Rail pledges ‘are broken’

PROMISES to invest in transport in northern England have been “repeatedly broken”, a Labour frontbencher said yesterday.

Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald urged the Government to match Labour’s £10billion rail network plan.

And Labour’s Judith Cummings told MPs: “This must be a network linking the great northern cities.”

But Transport Secretary Chris Grayling criticised the last Labour government’s investment record. GRACE Jones knew exactly why she kept one sprightly step ahead of the inevitable... a nightly tot of health-giving whisky.

But now time has finally caught up with Britain’s oldest person, who has died in her sleep at the age of 112.

Grace, who loved her Famous Grouse, said: “I started having a nightly tot when I turned 50. My doctor said, ‘Keep up with the whisky, it’s good for your heart’.”

Grace was born in Liverpool in 1906, five years after the death of Queen Victoria.

Known as Amazing Grace, she lived through 26 PMs, five monarchs and two world wars, not to mention the sinking of the Titanic and the Russian Revolution.

She was three when Heinz cream of tomato soup arrived in the UK and 21 when The Jazz Singer, widely regarded as the first “talkie”, was released.

Grace owned a women’s hat factory in her 20s before meeting her engineer husband Leonard, who died in 1986. They were married for 53 years and Grace described her wedding day in 1933 as the happiest moment of her life. She said: “He was a true gentleman.”

The restless couple lived in 28 homes in Liverpool, Devon, Cheshire, North Wales and Worcestershire before finally moving to Mickleton, Worcs, to be near their daughter Deirdre McCarthy. Grace moved to Broadway, Worcs, in 2005 and became a local celebrity because of her age. Deirdre, 80, said her mum was very fit and active to the end. She added: “Only last Wednesday we were playing carpet bowls. She lived a very fulfilling life. She did everything with style, never grumbled and was always active.” Grace became Britain’s oldest person last summer after the death of Olive Boar, 113. It’s believed the oldest person is now 111-year-old Dorothy Payne, of Sevenoaks, Kent. STYLE Grace in her 20s