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

Wage more than £10 to help with housing costs

staff reporter,London(wp/es):
A rise in the London Living Wage to more than £10 to reflect the sky-high cost of housing was backed by Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan today.
The frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson used a keynote speech to urge the Living Wage Commission to change the way it calculates the recommended minimum earnings to better mirror the pressure on families in the capital.
Mr Khan called on businesses to see it as a “badge of honour” to pay staff the Living Wage, currently £9.40 per hour in London and £8.25 elsewhere.
The complex calculation to set the rate is thought to underplay the capital’s housing costs. Mr Khan, who urged it to identify “a more consistent, fair formula”, is writing to the body.
“Of principal importance for Londoners will be the inclusion of a real reflection of the cost of housing and the extent of its impact on in-work poverty,” he said. He was speaking at the Resolution Foundation think tank which yesterday revealed a million Londoners live in homes where half the earnings are spent on housing — more than anywhere else in the country.

Marks & Spencer's change at the top may not stop it from sinking

business correspondent,London(wp/es):
Marc Bolland spent much of the Christmas break trudging around York in his wellies, surveying the flood’s impact on Marks & Spencer’s stores.
Now he’s making an even soggier departure from the company he’s run for the past six years.
While Steve Rowe’s appointment is the right move, the timing of the announcement smells worse than a water-damaged basement.
In July, senior M&S sources were telling people like me that Bolland would be staying on for another two years.
Yet today, we’re told he informed the board in the summer that he wanted to leave in early 2016. Peculiar, no?

Communication issues aside, how Bolland must wish that he had quit immediately in the summer.
Back then, shares were flirting with 600p. It even looked as if his turnaround of general merchandise was bearing fruit.
But despite improvements to the winter ranges, sales in recent weeks have been dismal — clearly far worse than he’d feared.
M&S, which has the biggest share of the market in woollens and coats, has inevitably been hit disproportionately badly, despite Bolland’s improvements to M&S’s buying and online sales.
Few — and certainly not me — foresaw just how bad its numbers would be, even after Next’s shocker on Tuesday.
However, going forward, Bolland’s transformation of the food offering and his modernisation of the general merchandise division during his six years in charge give Rowe a decent head start.
With his energy and popularity in the company, Rowe has as good a chance as any of making M&S work again.
The trouble is, in a High Street dominated by weird weather and ever-faster fashion from discount rivals, it’s still far from clear if anyone can hold back the flood threatening M&S

Music in 2016

 2016 is already proving to be a stellar year for massive gigs.

The biggest names in music, both homegrown and from afar, are lining up to play in the capital with many having comfortably sold out our biggest arenas and stadiums — Wembley and the O2 — for several nights in a row.
Browse the gallery above to see our selection. Note that we’ve arranged these gigs in chronological order, you can decide your own order of priority. If you’re looking to attend these gigs but don’t yet have tickets, it might be not be too late. Look on resale sites closer to the time, and keep your eyes peeled for news of any additional dates — then act fast. We documented some tips on bagging sought-after tickets here, at the time when Adele’s tour went on sale.

Londoners allows Oyster card to travel for free across the London

staff reporter,London(wp/es):
Londoners were today treated to free travel across the capital as Oyster card readers suffered a technical fault.
Barriers were left open at stations around London and buses remained free to use for about three hours due to the problems this morning.
A Transport for London spokeswoman said the problem was fixed by about 10am.
She said: "This morning's technical issue with our Oyster Card readers has been resolved. Customers should now touch in and out as normal. Anyone charged a maximum fare due to this issue will get an automatic refund credited to their Oyster card early next week. We apologise for this disruption."
Contactless bank cards could still be used to pay for journeys.
Londoners took to Twitter to express their delight at having the chance to travel for free on the same day fares increased by an average of one per cent.

15 teenagers whose lives were claimed by knife crime in London last year.

crime reporter,London(wp/es):

pic:Tragic death, The 15 victims of knife crime in London last year

These are the faces of the 15 teenagers whose lives were claimed by knife crime in London last year.
The number of fatal stabbings in the capital in 2015 reached its highest level in seven years. In 2008, 23 teenagers died after being stabbed, while in 2012, 2013 and 2014 there were six, seven and eight victims respectively.
The teenage victims in 2015 were all male, most were from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds and many were just 17 or 18 years old.   
A boy of 15 and a 16-year-old are also among those whose lives were taken this year.
Detective Superintendent Tim Champion from Trident Gang Crime Command said the level of fatal stabbings had risen because teenagers are carrying knives as a form of protection as they are “concealable”.
The minority backgrounds of many of the victims were representative of a multicultural London, Det Supt Champion said, and it was not a particular minority group being targeted.

He added: “If you speak to youths in London they will always say [carrying a knife] is for safety and protection. The danger is if something happens, you will use that knife. This has changed compared to five or six years ago.
“In every one of these cases, there are relatives who are upset, friends who have lost friends and parents who have lost their child.
“One murder is tragic and the numbers we have is not something we want to see going forward.”
The youngest victim last year, 15-year-old Alan Cartwright, was cycling along Caledonian Road, Islington, in February when he was stabbed in the chest during an unprovoked attack.
He continued riding his bicycle a short distance before collapsing and dying in a pool of blood.
 His attacker, 18-year-old Joshua Williams, was jailed for a minimum of 21 years in September.

Mohammed Dura-Ray, 16, the second youngest victim this year, was allegedly surrounded by a mob of up to 30 youths next to a playground on the Newington Estate in Elephant and Castle before being fatally wounded.
The teenager’s friends performed first aid as they battled to save him before emergency services arrived, but he was pronounced dead just half an hour later.
Jordan Daley, 20, was charged with his murder and is due to stand trial at the Old Bailey on February 17, 2016.
Other victims of knife crime in London include:

• Vaso Kakko, 17, who was stabbed to death a few hundred yards from where Ben Kinsella was murdered
• Che Wellington, 17, killed hours after his mother gave birth to his baby brother
• Gary Scott, 17, stabbed to death on his way home from a friend's birthday party

Det Supt Champion said the Metropolitan Police is working to decrease the level of knife crime in the capital and will work with communities to educate people and try and drive down the number of teenagers carrying weapons.
He said: “The key message is if you are carrying a knife, we will know if you have before and we want to stop you. We advocate stop and search in a targeted way. We know who are gang members and we will search them.
“If you carry a knife and it is for your own protection, you will always find yourself in a position you don’t want to be in. It could cause a murder or an acceleration of violence. It puts others in danger and it does not make you a bigger person by carrying a knife.
“Before you leave the house, think about the consequences of leaving the house with a knife. Think how you would feel going out with someone carrying a knife. Think about being caught up in something you don’t want to be involved in.”

The Met will also work with the Home Office to crack down in ‘zombie knives’, which Det Supt Champion said “there is no need for in London whatsoever”.
George and Deborah Kinsella, whose 16-year-old son Ben was stabbed to death in 2008, said it was “devastating news” that number of knife crime murders had risen again.
They said: “Our thoughts and hearts go out to all of the families that lose a child to knife crime; we have a good sense of what they go through every day, living through a nightmare that does not get easier with time.
“We truly believe that early education is the key to stopping young people carrying and using knives. We use Ben's story to show young
 people exactly what happens if you choose this path.
"Education and support needs to start in the home with parents and families and needs to be continued and supported by schools, organisations such as ours, the police and the government.
“These children are not statistics, they are a loved family member and a valued friend.”
Anyone caught carrying a knife will be charged and sent to court and repeat offender face six months in custody, Det Supt Champion said.
He added: “Don’t get yourself a criminal record for carrying a knife and potentially ruin what you want to do in later life.
“We have to work with the community to reduce knife crime and knife violence - it does not happen overnight. You do not need to carry a knife and that needs to come across [to teenagers].”
London mayoral candidates Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan – who both have young families – both said tackling knife crime will be a strong priority if they are elected in next year’s election.
As part of his pledge to tackle knife crime, Mr Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park and north Kingston, is calling for tougher checks to prevent the sale of ‘zombie knives’ online to under 18s.

George and Deborah Kinsella, parents of murdered Ben Kinsella

He said: “One of the first duties of the Mayor is to keep Londoners safe.
“We won’t solve knife crime overnight, but the first point of any plan should be to take as many knives off the streets as possible. That’s why I back the sensitive use of Stop and Search.
“We also need to tackle the supply of knives. I share the concerns of the police over the availability of so-called ‘zombie killer’ knives and as Mayor I will work with them, the Government and online retailers to strengthen the rules so that the law is being properly enforced.”
Mr Khan, who is MP for Tooting and father to two teenage daughters, said this year’s rise in teenage knife crime “greatly” concerned him.
He said: “I have a real plan to tackle knife crime - based on my experience working with the victims of crime and the police as a lawyer and MP.
“If elected as Mayor, I’ll introduce tougher and more effective sentences for those caught with knives, I’ll stop shops selling knives to kids, properly map London’s gangs and make our prevention programmes more effective.
“My plan will make London safer and reduce knife crime, but we must also give the police the resources they need to keep our communities safe – nothing is more important.”
The Met will continue with its knife strategy in 2016 to reduce the level of fatal knife crimes and incidents of knife violence across the capital.
The strategy includes: targeting high knife crime areas, weapon sweeps, working with retailers to encourage shop workers to challenge teenagers on why they are purchasing a knife, working with Trading Standards and the Home Office and conducting meetings in schools, high crime areas and gang affected areas.
Anyone who sees somebody carrying a knife is urged to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.