Residents of Dorset village that inspired Thomas Hardy fight back against expansion

Thomas Hardy described his fictional village of Marlott as being in an “engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours’ journey from London”.But the Victorian realist would now barely recognise Marnhull, the real-life village in north Dorset upon which Marlott was based, and would probably be surprised to know his name is repeatedly invoked in official submissions arguing against its expansion.Nestled in the Blackmore Vale, the opening backdrop for Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Marnhull is a patchwork of hamlets with a hotchpotch of architectural styles, from Tudor manors and thatched cottages to postwar developments.In recent months, an acrimonious row has broken out over plans to build up to 120 homes, which residents fear will merely be “phase one” of a continuing, wider expansion of the picturesque village. The situation has underlined some of the tensions rising out of the Labour government’s drive to build more houses

More protections have been added to assisted dying bill, says Kim Leadbeater

The bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales will be strengthened and made more workable by proposed changes, Kim Leadbeater, the MP behind the legislation, has said.As the House of Commons prepared to debate amendments, Leadbeater said fresh protections had been introduced to allow a further check on applications for assisted dying, and ensure doctors and others were able to opt out of involvement in the process.More than 100 campaigners on both sides of the assisted dying argument gathered outside parliament in a sign of strength of feeling about the issue.The bill, which passed its second reading by 55 votes, had been due to face another yes-or-no vote on Friday, the committee stage. But the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, granted more time for the debate, meaning the only votes will be on specific amendments

‘Much-needed grit’ to be fostered in England’s schoolchildren, say ministers

Schoolchildren will be helped to develop “much-needed grit” for life beyond school with increased mental health support, the education and health secretaries have said.Writing in the Telegraph, Bridget Phillipson and Wes Streeting said they would expand mental health support in schools to nearly 1 million extra children in England.Asked what she meant by “grit” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillipson said: “It’s about having the grit, the resilience, the ability to cope with life’s ups and downs, about the challenges that are thrown at you.“And young people today face many challenges, very different to the some of the challenges that I faced, and what I’m announcing today with the health secretary is that a million more young people will be able to access mental health support teams in schools.“That’s about getting in there early when young people are struggling, making sure they’ve got access to trained, qualified professionals who can help them manage all of this

Ministers ‘oblivious’ to UK’s scale of violence against women and girls, say MPs

Ministers appear to be “oblivious” to the true scale of harm caused by violence against women and girls and must do more to “reverse the worrying rise in misogyny”, MPs have said.Parliament’s cross-party public accounts committee heard evidence that women’s refuges were being forced to turn down 65% of requests for support amid soaring cases, while other dedicated services operating in communities were able to help only about half of those who requested it.Highlighting figures that showed at least one in 12 women each year were affected by violence and one in five recorded crimes related to violence against women and girls, the committee said the Home Office’s way of monitoring prevalence did not include all types of crime.The MPs also say it is a “particular concern” that in spite of evidence that the age range of those most likely to become a victim or perpetrator of sexual violence is between 11 and 20, the Home Office does not include under-16s in its information gathering.Launching the government’s promise to halve incidents of violence against women and girls within a decade last year, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Our mission is for the whole of government, agencies, organisations and communities to work together

Starmer defends prison recall shake-up that will free some domestic abusers

Keir Starmer has defended plans that will release some domestic abusers on recall earlier in order to ease jail overcrowding in England and Wales as ministers faced a backlash over concerns for public safety.Under emergency measures announced by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, some criminals serving sentences of between one and four years who breach their licence conditions will be returned to custody for only a fixed 28-day period.Offenders are recalled to prison if they commit another offence or, having been released early on licence, breach their conditions, such as missing probation appointments.A government source admitted that “many but not all domestic abusers” would be released under the scheme.Starmer told reporters while on a visit to Albania on Thursday: “I do not want to be in the position where we have this [scheme]

NHS gave private firms record £216m to examine X-rays in 2024

The NHS handed private firms a record £216m last year to examine X-rays and scans because hospitals have too few radiologists.The amount of money NHS organisations across the UK are paying companies to interpret scans has doubled in five years as demand rises for diagnostic tests.Despite the growth in privatisation, the NHS in England failed to read 976,000 X-rays and CT and MRI scan results within its one-month target – the highest number ever. Scans play a crucial role in telling doctors if a patient has cancer or a broken bone, for example.The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), which collated the figures from doctors across the UK, said the £216m given to private firms in 2024 was “a false economy” which it blamed on the NHS’s failure to recruit enough specialists to read all the scans patients have in its hospitals