£700m ‘catch-up fund’ will benefit better-off pupils most

Pupils from better-off families are set to benefit most from the £700 million pound catch-up programme announced by the government. Education secretary Gavin Williamson laid out details of the fund at today’s (Tuesday) Downing Street briefing and stated that no pupil’s prospects should be “blighted by the pandemic”. Williamson confirmed that all schools in England […]

Continue Reading

‘Humanity at tipping point’ warns Attenborough at UN Security Council session chaired by PM

Sir David Attenborough issued a stark warning to world leaders that humanity’s future is at a tipping point in an historic address to the UN Security Council. The nonagenarian broadcaster and environmentalist said “climate change is the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced,” one that may “destroy entire cities” and “alter […]

Continue Reading

Johnson declares ‘the end is in sight’ while Sage says at least 32,000 more could die with Covid

Boris Johnson has laid out England’s exit from lockdown, declaring “the end is in sight” on the day the UK passed 129,498 deaths of people with Covid-19. The prime minister’s “cautious but also irreversible” road map out of lockdown is, he hopes, a “one way road to freedom” where even nightclubs could be open on […]

Continue Reading

UK on track for record levels of child poverty, warns Children’s Commissioner, yet education secretary’s focus is a culture war

The Children’s Commissioner for England has used her final speech to excoriate the people employed and paid to educate, look after and protect the children of this country, while simultaneously condemning the silence around their collective failings. Anne Longfield, whose six year tenure ends this month, delivered a devastating final report on how far children […]

Continue Reading

Government ‘betrayal of millions’ in cladding scandal; BoE governor warns households of higher costs

The government has been accused of “a betrayal of millions’” over their £3.5 billion fund to fix the cladding scandal that has left leaseholders in debt and limbo since the Grenfell fire, more than three and a half years ago. Politicians from all parties joined homeowners and campaigners to condemn the government’s £3.5 billion fund […]

Continue Reading

PM to publish roadmap out of lockdown as R rate falls – but death toll rises past 111,000

The coronavirus rate of infection in the UK is back below 1, figures released today reveal, confirming the epidemic is finally shrinking, a month into England’s third lockdown. Boris Johnson is set to publish the government’s roadmap for lifting the lockdown restrictions in England on February 22, as data confirmed a decrease in positive coronavirus […]

Continue Reading

DUP ‘absolutely astounded’ to be accused of stoking tensions over Brexit border crisis

Arlene Foster claims she is “absolutely astounded” at suggestions her Democratic Unionist Party is stoking tensions to undermine the Northern Ireland protocol that has rocked post Brexit relations and put at risk the Good Friday Agreement. Foster’s comments follows revelations that border staff at Northern Ireland’s ports were stood down by a DUP minister who […]

Continue Reading

Sturgeon accused of jeopardising UK’s vaccine supply in row with EU; PM calls Scottish indy-ref ‘completely irrelevant’

Nicola Sturgeon is being accused of undermining the UK in its escalating battle with the EU over vaccine doses. The Scottish first minister is “threatening to publish details of confidential supplies” that the “UK government wants to keep secret”, the Times is reporting today (Thursday). The other pro-Conservative broadsheet, the Telegraph has also piled in, […]

Continue Reading