Law News

Last year’s avo toast was only a precursor to 2017’s parade of culinary weirdness – with plates filled with cloud eggs, Yorkshire pudding wraps and a side of unicorn sprinkle You can tell a lot about a culture by the food that fuels it – and in the annals of culinary progress, 2017 has not been an altogether glorious year. If you thought 2016’s avo toast was bad, take a look at these horrors. Charcoal pizza bases, buns, ice-creams Actually, charcoal in anything that isn’t a barbecue. Not only does it taste awful, but there’s no evidence of any health benefits unless you’ve already been poisoned, in which case you probably shouldn’t be eating pizza. In fact, so effective is charcoal at absorbing chemicals that it can affect prescription medication, too. But hey, if it looks good on Instagram ... Vegetable yoghurts Hotly tipped to be the next big health craze about this time last year, but so far seen only in Waitrose and on the social media accounts of people who probably then ...

Plans to protect consumers from unresolved debts stemming from unfair county court judgments (CCJs) have been revealed in a government move to tackle concerns about ‘rogue companies’ such as parking enforcement businesses. A consultation paper, published today, aims to consider how CCJs are issued, after concerns were raised that some companies are deliberately sending claims to incorrect addresses. This can severely impact credit ratings and the issue may come to light only years later when an application for a mortgage or loan is rejected. Proposals include: Striking a CCJ from the register immediately once unknown debts are resolved and a judge agrees the person was unaware Protecting consumers who do not receive mail because it is sent to an old address A government information campaign providing a ‘centralised, trusted source’ to raise awareness and help people deal with unresolved debts. Justice minister Dominic Raab said: ‘We want to protect vulnerable consumers from ...

t’s when disaster strikes that you need the state the most. On 14 June, we in Grenfell Tower suffered an inferno. I escaped from the 11th floor with my partner and my six-year-old daughter. Over the next few days, as the emergency services continued to dampen the fire and recover our loved ones, we waited for help to come and for the authorities to tell us what to do. But the state didn’t come. Instead, it was volunteers who arrived with food and clothes, and it was they who helped us to find places to stay and search hospitals for our family members. Six months on, little has changed. Four out of five families affected are still waiting for homes. Almost 100 families spent Christmas in hotel rooms, sleeping side by side in shared rooms, what’s left of their belongings stacked in boxes by their beds. Seventy-one of our loved ones died in that fire. They died because we were ignored when we had raised questions about the refurbishment of the tower long beforehand. We are still ...

2017 was a brutal year for young people caught in conflict, UN agency says, citing their recruitment as fighters and bombers Children caught in war zones are increasingly being used as weapons of war – recruited to fight, forced to act as suicide bombers, and used as human shields – the United Nations children’s agency has warned. In a statement summarising 2017 as a brutal year for children caught in conflict, Unicef said parties to conflicts were blatantly disregarding international humanitarian law and children were routinely coming under attack. Rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement had become standard tactics in conflicts across Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as in Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar. Some children, abducted by extremist groups, are abused again by security forces when they are released. Others are indirectly harmed by fighting, through malnutrition and disease, as access to food, water and sanitation are denied or restricted. Some 27 million ...