Tories defeat bill to accept 3,000 child refugees
A campaign for the UK to accept 3,000 child refugees has failed after the House of Commons voted narrowly to reject the plan, according to a report in
The Guardian.
An amendment to the immigration bill would have forced the UK to accept thousands of unaccompanied minors, mostly from Syria,
The Guardian reported. The bill was originally introduced in the House of Lords by Alf Dubs, a Czech-born Labour peer who was rescued by Kindertransport, a government-backed programme that took in child refugees during World War II.
The proposal failed by 294 to 276 Monday following a successful attempt by the Home Office to persuade Tory rebels that it was already doing enough to help child refugees,
The Guardian reported. Labour has vowed to continue efforts to change the government’s mind.
BHS paid owner more than £25 million before collapse
BHS paid out more than £25 million to its owner, Retail Acquisitions, in the 13 months leading up to the department store’s collapse into administration,
The Guardian reports.
BHS called in administrators on Monday, marking the UK’s largest high street collapse since the 2008 failure of Woolworth’s, according to
The Guardian. The BHS collapse puts nearly 11,000 jobs at risk, and Retail Acquisitions and billionaire Sir Philip Green, former owner of the department store, are facing scrutiny over their roles in the company’s failure.
MPs are calling for an inquiry into the collapse and labelling Green’s handling of the company as an “unacceptable face of capitalism,”
The Guardian reported. Green and his family collected £586 million in dividends, rental payments and interest on loans during the 15 years they owned BHS. Meanwhile, the company has been left with a £571 million pension deficit.
Union leaders: Striking doctors aren’t to blame for patient deaths
Union leaders have told junior doctors set to strike today that they can’t be held responsible for patient deaths that result from the walkoff, according to a
Telegraph report.
A letter from the British Medical Association assured junior doctors that patient safety is the responsibility of hospitals and NHS trusts rather than individual doctors, the
Telegraph reported. The letter also urged medicos to ignore pleas to return to work.
Up to 45,000 junior doctors are set to take part in today’s planned walkoff, the first all-out strike in NHS history, the
Telegraph reported.
Spiking housing costs equivalent to a 10% income-tax rise
Skyrocketing housing costs over the last two decades have had the same financial impact on the average family as a 10% rise in the basic income tax rate, the
Telegraph reported.
An analysis by the Resolution Foundation found that rising housing costs have pushed up the cost of monthly repayments as stagnant wages have put the squeeze on households’ living expenses, the Telegraph reported. Families are now spending more than a fifth of their income on housing (21%), up four percentage points from 17% in 1995, the
Telegraph reported. For an average dual-earning couple with one child, that works out the same as if the basic rate of tax rose from 20% to 30%.
Council-run schools outperform academies – report
The government’s plan to force all schools to become academies may be on shaky philosophical ground as research suggests that council-run schools perform better.
An analysis by the Local Government Association has found that 86% of local authority schools received ratings of “good” or “outstanding” by schools watchdog Ofsten,
The Guardian reported. That’s compared to 82% of academies and 79% of free schools. And using data only from newer, more rigorous inspection guidelines yields an even greater disparity, with 81% of council-run schools rated good or outstanding, compared to just 73% of academies.
The study doesn’t come at a good time for the government; the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, is coming under increasing pressure from her own party to back off of her plan to force all schools to become academies,
The Guardian reported.
These aren’t the royals you’re looking for
Princes William and Harry have secretly filmed cameos as storm troopers for
Star Wars: Episode VIII, according to a
Daily Mail report.
The princes visited the set last week, the
Mail reported. While there, they hugged Chewbacca and even staged a lightsaber battle. But, according to the
Mail, they also took the opportunity to suit up and film a scene. They will appear in the film alongside British actors Daisy Ridley and Jon Boyega, who play heroes Rey and Finn in the series. The royals will likely keep their helmets on, much like Daniel Craig did for his sneaky cameo in last year’s
The Force Awakens, the
Mail reported.
Star Wars: Episode VIII is due for release late next year.
The DNA’s the thing wherein we’ve found descendants of a king
If you’re a British male, there’s about a 50% chance you’re descended from royalty. Of a sort, at any rate.
A new study has found that half of all Western European men are descended from one Bronze Age “king,” according to a
Telegraph report. The warrior chieftain lived about 4,000 years ago and was the progenitor of a dynasty of nobles which spread across Europe. While it’s not known who he was or where he lived, scientists are sure he existed because of DNA markers in the population today, the
Telegraph reported.
“Half of the European population is descended from just one man,” Dr Chris Tyler Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute told the
Telegraph. “We can only speculate as to what happened.”
