UK news
London schools face cuts to staff and budgets as pupil numbers fall
February 2, 2026Schools in London could lose £45m in funding over the next four years as pupil numbers continue to fall, a report has warned, with secondary schools facing staff and curriculum cuts as budgets dwindle. Until now, primary schools in the capital have been worst hit by falling birthrates, leading to about 90 school closures or […]
Read More
Campaigner Peter Tatchell arrested for carrying ‘globalise the intifada’ placard
January 31, 2026Peter Tatchell, the activist and campaigner, has been arrested for holding a placard which displayed the phrase “globalise the intifada” at a pro-Palestine march in London. Tatchell, who attended a Palestine solidarity march in London on Saturday afternoon, held a sign that read: “Globalise the intifada: Non-violent resistance. End Israel’s occupation of Gaza & West […]
Read More
UK’s first rapid-charging battery train ready for boarding this weekend
January 30, 2026The UK’s first superfast-charging train running only on battery power will come into passenger service this weekend – operating a five-mile return route in west London. Great Western Railway (GWR) will send the converted London Underground train out from 5.30am to cover the full Saturday timetable on the West Ealing to Greenford branch line, four […]
Read More
Paedophile passed vetting to work at London primary school and nursery
January 29, 2026A paedophile passed supposedly strict vetting to gain positions of trust in a primary school and then a nursery where he carried out a campaign of sexual offences in broad daylight against toddlers and young girls. The extensive offending history of Vincent Chan, 45, spanning over a decade, is emerging bit by bit as detectives […]
Read More
Euston HS2 back on track, say ministers as final tunnelling begins
January 27, 2026Ministers have pledged that a redeveloped Euston HS2 station will be big enough to “serve the nation” as tunnelling began for the last miles of high-speed railway into central London. Excavating the 4.5-mile tunnels from Old Oak Common in west London is expected to take between 12 and 18 months – although details of the […]
Read More
On £100k and feeling hard-done-by? It seems absurd – but a cold truth lies beneath | Jason Okundaye
January 26, 2026When I was younger, I was always hearing about “yuppies” (young, urban professionals), a prosperous class of upwardly mobile, status-chasing people working in major cities. It was already a vintage term by the time I was conscious of it, it having been forged in the 1980s, when these people were viewed as the major beneficiaries […]
Read More
Disposable income in 11 towns and cities has risen twice as fast as rest of UK
January 26, 2026Eleven towns and cities in the UK, including Warrington, Barnsley and Wakefield, have seen their disposable incomes rise twice as fast as the rest of the UK over the past decade, a study has found. A report from Centre for Cities, a thinktank, showed that between 2013 and 2023, disposable income for residents of these […]
Read More
From scorpions to peacocks: the species thriving in London’s hidden microclimates
January 24, 2026London is the only place in the UK where you can find scorpions, snakes, turtles, seals, peacocks, falcons all in one city – and not London zoo. Step outside and you will encounter a patchwork of writhing, buzzing, bubbling urban microclimates. Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at the London Wildlife Trust, emphasises the […]
Read More
Nigel Farage’s trip to Davos hosted and paid for by family trust of billionaire
January 23, 2026Nigel Farage’s trip to Davos this week was hosted and paid for by the $10bn family trust of an Iranian-born billionaire, the Guardian has learned. The leader of Reform UK has been touring Davos this week, giving speeches in which he pledged to tax banks and “fight the globalists”. But in a surprising entry, he […]
Read More
Nostalgia for local cafes risks halting progress | Letters
January 21, 2026Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s lament for the untrendy cafe reflects a view held by some that the operators of cafes on Hampstead Heath should never change (I’m sick of avocado toast – I just want to keep my local, untrendy cafe, 12 January). It is a position rooted more in nostalgia than in the practical realities […]
Read More