News In Brief

Major: Recovery is on the way

POLITICS: Millionaire Tory ex-PM John Major claimed today that “recovery is on the way” despite an ongoing recession, mass underemployment and youth joblessness and 80 per cent of public-sector cuts still to come.

“There are things happening out there that will become apparent and we don’t quite know why or how,” he said vaguely.

Foreign lorries face £1,000 road levy

TRANSPORT: Foreign lorries are to be charged up to £1,000 a year to use British roads, ministers said today.

The coalition said the charge, which would be introduced by 2015, would create a “level playing field” for British firms, which will have to pay the levy but get a cut in vehicle excise duty to make up for it.

Events mark mine disaster

WALES: Commemorations were held over the weekend to mark the first anniversary of the deaths of four miners in a Swansea Valley pit flood last year.

Charles Breslin, Philip Hill, Gary Jenkins and David Powell were trapped when a wall holding back water at the Gleision coalmine collapsed.

South Wales Police are still investigating the incident.