6:36 am, April 3, 2023
Passport Office staff begin five-week strike over pay and pensions
Passport Office workers are beginning a five-week strike in the increasingly bitter civil service dispute over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions.
More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at eight sites are walking out in an escalation of the long-running row.
Picket lines will be mounted on Monday outside the offices in Glasgow, Durham, Liverpool, Southport, Peterborough, London, Belfast and Newport in Wales.
‘Political correctness’ will not stop crackdown on grooming gangs, says PM
The prime minister has pledged that ‘political correctness’ will not get in the way of a crackdown on grooming gangs, as ministers promised tougher sentences and new support for local forces to protect children from abuse.
Rishi Sunak will travel to northern England on Monday to announce a new set of measures the government says will protect young women and girls from sexual abuse, which will also see ethnicity data used to support police investigations.
Part of the plan will see specialist officers assist local police forces to solve child sexual exploitation investigations as part of a new grooming gangs taskforce, as Sunak warned that for too long ‘political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women’.
Port of Dover queues clear after weekend of disruption
Queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover have cleared after a weekend of disruption, according to one of the ferry companies hit by delays.
Coach passengers were forced to spend hours waiting to enter the port, be processed and board ferries over the weekend.
This morning P&O Ferries tweeted: ‘There are no longer any queues at the entrance to the Port of Dover. We apologise for the wait times experienced this weekend.’
Man to be sentenced for murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel
A man is due to be sentenced for the murder of Liverpool schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
Thomas Cashman, 34, was found guilty last week of murdering the nine-year-old and the wounding with intent of her mother Cheryl Korbel, 46, as he chased convicted drug dealer Joseph Nee into their home in the Dovecot area of the city on August 22 last year.
The jury also found him guilty of the attempted murder of Nee and two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
UK housing model is ‘broken’, says Gove
The UK’s housing model is “broken”, housing secretary Michael Gove has said.
The comments by the senior Cabinet minister come in a foreword to a collection of essays by liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue.
First reported by the Times newspaper, Gove writes: ‘We desperately need more homes to bring ownership within reach of many more people.’ The essays, written by Tory MPs as well as commentators and experts, discuss a thorny issue for the government.
Weekend Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Constellation Automotive Group appoints former Cambria man Mullins to its board and Marshall’s
- Opinion: It’s boring but it’s also brilliant. And that’s exactly what a VW should be!
- Car dealers react to Cazoo’s £704m loss as used car firm’s results branded ‘an absolute shocker’
- New car registrations rise in Europe, buoyed by strong sales of EVs
- Were you caught out by 2023’s automotive April Fool’s?
Nearly half of teachers say workload is unmanageable most or all the time – poll
Nearly half of teachers feel their workload is unmanageable most or all of the time, a survey suggests.
The majority of teachers said increased funding to pay for more staff (88 per cent), a less punitive inspection system (79 per cent) and smaller class sizes (73 per cent) would have a ‘big positive impact’ on their workload in the coming year.
A poll of more than 17,800 National Education Union (NEU) members in England and Wales found that 35 per cent of teachers viewed their workload as unmanageable most of the time and 13 per cent said they felt this all of the time. It also found that more than a third (37 per cent) of teachers, and around a fifth (21 per cent) of support staff, said they feel stressed at work 80 per cent or more of the time.
Heritage railway turns back the clock as it rejoins mainline network
A railway enthusiast who rode on the last British Rail train to travel on the Swanage to Wareham railway at the age of 13 is returning 51 years later to drive a newly restored passenger service on the picturesque route.
Volunteer Peter Frost, who was one of the first to help renovate and rebuild the Dorset line following its closure in 1972, will be working as a conductor-driver on the trial service to reconnect the Isle of Purbeck stations with the mainline.
The Swanage Railway will be using its restored and upgraded 1950s heritage diesel trains, used by British Rail across its network from the 1950s to the 1990s, to operate the 11-mile service from Swanage. It includes a one-mile stretch on the Network Rail main line from Worgret Junction into Wareham station. The service trial operates on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until September 10, 2023.
Weather outlook
Plenty of sunshine today for the majority of the country with just an occasional patch of cloud, reports BBC Weather. Northern Ireland and western Scotland will see variable cloud.
A clear night for most giving a chilly night. Northern Ireland and western Scotland will hang onto the cloud.
