Britain’s Labour Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record and lost control of London on Friday, forcing Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rethink his strategy to avoid losing the next national poll. Conservative Boris Johnson, a journalist-turned-lawmaker prone to gaffes, wrested the prized post of London mayor from Labour’s maverick Ken Livingstone.
Fifteen potential sites for new ”eco-towns” across England have been published in a drive to tackle a national housing shortage while minimising damage to the environment. Each site would provide between 5 000 and 15 000 low carbon emission homes in the first new towns since the 1960s.
British Airways cancelled more than a 100 flights over the weekend following a chaotic opening of its new ,6-billion terminal at London’s Heathrow airport. It said it had cut 66 short-haul and European flights on Saturday and would cancel 37 more on Sunday after Terminal Five’s (T5) grand opening on Thursday descended into chaos.
The British Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday it would investigate claims of racist behaviour towards black Commonwealth soldiers serving in the British Army. The move comes as Belize-born Marlon Clancy announced he was setting up an independent union for 6 000 Commonwealth soldiers in the army to help them deal with racism.