Jeffrey Donaldson risks internal revolt if he accepts deal but rejecting it will threaten future of power sharing
The Democratic Unionist party has said any Northern Ireland protocol deal must meet its “seven tests” but they omit the one that really matters: the test of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s leadership.
The seven conditions concern laws and trading rules, which have room for fudge and ambiguity.
Continue reading...Demand for wood stoves is soaring in energy crisis despite research showing their harmful effects
Demand for wood-burning stoves, including in urban areas, has soared as households look for more affordable ways to stay warm during the energy crisis.
Campaigners have called for stricter legislation on their use because of their negative impact on air pollution and health, with wood burning in the UK gaining in popularity over the past decade.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Cross-party group recommends policies such as mortgage penalty for landlords of energy-inefficient homes
The UK will need to embrace innovative, community-based solutions to environmental and energy problems if it is to have any hope of meeting looming net-zero deadlines, a cross-party group of MPs and peers has recommended.
A report by the all-party group on a green new deal argues for a combination of robust, top-down policies on green issues including localised power generation, food and transport schemes. Recommendations include a mortgage penalty for landlords who let energy-inefficient homes, and also real community decision-making, notably on power schemes.
Continue reading...Police confirm that bodies of man and dog found on mountain are missing Yorkshireman and his dog, Bane
The body of missing hillwalker Kyle Sambrook and his dog have been found in Glencoe, police have confirmed.
The 33-year-old was last seen with his beagle, Bane, in the Lost Valley area last weekend after he travelled from his home in West Yorkshire to go hillwalking.
Continue reading...Young ‘custodian’ hopes to make ancestral home of Muncaster first carbon-zero castle in UK
In 1990, the year Ewan Frost-Pennington was born, the final bears left Muncaster Castle in the westernmost corner of the Lake District. Winnie, an Asiatic black bear, departed Cumbria for Dudley zoo, along with Inca, her daughter, and her sister, Gretel.
Three decades later, the bear pit has now been covered over with a solar farm. It is the brainchild of Frost-Pennington, the heir to the 800-year-old pink granite fortress, as he tries to make Muncaster the first carbon-zero castle in the UK.
Continue reading...Home Builders Federation warns planning policy changes will result in government meeting less than half its annual target
Housebuilding in England is due to fall to its lowest level since the second world war, according to an analysis by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), owing to a range of government policies that threaten to dramatically slow development.
The study says the supply of new housing is likely to fall below 120,000 homes annually over the coming years, less than half of the government’s target, as a result of changes to planning policy and what developers say is over-strict enforcement of environmental regulations.
Continue reading...European Commission chief heading to Britain with Northern Ireland deal expected as soon as Monday
Rishi Sunak is to hold face-to-face talks with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, with a deal to revise post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland expected as soon as Monday.
“Today, president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and prime minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland,” a joint statement said.
Continue reading...Firm set for clash with investors over possible payout to Bernard Looney from three-year share award plan
BP is set for a clash with investors after it emerged that its chief executive could be in line for a special bonus of up to £11.4m. The payment, in shares, would be on top of his £1.38m salary and annual bonus for 2022.
Strong growth in BP’s share price means Bernard Looney is set for a multimillion-pound payout from a three-year share award plan set up in 2020, when countries around the world were in lockdown and the company was cutting jobs amid a global collapse in demand for oil.
Continue reading...PM’s toughest political test comes amid plummeting interest in Brexit and elaborate parliamentary intrigue
For a Brexit-minded MP, the parallels may seem striking: an electorally embattled prime minister trying to push through a controversial Northern Ireland deal in the face of Tory and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) scepticism. But one thing has changed: this is 2023, not 2019.
Theresa May’s struggles with Brexit, and her tumbling popularity with voters, led to her being forced out as prime minister by Conservative backbenchers. While no one would dispute that Rishi Sunak faces perhaps his toughest ever political test, the stakes for him are if not necessarily lower then perhaps different.
Continue reading...New rules also cover transgender women ‘with their male genitalia intact’, says Dominic Raab
Rules barring some transgender women from female prisons in England and Wales are to come into force on Monday, the justice secretary has announced.
Dominic Raab had already announced in October that trans women with male genitalia or who had committed sexual offences would not be allowed in women’s prisons.
Continue reading...Ever since Beatlemania, UK acts have set their sights across the pond. Now spiralling costs are pulling the plug
“Breaking” America has been the goal of young British musicians since the days of Beatlemania, but that dream is being dashed. Hundreds of emerging artists could be affected by plans to hike visa fees by 250% – and music industry executives have criticised ministers for failing to act.
The US immigration service wants to raise visa costs from $460 (£385) to $1,615 (£1,352) alongside other changes that artists and their managers say would make it almost impossible for anyone but the biggest stars to perform in the US.
Continue reading...Returning home was once seen as something shameful but new research finds a benefit
Moving back into the parental home as an adult was once seen by many youngsters as a retrograde step and even something to be ashamed of. Now, a new study suggests that such a move actually improves the mental health of these “boomerang adults”, thanks in no small part to a stressful and increasingly expensive rental market.
The findings of of the first study in the UK to look at the mental health impact of moving home on the adult children surprised demographers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), who were expecting to find it had the opposite effect on wellbeing.
Continue reading...Cost of living has made more than a third of adults reconsider cooking end of week meal, survey finds
More than a third of people in the UK have cut back on cooking Sunday roasts because of the soaring cost of energy bills, according to a survey.
A total of 36% of UK adults said the cost of living crisis had made them reconsider a homemade roast dinner at the end of the week. The figure was even higher among those aged 16 to 34, with nearly half (47%) saying they have avoided cookingroasts.
Continue reading...Police hold a 71-year-old man as DCI John Caldwell remains in a critical condition
Police investigating the attempted murder of a senior officer in Northern Ireland have made a sixth arrest.
DCI John Caldwell remains critically ill after the attack in Omagh on Wednesday night in which he was shot in front of his young son.
Continue reading...Jewish MP left party four years ago over its handling of the issue under Jeremy Corbyn
Luciana Berger has returned to the Labour party after an invitation and apology from Keir Starmer, four years after leaving the party over its handling of antisemitism cases.
“The Labour party has turned a significant corner under Keir’s leadership,” Berger said in a tweet on Saturday. “I’m pleased to be returning to my political home.”
Continue reading...The former chair of the supermarket chain was a big donor to Blair and Brown but cut off his support under Corbyn
Keir Starmer’s election war chest has been given an extraordinary boost after one of the biggest New Labour-era donors returned to the party fold with a £2m donation, the Observer can reveal.
David Sainsbury, who was consistently one of the largest donors under the last Labour government before withdrawing his support, has now renewed his backing with his first multimillion-pound donation since 2016.
Continue reading...Figure has surged over the past 10 years with pressure growing for officers to be sacked on the spot
Shocking figures obtained by the Observer show roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone.
An Observerinvestigation has found that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022.
Continue reading...The designer of the glasshouses at Kew Gardens fell out of favour – but supporters of a new museum hope to change all that
One major name is missing from the line-up of great British architects that students learn have shaped the way that Britain looks. And it is a name with quite a ring to it: Decimus Burton.
Now members of the Decimus Burton Society believe they are about to put that right by establishing this Victorian classical revivalist’s place alongside better known titans such as Christopher Wren, John Nash and Edwin Lutyens. A new museum celebrating his achievements is on the drawing board and awaits approval this spring.
Continue reading...Family of Laurel Aldridge, reported missing on 14 February, informed of discovery in Arundel, West Sussex
Police searching for Laurel Aldridge, sister-in-law of actor Mackenzie Crook, have found a body.
Aldridge, 62, was reported missing from her home in the village of Walberton, near Arundel in West Sussex, on 14 February and was last seen at Slindon Cricket Club about two and a half miles away.
Continue reading...Meeting between Charles and Ursula von de Leyen cancelled, reports say, as Varadkar says deal ‘inching towards conclusion’
Rishi Sunak is facing criticism after reports that a meeting between King Charles and the president of the European Commission was cancelled days before the announcement of an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.
According to reports, there had been plans for an in-person meeting between the king and Ursula von der Leyen, as part of a trip to the UK to seal the deal on the Brexit trading arrangements.
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