15 October 2015
Week in Brief: UK
LEON BRITTAN: The Metropolitan police have apologised to Lady Brittan, the widow of Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, for their failure to inform the Brittans that rape allegations against Lord Brittan had been abandoned before Lord Brittan’s death from cancer.
An investigation by the BBC’s “Panorama” programme has cast doubt on the evidence that Lord Brittan was involved in child abuse, putting pressure on the Labour deputy leader, Tom Watson, who, immediately after Lord Brittan’s death, passed on a comment from an alleged victim to the effect that “he [Lord Brittan] is as close to evil as any human being could get”. Mr Watson, who is to be questioned by the Home Affairs Select Committee over the matter, continues to justify pressure he put on police and prosecutors to pursue Lord Brittan, commenting that there is more to the case than meets the eye.
FOREIGN OFFICE: The Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko has indicated that he is asking the Foreign Office to explain why RAF Tornadoes in Iraq have been armed with missiles designed for air to air combat. The British military attache in Moscow has been called in by the Kremlin after reports that RAF pilots have been given authorisation to shoot down Russian planes.
The government has scrapped a £5.9 million contract to train prison officers for Saudi Arabia. The Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the Home Secretary Theresa May were known to be in favour of the deal on the basis that it would maintain engagement with Saudi Arabia. The Justice Secretary Michael Gove, however, appears to have won the argument; he felt that an engagement over prisons was inappropriate bearing in mind the regime’s approach to human rights. A seventy-four-year-old British grandfather currently faces a public flogging in Saudi Arabia for possessing wine in breach of the Islamic rules in force there. It is understood that the Prime Minister is writing to the Saudi authorities about the case.
CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE: In his leader’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Cameron struck a reformist note, promising more homes, more home-ownership, action against schools which promote an extremist ideology, action against gender pay inequality and racially biased recruitment, and a continued fight against poverty. He described the EU as being too bossy and too interfering, whilst adding that its merit was that it was the biggest market in the world. Launching his first direct attack on the Labour leader, he described Jeremy Corbyn as “terrorist-sympathising”, “security-threatening” and “Britain-hating.”
LABOUR PARTY: Although Jeremy Corbyn is to be a member of the Privy Council, he has not yet attended the swearing-in ceremony with the Queen, the suggestion being that he would like to avoid this if possible.
Mary Creagh, the Labour MP for Wakefield and a former shadow Cabinet member, has expressed concern that the new hard-left organisation, Momentum, will be used as a base for purges against Labour moderates. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn has defended Momentum as simply being a think tank or pressure group associated with the party, much like Compass or Progress.
The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has reneged on his previously announced support for George Osborne’s fiscal charter. The U-turn has been heavily criticised by a number of Labour MPs, including John Mann, MP from Bassetlaw who described it as a “total ****ing shambles”.
JUNIOR DOCTORS: A poll conducted through OnMedica indicates that 95% of junior doctors support strike action following the threat by the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to impose a contract extending standard working hours so that overtime rates would only apply after 10 PM on weekdays and Saturdays. In response, Mr Hunt has written an open letter to the BMA’s junior doctor committee stating that the proposals would improve patient safety, that the contract would not impose longer hours on junior doctors and that junior doctors would remain as well paid as they are now.
REMUNERATION CAP: In order to limit the expenditure by the NHS on temporary workers, new rules are being introduced under which contracts worth more than £50,000 will need to be approved by regulators, and the amount which each hospital can spend on temporary staff will be limited. A cap to the pay of temporary staff will be introduced from next month. Initially, this will limit the rates to twice the amount paid to permanent workers, but this will eventually fall to an increment of 55%.
BAKE OFF: Nadiya Hussain won this year’s final of the BBC’s Great British Bake Off. Paul Hollywood described the occasion as the “best tasting final” in the show so far. It was watched by 15,500,000 viewers.
JAILED BISHOP: Peter Ball, formerly Bishop of Gloucester and now aged eighty-three, has been jailed for thirty-two months at the Old Bailey for indecent assault and for misconduct in public office by sexually exploiting young men. Ball escaped trial twenty years ago following letters of support from many establishment figures and was subsequently given permission to resume his ministry, something for which the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, has expressed regret. The church has set up an enquiry into its handling of his case.
BUS DRIVERS: It has emerged that the driver of the bus which killed two people in Coventry last week was seventy-seven years old. Currently more than 9000 people over the age of seventy are licensed to drive buses; two of them are over ninety.
SUGAR: Coca-Cola has spent £4.86 million setting up the European Hydration Institute and has funded other research projects into the links between sugary drinks and obesity. Spanish research carried out in 2013 recommended that the funding of research by parties with vested interests should be precluded, since papers funded by the food and drink industry were much less likely to show a link with obesity then papers which were independently funded. Coca-Cola is to publish a full list of projects which it has sponsored since 2010.
Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Health Select Committee, has criticised Jeremy Hunt and health officials for not handing over a Public Health England report setting out possible ways of restricting sugar consumption. Mr Hunt says that the report is part of ongoing policy development and will be published later this year.
LYME DISEASE: NHS data has revealed that cases of Lyme disease, contracted from tics, have quadrupled in twelve years. Apparently the tics are now present generally in London parks. The only preventative strategy is to wear long sleeves and long trousers. The disease can, however, be treated with antibiotics.
EBOLA: Pauline Cafferkey, a British nurse, is in the Royal Free hospital with a relapse of Ebola which she contracted in Sierra Leone last December and from which she was believed to be cured. It is thought that that the likelihood of the infection spreading to others is small.
FREE SPEECH: The students’ union of the University of Manchester has banned Julie Bindel (a radical feminist activist) and Milo Yiannopoulos (a right-wing blogger) from speaking in a debate to discuss whether modern feminism has a problem with free speech. Initially the ban extended only to Ms Bindel as it considered her views that transsexual women should be excluded from women-only spaces were “extremely dangerous”. Faced with criticism of the decision that she should be banned but Mr Yiannopoulos should be permitted to speak, it banned him too.
Meanwhile the Freedom of Information Commission, appointed by the government to consider limiting the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by introducing fees and giving ministers the right to veto the publication of sensitive material, told journalists that briefings given them were “off the record.” When the irony of this was pointed out to them, the Commission relented. The report is expected at the end of the year.
ASSANGE: The Metropolitan police have called off the 24-hour guard placed around the Ecuadorian Embassy to prevent the escape of Julian Assange. There is speculation that this reflects some form of agreement that Mr Assange will stay in place.
EU REFERENDUM: Labour, Liberal Democrats and the SNP are calling for sixteen-year-olds and seventeen-year-olds to be allowed to vote in the EU referendum. The argument is that they should participate in a campaign which is likely to determine the future of the UK for many years.
Lord Rose, who served as chief executive of Marks in Spencer from 2004 to 2010, is to head the campaign to keep Britain in Europe. He has claimed that every Briton is £450 a year better off thanks to EU membership.
LATIN: This week the Times has published its first Latin crossword since 1930, in what is to be a weekly series. This reflects the growing popularity of the language, which is now taught in more than 700 state schools and 450 independent schools. That is twice as many schools as in 2000.
NUDES: Playboy magazine is to stop publishing pictures of nude women from February. Apparently a similar change in its online version last year led to a considerable growth in circulation because it could be safely read in offices. There is concern that the use of nude images damages the “rabbit brand.”
RUGBY: With England out of the world cup, the countries who go on to the quarter finals are: Wales, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina and France.
