Spell of early spring warm weather continues after record 24.5C on Tuesday
Forecasters say there is a small possibility the UK could see the hottest day on record on Wednesday, as the spell of early spring warm weather continues.
It has been particularly welcomed in England, where temperatures have been the highest and people have just emerged blinking into the light as the nation begins to shake off a long national lockdown.
Continue reading...Aberdeen says it will repatriate a bust while Cambridge museum has ‘expectation’ its collection could be returned
Regional UK museums could lead a wave of repatriations of disputed Benin bronzes – most of them looted by British forces in 1897 – in defiance of the British government’s stance that institutions should “retain and explain” contested artefacts.
On Thursday, the University of Aberdeen confirmed it would repatriate a bust of an Oba, or king of Benin, which it has had since the 1950s, “within weeks”, a landmark move for a British institution.
Continue reading...Exclusive: palace and government refuse to say why exemption from 2017 law was deemed necessary
Police have been barred from searching the Queen’s private estates for stolen or looted artefacts after ministers granted her a personal exemption from a law that protects the world’s cultural property, the Guardian can reveal.
Buckingham Palace and the government are refusing to say why it was deemed necessary in 2017 to give the Queen an exemption that prevents police from searching Balmoral and Sandringham.
Continue reading...A day of reflection to mark the anniversary of Britain’s first coronavirus lockdown with ceremonies planned around the UK to mark the occasion and a minute’s silence at midday to commemorate the 126,000 people who have died
Continue reading...Holyrood committee highly critical of Scottish first minister’s accounts of meeting with former mentor
Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament over her dealings with Alex Salmond, but not knowingly, in a highly critical report by MSPs.
A specially convened Holyrood committee voted by a 5-4 margin to find the first minister had misled parliament over her accounts of a meeting with Salmond, her former mentor, in April 2018.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For more on this story, you read the news report here
The army’s increased deployability and technological advantage will mean that greater effect can be delivered by fewer people. I’ve therefore taken the decision to reduce the size of the army from today’s current strength of 76,500 trade trained personnel to 72,500 by 2025.
The army has not been at its established strength of 82,000 since the middle of last decade.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, has said that Nicola Sturgeon is not “free and clear”, despite being exonerated by the independent adviser on the ministerial code, because the Scottish parliament’s committee has not yet published its report on her. In a statement he said:
The first minister has been given a pass because it has been judged her ‘failure of recollection’ was ‘not deliberate’.
I respect Mr Hamilton and his judgment but we cannot agree with that assessment. Nicola Sturgeon did not suddenly turn forgetful.
Continue reading...Latest updates: PM says UK’s greatest ally will be US as he makes statement to MPs on defence review
In his Sky News interview Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, said the security and defence review said that the UK could use nuclear weapons to respond to an attack with chemical or biological weapons. That was a “big change” in policy, he said.
He was referring to this passage on page 77 of the document (pdf).
The UK will not use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 1968 (NPT). This assurance does not apply to any state in material breach of those non-proliferation obligations. However, we reserve the right to review this assurance if the future threat of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological capabilities, or emerging technologies that could have a comparable impact, makes it necessary.
Here is the Scottish government’s summary of the latest plans for easing lockdown restrictions in Scotland. And here is a graphic summarising what it says.
Scotland’s indicative route out of lockdown. If we all stick with it and get the virus more under control as the vaccines do their work, there is hope for a much better summer on the horizon ☀️ pic.twitter.com/gTKHtJTNn5
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister has announced that some of the country’s regulations on outdoor mixing are to be eased, but she said ‘we cannot afford to take our foot off the brake too soon’ if people were to enjoy a ‘much more normal summer’. In her weekly update, Sturgeon said that from Friday, as many as four adults from up to two households will be able to meet outdoors and for 12 to 17-year-olds four friends from four different families
Spain seeking extradition related to separatists’ role in organising 2017 independence referendum
The European parliament has voted to lift the immunity of the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and two of his ministers, taking them a step closer to extradition and prosecution in Spain.
MEPs voted by 400 to 248 with 45 abstentions in the case of Puigdemont and 404 to 247 with 42 abstentions regarding Antoni Comín and Clara Ponsatí, respectively the former health and education ministers in Puigdemont’s government.
Continue reading...Respondents say their trust in both Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond dented by Holyrood inquiry
Most Scots would vote to remain in the UK if an independence referendum were held tomorrow, a new poll has found.
The survey of 1,015 Scots suggests that 46% would vote against Scottish independence, compared with 43% in favour.
Continue reading...Sufferers say they have had little specialist help despite NHS England setting up dedicated clinics
“It’s not that I feel I have been abandoned, I think that is perfectly obvious,” says Rachel Pope. “If you speak to any long Covid patient, they have been abandoned.”
Until exactly a year ago – 5 March 2020 – Pope was “an incredibly fit woman”. A senior lecturer in European prehistory at the University of Liverpool, her work and lifestyle were very active. But after falling ill to Covid, she spent four months unable to walk, then three more when she could manage little more than “a sort of shuffle”.
Continue reading...Campaigners believe Holyrood crisis may prevent women from coming forward to report harassment
The Salmond inquiry is having a significant impact on the momentum for change brought about by the #MeToo movement, according to experts and campaigners on workplace harassment.
They have told the Guardian the political crisis convulsing Holyrood has also had a “chilling” and “demoralising” effect on women in terms of their confidence in reporting unacceptable behaviour.
Continue reading...Scotland’s first minister is appearing before MSPs, amid multiple allegations that she broke the ministerial code
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservatives, asks about the extent of ministerial overview of the judicial review brought by Salmond over the investigation into harassment allegations against him?
The first minister replies that she was a named party. It was not something that she discussed every day. She says it was “not an unusual degree of involvement or oversight”, pointing out that there have been several judicial reviews against her government.
Mitchell says no one would want to come forward because of the way these complainers were treated.
Sturgeon says they are the most important people in this story. They were let down by government mistakes.
Continue reading...First minister was given legal advice about significant potential conflict of interest but case continued
Nicola Sturgeon faces calls to resign after previously secret legal advice and new witness evidence raised fresh questions over whether Scotland’s first minister misled parliament about the Alex Salmond crisis.
On Tuesday evening the Scottish government released confidential legal advice that showed its lawyers had warned Sturgeon and her most senior officials that evidence of a potentially unlawful conflict of interest inside the government was “extremely concerning” and a “very real problem indeed”.
Continue reading...James Morrison’s work was full of awe for the natural world, and this documentary does his landscape painting full justice
Scottish painter James Morrison died shortly before the completion of this affectionate documentary about his life and work, and it’s a fitting tribute to an articulate and self-effacing artist with an extraordinary affinity for Scotland’s everchanging land- and seascapes. It’s directed by Anthony Baxter, best known for highlighting the stubborn local resistance resistance to Donald Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire with his You’ve Been Trumped films; this is something of a change of pace, while offering a not-dissimilar celebration of a very Scottish style of quiet, unfussy determination.
Morrison’s story is interesting enough – born and raised in Glasgow, the son of ship’s fitter, who settled on the east coast and made epic trips to paint abroad, most notably to the Arctic – but it’s added to here by a plangent late-life twist: he is losing his sight, to the extent he can barely see what he is painting. True to form, Morrison accepted this as uncomplainingly as anything else – “irritating” is the strongest imprecation I can recall – and there’s something inexpressibly moving about the way he strokes a blank sheet of paper taped to his easel as if he can’t wait to get started.
Continue reading...Analysis: P1 strain believed to transmit more easily and may reduce vaccine effectiveness
Public Health England is facing a needle-in-a-haystack hunt for a person who tested positive for the “concerning” Brazilian Covid variant but did not leave their name and address with their test.
There are a few clues to go on. Public Health England thinks it knows when the test in question was taken and so is asking people who were tested on 12 or 13 February but have not received any test result to get in touch.
Continue reading...Anas Sarwar said becoming Scottish Labour leader was the greatest honour of his life, and pledged to rebuild the party. ‘I know Labour has a lot of work to do to win back your trust,’ Sarwar said. ‘I’m sorry we haven’t been good enough.’
Sarwar, 37, faces a battle to save Labour from what polls suggest could be another humiliating Holyrood election in May. After losing every Scottish and UK election since 2007 to the SNP, including losing all its MEPs in the 2016 European elections, Labour has since gone through seven Scottish leaders. Sarwar will be its eighth
Continue reading...Sarwar wins snap election triggered by surprise resignation of Richard Leonard six weeks ago
Anas Sarwar has won the Scottish Labour leadership contest after a snap election triggered by the surprise resignation of Richard Leonard six weeks ago.
Sarwar, a former deputy leader of Scottish Labour backed by a majority of the party’s parliamentarians, defeated the other candidate Monica Lennon, a less experienced MSP backed on the party’s left, winning 57.6% of the vote.
Continue reading...Former first minister launches a stinging attack on the SNP during evidence to a Holyrood inquiry
Alex Salmond has suggested that weak and incompetent leadership of Scotland’s institutions could undermine the case for independence, in a bitter attack on his former allies and party.
The former first minister said huge deficiencies had been exposed in the running of the Scottish government and the Crown Office, as he blamed both institutions for forcing him to live through a “nightmare” during the last three years.
Continue reading...Mercury drops to -21.4C in Scotland, the coldest temperature recorded in UK since December 2010
Temperatures plunged to below -21C in Scotland overnight, the lowest level in the UK in more than a decade, following an “extreme freeze”.
The mercury dropped to -21.4C (-6.5F) in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, the coldest temperature recorded in the UK since 2 December 2010, when -21.3C (-6.3F) was recorded in Altnaharra in the Highlands.
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