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Pope Benedict XVI was expected to conclude a four-day state visit to Britain with the beatification of Cardinal Newman in Birmingham, after addressing Parliament at Westminster Hall and meeting the Queen in Edinburgh. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called the visit ‘incredibly important and historic’. The Queen’s Speech, outlining the government programme of legislation, which was expected in the autumn of 2011, has been delayed until spring 2012. Derek Barnett, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said that austerity is likely to lead to ‘disaffection, social and industrial tensions’. Unions at the BBC planned two 48-hour strikes, affecting coverage of the Conservative party conference. A 2,000-year-old Roman bronze helmet with a full face mask and a Phrygian cap, found at Crosby Garrett, Westmorland, is to go for auction in London.
The Commons Defence Select Committee warned that the speed of the expected cuts in defence spending could put some frontline operations ‘at risk’. A five-year inquiry (costing £30 million) into the murder by Republican prisoners inside the Maze prison of Billy Wright, the leader of the terrorist Loyalist Volunteer Force, in December 1997, found serious failings by the prison service but no ‘state collusion’. A promising treatment for malignant melanoma was reported. The government set out plans to cull badgers in England. George Michael, the pop singer, was jailed for eight weeks after admitting crashing his car while under the influence of cannabis.
Three former Labour MPs, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, charged with fraud over their parliamentary expenses, are to take to the Supreme Court their claim that parliamentary privilege protects them from prosecution. A specially convened court heard a challenge to the election by a majority of 103 of Phil Woolas as MP for Oldham East, on the grounds of allegedly false statements in campaign leaflets.
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