What London wants from the Spending Review as speculation grows Chancellor set to snub capital
Ian McDermott, Chief Executive of Peabody and Chair of G15, said: "New housing starts in London have already fallen off a cliff and it looks like we could be heading towards the lowest housing delivery numbers since the Second World War. New funding and significant policy change is needed to prevent what would be a catastrophic collapse in the supply of new social and affordable homes by the end of this parliament."
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Metro
a day ago
- Metro
If World War Three erupts this is the UK bunker we're all heading to
With the Doomsday Clock remaining extremely close to midnight and Donald Trump striking Iran after previously suggesting the US was on the verge of World War Three, tensions are extremely high across the globe. Last year, Britain's top general, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warned civilians could be conscripted to fight a war against Russia, saying the UK's military is much 'too small' to handle such a conflict on its own. General Sanders' remarks come nearly two years after he said Britain was facing a '1937 moment' – a reference to the two years preceding the Second World War. But if full-blown world conflict breaks out, AKA World War Three, there are several places across the globe which would probably be safe – one of which is located in the UK. Wood Norton, a tunnel network running deep into the Worcestershire forest, is easy to miss from above ground. Only a small radio mast and security banner is visible from ground level. Originally bought by the BBC at the beginning of World War Two, its initial purpose was to be a hidden base for the broadcaster in the event a crisis in London. Wood Norton is now used as a training base for sound engineers and technical staff at the broadcasting company. Its mast would continue broadcasting messages from the BBC if the UK were ever to go into crisis mode. Also referred to as PAWN, Protected Area Wood Norton, the site boasts several storeys of architecture underground. BBC documents released in 2016 revealed that the base would be utilised in the event of a grave attack on the UK. The facility is reportedly able to house up 90 BBC staff – including 12 news editors and sub-editors – and is even equipped with a ping-pong table. Peters Mountain, situated in the vast Appalachian Mountains, has beenused as an AT&T communications station for some time. You can even see an AT&T logo painted on a helicopter landing pad. It serves as one of several secret centres also known as AT&T project offices, which are essential for the US government's continuity planning. The centre can house a few hundred people, and according to Mr Graff, the bunker has received renovations costing $67 million in recent years. He stated that if an attack on Washington were to occur, it would potentially be used as a relocation site for intelligence agencies. The Raven Rock Mountain Complex, dubbed 'Harry's Hole' after President Truman who gave the project the thumbs-up, has maintained an air of mystery since its construction began in 1948, first opening its doors in 1953. Raven's Rock was constructed with the intention of being a 'centrepiece of a large emergency hub' according to Garret Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself – While The Rest Of Us Die. Boasting 100,000 feet of office space, the bunker could facilitate up to 1,400 people. The base also has two 1,000 foot-long tunnels as well as 34-ton blast doors to help reduce the impact of a possible bomb attack. The site was placed into standby mode by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 – however, $652 million worth of upgrades were added to the site following 9/11. According to Graff, the underground city was kitted out with 27 new fuel tanks in 2012, both carrying 20,000 gallons. Right now the bunker is thought to have 900,000 square feet of office space, as well as space for 3,000-5,000 government employees. However, family members wouldn't be allowed to live in the base. Mr Graff added: 'Families would have been prohibited from Raven Rock — as they would have been from effectively all of the Doomsday bunkers. 'Although in recent years as the veil of complete secrecy has lifted, family members of Raven Rock personnel are allowed to visit it for specific ceremonies. 'So at the very least, family members today can picture where their relatives will spend Doomsday, even as they're barred outside.' Cheyenne Mountain Complex, located in El Paso County, Colorado, is a defence bunker for the United States Space Force. Better known as the headquarters for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the site was built in the 1950s over paranoia about the Cold War. Its five chambers have reservoirs for fuel and water – and in one section there's even reportedly an underground lake. More Trending Almost $40 million was invested into the facility in order to kit it out with the best technology, including 15 console displays and three room-sized Philco 212 computers. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex costs $250,000,000 to run every year and can hold up to 1,000 people a month. It was on the brink of closure prior to 9/11 and was briefly put on standby mode in 2006, but the Obama administration revived the base and the Pentagon announced it would re-staff the bunker in 2015. A version of this article was published in February 2024. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: River Island's £32 flip flop wedges could easily be mistaken for £545 Gucci shoes MORE: Putin tells Russians 'the whole of Ukraine is ours' in 'disdainful' speech MORE: Neighbour 'killed couple on nudist ranch after being humiliated with a hot dog'
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
Warsaw has reclaimed its position as a proud capital
Well-meaning outsiders sometimes warn visitors to Poland to stick to Kraków, overflowing with splendid historical buildings, and avoid Warsaw – 'another boring capital city', as one writer phrased it to me. Ignore them. Kraków is charming, in the way that reliquaries of the past tend to be. But Warsaw is a monument to Polish perseverance – a sprawling symbol of the indefatigability of Europe's most successful post-Cold War nation. To appreciate Warsaw's 21st-century revival, consider what the city endured and overcame in the 20th. Months before he shot himself, Hitler ordered its total destruction. Even as Germany's fate was being sealed, the Führer's marauders executed his instruction to raze the Polish capital 'without trace' with murderous zeal. The city was dynamited block by block. Universities were blown up. Schools were torn down. Libraries were set on fire. Historical monuments were obliterated. Houses were pillaged. Survivors were crammed into trains and deported to concentration camps. When it was over, Warsaw – the site of the most gallant uprising of the Second World War – was a pile of dust and debris. It would have been easier to relocate the capital, and the Moscow-backed government that seized Poland briefly moved its operations to Łódź. Varsovians, however, remained defiant. In 1945, they organised an exhibition in their ruined city. 'Warsaw does not lament, it does not complain,' the event proclaimed, 'but before the tribunal of nations Warsaw Accuses'. General Eisenhower, one of the 43,000 visitors to the show, described the state of Warsaw as 'far more tragic than anything I have seen' in Europe. Not for long. Poles expelled from the city returned, cleared the rubble by hand, buried the dead, and began rebuilding Warsaw brick by brick. They compelled the government to support them by the sheer force of their example. Some buildings were resurrected as facsimiles of the destroyed originals. But the animating ideology of reconstruction was Soviet socialism, and, after a period of frenzied activity, Warsaw became stagnant. A symbol of this slump was Hotel Bristol. Housed in a neo-Renaissance building that opened in 1901, it once numbered among the city's grandest buildings – and was one of the handful to survive the Nazi rampage of 1944. By the 1980s, it had become so derelict that it had to be boarded up and abandoned. Warsaw itself degenerated into a drab city whose centrepiece was a Stalinist tower bequeathed as a 'gift' from the Soviet Union. The fall of communism stimulated a second revival. Varsovians seized the moment: they converted the Communist Party headquarters into the country's new stock exchange, and opened casinos inside the Stalinist behemoth. A cluster of glass-clad skyscrapers proliferated around them. Despite the recent election of the social conservative Karol Nawrocki as Poland's next president, Warsaw remains a haven for minorities. 'I am of course very uncomfortable,' a gay student at Warsaw University told me a day after the result. 'But this is Warsaw, and we still feel safe in Warsaw.' 'This city', another dejected voter told me, 'gives us hope'. Politics can conceal Poland's extraordinary achievement. Its GDP is rapidly approaching $1 trillion. The living standards of its people are the envy of Europeans. The Polish army is larger than the armed forces of Britain. Poles who emigrated abroad in search of opportunity at the start of the century are now drifting home. Some are running successful businesses – cocktail bars, breweries, restaurants – at home. Others are investing in the technologies of the future. A Canadian tourist was so impressed by the city that he was considering moving his business there. 'I have not seen a place with such work ethic,' he told me. Warsaw, reduced to the ground within the lifetime of many of its elderly citizens, has reclaimed its position as the proud capital of a great country.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Scotland's future is uncertain. But then so is the here and now
At the same time, many in the mischievous media exaggerate the transient. Who is up, who is down? What is new, what is demanding attention? Always eager to hasten to the next caravanserai. This week, by contrast, there was a glance towards the longer term. Where are we going with our NHS, our services, our fiscal structure? What, an Edinburgh conference asked, will Scotland look like in 2050? Now, even adopting such a perspective may be viewed as courageous, given the perils currently confronting our planet. As Israel and Iran trade missiles, as President Trump ponders, it may seem rash to contemplate anything other than our collective survival. However, we cannot live that way. We cannot flee for the sanctuary of a dark corner whenever Donald J. Trump turns into King Lear: confused and uncertain yet insisting that he is the terror of the earth. And so it is entirely right to cast an eye ahead. However it may appear at first glance that there is a faintly futile tinge to the entire endeavour. Consider. In 1920, did the ravaged continent of Europe discern that, by 1945, they would have endured a second, bloody conflict? They did not. More prosaically, in 1980, did we know that the passing of a further quarter century would lead to a transformation in Information Technology and the creation of a Scottish Parliament? We did not. Yet contemplate a little more deeply. Were not the roots of the Second World War seeded in the aftermath of the First World War? The constraints and financial reparations understandably imposed upon Germany – but resented by their emerging, deadly leader? Read more Brian Taylor Do the Scottish Conservatives have any reason to exist? This is a set-back and an opportunity for the SNP - which one will they embrace? Brian Taylor: The fundamental battle which unites Donald Trump and Nigel Farage And the more modern period? Were there not early prequels for the 21st century information revolution? Further, here in Scotland, was not the cause of Scottish self-government measurably advanced in the wake of the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979? In short, when we purport to look into the future, we are in reality studying present-day conditions. We are examining how reform might generate a steady transformation which would emerge over that longer period. It is a way of urging impatient voters and the mischievous media to cut a little slack for our elected tribunes. It is about the future, yes, but viewed through the prism of the present. In the context of reform, there was much talk this week about reviving thoughts advanced by the commission on public services, ably chaired by the late and decidedly great Campbell Christie. I recall Campbell for his intellect, his humour, his baffling devotion to Falkirk FC, his fierce competitiveness at golf – and his determination to work with all and sundry to make Scotland a better place. In 2011, his commission urged Scotland to embrace 'empowerment, integration, efficiency and prevention' in transforming the public sector. This week, Ivan McKee, Scotland's Public Finance Minister, set out a programme of reforms and savings – with an explicit nod to those earlier endeavours by the Christie team. Mr McKee is a key figure in the Scottish Government, returning to office alongside his close ally, Kate Forbes. Both advocate a focus upon efficiency – and, perhaps above all, economic growth. In doing so, they are most certainly aligned with the instincts and aims of the First Minister. Now John Swinney displayed another intuitive tendency in his forward-looking remarks this week. His solution to the entrenched problems confronting Scotland? It lay, you will be astonished to learn, with independence. So shifting attention back to independence, rather than the day-to-day concerns of the voters? Was this a U-turn? Not really, no. Indeed, I suspect too much can be made of this apparent change. Firstly, Mr Swinney is a believer, a fervent Nationalist. He yearns for independence. Secondly, he leads a party which contains many whose fervour is undimmed by minor matters such as convincing others. Thirdly, there is an SNP National Council this weekend. Enough, Brian. Away with cynicism. I believe John Swinney is simply sustaining his dual strategy. He feels a little more liberated to advance the option of independence – while simultaneously concentrating for the most part on the anxieties of the people, such as the cost of living and the health service. John Swinney (Image: PA) In short, his attention is drawn by the here and now, even as he offers a potential vision of the future. His opponents are similarly grounded. Labour's Anas Sarwar, for example, glanced forward and concluded that the SNP were only offering 'managed decline.' Still, futurology can be a source of innocent merriment. What might we favour? Ivan McKee is surely right to suggest public services which prioritise customers rather than producers, which share information and thus resources. But how about the health service? The current system is simply unsustainable, unaffordable. Do you see that nurse gesturing to you? That health worker is not waving but drowning. We have to cut waste – but also overall demand. Perhaps, as the Health Secretary Neil Gray suggested, that can be done in part by an emphasis on prevention. However, that will undoubtedly take time – which ministers facing elections do not have. Politically, Mr Swinney's focus will be upon ensuring that the stats are going in the right direction. Education? Our economy, our society, both need the acquisition of useful skills. I recall my school textbook entitled 'Physics is Fun!' This proved to be a brazen lie. However, physics is vital, along with tricky stuff like maths, literature and French irregular verbs. Our universities are struggling financially. But, as they reform, they must maintain the objective of excellence. If they are truly to be world-class, as Scotland advertises, then they must aspire to the very highest standards. And the economy itself? We need growth and prosperity. We need an environmental drive, including renewables, which does not shut down our industry and agriculture. The future? Simple really. Brian Taylor is a former political editor for BBC Scotland and a columnist for The Herald. He cherishes his family, the theatre – and Dundee United FC
