The 600kg animal was in the deep end and it took Leicestershire firefighters three hours to get her out safely
A pregnant cow has had to be rescued by firefighters after she got stuck in a small swimming pool.
The 590kg (93-stone) cow was found in the deep end of the pool in two to three feet of water at a house in Ketton, Rutland.
Continue reading...Reform may well be Labour’s new main opponent, and the next battleground may not be where anyone expected
Two key rules of politics are to always look ahead, and to understand your opponent. And so it is that just months after crushing the Conservatives in a general election, many Labour MPs are bracing for fresh challenges and a new foe – Reform UK.
Nigel Farage’s party is in parliamentary terms a minnow, its five MPs giving it little more than 1% of the Commons strength enjoyed by Keir Starmer. But many within Labour believe that by the time of the next election, things could be very different.
Continue reading...New remit given to FCA by chancellor raises fears of a weakening of rules meant to avert another financial crisis
The financial regulator has been ordered to encourage more risk-taking across the City, raising concerns that the Labour government is in danger of watering down rules meant to avoid another financial crisis.
In an official “remit” letter addressed to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) boss, Nikhil Rathi, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said regulations meant to protect consumers should not stand in the way of “sensible risk-taking” by investors and the wider financial sector, which includes banks, asset managers and insurers.
Continue reading...Axel Scheffler says he hopes Wuschel auf der Erde will encourage more children to learn his first language
Axel Scheffler, the illustrator behind the international children’s bestseller The Gruffalo, has launched a book to help primary school pupils learn German.
Wuschel auf der Erde: A New Adventure in Learning German tells the story of a friendly alien called Wuschel arriving on Earth from a distant planet with a mission to learn German. Through Scheffler’s distinctive illustrations, children are introduced to their first German words, such as die Maus (mouse) and der Spielplatz (playground), in a fun and interactive way.
Continue reading...Inspectorate aims to replace single headline grade such as outstanding with assessment of 10 key areas
Schools could be judged on a five-step scale of colours or descriptions across 10 separate areas, such as inclusion and belonging, according to proposals by England’s schools inspectorate.
The proposals by Ofsted aim to replace inspection reports that culminate in a single headline grade such as outstanding, which Labour pledged to scrap after a coroner’s report said Ofsted’s inspection had contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry last year.
Continue reading...Regulator approves bid by open-access operator Go-op to run trains in south-west England from late next year
The UK’s first co-operatively owned railway service could begin running trains in the south-west of England late next year.
The Office of Road and Rail (ORR) has approved a bid from open-access operator Go-op to run several new services between Swindon, Taunton and Weston-super-Mare, and compete with Great Western Railway on the line.
Continue reading...Mel Stride said there must be no suggestion of the UK going back into the EU single market or customs union
In news that will disappoint those of you who enjoy a Liberal Democrat stunt, PA has just reported that Ed Davey will not, as was planned, be taking a bus-driving lesson at a depot in Oxfordshire, due to logistical issues. Instead he will be visiting high-street businesses.
It is part of a campaign by the Liberal Democrats to get Labour to keep the bus fare price cap at £2 in England when it extends the scheme into next year.
The fare cap increase is like a bus tax for people across the country, impacting bus users and commuters already struggling to make ends meet. MPs must be given a say on this bus fare hike on behalf of their constituents.
Our communities have already paid too high a price for years of Conservative neglect and incompetence. This bus fare hike will hit cherished local businesses and high streets, many of which are already struggling.
Uncertainty around Labour’s first budget and high interest rates played their part, but [the GDP figures are] still a blow for Rachel Reeves, as [it] underlines difficulty of reaching her ambitious growth target.
Some in Labour want to recalibrate economic focus away from growth and towards cost of living ie “will people feel better off by time of next election?”
Continue reading...Plan is forming for digitally focused show to expand and grow the brand in a fractured media landscape
When the BBC confirmed the news this week that Gary Lineker was leaving Match of the Day at the end of this season, the presenter’s official reaction was limited to a terse 21-word statement that he was “delighted” at signing a new contract to cover the FA Cup and 2026 World Cup.
The former England striker was – unsurprisingly – more expansive about leaving the BBC’s flagship football programme after 25 years on his own podcast, the Rest is Football, on Thursday. “All things have to come to an end,” he mused. “I think the next contract, they’re looking to do Match of the Day slightly differently. So I think it makes sense for someone else to take the helm.”
Continue reading...Duke is ‘one of two claimants whose claims are still live’ against NGN, court told, the other being ex-MP Tom Watson
The Duke of Sussex is continuing his lawsuit against the publisher of the Sun over allegations of unlawful information gathering, the high court has heard.
Prince Harry “is one of two claimants whose claims are still live” against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), his barrister David Sherborne said, with the other being the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson. The court was told 39 cases had been settled since a previous hearing in July.
Continue reading...Actor ‘honoured’ to recite story and hopes it ‘brings warmth and encouragement’ to children and families
The British actor and Hollywood star Gary Oldman has said he is “very honoured” to read a special CBeebies bedtime story for Children in Need.
The 66-year-old Oscar and three-time Bafta winner will recite the story during Friday night’s 2024 edition of the charity fundraising show. The story of “warmth and encouragement and hope” has been written specifically for Children in Need by Claire Taylor and is based on a true story, with illustrations from Tim Budgen.
Continue reading...Judge Robert Miles says former chief Michael Thomson and four others knowingly participated in fraud
Investment firm London Capital & Finance (LCF), whose failure in 2019 triggered one of Britain’s biggest retail investment scandals, operated as a Ponzi scheme, a London judge ruled on Thursday.
The high court said former chief executive Michael Thomson and four others had knowingly participated in the fraud, misled investors and misappropriated assets in a ruling welcomed by LCF’s joint administrators, which brought the case.
Continue reading...Police say family of 17-year-old have asked for privacy after she was fatally struck by car on motorway in Somerset
A teenage girl who fled a stationary police vehicle on the M5 and was fatally struck by a car has been named as Tamzin Hall.
The 17-year-old from Wellington, Somerset, died after being struck by a vehicle travelling southbound on the motorway between Bridgwater and Taunton shortly after 11pm on Monday.
Continue reading...Naccom report says gaps in state support have led to more than 1,940 refugees having no accommodation
Homelessness among refugees has doubled in the last year to reach record levels as charities hand out tents and sleeping bags to those forced to live on the streets for the first time, according to research.
The No Accommodation Network (Naccom), an umbrella organisation for 140 frontline organisations working with asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants across the UK, has collated the data and shared it with the Guardian.
Continue reading...Turkish national accused of supplying engines and boats to cross-Channel smugglers in Belgium and northern France
A suspected supplier of “hundreds” of small boat engines used by people smugglers to transport asylum seekers across the Channel has been arrested in Amsterdam, officials said.
A 44-year-old Turkish national was arrested on Wednesday after arriving at Schiphol airport, the UK’s National Crime Agency said. The suspect was due to be extradited to Belgium to face charges of being involved in human trafficking as part of a criminal organisation.
Continue reading...Work and pensions secretary confirms stance, as Wes Streeting faces criticism for saying law could bring NHS cuts
Liz Kendall has become the first cabinet minister to confirm she will vote for the assisted dying bill since it was published, as the row intensified over the proposed law change.
Some supporters of assisted dying have expressed anger after Wes Streeting, the health secretary and an opponent of the plan, warned it could be a potential drain on NHS resources.
Continue reading...Analysis lays bare huge challenge of mismanaged waste on eve of UN plastic treaty talks in Busan
Global plastic production must be reduced to tackle the immense challenge of plastic pollution, according to an analysis published on the eve of crucial talks to hammer out the world’s first legally binding treaty on plastic waste.
Mismanaged plastic waste, which leaches into the environment and can be harmful to health, will double to 121m tonnes by 2050 if limits are not placed on the production of plastic, according to Samuel Pottinger, the lead author of the research.
Continue reading...Christian and Muslim groups say medics who refuse to help patients die not protected in England and Wales bill
A significant proportion of NHS medical staff are likely to exercise a conscience clause if assisted dying is legalised by parliament.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill stipulates that no doctor would be under any obligation to participate in assisted dying.
Continue reading...Matthew Pennycook says Tory position now unclear on cap on tax rises that was in place when Kemi Badenoch was local government minister
A minister has criticised her Tory shadow for talking about “joy” in the health sector about the funding it received.
Karin Smyth, a health minister, said it was a strange word to use given the state of NHS finances left by the last government.
Many in the health sector would have been pleased to hear the announcement of the extra funding going into the NHS [in the budget], only for the joy to be struck down by the realisation of a broken manifesto promise not to raise national insurance contributions.
This was only compounded further on the discovery that a raft of frontline care providers – care homes, hospices, care charities, pharmacies, GPS, to name but a few – found themselves not exempt from the NI rises, leaving them with crippling staff bills and the threat of closure and redundancies.
He talks about joy. There was no joy when we inherited the mess that they left back in July.
The chancellor took into account the impact of changes to national insurance when she allocated an extra £26bn to the Department of Health and Social Care.
There are well established processes for agreeing funding allocations across the system, we are going through those processes now with this issue in mind.
The British government needs to start now indicating for them what they believe is the tipping point at which they believe a referendum would be called.
Continue reading...Louise Haigh says she hopes to ensure a repeat of the air traffic control failure of August 2023 never happens again
Airline passengers will benefit from tougher enforcement of consumer protection laws following an inquiry into the August 2023 air traffic control meltdown, transport secretary Louise Haigh has said.
She said she wants to ensure “all passengers feel confident when they fly”.
Continue reading...Company close to technical default on some of its debt, underlining UK industry’s precarious state
Southern Water’s debt has been downgraded to junk status by the credit rating agency Moody’s in a decision that underlines the precarious state of the UK water industry.
Moody’s said Southern’s “history of material operational and financial under-performance” could imperil its plan, announced last month, to borrow £4bn from investors.
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