Exclusive: Sylvie Bermann, who has written book in attempt to understand Brexit, says question of Britain’s identity was key
When Sylvie Bermann arrived in August 2014 as France’s new ambassador, London was, she says, a city of “extraordinary dynamism and optimism”.
French cabinet ministers were queuing up to visit, she said, one after the other, all searching for “Britain’s recipe for success. It was an an astonishing place.”
Continue reading...Al-Hawl camp, where Shamima Begum surfaced, is focal point of humanitarian crisis starring unsympathetic protagonists
When 20-year-old Shamima Begum, heavily pregnant and alone, managed to escape the US-led coalition bombing of Islamic State’s last stronghold two years ago, she left behind a scene resembling hell and entered limbo instead.
Begum was among an astonishing 64,000 women and children who poured out of Baghuz, a tiny oasis town on the Euphrates river, deep in the Syrian desert. Many of their husbands and fathers died defending the last sliver of the so-called caliphate.
Continue reading...Begum, who fled as a schoolgirl to join Isis in Syria, will not be able to re-enter UK to fight case in person
Shamima Begum, who fled Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State in Syria, has failed to restore her British citizenship after the supreme court ruled she had lost her case.
The judgment on Friday from the UK’s highest court is a critical – and controversial – test case of the UK’s policy to strip the citizenship of Britons who went to join Isis and are being detained by Syrian Kurdish groups without trial.
Continue reading...Duke of Sussex says he is happier with series than news stories about Meghan or his family
The Duke of Sussex has defended the Netflix series The Crown, saying that – while it was not “strictly accurate” – it portrayed the pressures of royal life.
In an interview with James Corden for the US programme The Late Late Show, Prince Harry said he minded the intrusions of the media into his family’s life much more than the miniseries, which was “obviously fiction”.
Continue reading...Cambridge doctors record sharp fall in infections after 12 days in Covid test analysis on healthcare workers
A single dose of the Pfizer vaccine can reduce asymptomatic infections by 75%, according to research that suggests the jab could substantially curtail transmission of the disease.
Doctors in Cambridge recorded the sharp fall in infections after 12 days of the first shot in an analysis of Covid tests performed on healthcare workers in the last two weeks of January.
Continue reading...Company says sewage plan would avoid 105,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years
Thousands of homes in south-west London could soon be warmed by the waste from their local sewage works as part of England’s first poo-powered district heating scheme.
Thames Water hopes to harness the heat of human waste from its treatment plant in Kingston upon Thames to warm more than 2,000 new homes that form part of a regeneration plan for the borough’s Cambridge Road estate.
Continue reading...The Queen said her Covid-19 jab 'didn’t hurt at all' in a video call with health officials leading vaccine deployment across the UK.
The monarch praised the vaccine programme, describing its speed and the rapid progress as 'remarkable', and in a morale boost told the health leaders to 'keep up the good work'
Continue reading...Actor describes being helped with lines and learning by repetition at event for the Vision Foundation
Dame Judi Dench has spoken of her determination to carry on working despite sight loss, even if that means using friends to learn lines and being gently told to stop delivering speeches to the proscenium arch rather than her fellow actors.
Dench described how she copes with deteriorating eyesight – the challenges, the unexpected advantages and the funny side – at an online event on Thursday with Stephen Fry and Hayley Mills for the Vision Foundation, the London sight loss charity.
Continue reading...Pastor Mick Fleming has devoted all of his time in this lockdown to supporting the poorest communities in Burnley. But his life hasn’t always been this way. He tells us how he swapped a life of crime for delivering food parcels seven days a week, holding funerals for free and counselling people through drug relapses. He says the suffering of the poorest people in his town should make society deeply uncomfortable
Mick's Church on the Street charity: https://www.cots-ministries.com/
Latifa says in letter passed to police ‘your help and attention on her case could free’ Princess Shamsa
Princess Latifa, a daughter of Dubai’s ruler who claims to have been held in captivity by her father since 2018, has asked UK police to re-investigate the kidnapping more than 20 years ago of her sister, Princess Shamsa, according to a letter reported by the BBC.
The BBC reported that in a letter handwritten in 2019 – but passed to Cambridgeshire police on Wednesday – Latifa says the police may be able to free Shamsa, who was abducted on the orders of her father when she was 19.
Continue reading...People avoided seeking medical help during first lockdown because they did not want to burden NHS
Almost half of those who had a potential symptom of cancer during the pandemic’s first wave did not see a GP, even when they coughed up blood or developed a lump, a new study shows.
People held off seeking medical help because they did not want to waste health professionals’ time, add to the pressure on the NHS or go to hospital in case they caught Covid-19.
Continue reading...Church court had objected to loving tribute to Margaret Keane for fear of arousing political ‘passions’
A grieving family has won its battle to erect a gravestone with an inscription in Irish after overturning a church court ban issued on the grounds that it might arouse political “passions”.
The family of Margaret Keane, a Coventry dinner lady who died aged 73 in 2018, now hope a Celtic cross bearing the words “In ár gcroíthe go deo” – “in our hearts forever” – will be in place on her grave in the grounds of St Giles church in Exhall, near Nuneaton, in time for St Patrick’s Day on 17 March.
Continue reading...Three families react to government’s U-turn to prioritise their loved ones for coronavirus inoculation
On Wednesday, the government announced that all individuals on the learning disabilities register will be prioritised for a coronavirus vaccine. The move came after an outpouring of public outrage when DJ Jo Whiley revealed that she was invited for a vaccine before her sister Frances, who has a genetic disorder and lives in residential care. Frances Whiley was later hospitalised for the virus, but has since returned home.
Three families whose loved ones have a learning disability spoke about what the change means for them.
Continue reading...Labour leader has faced backlash after saying he would oppose any new tax on business in budget
Keir Starmer is under pressure to back future rises in corporation tax after a backlash when the Labour leader said he would oppose any new tax on business in next week’s budget.
Treasury officials are believed to be looking at increasing the tax on company profits from the current rate of 19% to up to 25% as the government tries to recoup some of the massive debts incurred during the pandemic, though the rise may be delayed until later in the parliament.
Continue reading...Analysis: idea is not as simple as it seems, due to the fact vaccination is not mandatory under UK law
The UK government has always said there will be no compulsory Covid vaccination. It is only nervously dipping a toe in the waters of the vaccine passport issue, which could have implications for those who do not have one. But some employers appear prepared to dive straight in. “No jab, no job,” says Charlie Mullins, who runs Pimlico Plumbers. He wants to be able to tell his customers they have nothing to fear from a visit to fix their leaking pipes.
Care homes are understandably thinking hard about it too. They have vulnerable people to protect and the families on the outside will be more than anxious to know that an elderly mum or dad is being looked after by somebody who is fully vaccinated. Barchester Healthcare, the second-biggest care home provider in the UK, has spelled it out to its 17,000 staff that if they do not get vaccinated even though they are eligible, there will be no more shifts for them from the end of April, said the chief executive, Dr Pete Calveley.
Continue reading...Greek tourism minister says he hopes to ‘dovetail’ with Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown
Greece is in “technical” talks with the UK over allowing Britons carrying a vaccine passport to travel to its tourist hotspots from May despite concerns in Brussels and other EU capitals.
Haris Theoharis, the country’s tourism minister, said he hoped to “dovetail” with Boris Johnson’s roadmap for allowing Britons to travel but refused to be drawn on whether Greece would break with Brussels to establish the scheme.
Continue reading...Sylvie Bermann, former French ambassador, puts PM’s handling of pandemic alongside Donald Trump’s
Boris Johnson is “an unrepentant and inveterate liar” who feels he is not subject to the same rules as others, Sylvie Bermann, the former French ambassador to the UK during the Brexit vote, says in a new book.
She also claims some Brexiters are consumed with hatred for Germany and gripped by a myth that they liberated Europe on their own, describing Brexit as a triumph of emotion over reason, won by a campaign full of lies in which negative attitudes to migration were exploited by figures such as Johnson and Michael Gove.
Continue reading...The government is reviewing the options on proof of vaccination or testing status
The idea of vaccine certificates has gained traction in England, as the government weighs their potential usefulness in reopening sectors of society against concerns about privacy and discrimination.
As ministers prepare to launch a review into whether to introduce the documents, here are the key questions to be answered.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government urged to activate part of Equality Act that would impose duty on public bodies to tackle inequality
The failure of successive governments to enact part of the Equality Act, which would have imposed a duty to address socio-economic disadvantage, has exacerbated inequalities in England during the coronavirus pandemic, a thinktank has claimed.
The Runnymede Trust’s report, Facts Don’t Lie, says that the public sector duty provision would have imposed a legal obligation on education authorities in England to ensure working class children on free school meals were fed properly while schools were shut and had access to laptops for remote learning.
Continue reading...Spring-like conditions will make it feel more like May than February, say forecasters
It could feel more like May than February for much of the UK this week, with forecasters predicting a spell of warm weather and the first signs of spring in the coming days.
In a likely welcome development for Britons still living under coronavirus lockdowns, clear skies and sunshine have been forecast for parts of the country for the rest of the week.
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