Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Research argues ministers should create economic ‘big bang’ for area that turned Tory in last election
The prime minister should repay voters in the north of England who lent the Conservatives their vote at the last election by unleashing billions of pounds of private investment, according to a report.
It argues that ministers should aim to harness the “restless radicalism” from those who voted for Brexit in 2016 and the Conservatives in 2019 by creating an economic “big bang”, along the lines of the Thatcherite deregulation of the City in the 1980s which reinforced London’s position as a global financial centre.
Mayfield baths found in ‘stunning’ condition by archaeologists on site behind Piccadilly station
A large Victorian washhouse that served Manchester textile workers more than 150 years ago has been uncovered during work to create the city’s first public park in a century.
The ornate tiles of the Mayfield baths, whose pools measured nearly 20 metres, were found in “stunning” condition beneath a car park 164 years after it opened.
Gerry Marsden, the lead singer of Gerry and the Pacemakers, known for hits including You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey, has died at 78 after a short illness.
He shot to fame in the 1960s as the leader of the Merseybeat band at a time when Liverpool was the centre of the musical universe.
Guardian photographer Chris Thomond lives in Manchester and spent most of the year under strict lockdown measures while travelling on assignment around the north of England’s coronavirus hotspots photographing life during the pandemic. He looks back on his year
Early on during the pandemic I’d seen a short film from the Philippines and read an extended blog from northern Italy, both featuring photographers dressed in hazmat suits, toting cameras housed beneath protective covers. Embedded with paramedics as they dealt with seriously ill patients, my fellow photojournalists sensitively showed doctors in sweltering emergency hospital pop-up units or portrayed intimate moments as spouses and other terrified family members bid farewell to their loved ones as they were stretchered from their homes, some for the last time.
Over the following weeks I was drawn to the frequent updates of the legendary photographer Peter Turnley’s remarkable black-and-white street portraits from New York (and later Paris, his adopted home). They showed exhausted medical staff outside trauma centres, lonely subway travellers, homeless wanderers and an assortment of essential workers and normal residents who were just about holding things together. The biggest city in the US rapidly became one of the centres of the outbreak and suffered a correspondingly large death toll. Turnley showed immense bravery to walk the streets each day and his empathic approach towards subjects rewarded him as he witnessed tender moments which he skilfully captured for history.
Inspectors had expressed ‘serious cause for concern’ after force failed to record a fifth of all reported crimes
Greater Manchester police (GMP) are to be placed in special measures after inspectors expressed “serious cause for concern” when the force failed to record a fifth of all reported crimes.
Last week Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) criticised GMP for failing to report 80,000 crimes in the year to 30 June.
The majority of England will enter the two toughest tiers of Covid restrictions from next week, ministers are set to announce, amid signs of a growing parliamentary rebellion and fears that the measures could remain unchanged until spring.
On Thursday Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is expected to say that most of the country will be placed into tiers 2 or 3, which imply significant restrictions on hospitality, after the national lockdown ends on 2 December.
Serial killer was serving 20 life terms for murder of 13 women across north of England in late 1970s
Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died in hospital, a Prison Service spokesman said.
Sutcliffe, 74, was serving 20 life terms at Frankland prison in County Durham for murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more in the late 1970s.
Sir Desmond Swayne, one of the Conservative MPs most opposed to a second lockdown, told Sky News that the policy announced by the PM yesterday would have “disastrous consequences”. He said:
I’m worried about the disastrous consequences for unemployment, for wrecked businesses, for years of under-investment while we try and pay this off, when the reality is that the number of deaths for the time of year is normal and expected.
It is very difficult to believe scientists who tell you that there is a deadly pandemic taking place when there are no excess deaths beyond the normal five-year average.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has called for schools in his region to close for a period during the lockdown to help drive down the virus. He was speaking at a joint conference with Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, who also backed the proposal. Burnham said:
It’s my view, and it’s shared by Steve, that we do need to see a period of closure in our schools if we are to get those cases right down, and if we are to avoid a scenario where large parts of the north-west are simply put back in tier 3 coming out of this.
This is from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, this morning.
Our aim in this negotiation was simple: to agree a deal based on what people will actually need to get through this rather than the arbitrary sum being forced on us all one by one.
We hoped to set a template for others to use. Presumably that’s why the Government walked away. https://t.co/DirwF8dvua
Here are some more lines from Robert Jenrick’s interview with the Today programme this morning.
The mayor of Greater Manchester was never willing to draw this to a conclusion. The public health situation was deteriorating. It would have frankly been irresponsible of the government to allow this to continue for many more days without bringing it to a conclusion.
In a meeting with the prime minister, the prime minister offered £55m, Andy Burnham asked for £65m. The prime minister said: ‘Look, let’s just compromise, and get this done for the sake of people in Greater Manchester.’
The money is still there. It’s got Greater Manchester’s name on it.
Andy Burnham has lambasted Conservative MPs trying to encourage the government to pick off Greater Manchester councils one by one after the region failed to collectively reach a coronavirus deal with ministers.
The government said the £60m business support offer unanimously rejected by Burnham and Greater Manchester’s 10 leaders was “still on the table”, as it was announced the Sheffield city region would be the latest in England to be put into the tightest tier 3 restrictions.
The strictest Covid restrictions will be imposed on nearly 3 million people across Greater Manchester if no deal is reached by midday on Tuesday, the government has said in a dramatic ultimatum.
The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, warned northern leaders late on Monday night that if they fail to agree to pub closures and a ban on household mixing, the tier 3 measures will be brought in unilaterally.
Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by Covid-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed.
It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions.
From my colleagues Pamela Duncan and Niamh McIntyre
From tonight over half the population of England will be living in areas classed as “high risk” or “very high risk” under the government’s three-tier system, equivalent to 28.4m people.
All of Lancashire county (Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool council areas) are to move from tier 2 to the higher tier 3 category from midnight, meaning more than 3m people are now living in the highest-risk areas.
Trade negotiations often involve threats to walk away, and dire forecasts, before both side agree to compromise, and Brexit-watchers have been waiting for the UK-EU trade talks to this moment. It came this morning, when Boris Johnson used a TV statement (see 12.29pm) to say that there would no deal without a “fundamental change” in the EU’s approach.
But threats only work if people take them seriously and Johnson’s comments do not seem to have been taken as a sincere statement of intent to talk away. It was telling that, despite being asked twice if he was saying the talks were over, he would not use those words. (See 12.41pm.) If the foreign exchange markets thought Johnson was abandoning hopes of a deal, the pound would have fallen (as it has repeatedly in key moments in the Brexit drama since 2016). But it didn’t. “Market participants see comments from Boris Johnson as mainly political posturing at this stage,” an analyst told Bloomberg.
There’s no point in trade talks if the EU doesn’t change its position. The EU effectively ended the trade talks yesterday.
Only if the EU fundamentally changes its position will it be worth talking.
What I would say to that is there is only any point in Michel Barnier coming to London next week if he’s prepared to discuss all of the issues on the basis of legal text in an accelerated way without the UK being required to make all of the moves, or if he’s willing to discuss practicalities of areas such as travel and haulage which the PM mentioned in his statement.
Our position is a clear one. Only if the EU fundamentally changes position will it be worthwhile talking.
Today, new figures show just 62% of contacts reached, that’s the equivalent to 81,000 people not reached circulating in society - even though they’ve been exposed to the virus. This is another record low.
And yesterday we learnt that consultants working on test and trace are being paid over £6,000 a day to run this failing service. In a single week this government is paying these senior consultants more than they pay an experienced nurse in a year.
In the Commons the Manchester MP Lucy Powell said there were was “unanimous fury” from local MPs earlier when they were being briefed on the situation by one of Matt Hancock’s ministerial colleagues.
London will be placed in high-risk, tier 2 coronavirus restrictions from Friday night as infection rates in the capital continue to increase, MPs and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have confirmed.
The decision came as Boris Johnson was expected to sign off on the harshest tier 3 coronavirus measures for millions more people in the north of England later on Thursday, with Downing Street putting last minute pressure on local leaders in Greater Manchester to accept the changes.
Deaths from coronavirus will continue to rise for at least three weeks and the NHS risks being overwhelmed unless the strictest curbs are imposed on another 4 million people, leaders in northern England have been told.
A decision on whether to extend tier 3 restrictions – closing pubs and restaurants and banning household mixing – to Greater Manchester and Lancashire is expected on Thursday.
The three-tier Covid alert system is a significant shift in the government’s approach to the coronavirus crisis in England, and, while scientists broadly welcomed the simplified rules, there are concerns the restrictions come too late and are open to abuse.
A major benefit of the new system is that it clears up the confusing and messy patchwork of different rules in different places, which arose as regions in northern England, the Midlands and other parts of the country battled to contain local outbreaks. With simplicity and stability should come better compliance, and with that more control of the epidemic.
Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, is about to hold a briefing on the latest coronavirus statistics. It is due to be carried live by the 24-hour news broadcasters.
Here are the main points from Sir Keir Starmer’s LBC phone-in.
The government has been treating local communities, particularly in the Midlands, north-west and north-east - and their leaders - with contempt, that Whitehall knows best and we will simply tell you what’s coming your way. It’s just not good enough, you have to take people with you on this, listen to what local leaders are saying.
Keir Starmer says Margaret Ferrier's behaviour was "jaw-dropping" and she "should just resign".
I think it does sometimes have to involve the police, unfortunately. When I was director of public prosecutions there was a lot of focus on whether what people say on social media should be policed or not. There’s got to be a level of tolerance, of course. But there is a line that can be crossed and it’s very important that when it is crossed there is [police] involvement, in some cases prosecutions.
Of course journalists have the right to ask questions, and there has to be tolerance of free speech. All I’m saying is, as a general proposition, that there is a line. When people go over the line is, it’s right that it’s investigated.
Decisions of the police to investigate particular cases are clearly an operational matter for them which I can't comment on, but as a general principle, it's important the law protects freedom of speech.
Make no mistake. This is the Leader of the Opposition supporting the arrest of a journalist for something his guest has said. Absolutely extraordinary, with terrifying repercussions for freedom of the press. https://t.co/CEn5WZfzl5
Somalia-born former Labour Mayor of Islington Rakhia Ismail earlier told LBC the only wanted to have her involved as a "tick box".
No 10 has warned that the UK is at a “critical juncture” for controlling the spread of Covid as Boris Johnson prepares to lay out new rules that will see pubs and bars in areas with the highest infection rate forced to close.
The prime minister is expected to address the nation on Monday after a frantic weekend of discussion with local leaders from across the country.