Mensch In Marital Spat Over Why She Quit

Louise Mensch has hit back at her husband over comments that she quit Parliament because she feared defeat at the next election.

The former Tory MP's husband Peter Mensch, who manages the band Metallica, claimed she resigned because she thought she would only be an MP for three more years.

The claims sparked what appeared to be a good humoured marital spat on Twitter, with Mrs Mensch describing her second husband - who she married last year - as confused.

Mrs Mensch always claimed she left her job as MP for Corby in Northamptonshire in August because she wanted to spend more time with her family in New York.

But Mr Mensch told the Sunday Times: "She thought - and I wasn't going to argue with her - that she'd get killed at the next election.

"So, to her, it seemed much more short-term than my job as a manager, which is going to go on for another 20 years.

"And listen, they hadn't promoted her yet, and it's not like she thought she had a future because perhaps she felt she was too outspoken.

"She was doing her own thing regardless and maybe wasn't 'Conservative party enough' to move up the food chain."

In response Mrs Mensch, a former chick-lit novelist, tweeted: "Can honestly say I had no fear whatsoever of defeat at next election since had already decided not to stand again.

"However: nothing, repeat nothing, influenced decision to resign other than inability to hold family life together away from him."

Her husband responded: "This is why I don't do politics. Stick to music."

All, however, seems to have been forgiven.

Mrs Mensch posted later: "Lastly; @maindepowr apologetic but not a pol, doesn't do on message & I love him for it. Thinking of creative ways he can make it up to me."

A by-election to find Mrs Mensch's replacement is due on November 15.

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'Professional' Burglaries On The Rise

By Liz Lane, Sky News Reporter

Burglars are taking an "increasingly professional attitude" towards their crime, according to research.

More than 100 recently reformed burglars were questioned for home security firm ADT.

Almost three-quarters (72%) said they planned a break-in by researching a property beforehand, with many observing from gardens and bushes nearby.

Bob Turney, who gave up stealing from houses three decades ago, said they often work in teams.

"They will pick on an area and they will then three-handed go through a house like a swarm of locusts, and they'll all know what their own little job is, and they know where people hide things, so they just go for the obvious places and they can be in and out in five minutes and gone," he said.

He added that householders who have not secured their property properly are considered "fair game". Particular green lights are valuables in clear view, partially open windows, unlocked sheds and a lack of outside lighting.

Sensored lights are key to deterring burglars, says the report

Mark Shaw, residential director for ADT, said: "There's an element that there's no human victim here - it's just taking property that can just be claimed back on insurance.

"But the reality is there are victims and the feeling of violation that they're left with lasts a lot longer than any insurance claim."

Nubur Gupta's home in Middlesex was broken into last month. The thieves took around £20,000 worth of jewellery, electronics and clothes.

"It's a really big hassle, it's a feeling of unsafety, plus it's all the stress you have to go through, plus the emotional loss.

"So it's hurting, especially now with the baby, I feel unsafe for the baby because he's at home with the child minder so I think they could have come while he's here, they could have hurt him, they could have hurt me."

The survey found burglars are well aware of traditional hiding places many people use - including biscuit tins, cereal packets, fridges, freezers, washing machines, ovens, behind wardrobes, under mattresses, in pillow cases and at the back of sock drawers.

However, key deterrents include gravel driveways, dogs, new-looking doors and locks, sensor lights and CCTV cameras. Some 94% of ex-burglars say a monitored alarm would put them off.

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Beer Tax Debate Heads To Parliament

By Emma Birchley, Sky News Reporter

Campaigners calling for an end to a policy which pushes beer prices up faster than the rate of inflation have won the right to a debate in Parliament.

The beer duty escalator was introduced by the last government in 2008. It means the cost of a pint rises by an additional 2% every year.

Stephen Pugh is the financial director of the brewer Adnams in Southwold, Suffolk. He believes the policy is misguided.

"The duty will be 50p or so on the pint and the VAT will be a similar amount, so you are talking about adding £1 of tax for the government on that.

"I think that's an expensive and damaging level of costs to the consumer."

Many pubs have been unable to survive in the recent economic climate. Six thousand have closed in the past four years.

It is causing so much concern that more than 100,000 people have signed an online petition urging the government to scrap the escalator. The petition has been organised by the beer campaign group CAMRA.

Beer duty has increased by 42% since 2008

The issue will now be debated in Parliament on Thursday.

David Sanchez runs the Lord Nelson pub in the Suffolk seaside town.

To get a realistic profit after paying all the tax he says he should sell his bitter for £4 a pint. But he believes that price is too high and so it sells for £3.40.

"You can't really price the beer where it needs to be to maintain the current profitability so we have to keep the beer prices down to encourage customers to keep coming in.

"They still whinge at the price... It's all part of the banter these days."

Beer duty has increased by 42% since the escalator was introduced in 2008 while sales have fallen by 15% in that period.

And the rate of decline is rising. Between July and September there was a 5.6% fall in the volume of beer sold in pubs and shops compared to the same quarter last year, although it is thought the bad weather this summer may have had an impact on sales.

A spokesman for the Treasury said a range of tax measures had been introduced to help the alcohol industry, and pubs in particular.

"However at a time when we are working hard to get down the deficit, alcohol duty revenues do make an important contribution to the public finances.

"Crucially, the Government has not made any changes beyond what was announced at the budget in 2008."

But in the past three months 117 million fewer pints have been sold.

And, according to the industry, that means that tax revenue from beer is actually being hit because people cannot afford to buy it.

The British Beer and Pub Association wants duty to be frozen in the next budget.

Research carried out for the organisation suggests it would save 5000 jobs in the industry.

But the fear is, if prices keep being driven higher, more pubs will be forced to call time for good.

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Gang Arrests Have Led To 'Increased Anarchy'

The arrest of leaders of criminal gangs in the wake of last year's riots has led to an increase in "chaos, violence and anarchy", a report has claimed.

Prime Minister David Cameron promised an "all-out war on gangs and gang culture" following the riots, which brought mayhem to some English cities in the summer of 2011.

Police then responded by arresting many of those associated with criminal groups.

But a report by the Centre for Social Justice, obtained by The Observer, found that the removal of established gang leaders has led to the breakdown of criminal codes of behaviour and a "marked increase" in violence.

The report said: "Many in Whitehall regard the riots as a random one-off, and mistake the quashing of the disorder as control of the streets. They could not be more wrong.

"The alarming fact is that many streets across the country are besieged by anarchy and violence. There is no control in such neighbourhoods."

David Cameron with police in Croydon after the riots

The report said people in riot-hit areas had reported a "marked increase" in the violent behaviour of some gangs because of the removal from the streets of "elders" who had previously imposed a code of behaviour.

"There was a consensus that the current gangs neither have such a code nor cohesive leadership, which is resulting in increased chaos, violence and anarchy," said the report.

Christian Guy, managing director of the CSJ, which was founded by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, said: "Gangs played a significant role in the riots and it is dangerous to pretend otherwise.

"In London, at least one in five of those convicted was part of a gang."

The CSJ report recommended "addressing the drivers of gang culture, not just the symptoms".

It said: "The surest way of eliminating gangs is to try to ensure that children and young people never want or feel the need to join them.

"To do this we need to tackle deeper issues in our society and seek to nurture and support ever-strong families and stronger communities."

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Gary Glitter Arrested By Savile Police

Former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested as part of a police investigation sparked by sexual abuse claims against the late Jimmy Savile.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was taken from his central London home by officers early on Sunday morning and then questioned at a police station in the capital.

The ex-glam rock star, who had a string of hit singles in the 1970s, is being held on suspicion of sexual offences.

Gadd, 68, was detained by officers working on Operation Yewtree, which is investigating allegations of child sex abuse against Savile and others.

A police spokesman said: "Officers working on Operation Yewtree have arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation.

"The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 0715 on suspicion of sexual offences, and has been taken into custody at a London police station.

"The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others'."

Gadd served almost three years in jail in Vietnam after being convicted in March 2006 for child abuse offences.

He had moved to Vietnam to avoid media attention into his private life.

Gadd was deported back to the UK in 2008.

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Nolan Sister Bernie Faces New Cancer Battle

Singer and actress Bernie Nolan has revealed that the cancer she fought two years ago has returned.

The lead singer of sister group The Nolans has vowed to fight the disease once again, although doctors have told her it is incurable.

She told the Sunday Mirror: "I refuse to sit around like I've got a death sentence. I'll fight this forever - it can get stuffed."

Bernie, mother of 13-year-old Erin, recently celebrated her 52nd birthday.

She told the newspaper: "OK, it's not curable. But the doctors have promised me the cancer is treatable, it's containable.

"I'm on medication which is controlling it, and people have lived for 12 years on these drugs. Who knows what new treatments are around the corner?"

The star beat breast cancer in 2010, but now the disease has returned and spread to her brain, lungs, liver and bones.

Bernie in September 2010 when she first fought breast cancer

The first warning sign came in the summer when Bernie spotted a lump on the same side of her chest as she had her mastectomy two years ago.

A biopsy was carried out and a week later she learned the bad news.

Her surgeon told her and her husband, Steve Doneathy, it was likely they would need to remove the lump, and a course of radiotherapy would follow.

She told the newspaper. "I didn't even cry. I think I was in shock a bit, and I was angry."

Bernie, who is touring in the musical Chicago until December, kept the news to herself but an appearance on ITV1's Daybreak earlier this month put her under further pressure to go public.

Now, two weeks after explaining the full situation to her daughter, she felt the time was right to speak.

The singer, who also acted in The Bill and Brookside, will finish her run with Chicago and, after one day off, starts the panto Sleeping Beauty in Eastbourne.

However, a planned tour by The Nolans, due to start early in 2013, has been postponed.

Her sisters Anne and Linda have also suffered breast cancer and each has beaten the disease.

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Jimmy Savile: Thompson's Office 'Was Warned'

The Jimmy Savile child abuse allegations were flagged up to the office of former BBC boss Mark Thompson at least twice, according to new claims.

The then director-general's office was formally alerted by journalist Miles Goslett in May and by an ITV email in September, The Sunday Times reports.

According to the paper, his aides were told on both occasions that the allegations concerned Savile's alleged abuse of minors on BBC premises.

Mr Thompson, who has since left the BBC and is about to start a job as chief executive of The New York Times, denies he was ever personally informed.

Mr Goslett is said to have spoken to Jessica Cecil, the head of Mr Thompson's office and asked to speak to him about allegations that Savile had molested underage girls on BBC premises.

Ms Cecil told Mr Goslett to speak to the press office and said she did not tell Mr Thompson of the allegations.

A BBC spokesman said: "Jessica Cecil's firm recollection of this brief call is she advised the journalist to put their points to the BBC press office. She then informed the BBC's director of communications about the call."

A spokesman for Mr Thompson said: "Mark was not aware of the conversation between Miles Goslett and Jessica Cecil on May 18, 2012. He was on holiday at the time and this brief conversation was not relayed to him, either then or subsequently.

Hundreds have come forward claiming to be Jimmy Savile's victims

On September 7, ITV is reported to have contacted Mr Thompson's office with detailed questions about its findings based on interviews with 10 victims.

A spokesman said: "Mark does not recall being briefed and took no part in the response to the email in early September from ITV relating to its Jimmy Savile documentary. This response was handled by colleagues in BBC Journalism.

"As Mark has made it clear, he had no involvement in the decision not to proceed with the Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile."

The former BBC chief has previously said he was neither "notified nor briefed" about details of Newsnight's investigation into the Jim'll Fix It star which was later controversially dropped.

He later told reporters he had "formed the impression it [the Newsnight investigation] was about sex abuse" after a conversation at a party but when he called the news department he was told it had been axed for editorial reasons.

Police have now described Savile, who died in 2011, as a sexual predator who could be one of the worst paedophiles the UK has ever seen.

Hundreds of people have come forward claiming to be his victims. Around 130 have so far been questioned. A further 114 assault claims have been made.

Amid major questions about the culture at the BBC and its decision not to proceed with the Newsnight programme on Savile, the corporation has ordered three inquiries.

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, has said he is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the scandal, vowing there would be "no covering our backs".

He wrote in the Mail on Sunday that the broadcaster "must tell the truth and face up to the truth about itself, however terrible".

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told Sky News that the BBC should take it as a wake-up call to become more open.

"I think it's in all our interests for the BBC to be held in the highest esteem that it deserves and I think the problem at the heart of the BBC is that the organisation is too secretive," he told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan.

"I think it should think now that it should open itself up to Freedom of Information requests. I think it should look towards publishing a lot of its expenditure online... I don't think it can see itself away from the real world."

Childline founder and ex-BBC TV presenter Esther Rantzen told Sky News: "There are so many questions that need to be answered.

"What happened when people witnessed bad things happening when Jimmy Savile was at his height?

"How is it that this pain-staking piece of journalism (Savile investigation) was not transmitted on one of the flagship programmes (Newsnight)?"

She added: "What happened in the last four weeks is too late. I want the right judgements to have been made far earlier."

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Exclusive: Lords Unite In Newspaper Deal

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of the City's most influential investors is to back an audacious attempt to consolidate Britain's flagging regional newspaper sector by merging the business interests of Lord Rothermere and Baron Iliffe.

I can reveal that Iliffe News & Media, owner of the Cambridge News and Hertfordshire Mercury, and Northcliffe Media, the regionals arm of Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), are in advanced talks to pool their assets into a new vehicle spearheaded by David Montgomery, the former editor of the News Of The World.

The deal will create a business with more than £250m of annual revenue and could spark a bidding war in the regional newspaper industry involving Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press, two of the three largest players.

I understand that Crispin Odey, whose hedge fund Odey Asset Management is among the most prominent names in the City, has agreed to support a deal that would combine Iliffe and Northcliffe.

They will be folded into a new vehicle called Local World plc that will be privately-owned. Mr Montgomery will own a stake in it, while Iliffe's parent group, Yattendon, and DMGT will between them own close to 50%.

The deal is also being backed by a syndicate of banks led by Bank of Ireland, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group, which are on the verge of agreeing new borrowing facilities with the enlarged group.

A spokeswoman for Yattendon said: "I can confirm that Yattendon Group has held preliminary discussions with David Montgomery about becoming founder shareholders in a new local media company.

"We have a shared vision about the long term opportunities for local media but at this stage there is no certainty whether these discussions will lead to a satisfactory conclusion."

DMGT tried to sell Northcliffe in 2005 in a deal that would have valued the business at more than £1bn.

The proposed new transaction will value Northcliffe at little more than 10% of that price-tag, underlining the declining fortunes in the regional newspaper sector in recent years.

The industry has been hit by the waning economy as well as sharp declines in print advertising revenue and soaring print costs.

DMGT has subsequently cut hundreds of jobs at Northcliffe and switched some of its newspapers to digital-only titles to combat the slump.

Yattendon, which owns assets in agriculture, property and marine leisure as well as local media, will not take any cash out of the deal but will roll its entire newspaper investment into the new vehicle.

The group used to own titles including the Birmingham Post and the Coventry Telegraph before selling them.

The deal to create Local World has not yet been formally agreed but could be within weeks. If it does get completed, it would represent a significant step in the long-awaited consolidation of the regionals sector.

Mr Montgomery is likely to use the initial deal to pursue further mergers, potentially with Johnston or Trinity, according to insiders. Reports of his interest in Northcliffe have been circulating for the last few weeks.

A spokesman for DMGT said: "In response to media speculation, DMGT confirms that it is currently in talks regarding the future of Northcliffe Media.

"No deal or transaction has been agreed, but if these talks move to the point where agreement is reached, an announcement will be made to the market."

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Old English Sheepdog 'Facing Extinction'

The Old English Sheepdog has been put on a watch list of endangered dogs amid fears it could face extinction.

The breed, used in advertisements for Dulux paint for more than 50 years, had just 316 of its puppies registered this year, the Kennel Club said.

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi, which is favoured by the Queen, the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier, and the Welsh Terrier are also on the "At Watch" list for breeds with between 301 and 450 puppies confirmed.

The Kennel Club said it hoped to highlight the plight of Old English Sheepdogs before they get to vulnerable levels of less than 300 puppies.

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is also at risk

Bill Lambert, manager of the Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme, said: "The decline of the old English sheepdog... can be partly explained by lifestyle changes as it needs a lot of grooming and exercise and so is not suitable for the fast-paced urban lifestyles of many people.

"But it is also a lot to do with fashion. Despite the fact that Old English Sheepdogs have good temperaments and can make fantastic family pets, their popularity is being eclipsed by more fashionable foreign breeds that can be much harder to train and care for.

"Of particular concern is the growth in popularity of the Siberian husky, a beautiful dog which is notoriously wilful and generally unsuitable for urban life."

There are currently 30 vulnerable breeds as well as the four dog types on the At Watch list, the Kennel Club said.

The Foxhound had no registrations so far this year and the Cesky Terrier had just 25, making those breeds the most vulnerable, it added.

The biggest declines were seen in the Clumber Spaniel breed, which fell by 37% to just 114 registrations.

Some native vulnerable breeds fared well, with the Norwich Terrier seeing more than 200 new puppies - a 96% increase on the same period last year.

The Foxhound has had no registrations so far this year

Kennel Club Secretary Caroline Kisko said: "The reason the majority of dogs end up in rescue is because people haven't researched their breed before they buy.

"People often go for the most obvious or fashionable dog choice, which isn't necessarily the right one for them."

Outside of the vulnerable breeds, so called "handbag" dogs such as the pug and Chihuahua continue to thrive, the Kennel Club said.

Some 2,669 Chihuahuas were registered this year along with 5,496 pugs, which have seen a 615% increase in the last decade.

Meanwhile, 28,787 Labrador retrievers, the UK's most popular dog breed, were registered in the first three quarters of 2012.

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Leveson: Minister Opposes Tough Press Laws

The Government should be "very, very, very reluctant" to bring in statutory regulation of the press if it is suggested by Lord Leveson, a minister has said.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told Sky News such regulation would be unnecessary as long as the Press offers a legitimate complaints process.

Appearing on Sky's Dermot Murnaghan, he said the right of the media to expose corruption must be protected.

And he warned ministers must be very careful about introducing statutory regulation, should Lord Justice Leveson recommend a new independent watchdog to monitor the press.

It follows Prime Minister David Cameron's comments earlier this month where he said the media must retain its freedom.

Lord Justice Leveson will publish his findings in November

Mr Pickles said: "I think it is really massively important to ensure we have freedom of press in this country.

"Some of the characteristics of the British press - it is good at exposing corruption and it is good at going to places where other press wouldn't.

"I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said that for a free society to operate, then the 'river of a free press had to flow without restriction'.

"I think, given that the press are looking towards finding ways, the end result of offering a good way that people who have a legitimate complaint can find recourse, then that is right.

"We should be very, very, very reluctant to take on legislation. It's a balance and my view is that we should always balance in favour of a free press."

The Leveson inquiry was set up by Mr Cameron last year in the wake of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News Of The World.

He is expected to announce his findings next month.

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