Lack of funding identified as biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerows
Farmers are urging the government to include hedge creation in its nature-friendly farming subsidy scheme in an attempt to increase biodiversity.
Details about the post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s common agricultural policy have been scarce, with land managers simply told they would get payments for providing “public goods” such as protecting nature.
Continue reading...Total sales rose by 4% but figures were helped by inflation masking lower volumes, says BRC
Britain’s retailers benefited from a November sales boost fuelled by Black Friday discounts and colder weather as consumers bought winter coats, hot water bottles and hooded blankets, according to industry data.
In its latest snapshot of high street and online spending, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sales growth picked up last month compared with October, despite mounting concern over the cost of living crisis.
Continue reading...Labour-endorsed study finds initiative would save families thousands of pounds, cut benefits spending and raise tax revenues
Free universal preschool childcare and more funding for after-school clubs could increase government revenues and save a family with young children between £620 and £6,175 a year, a joint report endorsed by the Labour party has revealed.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the charity Save the Children have called for a universal childcare guarantee for all families until the end of primary school to allow more women to get back into work and reduce the attainment gap between rich and poor children in their early years.
Continue reading...Survey finds nearly a fifth of respondents have had suicidal ideation about financial problems
The shocking impact that soaring bills are having on mental health has been laid bare by a report that highlights how money worries are driving many people to thoughts of suicide.
The Money and Mental Health policy institute, a charity founded and chaired by the consumer champion Martin Lewis, reported that 17% of respondents to a survey said they had experienced suicidal ideation over the past nine months owing to the rising cost of living.
Continue reading...Serious illnesses among estimated 5m people in England who could not get an appointment in October may have been missed
Millions of people in England are struggling to get GP appointments and as a result some will not have serious medical conditions diagnosed until it is “too late”, Labour has warned.
The party has made new estimates based on the latest GP appointment figures for England with GP patient survey data.
Continue reading...Warning comes as health official says earlier start to cases in UK could be knock-on effect of pandemic
Downing Street has told parents to be on the lookout for signs of strep A infection after reports a primary-school pupil has become the eighth child to die in a matter of weeks.
On Monday, Alison Syred-Paul, headteacher at Morelands primary in Waterlooville, Hampshire, said: “Very tragically, we have learned of the death in recent days of a child who attended our school, who was also diagnosed with an invasive Group A streptococcal (iGAS) infection.”
Continue reading...No plans to amend legislation that could stop removal back to Greece, after secret talks held over their future
Rishi Sunak has ruled out changing a law that could prevent the British Museum from handing the Parthenon marbles back to Greece, after it emerged that trustees have held secret talks with the Greek prime minister about the future of the artefacts.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said there were no plans to amend legislation under which a museum can dispose of objects within its collection only in very limited circumstances. However, it could decide to lend part of the collection to Greece.
Continue reading...Labour leader says, though he argued for remain, he could not argue against leave voters calling for more control over their lives
Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: [Beth Rigby from Sky] When people are struggling with the cost of living, you are talking about constitutional issues. This might look to people as if you are out of touch. Are you talking to Westminster about stuff that won’t happen. What in this will improve people’s lives from day one of a Labour government?
When you come to the next election, it may be that the Scottish National party will have a one-line manifesto and want a one-issue general election.
But we have done a huge amount of research on Scottish public opinion and people want a better health service immediately, people want living standards improved immediately, people want jobs for young people immediately, people want better housing immediately and people of course want change in the way that we are suggesting immediately.
People up and down this country are crying out for a new approach. During the Brexit referendum I argued for remain. But I couldn’t disagree with the basic case that many leave voters made to me.
They wanted democratic control over their lives so they could provide opportunities for the next generation, build communities they felt proud of, and public services they could rely on.
Continue reading...‘We know the full truth,’ Harry’s voiceover says in trailer for his and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries
Prince Harry has highlighted the “pain and suffering” of women marrying into the British royal family, in a new trailer for the Sussexes’ highly anticipated behind-the-scenes docuseries.
Netflix has promised an “unprecedented and in-depth documentary series” over six episodes where the couple “share the other side of their high-profile love story”.
Continue reading...Ex-minister claims Tory peer intimated unnamed firm she was helping was being treated unfairly
The Conservative peer Michelle Mone made “extraordinarily aggressive” lobbying efforts on behalf of a company bidding to supply Covid tests during the pandemic, Matt Hancock has claimed in a serialisation of his diaries.
The former health secretary claimed that Lady Mone made “wild accusations” about the procurement process, intimating that the company she was helping, which is not named, was suffering unfairly.
Continue reading...Increase for fourth consecutive month, with almost 143,000 new vehicles registered in November
Sales of new cars in the UK have risen for the fourth month running, with purely electric vehicles accounting for a fifth of the total.
In the best November for the industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, almost 143,000 new vehicles were registered.
Continue reading...Officers say no one was at England footballer’s Leatherhead home when jewellery and watches stolen
Jewellery and watches were among items stolen at the Surrey home of the England footballer Raheem Sterling in a burglary that forced the winger to return to the UK from the World Cup in Qatar.
Surrey police confirmed they were investigating a burglary at a property in Oxshott, Leatherhead, after Sterling missed England’s win against Senegal in the knockout stages of the tournament on Sunday due to a “family matter”.
Continue reading...Organisation questions use of ‘illegal’ to describe asylum seekers in report calling for radical crackdown
A report partially endorsed by the UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, calling for a radical crackdown on those seeking asylum has been criticised by a UN body for “factual and legal errors”.
Braverman wrote the foreword to the report by the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies that says “if necessary” Britain should change human rights laws and withdraw from the European convention on human rights in order to tackle Channel crossings by small boat.
Continue reading...Wintry conditions will arrive this week, with temperatures plummeting and possibility of snow showers
This week winter will arrive in earnest in the UK, driven by a large area of high pressure over Iceland that will drag Arctic air southwards.
As this cold air descends over the UK on Tuesday, northern Scotland will experience the first signs of this wintry weather, with daytime temperatures forecast to be barely above freezing, alongside some possible sleet and snow showers throughout the day. The cold front will make its way further south over the course of Wednesday, pulling temperatures to well below the seasonal norm.
Continue reading...Analysis of database tailored to EU needs shows 85% of GB exports stay in the region’s factories and shops
UK hopes that controversial Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish sea can be eliminated have risen after early analysis of government data showed that at least 85% of goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain stay in factories or shops in the region.
The research comes from a new HM Revenue and Customs database, the EU Access system, that tracked the movement of 1m goods crossing the Irish Sea in 2021.
Continue reading...EU-funded survey of people aged 16-19 finds one in four have trolled someone – while UK least ‘cyberdeviant’ of nine countries
Risky and criminal online behaviour is in danger of becoming normalised among a generation of young people across Europe, according to EU-funded research that found one in four 16- to 19-year-olds have trolled someone online and one in three have engaged in digital piracy.
An EU-funded study found evidence of widespread criminal, risky and delinquent behaviour among the 16-19 age group in nine European countries including the UK.
Continue reading...Campaigners concerned that ‘same racist technology used to repress Uyghurs is being marketed in Britain’
A Chinese security camera company has been advertising ethnicity recognition features to British and other European customers, even while it faces a ban on UK operations over allegations of involvement in ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang.
In a brochure published on its website, Hikvision advertised a range of features that it said it could provide in collaboration with the UK startup FaiceTech.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dave Lewis, chair of startup hoping to provide 8% of Britain’s energy, tells how political turmoil has delayed undersea cable project
An £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster.
The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s energy supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030.
Continue reading...Producers believe this is the first time a film has used both English and Kernewek on its posters
The new film from the director Mark Jenkin, who has won plaudits for his gritty takes of life in the far south-west of England, is being promoted with Cornish-language posters.
Producers of the film, a folk horror called Enys Men, believe it is the first time posters in Cornish (Kernewek) as well as English are being used to market a major feature film.
Continue reading...Najat Ibrahim Ismail was jailed in 2017 and officials tried to deport him three times before judge’s ruling in his favour
A man whom the Home Office repeatedly tried to deport after he brought his badly burned baby niece to the UK illegally for treatment has won his right to remain in Britain after a six-year battle.
Najat Ibrahim Ismail, 35, fled torture in Iraq and came to the UK in 2004. He and his British wife, Emma Ismail, have three children and live in Portsmouth.
Continue reading...