Senior Tories issue warning to Cameron
The first warning shots have been fired against David Cameron’s leadership by Conservative MPs who have pledged to rebel against his plan to prop up Tony Blair if he faces defeat in Commons votes on education and health reforms (Andrew Pierce writes).
The threat came at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers from two of the party’s most senior MPs. They said that Mr Cameron would struggle to impose his will on the parliamentary party.
With Mr Blair having suffered his first Commons defeat as Prime Minister last month, over anti-terror legislation, a clutch of MPs told the 1922 meeting that the party was eager to inflict more punishment.
Peter Tapsell, who was first elected to Parliament in 1959, was loudly cheered when he declared: “History teaches us when two frontbenches agree, they are always wrong.”
Mr Cameron has courted controversy by pledging to back the Government if it offers “right measures, good measures to give schools more autonomy”. Douglas Hogg, an MP since 1979, said that he had no intention of bolstering a weakened Prime Minister.
Bird records lost
Nearly 2,000 birds from the quarantine centre that had Britain’s first suspected case of avian flu have been sold to pet shops across the country (Valerie Elliott writes).
The sales have only just been discovered because records of birds kept at the Pegasus Birds quarantine centre, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex, were mislaid, Margaret Beckett, the Rural Affairs Secretary, told MPs yesterday.
Opposition MPs immediately called for tougher controls on quarantine arrangements.
Best funeral
The body of George Best arrives in Northern Ireland today before tomorrow’s funeral. Hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected to line the streets of Belfast. The funeral service is being held at the Great Hall at Stormont. About 300 people, including Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, will attend the service, which will be relayed on big screens outside. Denis Law, a Manchester United team-mate, will be a pallbearer.
Muslim to seek Briton's release
A former president of the Muslim Association of Britain flew to Iraq yesterday to make a plea for the release of the Briton Norman Kember.
Anas al-Tikriti, 37, who was born in Tikrit, northwest of Baghdad, said that he would appeal to the kidnappers through the media. “Hopefully someone will respond when they hear someone speaking their dialect,” he said.
Fishermen fined
The masters and owners of nine North Sea trawlers from Whitby, North Yorkshire, were fined a total of £122,000 by Hull Crown Court after they admitted landing more than 400 tonnes of cod, haddock and whiting worth an estimated £475,000 in breach of European Union quotas over ten weeks in 2003.
King's tomb found
The tomb of Edward the Confessor has been found under Westminster Abbey. Archaeologists using radar technology discovered the burial chamber of the Anglo-Saxon king (1042-66) during work on the abbey’s medieval Cosmati mosaic pavement around the altar. The tomb will not be excavated.
Solicitor barred
A solicitor who used his clients’ money when he ran his business from a hut in his garden at Harlow, Essex, was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Michael Blow, 55, had a £546,000 “black hole” in his accounts. Some of the money will have to be found by the solicitors’ insurance fund.
Poll pilot cleared
A businessman who trailed a banner behind a light aircraft insulting Labour candidates in a 2003 Essex local election has had two convictions for election offences overturned by the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the jury had been misdirected. Terence Holding had “intervened in the election”, it had been claimed.
Kayak triumph
Three men have become the first Britons to circumnavigate South Georgia, in the South Atlantic, in a kayak. Pete Bray, 48, of Pembrokeshire, Jeff Allen, 43, from Penryn, Cornwall, and Nigel Dennis, 50, from Holyhead, Wales, teamed with Hadas Feldman, 34, an Israeli woman, on the 13-day, 420-mile expedition.
Victim of note
A great-grandfather who lost more than £320 in two street muggings faces a prison sentence after photocopying a number of banknotes to hand over if he was attacked for a third time. Harold Newton, 70, of Northwich, Cheshire, admitted possession of counterfeit currency at Vale Royal Magistrates’ Court.
Girl, 7, sees her mother killed
A father slashed his ex-wife’s throat in front of the couple’s daughter during a row over the woman’s new boyfriend, Leicester Crown Court was told. Godfrey Muzhuzha, 35, of Braunstone, Leicester, said that he had heard the girl, 7, begging him to “stop”, but did not know why. He claims that Judith Muzhuzha, 31, who died from a severed windpipe, attacked him in April and he was forced to defend himself.
The trial continues.
Sailors rescued
Six yachtsmen taking part in the ARC 2005 race were rescued 300 miles (480km) off the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic. The coastguard in Cornwall co-ordinated the rescue of the British and Swedish competitors from the 13-metre Sweden 42 class yacht Caliso, which had a crack in the keel box.
War sites listed
Historic aviation sites will be awarded listed status by English Heritage. First World War hangars at Larkhill, Wiltshire, will be protected, along with Battle of Britain stations at Debden, Essex, and Duxford, Cambridgeshire, and RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, from which 617 Squadron’s Dambuster raid flew in 1943.
Spending curbed
Spending on consumer goods has dropped in the past year as people struggle with debt, the price of petrol and utility bills, according to research carried out for More Than. People in London suffered the worse fall (5 per cent) in value of their possessions. Consumer confidence was found to be at its lowest level for 2½ years.
Choice of water
A new water supply licensing regime for England and Wales has come into force. Ofwat, the water regulator, has granted licences to three companies to compete against existing water providers. Aquavitae UK Ltd, WaterCall Ltd and Severn Trent Water Select have “roaming” licences not tied to any one area.
Emergency calls
Hereford and Worcester fire brigade has taken delivery of the first fire engine in Britain to feature a portable lavatory. It says the feature will be useful to personnel at protracted or remote incidents, and eight new tenders will have it. A demonstration of the tender’s capabilities was planned.
Return to sender
A message in a bottle thrown from a ship off Nova Scotia, Canada, was found on a British beach. Phil Milne was walking his dog at Tolcarne Beach, near Newquay, Cornwall, when he made the find. He plans to contact Bill Lowe, from Denver, who wrote the message as he sailed around the world last year.
Heroin addict raped widow, 77
A heroin addict who raped a 77-year-old widow twice after burgling her house has been jailed for the equivalent of 17 years in an indeterminate sentence. Peter Rigg, 29, of Bury, Greater Manchester, will be on licence for at least ten years after being released on parole. Bolton Crown Court was also told how, days earlier, he had threatened to kill a wheelchair user, Leon Bunnell, 38, while robbing him.
Climber killed
A climber, believed to be an Englishman in his 20s, has died after a fall on a mountain range in Ireland. He was last seen near Carrauntoohill, Co Kerry, on Tuesday. A body was found on the east side of the mountain at 10.30am yesterday after relatives reported the climber missing.
Torturer's plea
Three Appeal Court judges rejected a claim by a self-confessed torturer for Saddam Hussein that sending him back to Iraq would breach his human rights. The asylum case of the man — identified only as A — must go back to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal for reconsideration.
Binmen escorted
Police are escorting refuse lorries around a housing estate in Thetford, Norfolk, after binmen said that they were being abused and intimidated by angry residents who were confused about the correct way to divide up their rubbish for recycling. No arrests have been made.
Culture vulture
Boris Johnson, MP, whose magazine, The Spectator, ridiculed Liverpool for its grief over the murder of the hostage Ken Bigley, became a member of a new, all-party parliamentary group designed to assist the city as 2008 European Capital of Culture.
Surgeons call for better care
Surgeons are unhappy with the quality of care for many patients nearing the end of their lives, a survey shows today. Their concerns centre on pain relief and other end-of-life care for patients in acute surgical wards. Orthopaedic surgeons are the most unhappy, with fewer than 20 per cent of them expressing satisfaction with the care given. The disclosure came in the annual Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality, a review of all deaths that occurred in 2004 where the patient was under the care of a surgeon.
“This provides evidence that patients are not all receiving the level of palliative or end-of-life care they should expect,” the report says. “There appears to be better provision for some groups of patients than others.”
New drugs body in place by April
Scotland Against Drugs (SAD), the publicly funded body set up in 1996, is to be wound up in its present form. Hugh Henry, Deputy Justice Minister, said its functions would be transferred to the new Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives from April.
He said the switch would offer a greater impetus to tackling wider problems which many serious drugs abusers faced in making the transition from addiction to healthy, fulfilling lives. “The evidence shows that drug treatment must be combined with wider support if we are to get people permanently off drugs.”
SAD has, among other things, provided work for more than 50 recovered addicts across Scotland.
Obstetricians to remain in Wick
Hospital campaigners have welcomed the decision to retain consultant-led maternity services in the North of Scotland. NHS Highland had proposed a midwife-led service for Caithness General Hospital in Wick, after senior doctors raised concerns about the impact of low birth numbers on staff retention and skills within the consultant-led unit.
But angry residents and community leaders claimed that lives could be put at risk if babies or mothers had to make the 100-mile trip to Inverness for specialist treatment by obstetricians. Now NHS Highland intend to recruit three permanent consultant obstetricians for Caithness. While based in Wick, they would be appointed to Highland-wide contracts in order to make the posts as attractive as possible.
Robber wanted
Police have issued a picture of a man for whom they are looking after an armed robbery at a jewellery store. The public is being warned not to approach Maurice Hotchkiss if they see him but to contact Lothian and Borders Police. The force says that it wants to question Hothckiss after the incident at the Tempus Fugit jewellers in the High Street, Musselburgh, on November 24. Hotchkiss, 27, is described as white, 5ft 10in, with short dark unkempt hair and slim build. He speaks with an East Lothian accent.
Heroin seized
Fife Constabulary officers arrested a 40-year-old man and recovered heroin worth £300,000 after stopping a car on the A92 near Cowdenbeath. Detective Inspector Neil Kerr, head of the drugs squad, said: “This proves how invaluable intelligence from communities is in enabling us to mount these operations and continue to keep the drugs, and the people who deal them, off the street.”
Bat returned
The Scotland seam bowler Paul Hoffman, 35, has spoken of his relief after a treasured cricket bat stolen during a burglary at his flat in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, was recovered by police from a pawn shop in Hamilton. Hoffman, originally from Australia, used the bat at the ICC Trophy final in July when Scotland defeated Ireland to qualify for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
