RADIO: A new report by the National Audit Office has revealed that the NHS is spending nearly £700 on negligence cover on every live birth in the UK. The NAO said that from 2012-2013 this amounted to almost £500 million. Staff shortages and the rising number of complications in births are resulting in increasing costs to the…
RADIO: The head of the UK’s Armed Forces General Sir Nicholas Houghton has warned that Britain must focus more on trying to prevent conflicts before they ignite in countries across Africa and the Persian Gulf. It comes as British forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan next year, meaning that Britain will not be fighting…
Broadcast on 1st Nov 2013 on VoR. RADIO: Consultation began on Friday on the economic benefits of extending the high speed rail network HS2 to Scotland. The UK transport minister Baroness Kramer said the rail links would“bring the UK together” and that “Scotland would benefit from day one.” But critics say that HS2 is a political…
RADIO: Euro MPs on Monday voted to tighten some tobacco regulations aimed at putting young people off smoking, but several proposed measures have not been included. MEPs have supported a ban on menthol and flavoured cigarettes by 2018. However, a proposal to treat electronic cigarettes as medicinal products, which campaigners say would help ensure safety,…
RADIO: The widow of poisoned ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko has 48 hours to decide whether to continue to fight for a public inquiry into her husband’s death. Marina Litvinenko wants to challenge the government’s decision not to hold a public inquiry by applying for a judicial review. However, on Thursday, three judges at London’s High Court…
Broadcast on 25th Sept 2013 on VoR. RADIO: Russian President Vladimir Putin has told an international forum on Arctic exploration in the northern Russian city of Salekhard, that the Greenpeace activists arrested over a protest against oil drilling it was “obvious they’re not pirates,” but added that they had been trying to seize the rig and…
Broadcast on 24th Sept 2013 on VoR. RADIO: Forty human rights groups, along with public figures like Stephen Fry and author A.L. Kennedy, have called for an end to what they term industrial-scale spying by the US and the UK. Human rights groups launched a petition, which urges EU leaders to do more to prevent…
Broadcast on 20th Sept 2013 on VoR. RADIO: Greenpeace is calling on the Russian authorities to free the 30 people detained after Russian Coast Guards boarded the Arctic Sunrise and made arrests following a protest against Gazprom’s Arctic oil drilling operations. The conservation group has started an online campaign to free its members from custody…
RADIO: It’s been revealed that a failed IT system designed for the National Health Service has cost taxpayers nearly £10 billion so far. In a devastating new report by the Public Accounts Committee, the system has been labelled “the biggest IT failure ever seen”. Originally aimed at centralising health records the computerised system has never…
RADIO: A new report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has called on the Bank of England to restrict the UK’s housing market, to “take the froth out” of yet another property boom. Nima Green looks into the implications for VoR. Across some parts of the UK, there seem to be tentative signs that the…
Nima Sherpa Green 