Category: news

The UK should have addressed its public deficit back in 2005, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the BBC.

Speaking to Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said: “We should probably have taken a tougher fiscal position than we did.”

He said that this was also about the time when disagreement between himself and Gordon Brown “started to spill over into macro-economic policy”.

In his memoirs, Mr Blair wrote that it was his idea to give the Bank of England independence.

“Some months before the [1997] election, Gordon and I formed the desire to give monetary policy – ie setting interest rates – over to the Bank of England,” he wrote.

“I had no doubt it was right… Gordon had come to the same conclusion, and so when I suggested it, he readily agreed.”

In an interview with Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said that he had wanted to implement a fundamental savings review after 2005.

“It was about thinking we’d reached the limit of public spending and we now had to drive value through our public services,” he said.

But the former prime minister said he did not predict the financial crisis and also praised some of the actions of his successor.

“I think in the programme to stabilise the banks, I think this was Gordon at his very best. I think he acted quickly. He acted perceptively.

“And in a sense, he led the world in that, and he will rightly, in my view, get much credit for that in history.”

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William Hague’s special adviser has resigned over “untrue and malicious” allegations made against him, the Foreign Secretary has said.

Mr Hague said suggestions Christopher Myers’ appointment was due to an improper relationship between them were “utterly false”.

In a statement, he also denied his marriage to wife Ffion was in trouble.

He revealed they have suffered multiple miscarriages and are still grieving the loss of a pregnancy this summer.

Mr Myers, 25, was employed by Mr Hague during the election campaign as a constituency aide and after the election worked for the foreign secretary as a policy adviser.

Mr Hague’s statement, which was issued in his personal capacity and not as foreign secretary, followed speculation in the media and on the internet over the pair’s relationship.

BBC deputy political editor James Landale said the statement was “extraordinary”, in its detailed response to the allegations and in the revelations about his marriage.

Mr Hague said the story seemed to stem from the fact they “occasionally” shared hotel rooms during the election.

But the MP for Richmond added: “Neither of us would have done so if we had thought that it in any way meant or implied something else.

“In hindsight I should have given greater consideration to what might have been made of that, but this is in itself no justification for allegations of this kind, which are untrue and deeply distressing to me, to Ffion and to Christopher.”

Mr Hague, 49, said Mr Myers had “demonstrated commitment and political talent” over the past 18 months and was “easily qualified” for the job he held.

But he said: “He has now told me that, as a result of the pressure on his family from the untrue and malicious allegations made about him, he does not wish to continue in his position. It is a pity that a talented individual should feel that he needs to leave his job in this way.”

The foreign secretary then said he felt he had to provide background information to his marriage to Ffion in a bid to stop the “hurtful speculation” about them.

He said: “I have made no secret of the fact that Ffion and I would love to start a family.

“For many years this has been our goal. Sadly this has proved more difficult for us than for most couples.

“We have encountered many difficulties and suffered multiple miscarriages, and indeed are still grieving for the loss of a pregnancy this summer.

“We are aware that the stress of infertility can often strain a marriage, but in our case, thankfully, it has only brought us closer together.

“It has been an immensely traumatic and painful experience but our marriage is strong and we will face whatever the future brings together.”

Mr Hague also said several years ago a Sunday newspaper reported that Ffion was three months pregnant without checking the story.

The revelation was made “even more difficult” as the couple “had only just experienced another disappointment”, Mr Hague said.

He added: “We have never made this information public because of the distress it would cause to our families and would not do so now were it not for the untrue rumours circulating which repeatedly call our marriage into question. We wish everyone to know that we are very happily married.

“It is very regrettable to have to make this personal statement, but we have often said to each other ‘If only they knew the truth’.

“Well, this is the straightforward truth.”

Mr Hague said he would not be commenting further.

Mr Hague’s biographer Jo-Anne Nadler said: “I think this has arisen out of a sense of frustration and anger on behalf of Mr and Mrs Hague, and also for his colleague Chris Myers.

“There really have been some very mean-spirited and nasty pieces of innuendo in the regular press as well as the internet over the last few weeks.

“If this has coincided, as this statement says, with the Hagues having unfortunately lost a pregnancy, then it must have been absolutely terrible for them and I very much hope that this now puts an end to all of this rather unpleasant speculation.”

Conservative blogger Iain Dale said Mr Hague’s statement had been forced by rumours on some political blogs.

He said: “There’s absolutely no substance to the rumours at all, somebody has lost their job over it for no good reason, William Hague and his wife have been put through psychological hell because of it and I think some people have got to look at themselves in the mirror and think ‘Why did we do this?’.”

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The BBC has lost a legal fight to stop publication of a book which reveals the identity of Top Gear’s driver The Stig.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The cause of an explosion which killed a hairdresser in her car remains a mystery, an inquest has heard.

Jennifer Mitchell, 19, of Shaftsbury, had been carrying peroxide products when her car burst into flames at Stalybridge Common, Dorset, on 9 March.

But recording an open verdict, the coroner ruled out that these had caused the explosion.

He said other hair care products or a fault in the car may have sparked the fire when she lit a cigarette.

‘Muffled explosion’

The hearing in Dorchester heard that Miss Mitchell had split up with her fiancee the day before after she admitted being unfaithful.

They had been living in a caravan where the teenager had returned to collect her belongings.

Shortly after leaving in her Mini Cooper witnesses described hearing an explosion and seeing smoke.

Construction worker Jan Kaczowka was working at a nearby house.

In a statement read to the inquest, he said: “I heard a sound which I had never heard before. It sounded like a muffled explosion, like the sound of a bursting tyre.

“The driver and passenger windows were open and flames were riding out.”

Fellow worker Pawel Kubala said that when he ran up to the car he could at first hear screams but could not open the car door.

“The car was still burning fiercely, as if it was drenched in something from the inside,” he said.

Hair care products

The inquest heard evidence from forensic scientist Darryl Manners who said there was no obvious reason for the car to explode.

He said he could not rule out a leaking fuel pipe although he said the vehicle was relatively new so this was unlikely.

He concluded there must have been an explosion within the seating area where there had been bottles and cans of hair care products.

He said for them to explode there must have been some sort of leakage and the vapour ignited by a flame or spark.

Coroner Mr Johnston ruled out any suspicious circumstances.

He added: “The triggering factor, the ignition, may well have been Jenny lighting a cigarette but it may well be operating a switch, which let out a spark causing an explosion, but we will never know that.

“As a result, I am not able to reach a conclusion that is meaningful.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Europe’s Herschel space telescope has looked on as an old giant star wallows in a “steam bath”.

CW Leonis, sited some 500 light-years from Earth, has long been known to be surrounded by a shroud of water.

But Herschel’s exquisite ability to track the molecule in space means it can show the water lies close in to the star and reaches a sweltering 700C.

Scientists tell the journal Nature that ultraviolet light from nearby stars is driving the production of water vapour.

“Herschel really is the most amazing water detector,” lead researcher Dr Leen Decin from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, told BBC News.

The presence of a gigantic cloud of water around CW Leonis was originally detected in 2001 by the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (Swas).

At first, scientists thought the water could have come from comets, or even planets, that had been obliterated by this puffed up star.

The idea that the water could be being produced around the star itself did not seem plausible because CW Leonis had reached a stage in its life when its ageing nuclear core was churning out colossal quantities of carbon.

This “sooty exhaust” would have been expected to take up any free oxygen in the vicinity of the star to make carbon monoxide – a very stable molecule.

But Herschel’s PACS and SPIRE instruments have a remarkable sensitivity to water, seeing it in many different states of excitement. These spectrometers were able to confirm that CW Leonis’ water was present very close in to the star, all the way down to near its surface – far too close to have come from comets.

“The abundances are high in all the excitation lines,” explained co-author Professor Mike Barlow of University College London, UK.

“You can call it water vapour and it’s everything from cool, to warm, to hot – right up to levels where you need temperatures of 1,000 kelvin or so (725C).”

The scientists working on Herschel propose that a previously unsuspected chemical process is at work, one in which ultraviolet light from nearby bright, hot stars is breaking up the carbon monoxide and releasing its oxygen atoms to join up with hydrogen and form water molecules.

In an aged star like CW Leonis, which is also throwing off a large envelope of gas and dust, such a chemical process ought normally to be blocked – the UV light should be prevented from getting through to the carbon monoxide to work on it.

But Herschel and other telescopes have shown the stellar wind billowing away from CW Leonis to be extremely clumpy, allowing the UV light to penetrate deep in towards the star and trigger the production of water.

“This is really exciting, since it is the first time that we have seen a lot of carbon and water molecules co-existing close to a very luminous, but dying, star,” said Dr Decin.

“Carbon and water are two of the major the building blocks for life as we know it on Earth. The same mechanisms triggered by ultraviolet light might have played a crucial role in prebiotic processes on the early Earth.”

The European Space Agency’s (Esa) Herschel observatory was launched in 2009.

Its quest is to study how stars and galaxies form, and how they evolve through cosmic time.

Herschel carries the largest mirror (3.5m) ever sent into space. Its instruments are sensitive to light at long wavelengths – in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre range.

By getting above the Earth’s water-filled atmosphere, the telescope is able to study the molecule’s prominence elsewhere in the Universe.

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Two Yemenis arrested in Amsterdam on suspicion of planning a terror attack have been released, prosecutors in the Netherlands have said.

An investigation failed to find any evidence against the two men, the Dutch national prosecutor’s office said.

They were arrested on Monday upon arriving at Amsterdam airport on a flight from the US after a request from US authorities.

US officials later said they did not believe they were planning an attack.

“Two men from Yemen in custody since Monday on suspicion of possible involvement in the planning of a terrorist act, were freed this evening,” the Dutch prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“From investigations in the United States and in the Netherlands there has been no indication of the men’s possible involvement in any criminal act,” the statement continued.

The two men have been identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi.

They had both been travelling to the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and were arrested on arrival at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on-board a United Airlines flight from Chicago. They were not sitting together.

They had checked luggage onto an internal flight in the US that they did not then take. Officials in the US say it appears they missed the flight and were re-routed by United Airlines to travel via Amsterdam.

That flight, from Chicago’s O’Hare to Washington Dulles International Airport, was called back once it was found they were not on board.

US officials believe the two men did not know each other and were not travelling together.

One of the men had earlier been stopped by airport officials on a connecting flight from Birmingham, Alabama.

He was found to be carrying $7,000 (£4,500) in cash and when his luggage was searched, officials found a mobile phone strapped to a medicine bottle, as well as knives and watches.

The luggage was cleared for the flight after it was not judged to be a threat but there was speculation that the chain of events could have been a dry-run for a terror attack, testing the US flight security operations.

Customs authorities said it was not uncommon for people travelling to the countries like Yemen to be carrying large amounts of cash and that valuable items are often found bundled together.

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The Planning Appeals Commission has a backlog of 13 pending major cases but can only deal with one case at a time, its head has said.

Maire Campbell said each of these cases would either have to go to a public inquiry or a detailed planning hearing.

Her comments came amid renewed focus on the Planning Service after Ryanair decided to quit Belfast City Airport.

It blamed further delays to a public inquiry into a planned runway extension.

Last month, the Planning Appeals Commission delayed a planned public inquiry into the proposed extension until further information is provided by the airport.

Other high-profile planning cases include the proposed John Lewis store at Sprucefield, which has been under consideration for several years.

Ms Campbell said her commission was “overburdened”.

“At the present time, a total of seven new proposals have been referred to us and that includes the current Sprucefield proposal,” she said.

“The Planning Service have indicated to us that they intend to refer a further six proposals to us, and that includes the proposed runway extension at the Belfast City Airport.

“That major proposal has not yet been completely referred to the Commission and we are not yet dealing with it.”

Ryanair and Mr O’Leary were accused on Wednesday of trying to “blackmail” the authorities in Northern Ireland by Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.

“If you search on the internet for ‘Ryanair pulls out’, a whole raft of places will come up. The reason always given is the government and airports haven’t done what we asked them to do,” she said.

“Quite frankly, if that’s the way Michael O’Leary operates, to blackmail governments and airports, we have to take considered opinions in relation to decisions, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The planning process in Northern Ireland was described as “torturous” by the chairman of Stormont’s enterprise committtee.

Alban Maginness said the Ryanair case highlighted the length of time it takes for major planning decisions, something which he said was making Northern Ireland a “laughing stock”.

“If you want to attract investors into Northern Ireland – and everyone wants to do that – then we’ve got to have a planning service and planning decisions that are timely,” Mr Maginness said.

Environment Minister Edwin Poots said he had believed for a long time that Northern Ireland needed to get planning applications turned around more quickly.

He said some planning cases being heard by this commission had been repeatedly delayed by “vested interests”.

Mr Poots said he believed too many judicial reviews were being granted.

“Government is being run by writ rather than by wit,” he said.

Belfast City Airport has wanted to build a runway extension for some time and it would have enabled Ryanair to fly to destinations much further afield.

On Tuesday, Mr O’Leary said it was disappointing that three years after Ryanair’s Belfast City base opened, the proposed runway extension had not been approved.

He also said if permission was granted in the future, then Ryanair would come back.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The UK has been accused by a soldier’s parents of “failing miserably” to help injured and traumatised troops recover.

Hazel Hunt spoke after the inquest on her son, Richard Hunt, the 200th member of British forces in Afghanistan after he was fatally wounded in August 2009.

Pte Hunt, 21, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, died at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, two days after being airlifted back to the UK.

Mrs Hunt said soldiers “need an awful lot more help than they are getting.”

Pte Hunt suffered “unsurvivable injuries” in the blast, but his colleagues managed to drag him from the personnel carrier.

He died with his family at his bedside.

Speaking with his father Phillip outside the inquest at Birmingham Coroners’ Court, Mrs Hunt said: “As far as we are concerned we have lost Richard, which is the worst thing that can happen to any parent.

“But there are those who are coming back severely injured and they need an awful lot more help than they are getting.

“These boys and girls are taught to be resilient and not to rely on anybody so when they come out of the armed forces they are left to wallow on their own. It’s a case of sink or swim, and a lot are sinking.

“It all needs to be much better organised and they shouldn’t have to cope on their own.”

Mrs Hunt, who wears her son’s dogtag which she turned into a pendant, said UK troops needed a better system, along the lines of the one used in the USA.

“Once you are on that list or conveyor belt you don’t just drop off the end once you leave the armed forces,” she explained.

“You need that help and it should be ongoing as long as it is required.

“Considering all the conditions and pay that go with the job, it’s the least they deserve and at the moment it’s failing miserably.”

Mrs Hunt questioned whether the Afghanistan conflict was “a necessary war”, adding: “A lot of people don’t know why we are out there.”

The inquest heard that Pte Hunt was driving one of the Warriors, a task he disliked but did without complaining, towards Musa Qala, Helmand, when it hit an improvised explosive device (IED).

His Warrior was following 15 other vehicles in established tracks to reduce the risk of hitting a hidden bomb.

Despite being repeatedly driven over by the convoy ahead of him, the device detonated as Pte Hunt negotiated a steep river bank, ripping out the underside of the armoured personnel carrier.

It is thought it may have been a mine left over from when the Russians invaded Afghanistan.

Army medics rushed to save the him but by the time he had been repatriated his condition deteriorated and he died from a massive brain injury.

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Sharon Shoesmith has been given leave to appeal over her sacking as the head of children’s services in Haringey after the death of Baby Peter.

She has also had a claim for costs made against her reduced from £350,000 to £10,000.

In April, Mr Justice Foskett rejected her claim that she had been unlawfully sacked. He has now said she is free to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Baby Peter Connolly was found dead in his cot in August 2007.

He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. His mother, her partner and a lodger were all jailed for causing or allowing his death.

The 17-month-old child had been seen by health and social services professionals 60 times in the eight months before he died.

Sharon Shoesmith has claimed she was made a scapegoat for the death and that she was unlawfully sacked in December 2008, after a media outcry following the court case.

As the Education Secretary at that time, Ed Balls had ordered her removal as Haringey’s head of children’s services after receiving a damning report from Ofsted on child protection in Haringey.

Ms Shoesmith’s lawyers claim he was influenced by media pressure.

The council then sacked her without money in lieu of notice.

In April, Mr Justice Foskett said in a High Court ruling that the decision to remove her had been taken fairly.

However, he has now said she is free to take her case against the Secretary of State and Haringey Council to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Justice Foskett said he stood by his original verdict but accepted that the Court of Appeal might take a different view to his.

He added that there were important issues of public interest involved.

“It is by no means fanciful that the Court of Appeal may differ from my view,” he said.

“There is, in my view, a wider public interest than merely the interest arising from the circumstances of this case for a considered judgment of the Court of Appeal, reflecting on the authorities to which my attention was drawn, so as to provide an authoritative focus in this difficult area,” he said.

Lawyers for Sharon Shoesmith have said they generally welcome the judge’s decision.

They said she was also considering an appeal against Ofsted.

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New pictures have been released of the miners trapped underground in Chile.

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The former head of Lehman Brothers has blamed regulators for the collapse of the Wall Street investment bank.

Dick Fuld said that Lehman was denied the help that regulators gave to other struggling banks.

He told a commission examining the financial crisis that regulators rejected a series of measures that would have helped Lehman.

The firm filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, a move widely seen as aggravating the global crisis.

Mr Fuld was appearing before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC).

The former Lehman chief executive, who has given evidence to the FCIC several times, said he proposed a package of measures that could have saved or allowed the orderly unwinding of the firm.

On Sunday 14 September, the day Lehman was told to file for bankruptcy, regulators were preparing to extend credit lines to other firms, he said.

“Only Lehman was denied that expanded access. I submit, that had Lehman been granted that same access as its competitors, even as late as that Sunday evening, Lehman would have had time for at least an orderly wind down or for an acquisition which would have alleviated the crisis that ensued,” Mr Fuld said.

“But Lehman was the only firm that was mandated by government regulators to file for bankruptcy. The government then was forced to intervene to protect those other firms and the entire financial system,” he said.

He said regulators “used flawed information” to assess Lehman’s financial health, which was never as bad as market rumours maintained.

Mr Fuld does not name regulators in his statement, although the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, US Treasury, and Securities and Exchange Commission were integral to attempts to prop up Wall Street.

He said that much more could have been done by regulators to save Lehman, a view that appeared to receive a measure of support from the chairman of the FCIC, Phil Angelides.

“It seems to me that over a period of months what ends up being made is a conscious policy decision not to rescue the entity,” Mr Angelides said.

“It also looks like there are political considerations at play,” he added.

However, Thomas Baxter, general counsel of the New York Fed, told the hearing that every effort was made to save Lehman.

“We did not succeed, but the effort made was serious and determined. We came very close,” he said. “Rest assured commissioners… it wasn’t about politics. It was about getting the right result.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

There will be 32 schools opening this term as new-style academies in England.

The number was labelled a “failure” by teachers’ unions – while the Education Secretary Michael Gove said he was “quite encouraged”.

These were outstanding schools which have taken up the government’s offer to opt out of local authority control and become independent academies.

Among the 32 schools, seven are primary schools, the first academies for this age group.