UK News

Max Polyakov and the Momentum Behind Britain’s Next Space-Industrial Chapter

Britain’s space story often gets pictured as big rockets, dramatic countdowns, and distant launch sites. The real momentum, though, usually starts in calmer places: an engineering workshop that learns a new manufacturing trick, a university lab that turns into a supplier, a logistics firm that...

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Government supports will donation campaign

The government has lent its support to encourage people to leave money to charity in their wills.

As part of this week’s Remember A Charity in your Will campaign the Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd will call on UK solicitors to raise the topic with clients.

The joint letter from the minister and Remember A Charity will accompany a nationwide poster campaign and social...

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government

will

Remember a Charity in Your Will

Nick Hurd

Mercury Prize set to announce albums of the year shortlist

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize Albums of the Year 2013 shortlist will be announced at 5.30pm on Wednesday (11 September).

The annual "music Booker" panel select 12 of the best and most significant UK music releases, before judging a winner at a ceremony on Wednesday 30 October.

Previous winners have included Primal Scream, Suede, Elbow, PJ Harvey (the only artist to scoop the...

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Ed Miliband to tell TUC he will build "a new relationship with trade union members"

Ed Miliband will today (Tuesday 10 September) declare his ambition to build a mass membership One Nation Labour Party rooted in the lives of working people and communities across Britain.

In his speech to the TUC in Bournemouth, he will acknowledge that the reforms he proposes are a massive challenge and that some people are worried about change. But he will say the current system of...

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Government and John Lewis launch energy efficiency labelling trial

Army of around 500 volunteers to help consumers compare, switch, save and get the help they need.

Energy Secretary Edward Davey will join forces with the retailer John Lewis on Monday 9 September, to flick the switch on a product labelling trial that puts the lifetime electricity running costs on washing machines, washer dryers and tumble dryers.

This will enable people to...

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'Local banking' brought back to Devon as TSB returns to the high street

Welcome Back to Local Banking in Plymouth, Barnstaple, Exeter, Exmouth, Ford, Okehampton, Torquay and Tavistock.

The new TSB Bank which has launched today – with more than 4.6 million customers and over £20 billion of loans and customer deposits – is one of the biggest changes ever seen in UK banking as ‘local banking’ is brought back to Britain. There are ten branches in Devon which...

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Most wanted cigarette smuggler jailed after extradition from Spain via Plymouth

Convicted cigarette smuggler Malcolm McGowan, who featured on HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Most Wanted list last month, has been successfully extradited from Spain via Plymouth Ferry Port, and now begins a four-year jail term.

McGowan, 61, originally from Edinburgh, fled the UK 12 years ago after being found guilty of smuggling 28.3 million cigarettes into the country. His crimes...

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UK house prices up 5.4% in year-on-year comparison

UK house prices have seen their highest annual rise since June 2010. In the three months to August 2013, prices have risen an average of 5.4% from the same period last year, according to the Halfax's latest house price survey.

Prices were also up in the three months to August from the previous three months (March/April/May), rising by 2.1%. The August figure remains unchanged from both...

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£300m Universal Credit welfare reform poor value, says financial watchdog

The Government's Universal Credit reform was "overly ambitious", "took risks to try to meet the short timescale" and "suffered from weak management". So concludes a report by the financial watchdog, the National Audit Office into the implementation of one of the Coalition's high profile welfare reform policies.

The National Audit Office has concluded that the Department for Work and...

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Natioanl Audit Office

Ian Duncan Smith

Department of Work and Pensions

BBC

welfare reform

Universal Credit

BBC publishes findings of reports into executives' severance pay

The BBC has today (Wednesday 4 September) published two new reports into severance pay at the Corporation, commissioned by Director General, Tony Hall.

The reports come in the light of criticisms of the corporation for agreeing a number of deals that have seen senior executives receive walk away with large pay-offs.

Last week, the BBC's director of human resources, Lucy Adams...

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BBC

severance pay reports

director general Tony Hall

Dame Fiona Reynolds

Poirot to return in new novel authorised by Agatha Christie's family

Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's much-loved fictional Belgian detective with the little moustache, pince-nez glasses and unmatchable"little grey cells", is to return in a new novel fully authorised by Devon-born Christie's family.

It has been announced that the new novel will be published worldwide in September 2014 and will be written by the British crime writer and poet Sophie...

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