David Cameron has announced plans to give more autonomy to Conservatives in the North of England in an attempt to reverse more than a decade of declining local support (Greg Hurst writes).

A separate Conservative party board will take responsibility for winning at least 15 seats that the party needs to gain in the North at the next election if Mr Cameron is to secure a Commons majority.

Just three of the thirty-three Tory gains at the last election were in the North. The party’s share of the vote fell fractionally across the region and Tories admit that their organisation has collapsed in some constituencies.

Polling evidence suggests that the boost to Tory fortunes under Mr Cameron’s leadership recedes the farther travelled from London, reinforcing impressions that his modernising message has a metropolitan rather than a provincial appeal.

The new board will be chaired by William Hague, Shadow Foreign Secretary and MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire, who will be the principal spokesman in the North of England, speaking with his distinctive Yorkshire vowels rather than Mr Cameron’s smoother southern tones.

Husband cleared

A civil servant who drove his depressed wife to a railway bridge where she leapt 100ft to her death was found not guilty of helping her to commit suicide. A jury at Doncaster Crown Court cleared David Stephenson, 49, who said that he did not know that his wife, Linda, 48, was was planning to end her life when he took her to the viaduct in South Yorkshire.

NHS patient groups to be abolished

Parliament will on Monday abolish the only formal mechanisms by which patients can influence the policy of the NHS (Nigel Hawkes writes).

The second reading of the Local Government and Public Involvement Bill will abolish the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement, and the 400 patient and public forums, set up three years ago to replace community health councils.

Yesterday, in a speech to the Policy Network Conference, Tony Blair extolled the importance of “patient power”, without referring to the imminent abolition of the bodies that his Government set up to provide public input into NHS policy.

Sharon Grant, chair of the commission, said that the abolition of the groups would remove “important rights and functions, won during fierce in-fighting inside and outside Parliament”.

She said that there was “little detail” about the Government’s plan instead to establish local involvement networks (Links) at local authority level.

Father hanged

The family of a father-of-one who hung himself said he had been left in “turmoil” aftertime in a Greek prison, an inquest heard. David Wilson, 47, had been jailed without trial after refugees were found in his lorry in a Greek port in March 2003. Although the refugees had admitted that Mr Wilson was unaware of their presence, he was sentenced to 11 years and fined £47,000.

Armed thief jailed

An armed robber whose actions left a teacher with back injuries after she leapt from a window has been jailed for a minimum of seven years. Eric Damoa, 29, was convicted of two counts of aggravated burglary and two of false imprisonment at Harrow Crown Court in August 2005. Gang leader Frank Agyemang, 30, was also sentenced to a minimum of seven years.

Ferry escapes ban

Otis Ferry, 24, the son of the rock star Bryan Ferry, escaped a driving ban despite having an alcohol reading of 55mcg in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg. At a special reasons hearing, Gloucester magistrates heard that Ferry’s friends had been buying him treble shots at a nightclub in Cirencester, but he thought that he was drinking singles. He was fined £500.

Student’s 200ft fall

A medical student fell 200ft to his death when he slipped while walking along a clifftop, an inquest was told. Benjamin Preston, 25, died from head injuries near Durdle Door, Dorset. He was a student at King’s College London. The inquest heard that Mr Preston had suffered from depression. The Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset Coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Coroner’s verdict on Thailand killing

A coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at the inquest into the death of a British student murdered during a holiday in Thailand. Katherine Horton, 21, was telephoning her mother from Koh Samui on January 1 last year when she was beaten unconscious, raped and left to drown. Two Thai fishermen were found guilty of murder.

Mary Hassell, the Cardiff Coroner, told Miss Horton’s mother: “I wish I could find some words of comfort for you. I think that Katherine lost consciousness quickly and it seems she may have been unaware of what took place.”

Footballer arrested

The Portsmouth footballer and Democratic Republic of Congo international, Lomana LuaLua, has been arrested on suspicion of assault causing actual bodily harm. The 26-year-old had been detained by police last October after a domestic dispute with his partner, but was later released without charge.

Grunwick libel

Grunwick Laboratories accepted libel damages from Baroness Williams and the BBC over Tory! Tory! Tory! a 2006 broadcast in which Lady Williams, referring to a strike in 1976 at the film processing company, said that employees had been badly treated. Both defendants had apologised previously for broadcasts containing similar allegations.

Sorry Street-Porter

Janet Street-Porter has apologised for swearing at her neighbour but denies making a racist remark. The former I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! star and newspaper editor said she had been distressed after her sister’s funeral. In 2003 Street-Porter, 59, was criticised by Plaid Cymru after attacking Welsh people as “unfriendly”.

Dietrich’s earring

An earring found at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and allegedly lost by Marlene Dietrich 73 years ago cannot be hers, her family has claimed. Staff at the beach said she lost the earring while she was riding the rollercoaster in 1934. But her daughter, Maria Riva, 83, claims that it is not her mother’s — because she didn’t have pierced ears.

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