Harold Percival: WWII Veteran's Funeral Held

By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

Two thousand people have turned up to mark the funeral of a World War Two veteran who died with no close relatives or friends.

An internet campaign was launched after a Lancashire funeral director advertised the service for Harold Jellicoe Percival in a local newspaper.

Mr Percival died aged 99 last month in a nursing home. He had never married, had no children, outlived his siblings and was described as "a solitary man".

He served during the Second World War with RAF Bomber Command and worked as ground crew for the famous Dambuster Squadron.

He left the RAF after the war and led a nomadic lifestyle.

The chapel at Lytham Park Crematorium was packed for his funeral service and several hundred more people stood outside in the rain.

Funeral director Dawn Whitehead-Brown said: "It is humbling and heartwarming to see so many people who never knew this man turn up here to pay their respects.

"We had no idea what kind of response we would get when we put the ad in the paper ... but to see this turnout is unbelievable."

Many serving and former servicemen and women attended the funeral held on Armistice Day.

It began as a two-minute silence heralded by a bugler sounded the Last Post at 11am.

Mr Percival's nephew, Andrew Collier-Worsell, said the response from members of the public was "outstanding".

"It is just remarkable to see so many people turn up ... strangers ... people who never knew him in his life," he said.

"I think if he'd known, he'd have been sheltering around the corner, hiding from it all.

"He wasn't a very public man. He was a private man, a solitary loner.

"I think it shows there is a deep feeling for the veterans and the service they put in."

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Breastfeeding: New Mums To Get Shop Vouchers

Vouchers for Matalan, John Lewis, Mothercare or supermarkets are to be dished out to new mothers if they feed their babies with breast milk.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield are examining ways to boost low rates of breastfeeding in parts of the UK.

Mothers will be given shopping vouchers worth up to £120 if their babies receive breast milk until they are six weeks old, and a further £80 if their babies are still breastfed at six months.

If the "feasibility" project is successful, the authors will conduct a national research project into the scheme.

But midwives have warned that financial reward should not be the main motivation for women to breastfeed.

The new study is to be trialled in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire - in areas where breastfeeding uptake rates are low.

The NHS recommends that mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies during the first six months.

Despite this, only 34% of UK babies are breastfed at six months, with only 1% exclusively breastfed at this stage, said Dr Clare Relton, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield.

She said: "Breast milk is perfectly designed for babies and provides all they need for the first six months of their life.

"The scheme offers vouchers to mothers who breastfeed as a way of acknowledging both the value of breastfeeding to babies, mothers and society, and the effort involved in breastfeeding."

The preliminary study will focus on up to 130 mothers who give birth between November and March.

If the mothers breastfeed their children for a full six months they will receive £200 shopping vouchers - half for supermarkets and half for high street stores.

The vouchers will be paid in five instalments of £40 each.

The initiative is being funded by the National Prevention Research Initiative, a group made up of government departments, medical charities and research companies. 

The initiative will not be rigorously policed and will simply require the participating mother and their health visitor or midwife to sign off to say they are breastfeeding.

Dr Relton said the test would not only look at whether or not the payment improves uptake rates, but also at whether women think they are being "bribed or rewarded" after they receive the vouchers.

Janet Fyle, professional policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives, said: "Whilst we are not against financial incentives for the right reasons, there is a much bigger social and cultural problem here that needs to be tackled instead of offering financial incentives for mothers to breastfeed.

"In many areas, including those in this study, there are generations of women who may not have seen anyone breastfeeding their baby, meaning it is not the cultural norm in many communities.

"The motive for breastfeeding cannot be rooted by offering financial reward.

"It has to be something that a mother wants to do in the interest of the health and well-being of her child."

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Cyberattack Exercise: Banks Test Defences

By Ursula Errington, Business Reporter

Hundreds of staff from the UK's financial institutions will take part in a simulated cyberattack today.

The exercise, the details of which have been kept top secret, will be overseen by officials from the Bank of England, Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority, and will be monitored by the Government's cyber agencies.

It will concentrate on how investment banks would cope with a sustained attack on essential shared and company-specific systems, such as clearing and risk management tools.

The cyber war game, called Waking Shark II, will be led by a team from Credit Suisse, who have designed a scenario to be released to the participants in stages, as if the situation is unfolding in real time.

The test will take place in one room, with various companies and organisations sitting on different tables interacting as the situation gathers momentum. 

The aim is to help in-house IT security experts and fall-back operations planners to practise making swift decisions and communicate effectively with the regulator and industry partners to contain the problems thrown at them.

The last time such an extensive exercise was undertaken was in 2011, when institutions rehearsed how they would cope with a cyberattack during the busiest period of the London Olympics.

From that, it became apparent that an investment banking-focused exercise would be useful to lay out communication protocols between banking institutions and governing bodies, and to establish who would take the lead to co-ordinate a response in the event of such an attack.

According to David Emm, senior security researcher at internet security firm Kaspersky Lab, the right communication is vital in the aftermath of a cyberattack.

He told Sky News: "Businesses must have a plan of action which includes all relevant stakeholders from both internal and external parties.

"Communication across other sectors can be important as the effects on one company can have far reaching consequences for many others.

"The UK Government is keen to pursue a joined-up approach to dealing with cyberattacks - which is good news, but more work still needs to be done to help all businesses adopt a more secure mindset, and exercises like this help contribute to this."

Results and recommendations from the exercise will be published by early next year.

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Public Pay '£56m Rip-Off' On Government Calls

More than 100 million calls by the public to Government departments were charged at premium rates - costing an estimated £56m, an influential committee of MPs has said.

A Public Accounts Committee report said of 208 million calls in 2012/13, some 63% were made to higher rate numbers with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) receiving 100 million of the calls and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) taking 68 million calls.

Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge said: "Customers of Government services should be able to contact those services easily and cheaply. Charging customers higher rates by making them use 0845 or other high rate numbers is not acceptable, especially when the customers are often vulnerable people.

"We found that one third of customer telephone lines across central Government used higher rate numbers. Half of those lines serve the poorest people.

"Customers spent an estimated £56m on calls using higher rate numbers, from the lines run by the Department for Work and Pensions, to helplines for victim support and the Bereavement Service and the inquiries and complaints line of the Student Loans Company."

Chairwoman Margaret Hodge has said the practice is 'not acceptable'

In its report, the committee also said calls to Government departments take too long to answer. It found most departments have no targets at all, despite a normal industry benchmark demanding calls be answered within 20 seconds.

It said HM Revenue and Customs only answered 16% of calls made to its tax credit helpline on July 31, the deadline day for notifying change of circumstances.

And across the first quarter of 2013/14, average call waits at HM Revenue and Customs were seven minutes, the report said.

Mrs Hodge said: "Performance by departments varies but is often astonishingly bad. HMRC managed to answer only 16% of the calls it received on its tax credits helpline on the deadline day for notifying the department of changes of circumstances.

"Citizens should not as a matter of principle have to put up with standards of service from government which are significantly worse than industry standards."

Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which?, said it was "ridiculous" that people face a bumper bill to call a public body.

HMRC has taken 68 million calls on higher rate numbers in the past year

"The Cabinet Office must now act fast to ensure the Government and public bodies lead by example and put an end to costly calls," he added.

The DWP has already said it will phase out the use of 0845 numbers.

A Government spokesman said: "We agree that it is inappropriate for vulnerable people to pay high charges for accessing vital public services and we are clear that a more consistent approach is needed.

"The Cabinet Office now runs a cross-departmental group to consider customer telephone lines. This group has made good progress in drafting guidance on prefix number selection and establishing best practice.

"We will publish this guidance and have a standing remit to ensure it is kept up to date."

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Walk-In Centre Closures 'Threaten Communities'

By Tadhg Enright, Sky News Correspondent

More than 50 NHS walk-in centres have closed over the past three years, according to a report by a health regulator.

Monitor, the NHS watchdog for England, has blamed problems on the way the nurse-led clinics are funded and warned that further closures could undermine the equality of healthcare provision in the communities affected.

Monitor's Catherine Davies told Sky News: "A lot of patients attending walk-in centres are also registered with GPs and so when patients choose to attend a walk-in centre instead of their GP practice, the commissioner of care in their area is, in effect, having to pay twice."

Walk-in centres were launched eight years ago as an alternative to GP and A&E care. 

Most are open from early morning until late at night, seven days a week with no appointment necessary. 

Nurse practitioners treat patients for minor illnesses and injuries and GPs are often available at times when nearby practices are closed. 

Sky News visited a centre in Teddington and met Sophie Gallagher, a secondary school student who injured her wrist in a hockey game.

She said: "When I've been to Kingston A&E it took a lot longer. This place is more efficient and you get through a lot quicker."

Ms Gallagher was treated by a nurse practitioner who arranged for her to have an X-ray at the centre.

Advanced Nurse practitioner Inge Kievit

Monitor has found that of 238 walk-in centres which opened over the past decade, only 185 remain.

Its research suggests they are popular with young adults, women and people from vulnerable social groups such as the homeless, who cannot register with a local GP.

It also found some care commissioners were concerned some patients were using the service to treat ailments that did not require professional attention.

But out of 2,000 patients who were asked by Monitor what they would do if their walk-in centre closed, only 8% said they would try to treat themselves at home.

Some 21% said they would attend A&E and a further 34% would see their GP.

Teddington's walk-in centre cares for around 48,000 patients every year.

Advanced Nurse Practitioner Inge Kievit said: "If you look at this particular walk-in centre and the amount of people that we see, where would people go? And how are GP practices and A&E departments supposed to cope with the amount of people if you take walk-in centres away?"

Monitor suggests that to preserve walk-in centres, the NHS might need to re-examine the funding model for GP practices, because it pays them to have patients registered at their practices and it also pays the centres for each attendee.

Health Minister Lord Howe said: "Patients should be able to access good-quality out-of-hours NHS services without having to go to an A&E. Walk-in centres may be part of the answer but this isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

"Family GPs, community services and pharmacists all have a part to play and it's good that Monitor is looking at how walk-in centres fit in."

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Help To Buy Extension Boosts October Prices

There has been strong demand for homes under the Government's Help to Buy mortgage scheme extension, according to two major high street banks.

The Halifax and Royal Bank of Scotland said they received a total of £365m in mortgage applications from 2,384 would-be owners, with an average value of more than £153,000 per loan.

Help to Buy is designed to prompt loan providers into offering mortgages with deposits from 5%, but critics warn it risks causing another property bubble in Britain.

Meanwhile, the number of surveyors reporting house prices lifting across the country has surged to an 11-year high in October as the Government's new Help to Buy scheme fuels "soaring" demand from buyers.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said urgent action must be taken to tackle the problem of demand outstripping the supply of homes for sale, which is "nowhere near" the levels needed to cope.

Sales volumes are running at their highest levels in more than five and a half years as more people flood into the market to snap up properties, its latest UK survey found.

Rics said that 57% of surveyors reported price rises during the month, the highest percentage since June 2002, reflecting the imbalance between supply and demand.

Over the three months to October, surveyors sold just over 20 homes typically, the highest average since February 2008. They expect house prices and sales volumes to edge higher in the next three months.

Meanwhile, demand for rented property is increasing at its slowest pace in over a decade as more people make the jump on or up the property ladder, Rics reported.

A balance of 11% of those surveyed reported rises in interest from potential tenants in October, the lowest proportion in more than 10 years.

But Rics said that while the new phase of Help to Buy is "widening the net" of people who can get mortgage access, surveyors across the UK are reporting a "problematic" lack of new instructions from sellers.

Rics said that recovery is "spreading beyond the traditional economic powerhouses of London and the South East".

Meanwhile, the high value rental stock market in London faces oversupply, because of developers' rush to target rich foreign investors.

Last year more than £7bn of foreign money was ploughed into the high-end sector, while only 20% came from UK sources.

Estate agents Savills said that London now faces a shortfall of 50,000 new homes a year - equivalent to building five Olympic competitor villages each year.

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Funeral Appeal After WWII Veteran Dies Alone

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a funeral of a war veteran they never knew after it emerged he died with no close friends or relatives.

Harold Jellicoe Percival served as RAF ground crew and helped with the famous Dambusters raids during the Second World War.

He died last month aged 99 in a nursing home.

Mr Percival's funeral will be held at 11am on Armistice Day at a crematorium in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.

The veteran never married, had no children and has no close family members able to go to the service.

A request for servicemen first went out in a local newspaper

But after publicity in local newspapers and social media, funeral directors say they are now hoping for a good turnout.

The RAF Association tweeted that its "Northern area will be in attendance" so Mr Percival "won't be alone".

Afghanistan veteran Rick Clement, who lost both legs in 2010, has been using Twitter and Facebook to urge people to turn up to pay their respects.

"Need a big favour from any military or ex serving members. This fallen soldier at 99 years old is having a funeral on Monday," he said.

"It says he has no family to attend in Lytham St Anne's. If your in the area can you give him the send off he deserves." 

He later thanked all those who had supported the appeal, saying: "Harold is going to get an amazing send off."

Comedian Jason Manford has also got behind the campaign.

Mr Percival lived in Penge, south London, before joining the RAF.

He was based in northwest England and became part of the ground crew which helped the Dambusters, the squadron which was initially formed to destroy dams in the Ruhr valley in Nazi Germany.

Mr Percival helped support the Dambusters' daring raid during World War Two

After working in Australia, he later retired to England and lived at a care home in Lytham St Annes.

Matron Janet Wareing said: "Harold was a lovely character, very strong-willed and independent.

"He was quite a private man, and he loved reading his Daily Telegraph every morning.

"We have already been contacted by military veterans who are intending to come, even though they have never met him.

"We've been told one group is looking to bring around 200 people to the service, which would be fantastic."

Mr Percival does have a nephew, David Worsell, but he is not able to attend so his son - Mr Percival's great nephew - will represent the family.

He was a distant relative of former British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, the only PM to have ever been assassinated.

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Remembrance Day Services To Honour Veterans

War Graves 'Have Enormous Power To Engage'

Updated: 1:51am UK, Sunday 10 November 2013

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Burma

Just outside the chaos and the buzz of Burma's largest city, Rangoon, is a place of remarkable peace and tranquility.

Set back from the busy highway linking Rangoon to the Burma's new capital city Naypyidaw is the Taukkyan War Cemetery.

Taukkyan is the final resting place for 6,426 soldiers of the Commonwealth who fought and died in one or other of the two world wars.

The headstones are lined up in perfect uniformity. I spot a Private Jones and a Corporal Johnson.

Their names seem oddly incongruous so far from 'home'. It is a reminder of just how global the two world wars were.

As always at war cemeteries, the ages are sobering. Most of those I pause by in Taukkyan are teenagers.

Around the world there are a staggering 23,000 war cemeteries just like Taukkyan.

You will find them in 153 different countries, they hold the remains and bear the names of 1.7 million individuals and they are all managed and beautifully maintained by an organisation called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

"The CWGC maintains the very fabric upon which remembrance of the war dead is focussed," Peter Francis, from the CWGC, told Sky News.

"Today, the war graves and memorials are perhaps the only physical reminder of the war left. They have an enormous power in my experience to engage the individual in the war and the sacrifices made."

The gravestones that line the fields of Northern France are well-known, but similarly poignant cemeteries can be found in every country where battles of either world war were fought.

From Burma to Libya and from Turkey to Thailand they are all as moving as they are magnificent.

Some are in deserts, some in mountains, some under snow and some lined with palm trees.

Many of the cemeteries are the legacy of an extraordinary pledge made during the two world wars.

These were the days before repatriations of the like we see today. Back then, soldiers were buried where they fell, but admirable efforts were made to record each individual burial location.

When the guns fell silent, as many of the bodies as possible were 'repatriated', not home, but to a central cemetery where they could lie side-by-side.

Mr Francis points out that World War One marked a step-change in how the victims of war were remembered.

"Before the First World War it was unusual to remember the sacrifice of 'ordinary' soldiers," he explained.

"One only has to look around London and see the memorials to Generals, or go to the battlefield at Waterloo (just 100 years before the Great War) to see that there was very little to mark the sacrifice of the soldier. The First World War and the CWGC changed all that.

"It is all too easy, for those of us who have grown up with the two minute silence, the poppy, the war graves, the memorials, to think there was an inevitability about the commemoration of the war dead. That is not the case."

Along with the 6,426 marked graves at Taukkyan is a memorial wall on which are etched the names of a staggering 27,000 others who died during the battles in Burma and who have no known grave.

Burma, now Myanmar, was a battle ground for both wars and has been for many more since.

The upkeep of so many cemeteries, some in countries now the frontline of new wars, is a huge undertaking.

Mr Francis tells me about one cemetery which is a 45 minute boat ride to a remote Scottish Island. Access to another involves a dangerous journey across Libya.

"Every site, every grave is inspected, assessed and maintained by our dedicated workforce - some 1,300 strong worldwide (the vast majority gardeners and stone masons)," he told me.

"Some may stay at one cemetery their entire career, others will move from country to country. Some are even the third generation of their family to work for us - one of the nice things about the organisation is that we do have a sense of 'family'."

While there are cemeteries in unstable counties like Syria, Iraq and Libya, there are challenges even in places like the UK.

"Here in the UK we face a very peculiar challenge," Mr Francis said.

"Most people do not realise that in the UK, the Commission commemorates more than 300,000 Commonwealth servicemen and women who died in the two world wars - their graves and memorials to be found at a staggering 13,000 locations.

"There is little awareness of this. These range from small rural churchyards to large urban civic cemeteries. In essence we have to enter into 13,000 agreements to maintain these sites."

The CWGC, which is well-funded by grants from Commonwealth-member governments, expects that visitor numbers will increase by up to 30% over the next four years.

It has now embarked on a renovation and modernisation programme.

"Our headstone replacement capacity is now at 22,000 headstones a year and we are re-engraving some 19,000 headstones a year in situ - maintaining the very fabric upon which remembrance of the Great War is largely based and keeping alive in stone the names of those who died."

The commission's website now contains an interactive database allowing people to search for a relative who died in a far-away battle.

Initiatives like this help younger people connect to a past with which they no longer have a direct generational link. 

"An increased awareness of, and sense of ownership in, war graves in the UK, will greatly assist the Commission's task of caring and maintaining for these sites, some of which may have been abandoned to nature over the decades," Mr Francis said.

Back at Taukkyan, I watch one of the commission's volunteers, an elderly Burmese man. He rakes away fallen leaves from the pristine grass around the rows of graves.

Two young Burmese boys wander past. I wonder how much they know of their country's troubled history. Hopefully for them, the troubles are history.

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New Mums 'Left Clueless Amid Midwife Crisis'

Nearly half of new mothers say they are not given enough advice on how to recognise if their baby has a life-threatening illness once they have left hospital, according to a survey.

The survey by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and Netmums also showed that nearly a third (30.8%) felt unsupported and were asked to go home when they were not ready to leave.

Nearly two thirds (60%) of women said they experienced feeling down or depressed after giving birth, and over two-thirds (40%) said they were not given enough information about breastfeeding.

Mothers' concerns have been echoed by midwives. Asked in the survey if they thought they were able to deliver clinical postnatal care to a standard they were pleased with, over half (58%) said they would like to be able to do more or a lot more.

Just over a third (40%) of midwives said that they had enough time and resources to support and inform women about emotional wellbeing.

RCM chief executive Cathy Warwick said: "These surveys confirm some of my fears about the level and quality of postnatal care that midwives are able to provide and that women are receiving.

"We know from a recent survey of heads of midwifery that postnatal care is suffering because of midwife shortages.

"Whilst I recognise that the Government are working hard to increase midwife numbers, the serious shortage that currently exists is having an impact and it is affecting the quality of care for women."

In response to the findings, a Department of Health spokesperson said: "We are doing everything possible to make sure women get the right maternity support.

"There are now over 1,300 more midwives working in the NHS since May 2010, and a record 5,000 more in training who will all qualify in the next three years. We have also increased the number of health visitors and family nurses, who provide vital support for women.

"Most women have good outcomes and positive experiences of maternity care. We know 84% of women now say they have good care, which has gone up from 75% six years ago. But we are determined to do more.

"Last year, we announced a £25m fund to pay for improvements to over 100 maternity wards and birthing units, including nine new midwifery-led units.

"The work we are doing is making a big difference to the experience that mums and families have of NHS maternity services, with more choice and a better environment where women can give birth."

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Man Killed In Double Shooting In Leeds

A man has been killed and another seriously injured after a double shooting inside a house in Leeds.

The pair were attacked at around 5.30pm on Friday in Wortley, in the west of the city.

They were both taken to hospital but one of the victims, 21, was pronounced dead a short time later.

A 31-year-old man is being treated for serious wounds to his lower body.

Detective Superintendent Simon Beldon, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "At this time our investigations are at a very early stage and forensic examinations are taking place at the scene.

"We believe that the shots were fired inside the property, however inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.

"The nature of this incident suggests it was a targeted and isolated attack and a team of detectives are currently working hard to quickly identify those responsible for this serious crime.

"Neighbourhood policing team officers are also patrolling the local area, speaking to residents and responding to any concerns they may have."

:: Anyone with information is asked to contact police on the non emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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