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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called for Islamist extremism to be countered by ‘a clear sense of shared national identity that is open to everyone’. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, he said that ‘under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives’. About 1,500 supporters of the English Defence League and 1,000 of Unite Against Fascism marched through Luton. Three Muslims serving life sentences went on trial charged with the attempted murder of a Bosnian war criminal held in Wakefield jail. The Queen caught a train from King’s Lynn to King’s Cross at a cost of £47.20, or £31.50 with a senior citizen’s railcard.
George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suddenly increased the levy on banks to £2.5 billion a year, to raise an extra £800 million. The London Stock Exchange agreed a merger with its Canadian counterpart. A report by Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, on the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie bombing, concluded the last Labour administration’s policy was to do all it could ‘to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish Government for his transfer under the prisoner transfer agreement or release on compassionate grounds’. The incidence of breast cancer in Britain was found to be increasing, with one in eight women developing the illness. A civil partnership ceremony is to be held for two male green parakeets called Joey and Peter at an RSPCA centre in Derby.
The government said it planned to abolish Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and replace them with Criminal Behaviour Orders, attached to criminal convictions, and Crime Prevention Injunctions. Labour said that spending cuts would mean reducing the 143,000-strong police force by 10,190.
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