Around 1.4 million taxpayers owe up to £5,000 after computer system finds PAYE underpayments totalling £2bn

Nearly 6 million people in the UK are to be told they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with some facing bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments.

Around 1.4 million people will be told they owe an average of £1,400 because of errors in HM Revenue and Customs' calculations of the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax system over the past two years.

The errors were identified by a new computer system that found widespread underpayments by employers through the PAYE system, which total about £2bn.

Employees who moved jobs or accepted company cars or cash benefits from their employer were the most likely to be caught by the new system.

But 4.3 million people are set to receive a rebate because they have paid too much. With a total overpayment of £1.8bn, each could receive an average rebate of £418.

The first 45,000 letters from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are expected to arrive on doormats on Tuesday.

Around 30,000 letters will alert taxpayers that they are due a rebate and 15,000 will inform them that they have underpaid and will have their tax code altered next year to retrieve the money.

With an average additional payment of £1,428 being demanded, those affected by underpayments could be more than £100 a month worse off next year while the cash is recouped.

It is believed that in some cases individuals may have both underpaid and overpaid, and the amounts could cancel one another out.

In some cases, HMRC will consider writing off demands where taxpayers can demonstrate that they provided all the information necessary to calculate their tax correctly.

The problems arise because at the end of each year HMRC checks that the amounts deducted in tax and national insurance by employers using the PAYE system mach up with the information held on their records.

The process of checking contributions was done manually on a case-by-case basis until last June when a new computerised system was introduced, which HMRC says should help reduce mistakes in the future. It aims to reconcile information held on different systems within HM Revenue and Customs.

A HMRC spokesman said: "The vast majority of the 40 million people who pay through PAYE deductions are correctly taxed, but because circumstances change during the year there will always be a minority who have paid either too much or too little."

He said taxpayers could dispute extra tax charges by claiming on a ESC19 form that they had supplied information in good faith and retrospective bills should be dropped.

Anita Monteith, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, said some people would not have to make the repayments if HMRC made the error while calculating the tax codes manually.

She said: "HMRC can agree to give up collecting an underpayment if they had the right information to calculate tax deductions and did not use it when they should have done.

"However, it would depend on what has caused the underpayment."

Monteith said anyone who receives a letter should first check that the HMRC's new calculation matches the information on the P60 for that year.

"If you disagree with what they are asking for then call or write to HMRC. However, you might find that the phone lines are jammed next week.

"People cannot refuse to pay the money because it is legally due."

Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs

Skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.

Four men were arrested and charged with public order offences for their part in the protest this morning outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland, which involved anti-war demonstrators and the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Féin, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process.

A Garda spokesmen said the four men – two in their late teens and two in their mid-30s – were released from custody and will appear before Dublin district court on various dates later this month.

Gardai had earlier dragged a number of demonstrators off the street and during the fracas a male protester in a wheelchair was knocked to the ground.

Protesters shouted "Whose cops? Blair's cops!" as they taunted the gardai while Blair remained inside the bookshop. They also shouted: "Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?"

About 400 people were queuing up around the side of the store in Middle Abbey Street to meet Blair. They were verbally abused by a number of demonstrators who denounced them as "west Brits".

Protester Pixie ni hEicht, from Dublin, criticised both the garda and the hundreds who had turned out for the book signing: "The police are west Brits who are protecting a British terrorist and the people queuing up over there should be ashamed of themselves. All these people buying the book are jackeens and traitors."

Activist Kate O'Sullivan, from Cork, attempted to make a citizen's arrest during the signing before Blair's security team dragged her away.

"I went up to him and I said 'Mr Blair, I'm here to make a citizen's arrest for the war crimes that you've committed'," said O'Sullivan, 24, a member of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Movement.

Richard Boyd-Barrett, of the Anti-War Movement, accused the former prime minister of making blood money from the Iraq war.

He said: "It really is shameful that somebody can be responsible for the death and destruction that he was responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan and walk away without any accounting for that and become a very wealthy man off the back of it."

Following the skirmishes, the city tram service was suspended and shops in the surrounding area were also closed.

Buyers at the signing had to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering the store. Undercover detectives mingled with the crowds taking names before Blair arrived at about 10.30am.

A huge security operation was put in place around Dublin's main thoroughfare in preparation for the Blair visit. The northbound end of O'Connell Street was closed to traffic from early this morning while the city's main northside tram link, the Luas line, was closed down.

Plain-clothes detectives were also deployed around O'Connell Street as part of the security operation.

After the signing, Blair was whisked from a side entrance of the store at about 12.40pm.

In his memoirs, A Journey, Blair defends his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. The book, which was released earlier this week, has become one of the fastest selling autobiographies on record. His decision to donate the £5m proceeds from the book to the British Legion has been dismissed as a cynical gesture to curry favour by critics.

Before the signing he had already enraged the anti-war movement in Ireland with comments on the Irish TV programme The Late Late Show last night.

During his interview on RTE, Blair warned that Iran was now one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam. It must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon, even if that meant taking military action, he said.

Blair defended the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite Saddam Hussein not possessing weapons of mass destruction.

He tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war because he could not take decisions "based on those that shout most".

Blair, who was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios, also denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a war criminal.

It is believed he chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs' publication because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.

He said: "When we finally got the whole lot together, literally weeks before I left office in 2007, and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley, and it was such a strange and extraordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."

Exclusive: Education secretary had claimed that more than 700 'free schools' could be established due to high demand

Michael Gove, the education secretary, will next week be forced to announce a dramatic scaling back of the Tories' landmark plans to create a new generation of schools run by parents and voluntary groups.

Labour tonight accused the education secretary of presiding over a "chaotic shambles" after it emerged that as few as 20 free schools are on track to open in September 2011. In June Gove hinted that 700 could be established.

Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, said: "This is another embarrassment for the education secretary's flawed, unfair and unpopular school reforms. Michael Gove took over a successful department which has helped to deliver record improvements in school standards over more than a decade, but in just a few months he has managed to turn it into a chaotic shambles."

Gove said in June that he had been inundated with expressions of interest from establish a new tier of free schools. "More than 700 expressions of interest in opening new free schools have been received by the charitable group the New Schools Network," he told MPs.

The announcement next week will echo Gove's claim in the summer that more than 1,000 schools had applied to become academies. In the end just 32 are opening this term.

The reduced number was a blow to Gove, who rushed through legislation to allow existing schools to obtain academy status by the start of the academic year. The free schools are due to start opening in a year's time.

One senior Tory said: "Michael clearly massively underestimated the challenge he had decided to undertake."

Cameron regards schools reform as one of the key elements in his plans to create a "big society" in which power is devolved to the grassroots.

Gove is relaxed on the grounds that it normally takes between three to five years to establish a new school. While relatively few free schools will open next year, many more are in the pipeline and will open in due course.

A source close to Gove said: "Under the last government only a couple of parent-promoted schools were created over 13 years. Now, within just four months … there are teachers, parents and community groups who have prepared high quality proposals for free schools starting as early as 2011. There are a significant number of proposals in the pipeline and an announcement will shortly be made about those at the front of the queue who are planning to open next year."

Group to seek full inquest into 2003 death of scientist who cast doubt on government's claims over Iraq weapons

A group of doctors is making a fresh bid to force an inquest into the death of the weapons inspector David Kelly.

Legal papers are expected to be submitted to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, by the end of next week, requesting his authorisation for the five doctors to go to the high court to seek a full inquest into the 2003 death of the scientist.

If Grieve refuses to grant the authorisation, his decision could be subject to a high court appeal.

The doctors have conducted a long-running campaign to overturn the decision of the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, to suspend an inquest before the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances of Kelly's death. The inquest was not resumed after Hutton's report in 2004 concluded that Kelly killed himself by cutting an artery in his wrist.

His body was found in woods near his Oxfordshire home shortly after it was revealed he had been the source of a BBC report casting doubt on the government's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that could be fired within 45 minutes.

The latest move was prompted by an interview given last month by pathologist Nicholas Hunt, who carried out an autopsy on Kelly's body.

Hunt told the Sunday Times that he regarded the case as a "textbook" suicide and disclosed details from his postmortem report, which the Hutton inquiry ordered should be kept secret for 70 years.

He found "big clots" of blood on the inside of Kelly's jacket, contrary to reports that there had been little blood at the scene. There were about a dozen cuts on his left wrist, including shallower cuts made before the main incisions.

Kelly's heart disease was so advanced that he could have died at any moment, according to the report.

Barrister Michael Powers QC, who is acting for the group of doctors, said Hunt's comments gave weight to their argument that Hutton's inquiry did not represent a sufficient examination of the cause of Kelly's death.

Powers said: "The media has now presented evidence which we have never had before. The fact that he felt it necessary to go to the press and say these things proves to us that the inquiry was insufficient."

The doctors are awaiting a decision from the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, as to whether the ruling should be overturned to allow them to see the report.

They insist an inquest is needed to clear up any doubt over whether he was the victim of foul play.

Grieve has called for papers relating to Kelly's death and is considering whether he should himself order an inquest.

But Powers said: "We can't wait indefinitely for the government to make a decision. Hence the decision to lay formal papers."

Instead of simply disciplining underachieving staff, employers could benefit from finding out what's really going on

On 10 September, the European Work Hazards Network conference will be held in Leeds, where health and safety representatives and managers from across Europe will gather to review and discuss the risks facing employees of all industries in today's marketplace. They will deal with protective equipment, the obligation for employers to provide a safe working environment, and the effective management of employee safety. It is probable – if not certain – that, at some point, the issue of stress in the workplace will be raised.

Let's begin with a few sums. Take your average professional, and assume that they start their career at the tender age of 18 and work until the ripe old age of 65, plugging away Monday to Friday from 9 to 5 – we'll discount holidays, as things will get messy and maths isn't my forte. This means that Joe Bloggs spends just under a quarter of his working life under the guidance and rule of his employers. Take eight hours a day for sleeping out of the equation, and the proportion rises to over a third.

As a result, our working lives contribute hugely to who we are, and – most importantly – our welfare. Many can empathise with the fact that hundreds of thousands of employees find themselves stressed at work: 415,000 of us to be exact, if Labour Force Survey figures for 2008-09 are to be believed.

It is well documented that stress can lead to complications in health. Studies have shown that increased stress in the workplace can lead to a range of complications such as absenteeism, job dissatisfaction, and difficulty in making routine decisions. These symptoms manifest themselves through decreased productivity, or behaviour that is deemed unsuitable or inappropriate by an employee's superiors. Disciplinary action against the individual will often follow.

Is it enough for employers to simply react to an employee's misdemeanours, or should they dig a little deeper? Do they owe it to that member of staff to try and discern why he or she is exhibiting low productivity? Merely disciplining an employee without looking for the root cause of their problems leaves them confused and angry, left alone to work out their issues with little to no support from those with whom they spend so much time. It will come as no surprise that perceived workplace injustice also leads to unhealthy behaviours such as smoking and drinking excessively, risking an exacerbation of the issues that the individual is experiencing.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, all employers have a duty of care towards their employees: that is, they must ensure that the workplace environment is free from hazards to an employee's mental and physical health. But no laws mention anything about emotional care. However, looking after an employee instead of merely disciplining them in the event of poor behaviour has benefits for the employers as well: working with the problematic member of staff to resolve issues and difficulties, instead of simply terminating their employment, will save thousands of pounds. The average cost for recruiting a new member of staff begins at £5,000, increasing with the seniority of the position. Other employees will recognise and appreciate their manager's interest in their wellbeing, with the result of a boost in morale, leading in turn to a high level of productivity. The effects can be reversed when a struggling employee is dismissed by employer who is seen to be aloof to an individual's problems, with morale slumping and productivity waning.

Maybe employers owe it to themselves to take a keener interest in the emotional welfare of their employees; not prying into personal lives, but simply taking the time to check every now and then that an employee is happy. At the very least, employers should recognise the fact that they are an important influence in the lives of their staff, and actively seek to establish if there are any underlying reasons for an individual's problems at work. It's a win-win situation.

The laws that explain the universe's birth are less comprehensive than Stephen Hawking suggests

Cosmologists are agreed that the universe began with a big bang 13.7 billion years ago. People naturally want to know what caused it. A simple answer is nothing: not because there was a mysterious state of nothing before the big bang, but because time itself began then – that is, there was no time "before" the big bang. The idea is by no means new. In the fifth century, St Augustine of Hippo wrote that "the universe was created with time and not in time".

Religious people often feel tricked by this logic. They envisage a miracle-working God dwelling within the stream of time for all eternity and then, for some inscrutable reason, making a universe (perhaps in a spectacular explosion) at a specific moment in history.

That was not Augustine's God, who transcended both space and time. Nor is it the God favoured by many contemporary theologians. In fact, they long ago coined a term for it – "god-of-the-gaps" – to deride the idea that when science leaves something out of account, then God should be invoked to plug the gap. The origin of life and the origin of consciousness are favourite loci for a god-of-the-gaps, but the origin of the universe is the perennial big gap.

In his new book, Stephen Hawking reiterates that there is no big gap in the scientific account of the big bang. The laws of physics can explain, he says, how a universe of space, time and matter could emerge spontaneously, without the need for God. And most cosmologists agree: we don't need a god-of-the-gaps to make the big bang go bang. It can happen as part of a natural process. A much tougher problem now looms, however. What is the source of those ingenious laws that enable a universe to pop into being from nothing?

Traditionally, scientists have supposed that the laws of physics were simply imprinted on the universe at its birth, like a maker's mark. As to their origin, well, that was left unexplained.

In recent years, cosmologists have shifted position somewhat. If the origin of the universe was a law rather than a supernatural event, then the same laws could presumably operate to bring other universes into being. The favoured view now, and the one that Hawking shares, is that there were in fact many bangs, scattered through space and time, and many universes emerging therefrom, all perfectly naturally. The entire assemblage goes by the name of the multiverse.

Our universe is just one infinitesimal component amid this vast – probably infinite – multiverse, that itself had no origin in time. So according to this new cosmological theory, there was something before the big bang after all – a region of the multiverse pregnant with universe-sprouting potential.

A refinement of the multiverse scenario is that each new universe comes complete with its very own laws – or bylaws, to use the apt description of the cosmologist Martin Rees. Go to another universe, and you would find different bylaws applying. An appealing feature of variegated bylaws is that they explain why our particular universe is uncannily bio-friendly; change our bylaws just a little bit and life would probably be impossible. The fact that we observe a universe "fine-tuned" for life is then no surprise: the more numerous bio-hostile universes are sterile and so go unseen.

So is that the end of the story? Can the multiverse provide a complete and closed account of all physical existence? Not quite. The multiverse comes with a lot of baggage, such as an overarching space and time to host all those bangs, a universe-generating mechanism to trigger them, physical fields to populate the universes with material stuff, and a selection of forces to make things happen. Cosmologists embrace these features by envisaging sweeping "meta-laws" that pervade the multiverse and spawn specific bylaws on a universe-by-universe basis. The meta-laws themselves remain unexplained – eternal, immutable transcendent entities that just happen to exist and must simply be accepted as given. In that respect the meta-laws have a similar status to an unexplained transcendent god.

According to folklore the French physicist Pierre Laplace, when asked by Napoleon where God fitted into his mathematical account of the universe, replied: "I had no need of that hypothesis." Although cosmology has advanced enormously since the time of Laplace, the situation remains the same: there is no compelling need for a supernatural being or prime mover to start the universe off. But when it comes to the laws that explain the big bang, we are in murkier waters.

Misgivings about the ideological nature of Osborne's cuts agenda could be dispelled by protecting the HMRC

The star chamber is in session. Any foot-draggers in the cabinet are due to be hauled before it if they fail to offer up 25% or even 40% cuts in time for the mass slaughter of the public sector next month. A wail of pleas for mercy has gone up to at least stop shortsighted purging that will end up costing the state more.

The recent cut in teenage pregnancy prevention programmes will add to future spending. Cuts in early mental health treatment will lead to more florid cases arriving in hospital. Cutting home care for the frail will send more into costly care homes. The arts can prove how every £1 the Arts Council spends generates another £2. Everywhere you turn, there are compelling arguments for upfront investment to save money later. But the Treasury is implacable, fingers in ears, sceptical about future savings that have a habit of vanishing into their departments. Myopia is part of Treasury DNA, pessimism about putative paybacks hardwired into its circuit board – now, more than ever.

But the Treasury should heed the voice in its own backyard, Revenue & Customs, which brings in the money, cash in hand, here and now: it could bring in enough to deal with the deficit. The World Bank estimates £70bn a year goes missing in Britain's shadow economy – and its last report found tax evasion rising.

On average a senior tax inspector on £50,000 brings in about £1.5m, while lower-level inspectors on £25,000 bring in £300,000 each – in all 10 times more than is recouped by Department for Work and Pensions fraud-chasers. Yet Revenue staff have already been cut by a third to 68,000. How can they now lose another 25%? Top brass is fighting hard to resist it, suggesting a state-financed "investment plan" to recover lost funds.

Revenue has been accused of going soft on using the law: the Association of Revenue and Customs union reports HMRC brought 200 cases last year, while the DWP brought 9,000 for considerably less lucrative benefit fraud. Three huge firms recently settled out of court, but critics said all three would have paid more if these cases had proceeded. Each handed over at least £1.25bn in unpaid tax: one had set aside nearly twice as much as a contingency. HMRC settled these cases at the door of the court as they had each already drained £12m from its diminished resources. Now they say only high-risk big businesses are targeted. Overt organised crime such as VAT carousel fraud and carbon-trading fraud have "hoovered up our resources", so most big evaders are under-scrutinised.

"There is a tipping point where without enough investigation, more of the fiddlers think they can fiddle more," senior officials warn Osborne. A culture of honesty soon evaporates without the constant threat of arrest. HMRC tells how a recent crackdown on doctors spread the word fast: 10% came forward and confessed to cheating. Now the HMRC says bluntly: "We need to send more people to jail so people recognise that it is not worth cheating." The honesty tipping-point comes when too many people know someone who is getting away with cheating: why pay if no one else does? Research shows the deterrent effect: every £1 detected deters another £1 in potential fraud.

HMRC says it needs resources for urgent scrutiny of the wealthy who are converting their income into capital to avoid the 50% income tax rate: City law partners are among the many awaiting investigation. The big four accountancy and consulting firms are still devising avoidance schemes, although they are required to register each new loophole. An honest rich man called a top tax inspector last month to report an approach by a big four firm offering a complex new capital gains tax wheeze involving "rescindable contracts".

A brisk official call sent the firm into a "flat spin"; it subsequently withdrew it. But the dangerous impression is that the taxman is always a plod behind, short of resources, depending on tip-offs and settling out of court to save money. The National Audit Office's report says "lack of funding" is preventing efficient debt recovery, with a 17m backlog of PAYE cases. Some £26.1bn is owed in back PAYE, according to tax expert Richard Murphy: "They haven't enough people to get on the phone and knock on the door to get the money in."

The Guardian's Tax Gap report showed the vast scale of corporation tax avoidance. Meanwhile, a meagre 100 HMRC inspectors do their best to police the entire country's employers for compliance with the minimum wage.

Britain is historically a nation of relatively compliant taxpayers, but that is changing. Lord Oakshott, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, told the Lords: "Tax-dodging in Britain is a deep-seated, pervasive, pernicious disease … Highly organised, aggressive, abusive tax avoidance which used to be a marginal and rather spivvy operation, that was frowned on by the main banks and shunned by top accountants and lawyers who were mainly concerned with reputational risk, has now mushroomed out of all recognition."

He questions why the government is willing to give the big four and City law firms state contracts while they earn fortunes helping to deplete the Treasury. Until its last year Labour turned a blind eye to tax havens and other dodges; can the coalition do better? The BBC's Robert Peston points out in his blog that the Conservative party is exceptionally beholden to donors from high finance and hedge funds. Sir Philip Green's bizarre appointment as an anti-waste tsar undermined the coalition's promise to "actively examine tax avoidance".

HMRC top brass fear George Osborne needs to prove he is cutting his own department as savagely as all others. But cutting any further on tax collection would show beyond doubt that government cuts are ideological and totemic, and not based on sound economics.

After the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed cuts falling hardest on the poor, the coalition could restore some credibility by ensuring at least that taxes are collected fairly from all, and not just paid by Leona Helmsley's "little people". Why not deny state contracts to the consultants who help the wealthy drain the Treasury? And strengthen HMRC so inspectors can put the fear of jail into tax-dodgers. Conservatives could find it easier than Labour to launch an unflinching moral assault on the greedy culture of evasion, avoidance, off-shoring and cheating that has become poisonously socially acceptable.

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In his only live TV interview since his memoirs were published, he tried to convince the audience of his motivations for the Iraq war

Tony Blair tried to bury his "toxic legacy" last night by flying to Ireland to appear on The Late Late Show.

In his only live TV interview since his memoirs were published, he tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003 because he simply couldn't take decisions "based on those that shout most".

Blair was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios – although they were easily outnumbered by the number of squealing teenagers who had gathered for another set of guests on the show – The X Factor twins Jedward.

During the interview, he was asked how he felt that morning drinking his coffee in Downing Street, with a million protesters outside.

"Look it's not them that give you pause for thought. You should have pause for thought all the way through. In the end you have to decide this way or that, there is, unfortunately no third way."

"Yes I had to listen to people who were opposed but there were also people in favour of the decision I took including, incidentially many many Iraqis."

He denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a "war criminal" showing a flash of exasperation when asked to explain why people thought that he was.

Interviewer Ryan Tubridy sought the advice of Jon Snow ahead of the interview but was warned it would be difficult to extract anything 'revelatory' out of Tony Blair.

It is believed Blair chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.

"When we finally got the whole lot together literally weeks before I left office in 2007 and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley and it was such a strange and extaordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."

Contingency plans ready as London Underground workers get set to walk out over job cuts

Transport bosses and the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said yesterday they would "pull out all the stops" to help commuters during the planned strike by London Underground workers on Monday.

Johnson said contingency plans would include an extra 100 buses, escorted bike rides, marshalled taxi ranks and capacity for 10,000 extra journeys on the river Thames boats.

Union leaders said they intended to go ahead with the strike after talks broke down yesterday. Thousands of tube workers plan to walk out for 24 hours from 5pm on Monday over plans to cut 800 jobs.

"Londoners are a hardy bunch and I am sure a tube strike will not deter us from getting around," Johnson said. "I have asked Transport for London to pull out all the stops, but we must be clear that the [unions] RMT and TSSA plan to inconvenience Londoners for no good reason.

"The extra measures we have put in place call for a team effort and people will need to consider buses, boats or bikes as an alternative to their usual journeys. This planned action will cause disruption for millions of Londoners and I call on the unions to get round the table and show common sense." He said volunteers would be drafted in to hand out maps and other information.

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said London Underground had failed to remove the threat of cuts to safety and safe staffing levels that would have allowed for "meaningful discussions".

But the TfL commissioner, Peter Hendy, said: "There is no need for any action, as the changes we are introducing come with no compulsory redundancies and stations will remain staffed at all times and every station with a ticket office will continue to have one." He added: "We regret that Londoners will be disrupted if the strike goes ahead. However, the RMT and TSSA leadership will not stop LU from moving with the times. Due to the success of Oyster, just one journey in 20 now involves a ticket office." Up to 200 tube maintenance workers will also strike on Sunday in a separate row over pay and conditions.

Latest comments allege ex-editor knew of practice but No 10 moves swiftly to rebut remarks in US paper

As New Yorkers look forward to a relaxing read tomorrow morning when they pick up a copy of the New York Times, little will they know that the paper has lobbed a political hand grenade 3,000 miles across the Atlantic via the pages of its Sunday magazine.

A few paragraphs, tucked inside a lengthy article on the News of the World phone hacking scandal, are posing a threat to the career of one of David Cameron's closest advisers. Andy Coulson "actively encouraged" the hacking of phones, his former News of the World colleague Sean Hoare told the magazine.

The brief comments by Hoare provide the first allegation by a named individual that Coulson knew of the illegal hacking practice during his time as editor of Britain's largest-selling tabloid. Coulson told the Guardian on Wednesday night, when a version of the magazine piece appeared online, that he had no knowledge of the phone hacking.

Downing Street was badly shaken by Hoare, who went further yesterday during an interview on Radio 4's PM programme to accuse Coulson of presiding over a "culture of dark arts" in which he encouraged phone hacking. Hoare said Coulson's denial of any knowledge amounted to a lie.

In a sign of its concern, the government last night moved into overdrive to trash Hoare. A minister seized on Hoare's admission to the New York Times that he was sacked by the News of the World as he struggled with a drink and drug problem.

Alan Duncan, the international development minister, told Radio 4's Any Questions: "What they are seizing on today are the words of someone who had an alcohol and drug problem who was sacked by the paper [and] who is supposedly coming forward and saying: 'Oh, I think there is something here which ought to be investigated.'"

The government onslaught on Hoare just after 8.00pm last night came three hours after the former journalist gave a detailed account of what he said was Coulson's direct involvement in phone hacking. In an interview on the Radio 4 PM programme, Hoare said: "The culture Andy created was basically, do whatever you want, which is a metaphor to say if you get caught, that is your responsibility. But if you deliver a result, that is good news. Just get the story whatever it takes.

"There is an expression called the culture of dark arts. You were given a remit: just get the story. Get the product, put it in the paper and then let the paper sell. Phone tapping hadn't just existed on the News of the World. It was endemic within the whole industry.

"I have gone on the record in the New York Times and said I have stood by Andy and been requested to tap phones, OK, or hack into them and so on. He was well aware the practice exists. To deny it is simply a lie.

"I cannot speak for other journalists. But I can speak for myself. But it was always done in the language of, why don't you practise some of your dark arts on this, which is a metaphor for saying, go and hack into the phone.

"Such was the culture of intimidation and bullying that you would do it because you had to produce a result. To stand up in front of a Commons committee and say I was unaware of this under my watch was wrong."

Asked whether Coulson had "explicitly" asked him to hack into phones at the News of the World, Hoare said: "Yes … The main purpose of it was that you would get verification on the story so you could go to a PR and say: 'Look, we know this.' And they would be: 'How do you know this?' 'Well we just know it.' So you could meet them half way and then you could negotiate some form of a story. It may not be as hard-hitting as you wanted, but you could call their bluff."

Hoare's comments were echoed by Matt Driscoll, a former sports journalist on the News of the World. Driscoll, who was awarded £800,000 in damages from the News of the World in an unfair dismissal case, described Coulson's modus operandi in an interview with the PM programme.

"As any decent editor would, he would be a part of all the big stories that were being made by the paper each week," Driscoll said. "He'd want to know exactly where things were coming from, especially if it was something that was a bit controversial or a bit sensational. He'd be very worried that the lawyers would end up getting writs in the post. So if it was something pretty contentious, he'd want to know where it came from, how it was obtained.

"If it was obtained by any particular method, his biggest concern would be that it was correct and the News of the World wasn't going to get sued.

"It was pretty inconceivable that he would glide his way through the News of the World office and have no knowledge whatsoever about all these reporters around him, especially features and news, using certain methods to obtain stories that would appear on the front page of his paper."

Downing Street was last night standing by Coulson, who is not the only figure caught up in the scandal to be under pressure. Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, is to invoke his right to see papers during his time in office to see whether Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary should be called in to assess whether the Metropolitan police has been slow in its investigation of the case.

The New York Times quotes unnamed detectives alleging they cut short their investigation because of their close relationship with News International.

A group of four public figures, including Lord Prescott, is to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. He was jailed along with the News of the World's former royal editor Clive Goodman. Coulson resigned as editor because he accepted "ultimate" responsibility for their actions, while insisting he had no knowledge of the hacking.

Tom Watson, the former Labour minister who is leading calls for a judicial inquiry, yesterday accused the Metropolitan police of bringing itself into disrepute. In a letter to Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met commissioner, Watson wrote: "The Metropolitan police's historic and continued mishandling of this affair is bringing your force, and hence our democracy, into disrepute … Your conduct of this matter is being scrutinised all over the world. So far, it is bringing shame – as has News International – on our country."

Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of Guardian News and Media, yesterday wrote to Stephen Abell, the director of Press Complaints Commission, to draw a comparison between the investigation by three Pulitzer prize winning New York Times journalists and the PCC's own inquiries.

"The PCC, which has not, to my knowledge, spoken to a single journalist inside the News of the World newsroom at the relevant time, has accepted an official version of events," Rusbridger wrote. "Award-winning reporters who have done first-hand investigation of their own have arrived at a directly opposite conclusion."

The free travel pass is a great boon to many older people, but serious questions have to be raised as to whether it should be a universal benefit at 60. We are now in an era of huge cuts in public funding and there are more urgent social care needs among the poorest and most vulnerable older people than a free pass which can and is used by people who are still at work, such as Keith Ludeman, chief executive of Go-Ahead (Let pensioners pay one-off fee for bus pass, says Go-Ahead, 3 September). There are serious questions as to whether it is the poorest older people who benefit most from the universal free pass, or whether, as in so many other cases, it is of more value to the wealthier people. Rather than go down a means-testing route, though, one answer may be to raise the age of eligibility for a pass.

Leon Kreitzman

Chair, Age Concern Lewisham & Southwark, London

• A one-off payment for bus passes would, indeed, cut the £1bn annual cost, but it would seriously affect the poorest pensioners. A better solution would be to make all benefits received by pensioners (bus passes, winter fuel allowances, free TV licences and NHS prescriptions) taxable so better-off pensioners contributed according to their means.

John Howes

London

• The greatest benefit of the bus pass is that pensioners who have lost their cars through ageing and ill health can still get about without worrying about the cost. They meet neighbours on board who become friends that help each other when needed, and save the social services far more money than the obnoxious Ludeman complains about.

Brian Robinson

Brentwood, Essex

• Transport for All's attack on London Underground's staffing proposals (Letters, 30 August) is based on a misunderstanding. Our proposals have come about because ticket sales at stations have dropped significantly since the introduction of Oyster, so that now only one in 20 journeys starts with a visit to a ticket office, and some stations sell fewer than 10 tickets each hour. Under our plans, every station that has a ticket office now will continue to have one, and staff will remain in every station in exactly those areas that Transport for All want them to be: in ticket halls and on platforms where they can help customers, not hidden away behind under-used ticket office windows. Staff will still help with any problems and provide a reassuring presence across the network – including for older and disabled Londoners, many of whom receive a Freedom Pass which requires no interaction with either ticket offices or machines.

Mike Brown

Managing director, London Underground

Stephen Hawking assumes that the big bang started from "nothing" (Universe not created by God, says Hawking, 2 September). I would like to know what his definition of "nothing" is. It is no answer to point to the emergence of positron-electron pairs that appear from "nothing" as each of these have energy and this energy must have existed beforehand. It is difficult to think of a universe in which there is "nothing" because nothing means just that, no mass, no energy and therefore no means of making anything in this or any other related universe. This is the crucial phrase: how can anything be born of absolutely nothing? If we accept this definition then the universe has existed for ever – and will continue for ever. If anyone wishes to call this infinitely long existence "god", then fine, but it doesn't solve anything, it still leaves all the questions of existence that all organised religions fail to explain. Such as: if the gods created the big bang then what were they doing before then? And since it is impossible to make absolutely nothing from something, what will they do after Armageddon – start all over again?

Professor AB Turner

University of Sussex

• Spontaneous creation, "something from nothing", is puzzling coming from a physicist. No-thing means no physical reality, but all reality is logically the realisation of possibility; ergo possibility is meta ta physica: beyond the physical.If one considers nature as two interdependent domains: the universe of physical reality, and the metaphysical realm of logical possibility, then some-thing does indeed arise from no-thing. Physical nature arising from metaphysical nature makes a supernatural explanation for reality entirely unnecessary. That doesn't disprove the god hypothesis, of course, but it does offer arguably a more probable explanation for our existence. Mathematics is a form of logic by which possibility is reduced by a process of entertained argument to a hypothetical conclusion, which while logically consistent is not necessarily true. So M theory, by which the metaphysics of logical possibility is used to argue an explanation for physical reality, without the mind of god, is only one of many possibilities. The only truly definitive conclusion arises when there is only one possibility left, the end of the current universe and a new "big bang" nature of possibility and reality.

John Stone

Thames Ditton, Surrey

• The capacity for self-delusion of the enormously gifted and intelligent seems to be as limitless as that of the rest of us.

If Stephen Hawking thinks that everything will be explained by the laws of gravity and physics, well, what explains the existence of the laws by which everything is explained? Why and how should there be any laws of gravity? How did they happen to exist even before matter came into being?

His theory just leaves yet another question begging. Even if we did come from nothing, where did the nothing come from? The existence of nothing is surely just as mysterious and inexplicable as the existence of anything.

Hawking's theory is not a satisfactory answer even for an atheist like myself. There probably never will be a full explanation for our existence. To explain A in terms of B simply leaves B to then be explained, and so on down an infinite alphabet.

Alex Shearer

Backwell, Somerset

• God, gods, whomever, may well have become tired of the arguments about his/her/their existence (In praise of… God, 3 September). Two thousand years ago, the Epicureans maintained that, while the gods certainly existed (well, obviously), the Immortal Ones had no interest whatsoever in mankind; much, I suppose, as interstellar travellers feel about defective species generally.

Tom Drane

Mitcham, Surrey

• Professor Hawking's new book is called The Grand Design. Doesn't a design require a designer? Without one, it is "A Grand Accident". It's curious how atheists cannot help resorting to religious language.

Rev Richard Haggis

Oxford

John Sentamu accuses government of 'sitting on sidelines' while other countries tackle the cross-border problem

The Archbishop of York has joined critics of the government's opt-out from the EU's new directive on sex trafficking, describing the decision as "stunning".

John Sentamu accused ministers of "sitting on the sidelines" while other countries try to tackle a cross-border problem, which is thought to be growing but has seen fewer traffickers jailed this year than at any time since 2005.

The Archbishop said the "evil trade, which is nothing less than modern-day slavery", requires joint international action with Britain playing a full part. Estimates suggest that 2,500 foreign women have been pimped into prostitution by gangs.

Writing in today's Yorkshire Post, Dr Sentamu said: "I am no great supporter of European directives because of the supremacy of our parliament, but this one seems to be commonsense, designed to coordinate action against the trade in slaves. Britain should get involved now and be part of improving the situation – not sat on the sidelines offering wise words only when the match is over.

"Our government should be ensuring that Britain leads the way, as it did in the days of William Wilberforce."

His plea for a change of heart follows a similar appeal from the Labour party earlier this week, backed by the charity Anti-Slavery International. The Home Office says that caution over the directive protects damage to other national interests, but that the country is already "working constructively with EU partners" to fight sex trafficking.

Private schools are three times more successful than state schools at helping pupils gain the top two GCSE grades

Close to a third of all GCSE entries from private schools were awarded either an A or an A*, figures released today suggest, while at 20 fee-paying schools almost every GCSE taken by pupils this summer earned the top grades.

Nationally, 22.6% of entries score an A or above. The figure for the 571 independent schools whose results were reported by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) was 60.2%. But the head of the school that topped the league table, scoring the highest proportion of As and A*s, said the exams were not academically challenging; moves to make them more relevant to students' lives had rendered them too easy for bright pupils, she said.

Cynthia Hall, of Wycombe Abbey girls' boarding school in Buckinghamshire, which last week headed the A-level results table, said: "It may make those subjects more accessible. But from our point of view of academic studies for university, it makes them less 'academic'."

Some 99.3% of GCSEs taken by pupils at Wycombe Abbey were awarded an A or A*, with 89 girls notching up 734 A* grades between them.

In 20 schools, at least 90% of all the GCSEs passed were A or A*. Nearly a third (29.5%) of private schools' GCSE entries got an A* grade, compared to 7.5% nationally.

Many private schools, including Wycombe Abbey, offer International GCSEs (IGCSEs) in some subjects, believing them to be more rigorous than traditional GCSEs. State schools will be able to teach the qualifications from this month, after the education secretary, Michael Gove, reversed a ban imposed by Labour.

IGCSEs accounted for more than one in ten of all entries from ISC schools. The body represents 1,260 of the 2,600 independent schools in the UK.

Bad advice or unrealistic goals meant thousands of degree hopefuls had no margin for error in their A-level grades

Thousands of teenagers have missed out on a degree place this year because they received poor advice and set themselves unrealistic goals, the head of the university admissions service claims today.

Almost 181,000 applicants are still in clearing, the process that matches students who missed their offers or applied late to unfilled places on degree courses. It represents nearly 27% of those who applied for a university place for this autumn.

This time last year, just over 132,000 applicants were in clearing – 21% of those who applied. The number of vacancies is not known, but is said to be falling fast. Just over 12,344 students have withdrawn from the application system, compared to 9,818 this time last year.

Applicants are allowed to list a preferred university and a back-up institution, known as their insurance choice. The insurance choice usually requires lower grades and is used in case they miss the marks demanded of their first-choicechoice university.

But Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, told the Guardian that many young people this year had narrowed their chances by picking an insurance institution that required the same grades as their top choice. This gave them no leeway if they failed to achieve the grades demanded by their top-choice university, she said. She warned that students may have been misinformed about how to maximise their chances of a place. Others will have set themselves unrealistic goals.

"I think there is quite a lot of improper usage of the insurance choice," Curnock Cook said. "The advice is to list an insurance university that has lower grades than your top choice. But there is some evidence that the insurance choice isn't being used in that way.

"We need to make sure that young people have good advice from a number of sources, including their parents. It is not just teachers who give them advice. We have to get better information into the system because the system is becoming more competitive. People do need to make realistic choices."

The Institute for Career Guidance agreed that students had adopted the risky strategy of leaving themselves no leeway in case of a missed grade.

Andy Gardner, from the institute, said teenagers want to go to a university that has a good reputation because they have heard this will give them the best chance of a graduate job afterwards, yet the universities with the best reputations all demand high grades.

"All those prestigious universities want three As or two As and a B," he said. "Students need to be realistic because these universities are not going to be flexible if they even slightly miss their grades."

Gardner said students' insurance choices should reflect the grades they have achieved in their AS-levels – the exams at the end of the first year of sixth form.

Alan Bullock, head of student information services at Havant College in Hampshire, said it was not always possible to persuade students to think "slightly outside the box in terms of course choice or university choice".

He said: "If you apply for competitive subjects like economics or English at universities who are all close to the top of the league tables, then however outstanding your grades the margins are going to be extremely tight and there will be very little leeway.

"We always try to encourage our students to strike a careful balance between aspiration and realism and not to be misled by superficial perceptions about what is a 'good' university."

He added that it was becoming more important for university applicants to thoroughly research their insurance choice.

Curnock Cook said clearing had been "fast and furious" this year and that more than 150,000 students would either abandon their application for this autumn or be left without a place in the coming weeks. At some universities, the majority of unfilled places are only open to non-UK and non-European Union students, who pay higher fees. At Kent University, for example, 61 courses have vacancies, but just four of these are open to UK and EU students.

Beating the stars of Mad Men to an Emmy for her role in The Good Wife was a 'well-received shock', British actor Archie Panjabi says

When Hugh Laurie went home from last Sunday's Emmy awards empty handed, there seemed to be a mass slumping of shoulders among the British press. Laurie has found spectacular success with his portrayal of a grumpy doctor in the TV drama House, but perhaps it's time for him to let another – younger, better-looking – Brit steal the spotlight in America. She may not yet be a household name in Britain, but Archie Panjabi is a big deal in America; the 38-year-old from Edgware, London, picked up her first Emmy on Sunday.

Panjabi's dazzling portrayal of a law firm's in-house private investigator in the hit CBS show The Good Wife swept aside Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks, who were surely odds-on to win. Even with months of wildly supportive press in the US, did Panjabi have a clue that she would win best supporting actress in a drama series? She roars with laughter. "No! It was a complete shock. I was up against five very talented and established actresses ... but it was a well-received shock. The best way to describe it is to compare it to a child's first trip to Disneyland."

Panjabi was asked to audition for the show after the writers saw her performances in the films A Mighty Heart and A Good Year – Ridley Scott, director of the latter, was an executive producer. There's even a quote from him on her website, saying that she is "smart and sensitive enough as an actress to make anything fly, comedy or drama, an unusual talent ... she's a beautiful girl".

The great thing about Panjabi is that she doesn't rely on her considerable beauty. She can do comedy – she had fun with roles in East is East and Bend It Like Beckham - but is a serious character actor. She is able to lose herself in different roles yet is always commanding on screen - even alongside Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart. In the critically acclaimed 2004 film Yasmin, in which she played a bold, modern young woman who agrees to enter into an arranged marriage to please her traditional Pakistani family and whose world is rocked by 9/11, she gave her character dignity, depth and a very real sense of suppressed anger.

The role of Kalinda in The Good Wife is perfect for Panjabi: she is totally fearless in her figure-hugging clothes, stiletto boots and soft, expensive leather jackets. She wears her hair up, stands very straight and scares most of the people who come into contact with her. She is contained, emotionally remote and sexually ambiguous.

How did the writers first describe Kalinda? "As an East Indian – which is what Americans say to differentiate from American Indian – Erin Brockovich who uses her sexuality to get what she wants. In the pilot I wore jeans and then came the high boots. The costume designer had this idea of making her wear tight clothes and really short skirts. We were trying to make her look sexy without it being obvious she'd made a big effort. It was a challenge, but we got there in the end. I love roles where I have to transform myself."

Panjabi enjoys the spiky boots; they help her get into character, get her walking in a totally different way. Off screen, Panjabi is a little shy and learning slowly to shed her British modesty whereas Kalinda is feisty as hell. But there's a steeliness and a determination to succeed that they share. When I ask if she is ambitious, Panjabi repeats the question to herself. "I knew what I wanted to do for my entire life, from nursery to university. I've always been geared towards wanting to act. I've stuck with it, dedicated time to it. So if that makes me ambitious, then the answer is yes."

Her parents emigrated to London from India before she was born and in previous interviews she has mentioned family arguments about acting; as Yasmin compromises by agreeing to an arranged marriage, so Panjabi agreed to study management studies at Brunel before pursuing acting full-time. If anything, having to fight for her freedom to act has given her focus. She worked so hard on the first series of The Good Wife that she barely managed to do any sightseeing in New York (where the drama is filmed because Julianna Margulies, as the wife of Chris Noth's disgraced politician, wanted to stay close to home).

Panjabi thinks nothing of waking up at 2am and doing some work on her character but dismisses suggestions of being a workaholic; she insists extra-curricular research helps her to relax. She hasn't even had time to watch Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, 30 Rock, Modern Family or any of the other American TV shows of the last few years. These shows, great though they are, tend to be dominated by white faces and I wonder if Panjabi has ever felt thwarted by her ethnicity. "Sometimes my ethnicity is relevant, other times not. I definitely get the best of both worlds. The great thing about Kalinda is that her ambiguous sexuality is more important than her background."

There are times when Panjabi desperately misses family and friends in London, but she is committed to staying in New York until April, when series two of The Good Wife finishes filming. And what then? "I honestly don't know. I'd love to work with Ken Loach and maybe even Quentin Tarantino." As one of his tough chicks? She laughs. "Yeah! Please! I'd love to do a romantic comedy. And perhaps, if the character was right and I had a good gut instinct, a Bollywood movie." The words are now tumbling out. "And I'd love to direct. One day. I'm learning a lot on the set of The Good Wife."

So, apart from being totally focused on her work and, it's probably fair to say, consumed by Kalinda, what makes Panjabi so good at her job? "Oh no! I'm too British to tell you that. Maybe it's always telling myself that I can do better. Remembering never to learn lines and then just recite them. Thank you for thinking I'm good." She tails off, embarrassed.

Dr John Sentamu describes the government decision to opt out of new EU directive on sex trafficking as 'stunning'

The Archbishop of York has joined critics of the government's opt-out from the EU's new directive on sex trafficking, describing the decision as "stunning".

Dr John Sentamu accused ministers of "sitting on the sidelines" while other countries try to tackle a cross-border problem which is thought to be growing but has seen fewer traffickers jailed this year than at any time since 2005.

The archbishop said that the "evil trade which is nothing less than modern-day slavery" required joint international action with Britain playing a full part. Estimates suggest that some 2,500 foreign women have been pimped into prostitution by gangs.

Writing in the Yorkshire Post, Dr Sentamu said: "I am no great supporter of European directives because of the supremacy of our parliament, but this one seems to be common sense, designed to coordinate action against the trade in slaves. Britain should get involved now and be part of improving the situation – not sat on the sidelines offering wise words only when the match is over."

He compared the government's stance to him sitting silently in the House of Lords during debates on the sex trade.

"That is not how lawmakers should operate. Our government should be ensuring that Britain leads the way, as it did in the days of William Wilberforce," he said.

His plea for a change of heart follows a similar appeal from the Labour party earlier this week, backed by the charity Anti-Slavery International. The Home Office said that caution over the directive protects damage to other national interests, but that the country is already "working constructively with EU partners" to fight sex trafficking.

Claim for judicial review could extend to all individuals on former News of the World employee Glenn Mulcaire's list

Lawyers are looking at thousands of potential claims against Scotland Yard for its alleged failure to conduct effective investigations into allegations of unlawful phone interceptions.

The Guardian has learned that a claim for judicial review – which will ask the high court to scrutinise the conduct of Scotland Yard in dealing with the case – could extend to all individuals on Glenn Mulcaire's list. Mulcaire was a private investigator hired by the News of the World .

If a judge was in the future to rule against News Group, the owner of the News of the World, one of the court orders could be for the individuals to be paid damages.

"We require the police to serve details on all parties affected by this," said Tamsin Allen at Bindmans solicitors. "All have an identical interest in the claim and have a right to the claim form as interested parties.

"My clients say that even though there might be much bigger sums at stake, they decided that there was a public interest in bringing the claim that they are bringing because it's about holding a public authority to account. They think that the police should have done more," said Allen.

"Because our clients weren't told that they were victims they couldn't take simple steps that would have protected their privacy, like changing their mobile phone numbers or sim cards. They were never given an opportunity because police never told them."

Bindmans said it would be issuing a judicial review on behalf of former Europe minister Chris Bryant, former Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, and journalist and author Brendan Montague, challenging the Met's decision not to release information to potential victims of the News of the World's phone tapping.

"The police are failing in their obligations by refusing to provide the information to those victims who have asked for it," said Dominic Crossley, a partner at law firm Collyer Bristow, who is representing former deputy prime minister John Prescott in a similar claim against the police. He added: "John Prescott and others are entitled to know exactly what went on and when and what they have.

"It would enable them to protect themselves in the future, to get the necessary records from the phone companies, and revealing the extent of these activities would discourage a culture by which such behaviour is regarded as acceptable in future."

The case could also shed light on allegations that one of the reasons for Scotland Yard's failure to conduct a more thorough investigation was its close relationship with News Group.

"It is a possible consequence of the judicial review that the decision-making within the Met police is examined. For what reasons were the prosecution limited to the small number that it was? Who made that decision?" Crossley asked.

The claim for judicial review comes with private legal claims still under way against News Group for breach of privacy. However, under the terms of any likely settlement of those actions, lawyers expect details to remain confidential, preventing the cases from revealing wider information about the role of the police. It has emerged that publicist Max Clifford received a £1m settlement and Gordon Taylor, a former chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, £700,000.

We share a commitment to an economy that enables people to live decent, dignified lives

These are historic times for our country. The biggest economic crisis since the 1930s is generating new political alliances. The task for Labour is to define, shift and then occupy a new centre ground in British politics.

The era of Blair and Brown is over. We must shun a factional and sectional politics built on toxic relationships and mistrust. Ours is a great movement with great traditions and we must honour them once more – through a fundamental rethink of our ideas, our organisation and our electoral strategy.

On ideas, we must move beyond both a statist social democracy whose time has passed, and a timid accommodation to the market that leads to tinkering not real change. In government we were too hands-off with the market and too hands-on with the state. Our weakness in political economy left the welfare state with too much work to do. We need a broader agenda to reshape the market, democratise the state and rebuild the bonds of community.

On economic policy we face major challenges: a shift in power from west to east; the structural weaknesses left by the unnecessary cruelty of Thatcherism; reducing the deficit while promoting jobs and growth. We need an industrial policy that makes government the ally of wealth creation. Private sector reform in the name of justice and efficiency; like giving employees a voice in decisions at work. A living wage so that no one who works hard ends up poor. And a banking system that spreads capital to new businesses across the country.

We let the Tories claim our language and traditions in their one-sided "big society", while allowing ourselves to be pigeonholed as defenders of the "big state". Labour stands for a state that redistributes power and increases people's security. We want a revived local government to meet the need for decent housing and protection against fear and antisocial behaviour. We seek a welfare covenant that protects better and demands more in return: a decent pension for everyone who pays in; a job guarantee to prevent long-term unemployment.

But new ideas alone won't be enough. We need to change the culture of our politics. Honest debate and differing opinions are the basis of democracy. There are many things we do not agree on, but we share a fundamental Labour creed: a commitment to democracy and liberty, and an economy that enables people to live decent, dignified lives.

We must return Labour to its roots as a movement for mutual self-improvement in neighbourhoods across the country. We need a new electoral strategy, too. Labels such as "core vote" and "middle England" are now largely meaningless. Since 1997 we lost support right across society: 1.6 million lower-income voters and 2.8 million middle-income voters. We need a broad appeal based on principle, not polling – rooted in the lives and experiences of the people. We combine radicalism and credibility by inspiring people with a sense of hope, while taking them with us as partners in a shared adventure.

This new agenda – ideological, organisational and electoral – is more challenging than simply junking unpopular policies or seeking a new tactical patchwork of voters. It confronts us with more uncomfortable truths. But it is essential. Our relationship with the British people has been ruptured, and we need to rebuild it. We need to talk to peoples' concerns about debt, housing, violence and wages. We need to renew the Labour covenant with the people based upon our shared fate and shared responsibility for each other. That is the way we will renew our party and, in time, change our country.

Remark came in context of an attack on China's animal welfare record, with singer having been criticised on a number of previous occasions for negative race comments

Read Simon Armitage's interview with Morrissey in full

Tom Clark: Morrissey, this joke isn't funny anymore

For almost three decades, indie rock icon Morrissey has made almost as many enemies as devoted fans willing to hang on his every melancholy-drenched lyric. Described by one high court judge as "devious, truculent and unreliable", the former Smiths frontman is no stranger to controversy and criticism. But tomorrow he reignites a simmering row about his views on race in an interview in Guardian Weekend magazine, in which he describes Chinese people as a "subspecies" because of their treatment of animals.

Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as "absolutely horrific", referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: "Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."

A spokesman for Love Music Hate Racism, which received a donation of £28,000 from the singer in 2008 after his apparently anti-immigration comments made in music magazine NME convulsed the media, said it would be unable to accept support from Morrissey again if he did not rescind or dispute today's comments.

"It really is just crude racism," said Martin Smith. "When you start using language like 'subspecies', you are entering into dark and murky water. I don't think we would, or could, ask him to come back after that."

Armitage said Morrissey was typically and deliberately provocative throughout the interview. "I thought at the time it was a dangerous thing to say into a tape recorder. He must have known it would make waves, he's not daft," he said. "But he's provocative and theatrical, and it was one of dozens of dramatic pronouncements. I'm not an apologist for that kind of remark, and couldn't ignore it. But clearly, when it comes to animal rights and animal welfare, he's absolutely unshakable in his beliefs. In his view, if you treat an animal badly, you are less than human. I think that was his point."

Morrissey said in a statement tonight: "If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade – animals skinned alive – then they could not possibly argue in favour of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible."

His latest comments are not the first time the singer has provoked accusations of racism. Some of his song titles and lyrics have attracted criticism, including the tracks Bengali in Platforms – "He only wants to embrace your culture/And to be your friend forever/ … Oh shelve your western plans/ … life is hard enough when you belong here" – and National Front Disco.

In 1992 NME accused Morrissey of "flirting with disaster" and racist imagery after wrapping himself in the union flag while on stage in Finsbury Park, north London.

In the same year, the singer, now 51, was quoted in Q Magazine stating that he did not want to be "horrible or pessimistic" but he didn't "really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don't really think they ever will." While in 1994 he told Select magazine that the National Front should be given a clear voice or platform in order for them to be "less of a threat".

The war of words with NME continued in 2007 after Morrissey, who lived in Rome at the time, was quoted in an interview with the magazine apparently criticising levels of immigration after being asked if he would ever consider moving back to England. "With the issue of immigration, it's very difficult because, although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears," he said. "If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won't hear an English accent. You'll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent."

At another point in the interview he stated: "England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in."

Morrissey issued a writ for defamation against the magazine and its then editor Conor McNicholas, saying the publication had "deliberately tried to characterise me as a racist … in order to boost their dwindling circulation".

He vehemently denied the accusations of racism. "I abhor racism and oppression or cruelty of any kind and will not let this pass without being absolutely clear and emphatic … Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society," he said in a statement.

Simon Price, a music journalist who has followed Morrissey's career closely, said his die-hard fans who have idolised him for more than 25 years would be unlikely to desert him, but others would be "appalled, if not exactly surprised".

The singer appeared to have left little room for explanation in his controversial comment, he added. "What are the apologists going to say this time? It looks like in his old age Morrissey has forgotten to include the ambiguity, like he has done in the past. Maybe he just doesn't care any more."

He added: "For Morrissey's hardcore fan base, no matter what he says he can do no wrong, but this is not going to make those in the media feel favourably toward him and lots of doors will be shut to him that maybe had been ajar in the past."

New system finds underpayments through PAYE, with workers who moved jobs or accepted benefits most likely to suffer

Tax bills demanding up to £5,000 in extra payments will drop on the doormats of around a million people before next April after a new computer system found widespread underpayments by employers through the PAYE system.

Employees who moved jobs or accepted company cars or cash benefits from their employer were the most likely to be caught by the new system.

It aims to reconcile information held on different systems inside HM Revenue and Customs.

The tax authority found millions of taxpayers regularly paid more or less tax than they should after it switched on a new system to trawl through 40m tax records. Around two million people will discover they are owed money by the tax authority, although they will be owed much smaller amounts.

Repayments will total £1.8bn compared to extra tax bills of £2bn, leaving HMRC £200m better off.

Officials said tonight that an initial review of 600,000 tax records found 44,500 taxpayers had paid the wrong tax in the previous year.

They said 15,000 would be told to pay extra tax while another 30,000 would receive refunds.

A spokesman said the tax authority was confident the sample could be used to show the effect on 40m PAYE taxpayers.

Around 80% of bills will be less than £2,000 and will be clawed back through the PAYE system, while larger payments will be recovered separately. The spokesman added: "The vast majority of the 40 million people who pay through PAYE deductions are correctly taxed, but because circumstances change during the year there will always be a minority who have paid either too much or too little."

However, HMRC's new system has already come under fire from tax advisers who claim it led to thousands of people receiving the wrong tax code and inflated bills. The Chartered Institute of Taxation said earlier this year that many people received the wrong information.

It accused HMRC of using out-of-date information to support the claims it made for extra tax.

It said: "Many [taxpayers] are being given wrong information, and unless they spot it and tell HMRC, their employer will receive the wrong information too, and they could get a nasty shock when they open their April pay packet and see it is as much as a hundred pounds lighter than they are expecting."

The HMRC spokesman said taxpayers could dispute extra tax charges by claiming on a ESC19 form that they had supplied information in good faith and retrospective bills should be dropped.

Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere is a skewed take on fame that sees the director return to the award-winning territory of Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola arrived on the Lido today and, like the ranks of photographers lined up to capture every movement of the stars at the Venice film festival, turned the spotlight on celebrity. But while the images of actors and directors arriving at the festival are heady with high glamour, in Coppola's portrayal, the celebrity life is also quite boring.

The director is competing at the festival with her fourth film, Somewhere, a return to the themes and style of Lost in Translation after the foray into camp historical drama that was her last film, Marie Antoinette.

Somewhere stars Stephen Dorff as Johnny Marco, a Hollywood actor living in the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles. The question is, with his black Ferrari, pills, booze, room service and sex on demand, is he living the high life or trapped in a depressing cocoon? The appearance of his 11-year-old daughter, played by Elle Fanning, helps him grope towards an answer.

The film resonates with the themes of loneliness and isolation which dominated Lost in Translation, for which Coppola was nominated for an Oscar. It starred Bill Murray as a famous actor alone in a hotel on a promotional trip to Japan. "I spent a lot of time, growing up, living in hotels when I was on location with my dad [Francis Ford Coppola]," she said. "A hotel is a world in itself and the people who stay there are always interesting, so I like hotels for settings. Also it's an impermanent place and people I am interested in are in a moment of transition."

The father-daughter relationship is central to the film, and Coppola said it was the first script she wrote after giving birth to her first child.

Coppola asked Dorff to stay at the hotel during the shoot rather than go home every night. The actor called the role "the perfect character, at the perfect time", but said the only similarity between himself and Johnny Marco was that they were both actors.

"We decided that he probably had just got famous, maybe a year or two before," said Dorff, who made his own screen breakthrough as an evil vampire in 1998's Blade. "The one thing that felt very real was the isolation that happens to an actor when a film is finished. On this film, for example … it made me really sad when the movie ended. For me, I don't go to an office every day, so I'm kind of left with not knowing what I'm going to do until the next movie arrives. So I was able to tap into some of that emotion."

Coppola is one of three women directors out of 23 in the main competition at Venice. The others are Kelly Reichardt, who premieres her western Meek's Cutoff on Sunday, and Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari.

Things seem to be getting better for women in the industry, Coppola inferred. She said she tried to focus on just making films, but "it is exciting to know that there are a lot more women film-makers than when I started".

In the film, Dorff's character is given what looks like a golden cat as a gong at an Italian awards ceremony. In Venice, Coppola is competing for the Golden Lion, and the feeling among critics is that she is in with a chance.

A new study demonstrates that how women musicians dress alters the perception of how they play

Everyone likes to imagine they are rational, fair, and free from prejudice. But how easily are we misled by appearances? Noola Griffiths studies the psychology of music, and she's published a cracking paper on how what women wear affects your judgment of their performance. The results are predictable but the context is interesting.

Four female musicians were filmed playing in three different outfits: a concert dress, jeans, and a nightclubbing dress. They were also all filmed as points of light, wearing a black tracksuit in the dark, so that the only thing to be seen – once the images had been treated – was the movement of some bright white tape attached to their joints.

All these violinists were music students, from the top 10% of their year, and they were vetted to ensure comparability : they were all white Europeans, size 10 dress, size 4 or 5 shoe, and aged between 20 and 22.

They were even equivalently attractive, according to their score on the MBA California facial mask, which seems to be some kind of effort to derive a numerical hotness quotient from the best fit of a geometric mask over someone's face. I'm not saying that's not ridiculous, I'm just saying they tried.

In fact they did better. All the performances were also standardised at 104 beats per minute, so the audio tracks from each musician could be replaced with a recording of a single performance, recorded by someone who was never filmed, for each of the various pieces in the study.

This meant there was no room for anyone to argue that the clothes made the musicians perform differently, and when the researchers checked in a pilot study, nobody watching the clips had spotted the switch.

Then they got 30 different musicians – a mixture of music students and members of the Sheffield Philharmonic – to watch video clips with various different permutations of clothing, player and piece. All were invited to give each performance a score out of six for technical proficiency and musicality, and the results were inevitable.

For technical proficiency, performers in a concert dress were rated higher than if they were in jeans or a clubbing dress, even though the actual audio performance was exactly the same every time (and played by a separate musician who was never filmed). The results for musicality were similar: musicians in a clubbing dress were rated worst.

Experiments offer small constricted worlds, which we hope act as models for wider phenomena. How far can you apply this to wider society? Women are still discriminated against in the workplace, but each situation has so many variables it can be difficult to assess.

In the world of music, assessment of performance goals can be restricted to make individuals broadly comparable, and so there's a reasonably long tradition of the field being used as a test tube for bigotry. In the 1970s and 1980s, in an attempt to overcome biases in hiring, most orchestras changed their audition policy, and began using screens to conceal the identity of the candidate.

Female musicians in the top five US symphony orchestras rose from 5% in the 1970s to around 25%. This could have been due to wider societal shifts, so Goldin and Rouse conducted a very elegant study, Orchestrating Impartality: they compared the number of women being hired at auditions with and without screens, and found women were several times more likely to be hired when nobody could see that they were a woman.

What's more, using data on the changing gender makeup of orchestras over time, they were able to estimate that from the 1970s to 2000 – the era which shifted from casual racism and sexism in popular culture, to more covert forms – the trend towards greater equality was driven simply by selectors being forced not to see who they were selecting. I don't know how you'd apply the same tools to every workplace. But I'd like to see someone try.

Following the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch, MEP Nigel Farage is to bid for a second stint as party leader

Nigel Farage said yesterday that he would stand again for the leadership of the United Kingdom Independence party.

The MEP made the announcement at Ukip's autumn conference, taking place in Torquay, Devon.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch decided last month to stand down as leader on the grounds that he believes he is "not much good at party politics."

Farage told The World At One on BBC Radio 4: "I have invested the best part of my adult political life in helping to try to build up this movement and I am far from perfect but I do think I am able, through the media, to deliver a good, simple, understandable message. I believe I can lead this party from the front as a campaigning organisation."

Farage led Ukip until last year, when he stood down in order to concentrate on his attempt to oust John Bercow as the MP for Buckingham. His campaign was a failure – he came third, more than 14,000 votes behind Bercow, and suffered serious injuries when he was involved in a plane crash on polling day.

Pearson, a former Conservative, was widely mocked during the general election campaign after admitting on television that he could not answer detailed questions about his election manifesto. Farage is the favourite to replace Pearson, although other candidates are also standing. The results of the contest will be announced in November.

The MEP said last month that he would stand for the leadership if he believed he had recovered from his injuries.

Earlier yesterday Ukip's interim leader, Jeffrey Titford, predicted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the party would eventually win a Westminster seat. He said: "We will get there in the end, don't you worry."

Titford said his party was drawing support from a wide political spectrum, not just disaffected Conservatives.

• Pressure mounts as No 10 spin doctor's ex-colleague speaks
• Tessa Jowell says phone was hacked 28 times
• Prominent figures to sue Met for lack of warning

Andy Coulson, the No 10 communications chief, found himself in the direct line of fire in the News of the World phone hacking scandal tonight when a former colleague alleged that he issued direct orders to journalists to carry out the illegal practice.

As the former cabinet minister Tessa Jowell revealed that her phone had been targeted on 28 occasions, Coulson stood accused of presiding over a "culture of dark arts" which encouraged phone hacking.

The hacking scandal blew up again this week after the New York Times published a lengthy article including the claim that Coulson freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques during his time as editor of the tabloid. Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World after its royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed. He denies any knowledge of phone hacking.

Downing Street and Scotland Yard, which is facing criticism for failing to investigate the allegations properly, were facing pressure last night as:

• Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary, told the Independent that her phone had been hacked into on 28 occasions.

• Lord Prescott, who is joining forces with three other public figures to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator at the heart of the scandal, said he has evidence that Glenn Mulcaire targeted him on behalf of News International.

• Alan Johnson, the former home secretary, is to invoke his rights as a former cabinet minister to review official papers relating to the case from his time in office.

• Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner with the Met who is seeking a judicial review of the alleged failure of his former force to tell him his name had been found on a list of public figures whose phones may have been targeted, called for Coulson to be interviewed by police.

The figures spoke out as a former News of the World journalist quoted by the New York Times repeated his claim tonight that he had been ordered by the former editor to hack phones. Sean Hoare told BBC Radio 4's PM: "There is an expression called the culture of dark arts. You were given a remit: just get the story. Phone tapping hadn't just existed on the News of the World … I have gone on the record in the New York Times and said I have stood by Andy and been requested to tap phones, OK, or hack into them. He was well aware the practice existed. To deny it is simply a lie."

The government last night commented on Hoare's admission that he was sacked from the title at a time when he was struggling with problems with drugs and alcohol. Alan Duncan, the international development minister, told Radio 4's Any Questions: "What they are seizing on today are the words of someone who had an alcohol and drug problem who was sacked by the paper."

No 10 is standing by Coulson. Sources close to him said that Hoare had contradicted himself in the interview.

But Labour piled pressure on the government and Scotland Yard in the wake of the New York Times investigation. Alan Johnson is to review government papers from his time in office in the wake of quotes in the New York Times article from unnamed detectives alleging that their investigation had been cut short because of Scotland Yard's close relationship with the News of the World.

Johnson said that he considered summoning the police inspectorate because he felt "uncomfortable" with the investigation's progress. He decided against this after "reassuring conversations" with senior officers at Scotland Yard.

The government, which has been rattled by the renewed focus on Coulson, last night blamed Labour for stoking the saga. Alan Duncan said: "The Labour party, in a concerted campaign through Lord Prescott and Alan Johnson, has piled in to attack Andy Coulson about something that happened years ago in order to try to attack the government. This was looked at by News International lawyers, by a parliamentary select committee, by the police and the CPS. All of them concluded there was no case to answer."

Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said: "These are very serious allegations. If I was prime minister and Andy Coulson was working for me I would demand to know from Andy Coulson the truth. I don't see how he can stay working in Downing Street unless he clears this up and says whether his former colleagues are telling the truth or not."

The News of the World said: "The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper. We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World."

A Met police spokesperson responded to Johnson's statement:. "In July 2009, the [Met Police Service] examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation. The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the director of public prosecutions with leading counsels' advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed."

March 2003 raid exposed trade in private details, and now pressure grows on police to reopen investigation

It started with a raid in March 2003 on an unprepossessing office in a quiet corner of New Milton, a small market town on the edge of the New Forest.

The town is the last place a reporter would search for an exclusive — but this had become one of the focal points of a growing cottage industry that specialised in procuring information that formed the basis of stories for the tabloid press.

Steve Whittamore, a private investigator based in New Milton, was expert in obtaining raw material about the rich and famous that journalists were unable or unwilling to discover for themselves. He did so by employing people to "blag" phone numbers by calling government agencies or companies and surreptitiously obtaining contact details.

That practice came to the attention of the Office of the Information Commissioner, which was then engaged in a crackdown on an unlawful trade in private information. After raiding Whittamore's office, the commission discovered details of 305 journalists who had used the investigator's services between 2001 and 2003. It marked the beginning of a investigation that would expose the seedier side of Fleet Street. Ultimately, it would also indicate that journalists, including at the News of the World, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, had been engaged in phone hacking over many years.

In Sutton in Surrey, meanwhile, footballer turned private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was engaged in similar activities, hacking into voicemail messages left on mobile phones belonging to the rich, powerful and influential. Mulcaire would be jailed in January 2007 along with Clive Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, for plotting to intercept voicemail messages as the methods used by a shadowy cabal of middlemen and unscrupulous tabloid hacks came to public attention.

Over three years later, after a trial, investigations by the police and the Press Complaints Commission and two parliamentary inquiries, the scale of that operation, affecting dozens of showbiz stars, politicians, sports people and other public figures, is finally becoming clear.

Accusations are growing, meanwhile, that this was carried out with the knowledge of senior executives at News International, Murdoch's newspaper group — charges which they deny. Those accused include Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World until January 2007 but now David Cameron's director of communications and strategy.

Questions are also being asked over whether the Metropolitan police colluded with News International, whose papers include the News of the World and the Sun, to protect the close relationship Scotland Yard had established with the country's most powerful newspaper group.

The story has stunned the political world as Parliament prepares to reconvene this week, and forced the Conservative party to defend Coulson, a key member of Cameron's inner circle. Former Labour minister Tom Watson wrote to Nick Clegg in Cameron's absence on paternity leave demanding a judicial inquiry.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott whose name appeared on a list of potential hacking targets, said he might seek a judicial review to force police to find out whether his phone was hacked.

the former home secretary, Alan Johnson, issued a statement saying there "may now be a case" for reviewing the police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World, to determine whether the Met failed to pass key evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

In an investigation published earlier this week, the New York Times said three public figures were planning a legal challenge to the Met's decision not to release information to victims of phone hacking. the identity of those three litigants was confirmed as Labour MP Chris Bryant, author Brendan Montague and, potentially most damagingly of all, the Met's former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick.

The New York Times investigation claimed, among other things, that an unnamed prosecutor at the CPS felt the police had effectively withheld information that could have been used to bring other journalists to trial.

Despite its explosive nature, however, the story carried by the paper was not reported widely by Fleet Street.

The press were also slow to follow up the Guardian's own story about phone hacking at the News of the World, and News International's apparent attempt to disguise it, in July last year. Guardian journalist Nick Davies wrote that News International had paid more than £1m in out of court settlements to three people, including Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA, who had their phones hacked. The reason for the silence was clear enough: most papers' own journalists had engaged in "blagging" and "phone hacking" – or used investigators to do so. That those techniques could be used to obtain numbers, addresses or gossip was one of the industry's worst-kept secrets.

Similarly News International's titles, which also include the Times and the Sunday Times, unwilling to draw attention to accusations of impropriety at their own company, only covered the Guardian's original story when they chose to question its value or condemn it outright.

Other organisations, including the Commons select committee on media and sport and the Press Complaints Commission, could not ignore the Guardian's revelations. MPs on the committee, who had already investigated the Goodman case once as part of a wider enquiry into press standards, reopened their investigation.

They subsequently criticised News International executives for failing to co-operate fully, accusing them of "collective amnesia", and said the PCC's own investigation was also simplistic. The PCC had investigated phone hacking for a second time, but concluded that it was no longer taking place at the News of the World or any other title.

The News of the World maintains it was not aware of illegal practices and that Goodman and Mulcaire were isolated cases. The paper told the NYT it has imposed a "zero tolerance" policy on phone hacking. The New York Times this week said another News of the World journalist has been suspended over accusations of phone hacking. The PCC was told about this in April.

The regulator had criticised the Guardian's stories on the subject. In a letter to Stephen Abell, the PCC director, last night, the Guardian's editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, wrote: "The PCC cannot allow its verdict of September 2009 to stand in the face of overwhelming evidence that you were, indeed, misled." He went on to call the earlier findings, in which the commission found no evidence of a "concealed criminal conspiracy at the News of the World to intrude into people's privacy" as, "even at the time, untenable".

Prompted by the Guardian story, the Met was unable to ignore the paper's central claim – that payments to Taylor and others suggested phone hacking was not the work of Goodman alone but was far more prevalent – without re-examining the evidence. Coulson and others always maintained Goodman was acting alone and without their knowledge.

Key dates

February 2005

Private detective Glenn Mulcaire – engaged by News of the World journalists – hacks into the phone of Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.

November 2005

The News of the World's royal editor, Clive Goodman, commissions phone call intercepts of staff at St James's palace. Two stories involving Prince William lead to suspicions of phone hacking.

April-May 2006

Mulcaire hacks into the phones of John Prescott, Boris Johnson, Tessa Jowell, Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael, Vanessa Feltz and Jade Goody.

January 2007

Andy Coulson resigns as News of the World editor after Goodman and Mulcaire are jailed for hacking into phone messages.

June 2007

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, makes Coulson his director of communications.

July 2008

Taylor receives a £700,000 payment from News Group to settle the phone-hacking case

9 March 2010

The News of the World agrees to pay Max Clifford more than £1m to drop his legal action over the interception of voicemail messages.

13 May 2010

Coulson becomes the director of communications at 10 Downing Street after David Cameron becomes prime minister.

1 September 2010

The New York Times reports that Coulson "actively encouraged" a reporter to illegally intercept phone messages when he was editor of the News of the World.

2 September 2010

The News of the World confirms that it has suspended a journalist while it investigates new phone-hacking claims.

The Duke of Edinburgh's impressionist painting of his wife, kept in his private collection since 1965, will be included in a book to be published on Monday

She has been painted by just about every famous artist from Annigonni to Lucian Freud, but perhaps never quite like this. The portrait of the Queen at breakfast in 1965 was painted by one of the few artists who knows what she looks like at that time of day: the Duke of Edinburgh.

The distinctly impressionist work, painted at Windsor Castle, at least gives the lie to the notion that she does not pay any attention to what is in the press: it shows her reading the morning papers, although it is hard to tell whether she has turned to the racing pages. The table has some indeterminate objects on it – surely that cannot be a knife sticking out of a jam pot?

The painting, until now kept in the duke's private collection, is included for the first time in a new book, to published on Monday, called The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact.

Included among other unusual pictures in the collection is one entitled Missis Kwin, by a Papua New Guinean artist called Mathias Kauage, showing the Queen as a tribal chief, with face paint, feathers, tattoos and pig tusk ornaments.

The book also includes a very early photograph of Queen Victoria, surrounded by her children, taken in 1852, which has her face smudged out. She was apparently not amused to be snapped with her eyes closed and rubbed out her face on the daguerreotype with her finger.

MI6 man jailed for a year for 'act of betrayal' for trying to sell top secret files

A software engineer working for MI6, who tried to sell intelligence for £2m, has been given a 12-month jail sentence for his "act of betrayal".

Daniel Houghton, 25, from Hoxton, east London, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two offences under the Official Secrets Act. He offered computer files containing sensitive information about intelligence collection and M16 staff lists to agents from the Netherlands, the Old Bailey heard. The Dutch initially thought it was a hoax, but later tipped off their UK counterparts. Houghton was arrested after arranging a meeting at a London hotel in March.

He claimed he heard voices telling him to do it, but today the judge, Mr Justice Bean, was told there were conflicting psychiatric reports. "You seem to be a strange young man. But whether you were hearing voices at the time, I don't know. If you were hearing voices they may have had a significant influence on your behaviour, but they could not be said to remove your responsibility for your actions."

Sentencing him, he said: "You were employed by the security services and attempted to sell secret material for very large sums of money.

"In particular you attempted to sell staff lists, which would have disclosed the identity and homes and whereabouts of agents whose identity must be protected almost at all costs. If the material had found its way into the hands of a hostile power, it would have done enormous damage and put lives at risk.

"On the other hand, you are not an ideologue. If you had been intent on causing harm to this country's interests, you would have chosen a different recipient than the Netherlands. These were unsophisticated offences. You made no attempt to conceal your identity."

Houghton had worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, between September 2007 and May 2009, the court heard. During this time he accessed a number of computer files belonging to the British security service (MI5) relating to the work of both agencies and marked "secret" or "top secret". They were described as "sensitive capabilities files, important tools developed by SIS staff for the gathering of intelligence for national security purposes".

He also tried to sell two secret staff lists, one containing 387 names and the other with the home and mobile telephone numbers of 39 people.

Piers Arnold, prosecuting, said: "It was a personal betrayal of these individuals with the potential, if it had fallen into the wrong hands, to compromise individuals' safety."

Houghton will be released almost immediately, because he has already served half the term while on remand awaiting trial.

It is the second time that a group of retailers have produced a prelude to London Fashion Week and this season's aims to be far bigger

Fabric is still being delivered, models are being cast, artistic temper tantrums have yet to be unleashed. But, as London Fashion Week designers battle on with their preparations for the event, which begins in two weeks time, the British high street is angling to get in on the catwalk action.

So far 23 high street brands have signed up to High Street Fashion Week, which begins on Monday. It is the second time that a group of retailers have produced a prelude to London Fashion Week and this season's aims to be far bigger. The event will feature public fashion shows and tutorials and will begin with "The Glammys". These inaugural awards will be voted for by the public and aim to acknowledge retailers who embrace wearable and relevant fashion for all ages.

High Street Fashion Week is an open retail event which focuses on the public, rather than the fashion press and buyers. Although many in the industry remain unenthusiastic, retail guru Jeff Banks insists the event is a positive move.

"I don't think the event goes far enough. I've been advocating this for years. London Fashion Week is a puff of smoke. Only 10 or so names who show there are serious businesses. It's about time we got real and did what we are good at."

To coincide with the event, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are also striving to up their designer credentials. M&S is gearing up to stock designs by students from the Royal College of Art which it will sell alongside its Limited Collection.

John Lewis, better known for homeware than high fashion, is due to unveil one-off ollaborations with designers including Osman Yousefzada, Terry de Havilland and Philip Treacy at its Oxford Street flagship store before London Fashion Week. The designer stunt coincides with a £10m makeover of the store's fashion department. Peter Ruis, director of buying at the company, admitted that "shoppers already know that our basement is fantastic for food, our ground floor is brilliant for beauty but until now the fashion floor hasn't been as strong."