Category Archives: UK news

Donna Coleman died after Covid ran riot at Burnley College. Should it have been open?

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Donna, 42, was a devoted and popular member of the teaching staff. Yet at the height of the second wave, working conditions left her terrified of doing the job she loved

The joke went: it was impossible to get Covid at Burnley College. The virus didn’t exist there. All through September, October, November and December 2020, as more and more people came down with Covid yet the further education (FE) college stayed open, Donna Coleman would make this gag to her sisters, Steph Coleman, 38, and Vicki Coleman, 45. She spoke to them on the phone every day. “It was a running joke,” Steph says. “‘Who’s come down with Covid now?’”

Although the sisters laughed about it, in truth they were alarmed. Donna was a member of the teaching staff at the college in Lancashire. She worked with teenagers who had been kicked out of school, as well as long-term unemployed people, helping them to continue their education or find work. (Steph and Vicki had previously worked at the college, too, although they had left by September 2020.)

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Equal honours for officers and men | Letter

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Trevor Lindley on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s commitment to equal treatment of all ranks in memorials

John Batey is wrong to say “The British army buries its dead in separate sections of ‘officers and men’” (Letters, 23 April). Early in the formation of the then Imperial War Graves Commission, Fabian Ware, founder of the commission, stated that “no distinction should be made between officers and men lying in the same cemeteries in the form or nature of the memorials”.

In January 1918, the commission said the “governing consideration” in its decision on the uniformity of military graves was that “those who have given their lives are members of one family … and that, in death, all, from General to Private, of whatever race or creed, should receive equal honour under a memorial which should be the common symbol of their comradeship and of the cause for which they died”.
Trevor Lindley
Weymouth, Dorset

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Johnson must push G7 to pay billions more in climate aid, say experts

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Rich countries urged to stump up to help developing nations cut greenhouse gas emissions

Boris Johnson must push rich countries meeting in Cornwall in June to come up with tens of billions of dollars more in aid for poor countries to deal with climate breakdown, or face the failure of vital UN climate talks to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November, according to leading climate experts.

The UK holds the presidency this year both of the annual meeting of the G7 group of the world’s economic superpowers, and of the Cop26 climate summit.

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Former paratroopers deny murdering IRA chief during Troubles

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Two veterans plead not guilty at Belfast crown court in trial over shooting of Joe McCann in 1972

Two former paratroopers have denied murdering an Official IRA commander during the Troubles, in a closely watched trial in Northern Ireland.

The two veterans, known as soldiers A and C, pleaded not guilty at Belfast crown court on Monday at the start of a trial over the shooting of Joe McCann on 15 April 1972.

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EU in vaccine passport talks with US but not UK

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Vaccinated Americans could be let into Europe this summer, while UK talking to member states such as Greece

The EU is at an advanced stage of talks with the US over mutually recognising vaccine passports to boost transatlantic tourism this summer, but Brussels is yet to open discussions with the British government.

A spokesperson for the European commission said that while discussions had been held with US officials and the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, there were “no contacts at present with the UK”.

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Trident could be forced overseas or halted if Scotland gains independence

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Continuing UK’s nuclear deterrent would probably require help of an allied country, defence expert says

Trident could be forced to the US or possibly France if Scotland became independent because there is no alternative port immediately available elsewhere in the UK, according to a retired admiral responsible for Britain’s nuclear policy.

Unless Scotland were to agree to lease back the Faslane submarine base to the rest of the UK, continuing Trident would probably require the help of an allied country or the nuclear deterrent would have to be halted completely, the expert said.

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Johnson denies saying he would rather see ‘bodies piled high’ than third Covid lockdown

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Bereaved families call PM’s alleged comment ‘a punch in the stomach to all those grieving’

Boris Johnson has denied he said he would rather see bodies piled “high in their thousands” than order a third lockdown, an alleged comment that bereaved relatives described as “a punch in the stomach to all those grieving”.

Johnson said it was “total, total rubbish” that he had said those words. He said: “What I certainly think is that this country has done an amazing job with the lockdowns. And they’ve been very difficult. And they’ve been very tough for people. And there’s no question about that.

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Iran sentences Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to further one-year jail term

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British-Iranian aid worker has also been banned from leaving country for a year, her lawyer has said

An Iranian court has sentenced the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to a one-year jail term and banned her from leaving the country for a year after, according to her lawyer.

She had been charged with attending a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in 2009 and speaking to a BBC Persian journalist at the gathering.

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Boris Johnson is warned of ‘dangerous political vacuum’ in Northern Ireland

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Letter from four former secretaries of state says Brexit’s damage to peace process must be addressed

Northern Ireland is in a dangerous political vacuum and could “fall over” unless the UK government acts swiftly, according to a cross-party group of former cabinet ministers with experience in the region.

Boris Johnson needs to show more urgency and focus to ameliorate Brexit’s damage to the peace process, the group tells the prime minister in an open letter published on Monday.

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Labour calls for Electoral Commission inquiry into PM’s flat refurbishment

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Party says Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings must be summoned to give evidence on how works were paid for

The Electoral Commission must legally summon Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and Conservative officials to give evidence on how the prime minister paid for refurbishments to his Downing Street flat, Labour has said.

Calling on the commission to launch a formal investigation, lawyers for the party said the matter was “incontrovertibly in the public interest”.

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Iran foreign minister criticises power of Qassem Suleimani in leaked interview

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Javad Zarif says the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander assassinated in 2020 dominated Iranian diplomacy

Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has criticised the dominance of the assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Suleimani in Iranian diplomacy, and admitted his own influence over Iranian foreign policy was sometimes zero in a leaked audio recording.

The remarks are from an interview the Iranian foreign ministry admits Zarif gave last March, but it says has been distorted through selective quotes. The leak was claimed as an exclusive by Iran International, a Persian language network viewed by Tehran as hostile and owned by Saudi Arabians.

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Outrage as No 10 rules out urgent inquiry into Covid mistakes

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Exclusive: bereaved families are told that ‘people who would need to give evidence’ are ‘working round clock’

The government has caused anger among bereaved families by telling them it will be too busy to start an inquiry into the UK’s handling of the Covid pandemic for months.

In a six-page letter to lawyers for thousands of families calling for an immediate statutory public inquiry, the government said “an inquiry now is not appropriate” and “the very people who would need to give evidence to an inquiry are working round the clock”. It said “it is not anticipated that the government’s workload will ease in the coming months”.

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Revealed: UK solar projects using panels from firms linked to Xinjiang forced labour

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Investigation finds up to 40% of UK solar farms were built using panels from leading Chinese companies

Solar projects commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, the government’s Coal Authority, United Utilities and some of the UK’s biggest renewable energy developers are using panels made by Chinese solar companies accused of exploiting forced labour camps in Xinjiang province, a Guardian investigation has found.

Confidential industry data suggests that up to 40% of the UK’s solar farms were built using panels manufactured by China’s biggest solar panel companies, including Jinko Solar, JA Solar and Trina Solar.

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Covid live: Indian PM Narendra Modi says ‘storm’ of coronavirus infections has shaken country

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Latest updates: Modi urges all citizens to take vaccines and exercise caution after India suffers a fourth straight day of record coronavirus cases

Western Australia’s international arrivals cap for the next month will be halved, officials said on today, as the state is battling a coronavirus outbreak that forced more than two million people into a three-day lockdown from Saturday, Reuters reports.

The lockdown was ordered after a traveller likely became infected while in quarantine in a hotel and unknowingly passed it on to two other people in the community.

Australia closed its borders more than a year ago and allows mostly only its citizens and permanent residents to return. All, except from New Zealand, must undergo two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense.

A Spanish man with Covid symptoms who coughed on work colleagues and told them “I’m going to give you all the coronavirus” has been charged with intentionally causing injury after allegedly infecting 22 people, AP reports:

Spanish police said their investigation began after a coronavirus outbreak at the company where the 40-year-old man worked on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Days before the outbreak, the man showed Covid symptoms but refused his colleagues’ suggestions to go home and self-isolate, police said in a statement.

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Was King Solomon the ancient world’s first shipping magnate?

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Marine archaeologist unearths evidence suggesting biblical king’s riches were based on voyages he funded with Phoenician allies

King Solomon is venerated in Judaism and Christianity for his wisdom and in Islam as a prophet, but the fabled ruler is one of the Bible’s great unsolved mysteries.

Archaeologists have struggled in vain to find conclusive proof that he actually existed. With no inscriptions or remnants of the magnificent palace and temple he is supposed to have built in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago, the Israelite king has sunk into the realm of myth.

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Halfway there … the key numbers that tell the story of the UK’s vaccine drive

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The government has hit both its self-imposed targets so far. How will it go the rest of the way?

More than half of the UK population has now received at least a first dose of vaccine against Covid-19. By Friday evening 33,388,637 people had received one of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines. Here’s how it was done, and what is still left to do.

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Going vegan: can switching to a plant-based diet really save the planet?

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If politicians are serious about change, they need to incentivise it, say scientists and writers

The UK business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, is considering a “full vegan diet” to help tackle climate change, saying people will need to make lifestyle changes if the government is to meet its new emissions target of a 78% reduction on 1990 levels by 2035.

But how much difference would it make if everyone turned to a plant-based diet? Experts say that changing the way we eat is necessary for the future of the planet but that government policy is needed alongside this. If politicians are serious about wanting diet changes, they also need to incentivise it, scientists and writers add.

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Labour group urges Keir Starmer to back better Brexit deal

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MPs and activists urge their leader to commit to aligning Britain with Brussels and restoring EU programmes

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is coming under pressure from Europhile MPs and party activists to support sweeping changes to the Brexit deal as concern rises about the damage it is doing to Britain’s economy and jobs and the freedom to move and work across the continent.

A report for the leftwing group Another Europe is Possible and separate research by the non-aligned, internationalist Best for Britain organisation both strongly support the case for more active engagement with the EU to improve the deal and rebuild relations with member states.

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The UK’s femicide epidemic: who’s killing our daughters?

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In the latest part of our End Femicide campaign, we examine how stalking, coercive control and pornography lie behind so many of the killings of 272 young women in 10 years. Will the domestic abuse bill, due to become law this week, do enough to keep women safe?

Alice Ruggles was described by her friends and family as vibrant, witty and “sharp as a tack”. She loved life. Then, in January 2016, aged 24, she met Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon, who was 26. She didn’t know that he had a restraining order taken out on him by a previous girlfriend.

Dhillon began to coercively control Ruggles, isolating her from friends. In July, having learned that he was cheating on her, she ended their seven-month relationship. Dhillon turned into a stalker. He frequently drove 100 miles from his camp in Edinburgh to spy on her, leaving unwanted flowers and chocolates. He continually texted and threatened to post intimate photographs. He told her on voicemail that he didn’t want to kill her, he wouldn’t kill her.

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