Latest UK news

Force is with Skywalker Blair, not Tigger Hague
Students associate prime minister Tony Blair with goody-two-shoes Star Wars character Luke Skywalker and Ann Widdecombe with puppet moggy Bagpuss, a poll revealed today. Many see Tory leader William Hague as Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy as The Invisible Man. The survey, for online publication spiked , was conducted among 100 London university students aged 20 to 24.

Rising Scots stars 'merit funding'
Sir William Stewart, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and former chief scientific adviser, has told a Scottish parliamentary committee that Scottish university principals should be given direct funding to support “rising stars”.

Parties' science policies available online
Letters from Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy on science policy have been put on a website by the pressure group Save British Science Society. They can be read at www.savebritishscience.org.uk

Lycra acts as best sunscreen
Visitors to the Science Museum in London were today being given the chance to test how well their clothes protect them from sunburn. Colin Driscoll, from the National Radiological Protection Board, was demonstrating the sunscreen effectiveness of different fabrics. Experts say that Lycra is best.

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