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Labour on way back, says Miliband

Ed Miliband: ‘Voters gave a clear message to the government that it needs to change direction’

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said Labour is “on its way back” after winning 14 councils in English local elections so far and almost gaining overall control in the Welsh Assembly.

Among its gains, the party took Gravesham from the Conservatives, and Sheffield from the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Miliband said: “So, south, north, east and west, Labour is coming back.”

But in Scotland, Labour lost 10 seats as the SNP surged to an historic victory.

Mr Miliband said Labour was pleased with its English and Welsh results, but had “further to go as a party”, with the victories being a “symbol of our task ahead”.

With results declared in about a third of national and local elections across the UK, the Liberal Democrats appear to have been punished by voters, recording their lowest share of the vote in almost 30 years.

Mr Miliband called on the coalition government to take note that voters wanted a change.

“I think the results we’ve seen in English local government – up and down this country – are sending a clear message to this government, and the Liberal Democrats in particular, that there needs to be a change of direction on some of the key issues: on living standards; on the NHS; on tuition fees and on going too far too fast on the deficit.

“I hope the government takes heed of that.”

“Our victory here is both a sign of our progress and a symbol of our task ahead”

Ed Miliband Labour leaderCoalition will continue, says PM Clegg quit call after poll losses SNP steals show amid Lib Dem woe

He said the results show “that Labour is on its way back, starting that journey of rebuilding trust.”

He described the loss of Liberal Democrat support as voters withdrawing permission for the Lib Dems “to back Tory policies”.

Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said that the Conservatives had shown “ruthless skill” in manoeuvring their coalition partner “into the firing line”.

On Labour’s future, Mr Miliband said: “I am determined that we will be the people’s voice in every part of Britain. Our victory here is both a sign of our progress and a symbol of our task ahead.”

The Scotland result for Labour – a loss of 10 seats so far – is disappointing for Labour.

The SNP have won 55 seats (up 23), Labour 26 (down 10), Conservatives nine (down four), Lib Dems three (down 10) and Greens one.

Among the losses were nine Labour MSPs, including former ministers, who had held constituency seats since 1999.

“We will have to learn our own lessons from what the public is saying to us there,” Mr Miliband said.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said it was “too early” for a full analysis of the Scotland result but added: “I make no bones about it, it has been a disappointing night.”

“It’s going to set us well on the way to doing much better in the future, not just here in Wales but right across Britain.”

Peter Hain Shadow Welsh Secretary

But she said it was a “very different” story in England and Wales, where the party deserved credit for being a voice for people “in these tough times”.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said “it was a bad result [in Scotland] for Labour last night”.

He added protest votes from the Lib Dems had gone to the SNP rather than Labour.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Labour leader should be doing much better if he hoped to regain power, while Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the results were not as good for Labour as the party was implying.

“The early results suggest things are going much less well for Labour than they had predicted, and much less badly for us than frankly most people had predicted,” Mr Hammond said.

“We are a government in office taking some very difficult decisions, campaigning off a historic high-water mark in terms of councillors and councils controlled, and I think we were braced for some significant losses which so far don’t seem to be materialising.”

In Wales, Labour won 30 seats, but appeared unlikely to gain the 31 needed for an overall majority.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said: “We’ve fought a campaign that said Labour stands for your voice in tough times, when there are cuts happening far too fast and far too deep and too far in Westminster, that are impacting in a terrible way on Wales.

“People wanted Labour to lead and protect them and to protest against these policies and that is the result we’ve had.

“I think it’s going to set us well on the way to doing much better in the future, not just here in Wales but right across Britain.”

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

Police and spy dramas vanish from Chinese TV

Members and their families gather for a rally celebrating the forthcoming 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party

The anniversary will be celebrated on 1 July

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China has ordered TV stations across the country not to air any detective shows, spy thrillers or dramas about time-travel for the next three months.

All have been ordered off-air with immediate effect.

An official at China’s state TV regulator confirmed to the BBC that the verbal order had been made.

China’s Communist Party is preparing to mark 90 years since its founding and the authorities want TV stations to air programmes praising the party instead.

The government wants China’s one billion television viewers to tune in to a wholesome diet of patriotic propaganda that will glorify the party ahead of the anniversary on 1 July.

Wang Weiping, the deputy chief of the drama department at China’s state TV regulator, called this a “propaganda period”.

There are “dozens of good TV dramas related to the founding of the party” that stations can broadcast, he told the Beijing News.

Oriental TV in Shanghai told the BBC it was postponing its spy drama Qing Mang, due to air in 10 days time. It will be replaced by a comedy about mothers and their daughters-in-law.

An official at Oriental TV said the government often issues orders about which programmes should and should not be aired.

“TV stations quite often have to rearrange the TV drama broadcasting schedule at short notice. We are always ready to rearrange things. And we normally don’t ask why,” Ouyang Lina of Oriental TV told the BBC.

So what many Chinese viewers will now see in the coming weeks are shows like the specially-made historical drama Dong Fang.

According to the show’s publicity, it follows China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong between the founding of the People’s Republic of China and his second visit to the former Soviet Union 12 years later.

And the show charts the development of Marxism-Leninism in China and the achievements of the Communist Party in politics, military, culture, economics and diplomacy.

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

Rock star son admits demo violence

Gilmour pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court

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Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, has pleaded guilty to a charge of violent disorder over an attack on a convoy of cars containing Prince Charles.

Gilmour, of West Sussex, was accused of throwing a bin at the convoy during a protest over increased student fees in London on 9 December.

He was also accused of sitting on a royal protection officer’s car.

The prince and Duchess of Cornwall were travelling to the Royal Variety show.

Gilmour, 21, of Billinghurst, was warned he could face a jail term after admitting the offence but he was granted bail until 8 July to give him time to complete Cambridge University exams.

He entered a non-specific guilty plea during a hearing at Kingston Crown Court but has yet to specify whether he admits leaping on the bonnet of the car carrying royal protection officers.

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

Funeral of bomb disposal expert

Capt Lisa Head from Huddersfield was the first British female bomb disposal expert killed in action

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The funeral of the first British female bomb expert to die in action has taken place in Huddersfield.

Capt Lisa Head, 29, was serving with the Royal Logistic Corps when she was fatally injured in an explosion in Afghanistan.

She died at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth NHS Hospital after the bomb exploded in Helmand Province.

Capt Head’s funeral, with full military honours, was attended by around 1,000 mourners, at the town’s parish church.

She died in hospital on 19 April, after the explosion in an alleyway in Nahr-e-Saraj.

She had disabled one homemade bomb when another exploded.

After being flown home and treated in hospital in Birmingham, Capt Head died from her injuries.

Comrades from her regiment formed a guard of honour on the steps as her coffin was carried into Huddersfield Parish Church.

Draped in the Union flag and topped with her cap, belt and ceremonial sword, Capt Head’s coffin was carried by six pall bearers.

Her parents, John and Leila, and her two younger sisters, Helen and Jayne, led close family into church.

They were joined by hundreds of service personnel, colleagues and friends.

As the coffin was carried into the church, a member of the crowd shouted, “Go on girl!” and applause rang out.

Capt Head is the second British woman soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

In June 2008 Sarah Bryant, 26, a member of the Intelligence Corps, died along with three SAS men in a roadside bomb attack in Lashkar Gah.

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

Climate reviews ‘leave science ok’

By Richard Black

The basic picture of a planet warmed by fossil fuel emissions is not challenged, the government says

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Successive reviews into the University of East Anglia (UEA) climate e-mail hack cast no doubt on the basic picture of global warming, the government says.

In its response to an inquiry by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, the government agrees there were failings at the university.

And the reviews could have been conducted more openly, it says.

The government says it wants to clarify how Freedom of Information laws apply to scientific research in future.

The committee’s report, and the government’s response to it, refer back to two reviews carried out into issues arising from the theft and online publication of thousands of e-mails from a server at the university’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in November 2009, shortly before the potentially pivotal UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

Some people doubtful of humanity’s impact on the climate seized on the contents of the e-mail trove to argue that scientists had hidden and manipulated data in order to back the case for man-made global warming.

The reviews, headed by Lord Oxburgh and Sir Muir Russell, found that the episode did raise questions about the conduct of climate science and about universities’ compliance with Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.

But, they said, individual researchers had not tried to subvert the scientific process, and the fundamental picture of a planet warming under the impact of fossil-fuel burning was basically unchallenged.

The government agrees, saying: “we find no evidence to question the scientific basis of human influence on the climate”.

“Sceptical” bloggers have also challenged the conduct of the reviews, which led to the Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry.

The committee’s report, published in January, agreed that the ways in which the reviews were set up and run did raise issues of concern.

CRU scientist Phil Jones, one of the world authorities on temperature records, was at the centre of the sceptics’ storm

The “scope and purpose” of Lord Oxburgh’s review “appeared to change from an examination of the integrity of the science to the integrity of the scientists”, they said.

That same review “should have been more open and transparent”, while “the process by which it selected the documents for review could have been more open”.

The government’s reponse basically endorses the committee’s conclusions, and looks forward.

“As well as establishing that events at the university do not undermine the scientific basis of human-driven climate change, the reviews have made a number of useful recommendations to improve transparency in climate science,” it says.

“We welcome – and agree with – the finding of the committee that it is time ‘with greater openness and transparency, to move on’.”

As part of that moving-on process, it points to on-going discussions within the national research councils and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

“A set of common data access principles is being developed across the research councils: these principles start with a presumption in favour of openness and transparency, whilst ensuring appropriate protection and safeguards are in place to protect commercially sensitive and personal data,” it says.

The ICO, meanwhile, is working with other government agencies and outside bodies such as the Royal Society to devise guidelines on how FoI laws should apply to research, with the aim of having them in place by September.

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

VIDEO: Recalling Tavistock Square bus bomb

Newsnight hears accounts from people who survived the final 7/7 attack, when a device was detonated on double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.

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

Win should seal title – Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson says Manchester United will virtually seal a record 19th league title if they beat resurgent rivals Chelsea on Sunday.

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

Coalition will continue, says PM

David Cameron said the coalition was “as good today as it was a year ago”

David Cameron has said the coalition will survive – despite partners the Lib Dems being on course for their worst ever election results.

The party has already lost 300 councillors and taken a big hit in Scottish and Welsh elections.

The Conservative vote, by contrast, has held up well in the first big test of opinion since the general election.

But the prime minister said: “The reason for having a coalition today is as strong as it was a year ago.”

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party was bearing “the brunt of the blame” for coalition spending cuts.

It has lost control of a number of councils in Northern England – and the party’s projected national vote share, 15%, is well down on what it achieved at last year’s general election although not as bad as the 9% it was scoring in some recent opinion polls.

Labour’s national share is well up on the election, at 37%, but the Conservative vote has held up well at 35%.

Robust. Businesslike. A partnership of the head rather than the heart.

That is how senior Lib Dems are describing the coalition now.

In Lord Ashdown’s words “it will never again be glad confident morning” in the coalition.

The question now is what does that mean?

Lib Dems emphasise they are not about to present a shopping list of policy demands to the prime minister.

And Conservatives, some publicly, some privately, say they will not stomach a series of concessions to Nick Clegg to make his party feel better.

But defeated, demoralised Lib Dems will need more than tales of arguments around the cabinet table to convince them their party is benefiting from the coalition – and could win back its lost seats in the future.

Analysis: SNP steals show amid Lib Dem woe

Mr Clegg has faced calls from defeated senior councillors to quit as Lib Dem leader and break up the coalition – rejected by senior Lib Dem cabinet colleagues.

Mr Cameron – who has gained seats at the expense of the Lib Dems in the South of England – went out of his way to praise the efforts of Lib Dem activists.

And he insisted the future of the coalition at Westminster was not on the line.

“These two parties – Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – with different histories and traditions and sometimes quite different views, are working together in the national interest to sort out the long-term problems we face, whether it’s the budget deficit, or the need to improve our schools and our hospitals or reform welfare.

“That’s what we’re committed to do, and I am absolutely committed to make the coalition government, which I believe is good for Britain, work for the full five years of this term.”

He paid tribute to the Liberal Democrats, saying the work they do in the coalition will continue for the full five-year term until the next general election.

Mr Cameron added: “The Conservative vote share has held up and I think that’s because Conservative councils and councillors have done a good job up and down the country providing quality services but keeping their costs and their tax bills under control.

“And I also think we fought a strong campaign explaining why we need to take difficult decisions to sort out the mess we inherited from Labour.”

Mr Clegg earlier told the BBC the Lib Dems were facing “the brunt of the blame” for coalition spending cuts, adding that, for some voters, they were bringing out “memories of things under Thatcher”.

But he promised to “redouble our efforts” and “get up and dust ourselves down”.

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

Torres Strait skulls begin return

(L to R) Ned David and Seriako Stephen, Traditional Owners in the Torres Strait Islands with the 3 returned ancestral remains

Ned David and Seriako Stephen, from the TSI, will ship the remains back this weekend

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London’s Natural History Museum is to return the skulls of three indigenous people to Australia this weekend.

The body parts were collected in the Torres Strait Islands (TSI) off the northern coast of Queensland.

They are part of a wider group of remains from more than 100 individuals that will eventually go back.

Torres Strait Islanders campaigned for the repatriation of the material, which was acquired by explorers, missionaries and others in past centuries.

Local communities had regarded their removal as an affront to their culture and traditions – the souls of the dead had not been able to rest, the islanders said.

The skulls of the two adults and a child, acquired in the 1800s, will head in the first instance to the Australian National Museum in Canberra. Their release follows talks in the past few days between TSI community leaders and museum staff in London.

The repatriation is regarded as a “goodwill gesture” as the museum looks to build a long-term relationship with the TSI people that will allow scientific access to the remains to continue in the future.

“These items are recorded as having come from the Torres Strait but we don’t know which island and we don’t know who they are,” Richard Lane, the director of science at the Natural History Museum (NHM), told BBC News.

“We said there would be a progressive transfer of authority and responsibility, and this is part of that.”

“We are interested in what science can do for our people”

Ned David TSI representative

The NHM has a huge collection of human specimens, some of them thousands of years old. While most of the material originates in the UK, a good deal of it has come into the possession of the museum down the years as a consequence of Britain’s exploration and colonial past.

Whatever the circumstances of their acquisition, the remains are still deemed an important scientific resource. By applying modern analytical techniques to the bones, it is possible for researchers to discern patterns of migration in ancient human communities – who lived where, who mixed with whom and when.

It is even possible to say something about how people lived and what sort of diseases they carried. Such information is relevant even to modern populations.

“The Torres Strait people have an opportunity to contribute to global knowledge – about how their people fit into the bigger picture of how humans moved around the planet,” said Dr Lane.

“This is something they have started to appreciate, and something I don’t think they fully understood before we started this process.”

The NHM’s trustees agreed in February that the remains of 138 individuals known to have come from the TSI should go home.

The repatriated remains will include a range of material – everything from a single jaw bone up to a complete skeleton. There are even “trophy skulls”. All of the material is over 100 years old; some of it almost 200 years old.

The trustees’ decision followed 18 months of dialogue with TSI representatives in which both parties sought to understand the other’s position and find a return policy that would meet each other’s desires.

For the TSI communities, this has resulted in the progressive release of material over the next 12 months; for the museum, it means a route to continued access for research.

Ned David, a TSI representative, commented: “We are trying to find a way forward. It’s paramount that there is a great deal of cultural respect for my people; we have some very strong beliefs about how we handle those who have passed on.

“At the same time, I don’t think that means we have to close the door on having a relationship with the NHM. In this day and age, we are interested in what science can do for our people, and we are keen to build this relationship with the museum.”

This is the second and largest release of material by the NHM. It has a number of other requests that its trustees are considering. And this situation is faced by other UK museums and scientific research centres as well.

[email protected]

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

Japan halts Hamaoka nuclear plant

Tepco handout of a worker operating inside the No 1 reactor building at the Fukushima power plant (5 May)

Engineers worked in small teams on 10-minute shifts to limit their exposure to the radiation

The operator of Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has released new images of the interior of the crippled No 1 reactor building.

The photos were taken on Thursday after workers were allowed in for the first time to install a ventilation system.

Work is continuing to restore vital cooling systems at the plant, with extra water being pumped in to submerge containment vessels and cool fuel rods.

The cooling systems were knocked out by the 11 March quake and tsunami.

Explosions took place at four of the plant’s six reactors and engineers have been working to stabilise the plant ever since.

A 20km (12 mile) mandatory evacuation zone has been put in place around the plant because of concern about radiation levels – forcing some 80,000 residents to leave their homes.

A photograph taken by one of the 12 workers to enter the No 1 reactor building on Thursday, showed an engineer in protective clothing carrying a radiation monitor mounted on a pole.

The men worked in small teams on 10-minute shifts in order to limit their exposure to the contaminated atmosphere while they installed the ventilation system and filters.

Another photograph shows four air ducts and behind them a pale green door leading to the exit.

Tepco handout shows ducts to ventilate air inside the No 1 reactor building at the Fukushima power plant (5 May)

The ventilation system is venting contaminated air and returning clean air into the reactor building

The power station operator, Tepco, said it will take about three days to vent the contaminated air, filter it, and return purified air to the building.

The radiation levels inside the reactor buildings must be lowered before new cooling systems can be installed.

In the meantime extra water is being pumped in to the No 1 reactor building as part of a new cooling strategy, approved by Japan’s nuclear safety agency.

Tepco said it expects the additional water to cool and decrease pressure in the containment vessel.

The firm said it plans to complete construction of the new cooling system for the No 1 reactor in late May or early June, local media report.

Engineers aim to achieve a cold shutdown of the plant by the end of the year, but some doubt whether this target can be achieved.

Restoring the cooling systems is seen as vital to bringing the crisis under control, as the current emergency measure of continually injecting water from outside has created pools of highly radioactive water within the plant.

Water with lower levels of contamination was released into the sea last month so the more highly contaminated water could be moved to on-site storage.

A total of 14,841 people are confirmed to have been killed by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. Another 10,063 remain missing, according to the latest police figures.

Japan’s recovery bill has been estimated at $300bn (£184bn) – making this already the most expensive disaster in history.

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