Exclusive: Documents show shift in transport policy influenced by unfounded fears about loss of freedom of movement in ‘15-minute cities’
Ministers decided to prioritise driving over active travel because of worries among ministers about “15-minute cities”, documents seen by the Guardian show.
They indicate that a significant shift in transport policy was guided at least in part by conspiracy theories.
Continue reading...Increased flooding blamed on years of government delays over ‘sponge cities’ rules
Increased sewage pollution, urban flooding and water supply interruptions are the result of a decade of failures by the Conservative ministers, according to water experts who are demanding an independent inquiry into water be set up by the next government.
The repeated failure of the Tories to implement rules to create “sponge cities” has led to much more visible sewage pollution, more flooding and increasing instances of water being cut off for householders and businesses, they say.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leonard Farruku’s former roommate was offered no support after being relocated to another room without belongings
The man who was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm barge after it was suspected he had killed himself lay undiscovered for up to 12 hours, his former roommate has claimed.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Leonard Farruku, 27, an asylum seeker from Albania, was found dead in a shower room on the barge last month, Yusuf Deen Kargbo, 20, urged the Home Office to stop using it to accommodate those seeking refugee status.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Study of European electoral data suggests social democratic parties alienate supporters by moving towards the political centre
Adopting rightwing policies on issues such as immigration and the economy does not help centre-left parties win votes, according to new analysis of European electoral and polling data.
Faced with a 20-year decline in their vote share, accompanied by rising support for the right, far right and sometimes the far left, social democratic parties across Europe have increasingly sought salvation by moving towards the political centre.
Continue reading...US biotech firm designs cheaper, less invasive multi-cancer screening test it says could be ‘gamechanger’
Scientists have developed a simple DNA test that can identify 18 early-stage cancers that experts say could represent a medical “gamechanger”.
Cancer accounts for one in every six deaths worldwide, but early detection can significantly improve outcomes. Existing screening tests have drawbacks, including invasiveness, cost and low levels of accuracy for early stage disease.
Continue reading...David Cameron urges Israeli authorities to clear barriers to aid deliveries amid risk of ‘widespread hunger’
The British government has accepted that Israel as an occupying power had a duty under international humanitarian law to provide basic supplies to the people of Gaza.
The admission came when David Cameron, the foreign secretary, urged Israel to remove barriers on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory that were risking “real, widespread hunger”.
Continue reading...Kevin Hollinrake, the minister for postal services, says a government announcement on the scandal is imminent
Here are some more lines from Bridget Phillipson’s speech and Q&A this morning.
Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said keeping schools open should be a priority if a future pandemic ever required another lockdown. She said:
When the Government first reopened schools for most of our children, the pubs had already been open for weeks.
That was entirely the wrong way around. And I tell you today, that if I’m secretary of state for education, if and when such a national crisis comes again, school should be the last to close and the first to open.
Phillipson said the fact that Gavin Williamson, the former education secretary, did not give evidence to the Covid inquiry in person showed how schools were sidelined by the government. She said:
It says a lot that the Covid inquiry isn’t even taking evidence from Sir Gavin Williamson. I don’t blame them because he wasn’t important.
The education secretary – he wasn’t at the table. Ministers failed our children in their greatest hour of need.
She condemned parents who take their children out of school for holidays, saying that was a sign of disrespect. She said:
Cheaper holidays, birthday treats, not fancying it today – these are no excuses for missing school.
Penalties must be part of the system, but they can never be the answer alone. Allowing your child to skip school without good reason shouldn’t just be cause for a fine. It’s deeper.
She said Labour would introduce a single number, like the NHS number, to hold children’s records across different services together. She said:
Labour will bring a simple single number, like the NHS number that holds records together and that stops children’s needs falling between the gaps within schools and between them, between all of the services that wrap around them. That linkage allows us not just to support children with the issues that they face today, but to help identify the challenges of tomorrow.
She said Labour would “always be the party of family”.
She suggested Labour would take steps to ensure parents cannot avoid paying VAT on private schools fees by paying all fees in advance. This is from the BBC’s education editor, Branwen Jeffreys.
Will labour apply VAT on school fees retrospectively if parents try to pay fully in advance @bphillipsonMP says will make sure there isn’t avoidance
She praised Michael Gove, the Tory former education secretary, for bringing energy and drive to the department.
Continue reading...French energy company to invest a further £1.3bn in its British nuclear fleet up to 2026
EDF is planning to extend the life of four nuclear power stations in the UK and increase investment in its British nuclear fleet.
The French energy company, which manages Britain’s eight nuclear power stations, said it would make a decision on whether to extend the life of the four plants with advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) – Torness, Heysham 1 and 2, and Hartlepool – by the end of the year. This would require regulatory approval.
Continue reading...Chair says government-approved appointments lag behind broadcaster’s diversity targets
A row has broken out over the lack of ethnic diversity among Channel 4’s new board members, as the broadcaster’s chair criticised the government’s decision to appoint four white directors.
The culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, approved the appointments on Monday of five new non-executive directors to join the Channel 4 board and they were announced by the UK’s media regulator Ofcom.
Continue reading...Party to ask for details of individual relocation costs and any payments to the Rwandan government
Labour will table a vote in parliament on Tuesday calling for the release of documents relating to the UK government’s Rwanda deportation policy amid claims from Conservative centrists that Rishi Sunak has promised to uphold international treaties.
The vote, which will be part of a humble address on the opposition day debate in the Commons, will ask for any documents that show the cost of relocating each individual asylum seeker to Rwanda as well as a list of all payments made or scheduled to be made to Rwanda’s government.
Continue reading...Villagers in King’s Somborne angry over letters from landowner, the diocese of Winchester, sent over festive period
For more than a century villagers have grown fruit and veg on allotments at King’s Somborne, a picture postcard village in the Test valley, Hampshire.
But plot holders are up in arms after being served eviction notices from the owner of the land, the diocese of Winchester, to make way for housing.
Continue reading...Companies could be stopped from taking such action, and firms involved in Horizon case may have to pay compensation
Rules to prevent companies taking private prosecutions in the way the Post Office went after innocent post office operators are being considered by the government.
The move by the government to consider removing powers of prosecution from the Post Office and other entities is part of a response to the Horizon IT scandal that could also lead to companies involved, including the tech company Fujitsu, being asked to shoulder the financial burden of providing compensation, a cabinet minister indicated on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Majority of flood warnings in south of England and Midlands, with some snow flurries overnight
More than 100 flood warnings remain in place after last week’s Storm Henk deluge as large parts of the UK endured a cold, frosty morning.
The Environment Agency (EA) said there were 126 flood warnings in England where flooding is expected, including a flood warning on the River Thames south-west of London in Wraysbury.
Continue reading...Business minister Kevin Hollinrake to give statement on Horizon scandal and what the government plans to do
James Chapman, a former political editor of the Daily Mail who worked as special adviser for David Davis when he was Brexit secretary for about a year until he left convinced that Brexit was a terrible mistake, says he does not think the “back to square one” line really works as an attack line against Labour.
The trouble with Sunak’s latest slogan is that I suspect a large number of voters think Britain is so broken under the Tories that “going back to square one” sounds like a wholly positive idea
Continue reading...Numerous people have been criticised for their role in widespread miscarriage of justice that affected thousands
Over a 16-year period the Post Office wrongfully accused about 3,500 branch owner-operators of theft, fraud and false accounting, resulting in more than 700 prosecutions, despite knowing from at least 2010 that there were faults in the Horizon IT system.
To date no Post Office staff or suppliers have been punished. Here are some of those involved who still have questions to answer for their role in what has frequently been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history.
Continue reading...He tried to engage the little people and bestow upon them his blessings, but he’s incapable of not talking down to everyone
Surely it can’t go on like this for the rest of the year. If it does, then we will all be driven mad by the end of it. Assuming we’re not already. Rishi Sunak has started 2024 as he means to go on. In full election mode. The prime minister is seemingly no longer interested in governing the country – it’s scarcely registered with him that half the country is flooded. Then again, if your primary mode of transport is a helicopter, I guess you don’t really notice. All that matters is scoring cheap points as he scrabbles around to think of reasons people might vote for him.
On Monday, the first day parliament was back after the Christmas recess, Sunak was in Accrington to deliver yet another of his PM Disconnects to a carefully curated audience of about 100 people who had been rounded up by Conservative head office. Even so, many of those in the hall soon began to wonder if they had been dragged out under false pretences.
John Crace’s book Depraved New World (Guardian Faber, £16.99) is out now. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy and save 18% at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
Continue reading...Multiple safety and cybersecurity failings at nuclear waste site were revealed by Guardian last month
The top director responsible for safety and security at Sellafield is to leave the vast nuclear waste dump in north-west England, it has emerged.
Mark Neate, the Sellafield environment, safety and security director, is to leave the organisation later this year.
Continue reading...Actor and musician also calls for more funding for youth services as part of campaign to end youth knife violence
Idris Elba has called for more urgent action on youth knife violence – including the immediate banning of machetes and “zombie” knives, and more funding for youth services – saying the time for excuses and delays is over.
Speaking to the Guardian on Monday, the star of Luther and The Wire said society was capable of coming together to solve the problem, adding that experts in youth services and bereaved families needed to be able to sit in the same room as politicians and the police, among others, to achieve that.
Continue reading...James Atkinson, 23, who died in 2020, described by parents as having ‘a gift of making others happy’
A 23-year-old man with a peanut allergy who died after eating a slice of takeaway pizza ordered through Deliveroo has been described by his parents as someone who brightened everyone’s day and lived life to the full.
An inquest opened on Monday into the death of James Atkinson, a Newcastle University computer science graduate who had found his “dream job” as a computer programmer in the city.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Review by Michael Marmot decries 'shocking political failure’ behind differing life expectancies across country
More than 1 million people in England died prematurely in the decade after 2011 owing to a combination of poverty, austerity and Covid, according to “shocking” new research by one of the UK’s leading public health experts.
The figures are revealed in a study by the Institute of Health Equity at University College London led by Sir Michael Marmot. They demonstrate the extent to which stark economic and social inequalities are leading to poorer people dying early from cancer, heart problems and other diseases.
Continue reading...