The furore over the process by which the document was assembled and published diverted attention from

The furore over the process by which the document was assembled and published diverted attention from its substance. This was deeply unfortunate, because the information it contained was important.33. Consistent with the conclusions reached elsewhere in this Report, we conclude that Ministers did not mislead Parliament.. A man was found lying in the street with gunshot wounds early yesterday in the latest in a spate of shootings in Birmingham. The alarm was raised after the victim was found by passers-by. He was taken to hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.There has been a string of shootings in Birmingham. Only days before the most recent attack, a 22-year-old man was shot and injured in the Handsworth area of the city.Six days earlier, two men were seriously injured in a shooting in a barber’s shop in the Aston area.

The most recent incident took place in the same area of the city where Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17, were shot dead outside a hairdressing salon at a New Year party.Last week the mothers of the two girls gave evidence to an all-party parliamentary group on gun crime at the House of Commons, to highlight the devastating community impact of firearms crimes.Police investigating the most recent incident revealed that they were examining whether it was linked to other shootings in the area.The rise in gun crime in Birmingham recently led to an increase of armed officers patrolling the streets in order to reassure communities that they are clamping down on the perpetrators. A dedicated team of 50 detectives has also been set up to investigate the recent spate of shootings in the city.The increase in firearms incidents has also prompted police to meet community leaders to discuss concerns about the rising use of guns in the city and how the violence can be stemmed.The outbreak of gun violence, most of which has taken place in the most deprived corners of the city, has been linked to a surge in gang warfare between rival Asian groups and black gangs.. Barristers have rejected calls to abandon their horsehair wigs in defiance of government attempts to modernise the legal profession. In May, ministers published their own survey to accompany a consultation paper setting out a number of informal alternatives to the legal uniform.That survey of 2,000 non-lawyers showed two out of three people could see no public interest in barristers wearing wigs in court But barristers don’t agree.

It was only in the family courts that the Bar thought there was any need to relax court dress – and the support in that case was 52.9 per cent.. The parachute cords of a skydiver who plunged 13,000ft to his death had been deliberately cut, police investigators said yesterday. His death was filmed by some of the 70 spectators who had come to watch an annual student parachuting competition.A forensic examination found the cord of the main chute and the strapping on the reserve chute, which he had brought to the tournament himself, had been severed.Detective Superintendent Colin Andrews said he was certain that the cords had been “deliberately tampered with” but added: “What we need to find out is who did that and for what reason. One thing we have to consider is that this was a random act and Stephen was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”The equipment had been checked on Wednesday, in preparation for his skydive, and kept in a store that was locked at night.Dave Hickling, chief instructor with the British Parachute School, at Langar airfield, near Nottingham, said someone with a rudimentary knowledge of parachutes would know which cords to cut to render a parachute useless. “Once you have been on a basic parachute course and you have seen how the parachute deploys, you would have enough knowledge,” he said.Paul Hollow, chief instructor at Target SkySports, which runs parachuting at the airfield where the competition took place, said the pilot of Mr Hilder’s aircraft had not seen anything suspicious.

“If the pilot had noticed anything odd, he would have immediately stopped and found out what was happening because safety is absolutely paramount in this sport,” he said.A statement from Mr Hilder’s family said he had been a “wonderful son and brother, whose place in this very close-knit family will never be filled”.On the night before his jump, Mr Hilder was at a fancy-dress party at the airfield. Police are appealing to other partygoers for information or any video footage or photographs of the night.Another member of the club died in a skydive incident just over two weeks ago.Eleonora “Leo” Baker, the club’s social secretary, died as a result of injuries after colliding with Sam Heyman, a university student, less than 100ft from the ground. But police said the circumstances around the two incidents were entirely different and were not linked.. Detectives will stage a reconstruction today of the last movements of the murdered teenager Jodi Jones. About six hours later, her partially clothed body was discovered in a pathway 270 metres from her home.Her injuries, including a slit throat and multiple stab wounds, prompted one senior officer to call it the most violent crime he had encountered in his 30-year career.Hundreds of people at more than a dozen churches in Midlothian have paid tribute to the schoolgirl in memorial services. The 200-strong congregation at St Luke’s Church in Mayfield, near where Jodi lived, were asked to pray silently for the victim and her family, who were not present.Father John McInnes said: “Let us not forget that in the midst of our happiness there are others facing tragedy and dismay. But I am proud to be part of this community more than at any other time for the dignity and respect with which Jodi’s family have been held.”We will continue to bless and support Jodi’s family today and over the weeks and months to come.”He criticised the media attention that followed the murder, adding: “People want to know how we feel as if, because we live in Mayfield, we are somehow savages or do we have a sense of outrage about someone who was murdered in our community?”Tributes included a candlelit mass attended by dozens of residents at St David’s church in nearby Dalkeith and a service at Mayfield and Easthouses parish churches.