The Guardian has published a retraction of a report that claimed that Doctors for Reform was “funded by pharmaceutical companies”. The retraction says: “An online comment piece said that a campaign group, Doctors for Reform, was funded by pharmaceutical companies. Doctors for Reform states that while it does not disclose its donors, neither pharmaceutical firms nor individuals in the pharmaceutical industry are among them. We are happy to make this clear”.
Britain’s most senior judge, Lord Phillips, has said that he feels “enormous sympathy” for terminally ill patients who want to end their own lives in assisted suicides, suggesting that he favours changing the law to allow this (Telegraph).
High street chemist, Boots, is to offer the cervical cancer vaccine for £405 to those too old to be immunised on the NHS (Telegraph; Mail; Mirror; Sun).
The US is starting to pare back its emergency support for banks and financial markets, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner declared yesterday, saying that the financial system no longer needed extensive government props (FT; City A.M.).
Spending cuts – rather than tax rises – would be the main focus of efforts to reduce the budget deficit under a Conservative government, George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said yesterday (FT).
The Bank of England will hold interest rates at 0.5 percent for the six month running (Times).
Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, said last night that he was confident jobs were safe at Vauxhall’s plants in the UK following the sale of General Motors’ European business to Magna International, and Russia’s Sberbank, although 1,200 job cuts are still feared (FT; Times; Sun; Mirror; City A.M.).
The City of London will warn today that the European Commission’s proposed directive on alternative investment fund managers is protectionist and risks hampering economic revival throughout the EU (City A.M.).
House prices have risen for the second month signalling the road to recovery. Prices have rebounded to those levels last seen in 2008, according to a report by Halifax (Times).
Mortgage repayments have fallen to the lowest level in seven years with families paying an average of 29 per cent of their disposable income each month, as house prices continued to rise in August, according to the Halifax (Telegraph; Independent; Mail; BBC Online).
Both parents should be encouraged to work to help fight cases of “in-work” poverty where children suffer deprivation despite living in households with at least one parent in employment, according to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms (Telegraph; Guardian).
A study by the European Commission has predicted that Britain’s public debt will explode to 180 per cent GDP, double the Treasury’s estimate, within a decade unless drastic measures are taken to restore fiscal probity (Telegraph).
Parents who give organised lifts to other children from sports and social clubs face prosecution, if they fail to register with the Government’s new anti-paedophile database (Telegraph; Mail; Mirror; BBC Online).
Police forces were criticised yesterday after a Daily Mirror investigation revealed officers got £37 million a year in bonuses for "demanding, unpleasant or important" jobs (Mirror).
Thousands of untrained staff, including bouncers, postmen and driving instructors are being used as cover for absent teachers (Telegraph; Guardian; BBC Online).
University marking schemes are to be reviewed over grade inflation fears. Some students can earn 10 per cent just for turning up to lectures (Guardian; Times; Telegraph).
Britain’s universities need to find more money from the private sector by charging businesses for “bespoke training” and other initiatives, David Lammy, the Higher Education Minister, said yesterday (FT).
A referendum to change Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system could be held on the same day as the general election next spring, with proposals currently being discussed by Ministers (Independent).