Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
According to a survey of more than 6,000 Metropolitan Police officers, a third say they wish to resign from the force due to low pay and morale.
Officers feel “worse off” at the current time than they were five years ago, with one former officer resigning within three years of joining the force as he was “struggling to live off his salary”.
The Met acknowledges that it does have “low starting salaries”, and the government has given a “pay increase of 7% to officers”.
Findings of the survey says:
- 89% of officers surveyed said they felt "worse off"
- 29% of officers who responded to the survey said they intend to resign
- 97% of officers surveyed said they did not feel respected by the government.
Crazy News
A rare 18th Century dolls’ house, which miraculously survived a serious fire at a stately home, has been loaned to a Kent Museum.
Consisting of more than 700 fixtures and fittings, the house owned by Sarah Lethieullier – from a prominent French Protestant Huguenot family – has been described as “one of the best surviving examples of its kind in the world”.
The house dates to the 1730s and was originally made for the Lethieullier family who resided at Uppark House which had a serious blaze in 1989.
Tessa Murdoch from the Huguenot Museum Trust in Rochester says: “The nine-room Palladian dolls’ house taught Sarah everything she needed to know, from taking care of the objects within the house, to learning the rightful place of her footmen, parlour maid and staff”.
Even HG Wells got to see the dolls’ house when he visited Uppark.
Happy News
Music and theatre legend Michael Ball took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall alongside hundreds of musicians with learning difficulties.
The Music Man Project was created by David Stanley in Southend and has further expanded across the United Kingdom with 14 regional teaching centres and opportunities to perform both nationally and internationally.
There were more than 700 musicians performing during Monday’s concert, with 250 from the Music Man Project and others from the Royal Marines Band.
Michael Ball become patron of the charity last year, and "hopes this is the first of many times we perform together”.
Speaking of the charity, Ball adds: “It does nothing but bring joy, acceptance and a platform for people with learning disabilities, and we share this language of music”.
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