Letwin sidelined in Tory reshuffle David Cameron has quietly side-lined Oliver Letwin by asking William Hague to help to construct the next Conservative election manifesto (Francis Elliott writes). The reports of six separate policy commissions set up by Mr Cameron are to be published over the coming months with scores of occasionally conflicting recommendations. Senior party members close to Mr Cameron had become concerned that Mr Letwin is insufficiently political to manage what could be a fraught process.
A Conservative spokesman said that Mr Letwin would continue as chairman of the policy review and that Mr Hague s new role was to formulate the Tories position on current legislation. The Liberal Democrats leader Sir Menzies Campbell has brought back Lembit pik as business spokesman in a front bench reshuffle (Sam Coates writes). Their president Simon Hughes moves from justice to become Commons party leader.
The singer Pete Doherty, who appeared before West London magistrates on drugs offences yesterday, was told he will go to prison if he fails to take up a place on a detox programme at a clinic in Harrogate before he goes back for sentencing on August 7. Girls hit by lightning Two teenage girls were taken to hospital after being struck by a bolt of lightning in Suffolk that blew apart their shoes. The girls, aged 13 and 15, suffered serious burns in the incident at Ipswich High School.
A photograph accompanying yesterday s report on Captain Sean Dolan of the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, who was killed in Afghanistan at the weekend, in fact showed Sergeant Dave Wilkinson, of 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, who was also killed in Afghanistan in a separate incident. Captain Dolan is pictured above. We apologise for the error.
Nursing volunteers die in Africa crash Three British nurses who gave up a week s holiday to work as volunteers for a children s charity in Mozambique were killed in a road accident in South Africa. Helen Golder, 33, and Liz Wilson, 31, died at the scene after the minibus in which they were travelling was involved in a head-on collision. Susan Andrews, 32, was flown to hospital in Johannesburg where she died yesterday.
The three women were on a day trip to Kruger National Park having completed their volunteering stint at the Maputo Heart Institute. Too little is being done to deal with the growing problem of dementia care, a report from the National Audit Office says. Britain is slow to diagnose cases and lags behind other European countries in providing care, even though there are 560,000 sufferers in England alone.
Gerry McCann, the father of Madeleine, who disappeared in Praia da Luz shortly before her fourth birthday, will give an interview to Kirsty Wark about the role of the media in the search for his daughter at the Edinburgh International Television Festival next month. A community support officer was stabbed while driving a marked van near Victoria Station in London. The officer, 39, was taken to hospital and later discharged after being attacked by a man who approached the van in traffic.
A man in his thirties was later arrested. A fire station that was not fitted with a fire alarm was destroyed in a blaze caused by an electrical fault, an official investigation concluded. Arundel Fire Station in West Sussex was destroyed last October.
There was no smoke alarm as fire stations are not required by law to fit them. Strike averted by rail talks A planned 24-hour rail strike has been suspended. Members of the RMT union in Scotland and Cumbria had been due to walk out on Friday but peace talks averted the action.
Convenience of the talking toilet A computerised talking toilet that tells users when to flush is to be launched in Britain. The Clean Seat Matic, which will sell for 600, is aimed at shops, restaurants and public buildings. No inquests will be held into the deaths of 21 patients of Howard Martin, 72, a GP cleared of murder.
Andrew Tweddle, the Durham Coroner, said there was no reason to hold them. A baby girl died at the hands of her babysitter, suffering head injuries consistent with being swung around by her legs and thrown repeatedly against a wall, a court was told. Lynn Jeffrey, 37, of Nelson, Lancashire, is accused of killing 11-month-old Courtney Ann Shales last August in a brutal, callous and inexplicable murder , a jury at Preston Crown Court was told.
Hours earlier, Ms Jeffrey had been asked by Courtney s mother, Samantha Shales, 26, to babysit the child. Ms Jeffrey, who said that the baby had fallen off the bed and down the stairs, denies murder.
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