News

Last Friday (9 February), the Work and Pensions Committee released their interim first report into the experiences of disabled people claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), benefits intended to provide support for disabled people to live independently, or to manage the costs related to being out of work. Nearly 3,500 people provided evidence - an ‘unprecedented public response to a departmental select committee inquiry’ – according to the Committee. The report was described by the...

A GP has quit to become a fashion designer after being "broken" by long shifts, phone appointments and so much stress she'd leave work shaking. Linda Thomas was a salaried GP at a practice in Bristol and quit to work as a locum, before abandoning the medical profession to be an eco-fashion designer. She said changes left her assessing patients over the phone and pressure on appointment times meant she eventually had enough. Research from the University of Exeter Medical...

Prime Minister Theresa May is set to outline what Britain wants from Brexit almost a year after article 50 was triggered and some 19 months after the vote to leave the EU. The Conservatives will outline their vision for Britain over a series of speeches which are set to be kicked off by Foreign minister Boris Johnson next week. Brussels recently called for clarity over what the UK wanted from the EU, saying a transition deal was not a certainty. And according...

British scientists are in a race to study a mysterious ecosystem that has been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to 120,000 years. Members of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are hoping to study creatures and bacteria that lived beneath a giant iceberg four times the size of London. The iceberg known as A68 'calved off' from a long ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea, also known as the Larsen Ice Shelf exposing the...

A gin heir dialled 999 complaining his 95-year-old mother had gone "crazy mad" after she told neighbours he assaulted her following an argument, a court heard. Sir Walter Gavin Gilbey, 68, allegedly 'hurled' his mother, Lady Elizabeth Gilbey, from a chair causing significant bruising on August 26 last year. Lady Gilbey previously told Horsham Magistrates' Court she fled to her neighbours' home after the attack, before police were called by her housekeeper five days later. The court today heard a...

A GP surgery that serves 6,000 patients is to close claiming the business is "no longer financially viable'' because of pressure on services. The surgery which has been running since 1982 is shutting following a "decline in patient size list" and "a fall in NHS income". Number 18 Surgery in Bath, Somerset has issued a letter to its patients this week announcing the closure because of “recruitment issues and financial pressures”. It says: "We are writing to let you know...

An unexploded German bomb from the Blitz has closed City Airport and the mass evacuation of homes in London's docklands. The ordnance was discovered in the River Thames shortly after 5am yesterday (sun) and specialist officers and the Royal Navy were called. The airport, in east London, remained open during the day on Sunday and flights were not disrupted, with no evacuations or cordons required. But on the advice of Royal Navy bomb disposal experts a 214-metre exclusion zone was...

@BenGelblum A shock report has revealed that British pensioners are now worse off than those retiring in India, China or Chile. Our state pensions are actually the least generous in the developing world, the latest research from the OECD shows. Brits earning the average salary of £26,500 will have to get by on less than a third of that if they are relying on a state pension. They are now looking at just £122.30 a week to retire on. And...

A gruesome story has emerged from South Africa after a suspected poacher was killed and eaten by lions, close to the Kruger National Park over the weekend. The man's remains were found at a private game reserve near Hoedspruit in the northern province of Limpopo on Saturday, where animals are regularly poached. A loaded hunting rifle was discovered near the body, which has been devoured by the wild animals. Only his head was left relatively untouched. "It seems the victim...