United Kingdom

    Trade continues to drag on UK growth as consumer spending drives Britain's recovery. Britain's recovery slowed in the third quarter as growth was dampened by the biggest drag from net trade on record, official figures showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the UK economy expanded by 0.5pc in the three months to September. This was unchanged from its previous estimate and follows an expansion of 0.7pc in the second quarter. The figures showed Britain's trade deficit almost doubled in the third quarter, to £14.2bn, reflecting a jump in imports, which rose by 5.5pc over the period compared with a 2.7pc fall in the second quarter. This drag from trade was enough to knock 1.5 percentage points off growth in the third quarter, the ONS said, though the de...

    A group of British Muslim women have been filmed urging other women and children to support and join Isis, a 12-month undercover investigation has revealed. The women, identified after their pro-Isis activity on social media, were caught on camera lecturing women against western values, declaring them anti-Islamic, urging women to join Isis in Syria and using racially abusive language to describe “filthy Jews” and Israelis. Umm Saalihah and Umm L, the names they go by on Twitter, were filmed by giving two-hour lectures in London in secret closed women-only meetings in community centres, as Channel 4 slowly gained access to them over the course of months. The women appear to have all belonged to extremist group once known as al-Muhajiroun, set up two decades ago and banned ...

Syed Neaz Ahmad: Built in 1889, the Shahjehan Mosque is a symbol of Muslim history in Britain. A prison, a lunatic asylum and a crematorium hardly provide an deal setting for a sacred institution, but the first mosque to be built in Britain in October 1889 was sited against such a background. The actual first mosque was in a converted building in Liverpool. However, the Shahjehan Mosque in the County of Surrey assumed larger than life proportions in matters of public interest and became a landmark. As a matter of fact, the little known sleepy town of Woking, because of the mosque, became a priority destination for visiting dignitaries and the focus of Islam in England. The story of the Shahjehan Mosque is the history of the site and the wanderings of a Budapest Linguist Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm...

    A strike by junior doctors has moved a step closer after their union angrily rejected Jeremy Hunt’s latest offer and accused him of devaluing their key role in the NHS. The junior doctors committee of the British Medical Association denounced the health secretary’s offer, including an 11% rise in their basic pay, as nowhere near enough to assuage their fears over a new contract he plans to impose on them from next summer. The further deterioration in relations between Hunt and the doctors’ union came as the BMA prepared to start balloting 30,000 junior medics in England about possible industrial action. Votes can be cast from Thursday and will be counted when the process ends on 18 November. The union dismissed Hunt’s pledge that no junior doctor working within the current...

    Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is considering whether to charge foreigners for using ambulances and visiting A&E in a move that could further escalate tensions with the medical profession. In a bid to raise money, Hunt is expected to announce a consultation within the next month on whether the NHS should charge patients from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) for emergency treatment. While no one would be denied urgent care, hospitals would be allowed to withhold treatment for non-urgent medical problems until a payment was made. Patients from inside the EEA would have to present their European Health Insurance card to receive treatment, and their government would be sent a bill. Under the proposals, there would be certain exemptions on charging up front, suc...

    The country could be in for the hottest start to November in history, forecasters say. The Met Office predicts the temperature to be more than 21.7C (71F) on Sunday – the record set 69 years ago in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, North Wales. Hot air from Portugal is bringing the out-of-season sizzle, which will make the UK hotter than the Mediterranean. Highs of 21C are expected on Saturday and “exceptionally mild” sunshine in the ¬afternoon, forecasters said. The balmy weather – 6C above average – is set to continue throughout the week with settled conditions in the south and east of England. The predictions would make today the second-hottest Halloween, behind last year’s high of 23.6C at Kew Gardens, London, and Gravesend, Kent. British Weather Services senior meteorologist J...

    The head of MI5 has said the terror threat level facing Britain is the highest he had seen in his 32-year career. Andrew Parker, director general of the Security Service, said six terror plots have been thwarted in the last year. And during a speech in London on Wednesday, he also warned that so-called Islamic State (IS) is planning "mass casualty" attacks on Britain. He described a three dimensional threat" at home, overseas and online - with an increasing amount of MI5's casework linked to Syria and IS. It (IS) uses the full range of modern communications tools to spread its message of hate, and to inspire extremists, sometimes as young as their teens, to conduct attacks in whatever way they can. And he warned the threat posed by IS - also known as ISIL - shows no sign o...

    The UK's population is going to swell by almost 10 million people in the next 25 years, taking us to a total of 74.3m by the middle of 2039. The figures, projected by the Office for National Statistics, suggest that by 2027 the UK will reach the 70 million point. Net migration is expected to account for 51 per cent of the total increase, while a "natural increase" will account for 49 per cent of the growth. The ONS has had to revise its forecast for growth over the next decade upwards to 4.4m from the 2012 estimate, which was around 250,000 lower. However the population is projected to continue ageing, with the median age rising from 40 years in 2014 to 40.9 years in mid-2024 and 42.9 by mid-2039, by which point one in 12 people will be 80-plus. England's population will g...

    Cases of malnutrition and other Victorian diseases are soaring in England, in what campaigners said was a result of cuts to social services and rising food poverty. NHS statistics show that 7,366 people were admitted to hospital with a primary or secondary diagnosis of malnutrition between August 2014 and July this year, compared with 4,883 cases in the same period from 2010 to 2011. A rise of more than 50 per cent in just four years. Cases of other diseases rife in the Victorian era including scurvy, scarlet fever, cholera and whooping cough have also increased since 2010, although cases of TB, measles, typhoid and rickets have fallen. Malnutrition cases in English hospitals almost double in five years Chris Mould, chairman of the Trussell Trust, which runs a nationwide n...

    And now, the penalty for filing your tax return too EARLY If you’re among the millions who file their own self-assessment tax returns you will understand me when I refer to the pleasant sensation of having done the job for the year. Many people, including myself, are gearing up about now to complete the return for the year ending April 2015, which has to be filed by the end of January . I like to complete it before Christmas. But here’s a salutary warning for anyone who is extra-organised: even if you complete your return far ahead of the deadline, don’t submit it too early – as there is a danger of unexpected consequences in your tax coding. As a result, your monthly pay could be unexpectedly reduced. Accountants Baker Tilly recently reported on just such a case. A taxpay...