More Third-World Britain?
Disc search moves to courier firm
The
search for the two missing discs containing the details of 25m
Child Benefit claimants has moved to a number of depots of courier
company TNT.
The computer discs went
missing after being put into the
internal post at HM Revenue and Customs in Tyne and Wear.
Police are now focusing on premises of TNT, which
delivers HMRC mail, after completing inquiries at HMRC's offices.
A spokesman for TNT confirmed that its premises in
London had been searched on Friday night.
He said it was impossible to say whether the CDs had
ever entered TNT's system.
"We are all working on
that theory, but it cannot be
proved one way or the other," he said.
Missile plan sneaked out, say MPs
|
Menwith Hill is the largest electronic
monitoring station in the world
|
Plans to use an RAF
base for a US ballistic missile defence system
were sneaked out by ministers and should be debated in Parliament, MPs
have said.
The Foreign Affairs
Select Committee criticised the way
plans were announced as MPs left Westminster for the summer.
The RAF base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire will
host a tracking system linked to US satellites and interceptor missiles
based outside the UK.
The Ministry of Defence
says there was "no intention" to bury the plans.
Blair feared faith 'nutter' label
Mr Blair said politicians who talk about
religion "get into trouble"
|
Tony Blair avoided
talking about his religious views while in office
for fear of being labelled "a nutter", the former prime minister has
revealed.
In an interview for BBC One's The Blair Years, he
said that his faith had been "hugely important" to his premiership.
His ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell once told reporters:
"We don't do God."
Mr Campbell has now acknowledged to the programme that
his former boss "does do God in quite a big way", but that both men
feared the public would be wary.
PM stands firm amid poll shocks
Gordon Brown has urged voters to take a long-term
view, as polls
suggest the government has been hurt by rows over Northern Rock and
missing benefit data.
A News of the World
survey of 547 people suggests 46% think the prime
minister is bad in a crisis. And a Sunday Telegraph poll of 1,005
people suggests 50% are dissatisfied with Chancellor Alastair Darling. Mr Brown said there were events over which he had no
control, but that Labour had brought economic stability.
Voice of the Tube silenced by LU
 |
Emma Clarke has been working for LU for eight
year
|
The woman who became
the "Voice of the
Tube" has been sacked after allegedly criticising London Underground
(LU).
Voiceover artist Emma
Clarke, 36, is the woman millions
of Tube travellers hear warning them to "mind the gap".
Ms Clarke, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, upset
her paymasters by allegedly saying she did not use the Tube because it
was "dreadful".
LU said it would not be offering her further work but Ms
Clarke said she had been "wildly misquoted".
'Creepy experience'
She told BBC News:
"What I actually said was that
travelling in a Tube train would be dreadful for me, listening to my
own voice and seeing the haunted faces of commuters being subjected to
me telling them to 'mind the gap'.
"I would find it quite an uncomfortable experience in
the same way that when I call a company when I'm their on hold voice
and it's me saying - please press 2 for accounts - it's a creepy
experience to be honest."
We would like to remind our American
tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly
Spoof announcement by Emma Clarke
Ms Clarke also made a series of spoof
announcements on
a website promoting her voiceover work.
An LU spokesman said: "It's not because of the spoof
announcements. It's because she has criticised the Underground system."
"Some of the spoof announcements are very funny. But
Emma is a bit silly to go round slagging off her client's services."
Brown to answer 'crisis' claims
Mr Brown faces tough questions at his monthly
press conference
|
The Conservatives
have accused the government of being "in crisis"
after Labour's general secretary resigned in a new row about party
funding.
Peter Watt stood down
after it emerged that
property
developer David Abrahams donated nearly £600,000 to the party,
over
four years, via three associates. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to
face tough questions over the issue at his monthly press conference
later. Shadow chancellor George Osborne said Labour is "now officially
in crisis".
He said: "Everything Gordon Brown promised about his
premiership - competence, honesty and change - has been blown away in
the last few weeks."
It is clear that
there are many more questions that need to be answered about this whole
affair
Vince Cable Acting Lib Dem leader
Mr
Osborne's comments come amid a torrid week for the
prime minister which has seen loss of millions of child benefit
records, the ongoing Northern Rock crisis and attacks from former army
chiefs. The shadow chancellor also demanded to
know whether Mr
Brown was aware of the donation, adding that it was "beyond belief"
that Mr Watt had not objected to the money.
Donor was 'unaware of illegality'
Mr Abrahams said he used intermediaries to avoid
publicity
|
The man at the centre
of the Labour donations row has said he had
not realised that his actions were illegal.
Property developer David
Abrahams gave more than
£600,000 to Labour which was not declared and given via
middlemen.
Mr Abrahams told BBC's Newsnight he did not know "until
the weekend" that he must declare donations, adding he would have acted
differently if he knew.
He also said he had backed Hilary Benn's bid to be
Labour deputy leader and personally handed him a cheque.
The property developer said he could not remember the
circumstances that led to an associate backing Harriet Harman with a
£5,000 donation in the same election.
He admitted using intermediaries to make donations, but
said he behaved in this way to avoid publicity.
Mr Abrahams also revealed that, on Tuesday, he received
a letter from the party's chief fundraiser calling him one of Labour's
"strongest supporters".
According to Mr Abrahams, the letter read: "At some
point I would like to have the opportunity to talk with you personally
about what we are doing and our plans between now and the next general
election.
|
DONORS
Ray Ruddick - £196,850
Janet Kidd - £185,000 since 2003
John McCarthy - £257,125 since 2004
Janet Dunn - £25,000
Source: Electoral Commission
|
"I know your diary is very busy, but as one of the
party's strongest supporters it is only right that you are kept
informed with what we are doing and the priorities that we are
assigning to our resources."
However, the property developer said he did not know how
many people within the party knew of his donations.
Under the law, those making donations on behalf of
others must give details of who is providing the money.
Mr Abrahams also told the BBC: "Until the weekend I
didn't know it was illegal for a person who hadn't personally donated
to have to declare his hand to the Electoral Commission, otherwise I
most certainly wouldn't have contributed in this way."
Gordon Brown has said the donations were "completely
unacceptable" and would be repaid.
I acted within law, says Harman
|
Ms Harman said she acted in good faith
|
Harriet Harman has
told MPs she acted
"within both the letter and
spirit of the law" in the row over a property developer's disguised
donations.
She came under fire for
accepting a £5,000
donation for
her deputy leader bid from Janet Kidd, who it turns out was acting on
behalf of David Abrahams.
Gordon Brown has said that donations to Labour from Mr
Abrahams, given under other people's names, were not lawful.
For the Tories, Theresa May said Ms Harman was facing a
"sleaze scandal".
How the super-rich just get richer
|
By Helen Williamson
BBC Money Programme
|
Brand Beckham shows no sign of losing its
commercial lure
|
Britain has more
rich people than ever before, and it
is not just footballers like David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.
With a global economy,
successful people in all sorts of
professions can now command global-scale pay packets.
The mega-successful at the top of their profession are
taking advantage of a phenomenon known as the "Superstar Premium".
Advances in multi-media technology mean that today's
superstars operate in a global marketplace.
By being the best in their field, they attract a
disproportionate amount of business compared to less successful
competitors.
Is Thames Gateway too ambitious?
|
See a computer generated image of one of the
Thames Gateway projects in the Ebbsfleet Valley
|
Billed as Europe's
largest regeneration project,
Thames Gateway certainly looks good on paper.
Plans for the 40-mile
long area, stretching either side
of the river from London's Docklands east into Essex and Kent, aim to
transform it into, in the words of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, "a
great place to do business, a great place to work, a great place to
live" by 2016.
Ministers promise 160,000 new zero-carbon homes, 225,000
new jobs, extra college places, more training opportunities and better
transport links.
But, many are asking, can the government pull off such
an ambitious plan?
Some already fear it can't.
Earlier this month, the Public Accounts Select Committee
warned the project could become a "public spending calamity" if
management was not "vastly" improved.
It also concluded that the Department for Communities
and Local Government, which is overseeing the scheme, was "not up to
the job".
And in May, the National Audit Office said house
building within the project area needed to "more than double" to meet
its targets.
Orthodontist challenging the NHS
|
By Adam Brimelow
BBC News health correspondent
|
Eddie Crouch is taking a professional risk
|
Dentists have
pledged thousands of pounds to support a colleague who
is fighting a new government dental contract in the High Court.
Eddie Crouch, from
Birmingham, says his local health
trust failed to consult the public on the changes introduced last year.
Lawyers have warned that if he is successful it could
lead to a major overhaul of dental services across England and Wales.
But if he loses, he risks bankruptcy.
I visited him at work, at an orthodontist practice in
south Birmingham.
|
 I have real reservations
on how that waiting list is going to be managed 
|
Dr Crouch's teeth straightening skills are much in
demand.
And that has become a problem because, he says, since
the dentists' contract came into force last year he has been telling
people they will have to wait for treatment.
"Our waiting lists have risen quite dramatically, and in
the first 18 months of the contract our waiting list is approaching a
year," he said.
"If that has happened in the first 18 months of the
contract then I have real reservations on how that waiting list is
going to be managed."
Who'd live in a house like this?
|
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine
|
House sharing has
become a way of life for many
renters who have been priced out of the property market. But coping
with fellow house mates' odd behaviour can lead to extreme responses.
The first time Jessica
met her male housemate he woke
her up at 3am, perched himself on her bed and tried to kiss her.
"I said 'You'd better go' and he did," she recalls. "The
next day I told him 'That can't happen again' but it did, twice."
Three months later, Jessica, in her early 30s, moved
out. "It was a really cool and quirky house but living in that kind of
situation meant it went very rapidly from something quite fun and
adventurous to something that was quite depressing."
|
FAMOUS HOUSEMATES
|
|
Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes (above)
Ant and Dec
David Baddiel and Frank Skinner
Tony Blair and Lord Falconer
|
Although perhaps an extreme example, such conflicts and
moments of
awkwardness are commonplace in a society that is renting shared
accommodation in greater numbers.
A nervy housing market, more single people and increased
immigration are factors contributing to the strongest demand for
tenants in years, according to letting agents.
Students are used to sharing but communal living can be
a part of life for a decade while careers get off the ground and
deposits are saved.
There can be clear social benefits to being thrust
together with others - countless friendships, relationships and
marriages have a "Housemate wanted" advert to thank.
But sharing a fridge, a kitchen sink, a television
remote and a bathroom with others who have a different perspective on
life is destined to be for many people a tense experience.
Providing support after the fire
The funeral is taking place of
one of four
firefighters killed in a warehouse blaze in Warwickshire on 2 November.
What help and support is available to families after such tragedies?
The firefighters' benevolent fund was started in
1943, after the Blitz
|
The deaths of John Averis, Ashley Stephens, Darren
Yates-Badley and Ian Reid bring the total number of firefighters to die
in the UK to more than 2,000, according to the Firefighters' Memorial
Charitable Trust, which has figures dating back to 1723.
The trust has a permanent memorial close to St Paul's
Cathedral where it honours the lives of more than 1,000 men and women
of the National, and Auxiliary Fire Service, many of whom were killed
at the height of the Blitz, in World War II.
It was that massive loss of firefighters' lives which
led to the establishment of a charity to support those widowed and
orphaned.
The Fire Services National Benevolent Fund (FSNBF) was
formed in 1943 to help serving and retired members of the fire service
by offering practical support, which extends to close family.
It is one of the bodies - along with the individual fire
and rescue services and the Fire Brigades Union - which ensure that
those injured, or the families of those killed while serving, have
their needs looked after.
Boy, 15, is found hanged in cell
Liam McManus had not been identified as being at
risk
|
A 15-year-old boy
has died after being found hanged in his cell in
Lancashire, the Prison Service has confirmed.
Liam McManus, of St
Helens, Merseyside, was
discovered
by staff at Lancaster Farms Young Offenders' Institution on Thursday
morning.
Staff and paramedics tried to resuscitate him but he was
pronounced dead at the facility.
The teenager was sentenced earlier this month to one
month and 14 days for breaching a supervision order.
A Prison Service spokesman said he was in a single cell
but had not been identified as being at risk of self-harm.
A statement from the service said: "Our deepest
sympathies are with Liam's family and friends.
"As with all deaths in custody this will be investigated
by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman."
The last under-18 death at Lancaster Farms was Gareth
Price, 16, who was found hanged in January 2005.
The inquest into his death opened earlier this month at
Lancaster Shire Hall.
Schools face up to global leagues
England's schools have struggled in the World
Cup of reading
|
What do the England
football team and English
schools have in
common? The answer is that both have just failed to make the grade in
the latest international competitions.
And let's have no
sniggering from north of the border:
Scotland also failed to qualify for the elite league in either football
or reading scores, although its fall in the latter rankings was less
dramatic than England's.
But does it matter? Should there be resignations or
sackings? Well, in the case of football, the answer was clearly "yes".
In education it is harder to tell.
This is not because
football is more important than
educational performance (perish the thought) but because the evidence
is so much harder to interpret when looking at international
comparisons in education.
Laughter is what Brown fears most
|
By John Pienaar
BBC Radio 5 Live chief political correspondent
|
They tell jokes
about Gordon Brown these days on
Strictly Come Dancing.
Vince Cable had opposition MPs in stitches
|
Jokes so bad they are hilarious.
But none of them come close to Vince Cable's killer
one-liner in the Commons this week.
The prime minister had been transformed, he said, from
"Stalin into Mr Bean."
The PM's face fell.
Opposition MPs fell about.
Quite a few Labour members struggled not to do the same.
The truly worrying thing,
from the Brownite perspective
is that, just now, a man who's worked hard to establish strength, sound
judgement and deadly seriousness as his defining characteristics seems
to be in danger of becoming a figure of fun.
Profile: Artist Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger has represented Britain at the
Venice Biennale
|
Mark Wallinger,
winner of 2007's Turner Prize, first
made the
shortlist for the coveted award in 1995, but lost out to Damien Hirst.
After losing with a work
that involved him naming a
racehorse A Real Work of Art, he said it had been "an extremely painful
experience".
Some 12 years later, the 48-year-old conceptual artist
has now scooped the prize of £25,000 for his piece paying homage
to
peace protester Brian Haw's one-man long-running demonstration in
Parliament Square, featuring banners, placards and messages.
The judges said his work "evokes a heightened sense of
reality that communicates an unpalatable political truth".
But for the Turner Prize
exhibition at Tate Liverpool,
Wallinger chose rather different themes, described by the Tate as
"identity and representation". He spent 10 nights alone in a Berlin
gallery dressed as a bear to make the resulting film, Sleeper.
Flatulence ban for club pensioner
Mr Fox said that the club letter was a surprise
|
A social club in
Devon has banned a 77-year-old man from breaking
wind while indoors.
Maurice Fox received a
letter from Kirkham Street
Sports
and Social Club in Paignton asking him to consider his actions, which
"disgusted" members.
Mr Fox, a club regular for 20 years, said: "I am happy
to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy - I am an old
fart now."
He said he had to leave the club about three times a
night.
In its letter to the retired bus driver, the club said:
"After several complaints regarding your continual breaking of wind
(farting) while in the club, would you please consider that your
actions are considered disgusting to fellow members and visitors.
"You sit close to the front door, so would you please go
outside when required. So please take heed of this request."
|
I am a loud farter, but
there is no smell
|
Mr Fox, who lives in nearby Princess Street, said the
letter was a surprise because he had been given no verbal warning.
"I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a
loud farter, but there is no smell.
"I do not think it [the letter] is unreasonable, you get
ladies in there."
Mr Fox also spends two days a week at the nearby Palace
Place club, but said he had no complaints about flatulence there.
The club said there was no
one available for comment.
New 'super-prisons' to be built
Prison overcrowding remains a problem in England
and Wales
|
Three
"super-prisons" each housing about 2,500 offenders are to be
built, Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said.
He told MPs a building
and modernisation programme
would provide 10,500 prison places by 2014, bringing the total to
96,000.
Ministers would look at recommendations that sentencing
in England and Wales should be more closely linked to the number of
jail places, Mr Straw added.
The plans were announced as part of a major review of
prison overcrowding.
Mercenary firms seek tighter laws
War on Want protestors picketed the security
firms' conference
|
Private security
firms have criticised the UK government for
"dithering" over the introducion of tighter rules.
The firms, who employ
mercenaries worldwide, say
stricter rules will help weed out "rogue" companies and boost the image
of respectable ones.
The British Association of Private Security Companies
(BAPSC) says guidance was promised in 2002 - but so far nothing has
happened.
A BAPSC source said the government was dodging a
difficult political decision.
Terror manuals woman avoids jail
A
woman who called herself a "Lyrical Terrorist" has been given a
nine-month suspended jail sentence.
Samina Malik, 23, from Southall, west London, had worked at a branch of
WH Smith at Heathrow Airport.
She was found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning terrorist pamphlets,
including The Al-Qaeda Manual.
The jury was told a "library" of extremist Islamist literature was
found in her bedroom and Malik had written poems praising Osama Bin
Laden.
Malik is the first woman to be convicted under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Her sentence is suspended for 18 months and she will have to carry out
100 hours of unpaid work in the community. She will also be under
supervision for the whole 18 months.
She had earlier been found not guilty of the more serious charge, under
Section 57 of the Act, of possessing an article for a terrorist
purpose. She denied the charges.
Adopted nickname
Malik had posted her poems on websites under the screen name the
Lyrical Terrorist, prosecutors said.
She said the poems were "meaningless", but prosecutor Jonathan Sharp
said: "These communications strongly indicate Samina Malik was deeply
involved with terrorist-related groups."
The court also heard she had written on the back of a WH Smith till
receipt: "The desire within me increases every day to go for martyrdom."
Malik told the jury she only adopted her "Lyrical Terrorist" nickname
because she thought it was "cool" and insisted she was not a terrorist.
The Recorder of London, Judge Peter Beaumont QC, said Malik's offence
was "on the margin".
A Scottish divorce... who gets the kids?
It's the divorce
settlement from
hell. With no pre-nuptial agreement
in place, exactly how would Scotland withdraw from the UK, asks Chris
Bowlby.
With the Scottish
National Party in power in the
Edinburgh devolved parliament, talk of independence is back on the
agenda. Some remain sceptical that Scottish voters would back such a
plan, but the SNP believes it will happen within a decade.
From carving up the family property to whose head
appears on Scottish stamps, how might it work?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Committee
chairman 
Harman faces
MPs 
Enlarge Image