Duke and Duchess of Sussex will address spectators in The Hague accompanied by Netflix film crew
The Duke of Sussex took part in a driving challenge as the Invictus Games got under way on Saturday. Ahead of the opening ceremony, he and the Duchess of Sussex joined a junior driving contest where they were driven round a circuit of miniature Land Rovers.
The couple are expected to speak on stage at the Invictus Games opening ceremony on Saturday night.
Continue reading...Sector faces ‘devastation’ by Brexit red tape and from pandemic
Language schools for foreign students are being “devastated” by a combination of post-Brexit red tape and the impact of the pandemic, threatening the future of a £3.2bn industry, tourism leaders have warned.
A report by the Tourism Alliance said even though the government had ended Covid travel measures, ministers had imposed unnecessary restrictions on children from France, Germany and other EU nations.
Continue reading...Analysis: the Tory leader is unpopular for breaking lockdown rules but his departure may depend on options for his replacement
Timing is everything. Suspicions that Boris Johnson had broken lockdown rules nearly toppled him in January. Yet now the prime minister looks safe, even as suspicion becomes fact with the issuing of a fixed penalty notice by the police. Johnson’s strong response to the international crisis provoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to have saved him for now, though with more fines probably still to come, and Sue Gray’s final report looming, his position remains perilous.
The lockdown party scandals have turned a lot of voters against Johnson. His average net approval ratings across seven national pollsters collapsed from -9 last September to -40 in January. At rock bottom, the prime minister’s ratings were as bad as Margaret Thatcher’s during the poll tax crisis or Gordon Brown’s at the height of the financial crisis. Johnson was less popular with voters in January than Jeremy Corbyn was during the 2019 election campaign. The Johnson brand as a politician with unique popular appeal looked completely shot.
Continue reading...NASUWT conference delegates condemn non-stop culture that puts colleagues on long-term sick leave
Teachers are “popping pills” and are on long-term sick leave, ground down by a culture of non-stop school emails and WhatsApp messages that “ding and ping” day and night, a conference has been told.
Delegate after delegate took to the platform at the annual conference of the NASUWT teachers’ union in Birmingham to condemn the increase in workload and describe the devastating impact on health and wellbeing.
Continue reading...Unions say civil servants could stage mass walkouts after home secretary overruled their concerns
Priti Patel could face a Home Office mutiny over plans to process migrants 5,000 miles away in Rwanda after overruling officials to push through the scheme.
The home secretary issued a rare ministerial direction to overrule concerns of civil servants about whether the scheme would deliver value for money.
Continue reading...Pupils set to take first GCSEs and A-levels for three years, but invigilators are wary of working in halls with no protective measures
After the disruption of the pandemic, Helen Fields knew this Easter holiday would be a crucial time for her sons to revise for their GCSE and A-level exams. Instead, 16-year-old Solomon caught Covid and has been too unwell to concentrate, and 18-year-old Gabriel is suffering “serious anxiety”, having never sat high-stakes exams.
Summer term starts this week for many, but the Association of School and College Leaders union (ASCL) told the Observer that the first public exams for three years, which start on 16 May, will “certainly not be a return to business as usual”. The union says soaring infection rates played havoc with exam preparation last term, and their members can’t see why the government won’t bring back free Covid tests for these pupils, to avoid the virus spreading in exam halls.
Continue reading...Canoeist Etienne Stott and sailor Laura Baldwin join protest at which police say six people were arrested
Six people have been arrested after Extinction Rebellion activists, including two Olympians, scaled an oil tanker in west London.
The gold medal-winning canoeist Etienne Stott, along with two others, climbed on to the Shell tanker with a banner reading “End Fossil Filth.”
Continue reading...Moscow announces move that will also bar 10 other UK government members and politicians
Russia’s foreign ministry has banned Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Ben Wallace and 10 other British government members from entering the country.
The ministry said the decision was made “in view of the unprecedented hostile action by the UK government”.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers say there is no freedom in Rwanda and fear for their lives if sent to Africa
Small boat arrivals on the Kent coast have expressed fears that they will be removed from the UK and transferred to Rwanda, after hearing the government’s announcement that asylum claims will be processed offshore.
“If they send me to Rwanda, I will not go. I will die here, I will take my life,” Jemal, a new arrival from Eritrea, said. “Do you know how many thousands of miles I travelled to be here? How long I was in [the] desert …? To reach this point, to be here, we all had to make so many sacrifices. A lot of [people] lost their lives on the sea. I left my country now – I cannot go back to Africa.”
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
Continue reading...Gillian Triggs, assistant high commissioner at UNHCR, says plan is ‘symbolic gesture’ that will prove unworkable
The UN’s refugee agency has condemned Boris Johnson’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “a symbolic gesture” that will be unworkable in practice.
Speaking to the Guardian, Gillian Triggs, the assistant high commissioner at the UNHCR, said the proposed arrangement would only accommodate a few hundred people a year, making it extremely expensive as well as illegal and discriminatory.
Continue reading...Ahmad Khan’s conviction, Partygate and recent Conservative policies have swayed constituents to the left
“Labour is definitely due a comeback now,” said Wakefield market stall owner Mohammad Javed. After coming to the area from Pakistan aged 16, he has spent the last four decades observing life in the town centre from his busy high street spot.
“I’ve seen the rise and fall of this town, I know the locals, and I’m telling you – the Tories have outstayed their welcome.”
Continue reading...Ten years after settling case against News of the World, actor now taking action against another Rupert Murdoch title
Hugh Grant is leading a renewed attempt to prove phone hacking took place at the Sun, even as Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper continues to maintain no illegality took place there.
The actor has followed Paul Gascoigne and Sienna Miller in bringing a so-called “Sun-only” phone-hacking claim, specifically alleging that illegality took place at the daily tabloid in the 2000s. Rebekah Brooks, the current chief executive of Murdoch’s News UK business, was editor of the Sun during the period in question.
Continue reading...Activists close some of the largest routes through capital in protest at continued use of fossil fuels
Several central London bridges, including Waterloo, Blackfriars and Westminster, have been shut down by protesting Extinction Rebellion activists.
The group has carried out a series of protests this week demanding an end to fossil fuels. On Friday afternoon, activists staged a series of sit-ins on the bridges, cutting off some of the main traffic arteries of the capital.
Continue reading...Rebellions loom as Glass Lewis advises banks’ shareholders to reject higher base pay and excessive pensions
Barclays and Standard Chartered face the prospect of rebellions over executive pay after an influential adviser said investors should vote down pay and pensions packages for executives at the FTSE 100 banks.
Investors should defy directors and reject higher base pay for Barclays’ new chief executive and potentially “excessive” pension awards at Standard Chartered, according to Glass Lewis, which advises investors such as pension funds on how to vote at annual meetings.
Continue reading...Dozens of services to and from London cancelled, and strike action hits TransPennine Express routes
Rail passengers face a “disastrous weekend” of disruption as engineering works and strikes hamper one of the busiest Easter getaways in years.
Dozens of services to and from London have been cancelled as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects across the bank holiday weekend.
Continue reading...First vehicle bought after fundraising effort backed by TV host heads to war-torn country next week
The first 4x4 bought as part of a fundraising effort for Ukraine backed by Jeremy Clarkson has been delivered, and will be journeying out to the country next week.
Viktor Zaichenko, 48, originally from Ukraine, and his wife, Lucy, 55, are the beekeepers at the TV presenter’s Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire. The couple have been raising money to send 4x4s to Ukraine, with the help of Clarkson and his partner, Lisa Hogan.
Continue reading...Claim about long-term benefits disputed by MP Andrew Mitchell who describes reported cost of £30,000 a person as ‘eye-watering’
Britain will save money in the “longer term” by sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, a minister has said after the reported cost of about £30,000 a person was described as “eye-watering”.
Defending the decision to fly out many of those who arrive on the Kent coast to a country more than 4,000 miles away, the Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said it would “crush” the business model of people smugglers.
Continue reading...Most broadcasts fail to attract more than 100,000 viewers, according to official ratings
When BBC Three relaunched as a live television channel earlier this year, the corporation hoped its counterintuitive punt on a youth-focused broadcast outlet would help it reach new audiences. Instead, the channel’s shows are consistently being beaten in the ratings by repeats of old history programmes featuring the deceased steeplejack Fred Dibnah on BBC Four.
Most of BBC Three’s programmes have so far failed to attract more than 100,000 viewers on live television, according to official viewing figures, while some shows are lucky to get a tenth of that. Even the programmes that do perform relatively well – such as episodes of MasterChef Australia – are rarely the original distinctive in-house shows that the channel exists to provide.
Continue reading...The couple stopped off at Windsor Castle while travelling to The Hague in the Netherlands for the games
Prince Harry and Meghan have visited the Queen at Windsor Castle on their way to the Invictus Games.
The couple were travelling to The Hague in the Netherlands for the games, which begin on Saturday, and on Thursday visited the UK together for the first time since stepping down as senior working royals more than two years ago.
Continue reading...Playhouse to stage Beyond Belief in 2023 to ‘say a proper goodbye’ to late SDLP leader who helped persuade IRA to give up arms
A musical drama about the life of John Hume, one of the main forces behind the Good Friday agreement, will be staged next year to mark the 25th anniversary of the historic deal that helped end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
Beyond Belief, written by Damian Gorman with music by Brian O’Doherty, is the second part of a “peace-building trilogy” at the Playhouse in Hume’s home town, Derry, after The White Handkerchief, a play about the events of Bloody Sunday, earlier this year.
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