Posh residents fitted trees with ‘anti-bird spikes’ in a bid to protect their expensive cars from droppings, outraging environmentalists. The spikes – which are usually used to stop birds resting and building nests on ledges and nooks on buildings – have been nailed to two trees in an exclusive part of Bristol. The trees, in the front gardens of Essendene House and Heathfield House, both privately owned flats near Clifton Down, have been described by a local Green councillor as...

Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health: "Virgin Care recently won a £100 million contract for children’s health services in Lancashire, but in the Secretary of State’s own backyard of Surrey, Virgin Care recently took legal action against the NHS, forcing it to settle out of court. This money should be going to patient care, not the coffers of Virgin Care, so why will he not step in and fix this scandal so that his Surrey constituents and the NHS...

Billions of pounds worth of compensation money is at stake because most Brits don’t know when the PPI claims deadline is, a financial specialist has claimed. More than 80 per cent of people in the UK are unaware they have just over a year left to claim for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) before a looming cut-off date. Just 12 million people have claimed for the toxic financial product out of around 64 million policies sold, the authorities say. And...

Thanks to the Warrior Challenge, a triathlon carried out by two veterans of the Afghan War which raised £52,000 for solder charities, today five British Army families will embark on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Lapland to meet Santa Claus. Each family was chosen at random and all have been affected in some way from the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan. The group departed from Liverpool John Lennon Airport this morning and will be spending three days exploring Santa’s homeland...

Fascinating pictures show the moment an incredibly rare weather phenomenon - known as a fogbow - was captured by an amateur photographer. Sylvan Buckley, spent a night in the frosty Highlands waiting for the sun to rise. Sylvan Buckley captured a rare fog bow beside Loch Baa on Rannoch Moor, in the Scottish West Highlands. But he was left speechless when he spotted the rare phenomenon which, unlike a rainbow, shows a white bow shape through the fog. Sylvan, 41,...

Trevor Sinclair arrives at Blackpool Magistrates Court, Lancs., The former footballer from Lytham, Lancs., is charged with drink driving, assaulting a police officer and racially aggravated public order. Mr Sinclair was arrested on 12 November after police were called to a disturbance at a house in Lytham. 19 December 2017. The 44-year-old former England international footballer and Match of the Day pundit Trevor Sinclair denied all charges and was represented by celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman. He pleded not guilty to...

Ahead of its November reveal, Philip Hammond’s budget was billed as ‘make or break’ in much of the press. In reality, it turned out neither to make nor break the chancellor’s career. Rather, everything seems to be continuing as usual. It’s possible that it will take time for this budget’s implications to become clearer, but what is crystal clear already is the impact on one of the most crucial areas of the public sector—further education. Theresa May herself triumphantly announced...

Which unlikely fast food chain is a Christmas dinner tradition in Japan? What is a Krampuslauf? Christmas is celebrated in many ways around the world - this quiz will hopefully help you with some top weird Xmas traditions Christmas dinner banter facts: Meanwhile these are the Christmas traditions that Brits will be following this holiday: The average Brit will buy 22 different gifts for nine people, spending almost £379 in total - 1.1 billion presents for 462 million people between...

Company culture has seen a shift. Increasingly as millennials have taken to the workforce, more has become expected of employers concerning how they care for their staff (and rightly so). An internet-savvy work-force now regularly air their grievances about everything from employers to office spaces anonymously on websites such as Glassdoor. And as a ‘job-for-life’ becomes a thing of the past, there is mounting pressure to retain employees belonging to a generation less inclined to stay with one company for...