Bridgend MP charged with failing to stop and driving without due care and attention over crash last November
A Conservative MP has been charged with failing to stop after a car crash in Wales in November last year.
Jamie Wallis, who has been the MP for Bridgend since 2019, has also been charged with failure to report a traffic collision, driving without due care and attention and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position.
Continue reading...Rise in energy and ingredient costs suggests consumers will have to pay more for well-known brands
The consumer goods firm Unilever has said “unprecedented cost inflation” lies ahead as Russia’s war on Ukraine has added to a surge in energy and ingredient costs, and said that shoppers will pay even more for well-known brands in the coming months.
The company, which makes goods ranging from Dove soap to Magnum ice-cream and Marmite, said on Thursday it expected its costs to rise by €2.7bn (£2.3bn) in the second half of 2022, after an already steep increase on the €2.1bn expected for the first half.
Continue reading...The 2022 scheme is more limited – and expensive – than the original but is billed as a big step in reopening the backpacker market
The so-called ten pound Pom scheme has been reborn as a tourism campaign to bring British backpackers back to Australia in the wake of the pandemic.
After the second world war, the Australian government lured hundreds of thousands of Britons over the seas with a £10 ticket to boost the population and supply post-war industries with workers.
Continue reading...The chancellor says nothing is off the table but fellow Tory ministers remain dismissive of idea
Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a windfall tax on oil and gas companies despite previously dismissing the policy, as Labour accused the government of burying its head in the sand over spiralling bills.
The chancellor hinted at a possible U-turn on a tax on oil and gas providers, after repeatedly refusing to countenance the idea in the past when suggested by Labour and the Lib Dems.
Continue reading...Fears grow in UK that any proposals could downgrade workers’ rights despite assurances on both sides
Britain’s trade talks with the US are moving ahead with only “minimal” input from workers, small businesses and thinktanks, according to MPs who accused the UK trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, of shielding her department from outside scrutiny.
Conservative and Labour MPs on the trade select committee also said scrutiny of a deal struck with Australia and New Zealand was in danger of being “rushed through” parliament before they could make an assessment of its impact on imports and exports to and from the Commonwealth countries.
Continue reading...Daniel Challis, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak, is auditioning people to provide his new voice
Daniel Challis was born and brought up near Walsall, surrounded by family members with distinctive regional accents.
Yet the communication aid he uses to speak with sounds nothing like them, instead vocalising in a robotic version of received pronunciation. The 18-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak, is appealing for people to audition to provide his new voice – providing they have the right accent.
Continue reading...Dan Ozarow felt terrorised by abuse of him and his family after negative campaigning in Hertfordshire
Conservative councillors in Oliver Dowden’s constituency have been disciplined for a “hate” campaign against a Jewish Labour candidate, according to an independent investigation commissioned by Tory HQ.
The report found the behaviour of five Hertsmere Tory councillors “may well have encouraged” antisemitic abuse of Labour’s Dan Ozarow, as well as multiple breaches of the party’s code of conduct.
Continue reading...British telecommunications giant says company will now take back seat as it makes EE its flagship
It’s still good to talk but increasingly BT customers are doing it wherever they like via connected mobile devices, rather than fixed line broadband and old-fashioned telephones.
In recognition of this generational shift, BT quietly announced in a blog post on Wednesday that after more than 30 years and some of the UK’s highest-profile ad campaigns, its flagship consumer brand is to take a back seat to upstart EE in its marketing strategy.
Continue reading...Analysis: The high court found policy that sent untested people into homes was illegal and irrational
This time of year brings bad memories for families of care home residents who died in Covid’s first wave when the virus swept, mostly unchecked, through nursing homes.
Just over two years on, the high court ruling that the government’s hospital discharge policy which sent thousands of people untested into care homes was not only illegal but “irrational”, comes as bitter proof of something they already knew: something went badly wrong.
Continue reading...No 10 says PM feels reporters must be free to report what they are told, after widely-condemned Angela Rayner article.
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In an interview with Sky News this morning Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, claimed that Labour’s proposed windfall tax on energy companies (its key proposal to address the cost of living crisis) would be “disastrous”. He said:
If you look at Labour’s policy, you asked about it - of a windfall tax - that would damage investment in energy supplies we need and hike bills. It’s disastrous. It’s not serious.
What this shows is they’re coming up with frankly ill-thought through policies, but we have got a plan, a concerted plan, and I think that’s what voters want to see.
Continue reading...Charity Freedom from Torture says it has ‘serious concerns’ about lawfulness of policy
Priti Patel’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is facing its first legal challenge after a charity instructed lawyers to demand the disclosure of documents because of fears the policy is contrary to international law.
In a pre-action letter to the Home Office, which is expected to lead to a judicial review claim, the solicitors Leigh Day stated that the charity Freedom from Torture “has serious concerns about the lawfulness of the policy”.
Continue reading...Debt paid as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh-Ashoori were released is blocked in Oman, Iran says
The historic £400m debt the UK paid to Iran at the time of the release of British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori has still not reached Tehran, according to Iranian government sources.
A senior Iranian government source said the money was blocked in Oman and the problem was not with the UK government. One report said only £1m had been transferred to Tehran.
Continue reading...Russian president says he has ‘all the tools’ to respond and will use them ‘if needed’; Mariupol commander says 600 injured in Azovstal steel works
On the issue of gas supplies to Poland, government figures yesterday were anxious to reassure the public in Poland that the country could cope if Russia cut off supplies.
The Polish Press Agency last night was carrying the following quotes. Anna Moscow, head of the ministry of climate and environment, said:
Poland has the necessary gas reserves and sources of supply that protect our security – we have been effectively independent of Russia for years. Our warehouses are 76% full. There will be gas in Polish homes.
The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline will also be commissioned in a few months. The decision to build it was made by the PiS government and has been consistently implemented in recent years. This is another element of Poland’s energy security.
The men detained on 21 and 22 April are suspected of espionage activities for the Russian secret services. The material collected by the military counterintelligence service (SKW) indicates that a Russian and a Belarusian, acting on behalf of the Russian intelligence against Poland, carried out activities aimed at identifying the functioning of the Polish Armed Forces, including the presence of the army in the Polish-Belarusian border zone.
Continue reading...Exclusive: poor healthcare and conditions at sites such as Napier worsen mental and physical illness, Doctors of the World says
Asylum seekers’ accommodation is “unsafe” due to inadequate healthcare, while poor living conditions are exacerbating or creating mental and physical health problems, according to a new report by Doctors of the World.
The charity’s research, published on Wednesday, details the barriers to medical care and medication for asylum seekers in initial accommodation across the UK.
Continue reading...The Empress by Tanika Gupta among new additions in attempt to diversify AQA’s offering for drama students in England
Drama students will have the opportunity to study a more diverse curriculum at GCSE and A-level with the addition of four new plays by writers of colour.
AQA, the biggest examination board in England, says the texts are part of a range of measures to update and revise its qualifications to ensure they better reflect the diversity of students and their teachers.
Continue reading...Public accounts committee say government must devote more resources to recovering nearly £5bn
MPs have criticised the government for its “unacceptable” failure to draw up plans to recover nearly £5bn taken from the coronavirus emergency bounceback loan scheme by fraudsters.
The government must give more resources to counter-fraud agencies and account properly for how much of the money will be lost forever, according to a report published on Wednesday by parliament’s influential public accounts committee.
Continue reading...National Audit Office says tax has increased amount of money criminals can make from waste crime
Organised criminals have accidentally been given incentives by the government to fly-tip, a damning report by the National Audit Office has found.
Fly-tipping has increased year-on-year in England since 2012-13 and reached 1.13 million recorded incidents in 2020-21 – at a cost of £11.6m to clear large-scale incidents.
Continue reading...Royal Shakespeare Company’s version of celebrated Studio Ghibli movie will be first opening ‘of this scale’ in nearly 40 years
The Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage an adaptation of the celebrated Japanese animation feature film, My Neighbour Totoro, in a production it promises will be ambitious and spectacular.
The 1988 film became a global success after Netflix acquired the rights to 21 movies from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation giant, in 2020. The world premiere of the stage adaptation, directed by Phelim McDermott and featuring puppets created by Basil Twist, will have a limited run of 15 weeks at the Barbican from October until January.
Continue reading...EU commissioner raises hate speech concerns as UK draws attention to penalties in online safety bill
The UK and EU have warned that Twitter must comply with new content rules or face sanctions that range from fines to a total ban, as concerns were raised that hate speech will increase on the platform under the ownership of Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man has agreed a $44bn (£34bn) deal to buy the social media network, which will hand control of a platform with 217 million users to a self-confessed “free speech absolutist”.
Continue reading...David Dillon had been called to a meeting with Sir Lindsay Hoyle after running a story widely condemned as sexist
The Mail on Sunday’s editor has rejected a meeting with the House of Commons speaker after a story that accused Angela Rayner of “distracting” Boris Johnson with her legs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle had called the newspaper’s editor, David Dillon, to a meeting after it ran the story, which has been widely condemned as sexist by MPs of all political parties and prompted discussion about misogyny in Westminster.
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