Balmy Winter Creates Perfect Storm For Crops

By Emma Birchley, Sky News Correspondent

Bumper fruit and vegetable crops are expected this summer after an unusually mild, wet winter and spring.

At Dedham Vale Vineyard in Essex the vines are a good month ahead of where they would usually be.

Winemaker Ben Bunting says it has given the grapes an excellent head start.

"What it means is the buds will flower at the end of next month or early July and that will give a much longer period for them to ripen before we pick them," he said.

The seven-acre vineyard produces 20,000 bottles of wine each year and there is optimism that 2014 may end up a vintage year.

Dedham Vale Vineyard is hoping 2014 will turn out to be a vintage year

Other gardeners and growers across the country are reaping the benefits of the warm weather too.

At Rectory Farm in Oxford the strawberries have arrived early as did the asparagus.

Farmer Richard Stanley said: "Asparagus needs eight degrees centigrade to grow below the ground, and the temperatures this spring were much warmer.

"It never got so cold so it didn't take so much for the sun to warm it up ... and they came two or three weeks earlier than last year."

According to the Royal Horticultural Society, it could be a taste of things to come.

Chief horticultural adviser Guy Barter said: "The weather is extraordinarily variable, so we'll always have late years and early years, but on balance we're expecting seasons to get a little earlier.

"They've already got about two weeks earlier in the last 20 years, and we can expect that trend to continue."

Winemaker Ben Bunting says grapes have made 'an excellent head start'

All the warm weather does mean more pests though.

Mr Barter said: "Insects can injure the plants, they can injure the fruits. At the moment there's a lot of aphids about ... green fly and black fly ... and they can damage the young shoots of plants, and they can also effect the fruits.

"A little mark on the fruit at this season swells into a big mark by the time September comes around."

There are some farmers who will not find this year easy for different reasons.

Last winter was not just very mild, it was also the wettest on record and for those farming in Somerset, the floods were devastating.

Some dairy farmers are still relying on donations of fodder for their cattle.

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Saturday's National Newspaper Front Pages

:: The Independent, The i, The Financial Times

UKIP's strong showing in the local elections is described as a political "earthquake" and a "hurricane" which has shaken up the establishment

:: Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph

Ed Miliband is reeling after not doing enough to head off UKIP's surge in traditional Labour areas and his chances of general election success have taken a serious blow

:: Daily Star

A man who alleges he was hit by former Manchester United boss David Moyes says he is living in fear after threats from football fans

:: Daily Express

A protein may help protect against dementia and lead to new treatments

:: Daily Mirror

Search teams hunting for four missing British sailors in the Atlantic say they have found the hull of their boat

:: The Times

Bosses from the big supermarket chains say they often ignore food expiry dates

:: The Sun

Singer Cheryl Cole is pictured with a man said to be her new boyfriend

:: The Scotsman

A fire has badly damaged the famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at Glasgow School of Art

:: Watch the Press Preview on Sky News every evening at 10.30pm and 11.30pm.  Tonight's reviewers are media commentator Vince Graff and LBC radio presenter James Max.

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Tragic Sailors: Skipper 'Dearly Missed'

The family of yachtsman Andrew Bridge say they are "deeply saddened" by the discovery of the upturned hull of the missing boat Cheeki Rafiki.

The search for the four British sailors ended at 3am UK time after a search of the capsized vessel found the only realistic means of survival had not been deployed.

Mr Bridge, the yacht skipper, was one of four men on board the boat which got into trouble on May 15.

From left: Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male and Paul Goslin

The family statement said: "Andrew will be dearly missed by everyone who knew him. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the families of the rest of the crew on the Cheeki Rafiki.

"We would like to thank everyone who's helped in the search for Andrew including the US Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, the RAF, Merchant vessels, the yachting community and the British and American Governments."

The raft was found stored in the aft of the boat Pic: US Coast Guard

It added that they had been "overwhelmed" by public support.

US Navy divers found the boat with a missing keel and a completely flooded cabin with shattered windows, said the Coast Guard.

"A US Navy warship smallboat crew and surface swimmer captured underwater imagery clearly identifying the raft in its storage space [behind the wheel]. The image was shared with and acknowledged by the families," said a statement.

"The crew and swimmer deployed to investigate the overturned boat after a helicopter crew located it 1,000 miles offshore Massachusetts and within the US Coast Guard's search area.

The search effort involved military aircraft and ships

It had already been announced that the search would be called off in the early hours of Saturday if no signs of possible survival were discovered.

"None of the current developments" indicate the crew are still alive, said the US Coast Guard.

The upturned 40ft yacht had been found on Friday, with divers first knocking on the hull to check for signs of life.

The men's familes had campaigned for the search to go on

The families had said they were still hopeful their loved ones would be found.

Relatives of Steve Warren, 52, Andrew Bridge, 22, James Male, 23, and Paul Goslin, 56, said they had been told "endless stories" of people surviving for months at sea.

A statement on behalf of Steve Warren's family said it was an "incredibly difficult" time and that the search effort had been "exceptional".

The Cheeki Rafiki had been at a regatta in Antigua

The vessel ran into difficulties on May 15 and began taking on water while returning to the UK from a regatta in Antigua.

Yacht training and charter company Stormforce Coaching said it had been in contact with the skipper at the time, and that the crew were keeping the situation stable.

The original search was halted after 53 hours amid bad weather but resumed on Tuesday after a request from the UK government and a online petition which collected more than 200,000 names.

Rescuers scoured more than 21,000 square miles of ocean during their second search for the boat.

Experts had agreed it would be impossible for the crew to survive outside of the life raft in cold, rough seas for more than 20 hours.

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "My thoughts are with the families of the crew of the Cheeky Rafiki after the sad news its hull has been found with the life-raft unused."

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Parties Reel From UKIP Election Success

UKIP's haul of seats in the council elections is up to 184 with the main parties now mulling the prospect of four-party politics in next year's general election.

Nigel Farage has said his anti-EU party is a "serious player" for 2015 after they added 167 councillors at the expense of the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats.

UKIP made gains in traditional Labour and Conservative heartlands, including strong showings in Rotherham - where it returned 10 out of 21 councillors.

It also got a big thumbs thumbs up from 'Essex Man' with a strong showing in areas such as Thurrock, Castle Point and Basildon.

However, it still does not have overall control of any council, and fared particularly poorly in London

Nigel Farage claims the 'UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse'

Mr Farage told the leaders of the main parties he would "see them in Westminster" and said the results showed UKIP had the potential to cause an "earthquake" at the general election.

"The UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse," he claimed.

"If voters think we are in with a chance of winning next year, then we are."

Sky News projections suggest UKIP would only return one MP next year - its first, but the possibility of it building momentum and wooing more voters over the next year is a major headache for party leaders.

The state of play with just two councils still to announce their results

The Prime Minister conceded the Conservatives had to start delivering on immigration and welfare reform, and said the public had become "frustrated" with the status quo.

Critics have also rounded on Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying he failed to mount a serious campaign to tackle UKIP and pointing to a series of PR blunders in the run up to polling day.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the public had grown 'frustrated'

Mr Miliband, who has promised to help families cut living costs through policies such as freezing energy prices, was accused of being out of touch when he underestimated the cost of a weekly food shop.

Labour's election was far from a disaster - it gained control of five more councils in the election - but the gains are thought to be some way from the shot in the arm the party needs to head towards an overall majority in 2015.

Another hung parliament could be on the cards if voters go the same way in 2015, with Sky projections pointing towards Labour falling short by 18 MPs.

Ed Miliband made several PR gaffes in the run-up to the election

The Liberal Democrats also had a dismal election night as voters ensured Nick Clegg's party lost control of councils in Kingston-Upon-Thames and Portsmouth.

Mr Clegg admitted the party had done badly but said: "Actually I think in the areas where we have MPs where we have good organisation on the ground ... we are actually doing well."

UKIP made gains in areas of Essex such as Southend, where it won five seats

With 159 or 161 councils now declared, Labour have won 3,999 seats, giving it control of 81 councils - an increase of five.

The Conservatives have 2,679 seats overall, controlling 41 councils - down 13; and the Liberal Democrats picked up 882 seats, seeing the number of councils under their control falling from eight to six.

The focus now moves to Sunday night when the count will come in for the European election.

:: Follow all the results as they come in on Twitter with @skyelections.

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Stuart Hall Jailed For Sex Assaults On Girl

Ex-broadcaster Stuart Hall has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for indecently assaulting an underage girl.

The former It's A Knockout presenter had been convicted of carrying out an attack on the youngster by a jury at Preston Crown Court.

He was found guilty last week of assaulting her when she was under 16.

Hall, 84, had earlier pleaded guilty to another indecent assault on the same girl when she was 13.

That involved an incident at a dinner party where he crept into his victim's bedroom and assaulted her.

Passing sentence, Lord Justice Turner said of his offences: "It was an act of vile bravado and horrible betrayal."

The victim sat metres away and began wiping away tears with a handkerchief passed to her, as details of the offences were again mentioned in court.

Hall was sentenced to 12 months for the offence he admitted and was given an additional 18 months for the indecent assault of which he was convicted by the jury.

Last week, he was cleared of 15 counts of rape in relation to that woman and another who claimed they were sexually assaulted by him between 1976 and 1981.

The married father-of-two is currently in prison serving a 30-month term.

He had been jailed after he pleaded guilty last year to indecently assaulting 13 other young girls, aged between nine and 17, over a 20-year period.

The ex-BBC football match commentator had not been due for release from that custodial sentence until September.

Hall will not now be eligible for release until December 2015 as the latest sentence will only begin after the end of his current jail term.

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'No Evidence' To Place Rolf At 'Groping' Events

By Richard Suchet, Sky News Correspondent

The barrister for Rolf Harris has told the jury at his sex assault trial there is no evidence to place him at events where he is alleged to have groped two girls.

Despite police searches of newspaper archives, no proof could be found of the entertainer's appearances at a community centre near Portsmouth in 1969 or an event in Cambridge in 1975.

One alleged victim claims Harris groped her outside a celebrity It's a Knock Out event in Cambridge when she was 14.

Another woman claims Harris touched her when she was seven or eight as she queued to get his autograph at a community centre near Portsmouth in 1969.

But Sonia Woodley QC told senior investigating officer Detective Sergeant Gary Pankhurst from Operation Yewtree - a prosecution witness - that there was no evidence "of any kind" to suggest Harris had been there.

The jury was also shown a video seized from Rolf Harris's home in 2012 of a third alleged victim.

The footage of a 1978 holiday in Australia shows the girl swimming in a pool in a bikini.

It also shows her swimming with a group of friends in a river.

The prosecution then took DS Pankhurst through some of the key pieces of evidence it had set out earlier in the trial before ending its case.

The defence will begin on Tuesday, when Rolf Harris himself is expected to give evidence.

Before dismissing the jury, the judge joked with them that bank holiday weekends usually mean bad weather and reminded them not to discuss the trial with anybody else.

Harris is accused of 12 counts of indecent assault on four alleged victims between 1968 and 1986, all of which he denies.

The trial continues.

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Glasgow Art School Blaze: Salvage Operation

Firefighters battling a blaze at a historic art school building in Glasgow say they have managed to save the majority of its contents, including student art work.

Crews were called to reports of a blaze at Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at about 12.30pm on Friday.

It is believed the fire started in the basement and spread to the upper floors where flames were seen leaping from windows and the roof.

Firefighters who were at the scene within four minutes of receiving the first emergency call brought the fire under control and said more than 90% of the structure was "viable".

Flames can clearly be seen coming from the windows. Pic: @xdxxnx/Twitter

Indications are that they also protected up to 70% of the contents, according to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

It is not known which artworks have been saved.

There were no casualties but a number of people had to be helped from the Category A listed building on the corner of Renfrew Street and Scott Street.

Sky's James Matthews said the blaze is believed to have broken out while final year students were preparing their end of year degree shows on the upper floors.

Many of the students were in tears as they witnessed their efforts go up in smoke.

Broadcaster Muriel Gray, a former student and current chairwoman of the school, was another who burst into tears as she arrived and saw the building in flames.

The art school, designed by the famous Scottish architect and dating from 1897, is a tourist attraction and is regarded as a building of "national or international importance".

Broadcaster and current art school Chairwoman Muriel Gray was in tears

It attracts around 20,000 visitors a year, with tours given of the building.

Hugh Thornhill, a second year student, said: "I was helping one of the fourth years set up their exhibit and suddenly the alarm went off. We saw smoke coming out and realised that it was really bad."

As well as renowned artists, former students include members of the bands Travis and Franz Ferdinand, Architect and TV presenter George Clarke and actors Peter Capaldi and Robbie Coltrane.

Travis lead singer Fran Healy tweeted: "Man the mac library is all wood!!!! And loads of paper!! Man!!"

Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art. Pic: Finlay McWalter

George Clarke said: "Devastating to see the Glasgow School of Art in flames...I'll support its full restoration in any way."

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) described the blaze as "an international tragedy".

Fire brigade assistant chief officer Dave Boyle said crews worked " absolutely flat out" in an effort to save "this treasured building and many of the items it housed".

He said: "While the priority from the outset was to save life we have also been working closely with GSA staff to ensure firefighters conducted an effective salvage operation.

"Work to save everything that can be saved is ongoing and we will continue to work closely with GSA staff and students throughout this operation."

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Sex Offenders Face Lie Detector Tests

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Editor

A thousand of the UK's most high-risk sex offenders are to undergo mandatory lie detector tests, under new measures announced by the ministry for justice today.

Probation officers are being trained in how to use polygraph examiners as part of new measures to toughen up the monitoring of convicted paedophiles and reduce the danger they pose to the public.

Don Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Newcastle University, whose company Behavioural Measures is leading the training, said: "The aim of the testing is to assist offender managers in supervising the offenders.

Dr Grubin says the tests will help the monitoring of offenders

"There is not a specific crime you are investigating, not a specific security breach, it's much more of a general tool to look at how they are behaving under supervision and to see whether there is a need to intervene."

"It's important to emphasise that nobody will be recalled because they failed a test ... polygraph testing both facilitates the disclosure of information and alerts offender managers to possible deception, allowing them to work with offenders in a more focused way."

A group of seven officers will administer the tests to sex offenders deemed at high risk of reoffending or convicted of the most serious offences, in a 12-week training programme administered by polygraph experts from the US, where use of the devices is much more common.

As well as undergoing lie detector tests every six months, the Government has also announced plans to use satellite tags and controversial libido suppressant drugs, also known as "chemical castration".

Sex offenders already have to abide by licence conditions, including signing onto the sex offenders register, adhering to exclusion zones, curfews, internet restrictions and non-contact orders.

Polygraph tests will be used regularly on high-risk sex offenders

But there are hopes that the addition of lie detector tests will help probation services better monitor the risk of reoffending.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said: "We are determined that Britain has one of hte toughest regimes in the world for managing sex offenders, to stop reoffending and to protect victims."

According to the most recent figures there are 43,664 registered sex offenders in the UK. Reoffending rates have been a persistent cause for concern, with 13% of adults convicted of a sex offence committing further offences.

This is the first time that mandatory lie detector testing will be used by probation services across the UK, but the Government says that a pilot conducted between 2009 and 2011 in the East and West Midlands found that those who took the tests were twice as likely to admit having breached the terms of their licence or having thoughts that suggested they continued to pose a risk.

Two police forces are already are also using lie detectors for people arrested on suspicion of indecent images of children.  

But the use of polygraphs remains controversial, with some concerned about the reliability of the devices.

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Labour Badly Bruised By UKIP In Stronghold

Why The Only Way For Essex Is UKIP

Updated: 8:12pm UK, Friday 23 May 2014

By Jason Farrell, Political Correspondent

Standing by the roadside in their purple rosettes are two retired Essex men, Malcolm Elliott and Dave Morrish. They are brothers-in-law, both living in Thurrock.

One is a right-wing Thatcherite - the other a former left-wing activist who emigrated when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

They have never agreed on politics until now. Now they are waiting for their hero of the hour to arrive, Nigel Farage.

As the anticipation builds, Malcolm tells me: "I've been a socialist all my life but not anymore because nobody's listening."

"What do you think of Ed Miliband?" I ask.

"I don't frankly. I don't believe in any of them anymore."

His brother-in-law Dave agrees. "I voted Tory for 47 years. But I feel it doesn't matter if you vote Tory, Labour or the Lib Dems, what you're going to get is the EU and that's what I don't want. Renegotiation is a nonsense. Every European treaty states that it's not negotiable."

In the local elections UKIP has increased its number of seats in Thurrock from one to six, meaning the council is no longer controlled by Labour. Thanks to UKIP the Conservatives also lost control of Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point and Southend: Essex man is becoming UKIP man.

As Mr Farage arrives the activists can hardly reach him for the cameras. The UKIP leader tells reporters his success in Essex does not mean he will stand for a seat here.

He also fields a number of questions about why his party failed to make the same impact down the road in London, where they only got 7% of the vote.

"We have a weak voluntary structure in London," he says. "We haven't built it. We haven't developed it. We haven't had the right local leaders. Once we get the right local Leaders we will start having results like this in London."

In previous elections this seat has seesawed from red to blue. The nearby parade of shops tells its own story of a community in decline. A pound shop, a Boots, a butcher's and a Greggs are among a row of otherwise boarded and shuttered facades. The butcher tells me that in the last five years for every shop that has closed, nothing has replaced them.

In Thurrock more than one in five children live in poverty. There has been a 200% increase in the use of food banks in recent months. If Ed Miliband's message about the "cost of living crisis" were to resonate anywhere, you would think it would be here. But instead they are more interested in what Mr Farage has to say about the EU and immigration.

In the local coffee shop I ask a group of pensioners why that is. "In this area we've swung between Labour and the Conservatives," says one man. "And what have either of them done for us? They've put their pay up 11% while our pensions have gone up 1%." There are six of them round the table and they all support UKIP.

The current MP is conservative Jackie Doyle-Price. With a shock of bleach-blonde hair and an upbringing on a Sheffield estate, she is far from fitting the Tories characterisation of Etonian established elite, and she is not someone to trot out the agreed party message.   

"There's been a definite mood on the doorstep of people saying the political classes don't speak to us anymore and if you look at the Westminster debate it's become very managerial, very bland, and along come UKIP with some populist messages and people say to themselves, let's give the main political parties a good kicking, and they have."

The overall mood is that Thurrock feels neglected and ignored by Westminster and therefore easily swept along by a new political wind. It seems, for many in Essex, the only way is UKIP.

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Putin Brands Charles Hitler Slur 'Unacceptable'

Vladimir Putin has branded a comparison made by the Prince of Wales in which the Royal likened the Russian president to Hitler as "not what monarchs do".

Mr Putin said Prince Charles' reported comments were "unacceptable" and "wrong".

The president was talking to leading global news agencies in St Petersburg including the British Press Association ahead of elections in Ukraine on Sunday.

It is claimed the Prince made his comments in a private conversation with a museum volunteer whose Jewish family fled Nazi Germany during the war during a Royal tour of Canada.

Marienne Ferguson, 78, said that after telling Charles the story of how her family fled the Nazis he replied: "Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler."

It is understood that Charles had been talking to Ms Ferguson about the Nazi occupation of Danzig at the start of World War Two, and had appeared to draw a parallel with Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March.

When asked by the Press Association's chief executive what he thought of what the Prince was reported to have said, Mr Putin replied: "It reminds me of a good proverb: 'You are angry. That means you are wrong."'

He added: "Give my words to Prince Charles.

"He has been to our country more than once, if he made such a comparison, it is unacceptable and I am sure he understands that as a man of manners."

Mr Putin added: "I met him personally, as well as other members of the Royal Family. This is not what monarchs do.

"But over the past few years we have seen so much, nothing surprises me any longer."

Mr Putin's response comes a month before he is due to take part in a D-Day anniversary event with the Prince.

His comments made it clear that the disapproval of prominent international figures such as the Prince of Wales would not influence his actions in the current crisis in Ukraine.

He added: "I will be guided not by what they say about me anywhere.

"I will only be guided by the interests of the Russian people, and I hope our colleagues in Great Britain will keep that in mind and will always remember that when finding solutions to any issues, we are always guided by international law and its norms."

Mr Putin had earlier said he would treat the new Ukrainian president due to be elected on May 25 "with due respect" and would "work with the authorities (in place) based on the elections".

The deteriorating crisis in Ukraine last week led to Prime Minister David Cameron warning that the UK may have to prepare for "a very different long-term relationship with Russia".

But Mr Putin indicated that he did not regard the current differences as the start of a long-lasting rift in UK-Russian relations.

A spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales declined to comment.

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