Conservatives continue to suffer heavy defeats as Labour, Lib Dems and Greens make gains
Prof Rob Ford, an elections specialist, has written an article for the Guardian trying to assess what would be a good result and a bad result for the political parties in the local election. You can read it here:
Results from more than 60 councils are expected overnight with the remainder expected to trickle in throughout the day on Friday.
Continue reading...The actor will take to the stage as the Scottish king in December, in the last production of the London theatre’s 30th-anniversary season
Hot on the heels of the news that Ralph Fiennes will play Macbeth in a tour of repurposed UK warehouses comes the announcement that David Tennant will also star as the Scottish king at London’s Donmar Warehouse.
It is the Scottish actor’s first Shakespearean stage role since he played Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare Company, on and off, from 2013 to 2016. In 2022 he was Macbeth in a two-part BBC Radio 4 broadcast. The Donmar production will be directed by Max Webster and will conclude the 30th-anniversary season for the London theatre, which was previously home to a banana-ripening warehouse.
Continue reading...Find out the scale of Conservative losses and the gains made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green party
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On 4 May, 230 English councils are holding elections with more than 8,000 seats being contested. Some are for metropolitan boroughs such as Liverpool city council and others for unitary authorities such as Herefordshire or North Somerset. Both structures are single-tier authorities with responsibility for the whole range of council services, including education, social care, rubbish collection and parks.
Continue reading...Rain forecast for UK over bank holiday weekend, including in London as Charles III is crowned
A coronation washout is forecast for many this weekend with rain and drizzle likely to provide a quintessentially British backdrop to the royal pomp and pageantry.
Saturday, the day of the formal ceremony, is forecast by the Met Office to be a cloudy and wet day for many, including in the capital around midday, just as King Charles III is being crowned.
Continue reading...Opposition leader hails ‘very, very good’ outcome of local elections after his party takes control of key councils
Keir Starmer has said the Labour party is on track to win the next general election, after taking control of key councils in the English local elections, including Medway, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.
Based on results counted early on Friday morning, the Labour leader said the party was heading for a result that if repeated across the country at a general election would give it an eight-point lead over the Conservatives.
Continue reading...IAG expects to fly almost the same passenger numbers this year as before Covid pandemic
The owner of British Airways has upgraded its full-year profit expectations thanks to strong demand for holiday travel, as the airline group said it expected to fly almost the same number of passengers this year as it did before the coronavirus pandemic.
International Airlines Group (IAG) reported a first-quarter profit for the first time since 2019, before the travel industry was plunged into chaos by Covid lockdowns. It made an operating profit of €9m (£7.9m) in the first three months of the year.
Continue reading...Calls follow release of account by captain who said he strongly warned against ‘folly’ of attempted landing in June 1982
The release of a witness account detailing the “folly” of an operation in which 56 service personnel died on ships off the Falkland islands – the deadliest day for the British military since 1945 – has prompted fresh calls for the government to unseal all files relating to the tragedy.
Attacks by Argentinian Skyhawk planes against the landing ships Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad killed dozens of service personnel on 8 June 1982 and left more than 150 injured, including Simon Weston, the Welsh guard whose disfigured face became a defining image of the conflict.
Continue reading...Consul general calls for ‘constructive engagement’ with territory as Chinese vice-president says he will attend king’s coronation
Britain’s most senior diplomat for Hong Kong has called for an end to “megaphone diplomacy” between the UK and the Chinese territory, saying British and Hong Kong diplomats would make more progress with closed-door discussions.
Brian Davidson, the consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that the UK-Hong Kong relationship had weathered “some difficult headwinds” over the past four or five years, but that “we are looking to lean back into a constructive engagement to see where we can collaborate”.
Continue reading...With polls closing at 10pm, more than 8,000 council seats in England are up for grabs
Here is a comment from a reader.
Just been to the polling station: tellers outside were turning people without ID away instead of sending them in to be recorded for the so called evaluation. Numbers will be meaningless if this is widespread.
Continue reading...Party products, including bunting, flying off shelves, with Britons forecast to spend £200m on weekend festivities
High street retailers are reporting a “coronation effect” sales boost as shoppers make a last-minute dash to the shops to stock up on party fare including bunting, champagne and cakes for this weekend’s celebrations.
With potentially more than £200m of extra sales riding on the festivities surrounding the coronation of King Charles, retailers’ shelves are being cleared of fizz, quiche, scones as well as buffet favourites such as pork pies and scotch eggs.
Continue reading...Suzanne Henry, 54, died after being found with serious facial injuries in Madeley on Monday
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a woman who was found with serious facial injuries.
Suzanne Henry, 54, died on Wednesday night after being found in a house in Madeley, Staffordshire, at about 10pm on Monday.
Continue reading...CMA to look at underlying systems of artificial intelligence tools amid concerns over false information
The UK competition watchdog has fired a shot across the bows of companies racing to commercialise artificial intelligence technology, announcing a review of the sector as fears grow over the spread of misinformation and major disruption in the jobs market.
As pressure builds on global regulators to increase their scrutiny of the technology, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would look at the underlying systems, or foundation models, behind AI tools such as ChatGPT. The initial review, described by one legal expert as a “pre-warning” to the sector, will publish its findings in September.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Johnny Briceño attacks his UK counterpart’s refusal to apologise for atrocities of slavery
The prime minister of Belize, Johnny Briceño, has sharply criticised Rishi Sunak’s refusal to apologise for Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and said it was “quite likely” Belize would be the next member of the Commonwealth realm to become a republic.
Speaking to the Guardian in the country’s capital, Belmopan, Briceño argued the British government had a moral responsibility to apologise for the atrocities of slavery and added to the calls throughout the English-speaking Caribbean for financial reparations from the UK.
Continue reading...‘No major issues’ reported so far, as most voters in Leicester say they were made well aware of change
Despite warnings that the introduction of new voter ID requirements might lead to disruption at polling stations across England on Thursday, by lunchtime there were few reports of problems.
In Leicester, the city council said things were “so far, running smoothly”.
Continue reading...Johanita Kossiwa Dogbey is believed to have been attacked by a stranger in daylight in south London
The family of a woman stabbed to death in south-west London in a daylight attack have paid tribute to the “smart, dedicated and loving girl”.
The Metropolitan police confirmed the 31-year-old victim of the attack in Stockwell Park Walk, Brixton, just after 4pm on Monday was Johanita Kossiwa Dogbey.
Continue reading...Camped outside Foreign Office, Beheshti is demanding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards be proscribed
Vahid Beheshti’s hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office took a surreal turn on Wednesday – its 70th day – when he attended a royal coronation tea party at Buckingham Palace, arriving by wheelchair and wearing a suit and red tie.
He has lost more than 17kg (37lb), or a quarter of his body weight, and he told the Guardian that “my body and joints are now racked in intense pain”. As he left his tent, draped in the Iranian flag and surrounded by flowers, he clutched an envelope containing a letter for the king. After carefully smartening himself up, he was wheeled to a taxi by his wife, Mattie Heaven, a Conservative councillor.
Continue reading...Foreign Office accused of creating ‘confusion’ during evacuation, with some struggling to get visas or prove citizenship
British people trapped in Sudan have described being forced to make impossible choices about whether to fly home without family members the UK government will not allow on flights.
Suleiman, a British national who asked to withhold his family name, said a British official had called him to say he could be evacuated with his two children only if he left his pregnant wife behind. His children are also British nationals, and their mother is a Sudanese citizen.
Continue reading...Hāmiora Bailey says wall to wall Charles III coverage is unappealing to Indigenous people and has devised a solution
A Māori artist has designed a way for the masses to tune out of royal coverage, with a web browser plugin that replaces all monarchy and coronation stories with Indigenous news.
Despite a distance of more that 18,000kms from the palace, New Zealand news headlines have featured a steady flow of royal family gossip: the latest potential snubbing, deep-dive analysis of the new king’s conduct, invitation list scandals and features on the coronation quiche.
Continue reading...Labour leader’s spokesperson says Gray will become chief of staff even if watchdog recommends long delay to start date
The former senior civil servant Sue Gray will take up her new role as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff even if the government’s appointments watchdog recommends a long delay to her start date, Labour has said.
Labour insiders believe the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) will suggest that Gray should wait for a significantly shorter period than the maximum two years it could recommend for senior officials taking up a job outside government.
Continue reading...Philip Davies lobbied culture minister to include measure after being entertained at Mayfair casino
The Conservative MP Philip Davies lobbied the government on behalf of a casino to introduce a measure that was then included in last week’s gambling white paper, it has emerged.
The MP for Shipley, in West Yorkshire, wrote in February to the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, after being entertained at Les Ambassadeurs luxury casino in Mayfair, central London.
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