Theresa May faced cross-party calls to sack her transport secretary, Chris Grayling, last night, after the calamitous collapse of a no-deal Brexit ferry contract handed to a company with no ships.
Senior Tories said the prime minister had turned “a blind eye” to Grayling’s decision to award the £13.8m contract to Seaborne Freight to run ferries between Ramsgate and Ostend, despite widespread derision and accusations that it had been awarded illegally.
Continue reading...Charity that maintains location says it will have ‘significant harmful impacts’
Proposals for a Holocaust memorial have been dealt a blow after the charity responsible for looking after the central London park in which it is supposed to be built said it was opposed the move.
The new landmark, which would also feature a learning centre, is planned for Victoria Tower Gardens on Millbank, alongside the River Thames close to the Houses of Parliament.
Continue reading...Buckingham Palace announces Duke of Edinburgh’s ‘voluntary decision’ following collision
The Duke of Edinburgh has voluntarily surrendered his driving licence just over three weeks after his car overturned following a collision with another vehicle near the Queen’s Sandringham estate.
Two days after the accident Prince Philip, who is 97, was seen behind the wheel of a new car and was given “suitable words of advice” by police when photographed not wearing a seatbelt while on a public road.
Continue reading...Officers were responding to call about men allegedly holding woman captive
Police have shot a man while arresting a group for allegedly holding a woman captive, Scotland Yard has said.
The man, believed to be in his 20s, was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound after an officer opened fire near Blackheath, south-east London, in the early hours of Saturday.
Continue reading...David Ibbotson, who was flying light aircraft that crashed in Channel, has not been found
The family of the missing pilot of the plane carrying the footballer Emiliano Sala have set up a fundraising page for donations to restart a search for him.
Sala’s body was recovered and formally identified earlier this week but David Ibbotson, who was flying the light aircraft, has not been found.
Continue reading...Businessman faces string of allegations by employees after injunction is lifted
Philip Green allegedly subjected people working in his business empire to abuse and other inappropriate behaviour that was at times racial, physical and sexual, according to a report.
A host of serious allegations were published on Friday evening by the Daily Telegraph after an injunction obtained by the businessman was lifted.
Continue reading...Tigers were put together through breeding programme that hopes to save species from extinction
A Sumatran tiger kept at London zoo has been killed by its potential mate during their first meeting. Keepers had hoped the big cats would breed but have been left devastated after Asim, the male they brought in, attacked Melati.
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) kept the two tigers in adjacent enclosures for 10 days to allow them to become accustomed to each other. After their keepers saw positive signs, they decided to make the “high-risk” introduction on Friday morning.
Continue reading...Although there is a cloud over economy, the silver lining is central banks are more dovish
After the synchronised global economic expansion of 2017 came the asynchronous growth of 2018, when most countries other than the US started to experience slowdowns. Worries about US inflation, the US Federal Reserve’s policy trajectory, trade wars, Italian budget and debt woes, China’s slowdown and emerging-market fragilities led to a sharp fall in global equity markets toward the end of the year.
The good news at the start of 2019 is that the risk of an outright global recession is low. The bad news is that we are heading into a year of synchronised global deceleration; growth will fall toward – and, in some cases, below – potential in most regions.
Continue reading...Woman and man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence
A man and a woman have been arrested for manslaughter by gross negligence following a house fire that left four children dead, the police said.
OIn a statement, officers revealed that a 24-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were being held. The arrests were made at about 1.30pm on Friday and the pair remain in custody.
Continue reading...Celebrated actor who rose to fame in the ‘kitchen sink’ era before evolving into one of the screen greats of the postwar period, has died
• Albert Finney – a life in pictures
Albert Finney, who forged his reputation as one of the leading actors of Britain’s early 60s new wave cinema, has died aged 82 after a short illness, his family have announced. In 2011, he disclosed he had been suffering from kidney cancer.
A publicist told the Guardian that Finney died of a chest infection at the Royal Marsden hospital, which specialises in cancer treatment, just outside London. His wife, Pene, and son, Simon, were by his side.
Continue reading...Newspaper will now be able to publish allegations of bullying and sexual harassment
The high court has brought Sir Philip Green’s legal action against the Daily Telegraph to an end, with the newspaper saying it will publish allegations of bullying and sexual harassment against the retail tycoon “in the coming days”.
The Topshop boss had been granted a temporary injunction blocking the Daily Telegraph from publishing allegations of misconduct made by five employees, who had all received substantial payments and signed non-disclosure agreements after settling their claims.
Continue reading...Exclusive: recruiters told military-style operation could stay open for two years
The government has started to recruit civilians to work in an emergency command and control centre being set up to make sure Britain runs smoothly in the aftermath of a potential no-deal Brexit.
Briefing notes issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to recruitment agencies state the EU Exit Emergencies Centre (EUXE) could stay open “potentially for two years”.
Continue reading...Britain’s favourite monument is stuck in the middle of a bad-tempered row over road traffic. By Charlotte Higgins
Stonehenge, with the possible exception of Big Ben, is Britain’s most recognisable monument. As a symbol of the nation’s antiquity, it is our Parthenon, our pyramids – although, admittedly, less impressive. Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, recalls that when he took a group of Egyptian archaeologists to see it, they were baffled by our national devotion to the stones, which, compared to the refined surfaces of the pyramids, seemed to them like something hastily thrown up over a weekend.
Unlike those other monuments, though, Stonehenge is more or less a complete mystery. Nobody knows for sure why, or by whom, this vast arrangement of boulders was erected on Wiltshire’s downlands, in the south of England, about 5,000 years ago. Into this void have rushed myriad theories, from the academically sober to the blatantly fantastic. Over the centuries, its construction has been confidently credited to giants, wizards, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans, Romans, Saxons, Danes and aliens. (According to one medieval theory, Merlin had it transported from Ireland to serve as the funeral monument for Britons slaughtered by Hengist, the treacherous Saxon.)
Continue reading...Goods dispatched in coming days may not arrive until after 29 March deadline
British exporters sending goods to far-flung destinations in the coming days risk being locked out of harbours around the world as a no-deal Brexit looms, business leaders have warned.
Independent trade experts and the UK’s biggest business groups said exporters could be dispatching goods from UK ports imminently that would not arrive until after the 29 March deadline. This raised the prospect of goods being stuck in ports or facing hefty additional costs in the event of a disorderly Brexit.
Continue reading...Social media site announces action following criticism from British teenager’s father
Instagram has announced it will ban all graphic self-harm images from its platform after the father of British teenager Molly Russell said it was partly to blame for her death.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said “no graphic self-harm image” would in future be allowed on the platform.
Continue reading...Former South African president’s letters to family and Robben Island sleeping mat form part of exhibition
On 1 June 1970, Nelson Mandela wrote a letter to his young daughters Zeni and Zindzi from his prison cell on Robben Island. “My darlings,” he wrote. “It is more than eight years since I last saw you …”
The girls’ mother Winnie had also been imprisoned the previous year, and their father had no idea, he wrote, who was looking after them in the school holidays, who fed them, bought them clothing or paid their school fees. He had written two letters to the pre-teenage girls the previous year, he told them, but had learned neither had reached them.
Continue reading...Andy Nisbet named as one of two men killed on most northerly munro in Scotland
Andy Nisbet, one of Scotland’s most revered mountaineers, has been named as one of the two men who died during a climb on Ben Hope in Sutherland earlier this week.
Leading Scottish climbers paid tribute to Nisbet, 65, and his climbing partner Steve Perry, 47, after police confirmed rescue teams had recovered both men’s bodies from the snow and ice-covered mountain, the most northerly munro (a mountain with a height of more than 3,000ft) in Scotland.
Continue reading...No 10 and EU announce new negotiations on the ‘speed’ of post-Brexit trade talks
Theresa May clashed with Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk during Brexit talks in Brussels but has secured agreement for a fresh round of formal negotiations to break the impasse.
A meeting with the European commission president was described as “robust”, with Juncker resolutely rebuffing May’s demand for a renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement.
Continue reading...Joint committee on human rights says people should be held for no longer than 28 days
Indefinite detention in immigration centres is traumatic and the practice should be stopped, with people ideally held for no longer than 28 days, a parliamentary committee has recommended.
In a highly critical report, the joint committee on human rights (JCHR), made up of MPs and peers, described the UK’s immigration system as “slow, unfair and expensive to run”, and said detention should be authorised only by decision-makers independent of the Home Office.
Continue reading...Chinese and Hongkonger university applicants now outnumber those from Wales
Record numbers of students from China and Hong Kong are applying for places at British universities, overtaking the number of applicants from Wales, according to official figures.
Data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) shows a spike in demand for undergraduate places from mainland China and a small rise in applications from the EU, despite fears over Brexit.
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