Category Archives: UK news

The Fairtrade mark is still trustworthy | Letter

Posted on by
Joy and Richard Webb respond to recent negative coverage about the fair trade movement

As committed and hardworking supporters of fair trade for almost 30 years, we feel your correspondents (Letters, 27 July) missed the point of “The death of fair trade?” (The long read, 23 July) which showed how large corporations are trying to circumvent fair trade and undermine the highly successful Fairtrade mark with their own “fairly traded” and the like. Rest assured, the Fairtrade mark remains an absolutely trustworthy guarantee of internationally agreed standards.

Tim Gossling blames the EU for “not allowing” the production of Divine chocolate in Ghana. This is not true. The EU is primarily a trading bloc, it imposes tariffs on products from outside that bloc. That’s what trading blocs do. It benefits UK manufacturers and farmers, too. No wonder the TUC, CBI and NFU are all appalled at the thought of similar tariffs being slapped on our products after Brexit.

Continue reading...

Getting good trade deal from EU could be ‘much easier’ after no deal Brexit, Raab claims – live news

Posted on by

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson’s first visit to Scotland as prime minister

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon says that she will press Boris Johnson on the damage that a no deal Brexit will do to the Scottish economy, when she meets the prime minister later this afternoon.

Speaking ahead of the first face-to-face meeting between the first minister and the new prime minister, Sturgeon said:

The people of Scotland did not vote for this Tory government, they didn’t vote for this new prime minister, they didn’t vote for Brexit and they certainly didn’t vote for a catastrophic no-deal Brexit which Boris Johnson is now planning for.

Boris Johnson has formed a hard-line Tory government with one aim – to take Scotland and the UK out of the EU without a deal.

I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. Mostly it was a routine affair, that did not shed a lot of new light on what the administration is up to, but the prime minister’s spokeswoman did have at least one mini story for the hacks.

Continue reading...

UK weather: thunderstorms set to cause further flooding

Posted on by

Roads closed in north-west after Manchester area gets two weeks’ worth of rain in 24 hours

Thunderstorms are expected to hit parts of the UK this week with a risk of more flooding following a weekend of heavy downpours.

Commuters woke up to road closures and diverted trains after parts of Greater Manchester were hit with two weeks’ worth of rain in 24 hours.

Continue reading...

Dreaming of Antarctica: where beauty and fragility meet

Posted on by

Rona Mcseveny, a former patient of UCHL, is showcasing her photos of the continent at the hospital’s Street Gallery. The exhibition is a thank-you to the NHS for the treatment she received. Below, she details the spellbinding sights she captured on her trip

  • Dreaming of Antarctica is at the Street Gallery from 18 July to 4 September 2019
Continue reading...

Problems investigating historical child sex abuse | Letters

Posted on by
This crime needs specialist units to investigate, says Sara Newman, and a group of mental health professionals say there are lessons to be learned from Carl Beech’s trial

Carl Beech and the Metropolitan police’s investigation have done a great disservice to all victims of this terrible crime (Report, 27 July). There are many problems concerning the investigation of historical child sex abuse. The gathering of facts can be almost impossible as the passage of time may have erased any evidence, and what does survive needs properly resourced and trained officers to bring it to court. I wonder if the taboo and heinousness of this subject conspire to for ever hold it in an investigative system lacking in rigour, ingenuity and the will to make change.

I also see that Beech claimed criminal injury compensation to the tune of £22,000. How was this possible? There is something seriously wrong when conviction rates are this low and innocent people have their lives shattered. Is it not time we admitted that this crime needs specialist units who are well trained and resourced, so that when a child or adult makes the brave decision to report, they can be supported by a system they can trust, and see justice done.
Sara Newman
Groombridge, East Sussex

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson ‘turbo-charging’ no-deal Brexit plans, say ministers

Posted on by

Cabinet blitzes media, saying preparations for crashing out are top priority

Boris Johnson is “turbo-charging” preparations to leave the EU without a deal on 31 October as his government’s number one priority, according to several senior cabinet ministers.

The new prime minister sent out cabinet ministers for interviews across newspapers and broadcasters this weekend as part of a publicity blitz about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

Continue reading...

British boy becomes Fortnite millionaire in World Cup tournament

Posted on by

Jaden Ashman, 15, known as Wolfiez, came second in the video game’s duos competition

A British teenager has won $1.25m (£1m) by coming second in the first Fortnite World Cup in New York on Saturday.

Jaden Ashman, 15, who competes under the name Wolfiez, was placed second alongside his Dutch teammate Dave Jong, 21, in a duos round of the battle royal-style shooting game that has more than 250 million players worldwide.

Continue reading...

Top lawyer hired to bring IRA double agent to justice

Posted on by
Appointment of Jonathan Laidlaw QC seen as sign of ‘serious intent’ to put spy known as Stakeknife in dock

One of Britain’s most prominent criminal lawyers has become the legal adviser for detectives investigating an army agent operating in the top ranks of the IRA, the Observer can reveal.

The spy, known as “Stakeknife” and once described as the “jewel in the crown” of British military intelligence, allegedly was implicated in acts of murder and torture while he ran the IRA’s internal security squad during the Troubles.

Continue reading...

Windrush scandal continues as Chagos Islanders are pressed to ‘go back’

Posted on by

British passport holders say they are routinely pressed by council officers to leave the UK

British passport holders from the Chagos Islands are being systematically targeted in a “shameful” attempt to have them removed from the UK, the Observer can reveal.

The revelations expose a fresh dimension of the UK’s hostile environment, showing that the strategy also persecutes passport-holding British citizens of colour.

Continue reading...

Hammond plots with Labour to kill Johnson’s no-deal Brexit

Posted on by

Meanwhile, poll shows ‘Boris bounce’ with Tories in lead over Labour

The former Tory chancellor Philip Hammond held private talks with Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer shortly before Boris Johnson entered Downing Street last Wednesday, to plot cross-party moves aimed at preventing the new prime minister agreeing to a no-deal Brexit.

Related: Opponents of no deal ‘have just weeks’ to plot blocking strategy

Continue reading...

Passenger in clown suit prompted mass cruise ship brawl, say witnesses

Posted on by

Staff injured after late-night fight breaks out in buffet area onboard P&O vessel

A holidaymaker dressed as a clown prompted a mass brawl on a cruise ship in which passengers used furniture and plates as weapons, according to witnesses.

The late-night fight in the buffet area onboard P&O’s Britannia left a member of staff injured as they tried to intervene while onlookers fled in fear.

Continue reading...

‘Roman Biro’ – complete with joke – found at London building site

Posted on by
Iron stylus uncovered at Bloomberg building site in City of London is ‘one of the most human finds’, say archaeologists

It sounds just like the kind of joke that is ubiquitous in today’s cheap-and-cheerful souvenir industry: “I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen.” But the tongue-in-cheek inscription recently deciphered on a cheap writing implement during excavations in the City of London is in fact about 2,000 years old.

“I have come from the city. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty,” it reads.

Continue reading...

Brexit: key strands of British policing ‘in jeopardy’ because of no-deal risk

Posted on by

NCA harvesting EU crime databases in attempt to mitigate loss of access to data, leaked report suggests

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is harvesting information from EU databases, including 54,000 files covering criminals, terrorists and missing persons, in an attempt to mitigate the heightened risks of a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked document.

The report, seen by the Guardian, suggests EU alerts have been transferred to the Police National Computer (PNC) to give UK forces access after 31 October but that key strands of British policing remain “in jeopardy” because of the growing danger of a no-deal exit since Theresa May’s resigned as prime minister.

Continue reading...

UK on course for no-deal Brexit as Johnson rejects EU agreement

Posted on by

Crashing out could make a united Ireland more likely, Irish PM says

Boris Johnson has set the UK on an apparent course towards a no-deal Brexit by playing down the likelihood of any talks with the EU unless Brussels agrees to scrap the existing withdrawal agreement and Irish backstop, both of which it has ruled out.

The seemingly intransigent tone prompted Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, to warn that a no-deal departure could lead more people in Northern Ireland to seek a united Ireland.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson appoints arch-critic of HS2 as transport adviser

Posted on by

Journalist Andrew Gilligan has long argued for a slower, cheaper rail line to be built

The prospects for survival of the high-speed rail line HS2 look slimmer after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, appointed an arch-critic as transport adviser.

The journalist Andrew Gilligan, who was cycling tsar in Johnson’s London mayoralty, has long opposed what he says is a “disastrous scheme”, arguing for a slower, cheaper line to be built instead.

Continue reading...

Film stunts under scrutiny after deaths and serious injuries

Posted on by

CGI-weary audiences’ demand for complex ‘real’ action is increasing the risk for performers

This week, the British stunt performer Joe Watts suffered a serious head injury on the set of the film Fast & Furious 9, at Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, after he reportedly fell 30ft (9 metres) from a balcony. He was airlifted to hospital and has been put in an induced coma. Production on the film was shut down, and the Health and Safety Executive is investigating.

Stunt professionals are in high demand in the current climate of action-driven blockbuster films and increasing volumes of small-screen productions requiring cinema-standard action. Weary of unconvincing CGI and green-screen action, audiences are starting to want practical, unsimulated effects: humans doing spectacular stunts “for real”. However, as the volume and complexity of stunts has grown, so has the risk factor.

Continue reading...

Court ruling over tanks debt deals new blow to UK-Iran relations

Posted on by

Judge finds in UK’s favour in dispute that has been linked to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe case

The path to improved British-Iranian relations has hit a new barrier after the high court in London ruled that the UK does not have to pay at least £20m interest on the £387m it owes to Iran over the cancelled sale of Chieftain tanks in the 1970s.

The debt was seen by Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary as critical to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British dual national imprisoned in Tehran.

Continue reading...

Brussels repels Boris Johnson’s quest for new Brexit deal

Posted on by

Juncker said to have told new PM current agreement is the best and only one possible

Brussels has roundly rebuffed Boris Johnson after he laid down tough conditions for the new Brexit deal he hopes to strike over the summer.

Speaking to the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister on Thursday, Johnson reiterated his campaign pledge of ditching the Irish backstop and promised to ramp up preparations for a no-deal Brexit immediately.

Continue reading...

Investors await signal on fresh ECB economic stimulus – business live

Posted on by

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news as Mario Draghi expected to prepare central bank for interest rate cuts

It will be too late for the ECB’s interest rates decision, but the latest measure of German business confidence from the influential Ifo Institute shows that morale has sagged more than expected in July.

The closely followed measure fell to a reading of 95.7 – well below the consensus expectations of 97.1.

Boris Johnson is planning to set out his “priorities for government” in his first appearance as prime minister in the house of commons – at about 10:30am BST.

Perhaps he can shed some more light on what will be happening by 31 October, the Brexit deadline.

Following Business Qs, there will be one government oral statement in the @HouseofCommons today:

The Prime Minister - Priorities for Government

Continue reading...