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| Newsdesk live - Monday 30 January | Newsdesk live - Monday 30 January |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
Lizzy Davies and Peter Walker report on the evictions of the Occupy protestors at the Bank of ideas here. Lizzy also looked at the question of who the bailiffs, one of whom was arrested last night, were employed by. She writes: | |
A couple of corrections to the earlier post on this as we dig further into the figures. | |
@pollycurtis applications are not acceptances lets wait&see how many take up places defer or withdraw when it comes to commitment on finance | |
| 8.47am: Stephen Hester's all but inevitable decision to waive his bonus last night dominates last night's late editions of the papers and the bulletins this morning. | 8.47am: Stephen Hester's all but inevitable decision to waive his bonus last night dominates last night's late editions of the papers and the bulletins this morning. |
| It's being widely interpreted as a win for Ed Miliband, whose plan to hold a Commons vote on the issue forced his hand. Nick Watt's account of the politics behind the move is well worth reading. | It's being widely interpreted as a win for Ed Miliband, whose plan to hold a Commons vote on the issue forced his hand. Nick Watt's account of the politics behind the move is well worth reading. |
| He describes how Miliband hatched the plan with his shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, and Labour's chief whip, Rosie Winterton, via email from Davos while Hester was still on a skiing holiday. Nick also points out that the timing of the RBS bonus was bad for David Cameron in the week after his speech on "responsible capitalism". | He describes how Miliband hatched the plan with his shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, and Labour's chief whip, Rosie Winterton, via email from Davos while Hester was still on a skiing holiday. Nick also points out that the timing of the RBS bonus was bad for David Cameron in the week after his speech on "responsible capitalism". |
| It's hard to know where this story will go next today beyond the obvious fleshing out of the damage done to the government, whether it's enough to revive Miiliband's fortunes, what it means for the future remuneration of executives from publicly owned banks and what will happen to Bob Diamond's bonus. Our collegues on the City desk will be dealing with some of these questions, working with our political team in the parliamentary lobby. | It's hard to know where this story will go next today beyond the obvious fleshing out of the damage done to the government, whether it's enough to revive Miiliband's fortunes, what it means for the future remuneration of executives from publicly owned banks and what will happen to Bob Diamond's bonus. Our collegues on the City desk will be dealing with some of these questions, working with our political team in the parliamentary lobby. |
| John Harris writes this morning advocating a grassroots revolt against the big banks in the form of a campaign, launching this week, called Move your money, arguing that people should take their money out of the big banks and put it into smaller outfits based on a US scheme. | John Harris writes this morning advocating a grassroots revolt against the big banks in the form of a campaign, launching this week, called Move your money, arguing that people should take their money out of the big banks and put it into smaller outfits based on a US scheme. |
| Listening to Umunna (audio) on the radio this morning I wondered whether this might be the kind of thing Labour would support? | Listening to Umunna (audio) on the radio this morning I wondered whether this might be the kind of thing Labour would support? |
| We've got reporters Lizzy Davies and Shiv Malik trying to work out what happened at Occupy's Banks of Ideas site at Liverpool Street last night, where there were evictions. | We've got reporters Lizzy Davies and Shiv Malik trying to work out what happened at Occupy's Banks of Ideas site at Liverpool Street last night, where there were evictions. |
| Lizzie has spoken to the Met, and they say they cleared around 50 protestors from the site at around midnight. Two people were arrested – one was released very rapidly and the second is still in custody. Jules Mattsson, a photojournalist, has been tweeting pictures and his account of what happened, including an alleged assault by a bailiff employed by UBS, the owners of the building. He tweeted: | Lizzie has spoken to the Met, and they say they cleared around 50 protestors from the site at around midnight. Two people were arrested – one was released very rapidly and the second is still in custody. Jules Mattsson, a photojournalist, has been tweeting pictures and his account of what happened, including an alleged assault by a bailiff employed by UBS, the owners of the building. He tweeted: |
| All gone mental, bailiff punched me in the face and tried to run me over with car, then tries to run over 12 people #bankofideas | All gone mental, bailiff punched me in the face and tried to run me over with car, then tries to run over 12 people #bankofideas |
| His account is unverified at the moment. Occupy has just emailed out this – also unverified – account of events: | His account is unverified at the moment. Occupy has just emailed out this – also unverified – account of events: |
| Just after midnight, the Bank of Ideas on Sun Street, the multimillion pound abandoned building owned by Swiss investment bank UBS which Occupy London liberated in an act of public repossession and has been running as a free community and arts space for the public, was evicted. | Just after midnight, the Bank of Ideas on Sun Street, the multimillion pound abandoned building owned by Swiss investment bank UBS which Occupy London liberated in an act of public repossession and has been running as a free community and arts space for the public, was evicted. |
| Since the high court possession order came into place at 2pm Wednesday 24 January, the Bank of Ideas has been closed to the public and a team of volunteers have been cleaning. The bailiffs – Rossendales (high court enforcement) - aided by police (City of London and Metropolitan) gained entry to the Bank of Ideas by breaking down the front door using an angle grinder. Around 50 protesters resisted peacefully and left the building shortly after. There were reports that further protesters were inside the building but, as of 5am, there is no update on this. The blinds to the ground floor of the building were closed shortly after eviction. The TSG entered the building around the same time. | Since the high court possession order came into place at 2pm Wednesday 24 January, the Bank of Ideas has been closed to the public and a team of volunteers have been cleaning. The bailiffs – Rossendales (high court enforcement) - aided by police (City of London and Metropolitan) gained entry to the Bank of Ideas by breaking down the front door using an angle grinder. Around 50 protesters resisted peacefully and left the building shortly after. There were reports that further protesters were inside the building but, as of 5am, there is no update on this. The blinds to the ground floor of the building were closed shortly after eviction. The TSG entered the building around the same time. |
| More on that as Lizzy and Shiv get it. Were you there? Do get in touch below the line if you were, or email lizzie.davies@guardian.co.uk. | More on that as Lizzy and Shiv get it. Were you there? Do get in touch below the line if you were, or email lizzie.davies@guardian.co.uk. |
| You can see all the stories we're covering today in our newslist at the top of this blog or here. | You can see all the stories we're covering today in our newslist at the top of this blog or here. |
| We on the newsdesk are also interested in David Cameron's trip to in Brussels, which has significant domestic ramifications. He's under pressure from all sides. In a letter to the Guardian this morning, Charles Kennedy and several other Europhile MPs and Lords call on him to strengthen the union. He is simultaneously under pressure from his backbenchers – and some frontbenchers – to veto the eurozone's use of the European court of justice. The Times reports (paywall) that the Tory right, including Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson, are gearing up for a revolt on this. | We on the newsdesk are also interested in David Cameron's trip to in Brussels, which has significant domestic ramifications. He's under pressure from all sides. In a letter to the Guardian this morning, Charles Kennedy and several other Europhile MPs and Lords call on him to strengthen the union. He is simultaneously under pressure from his backbenchers – and some frontbenchers – to veto the eurozone's use of the European court of justice. The Times reports (paywall) that the Tory right, including Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson, are gearing up for a revolt on this. |
| Last night, the Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries, tweeted: | Last night, the Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries, tweeted: |
| Cameron is sleepwalking into the mother of all backbench rows if he thinks he can let FU [fiscal union] nations use the ECJ without recourse to parliament. | Cameron is sleepwalking into the mother of all backbench rows if he thinks he can let FU [fiscal union] nations use the ECJ without recourse to parliament. |
| Nick Watt is in Brussels today, and he'll be following developments there, as will Andrew Sparrow on his liveblog. | Nick Watt is in Brussels today, and he'll be following developments there, as will Andrew Sparrow on his liveblog. |
| Figures on university applications that will be published this morning and will be the litmus test of the Liberal Democrats' u-turn on fees. We know they will show the steepest fall in application in 30 years, but today we'll find out whether this means university applications are becoming more white and middle class as a result. | Figures on university applications that will be published this morning and will be the litmus test of the Liberal Democrats' u-turn on fees. We know they will show the steepest fall in application in 30 years, but today we'll find out whether this means university applications are becoming more white and middle class as a result. |
| Has your decision to apply to university changed as a result of the changes to the fees regime? | Has your decision to apply to university changed as a result of the changes to the fees regime? |
| Do get in touch below the line or on Twitter if you're affected by this or any of the stories we're covering today, or if you have ideas for new angles on them. You can also email me polly.curtis@guardian.co.uk. | Do get in touch below the line or on Twitter if you're affected by this or any of the stories we're covering today, or if you have ideas for new angles on them. You can also email me polly.curtis@guardian.co.uk. |
| 9.48am: A couple of points about the shape of the Guardian's editing day, which will probably form the spine of this blog. | |
| We have a web meeting at 9.15am, where editors share their plans for the day so far. At 10am we have conference, which anyone in the organisation can attend. Each section editor gives a rundown of their plans, and this is also the forum for Guardian staff to thrash out ideas. | |
| Once a week, we have a guest from the world of politics, business or the arts, who we get a chance to grill. There's a limit to how much I'll be reporting from those guest appearances as they are given on an off the record basis, but you'll often see that guest pop up in our coverage at a later point. | |
| A third meeting, at 12 o'clock, sets the agenda for the afternoon and the plans for the next day's paper. As a reporter, the smart thing to do is to pitch ideas just in time for these meetings so they are fresh in the desk editors' minds and, if it's a slow day, they would be desperate for something to say. Readers who want to submit ideas, evidence and angles for our coverage might think of doing the same. | |
| Reactions to the RBS bonus story are pouring in. Rupert Neate, from the city desk, has just filed this reaction to the RBS bonus story. It includes this priceless tweet from the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott last night: | |
| Now we must crack down on bonuses for 323 rbs fat cats who collected 1.1 mn each on avge last year- biggest supporting cast since Ben Hur! | |
| The question with this story is about where it goes next, and Oakeshott clearly has his ideas. Our political editor, Patrick Wintour, has just filed this story about how Labour will campaign on this next to capitalise on what has largely been seen as a success for Ed Miliband. | |
| I've just been given some operational details on the euro summit. It doesn't actually start until 3pm and the PM will hold a press conference at about 7pm, but it could be later. | |
| 9.57am: This is a video from the scene of last night's Occupy evictions. | |
| Lizzy Davies has been speaking with the photographer Jules Mattsson, who we mentioned below, who says the footage shows him jumping out of the way of the car at 17 seconds and, at 1.40, the car drives away with a protestor on the bonnet. | |
| A second video of Mattsson allegedly being punched has not yet been released. I've not had any of the events verified yet, so I won't speculate about what exactly the video shows. We'll have a full report soon. | |
| 10.59am: Lizzy Davies has filed this story on last night's Occupy eviction. | |
| It's understood the man who was arrested was a bailiff hired by UBS to help with the eviction. She writes: | |
| Around 50 protesters were evicted peacefully from the UBS-owned building they had turned into an educational hub called the Bank of Ideas shortly after midnight. | |
| Police and bailiffs then moved to evict squatters from another building in the complex, also owned by the Swiss banking giant, during which protesters claim a photographer was punched in the face by a bailiff who then drove his car at speed towards more protesters. | |
| A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said a man, understood to be a bailiff, had been arrested after an allegation of assault and criminal damage. Another man, believed to be a protester, was briefly arrested "to prevent a breach of the peace", but was quickly released. | |
| We're looking for more eyewitness accounts of the eviction – let us know if you were there. | |
| 11.47am: The Ucas figures for university entry for 2012 have just come out. | |
| These figures are the crucial test of the government's decision to raise the cap on fees to £9,000 because they include, for the first time, data on social class. Without wishing to be too dramatic about it, after all the rows over the coalition's plans and the Liberal Democrats' spectacular u-turn, this will form the verdict. Our education editor, Jeevan Vasagar, tweeted the stats as they were published here, and the news release is here. | |
| The top lines seem to be: | |
| • Applications are down by 8.7%, but are apparently not down disproportionately for the 18-year-old cohort because of a demographic dip. | |
| • Mature student applications are down significantly. | |
| • Ucas says the dip in applications is very slightly higher for students from advantaged rather than disadvantaged backgrounds, which, if proved correct, would be be vindication for the Liberal Democrats and coalition. | |
| Our team on the datablog are digging into the figures and it appears that that last claim – the most crucial test for the coalition – rests on data comparing the poorest 10% with the wealthiest 10%. It's not clear what the pattern in between those two deciles are. Jeevan and Simon Rogers, from the datablog, are both trying to bottom out these figures in full. | |
| Either way, by the end of the day we should have a judgment on the Liberal Democrats' most controversial decision in government. Our lobby correspondents should have the political reaction once we have the full figures. | |
| In the meantime, this is what the Ucas chief executive, Mary Curnock Cook, is saying: | |
| There has been a headline drop of 7.4% in applicants with a slightly larger fall in England. The more detailed analysis of application rates for young people takes account of population changes. This shows a fall of just one percentage point in the application rate in England, with little change across the rest of the UK. | |
| Our analysis shows that decreases in demand are slightly larger in more advantaged groups than in the disadvantaged groups. Widely expressed concerns about recent changes in HE funding arrangements having a disproportionate effect on more disadvantaged groups are not borne out by these data. | |
| However, I remain concerned about the wide and increasing gap between the application rate of men compared to women. | |
| Although applications are down for mature applicants, this is in the context of some very substantial increases in recent cycles. Applications from mature groups are also set against a backdrop of increasingly higher HE participation rates at their school leaving age. | |
| We're really interested in hearing from students who are applying this year, or teachers or academics working on admissions about their experiences this year. You can email me if you don't want to post below the line or on twitter polly.curtis@guardian.co.uk | |
| This is the first dip in university applications after years of consecutive increases. | |
| The last recession prompted more people to go to university to sit out the poor employment, but with the current economic climate – and particularly the jobs market – looking poor, are there factors other than the fee hike behind this year's figures? | |
| 12.04pm: The datablog team are working on the full stats from Ucas, but in the meantime this is the trend in university application figures that shows the boom of the last few years and this year's marked drop. | |
| Meanwhile on the Occupy story, Lizzy Davies has updated her story and is now going to do a bit of work on the bailiff firm to find out more about who they are and who they were employed by. | |
| 12.45pm: This is the top of Jeevan's story on the Ucas figures: | |
| The number of UK university applicants has dropped by 8.7% – but school leavers have not been deterred by the tripling of tuition fees, and there has been a sharper drop among more affluent candidates compared with those from "disadvantaged" backgrounds, official figures show. | |
| The controversial decision to let universities raise undergraduate fees to a maximum of £9,000 provoked widespread public anger and battered the credibility of the Liberal Democrats. Nick Clegg's party had gone into the election promising to phase out fees. | |
| However, Ucas figures published on Monday show the number of UK 18-year-old applicants – the largest single group of candidates – has decreased by 3.6% compared with 2011, representing a drop of just under 8,500 people. | |
| The number of 18-year-olds in the UK population has declined by 11,000 this year to 772,000, according to the Office for National Statistics – a fall of 1.4%. | |
| But total applicant numbers, including overseas and mature candidates, are 7.4% lower than at the same point in 2011, Ucas says. The number of applicants from the UK has decreased by 8.7%. There has been a sharper drop among male applicants than women. The proportion of men is down 8.5% on last year, while female applicants are down 6.7%. | |
A couple of corrections to the earlier post on this as we dig further into the figures. | |
| The 3.6% decrease in 18-year-old applicants is disproportionally high compared with the 1.4% population decrease. I've just been reading over the shoulder of the datablog team as they put together the stats, and that drop is markedly higher for 19-year-olds. | |
| They've also pulled out charts showing the drops for individual universities and subjects, and the effect on arts degrees and institution is astounding. This follows the government's decision to decrease funding for arts courses. | |
| The following table shows the decline in applications subject by subject. | |
| A couple of interesting tweets on the subject. On the figures on disadvantage and the missing middle stats, it is in fact the top and bottom 20% that are compared, and on this @paulstpancras writes: | |
| @pollycurtis Interesting, it might well be "squeezed middle" families that are most impacted. My son, 14, and his friends are talking about it | |
| @McGinOxford tweets: | |
@pollycurtis applications are not acceptances lets wait&see how many take up places defer or withdraw when it comes to commitment on finance | |
| and the Labour MP @tomgreatrexmp tweets: | |
| @pollycurtis suspect might have something to do with lack of jobs & those cancelling gap yrs to get into system before they go up more | |
| 1.42pm: Our reporter Helen Carter is in court for the inquest into the death of the Wales football manager Gary Speed. She'll be live-tweeting and you can follow her here @helen__carter. | |
| Speed's widow, Louise, is currently giving evidence, Helen's latest tweets report: | |
| The couple knew each other from childhood, Louise Speed says. | |
| Louise Speed says the couple were "working through" problems in their marriage. #garyspeedinquest | |
| Couple had "exchange of words" after dinner party in early hours of Nov 27, his wife tells #garyspeedinquest | |
| Louise Speed slept in her car outside their house after being locked out of house #garyspeedinquest | |
| 4 days before his death, Gary sent txts talking of ending life but dismissed as spoke of future | |
| 2.41pm: The datablog team have crunched the university application figures into this very good post illustrating all the trends. The decline in arts is very striking. | |
| Some readers were asking for more detail on the individual universities and their relative rises and falls. This table shows those which have lost the most, and you can get the data for each individual university from the datablog here. | |
| 3.06pm: A quick guide to the people you may see contributing to this blog from time to time other than myself and the national news editor, Dan Roberts. Each covers a particular patch on the newsdesk and you can contact them all on Twitter with ideas about things we should cover. | |
| Claire Phipps (@claire_phipps) covers society, health and education | |
| James Randerson (@james_randerson) covers science and environment | |
| David Teather (@davidteather) covers arts and culture | |
| Stephen Khan (@stephenkhan) covers crime, law and the home affairs teams. | |
| 4.08pm: | |
| Our education editor Jeevan Vasagar's final version of the Ucas applications story is here. His top line is: | |
| The number of UK university applicants has dropped by 8.7% – but school leavers have not been deterred by the tripling of tuition fees and there has been a sharper drop among more affluent candidates compared with those from "disadvantaged" backgrounds, official figures show. | |
| The controversial decision to let universities raise undergraduate fees to a maximum of £9,000 provoked widespread public anger and battered the credibility of the Liberal Democrats. Nick Clegg's party had gone into the election promising to phase out fees. | |
| However, Ucas figures published on Monday show the number of UK 18-year-old applicants – the largest single group of candidates – has decreased by 3.6% compared with 2011, representing a drop of just under 8,500 people. The number of 18-year-olds in the UK population has declined by 11,000 this year to 772,000, according to the Office for National Statistics – a fall of 1.4%. | |
Lizzy Davies and Peter Walker report on the evictions of the Occupy protestors at the Bank of ideas here. Lizzy also looked at the question of who the bailiffs, one of whom was arrested last night, were employed by. She writes: | |
| Rossendales, the private provider whose bailiffs were carrying out the eviction, have told me they were appointed by the lawyers of Sun Street Properties, the UBS-owned subsidiary which had gone to court to evict the activists and will be paying their fees. | |
| Rossendales employee Alan Smith, who has issued a statement saying the officer in question had "acted in self defence" when in his car, is one of 68 authorised high court enforcement officers (HCEOs) in England and Wales who have been appointed by the Lord Chancellor [see here] and who then delegate the act of enforcement – debt collection, for instance, or in this case, eviction – to other enforcement officers. There were 40 involved in the Occupy eviction last night. UBS declined to comment. | |
| Andrew Wilson, the vice-chairman of the HCEOs' Association, said authorised officers were to a large extent held responsible for the behaviour of the staff they employ. | |
| "Authorised officers are personally responsible and personally liable for anything that anyone does in their name," he said. "So it's obviously in the interest of the authorised officers to make sure that those who they award the subcontract to are operating in a reasonable and lawful way, otherwise they're going to be liable." | |
| Wilson said he was unaware of the allegation made against the bailiff last night. But, speaking hypothetically, he added: "If there is assault involved it is a matter for the police. If as a result of that there is a civil action then it would be something that the authorised officer would be involved with because that would have been acting in his name." | |
| The Europe summit, which I thought we'd be covering much more extensively, is only just kicking off. You can read about that in our liveblog here. | |
| We've not published a great deal more on the RBS story today - largely because our night team last night did such a good job of getting it across. There will be more to come through the afternoon and in tomorrow's paper. | |
| We usually have a 4pm planning meeting each day, which is when various editors meet to plan the next day's news. For some reason this hasn't happened yet today, but from our forward planning diary I can see that the main stories we'll be covering include: | |
| • David Cameron will be back from Brussels and will update the Commons on his talks there. | |
| • Michael Gove is giving evidence at the education select committee in the Commons, and the committee has asked people to tweet in questions using the hashtag #AskGove (Sample questions: The Crafts Council asks: "Will the teaching of craft, proven to aid cognitive development and cross-curricular learning, be part of new education reforms?" Mencap UK asks: "Newsnight found academies are offloading SEN children, with unofficial exclusions, to meet targets. Are academies for ALL children?" Joanna Cannon asks: "Removing libraries will deny our children some of the best friends they will ever make. Can you live with that?") | |
| • The Press Complaints Commission will give evidence at Leveson. | |
| If you've read all the way through this blog, you'll know there are quite a lot of meetings at the Guardian. At 5pm, the paper editors, subs and designers also meet for "the wall", where they see the first versions of the paper and discuss any way it should change. The wall looks like this, to give a little context. | |
| Thanks for your comments below the line, your emails and via twitter. You can see the Twitter reaction to this blog here. Most people seem open to the idea and interested in this experiment. The most common complaint is that we're navel-gazing. Today's might be more concerned with our processes than usual, because we want to give readers some context of how it all works. | |
| But the overall idea is very much about getting people involved in shaping the Guardian's news agenda, rather than being a forum for us to discuss how we do it. | |
| One point I wanted to clarify is that the newslist above and the stories I cover in this blog will be breaking and live news. An extended newslist, which isn't available publicly, has all our exclusives and plans for the next day's paper in it. |