Category Archives: UK news

Hymns in and Monty Python out of UK funeral songs top 10

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Queen’s funeral credited for hymns’ revival while Time to Say Goodbye replaces You’ll Never Walk Alone at No 1

Hymns are back among the most popular funeral songs, boosted by the queen’s funeral, while the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life has slipped out of the top 10, funeral directors have said.

All Things Bright and Beautiful and Abide With Me are the first hymns in the top 10 for seven years, in the Co-op Funeralcare chart based on song selections at about 93,000 funerals.

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Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge explores founder’s slavery links

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Historic and contemporary pieces interrogate city and university’s connections to colonialism

An exhibition by the Fitzwilliam Museum will explore Cambridge’s connections to enslavement and exploitation for the first time, both in the university and the city.

Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance features works made in west Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Europe, and interrogates the ways Atlantic enslavement and the Black Atlantic shaped the University of Cambridge’s collections.

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Misleading Home Office advice leaves Hong Kong protester fearing deportation from UK

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Student who took part in anti-Beijing protests is in legal limbo after withdrawing her asylum claim to make a visa application that was then rejected

A Hongkonger who fled to the UK after being targeted by Chinese security officials has been left fearing deportation after appearing to be wrongly advised by the Home Office.

Olivia (not her real name) left Hong Kong in July 2022 after someone claiming to be from the new national security department – created two years earlier when the Chinese Communist party (CCP) imposed a draconian security law on the city – approached her in the street and accused her of supporting Hong Kong independence.

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Mysterious pile of ‘dumped’ PPE angers people in New Forest

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Inquiry launched by Environment Agency into huge pile of medical aprons found in Calmore, Hampshire

The “dumping” of hundreds of thousands of pieces of unused personal protective equipment near a nature reserve on the edge of the New Forest has mystified and angered local people.

But the council has revealed the giant pile of boxes containing medical aprons in Calmore, Hampshire, will be recycled into plastic bags.

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Serving Met officer raped woman on his stag night, court told

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Sgt Laurence Knight met woman in Brighton last July and allegedly raped her in the sea, jury hears

A serving Metropolitan police officer raped a woman in the sea on Brighton beach on his stag night, a court has heard.

Sgt Laurence Knight, 34, is said to have met the woman, a stranger, in the early hours of 17 July 2021 while in the city centre. Prosecutors say the pair walked to the beach together, undressed to their underwear and ended up in the sea.

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Starmer reassures North Sea workers as Labour lays out energy and climate plan

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Speech in Scotland shows willingness to face energy dilemma head-on, but green groups say fossil fuel end date must come soon

Scotland was a brave choice as the venue for the launch of Keir Starmer’s new energy and climate policy. Back in March, Rishi Sunak was planning to hold his “energy day” in Aberdeen, the UK’s oil and gas capital, but after criticism he switched to the much safer Oxfordshire.

Starmer knows that Labour needs to win back lost seats in Scotland, so visiting the Scottish capital for an important speech was a canny move. More than that, though, taking the launch to Edinburgh showed a willingness to face head-on Labour’s energy dilemma: how to shift the UK economy to a low-carbon footing, as net zero demands, without destroying high-quality jobs in carbon-intensive industries.

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CBI frozen out of meetings with other leading UK business lobby groups

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Efforts to regain place at intersection of business and government after scandal complicated by refusals to engage

The Confederation of British Industry has been frozen out of regular meetings with other leading business lobby groups, hampering its fight for survival after a sexual misconduct scandal.

Formerly Britain’s leading voice for business, the CBI has been battling to overhaul its culture and regain trust after multiple allegations of misconduct were made by female employees, including two who said they were raped. Those allegations resulted in an exodus of members from John Lewis to Aviva and led Labour and the Conservatives to cut ties with the organisation.

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NHS nurses strike in England could reach ‘end of the road’ this week

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Royal College of Nursing raises doubts over whether enough members will get postal votes in on time

The rolling strikes by NHS nurses could “hit the end of the road” this week as the leader of the Royal College of Nursing raised doubts over whether sufficient numbers of members would get their postal votes in on time.

The RCN union’s ballot on further industrial action in England will close on 23 June but its general secretary, Pat Cullen, has for the first time suggested an affirmative result is in doubt.

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Sunak urged to rethink visit by Chinese official linked to forcible removal of dissidents

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Liu Jianchao accused of directing fugitive recovery operations targeting regime’s opponents

A cross-party group of British MPs and peers has written to the prime minister urging him to reconsider a decision to allow a visit this week by a senior Chinese government official accused of overseeing the forcible repatriation of hundreds of dissidents back to China, including some from the UK.

Liu Jianchao, the head of the international department of the Communist party of China central committee, is due to speak at the Chatham House thinktank and meet UK parliamentarians.

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AstraZeneca considers spinning off its China business

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UK’s largest stock-market-listed firm weighs up Hong Kong or Shanghai listing to shield it from geopolitical tensions

AstraZeneca is considering spinning off its business in China and listing it in Hong Kong or Shanghai to shield the multinational drugmaker from geopolitical tensions.

Britain’s largest stock-market-listed company has drawn up the plans in attempt to protect its business from the fallout from increasing tensions between China and the US and its allies.

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MPs voting on report that found Boris Johnson misled parliament – UK politics live

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Theresa May says parliament must punish MPs who break rules as Penny Mordaunt says Johnson ‘undermined democratic process’

At the Labour event Keir Starmer is now speaking. He starts with a jibe at the SNP, saying the tide is turning in Scotland.

Turning to energy policy, he says Labour wants to promote security.

Can we still achieve great things? Can we unite and move forward? Can we still change, can we grow, can we get things done, can we build things? New industries, new technologies, new jobs; will they come to our shores, or will the future pass us by?

You can put it even more starkly. Around the world people want to know, are we still a great nation? If the question is about the British people, the answer is emphatically: yes.

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Unit tasked with reforming Home Office after Windrush scandal being disbanded

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Exclusive: Staff say ‘there’s a lot still to do’ and worry decision signals ‘rolling back’ on promises of change

The Home Office unit responsible for reforming the department after the Windrush crisis has been quietly disbanded, after the UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, let it be known that she believes it is time to “move on”, the Guardian has learned.

Staff working in the transformation directorate, the unit handling changes meant to prevent a repeat of the scandal, were told in an online meeting that it would be closing at the end of this month.

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Suella Braverman tells police to ramp up use of stop and search

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UK home secretary says police have her full support in using tactic to prevent violence and save lives

Suella Braverman has called on police to increase the use of stop and search powers “to prevent violence and save more lives”.

In a statement aimed at all 43 forces in England and Wales, the home secretary said officers who used the powers had her “full support”.

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UK strikes laws must conform with international rules, says UN agency

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Intervention by International Labour Organization ‘hugely embarrassing’ for government, says TUC

The UN’s labour standards body has told the UK government it must make changes to highly controversial new strikes laws, which critics say threaten the fundamental rights of British workers.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, said the UK needed to “ensure that existing and prospective legislation is in conformity” with international rules on freedom of association, and added that the government must seek technical assistance from the agency’s experts.

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Dozens of Tory MPs expected to abstain in vote on committee’s Partygate report

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Rightwingers claim Boris Johnson suspension ‘unnecessarily high and fierce’ after findings he deliberately misled parliament

Dozens of Tory rightwing MPs are preparing to abstain from voting in the Commons on Monday over the parliamentary investigation that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs, in a sign of support for the former prime minister.

Between 60 and 70 MPs with constituencies in the “red wall” were said to be feeling “incredibly warm” towards Johnson, after he urged his parliamentary supporters not to vote against the committee’s findings.

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Online safety bill: changes urged to allow access to social media data

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Campaigners say bill in ‘serious peril’ of passing without powers to make platforms more transparent

Online safety experts will struggle to sound the alarm about harmful content if landmark legislation does not allow independent researchers to access data from social media platforms, campaigners have warned.

The government is being urged to adopt amendments to the online safety bill enabling researchers to access platform data in order to monitor harmful material. Access would be overseen by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, and would protect user privacy.

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Labour shadow minister meets CBI boss, suggesting boycott may be ending

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Jonathan Reynolds and new DG Rain Newton-Smith hold ‘warm’ meeting after party cut ties due to sexual misconduct scandal

The Labour party has moved closer to ending its boycott of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in an early sign that steps to rehabilitate the crisis-hit UK lobby group may be working.

Labour on Sunday confirmed its shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, had met the new CBI director general, Rain Newton-Smith, last week.

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Who was at Conservative HQ Christmas party during Covid lockdown?

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New Partygate video shows Tory officials at party at height of pandemic. We look at who was there

A new Partygate video that shows Conservative officials dancing, joking and drinking during lockdown has forced thousands of people across the UK to relive harrowing memories of the sacrifices they made during lockdown.

Michael Gove has apologised and said their actions were “indefensible”, but he refused to back calls for some of the attendees to lose honours they were given by Boris Johnson, who has been found guilty of misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal.

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New British mayor of Mallorcan town to start work with nice cup of tea

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Teacher from west Sussex says victory was down to strong manifesto and knowing everyone in Sant Joan

The new mayor of Sant Joan, a small town of 2,000 people that sits in the centre of Mallorca, likes to joke that his main priority when he begins work on Monday will be ensuring a kettle is installed in his office.

Last month’s regional and local elections – which left the ruling Socialists with a bloody nose, triggered a snap general election and caused the conservative People’s party (PP) to forge a coalition with the far-right Vox party to rule the Valencia region – have also had unexpected consequences in Sant Joan.

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Model embryo with heartbeat replicates cells in early pregnancy

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Exclusive: Scientists used stem cells to create the structures, which were unable to develop into a foetus

Scientists have created a model human embryo with a heartbeat and traces of blood in an advance that offers an extraordinary window into the first weeks of life.

The synthetic structure, created from human stem cells without the need for eggs, sperm or fertilisation, replicated some of the cells and structures that would typically appear in the third and fourth week of pregnancy. But it was specifically designed to lack the tissues that go on to form the placenta and yolk sac in a natural embryo, meaning that it did not have the theoretical potential of developing into a foetus.

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