News

The US powerball jackpot has reached a record high of $1.4 billion after 18 rollovers dating back to early November. Two winners shared a record £66 million National Lottery jackpot on Saturday in the UK after 14 consecutive rollovers found no winner. Despite the prize being shared, if each ticket is held by an individual they would still be the (joint) biggest National Lottery winners in history with a whopping £33 million in prize money. In the US, a similar run of rollovers...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A total of 2,641 NHS staff were made redundant and then rehired by the NHS in the three years since April 2012. In total the NHS forked out £92million in redundancy pay to staff who were back working for the NHS not long afterwards, creating a revolving door policy and costing taxpayers' millions of pounds. Cameron’s health reforms appear to have contributed to this shocking statistic, it has been claimed by a senior opposition MP....

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor More unsettling times for the Labour Party, as Catherine McKinnell the Shadow Attorney General has resigned from the frontbench citing concerns about the direction and internal conflict within the party. She has only been in the post since September 2015 and has not had enough time to settle into the role. The MP for Newcastle North, who has three young children, sent a letter to Corbyn explaining she was having problems balancing her personal commitments, but...

The number of crimes linked to dating apps Tinder and Grindr has increased seven fold in two years, according to new statistics. Police in England and Wales received more than 400 reports of crimes where Grindr and Tinder was mentioned in the year up to October 2015. That compares to 204 in 2014 and 55 in 2013. Crimes relating to the apps include rape, child sex grooming and attempted murder. Police say users are vulnerable to “sextortion” and urged better awareness on...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Thousands of new homes in the ‘fast track’ UK Government’s housing development zones are in flood zones. This means that these homes could be become uninsurable and in the event of flooding, uninhabitable. These building schemes could become even more unsafe as Government funding for flood controls are uncertain. According to the National Audit Office funding for the Environment Agency fell 10% in real terms during the last government. A Greenpeace investigation used a Freedom...

Yorkshire powerhouse Leeds has been revealed as the best city for a payrise in 2016 according to new data. CV-Library stats show salaries grew by 4.7 per cent in Leeds last year, with its county neighbour Sheffield close by with growth of 4.2 per cent. London saw a 2.5 per cent growth in advertised salaries in 2015 compared with 2014, coming in fourth on the list of top ten salary growers. Proving to be among the best off in the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor David Cameron was interviewed by Andrew Marr and then band Squeeze came on to sing cradle to the grave. Only they changed the words in the song to "the destruction of the welfare state" and David Cameron still applauded at the end, watch video here.

By Tayler Groom, Groundwork London Groundwork London and the London Community Resource Network (LCRN) have launched innovative new reuse hubs across five London housing estates. Known locally as ‘The Loops’, the hubs will collect, refurbish and redistribute unwanted furniture and household goods, reducing the number of re-useable items going to landfill. Fly-tipping across the capital is increasing every year, costing tax payers an estimated £20 million in 2015 (according to data analysis from UBRS). The aim of the new reuse...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A police officer has claimed that police improperly destroyed files complied on Green Party Peer Lady Jones. David Williams believes his unit destroyed records to prevent Jenny Jones from uncovering the degree to which her political work had been monitored. Williams claims it was part of a “highly irregular” cover-up. Lady Jones, who is also Deputy Chair of the committee that supervises the Met police, was kept away from the records regarding the surveillance operation...