| Prince Charles shows off dancing skills in India Prince Charles dances with local men while holding a parasol during a visit to a village in India. bbc.co.uk |
Workers line factory for funeral of Segway scooter owner Jimi Heselden Thousands attend Yorkshire funeral of Jimi Heselden, who died accidentally riding scooterA factory was turned into a chapel today for the funeral of the Segway scooter owner Jimi Heselden, whose hundreds of workers lined the goods delivery bay and staff car park as his cortege arrived draped in flowers.In a throwback to the days when businesses closed and streets were lined for the passing of great politicians, clergy and - occasionally - industrialists, the former miner was mourned amid the tools and raw materials that made his millions.More than 2,000 people occupied every seat in a vast marquee on a Leeds industrial estate, among them hundreds of locals who have shared in the 62-year-old's wealth. When he toppled one of his scooters into the river Wharfe in a fatal accident near his estate on the edge of Leeds last month, Heselden had just increased his gifts to charities in the city to a record £23m."He protected the armies and peace-keeping forces of the world with his greatest invention, the Bastion Concertainer," said Chris Robinson, senior manager of the Hesco company whose modernised version of Roman defensive gabions - baskets filled with stones and crammed together to create makeshift walls - are used everywhere from Afghanistan to the flood levees of New Orleans. "But he was equally determined to use the money he made to protect the people he grew up with, the ones who hadn't had such good fortune."The eulogy was applauded by Leeds' lord mayor and other notables, but they were far outnumbered by Heselden's former neighbours and Hesco staff. Flags on all the neighbouring factories flew at half-mast.The landlady of the local Woodman pub, Kath Dewhurst, recalled the multimillionaire dropping in to do the quiz with his wife, Julie. Chris Kendall remembered Jimi the 15-year-old school leaver lurching round Halton Moor council estate in the area's first car - "even if it didn't start without needing three lads pushing on either side of the running boards".Heselden's philanthropy was praised not just because of his charity gifts, but through his policy of seeking out jobless young locals, or older people thrown out of work and with little chance of a second career, to join Hesco. Rev Tony Thompson, who conducted the service from a makeshift pulpit and plinth, said: "He paid excellent wages, which restored his workers' sense of self-worth. He changed lives for ever. His values, thoughts and work were all about other people, not himself."There was also a tribute from the United States army, whose £53m contracts for Bastions in Iraq at the end of the 1990s launched Hesco into the major industrial league. Sergeant David McGregor, who flew from Texas for the funeral, said: "If it wasn't for Jimi's barriers, I would never have gotten out of Iraq. My wife and children would only have a flag to remember me by."Heselden's only reservation about the ceremony, said David Robinson, would have been the time it took 30 or more staff to wrestle with erecting the marquee. The Bastion's success lies in its rapid erection by two men and a bulldozer, from a flatpack wire box which concertinas open to be filled with rubble, waterbags and sand."If he'd been here while we were getting ready, he'd have redesigned the marquee on the spot, taken out 54 patents, fitted it all into a box and pulled a string to put it up," Robinson said.Leeds is planning a permanent memorial to Heselden, who led a takeover of Segway earlier this year. He planned to supply the scooters for military use, and to help disabled veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.Martin Wainwrightguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Salmond warns of tough times ahead Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, has warned people to be ready for the most ferocious cuts they have witnessed. bbc.co.uk |
Military forces 'will keep the Arctic safe' Arctic operations by armed forces are the only way to preserve peace in the increasingly disputed territory, an independent defence think tank has warned. telegraph.co.uk |
Councils plan for exodus of poor families • Benefit cuts force officials to book up B&B accommodation• More than 200,000 may leave capital in 'social cleansing'Ministers were accused last night of deliberately driving poor people out of wealthy inner cities as London councils revealed they were preparing a mass exodus of low-income families from the capital because of coalition benefit cuts.Representatives of London boroughs told a meeting of MPs last week that councils have already block-booked bed and breakfasts and other private accommodation outside the capital – from Hastings, on the south coast, to Reading to the west and Luton to the north – to house those who will be priced out of the London market.Councils in the capital are warning that 82,000 families – more than 200,000 people – face losing their homes because private landlords, enjoying a healthy rental market buoyed by young professionals who cannot afford to buy, will not cut their rents to the level of caps imposed by ministers.The controversy follows comment last week by Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, who said the unemployed should "get on the bus" and look for work. Another unnamed minister said the benefit changes would usher in a phenomenon similar to the Highland Clearances in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when landlords evicted thousands of tenants from their homes in the north of Scotland.In a sign that housing benefit cuts are fast becoming the most sensitive political issue for the coalition, Jon Cruddas, the Labour MP for Dagenham, last night accused the government of deliberate social engineering."It is an exercise in social and economic cleansing," he said, claiming that families would be thrown into turmoil, with children having to move school and those in work having to travel long distances to their jobs. "It is tantamount to cleansing the poor out of rich areas – a brutal and shocking piece of social engineering," Cruddas added.The National Housing Federation's chief executive, David Orr, described the housing benefit cuts as "truly shocking". He said: "Unless ministers urgently reconsider these punitive cuts, we could see more people sleeping rough than at any stage during the last 30 years."The issue is fuelling tension inside the coalition. Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said last night he would table amendments to change housing benefit rules. He said: "I would fully expect to be one of those putting forward proposals for changes in the housing benefit rules, particularly for London."Under a clampdown on housing benefit, the chancellor, George Osborne, announced that housing benefit will be capped from April next year at £400 a week for a four-bedroom house, £340 for a three-bedroom property, £290 for two bedrooms and £250 for a one-bedroom property. In addition, from October 2011 payments will be capped at 30% of average local rents.At a meeting of the Commons work and pensions select committee last Wednesday, the day Osborne announced £81bn of cuts in the spending review, MPs were told by London council chiefs that the housing benefit cuts could have devastating results.Nigel Minto, head of sustainable communities at London Councils, who works closely with the capital's housing directors, told the committee that since June London councils had been "procuring bed and breakfast accommodation" in outer London and beyond. The committee was told similar problems would occur in other cities with high-priced property such as Brighton and Oxford.Jeremy Swain, chief executive of the homelessness charity Thames Reach, said he was particularly worried about the impact on numbers sleeping rough in London. "We have reduced rough sleeping dramatically and we have a target of zero rough sleeping in London by 2012. For the first time I'm thinking that we will not achieve that," he said.Karen Buck, shadow minister for work and pensions, said: "The sheer scale and extremity of the coalition proposals means almost a million households are affected across the country."In today's Observer, Labour leader Ed Miliband says last week's spending review took Britain back to the 80s. "This was the week that took the compassion out of David Cameron's claim to compassionate Conservatism," he writes, accusing the Tories of displaying "arrogant ideological swagger".But last night Cameron insisted the cuts were tough but fair. "Departments have to make savings. I don't underestimate how difficult this will be. But we are doing what we are doing because it is the right thing to do – right by our economy, right for our country."A DWP spokesperson said: "The current way that it [housing benefit] is administered is unfair. It's not right that some families on benefits have been able to live in homes that most working families could not afford. However, we are absolutely committed to supporting the most vulnerable families and have tripled our discretionary housing payments to provide a safety net for those who need it."WelfareHousing benefitHousingSpending review 2010Toby HelmAnushka Asthanaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |