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The Queen's role has been formally rewritten by Buckingham Palace following recent mobility issues that have forced her to pull out of several key events. In its annual report, the palace scaled back the monarch's "official duties" for the first time in more than a decade. They no longer include the State Opening of Parliament, which was previously considered necessary by "constitutional convention". This year's Queen's speech was read by the Prince of Wales , as the 96-year-old missed the event for the first time in almost 60 years. It was one of six occasions the monarch was previously required to attend. Four of the other five, including Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot, were also led by Prince Charles this year. Advertisement The Sovereign Grant report, which is signed off by Keeper of the Privy Purse Sir Michael Stevens, splits the Queen's duties into two sections: Head of State and Head of Nation. Her duties as Head of State … [Read more...] about Queen’s role formally rewritten by Buckingham Palace as official duties scaled back

By Hannah Richardson & Tom Oakley Published 1 hour ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing A "£20m" painting claimed to be the most valuable in Leicester's public should not be hidden in storage, a councillor said. Lying Figure No1 by Francis Bacon used to be on display at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, but it is not currently on show. Nigel Porter, Liberal Democrat councillor, questioned why such a work was "sitting in a basement". The council blamed limits on space and said it would eventually reappear. "I think a lot of people would like to see it," said Mr Porter at a scrutiny meeting. "It's a very valuable, very important painting and I'm sure a lot of people would visit Leicester just to come and look at it. It must be the most valuable painting we have got in the museum. "Rather than having this £20m painting stuck in some basement, what … [Read more...] about ‘£20m’ painting owned by Leicester council being kept in storage

Published 3 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Hundreds of people attended a "scaled-back" St Paul's Carnival focused on going "back to its roots". Instead of a parade and sound systems, artists, food vendors and the community's elders were highlighted in the Bristol event. Carnival organisers said it was a "thank you" to the people who had supported them during the pandemic. St Paul's Carnival executive director LaToyah McAllister-Jones said the "full fat carnival" will return next year. The Bristol festival celebrating African-Caribbean culture normally attracts an estimated 100,000 people. But this year the committee instead ran a "series of summer of activities" titled "Back A Yard" for local people. "It's a colloquial saying that comes from the islands. It means back home, back with your friends, in your back yard," said Ms Jones. "The … [Read more...] about St Paul’s Carnival: Scaled-down event honours elders

Feargal Sharkey describes his dogged group of fishermen and clean river campaigners as "a bunch of bloody-minded, arrogant, cantankerous, ugly, middle-aged old men, far too used to getting their own way in life". The former singer and music industry executive may well be all of those things, but he has also become one of Britain's most effective pollution campaigners, taking on the Environment Agency and water industry and pushing Britain's rivers to the top of the news agenda. Once a Top of the Pops regular who set hearts aflutter with Teenage Kicks in 1978, his current domain is Amwell Magna, the oldest fly-fishing club in England, where he is the chairman. And a beautiful stretch of water it is. The Hertfordshire club has two and a half miles of wildlife-rich river, "the last bit of the Lea that actually looks like a river", Sharkey says, before it becomes a grim, London-bound drainage canal. Fishing is a kind of meditation, the only thing that helps his racing mind … [Read more...] about Feargal Sharkey warns London is ‘perilously close’ to running out of drinking water

Restitution activist Njobati Sylvie could not hide her joy when Germany's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation announced that a statue of Ngonnso would be returned to Cameroon. Ngonnso is a mother deity of the Nso people in northwestern Cameroon. A statue of her was taken by Kurt von Pavel, a German colonial officer in Cameroon, who subsequently donated her to Berlin's Ethnological Museum in 1903. "I feel super elated, it has been a journey that has culminated to a win for the Nso community, Cameroon and by and large the entire African continent," Njobati told DW. Ngonnso has a central role for the Nso as she is considered a mother deity The restitution journey Njobati started the Twitter campaign #BringBackNgonnso in 2020, which played a large part in raising awareness for the restitution cause. But her activism actually started before that — when she decided to reconnect with her Nso heritage and trace her roots. Njobati grew up in Cameroon's Anglophone region … [Read more...] about Cameroonian activist pushed for restitution of deity

By Robert Cooper Published 2 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing People with a chronic fatigue illness are struggling to access medical help, a charity has claimed. Figures sourced by the BBC show many Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) patients are being discharged just months after starting treatment. Action for ME chief executive Sonya Chowdhury said ME had been "neglected for decades" with patients finding services "inaccessible". Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced plans to better tackle ME . Stephen Hocking from Keswick, Cumbria, was diagnosed with ME 15 months ago and said the condition had been "devastating", but there was a lack of medical understanding. "When I was finally diagnosed nobody explained what it was or how it would affect my life," he told BBC Politics North . "The only treatment option was a clinic led by a health … [Read more...] about Action for ME says patients struggle to get medical help

Hospitals across Britain face rises in power bills running into millions of pounds as the spiralling cost of living crisis hits NHS trusts. As household fuel bills climb to unprecedented levels, the health service also faces soaring charges as a result of the escalating cost pressures. A survey of NHS trusts across England and Scotland shows they are facing rises of up to £29 million in the three financial years to date. Sharp rises in energy costs caused by factors including the end of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are also hitting the NHS, figures obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by Metro.co.uk show. In Nottingham, costs for gas, electricity and oil combined rose from £8.8 million in 2020 and 2021 to £15.8 the following year. The budget, and therefore forecast, for the current financial year is £37.9 million. At St George’s Trust in London , which runs one of the largest hospitals in the UK, the bill for gas and electricity is due … [Read more...] about Soaring fuel bills add to ‘dire’ cost pressures facing NHS

Parents have resorted to dipping into their children ’s savings to afford to pay for the soaring cost of household bills , a poll has found. According to a survey for The Telegraph , Britons are lifting £8.5m a day from their children as the sprialling rate of inflation - which recently hit a 40-year high - continues to top up already sky-high domestic costs. The poll revealed that families had withdrawn almost £300 on average from their children’s savings so far this year. It found a third of the 2,000 people questioned had raided their children’s funds this year and suggested a total of £1.4bn has been withdrawn so far. Almost a quarter said they had extracted the funds to pay for increasingly expensive food shops, one in four said they had done so to help pay for exorbitant energy bills, while 6 per cent said they used their children’s savings to pay for travel. More than a quarter said they had either reduced the amount they were keeping aside for … [Read more...] about Parents dipping into children’s savings to pay soaring bills, poll finds

When Bryce Stewart dived after the toothed, steel-weighted nets of a scallop dredger rumbling over the bottom of the Irish Sea 22 years ago, he witnessed destruction he could never have seen from a boat. "Half crabs. Smashed up sea urchins. Starfish missing some of their arms," said Stewart, a marine ecologist at the University of York. "There was literally a trail of dead and dying things on the seabed." Bottom trawling — a powerful practice in which heavy nets are dragged along the floor of the ocean to catch fish and seafood — is one of the most harmful ways to feed the world. It destroys ecosystems and sweeps up unwanted marine life that gets thrown overboard. From 1950 to 2014, bottom trawlers discarded $560 billion of bycatch, which was more than the value of all catches from longline fishers over the same period. Metal bars and toothed nets wreak havoc on ocean ecosystems Now scientists fear another environmental disaster bubbling under the surface: climate … [Read more...] about How bottom trawling hurts ocean life and speeds up climate change

Published 6 July 2019 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Hundreds of thousands of people have filled Bristol's streets at St Pauls Carnival as it celebrated community elders with the theme 'Our Journey'. The event's colourful procession featured live acts throughout the day showcasing musical genres from reggae to calypso and drum and bass for the crowds of people. The theme this year was chosen to pay homage to the Windrush generation who arrived in England in the 1940s onwards. The West Indian community came together in Bristol to set up organisations and groups to support their new lives in the UK. This year's theme reflected the challenges they faced including racism and inequality which led to the Bristol bus boycott. St Pauls Carnival, which is marking its 51st event, celebrates the impact that Caribbean music, food, tradition, skills and dance have had on … [Read more...] about St Pauls carnival in Bristol celebrates community elders