrunk down to fit inside a single satellite. As such, it could not itself detect gravitational waves, but the exquisite sensitivity of the instrumentation demonstrated that the metrology principles were sound.
"LISA Pathfinder did more than we ever asked for," said Paul McNamara, Esa's Pathfinder project scientist.
"It met its requirements on day one, the day we switched on its science. But we then met and surpassed the requirements of LISA. So, it's been a phenomenal mission. It's sad to turn Pathfinder off but at some point we have to look to the future," he told BBC News.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos


A British-Iranian woman detained at a men's volleyball match in Iran has been sentenced to a year in prison, her lawyer says.

Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, was found guilty of spreading anti-regime propaganda, lawyer Alizadeh Tabatabaie said.
Iran banned women from volleyball games in 2012, extending a long-standing ban on football matches.
The Iranian authorities have argued that women need protection from the lewd behaviour of male fans.
Britain's Foreign Office said it was concerned about the sentence.
"We have concerns about the grounds for this prosecution, due process during the trial, and Miss Ghavami's treatment whilst in custody," it said in a statement.
Amnesty International has described Ms Ghavami, who is from Shepherd's Bush in west London, as a prisoner of conscience, and called for her immediate release. More than 700,000 people have signed an online petition urging the authorities to free her.
The graduate of the University of London's School of African and Oriental Studies was part of a group of women who tried to watch Iran play Italy in a match on 20 June.
The women were arrested and allegedly beaten before being freed.
Ms Ghavami was rearrested later and subsequently put on trial. She launched a hunger strike in October after being held in isolation cells.


"Bayern Munich want to destroy us," said Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke after Robert Lewandowski became the latest of his players to agree a switch to the Allianz Arena in January.

The Poland striker scored his first goal against his former club in Bayern's 2-1 win on Saturday to help condemn Dortmund to a fifth straight league loss and leave them third from bottom in the Bundesliga.
So, with Marco Reus possibly following Lewandowski and Mario Gotze to Munich, are Bayern to blame for the 2013 Champions League finalists' decline?
A Champions League final, two Bundesliga titles and a German Cup: Jurgen Klopp has helped Die Schwarzgelben return to the European elite from the brink of bankruptcy since being appointed coach in July 2008.
Dortmund were no stranger to success, having won the Champions League in 1997, and winning three Bundesliga titles between 1995 and 2002, but when Klopp arrived from Mainz the club was on the brink of collapse.
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Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke told FAZ in 2013 that the club was "a millimetre away from going bust" during that period. Between 2004 to 2008, they finished sixth, seventh, ninth and 13th.
Their re-emergence began when Klopp was appointed as they won the Bundesliga in 2010-11 with the youngest team ever to win the domestic title. The following year, Dortmund successfully defended their title and won the German Cup, to make it a historic double.
On 24 April 2013 they defeated Real Madrid 4-1 to set up a trip to Wembley for the Champions League final but, following defeat by rivals Bayern, their era of success has slowly started to subside.
"Klopp has done a brilliant job," said NDR Radio reporter Alexander Bleick. "When he took over, Dortmund were a middle class team."
Bayern emphasised their Bundesliga dominance last season when they defended their title with a record seven games to go, finishing 19 points above runners-up Dortmund.
Few would have predicted what was to follow though, with Saturday's defeat by Bayern leaving Dortmund 17 points behind their rivals after just 10 matches and, with just seven points, sitting in the bottom three.
Their worst ever start to a Bundesliga campaign is contradictory to their Champions League form, where Dortmund sit top of Group D with three wins out of three and yet to concede a goal.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang told BBC World: "It is true you almost get the feeling we have two faces at the moment. One in the Bundesliga and one in the Champions League."
The 2013 Champions League final defeat to Bayern is seen by many as the moment things started to go wrong.
Had Dortmund been crowned kings of Europe, perhaps they would have been able to prevent their stars from deserting to the Allianz Arena?
This seems a little simplistic as the signs of Dortmund's collapse were already in evidence. Star midfielder Mario Gotze's £31.5m move to Bayern was announced on the eve of the Champions League defeat for starters.
Also that season, Dortmund may have been Bundesliga runners-up but they finished 26 points behind champions Bayern to suggest the latter's dominance had already begun.
The key departure this summer was Robert Lewandowski's move to Bayern after 101 goals in 185 appearances for Dortmund.
Klopp was busy in the transfer market over the summer in a bid to replace him, signing last season's Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile from Torino, sealing the return of Shinji Kagawa from Manchester United and buying Adrian Ramos from Hertha Berlin.
But they have just 10 goals after as many matches this season, compared with 22 goals at the same stage last season.
"They haven't been able to replace Lewandowski," said Bleick. "They have tried but they lack the self-confidence to score the goals. "
So it is all Bayern's fault then? Maybe not, but it is fair to say relations between the two clubs are not good.
The traditional pre-match lunch between Bayern and Dortmund bosses was scrapped yesterday after a war of words between the two clubs that has been ongoing almost ever since Gotze's £31.5m switch.
Their relationship hasn't been helped by Bayern's recent pursuit of Marco Reus, Dortmund's 25-year-old Germany midfielder.
Watzke told Bild in January: "They have helped themselves to our players, so we wouldn't be a danger."
He also told TZ last month: "There are players here at Dortmund who are happy to play for 20% less money. But that's not the case when we're talking about 50% less money. It's like they (Bayern) want all of our players."
Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge responded in Saturday's match programme: "We don't have to weaken anybody. Every transfer has exclusively one goal, to strengthen the team's quality."
"A few years ago the two clubs had quite a good relationship," said Bleick. "But when Borussia Dortmund won the title twice, they were celebrating quite offensively, saying 'we are back now'. Bayern did not like that.
"When Dortmund beat Bayern 5-2 in the German Cup final, the celebrations were extraordinary. Bayern decided they have to get back and spent a lot of money and the relationship got worse.
"Dortmund believe Bayern Munich want to destroy their work."
To blame Bayern's transfer policy for Dortmund's decline would be too easy.
Sporting director Michael Zorc said: "We've made unbelievable mistakes in the defence, like never before."
"Bayern Munich's signing of Dortmund's players is just one factor," said Bleick. "Although the main problem is replacing Lewandowski.
"Injuries have not helped either and when they get their players back I think we will be looking at Dortmund improving."
Striker Aubameyang believes motivation has been a factor in Dortmund's struggles this season, admitting the Champions League games feel different.
"I think we are going to have find extra motivation in the league," he told BBC World. "When you are playing in the Champions League there is no need to have extra motivation because the games are so special."
"Despite Dortmund's struggles there are no whistles or posters against the manager from the supporters," said Bleick. "They still admire and support him."
One woman even made a declaration of love during a news conference before the match against Bayern on Tuesday, saying to Klopp: "You led us to success and we will lead you through the crisis."
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During BBC World's visit to Dortmund at the weekend, statements from the fans included "nothing much is wrong", "They are not so hungry", "I think they will come again".
Bleick continued: "Dortmund aren't so strong as they were last year but in a couple of months, I think we will be talking about them back into eighth or ninth.
"Bayern Munich are becoming quite untouchable, other teams don't have the depth to catch them. If they struggle in the Champions League again this season I expect them to spend a lot of money again."
Klopp said of Bayern's pursuit of Reus last week: "I believe life is fair and if you misbehave while you are successful, you will get it back one day."
He may have to wait a while to get his revenge but there is no shortage of belief he is still the man to achieve it.


Liam Kelly's goal rescued Oldham Athletic a draw at fellow League One strugglers Fleetwood Town.

Fleetwood had the better of the first-half chances, with Oldham keeper Joel Coleman forced into saves from Wes Burns and Antoni Sarcevic.
The Cod Army were rewarded for their pressure after the break when Stefan Scougall turned in Burns' cross.
Kelly had a header ruled out for offside, but he bundled in from close range shortly after to secure a point.
The result leaves the Latics three points clear of the relegation zone in 18th place, with Fleetwood one point behind in 19th.
Oldham Athletic manager John Sheridan told BBC Radio Manchester:
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"We deserved something out of the game. I thought we started sloppy in the first 10 minutes with some silly errors and that enables them to get a hold in the game.
"We finished the first half strongly and had a stonewall penalty. I can't believe how he's not given it, it's embarrassing. In the second half we were the better team.
"I get frustrated with people doing the wrong things. If we do the simple things, we wouldn't have conceded the first goal. We're 30 yards from goal and end making the wrong pass which leads to a goal.
"We've done well to come from behind and we were the team at the end trying to win the game."


Perhaps what's most interesting about the government's planned new Diverted Profits Tax, AKA the "Google" tax, is how much noise and debate it has generated, for precious little potential revenue.

The Treasury estimates it will raise Â£360m a year by 2017/18, which isn't even really a drop in the ocean of this year's Â£91bn shortfall in what the state is raising in taxes relative to what it spends: the Google tax ain't going to fill the UK's huge and intractable public-sector deficit.
And yet it represents something of a revolution in tax policy, in that it introduces the idea that the volume of sales in a particular country should determine the tax paid in that country - over-riding the current presumption that companies should pay most of their tax on their home turf, and that it is perfectly reasonable for them to exploit different tax rates applicable in different countries to minimise their global tax bill.
In imposing the tax, George Osborne is responding to significant public anger over how little tax is paid in the UK by the new breed of mainly US and mainly tech-based multinationals, of which Google is unlucky enough to have become the poster child, but which also include Apple, Amazon and Starbucks, inter alia.
The new tax rules have been drafted to exclude small and medium size companies from its reach, and to include companies that do or will sell in the UK without in any sense being permanently resident here - which could, for example, include the likes of the youngest breed of technology giants such as WhatsApp (since they could theoretically have substantial turnover in the UK via smartphone apps, for example, without employing a single person here).
However it is not crystal clear how HMRC will calculate the diverted profits on which to base the 25% diverted profits tax. Considerable discretion appears to have been left to the taxman or taxwoman.
Perhaps the most important disclosure in draft legislation published today is that if HMRC concludes that a company, such as Google or Starbucks, is deliberately under-stating or wiping out its profits by charging its UK operations too much for the use of overseas-owned intellectual property - for example - it would be able to disallow 30% of those charges or expenses.
Now because the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US forces American companies to publish considerable detail on where they generate sales in the world (Google for example generates 11% of its $60bn turnoved in Britain), HMRC may be able to obtain fairly robust data on the allegedly unfair tax avoidance devices used by US businesses - and may be able to exploit that in determining what tax they should pay in Britain.
But how is it to calculate what a Chinese multinational should pay, since China does not exactly operate to gold-standard accounting and disclosure rules?
And another thing.
The UK is apparently the first country in the world to impose this new breed of allegedly unavoidable corporate tax that's based on revenues derived in one country. Which raises the intriguing question of what impact it would have on UK companies if other countries followed our lead.
If for example the US decided to impose a tax calculated with reference to US revenues on all companies, that could be quite costly for British multinationals, such as GlaxoSmithKline, BP and Barclays, all of which are big in America.
Given that the UK is an economy driven by huge multinationals, it is not immediately obvious that it would be good for the health of the UK economy if our multinationals were whacked for more tax in this way.
Not that I expect many of you to be weeping for them. Which is to say that the motivation for the Diverted Profits Tax is at least as much about generating votes as generating cash.


A two-year-old boy from Flintshire died when a heavy wooden fire surround fell on him, an inquest has heard.

Malaki Leo Boadu Hughes, from Saltney, Flintshire, was fatally injured in the incident at his grandmother's house on 12 September last year.
The hearing was told Carole Hughes left him on a sofa to go upstairs before she heard an "almighty crash".
Coroner John Gittins recorded an accidental conclusion at the hearing in Ruthin.
In a statement read to the court Mrs Hughes said: "It [the crash] was so loud that I was immediately in a panic."
She ran downstairs to find the fire surround on top of Malaki and managed to move it off him but he was not responding.
He was given CPR until an ambulance crew took over on arrival.
Malaki was taken to the Countess of Chester hospital where his death was confirmed.
A post mortem examination found he died from a traumatic rupture of the heart.


Twelve people have been arrested and drugs worth £100,000 seized during police raids in South Yorkshire.

Homes were searched in the Manor and Arbourthorne areas of Sheffield with four kilograms of cannabis and four kilograms of crack cocaine and heroin found.
More than £40,000 of cash was also recovered in Friday's raids.
Half of those held by police have since been released on bail pending further inquiries.


An Oxford University employee has been charged with murdering a 26-year-old in Chicago.

Somerville College's Andrew Warren, 56, and US professor Wyndham Lathem, 42, are accused of fatally stabbing Trenton Cornell-Duranleau in Mr Lathem's flat.
Chicago Police charged the pair with first-degree murder after they were returned to the city from California.
Mr Cornell-Duranleau, a hair stylist, was found with more than 40 stab wounds on 27 July.
Mr Warren was suspended from his university job as senior treasury assistant after the body was found.
A post-mortem examination showed Mr Cornell-Duranleau had the drug methamphetamine in his system.
Mr Lathem, who has been sacked as a microbiology professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, was in a personal relationship with the victim, police have said.
He plans to plead not guilty, according to his lawyer.


An ex-British soldier held in Turkey on a terror charge while on holiday may be imprisoned for three months before the case reaches court, his lawyer said.

Joe Robinson, 24, who lives in Leeds, was with his fiancÃ©e Mira Rojkan and her mother when they were arrested in the coastal town of Didim.
He is thought to be under suspicion of sharing material on social media from his time in Syria with Kurdish militia.
Lawyer Kaya Sertkaya said: "We do not know when he will be taken to court."
Mr Robinson previously served in Afghanistan with the British Army, but in 2015 he travelled to Syria and spent time with Kurdish rebels the YPG who are fighting against so-called Islamic State (IS).
He spoke openly about his experiences in newspaper reports at the time.
The YPG is considered by Turkey to be an offshoot of the Kurdish militant group PKK that has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.
But the YPG is not a proscribed group in the UK, and is considered a close ally of the US in the fight against IS.
Speaking to the BBC, his father Andrew Robinson appealed for diplomatic help.
He said: "When I heard that he'd been arrested on terrorist charges, I was devastated. I didn't realise what the situation was like in Turkey.
"We're just hoping that somebody is going to come through and help us - the government, the Foreign Office. We're just hoping that somebody can get more information."
Sharon Robinson, his mother, described his arrest as "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life".
His lawyer said Mr Robinson was currently in jail in the west Turkey town of Aydin and his client was accused of "being a member of a terrorist organisation".
"I was able to see him yesterday, he looked fine and in good spirits but we do not know when he will be taken to court," Mr Sertkaya said.
"Because of the state of emergency, when arrests on terror charges are made it takes a long time for the prosecutors to write the indictment."
He added: "Probably he will not be taken to court before three months or so."
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement that it was providing support to the family and remains in contact with the Turkish authorities.
Turkish affairs analyst Guney Yildiz, from the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it was "not a surprise" that Mr Robinson may face legal action in Turkey for being seen to have had ties in the past with a group that Turkey regards as a security threat.
"Turkey is more afraid of the propaganda aspect of a British national fighting with the Kurds against ISIS," he explained, "rather than that person being a real threat to public security in Turkey."
Ms Rojkan, originally from Bulgaria and a student at the University of Leeds, was held in detention for six days before she was released under judicial control. Her mother was also released.
"We are both innocent and we want justice," she said.
Correction 17 August 2017: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong name for Joe Robinson's lawyer, Kaya Sertkaya.


Top seeds Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis beat defending champions Heather Watson and Henri Kontinen 6-4 6-4 to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles final.

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The British and Swiss pairing, both former title winners at Wimbledon, crucially broke Briton Watson and Finn Kontinen in the seventh game of the match en route to taking the first set.
They repeated the feat in the seventh game of the second set to lead 4-3.
I forgot what it felt like the last time I won
Murray and Hingis then held serve in the 10th game to secure the title.
That gave the 36-year-old Swiss player her sixth Wimbledon title - comprising one singles crown, three doubles and two mixed doubles.
Hingis only decided to team up with her Scottish partner prior to this tournament.
She told BBC Sport: "I'm really happy how we played and performed. One Briton was going to win a Wimbledon title this year and I was hoping it would be mine.
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When asked whether they would both return next year as a partnership, she added: "We have the next Grand Slam coming up and we have to talk about that."
This was Murray's second Wimbledon title, having won the mixed doubles with Jelena Jankovic 10 years ago.
The 31-year-old said: "I forgot what it felt like the last time I won.
"This was pretty sweet and I have to give huge thanks to Martina - when she texted me it was an easy decision and it's great to have the trophy again.
"A lot of guys in the locker room would be jumping at the chance to join Martina."
He said the atmosphere was "strange" in Centre Court because the British support were "a bit split with Heather and me".
Murray added: "It was a great success for British tennis to have the two of us in the final."


The full impact of an alien species on an area's habitat may not come to light until decades after its intentional introduction, a report has warned.

Researchers suggest that the seeds of future invasions have already been sown, making them difficult to control.
The team of European scientists called on governments to tighten controls on international trade that involved potentially invasive species.
The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Alien invasions may be characterised by considerable time lags between the date of first introduction of a species to a new territory and its establishment as part of the regional flora or fauna," they wrote.
"This lag in the cause-effect relationship would mean that, independent of existing biosecurity and trade regulations preventing further introductions, the seeds of future invasion problems have already been sown and can best be described as an 'invasion debt'."
They reached their conclusion after examining series of data on more than 3,300 invasive species across 10 taxonomic groups - including birds, reptiles, mammals, fungi and plants - in 28 countries around Europe.
Silent killers
Researchers consider the threat from invasive species to be one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss, alongside other factors such as habitat loss and fragmentation.
An invasive plant is emerging as a major problem in a Nepalese national park
The invader that is strangling an ecosystem
For example, a native plant of Brazil, Mikania micrantha, has already covered 20% of a Unesco-listed national park in southern Nepal.
Scientists are concerned about the spread of the "weed" in the Chitwan National Park because it has been a huge conservation success story, with nearly 100 breeding adult tigers and more than 400 rhinos roaming within its territory.
The spread threatens to smother vegetation that is a source of food for a variety of animals, raising concerns about the stability of the ecosystem's food chain.
In the PNAS paper, the researchers said that socio-economic indicators from 1900 provided a better explanation of current patterns of invasive species than indicators from 2000.
"The results of [this] analysis extend our understanding of the temporal dimension of this relationship," they wrote.
"We show that, across all 10 taxonomic groups analysed, indicators of historical introduction efforts around the year 1900 explain current stocks of alien species in Europe significantly better than the same indicators evaluated for the recent past."
However, the team warned that the volume of introduced species had increased markedly as the 1900s advanced.
"Given the enormous increase of introduction events during the second half of the 20th Century, this result is strongly suggestive of a considerable delay between the introduction of a species and its subsequent establishment in the wild."
They concluded: "Our results highlight that even if further unintended introductions could be successfully reduced by [current regulations and policies], the mid-term impacts of alien species on biodiversity and the economy might even be higher than currently expected."


The number of migrants from North Africa arriving in Germany has fallen sharply this year, officials say.

New arrivals from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia reached 3,356 in January but in March the number registered from those countries was 480, Germany's Federal Office for Migration (BAMF) said.
Germany wants to declare those countries officially "safe", to make repatriation of non-refugees easier.
North African migrants were blamed for many assaults on women at New Year.
Germans were shocked by the scale of the sexual violence in Cologne, in which most suspects were men who had entered Germany illegally or sought asylum. There were similar attacks - to a lesser degree - in Duesseldorf and Hamburg.
The "safe country of origin" designation would enable officials to argue that returning migrants to those countries - jointly known as the Maghreb - would not violate their human rights.
However, human rights activists point out that there is persecution of homosexuals in the Maghreb and cases of torture in Morocco.
The German parliament has not approved the "safe country" designation, so it is not yet law.
Late last year the numbers of Maghreb migrants entering Germany surged, relative to those from other countries.
But the main countries of origin were Syria, Albania and Kosovo.
1.1m
Record number of asylum seekers registered in 2015
477,000 formal applications - 135% increase on 2014
34% of asylum-seekers come from Syria
181,405 asylum applications in Jan-Mar 2016
Those who can prove they fled war or persecution usually get refugee status and a right to asylum. Nearly all Syrians qualify - but very few Balkan migrants do.
Only 2.1% of the Maghreb migrants registered got international protection status in Germany last year, and the figure for the first quarter of this year was 0.7%, said the BAMF report, quoted by Funke media group newspapers.
The total influx of migrants to Germany has slumped in recent weeks, since Balkan states began tightening their borders and an EU deal with Turkey took effect, aimed at curbing the migrant flow to Greece.
Some 20,000 people applied for asylum in Germany in March; in December it was 120,000. More than a million migrants entered Germany last year - a record number.
EU-Turkey migrant deal is 'working'
EU asylum seekers 'doubled in 2015'
EU migration: Crisis in seven charts
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.


The last How to Train Your Dragon book is out today and we caught up with author Cressida Cowell.

8 September 2015 Last updated at 08:26 BST
The twelfth and final book in the series is called "How to Fight A Dragon's Fury" and features the final battle between dragons and humans.
You've been sending in your brilliant questions for Cressida and we asked her who her favourite character from the series was and if she is working on any new books...


A 200-year-old windmill in Hampshire has reopened following a two-year restoration project.

The five-storey Bursledon Windmill had its wind shaft and sails replaced following a £94,000 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.
Built in 1814, it is believed to be the only working windmill in England that retains a wooden shaft.
Miller Jonathan Cook said it was "long-lived technology that works as well as when it was invented".
It is hoped the windmill will produce its own flour again by summer 2015.
Mr Cook said: "These are important buildings, any opportunity to see a windmill restored to a working condition is great news"
The Grade II-listed structure was rescued by Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust in the 1970s.
Annabel Cook of Hampshire Cultural Trust, which runs the windmill, said such mills were "a revolution in the way food production was carried out".
"We're hoping to bring to life what the idea of windmilling was and its importance in people's lives," she added.
The HLF funding for the latest restoration project was secured by Hampshire county, Eastleigh borough and Bursledon parish councils, as well as Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust.
A further £47,000 came from local councils to recruit and train more volunteers in traditional milling skills and help to run guided tours, workshops and special events.
The original timber wind shaft, which drives all the mill machinery and turns the sails, is expected to become an exhibit in an on-site museum.
The building is believed to be one of 27 such windmills regularly working in Britain.


India's Chhattisgarh state is investigating reports that thousands of women had unnecessary hysterectomies so hospitals could make insurance claims.

They were carried out under a national insurance scheme whereby private hospitals claim for treating patients who cannot afford expensive procedures.
Officials estimate more than 2,000 women were talked into having their wombs removed in the last six months.
The 34 medical centres accused have not yet commented on the allegations.
Speaking to the BBC, Chhattisgarh Health Minister Amar Agarwal said that action had also been taken against nine medical practitioners in the state after a preliminary inquiry.
"Around 34 private nursing homes are also under the scanner. We are going to take some stringent steps," he said.
The money was claimed by the medical centres under the terms of an
          Indian government health insurance scheme
 launched in 2007. It allows hospitals and clinics to claim 30,000 rupees ($545/Â£348) per family when required to treat any of the 60 million people living below the poverty line in India.
Critics say that the scheme has been widely abused by doctors, nursing homes and insurance agencies across the country since its inception.
Estimates say that more than 7,000 women may have been operated on over the last 30 months, and the state opposition says more than 50,000 women have received hysterectomies in Chhattisgarh over the last five years.
According to the reports being investigated by the government, poor women from remote areas approached nursing homes with ordinary medical issues. They were then allegedly "scared" by doctors into having surgery after being warned that they would contract cancer if their wombs were not removed.
There are even reports of women receiving hysterectomies after asking their doctors for treatment for back pain.
Some medical practitioners contend that while surgery was necessary in some cases, in others it could easily have been avoided.
State opposition leader Ravindra Chaubey alleged that the unnecessary operations were the result of "connivance between health department officials and private nursing homes".
He said that it happened because government medical hospitals do not have adequate medical facilities, which allows private nursing homes and practitioners to make money dishonestly.


People with mental health problems are being sent far from home for treatment, with some having to travel hundreds of kilometres.

NHS figures show 25 patients a month are treated in hospitals more than 186 miles (300km) away while 255 a month travelled more than 62 miles (100km).
Health bosses said patients were only sent far from home if the facilities do not exist in their locale.
Mental health charity Mind said the practice was "unacceptable".
Of the 25 patients being moved more than 300km for a bed each month, Cornwall accounts for about ten of these.
Patients from Norfolk, Suffolk, Devon, Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Manchester are among those sent at least 124 miles (200km) for beds.
The figures relate to adults only and have been compiled by NHS Digital from December 2016 to February 2017.
Vicki Nash, from mental health charity Mind, said the situation was "unacceptable".
She said: "When you're experiencing a mental health crisis your support network of family and friends are instrumental to recovery. Being far from home can make your mental health even worse and can increase the risk of suicide."
Dr Ranga Rao, the Royal College of Psychiatrists' national lead for acute in-patient care, said: "Inevitably, recovery takes longer during out-of-area care because people are away from their home, and don't have access to their friends and family.  It can't in any way be beneficial to your recovery."
The Government has pledged to eliminate inappropriate out of area placements by 2020-21.
Pol Hodge is from Cornwall and his daughter Chloe is being treated at an adult facility in Pontypridd, Wales, 200 miles away.
He said: "We calculated we have travelled around the world one a half times visiting Chloe in the last three and a half years.
"It's horrible because it holds up her recovery. Regular visits from friends and family are an important part of the process, but it isn't possible when she is so far away. It's incredibly disruptive but there isn't a place for her in Cornwall."
NHS Kernow, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: "Cornwall's figures for out of area placements are generally low, but for some people who need highly specialist care, they may need to be placed in the most suitable setting for their care, which unfortunately may be somewhere out of county.
"This may be because we do not have the facilities in county to support them, either due to the demand for their particular need, or because their needs may be specialist, and only available from particular providers."
The figures for individual trusts and CCGs are rounded to the nearest five.
Last year Cornwall's coroner raised concerns with the health secretary over the care of mentally ill patients far from home.
It came after an inquest jury concluded the death of a man from St Austell was suicide, while undergoing care 140 miles from where he lived.


Ben Heck specialises in what you might call "bonsai computing".

In a land that takes pride in making everything bigger - he exercises his right to miniaturise.
Namely, video games consoles.
In America he is a celebrity of the "maker" scene, thanks to his humorous broadcasts on YouTube. The Ben Heck Show (which he helpfully advertises on his T-shirt) sees him hack devices from smartphones to quadcopters, electronic doors and wheelchairs - often after requests from viewers.
He adapts these digital objects in surprising ways, as well as building new objects from scratch - and the show has been viewed more than 16 million times.
But he is best known as a "console modder" - an expert in deconstructing classic games consoles, and morphing them into different forms.
It is a passion he has cultivated as a hobby for nearly 15 years and stemmed from a fascination with computer gaming, growing up in Wisconsin.
More used to the circuit of the American maker scene, he has made a trip to hackers' camping festival Electromagnetic Field in Bletchley, just north of London, to connect with fellow British computing enthusiasts.
To appease the Brits, he has brought not a converted XBox, or Atari - two of his signature hacks - but Sir Clive Sinclair's 1980s ZX Spectrum.
In essence, his technique is to open up the guts of video games consoles, and mutilate them.
The shrinking is possible because he uses modern data storage, some up to date components which are less power hungry, and he replaces bulky elements, such as the screen, keyboard and casing, with his own parts.
"I hand-wired a duplicate of the Spectrum," he explains. "We found the schematics online and reproduced it along with some lithium ion batteries."
"That's why we put a window on the back of it," explains Heck, "to show off the wiring and prove that it's not an emulation, it's actually original hardware."
He sourced many of the original Spectrum Z80 chips from Ebay, before wiring them on prototyping boards.
"It's the real deal," he says.
In this way he has turned Commodore 64s and XBox 360s into laptops, and made portable, handheld versions of Atari, Sega and Sony consoles.
Video console makers are notoriously protective of their devices and the secrets behind their manufacture. But despite his notoriety, Heck has so far not encountered any objections, or legal action.
It is mainly people who "mod" to play pirated games they go after, he points out.
In the case of the ZX Spectrum, his new handheld version looks a bit like a Blackberry - a parallel he is keen to play down. (Though he points out it at least avoids the issue of having rubber keys.)
A tablet instead of a music cassette player can be plugged in to the computer to load games, though still using an audio lead.
"Ironically the tablet is around 2,000 times faster than the Spectrum," muses Heck. "2GHz quadcore versus 3.5Mhz in the Z80."
There is the familiar, tense wait for the game to load.
He has sourced the files for the game from the same retro site where he found the circuit designs, World of Spectrum, a magnet for the computer's international fan base.
Classic game Manic Miner fails to load on first attempt - a sign of the system's authenticity, insists Heck.
When it does arrive the sounds are familiar - and the Menagerie level is no easier on a small screen.
"It is pretty ironic," says Heck, "I could just download a Spectrum emulator on to this iPad."
Nostalgia apps
There is a huge nostalgia market for games of the 1980s, and emulator apps are available that allow you to download old titles and play them on mobile devices.
This has allowed games studios that have survived to make money from their old back catalogue.
But despite this appetite for retro games, Heck says he will not build another miniature ZX Spectrum. He hasn't made this to satisfy any market - just his own urge to see if it can be done.
But if the console modder's art seems a little self-indulgent and abstruse, Heck has one antidote to this.
Through his work he has received a steady stream of requests from disabled people, and relatives of disabled people, to see if he could make a games controller operated with one hand.
Many were heartfelt pleas to help war veterans, stroke sufferers and car accident victims, who loved to game, and wanted to continue to do so.
"It feels good" to fulfil these requests, says Heck. "Controllers like that are a small percentage of the population, so solutions aren't usually made for them.
"That's where I come in!"
Watch Ben Heck load and play Manic Miner on his mini-Spectrum.


Spectacular lightning storms have hit parts of Scotland - hours after the country enjoyed the hottest day of the year.

Day turned to night in some parts as thunder, lightning flashes and heavy rain struck on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
There were reports that "gobstopper-sized" hailstones dented cars at Eastriggs, near Annan.
And a church tower in Denny was damaged after it was struck by lightning.
Firefighters were called to Denny Old Parish Church at 09:52 but there was no sign of any fire.
A Church of Scotland spokesman said it did not cause major damage and steeplejacks would carry out temporary repairs.
In the Highlands, swimming pools complex Inverness Leisure and the Highland Folk Museum in Newtownmore were closed as a result of lightning and heavy rain.
Meanwhile in the Borders a lightning strike appears to have knocked out phones in the Eyemouth area.
Police and the fire service were in the Hinkar Way and Haymons Cove area amid concerns that it could have affected the 999 service.
Earlier a yellow warning of heavy rain in Scotland was issued by the Met Office.
Forecasters warned people to be aware of the risk of localised flash flooding.
The Met Office said: "Frequent lightning, large hail and strong winds could be additional hazards.
"All of this could lead to some flooding of homes, businesses and transport networks. Disruption to power is also possible."
Residents in the Scottish Border were warned of possible severe weather until 15:00.
Up to 50mm of rain was expected in the region before the storm moves north east, according to the local authority.
A spokesman for Scottish Borders Council said extremely heavy, isolated downpours of rain were forecast, as well as the potential for hail, significant lightning and strong gusts of wind.
Images from the University of Dundee's satellite receiving station dramatically illustrated the changing nature of the British summer.
One taken at 12:55 on Tuesday shows only a light cloud covering in Scotland, where temperatures soared to 29C.
In a second picture taken almost 24 hours later, much of the country is covered in the thick cloud as it endured thunder, lightning and heavy rain.
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Scientists have discovered the best-preserved nervous system in an ancient fossil.

Dating back 520 million years, the clawed spider-like fossil shows clear evidence of a brain and of nerve cords running through the creature's trunk.
The specimen now confirms that the ancestors of spiders and scorpions were related, but branched off more than half-a-billion years ago.
A team of international scientists present their work in Nature.
The "great appendage" arthropods, are an extinct group of joint-legged creatures with large claw-like appendages - or growths - protruding from their heads.
The nervous system tends to be similar between major groups of animals, which helps palaeontologists work out how they are related, explained Greg Edgecombe from the Natural History Museum in London.
"The nervous system is one of the more reliable tool-kits we have. We were trying to investigate whether there was evidence for the preservation of neural tissues from very early parts of the animal fossil record," he told BBC News.
"What we've been working with is fossils with very fine anatomical preservation from the Cambrian period. These have given us information about brains, the nerve cords and the neural tissue that goes into the eyes."
New to science, the fossil was recently discovered in South China and is part of the genus Alalcomenaeus. This group had segmented bodies equipped with about a dozen pairs of appendages which enabled the creatures to swim or crawl.
It was placed in a CT scanner and compared with other arthropods in order to understand its evolution. The team then used 3D software to see structures not visible on the surface of the fossil.
"People like myself who are mad keen on creepy crawlies want to understand how very strange early arthropods relate to living ones," added Dr Edgecombe.
"By having access to the nervous system it allows us to study the evolutionary relationships of very ancient fossils using the same kind of information that we would use for living animals."
Co-author, Xiaoya Ma, also from the Natural History Museum, said: "It is very exciting to use new techniques to successfully reveal such a complete central nervous system from a 520-million-year old fossil, and in such detail."
She told the BBC's Science in Action programme that the high resolution of the reconstructed image allowed the team to see "the concentrated neural structures in the head region". They could also observe the segments of the brain associated with the claw-like appendages.
The fossil belongs to an extinct group of marine arthropods known as megacheirans, Greek for "large claws".
To infer the evolutionary relationships between species, the fields of palaeontology and neuroanatomy came together.
Nicholas Strausfeld was from the anatomy side of the team at the University of Arizona, US.
"We now know that the megacheirans had central nervous systems very similar to today's horseshoe crabs and scorpions," said Prof Strausfeld.
"This means the ancestors of spiders and their kin lived side by side with the ancestors of crustaceans in the Lower Cambrian."
He added that their prominent appendages were clearly used for grasping and holding.
"Based on their location, we can now say that the biting mouthparts in spiders and their relatives evolved from these appendages."
The team says they expect to find more fossils dating even further back, which will shed new light onto the ancestors of many of today's arthropods.


A top civil servant has defended a £1.2m tax-payer investigation into the NI Events Company, saying he believed it was value for money.

But MLAs heard there was no business case and the initial cost was estimated at a sum of at least £250,000.
The investigation, launched by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti), took five-and-a-half years to complete.
It was carried out by an outside firm of experts.
The Events Company - a quango run by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Dcal) - folded in 2007 after losses of £1.5m were discovered.
The Northern Ireland Audit Office recently described the conduct of its former chief executive, Janice McAleese, as the worst it had seen from a senior public official.
Deti's permanent secretary, Andrew McCormick, has been defending a follow-up investigation, launched in 2008, at a session of the Public Accounts Committee (Pac).
He said the inquiry would help the PSNI in its ongoing criminal probe.
Mr McCormick said the initial estimate was only "a stab" at costs, but it turned out to be a "long, tortuous investigative process".
He said investigators had to examine 122,000 documents and 350,000 emails.
He said the investigation had been partly held-up by the PSNI and Ms McAleese's refusal to co-operate for a year.
Disqualification proceedings are being considered against members of the Events Company board.


Late goals from Simon Murray and Paul Dixon sent Dundee United into the Scottish Premiership play-off final.

James Craigen had given Falkirk the lead in the semi-final second leg, after the first meeting ended 2-2.
But in the final 15 minutes, Murray, then Dixon, found the net to send the visiting supporters into raptures.
United's dramatic victory sets up a two-legged final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle or Hamilton Academical for a top-flight berth.
The Premiership's bottom two battle to avoid finishing last, and suffering automatic relegation, on Saturday.
Dixon's 87th-minute winner, his first goal in more than five years, puts United into the first leg of the play-off final, at Tannadice on Thursday, before the top-flight side host Ray McKinnon's men on Sunday, 28 May.
The away support stayed long after the final whistle to chant and sing about their team, especially happy given that they had trailed for a large part of the match.
Craigen has scored five goals this season and three of those have been against United.
His scissor-kick finish in the first leg was spectacular and his excellent technique came to the fore again this time as he kept the angled drive low at the edge of the box, following good work by John Baird and Aaron Muirhead.
The Falkirk Stadium had not been a happy hunting ground for the Tangerines, with 3-0 and 3-1 defeats already experienced this season.
Friday's match was the visitors' fifth game in 14 days, having already overcome Morton in the play-off quarter-finals, and McKinnon commented before the match that dips in the North Sea at St Andrews had been part of their team-building.
For parts of the first half some players were indeed all at sea and seemed a bit nervous - Mark Durnan on one occasion almost having a serious mix-up with goalkeeper Cammy Bell.
But towards the end of the opening 45 minutes United settled and created a few chances.
Thomas Mikkelsen headed and curled two separate efforts over, while Murray fluffed his lines after a nice Tony Andreu cut-back.
That theme continued after the break as the visitors were encouraged by shooting towards the away support.
Those fans were celebrating when William Edjenguele's eight-yard volley crashed in off the crossbar but referee Kevin Clancy whistled for a foul when he saw Mikkelsen leaning into Paul Watson.
Undeterred, Murray set up Andreu who turned his effort round the wrong side of the post, before Bairns goalkeeper Robbie Thomson held Murray's header tightly.
Despite their calmness, Falkirk had gone a while without troubling Bell until Craigen's left-footer spun wide of the post.
From that moment on the night was United's.
Blair Spittal flicked on a long ball and Muirhead got the ball caught under his foot, which allowed the potent Murray to steal in and side-foot beyond Thomson.
Substitute Alex Nicholls was only on the pitch because of an injury to previous substitute Scott Fraser.
But the Englishman floated in a great cross for Dixon, who might have pushed Tom Taiwo slightly as he raced in to send a looping header over Thomson.
Match ends, Falkirk 1, Dundee United 2.
Second Half ends, Falkirk 1, Dundee United 2.
Foul by Simon Murray (Dundee United).
Aaron Muirhead (Falkirk) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Aaron Muirhead (Falkirk) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Simon Murray (Dundee United) is shown the yellow card.
Goal!  Falkirk 1, Dundee United 2. Paul Dixon (Dundee United) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Alex Nicholls.
Wato Kuate (Dundee United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Nathan Austin (Falkirk).
Blair Spittal (Dundee United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Myles Hippolyte (Falkirk) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Blair Spittal (Dundee United).
Luke Leahy (Falkirk) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Alex Nicholls (Dundee United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Luke Leahy (Falkirk).
Substitution, Falkirk. Myles Hippolyte replaces James Craigen.
Substitution, Dundee United. Alex Nicholls replaces Scott Fraser because of an injury.
Goal!  Falkirk 1, Dundee United 1. Simon Murray (Dundee United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Blair Spittal.
Mark Durnan (Dundee United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Nathan Austin (Falkirk) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Mark Durnan (Dundee United).
Substitution, Dundee United. Charlie Telfer replaces Willo Flood.
Substitution, Dundee United. Scott Fraser replaces Thomas Mikkelsen.
Attempt saved. Simon Murray (Dundee United) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Attempt missed. James Craigen (Falkirk) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right.
Substitution, Falkirk. Robert McHugh replaces John Baird.
Attempt saved. Simon Murray (Dundee United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Attempt missed. Tony Andreu (Dundee United) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left.
Nathan Austin (Falkirk) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by William Edjenguele (Dundee United).
Substitution, Falkirk. Tom Taiwo replaces Joe McKee.
Wato Kuate (Dundee United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Craig Sibbald (Falkirk).
Foul by Thomas Mikkelsen (Dundee United).
Paul Watson (Falkirk) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner,  Dundee United. Conceded by Joe McKee.
Attempt missed. Thomas Mikkelsen (Dundee United) header from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right.
Second Half begins Falkirk 1, Dundee United 0.
First Half ends, Falkirk 1, Dundee United 0.
Attempt missed. James Craigen (Falkirk) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.


Police are appealing for help in identifying a man whose body was found on a path in Bridgefoot near Dundee.

The man, whose death is not being treated as suspicious, was found close to Rosemill Road at about 08:00.
He is described as aged 30 to 40, white, about 5ft 6in tall, of slim build with short dark hair.
He was wearing a blue and grey waterproof jacket, black trousers, black and red walking shoes and had a purple rucksack.
Police have urged anyone who recognises the description of the man, or has any information that could assist in identifying him, to contact them.


In his spending review last Wednesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, talked about "the devolution revolution" in which some of the big decisions about where money is spent are made locally instead of centrally.

1 December 2015 Last updated at 09:29 GMT
This would give local communities more power and control over things like transport and business rates, but it would also involve the election of a Mayor.
BBC Look North's political editor Len Tingle takes a look at the future for Yorkshire and how this could work.


Celtic will play Northern Irish champions Linfield or San Marino's SP La Fiorita in the second qualifying round of the Champions League.

Belfast's Linfield and SP La Fiorita will play in the first qualifying round with the winners taking on Brendan Rodgers' treble winners, who were seeded in the draw in Nyon.
Celtic will play away from home first.
Also entering in the first round are Welsh side The New Saints, who will play Gibraltar's Europa.
Celtic were seeded in Group Three, along with Poland's Legia Warsaw, Maribor of Slovenia, Swedish outfit Malmo, Rosenborg of Norway and Iceland's Hafnarfjordur.
The first qualifying round first-leg ties will be on 27 or 28 June with the return legs on 4 or 5 July. The dates for the second qualifying round ties are 11/12 July and 18/19 July.
Last season, Celtic came through the second and third qualifying rounds, and then the play-off round, to reach the group stage, finishing bottom of their section.
Champions League first qualifying round
Vikingur (Faroe Isles) v Trepca '89 (Kosovo)
Hibernians (Malta) v Tallinn (Estonia)
Alashkert (Armenia) v Santa Coloma (Andorra)
The New Saints v Europa (Gibraltar)
Linfield v SP La Fiorita (San Marino)
Champions League second qualifying round
Group 1
Apoel (Cyprus) v Dudelange (Luxembourg)
Zalgiris (Lithuania) v Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)
Qarabag (Azerbaijan) v Samtredia (Georgia)
Partizan (Serbia) v Budućnost Podgorica (Montenegro)
Hibernians (Malta) or FCI Tallinn (Estonia) v Salzburg (Austria)
Group 2
Sheriff (Moldova) v Kukes (Albania)
Astana (Kazakhstan) v Spartaks Jurmala (Latvia)
BATE Borisov (Belarus) v Alashkert (Armenia) or FC Santa Coloma (Andorra)
Zilina (Slovakia) v Copenhagen (Denamrk)
Hapoel Beer-Sheva (Israel) v Budapest Honvéd (Hungary)
Rijeka (Croatia) v The New Saints or Europa (Gibraltar)
Group 3
Malmo (Sweden) v Vardar (Macedonia)
Zrinjski (Bosnia and Herzegovina) v Maribor (Slovenia)
Dundalk (Ireland) v Rosenborg (Norway)
FH Hafnarfjördur (Iceland) v Víkingur (Faroe Islands) or Trepça '89 (Kosovo)
Linfield or SP La Fiorita (San Marino) v Celtic
IFK Mariehamn (Finland) v Legia Warszawa (Poland)


A family whose car was destroyed in an arson attack in Londonderry have said they want to know why they were targeted.

The car, in Glencaw Park in the Galliagh area of the city, was set on fire at about 23:45 GMT on Wednesday evening.
It is believed a petrol bomb was used in the attack. No-one was injured.
Three men, dressed in balaclavas and dark jackets, were seen running away from the car after it was set alight.
The family were in the house at the time with their four children.
The children's aunt said her brother chased the men but was not able to catch them.
"He just wants to know why they did it," she said. "That's the only thing that is really bothering him.
"He would like them to approach him and tell him why they did it with the children in the house.
"We're not going to move out. We want to stay and get it sorted out."
She added that the children were frightened after the incident.
"The oldest one knows everything that's going on, she's terrified to stay in the house now," she said.
"She was asking everything about the police being involved. She's only six years old.
"It's not as if we could have hid it from her because she was awakened by all the noise and banging."
SDLP councillor Brian Tierney said the family were "shocked and distraught" by the attack.
The police have appealed for information.


Ronnie O'Sullivan maintained his four-frame gap to lead 10-6 against Shaun Murphy in an intriguing second session in the World Championship last 16.

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The English five-time champion established a 6-2 overnight advantage and scored two half-centuries to go 9-4 up, despite compatriot Murphy opening with a fine break of 70.
World number five Murphy responded in style after the interval with breaks of 84, 73 and 87, but he missed a simple green, allowing O'Sullivan to move to within three frames of victory.
Kyren Wilson secured his place in the quarter-finals with a 13-10 win over 2015 champion Stuart Bingham, while Ding Junhui leads Liang Wenbo 9-7 in an all-Chinese second-round meeting.
Meanwhile on Friday afternoon, Northern Ireland's Mark Allen scored three centuries to build a 5-3 lead against Scotland's John Higgins.
Four-time world champion Higgins did not pot a ball as Allen compiled breaks of 71, 65 and 100 to win the first two frames.
Higgins drew level but consecutive tons and an 82 put Allen 4-2 ahead before the world number six won a nervy final frame to stay in touch. The  match resumes on Saturday morning.
O'Sullivan seemed intent on crushing Murphy inside two sessions for the second time at the Crucible, three years after beating him 13-3.
He added two more half-centuries to the four 50s and 128 he scored on Thursday in a blistering start, as Murphy's aim deserted him in the face of the relentless pressure.
But the Nottingham man hit back and looked like taking all four frames in the second mini-session, only to fail to make the most of a fluked yellow.
Murphy missed the green with his next shot and O'Sullivan cleared up.
The match plays to a finish on Saturday morning, with the winner facing Ding Junhui or Liang Wenbo.
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Peter Ebdon, 2002 world champion, on BBC TV
Ronnie O'Sullivan seems to be on a mission. He is playing with an intention and focus I have not seen for a long time.
He is playing very fluently and there is a determination and steeliness about his whole demeanour this year.
It's a very impressive comeback by Shaun Murphy, but he will be kicking himself for not winning that final frame.
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A rocket attack has killed three members of an Iranian opposition group in Iraq, the group and its parent organisation say.

They say a number of people from the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) group were injured at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.
Baghdad has in the past repeatedly denied attacking the group.
MEK members fought with Iraq against Iran in the 1980s, but have since fallen out with the current Iraqi government.
In an emailed message, the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the MEK's parent group, said dozens of missiles hit the camp on Thursday evening.
It said two residents were killed and a third later died in hospital of his wounds.
The US condemned the attack "in the strongest terms" and urged Iraq to better protect the camp.
An Iranian-backed Shia militia, al-Mukhtar Army, said it had fired rockets at the camp, Reuters news agency reported.
The camp is located in a former US military base, near Baghdad's airport.
The Iraqi authorities have made no public comments on the report. However, one security official was quoted by the Associated Press as saying four rockets hit the camp, injuring two people.
In September, the MEK accused Iraqi forces of attacking Camp Ashraf north-east of Baghdad and killing 52 of the group's members.
In recent years, Baghdad has been trying to dismantle MEK camps and eject the group.
Iran considers the MEK a terrorist group.
The group was removed from the US state department's list of terrorist organisations last year.


(Close): Shares in Standard Chartered jumped nearly 10% after it reported better than expected results.

The Asia-focused bank reported pre-tax profits of $589m for the January to March period.
Although that was down from a $1.4bn profit a year earlier, it compared with a loss of $4.05bn in the final quarter of 2015.
Standard Chartered was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100, with the index up 23.6 points at 6,284.52.
Investors were cheered by signs that the number of bad loans at the bank had fallen.
Standard Chartered said losses from impaired loans were $471m in the January to March period, compared with $1.13bn in the previous quarter.
The bank's chief executive, Bill Winters, said: "Although trading conditions in the first quarter remained challenging, we continue to make good progress on our strategic objectives."
In November last year, Standard Chartered said it would raise $5.1bn and cut 15,000 jobs by 2018 as part of a turnaround plan.
Elsewhere on the London market, positive results from oil giant BP and Costa Coffee owner Whitbread also gave the FTSE 100 a lift.
BP  shares rose 4.3% after its first quarter results beat expectations.
The oil company reported a $485m loss for the three months to March, but on an underlying basis it posted a better-than-expected profit of $532m.
Shares in Whitbread - which also owns Premier Inn hotels as well as Costa Coffee - rose 2.6% after it reported an 11.9% rise in underlying annual pre-tax profits to £546.3m.
In the FTSE 250, shares in engineering company Cobham dived 17% after it announced plans for a £500m rights issue in order to cut its debt.
Cobham also reported a 70% fall in first quarter profits to £15m
On the currency markets, the pound rose as expectations grew that the UK would vote to remain in the EU in June's referendum. Sterling climbed 0.85% against the dollar to $1.4605, and was up 0.4% against the euro at €1.2907.


Home Office staff and contractors working for the department have been warned not to post negative comments about Donald Trump on social media.

Staff working at the department's digital data and technology unit were told last week that some of their Twitter comments were "not compliant".
According to The Register, staff were warned to be "careful" and comply with civil service guidance on impartiality.
The US president is expected to make a state visit to the UK later this year.
Many MPs have been critical of the invitation extended by Downing Street so early in Mr Trump's presidency while Commons Speaker John Bercow has said he does not support the US president addressing Parliament during the occasion, citing his travel ban and comments he has made about women.
However, Prime Minister Theresa May - a former home secretary - has insisted that the visit is vital to cementing the long-standing special relationship between the two countries as the UK embarks on leaving the European Union.
In an e-mail obtained by The Register technology news website, and seen by the BBC, Home Office staff have been warned to "avoid commenting on politically controversial issues" in general and "giving personal opinions about the organisation".
They were reminded the Home Office's social media guidance had been updated and that they, as well as temporary employees and contractors, must observe the rules on not sharing information about the work of the department or saying they work for the Home Office on personal accounts.
It read: "A quick look through just a couple of known personal Twitter accounts of staff members shows that some are not compliant, stating that they work for the Home Office, posting HO work, whilst tweeting or retweeting negative posts about, for example, Donald Trump.
"We need to be careful here and ensure all our staff are following this guidance which reflects the Civil Service Code."
The Home Office told the Daily Telegraph that it did not comment on internal correspondence but a spokesman told the newspaper that all staff were expected to adhere to the values and standards of behaviour set out in the code.
"This includes the need for political impartiality and also applies to the use of social media," it added. "We recently updated our guidance on the use of social media by staff to make it clearer and easier to understand.
"This is in line with the Cabinet Office's guidelines and the changes have been communicated to all staff."
The Home Office employs more than 25,000 staff.


Heather Watson's Monterrey Open title defence ended in the quarter-finals as she lost 6-4 6-4 to world number one Angelique Kerber.

The 24-year-old British world 125 could not convert any of her eight break points and lost in one hour 23 minutes.
Kerber seized upon her only break point of the first set to lead 4-3 and again in the opening game of the second.
The German now plays Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro, while Caroline Garcia plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.


A campaign group has gone to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to help clear the names of TV actor Ricky Tomlinson and 23 others of picketing offences.

The Royle Family star was among building workers put on trial in Shrewsbury in 1973 after being charged under the 1875 Conspiracy Act.
He served 16 months of a two-year jail sentence after being convicted.
Mr Tomlinson is part of a group leading the Shrewsbury Pickets Campaign.
He said: "It's affecting our lives even now. I had trouble getting to America... It took me nine months to get a passport.
"Why are we still appealing after 40 years? We're appealing because we're innocent.
"I am 73 in September and I would like to have my name cleared before I die.
"It has caused me a lot of pain and upset over the years but I am confident we will finally get justice."
The CCRC is an independent public body responsible for investigating suspected miscarriages of criminal justice.
It assesses whether convictions or sentences should be referred to a court of appeal.
The campaign's submission argues that the original case against the workers was political and an abuse of power by the Conservative government of the day.
The Conservative Party has not commented.
The 24 workers were put on trial a year after the 1972 building strike ended.
Terry Renshaw, 64, from Bagillt, Flintshire, Wales, who said he was given a four-month suspended sentence, said: "I feel humbled in some way at the way that the campaign's been brought about by people who do not even know us."
The pickets' solicitor, Rhona Friedman, said the hard work of campaigners and pickets and the support of friends and families "must surely expose some of the hidden truths in this case".
She said: "We believe that material currently being held by various bodies such as the Cabinet Office for 'security reasons' will help to exonerate these men.
"The public interest in overturning a miscarriage of justice surely outweighs potential government and civil service embarrassment over events of almost 40 years ago."
A 79-year-old man given a four-month suspended sentence and a son of a picket who has died were also among about 20 campaigners who submitted the bid to the CCRC in Birmingham, Mr Renshaw said.
Another group of people, containing members of unions including building workers union UCATT, displayed a banner saying "Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets" outside the building in St Philips Place.
Mr Renshaw said it could be anything from two months to several years before they find out whether the CCRC refers to the court of appeal.
A CCRC spokesman said: "The application arrived today and we will be treating it the same as we would any other application of this kind."


You might be used to carving pumpkins for Halloween, but these guys have taken it to a whole new level!

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14 October 2014 Last updated at 15:58 BST
Every year a town in Maine, in America, competes in a boat race with a difference as part of the town's annual pumpkin celebrations leading up to Halloween.
Competitors carve giant boats out of pumpkins and race them down a river in order to win the "coveted"  Golden Gourd trophy.
They are judged on their pumpkin carving ability, and their paddling speed.


Police have released a video of a 25-year-old who drove around a supermarket car park with three other youths hanging from his car.

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10 October 2014 Last updated at 16:54 BST
CCTV captured Samuel Cooper doing "dangerous stunts" in Asda car park on Bower Road, Harrogate.
Appearing at Harrogate Magistrates' Court, Cooper, of Verity Walk, Harrogate, admitted dangerous driving and driving without insurance.
He was banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to take an extended driving test.
Cooper was also ordered to pay a total of Â£145.
(Video courtesy of North Yorkshire Police)