BMA members overwhelmingly back further stoppages and overtime bans in long-running pay dispute
Junior doctors in England have voted to keep on striking until the middle of September in their long-running pay dispute, bringing a fresh wave of disruption to the NHS.
Those belonging to the British Medical Association voted overwhelmingly to stage further stoppages in addition to the 41 days of strikes held since last March.
Continue reading...Climate Change Committee finds Scottish government has repeatedly failed to make cuts required by law
Scotland’s pledge to cut its climate emissions by 75% by 2030 is “no longer credible” and cannot be met, the UK’s climate watchdog has said.
In a damning report submitted to the Scottish parliament, the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) accused the Scottish government of repeatedly failing to live up to its legally binding targets.
Continue reading...Joe Penhall’s new play marks the talkshow host’s first theatre role since One Man, Two Guvnors and will see him star opposite Anna Maxwell Martin at the Old Vic
James Corden is to return to the London stage for his first role since the National Theatre’s blockbuster farce One Man, Two Guvnors.
The star, who last year left his US late-night talkshow after eight years, will appear in a new political drama by Joe Penhall. The Constituent, at the Old Vic theatre, is set in an MP’s constituency office. Corden will play “an ex-serviceman with a life in freefall” while Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland, Line of Duty) is an opposition backbencher whose ideals of public office are tested by his demands. Zachary Hart completes the cast as a parliamentary protection officer. The play will be directed by the Old Vic’s artistic director, Matthew Warchus, and is said to explore “the conflict between public service and personal safety”.
Continue reading...Lack of education, training and housing is behind loss of gen Z’s traditionally positive outlook
Something is going wrong for young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the UK, across Europe, the US and Australia.
The latest World Happiness Report shows that while not all teenagers and young adults are suffering, a large and growing number cannot cope with being left adrift with few qualifications on an economic sea that is more testing with each passing year.
Continue reading...America’s top doctor says governments’ failure to better regulate social media is ‘insane’
Young people are becoming less happy than older generations as they suffer “the equivalent of a midlife crisis”, global research has revealed as America’s top doctor warned that “young people are really struggling”.
Dr Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, said allowing children to use social media was like giving them medicine that is not proven to be safe. He said the failure of governments to better regulate social media in recent years was “insane”.
Continue reading...Final year students from Goresbrook school talk about housing, higher education and social media – as well as hopes and fears
Zainab Shehzadi has a long list of worries: robots stealing jobs from humans, the damage wreaked on the climate by previous generations, turmoil in other countries, fighting fierce competition to secure a job that pays enough to live a comfortable life.
It’s a lot for a 17-year-old to take on, but she sees it as a reflection of the uncertain world she has grown up in. “We’re living in an age where everything is changing very rapidly,” she says.
Continue reading...Report also discloses approval was rushed through without developing safety plans or consulting councils
Rishi Sunak’s plan to save public money by moving asylum seekers out of hotels is in tatters after Whitehall’s spending watchdog disclosed that the government’s alternative sites will cost millions of pounds more.
The National Audit Office said attempts to place people seeking refuge in a barge, two former RAF bases and former student accommodation will cost £1.2bn – £46m more than keeping them in hotels.
The Home Office is considering scaling back the number of people at Wethersfield – which is in the constituency of the home secretary, James Cleverly – after reports of self-harm and violence among asylum seekers.
Officials secured large sites to house people before talking to local councils and MPs and used emergency planning regulations to ensure plans were rushed through.
The department pursued the programme despite “repeated” assessments that it “could not be delivered as planned”.
Reviews by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority rated the Home Office’s work on large-scale accommodation as “red”, meaning “successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality appears to be unachievable”.
The Home Office also rated its own performance as “red” as it recognised the challenges of the work, repeatedly revising accommodation targets “downwards”.
The department “prioritised awarding contracts quickly, and modifying existing contracts over fully-competitive tenders”, with “overly-ambitious accommodation timetables” leading to “increased procurement risks”.
Continue reading...New minimum wage law to be brought in two years after P&O Ferries replaced hundreds of workers with low-cost crew
Cross-Channel ferry operators will be required to pay their crew at least £9.95 an hour after France implemented a new minimum wage law aimed at preventing the exploitation of seafarers.
The move comes two years after P&O Ferries caused outrage on both sides of the Channel by sacking almost 800 workers and replacing them with low-cost crew.
Continue reading...Authentic Brands announces move for brand’s Europe retail and online arm after ‘damage done’ during tie-up with Dutch company
Ted Baker’s European retail and online arm is to appoint administrators, putting almost 1,000 jobs at risk at the British brand.
The fashion brand, which has 46 stores in the UK and Europe, has been struggling for several years as it faced increasing competition and the fallout from the exit of its founder, Ray Kelvin, who stepped down in 2019 after allegations of “forced hugging”.
Continue reading...BBFC survey finds sexual violence remains biggest area of concern while views on some drug use have eased
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has introduced stricter guidelines for sex scenes and nudity in 12 and 12A productions, saying the public are concerned about the amount of explicit content to which young people are being exposed.
In the BBFC’s first major audience research for five years, sexual violence remained the biggest area of concern.
Continue reading...Donations were related to an employee seconded to the party by a donor
The Conservative party has been fined £10,750 by the Electoral Commission for failing to accurately report non-cash donations worth more than £200,000.
The donations related to an employee who had been seconded to the party by a donor. The commission said:
The party under-reported non-cash donations, in the form of an employee seconded to the party by a donor between April 2020 to December 2023. The non-cash donations were under reported by more than £200,000, when the seconded employee went from part-time to full-time work at the party.
The party also reported late a single non-cash donation relating to the same seconded employee, in December 2023.
Our investigation into the Conservative and Unionist Party found a number of donations inaccurately reported or reported late. The political finance laws we enforce are there to ensure transparency in how parties are funded and to increase public confidence in our system, so it’s important donations are fully and clearly reported.
Where we find offences, we carefully consider the circumstances before deciding whether to impose a sanction. We take into account a range of factors before making our final decision, including proportionality.
Penny Mordaunt is not going to become the leader of the Conservative party with a coronation. That idea is inconceivable.
In defence of Rishi Sunak, it is quite hard for a leader to be, at this stage in his leadership, significantly more popular than the party, because the two get quite closely identified and the Conservative party’s popularity fell before Rishi Sunak did, so I wouldn’t hold him personally responsible.
I think we’ve been in office for a long time, and I agree with you that the changes of leadership didn’t help. I was not in favour of removing Boris Johnson, as you may remember, but that has happened and parties need to deal with the current situation, not what might have been.
Continue reading...Magnum to Marmite consumer goods group plans productivity programme to save £684m
Unilever is to cut 7,500 jobs globally as part of an overhaul aimed at saving about €800m (£684m) over the next three years.
The consumer goods company, whose brands range from Marmite and Hellmann’s mayonnaise to Dove soap, Lynx deodorant and Domestos bleach, employs 128,000 people worldwide, including 6,000 in the UK.
Continue reading...Wealthy are willing to pay more than double the standard price of £170,000, says luxury carmaker
The luxury carmaker Bentley is cashing in as more of the world’s richest people opt to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on “levels of personalisation that we’ve never seen before”, the company has said.
While households all over the world struggle with inflation and the continued impact of the global energy crisis, its chief executive, Adrian Hallmark, said that “our customers can still afford our cars”, even if some were hesitating before committing.
Continue reading...Little action has been taken on issue at one of UK’s most notorious jails, Independent Monitoring Board says
Black prisoners are disproportionately subjected to the use of force inside one of Britain’s most notorious jails, a report has found.
The annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board, a statutory body that monitors the treatment of prisoners, found that from June 2022 to May 2023, black prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs were subjected to 43% of use-of-force incidents although they formed just 27% of the prison population.
Continue reading...Getty Images flags second royal photo days after storm over image of Princess of Wales
A second photograph of members of the royal family has been flagged by a global picture agency after it was discovered to have been “digitally enhanced at source”.
Earlier this month, five international picture agencies that initially distributed an image of the Princess of Wales to mark Mother’s Day issued so-called “kill” notices to withdraw it, sparking a huge wave of commentary, speculation and even conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...Families say they were promised details of relatives’ whereabouts after contacting people they thought were linked to NGO in Spain
Families of people who disappeared on the perilous journey from Africa to Europe have said they were asked to pay hundreds of euros in exchange for information about what had happened to their loved ones.
In interviews with the Guardian, three families recounted how, as part of their searches for missing relatives that had gone on for years, they had made contact with people they believed to be connected to an NGO in southern Spain who said they were able to help them.
Continue reading...Former US president understood to have discussed AI and other subjects with PM on informal ‘courtesy’ visit
Barack Obama has held talks with Rishi Sunak as the former US president paid a “courtesy visit” to Downing Street during a trip to London.
The pair are understood to have discussed a range of subjects during an hour-long meeting, including one of the prime minister’s favourite topics, artificial intelligence.
Continue reading...Libertarian faction of Conservatives expected to stage a rebellion but measure has widespread support
Rishi Sunak’s public health policy banning the next generation from being able to buy cigarettes is to be introduced in parliament this week, with officials braced for a backlash from Conservative rebels.
While the policy commands considerable support in Conservative ranks, the scale of an expected rebellion by libertarian Tories – whose ranks includeLiz Truss – has yet to become clear.
Continue reading...One site tweeted of monarch’s purported demise only to later concede: ‘Most likely, the information is fake’
The news broke in the Russian media on Monday afternoon. King Charles III was dead. He was not, but no one really had time to check the details. The saga of the royal family finally had its latest twist: a viral Russian disinformation angle.
The rumour went into overdrive when it was shared on a Telegram channel used by Vedomosti, once Russia’s most respected business newspaper. There was a photo of Charles in ceremonial military uniform and the curt caption: “British King Charles III has died.” It made it through Russian internet channels, including Readovka, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel with more than 2.35 million subscribers.
Continue reading...Nikesh Mistry, 34, caused serious injuries after using his BMW to try to force the motorbike off the road
A man has been jailed for ramming a motorcyclist off a Buckinghamshire bridge in what police described as an act of “extreme” road rage.
Nikesh Mistry, 34, repeatedly tried to force the motorcyclist off the road, which resulted in him sustaining serious injuries, police said.
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