Category Archives: UK news

School lessons to cover sexting, FGM and mental health

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Department for Education unveils fresh guidelines for sex and health lessons in England

The Department for Education (DfE) has unveiled fresh guidelines for sex and health education across England, with relationships, cyber safety and mental health all set to be included as part of the new curriculum.

Three new subjects have been created – relationships education from primary school, relationships and sex education at secondary school, and health education for all ages in which students will learn about the importance of getting enough sleep, the dangers of sexting and how to spot anxiety in their friends.

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Theresa May dismisses pressure to step down as PM after Brexit

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May insists she will stay on after delaying ‘meaningful vote’ on revised exit deal

Theresa May has insisted that she will stay on in Downing Street beyond Brexit despite pressure from cabinet colleagues to step down, after she angered MPs by conceding that there would be no “meaningful vote” this week on a revised withdrawal deal.

The prime minister sparked a fierce backlash on Sunday by admitting that the vote may now not be held before 12 March because her team are still negotiating with EU officials on changes to the deal that she hopes will reassure MPs.

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Home Office gives green light to first drug testing clinic

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‘Life-saving’ scheme, licensed by the government, launched amid rising concern over potentially toxic substances

The first drug-checking service licensed by the Home Office will allow users to have their illicit substances tested without fear of being arrested in a move that could be rolled out nationally if it is shown to save lives.

The year-long pilot project, which had a soft launch in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, last Friday but begins in earnest this week, will allow anyone over the age of 18 to take their drugs to the clinic, run by the charity Addaction. Testing the content will take about 10 minutes, during which time the user will complete a short questionnaire to allow harm reduction advice to be tailored to them.

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Sajid Javid’s new knife crime laws ‘will criminalise the young’

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Groups working with children say home secretary’s proposals are ‘deeply counterproductive’

A coalition of human rights groups is pressing the home secretary to scrap his new measures to tackle knife crime, branding them “deeply counterproductive”.

Sajid Javid’s knife crime prevention orders place a range of curbs and curfews on suspects, but groups working with young people including Liberty, the Runnymede Trust and the Children’s Society, say they have “profound human rights concerns”.

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Children to be taught dangers of female genital mutilation

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Sex education shake-up in secondary schools means learning about grooming, forced marriage and domestic abuse

The dangers of female genital mutilation will be taught to all secondary school pupils in England from 2020 as part of a bold shake-up of relationships and sex education.

New proposals will be presented to parliament on Monday which would see the curriculum reformed to include relationship education for primary age pupils and health education for pupils of all ages in state-funded schools. Secondary school pupils will also be taught about grooming, forced marriage and domestic abuse.

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Met police kept families of Isis schoolgirls ‘in the dark’

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Shamima Begum and the other Bethnal Green girls who travelled to Syria could have been stopped, their parents say

The families of a group of Bethnal Green schoolgirls who went to Syria to join Islamic State have accused the Metropolitan police of Islamophobia over its handling of their cases.

The relatives – including those of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old whose UK citizenship was revoked by the home secretary last week – were treated as suspects and were not privy to intelligence that may have prevented three of the eight girls reaching Syria, according to lawyers, a former senior Scotland Yard officer and community sources.

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Kew’s tree library leads hi-tech war on illegal logging

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New techniques will help customs officers identify and seize wood that came from endangered species

The wooden blinds that lie crumpled in Peter Gasson’s laboratory in Kew Gardens are chipped and forlorn-looking. Their manufacturers had claimed they were made of pine but customs officers were wary. And their suspicions were well-founded. Gasson, Kew’s research leader on wood and timber, found the blinds were not made of pine but ramin.

“All ramin trees, which grow in south-east Asia, are endangered and trade in their wood is illegal,” said Gasson. “On this occasion, we got lucky and stopped people profiting from this trade.”

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Key army reports ‘hidden’ from new Deepcut inquest

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Evidence on barracks life will not be given at hearing this week into death of Private Geoff Gray, letter claims

An inquest into the death of a teenage army recruit has been plunged into controversy ahead of its opening this week. The Ministry of Defence has been forced to deny claims that key internal reports cataloguing life at Deepcut barracks, where four trainee soldiers died from bullet wounds over a seven-year period, will not be submitted as evidence at the inquest into the death of Private Geoff Gray.

The 17-year-old died from two gunshot wounds to the head sustained while on guard duty in September 2001. As with the three other trainee deaths, the original inquest recorded a verdict of suicide.

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Theresa May insists Brexit ‘must not, will not’ be blocked

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PM’s vow comes after three ministers signal they could back moves to delay withdrawal

Theresa May has vowed to Tory grassroots activists that she will not allow the referendum vote for Britain to leave the EU to be frustrated.

The prime minister is flying to Egypt for an EU-League of Arab States summit where she is expected to hold talks with key EU figures as she battles to break the deadlock in the Brexit talks.

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Mark Acklom: one of UK’s most wanted fugitives extradited

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Acklom allegedly pretended to be MI6 agent and tricked woman out of life savings

One of Britain’s most wanted fugitives has appeared in court after being extradited from Switzerland to the UK.

Mark Acklom, 45, allegedly posed as a Swiss banker and an MI6 agent during a year-long relationship with a woman and is accused of tricking her out of her life savings of £850,000 in 2012, according to police.

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‘No, I’m a Londoner’: Top Boy’s Yann Demange on his tussle with identity in the US

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Filmmaker was born to French-Algerian parents and made his home, and his name, in multicultural London. But he never felt a sense of belonging. Then Hollywood called …

Where are you from? It’s a question I’ve always had a hard time with. And since moving to the US four years ago, I’m asked it on a regular basis. Maybe it’s the combination of a brownish face, London accent and French names that throws people off. Who knows? But this question, hearing it asked over and over these past few years, has forced me to confront unresolved questions I have about identity: how I grew up and how those experiences led me to being a director.

People tend to like things compartmentalised and simple, but it’s never been that simple for me. I’ve never had any sense of a “national identity” or, for that matter, a sense of belonging to any one tribe. I’m mixed race: French white mother, Algerian father. So “I’m a Londoner” is my standard go-to short response when the question comes up. That’s the simplest answer I feel comfortable giving without getting into it.

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‘Soviet vassal state’: Jeremy Hunt makes gaffe in Slovenia

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UK foreign secretary criticised after statement displaying lack of awareness country was part of Non-Aligned Movement

The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has incorrectly claimed Slovenia was a Soviet vassal state during his visit to Ljubljana to discuss the Brexit negotiations with his counterpart Miro Cerar.

Slovenia was in fact the wealthiest state within the former Yugoslavia, which was outside the iron curtain and formed part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

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Labour promises universal right to flexible working from day one

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Dawn Butler to tell conference women need an economy that works for them, not against them

A Labour government would give everyone the right to choose when they do and do not work from the day they are employed, its shadow women and equalities secretary will tell Labour’s women’s conference on Saturday.

“Women do the vast majority of unpaid care, but this must not be a barrier to women in work,” Dawn Butler will say. “That’s why I’m announcing Labour’s plans to introduce rights to flexible working from day one of employment.

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Second Briton says he wants to be allowed back to UK from Syria

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Jack Letts left the country a year before Shamima Begum and is suspected of joining Isis

A second Briton who left to go to Syria has said he wants to return to the UK. Jack Letts, who is suspected of joining Islamic State, said he missed Britain, but doubted he would ever be allowed to return.

Letts, 23, who was dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by British media and holds dual nationality through his Canadian father, told ITV News he did not believe either nation would help him because “no one really cares”.

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Theresa May must go in three months, cabinet ministers say

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Senior Tories to make clear PM should give way to new leader for next phase of Brexit

Cabinet ministers will make it clear they believe Theresa May should step down after the local elections in May and allow a new leader to deliver the next phase of the Brexit negotiations, the Guardian understands.

Senior figures in government have suggested they want the prime minister to leave shortly after the first phase of the Brexit negotiations finishes – or risk being defeated in a vote of no confidence at the end of the year.

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Lack of snow leaves Scotland’s ski resorts in need of a lift

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Resorts are facing one of their most difficult seasons with many forced to close off slopes

Scotland’s ski resorts are facing one of their most difficult seasons in years, with a lack of snow forcing them to close many of their slopes, raising questions about the impact of climate change.

Unusually mild weather – a record February temperature for Scotland of 18.3C (65F) was recorded on Aboyne in Deeside this week – has led every resort to shut down their main slopes. One has had to close entirely.

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Labour must move faster on antisemitism, says McDonnell, as Austin quits – politics live

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As Ian Austin quits the party, John McDonnell says it has been to slow to tackle antisemitism

Some Corbyn supporters have argued that Austin’s views meant that he was no longer credible as a member of the Labour party. He is generally viewed as having been on the right of the party. Some have taken issue with him citing racism as a reason for leaving the party when he has urged Labour to bring in tougher laws on immigration.

The Mail reported in 2014 that Austin said “the Labour leadership should embrace tough policies including a ban on benefit payments to new migrants who have paid nothing into the system, fingerprinting at the Calais border, and up-front payments by foreigners for NHS care”.

One of the main reasons Ian Austin opposed Jeremy Corbyn so passionately from the start is because he thought Corbyn's pro-migrant, pro-welfare state politics was out of sync with electoral reality. How do I know this? Because he said so publicly over and over and over again.

Ian Austin MP tells Ed Miliband to get tough on immigration  https://t.co/1bAfzxEyOt One from the archives. This obvious anti-racism champion will be a loss.

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Church of England urged to make land available to Gypsies

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Synod to vote to protect Roma, Gypsies and Travellers from ‘institutional racism’

The Church of England is being urged to make land available for Gypsies and travelling communities who face institutional racism and ostracisation.

It may also appoint chaplains to provide pastoral care to Gypsies and Travellers, and to encourage them to become part of the church.

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Canada’s Saputo to buy Dairy Crest in near-£1bn deal

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British maker of Cathedral City cheddar employs more than 1,100 people in seven locations

The British owners of Cathedral City cheddar and Clover margarine have agreed a near-£1bn takeover from the Canadian dairy company Saputo.

On Friday Dairy Crest recommended shareholders accept an offer from Saputo that values the FTSE 250 company at £975m.

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Shamima Begum: I am willing to change to keep British citizenship

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Nineteen-year-old who joined Isis asks UK to show ‘a bit more mercy’ in assessing her case

Shamima Begum has said she is “willing to change”, as she issued a plea to the UK government for “mercy” after the home secretary moved to strip her of her British nationality.

The British-born 19-year-old, who travelled from east London to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, wants to return from Syria because her newborn son is unwell, and she does not wish to allow him to return to the UK alone.

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