![Image]( "200,000 'help mentally ill parents'")
Up to 200,000 young people in the UK are thought to be caring for a parent with severe mental health problems, a report said.
Young people are missing out on a normal childhood and have fewer opportunities for play and learning, according to the research from the Mental Health Foundation and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.
Isolation is an issue facing young carers, who can also suffer feelings of anxiety, frustration, guilt, resentment and stress.
The report said they are more likely to be regularly late for school, suffer difficulty completing assignments on time, be disruptive and have difficulty making friends.
Youngsters who care for adults with severe mental health problems - including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression - are also more likely to be bullied, leave education without any qualifications and have mental health issues themselves.
The MyCare report includes views from young carers' service workers, mental health professionals, education workers and carers aged nine to 25. It calls for more support for children and young people, who can often fall through the gaps between adult and children's services.
Dr Dan Robotham, senior researcher at the Mental Health Foundation, said: "While there are examples of good practice such as young carers' support groups, much more needs to be done to meet young carers' needs more effectively.
"The MyCare report points to a number of suggested improvements for the various services involved, including the involvement of young carers in discussions about their parents' treatment, more age appropriate-information about mental health to be made available, and greater co-operation between children's, education and mental health services to give young carers the kind support they deserve "
Carole Cochrane, chief executive of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, said: "Working with young carers, we know that without the right support, many will underachieve or drop out of school altogether, having a long and enduring impact on their future prospects.
"The aim of this project is to help children's services, education and mental health services to work together to better identify and support young carers, making the little changes to services that can make a huge difference to their lives."
David Cameron re-stated the aims of his "Big Society" initiative as he challenged businesses to support their communities.
The Prime Minister told senior executives from some of Britain's biggest firms that the country needed the "commitment, the creativity and innovation of businesses to help tackle the challenges that confront us".
Mr Cameron's comments came as he gave the keynote speech at the annual general meeting of the charity Business in the Community (BITC) which has the Prince of Wales as its president.
He also announced two new projects, the first - 'Every Business Commits' - is a set of five priorities participating firms would honour, from reducing carbon output and improving their workers' skills to, what the politician described as the perhaps the most crucial, "supporting" the community.
The politician also said he wanted to see the number of people seconded from business to work for a year in their neighbourhoods to increase to 1,000.
The Big Society initiative has been dogged by the problem of some people not understanding what the concept means and last month even children's minister Tim Loughton admitted this applied to coalition ministers.
But Mr Cameron emphasised how firms across the country can play an important part in delivering its aims.
The Prime Minister said: "We need the commitment, the creativity and innovation of businesses to help tackle the challenges that confront us.
"Whether it is worklessness or obesity, whether it's the break-up of families or the breakdown of communities, from environmental damage to economic dislocation."
He added: "I simply cannot think of an area of public policy where the creative thinking of business wouldn't help us to deliver a better outcome."
Up to 200,000 young people in the UK are thought to be caring for a parent with severe mental health problems, a report said.
Young people are missing out on a normal childhood and have fewer opportunities for play and learning, according to the research from the Mental Health Foundation and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.
Isolation is an issue facing young carers, who can also suffer feelings of anxiety, frustration, guilt, resentment and stress.
The report said they are more likely to be regularly late for school, suffer difficulty completing assignments on time, be disruptive and have difficulty making friends.
Youngsters who care for adults with severe mental health problems - including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression - are also more likely to be bullied, leave education without any qualifications and have mental health issues themselves.
The MyCare report includes views from young carers' service workers, mental health professionals, education workers and carers aged nine to 25. It calls for more support for children and young people, who can often fall through the gaps between adult and children's services.
Dr Dan Robotham, senior researcher at the Mental Health Foundation, said: "While there are examples of good practice such as young carers' support groups, much more needs to be done to meet young carers' needs more effectively.
"The MyCare report points to a number of suggested improvements for the various services involved, including the involvement of young carers in discussions about their parents' treatment, more age appropriate-information about mental health to be made available, and greater co-operation between children's, education and mental health services to give young carers the kind support they deserve "
Carole Cochrane, chief executive of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, said: "Working with young carers, we know that without the right support, many will underachieve or drop out of school altogether, having a long and enduring impact on their future prospects.
"The aim of this project is to help children's services, education and mental health services to work together to better identify and support young carers, making the little changes to services that can make a huge difference to their lives."
Questions are being asked about Britain's ability to cope with sub-zero conditions after much of the transport network shuddered to a halt.
Thousands of people were left high and dry after rail operators cancelled services, four major airports closed their doors and motorists faced chaos on the roads.
Some 7,000 schools turned children away from lessons while around two in five people failed to turn up for work, dealing a huge blow to the economy in the crucial run-up to Christmas.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, who has announced a review of how transport operators have coped, was forced to defend himself in the Commons after Labour's Maria Eagle told him to "get a grip".
The shadow transport secretary said: "The country is in chaos with passengers forced to sleep at stations, stuck freezing all night in broken-down trains and trapped in their cars - all at a cost to the economy of up to £1.2 billion a day."
Mr Hammond replied: "When there's extremely high snow and extremely low temperatures, there will be disruption to the transport system."
Many of those hoping to travel from Gatwick, Edinburgh, Southampton and London City Airport airports saw their plans thrown into disarray. Officials said Gatwick would not reopen until at least 6am on Friday.
On the roads, the AA said it had attended 10,500 breakdowns, with calls coming in at 1,150 every hour.
Forecasters said around 15 inches (38cm) of snow had fallen in Redesdale, Northumberland, while another 10 inches (25cm) carpeted Charlwood, West Sussex.
Temperatures - which struggled to climb above zero during the day and fell to minus 17.9C in Kinbrace, in Scotland - were expected to plummet further, possibly dipping below minus 12C in London and the South East.
Businesses will not be required to publish the pay gap between male and female employees, it has been announced.
Instead, companies will be expected to reduce the gap by voluntary means, revealed equalities minister Lynne Featherstone in an interview with The Guardian.
The move forms part of a strategy which will see the Government Equalities Office lose its independence and become part of the Home Office.
The Equalities Act introduced by the previous Labour administration gave companies until 2013 to face possible mandatory disclosure of pay differences. And the Liberal Democrat manifesto promised fair pay audits for every company with more than 100 employees.
Lib Dem MP Ms Featherstone two years ago described a voluntary pay audit system as "hardly worth the paper it's printed on". But she told The Guardian on Thursday: "Right at this moment of financial peril to the nation is perhaps not the moment to introduce mandatory pay audits.
"It was a different world two years ago - financially and in terms of pressures on business. We are in a completely new landscape now... Much more of partnership working, no longer government dictates, this is absolutely the time to make voluntary pay-reporting work."
Ms Featherstone said Government would check annually whether changes are being made. She added: "We expect them to do it voluntarily because it's the right thing to do and a good thing to do and it will improve business."
She insisted that bringing equalities into the Home Office did not represent a downgrading of the issue. "I'm hoping that it's an upgrading, in that it's being brought into the heart of government," she said. "It will be mainstream, not added on to departments."
Shadow equalities minister Yvette Cooper said: "Whatever happened to the Lib Dem pledge to introduce mandatory pay audits? Scrapping Labour's plan to increase transparency in pay is a backwards step for women's equality."
And Ceri Goddard, chief executive of gender equality campaign the Fawcett Society, said: "The Government has today consigned another generation of women to lower pay. Their proposal to rely only on voluntary business action on pay isn't just naive, it sends a dangerous signal that tackling discrimination against women is a choice, not a requirement."
Britain's military operations in Afghanistan have been harshly criticised by the country's president Hamid Karzai, local officials and the American commander of Nato troops, according to leaked diplomatic papers.
The secret US embassy cables, obtained by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, report conversations in which Mr Karzai said that Britain was "not up to the task" of securing the southern province of Helmand and suggested the job would be better given to the US.
US general Dan McNeill, who led Nato forces in Afghanistan in 2007/08, is said to have been "dismayed" by a British effort which "made a mess of things" in Helmand and Helmand governor Gulab Mangal is said to have criticised British troops for failing to get out of their bases and engage with local people.
The cables are the latest from a cache of 250,000 secret documents obtained by WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange on Thursday lost a legal bid to overturn a Swedish court order demanding his arrest for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault. The 39-year-old Australian is believed to be in hiding in England as the latest publications on his whistle-blowing website fuel global uproar.
Thursday's revelations sparked indignation among some of those linked to the UK deployment in Helmand, which has swelled to 10,000 troops since it began in 2006.
Anthony Philipson, whose son James was one of the first British troops to die in the province, told the BBC: "We have done the best we could with some of the finest infantry in the world, we have taken terrible casualties. Yes, the place is still a hotbed of violence, but I think it always will be."
According to the cables, President Karzai told US officials he was puzzled why security in Helmand had deteriorated after the arrival of British troops. In the aftermath of the 2001 ousting of the Taliban, he had been able to visit the region with just 14 US special forces, but with thousands of British troops on the ground the area was no longer safe, he said.
In 2007 Gen McNeill was said to be "particularly dismayed by the British effort". He is reported to have said that "they had made a mess of things in Helmand, their tactics were wrong".
Mr Mangal is said to have criticised British operations around the town of Sangin, where more UK troops have died than in any other part of Afghanistan. He told a team led by US Vice-President Joe Biden in January 2009 that American forces were needed as British security in Sangin was inadequate. British troops "must leave their bases and engage with the people", he is reported to have said.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "UK forces did an excellent job in Sangin, an area which has always been and continues to be uniquely challenging, delivering progress by increasing security and taking the fight to the insurgency. That work is now being continued by the US Marines as part of a hugely increased Isaf presence across the whole of Helmand Province."
Questions are being asked about what went wrong for England after the nation's humiliating defeat in the bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Despite investing £15 million and sending big-hitters such as Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham to Zurich in an attempt to win, only two members of Fifa's 22-man executive committee voted for England.
The team behind the failed bid said it felt "let down" while Labour called for an independent inquiry.
Voting figures released by Fifa showed England won just a single vote in addition to that of Fifa vice-president Geoff Thompson, compared with four for Holland/Belgium, seven for Spain/Portugal and nine to Russia. Russia, which now has a huge stadium building project on its hands, then won an outright majority in the second round of voting.
In the 2022 contest, Qatar beat the USA in the final round of voting - another controversial decision for a desert country half the size of Wales, with no stadia and where June temperatures can top 50C.
Beckham admitted some of the delegates had mentioned the allegations raised by BBC Panorama, while the Prime Minister said he did not know what more could have been done to win the vote.
Despite a bid described as "excellent and remarkable" by Fifa President Sepp Blatter, judges rejected sending the tournament back to England for the first time since 1966. Though the nation is blessed with excellent stadia, good transport links and policing, it is thought a number of behind-the-scenes factors may have gone against England.
The BBC's recent Panorama investigation accused three Fifa executive committee members of accepting "corrupt" payments and alleged that Fifa vice-president Jack Warner attempted to supply ticket touts.
But Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin dismissed suggestions England was cheated out of the bid and insisted the contest was fair. Asked if England had been "cheated", he replied: "No, I don't think. You know, Great Britain is a great football country and in Russia we have a lot of fans of your football in general and your football players in particular."
"Great Britain lost. It lost, but we are waiting for you in 2018 and we will do our best for the football players, for the English football players, for them to realise themselves."
Drunk tanks and booze buses should be used to take some of the burden of hopelessly intoxicated people off the hands of police, a report has said.
Local authorities were urged to take another look at alternatives to police station cells when people simply need to sober up. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said the move could help save lives as many are held behind bars inappropriately.
The police watchdog called on the Home Office and Department of Health to pilot alternative facilities for drunks where they can have medical care. The call was made in a comprehensive analysis of 333 deaths in police custody over the 11 years until April 2009. It documented how there had been a substantial fall in the number of deaths from 49 in 1998/99 to 15 in 2008/09.
The latest figures for 2009/10, published separately, revealed 17 people died, including two in police shootings. The downward trend was in part due to improved police cells design, better use of restraint techniques and decisions to send ill prisoners to hospital.
Mike Franklin, of the IPCC, said the study found many people needed treatment for medical or mental health problems. He said the research highlighted how cells may not be the best place for "a large number of people" held by police.
Mr Franklin said: "As a high number of people with medical and mental health needs will inevitably find their way into police custody, we need better collaboration between police forces and the NHS to ensure the right healthcare is available. We are reiterating our call for the NHS to provide more alternative places of safety, and for police forces to ensure sufficient forensic physicians are available to carry out mental health assessments."
Alternative facilities for heavily intoxicated people, dubbed drunk tanks, were introduced in Scotland six years ago. Police worked with charities and the NHS to get drunk and incapable people off the streets before they can commit an offence.
The scheme mirrored similar projects in Europe, the United States and Australia but has not been picked up widely in England and Wales. In some major cities, including London, ambulance services run vehicles dedicated solely to dealing with drunks who have hurt themselves or are in danger.
Association of Chief Police Officer (Acpo) guidelines published in 2006 said drunk and drugged people should not be put in police cells.
The IPCC report found there is a "strong link" between alcohol and people dying in custody and said new procedures should be put in place. Almost three-quarters (72%) of those who died were arrested for offences linked to drink or drugs, were intoxicated or both. Of the 87 people arrested for being drunk and incapable or disorderly, 60 were not held for any other criminal offence.
American diplomats in London had formed a damning judgment on Gordon Brown's premiership within a year of his arrival at 10 Downing Street, according to secret documents released by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
Assessments of the UK political situation sent to Washington by then US ambassador Robert Tuttle noted Mr Brown's "abysmal" record and lack of charisma as he "lurches from political disaster to disaster". Just months after ousting Tony Blair as leader, Labour was experiencing "post-Blair rudderlessness" as Mr Brown's vision failed to spark enthusiasm, he wrote.
Mr Tuttle's cables are among 250,000 secret documents obtained by WikiLeaks and released onto the internet in co-operation with newspapers including The Guardian.
They show that the US embassy followed the travails of the Brown premiership closely and provided updates to the State Department on his probable successors as Labour leader - apparently without spotting the man who eventually replaced him, Ed Miliband.
Following Labour's by-election defeat at the hands of the SNP in Glasgow East in July 2008, Mr Tuttle reported: "As Gordon Brown lurches from political disaster to disaster, Westminster is abuzz with speculation about whether he will be replaced as prime minister and Labour party leader, and, if so, by whom.
"A terrible by-election defeat... has left the Labour party reeling and fuelled fears among MPs that Brown's leadership of the party, and his premiership, may now be beyond repair."
One of the PM's closest lieutenants, Nick Brown, had briefed the embassy the morning after the Glasgow poll that the by-election result was "terrible" but that Mr Brown would be able to "slap down" any threat to his leadership.
Mr Tuttle reported signs of problems even earlier than this, at Labour's first spring conference under Mr Brown in 2008. The conference was "characterised by low energy, poor attendance, and a lack of charismatic leadership", wrote the ambassador.
During the financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in autumn 2008, the embassy reported that Mr Brown was "suddenly riding high". But by April 2009, following the resignation of aide Damian McBride over a plot to smear Tories, US officials judged the party was at such a low ebb that it was "unlikely that any Labour politician with his or her eye on the future would want to take on the sinking ship that is the current Labour party at this time of crisis".
An official predicted correctly that Mr Brown would be allowed to remain at the helm until the election and replaced shortly after Labour's defeat.
The race to succeed in life is over for many children in the UK by the day they first arrive in primary school, a report has warned.
By the age of just five, "huge class differences" already exist between the abilities of pupils from comfortable and disadvantaged backgrounds, condemning many poor children to grow up to be poor adults, said the report's author Frank Field.
The Labour MP - recruited as "poverty tsar" by David Cameron - called on the Government to give more support to parents and children in the first five years of life, with the aim of breaking the cycle of disadvantage which traps families in poverty over generations.
The report by his Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances was welcomed by the Prime Minister and his deputy Nick Clegg as a "hugely valuable contribution" to the coalition Government's drive to end child poverty by 2020.
Mr Field recommended the creation of a set of Life Chances Indicators to measure children's cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five, as a measure of how successful Britain is at making life's outcomes more equal for all children.
And the report called for reform of the education system, with a new focus on what it termed the Foundation Years, covering the period between conception and five years of age. During this period - which should be regarded as the first of three educational stages, followed by school and higher or further education - parents should be offered midwifery and maternity advice, a home visiting service and a wide network of voluntary support for families.
Controversially, the report proposes that benefits for children should not automatically be increased each year. Instead, ministers should consider if the money could be used more effectively to widen life chances and defeat child poverty by building up Foundation Years provision.
Former welfare reform minister Mr Field said the recommendations in his report, entitled The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults, aimed to "change the shape of the distribution of income in this country" by enabling poor children to gain the skills to go on to highly paid careers.
"If we can ensure that parents from poor families know how best to extend the life opportunities of their children then - even if we cannot end income poverty in the short term - we can break this inter-generational cycle of disadvantage," he wrote. "We can ensure that poor children don't inevitably take their poverty into adulthood."
The report found huge class differences in the range of abilities from their first day at school and stressed the role of parents in determining their children's future, both in terms of employment and home life.
Debit cards have overtaken cash to become the UK's most popular payment method for the first time, figures show.
On August 30 the amount of money people had spent on debit cards since the beginning of the year overtook the value of transactions paid for in cash for the first time at £272 billion, compared with £269 billion for cash, according to the Payments Council.
The value of purchases made using debit cards rose by 10% during the third quarter of the year, compared with a year earlier, to £73.1 billion, with an additional 1.6 million transactions carried out every day.
People also used their debit cards three times more often than they used their credit cards, with 1.7 billion debit card transactions carried out during the three months, compared with just 500 million credit and charge card ones.
The group said credit card spending had increased by only 5% since 2005, while in real terms it had actually declined by a 10th.
The fall in the popularity of credit cards was also illustrated by a 14% fall in the number of credit cards in issue during the past five years to 60.7 million, while the number of individual cardholders has dropped from 31.7 million to 30 million.
There was also a 1.5% fall in cash withdrawals made during the third quarter, compared with the same period of 2009 - a decline of nearly 5% once inflation is factored in - as consumers instead used their debit cards.
Sandra Quinn, director of communications at the Payments Council, said: "Cash is too cumbersome for many consumers these days - they prefer a card for anything more than the smallest transactions.
"We now expect our debit cards to be accepted everywhere we go - in pubs and clubs, at the corner shop, online and on the high street. Having quickly supplanted cheques, then claimed the scalp of credit cards, they have now usurped cash's throne too."
The use of cheques continued to decline rapidly, with 104 million fewer cheques written during the past year. The group said if the current pace of decline continued, the number of cheques written each year would have halved by 2015.
Under-fire Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has warned train companies to keep stranded passengers better informed but said transport problems were inevitable as a blanket of snow and ice covers Britain.
Mr Hammond, who was told to "get a grip" after cancellations left thousands of people high and dry, said he had heard "far too many stories" about people being unable to obtain information about train services.
The minister's comments came as Britain endured another night of wintry weather with temperatures falling to -20C, but the easing of snow showers meant Gatwick Airport reopened on Friday morning.
However, major delays and cancellations were expected to still cause commuter chaos.
A statement on the airport's website said: "Our advice to passengers remains - do not travel to the airport without first checking with your airline to make sure that your flight is departing today. Passengers should expect delays and cancellations and it is likely to take a few days before flight schedules return to normal."
Mr Hammond has taken the step of writing to all train operators reminding them to ensure all passengers are kept fully informed.
He said: "Some disruption to train services is to be expected. But what is completely unacceptable is for rail passengers to be kept in the dark about what is happening with their services. We will be monitoring their performance on this very carefully while this situation continues."
Severe weather warning for widespread icy roads were issued by the Met Office on Friday morning for south-west England and the Highlands and Eilean Sar, with a severe frost expected across the whole of the UK.
Gavin Robbins, a forecaster for the Met Office, said most of the UK would get off to a bright start with snow showers only affecting Northern Ireland and the North West of Britain.
Overnight temperatures dipped to as low as -20.1C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, and -7C in Birmingham, forecasters said.
The family of the Lockerbie bomber is to sue over his "neglect" in a Scottish jail, Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has said.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was freed from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds last year after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.
The Libyan was sentenced to life in jail after his conviction for the murder of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.
He returned to his home country where he is said to be "very ill".
Colonel Gaddafi spoke about the bomber to staff and students at the London School of Economics over a video link on Thursday.
According to reports, he told them: "His health was not looked after in prison. He didn`t have any periodic examination. I wish him a long life.
"After he passes away, his family will demand compensation because he was deliberately neglected in prison."
The decision to free Megrahi, taken by Scotland`s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, sparked fury in the US and was condemned by President Barack Obama's administration. Meanwhile campaigners in the UK are calling for an independent inquiry into his conviction.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government do not doubt the conviction of al-Megrahi. He was given the same high standard of NHS care as any other prisoner."
The statement was echoed by a Scottish Prison Service spokesman, who said: "He received the high standard of NHS care that anybody else would get in the prison system."
The race to succeed in life is over for many children in the UK by the day they first arrive in primary school, a report has warned.
By the age of just five, "huge class differences" already exist between the abilities of pupils from comfortable and disadvantaged backgrounds, condemning many poor children to grow up to be poor adults, said the report's author Frank Field.
The Labour MP - recruited as "poverty tsar" by David Cameron - called on the Government to give more support to parents and children in the first five years of life, with the aim of breaking the cycle of disadvantage which traps families in poverty over generations.
The report by his Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances was welcomed by the Prime Minister and his deputy Nick Clegg as a "hugely valuable contribution" to the coalition Government's drive to end child poverty by 2020.
Mr Field recommended the creation of a set of Life Chances Indicators to measure children's cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five, as a measure of how successful Britain is at making life's outcomes more equal for all children.
And the report called for reform of the education system, with a new focus on what it termed the Foundation Years, covering the period between conception and five years of age. During this period - which should be regarded as the first of three educational stages, followed by school and higher or further education - parents should be offered midwifery and maternity advice, a home visiting service and a wide network of voluntary support for families.
Controversially, the report proposes that benefits for children should not automatically be increased each year. Instead, ministers should consider if the money could be used more effectively to widen life chances and defeat child poverty by building up Foundation Years provision.
Former welfare reform minister Mr Field said the recommendations in his report, entitled The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults, aimed to "change the shape of the distribution of income in this country" by enabling poor children to gain the skills to go on to highly paid careers.
"If we can ensure that parents from poor families know how best to extend the life opportunities of their children then - even if we cannot end income poverty in the short term - we can break this inter-generational cycle of disadvantage," he wrote. "We can ensure that poor children don't inevitably take their poverty into adulthood."
The report found huge class differences in the range of abilities from their first day at school and stressed the role of parents in determining their children's future, both in terms of employment and home life.
The head of England's failed campaign to host the 2018 World Cup has said that Fifa delegates believe the British media "killed" the bid.
Speaking at a press conference at the bid team's headquarters in Zurich, chief executive Andy Anson said: "We have spoken to some executive committee members. And I'll be very clear that what they are saying to us is one thing.
"I'll caveat this by saying this is not our excuse at all. But they are saying to us that our media killed us."
Despite investing £15 million and sending big-hitters such as Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham to Zurich in an attempt to win, only two members of Fifa's 22-man executive committee voted for England.
Mr Anson said: "My only issue, as you know, with the Sunday Times and the BBC, and more the BBC, was the timing of it.
"For us, it was almost impossible to bounce back with three or four weeks to go. And then in the last week to actually know that Fifa executive committee members were saying to us that our media is killing us."
Mr Anson was repeatedly pressed on who did not deliver on their promise of voting for England, but he refused to reveal any names. He also called for extensive changes to the World Cup voting process.
Only 22 of Fifa's 208 national football associations were included in the ballot, and the voting pattern of individual delegates was kept secret.
"You have got to open it up to all the member associations. You've got to widen the electorate," he said. "For me, you should have transparency and open voting so that everyone knows who voted for whom, because I don't believe that the secret ballot actually helps transparency at all and it leads to the situation we had yesterday where people promise you something and don't deliver."
Mr Anson said the team went to bed feeling the bid had "room to manoeuvre" in terms of votes, and were confident they would get through the first round: "To then find you only get two votes is tough and I'm still finding that hard to believe."
A pensioner is feared to have collapsed in her garden and frozen to death, police have said.
Officers discovered the body of Lillian Jenkinson, 80, in her back garden in Workington, Cumbria, at 10.40am on Thursday.
The day before an elderly man was also found dead in his garden in Kirby Stephen, also in Cumbria. It is not currently known how long he lay undetected.
Detectives said Mrs Jenkinson may have fallen in her garden and spent the night in freezing conditions before she was discovered.
Assistant chief constable Jerry Graham said: "Two elderly people have tragically died in their gardens in the last week and we know they were closely supported by family and neighbours.
"However not everyone has that support. So I would ask everyone to keep an eye out for vulnerable people in their community, particularly those who are elderly and live alone."
Temperatures plunged to well below zero at the start of the week in Cumbria.
The man, whom police have not named, was in his 80s and also lay undetected overnight. Investigators are examining whether he fell or collapsed because of a medical "episode".
Joan Rodgers, a neighbour who lives on Pinfold Street close to Mrs Jenkinson's home, said she was shocked and saddened by the "awful" death.
She said: "I fell in my living room the other night and I couldn't get up and was lying on the floor all night. At least I was inside. I wouldn't have liked to have gone outside. Fancy going out in this weather, because it's bad up here. I haven't been out since Tuesday."
Drivers in weather-affected areas are being warned by police to only travel if "absolutely essential" after further heavy snowfall and as ice takes hold in freezing conditions.
Severe weather warning for widespread icy roads were issued by the Met Office on Friday morning for south-west England and the Highlands and Eilean Sar, with a severe frost expected across the whole of the UK.
Gavin Robbins, a forecaster for the Met Office, said most of the UK would get off to a bright start with snow showers only affecting Northern Ireland and the North West. Overnight temperatures dipped to as low as -20.1C in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, and -7C in Birmingham, forecasters said.
Kent Police are advising of "very poor visibility" and "hazardous" driving conditions across the county including the M25 and M20. In Hampshire, police said that although there was no snowfall overnight, freezing conditions are making the roads unsafe.
On Friday morning, Kent Police said that the M25, M26 and M2 are passable with care, but Operation Stack, the force's plan for major congestion on the M20, is in place, with traffic being diverted off the motorway at junction 11 on to the A20.
Only Eurotunnel freight traffic is being queued between junctions 11 and 12. All other freight will be diverted as other traffic.
Meanwhile, under-fire Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has warned train companies to keep stranded passengers better informed but said transport problems were inevitable as a blanket of snow and ice covers Britain.
Mr Hammond, who was told to "get a grip" after cancellations left thousands of people high and dry, said he had heard "far too many stories" about people being unable to obtain information about train services.
The minister's comments came as Britain endured another night of wintry weather with temperatures falling to -20C, but the easing of snow showers meant Gatwick Airport reopened on Friday morning.
On the train networks, some services were cancelled by line operators First TransPennine, First Capital, Cross Country, First Great Western and Northern Rail. Warnings of severe disruption were also given by London Overground, East Coast, East Midlands, First Hull and South West trains.
A former British commander has condemned WikiLeaks for revealing US cables containing concerns about British forces not being "up to the task" in Helmand province in Afghanistan.
Colonel Stuart Tootal, who commanded the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment in Helmand, told BBC Breakfast: "The people who leak this stuff, they're not helping anyone.
"They are certainly not helping the poor British or American infantrymen and they are certainly not helping Afghan people. I don't think any of this is in the public interest."
He said the US held British forces "in the highest regard" and said the army had ensured "strong security" in Afghanistan for US troops. But Col Tootal admitted the UK had suffered from a lack of resources in Afghanistan.
Referring to comments in the cables claiming the UK had "made a mess of things" in Helmand, he said: "These are the views of some individuals and they are some time ago.
"They refer to a period of time when there were not the right resources. Some of the individual criticisms I think are very unfair. We have now got the resources in place.
"I don't think (the army) made a mess of things but we got some of our approach wrong in not having enough resources. A lot of this comment is historic and some of it is unfair."
Britain's military operations in Afghanistan were criticised by the country's president Hamid Karzai, local officials and the American commander of Nato troops, according to the leaked diplomatic papers.
The secret US embassy cables report conversations in which Mr Karzai said that Britain was "not up to the task" of securing the southern province of Helmand and suggested the job would be better given to the US.
US general Dan McNeill, who led Nato forces in Afghanistan in 2007/08, is said to have been "dismayed" by a British effort which "made a mess of things" in Helmand and Helmand governor Gulab Mangal is said to have criticised British troops for failing to get out of their bases and engage with local people.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has played down the possibility that rail companies could be punished with fines for their performance during the cold spell.
Mr Hammond said the focus needed to be on working together to prevent future chaos for passengers during freezing conditions, not financial punishment.
He told ITV1's Daybreak: "One of the problems we've got in our railway at the moment is a culture where as soon as something goes wrong everybody spends their time and energy asking who's going to pay? Who's going to be fined?
"I actually think it would be better if we get Network Rail, the train operators and the Met Office working together to see how we avoid the problem in future rather than who we fine.
"If there's any sign that people are behaving recklessly because they're not facing financial risk then obviously we'll look at that, but it's Network Rail and the train operator together that make the decision about the timetable and what weather conditions are going to be."
Referring the plight of commuters spending the night on stranded trains, he said "some serious questions" needed to be asked.
Mr Hammond, who was told to "get a grip" after cancellations left thousands of people high and dry, said he had heard "far too many stories" about people being unable to obtain information about train services.
Mr Hammond has taken the step of writing to all train operators reminding them to ensure all passengers are kept fully informed.
He said: "Some disruption to train services is to be expected. But what is completely unacceptable is for rail passengers to be kept in the dark about what is happening with their services. We will be monitoring their performance on this very carefully while this situation continues."
Former Labour MP Phil Woolas has lost his High Court bid to overturn a decision stripping him of his Commons seat.
A specially convened election court declared void the general election result in Oldham East and Saddleworth.
It removed ex-minister Mr Woolas as the MP and banned him from standing for election for three years after finding him guilty of deliberately lying about a rival, Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.
On Friday Lord Justice Thomas, Mr Justice Tugendhat and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies upheld the court's ruling. The judges said that, although he was entitled to have one of the findings against him set aside, there had been "illegal practice" by Mr Woolas.
A spokesman for Commons Speaker John Bercow said he would "study the judgment" before deciding how to proceed.
Mr Bercow ruled last month that the case could not be discussed in the chamber as it was sub judice - seen as a signal that a by-election should be delayed. It came after a judge said the court action would be fast-tracked in a bid to ensure voters were not left for too long without an MP.
Labour - who by convention would move the writ for a fresh poll in the constituency - said at that point it would hold off "to allow the legal process to be concluded". The decision on whether to press ahead now may depend on any decision by Mr Woolas to press the case further.
A Labour spokesman said: "The Labour Party administratively suspended Phil Woolas after the original judgment of the election court. Following the conclusion of this judicial review, the Labour Party will consider this issue in detail and whether further action is appropriate."
The judges, sitting at the High Court in London, concluded that statements made by Mr Woolas about Mr Watkins "were not of a trivial nature".
The judges said: "They were a serious personal attack on a candidate by saying he condoned violence by extremists and refused to condemn those who advocated violence."
More than a third of the UK's infrastructure - including energy, water and transport - is under foreign ownership, the competition watchdog has said.
But the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said foreign investment can strengthen competition and help drive down costs.
Foreign ownership varies by sector, the OFT said, with rail being one of the least popular areas. Waste and airport sectors were more highly favoured by overseas companies and investors.
The OFT study aimed to map infrastructure ownership in the UK and provide reassurances to investors over competition.
The Government expects some £200 billion will be invested into the country's infrastructure over the next five years, the OFT added.
