Home news in brief
Bruce leaves Radio 2 after 45 years at BBC
Ken Bruce has become the latest veteran presenter to leave BBC Radio 2, leaving the corporation after 45 years to host a show on commercial rival Greatest Hits Radio. The 71-year-old has been on the station since 1984 but told listeners: “I’ve done everything it is possible to do at Radio 2.”
“After 45 years of broadcasting on BBC Radio, it’s time for a change,” Bruce said yesterday. “I would stress that this is
entirely my decision. I will always be very proud of my association with the BBC and Radio 2.”
Bruce, who said “the time was right” to quit, has now joined the team at Greatest Hits, where he will begin working in April. He will present a show from 10am to 1pm on the Bauer radio station, alongside presenters including Simon Mayo at Drivetime and Jackie Brambles in the early evening.
“Nothing stays the same forever and I have decided the time is right for me to move on from Radio 2 when I reach the end of my current contract in March,” Bruce said. “It’s been a tremendously happy time for me. I’ve made many friends and worked with many wonderful colleagues.” It is unknown who will replace him, but the BBC said it will make an announcement “at a later date”.
Shapps admits airbrushing Johnson out of photo a mistake
Grant Shapps has apologised for “inadvertently” airbrushing former prime minister Boris Johnson out of a photo celebrating a space launch in Cornwall. The business secretary claimed he told staff Mr Johnson needed “hair-brushing, not airbrushing” from the tweet, as the former prime minister asked a question in the Commons.
Social media users pointed out that a photo published by Mr Shapps on Twitter ahead of the first orbital launch attempt from UK soil was near identical to another from 2021. However, while Mr Shapps’s photo portrayed him alone during a visit to LauncherOne in Cornwall, the earlier image showed him alongside Mr Johnson. The original photo remains on the Number 10 Flickr account, dated 9 June 2021.
It shows the then-Conservative leader wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “prime minister”. Mr Shapps is pictured standing side by side with him, wearing a jacket labelled with his then-office of “transport secretary”. PA
Focus on Brexit and Covid fraud cost billions lost in tax
Billions of pounds in tax have been lost because thousands of HM Revenue and Customs tax officials were shifted to work on Brexit and Covid schemes. Treasury minister Victoria Atkins revealed that 1,040 officials were transferred to deal with problems relating to the UK’s departure from the EU, she said in response to ministerial questions.
Another 1,250 tax compliance officers – who would usually investigate tax dodging and non-compliance – were redeployed to work on Covid pandemic schemes last year. It means the tax revenue recovered through compliance work was £30.8bn in 2021-22 – a slump of £6bn from the previous year.
The Liberal Democrats – who put the parliamentary question to the minister – said Rishi Sunak’s government was in “non-stop firefighting mode” after Brexit and Covid.
Mersey home to sharks after decades-long clean-up
The River Mersey is “cleaner than it ever has been” and now hosts sharks, despite once being called the most polluted river in Western Europe. The river, which flows from Stockport through Manchester and Liverpool, was once a deadly cocktail of raw sewage and toxic chemicals and locals joked that you couldn’t drown in the Mersey because you’d die of poisoning first.
Dr Peter Jones of the Mersey Basin Campaign, a governmentbacked movement to clean up the Mersey river system, said: “When I joined North West Water in 1974 the rivers in the Northwest were gruesome. Whether you looked at the chemistry or the biology, by any indicator the Mersey was as bad as you could get.”
Now the Mersey is flourishing after a decades-long clean-up and last year around 37 different species of fish were caught by anglers. Five different types of shark have been found – bull huss, tope, dog fish, smooth hound, starey smooth hound – as well as eels, sea scorpions, turbot and smelt.
Please include your address
BACK TO TOP