Category Archives: UK news

Martin Scorsese tells young film-makers to embrace new tech for ‘serious’ work

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Director in London for Killers of the Flower Moon premiere says it is time to ‘rethink what you want to say and how you want to say it’

Martin Scorsese has urged young film-makers to use new technology for “serious” work, as he emphasised the importance of cinema over content.

Speaking at a Screen Talk at the BFI London film festival hosted by the British film-maker Edgar Wright, Scorsese – arguably America’s highest status film director – said the industry’s “period of reinventing” didn’t have to spell the end of auteur-led film-making.

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Flooding in Scotland could pose danger to life, Met Office says

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Warnings issued for across the country, with a month’s worth of rain in 36 hours expected in some areas

Flooding in Scotland could present a danger to life, the Met Office has said, as heavy rain led to train services being suspended.

A number of rail lines and roads, including the M9 motorway, were hit by flooding on Saturday morning, and rain is expected to continue into Sunday.

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Labour’s stunning Scottish byelection win means there may be little need to bargain with the SNP

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A decade of SNP dominance will be swept away in Scotland if Labour can repeat its Rutherglen success at a general election

Thursday was a big day for Scottish Labour. Within minutes of the declaration that Labour had retaken Rutherglen and Hamilton West from the SNP, phones and social media lit up with triumphant messages from the winning party. And with good reason. This was the best result for Labour in a Scottish byelection since the second world war, and the worst for the SNP since the independence referendum upended Scottish politics.

Some caveats apply. This was one of the SNP’s most marginal seats, where Labour prevailed as recently as 2017. A cloud of scandal hung over a contest triggered after the sitting MP Margaret Ferrier was sanctioned for repeatedly breaking Covid rules. As Boris Johnson has learned, voters judge such behaviour harshly.

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BBC denies report decision has been made to axe Top Gear

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Corporation says decision will be made ‘in due course’ after show’s staff reportedly told to look for other work after Andrew Flintoff crash

The BBC has denied Top Gear has reached the end of the road amid reports the show had been axed.

The Sun reported on Friday that the broadcaster had told production staff on the long-running show to look for other work after the presenter and former cricketer Andrew Flintoff was injured during filming last December.

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Driver who swerved across three lanes of M25 on spare tyre disqualified

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Jack Doolan, 22, failed to stop after undertaking one car and then crashing into another and the motorway’s central barrier

Dramatic footage shows a driver swerving violently across the M25 and hitting another car before crashing into a concrete barrier.

Jack Doolan, 22, was travelling between junctions 21 and 21a at about 7.50pm on 20 December 2022 when the crash occurred.

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Poll predicts landslide Labour election victory with 12 cabinet ministers losing their seats

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Dramatic findings point to Conservatives losing every red wall seat that they secured at the last election

Labour is currently on course to win a landslide victory on the scale of 1997, according to dramatic new modelling that points to the Conservatives losing every red wall seat secured at the last election.

The Tories could also lose more than 20 constituencies in its southern blue wall strongholds and achieve a record-low number of seats, according to a constituency-by-constituency model seen by the Observer. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leadership contender Penny Mordaunt are among those facing defeat. Some 12 cabinet ministers face being unseated unless Rishi Sunak can close Labour’s poll lead.

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Chris Grayling joins list of Tories standing down at next election

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MP since 2001, nicknamed ‘Failing Grayling’ for fraught record as transport secretary, says time for a change after cancer treatment

Chris Grayling, the former transport secretary, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he is standing down at the next general election.

Grayling said he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer this year and the diagnosis had led him to decide it was “time for a change”.

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Met police failing children at risk and victim blaming, says damning report

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Inspectorate demands emergency changes as Scotland Yard accepts its child protection services are in chaos

The Metropolitan police are failing in their efforts to protect children from criminal and sexual exploitation while bungling efforts to find missing young people, a damning official report has found.

The findings have led Scotland Yard to accept its child protection services are in chaos, and a senior officer admitted that “too often we are letting them down”. The policing inspectorate, which authored the report, said it was also concerned with “the frequency with which officers and staff use victim-blaming language”.

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Rishi Sunak ‘responsible for biggest income tax rise in at least 50 years’

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Resolution Foundation analysis claims stealth move of freezing tax thresholds will raise £40bn a year

Rishi Sunak’s government is responsible for the biggest income tax rise for decades in a stealth move that will raise £40bn a year, according to new analysis.

Taxpayers in the higher bracket will be handing over £3,700 a year more in tax as a result of a six-year freeze to income tax thresholds by 2027-28, the Resolution Foundation calculated.

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Labour would oversee ‘biggest boost in affordable housing in a generation’

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Exclusive: Deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner says party would get tough on developers

The next Labour government will oversee the biggest boost in affordable housing in a generation by getting tough on developers and reforming planning rules, the party’s deputy leader has said.

Angela Rayner, also the shadow housing secretary, said she wanted to “increase, not decrease” the number of affordable new homes built every year, after it fell 12% last year.

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Metro Bank shares rebound amid reports of £600m capital offer

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Lender’s stock hit all-time low after news it was exploring selling off up to 40% of mortgage book

Metro Bank shares rebounded from all-time lows on Friday, amid reports that the embattled lender was sitting on a £600m offer from bondholders that could cover its looming funding pressures.

Regulators have been keeping a close eye on developments at the high street lender, which needs fresh investor funding, and is exploring selling off up to 40% of its mortgage book, in order to shore up its balance sheet and ensure it can continue to grow.

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‘Bedbugs don’t discriminate’: Paris ‘scourge’ sparks fears of international infestation

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After French capital hosted fashion week and Rugby World Cup there are concerns the problem will spread

Paris is burning its luggage and bed linen as it battles a “scourge” of bedbugs, stoking fears of infestation around the world as pest controllers report an uptick in inquiries and transport operators and hoteliers seek to assuage concerns.

The city of light is reportedly under siege from the nocturnal bloodsuckers, leading the French transport minister, Clément Beaune, to meet transport operators. “It’s a real nightmare,” says Yacine, a schoolteacher in Paris who declined to give his surname. “I’m so afraid to take the Métro, I don’t go to the cinema – it’s very alarmant.”

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‘Dangerous precedent’: fears over plans for Calanais stones access fee

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Land access groups worry it will lead to charges at other sites, while pagans are alarmed about restrictions on worship

For generations walkers, pagans and artists have freely roamed around the standing stones at Calanais on Lewis, drawn by the site’s monumental scale, its coastal views and the spiritual impact of the rising sun and moon there.

But there are growing fears that proposals by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to introduce an admissions charge and control access to the neolithic site for the first time, could have a significant impact on those freedoms.

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What Labour’s Rutherglen victory means for SNP and UK politics

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Party’s victory may point to a change in Scottish political alignments that spells danger for Humza Yousaf

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, had used the word “earthquake” last week to foreshadow Labour’s remarkable victory in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, where its winning margin of 30 percentage points exceeded even its predictions.

He did it cheekily, stealing one of the favourite lines often used by the former Scottish National party leader Alex Salmond when the nationalists were crushing Labour at repeated elections in the past. That theft of Salmond’s phrase has additional resonance. It points to a change in Scottish political alignments that spells danger for the SNP and its current leader, Humza Yousaf.

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Wetherspoon’s returns to profit for first time since Covid pandemic

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Cost of living crisis drives consumers to low-cost pub chain but company remains cautious

JD Wetherspoon has bounced back to profit for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago, as budget-conscious consumers flocked to the low-cost pub chain amid the cost of living crisis.

Wetherspoon’s, which runs about 830 pubs across the UK and Ireland, reported a pre-tax profit of almost £43m in the year to 30 July.

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Buyer’s market fuels fastest fall in UK house prices in 14 years

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High mortgage costs result in sixth straight month of sellers being forced to reduce prices, says Halifax

UK house prices fell at the fastest annual rate in 14 years in September, as high mortgage costs fuelled a sixth consecutive monthly drop in a “buyer’s market”, according to Halifax.

Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, said prices fell by 4.7% in September, the biggest year-on-year decrease since 2009.

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‘Seismic night in Scotland’: Labour crushes SNP in Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection

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Michael Shanks wins contest Labour considered a crucial test of apparent turnaround of its fortunes in Scotland

Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks has won the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection in an overwhelming victory over the SNP that his party leadership declared “seismic”, and a clear demonstration that Scotland could lead the way in delivering a Labour government at Westminster at the coming general election.

In a result that exceeded Scottish Labour expectation, Shanks beat his closest rival, the SNP’s Katy Loudon, by 17,845 votes to 8,399 – a majority of 9,446 and a resounding swing of more than 20 percentage points.

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