Category Archives: UK news

Revealed: Met police trainees’ violence and dishonesty

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Cressida Dick backs Hendon methods, despite leaked documents and internal sources revealing alarming incidents and poor applicants

The head of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, has been forced to defend recruitment standards as leaked documents reveal cases of violent disorder, cheating and dishonesty among trainees at Britain’s biggest police force.

The incidents relate to recruits at the Met’s main training centre and will raise concerns about its ability to provide an effective service as sources within the force allege declining standards for trainees as recruitment has been ramped up.

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GB News turns to Nigel Farage as its saviour after ratings freefall

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TV station also hit by internal dispute over its direction after Guto Harri dropped for ‘taking the knee’

Nigel Farage is to take centre stage at GB News in a victory for the rightwing faction at the beleaguered television channel. The former leader of Ukip is to host a nightly primetime show from Monday as part of a reboot of programming designed to attract more viewers.

The new channel is facing plummeting viewing figures and a split in management between those angling to keep broader-based regional news coverage and those planning to boost coverage of the “culture wars”.

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Sajid Javid posts message saying he has tested positive for Covid – video

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The health secretary for England, Sajid Javid, has announced in a video on Twitter that he has tested positive for coronavirus and has mild symptoms. 

In a video, Javid said: “This morning I tested positive for Covid. I’m waiting for my PCR result, but thankfully I have had my jabs and symptoms are mild.”

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‘Not in this town’: artwork about Britain’s ‘nuclear colonialism’ removed

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Tory councillors are accused of censorship over installation on atom bomb tests in Australia in a Southend park

An Australian artist has accused a group of Conservative councillors of using “bullying strategies” to silence and censor her work after an installation she created to highlight Britain’s “identity as a colonial nuclear state” was removed from a park in Essex.

The councillors threatened to “take action against the work” if it was not removed, according to Metal, the arts organisation that commissioned and then removed the installation from Gunners Park in Southend.

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Delays aggravate debate over Covid jabs for UK children

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Analysis: opinion is becoming sharply divided in the absence of official recommendations

The delay in deciding whether to vaccinate children over 12 against Covid is unlikely to help resolve what is already a contentious issue.

A survey by the Office for National Statistics has found that almost 90% of parents in England would favour giving their children a vaccine if offered, and school leaders have also backed jabs for pupils.

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Train operators face calls to publish research on Covid risks

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Rail industry resists calls from passenger groups to release data on risk of contracting Covid on trains

Train operators have been urged to release research showing the risk of contracting Covid on trains, with the chances now believed to be substantially higher than the figure publicised by the rail industry last year.

The industry-funded Rail Research and Safety Board (RSSB) said in July 2020 that the risk was just one infection in 11,000 average journeys in Great Britain.

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The lion in the London black cab: the remarkable story of Singh, and the boy who loved him

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Gifted as a cub by a Maharajah to a young British boy, Singh lived at a house in Surrey before outgrowing his home and being driven in a black cab to the zoo. Now his story has been made into a book

“He was,” London Zoo said, “one of the zoo’s politest pets.”

Singh the Lion arrived in a black cab and padded in through the front door, on a lead.

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Russian billionaire settles with ex-wife five years after £450m payout ruling

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Farkhad Akhmedov had contested 2017 decision but has now reached an agreement over divorce

After almost five years of fighting a high court ruling that awarded the UK’s largest ever divorce payout, a Russian billionaire has reached a settlement with his ex-wife.

Farkhad Akhmedov and Tatiana Akhmedova have been embroiled in the most expensive family feud in history since a London high court judge awarded Akhmedova a £450m divorce payout in 2017.

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Former solicitor, 96, believed to be UK’s oldest new graduate

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Archie White awarded fine arts degree from East Sussex College aged 96 years and 56 days

A former solicitor from Hastings is believed to have become Britain’s oldest new graduate after receiving a degree in fine art at the age of 96.

Archie White, who retired at 92, said he was “not too bothered about being the oldest graduate or not” and had thoroughly enjoyed studying at East Sussex College.

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‘Gender is a performance’: Scotland’s first ‘drag school’ sells out

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Dumfries course teaches 11- to 18-year-olds how to create a persona, apply makeup and the history of drag

“You can use drag to explore anything you want to,” says Natalie Doidge, the organiser of what is thought to be Scotland’s first “drag school” for teenagers, which opens its doors later this month after facing down controversy.

“Drag isn’t limited to men dressed as women … and this course opens it out to anyone who wants to try it. It’s an exploration of [oneself] – especially for young people at the upper end of high school, when your life is just beginning and you’re thinking about who want to be. Gender is a performance, after all.”

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Restoration work wipes smile off the face of Dutch vegetable seller

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Painting reclaims former glory as English Heritage rights the wrongs of 19th-century additions

At some point in the last 400 years a painting restorer probably decided the Dutch vegetable seller was far too glum and should be smiling. Now it has been put right and she is once again enigmatic.

English Heritage revealed the results on Friday of a two-year conservation project to reveal the true glory of a mysterious, unsigned painting that has been in its stores for more than 60 years.

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Labour concerned over management of flagship levelling up scheme

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Leaders of £24m Stocksbridge fund include local MP, her husband, and others with personal or business links to plans

Labour has raised concerns about the management of a flagship levelling up scheme after it emerged that decisions about one local £24m fund were primarily led by a group including the local MP, her husband, and others with personal or business links to some of the plans.

Documents also show that the towns fund board for Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, co-chaired by Conservative MP Miriam Cates, met for eight months before members began filing details of personal interests, and that the scheme of governance was only published after more than a year.

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Summer chaos predicted as 1.6m in England told to isolate in a week

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Government says its Covid app is unlikely to be adjusted to make it less sensitive for weeks

Up to 1.6 million people in England have been told to isolate in a single week, Guardian analysis has found as the government said the Covid app is unlikely to be changed for weeks.

The number of new UK coronavirus cases climbed to 48,553 on Thursday – the highest since mid-January and the start of the third lockdown – with the upward curve showing no signs of abating, raising fears of a summer of chaos as businesses and households are hit by self-isolation. Sixty-three people were reported on Thursday to have died from the virus.

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Google Maps suggests ‘potentially fatal’ routes up Ben Nevis, say mountain charities

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Organisations in Scotland say they have tried to contact Google about the dangers but received no reply

Scottish mountaineering charities have criticised Google for suggesting routes up Ben Nevis and other mountains they say are “potentially fatal” and direct people over a cliff.

The John Muir Trust, which looks after the upper reaches of the UK’s highest mountain, said attempts to contact the company over the issue had been met with silence.

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London casino let rich patrons racially abuse staff, tribunal hears

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Ex-employee is suing Aspinalls in Mayfair for discrimination, alleging a ‘hostile and demeaning environment’

An exclusive London casino allowed wealthy patrons to racially abuse staff with impunity and “segregated” black employees from gamblers who insisted on white dealers, a tribunal has heard.

Semhar Tesfagiorgis, 41, is suing Crown London Aspinalls, in Mayfair, for race and sex discrimination, alleging there was a “hostile and demeaning environment” when she worked there.

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Long Covid has more than 200 symptoms, study finds

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Calls for national screening programme as symptoms revealed range from brain fog to tinnitus

The largest ever international study of people with long Covid has identified more than 200 symptoms and prompted researchers to call for a national screening programme.

The study found the myriad symptoms of long Covid – from brain fog and hallucinations to tremors and tinnitus – spanned 10 of the body’s organ systems, and a third of the symptoms continued to affect patients for at least six months.

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Advertising sector has #MeToo moment as blog sparks women’s anger

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Campaigner Zoe Scaman has collected women’s stories and is calling for policy change in the industry

Hundreds of women working in advertising have described being sexually assaulted, harassed and discriminated against, after a blog provoked an outpouring of fury that is being described as the industry’s #MeToo moment.

Senior advertising industry player Zoe Scaman said she had been inundated with emails from women across the world describing incidents ranging from sexist comments in meetings to sexual assault and rape. She is now working with leaders of bodies representing women in the advertising sector to try to effect real change and “not just another policy pledge”.

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UK confirms plan to call time on Troubles prosecutions

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Proposals to end prosecutions relating to Troubles before 1998 opposed by Irish government

All criminal prosecutions relating to the Troubles and future attempts to take civil actions would be blocked under UK government plans that have united Northern Ireland’s parties in opposition.

The proposals, which are also opposed by the Irish government, were announced by Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, who told MPs it was a “painful truth” that criminal investigations were unlikely to deliver successful outcomes.

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Balearic Islands to be added to England’s Covid amber list

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Change means some people will have to quarantine when arriving in England from Monday, as red and green lists also updated

Ministers have performed a U-turn on the Balearic Islands by removing the Spanish holiday destination from the UK’s quarantine-free “green list” after only two weeks, in a move which will force holidaymakers to cancel plans or self-isolate for up to 10 days upon return.

However, summer holidays to budget holiday destination Bulgaria looked more likely after it was upgraded to the green list alongside Hong Kong. Croatia and Taiwan will be placed on the green watchlist – designed to give people some notice a country might be downgraded.

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