UK news in pictures

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  22 December 2015

  People gather to take a selfie photograph as pagans and revelers gather at Stonehenge, hoping to see the sun rise, as they take part in a winter solstice ceremony at the ancient neolithic monument of Stonehenge near Amesbury, Wiltshire. Despite a forecast for rain, a large crowd gathered at the famous historic stone circle, a UNESCO listed ancient monument, to celebrate the sunrise closest to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. The event is claimed to be more important in the pagan calendar than the summer solstice, because it marks the ‘re-birth’ of the Sun for the New Year.

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  21 December 2015

  An employee sorts deliveries at Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant Mail Center in London. This week is expected to be the busiest of the year for Royal Mail as they deal with deliveries in the run up to Christmas.

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  20 December 2015

  London buses pass under Christmas lights on Oxford Street in central London, on the final shopping Sunday before Christmas.

  AFP

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  19 December 2015

  A supporter wears a t-shirt featuring the face of Chelsea’s former Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho before the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Sunderland at Stamford Bridge

  AFP/Getty

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  18 December 2015

  Josh Clewley harvests Brussels sprouts at Essington Fruit Farm in Wolverhampton for the Christmas market

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  17 December 2015

  Armed police stand guard outside Number 10 Downing Street in London as security across the city has tightened in the run up to Christmas

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  16 December 2015

  Deborah McGibbney (left) and Nishma Rana, employees at Royal Mail’s Glasgow Mail Centre, wear Santa hats as they help to handle millions of items during the Christmas rush on the centre’s busiest day of the year

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  15 December 2015

  Farmer Harvey Maunder walks with his flock of free-range geese that he has reared for the Christmas table, in front of the farmhouse at Home Farm in the village of Kingsweston near Somerton. The birds, which have been reared as free-range from chicks and have already broken out to eat Mrs Maunder’s Christmas sprouts, are due to be dispatched and prepared for the farm shop’s customers

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  14 December 2015

  Ascot Racecourse has unveiled the ‘foursie’ – a festive onesie tailor-made for Shetland pony, Daffy. The foursie has been made to keep Daffy warm as the cold winter approaches. Ascot is encouraging race goers to don their festive finery ahead of its Christmas Racing Weekend which takes place on the 18 and 19 December, with racegoers encouraged to donate to a host of local good causes

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  13 December 2015

  Oxford’s ‘Business’ (left) and ‘Pleasure’ (right, white arms) pass the Harrod’s Depository during the BNY Mellon University Boat Race Trial 8’s on The River Thames in London

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  12 December 2015

  Demonstrators wave a Syrian flag during a Stop The War Coalition protest as protesters march along Whitehall in London

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  11 December 2015

  Royal British Legion standard bearers march ahead of the hearse at the funeral service for 90-year old World War Two veteran Thomas Cox in Middlesbrough. Following an appeal on social media hundreds of people attended the service for the World War Two veteran from Stockton who served with the Royal Pioneer Corps and who died recently without any family members being able to be found

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  10 December 2015

  John Lewis’s Christmas tree farm, Netherraw Forestry in Scotland, is set for a busy festive season as the retailer reveals a huge surge in demand for real Christmas trees

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  9 December 2015

  Model makers Hannah Reed (left) and Amanda Green put the finishing touches to a huge 6.7kg Lego Angel which is on top of a giant 8m tall Christmas tree made of Lego bricks at the Legoland Windsor Resort in Berkshire

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  9 December 2015

  St Paul’s Choristers prepare to sing during a rehearsal at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It is estimated that on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of December alone, more than 10,000 people will come through the doors of St Paul’s for Christmas services

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  8 December 2015

  Christmas shoppers browse stalls at the traditional Christmas market close to the historic Roman Baths and Bath Abbey in Bath

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  8 December 2015

  The Boy Choristers of Winchester Cathedral Choir skate on the Cathedral’s ice rink which will be open until the 3rd of January

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  7 December 2015

  Shop workers clear rubbish from a store in Cockermouth, northern England, following heavy flooding in the town. Thousands of homes and business were affected by the heavy rains and strong winds that battered Britain over the weekend, with one death reported in London after a man was blown into the path of a bus, police said

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  6 December 2015

  A rescue team helps to evacuate people from their homes after Storm Desmond caused flooding in Carlisle. Storm Desmond has brought severe disruption to areas of northern England as dozens of flood warnings remain in place

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  5 December 2015

  Chickens wander around within the ‘Grow Heathrow’ protest camp, in Sipson, near Heathrow airport . The residents of the camp aim to stop or disrupt the proposed development of an extra runway at the airport due to the impact it would have on the environment and the lives of local residents. Members of the community fear that the village of Harmondsworth would be the location of the runway, meaning that many family homes would be either demolished or made unuseable

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  4 December 2015

  A new statue of the Beatles is unveiled by John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird (not pictured) outside the Liverbuilding, in Liverpool

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  3 December 2015

  A Tornado jet ahead of taking off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The air strikes were carried out within hours of a vote by MPs in the Commons to back extending operations against Isis from neighbouring Iraq

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  2 December 2015

  Eric Marshall (75) turns on his Christmas lights at his home in Bagby, North Yorkshire which took four weeks to install

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  1 December 2015

  The giant sugar statues created by SodaStream went on display in front of the Houses of Parliament to mark National Sugar Awareness Week. The statues were made using the total amount of sugar from fizzy drinks consumed every minute by children, teenagers and adults in the UK

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  30 November 2015

  Marvel UK has unveiled an Ant Sized Street View platform that gives Brits an insects view point of the capital, to mark today’s Ant-Man DVD release. The interactive #AntSizedStreetView platform, allows fans to explore some of the city’s best known sights

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  29 November 2015

  Climate change demonstrators march to demand curbs to carbon pollution in London, on the eve of the climate summit in Paris

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  29 November 2015

  Malala Yousafzai stands next to a three-meter high portrait by artist, Nasser Azam at Birmingham’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts, in Birmingham

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  28 November 2015

  Protesters sit down in the middle of the road during a day of protest outside Downing Street against the possible British involvement in the bombing of Syria, in London. UK anti-war organisation, Stop the War Coalition, organised the protest in response to the proposed vote in Parliament by David Cameron to involve British forces in the bombing of ISIS targets in Syria

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  27 November 2015

  Salisbury Cathedral celebrates the beginning of Advent with a candle lit service and procession, “From Darkness to Light”, in Salisbury

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  26 November 2015

  Alex Salmond MP unveils a painting of himself at The National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. The portrait by Gerard Burns depicting Mr Salmond in the main reception room of the First Ministers official residence Bute House, was acquired by supporters of Alex Salmond who was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014, and served as the First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014

Mick Hickling, 70, who cares for an outpatient who has been waiting for an appointment since the hospital closed, said: “Different parts of the NHS are engaged in a turf war over Bootham Park while seriously ill people are living each day on the edge. The last thing they need is sudden change. Closing the hospital and shutting out people who desperately need care was not the answer.”

NHS chiefs say they are committed to building a new hospital, although it is unlikely to open before 2019. But campaigners are calling for Bootham Park to be refurbished and made safe until then.

Dr Bob Adams, a consultant psychiatrist who worked at Bootham Park and a leading member of the Mental Health Action York campaign group, said: “I was shocked and horrified by Bootham Park’s closure. The risk of closing the hospital and transferring patients out of the area is greater than any risks present in the hospital building. Any issues with the building could have been fixed, but now the hospital has been closed and patients moved to Middlesbrough and Darlington.”

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission first raised concerns about Bootham Park following an inspection in 2013, which deemed the building “unsafe and unsuitable”. The CQC’s latest inspection in September this year raised further concerns about the risk of suicide because it said the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which ran the service, had been unable to remove all potential ligature points because of the building’s listed status.

Inspectors also said patients were “at risk of serious scalding” because of unregulated hot water temperatures. It also said the layout of the building meant nursing staff could not observe all parts of the wards.

The closure happened as services at the hospital were being transferred to another NHS trust: the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. The CQC was unable to process that trust’s application to re-register the hospital because the facilities had been found to be unsafe. The Leeds and York Partnership said in a report to councillors in October that the closure could have been avoided if a work programme agreed with health commissioners and NHS Property Services, which owned the building, had been completed on time.

But NHS Property Services says the CQC cited insufficient staff numbers, poor hygiene and poor infection control as motives for the closure, and these were the responsibility of the Leeds and York Partnership. It said “significant work” was undertaken to try to improve the premises, with NHS Property Services providing £1.7m of investment.

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Trust says outpatient clinics continue to be held in York and it hopes to move them back to Bootham Park early in the new year. Ruth Hill, the trust’s director of operations for York, said: “Our aim is to have a new hospital in York. Unfortunately, this is unlikely before 2019 and in the meantime we need to bring adult inpatient services back to York as soon as possible.” A dementia care centre in York is now being adapted into an adult mental health inpatient unit and is set to re-open next summer.

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