4 June 2015
Week in Brief: UK NEWS
TONY BLAIR: Tony Blair has given up his role as Quartet representative in the Middle East. The Quartet, comprising the UN, the EU, the USA and Russia, was mandated by the United Nations in 2002 to mediate for peace in the Middle East and to support the development of Palestine in preparation for eventual statehood. Mr Blair has been criticised for possible conflicts between his role and his business interests. Mr Blair has indicated that he will remain active in the area, albeit with no formal role.
HEATHROW: New radar technology introduced at the start of May separates landing aircraft by reference to time rather than distance. That will remove the increased time gaps which previously arose when aircraft landed in a headwind because the separation distance took longer to cover. The new system should greatly improve punctuality.
CYCLISTS: A report released by Brake, the road safety charity, and Licence Bureau, a compliance service, has found that only one in five HGV operators surveyed have rear-facing cameras on all vehicles, one in twelve have side-facing cameras on all vehicles, and one in eight have side sensors on all vehicles. This compares with safety features required by law which are present on almost all vehicles. Although heavy goods vehicles make up only 5% of traffic, they are involved in 23% of cycling deaths.
TRADE UNIONS: Under proposals put forward by Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary, votes for strike action will require a 50% turnout of eligible union members. In the case of essential public services such as health, transport, fire services and schools, 40% of those eligible to vote will have to support the action. The forthcoming Trade Union Bill will require members to opt in to rather than opt out of the political levy. The RMT is planning a series of railway strikes and overtime bans in the next fortnight in pursuit of improved pay.
IN PARLIAMENT: Liberal Democrat peers have indicated that they are prepared to breach the Salisbury convention under which the Lords do not vote against the implementation of government manifesto commitments. The Speaker has had to ask Scottish Nationalist members to improve their behaviour in the chamber by ceasing to take selfies etc.
Despite the disapproval of the Prime Minister, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is likely to repeat its recommendation that MPs’ salaries should be increased from £67,000 to £74,000. Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg joined with Mr Cameron in resisting the rise in 2013.
CHARLES KENNEDY: Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal leader who lost his seat at the General Election, has died at his home in Fort William aged fifty-five. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, described him as a lovely man and one of the most talented politicians of his time.
HEALTH: The NHS carries out 80,000 scans a day. According to research published in BMJ Open, British GPs are less likely to send patients for a scan than their counterparts in other countries, something which is thought to contribute to lower cancer survival rates. It is expected that NHS guidance will tell GPs to refer patients with a 3% risk of cancer rather than, as at present, a 5% risk.
Meanwhile British research indicates that a new class of drugs designed to combat cancer through using the body’s own defences could revolutionise treatment. Trials at the Royal Marsden Hospital have shown a response rate of 50% and that the drugs can shrink and remove tumours previously thought to be inoperable. It is hoped that use of immunotherapy drugs will revolutionise treatment for the disease.
Finally, a study by the Stanford University School of Medicine indicates that taking statins reduces the risk of dying from cancer by as much as half by lowering the cholesterol which spreads cancerous cells about the body.
DEFENCE: Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, has told The Times Newspaper that he did not accept that the Ministry of Defence would have to make any cuts to its expenditure. Ashton Carter, the US Defence Secretary, has expressed concern at the possibility that Britain will fall below the threshold of allocating at least 2% of GDP to defence.
MIGRANTS: French police have detained 18,170 would-be UK immigrants around Calais so far this year.
NHS ADMINISTRATION: new rules, shortly to be introduced, will regulate the agencies which may be used by hospitals and also the rates which they may charge for the supply of doctors and nurses. Consultancy contracts over £50,000 will require special approval.
ENERGY BILLS: Amber Rudd, the energy Secretary, has demanded that the six big energy providers pass on the 20% cut in wholesale gas and electricity prices to consumers.
BADGERS: It is understood that Caffè Nero ceased to use milk from within the Somerset and Gloucestershire badger-cull zones in response to pressure from anti-cull protesters.
PAY OFF: The consultancy contract under which Sue Berelowitz continued to work for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner after receiving a six-figure redundancy pay-off has been terminated.
HS2: Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, has stated that work on the HS2 project will begin within two years.
LEGAL AID: Changes to the legal aid system mean that frozen assets can be used to meet legal aid bills. Criminal defendants whose household disposable income is at least £37,500 are no longer automatically entitled to legal aid.
DEATH ON EXERCISE: A trainee officer in the Royal Marines collapsed and died during a 30 mile march on Dartmoor. The cause of death is not known.
GREENBELT: Professor Paul Cheshire of the LSE and the Spatial Economics Research Centre has suggested that the green belt might be replaced by the Scandinavian concept of green fingers, under which houses are built between green wedges radiating out from cities. Research by the Adam Smith Institute indicates that 1 million homes could be built around London within walking distance of a railway by sacrificing 3.7% of the greenbelt.
JIHADI BRIDES: Concern has been expressed at the deliberate targeting of teenage girls by Isis propaganda on social media, resulting in their leaving for the Middle East to marry jihadi fighters.
BRITISH LIBRARY: Complaints have been made by senior academics that the British Library has been colonised by students attracted by the free Wi-Fi rather than the need to consult its books and documents. This makes work there difficult for those who need to use it for top level research.
METHODIST CHURCH: the Methodist Church has apologised after an investigation revealed 1885 reports of abuse going back over fifty years. The report indicates that ministers or lay employees were involved in 26% of the incidents of which 914 were of a sexual nature.
OXFORD VICE-CHANCELLOR: The new Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University is to be Louise Richardson, previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of Saint Andrews. She graduated at Trinity College Dublin before obtaining an MA in political science from the University of California and further degrees from Harvard. She will be the first female Vice-Chancellor of Oxford.
TRAINS: Alliance Rail, a German owned company, is hoping to introduce high-speed pendolino trains on the East Coast mainline. The trains could cut the time from London to Edinburgh to three hours forty-five minutes and would operate in the GNER livery.
MURDER: A sixteen-year-old boy has been held and charged with the Colchester murders of Nahid Almanea and James Attfield. Both victims were stabbed repeatedly, the crimes occurring within three months of each other.
DAVID CAMERON’S TRAVELS: After a disappointing trip round Europe in an effort to find allies in the fight for EU reform, Mr Cameron received an encouraging response in Germany where Angela Merkel said that decisions should be made on the basis of substance and should not be blocked because they required treaty change.
CRICKET: New Zealand beat England by 199 runs at Headingly to draw the series 1-1.
FOOTBALL: Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 in the final of the FA Cup.
