Margaret Betts, of Ipswich, was headhunted in 1942 to decipher enemy communications during WW2
One of the last surviving female Bletchley Park codebreakers, who worked helping to decipher enemy communications during the second world war, has died aged 99.
Margaret Betts, of Ipswich, Suffolk, was 19 when she was headhunted by “men from the ministry”, having performed well at school, her son Jonathan Betts, 68, said.
Continue reading...Rick Haythornthwaite, who leads boardrooms of Ocado and the AA, lined up to succeed Howard Davies
NatWest is expected to announce shortly that a former Centrica boss will be its next chair, as the lender continues to deal with the fallout from the scandal surrounding the threatened closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts.
Rick Haythornthwaite – who previously chaired Network Rail and Mastercard as well as the British Gas owner and currently leads the boardrooms of Ocado and the AA – could be confirmed as a successor to Howard Davies as early as Wednesday afternoon, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...Newly published government list identifies 147 schools as having potentially dangerous concrete
Twenty-four schools across England will receive some remote learning because of the concrete crisis, according to a newly published government list of schools identified as having a type of potentially dangerous concrete
They include four where lessons have been taking place on a fully remote basis since the weekend, along with 20 where there is a mix of face-to-face and remote learning.
Continue reading...Willowbrook Mead primary will now shut for a day to move furniture back after scramble to create new spaces
A school that scrambled to set up temporary classrooms after the Department for Education (DfE) ordered closures because of Raac has received a government apology after it turned out it did not have the crumbly concrete after all.
The government has published a list of 145 schools with Raac, nine fewer than it announced last Thursday, suggesting that last week’s order to close buildings was overcautious in several cases.
Continue reading...King Charles and Queen Camilla to dine at Palace of Versailles banquet and meet sports stars
King Charles will address members of both houses of the French parliament and will have a bilateral meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron, during a state visit to France with the queen later this month.
The visit, originally due in March, was postponed when pension-reform protests in France spiralled into violent clashes.
Continue reading...Drop on New York stock exchange comes amid claims Glazer family have taken club off market
Manchester United shares have suffered their steepest single-day fall in price after a report claimed the Glazer family was considering a U-turn on plans to sell the club.
Shares in the Premier League club dropped by 18.2% on Tuesday to $19.35 (£15.40), the biggest daily drop since they were listed the New York stock exchange in 2012.
Continue reading...Tank could be one of 14 UK gave to Ukraine that Kyiv was keeping in reserve for frontline breakthrough
A battlefield video circulating on social media overnight showed the destruction of a British Challenger 2 from a mine and Russian drone in Ukraine, which would be the first time one of the tanks has been destroyed in combat.
At the beginning of the clip, filmed from a car involved in the fighting, the Challenger 2 with its distinctive gun barrel is seen shrouded in thick, grey smoke after the battlefield incident.
Continue reading...Authorities unsure whether the aerated concrete at risk of collapse is present anywhere on the estate
Investigations are under way into whether the Houses of Parliament have any reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), the material at risk of collapse that has led to the closure of more than 100 schools.
Maintenance teams are trying to establish whether the dangerous concrete is present in any parts of the parliamentary estate, Bloomberg reported. A source told the Guardian that parliamentary authorities are unsure whether Raac is present and are trying to find out.
Continue reading...Only four schools were rebuilt in 2021 in government scheme intended to cover 500 schools over 10-year period
More than half of English schools that are so dilapidated they are at risk of partial closure were refused money under the government’s school rebuilding scheme, Department for Education (DfE) statistics show.
Amid mounting concerns about a wider apparent neglect of the schools estate in recent years, beyond the immediate alarm about crumbling concrete panels, it emerged that of 500 rebuilt schools planned for England over 10 years from 2020, just four were completed in 2021.
Continue reading...Major incident declared and number of passengers injured after crash on Cleddau Bridge in west Wales, police say
One person has been killed and another is critically injured after a collision involving a 52-seater bus and a car on a bridge in west Wales.
A major incident was declared on Tuesday and a health board asked people not to attend the local hospital unless they had life-threatening injuries to ensure there was enough capacity to treat the people injured in the collision.
Continue reading...Role preparing for election will see McFadden shape party’s direction, but it will likely be done quietly
Pat McFadden is the most powerful Labour politician most people have never heard of. As Rachel Reeves’ No 2 in the shadow Treasury team, with responsibility for Labour’s public spending plans, he could derail the dreams of shadow cabinet colleagues with just a raised eyebrow.
In his new role preparing for the election campaign and – should Labour win it – running the Cabinet Office, he assumes even greater responsibility for the direction of Keir Starmer’s party. Yet much of it is likely to be done quietly, and efficiently, behind the scenes.
Continue reading...With Birmingham indicating it cannot balance its books, experts warn of others living ‘hand to mouth’
The crisis in local authorities was laid bare on Tuesday as Birmingham city council in effect declared itself bankrupt, with experts warning that others across the UK were now living “hand to mouth”.
The council’s head of finance took the dramatic decision on Tuesday to issue a section 114 notice, indicating that it did not have the resources to balance its books.
Continue reading...Opposition posts spoof on education department’s ‘most schools unaffected’ tweet, referencing minimisation of shark attacks
Labour has launched a tongue-in-cheek attack on the government’s response to the school buildings crisis, comparing the response of the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, to that of the fictional mayor in Jaws.
Keegan on Tuesday defended her department’s handling of the problems surrounding crumbling concrete, publishing a Twitter picture with the phrases “Raac update” and “Most schools unaffected”.
Continue reading...Fresh signs of weakness in Chinese economy and weak UK and eurozone data spook investors
Fears about the health of the global economy have intensified following downbeat news about service sector activity in China, the eurozone and the UK.
Share prices fell in Asia and the pound dropped to a 12-week low against the US dollar after fresh signs of weakness in China triggered speculation that its post-lockdown recovery was running out of steam.
Continue reading...Court in Karlsruhe decides against extradition of Albanian man ‘in view of the state of the British prison system’
A German court has refused to extradite to the UK a man accused of drug trafficking because of concerns about prison conditions in Britain, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind.
The decision has been described as a “severe rebuke” and “an embarrassment for the UK” by a member of the Law Society.
Continue reading...Leader of a secondary school in Essex warns upheaval could have similar negative impact to that caused by Covid lockdowns
A headteacher whose 830 pupils must learn semi-remotely for at least a term because of the schools concrete crisis has warned that the upheaval could cause a recurrence of the negative mental health impact of Covid lockdowns.
James Saunders, the leader of Honywood school in Coggeshall, Essex, fears that year-seven students entering their first term at secondary school could face future struggles after the Department for Education last week ordered the closure of 22 classrooms as part of a nationwide safety alert.
Continue reading...The nomination for Adi, the first British person of African heritage to become a professor of history in the UK, is a vindication for the academic who was made redundant a week ago
Hakim Adi, the first British person of African heritage to become a professor of history in the UK, has been shortlisted for a prestigious history writing prize. This comes after Adi was made redundant by the University of Chichester when it cut a course he founded.
Adi has made the shortlist for the Wolfson history prize for his 2022 book, African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History. The winner of the prize, announced in November, will receive £50,000.
Continue reading...Sales of health and beauty products help high street stores bounce back after a disappointing start to the summer
Britain’s retailers have received a boost from consumers making themselves beach-ready by increasing their spending on skincare and makeup before their summer holidays, despite the cost of living crisis.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales of health and beauty products helped drive up spending on the high street as shoppers made the most of brief spells of sunshine in August, although squeezed consumers were holding back elsewhere.
Continue reading...Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood to be interviewed about upcoming LP Hackney Diamonds on Wednesday
The Rolling Stones are set to release details of their first studio album of original material since 2005, an LP called Hackney Diamonds.
The surviving members of the band, now in their 70s and 80s, teased the new music online and in the form of a cryptic advert in the local newspaper the Hackney Gazette.
Continue reading...Man and woman from Bournemouth taken into custody over death of man identified as Simon Shotton
Two people have been charged with murder after the discovery of partial human remains in Boscombe, Dorset police have confirmed. The force said the victim had been identified as 49-year-old Simon Shotton from Bournemouth. His family have been informed.
Debbie Ann Pereira, 38, and Benjamin Lee Atkins, 48, both from Bournemouth, were arrested after the remains were discovered by a member of the public near the Manor Steps Zig Zag, off Boscombe Overcliff Drive, on 26 August. They are due to appear at Poole magistrates court on Tuesday.
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