Sir Freddie Laker, 83, dies
Sir Freddie Laker, who created Britain’s first low-cost airline, Laker Skytrain, has died (Louisa Barnett writes). He was 83.
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The former multimillionaire, who emigrated to Miami in 2002, died early yesterday from a heart problem. Laker formed Laker Airways in 1966. Passengers had to buy their tickets on the day of travel and pay for meals separately.
It was not until 1977 that transatlantic services got off the ground. But a recession and strong competition saw the airline go bust in 1982, owing more than £250 million. It was relaunched in the early 1990s but shut last year.
Smoking fear
A government plan to exempt pubs that do not serve food from a smoking ban will make health inequalities in England worse, researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal. The Croydon Primary Care Trust team found that 88 per cent of pubs in the wealthiest areas served food, compared with 46 per cent in poor areas.
Church ‘in schism’
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said that the Church of England was “in schism” over women bishops. “The question is how we handle it prayerfully, mindfully and decently and . . . hopefully,” he told the General Synod at Church House, Westminster, in its third debate in a week on the issue.
More Tube strikes
Commuters face more misery after unions threatened London Underground with further strikes in a dispute over industrial relations. Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said that thousands of their members will walk out on February 21 and March 2 unless the dispute is resolved.
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Terror hoaxer jailed
A man who drunkenly pretended to be a suicide bomber days after the London bombings was jailed for 15 months. Brian Chambers, 28, begged Judge John Devaux at Ipswich Crown Court to reconsider. He had told police that he was from al-Qaeda and had planted a bomb in Shout nightclub in Ipswich.
Union boss calls for new vision
The leader of one of the biggest unions has warned Gordon Brown that Labour must change course and that the “Blairite vision is past its sell-by date” (Christine Buckley writes).
Speaking before Labour’s spring conference, which starts today, Tony Woodley, the T&G general secretary, said that his union had not yet decided whether to support Mr Brown and would wait until it heard policies that would benefit working people.
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He said that the next election would be the toughest for Labour. “It can’t be more of the same because more of the same will lose them the election,” he said.
Labour Party officials are becoming increasingly concerned at plans by the T&G, Amicus and the GMB to merge to form a super-union of 2.3 million members.
Police shooting
Two police marksmen will not face disciplinary action for shooting dead a man after mistaking a table leg he was carrying for a shotgun. The evidence in the killing on September 22, 1999, of Harry Stanley, 46, in Hackney, East London, did not justify such action, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said.
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Man admits killing
One of the six men on trial for the murder of Mary-Ann Leneghan has admitted the killing. Michael Johnson, 19, of Southfields, southwest London, pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court to stabbing the 16-year-old and attempting to kill her friend. The trial was adjourned until today.
Trafficker jailed
A sex trafficker was jailed for 14½ years for the gang rape of a Lithuanian woman and a plot to sell her to slave traders. The woman jumped 15ft from the window of the home in South Woodford, northeast London, of Eimantus Suliaskas, 24, a Lithuanian. He was arrested after she saw him in a street.
vCJD blood link
A third case of variant CJD, the human form of “mad cow” disease, has been linked to a patient’s blood transfusion, the Health Protection Agency said yesterday. The patient was one of fewer than 30 living people known to have received a blood transfusion in Britain from a donor who had later developed vCJD.
Parents guilty
The parents of two children killed by a fire after being locked in their bedroom have been convicted of child neglect and will be sentenced later. Northampton Crown Court was told that Lindsey and Scott Miller ignored the screams of Nathan, 2, and Jeremy, 18 months, because of a planned “romantic evening”.