Category Archives: UK news

Digested week: through the Christmas perineum and out the other side

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Despite its awful name it’s my favourite time of year, an excuse to pause any activity – including new year celebrations

And so we find ourselves again at the Christmas perineum, the time between the end of the yuletide celebrations and before the new year shenanigans begin, and a phrase so awful I have felt compelled to use it as often as possible ever since the dark day I learned it about five years ago. Sorry.

Watch less Brooklyn Nine-Nine every evening;

Add a new meal to my culinary repertoire and take the total to nearly three;

Work harder, walk more, cull wardrobe, sort finances, declutter house, clean more, lose weight, see if this improves life or makes me wish I was dead. You’ve got to find out at some point, I reckon.

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Government must look at effects of toxic smoke on Grenfell firefighters, minister says

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Union calls for regular health checks for 600 Grenfell firefighters after many developed long-term conditions

The government “needs to seriously look” at the effects of toxic smoke inhalation on firefighters who served at the Grenfell Tower fire, a minister has said.

The comments from Andrew Gwynne, the health minister, came after the Guardian disclosed that more than a quarter of firefighters who battled against the fire eight years ago have long-term health disorders.

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Guardian and Observer readers raise £1.25m so far in charity appeal

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With just over a week to go, more than 11,200 people have donated generously to support victims of conflict and war

With just over a week to go, an incredible £1,250,000 has been raised by generous readers for the 2024 Guardian and Observer appeal in support of victims of conflict and war.

Three charities will benefit from the appeal: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and War Child, which carry out frontline medical aid work in war zones, and Parallel Histories, which helps schools teach sensitive and controversial histories such as those of Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine.

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Firm led by ex-UK envoy on ethics made £13m on not-for-profit visa services

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Cloud Bai-Yun was asked to resign from Ecctis, which runs language and qualifications tests for UK visa applicants

An entrepreneur who represented the UK on an ethics body was asked to resign from a company running government visa services after officials found it made a £13.64m gain on its not-for-profit contract.

After the discovery of years of profit-making, the company, Ecctis, repaid the money to the government and a number of executives, including Cloud Bai-Yun, stood down from the firm, which runs language tests and qualification recognition for people applying for UK visas.

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Fixing UK social care will be biggest challenge yet for Louise Casey

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Troubleshooter for four previous prime ministers is charged with saving troubled national care sector

She is the no-nonsense civil servant from Portsmouth who was called upon by four prime ministers to tackle deep-rooted social issues, including rough sleeping, antisocial behaviour, victims’ rights and troubled families.

Now Louise Casey has been tasked by a fifth to chair an independent commission into adult social care. Her mission? Develop a plan to save the sector.

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Ministers plan biggest shake-up of adult social care in England for decades

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But final report on reforms would not emerge until 2028, which health leaders say is kicking crisis ‘into the long grass’

Ministers are to launch a historic independent commission to reform adult social care, as they warned older people could be left without vital help and the NHS overwhelmed unless a “national consensus” was reached on fixing a “failing” system.

The taskforce, to be led by the cross-bench peer Louise Casey, will be charged with developing plans for a new national care service, a Labour election manifesto pledge, in the biggest shake-up to social care in England in decades.

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Bodies of British woman and South African fiance found in Vietnam tourist villa

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No evidence of physical trauma on Greta Marie Otteson and Arno Els Quinton, who were found in separate rooms

The bodies of a British woman and her fiance have been discovered in separate rooms at a tourist villa in Vietnam, police said.

The victims were named locally as Greta Marie Otteson, a 33-year-old Briton, and Arno Els Quinton, a 36-year-old South African, who were staying at the complex in Hội An in the central Quang Nam province.

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Grenfell firefighters exposed to toxic smoke developed health disorders, study finds

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Exclusive: Data from 524 firefighters who risked their lives showed 136 reported life-changing conditions

More than a quarter of firefighters exposed to toxic smoke during the Grenfell Tower fire have had long-term health disorders, a study shows.

Ministers are facing demands for an urgent review after data from 524 firefighters who risked their lives at the 2017 disaster showed that over the first three years, 136 reported life-changing conditions. These included 11 cases of cancer, 64 respiratory diseases, 22 neurological disorders and 66 digestive illnesses.

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Ex-chief prosecutor rejects Musk’s calls for new child abuse inquiry

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Nazir Afzal and police whistleblower Maggie Oliver say previous lengthy inquiries were not acted upon

A former chief prosecutor and a police whistleblower who uncovered a notorious paedophile gang have hit back at demands from senior Conservatives and the billionaire Elon Musk for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.

Nazir Afzal, the ex-chief prosecutor who was central to successful prosecution of the Rochdale grooming gang, said lengthy and expensive inquiries were not acted upon by the previous Conservative government.

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Embankment of 18th-century canal in Cheshire collapses after flooding

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Engineers assess damage as heavy rains cause first major breach of Bridgewater canal since 1970s

Engineers are assessing the scale of damage to a canal built more than 250 years ago after flood waters caused a dramatic collapse of part of its elevated embankment in Cheshire.

The Bridgewater canal, which was previously used to transport coal but is now a leisure waterway, caved in near Dunham Massey, in the first major breach of the waterway for 54 years.

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UK needs to ban full hybrid cars by 2030 or face net zero ‘catastrophe’, says motoring body

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Electric Vehicles UK says hybrids without a plug should be banned or else confidence in electric cars will be damaged

Britain needs to press ahead with a ban on the sale of new hybrid cars with no plug from 2030 or risk taking “a catastrophic misstep” on the road to net zero, ministers have been warned.

Cars such as the Toyota Prius, which charge a battery from an internal combustion engine, need to be excluded from the list of vehicles sold in the UK from 2030 or there will be a “profound” fall in confidence in the government’s commitment to electric motoring, according to the representative body Electric Vehicles UK (EVUK).

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UK house prices rise for fourth month in a row, says Nationwide

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Cost of average home in December reaches £269,426, with value increasing over year by almost £12,000

House prices rose for a fourth consecutive month in December, ending 2024 on a “strong footing”, Nationwide said, with the cost of an average home hitting £269,426.

The building society’s monthly tracker found prices in December rose 0.7% on the previous month and were up 4.7% on an annual basis.

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Ice warning and travel alerts in UK as temperatures drop after flooding

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Disruption expected as rain turns to snow, after major flooding incident declared in Greater Manchester

An ice warning is in force for much of the UK as temperatures have dropped, after a major incident was declared due to flooding.

The yellow Met Office warning indicates there could be some difficult travel conditions across Scotland, Northern Ireland and north Wales, and stretching down to the Midlands, until 10am on Thursday.

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DWP spent £50,000 trying to stop release of review into disabled man’s death

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Previous government spent almost £1m trying to prevent release of documents in 56 legal cases

More than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on lawyers to try to prevent the release of a safeguarding review ordered after a disabled man starved to death in his own home.

The costs were part of a bill of nearly £1m spent under the last government to prevent the release of various documents under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.

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Health innovation centre looks to future of NHS while celebrating its past

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First building to open at Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Centre is named after NHS’s first black matron

In a full-scale model of a house, a £50,000 mannequin that can breathe, blink and cough waits for the replica of an ambulance.

Eerily lifelike technology, some created by model makers who have made “bodies” for the BBC’s Silent Witness, is being used to tackle the scarcity of placement hours for healthcare students by combining real-world training with simulated settings, including virtual reality.

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Fig and almond trees thriving in UK thanks to fewer frosts, RHS says

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Society to retire plants no longer suited to UK’s changing climate after 14% fewer days of ground frost recorded

Fig and almond trees are thriving in Britain as a result of fewer frosts, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.

The lack of frost, one of the effects of climate breakdown, means plants used to warmer climes have been doing well in RHS gardens. Almond trees from the Mediterranean were planted at Wisley in Surrey several years ago, and without frost this year have fruited well for the first time.

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The nameless dead: scientists hunt for identities of thousands who tried to reach Europe

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Experts’ group employs new technologies and techniques to help relatives of those missing in the migration crisis

Four years ago, the remains of a toddler encased in a lifejacket and a navy snowsuit washed up on a beach in southern Norway, having spent the previous two months being carried on North Sea currents. Though his face was barely recognisable, publicity about the sinking of the migrant boat he had been travelling on, and suspicions about his identity, enabled Norwegian police to locate a relative to whom his DNA could be matched, providing this lonely corpse with a name: Artin Iran Nezhad.

Others remain nameless. Of the tens of thousands who die trying to reach Europe, only about a fifth are ever formally identified. For their relatives, this lack of closure is a continuing trauma. However, a recently established network of forensic scientists is trying to change this, through the development of new technologies and processes to aid identification efforts.

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Automatic voter registration may be an answer to UK’s troubling turnout gap

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Experts say evidence from abroad shows AVR is effective – and it’s one of several proposals to try to boost voting

A healthy democracy depends on people participating in it. In the UK, the proportion of people doing so is falling. Voter turnout in general elections stayed above 70% from 1945 through to 1997, hitting more than 80% in 1950 and 1951. But it collapsed to 59.4% when Tony Blair won his second term in 2001, and though it rose again between 2010 and 2019, it has not reached the 70% mark since 1997. In the 2024 election, turnout fell to 59.7%.

The decline has been acute enough to trigger concern among Labour officials. Before July, the Guardian revealed they were drawing up plans to introduce automatic voter registration (AVR). In the election, when it came around, just 52% of adults living in the UK exercised their right to vote – the lowest proportion since universal suffrage was introduced. Crucially, this statistic counts all adults eligible to vote in the UK, not just those registered on the electoral roll.

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Turnout inequality in UK elections close to tipping point, report warns

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IPPR says elections could lose legitimacy because of falling turnout among groups such as renters and non-graduates

UK elections are “close to a tipping point” where they lose legitimacy because of plummeting voter turnout among renters and non-graduates, an influential thinktank has said.

Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that the gap in turnout between those with and without university degrees grew to 11 percentage points in the 2024 general election – double that of 2019.

Lowering the voting age to 16.

Implementing automatic voter registration.

Introducing a £100,000 annual cap on donations to political parties.

Creating an “election day service”.

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It’s time to get serious about stamp duty on shares, a terrible advert for London

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The number of listed companies fleeing can’t be ignored – cutting or abolishing the tax could revive the capital market

Last year was another depressing one for departures from the London stock market. Back in January, it was Flutter heading for the exit. The owner of Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet got itself a secondary listing in the US and said it would quickly convert it into the primary one, which it did in May.

When December arrived, we were still on the same theme. Ashtead Group, the £27bn construction rental company that has been listed in London since 1986, announced plans to shift its primary listing to New York. Other escapers include Just Eat Takeaway, which is off to Amsterdam.

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