Cuttings of tree captured by John Constable being planted on restored Devon floodplain
Captured by John Constable in one of his most celebrated paintings, the black poplar tree was once as common as oak and beech in Britain.
Now the rarest and most threatened native species in the country, the National Trust is creating a living gene bank of the black poplar to ensure Constable’s The Hay Wain does not become a tribute to an extinct breed.
Continue reading...Giving evidence in her husband’s libel case against the Guardian, Iris Clarke says he always tried to help people
Noel Clarke’s wife has said his accusers are liars who have deliberately fabricated sexual misconduct claims about him.
Giving evidence in the actor’s libel case against the Guardian, Iris Clarke said her husband was generous and caring, and that people he had worked with and helped had taken advantage of him.
Continue reading...Reforms proposed by health secretary predicted to save as much as £500m but could be distraction for ministers
Wes Streeting has ordered a “high stakes” reorganisation of the NHS that will scrap 10,000 jobs in an attempt to free up cash for frontline care.
Experts warned that the move to abolish NHS England and fold it into the Department of Health could distract ministers from the urgent job of ending long waits for treatment, while trade unions expressed concern about the “shambolic” announcement of job cuts for public servants.
Join Wes Streeting in conversation with Pippa Crerar discussing England’s health and social care system and how Labour plans to turn it around on Tuesday 25 March 2025, 7pm-8.15pm (GMT). Book tickets here or at guardianlive.com
Continue reading...Influential Labour figure says cuts ‘not a Labour thing to do’, while George Osborne says when chancellor he resisted move as ‘step too far’
The former shadow chancellor Ed Balls has criticised plans for cuts to disability benefits, saying on his podcast that it was “not going to work”.
George Osborne, the architect of welfare cuts during the coalition years, also told the same podcast that he had resisted freezing personal independence payments (Pip) – a move currently under consideration – because he felt it was going too far.
Continue reading...RMT union wins 87% backing from members for improved package for train managers at Avanti West Coast
Train managers on Britain’s biggest intercity service, Avanti West Coast, have settled a dispute over rest-day working, ending a series of weekend strikes.
The RMT union said 87% of its members had voted to accept a deal including additional pay for working weekends and an agreement on the allocation of staffing for extra shifts.
Continue reading...Lydia Mugambe, 49, was found guilty of forcing someone to work and conspiring to breach UK immigration law
A UN judge has been convicted of forcing a young woman to work as a slave who she “exploited and abused”.
Lydia Mugambe, 49, took “advantage of her status” over the victim in the “most egregious way” by preventing her from holding down steady employment and forcing her to work as her maid and to provide childcare without payment, prosecutors said.
Continue reading...Union says staff will have been left reeling after surprise news that body will be scrapped
Starmer is now talking about regulatation, and giving examples of where he thinks it has gone too far.
l give you an example. There’s a office conversion in Bingley, which, as you know, is in Yorkshire. That is an office conversion that will create 139 homes.
But now the future of that is uncertain because the regulator was not properly consulted on the power of cricket balls. That’s 139 homes. Now just think of the people, the families, the individuals who want those homes to buy, those homes to make their life and now they’re held up. Why? You’ll decide whether this is a good reason because I’m going to quote this is the reason ‘because the ball strike assessment doesn’t appear to be undertaken by a specialist, qualified consultant’. So that’s what’s holding up these 139 homes.
When we had those terrible riots … what we saw then, in response, was dynamic. It was strong, it was urgent. It was what I call active government, on the pitch, doing what was needed, acting.
But for many of us, I think the feeling is we don’t really have that everywhere all of the time at the moment.
The state employs more people than we’ve employed for decades, and yet look around the country; do you see good value everywhere? Because I don’t.
I actually think it’s weaker than it’s ever been, overstretched, unfocused, trying to do too much, doing it badly, unable to deliver the security that people need.
Continue reading...NFER says pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices contributing to exodus from workforce
Teachers in England are abandoning the classroom over worsening pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices, leaving vacancies at their highest rate on record, according to a report.
It warned that this month’s spending review was the government’s “last chance” to meet its manifesto pledge of hiring 6,500 additional teachers in state schools, as younger teachers continue to abandon the profession since the Covid pandemic and fewer graduates sign up as trainees.
Continue reading...Minicab drivers say Uber’s bid to apply tax to all rides would put many out of business and leave people stranded
Two British taxi companies have launched a crowdfunding drive for the last leg of a lengthy legal battle with Uber that could result in higher cab fares.
Uber will seek, at a supreme court hearing in July, a ruling on contractual models that affect whether VAT applies to private-hire companies outside London, which it has argued would level the playing field across the UK.
Continue reading...A similar number have also seen staff abused as shops say crime is spiralling out of control with 55,000 thefts a day
Nearly a quarter of Britons have witnessed shoplifting in the past year and seen physical or verbal abuse of shop workers as criminals become “bolder and more aggressive”.
A survey carried out for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) by the market research firm Opinium found Nottingham to be a UK hotspot for retail crime where 32% of residents said they had witnessed shoplifting. London was close behind on 29%.
Continue reading...Surrey was region of UK with most sign-ups for Smartphone Free Childhood’s parent pact, launched last year
An online campaign committing parents to bar their children from owning a smartphone until they are at least 14 has garnered 100,000 signatures in the six months since its launch.
The Smartphone Free Childhood campaign launched a “parent pact” in September in which signatories committed to withhold handsets from their children until at least the end of year 9, and to keep them off social media until they are 16.
Continue reading...Review concluded extending definition to cover extreme violence by ‘loners’ such as Axel Rudakubana is unhelpful
The decision not to classify Axel Rudakubana as a terrorist following the Southport murders was right because it would be unhelpful to stretch the definition of terrorism to cover all extreme violence, the UK’s terror watchdog has concluded.
Jonathan Hall KC wrote that the “legal definition of terrorism is already wide and should not be changed any further” in his post-Southport review of how extreme violence is legally classified. Expanding the definition would “increase the possibility of inaccurate use and, in theory, abuse”, he said.
Continue reading...Districts in Birmingham now ranked below poorest areas of France, Malta and Slovenia as institute urges rethink on planned welfare cuts
The UK has tumbled down the league of affluent nations after almost a decade of welfare cuts and stagnant incomes, according to a report that found the poorest districts in Britain now rank below the lowest-income areas of Malta and Slovenia.
In a warning for ministers to protect welfare spending before Rachel Reeves’s spring statement later this month, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the UK’s reputation for high living standards was under threat.
Continue reading...Lady Falkner, chair of the EHRC, says moves run the risk of positive discrimination
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
PMQs is about to start.
Continue reading...Mark Ross to be sentenced on Friday over killing of Claudiu-Carol Kondor during theft of vehicle in Armley area
A “career criminal” has been found guilty of murdering an Amazon delivery driver who was trying to stop his van from being stolen.
Claudiu-Carol Kondor, 42, was dragged along a street at high speeds as he clung to his vehicle to try to stop the theft on 20 August last year.
Continue reading...FCA presents email evidence it claims shows bank boss and child sex offender were like ‘family’
Prince Andrew was among a number of high-profile contacts of Jeffrey Epstein who were told that the child sex offender considered the former Barclays boss Jes Staley to be a close friend and like “family”, a court has heard
A package of emails presented at the upper tribunal in London marked the first time that the prince was explicitly mentioned in the case launched by Staley in hopes of overturning a lifetime ban from working in the City.
Continue reading...Marta Bednarczyk’s family release tribute to loving mother and supportive friend who moved to England 15 years ago
A 13-year-old girl has appeared in court charged with murder and arson after the body of a woman was found in a house in Northamptonshire.
The teenager, who appeared in the dock holding a teddy bear, was remanded in custody at Northampton magistrates court on Wednesday, after being charged with the murder of 43-year-old Marta Bednarczyk.
Continue reading...Complaints upheld against some former South Yorkshire and West Midlands officers but none will face proceedings
Dozens of allegations of misconduct against police officers relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster have been upheld by the police standards watchdog, bereaved families have been told.
However, none will face disciplinary proceedings because they have all left the police service.
Continue reading...As Scottish energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics fear plans will affect delicate hydrology of loch
Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.
Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.
Continue reading...Committee warns of serious injustice to disabled motorists and those reliant on public chargers
The rollout of electric vehicle chargers across Britain is “patchy”, behind deadline and ignores the needs of disabled drivers, the parliamentary spending watchdog has found.
A report published by the public accounts committee (PAC) warned that the charging points needed to give drivers confidence for the switch to EVs were still lacking, particularly on Britain’s biggest roads.
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