Before the world sees The Girls there will be another Barlow musical theatre project. The singer has written the music and lyrics for the upcoming Harvey Weinstein-produced Broadway show Finding Neverland, which tells the story of JM Barrie and his relationship with the family that inspired Peter Pan.
The inquest also heard from staff member Riley Hoare, who said she saw the CCTV footage before it was deleted. Jeremy Paxman has accused broadcasters of acting in a “pathetic high-handed” fashion over the proposed TV leaders’ debates – even though he would have been an integral part of one of them.
Paxman described the negotiations over the pre-election debates, which were finally completed at the weekend nearly six months after the proposals were first published by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as a “complete shambles”.
The former Newsnight anchor will interview David Cameron and Ed Miliband for the first of the TV leader election programmes on Thursday, to be jointly broadcast by Channel 4 and Sky News.
But the two party leaders will be interviewed individually by Paxman, with Kay Burley moderating questions from a studio audience, rather than the head-to-head between the prime minister and Labour leader as originally envisaged by broadcasters.
Paxman said: “It seems to have been a complete shambles.
“I thought the broadcasters behaved in a pathetic high-handed fashion. There is something completely stupid about the suggestion that they are integral to the constitution, which of course we don’t have.
“All broadcasting exists by issuing invitations to people and if they accept the invitation you can make the show. If they don’t accept the invitation, you have to think of something else.”
Labour accused Channel 4 and Sky of backing down on a pledge to “empty chair” the prime minister after he refused to take part in more than one seven-way leader debate, that will be broadcast on ITV on 2 April.
She told the court she saw Austen pulling the right hand wing of the mirror towards him, step left to stand opposite the middle panel and then touch the left mirror panel, before it fell forwards towards him.
Fellow worker Vanessa Beeley added that she saw footage of Austen pulling the right hand panel “aggressively” and “with force”.
“In the interests of accountability and transparency, the performance and other data relating to academy chains, should be published broken down by school and trust”, the committee added.
It is estimated over half of all academies are in formal collaborative arrangements intended to share expertise providing challenge and improving standards The list of legal but unacceptable organisations is being compiled by a new Home Office “extremism analysis unit”, which is also to develop a counter-entryism strategy to tackle Islamist radicalisation and ensure there is no repeat of the Trojan horse affair in Birmingham schools across the public sector.
In a speech outlining a wishlist of measures and powers to tackle extremism in Britain, the home secretary acknowledged that the work of the new unit had received only cabinet approval so far.
May was put in charge of developing a cross-government extremism strategy last October, but she has so far failed to resolve outstanding problems raised by at least four Conservative cabinet colleagues. Although the committee heard detailed evidence from witnesses who claimed jobcentres operate informal “targets” for issuing sanctions on jobseekers, the report makes no specific recommendations on the issue.
Official figures show sanction rates have increased rapidly since the coalition introduced tighter benefit conditions in October 2012, and over 1m sanctions were issued last year. In some areas up to one in 10 of all jobseekers were given sanctions in 2013-14.
A DWP spokesperson said: “As the report recognises, sanctions are a vital backstop in the welfare system and are only used in a small minority of cases where claimants don’t do all they can to look for work.
“Every day Jobcentre Plus advisers work hard to help people into jobs, and we continue to spend around £94bn a year on working-age benefits to provide a safety net that supports millions of people.” However, Scotland is home to some of the constituencies with the lowest turnout in the United Kingdom. Saying you are certain to vote is one thing, actually turning up to vote is another.
The independence referendum should act as a cautious reminder to take highly optimistic turnout expectations with a pinch of salt. Polls last year were anticipating turnout to be around 95%, 10 points higher than it eventually was - but make no mistake: if the SNP does not win 45-50 seats in May it will most probably not be because of a swing back to Labour.
Data around political action also reveals significant contrasts between Scotland and England. Among Scots aged 18-19, seven in 10 claim to have taken part in political action – such as signing a petition, writing to an MP or taking part in a demonstration – compared to less than one in two in England. The gap is also wide in the 20-24 and 25-44 age groups. In Scotland the figures are 54% and 60% respectively, in England they’re 41% and 48%.
All these numbers clearly show that on the majority of Scotland’s voters, and on younger people in particular, the effect of the referendum has gone beyond voting on the day.
There are two lessons for the UK’s two main parties in Scotland’s recent political history
The first is for the Labour party. It took the Tories more than a decade to recover and rid itself of the aura of toxicity that engulfed the party 20 years ago. Following the 2011 Scottish parliamentary elections, Milband said Labour had to “reassess” its policies and position in Scotland – he should probably start that reassessment soon.