London Underground sex attacks take place during rush hour

crime reporter,London(wp/es):
Most sex attacks on the Underground happen to commuters in busy carriages during the rush hour, new figures have revealed.
Campaigners say the data demolishes myths about both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence.
Statistics from British Transport Police show between January 2014 and last December, 322 sexual assaults were reported on the Underground during the evening peak of 5pm to 7pm.
There were a further 291 reports to British Transport Police (BTP) from 8am to 10am over the same period.
By contrast, only 110 assaults were reported between 11pm and 1am.

Sarah Green from the End Violence Against Women Coalition told the Independent: “These figures tell a compelling story about how sexual harassment is mostly experienced during daytime commuter journeys – not during late-night social hours.”
And she said the figures “explode a myth that women who have been drinking or who are dressed a certain way provoke sexual harassment, because the victims at peak morning and early evening travel times are largely working women making commuter journeys.”
She added: “The figures may also similarly explode myths about perpetrators of sexual harassment, because at 8am they are sober men who purposefully look for chances to offend, not late-night opportunists.”
The figures also showed a spike in reports over the summer months
 and a recent rise in reports, with 94 allegations made last October alone.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in August that he was open to the idea of women-only carriages on the Underground after 10pm.
British Transport Police said the increase could be in response to a number of campaigns, including Project Guardian which encourages women to report sexual harassment on the transport network.
A spokesman said: “Significant work has taken place to encourage reporting of sexual offences on trains and Tubes under the successful 'report it to stop it' campaign, which has increased people's confidence to report offences to police.”
He added crime on the Underground network was at a low of 6.8 offences per million journeys.
Victims of sexual assault on the Tube can send a text to the Report It toStop It number on 61016.

Chancellor George Osborne has been dealt another blow on the economy as the UK’s trade deficit with its biggest partner — the European Union

business correspondent,London(es/wp):

Chancellor George Osborne has been dealt another blow on the economy as the UK’s trade deficit with its biggest partner — the European Union — hit an all-time high.

Trade figures showed that record car imports drove the nation’s goods gap with its EU partners up by £500 million to £8.2 billion, the highest since Office for National Statistics records began in 1998.

The latest gloom on the UK economy comes just a day after Osborne warned of a “dangerous cocktail” of global risks threatening the recovery this year and China-inspired new year turmoil in world markets.

Number-crunchers have meanwhile slashed estimates of the UK’s growth performance in 2015, while dire borrowing figures have left the Chancellor facing the embarrassment of missing his deficit target in this year’s Budget.

UK goods have become more expensive on the continent as the pound surged against the euro following the European Central Bank’s €1.1 trillion (£817.9 billion) move to pump cash into its economy last year, hampering the efforts of British exporters.

In a blow to hopes of rebalancing the economy, EU imports rose 2% to hit a record £19.3 billion in November.

But exports to the region — which accounts for almost 40% of UK trade — sank by £1.7 billion or 1.5% to £11.1 billion, which was put down to weaker markets in France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

The UK’s overall goods trade deficit with the rest of the world improved slightly to £10.6 billion from £11.2 billion — although experts put this down to falling prices halving the cost of oil imports from £1.1 billion to £0.6 billion.

Economists said the slight improvement was unlikely to be enough for net trade to add to overall UK growth in the final three months of 2015, after it knocked one percentage point off the economy’s expansion between July and September. 

Scott Bowman, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “The recent fallback in the oil price should help to improve the trade balance, all else equal, given that the UK is a net importer of oil. Against this, there are a number of challenges exporters face, not least the strong pound and weakness of demand overseas.

“Accordingly, the economic recovery looks set to remain reliant on the domestic services sector.”

Stripping out volatile oil, the underlying picture is also weak as export volumes fell 1.7% over the month, exceeding the 1% decline in imports.

Import prices have meanwhile dipped 7.9% year-on-year — reflecting lower commodity prices and previous sterling strength — which could give the Bank of England another reason to delay rate rises, according to IHS Global Insight’s Howard Archer