Campaigners rejoice after Keir Starmer backs ‘Philomena’s Law’ to protect payments for up to 13,000 survivors living in Britain

Survivors of Ireland ’s mother and baby homes can continue to receive benefits in the UK after Downing Street dropped a plan to cut payments.

Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from campaigners to back a bill known as Philomena’s law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits if they accepted compensation from Dublin.

Campaigners rejoice after Keir Starmer backs ‘Philomena’s Law’ to protect payments for up to 13,000 survivors living in Britain

Survivors of Ireland ’s mother and baby homes can continue to receive benefits in the UK after Downing Street dropped a plan to cut payments.

Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from campaigners to back a bill known as Philomena’s law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits if they accepted compensation from Dublin.

Campaigners rejoice after Keir Starmer backs ‘Philomena’s Law’ to protect payments for up to 13,000 survivors living in Britain

Survivors of Ireland ’s mother and baby homes can continue to receive benefits in the UK after Downing Street dropped a plan to cut payments.

Keir Starmer bowed to pressure from campaigners to back a bill known as Philomena’s law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits if they accepted compensation from Dublin.

A claim that the UK is attracting billions of pounds in AI investment has been debunked. That’s no surprise when our establishment runs on dubious ‘good news’

One trillion dollars. That’s the amount of financial aid Gordon Brown triumphantly announced at the 2009 London G20 summit. (I contributed my own two cents here.) Except it wasn’t exactly real : the number was a mixture of already promised apples and aspirational future oranges.

So it should hardly be a surprise that when ministers proclaimed last year that the UK was attracting billions of pounds of new investment in AI, they were being more than a little economical with the truth. As a Guardian investigation revealed, much of it turns out not to be new at all: existing datacentres rented rather than built, a supercomputer site not yet even started, promised investments that might never arrive and claims of job creation that have little or no connection to reality. The headline numbers are impressive. The underlying reality rather less so.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant

A claim that the UK is attracting billions of pounds in AI investment has been debunked. That’s no surprise when our establishment runs on dubious ‘good news’

One trillion dollars. That’s the amount of financial aid Gordon Brown triumphantly announced at the 2009 London G20 summit. (I contributed my own two cents here.) Except it wasn’t exactly real : the number was a mixture of already promised apples and aspirational future oranges.

So it should hardly be a surprise that when ministers proclaimed last year that the UK was attracting billions of pounds of new investment in AI, they were being more than a little economical with the truth. As a Guardian investigation revealed, much of it turns out not to be new at all: existing datacentres rented rather than built, a supercomputer site not yet even started, promised investments that might never arrive and claims of job creation that have little or no connection to reality. The headline numbers are impressive. The underlying reality rather less so.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant

A claim that the UK is attracting billions of pounds in AI investment has been debunked. That’s no surprise when our establishment runs on dubious ‘good news’

One trillion dollars. That’s the amount of financial aid Gordon Brown triumphantly announced at the 2009 London G20 summit. (I contributed my own two cents here.) Except it wasn’t exactly real : the number was a mixture of already promised apples and aspirational future oranges.

So it should hardly be a surprise that when ministers proclaimed last year that the UK was attracting billions of pounds of new investment in AI, they were being more than a little economical with the truth. As a Guardian investigation revealed, much of it turns out not to be new at all: existing datacentres rented rather than built, a supercomputer site not yet even started, promised investments that might never arrive and claims of job creation that have little or no connection to reality. The headline numbers are impressive. The underlying reality rather less so.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and a former senior civil servant

Longer sentences, overcrowding and inexperienced staff cited as factors in ‘rising tensions’ in prisons

Notorious prisoners such as the Soham killer Ian Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”, the head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said.

Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions had “no fear” of being given additional time in prison, and could earn status by singling out famous child murderers and paedophiles.

Last week, a 20-year-old sex offender who had recently moved to my son’s prison was ‘kettled’. In prison, that means boiling water, mixed with a bit of sugar, was thrown into his face. He has been scarred for life.

This is the kind of threat that my son and every sex offender has to live with every day when they are in prison.

Longer sentences, overcrowding and inexperienced staff cited as factors in ‘rising tensions’ in prisons

Notorious prisoners such as the Soham killer Ian Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”, the head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said.

Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions had “no fear” of being given additional time in prison, and could earn status by singling out famous child murderers and paedophiles.

Last week, a 20-year-old sex offender who had recently moved to my son’s prison was ‘kettled’. In prison, that means boiling water, mixed with a bit of sugar, was thrown into his face. He has been scarred for life.

This is the kind of threat that my son and every sex offender has to live with every day when they are in prison.

Longer sentences, overcrowding and inexperienced staff cited as factors in ‘rising tensions’ in prisons

Notorious prisoners such as the Soham killer Ian Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”, the head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said.

Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions had “no fear” of being given additional time in prison, and could earn status by singling out famous child murderers and paedophiles.

Last week, a 20-year-old sex offender who had recently moved to my son’s prison was ‘kettled’. In prison, that means boiling water, mixed with a bit of sugar, was thrown into his face. He has been scarred for life.

This is the kind of threat that my son and every sex offender has to live with every day when they are in prison.