Striking ‘failure’
Pensions: One of the largest strikes in a generation by hundreds of thousands of teachers and civil servants had “minimal impact” on public services, according to Downing Street, despite the closure of more than 7,000 schools. On Thursday up to 300,000 teachers and 106,000 civil servants walked out in protest over “unfair and unjust” changes to their pensions. However, the prime minister’s spokesman recited a list of statistics designed to show the strike’s limited impact, saying that 80% of civil servants were working, fewer than five courts closed and only 18 out of 750 Jobcentres were shut. “The numbers speak for themselves,” the spokesman added.
Union leaders insisted the strikes were a success and reiterated threats that the worst industrial action in a generation faced Britain later in the year. “The government has been rumbled, and ministers are either badly briefed — or they are lying,” said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union.
Whole life for killer
Crime: Danilo Restivo, a 39-year-old Italian national, was convicted on Wednesday of the murder and mutilation of a seamstress nine years ago using the same “hallmark” method he allegedly used to kill a teenager in Italy. Restivo entered the flat of his neighbour Heather Barnett, 48, in Bournemouth, Dorset, in 2002 and bludgeoned her with a hammer before cutting her throat. He then cut off her breasts and left a clump of someone else’s hair in her right hand and some of her own underneath her left hand. The carefully planned ritualistic murder was considered unique by detectives.
The jury at Winchester crown court decided that the manner of Barnett’s death was Restivo’s “hallmark” and linked the killing to the murder of 16-year-old Elisa Claps, whose body was found in a church in Potenza, Italy, in 1993. Restivo was sentenced to a whole-life tariff and is expected to be extradited to Italy to stand trial for the murder of Claps.
Police dog deaths
Animals: A police dog handler threw himself from a colleague’s vehicle and later slashed his wrists in an apparent suicide bid, after two dogs he left in a car died of heatstroke. Sergeant Ian Craven, 49, one of the country’s most experienced dog handlers, left the two police dogs — Chay, a belgian malinois, and Tilly, a german shepherd puppy — in an unventilated car at the Metropolitan police’s dog training centre in Keston, southeast London, last Sunday as temperatures soared to 29C, while he went to a meeting in east London.
Advertisement
He remembered them about an hour later and telephoned colleagues to raise the alarm. Kennel workers attempted to resuscitate the dogs but an emergency vet pronounced them dead. Tina Dale, 54, a kennel assistant who was among those who tried to save the animals, described it as the “worst day of my life”. She said on a social networking site: “I’m in bits, we tried so so hard, but it was too long, the damage had been done. What a bloody awful way to die.”
Festival mystery
Death: A pathologist was unable to determine the cause of death of a senior Tory whose body was found slumped in a VIP lavatory at the Glastonbury music festival last Sunday. Detectives had been hoping that toxicology results would shed light on the unexplained death of Christopher Shale, who was 56. Suggestions that he might have taken his life after learning that a newspaper had obtained and was intending to publish a spiky memo he had written about West Oxfordshire Tories were dismissed after it was disclosed that David Cameron had commissioned and welcomed the critique.
The prime minister issued a statement saying that he and his wife, Samantha, were devastated to learn of the loss of their “great friend”. He said: “A big rock in my life has suddenly been rolled away.”
Secret service
Celebrity: Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz married in private, it was announced on Monday. Reports said the James Bond star, 43, and the Oscar-winning actress Weisz, 41, who had been working together on the set of the forthcoming horror film The Dream House, tied the knot in a secret ceremony attended by just four people in New York state last Wednesday. The guests were said to be Craig’s 18-year-old daughter, Ella, and Weisz’s son, Henry, 4, plus two family friends who acted as witnesses.
“They couldn’t wait to be husband and wife — but they wanted minimum fuss,” a friend of the couple said.
We love you, Kate
Advertisement
Royalty: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were given a rapturous welcome in Ottawa, Canada, at the start of the duchess’s first working tour as a member of the royal family. As the couple began their first walkabout on foreign soil, the seeds of Kate mania were sown: thousands greeted the duchess as a rock star, chanting her name and wolf-whistling.
After completing their walkabout, the couple were taken to Rideau Hall, the residence of the governor-general and their home during their stay, where the duke delighted another crowd by speaking in English and French. “We are truly looking forward to this adventure,” he said. “Nous attendons avec impatience cet aventure.”
“They are beautiful,” said Denise Turner, 44, who drove nine hours from Windsor, Ontario, to see the royal couple. “Kate is so classy.”
Labour hold seat
Politics: Labour held on to the Westminster seat of Inverclyde, but saw its share of the vote drop after a closely fought by-election with the SNP. Iain McKenzie won after securing 15,118 votes, while the nationalist candidate, Anne McLaughlin, polled 9,280 votes. But the Liberal Democrats saw a huge collapse in their support, losing their deposit after polling a mere 627 votes.
Speaking after the count McKenzie said: “I think we can safely say the SNP bandwagon has ground to a halt. This is the start of Labour’s fightback.”
Top brass face axe
Advertisement
Defence: Admirals, generals and air chiefs who command a desk rather than frontline forces will have to justify their existence under a potentially dramatic shake-up of the Ministry of Defence unveiled by the defence secretary, Liam Fox, last week. Fox’s structural reforms include the creation of a joint forces command and see him taking over as chairman of the defence board, replacing the heads of the three services.
The defence secretary said the MoD was “top heavy” and an over-bureaucratic system had led to poor decision-making and financial management. He told MPs that the heads of the army, navy and RAF would get more autonomy but would be held “robustly to account”.
Hacker on bail
Internet: Ryan Cleary, the Essex teenager charged over hacking allegations last week, was released on bail on condition he remain offline. The 19-year-old is accused of launching cyberattacks on websites including the Serious Organised Crime Agency and sites owned by music-industry bodies. The Metropolitan police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been conducting a joint inquiry as part of an attempt to stem a wave of recent hacking attacks.
Outside Southwark crown court on Monday, Cleary’s solicitor said: “Ryan has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome . . . His obvious intelligence can be channelled into a worthwhile pursuit.”
The manor Bourne
Etiquette: A future stepmother-in-law made headlines last week with a strongly worded character attack on her future stepdaughter-in-law. Carolyn Bourne, who breeds pinks and dianthus flowers, emailed Heidi Withers to complain about her “lack of manners”. The email went viral after Withers, a secretary in London, forwarded it to her friends.
Advertisement
After Withers and her fiancé, Freddie, spent a weekend at Bourne’s Devon home, the 60-year-old wrote: “It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence.” Freddie’s stepmother slammed Withers for failing to send a thank-you card and described her future stepdaughter-in-law as “an ideal candidate for the Ladette to Lady television series”.