Unwanted Christmas Presents: £2.1bn Wasted

Britons spent about £2.1bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year, with clothing and ornaments topping the list of unwelcome items.

Adults will have typically received two unwanted festive gifts worth an average of £43.50, according to classifieds website Gumtree.

Clothing, accessories, beauty products, toiletries, trinkets and ornaments were most likely to have been unpopular, researchers found.

One-fifth of people said their friends had most commonly got it wrong, while one in 10 blamed work colleagues and 9% said their mother-in-law had made the mistake.

Londoners have the most expensive hoard of unwanted gifts, worth £51.75 on average, and they are also the most likely to end up in the bin, with 4% of people there saying they would throw them away.

Only 2% of people questioned said they would make their feelings clear if they did not like a present, while 6% would ask for the receipt and two-thirds would mask their disappointment and thank the gift-giver enthusiastically.

The research was taken from a survey of 2,000 people.

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Weather: Landslide Alert Amid Floods And Rain

A landslide warning has been issued by the Met Office, as continued heavy downpours sparked fears of unstable cliff faces.

Boxing Day walkers were urged to take extra care in "dangerous conditions" with flooding set to worsen across parts of England and Wales today.

The Met Office has issued the warning following advice from the British Geological Survey.

Forecasters said coastal areas in southwest England are in particular danger of collapsing cliff edges, but stressed that all areas with heavy rain are at risk.

Helston in Cornwall has been badly affected by floods

A spokesman for the Met Office said: "We have had such heavy and persistent rain fall over the last few days and weeks and that there is a danger of landslides and rockfall along the coast, even on coastal paths.

"We are advising Boxing Day walkers in the southwest of England to take particular care in these dangerous conditions, especially those not familiar with the area.

"Do not get too close to the cliff edge or walk under the cliff face along the beach and remember that coastal paths could be impacted too."

Many coastal paths have been closed over the last few weeks along the South West and train services have been disrupted by small coastal landslides.

Charlotte Blackman was killed in a landslide during the summer

There have been several landslide tragedies involving walkers in recent years. Last summer, Charlotte Blackman was buried by rocks while walking with her family on the Dorset coast.

Weather experts said up to 15mm of rain fell across southwest England and south Wales, with up to 20mm expected again today.

Sky weather presenter Sarah Pennock said there would be more heavy rainfall over some areas of the UK.

She said: "The main event today is a band of rain already spreading into southwestern Ireland and Scotland.

"This will dump up to an inch in places, will fall on already saturated ground and will exacerbate the risk of further flooding."

The Environment Agency has 120 flood warnings in place, which urge residents to take immediate action against expected flooding.

A further 228 less severe flood alerts have been issued across most of England and Wales.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has removed all its warnings, with lighter showers expected only through the southwest of the country.

Around 470 properties have flooded since Wednesday, while Floodline revealed it has received 18,000 calls during the recent wet weather.

The worst affected areas have been southwest England and stretches along the south coast from Cornwall to Kent, along with Wales and northern Scotland.

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New TV Campaign As Men's Cancer Risk Hits 50%

A TV advertising campaign has been launched as research reveals that half of all men will get cancer.

Cancer Research UK has released figures showing that diagnosis of men with the disease is increasing - but more are also surviving.

The charity used Boxing Day to launch a TV campaign highlighting how research can save lives and featuring stories from survivors.

New figures suggest that by 2027, 50 men out of every 100 are likely to be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime.

That compares to 44 out of every 100 in 2010.

Women's lifetime cancer risk is also increasing and is predicted to rise from 40 to 44 out of every 100 women by 2027.

However, the charity says that cancer survival has doubled in the last 40 years thanks to detection techniques and improved treatments.

Age is the biggest risk factor for cancer and the increase in risk is largely due to more people living longer.

The cancers set to increase most in the next 15 years include prostate, bowel and melanoma, Cancer Research UK says.

Prostate cancer remains a continuing challenge. Cases of the disease are rising but it is not yet possible to distinguish which prostate cancers will be life-threatening.

Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK's prostate cancer expert, said: "Prostate cancer needs research. We have many questions and research is key to providing answers about the disease.

"As our population ages, growing numbers of men will be diagnosed with the disease.

"Over the last 40 years prostate cancer incidence rates in Great Britain have tripled, and three-quarters of cases are diagnosed in men aged over 65 years."

One example of useful research by Cancer Research UK scientists is work indicating that a protein called MSMB may help identify men at greater risk of prostate cancer.

The researchers showed that this protein seems more accurately linked to prostate cancer than the marker currently tested for - the prostate specific antigen (PSA).

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Tube Strike: Shoppers Face Boxing Day Delays

London Underground drivers have gone on strike on Boxing Day for the third consecutive year, causing major disruptions to Christmas bargain-hunters and visitors to the capital.

The train drivers' union Aslef stopped work today for the first of three strikes as part of a long-running dispute about Bank Holiday pay.

Two further walk-outs are scheduled for the last two Fridays in January.

With up to 7.1 million shoppers expected to hit the Boxing Day sales, Transport for London (TfL) said it is was doing everything possible to help shoppers get into and around London.

Services are operating today on most London Underground lines, however TfL is warning passengers of major disruptions and only limited services on all lines.

The Waterloo & City line is closed today, while other lines are operating reduced services.

The Piccadilly line is expected to be closed through the city centre, and the Victoria line is scheduled to run only between Seven Sisters and Victoria at a reduced frequency.

Extra buses will be laid on for those travelling to the West End, as well as the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford and White City.

London Overground services are not in operation today and the Congestion Charge has been suspended.

Some rail services are operating on Southern and South Eastern trains into London Victoria and London St Pancras International, as well as on the Gatwick Express and Stansted Express.

Aslef argues it is not to blame for today's industrial action, saying management has "sat on its hands and offered nothing constructive to resolve this dispute".

Over 90% of Aslef members voted in favour of launching the action for a third consecutive year.

But TfL has condemned Aslef for what it argues is a "completely unnecessary disruption to Londoners on Boxing Day".

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "Train drivers are paid a salary that reflects some Bank Holiday working, but the Aslef leadership is demanding to be paid twice for the same work and has rejected our attempts to resolve the matter.

"The scandalous actions of the Aslef leadership are an attempt to hold Londoners to ransom, and demonstrate a wholesale disregard for our customers - making life harder for shoppers, sports fans, retail workers and businesses amongst others at an important time.

"They also show a disregard for the thousands of transport staff who will be working hard to help people get around the capital."

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Oxfam: 'Band Aid' Image Damages Africa Efforts

The British public needs to get rid of the "Band Aid" portrayal of Africa as a hopeless continent if they are to help with its problems, Oxfam says.

The charity says Africa's negative image in Britain is undermining efforts to bring an end to hunger on the continent.

The aid agency has revealed that three-fifths of people questioned for a survey said they have become desensitised to images of hunger, drought and disease.

Although nearly three-quarters of respondents thought it was ultimately possible to bring an end to hunger across the continent, only one in five believed they could play an active role in achieving it.

Almost half of more than 2,000 people surveyed by YouGov identified hunger as one of the three most pressing problems facing Africa next year.

Bob Geldof and Midge Ure launched Band Aid to raise money in 1984

Respondents said media and advertising portrayals of Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world are "depressing, manipulative and hopeless".

And just under half said they were left feeling that conditions for people living in the developing world would never improve.

The results come 18 years after Bob Geldof and Midge Ure formed their Band Aid charity supergroup in response to shocking images of people affected by the famine in Ethiopia.

Oxfam says it intends to strike a more optimistic tone in its future campaigning.

Its chief executive, Dame Barbara Stocking, said: "Oxfam has led the way in drawing attention to the plight of Africa's most vulnerable people and we aren't trying to gloss over the problems that still beset so many of them, particularly levels of malnutrition that remain stubbornly high.

Geldof has continued to campaign with friends including U2 frontman Bono

"But we've come a long way since the 1980s and Band Aid's Do They Know it's Christmas? We need to shrug off the old stereotypes and celebrate the continent's diversity and complexity, which is what we are attempting with this campaign.

"The relentless focus on ongoing problems at the expense of a more nuanced portrait of the continent, is obscuring the progress that is being made towards a more secure and prosperous future.

"If we want people to help fight hunger we have to give them grounds for hope by showing the potential of countries across Africa; it's a natural instinct to turn away from suffering when you feel you can do nothing to alleviate it."

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Boxing Day Sales: Bargain Hunters Hit Shops

Britain's shops look set for a bumper Boxing Day of profits as bargain hunters go on a predicted £3bn spending spree at the sales.

People queued overnight in London's Oxford Street in preparation for stores opening this morning, with thousands pouring through the doors from as early as 6am.

Selfridges bosses said they took £1.5m at the tills in the first hour of opening and stores across the West End expect some £50m of takings in one day.

Sue West, Selfridges director of operations, said handbags and menswear were among the items flying off the shelves.

She said: "Online sales have been great but year on year people still want to experience the Boxing Day sales."

Manchester's Trafford Centre has been enjoying what is thought to be the biggest Boxing Day in its history - with police drafted in to help manage the crowds.

Hundreds of shoppers poured through the doors when Selfridges opened

The centre's Gordon McKinnon said: "Many retailers have kept stock levels much tighter this year, so the sales will not be stretching on into January."

Queues began to form at Kent's Bluewater at 1am on Boxing Day, with around 3,000 waiting for the doors to open at 7am.

Up to 7.1 million shoppers are expected to hit the shops at some stage, with one in 10 venturing out for a deal before 9am, according to research from Green Flag.

According to MoneySupermarket.com, shoppers in the UK are set to spend a total of £2.9bn.

A poll for the website found almost four million Britons (8%) planned to head to the high street on Boxing Day in addition to more than five million (10%) who will be searching online.

Queues formed outside some shops from as early as 1am.

However, figures from one survey, by comparison website Pricerunner, suggested that almost half (47%) of those questioned were not planning on buying anything in the post-Christmas sales.

A strike by London tube drivers about bank holiday pay does not seem to have had too much impact on the sales.

Extra buses were laid on for those travelling to the West End, as well as the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford, east London, and White City, west London, Transport for London said.

Jason Tyrrell from the New West End Company told Sky News: "We were prepared for this strike and had coaches for staff. The shoppers are out in force, but I hope both sides get round the table and sort it out."

Stores reported an influx of shoppers from abroad

Online retailers tried to stay one step ahead of the competition by offering heavy discounts on Christmas Day with Amazon's UK website seeing a 263% rise in sales over the last five years.

Analyst Experian predicted that Christmas 2012 would be the "biggest and busiest ever" for online retailers in the UK, with visits to retail websites expected to reach 126 million today, up 31% on 2011 and consumers predicted to spend £472.5m online.

But there was more gloom for the high street in the run-up to Christmas with shoppers preferring to buy presents online, according to Business recovery group Begbies Traynor.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said high street spending was "acceptable but not exceptional" this festive period - blaming it on poor accessibility to high streets and weak consumer demand rather than online shopping.

Richard Dodd of BRC said: "There are a lot of myths around online retail - 10% of overall retailing over the year comes from online shopping and actually it presents lots of opportunities for the retail sector."

A Begbies Traynor report said almost 140 high street firms were in a critical condition in the fourth quarter, meaning they are on the brink of collapse, while more than 13,700 were in "significant" distress - up 35% during the three months to December 17.

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Woman Found Murdered On Christmas Day

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 37-year-old woman was found dead at home on Christmas Day.

Officers were called to a property in Maes Yr Ysgol, Carmarthen, west Wales, at 10.50am on Tuesday.

"A 28-year-old local male was arrested at the location on suspicion of murder," a police spokesman said.

"A 37-year-old female was found deceased at the address and police have launched an investigation.

"The community are continuing to support the investigation and Dyfed-Powys Police would like to thank them for their assistance.

"Any member of the public who may have information that could assist this inquiry should contact police on 101."

Police would like to hear from anyone who was in the area between 5pm on Christmas Eve and 11am on Christmas Day.

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Prince Of Wales Sends Xmas Message To Troops

Full Transcript Of Xmas Message

Updated: 1:08pm UK, Wednesday 26 December 2012

Here is the full transcript of the Prince of Wales' Christmas radio broadcast to British Armed Forces serving overseas.

"To all of the Armed Forces on duty and serving away from home in far off lands, I wanted to send you a message to let you know that you are all very much in my thoughts and prayers at this time of year.

"I also wanted to pay tribute to the extraordinary contribution made by those of you who belong to our Armed Forces, in all sorts of different parts of the world. Nowhere is your fortitude and relentless courage more clearly on display than in Afghanistan, where your resilience, patience and determination to see the job through - usually in impossibly difficult conditions and circumstances is, quite simply, humbling.

"As a result of the regular reports I receive from my Regiments serving in Afghanistan (and even occasionally from family members!) I am well aware of the discomfort and privations you all endure with seemingly endless reserves of good humour.

"In addition to the intense heat and dust of the summer and the freezing winters, you face the constant, terrifying threat of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), attacks from rockets, grenades and small arms fire almost every day - and sometimes these attacks come from infiltrators hidden among those who are supposed to be working alongside you as allies.

"And yet you all seem to bounce back in an almost unbelievable way, despite the setbacks and vicious insurgent attacks.

"Whether you are in Camp Bastion, Lashkar Gar or one of the many isolated and incredibly austere patrol bases, you all have a vital role to play in an enormous team effort. Teamwork, comradeship and collective endeavour for the greater good are the qualities that lie at the heart of everything you do.

"With two sons currently serving in the Armed Forces, one of whom is with you all out there, I really do have at least some understanding of what your loved ones on the 'home front' are going through.

"They are clearly missing you deeply, particularly at this time of year, and they are constantly thinking and worrying about you. I dare say in some ways it may be slightly easier for those serving away from home, with their mind on the job in hand, than those left behind, because of the constant worry.

"In this regard, perhaps there is some small consolation in occasional opportunities to speak on the welfare telephone, to Skype, to post on Facebook, to send E-blueys or, in the case of my younger son, to receive a very rare and precious letter in answer to mine! 

"And don't forget that a letter will one day be a very valuable historical document, treasured by families and by those who come after us.

"Finally, I would just like to reinforce a point that I have been trying to make for many years now, that our country is incredibly lucky to have people like yourselves and that we owe you an everlasting debt of gratitude for all that you do and mean to us.

"I can only send you my heartfelt thanks and special blessings for this Christmas and for the New Year ahead."

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M6 Car Crash: Police Appeal For Information

Police are appealing for information about a Christmas Day crash on the M6 which killed three people, including two brothers aged four and 10.

The third victim of the accident, involving a red Ford Focus, on a busy stretch of the motorway in Staffordshire was a 32-year-old woman.

The boys' mother, who was believed to have been driving the car, and another female passenger were taken to University Hospital North Staffordshire for treatment but have now been discharged.

Staffordshire Police said the crash happened on the northbound carriageway of the M6 near junction 15 at around 11.25am.

Chief Superintendent Martin Evans said: "Colleagues from the emergency services have worked seamlessly throughout the day in these very sad and exceptionally difficult circumstances.

"Unfortunately the outcome is extremely tragic and our thoughts are with the family of those who have died."

The motorway was closed in both directions following the accident but reopened after several hours.

The accident occurred on the M6 between junctions 14 and 15

A West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) spokesman said: "Crews arrived to find a single vehicle that had crashed and overturned.

"Two children and an adult that were travelling in the vehicle suffered serious injuries.

"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of ambulance crews, nothing could be done to save the two boys and one woman, and they were confirmed dead at the scene.

The crash is being investigated by the Central Motorway Police Group and anyone with any information is urged to contact the Collision Investigation Unit on 01785 234094.

In a separate accident on the M6, four adults and three young children were injured on the southbound carriageway, near Corley Services, at around 7pm on Christmas Day.

A WMAS spokesman said two cars were substantially damaged and it was fortunate nobody was more seriously injured.

Earlier on Christmas Day, Ann Mary Goodrich, 57, and her husband Paul John Goodrich, 56, from Hampshire, died following the collision on the B3349 Odiham Road at Heckfield Heath, near Basingstoke.

A 29-year-old man from Farnborough, believed to be the driver of the other vehicle involved, received medical attention at the scene before being taken to hospital with serious injuries.

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Hunting Ban Repeal Vote 'Is Not Imminent'

There is no imminent prospect of a parliamentary vote on repealing the hunting ban, a Cabinet minister has signalled.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson appeared to rule out bringing the issue before the Commons next year.

Mr Paterson, a keen supporter of country sports including hunting, told the Daily Telegraph: "There's only a point having a vote if you're going to win.

"At the moment, it would not be my proposal to bring forward a vote we were going to lose. There needs to be more work done on Members of Parliament."

He went on: "It is our clear intention to have a free vote but we need to choose an appropriate moment."

Owen Paterson has appeared to rule out the vote in 2013

The comments emerged as an estimated 300 Boxing Day hunts gather up and down the country for the busiest day of the season.

They will go ahead despite the ban on hunting with dogs that was passed under Labour in 2005.

Campaigners say enforcing the restriction wastes police time, and suggest some officers turn a blind eye to breaches of the law.

But David Cameron has been accused of dragging his heels over acting on the coalition agreement promise of a free vote on overturning the ban.

Many Tories would support repeal, but most Labour and the Liberal Democrats are still in favour of the ban.

Animal welfare charities, including the RSPCA, have commissioned research which suggests that only 15% of people want to scrap the ban.

But the Countryside Alliance says it has seen no slackening of support for hunting in recent years.

For Labour, shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh said there was no public support for ending the hunting ban.

"Most people back Labour's ban on hunting wild animals with dogs and accept there is no place for animal cruelty in a civilised society," she said.

"People are worried about their incomes falling, prices rising and losing their jobs, yet this out of touch Tory-led Government wants to bring back hunting.

"After the recent high profile conviction of members of the Prime Minister's hunt, I hope that hunts will respect the law this year."

A Defra spokesperson said: "The coalition Government pledged to put forward a motion to allow a free vote on the Hunting Act.

"This will take place at an appropriate time and if Parliament were to vote in favour of repeal, the Government would introduce a Repeal Bill in the House of Parliament in due course."

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