John Lewis said sales are up sixfold on last year as people look to save on their heating bills
Hot water bottles are selling out around the UK amid the cold snap and efforts to save on soaring energy bills.
John Lewis said sales were up sixfold on last year with several popular models currently out of stock online including the department store’s own-label version with a fake fur protective cover.
Continue reading...Ioane Koroiveibau’s case gives hopes to hundreds of other Commonwealth nationals who served in UK forces
A Fijian British army veteran who suffered from deafness after serving in Afghanistan has been allowed to return to the UK, in a case that gives hope to hundreds of other Commonwealth former soldiers living abroad.
Ioane Koroiveibau, 36, gave up on Britain in 2015 when his immigration paperwork was lost after his discharge on medical grounds, his hearing loss caused by repeated exposure to gunfire on a dangerous tour in Helmand.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay at meeting on Monday; Welsh nurses to strike after last-minute talks fail. This blog is now closed
Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, told ITV this morning that there was no point talking to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, if he was not prepared to discuss pay. She said
What I’m saying … to the health secretary this morning, is if you don’t want to speak to me directly about nurses’ pay, we have engaged with the conciliation service Acas, they can do that through Acas, but our door is absolutely wide open and it appears at the minute that theirs is totally shut …
Fundamentally, I need to get to a table and talk to them about pay. This isn’t just me, it’s the 320,000 nurses that voted for strike action … They voted through an independent ballot that we carried out and surely to goodness you couldn’t look at one of those people this morning in the eye and say: ‘You’re not worth an extra brown penny’. In my mind they absolutely are.
I think it’s a very challenging international picture. About a third of the world’s economies are predicted to be in recession, either this year or next.
We’re no different in this country and truthfully, it is likely to get worse before it gets better, which makes it even more difficult when we have big public sector strikes going on at the moment.
Continue reading...Snowfall causes issues across parts of UK as cold snap intensifies
Daniel Duffield, a 22-year-old off-duty paramedic, was stuck on the M25 for more than two-and-a-half hours this morning, while attempting to travel home to Birmingham from London.
He told PA Media that vehicles have been “stationary with very small movement”.
I expected some traffic due to weather but nothing this bad. Traffic appeared to be at a standstill for miles and miles. Other drivers were turning their engines off presumably to save fuel due to the uncertainty. A few people were stretching their legs due to delays too.
Continue reading...US tech company signs 10-year strategic partnership with LSEG for data analytics and cloud technology
Microsoft will buy 4% of the London Stock Exchange as part of a multibillion-pound deal to work together on data analytics and cloud technology.
The US tech company will buy the stake from a consortium of Blackstone and Thomson Reuters, and will take a seat on the board of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). The consortium previously sold the financial data company Refinitiv to LSEG in a £22bn takeover.
Continue reading...Three campaign groups challenge plans to award up to 130 new licences for exploration
The UK government is facing a fresh challenge in the courts over plans to award up to 130 new licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration, in the latest attempt to stop ministers’ proposed expansion of the country’s fossil fuel production.
Three campaign groups have written to the business secretary, Grant Shapps, explaining the grounds on which they consider the latest offshore oil and gas licensing round to be unlawful. They call for the decision to award the new licences to be reversed, arguing that new oil and gas exploration and development is incompatible with the UK’s own rules and international climate obligations.
Continue reading...Growth figure shrank 0.3% in a quarter, reflecting concerns over lengthy recession
Britain’s economy returned to growth in October as activity bounced back from the impact of the additional bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral, however a long recession is still expected.
The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.5% on the month, after a decline of 0.6% in September when many businesses closed their doors during the national mourning period.
Continue reading...Large parts of UK hit by ice, fog and snow with airports forced to close and rail and roads affected
The UK has experienced its coldest night of the year so far, with temperatures in Scotland dipping below -15C.
Braemar in Aberdeenshire recorded -15.7C overnight, the Met Office said. It came as commuters faced travel chaos on Monday morning as large parts of the UK were hit by ice, fog and snow.
Continue reading...Figure includes agreements rolled over from before leaving EU, and description of ‘new trade’ is misleading says UKSA chief
The official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the Conservatives for claiming the UK had secured £800bn in “new free trade deals” since leaving the EU, saying the figure includes deals rolled over from before Brexit.
The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said it had written to the Tories about the infographic, shared last month by Michael Gove among others, also warning that the party should provide sources for such figures in the future.
Continue reading...As many as 12 people feared killed and criminal inquiry could be launched after blast at block of flats in St Helier
Twelve people are feared to have been killed and a criminal investigation could be launched after a suspected gas explosion destroyed a block of flats in the centre of Jersey’s capital, St Helier.
Five people have been confirmed dead but more are said to be missing, with the island’s fire chief, Paul Brown, saying he was no longer leading a rescue mission.
Continue reading...West Midlands fire service said the people involved in the incident appear to have been playing on the ice
Several people believed to be in a critical condition after being pulled from a lake in freezing temperatures in Solihull appeared to have been playing on the ice before falling through, emergency services have said.
West Midlands police said emergency services were conducting a search and rescue operation at the scene of the “serious incident” in the town on Sunday. The force added that a “number of people” have been pulled from the lake at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst and are on their way to hospital.
Continue reading...Chair of the museum, George Osborne, says it no longer wants to be a ‘destination for climate protest’
The future for the British Museum could be very different indeed. That was the message from the organisation’s chair George Osborne in his annual speech to Trustees last month, in which he announced a “complete reimagination” of the museum, under a billion-pound masterplan that will be revealed next year.
Among the hints of potential loans of its exhibits, leading to further speculation over the Parthenon marbles, was one explicit promise on energy. “Our goal is to be a net zero carbon museum,” said Osborne, “no longer a destination for climate protest but instead an example of climate solution”.
Continue reading...Yellow weather warnings in place with snow and ice across country as residents of Cornwall advised not to travel
Further travel disruption is expected this week with temperatures forecast to stay well below freezing overnight, and up to 10cm of snow forecast in the south-east of England.
Met Office yellow warnings were in place from Sunday until Monday morning for northern and south-western Scotland, Northern Ireland, north-eastern England, the Midlands and south-west as well as London and the south-east.
Continue reading...Mohammed Abouagela Masud accused of setting timer for bomb that destroyed Boeing 747, killing 270 people
A Libyan accused of preparing the bomb that killed 270 people when an explosion ripped through Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 is now in US custody, officials have confirmed.
Scottish prosecutors, who have been closely involved in the investigation, said the families of those who were killed “have been told” that Mohammed Abouagela Masud had been extradited to the United States.
Continue reading...Severely cold weather has come with low wind speeds, creating perfect storm to drive wholesale costs up
UK power prices have hit record levels as an icy cold snap and a fall in supplies of electricity generated by wind power have combined to push up wholesale costs.
The day-ahead price for power for delivery on Monday reached a record £675 a megawatt-hour on the Epex Spot SE exchange. The price for power at 5-6pm, typically around the time of peak power demand each day, passed an all-time high of £2,586 a megawatt-hour.
Continue reading...Police say there could be more fatalities after 4am collapse of three-storey building on Channel Island
At least three people have died and about 12 people are believed to be missing after an explosion in a block of flats in St Helier, Jersey police have said.
The blast at Haut du Mont, Pier Road, in the capital, occurred at about 4am on Saturday, less than eight hours after firefighters had been called to the site after concerns from residents, it was confirmed.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing and Unison call on health secretary to negotiate with them to avoid action at Christmas and new year
Health unions made a dramatic offer on Saturday night to suspend a wave of planned strikes that threatens to cripple the NHS over Christmas and the new year if ministers agree to open serious discussions over pay.
The moves by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the country’s biggest union, Unison, are the first signs of flexibility by either side in a dispute that has been deadlocked for weeks.
Continue reading...Voters risk being turned away and organisers need more time to prepare, argue critics of the new measures
Plans to force voters to present photo ID at polling stations for the first time in May risk damaging access to democracy and must be delayed, senior local government figures have warned ministers.
Amid concerns about voters being turned away and polling station workers being confronted, the body representing councils told the Observer there was simply not enough time to deal with all the risks that will be created by the new system.
Continue reading...Agent pays tribute to ‘unique talent loved by many’ who played Gladys Pugh in BBC comedy series
The Hi-de-Hi! actor Ruth Madoc has died aged 79 after a fall.
Madoc became a household name playing “chief yellowcoat” Gladys Pugh in the BBC One sitcom. The show ran for eight years from 1980 and was set in a fictional holiday camp, Maplins, during the 1950s.
Continue reading...Sacked chancellor says he and ex-PM failed to consider political and economic consequences
Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted he and Liz Truss “got carried away” when they wrote the disastrous mini-budget that led to both of them leaving their jobs just weeks after they entered Downing Street.
Kwarteng announced a raft of tax cuts without any reduction in spending in September, which led to the pound crashing against the dollar, pension funds nearly collapsing, a £65bn Bank of England bailout, soaring mortgage costs, and the cost of government borrowing increasing. He also said he would remove the cap on bankers’ bonuses.
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