Inside Britain’s prisons: Rising violence and soaring suicide rates

Reuters / Stephen Hird

A rising wave of assaults, murders and suicides in Britain’s jails indicates a state-wide prison crisis is imminent, Shadow Secretary Sadiq Khan warns.

Khan’s comments follow figures released by The Ministry of Justice on Thursday, which revealed a marked increase in violence inside English and Welsh prisons.

Grievous assaults have soared by 30 percent, and three separate murders have occurred in the past twelve months alone. The data also reveals a stark 69 percent rise in #suicides - the most dramatic since 2005.

Prison governors throughout the state have persistently warned that British jails are struggling to deal with increasingly crowded conditions, with a record prison population of over 85,000. Budgets cuts of almost 25 percent implemented over the past three years have also compounded matters, the governors’ say.

According to recent figures, almost a quarter of the UK’s 126 prisons have been issued poor performance ratings. The most recent state-monitored performance tables illustrate that the conditions inside 28 prisons are now considered to be a matter of concern. One jail, Brinsford youth prison in Staffordshire, has been categorized as a “serious concern”.

Reflecting on the Ministry of Justice statistics, justice secretary, Chris Grayling said the rise in fatalities in custody was being taken seriously by the government, as was the surge in assaults.

“As with any significant period of change – coupled with prison population increases higher than expected – it has been a challenge. We are responding to and managing the additional pressures but prisons are still running safe and decent regimes," he said.

Grayling said there is no simple explanation for these increased levels. With the trend apparent in both public and private prisons, it was not linked to the government’s 'benchmarking' exercise that reduced staff in some jails, he said.

A general view shows C wing at Wormwood Scrubs prison in London (Reuters / Paul Hackett)

 Despite the Ministry of Justice’s figures, Grayling defended the government’s current policies, insisting the coalition had introduced major reform across the state’s prison and probation sectors tailored to improved public service at a reduced cost to British tax payers.

But the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, dismissed Grayling’s claims, emphasizing the Ministry of Justice’s official statistics were a damning indictment of the government’s policies:

“The true scale of the growing crisis in the country's prisons is revealed by the government's own data. Violence is up, deaths in custody are up and the number of prisoners going on the run is up. The government is trying to hide the sheer scale of the failings in the ministry of justice from the public by trying to pretend there's not a problem, let alone a crisis," he said.

A progressively violent atmosphere in Britain’s prisons is accompanied by a notable decrease in the number of inmates completing specially designed rehabilitation programmes.

Between March 2013 and 2014, the number of sex offender treatment programmes plummeted from 2,757 to 2,576, in the face of a sharp increase in the number of sex offenders imprisoned.

Similarly, the Ministry of Justice’s figures reveal the number of inmates who completed drug rehabilitation programmes had also fallen.  RT

Muslim groups slam new call for UK burka ban

Women wearing full-face veils as they shop in London. (File photo: Reuters)

Muslim groups across the #UK have hit out against a campaign to ban burkas, saying the “dangerous” move would fuel Islamophobia at a time of increasing racial tensions in #Britain.

Dr Taj Hargey, an imam and head of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford on Thursday launched a campaign to ban full face coverings, including the niqab, from being worn in public.

“We want to make a burka-free Britain,” he told Al Arabiya News. “We should follow what France and Belgium have done.”

The European Court of Human Rights this month upheld a ban on full face veils in France. Following the ruling, Austria, Norway and Denmark may also ban the burka. Belgium adopted a ban in 2011, as has the Spanish city of Barcelona, and the autonomous Catalonia region plans a similar move.

Groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) – and even the UK’s Secular Society – today criticised Hargey’s call for a ban in Britain.

“Firstly, he is a man. He should not really be articulating a view on what women should or should not do,” said Talha Ahmad, chair of the membership committee at the MCB.

“If I went around telling people to put their veil on, that would be equally wrong,” he added. “Positions like his are very dangerous. He clearly doesn’t understand the British values of freedom… His arguments feed into the whole Islamophobic narrative.”

Security risk?

Hargey argues that permitting full face coverings poses a security risk, among other objections. The UK public seem to agree with him: 90 percent say burkas should not be allowed in environments such as airport check-ins, according to a YouGov survey in September. The same poll found that overall, 61 percent of British adults think burkas should be banned.

Hargey cited examples of burkas being worn by men to commit robberies in central London. Yet Smina Akhtar, director of the Glasgow-based Amina – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, dismissed this.

“I’m not sure there’s any evidence to show that it is a security risk,” she said. “It’s not going to reduce crime. Crime will continue. If those men had not worn a burka, they would have found something else.”

Akhtar says that she chooses not to cover her face, but a minority of women in her community do. She dismissed the ban proposed by Hargey.

“Women have a choice what they wear,” she said. “I’m not sure if he’s even read the Quran… He’s being Islamophobic.”

It’s currently open season on attacking Muslims in the UK, Akhtar said, with Islamophobia – especially hate crimes against women – on the rise.

With that in mind, she does not dismiss the notion that the UK could become less tolerant towards the burka in future. “It could change. There is definitely a move to the right in Europe and in Britain as well,” she said.

Social ‘apartheid’

Hargey argues that the full face veil fuels “social segregation and community apartheid.”

But Akhtar dismissed that claim too. “It only creates a division if you want to create a division,” she said. Some doctors and teachers do not wear the garment while at work, she added. “Women who wear the burka can choose when to wear it.”

Hargey told Al Arabiya News that the practice of wearing the full face veils is “totally ridiculous,” and a key aim of his campaign is to get 100,000 signatures on an official petition, which would then oblige the UK Parliament to debate the issue.

“No one – including women – has an unqualified right to dress how they like in public,” he said. “You or I could not walk down the street naked, or wearing just socks.”

He pointed out that Muslim women are prohibited from covering their faces during the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. “If there’s no obligation to cover their faces in the holiest places of Islam, why do they feel the need to cover their faces in the UK?”

He said there is nothing in the Quran that requires people to mask their faces, and that face veils promotes “gender disparity” and can cause health complains due to a lack of vitamin D. His campaign extends to other apparel that obscures the face, such as balaclavas and ski masks – saying no one has a right to anonymity in public.

The practice of Muslims covering their face is a “fad,” he added. “How come their mothers or grandmothers never wore it? Were they bad Muslims? No, of course not,” he said.
Omer El-Hamdoon, president of the Muslim Association of Britain, said he disagreed with a ban on the burka, saying women should be allowed to “wear whatever they want.”

Credentials questioned

But he agreed with Hargey on certain points, such as women never being forced to wear a veil, and that it can have an impact on communication.

Several UK Muslim groups questioned Hargey’s credentials as an Islamic scholar.

“He personally doesn’t strike me as a scholar – in either the traditional or contemporary sense – of Islamic theology,” said Ahmad.

Dr. Sheikh Ramzy, director of the Oxford Islamic Information Centre, said he totally disagreed with Hargey’s viewpoint.

“This man Taj Hargey calls himself an imam. But he’s not an imam and he’s not an Islamic scholar,” Ramzy said.

“He does not understand anything about Islam. I would like to leave it to the sisters to choose what they would like to wear… It is an un-Islamic thing he is trying to do.”

Hargey reacted angrily to his critics when contacted by Al Arabiya News. “I have a pHD in Islamic Studies from Oxford University, so who’s to say I’m not an Islamic scholar?,” he said. “Why don’t you ask them what qualifications they have?”

No secular support

Yet Hargey did not receive fully fledged support from even the UK’s National Secular Society, which campaigns for the separation of religion and state.

Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the society, said that – while the issue is a complex one – a general ban would not be favorable.

“There are understandable and legitimate concerns about the wearing of the burka or niqab, particularly regarding what it symbolises, its role in the subjugation of women and its potential to hinder a woman's ability to communicate and integrate within civil society,” he said.

“There are however compelling reasons, both practical and on principle, to oppose attempts to introduce a general ban on the veil - not least a woman's right to choose what she wears and her right to religious freedom.”

Despite that, Evans said he would support some public institutions to implement their own polices restricting face coverings. It is “appropriate to protect young girls from being compelled to wear the burka or niqab by prohibiting it in our schools,” he said.

Yet despite the crackdown in Europe, Muslim women in Britain are currently free to wear what they want.

Anything else would amount to harassment, said Ramzy. “As an Islamic scholar, I do not recommend a face cover. But I do encourage freedom of choice,” he said. “If you don’t want to see a woman in a burka, then turn your face”

Saudi woman killing sparks hate crime fears in UK

Police revealed the Saudi victim was wearing a full-length robe (abaya) and a hijab, signaling that the cause for murder might have been racist. (Photo courtesy: Eastnews Press Agency)

The murder of a Saudi student in Britain has sparked fears that hate crime is on the rise amid ‘widespread’ Islamophobia in the #UK, members of the Muslim community warn.

Nahid al-Manea, who was 31 years old and studying at the University of Essex, died after being stabbed 16 times in Colchester, Essex. A 52-year-old man has been detained by police in connection with the murder.

Manea was wearing an abaya – a black cloak worn by some #Muslim #women – and headscarf when she was murdered, and police are investigating the possibility she was deliberately targeted because of her religious dress.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) today warned of a rise in intimidation towards the community in the UK, which has coincided with a surge in support for right-wing political parties.

“In recent months and weeks, an increasing number of Muslim women have been targeted in hate crimes,” said Talha Ahmad, chair of the membership committee at the MCB. “People are understandably very nervous and anxious… It has caused major concern.”

Ahmad said he has received reports of Muslim men and women being attacked, their houses being vandalized, and even of pigs’ heads being left outside front doors.

“Violence towards Muslims has been quite common over recent months,” he added. “If you live in Britain these days, you can’t escape the reality that Islamophobia is quite rife.”

He pointed to the emergence of the far-right extremist group Britain First, which has reportedly staged a series of mosque invasions in the UK in a bid to intimidate or provoke the Muslim community. The right-wing, anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) has also gained support among British voters.

According to the British Social Attitudes survey, the proportion of Britons who admit to be racially prejudiced has risen since 2001, The Guardian reported. There is “widespread Islamophobia” in the country, the newspaper noted.

Dr. Sheikh Ramzy, director of the Oxford Islamic Information Centre, says there has been a rise in hate crimes against Muslims, including racist remarks, attacks, and woman having their hijabs torn off.

“In general, there is a rise in Islamophobia… They call you names, they say ‘go back to your countries’,” he said. “Hate crimes are on the rise as well.”

Bloody attack

An image of the bag Nahid was carrying
 when she was killed. (Photo courtesy: Essex Police)

Essex Police say a religious motivation is one line of inquiry in the killing of Manea, but not the only one. They are also investigating a possible link with the murder of James Attfield, who died nearby after being stabbed more than 100 times in March.

“It is very rare in Essex to have a knife murder, and to have two in three months,” Helen Cook, press officer at Essex Police, told Al Arabiya News.

Cook said Essex Police had been advising students not to go out alone, and have increased patrols in the area where Manea was killed.

While the possibility that the murder was religiously motivated remains, Cook said that hate crimes are “not particularly” common in the area.

The Muslim Council of Britain’s Talha Ahmad said the murder “has all the hallmarks” of a hate crime.

“All the media reports so far suggest she was targeted for her Islamic dress,” he said. “She appears to be the first casualty of the latest round of demonization of Muslims and Islam.”

Ahmad cited the April 2013 murder of Mohammed Saleem, an 82-year-old man who was killed while walking home from his mosque in Birmingham. Ukrainian student Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, was jailed for life for the racially motivated murder, after telling police he murdered Saleem because he hated “non-whites”.

Ethnic minorities in focus in election race

A man walks past UK Independence Party (UKIP) placards attached on a housing estate in Thurrock in Essex, on May 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl Court)

GRAYS (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Feeling "surrounded" by ethnic minorities, retired factory worker Peter Harvey voted for anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) in last month's European and local polls and plans to do so again in next year's national election.

"I'm the only white British person in my area," the 66-year-old said, explaining his voting preference in Grays, a town in southeast England, where UKIP did particularly well amid spectacular gains across the country.

Ostensibly fuelled by antipathy to immigration and Europe, UKIP's rise has nonetheless helped bring the issue of race to the fore ahead of the May 2015 general election.

At the same time, there is a growing realisation of the importance of the ethnic minority vote, as studies show the numbers of black and Asian Britons growing at a faster rate than whites.

Adding to anxiety among many British voters is the influx of immigrants from eastern Europe under European Union rules allowing the free movement of workers, reinforcing UKIP's anti-EU, anti-immigrant message.

Appealing to UKIP voters on immigration while harnessing the ethnic minority vote will be tricky for Britain's mainstream parties, especially in polarised Thurrock, a bellwether constituency that has tended to give winning parties only a slim majority.

"I want a party that sees everyone as equal and wants everyone to live together in harmony," said 17-year-old Divine Carter, walking across the street from Harvey.

Prime Minister David Cameron leaves Westminster Methodist Hall in central London, after voting in the local and European elections on May 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)

"I'm hearing the opposite from political parties, especially UKIP," said the college student, who described her ethnicity as Afro-Caribbean.

- 'Second class citizen' -

The number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds settling in Thurrock has risen rapidly in the last decade according to census data, and the diversity is reflected among shoppers in the borough's main town Grays.

The town centre features pawn shops, pound shops, betting shops and charity stores, a reflection of the borough's above average unemployment rate, which has helped fuel resentment of more recent arrivals.

"We've had enough. As a British person and an English person, I've had enough of being a second-class citizen... Housing, schools, doctors -- people born here can't even get a place to live," said Anne Blumore, 65.

Blumore said she had always voted Labour before switching to UKIP, a worrying trend for Labour which has only a slim lead in opinion polls ahead of the Conservatives.

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and his wife Justine (L) leave Sutton Village Hall in Sutton, after voting on May 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Andrew Yates)

The Tories have arguably the toughest challenge in appealing to ethnic minority voters, who have in the past tended to vote Labour.

Only 16 percent of ethnic minority voters picked the Conservatives in the last general election in 2010, compared to more than 66 percent for Labour. Analysts estimate that if the Conservatives had managed to gain just a third of the ethnic minority vote, the party would have won outright in 2010, and not have to rule in coalition.

Last month, Policy Exchange, seen as the most influential think tank on Conservative policy, set up a new Black and Ethnic Minority Research Unit and published a report saying Britain's ethnic minority communities were on course to go from eight million people, or 14 percent of the population, to almost a third by 2050.

"It was once thought of as nice to have -- it's good for inclusion if you appeal to ethnic minorities. Now some Conservatives are saying it's an existential issue," said Sunder Katwala, director of another think tank, British Future.

- Closet racists? -

Complicating matters for parties wooing the ethnic minority vote is anecdotal evidence that even some minorities support UKIP, or at least stemming immigration, given that they often compete with the newest arrivals for jobs and resources.

A direct appeal to minorities also risks being seen as patronising, and experts warn of treating them as a voting bloc with identical views.

"Funnily enough, ethnic minority voters have reacted quite well to UKIP on the doorstep, depending how long they've been here. If it's second or third generation, very positive actually," said Thurrock UKIP councillor Robert Ray, who in the 1970s campaigned for the far-right whites-only National Front.

British attitudes towards race are also hardening, raising the question of how much parties can do in attracting minorities without alienating the majority of voters.

A British Social Attitudes survey published on Tuesday grabbed headlines for showing the number of Britons who admit to being racially prejudiced has risen since 2000.

Politicians who once labelled UKIP closet racists are now rowing back, and are trying to appropriate the party's tough talk on immigration and Europe.

"Wait till the general election. You'll see who's racist then," predicted Harvey. --AFP

Panic in Lancashire as landlord is asked to remove sign advertising for Pakistani families only

A landlord was ordered by police to remove a sign seeking #Pakistani families only to rent his terraced house.

The handwritten notice, which appeared in a property in Railway Street in Nelson, Lancashire, was condemned by community leaders and the town’s MP who said they feared it could inflame community tensions in the area.

Police and local MP Andrew Stephenson said they had received a dozen complaints about the hastily scribbled to-let sign, which said “For Rent, 3 Bedrooms, Just Pakistani Family" and included a mobile number.

The landlord, who has not been named, agreed to remove it and acknowledged its wording was “inappropriate”.

#Lancashire Police said no crime had been committed and the matter would not be pursued.

Among those to complain about the sign was BNP leader Nick Griffin who posted a picture of himself on the party’s website standing next to the house earlier this month during his ill-fated European election campaign.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said the sign was “deeply offensive” and described it as “discrimination from a bygone era”.

He added: "This kind of thing has the potential to inflame tensions in the community. My office was contacted by British people, as well as eastern European families, who were unhappy with the sign. I also spoke to Asian families who couldn't believe what they had seen.”

Inspector Paul Goodall, of Pendle Police, said although it was not criminal the advert could be deemed “distasteful or inappropriate”.

“The landlord hasn’t committed any offences, and when we went round and asked him to take it down, he said ‘fair enough’ and took it down. We spoke to him and gave him some advice, and were satisfied it was not intended with any sort of malice. It was, in his opinion, to have some nice residents in the area,” he said.

Local ward councillor Nadeem Ahmed condemned the advert. He said: “It’s totally wrong, and I’m glad the police have got him to take it down. They probably realised they shouldn’t have put it up when the officers went over. We try to live together and do the right thing, and make a world for our children where everyone can live together happily, and these kind of things are divisive.”

According to the last Census around 11,000 of the Nelson’s 29,000 population are of Pakistani descent.
Source: Independent 

Internet training would cut pensioner loneliness, says think tank

The warnings come as the number of people aged 85 or above is set to double over the next 20 years

#Loneliness among the over-65s could be tackled by training more older people to use the #internet, a report by a centre-right think tank has suggested.

Policy Exchange has called for every person in the #UK to be taught basic digital skills, including how to send emails and use social networking sites.

Training 6.2 million people without basic digital skills would cost £875m by 2020, or £141 per person, it said.

It said training would help pensioners stay connected with friends and family.

Policy Exchange says around 40% of people aged 65 or over in the UK do not have access to the internet at home, while more than five million people have never used the internet.

The report predicts an increasingly elderly population will face a "major challenge" in the future and risk being isolated as families move further apart for work.

With the number of people aged 85 or above set to double over the next 20 years, it says such training will yield "huge" economic and social benefits for the UK.

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Case study
Veronica Fenn, 75, from London, has been using the internet for almost 10 years.

"I've watched the information service grow and I absolutely love it.

"It's certainly changed my life. I have everything now at my fingertips. If I wanted to do a crossword puzzle and I get stuck, it's wonderful.

"I can cheat a little bit and if I want to shop or if I want any information about artists, I just type it in.

"I also keep in touch with people overseas with Skype. I couldn't live without it now, I find it so incredibly useful.

"I think there are a lot of us who are rather frightened of technology or machines or television and how to work things.

"I learnt because the public library had a very good facility where you could go and learn how to use the internet and that was very useful indeed."

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'Stay connected'
Eddie Copeland, author of the report, said learning basic computer skills would stop pensioners becoming vulnerable to loneliness.

"In an increasingly isolated and fast-moving world it is vital that everyone in society is able to use the internet and understand its benefits," he said.

"From alleviating social isolation, bringing together communities, paying bills and now accessing public services online can improve lives.

"Being able to simply write an email or access a social networking site could provide older people with a way to stay connected to their friends and families, who may live hundreds of miles away."

But Andrew Kaye, from the charity Independent Age which offers advice and support to older people and their families, said: "Encouraging and enabling people to go online could be one really useful means of tackling loneliness - but it's not the only way.

"We mustn't forget that it's really important older people still have a choice about how they access public services so they are not only available online.

"To those without technology skills a trip to the local post office or real human contact is just as important."

The report says the cost would be offset by savings of around £1.7bn a year, as people moved to digital rather than paper-based and telephone transactions.

It comes after a Age UK poll of 2,000 over-65s earlier this year found 10% of pensioners described themselves as often or always lonely - a rise from 7% last year. BBC

Biggest torrent site Torrentz.eu taken offline by City of London police

The Torrentz homepage. #Photograph: Screenshot
One of the web's largest search engines for downloads on file-sharing websites has been taken offline by the City of London police for linking to pirated content.

#Torrentz.eu was already blocked in the #UK by a number of British ISPs, having been blacklisted in October 2013 alongside 20 other file-sharing sites, but the side's domain name was removed entirely on Wednesday.

The City of London police contacted Torrentz's domain name registrar, and asked it to suspend the site for linking to content which infringes copyright.

However, the site is still live at other domain names, thanks to registrars based outside the UK. The force's request has no legal force, but many registrars follow such requests anyway.

Torrentz is one of the largest search engines for bitorrent files. The site lets users search for content to download using the bitorrent file-sharing protocol. Typically, this is unlicensed copies of TV shows and movies such as Game of Thrones and the upcoming X Men: Days of Future Past, both linked to from one of the remaining versions of the Torrentz site.

But the site also contains legal content, such as installers for free open source software and books released under "copyleft" licenses, which pre-emptively grants permission for them to be shared.

In the Netherlands, a court lifted a ban on notorious file-sharing site The Pirate Bay in January, labelling the practice "ineffective". The ruling, which applied European law, was based on the principle that internet service providers should not have to take measures, such as blocking the Pirate Bay, which are disproportionate or ineffective. The Gaurdian

UK to run out of oil, gas and coal in five years

Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bade

New research from the Global Sustainability Institute has found that #Britain, France and many other European countries have low reserves of fossil fuels, and their home grown energy could be entirely reliant on imports in several years.

The study found that the #UK has just 5.2 years of oil, 4.5 years of coal and three years of #gas before it completely runs out of fossil fuels, said the researchers at the Institute based at Anglia Ruskin University, in the East of England.

France is also in poor shape with less than a year’s worth of fossil fuels in reserve, and Italy has a single year of oil left and less than a year of gas and coal, but France unlike its southern neighbor generates almost 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power.

In contrast Russia, with its huge landmass, has more than 50 years of oil, 100 years of gas and more than 500 years of coal. Norway also has extensive reserves of oil and gas under the North Sea.
Dr. Aled Jones, who is director of the Institute, said that countries with small reserves of fossil fuels would become vulnerable to rising energy prices.

“The EU is becoming ever more reliant on our resource rich neighbors such as Russia and Norway, and this trend will only continue unless decisive action is taken,” he said. 

But some countries in the EU were found to be better off in terms of energy reserves. Germany has 250 years of coal remaining and Bulgaria over seventy years.

Professor Victor Anderson, who is also from the Institute, urged a Europe wide plan to expand renewable energy sources like wind, solar and tidal power.

“Coal, oil and gas resources are running down and we need alternatives,” he said.
However, there has been significant development of wind power and biomass generation in the UK over the last 15 years meaning that it is expected to produce 15 percent of its electricity through renewable sources by the end of the decade.

In the face of rising energy insecurity, the Conservative led UK government has announced it will not subsidize on shore wind farms if they win the next election in 2015 and they have already announced cuts in subsidies for large-scale solar farms from next April.

Ministers have said that they hope to produce enough shale gas through fracking and that new reserves in the North Sea will prolong production there and plug the deficit.

However, fracking is facing significant opposition within the country from locals and politicians and the North Sea would be out of bounds to the rest of the UK should Scotland decide to vote for independence in the referendum scheduled for this September.

Jim Skea, a fellow at UK Research Councils in Energy Strategy, a publically funded body that researches aspects of science and technology, cast doubt on the accuracy of the report.

“This sounds very unlikely. What’s more, it’s irrelevant – the UK has a stable supply of imported energy, even if it is a good idea to increase our own supplies,” he told BBC News. 

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said the report was “nonsense”.
 

"The UK is one of the most energy secure countries in the world thanks to the combination of our own reserves, our diverse sources of imported energy and our focus on increasing clean, homegrown energy in the UK - which includes nuclear, renewables and carbon capture and storage,” they said.

The authors of the report note that their figures must be treated with caution as “proved reserves” of oil and gas can increase, depending on exploration of new fields and deployment of new extraction techniques.
Source: RT

The Incredible Turnaround In How The World Sees The UK

Barely over a year ago it looked like the UK was a sick economy with few good prospects.
There was no industry to drive it forward. Its neighbors were weak. Its monetary policy was ineffectual. Its government was obsessed with cutting spending. It had a preposterous amount of debt and deleveraging it had to do.
Now the entire story has changed. The UK continues to post great economic numbers, the latest being its unemployment rate falling to 6.8%, a 5-year low.
In his note to clients this morning, SocGen's Kit Juckes writes about the turnaround, and how markets are beginning to price in UK rate hikes before too long. Note that his comments came out a bit earlier, before we got the UK jobs data:

The #UK interest rate market now considers a 2014 rate hike a distinct possibility - 15bp of hikes are priced in by December. That is twice the tightening that is priced into the US futures market. 3-month futures contracts meanwhile, now price the UK/US rate spread widening from 30bp now to 80bp by the middle of next year. That looks excessive. But, and here it really is time for a ‘Mea Culpa', UK economic data have been and continue to be strong enough for these trends to go further. Sterling is powered by the way strong data impact rate expectations. This morning's likely combination of falling unemployment and a base-effect-biased uptick in headline average earnings growth, along with the release of the Inflation Report, will probably increase the volume of those calling for the MPC to act soon.

Source: Business Insider