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0 shares 149 View comments What induced ten LSE post-graduate students to make a ‘study trip’ to North Korea? Was it the cuisine, the wine, the scenery, the nightlife? The prospect of making new friends? Or to see what Britain might have looked like, had Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn won the class war? No matter. They travelled, and glimpsed a demented totalitarian socialist state. But they came safe home again only by the mercy of providence. As part of the group, masquerading as students, there was a three-man team from BBC TV’s Panorama, who shot a film while on the trip that was shown last night. Scroll down for video Enlarge   As part of the group masquerading as students, there was a three-man team from BBC TV's Panorama who shot a film while on the trip that was shown last night. Reporter John Sweeney pictured in North Korea Had this TV crew been unmasked, at best, the students would have been bundled out of North Korea. More likely, however, in the

0 shares 92 View comments When the thunder of drumming from a samba band outside threatened to drown out the cast's voices during The Audience, Helen Mirren stormed offstage and into the street to harangue the drummers One doubts whether even Prince Philip has ever heard the Queen resort to obscenities — even when one of her horses has lost.  But astonished passers-by outside London’s Gielgud Theatre had that privilege on Saturday night, when the monarch let fly a torrent of four-letter invective at a samba band. Of course, this was not really our beloved monarch, but our beloved Dame Helen Mirren, who is playing the Queen in the hit play The Audience.  When the thunder of drumming outside threatened to drown out the cast’s voices, she stormed offstage and into the street clad in wig, green dress and pearls, to harangue the drummers, who were advertising a music festival. ‘Shut the **** up,’ she said. ‘People have paid a ****ing hundred pounds to go to the the

0 shares 141 View comments General Secretary of the TUC Frances O'Grady accuses the Government of turning back the clock almost a century The majority of children in Britain will be living ‘below the breadline’ by 2015, according to an alarmist report from the TUC this week. This ludicrous scare story was seized upon by the usual Left-wing suspects as yet more evidence of how the ‘savage cuts’ were targeting the ‘most vulnerable’ in society. If you believed the Independent’s hysterical front page coverage, more than seven million children will be living ‘close to poverty’ within two years because of this heartless Government’s policies. An outraged TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady howled that these findings should ‘shame any civilised society’. She complained: ‘Families are suffering the tightest squeeze in living standards in nearly a century.’ This fatuous, sentimental drivel is what passes for intelligent political debate these days. You might imagine

0 shares 221 View comments Driving home from White Hart Lane on Sunday evening, I half-expected to discover there had been a ram-raid on the Southgate branch of the Bank of Cyprus. North London is the heart of the British Cypriot community and most people have strong links with their homeland. So you can imagine the widespread alarm across the manor at the news that the government in Nicosia had decided to confiscate people’s life savings as part of a bailout programme aimed at preventing the collapse of the euro. Worry: Like the euro, the assurance that overseas customers of Cyprus-based banks will not be affected isn't worth the paper it's printed on. But, inevitably, Britain has been dragged into this latest crisis The Bank of Cyprus has thousands of customers in this country. And although depositors in Britain have been assured their savings are safe, would you take the chance? In Cyprus, all banks and hole-in-the-wall machines remained closed yesterd

470 shares 298 View comments A couple of years ago I had a fantastic idea for a new TV reality show, a cross between Wish You Were Here and Changing Rooms. The premise was simplicity itself. Judith Chalmers would find the perfect holiday destination for a typical family. They’d spend two idyllic weeks in the sun before returning to discover that their house had been occupied by a gang of Romanian squatters, with hilarious consequences. While they were away, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen had helped the immigrants break in, change the locks and trash the place. Surprise! Maybe if Dave came home to find Number 10 occupied by Romanian squatters, it might concentrate his mind The cameras would record the reaction of the tearful home-owners as armed police in hi-viz jackets over their body armour turned up to warn them that if they made any attempt to repossess their property, they would be arrested instantly for ‘taking the law into their own hands’. If they protested too s

0 shares 83 View comments Wayne Middleton was cleared of benefit fraud after claiming £22,500 in incapacity allowance while working as a salsa teacher A part-time magistrate who claimed £22,500 in disability benefits while working as  a salsa dance teacher and taking part in a TV reality show has been cleared of benefit fraud. Wayne Middleton, 48, was found not guilty on two counts of dishonestly making false statements to the Department for Work and Pensions. He stood accused of fraudulently signing paperwork declaring he was medically unfit for work. Investigators acting on a tip-off discovered he was teaching at least two 45-minute dance classes a week despite claiming to be ‘unable to walk without severe pain’. He was also filmed abseiling, stilt-walking and skiing on grass on Channel 4’s Coach Trip programme. Mr Middleton, from Stanton Drew, near Bristol, said his doctor had recommended that he take up dancing to ease the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a long-term

1.2k shares 726 View comments Kelly Jones has instructed Pattinson Brewer solicitors to take action against a petrol station owner for 'failing to ensure' her safety during a routine break-in investigation When I read the story about a WPC suing a suspected burglary victim for damages, I had to check the date. Surely this was an April Fool’s wind-up. As usual, I should have known better. Years of writing about the absurdity of modern policing have taught me there’s virtually no limit to the stupidity and opportunism of some coppers. Kelly Jones has instructed Pattinson Brewer solicitors to take action against a petrol station owner for ‘failing to ensure’ her safety during a routine break-in investigation. She claims to be entitled to substantial compensation after allegedly tripping over a kerb and hurting her left leg and right wrist. Her lawyers maintain that the owner had a legal duty to ensure her, you guessed, ‘health and safety’. The three-page lett