September 3, 2010, 1:21 pm
![Image]( "Leave Hague alone, media warned")
A long-standing friend and political colleague of William Hague called on the press to "back off", branding coverage of the Foreign Secretary's personal life "contemptible".
International Development Minister Alan Duncan said internet bloggers and the press had been "out of control" in publishing "unjustified" rumours and innuendo.
Mr Hague sparked a rash of headlines earlier this week when he released a remarkably open statement denying having had an "improper" relationship with a male aide, insisting his marriage was strong, and revealing that his wife, Ffion, had suffered a series of miscarriages.
He confirmed that he had occasionally shared a twin room in hotels with Christopher Myers, who quit as his special adviser on Wednesday, but said that rumours of a relationship between them were untrue.
Mr Hague said that he and Ffion had "had enough" and had decided to "put the record straight" about the rumours which had been circulating.
But he faced accusations of poor judgment after his frank statement resulted in rumours which had been largely confined to the internet leaping into the mainstream media headlines.
Mr Duncan - the first Conservative MP to come out as gay - defended his long-time friend, telling BBC Radio 4's Any Questions: "We are dealing with a very special politician and I think the way he has been pilloried this week has been contemptible. I think, based on rumour, innuendo, with no foundation in fact, bloggers and the press have got completely out of control.
"I know William, I know Ffion and I don't like the way that they have been treated. I think the way he has behaved, the way Ffion has behaved has been admirable - composed, calm, dignified - and I think it is wrong for British politics that a couple like this should have been subjected to what they have been subjected this week."
Mr Duncan was critical of the BBC's handling of the story, describing the Radio 4 Today programme as "ill-advised and tasteless" for inviting Speaker's wife Sally Bercow to discuss it, and accusing Any Questions presenter Martha Kearney of peddling "tittle-tattle" when she quoted newspaper reports which traced rumours about Mr Hague's sexuality back to the time the two of them shared a flat.
Mrs Bercow told Today this morning that Mr Hague had been given "duff PR advice", saying: "You don't need to disclose this level of detail to prove you're not gay... It's elevated something that was circulating on the internet to the national press and the national media."
↧
↧
September 3, 2010, 1:37 pm
![Image]( "Blair's pride over Northern Ireland")
Tony Blair has claimed the Northern Ireland peace process was one of the few times in politics he felt proud.
In his first live television interview since his memoirs were published, Mr Blair said he knew power sharing in the north was worth striving for when he became prime minister in 1997.
The former PM described watching former Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness sitting together publicly for the first time.
"It was just such a strange and extraordinary sight and one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually," Mr Blair said.
Mr Blair recalled the negotiations in an interview on Irish state broadcaster RTE at the end of the week which saw his memoirs, A Journey, smash sales records.
Mr Blair described former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern as a friend and repeated the assessment of him he used in the book as cunning.
"He became a good friend," he said. "He behaved with extraordinary skill towards this thing because it was difficult. Both of us in this sense had the same feeling about it - that it might be difficult but it was worth trying to do and worth trying for."
Mr Blair added: "Sometimes you've got to be smart to get around these problems. They require creativity, they require imagination and they require an ability to get where you need to get to.
"That's cunning in the best sense.
"It was really hard. You were having conversations with people - particularly when you sat down with the Sinn Fein people and the Unionists - these were people with a bitter and entrenched hatred. So there was quite a bit of cunning."
↧
September 3, 2010, 1:37 pm
![Image]( "Taxpayers 'should not pay for Pope'")
More than three quarters of Britons think the taxpayer should not contribute to the cost of Pope Benedict XVI's forthcoming visit to Scotland and England, according to a survey.
An online poll of 2,005 adults has shown 77% do not agree that the taxpayer should help shoulder the bill for the four-day trip even though it is a state visit. A similar proportion - 76% - rejected taxpayer funding for the visit on the grounds that he is a religious figure.
The findings were issued by Theos, the public theology think tank, as the Pope is due to arrive in Edinburgh on September 16, the first Papal visit to Britain since Pope John Paul II's 1982 trip.
The survey, conducted in August, shows widespread apathy in Britain towards 83-year-old Pope Benedict's arrival with 79% saying they have "no personal interest" in his visit.
Nearly one in four - 24% - agreed with the statement "I don't approve of the Pope's visit to Britain" with just under a half, or 49%, disagreeing. Under a third, or 29%, said they believed the visit would be good for Britain while 33% disagreed.
Fewer than one in five, or 18%, agreed with the statement that the Pope generally responds "wisely" to problems in the world today, with nearly half, or 49% saying they disagreed. A total of 41% also said they agreed that the Pope should not speak out on social and political issues with 36% disagreeing.
Nearly a third, or 31%, agreed that it was good to have a world leader such as the Pope with no political affiliation who can speak on moral issues, with 45% saying they disagreed.
The poll findings come after it was announced earlier this year that the Government costs of the trip - previously estimated at £8 million - could rise to between £10 million and £12 million.
In addition, the Catholic Church is expected to make a contribution of between £9 million and £10 million towards the costs.
The figures do not include an expected multimillion-pound bill for policing the visit.
↧
September 3, 2010, 1:37 pm
![Image]( "Warning over primary school cuts")
A surge in the number of four-year-olds will require primary schools to find an extra 350,000 places over the next four years, at a time when education spending is set to be cut by up to 20%, it was reported.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has been told by Whitehall officials that an increase in the birthrate has boosted demand for places by about 15% a year, reported the Daily Telegraph.
If confirmed, the figures would require the construction of hundreds of new schools, the use of portable classrooms or an increase in class sizes at existing primaries, potentially above 30 children.
Mr Gove has been asked by Chancellor George Osborne to identify savings of between 10% and 20% in his departmental spending over the next four years as part of the Government's efforts to pay down the bulk of its deficit within five years. This will limit the scope for him to order a large-scale school-building programme.
When he appears before Mr Osborne's spending "star chamber" later this month, he may cite the swelling primary school rolls as a justification for him being allowed to retain a larger share of his budget.
For the first time in a decade, the number of children joining the state primary system when schools returned from the summer holidays this week was larger than the previous year, said the Telegraph.
And the figure is predicted to rise by around 90,000 each year between 2011 and 2015, increasing the total population of state primary schools and nurseries from around 3,960,000 to 4,300,000.
In the decade from 1985, there was a "baby boom" which saw the birthrate increase for a few years, before declining again. Many of those born in that period are now having children of their own, and immigration has also helped push the birthrate in 2007 to its highest for 26 years.
Former teaching union official John Bangs, now a visiting professor at the Institute for Education, told the Telegraph: "Primary schools are in crisis. There is an absolute requirement on Michael Gove to fund these additional places - he has no choice. The Government cannot go in for the major reductions of the education budget it has planned."
↧
September 3, 2010, 3:21 pm
![Image]( "Checks urged over web alcohol sales")
Not enough is being done to stop teenagers buying alcohol through supermarket online delivery services, according to a report.
Supermarkets are not as stringent about asking for ID when delivering alcohol to people's homes as they are at the checkout, a study by test purchase company Serve Legal found.
Serve Legal director Charlie Mowat told The Grocer magazine that test purchases on retailers' online operations this year found the percentage of those failing was "significantly higher" than the 22% in stores.
The company would not disclose the pass rates for client confidentiality reasons.
However, Mr Mowat said retailers had asked Serve Legal to conduct the tests because they were aware that under-18s were trying to exploit the channel.
Serve Legal said it had carried out 345 home delivery test purchases this year involving 18 or 19-year-olds ordering groceries to the value of at least £40, including alcohol.
When the delivery arrived, the test was judged a pass if the driver asked to see ID and a fail if the order was handed over without the recipient being asked.
Explaining the disparity between the in-store and online pass rates, Mr Mowat said it was easier for processes to go wrong with home deliveries as drivers were not supervised to the same level as checkout operators and did not have the same support from colleagues if a situation became tense.
A Tesco spokesman told The Grocer that its systems were as secure, if not more so, for home delivery as in-store.
He said: "To be an online shopper you have to be a Clubcard holder and to get a Clubcard you have to be over 18. This is also password protected, so it's not just a case of someone getting hold of their parents' card."
↧
↧
September 3, 2010, 3:21 pm
![Image]( "No charges for airport body pair")
Two women arrested when trying to take a dead relative on a plane will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
Gitta Jarant and her daughter Anke Anusic were arrested at Liverpool John Lennon Airport in April when it transpired Kurt Willi Jarant, 91, was dead.
Mr Jarant, known as Willi, was in a wheelchair and wearing sunglasses when officials checked his pulse and found no life.
Mrs Jarant, 66, and Mrs Anusic, 41, - the man's widow and stepdaughter - were due to board a flight to Berlin when police swooped to arrest them on suspicion of failing to give notification of death.
Martin Hill, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "Having carefully reviewed a file of evidence presented to me by police, I have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to bring any charges in relation to the death of Kurt Willi Jarrant."
It is understood the case was dropped because the time of death could not be ascertained.
The women denied claims that Mr Jarant, a German national, had already been dead for some time and they had managed to ferry him from their home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, by taxi.
The pair said that, when they arrived at the airport, two employees brought a wheelchair to the taxi and helped the Alzheimer's sufferer out.
They told officials he was asleep because they genuinely thought he was.
↧
September 3, 2010, 3:21 pm
![Image]( "GCSE 'not academically challenging'")
GCSEs are no longer "academically challenging", a leading headmistress has said.
Cynthia Hall, of Wycombe Abbey School, said moves to make the exams more relevant to students mean they are not tough enough for bright pupils.
The girls' boarding school in Buckinghamshire has topped a GCSE league table of private schools.
Some 99% of the school's GCSE entries were awarded at least an A grade in this summer's exams, with the 89 pupils notching up 734 A* grades between them.
Mrs Hall said she was delighted with the results, saying it had been a "particularly good year group".
But she raised concerns about the rigour of current GCSE exams.
"I would say that maybe it's to do with trying to make GCSEs relevant and applied to students," she said.
"It's completely understandable, it's so they can relate subjects to every day life.
"The problem with that is it may make those subjects more accessible. But in our point of view of academic studies for university it makes it less 'academic'.
"They have become more and more accessible to students, but they are not as academically challenging, in that sort of sense of the world 'academic'."
↧
September 3, 2010, 3:21 pm
![Image]( "Six million facing tax shocker")
Nearly six million people will be informed over the coming months that they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with about 1.4 million facing demands for more payments, it was revealed.
A total of £2 billion has been underpaid through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system over the past two years, meaning that the 1.4 million taxpayers will be required to shell out an average of almost £1,500 each.
Meanwhile, 4.3 million people will have better news, with the taxman telling them that they have paid too much. With a total overpayment of £1.8 billion, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HM Revenue and Customs are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Some 30,000 will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate with 15,000 telling them they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to claw back the money.
Millions more letters will go out by Christmas to the rest of those caught up in the blunders.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the cash is recouped.
But it is believed that in some cases, individuals may face both under- and overpayments, which could cancel one another out.
In some cases, HM Revenue & Customs will consider writing off demands where taxpayers can demonstrate that they provided all the information necessary to calculate their tax correctly.
The problems arise because at the end of each year, HMRC checks that the amounts deducted in tax and national insurance by employers using the PAYE system match up with the information held on their records. In the past, this was done manually on a case-by-case basis, but a new computer system has now been introduced to automate the checks.
↧
September 3, 2010, 3:21 pm
![Image]( "X-Factor hopefuls come to blows")
Temper tantrums are nothing new on The X-Factor but Saturday night's show takes things to a whole new level when two contestants come to blows on stage.
Viewers will see the pair, Abbey Johnston and Lisa Parker, storm off stage to a chorus of boos before they even get as far as singing.
But eventually they come back and try to wow the judges with their version of Shayne Ward's That's My Goal.
It does not go down well and Lisa responds to some gentle criticism from guest judge Natalie Imbruglia by demanding: "Who are you, may I ask?".
Judge Simon Cowell takes the pair to task, telling them they have "the worst attitude" of any contestants ever and things go from bad to worse as Abbey lashes out at Lisa before leaving the stage.
A show spokesman said producers broke up the "heated" dispute during auditions at Birmingham's LG Arena in June.
Abbey said she lashed out at her friend after Lisa falsely claimed she had the hots for judge Louis Walsh.
There are stormy times for one contestant who annoys Cowell when he admits to changing his name for a more rock 'n' roll version.
Storm Lee, or Lee Gardner as he was once known, came all the way from Los Angeles in a bid to make his name.
But Cowell clearly isn't impressed, telling him: "I'm not going to call you Storm any more, because I think it's a stupid name."
↧
↧
September 3, 2010, 9:01 pm
![Image]( "Police defend phone-tapping probe")
The Metropolitan Police has defended its handling of phone-hacking allegations after former home secretary Alan Johnson suggested an independent investigation.
Mr Johnson said he was going in to the Home Office to review documents from the case and believed his Conservative successor Theresa May may have to consider calling in the Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
Controversy surrounding alleged phone-hacking by journalists on the News of the World was revived by a report in the New York Times claiming that it was more widespread than previously admitted and that then editor Andy Coulson was aware of it - something he has strenuously denied.
Tories accused Labour of latching on to the report in the hope of embarrassing Prime Minister David Cameron, who employs Mr Coulson as his head of communications at 10 Downing Street.
A former News of the World reporter who told the NYT that he believed Mr Coulson was aware his staff were hacking into the voicemail of prominent personalities repeated his claims yesterday on the BBC Radio 4 PM show. And former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell told The Independent that police had warned her that her phone messages had been intercepted at least 28 times while she was in the government.
News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 for hacking into voicemail messages, but the newspaper has always insisted this was an isolated case.
Mr Johnson said on Friday he had been "uncomfortable" about the progress of the Met's investigation into allegations - made in The Guardian - that the phones of a further list of prominent people may have been hacked. Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has threatened to seek a judicial review if the Met does not tell him within days whether he was one of those allegedly targeted.
In response to Mr Johnson, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: "In December 2005, the Met received complaints that mobile phones had been illegally tapped.
"Inquiries took place in 2005 and 2006 which resulted in Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire being jailed in January 2007 for conspiring to unlawfully intercept communications. This brought an end to the investigation. In July 2009, the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation.
"The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the Director of Public Prosecutions with leading counsel's advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed. There has been no investigation since the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire."
↧
September 3, 2010, 9:01 pm
![Image]( "Quake rocks N Zealand South Island")
New Zealand's South Island was under a state of emergency and rocked by aftershocks after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake caused widespread damage.
But despite the severity of Friday's quake there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said.
The quake, which hit 19 miles west of Christchurch, according to the state geological agency GNS Science, shook a wide area, with some saying buildings had collapsed and power cut. No tsunami alert was issued.
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after the quake rocked the region, warning people that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings. The emergency meant parts of the city would be closed off and some buildings closed as unsafe, he said.
Minister of civil defence John Carter said a state of civil emergency was declared as the quake was "a significant disaster" and army troops were on standby to assist. He said the "sharp, vicious earthquake has caused significant damage in parts of the city ... with walls collapsed that have fallen into the streets".
Chimneys and walls had fallen from older buildings, with roads blocked, traffic lights out and power, gas and water supplies disrupted, he said.
"The fronts of at least five buildings in the central city have collapsed and rubble is strewn across many roads," Christchurch resident Angela Morgan said. "Roads have subsided where water mains have broken and a lot of people evacuated in panic from seaside areas for fear of a tsunami."
Ms Morgan said "there is quite significant damage, really, with reports that some people were trapped in damaged houses".
Christchurch fire service spokesman Mike Bowden said a number of people had been trapped in buildings by fallen chimneys and blocked entrances, but there were no reports of people pinned under rubble. Rescue teams were checking premises.
Christchurch Hospital said it had treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor injuries. One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in intensive care, while a second was badly cut by glass, hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said.
↧
September 3, 2010, 9:02 pm
![Image]( "Leave Hague alone, media warned")
A long-standing friend and political colleague of William Hague called on the press to "back off", branding coverage of the Foreign Secretary's personal life "contemptible".
International Development Minister Alan Duncan said internet bloggers and the press had been "out of control" in publishing "unjustified" rumours and innuendo.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday night, he said: "We are dealing with a very special politician and I think the way he has been pilloried this week has been contemptible."
He added about the Hagues: "Leave them alone now. Back off and let's get on with watching a very, very competent Foreign Secretary and a serious figure in our politics get on with his job."
Mr Hague sparked a rash of headlines earlier this week when he released a remarkably open statement denying having had an "improper" relationship with a male aide, insisting his marriage was strong, and revealing that his wife Ffion had suffered a series of miscarriages. He confirmed that he had occasionally shared a twin room in hotels with Christopher Myers, who quit as his special adviser on Wednesday, but said that rumours of a relationship between them were untrue.
Mr Hague said he and Ffion had "had enough" and had decided to "put the record straight" about the rumours which had been circulating. But he faced accusations of poor judgment after his frank statement resulted in rumours which had been largely confined to the internet leaping into the mainstream media headlines.
Mr Duncan - the first Conservative MP to come out as gay - said: "I know William, I know Ffion and I don't like the way that they have been treated.
"I think the way he has behaved, the way Ffion has behaved has been admirable - composed, calm, dignified - and I think it is wrong for British politics that a couple like this should have been subjected to what they have been subjected this week."
He was critical of the BBC's handling of the story, describing the Radio 4 Today programme as "ill-advised and tasteless" for inviting Speaker's wife Sally Bercow to discuss it and accusing Any Questions presenter Martha Kearney of peddling "tittle-tattle" when she quoted newspaper reports which traced rumours about Mr Hague's sexuality back to the time the two of them shared a flat.
Mrs Bercow told Today on Friday that Mr Hague had been given "duff PR advice", saying: "You don't need to disclose this level of detail to prove you're not gay... It's elevated something that was circulating on the internet to the national press and the national media."
↧
September 3, 2010, 9:02 pm
![Image]( "Briton among plane crash victims")
A Briton is among nine people who died when a light aircraft belonging to a skydiving company crashed and burst into flames near a popular tourist spot in New Zealand's Southern Alps.
The plane caught fire shortly after take-off from an airstrip at Fox Glacier on the country's South Island, said Ian Henderson, a spokesman for local ambulance services.
The pilot and eight passengers were killed, Greymouth Police Senior Sgt Allyson Ealam said.
Four tourists from Ireland, England, Germany and Australia, and five New Zealanders, including the pilot, were among the dead, police said. Next of kin were being contacted and the victims' identities would not be released until later, police said.
The cause of the early-afternoon accident was not immediately known.
Witnesses said the plane had just lifted off from the small airstrip when it appeared to begin spiralling.
"It was like a fireball, and then there was big puffs of smoke going up. (The plane) was engulfed in flames immediately," one told the New Zealand Herald.
New Zealand's stuff.co.nz website said there was only one skydiving company operating out of the Fox Glacier airstrip, Skydive New Zealand, but a company spokeswoman reached by telephone refused to comment. An answering machine message at the company said skydiving had ceased for the day.
Police said the aircraft was a Fletcher fixed-wing plane of a type designed and built in New Zealand. The planes are popularly used for scenic flights and skydiving in the area around the Southern Alps.
Fox Glacier is on the western coast of the South Island, about 90 miles from the main city, Christchurch, which was hit on Friday by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that damaged buildings and injured at least two people.
↧
↧
September 3, 2010, 9:02 pm
![Image]( "Pakistan cricketers freed by police")
The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of match-fixing allegations were released without charge after being questioned under caution by police.
Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were interviewed separately by detectives at Kilburn police station in north-west London on Friday.
Speaking outside the station after they left, their lawyer Elizabeth Robertson said the men had attended voluntarily and at no time were they under arrest. She said the trio would continue to co-operate fully with police and the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has already charged them under their anti-corruption code and provisionally banned them from playing in any match.
Butt, Asif and Aamer maintain their innocence amid claims that a middle-man accepted £150,000 to arrange for Pakistan players to deliberately bowl no-balls during last week's fourth Test against England at Lord's.
They have been charged with "various offences" under Article 2 of the ICC's anti-corruption code relating to alleged irregular behaviour during and in relation to the fourth Test between England and Pakistan.
Earlier on Friday ICC anti-corruption boss Sir Ronnie Flanagan said cricketers had a "really arguable case to answer in our disciplinary arena".
"That is not the same as coming, in any sense, to a finding of guilt on their behalf," he added. "Priority must be given to the criminal investigation."
Sir Ronnie said that he did not see this case as a sign that cricket was rife with corruption. "I do not see this as the tip of an iceberg but I think it is something from which we must learn," he said.
The questioning of the cricketers was staggered on Friday, with all three being picked up and dropped off by a blacked-out 4x4. They used different exits and entrances at the police station in a bid to escape the throng of journalists who had gathered outside, many of whom could be seen leaning out of the windows of neighbouring houses in a bid to get a closer look at them.
The players are not part of the Pakistan squad preparing to play England in a T20 match on Sunday.
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:15 am
![Image]( "Moat TV coverage 'cannot be right'")
A chief constable has questioned the decision by broadcasters to beam live TV coverage of the last hours of gunman Raoul Moat, saying: "It cannot be right."
Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said the advent of rolling 24-hour news has had a "profound effect" on policing, with commanding officers often spending over half their time dealing with the media on high-profile cases.
He argued it "cannot be right" when an officer commanding an incident like the Moat stand-off had to consider how the police's actions may look as if they were a movie director. Writing on his blog on the force's website, he said such saturation coverage was "more of an issue" than the controversy focused on the Facebook tribute page to Moat.
Moat, 37, is thought to have shot himself following a six-hour stand-off in the Northumberland town of Rothbury in July.
Moat went on the run when he shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart in Birtley, Gateshead, after killing her new lover Chris Brown. The day after he blinded unarmed Pc David Rathband by shooting him in the face on the outskirts of Newcastle. He then declared war on police and went into hiding for a week before he was cornered at the River Coquet in Rothbury.
On the incident, Mr Fahy wrote: "The case involving Raoul Moat in Northumbria was the top news story for a number of days and the publicity then went on to Facebook.
"The advent of 24-hour news has had a profound effect on policing. Particular cases grab the public imagination and are then played out in the media in detail round the clock. In such a case well over 50% of the time of the officer commanding the incident will probably be spent handling the media.
"This includes monitoring and reacting to what the media are saying about the case and things like the statements being made by witnesses in front of the cameras. The murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Cambridgeshire was such a case."
He added: "The media have a legitimate interest in police operations. It cannot be right however that the last hours of a man's life are broadcast on live television with members of his family looking on.
"It cannot be right that an officer commanding such an incident has to consider how it might look on television as if he/she was a film director. I think this is more of an issue than the controversy about the Facebook page."
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:15 am
![Image]( "Debt collectors' mind games blasted")
Mind games used by aggressive debt collectors can cause suicidal feelings and have a "devastating" effect on mental health, a charity has warned.
Reports of bailiffs forcing their way into homes and intimidating children have raised serious concerns among campaigners.
They are now calling on the Government to step up public protection and introduce more robust regulation of the industry.
A study by mental health charity Mind found 80% of those visited by enforcement agents had experienced threatening behaviour.
According to the survey, 50% of people who received an unwelcome knock on the door said it left them feeling suicidal.
Meanwhile 96% reported increased levels of anxiety and 87% reported increased depression.
The poll, of 453 adults, found one in 10 was being pursued for debts of under £100 while 70% were charged excessive fees.
Sian Meredith, who bought a new house and was then chased for the previous owner's unpaid parking fines, said she was called a liar when she tried to reason with bailiffs.
The 50-year-old accountant told The Times: "It's so scary - they threaten to burgle your house, to clamp your car, and it is horrible knowing they could just turn up at any time.
"They rely on bullying, intimidation and people not understanding the law... I received a demand for final payment within 48 hours, sent second-class, so I didn't even receive it in time."
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:45 am
![Image]( "Blair faces protest at book signing")
Tony Blair faced a barrage of abuse on Saturday as he was confronted by anti-war protesters at his first book signing.
Shoes and eggs were pelted at the former prime minister as he arrived at a Dublin book store to promote his controversial memoir, My Journey.
The missiles did not hit Mr Blair, who was heckled and jeered as he emerged from his car.
Angry activists then clashed with gardai as they tried to push down a security barrier outside the Eason store on Dublin's main thoroughfare O'Connell Street.
One activist managed to confront Mr Blair and attempted to make a citizen's arrest over alleged war crimes. A small number of arrests were made.
Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Anti-War Movement, accused Mr Blair of making blood money from the memoirs.
"It really is shameful that somebody can be responsible for the death and destruction that he was responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan and walk away without any accounting for that and become a very wealthy man off the back of it," he said.
Security was tight as up to 300 campaigners carrying flags and banners chanted "arrest the butcher Blair", "hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?" and "Tony Blair war criminal".
Hundreds more queued quietly in the rain by a side door to meet Mr Blair, who arrived at about 10.30am - some abused by protesters as they left the store.
Kate O'Sullivan, who attempted to make a citizen's arrest on Mr Blair, said: "Immediately five security people grabbed me, started dragging me off. I cried out 'there was half a million people dead in Iraq, how can you live with yourself, you've committed war crimes'."
↧
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:45 am
![Image]( "Fresh legal bid over Kelly's death")
A fresh legal bid to force an inquest into the death of Government scientist David Kelly is to be launched within the next few days, it has been disclosed.
Formal legal papers are expected to be submitted to Attorney General Dominic Grieve by the end of the coming week, requesting his authorisation for a group of doctors to go to the High Court to seek an inquest. If he refuses to grant the authorisation - known in legal language as a fiat - his decision could be subject to appeal at the High Court.
The five eminent doctors have conducted a long-running campaign to overturn the highly unusual decision not to hold an inquest into Dr Kelly's death in 2003, shortly after he was named as the source of reports challenging the Government's dossier of evidence on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer ruled that Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death - which found that Dr Kelly committed suicide - would take the place of a standard coroner's inquest.
The new legal move was prompted by an interview given last month by pathologist Nicholas Hunt, who carried out an autopsy on Dr Kelly's body.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Dr Hunt stated that he found "big clots" of blood in the sleeve of Kelly's jacket and soaked into the ground and regarded the case as a "textbook" suicide - details which were not presented in evidence to the Hutton Inquiry.
Barrister Michael Powers QC, who is acting for the group of doctors, said that Dr Hunt's comments gave weight to their argument that Hutton's inquiry did not represent a sufficient examination of the cause of Dr Kelly's death.
Mr Powers said: "The media has now presented evidence which we have never had before. The fact that he felt it necessary to go to the press and say these things proves to us that the inquiry was insufficient."
The details which Dr Hunt mentioned must have come from the medical report into Dr Kelly's death, which Lord Hutton controversially ruled should remain secret for 70 years, said Mr Powers.
The group of doctors are awaiting a decision from Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke over whether this ruling should be overturned to allow them to see the report.
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:45 am
![Image]( "Six million facing tax bill shock")
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) admitted that it has to "improve accuracy" after it emerged that nearly six million people paid the wrong amount of tax, with about 1.4 million facing demands for more payments.
A total of £2 billion has been underpaid through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system over the past two years. It means that the 1.4 million taxpayers concerned will be required to shell out an average of almost £1,500 each to make up the shortfall.
HMRC head of national news Paul Franklin told BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme: "We have to improve accuracy, there's no argument about that.
"What this approach is about is improving accuracy, making sure the tax that is taken from people's salaries and pensions during the year is spot on, not a little bit over or a little bit under. We're not happy with how PAYE has functioned, we're happy with the fact it taxes most people correctly, we're not happy with the fact that some people are wrongly taxed.
"The roots of this are in the fact that PAYE came in in 1944 during the Second World War, at a time when many people stayed with the same employer during the whole of their working lives. It's not like that any more. We have to reflect that and have new systems."
Meanwhile, 4.3 million people will have better news, with the taxman informing them they have paid too much tax. With a total overpayment of £1.8 billion, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HMRC are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Some 30,000 will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate and 15,000 will break the news that they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to claw back the money. Millions more letters will go out by Christmas to the rest of those caught up in the blunders.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the money is recouped.
The TaxPayers' Alliance said the news would be a "real concern" for low income families. Campaign manager Emma Boon said: "It could take months for HM Revenue & Customs to sort out this mess. It's a real concern for low income families who face a nervous wait to see if they are affected and if they face paying back large sums of money. Taxpayers must ensure that they don't get bullied into paying back more than they can afford in instalments and it would be unfair if low income families are asked to repay a lump sum for someone else's mistake."
↧
September 4, 2010, 3:45 am
![Image]( "Cheaper coins proposal 'a disaster'")
The Treasury has admitted that cheaper versions of the 5p and 10p coins could be brought in despite opposition from the vending machine and parking meter industries.
The proposed change would save the Royal Mint as much as £8m a year as the "silver" coins would be made from steel instead of cupronickel - an alloy of copper and nickel.
As the price of copper has risen greatly in recent years and the alloy-making process is itself expensive, the change has been considered but not officially announced.
But the new coins would require changes to vending machines and parking meters, including their software, which one expert told the Daily Telegraph could cost the nation as much as £100 million.
Jonathan Hilder, chief executive of the Automatic Vending Machine Association, told the newspaper: "We've told the Treasury and the Royal Mint that this is going to be a disaster, but they haven't taken notice.
"It's meant to be a money saving exercise, but this will cost the vending industry £42 million and the coin machine industry as a whole possibly as much as £100 million."
The humble vending machine is more sophisticated than it would first appear, as they have to be able to check each coin's shape, weight and magnetism to prevent fakes being used.
They will need to be recalibrated to accept the new coins as well as the old ones which will remain legal tender.
A spokesman for the Treasury said: "The proposal to make new 5p and 10p coins out of nickel-plated steel rather than a cupro-nickel alloy is one of many measures being considered by the Government with a view to reducing the fiscal deficit."
↧
A long-standing friend and political colleague of William Hague called on the press to "back off", branding coverage of the Foreign Secretary's personal life "contemptible".
International Development Minister Alan Duncan said internet bloggers and the press had been "out of control" in publishing "unjustified" rumours and innuendo.
Mr Hague sparked a rash of headlines earlier this week when he released a remarkably open statement denying having had an "improper" relationship with a male aide, insisting his marriage was strong, and revealing that his wife, Ffion, had suffered a series of miscarriages.
He confirmed that he had occasionally shared a twin room in hotels with Christopher Myers, who quit as his special adviser on Wednesday, but said that rumours of a relationship between them were untrue.
Mr Hague said that he and Ffion had "had enough" and had decided to "put the record straight" about the rumours which had been circulating.
But he faced accusations of poor judgment after his frank statement resulted in rumours which had been largely confined to the internet leaping into the mainstream media headlines.
Mr Duncan - the first Conservative MP to come out as gay - defended his long-time friend, telling BBC Radio 4's Any Questions: "We are dealing with a very special politician and I think the way he has been pilloried this week has been contemptible. I think, based on rumour, innuendo, with no foundation in fact, bloggers and the press have got completely out of control.
"I know William, I know Ffion and I don't like the way that they have been treated. I think the way he has behaved, the way Ffion has behaved has been admirable - composed, calm, dignified - and I think it is wrong for British politics that a couple like this should have been subjected to what they have been subjected this week."
Mr Duncan was critical of the BBC's handling of the story, describing the Radio 4 Today programme as "ill-advised and tasteless" for inviting Speaker's wife Sally Bercow to discuss it, and accusing Any Questions presenter Martha Kearney of peddling "tittle-tattle" when she quoted newspaper reports which traced rumours about Mr Hague's sexuality back to the time the two of them shared a flat.
Mrs Bercow told Today this morning that Mr Hague had been given "duff PR advice", saying: "You don't need to disclose this level of detail to prove you're not gay... It's elevated something that was circulating on the internet to the national press and the national media."
Tony Blair has claimed the Northern Ireland peace process was one of the few times in politics he felt proud.
In his first live television interview since his memoirs were published, Mr Blair said he knew power sharing in the north was worth striving for when he became prime minister in 1997.
The former PM described watching former Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness sitting together publicly for the first time.
"It was just such a strange and extraordinary sight and one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually," Mr Blair said.
Mr Blair recalled the negotiations in an interview on Irish state broadcaster RTE at the end of the week which saw his memoirs, A Journey, smash sales records.
Mr Blair described former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern as a friend and repeated the assessment of him he used in the book as cunning.
"He became a good friend," he said. "He behaved with extraordinary skill towards this thing because it was difficult. Both of us in this sense had the same feeling about it - that it might be difficult but it was worth trying to do and worth trying for."
Mr Blair added: "Sometimes you've got to be smart to get around these problems. They require creativity, they require imagination and they require an ability to get where you need to get to.
"That's cunning in the best sense.
"It was really hard. You were having conversations with people - particularly when you sat down with the Sinn Fein people and the Unionists - these were people with a bitter and entrenched hatred. So there was quite a bit of cunning."
More than three quarters of Britons think the taxpayer should not contribute to the cost of Pope Benedict XVI's forthcoming visit to Scotland and England, according to a survey.
An online poll of 2,005 adults has shown 77% do not agree that the taxpayer should help shoulder the bill for the four-day trip even though it is a state visit. A similar proportion - 76% - rejected taxpayer funding for the visit on the grounds that he is a religious figure.
The findings were issued by Theos, the public theology think tank, as the Pope is due to arrive in Edinburgh on September 16, the first Papal visit to Britain since Pope John Paul II's 1982 trip.
The survey, conducted in August, shows widespread apathy in Britain towards 83-year-old Pope Benedict's arrival with 79% saying they have "no personal interest" in his visit.
Nearly one in four - 24% - agreed with the statement "I don't approve of the Pope's visit to Britain" with just under a half, or 49%, disagreeing. Under a third, or 29%, said they believed the visit would be good for Britain while 33% disagreed.
Fewer than one in five, or 18%, agreed with the statement that the Pope generally responds "wisely" to problems in the world today, with nearly half, or 49% saying they disagreed. A total of 41% also said they agreed that the Pope should not speak out on social and political issues with 36% disagreeing.
Nearly a third, or 31%, agreed that it was good to have a world leader such as the Pope with no political affiliation who can speak on moral issues, with 45% saying they disagreed.
The poll findings come after it was announced earlier this year that the Government costs of the trip - previously estimated at £8 million - could rise to between £10 million and £12 million.
In addition, the Catholic Church is expected to make a contribution of between £9 million and £10 million towards the costs.
The figures do not include an expected multimillion-pound bill for policing the visit.
A surge in the number of four-year-olds will require primary schools to find an extra 350,000 places over the next four years, at a time when education spending is set to be cut by up to 20%, it was reported.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has been told by Whitehall officials that an increase in the birthrate has boosted demand for places by about 15% a year, reported the Daily Telegraph.
If confirmed, the figures would require the construction of hundreds of new schools, the use of portable classrooms or an increase in class sizes at existing primaries, potentially above 30 children.
Mr Gove has been asked by Chancellor George Osborne to identify savings of between 10% and 20% in his departmental spending over the next four years as part of the Government's efforts to pay down the bulk of its deficit within five years. This will limit the scope for him to order a large-scale school-building programme.
When he appears before Mr Osborne's spending "star chamber" later this month, he may cite the swelling primary school rolls as a justification for him being allowed to retain a larger share of his budget.
For the first time in a decade, the number of children joining the state primary system when schools returned from the summer holidays this week was larger than the previous year, said the Telegraph.
And the figure is predicted to rise by around 90,000 each year between 2011 and 2015, increasing the total population of state primary schools and nurseries from around 3,960,000 to 4,300,000.
In the decade from 1985, there was a "baby boom" which saw the birthrate increase for a few years, before declining again. Many of those born in that period are now having children of their own, and immigration has also helped push the birthrate in 2007 to its highest for 26 years.
Former teaching union official John Bangs, now a visiting professor at the Institute for Education, told the Telegraph: "Primary schools are in crisis. There is an absolute requirement on Michael Gove to fund these additional places - he has no choice. The Government cannot go in for the major reductions of the education budget it has planned."
Not enough is being done to stop teenagers buying alcohol through supermarket online delivery services, according to a report.
Supermarkets are not as stringent about asking for ID when delivering alcohol to people's homes as they are at the checkout, a study by test purchase company Serve Legal found.
Serve Legal director Charlie Mowat told The Grocer magazine that test purchases on retailers' online operations this year found the percentage of those failing was "significantly higher" than the 22% in stores.
The company would not disclose the pass rates for client confidentiality reasons.
However, Mr Mowat said retailers had asked Serve Legal to conduct the tests because they were aware that under-18s were trying to exploit the channel.
Serve Legal said it had carried out 345 home delivery test purchases this year involving 18 or 19-year-olds ordering groceries to the value of at least £40, including alcohol.
When the delivery arrived, the test was judged a pass if the driver asked to see ID and a fail if the order was handed over without the recipient being asked.
Explaining the disparity between the in-store and online pass rates, Mr Mowat said it was easier for processes to go wrong with home deliveries as drivers were not supervised to the same level as checkout operators and did not have the same support from colleagues if a situation became tense.
A Tesco spokesman told The Grocer that its systems were as secure, if not more so, for home delivery as in-store.
He said: "To be an online shopper you have to be a Clubcard holder and to get a Clubcard you have to be over 18. This is also password protected, so it's not just a case of someone getting hold of their parents' card."
Two women arrested when trying to take a dead relative on a plane will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.
Gitta Jarant and her daughter Anke Anusic were arrested at Liverpool John Lennon Airport in April when it transpired Kurt Willi Jarant, 91, was dead.
Mr Jarant, known as Willi, was in a wheelchair and wearing sunglasses when officials checked his pulse and found no life.
Mrs Jarant, 66, and Mrs Anusic, 41, - the man's widow and stepdaughter - were due to board a flight to Berlin when police swooped to arrest them on suspicion of failing to give notification of death.
Martin Hill, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "Having carefully reviewed a file of evidence presented to me by police, I have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to bring any charges in relation to the death of Kurt Willi Jarrant."
It is understood the case was dropped because the time of death could not be ascertained.
The women denied claims that Mr Jarant, a German national, had already been dead for some time and they had managed to ferry him from their home in Oldham, Greater Manchester, by taxi.
The pair said that, when they arrived at the airport, two employees brought a wheelchair to the taxi and helped the Alzheimer's sufferer out.
They told officials he was asleep because they genuinely thought he was.
GCSEs are no longer "academically challenging", a leading headmistress has said.
Cynthia Hall, of Wycombe Abbey School, said moves to make the exams more relevant to students mean they are not tough enough for bright pupils.
The girls' boarding school in Buckinghamshire has topped a GCSE league table of private schools.
Some 99% of the school's GCSE entries were awarded at least an A grade in this summer's exams, with the 89 pupils notching up 734 A* grades between them.
Mrs Hall said she was delighted with the results, saying it had been a "particularly good year group".
But she raised concerns about the rigour of current GCSE exams.
"I would say that maybe it's to do with trying to make GCSEs relevant and applied to students," she said.
"It's completely understandable, it's so they can relate subjects to every day life.
"The problem with that is it may make those subjects more accessible. But in our point of view of academic studies for university it makes it less 'academic'.
"They have become more and more accessible to students, but they are not as academically challenging, in that sort of sense of the world 'academic'."
Nearly six million people will be informed over the coming months that they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with about 1.4 million facing demands for more payments, it was revealed.
A total of £2 billion has been underpaid through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system over the past two years, meaning that the 1.4 million taxpayers will be required to shell out an average of almost £1,500 each.
Meanwhile, 4.3 million people will have better news, with the taxman telling them that they have paid too much. With a total overpayment of £1.8 billion, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HM Revenue and Customs are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Some 30,000 will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate with 15,000 telling them they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to claw back the money.
Millions more letters will go out by Christmas to the rest of those caught up in the blunders.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the cash is recouped.
But it is believed that in some cases, individuals may face both under- and overpayments, which could cancel one another out.
In some cases, HM Revenue & Customs will consider writing off demands where taxpayers can demonstrate that they provided all the information necessary to calculate their tax correctly.
The problems arise because at the end of each year, HMRC checks that the amounts deducted in tax and national insurance by employers using the PAYE system match up with the information held on their records. In the past, this was done manually on a case-by-case basis, but a new computer system has now been introduced to automate the checks.
Temper tantrums are nothing new on The X-Factor but Saturday night's show takes things to a whole new level when two contestants come to blows on stage.
Viewers will see the pair, Abbey Johnston and Lisa Parker, storm off stage to a chorus of boos before they even get as far as singing.
But eventually they come back and try to wow the judges with their version of Shayne Ward's That's My Goal.
It does not go down well and Lisa responds to some gentle criticism from guest judge Natalie Imbruglia by demanding: "Who are you, may I ask?".
Judge Simon Cowell takes the pair to task, telling them they have "the worst attitude" of any contestants ever and things go from bad to worse as Abbey lashes out at Lisa before leaving the stage.
A show spokesman said producers broke up the "heated" dispute during auditions at Birmingham's LG Arena in June.
Abbey said she lashed out at her friend after Lisa falsely claimed she had the hots for judge Louis Walsh.
There are stormy times for one contestant who annoys Cowell when he admits to changing his name for a more rock 'n' roll version.
Storm Lee, or Lee Gardner as he was once known, came all the way from Los Angeles in a bid to make his name.
But Cowell clearly isn't impressed, telling him: "I'm not going to call you Storm any more, because I think it's a stupid name."
The Metropolitan Police has defended its handling of phone-hacking allegations after former home secretary Alan Johnson suggested an independent investigation.
Mr Johnson said he was going in to the Home Office to review documents from the case and believed his Conservative successor Theresa May may have to consider calling in the Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
Controversy surrounding alleged phone-hacking by journalists on the News of the World was revived by a report in the New York Times claiming that it was more widespread than previously admitted and that then editor Andy Coulson was aware of it - something he has strenuously denied.
Tories accused Labour of latching on to the report in the hope of embarrassing Prime Minister David Cameron, who employs Mr Coulson as his head of communications at 10 Downing Street.
A former News of the World reporter who told the NYT that he believed Mr Coulson was aware his staff were hacking into the voicemail of prominent personalities repeated his claims yesterday on the BBC Radio 4 PM show. And former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell told The Independent that police had warned her that her phone messages had been intercepted at least 28 times while she was in the government.
News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 for hacking into voicemail messages, but the newspaper has always insisted this was an isolated case.
Mr Johnson said on Friday he had been "uncomfortable" about the progress of the Met's investigation into allegations - made in The Guardian - that the phones of a further list of prominent people may have been hacked. Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has threatened to seek a judicial review if the Met does not tell him within days whether he was one of those allegedly targeted.
In response to Mr Johnson, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: "In December 2005, the Met received complaints that mobile phones had been illegally tapped.
"Inquiries took place in 2005 and 2006 which resulted in Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire being jailed in January 2007 for conspiring to unlawfully intercept communications. This brought an end to the investigation. In July 2009, the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation.
"The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the Director of Public Prosecutions with leading counsel's advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed. There has been no investigation since the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire."
New Zealand's South Island was under a state of emergency and rocked by aftershocks after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake caused widespread damage.
But despite the severity of Friday's quake there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said.
The quake, which hit 19 miles west of Christchurch, according to the state geological agency GNS Science, shook a wide area, with some saying buildings had collapsed and power cut. No tsunami alert was issued.
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency four hours after the quake rocked the region, warning people that continuing aftershocks could cause masonry to fall from damaged buildings. The emergency meant parts of the city would be closed off and some buildings closed as unsafe, he said.
Minister of civil defence John Carter said a state of civil emergency was declared as the quake was "a significant disaster" and army troops were on standby to assist. He said the "sharp, vicious earthquake has caused significant damage in parts of the city ... with walls collapsed that have fallen into the streets".
Chimneys and walls had fallen from older buildings, with roads blocked, traffic lights out and power, gas and water supplies disrupted, he said.
"The fronts of at least five buildings in the central city have collapsed and rubble is strewn across many roads," Christchurch resident Angela Morgan said. "Roads have subsided where water mains have broken and a lot of people evacuated in panic from seaside areas for fear of a tsunami."
Ms Morgan said "there is quite significant damage, really, with reports that some people were trapped in damaged houses".
Christchurch fire service spokesman Mike Bowden said a number of people had been trapped in buildings by fallen chimneys and blocked entrances, but there were no reports of people pinned under rubble. Rescue teams were checking premises.
Christchurch Hospital said it had treated two men with serious injuries and a number of people with minor injuries. One man was hit by a falling chimney and was in intensive care, while a second was badly cut by glass, hospital spokeswoman Michele Hider said.
A long-standing friend and political colleague of William Hague called on the press to "back off", branding coverage of the Foreign Secretary's personal life "contemptible".
International Development Minister Alan Duncan said internet bloggers and the press had been "out of control" in publishing "unjustified" rumours and innuendo.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday night, he said: "We are dealing with a very special politician and I think the way he has been pilloried this week has been contemptible."
He added about the Hagues: "Leave them alone now. Back off and let's get on with watching a very, very competent Foreign Secretary and a serious figure in our politics get on with his job."
Mr Hague sparked a rash of headlines earlier this week when he released a remarkably open statement denying having had an "improper" relationship with a male aide, insisting his marriage was strong, and revealing that his wife Ffion had suffered a series of miscarriages. He confirmed that he had occasionally shared a twin room in hotels with Christopher Myers, who quit as his special adviser on Wednesday, but said that rumours of a relationship between them were untrue.
Mr Hague said he and Ffion had "had enough" and had decided to "put the record straight" about the rumours which had been circulating. But he faced accusations of poor judgment after his frank statement resulted in rumours which had been largely confined to the internet leaping into the mainstream media headlines.
Mr Duncan - the first Conservative MP to come out as gay - said: "I know William, I know Ffion and I don't like the way that they have been treated.
"I think the way he has behaved, the way Ffion has behaved has been admirable - composed, calm, dignified - and I think it is wrong for British politics that a couple like this should have been subjected to what they have been subjected this week."
He was critical of the BBC's handling of the story, describing the Radio 4 Today programme as "ill-advised and tasteless" for inviting Speaker's wife Sally Bercow to discuss it and accusing Any Questions presenter Martha Kearney of peddling "tittle-tattle" when she quoted newspaper reports which traced rumours about Mr Hague's sexuality back to the time the two of them shared a flat.
Mrs Bercow told Today on Friday that Mr Hague had been given "duff PR advice", saying: "You don't need to disclose this level of detail to prove you're not gay... It's elevated something that was circulating on the internet to the national press and the national media."
A Briton is among nine people who died when a light aircraft belonging to a skydiving company crashed and burst into flames near a popular tourist spot in New Zealand's Southern Alps.
The plane caught fire shortly after take-off from an airstrip at Fox Glacier on the country's South Island, said Ian Henderson, a spokesman for local ambulance services.
The pilot and eight passengers were killed, Greymouth Police Senior Sgt Allyson Ealam said.
Four tourists from Ireland, England, Germany and Australia, and five New Zealanders, including the pilot, were among the dead, police said. Next of kin were being contacted and the victims' identities would not be released until later, police said.
The cause of the early-afternoon accident was not immediately known.
Witnesses said the plane had just lifted off from the small airstrip when it appeared to begin spiralling.
"It was like a fireball, and then there was big puffs of smoke going up. (The plane) was engulfed in flames immediately," one told the New Zealand Herald.
New Zealand's stuff.co.nz website said there was only one skydiving company operating out of the Fox Glacier airstrip, Skydive New Zealand, but a company spokeswoman reached by telephone refused to comment. An answering machine message at the company said skydiving had ceased for the day.
Police said the aircraft was a Fletcher fixed-wing plane of a type designed and built in New Zealand. The planes are popularly used for scenic flights and skydiving in the area around the Southern Alps.
Fox Glacier is on the western coast of the South Island, about 90 miles from the main city, Christchurch, which was hit on Friday by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that damaged buildings and injured at least two people.
The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of match-fixing allegations were released without charge after being questioned under caution by police.
Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were interviewed separately by detectives at Kilburn police station in north-west London on Friday.
Speaking outside the station after they left, their lawyer Elizabeth Robertson said the men had attended voluntarily and at no time were they under arrest. She said the trio would continue to co-operate fully with police and the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has already charged them under their anti-corruption code and provisionally banned them from playing in any match.
Butt, Asif and Aamer maintain their innocence amid claims that a middle-man accepted £150,000 to arrange for Pakistan players to deliberately bowl no-balls during last week's fourth Test against England at Lord's.
They have been charged with "various offences" under Article 2 of the ICC's anti-corruption code relating to alleged irregular behaviour during and in relation to the fourth Test between England and Pakistan.
Earlier on Friday ICC anti-corruption boss Sir Ronnie Flanagan said cricketers had a "really arguable case to answer in our disciplinary arena".
"That is not the same as coming, in any sense, to a finding of guilt on their behalf," he added. "Priority must be given to the criminal investigation."
Sir Ronnie said that he did not see this case as a sign that cricket was rife with corruption. "I do not see this as the tip of an iceberg but I think it is something from which we must learn," he said.
The questioning of the cricketers was staggered on Friday, with all three being picked up and dropped off by a blacked-out 4x4. They used different exits and entrances at the police station in a bid to escape the throng of journalists who had gathered outside, many of whom could be seen leaning out of the windows of neighbouring houses in a bid to get a closer look at them.
The players are not part of the Pakistan squad preparing to play England in a T20 match on Sunday.
A chief constable has questioned the decision by broadcasters to beam live TV coverage of the last hours of gunman Raoul Moat, saying: "It cannot be right."
Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said the advent of rolling 24-hour news has had a "profound effect" on policing, with commanding officers often spending over half their time dealing with the media on high-profile cases.
He argued it "cannot be right" when an officer commanding an incident like the Moat stand-off had to consider how the police's actions may look as if they were a movie director. Writing on his blog on the force's website, he said such saturation coverage was "more of an issue" than the controversy focused on the Facebook tribute page to Moat.
Moat, 37, is thought to have shot himself following a six-hour stand-off in the Northumberland town of Rothbury in July.
Moat went on the run when he shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart in Birtley, Gateshead, after killing her new lover Chris Brown. The day after he blinded unarmed Pc David Rathband by shooting him in the face on the outskirts of Newcastle. He then declared war on police and went into hiding for a week before he was cornered at the River Coquet in Rothbury.
On the incident, Mr Fahy wrote: "The case involving Raoul Moat in Northumbria was the top news story for a number of days and the publicity then went on to Facebook.
"The advent of 24-hour news has had a profound effect on policing. Particular cases grab the public imagination and are then played out in the media in detail round the clock. In such a case well over 50% of the time of the officer commanding the incident will probably be spent handling the media.
"This includes monitoring and reacting to what the media are saying about the case and things like the statements being made by witnesses in front of the cameras. The murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Cambridgeshire was such a case."
He added: "The media have a legitimate interest in police operations. It cannot be right however that the last hours of a man's life are broadcast on live television with members of his family looking on.
"It cannot be right that an officer commanding such an incident has to consider how it might look on television as if he/she was a film director. I think this is more of an issue than the controversy about the Facebook page."
Mind games used by aggressive debt collectors can cause suicidal feelings and have a "devastating" effect on mental health, a charity has warned.
Reports of bailiffs forcing their way into homes and intimidating children have raised serious concerns among campaigners.
They are now calling on the Government to step up public protection and introduce more robust regulation of the industry.
A study by mental health charity Mind found 80% of those visited by enforcement agents had experienced threatening behaviour.
According to the survey, 50% of people who received an unwelcome knock on the door said it left them feeling suicidal.
Meanwhile 96% reported increased levels of anxiety and 87% reported increased depression.
The poll, of 453 adults, found one in 10 was being pursued for debts of under £100 while 70% were charged excessive fees.
Sian Meredith, who bought a new house and was then chased for the previous owner's unpaid parking fines, said she was called a liar when she tried to reason with bailiffs.
The 50-year-old accountant told The Times: "It's so scary - they threaten to burgle your house, to clamp your car, and it is horrible knowing they could just turn up at any time.
"They rely on bullying, intimidation and people not understanding the law... I received a demand for final payment within 48 hours, sent second-class, so I didn't even receive it in time."
Tony Blair faced a barrage of abuse on Saturday as he was confronted by anti-war protesters at his first book signing.
Shoes and eggs were pelted at the former prime minister as he arrived at a Dublin book store to promote his controversial memoir, My Journey.
The missiles did not hit Mr Blair, who was heckled and jeered as he emerged from his car.
Angry activists then clashed with gardai as they tried to push down a security barrier outside the Eason store on Dublin's main thoroughfare O'Connell Street.
One activist managed to confront Mr Blair and attempted to make a citizen's arrest over alleged war crimes. A small number of arrests were made.
Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Anti-War Movement, accused Mr Blair of making blood money from the memoirs.
"It really is shameful that somebody can be responsible for the death and destruction that he was responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan and walk away without any accounting for that and become a very wealthy man off the back of it," he said.
Security was tight as up to 300 campaigners carrying flags and banners chanted "arrest the butcher Blair", "hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?" and "Tony Blair war criminal".
Hundreds more queued quietly in the rain by a side door to meet Mr Blair, who arrived at about 10.30am - some abused by protesters as they left the store.
Kate O'Sullivan, who attempted to make a citizen's arrest on Mr Blair, said: "Immediately five security people grabbed me, started dragging me off. I cried out 'there was half a million people dead in Iraq, how can you live with yourself, you've committed war crimes'."
A fresh legal bid to force an inquest into the death of Government scientist David Kelly is to be launched within the next few days, it has been disclosed.
Formal legal papers are expected to be submitted to Attorney General Dominic Grieve by the end of the coming week, requesting his authorisation for a group of doctors to go to the High Court to seek an inquest. If he refuses to grant the authorisation - known in legal language as a fiat - his decision could be subject to appeal at the High Court.
The five eminent doctors have conducted a long-running campaign to overturn the highly unusual decision not to hold an inquest into Dr Kelly's death in 2003, shortly after he was named as the source of reports challenging the Government's dossier of evidence on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer ruled that Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death - which found that Dr Kelly committed suicide - would take the place of a standard coroner's inquest.
The new legal move was prompted by an interview given last month by pathologist Nicholas Hunt, who carried out an autopsy on Dr Kelly's body.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Dr Hunt stated that he found "big clots" of blood in the sleeve of Kelly's jacket and soaked into the ground and regarded the case as a "textbook" suicide - details which were not presented in evidence to the Hutton Inquiry.
Barrister Michael Powers QC, who is acting for the group of doctors, said that Dr Hunt's comments gave weight to their argument that Hutton's inquiry did not represent a sufficient examination of the cause of Dr Kelly's death.
Mr Powers said: "The media has now presented evidence which we have never had before. The fact that he felt it necessary to go to the press and say these things proves to us that the inquiry was insufficient."
The details which Dr Hunt mentioned must have come from the medical report into Dr Kelly's death, which Lord Hutton controversially ruled should remain secret for 70 years, said Mr Powers.
The group of doctors are awaiting a decision from Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke over whether this ruling should be overturned to allow them to see the report.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) admitted that it has to "improve accuracy" after it emerged that nearly six million people paid the wrong amount of tax, with about 1.4 million facing demands for more payments.
A total of £2 billion has been underpaid through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system over the past two years. It means that the 1.4 million taxpayers concerned will be required to shell out an average of almost £1,500 each to make up the shortfall.
HMRC head of national news Paul Franklin told BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme: "We have to improve accuracy, there's no argument about that.
"What this approach is about is improving accuracy, making sure the tax that is taken from people's salaries and pensions during the year is spot on, not a little bit over or a little bit under. We're not happy with how PAYE has functioned, we're happy with the fact it taxes most people correctly, we're not happy with the fact that some people are wrongly taxed.
"The roots of this are in the fact that PAYE came in in 1944 during the Second World War, at a time when many people stayed with the same employer during the whole of their working lives. It's not like that any more. We have to reflect that and have new systems."
Meanwhile, 4.3 million people will have better news, with the taxman informing them they have paid too much tax. With a total overpayment of £1.8 billion, each could receive an average rebate of £418.
The first 45,000 letters from HMRC are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.
Some 30,000 will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate and 15,000 will break the news that they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to claw back the money. Millions more letters will go out by Christmas to the rest of those caught up in the blunders.
With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the money is recouped.
The TaxPayers' Alliance said the news would be a "real concern" for low income families. Campaign manager Emma Boon said: "It could take months for HM Revenue & Customs to sort out this mess. It's a real concern for low income families who face a nervous wait to see if they are affected and if they face paying back large sums of money. Taxpayers must ensure that they don't get bullied into paying back more than they can afford in instalments and it would be unfair if low income families are asked to repay a lump sum for someone else's mistake."
The Treasury has admitted that cheaper versions of the 5p and 10p coins could be brought in despite opposition from the vending machine and parking meter industries.
The proposed change would save the Royal Mint as much as £8m a year as the "silver" coins would be made from steel instead of cupronickel - an alloy of copper and nickel.
As the price of copper has risen greatly in recent years and the alloy-making process is itself expensive, the change has been considered but not officially announced.
But the new coins would require changes to vending machines and parking meters, including their software, which one expert told the Daily Telegraph could cost the nation as much as £100 million.
Jonathan Hilder, chief executive of the Automatic Vending Machine Association, told the newspaper: "We've told the Treasury and the Royal Mint that this is going to be a disaster, but they haven't taken notice.
"It's meant to be a money saving exercise, but this will cost the vending industry £42 million and the coin machine industry as a whole possibly as much as £100 million."
The humble vending machine is more sophisticated than it would first appear, as they have to be able to check each coin's shape, weight and magnetism to prevent fakes being used.
They will need to be recalibrated to accept the new coins as well as the old ones which will remain legal tender.
A spokesman for the Treasury said: "The proposal to make new 5p and 10p coins out of nickel-plated steel rather than a cupro-nickel alloy is one of many measures being considered by the Government with a view to reducing the fiscal deficit."
