News

Honouring Sir Gerald Kaufman MP who has died aged 86, many tributes today mention the pugnacity as well as intellectual might, influence, length of career, kindness and concern for those most marginalised by society of the outspoken former frontbencher. The controversial Labour was unafraid to tell truth to power even if that occasionally meant embarrassing powerful officials who came before the committees he served in, figures in his own party, or sometimes fellow members of Britain's Jewish community with whom he...

Not great news for 16-18-year-olds hoping to get some decent A-levels, as the government has decided that ensuring this age group gets good grades had taken a back seat, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Money has recently been clawed back from schools, after the government ditched its plan to make every school an academy and decided that the funding should be returned to central government rather than used in other areas of the educational system. Now the think-tank...

British Airways has held off Apple, Microsoft and PayPal to be crowned the top business superbrand of 2017. Despite successive strikes making the headlines and unpredictable poll results disrupting the economy BA was ranked top in a survey of marketing experts and thousands of British business professionals. The airline outperformed nearly 1,500 others in the sixteenth annual poll, with Apple retaining second spot and, in its strongest performance since 2011, US tech giant Microsoft moving up to third. Fellow US tech giants, PayPal...

Unless you live under a rock you will have no doubt heard about the devastating effects of the recent storm named Doris to visit our shores on Thursday. We Brits are renowned for talking about the weather at any given opportunity, so it was no wonder that the recent storm was the topic on most people lips over the past few days. Storm Doris made her presence known up and down the country. With gusts of up to 100 mph...

A skeleton found at the bottom of a well on a Greek island has been confirmed as a missing British tourist who disappeared almost 12 years ago. Tragic Steven Cook vanished while out with friends on the first night of his holiday in Malia on Crete in September 2005. The 20-year-old was last seen in a bar asking for directions to his hotel but walked off in the wrong direction at the end of a night out. Last week Greek...

The world's oldest McDonald's based in a 12 century medieval building will serve its last Big Mac tomorrow as its closes for the last time. The restaurant branch, which opened in 1982, features wooden balconies, stained glass windows as well as exposed stone walls. The historic McDonald's, on Pride Hill, Shrewsbury, will shut for good as the fast food giant believes the ancient building "isn't suitable to meet their future plans". With parts of the structure dating back to the 1100s...

Minerals within diamonds can take billions of years to grow, suggests new research. Scientists examining diamonds from two mines in Botswana, southern Africa. found that 'inclusions' - considered by jewellers as flaws - dated back over two billion years. One diamond contained silicate material from 2.3 billion years ago in its interior and a 250 million-year-old garnet crystal towards its outer rim - the largest age range ever detected in a single specimen. Researchers also found that the carbon within...

Psychopaths make the best bosses, according to a new study, but only if they have the 'benign' form of the condition. They are normally seen as cold, manipulative, thrill seekers without any remorse - and all at other's expense. But there is a good side which leads to "top professional performance" in the right individuals - even helping doctors in an emergency. A study of employees found there is a toxic and benign form of psychopathy - and the latter makes...

The Brexit exodus is threatening to derail the British economy as vital industries struggle to fill vacancies. Net migration fell to its lowest level in three years according to the latest statistics, driven by a sharp increase in the number of eastern Europeans leaving in the wake of Brexit. Figures from the Office for National Statistics have been welcomed by the Tories and will appease the many voters who voted for Brexit because of the levels of immigration. But they come...