Brown wants rethink over MPs’ expenses

Gordon Brown has indicated that he wants Parliament to think again over MPs’ expenses, prompting accusations of hypocrisy as the Prime Minister failed to vote. Labour MPs and ministers were largely responsible for the defeat in the Commons on the reform package. Mr Brown has indicated that he is keen for a tougher external audit regime.

Paediatricians cleared

The General Medical Council has dismissed accusations against three paediatricians, ruling that they have no case to answer. David Southall, Andrew Spencer and Martin Samuels had faced charges over a trial conducted at North Staffordshire Hospital in the 1990s on a way of helping newborn babies to breathe.

No baptism, no bus

A girl aged 15 can no longer take the school bus to her Roman Catholic School because she has not been baptised. Jessica Millest, who lives 18 miles away from St Mary’s School in Lugwardine, Herefordshire, has been excluded with all the other nonreligious pupils after the county council cut bus spending.

Churches to receive £7m for repairs

Dozens of churches and chapels are to receive a share of almost £7 million in grants for essential repairs, English Heritage announced.

The Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage announced a package of grants worth £6.8 million for more than 70 Grade II listed places of worship across England.

The largest single grant of £251,000 will go to St Mark’s Church, Lakenham, in Norfolk, to repair its leaking roof. Another recipient is Holy Trinity Church, Anfield, Merseyside, which will be given £138,000 for repairs on its gutters.

Bus chiefs jailed over lies on drivers’ hours

Two bus company directors were each jailed for 15 months at Manchester Crown Court after they admitted lying to an inquiry about the hours their drivers worked. Vincenzo Casale and David Ellis had allowed some of their mainly foreign drivers to work in excess of the British limit of 13 days every fortnight. An investigation was ordered after one bus hit a cherry-picker crane in Rusholme, Manchester, killing Martin Pilling, 27, a signwriter. The Polish driver was found to have been working for 19 days without a break when the collision happened in November 2006.

Striker’s club assault

A Championship footballer cut a nightclub doorman’s head by hitting him with his girlfriend’s handbag. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, 22, a striker for Wolverhampton Wanderers, pleaded guilty at Plymouth Crown Court to causing actual bodily harm in the November assault and using threatening or abusive language. He was fined £1,350 and ordered to pay compensation and costs.

Passport to trouble

Ambition almost landed a model in jail. Saskia Porter, 36, of Lewisham, southeast London, who shaved eight years off her age hoping to win a Hollywood contract, forged her birth certificate to get a replacement passport – claiming her dog ate her old one. She received a nine-month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £350 costs at Southwark Crown Court.

Maxwell’s medal sold

The Military Cross awarded to Robert Maxwell, the disgraced former owner of Mirror Group Newspapers, made £6,900 at a London auction. It was among eight decorations won during the latter stages of the Second World War. They were bought anonymously at Morton and Eden, a medal specialist. Maxwell died in 1991, leaving Mirror Group heavily in debt.

Naked ambition?

A vacancy for a naked cleaner is being advertised at a Jobcentre, the Department for Work and Pensions confirmed. The advert, placed in Southampton by a company called Knobs ’n’ Knockers, says that it is looking for applicants to do washing-up and ironing. A pinny is provided. A department spokeswoman said it could not legally refuse to carry the adverts.

EuroMillions draw

The winning numbers in last night’s EuroMillions draw were 7, 19, 22, 27 and 48, with the Lucky Star numbers 5 and 7.

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