Former England captain inadvertantly hit official - who was dealing with scrum of photographers - as he pulled away from stadium

Just when it seemed things could not get any worse for John Terry, the disgraced former England captain has found a novel way to land himself in trouble. Terry has already been stripped of the England captaincy in World Cup year over an extramarital affair with a lingerie model and last night he was part of the Chelsea team eliminated from the Champions League at the hands of his former mentor José Mourinho.

But as if that were not bad enough, Terry was then questioned and breathalysed by police in the small hours after accidentally running over a Chelsea steward as he left Stamford Bridge.

Terry, 29, inadvertently hit the steward, Steve Rowley, as he pulled away from the stadium in his Range Rover after the 1-0 defeat to Mourinho's Internazionale. Terry and his wife Toni, alongside him in the passenger's seat, were oblivious to the accident until he was contacted by the club on returning home to Oxshott, Surrey.

Rowley had been attempting to clear a scrum of photographers and fans awaiting the defender outside the ground and had waved Terry through on to Fulham Road. The car was travelling at a snail's pace but the 35-year-old steward was still caught under the wheel, with initial reports suggesting he had broken his leg, a diagnosis that later veered from bad bruising to a sprained ankle. He was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to hospital. He was dischargedtonight.

"John was just easing through the queue of traffic," said the player's spokesman, Phil Hall. "When he reached the front of the queue there was a melee of photographers banging against the car to get his attention. A security man waved him on and he just drove off. He was completely unaware that there had been an accident until Chelsea telephoned him an hour or so later."

Surrey police breathalysed the player, who was found to be within the legal alcohol limit. Hall said: "He hadn't had a single drop to drink. John found out who the gentleman was and telephoned him to apologise. He was really upset with what had happened."

In a statement issued through Chelsea last night, Rowley said: "Contrary to media reports I did not suffer a broken leg. It is badly bruised. John was quickly in contact with me once he realised what had happened and there's no bad feeling at all on my part.

"It wasn't his fault at all, it was a complete accident."

Originally published 18 March 1968

Britain's biggest anti-Vietnam war demonstration ended in London yesterday with an estimated 300 arrests; 86 people were treated for injuries, and 50, including 25 policemen, one with a serious spine injury, were taken to hospital. Demonstrators engaged police – mounted and on foot – in a protracted battle throwing stones, firecrackers, and smoke bombs. Plastic blood added a touch of vicarious brutality.

It was only after considerable provocation that police tempers began to fray and truncheons started to be used. The demonstrators seemed determined to stay until they had provoked a violent response of some sort, and this intention became paramount once they entered Grosvenor Square.

Later Commander John Lawlor, in charge of the police covering the demonstration, said: "The organisers had no control over their supporters and as a result the agreed arrangements were not carried out. The demonstration degenerated into a disorderly rabble."

After marching from Trafalgar Square with Vanessa Redgrave, among others, at their head, thousands of young people burst into the gardens in front of the American Embassy. After clashes lasting more than an hour, the demonstrators were forced back by policemen. Small groups of demonstrators made for the Dorchester and Hilton hotels but did not succeed in getting in.

Mr Peter Jackson, Labour MP for High Peak, said last night that he would put down a question in the House of Commons today about "unnecessary violence" by police; especially the use of mounted police. Earlier members of the Monday Club, including Mr Patrick Wall, MP, and Mr John Biggs-Davidson, MP, had handed in letters expressing support to the United States and South Vietnamese embassies.

Mr David Bruce, the American Ambassador, issued a statement in which he thanked the police. "We are most grateful for the magnificent way the police handled the attack on the embassy."

More than 1,000 police were waiting for the demonstrators in Grosvenor Square. They gathered in front of the Embassy while diagonal lines stood shoulder to shoulder to cordon off the corners of the square closest to the building.

About 2,000 spectators had gathered at the corners of the square to wait for the demonstrators, among them a few hundred Conservatives and Monday Club supporters who shouted such slogans as "Bomb, bomb the Vietcong" and "Treason" when scattered knots of anarchists leading the procession marched past them.

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Jules George, 41, has just returned from being embedded with British troops in Afghanistan

The simple objective for a war artist is to record a particular war. You could ask why film and photography is not enough. I think that due to the very nature of painting or drawing, one can exaggerate or highlight poignant themes, atmospheres, moods, and it gives a completely different slant. With mass media, you see so much, so many evocative photographs. We're inundated with news footage and camera work. So you see these remarkable photographs, and then we've forgotten them.

But with a painting you can sit in a gallery, or open a book, and you can consider, and you can ponder what is going on.

Any preconceptions I had before I went to Afghanistan were based entirely on what I had seen in the newspapers and on television. But the reality was completely different.

I arrived at Camp Bastion and then I was at Camp Shorabak, the main Afghan base. I had no idea what it took to keep 100,000 troops going, the vast infrastructure. Twenty-four hours a day there were convoys of hundreds of lorries bringing in concrete for building and the food that is required to feed all these troops.

And then there is the stunning beauty of the landscape. It's incredible. When you see the local people in their traditional garments, there is only one word to describe it – biblical. It's 2,000 years ago. So there is this weird contrast of stunning beautiful landscapes, and war, with all the arms and army. Constantly you are pulled between the two.

I thought it was important not to go with too many preconceived ideas. The way I work is very rapid-fire, quick sketches and drawings. There was so much activity going on that was the best way. I had to make quick studies and drawings, encompassing all I could see.

I was embedded with the 2 Yorks (Green Howards) whose role was to lead mentoring and liaison training. I thought they might be a bit sceptical but they really supported the idea, they thought it was wonderful that someone was there to record it.

On the little patrol bases at night, when there is very little to do, I would paint a portrait of someone, watched by all the soldiers. They always wanted to know if they were in the picture, so I think it was appreciated.

I got camp life, and portraits. I went out on foot patrol. That was the first time I've ever walked and drawn and watched my step for IEDs all at the same time – a quick learning curve. On one occasion, we ended up in a firefight. I was not in the thick of it, but my role was to make drawings. So I witnessed a three-hour skirmish. Two vehicles hit IEDs but fortunately there were no bad injuries. Though one person had to be medevaced and we didn't initially know how he was and I felt physically sick.

On another occasion, at the district centre at Musa Qala, I was up on the rooftop and there was the most stunning view of the wadi and the mountains. I painted the landscape but it was so strange painting this incredible view and watching an amazing sunset with the sound of blasts and gunfire going off in the background.

I hope my sketches and paintings convey the experience of what it is like to be on the frontline, the elements of fear and energy, and equally the camaraderie and the determination of the troops. Because for every setback, for every friend injured, that makes them more determined to succeed.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the war, my objective was to study the British army in the theatre of war. I have so much respect for these men and women. They should be given full support for what they do.

Jules George was talking to Caroline Davies

An exhibition of George's work from Afghanistan is planned for later this year. Contact jules.george@ymail.com for details

Warkworth, Northumberland

Armed with the British Bryological Society's new field guide to mosses and accompanied by the song of skylarks, we set out to explore the moss flora of the sand dune hummocks and hollows behind the beach. Here, mosses are the first plants to produce new growth in March, and from the top of the highest dunes we looked down on a fresh green patchwork. On the premise that mosses are under-appreciated because most are only known by their Latin names, the new guide allocates each a name in plain English. The first we encountered was Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus – easier to identify than to spell, but now also known as big shaggy-moss, an apt and memorable name. Down in the dune slacks we passed carpets of Sand Hill screw-moss, whose starry tufts of leaves resemble little twists of brown paper during droughts, only to revive within minutes when rain arrives.

Maybe their new colloquial names will foster more interest in these most ancient of plants. The dune snails were certainly interested, coaxed out by warm sunshine to glide over the mosses and feed – at considerable risk. We heard a frantic whacking of snail shell against rock coming from behind a grass tussock and found a song thrush busy at its anvil, surrounded by smashed shells that represented a good sample of the mollusc fauna hereabouts. Most were brown-lipped snails that come in a variety of colour forms; some pure yellow, some pink, all with various combinations of brown bands around their whorled shell. Evolutionary biologists have long supposed that the differing colours and patterns provide camouflage from predators. Judging by the shells of these varied victims, none of the alternatives had provided much protection when they were crawling across a bright green moss carpet.

The pace and nature of children's development is subject to so many variables that it is pointless to seek to identify a definitive age at which all children are aware of the consequences of their actions and to tie this to an age of criminal responsibility. No one is arguing that the very small number of children who perpetrate extreme violence should be exempt from the consequences of such actions. What is more important about the debate sparked by Dr Maggie Atkinson (James Bulger mother criticises children's advocate, 15 March) is whether the risks posed by violent children are best served by criminalising them from the age of 10 (in England) or eight (in Scotland). The UN committee on the rights of the child in 2007 suggested an age of criminal responsibility below 12 was "not internationally acceptable". Furthermore, Europe's Ombudsmen for Children (2003) said states should seek to raise ages of criminal responsibility to 18, developing innovative systems for responding to offenders below that age that focus on their education, reintegration and rehabilitation.

Professor Simon Hackett

Durham University

• Kevin Howells (Response, 17 March) incorrectly states that "no ready-made treatments were available" for severe personality disorders. But the approach Mark Johnson advocates (Children who offend need our help – not our hatred, Society, 17 March) had already been successfully implemented in the early 1990s in Parkhurst prison. By exploring childhood traumas, all violence was eliminated among the most dangerous prisoners in the UK system. Sadly this success continues to succumb to our prevailing dogmas.

Dr Bob Johnson

Ventnor, Isle of Wight

I found Tony Sewell's article offensive (The boys are too feminised, 16 March). He places the blame for black boys' behaviour not on racism, and not even really on absent black fathers, but squarely on their mothers' shoulders: "More than racism, I now firmly believe that the main problem holding back black boys academically is their over-feminised upbringing." He upholds gender stereotypes in a way that would be deemed completely unacceptable if they were about race. I'm thinking particularly of his description of a mother playing with her son: "Typically, this kind of tough play love would never come from his mother. Instead of allowing him to fall, she would probably grab him from behind and whisper in his ear: 'This game, it's too dangerous; I'll buy you a PlayStation instead.'"

Perhaps the problem is not their feminised upbringing, but the institutional sexism in the black community which leaves many a mother literally and metaphorically holding the baby. But actually, there isn't just one problem and one solution. What about the lack of sports facilities, playing fields and available activities in inner-city schools and estates? What about the glorification of violence in the media? Tony Sewell's argument is a woefully unintelligent and inadequate response, and actually exacerbates the problem.

Caroline Hardman

London

• Tony Sewell's charity is to be commended for sweeping up the disastrous mess left by boys being deprived of their fathers. Week in week out we at Families Need Fathers see dads desperate to see their children but prevented from doing so by the inefficiencies and bias of the family law system. However, Mr Sewell's article doesn't show the whole picture. We encounter numerous loving and caring fathers who are reaching out to have a relationship with their children and are being denied. This tragedy touches families of all ethnicities, and as far as the black community is concerned, our London meetings demonstrate how misleading the racist stereotypes can be.

Jon Davies

Families Need Fathers

• Tony Sewell writes about the "typical" father backing up his son in role-play games, yet states 59% of black households are actually father-absent. He says fathers should provide "reassuring play partners" and "lock down the destructive instincts that exist within all males". Perhaps, though, Sewell should validate a caring fatherhood beyond the flawed buffoon-dictator dyad. Maybe the problem is a macho vision of fatherhood that defines all-round presence and involvement as a parent as necessarily feminine.

James Torr

Author, Is There a Father in the House? A Handbook for Health and Social Care Professionals

• Tony Sewell points to the problem of black boys raised in single parent households. I write as a black man whose father has played not even a minor role in my life or personal development. I was raised by my single mother and grandparents in Canning Town, east London, in the best traditions of old-fashioned discipline, hard work and honesty. I was guided to a successful life and career not just by my family but by a strong working-class community which contained, and still does, all races, creeds and colours.

The issue of black boys and their underachievement is not just an issue for the black family, but for the black community. Perhaps it needs to remember why many years ago proud and hard-working grandparents and great-grandparents made epic journeys to this distant land.

Terry Paul

London

• Not only black boys desperately need the presence of a dad, but boys from all ethnic backgrounds. Given that this is the case, why do the policies of this current government fail to recognise that families with both a mum and a dad work better? In terms of almost every social indicator, avoiding crime, educational success, mental health a family founded on a permanent, stable relationship, ie marriage, is better for children.

Rev Simon Falshaw

Stourbridge, West Midlands

I read with interest your piece (Downing Street acts over Unite's 'covert' plans to fill Labour strongholds, 17 March), as it focuses largely on the selection of a parliamentary candidate for the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency.

I have no way of knowing for certain whether your story is true – as this close to a general election the shortlisting stage of the selection process is handled by the Labour party at national level. But I am pleased that the shortlist of five candidates that we have been presented with offers our members a real choice. When local members met party officials a couple of weeks ago, there was a clear view that there should be local candidates on the shortlist. I am pleased that there are two candidates from the constituency. Any fewer and I believe members in Stalybridge and Hyde would have been disappointed.

Of course it is unfortunate that the national spotlight has fallen on the selection of a candidate for our constituency in this way. But we now have a good range of candidates, both from the constituency and outside, who all have real strengths, and it is now up to the members to decide who they think will be the best person to represent the Labour party in Stalybridge and Hyde.

Peter Robinson

Chair, Stalybridge and Hyde Labour party

• As a Labour candidate who tends to dress to the left of the party, I am no fan of selection stitch-ups. However, Tory attempts to paint Peter Wheeler as a union placeman do not stand up to scrutiny. Peter has a long and distinguished history of service to the Labour party – most recently as a member of the constituency section of the national executive, to which he was elected not by any union block votes but by a one-member-one-vote ballot of party members.

Any candidate with Peter's record – he received the votes of thousands of party members for the NEC (not mine, incidentally) – would surely be a strong candidate on any shortlist. I am certain the Labour party's members in Stalybridge and Hyde will consider him – and the other candidates – carefully and thoughtfully on their politics and their record of service. Fantastic Tory conspiracy theories will be unlikely to sway them from that task.

Dave Brinson

Prospective parliamentary Labour candidate for Eastbourne

• So the Tories wheel out Michael Gove to conjure up the old demons of 70s militancy to scare voters (again). That'll be Comrade Michael Gove who – according to Wikipedia – was not averse to a spot of strike action when he was a youthful hack at the Press & Journal. But even if he hadn't laid down his pen with his brothers, it would hardly confer any credibility on this attack. It's simply more evidence of cartoonish electioneering by the Tories as the scramble for power gathers pace. As an electorate we deserve better.

Colin Montgomery

Edinburgh

Polly Toynbee is of course right – there should no reserved places for bishops in a reformed second chamber (Goodbye to the bishops, 15 March). But anyone who wants a chamber that is not a mere party echo of the House of Commons cannot be satisfied with a blank pledge to proportional representation: the choice of system and the way seats are apportioned will have a determining effect on the quality and diversity of its membership.

A closed PR list system of the kind Jack Straw foisted on us for elections to the European parliament will simply produce a House of Clones, especially if the same D'Hondt system for apportioning places is used. This system notoriously favours large parties; and according to the recent British Academy report on choosing electoral systems, the choice of the alternative Sainte-Laguë divisor system would have returned seven Green members to the EP instead of only two in the 2009 elections. Such "technical" decisions thus have significant repercussions. If we are to have a chamber that is more responsive to the electorate, and gives voters choice within as well as between parties, then reformers should be arguing for either open list PR, or the single transferable vote, with Sainte-Laguë.

Professor Stuart Weir

Associate director, Democratic Audit

• Jenny Watson, chair of the Electoral Commission, is right to be concerned about the mechanics of elections (Voting system outdated, says poll watchdog, March 15) but should be wary of all forms of absentee voting. Once a ballot paper is outside of a polling booth its security is compromised. Apart from the huge problem of preventing fraudulent applications for postal votes on behalf of the 10% of electors who never vote, it is impossible to prevent wives and children in patriarchal societies being forced to vote under duress from the male head of household. The evidence is also that online voting is probably impossible to secure fully.

Widespread absentee voting also skews the focus of election campaigning in that a high proportion of postal voters cast their votes some 10 days before polling day and thus do not have the benefits – whether positive or negative – of the key final stage of election activity.

Ms Watson would do well to look at France, where postal voting was abolished in 1975 because of evidence of fraud and other abuse. At the last presidential election, 88% of French electors voted in person at both rounds of the election. Might it just be that the problem in recent years has been the failure of British parties and candidates to persuade the electors of the value of voting for them?

Michael Meadowcroft

Leeds

• In reference to our outdated polling system, I suggest each leader should have a Twitter or Facebook account which we use to poll – the person with the number of followers or "likes this" marks against their main status wins.

Oscar Riches

St Albans, Hertfordshire

Even competent agencies have been ripped off – it's the nature of humanitarian crisis

Bob Geldof rages against the "thoroughly discredited BBC World Service programme that claimed that nigh on the entire humanitarian relief effort by all aid agencies during the Ethiopian famine was diverted to arms" (My rage at this calumny, 10 March).

But the BBC report was not specifically about Band Aid. Nor does it discredit the World Service to report on international aid deliveries during the Ethiopian crisis of the 1980s. The real issue is about the way humanitarian assistance to victims of war and famine was – and still is – manipulated by all sides, whether rebel or government.

As a foreign correspondent reporting on humanitarian crisis zones and conflicts in Africa and Asia during this period, I consider myself "one of the dozens of journalists of record" who covered the region. The BBC report referred to a situation that anyone familiar with the politics of aid knows only too well. Geldof, whose commitment I have always admired, comes off as naive and self-righteous.

It is not "weird" that journalists at the time failed to discover the story, as Geldof asserts. Aid always has been – and still is – ripped off by warring factions no matter how well-meaning or competent the international aid agencies. This is simply the nature of conflict and humanitarian crisis. Aid is a resource to be exploited, whether for weapons, personal gain or political power. The Pakistanis and Afghan mujahideen did it; Angola's Unita rebels did it; and so did the government and guerrillas in Ethiopia. Organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross openly and transparently assume that some of their aid (30% in Somalia) will be stolen.

During the 1980s, I had regular contact with guerrilla groups in the Horn of Africa, such as the TPLF (including its humanitarian wing, Rest), the EPLF and ELF. I also reported from the government side out of Addis. All did their best to dupe both aid workers and journalists.

Rest, for example, was extremely well organised. It provided impressive humanitarian surveys, such as the number of lactating mothers in specific villages and refugee camps. However, there was no way of verifying whether all the aid was actually going through or not. Inside the guerrilla zones Rest always controlled what you saw and where you travelled. The Ethiopian Dergue did exactly the same thing.

Everything was elaborate while the show was on, but the moment one left it was a different matter. Once I visited a bustling "government displaced centre" near the Sudanese border. Twenty minutes after leaving I returned because I had forgotten my jacket. The camp was empty. It had been a complete charade in a bid to solicit international sympathy and funding.

No aid organisation working in the region during those days can truthfully assert that 100% of its assistance reached the victims. One only needed to visit the bazaars of Kasala, Omdurman and Addis, where bags of donated wheat and other relief were openly sold. While the abuse may not have been 95%, the BBC report raised the right questions and in a proper journalistic manner.

Yesterday Gordon Brown admitted he had got something wrong. It was amazing. And slightly embarrassing. The prime minister doesn't do errors. Like Dr Johnson's dog standing on its hind legs, it's neither convincing nor appealing.

The rest of us are forever admitting we've miscalculated or been misinformed. ("I'm sorry, when I said it was the 73 bus that went past Marks & Spencer, I meant the 37. Silly mistake, apologies, hope it wasn't a problem …")

And, of course, even when he does get it wrong, he has to find a way of saying that it wasn't really wrong wrong, more sort of right wrong. ("You will have noticed that, while the digits were in the reverse order, they were, nevertheless, the correct digits. The opposition should stop complaining about such trivial matters, and ask questions about their constituents' concerns.")

He was asked by a Tory backbencher why he had said that, under him, defence expenditure had risen in real terms every year, when the House of Commons library – a source that MPs regard as being as wise as the Oracle at Delphi and a good deal more reliable – said it wasn't true.

Mr Brown had his reply ready, but he wasn't happy reading it out. He can't stand eating his own words, not even if they were washed down with a bottle of Dom Perignon. He had assumed the low, confidential mumble he has used ever since he was accused of bullying. But he stuttered a bit, threw in plenty of "ers", and had to repeat the words "I do accept …" as if to convince himself.

The Tories were, of course, thrilled – especially as the prime minister had given the wrong information to the Chilcot inquiry, and has had to write to Chilcot to set the record straight, or at least straightish. But even when the prime minister gets it wrong, he wants us to know he was right. Defence spending had risen every year in cash terms. "Because of operational fluctuations in the way the money is spent … in real terms it is 12% higher, but I do accept that in one or two years defence spending did not rise in real terms."

In other words, what he had lost on the roundabouts, he had gained on the swings. He was eating his words in the same way that a small child eats gristly beef – with great difficulty and with much resentment.

David Cameron leapt down his throat. In three years of asking questions he had never heard the prime minister make a correction or a retraction. (And you won't hear another in a hurry, I thought.)

Then the Tory leader blew it. He called upon British Airways cabin crew to march through the picket lines and keep the airline flying. Suddenly we were back in 1926 and the General Strike, when thousands of public schoolboys manned the buses and the dustcarts. Cameron and Osborne, in top hats and tails, will be pushing the Bolly trolley down the aisle and apologising if the caviar option is not available. Instead of instructing "doors to manual" the captain will say: "OK, chaps, sport your oaks!"

Sketches, paintings and artworks by Julian George, a British artist embedded with the 2 Yorks (Green Howards) in Afghanistan

• Rebels move to replace entire governing council
• Warning that 'coup' would threaten organisation

The financially troubled Royal Institution sank deeper into crisis today as senior members clashed over moves to oust the organisation's ruling council en masse.

Moves to replace the entire governing body were drawn up in protest after the Institution's director, Lady Susan Greenfield, was made redundant in January without the membership being consulted.

The Institution, the oldest independent research body in the world, will hold a vote on the proposals at a special general meeting on 12 April, but documents circulated by the council to its 2,400 members warned supporters they risked causing "immense harm" to the organisation and would "threaten its financial stability".

Rebel members said much-needed benefactors would have greater confidence in their proposed replacement council, which they would like to see include Julian Hunt, the former head of the Met Office; John Stein, professor of physiology at Oxford University and Baroness Sally Greengross.

"They are scapegoating and scaremongering," one member told the Guardian. "The turkeys are saying: please don't vote for Christmas."

The Royal Institution was set up 211 years ago and counts Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday among its former directors.

It has been in financial trouble since spending £22m on refurbishing its Mayfair premises in 2008 to include an upmarket bar and restaurant, a project driven by Greenfield. The work was funded by selling off property that had provided substantial income for the Institution. The organisation has also suffered from poor interest rates on its remaining assets.

Chris Rofe, the Institution's chief executive, today opposed the proposals to replace the council. "The Royal Institution is now well positioned to capitalise on the benefits of the refurbished premises and the drive, skill and creativity of its staff. This positive momentum will not be helped by such combative manoeuvres ... and the inevitable instability this process creates."

Last month it emerged that the Institution was being investigated by the Charity Commission after admitting it was leasing office space to a company run by its chairman, Adrian de Ferranti, without legal permission. The inquiry is ongoing.

Since being ousted from her job, Greenfield has begun legal proceedings to bring a sex discrimination case against her former employers. The case, which may be heard as early as June, could cost the institution £500,000 in damages.

The proposals drawn up by the rebel members include a request that the RI reinstall a plaque that was mounted on a wall in honour of Greenfield's accomplishments at the organisation. The plaque has since been put back, but has been bent .Greenfield, 59, was a divisive figure in her 12 years as the head of the Royal Institution. Supporters credit her with raising the profile of science and female scientists, but critics say she has used the post to enhance her own profile.Members will be asked to vote in April on proposals to demand an explanation from the council for its decision to dissolve the post of director, and to "refresh" or remove entirely the existing council and replace it with a new transitional governing body. A new council could decide to reinstate Greenfield.

Nicholas Beale, a fellow of the RI, said: "The Royal Institution needs clear vision, first-rate leadership and sound finances. The people on the proposed transitional council have international reputations and would be excellently placed to achieve this. The idea that serious donors and business partners would be put off by having a Council of such stature, which has the confidence of the leadership of the UK scientific establishment, is preposterous."

New guidelines for operatives released as Foreign Office says it cannot reduce risk of torture to zero

The role of ministers in sanctioning activities by security and intelligence officers abroad which could be unlawful if carried out in Britain will be highlighted in guidelines published for the first time tomorrow, according to Whitehall officials.

The Intelligence and Security Committee, composed of peers and MPs handpicked by the prime minister, will release guidance drawn up for officers from MI5, MI6, and military intelligence.

The move comes amid growing evidence of their knowledge of the torture and inhuman treatment of British citizens and residents, notably of Binyam Mohamed, held as a terror suspect in Pakistan and tortured in Afghanistan, Morocco and Guantánamo Bay.

The Foreign Office warned tonight that Britain had to continue to work with foreign agencies in the fight against terrorism, even if they do not share UK standards on human rights. It said in its latest annual report on human rights that the UK could not afford the "luxury" of co-operating only with agencies in countries which did not abuse or torture detainees.

It said British agencies tried to minimise the risk that detainees held overseas were mistreated, but it was not always possible to "reduce the risk to zero".

The report said it was ultimately for ministers to decide whether the needs of national security outweighed the concerns of possible mistreatment.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, said the report revealed a "noticeably different strategy to the one the government have used to date".

He said: "All previous statements from ministers say we have confined ourselves to using any information we receive from foreign agencies known to use torture, not to actively seeking information. It is frankly not good enough to slip this out in two paragraphs of a 200-page report. If this is the change of policy it should be presented as such by the foreign secretary in the House of Commons, not smuggled out at five o'clock."

NThe new guidelines for intelligence officers come a year after Gordon Brown first promised to release them. However, ministers have refused guidelines in use after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US – which led to many of the cases of abuse – or those revised in 2004.

An MI5 officer, known only as witness B, is being investigated by the Met for "possible criminal wrongdoing" in connection with the Mohamed case. An MI6 officer is also being investigated by police over unconnected, but unknown, allegations.

The extent of ministerial knowledge of their activities remains unclear.

According to Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, it is unlikely that British intelligence officers would have been involved in the abuse of terrorism suspects in the recent past without first receiving ministerial approval.

Asked by the human rights lawyer Philippe Sands QC, during an interview at the Guardian Hay festival last year, whether mounting evidence of British collusion in torture meant that MI5 and MI6 had received a ministerial green light, Dearlove replied: "That's a speculative question, [but] there should have been."

He added that the intelligence community was "sometimes asked to act in difficult circumstances," and that "when it does, it asks for legal opinion and ministerial approval … it's about political cover".

A system for providing ministerial cover for criminal acts committed overseas was incorporated into the 1994 Intelligence Services Act, the same piece of legislation that created the ISC. Section seven of that act offers indemnity in UK criminal and civil law for crimes committed overseas, as long as a secretary of state has signed a warrant authorising that crime.

The section states: "If, apart from this section, a person would be liable in the United Kingdom for any act done outside the British islands, he shall not be so liable if the act is one which is authorised to be done by virtue of an authorisation given by the secretary of state under this section."

According to the Cabinet Office, the foreign, home or defence secretaries can sign such a warrant.

This clause has been described by some MPs as a "James Bond get-out clause". But according to those former ministers involved in the drafting of the act, it was never intended to facilitate torture.

ends

Trevor Morse was struck and killed by a propeller during an angry confrontation with an animal rights activist who was monitoring Warwickshire Hunt

The pilot of a gyrocopter whose rotor sliced through the head of a hunt supporter during an angry confrontation as he refuelled was cleared of manslaughter today. Bryan Griffiths, an animal rights enthusiast who had been monitoring the Warwickshire Hunt from the air for possible breaches of the Hunting Act, was acquitted after seven-and-a-half hours.

There were gasps and a ripple of applause from the public gallery at Birmingham crown court as the jury foreman gave the verdict. Griffiths, 55, showed no reaction and left court without commenting.

The two-week trial heard how Griffiths was ambushed in March last year at Long Marston airfield, near Stratford-upon-Avon, as part of a plan by hunt organisers, who were on their last outing of the season and who were fed up with the aircraft's constant presence. A long-standing follower of the hunt, 48-year-old Trevor Morse, followed the gyrocopter to the airfield and drove his Land Rover alongside.

The court heard that he then stood in front of the plane, as Griffiths manoeuvred to find a gap to take off, with the tail rotor whirring at 200mph. A video taken by a fuel handler at the airfield showed the blade suddenly strike Morse, a self-employed gardener, killing him instantly.

On the film's soundtrack, a voice first shouted to Morse: "You are obstructing him taking off, you have no right to do that, you have no right to do that." After a pause, the jury then saw a clip of Morse's body lying on the ground, at the start of a 15-minute wait for an ambulance, as another voice said: "Oh dear, the twat didn't stand clear of it."

Another hunt supporter who was with Morse, Julie Sargeant, broke down in tears as she described how she had got back into the Land Rover to avoid trouble.

Describing Morse as "Mr Nice Guy" and evidently still shocked by the incident, she said: "He just stood there. He just stood there."

The court heard Griffiths had been scared of violence from hunt supporters, and shortly before the standoff had told Michael Tipping, a plane spotter at the airfield, he feared a gang was coming to attack him. Tipping's non-partisan evidence, as someone without strong views on hunting, portrayed Morse as "intrusive and aggressive".

Tipping told James Wood QC, defending, that he had felt threatened by the hunt supporter, who had started taking photographs of him and his car. He said he would have been frightened "particularly if I'd argued with him. Which is why I didn't argue with him." Tipping added that Griffiths had told him that he had been shot at from the ground three times.

Caroline Morse, Mr Morse's partner of 23 years, said in a statement released by Warwickshire police: "I am absolutely devastated by this result. I am neither pro- nor anti-hunt. It has been a long 12 months since Trevor's tragic death and we are still coming to terms with our loss."

Tributes have appeared on hunt websites to Morse, who helped look after birds of prey which allow hunts to use a legal loophole allowing falconry.

Judy Gilbert, a friend of Griffiths who also monitors hunts, said after the verdict: "We just wanted to say how absolutely delighted and relieved we are that he has been found not guilty. Of course we always knew ourselves that he was never guilty of any crime and he certainly didn't mean anybody any harm.

"It's just so sad to us that this tragedy has happened because people want to chase animals for sport and kill them, when it has been made illegal by our parliament. I'm sure he's absolutely devastated it happened. He's a decent man, he's one of the most decent, honest, straight people that I have ever met in my life and it was just sad to see him go through this terrible trauma for the last year."

Det Chief Insp Peter Hill of Wawickshire police said: "This case had to be heard. The jury has listened to all the evidence and I respect the verdict they have returned."

Samuel Linton, 11, suffered attack during lessons but was left with only his inhaler for several hours

The parents of a schoolboy who died following an asthma attack today called for better first aid procedures for teachers after a coroner criticised a lack of staff training at his school.

Samuel Linton, 11, from Stockport, Cheshire, suffered an asthma attack during lessons at Offerton high school, but was left with only his inhaler for several hours until his mother was called and took him to hospital, where he died two hours later.

Today his parents and their lawyers demanded that lessons needed to be learned at schools across the country to ensure another death like Samuel's was avoided.

The boy's parents, Paul and Karen Linton, said: "Samuel was a wonderful son and his loss has been devastating.

"The inquest highlighted what happened at school that day and the thought that his death may have been prevented is too much to bear."

A jury at the inquest into his death at Stockport Coroner's Court recorded a verdict of death by natural causes, significantly contributed to by neglect on an individual and systemic level.

During the three-week hearing jurors heard that teachers at Offerton were unaware of the school's policy that they should call an ambulance if a pupil had an asthma attack and did not improve within 10 minutes.

The inquest also highlighted a lack of training at the school, particularly among teaching staff, of the nature of asthma and what staff are required to do to protect pupils in their care who are having an asthma attack

It also heard of a conflict between local and national health care guidance, and that given by primary care crusts and the school, as to the need to prepare a Health Care Plan for pupils suffering from severe asthma

Samuel, a year 7 pupil, suffered an asthma attack and was seen using his inhaler at 12.15pm on 4 December 2007.

He was then seen using it again for what appeared to be another attack at 2.15pm at the end of the first afternoon lesson.

He was kept in the classroom, by an open window, with his inhaler, by his form teacher, Janet Ford.

After the lesson finished at 2.15pm Ford telephoned student services, who were responsible for first aid, and she was told to send him to them when he got his breath back and his symptoms had calmed down. Despite this advice, she did not do so, and kept Samuel in the classroom.

Policy guidelines regarding calling an ambulance were ignored and he was found at the end of the school day gasping for air on a bench outside the classroom by worried friends and his brother Jacque, 16, also a pupil at the school.

They tried to get help from Ford, but he was not taken to hospital until his mum was called and arrived at 3.45pm.

By this time Karen Linton described his condition as "washed out, his skin had a grey tinge and his mouth was blue."

She took him to Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport where he was taken to resuscitation, but died two hours later.

Jonathan Betts, the family's lawyer, said: "This was a truly tragic incident in which a loving family have lost a treasured son under deeply worrying circumstances.

"The inquest has shown the lack of training, lack of communication between staff, lack of record keeping and a complete absence of common sense in the event of a child suffering from an asthma attack.

"The fact that no-one called an ambulance during the hours that Sam was suffering from a prolonged asthma attack is truly astounding and very troubling for all parents".

"The last two years have been extremely distressing for Samuel's family and they are determined to ensure that lessons are learned to ensure no other children are put at risk the way Samuel was.

"We will be continuing our investigation into the way his asthma attack was handled at Offerton high school and will be considering launching proceedings against Stockport council."

A spokesman for Stockport council and Offerton high school said: "The death of a young person is an occasion of profound sadness and we extend our deepest sympathy to Samuel's parent's and family.

"The school and the local authority will continue to take steps to address issues identified from Samuel's death.

"We are now considering the inquest verdict and the recommendations of the coroner as a matter of urgency and will take all necessary actions identified and needed."

Paper and card, food, garden waste and plastics on proposed list of items that would have to be recycled

Black bins for household waste could become a thing of the past under proposals to be published tomorrow to ban almost everything thrown away by households from being sent to landfill.

Paper and card, food, garden waste and plastics are all on a list of items that would have to be recycled, composted, or burned for energy. The move would represent a transformation in England and Wales, where about half of what people put in the bin at home or at work ends up in holes in the ground.

The announcement – to be put out for a 12-week consultation – is likely to raise fears about how difficult it will be for householders to manage their bins, and how councils might enforce the new rules, especially following claims that council officials have searched bags and fined people for mixing the wrong items.

Tonight, Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, said the ban would have both financial and environmental benefits. It would cut greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites and from manufacturing new products such as cans and bottles from virgin materials.

It would also save councils money on the landfill tax charged for every tonne of waste, and allow them to make money from selling recycling materials. As existing landfill sites fill up, there is also a looming problem of finding new locations.

Recycling rates have increased dramatically over the last decade or so, from about 8% to more than one third, but the rate of growth has slowed in the last two years.

"We have made good progress, but we can go further," said Benn. "We're sending a lot of waste currently to landfill which really doesn't make sense, one because it's costing money because of the landfill levy, two because it produces emissions … and three, there are people out there prepared to pay you for materials."

Bans on most items could be introduced in five years, with food waste taking longer, perhaps 10 years, said Benn, who cited the success of similar policies in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria.

Councils appeared concerned about how a strict ban on items going to landfill could be met. While various methods are being developed to separate "dry" items such as glass or plastics, the question of who will pay and how to separate out food waste seems to be a particular worry.

"[The government] needs to think carefully about where the money to pay for a landfill ban will come from and how the ban will be policed," said Gary Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association environment board. "Councils do not want to be put in a position where they have to fine people for putting their leftovers in the wrong bin."

Under the proposal published tomorrow [THUR] , the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will propose a ban on sending a list of common items to landfill: paper and card; food; textiles; metals; wood; garden waste; glass; plastics; and electrical and electronic equipment. Together those items represent 84% of waste collected, said the government's waste advisers, Wrap.

Earlier this week,Wrap published its biggest-ever study of what should be done with waste, following claims that households were wasting their time separating their rubbish because many items were sent to landfill, exported, or were a waste of energy to recycle. It found that in more than 80% of cases recycling was the best option, followed by incineration, and composting and anaerobic digestion.

The Conservative party has pledged to "work towards zero waste", using policies including a voluntary arrangement with producers to cut back on the production of waste and improve its disposal, setting a minimum price "floor" under the landfill tax to give businesses long term certainty to invest in new forms of waste disposal, and encouraging councils to reward families that recycle.

Polish delis and restaurants no longer cater merely for homesick expats – British diners have fallen for this hearty, eastern European cuisine

There's a tiny Polish restaurant by South Kensington tube station in London called Daquise. For 63 years, it has had an almost monastic resistance to change: yellow walls, chipped crockery, plastic flowers and charm. It has been a totem for London Poles since it opened in the 60s: Roman Polanski came daily for dumplings and stews when he was filming Repulsion nearby, and it was always a favourite of cold war spies – Christine Keeler met her Soviet attache there.

Daquise opened in 1947, an emigre's recreation of a country lost to Communism. The food was spartan but homely, the oiled tablecloths a cross between lino and Uhu, and fingerprints smeared the menus. But it was proof that restaurants can be more than the sum of their parts.

And now, a superstar catering family from Warsaw, the Gesslers, has just bought it. Their restaurant in the Polish capital, U Kucharzy, is updated back-to-basics: geese roasted then carved at table, pierogi dumplings handmade to order, proper zurek – the ethereal rich-sour soup made with fermented rye bread. The restaurant has done well – Michelin has awarded it one of Poland's few Bib Gourmands – and they're grafting a similar menu on to Daquise.

It's an ambition that testifies to how much Polish food has grown in popularity here. When Daquise opened, around 150,000 Poles lived in the UK. Today, that figure is close to one million. Until recently, these expats could only assuage their homesickness in shops such as the doddery Prima on London's North End Road, or Morawski at Willesden Junction – both have been around for half a century. Today, supermarkets stock a range of Polish products and luxury delis, Polish bakers and polskie sklepy (polish shops) abound. "It's far easier to buy Polish products today," says Basia Korzeniowska, a British-born woman whose mother arrived in England as a child in 1947. "In the past, we only really had Prima for herrings, cornichons and figs in syrup. Now the Turkish delis all have a good range of Polish food."

Brits are increasingly taking to the new food. Inga Wojciechowska, who co-owns the high-end deli Polsmak in north London, says, "Sausages such as kabanos and podwawelska have always been popular, but more of our British customers are now buying Polish buttermilk and smoked fish. They'll arrive with recipes for bigos [hunter's stew, Poland's national dish] printed from the internet, and make it properly."

For immigrants, home cuisine is always a shrine to collective identity. But the longer they stay, the more their adopted country absorbs their food. Jan Woroniecki, the London restaurateur who owns Baltic, Wódka and Chez Kristoff, understands this better than most. "In the 50s and 60s, central or eastern European restaurants were binge dens like Nikita's: English customers just went there to get drunk. When we opened Wódka in 1989, we had to keep the menu quite simple: things are incomparably better now. Fergus Henderson [the chef at St John] has had a huge effect: ox heart, tongue and even tripe all sell very well today."

But as well as simple osmosis, the British have taken to this food because its peasanty homeliness, its elemental, hearth-side enjoyment of pig and potatoes, seems to chime with our wet, windswept identity. Jay Rayner, the Observer's restaurant critic whose Jewish ancestors came from eastern Europe, told me, "We and the Eastern Bloc population are both northern Europeans. And while there's no god in my universe, proper salt beef sets my compass: when I first tried it, it was literally visceral. The ultimate expression of this food is still the farmhouse, which seems to work with the British palate."

The relaunched Daquise, quaintly formal, respectfully hospitable, its chefs in old-fashioned toques (chef's hats), complements the modern appreciation of Polish food. Current, but with an eye to tradition, upmarket but true to its roots, it is honest, stout and upright, which is not unlike how the British like to see themselves.

Top five Polish dishes in the UK

1. Pierogi Divine dumplings, distantly related to ravioli. In Poland, the most popular filling is minced pork, mushrooms and cabbage.

2. Bigos Poland's national dish, a rich and savoury soup with only two agreed ingredients: cabbage and meat. Making an authentic bigos can take over a week: its flavour develops with the addition of new ingredients such as venison, veal and sauerkraut.

3. Barszcz The Polish variant of Ukrainian borscht. It is traditionally served as a clear broth, sometimes with smoked bacon.

4. Herring Polish pickled herring, fresh dill and hot blinis is one of the most delicious quick bites.

5. Golonka Pickled, boiled ham hock, typically served with sauerkraut.

Advisers keen to see PM strike optimistic campaign tone

"Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the latter than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never." Napoleon's warning about the irreducible pressure of the clock will now be preying on Labour as it sees 6 May looming closer. The polls have narrowed, but not enough, and in the last few days they may even have widened.

Slowly, the government is morphing back into party. This week the offices of cabinet ministers were asked for four dates when their ministers were available so they could spend the rest of the time in their constituencies.

The Labour campaign team is starting to gather in Victoria Street, just yards from the plusher Conservative headquarters. Desks are being allocated, jobs handed out and noses inevitably put out of joint. Such is the pressure on space, extra rooms are having to be found in Euston and some special advisers are being dispersed to the regions.

Familiar faces are returning to the fold. Lord (Philip) Gould, the legendary Labour polling expert, is helping the main pollster, David Muir, as much as his recent illness can allow. Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications, coaches Brown for special events, such as the TV debates or his appearances at prime minister's questions. Lord Mandelson is director of strategy. David Hill, now a lobbyist and a former director of communications, will be giving his advice from the safety of the broadcasting studios.

Douglas Alexander, the election co-ordinator, has been through three Labour elections and knows more about campaigning techniques than anyone else at Westminster. Before Christmas, he drew up the first draft of the campaign war book, setting out the dividing lines Labour would seek to construct with the Tories, and passing it to Mandelson and then Brown, broadly the chain of command. He is helped by Alicia Kennedy, the deputy general secretary of the party who is charged with getting out the Labour vote in the marginals.

Her weapon of choice is "Contact creator", a database of UK voters created by Experian for use in permission-based email and marketing campaigns. It has allowed Labour to tailor email messages to users' postcode area or constituency.

So far, in essence, this is the team that brought Blair to power in 1997. Brown, once the dominant strategic presence in a Labour election campaign, will no longer be at party headquarters every waking moment, since this time he is the candidate. He probably would, if he could, like to have Charlie Whelan, the political director, working at headquarters on media work, but he will also have close allies Ed Balls and Ed Miliband to feed his thoughts.

There are also new faces for this election. Justin Forsyth, director of strategic communications at No 10, is one of the people who has found Brown different platforms, such as YouTube, podcasts and Twitter, from which to project himself. One of the few members of Blair's staff to survive the bloody transition to Brown, he believes in the prime minister's integrity. A former Oxfam campaigner, he is genuinely impressed by Brown's grasp of the nexus of vast issues that dominate a G20 summit agenda. But he is also as far as one could get from the aggressive spin-doctor culture. If he is in a mood to brag, he occasionally says: "We are not completely crap."

The other new critical figure will be Muir, the director of political strategy. Before working for the prime minister, he spent 15 years in marketing communications working for Ogilvy and its parent company, WP. In 2004 he, along with Jon Miller, published a bestselling book on how brands build shareholder value, called The Business of Brands.

He argues brands in politics and business are not constructed in factories, and is fond of quoting Jeremy Bulmore's observation: "The way people build brands is in their heads. We build brands as birds breed nests – from scraps and straw we chance upon." He has been the figure arguing Brown can speak up for the socially mobile and the squeezed middle class.

Much will depend on Muir's ability, along with Gould, to call the public mood right. On the basis of their research, they have gambled the public are deep down optimistic about their own futures, and will respond to a campaign that makes them optimistic about the future.

In a recent speech to Labour candidates Gould read a short excerpt from an account of a focus group. "They were all pretty low, pretty miserable, pretty pessimistic. They had lost faith in politics after the expenses scandal, and they don't think that enough has been done to restore their trust. They felt insecure and unprotected in a world they could not control. Their overall mood was bleak."

Gould told the candidates: "Of course you can look at this research and feel depressed and deflated. But I don't. I see grounds for hope. I see a country that wants to shift from old politics to new politics. That wants politicians who can once again be trusted, and who deserve their trust. I see a country that wants to change from pessimism to optimism."

Muir thinks the party that can colonise the political real estate of optimism could yet win.

That perception may indeed be the theme of the manifesto – "the next stage of national renewal", a process being masterminded by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, and Patrick Diamond, the manifesto co-ordinator inside No 10. The aim is to focus on a new Britain emerging from the ashes of the banking and debt crisis, symbolised by high-speed rail, low-carbon industry, a nuclear-free world, and an internet that transforms working lives.

The aim is to go for big issues, rather than micro-initiatives such as John Major's derided national cones hotline.

But the number of platforms Brown has on which to set out his case is dwindling by the day. Each moment has to be seized to push the Labour agenda. Each day lost due to noises off, such as the British Airways strike, is gone for ever.

Friday will see a major speech on disarmament in which he may offer to disclose the number of warheads Britain has stockpiled, a significant concession in the glacial world of disarmament talks. Next week, in another speech, he will try to dispense his image as an analogue politician in a digital age by embracing the way in which the internet can transform government, Whitehall and the relationship between public and the politicians.

Brown has been supping enthusiastically at the table of Martha Lane Fox, the queen of dotcom and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, on how to open up the treasure trove of information the government holds. It is an area Brown is determined not to let the Tories colonise.

But he also has to get over next Wednesday – budget day – an event that is unlikely to be a springboard for the election. Voters will not like reminding that their national insurance is rising and the deficit remains around £170bn. There are also submerged tensions about whether the campaign is too male-dominated in the face of the evidence that it is women voters that could turn the so-called "Mumsnet election".

Labour knows it has had, by its standards, a successful 2010. The prime minister puts it down to two simple but profound factors. First, the electorate now see it as a choice, not a referendum; second, the Tories in opposition did not do the intellectual heavy lifting required. As a result, the Tory brand and its belief system are pulling in two different directions.

Figures such as Muir question why the Tories are making change their offer. "How do you represent change when your signature policies are those you have been flogging essentially since 2001?" he recently asked. Whether Brown is a credible standard bearer for change is the unanswered question.

Prime minister admits he made mistakes in his testimony to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war

Gordon Brown was under attack after he admitted that his central claim to the inquiry into the Iraq war, that defence spending had risen every year under Labour, was not true.

The prime minister was forced to correct his official evidence to the Chilcot inquiry – which he repeated just last week in the commons – after Ministry of Defence figures revealed that once inflation was accounted for, the budget declined in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2007. The revelations are particularly damning because some of the real-term cuts spanned years when the armed forces were at war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brown wrote to Sir John Chilcot last night explaining his mistake but his letter came under renewed attack after it was made public for not containing an apology for misinforming the committee.

The Tories said it was a "humiliating climbdown" for Brown, who has been locked in a row with former senior defence chiefs over his war budgets. General Lord Guthrie and Admiral Lord Boyce have accused the Treasury under Brown of failing to properly fund the MoD to fight the two wars.

David Cameron said last night: "He has been found out misleading the House and the Chilcot inquiry, and we now know the truth – that whilst soldiers were at war he was cutting the defence budget. It is no wonder he was so reluctant to admit it."

In his letter to Chilcot, Brown acknowledging that in some years the real-term increase was only a cash increase. He said that planned increases in 2002 and 2007 – the years covering the major conflicts – only became decreases after higher than anticipated rates of inflation. He said he was still clear that "every additionally urgent operational requirement requested by the Ministry of Defence for Iraq, as for Afghanistan, was met by the Treasury".

His made the admission during his weekly question time in the Commons. He said: "I do accept that in one or two years, defence expenditure did not rise in real terms."

His spokesman said that despite the fluctuations in the rates of spending, the defence budget overall had risen by 10% since Labour came to power.

The spokesman insisted that Brown had corrected his error "at the first opportunity". However, that claim triggered questions about why it took more than a week after the MoD figures emerged to reveal the truth in parliament.

The row over the defence budget under Brown's stewardship of the Treasury as chancellor has gained added traction because of continuing criticism of the equipment available for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and responses by former defence chiefs to the Iraq inquiry.

Sir Kevin Tebbit, former top official at the MoD, told the inquiry last month that he was "running essentially a crisis budget" in 2003 and at the end of that year Brown instituted a "complete guillotine" on their settlement.

The cuts were prompted by a change in Whitehall accounting procedures. Brown has always insisted that the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan was paid out of the contingency reserve rather than the defence budget and suggested that defence chiefs got everything they asked for.

Boyce, chief of the defence staff at the time of the Iraq invasion, said Brown was being disingenuous. While commanders said they had enough kit for a particular operation, there was a shortfall in the overall defence budget and Brown knew it, he said.

Tonight, Rick Stein's new eatery opens in Falmouth. What do the locals think?

This evening, Rick Stein's Fish and Chips in Falmouth will host its official opening. Tomorrow afternoon, its doors will open to the public. The restaurant, a fish and chip shop, oyster bar and takeaway, is the first eatery Stein has opened outside Padstow, another Cornish seaside town.

Since he took up residence there, Padstow has come to be known, not unreasonably, as "Padstein": its 3,162 permanent residents can boast of four Stein restaurants, three Stein shops, and a Stein cookery school. There are those who think he's ruined the town. So is Stein's arrival a good thing for Falmouth? Well, the first thing to be said is that this is a very different place from Padstow. It is a working town with few, if any, second homes – compared with one in four houses in Padstow. Falmouth's population is 22,000, around 3,000 of whom are students. It has the third-deepest harbour in the world, and a busy maritime industry. Unlike Padstow, it feels like a real place, and it has real issues. "It's the most dynamic town in Cornwall," Stein told me yesterday.

I moved to Falmouth with my family nearly two years ago. Coming from rural France, it struck me (and still does) as the perfect place to live. There are several town beaches and you can walk to the shops, wherever you live, something I had sorely missed in country life. There are bars, cafes and restaurants and a high street with plenty going on. Because of the large student population, Falmouth is unusual among Cornish towns in that it does not wither in winter: in fact, it thrives. Holidaymakers with ice-creams on the beach are replaced by hardy locals walking their dogs and cagouled children building winter sandcastles.

Soon after we moved here, however, the recession began. Woolworths was the first to go and remains a huge blot on the commercial landscape, its windows smashed, then boarded over. It was followed by an avalanche of further closures, from national chains (Threshers, Dorothy Perkins) to little local institutions. The long-standing Royal Polytechnic Society closed its much-loved arthouse cinema abruptly in January. Yesterday, I walked along the continuous shopping street that starts at Events Square, where finishing touches were being put to Stein's place, and counted 18 business premises that are either for sale or to let.

Thus, Stein is being greeted here as something of a messiah. Almost everyone I spoke to yesterday said they would try the new restaurant, although every single one of them qualified that statement with the word "once", on economic grounds. It is clear that for the next year or so at least, it will be the locals' destination of choice for the special occasion. Jenny Howells, a nursery worker, told me, "We've already decided that we'll go there for my partner's 21st." Nichola Barron, a mother of three, said, "I'll definitely go there because I like him. I don't know how much it'll cost, though. The town does have so many restaurants already, but because it's him, it's different." The main thing its opening will do, however, is bring people to the town from further afield, particularly over the summer.

It is a shrewd move to open a posh fish and chip shop, rather than a pricey restaurant. The scenery may be spectacular, but Cornwall's reality is grittier now than it has ever been. Houses are expensive, wages are low, and barely anybody has much of a disposable income. In 2009, Cornwall had the fourth-highest rate of personal bankruptcies in England and Wales. Ten per cent of workers in the county earn less than £12,100 per year. Much of the employment here is tourism-related, and thus wages are low and seasonal. An averagely-priced house costs more than 12 times Cornwall's annual average wage. Many people told me that they would rather see a Kentucky Fried Chicken opening in the old Burger King slot, than another restaurant they cannot afford. Nobody, however, wanted to put their name to that sentiment.

Yet there are signs that the Stein opening might spearhead Falmouth's wider regeneration. Rumour has it the Woolworths site is going to reopen, and speculation is rife as to what will be there. There is a huge campaign under way to save the Poly cinema, which seems to be making headway; meanwhile the town's new cinema is thriving (it has sofas and you can take wine into the film with you). Behind several "To Let" signs, there are workers with stepladders and cans of emulsion.

Jane Thomas, who owns the Just Like This boutique in the High Street, is optimistic. "I am so excited," she says. "Falmouth needed a bit of a boost, and this is it. The way it is now, with the gaping holes in the shopping street, will soon change. Just his name will bring people in."

Yesterday Stein confirmed reports that he received more than 500 applications for the 30 jobs his eatery has created. "Which was highly encouraging for us, though I suppose from the other side it isn't." He is cautiously optimistic about its future, pointing out that his Padstow ventures relied on families using them. "I sense," he said, "that there are the same sort of families in Falmouth. Nice people. Not pissed-up people going to the chippy after the pub."

There are plenty of nice people in Falmouth, and all of them are waiting eagerly to see what the new restaurant does for the town. Local resident Becky Douglas-Jones, however, speaks for the majority when she says, "It'll have to be really good. Really, really good, if it's going to do well, once the novelty wears off."

The smearing of BA staff and demonisation of Unite as an alien force in politics are an attempt to deny basic representation

It may still be nearly two months until the general election, but we're already well and truly in la-la land. The prospect of a strike by British Airways cabin crew has unleashed a torrent of bizarre anti-union fantasies from the Tory leadership and its media cheerleaders. For the Mail, "red barons" and "union bullies" have Britain by the throat, dictating terms to a helpless government, bought and paid for by the BA union Unite. In the Sun, Trevor Kavanagh brands the 1.6 million-strong Unite the "terrorist wing" of the trade union movement.

Today David Cameron ditched compassionate conservatism for vintage Thatcherism, demanding that Gordon Brown call on BA workers to cross picket lines and back those "brave workers" who wanted to go to work. His sidekick, Michael Gove, insisted Labour had reverted to "1970s socialism". Even the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has been hailing Margaret Thatcher's socially devastating assault on "a vested interest, the trade unions".

There's not much sign of the politics of the 1970s, but the Conservatives certainly seem keen to return to the industrial conflict of the 1980s. The idea that the government is in thrall to the unions doesn't bear even the most cursory consideration. Not only have ministers, as in every other major national dispute of the past decade, backed the employer and condemned the strike – even if Brown yesterday reverted to a more even-handed call for a negotiated agreement. But during 13 years in office the government has steadfastly refused to repeal any significant part of the Thatcher anti-union legislation that has hamstrung employees from defending themselves and certainly prolonged the current BA dispute.

As anyone who has been paying the slightest attention to public life under New Labour is well aware, it is bankers and businessmen, not trade unionists, who have been calling the shots – with calamitous consequences for us all.

Naturally, it suits the Conservatives to try to turn the crisis of corporate legitimacy into a crisis of trade union legitimacy. Even more helpfully, the episode has allowed them to divert attention from their non-dom billionaire Lord Ashcroft's drive to buy marginal seats at upwards of £100,000 a go on to Unite's far more modest support of Labour MPs' constituencies at one or two thousand apiece.

But the attempt to equate a secretive, real baron of Belize with Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan, now political director for Unite – or the string of bankers, property developers and casino operators bankrolling the Tory election campaign with the open and democratic mass organisations that founded the Labour party, have always been part of it and again pay most of its bills now the businessmen have gone elsewhere – is truly absurd.

As chance would have it, the first large-scale industrial dispute after Tony Blair came to power in 1997 was over an abortive attempt to drive down BA cabin crew pay and conditions. The fact that what looks likely to be the last big strike of the New Labour era is a response to a far more ferocious attack on the same group of workers, only highlights how little the government has done to shift the lopsided balance of power in the workplace.

As the events of the last week have shown beyond question, it is BA's outgoing chief executive, Willie Walsh, not the 12,000 cabin crew condemned by the media and politicians, who will be responsible if this weekend's walkout goes ahead. By refusing to allow BA's own offer or Unite's alternative package of savings to be put to a ballot unless the strikes were called off, he made sure they would not be – and demonstrated that his real aim is now to break the union.

If there were any doubt about Walsh's union-busting agenda, the vast sums he has spent on a strikebreakers, the campaign of intimidation and suspensions for trivial offences and the threat to withdraw strikers' travel allowances should have dispelled it. Underlying the dispute is a BA plan to see off the threat from low-cost airlines and offset Walsh's own corporate failures by recruiting a new workforce at two-thirds of the existing rates.

The fact that a real middle England workforce – 70% of BA cabin crew are on £20,000 a year basic or less – is smeared and demonised for trying to stem the industry's slide in wages and conditions, while offering large-scale savings, including a pay cut, is a reminder of the corporate grip on public debate. As one long-haul BA cabin crew member told me this week, it was a "stressful and frightening time", but she added: "We are honest, hardworking people who are simply standing up to bullies and trying to protect our futures and livelihoods."

The reality is that the decline in trade union strength has been a crucial factor in the labour market race to the bottom, which has seen the share of Britain's national income going to wages decline from 65% in the 1970s to 53% today, and the incomes of average and lower paid workers stagnate or even fall in real terms in the past decade. For most of the media and the political class, however, it seems no actual withdrawal of labour to reverse that trend – even one where the impact on the public is in fact minimal – can ever be justified. But it's no good handwringing about growing inequality and insecurity if you reject the means to do something about it.

The same goes for union participation in politics. Given the almost universal concern about public alienation from politics, its professionalisation and corporate corruption, you might imagine greater involvement by the largest democratic voluntary organisations in the country – in effect the only mechanism for working-class representation – would be widely welcomed. Not a bit of it. The Tories are threatening new laws to reduce union influence still further and Labour leaders are squirming with embarrassment that they're even allowed in the door.

Not surprisingly, many trade unionists are sceptical about whether they should continue to affiliate to and fund a party that privatises their jobs, condemns them when they go on strike and blocks employment rights in Europe. But unions remain not just the only real mechanism for employee protection and a collective voice at work. They are also an essential vehicle to break the elite circle and open up representation in political life. The assault on them is an attack on democracy itself.

• Clamour for mephedrone to be made illegal grows
• Minister promises to act once guidance is issued

The government's official drug advisers are to recommend a ban on mephedrone, the "legal high" taken by the two teenagers who died after a night out in Scunthorpe on Sunday.

Amid calls from headteachers and drug campaigners for an instant ban, the Home Office drugs minister, Alan Campbell, said he would take "immediate action" after advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which is due at the end of this month.

Humberside police todaysaid they had arrested a fourth person in connection with the deaths of Nick Smith, 19, a chef, and Louis Wainwright, 18, an apprentice welder. They took mephedrone – also known as M-Cat and Meow Meow – along with alcohol and methadone, the heroin substitute, while clubbing.

Tonight the four were being held in custody on suspicion of supplying a controlled drug.

The extent of mephedrone's role in the deaths will remain unclear for several weeks while postmortem toxicology tests are carried out.

"A mixture of any type of drug increases the likelihood of people coming to harm," said Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oliver. "It is not clear how much of a contributory factor M-Cat has made to these deaths."

There have been no confirmed cases of deaths in the UK from the substance, and only one in Europe.

It is derived from cathinone, the active ingredient found in khat, a plant used as a drug in Somalia. Available as tablets, powder or liquid online and in "head shops" for £10-£15 a gram, it has rapidly become a favourite alternative to ecstasy for British clubbers.

It is legal but its dangers remain unclear. Last November, Sussex police linked the death of a 14-year-old girl, Gabrielle Price, to mephedrone, but the coroner said the cause was bronchial pneumonia.

Today Smith's mother, Elaine, pleaded for it to be taken off the market.

"Nick's not the first one to die from taking it," she said. "It's still around and still so available in colleges and schools. These drugs just should not be on the market … [Nick] made probably an uninformed, foolish decision to take it and for that reason Nick's gone and we're never going to be the same as a family again."

His father, Tony Smith, told Channel 4 News: "He's taken a legal drug and why would anyone assume that could kill you? You can speak to your children about it but politicians need to do something. How many more children need to die? This drug should be banned."

Wainwright's mother, Jacqui, said: "The family are completely devastated at our loss and we would like to support the Smith family in the message they have delivered to please support the police investigation. Let's try and stop this happening again."

Campbell insisted that the Home Office was determined to "act swiftly" but added: "It is important we consider independent expert advice to stop organised criminals exploiting loopholes by simply switching to a different but similar compound."

The ACMD had already made it a priority to examine the dangers of mephedrone and held an evidence-gathering meeting on 22 February. A ban is unlikely to come into effect before the summer.

Smith, who had gone on a night out with colleagues from Winteringham Fields restaurant, was found dead on Monday after separating from friends at the Love nightclub in Scunthorpe. He was found in a flat in the town, according to the restaurants's chef patron, Colin McGurran, who drank with him earlier in the evening.

Wainwright, who used to work at the restaurant, woke at 9am on Monday feeling ill, McGurran said, but went back to bed to sleep it off. He was dead by noon.

Humberside police said six people had since come forward for medical checks.

The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, said there was a strong case for banning legal highs and promised a review if the Conservatives won the election.

McGurran said Smith and three others had gone to the club in Scunthorpe after several pints in a local pub. At some point in the evening he became separated from his work colleagues.

"Someone offered him something," he said. "He popped outside to meet the fella. The others were oblivious and were looking for Nick and went home [to the restaurant staff house] after they couldn't find him. They assumed he had gone home."

The government's drug experts are keen to avoid looking as though they are being bounced into a decision by ministers. ACMD members are still smarting from the sacking of Professor David Nutt. Work on mephedrone started in October in response to "emerging concerns".

A spokesman for the drug campaign group Release said: "The situation related to mephedrone is of great concern … we don't have an evidence base to assess the risks associated with this drug."

Mephedrone has hit the headlines, but it's more common than people realise, says one student

Mephedrone is being linked to the deaths of two teenagers in Scunthorpe on Tuesday. According to one Oxbridge student, the drug is more common than people realise:

Mephedrone is God's gift for a uni student with an overdraft on a night out. It has been around since 2009, but usage exploded this year. It's legal, easily available and you can get a gram for around £15. There are even online "garden centres" that will happily deliver mephedrone to your doorstep, 24 hours a day.

Most people get an immediate rush of energy and feel intensely loved-up – you always end up wanting more of it. The come-down is the worst bit. A friend who did two or three grams one night turned up at my room. His eyes were rolling back in his head, he had no sensation in his hands and feet, and he said it felt like his heart was going to explode. Other people I know experience an inexplicable sense of depression and shame the day after. "It was like being really drunk and doing something you regret," one says, "except with meph I could be looking at a wall all night and still feel guilty the next day."

The idea that left-leaning voters will feel happier in Clegg's party than Labour just doesn't add up

At the last election 2 million Labour supporters switched to the Liberal Democrats, many in protest over the war in Iraq. They have been urged to stick with this choice in 2010 by the former New Statesman editor John Kampfner, who reports that he feels more at home with the Lib Dems than with Labour.

Labour and the Lib Dems often spar over their progressive credentials. On civil liberties, many might sympathise with Kampfner. But his thesis that, on tax and spending, the Liberal Democrats are "the most redistributive of any party" is much more questionable. It certainly took a battering at the weekend, as Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, praised Margaret Thatcher and insisted his party would now be a more ruthless cutter of public spending than the Tories.

But this was just the latest step in a rightwards shift the Lib Dems have been making under Clegg's leadership, in order to defend their seats against David Cameron's advance. A raft of former spending commitments have been ditched, such as a higher state pension and free care for the elderly. Charles Kennedy's famous pledge for a 50p top rate of tax – which attracted many Labourites in 2005 – was the first thing to be axed (since when it has been introduced by Labour).

This time round, the centrepiece of the Lib Dem manifesto is a radical £17bn tax cut in the form of increasing the income tax allowance. It has been branded as a tax cut focused on struggling families and "a vital measure of social justice".

The reality is very different. Raising tax thresholds doesn't help the poorest because they don't have enough to pay income tax. That's the unemployed, low-paid part-time workers and many pensioners. Analysis published this week shows that 3m households in the poorest quarter of the population would see not a penny from this £17bn policy.

Nor is it focused on struggling families. Increasing the income tax allowance is a society-wide tax cut, with most of the proceeds going to the better-off. Only £1bn of the £17bn cost goes on the stated aim of "lifting those on low incomes out of tax". In truth, most of the remaining £16bn is a juicy middle-class tax cut to sell in Conservative marginals around the country. It is an extraordinary priority at a time when public services are facing the axe.

Whereas Labour's tax credits have been progressive, giving most to the poorer half of society, the Lib Dem tax cut would be regressive, giving most to the richer half. Households near the top would get on average four times as much as the poorest.

The Lib Dems have some good proposals to pay for this measure, including restricting higher-rate pensions relief and tackling tax avoidance. But this welcome shift in resources away from the super-rich wouldn't stop this tax cut increasing inequality between the bottom and middle of society, including relative poverty.

And too often Lib Dem policies fail this redistribution test. Their mansion tax is another idea all progressives should support. But not when it's combined with a pledge to scrap the child trust fund – the only asset many poor kids will ever have.

In 2005 Michael Howard considered a boost in the income tax allowance for the Conservative manifesto. He rejected it as being too unfair. ("The poorest would have received just 7p a week, the richest £7," he said. "That is why we looked elsewhere".) The main cheerleader for the Lib Dem tax cut today is Norman Tebbit, not child poverty charities; he is urging the Tories to adopt it. Moreover, Clegg has delighted rightwingers by selling the policy as a crusade for "tax freedom" – a term straight out of the US Republicans' phrasebook.

So in his budget next week, Alistair Darling should, calmly and politely, set out Labour's different priorities. The reality is that many on low and middle incomes would be vastly better off if future resources were put into tax credits or protecting public services. (And then there's that £178bn deficit to think about.)

It's not that there aren't many decent progressives in the Liberal Democrats, people like Steve Webb and Evan Harris. And Clegg does have a difficult balancing act to pull off. He is right that in 2005 being too Bennite in Brent put off nice Tories in Torbay. And I suspect many Labour party members will secretly wish him well in his electoral battles with the Conservatives.

But, with all respect to John Kampfner, the Lib Dems still have some way to go before they can claim the mantle of social justice from Labour.

Captain Martin Driver was injured by roadside bomb in Musa Qala and flown back to UK for treatment but died from injuries

A British soldier who died in hospital in Britain on Monday from wounds he suffered in Afghanistan last month was named by the Ministry of Defence today as Captain Martin Driver, 31, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.

Driver, originally from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was on his second tour of Afghanistan and had previously served in Iraq and Northern Ireland as a reservist with 4th Battalion The Parachute Regiment.

He was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Musa Qala and flown back to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, at Selly Oak, Birmingham, for treatment. His family were at his bedside when he died at 11.11pm on Monday.

In a statement, his family thanked the medical teams who brought him back to Britain and tried to save him.

They said: "We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved Martin. He was such a caring young man who always put his family first. He touched the lives of all who had the privilege to know him.

"He died doing a job he loved. His dedication and professionalism will remain an inspiration to all.

"Martin always wanted to be a soldier and an officer, he became a captain of the Vikings, 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment. We are so proud of his efforts.

"His legacy shall never be forgotten. He has touched so many with his love and compassion. We as his family, like others, shall always keep him in our hearts."

Driver had studied Arabic and intended to attempt the selection process to become a member of special forces later this year.

Lieutenant Colonel James Woodham, commanding officer of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, paid tribute to a "popular and utterly decent" soldier.

He said: "Captain Martin Driver was a quiet and modest officer for whom the army was his life. This quiet exterior hid a man who was focused and determined.

"He was one of the strongest captains in the battalion and showed the potential to achieve great things in the army.

"He was a superb infantryman and an even better officer. He had a coolness about him – people naturally followed."

Captain Tom Clarke, a close friend of Driver, described him as "the consummate and selfless professional".

He said: "It is testimony to his character and spirit that he survived for so long with such serious injuries, his tenacity and robustness showing right to the end.

"I will remember him as a loyal and trusted man whose wit and wisdom, and his ability to express them, were never far round the corner."

The defence secretary Bob Ainsworth said: "He was clearly a highly valued member of his company who was an inspiration to his men and brought the benefit of his considerable experience to operations."

Another two soldiers from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment were killed in an explosion in Musa Qala yesterday. Their families have been informed. A total of 275 British troops have died in the Afghan conflict since operations began in 2001, 26 of them in Musa Qala.

UK forces will hand responsibility for Musa Qala to the US Marines over the next few weeks and redeploy to central Helmand.

Institution of Mechanical Engineers says new apprenticeships not enough to fill skills gap

Lord Mandelson is spraying cash around various business sectors this week – the car industry tomorrow and nuclear today – all in the name of industrial activism.

But judging from the reaction at the Royal Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) headquarters today, he has some way to go to convince many his strategy is as bright as the spring crocuses outside.

Unveiling an £80m loan to a key company at the heart of the nuclear supply chain, the business secretary said he was determined to make finely focused interventions that could kickstart the low-carbon economy both here and abroad.

"This is government and industry working together to build the success of British manufacturing. This will help to realise the potential of our industrial base to be world-leading, export-led, and creating jobs and value here at home," he said.

"Our high-value manufacturing, knowledge base and highly skilled workforce mean, with the right investment, like today's, the UK can win a huge amount of business in this growth sector," Mandelson added.

The old state-owned industries approach had shown its limitations in the 1970s, while the unfettered free market had failed to deliver the goods in the 1980s and 1990s, Mandelson argued. It was time to bring the two approaches together: "Our ambition is to embed the teamwork approach [of public and private sector working together] right across government."

Critics claim the business secretary has been heavier on the rhetoric of industrial activism than action. They point to the failure to defend Cadbury sweet factories from the bitterness of a Kraft Food cuts programme post-takeover.

And there was a decidedly muted reaction today from engineers as Mandelson unveiled the loan that would help Sheffield Forgemasters build an enormous new press capable of producing 15,000-tonne components for nuclear power stations, both in the UK and abroad.

There was also only limited enthusiasm for the minister's decision to inject public money to create 1,000 new apprenticeships and other initiatives to help with a skills gap that threatens any industrial renaissance.

The IME later welcomed the £80m loan but pointed out it represented 0.16% of the estimated £50bn investment required if 15 new atomic stations were to be built. The 1,000 apprentices would help, but not much, given the industry was losing 5% of its skill base every year through retirement, it added.

Mandelson is aware that the UK needs new infrastructure, including high-speed rail links as well as renewable and traditional power plants.

He is also anxious this spending spree should not largely benefit companies overseas at a time of high unemployment in Britain and after the UK manufacturing sector has been hollowed out by recession.

The business secretary boasted that Britain had become a world leader in offshore wind but made no mention of the largest project in the world: the London Array. Perhaps that is because the 340-turbine scheme off Kent is controlled by a trio of foreign firms: E.ON of Germany, Masdar of Abu Dhabi and Dong of Denmark.

And 90% of the €2bn worth of new supply chain contracts for the scheme have been awarded to overseas companies. E.ON said it could not find appropriate wind power providers in Britain.

The nuclear supply chain is equally weak in the UK, as capacity and skills have been run down by closures.

The business secretary was happy to mention Sheffield Forgemasters but more coy about the involvement of US-based but Japanese-owned Westinghouse.

He is right to be, given that Westinghouse – one of the world's top three nuclear engineering firms – was until five years ago owned by government-controlled British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) and then privatised. BNFL sold it just as a nuclear renaissance began. Westinghouse is now trying to get its AP-1000 design approved in Britain so it can be used by those utilities lining up to invest in new nuclear.

Again, those utilities are largely foreign-owned. British Energy, the one locally owned atomic power generating group, has been bought by EDF of France, although it has hived off a small percentage to British Gas. The other companies talking loudest about building new nuclear facilities are E.ON and RWE, both of Germany.

The industrialists squeezed into the IME's ornate headquarters were clearly glad to hear the various initiatives from Mandelson but they have a long list of other issues which still need to be satisfied. A report from the IME last week – ominously entitled "Nuclear Build: A Vote of No Confidence?" – concluded ministers needed to resolve "key enabling issues including planning, grid connection, nuclear waste, and offering loan guarantees or setting a minimum carbon price".

Talk of industrial activism is helpful but more earthy considerations remain to be tackled if the full flowers of nuclear and other low-carbon technologies are truly to bloom.

• Claimant count falls to 1.59m people
• Wider jobless measure falls 33,000 to 2.45m people
• But 'economically inactive' people rises to record 8.16m
• ... and employment level hits lowest since 2006

Gordon Brown was given a helping hand in the run-up to the general election today after it was revealed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell by the biggest amount since Labour came to power 13 years ago. Although the City and ministers had been braced for a rise, official figures showed that Britain's claimant count fell unexpectedly by 32,300 in the month to February to 1.59 million.

Unemployment on the wider Labour Force Survey (LFS) measure, which includes people who are out of work but not claiming benefits, also witnessed a big drop. The LFS fell by 33,000 to 2.45 million between November and January, taking the unemployment rate to 7.8% – a drop of 0.1% on the previous quarter.

However, the number of people in work also fell, according to the Office for National Statistics. Overall employment fell by 54,000 over the quarter to reach 28.86 million and the rate now stands at its lowest since late 1996.

The figures boosted sterling, which rose to a three-week high of $1.5350. They also helped the FTSE 100 index of shares, which rose 24 points to 5644 and followed a positive outlook from the Federal Reserve on jobs in the US on Tuesday.

The number of people who have been unemployed for more than 12 months rose by 61,000 over the quarter to 687,000, the highest figure since 1997. A record 8.16 million people are now classed as economically inactive, which includes students, people on long-term sick leave and those who have given up looking for a job.

The number of people working part-time was stable at 7.7 million, and of those 1.04 million are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job, a rise of 20,000 on the quarter.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "One word sums up the latest official jobs figures: confusing. Unemployment is sharply down. Yet there are also 54,000 fewer people in work, with full-time jobs particularly hard hit. The apparent paradox is explained by a very sharp rise of 149,000 in the number of economically inactive people, with the number of students surging by 98,000. Jobless young people are thus turning to study in their thousands to avoid the dole.

"Although a fall in unemployment is clearly better than a rise, this should not be read as a sign that the UK jobs market is recovering strongly. Overall, the jobs market is flat, operating at much weaker level of demand than before the recession, and still at risk of a serious relapse. Most worrying is the fall of 61,000 in private sector employment in the final quarter of 2009. The jobs market, for the time being, is still being propped up by the public sector, but the public sector job creation machine is about to be switched off." He added that whichever party won the general election faced a "Herculean task" in its efforts to return the UK economy to full employment.

Theresa May, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "What the figures show is that there are hidden levels of unemployment emerging in the economy. Labour need to ask: why have many people given up looking for work? It is simply unacceptable that one in five people of working age you meet won't have a job."

The work secretary, Yvette Cooper, said unemployment would continue to rise until the summer. "The fall in unemployment for the third month in a row is very welcome, but we should remain cautious. We're not out of the woods yet and we are still determined to do more to support jobs and help the unemployed."

Uncertainty about the labour market was a key factor in the Bank of England's decision earlier this month to keep its base rate at an all-time low of 0.5%, according to minutes of the monetary policy committee's released today. It also kept its fiscal stimulus scheme on hold.

Europe's colonisation of New World is central theme of 'exuberant' 64th event

The troubled history of Europe's colonisation of the New World and the survival of vibrant, flamboyant cultures across the Americas and the Pacific will be the core themes for the next Edinburgh international festival, organisers revealed.

This year's event, the 64th annual festival, will combine shows that boast exuberant dance alongside dark and troubling works exploring Europe's destruction of the Aztec civilisation.

Jonathan Mills, the festival's Australian director, said the 2010 festival would be a "conversation" between the old world of Europe and the new world of Australasia, the Pacific and the Americas.

Among the major productions will be the European premiere of an Australian opera by Brett Dean based on Bliss, the sardonic novel by Peter Carey about the life of a "prolapsed" advertising executive. It opened last week at Sydney Opera House

The festival will also feature work from Samoa, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, the US and New Zealand alongside a wide repertoire of work from Europe. Caledonia, a new satirical play about one of Scotland's greatest humiliations, the ill-fated attempt in 1698 to establish a colony at Darien in Panama, will be among those featured.

"If the 2008 festival was political in its dimensions and 2009 more philosophical in its ambitions, then 2010 is a festival about sensuality, texture, flamboyance — with a very important, serious message embedded in it," Mills said.

He said there was an important bridge which needed to be made between the old and new worlds.

"The New World wasn't new to the people who lived there but it was new to the European explorers who came there. So it has a kind of double-edge to it, some of it optimistic and some of it slightly dark," he said.

Despite its ambitions the festival has had to fight hard to secure its funding, with public grants and private sponsorship under intense pressure after the recession, said Mills and the leader of Edinburgh city council, Jenny Dawes.

Dawes had fought against a "mob" within the council, she said, who complained about having to cut money on schools and services while giving the festival a multimillion pound grant.

The festival had survived, but had to accept a cut of more than £10,000.

Mills said several new commercial backers had emerged, including the property company Arup and the Prudential. He had struck a series of deals with festivals abroad to co-produce new work including one of the major shows this year, Carl Heinrich Gruan's opera, Montezuma.

A co-production with partners in Germany, Mexico and Spain, it tells the story of the conquistadors' obliteration of the Aztecs.

"It's a story of the New World speaking back, poignantly, passionately, deplorably to the old world," he said.

He described the dance company Grupo Corpo, which is bringing two productions to the festival from the Brazilian Amazon region, as a "group with their bounces in all the right places".

"They're as sexy as all get-out, they're high-octane and energetic."

Mills disclosed that a major broadcasting deal with the BBC was imminent. He complained last year that the BBC had ignored the festival, particularly in its Scottish programming. BBC Radio 3 has agreed to record 28 concerts for later broadcast.

He confirmed that last year's festival had sold slightly fewer tickets than in 2008. The Edinburgh Fringe festival reported record ticket sales last year, while the book festival also hit a new high. But breaking records was not his objective, he insisted.

"My primary focus is on creating a great event, with great companies, great artists, great shows," he said. "As long as our audiences stand up in terms of numbers and are robust, and as long as the central idea is attractive enough, that's what really matters."

The director added that he had decided to extend his initial five-year contract for a further 12 months, continuing as director until 2012.

This year's opening concert will be El Nino, an oratorio by John Adams set "in a nowhere land" on the California-Mexico border which retells the nativity with a heavy Latin-American influence.

The American theme is underlined by the world premiere of work by New York's Elevator Repair Group, performances by the avant garde Meredith Monk, and an exuberant gospel version of the Gospel at Colonus featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama. Another world premiere will be by the Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company who will perform Quimeras.

The environmental theme will be captured by Mau, a Samoan dance company expert in indigenous rituals from across the Pacific ocean. Their production, Birds with Skymirrors, refers to the vast island of plastic waste circulating in the mid-Pacific, which poisons and kills seabirds; if the seabirds survive to line their nests with tiny shards of plastic debris their nests can be a "glittering jewel".

"It's a parable for the times we live in," said Mills.

Gene tests help name some of 250 bodies at Fromelles, where 5,533 Australian troops died in single day in first world war

No one knows exactly what happened to Harry Willis, a fresh-faced 19-year-old farmer's boy from Victoria in Australia, who died on the evening of 19 July, 1916 in the battle of Fromelles on the western front, but thanks to two medallions presented to him by the proud authorities in Alberton when he volunteered, his body has finally been identified after 94 years.

Harry's is one of 75 bodies of Australian troops to whom names can now be put, out of 250 uncovered from a mass grave at Fromelles, a village 10 miles (16km) west of Lille. Their identities were released for the first time yesterday. The burial pit, first discovered three years ago, is the largest uncovered from the first world war in modern times. The bodies have been reinterred in the first new war cemetery to be opened on the western front since the 1920s. It will be consecrated on the anniversary of the battle in the summer.

"We historians spend a lot of time trying to counteract the image of the first world war as being fought by lions led by donkeys," said Peter Francis of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). "But the battle of Fromelles was the exception that proves the rule – it was a complete and utter fiasco, badly planned and executed, though that was not the troops' fault.

"The poor men did not know what was beyond the German line or what they should do when they got there. There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting in the German trenches."

Dr Tony Pollard, director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University, who led the first official investigation of the site in 2007, said: "It was just mass slaughter. This identification brings home the individual tragedies involved. A few bodies are still discovered every year on the western front, but nothing on this scale."

The assault on the German salient that summer evening was meant as no more than a diversion from the battle of the Somme, then into its third attritional week 50 miles to the south, and was intended to prevent the Germans diverting troops to the main theatre. The attack was such a disaster that it was called off the following day.

The Australian troops, newly arrived in France a few days earlier and the first to go into action on the western front, and British soldiers of the 61st division – equally callow territorial soldiers from Midlands regiments such as the Warwickshires and Gloucesters – were thrown into the attack in full daylight after a bombardment which failed to clear the German trenches.

The Australian and British, thrown together haphazardly from units not fighting on the Somme, were mown down by machinegun fire. One survivor, Jimmy Downing, reported: "The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, crisscrossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb."

About a fifth of the attackers were killed or wounded, some after they penetrated German lines and were then cut off. The 5,533 Australian casualties that night were as many as the country suffered in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars combined, and the country's war memorial describes the battle as the worst 24 hours in Australia's history.

The Germans – as was customary and as they did with their own casualties – buried the dead in mass graves and, in accordance with convention, sent their identifying dogtags to the Red Cross. As a result, many of those whose bodies have been uncovered have few identifying marks beyond their scraps of uniform or badges. Troops only had one dogtag at that stage, usually made of cardboard or leather, so any still left on bodies would long since have deteriorated in the mud. Soldiers wishing for metal tags had to buy their own.

The process of identification of the skeletons has been painstakingly slow. DNA has been matched with that of relatives, but also the bodies' height and age ranges have been compared with the service records of those known to have been lost in the battle.

The evidence has to be "clear and convincing", according to the CWGC, before identification is confirmed.

Three British bodies were found in the pit, but none have so far been identified, though some British-born troops serving with Australian regiments have been discovered.

Kevan Jones, the British veterans' minister, said: "Identification is a challenging task and this has been no exception. We are disappointed that there was insufficient evidence to name British soldiers. What is most important is that these men have all been laid to rest with the dignity and honour they deserve."

Of the 75 Australian bodies that now have names, there are 60 privates, six corporals, three sergeants and six officers, the highest ranking being Major Victor Sampson.

The CWGC's Fromelles website yesterdaylisted the names and published the photographs of some of the men, among them Private Willis looking extraordinarily young in his slouch hat. It was the discovery of his medallions which started the identification process.

Willis's relatives still live in Victoria. His grand-nephew Tim Whitford, himself a former serviceman, visited the excavation two years ago and was one of the first to be told that his ancestor had been identified. "I told him last night and he was ecstatic and going to tell his grandmother," said Pollard.

Also uncovered with the bodies were more than 6,000 artefacts, some unbearably poignant. They included a return train ticket from Fremantle to Perth, for a journey never completed; a French phrase book with "Don't shoot" underlined; a heart-shaped locket containing a strand of hair and crumpled pages from a Catholic prayer book for the evening service, in which the owner had marked the phrase "Peace with God".