Catch up on the week

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 19:08

MONDAY

The Government is listening to concerns over plans to scrap tax relief on childcare vouchers and an announcement will be made next month, said Children's Secretary Ed Balls. More than 80,000 people have signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister to reverse the move.

SUNDAY

It emerged that the parents of a British serviceman killed on board a Scottish-based RAF Nimrod which exploded over Afghanistan would seek a criminal prosecution following a report into the disaster which suggested potential criminality in the conduct of named individuals. Sergeant Ben Knight was one of 14 servicemen killed in the incident in September 2006.

TUESDAY

T-Mobile revealed that customers' private details were sold on to rival firms in a major data selling scandal.

The Information Commissioner, who is investigating the breach of data protection rules, said thousands of mobile phone owners had their details sold on for "substantial sums".

WEDNESDAY

Marks & Spencer named the highly regarded boss of supermarket chain Morrisons as its new chief executive. Marc Bolland succeeds M&S executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose who will continue at the firm as part-time chairman.

The 50-year-old Dutchman joined Morrisons in 2006 as chief executive.

THURSDAY

Hundreds of homes were flooded after torrential rain caused rivers to burst their banks. Rain battered southern Scotland and northern England, north-west Wales and western Scotland.

FRIDAY

A man walked free from court after strangling his wife during a nightmare. Brian Thomas, 59, of Neath, South Wales, strangled his wife in his sleep as he dreamed that he was battling an intruder.

He woke in July last year to find he had killed his wife Christine, 57, while the couple slept in their camper van in a pub car park.

GOOD WEEK

Rolf Harris

It has been 40 years since the hirsute Australian topped the Christmas charts with Two Little Boys. But Harris has now teamed up with Status Quo singer and guitarist Rick Parfitt to record Christmas In The Sun. Will 79-year-old Harris and Parfitt, 61, be able to take on whoever wins The X Factor for the No 1 slot?

BAD WEEK

Camilla Dallerup

The dancer was forced to quit I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here after coming close to fainting and suffering memory loss. She blamed her exit on a lack of energy and no fat deposits to draw upon. Pleas for sugar fell on deaf ears, claimed 35-year-old Dallerup, adding: "I can't believe what's happened." She was replaced by retired boxer Joe Bugner.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

...about more taxpayers' money for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

The Scotsman

Many must be tempted to think that the price of staging these events is getting too high. Is it really worth it, especially when the pressures on public finances are extreme?

The answer must be yes. The Games enabled Manchester to shrug off a reputation as a city in decline. Glasgow, still suffering from the disappearance of traditional industries, needs this boost as much as Manchester did.

The Sun

It shouldn't come as a great surprise that the cost of staging the 2014 Games in Glasgow was grossly underestimated. But the patience of taxpayers will be sorely tested if they see the bill spiral out of control. Memories of the Holyrood debacle haven't faded just yet.

The Herald

There cannot be a blank cheque to bail out the games. The costs of staging such events are increasing to the point where they are in danger of outweighing the benefits. That must not happen in Glasgow.

QUOTES

I mean, he is so vibrant, vital, attractive, smart. He's a really good guy - and he is so young!"

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband

"Jordan has run out of ideas and is scraping the barrel to try to convince all of us again that she is caring and loving. No respect, not a nice person, stay in the jungle and do us all a favour."

Scots bra tycoon Michelle Mone on Katie Price

"I'll get out of bed in the middle of the night and practise my swing in front of the mirror. I'm obsessed and it is destroying my life. Golf is an addiction."

Actor Hugh Grant

"It's like taking my brain to the dry cleaners."

Impressionist Jon Culshaw on his feelings when he returns to his original home base of Ormskirk

"Think of the egos, the status-seeking, the allowance-seeking, the pomposities and inflated titles."

George Walden, former diplomat and ex-Tory MP on the job of EU president

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

An enigmatic Kate Moss, left, on "stick insect" models

"The absence of classical work in my repertoire is due to the fact I can't wear those trousers."

Actor Bill Nighy, who says he avoids doing Shakespeare because it involves wearing "baggy pantaloons"

"I do sympathise with many of the more honest MPs I know. They just fell in with a bad crowd, namely other MPs.

Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute

RIP

EDWARD WOODWARD

1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009

He was magnificent as the hapless police sergeant burned alive on a Hebridean island in The Wicker Man and was rightly famed for his roles as down-at-heel spy Callan and later as the hard man in The Equalizer. His 50-year career, spanned films, television and theatre – he was a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and trod the boards of Broadway. Earlier this year, despite being 79, he even had a short stint in EastEnders.

THIS LIFE

Oops! I suppose the name Imperial Flute Band – to some – does conjure up visions of local young lovelies in floaty dresses playing the classics. It may have done to whichever Tesco manager thought it would be a good idea to hire it for the opening of the supermarket chain's new store in Bellshill, Lanarkshire. However, the IFB turned out to be the Orange Order band. The clue was on its website which said it plays a wide selection of tunes ranging from traditional Loyalist songs and marches to Scottish and Irish jigs. The band turned up for the gig, only to be told moments before the opening that its services were no longer required. A Tesco spokesman said: "It is never our intention to offend anyone and it was for this reason that we took the decision to cancel the band."

BEST OF THE BLOGS

We've uploaded Jim Sillars' new pamphlet "Thoughts on getting to the only sensible choice for Scotland: Independence" on to our website this morning. You can read it here.

Sillars' basic point is that the SNP has to look at some of its policies – for example on Nato, Trident and the EU – and ask a simple question: is this harming or helping to build support for independence? If it's the former, then he says it needs to be changed. "The SNP, by itself, cannot win a vote for independence. It has to build a coalition of forces if it is to carry a majority, and that requires re-examining policies which, if adhered to in a dogmatic manner, will prevent the forging of a successful coalition," he declares. Well worth a read.

Eddie Barnes, the Steamie, http://www.scotsman.com/CustomPages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID>75668

An open letter to Christina McKelvie MSP.

"Thanks to the SNP Government the support that our Scottish veterans now receive is streets ahead of where it was a couple of years ago and by some way the best in the UK."

"In what way is the support that veterans receive 'streets ahead' of where it was previously? What exactly have the SNP done to improve the support that veterans receive or is this just more warm words to hide no action from the SNP Government?"

Scottish Tory Boy, http://scottishtoryboy.blogspot.com/

Guido's Blackberry is dead. They can't deliver a new one until Monday.

No Twitter, no Facebook, no Bloomberg, no Reuters, no live securities prices, no mobile trading, no MMS texts, no e-mail, no real-time feed update, it all just seems very quiet. The information tsunami has evaporated. Guido is in a virtual limbo. For a news junkie this is terrifying.

Guido Fawkes, http://order-order.com/

THE WEEK ON THE WEB

It's the most important and happiest day of your life. So, of course, you and your partner should turn up dressed as Fred and Wilma Flintstone, or Peter Pan and Tinkerbell (with the groom apparently confused over his role). Then it's off to KFC for the reception. The best "how not to" wedding guide ever. http://tackyweddings.com

Bridesmaids. You've gotta love 'em. Even when they get drunk, try to dance around one of the poles holding up your marquee and, well, ruin your wedding. www.liveleak.com/view?i>5e0_1258319176

It seems a shame to pick on Alex Salmond after he failed to make any headway in Glasgow North-East. But the web is still buzzing with viral cartoons on Wee Alex made by his opponents before the last Scottish election. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v>iH-jUieW9c4&feature>related

TWEETS

big_ben_clock: BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG

calvinharris, below: I'm at a big long photoshoot today, in which the main object is to keep my stupidly BIG HANDS (photographers words!) out of shot

JoyceJamesJoyce: Was it true about the black dog that walked there at night with eyes as big as carriagelamps?

AIannucci: At Heathrow. Am off to Hollywood now, to be toyed with by bearded men in suntans.

QueenMahm: We have had a busy day selecting our Christmas outfit and decided to go out on a limb choosing a matching dress coat and hat.

Janefonda, right: Why is it that women's health is always the sacrificial lamb? Even under the Obama presidency!

Carrie FFisher: Looking for love in all the wrong places, I don't want life to imitate art, I want it to BE art!

Beathhigh (Ian Rankin): Anyone out there got the technology to do a mash-up of Katie Price's arrival in the jungle and the napalm/treeline bit from Apocalypse Now?

caitlinmoran: God I'm GLAD they're axing the South Bank Show – they make everything as DULL as CARDBOARD. They're even DE-SEXING Guy Garvey for me

jimmycarr: I was in Bradford yesterday but there's such as thing as 'too much glitz & glamour' so tonight it's the more earthy down to earth Blackburn

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