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Hundreds of thousands more patients are being forced to wait longer than four hours for emergency care as A&E departments across the country struggle due to closures and staff shortages. Official NHS data reveals a growing crisis in England’s A&E wards with one in every three patients now waiting four hours or more for emergency treatment in the worst affected areas. The figures, released by the Department of Health on Friday, show that during the week up to April 7, 33,225 patients were forced to wait longer than four hours compared with 13,081 in the same week last year, a rise of 250 per cent. Official NHS data has revealed one in every three patients in England's A&E wards now wait four hours or more for emergency treatment in the worst affected areas An additional 146,000 patients waited more than four hours to be seen in casualty in the six months between October and April compared with the same six-month period during the previous yea

The police commander in charge of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday has provoked outrage by condoning disrespectful demonstrations planned outside the ceremony. Metropolitan Police commander Christine Jones is also facing criticism for encouraging protesters to contact police if they want to stage demonstrations. Last night Baroness Thatcher’s former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham said the force was ‘conniving at a display of bad taste’. Preparations are underway near St Paul's Cathedral ahead of the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. The police commander in charge of the funeral on Wednesday has condoned demonstrations planned outside the ceremony Ms Jones, who masterminded security for the Royal Wedding, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are not there to uphold respect, we are there to uphold the law. ‘If people want to come up to London and protest at the funeral then they will be allowed to do so. It’s a balancing act between the right to

Norman Tebbit will go to his grave wondering if he could have saved Margaret Thatcher from being deposed as Prime Minister if he had not left her side. He stepped down from the Cabinet in 1987 to protect another Margaret, his wife, paralysed in the Brighton bombing three years earlier that Tebbit only narrowly survived himself. ‘I might have been able to save her, or least let her go in her own time, instead of being forced out by those I call the “Brussels irregulars”,’ he reflects with a bloodless smile as we sit in the study of the Tebbits’ elegant home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.  Norman Tebbit will go to his grave wondering if Margaret Thatcher could have been saved from being deposed as Prime Minister if he had not stepped down in 1987 Upstairs, Margaret Tebbit is with one of a team of carers that help her husband look after her. She was also a close friend of Lady Thatcher, but is too frail to attend Wednesday’s funeral. Tebbit has spent the morning

Barry Strevens was the longest-serving member of Margaret Thatcher’s personal protection force. For more than 20 years, from her days as Opposition leader of the Conservative Party through to the day she quit as Prime Minister, Detective Chief Inspector Strevens, now 69, was constantly by her side. He was head of Mrs Thatcher’s security detail when she left office, accompanying her to Buckingham Palace to tender her resignation to the Queen. In later years, Strevens was one of only a handful of people who visited her regularly, up until her death at the Ritz hotel last Monday.   I wonder if all those rejoicing at Lady Thatcher’s death would feel the same if they had any idea of the true nature of her final months: of the loneliness and frailty that she faced with such courage that it was heartbreaking to watch. The desire to protect her during that time was as strong as it had ever been, only now the threat came from within, from the countless mini-strokes that relen

Fraud victims complain they are being denied justice as police no longer routinely investigate the crimes. As of this month, anyone who walks into a police station or rings 999 to say they have been scammed is told to ring a Government-funded call centre or visit a website instead. The Action Fraud phoneline is not manned by police or civilian staff, but by employees of a private firm that also runs hotlines for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC. People hit by fraud are joining a queue of people, many who just want to get through to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (pictured here with Katherine Jenkins) Operators take down the victim’s details, give them a crime reference number and then decide if there is enough evidence for police to investigate properly. Last night credit card fraud expert Andrew Goodwill told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Police are putting themselves at arm’s length from the public.   More... Too much texting can make you shal

A tony gardening club in Manhattan has been rocked by accusations of public sex, boozy parties, arson and violence, it was revealed today. The Roosevelt Island Garden Club has been in a state of turmoil since it elected a new president, April Ward, last fall. 'Since she came, oh my God, everybody’s fighting,' said Raphael Elbaz, a longtime garden member. 'It’s like the slave became the king.' Scandal: Wild accusations of arson, public sex and booze-filled parties has rocked the Roosevelt Island Garden Club Ward, who asks to be called 'Madam President' at meetings, campaigned for the job to reform a group she believed to be totally mismanaged. She said group funds were spent on wild parties featuring grilling, bonfires, and resulting in fights and adultery, leading to at least one divorce. 'We have people in the club who are recovering alcoholics or addicts; they can’t be around people drinking,' she told the New York Times. '

Carol Thatcher said yesterday that she was expecting a ‘tough and tearful week’ as she prepared for her mother’s funeral. Speaking outside the family home in Belgravia, Central London, Margaret Thatcher’s daughter said she felt ‘like anyone else who has just lost a second parent’. But dressed in a black shawl, black trousers and clutching a pair of sunglasses, Ms Thatcher made clear she had found comfort in the messages of sympathy and support. Scroll down for video 'Tough and tearful': Carol Thatcher made the poignant comment to media gathered outside the family home in Chester Square, London Grateful: Miss Thatcher, 59, whose twin brother Mark can be seen standing behind, thanked well-wishers for their outpouring of sympathy and support   VIDEO   See Carol Thatcher's poignant tribute to her mother  'A tough and tearful week even for the daughter of the Iron Lady Giving an ‘enormous personal thank y

New York City's Fleet Week may not be cancelled this year but it will be significantly scaled back because of sequestrian. It was first thought that the annual melee would not take place after the $85billion across-the-board budget cuts which arrived in February. A Navy official confirmed that it will happen on a much smaller scale: 'It's not going to look like anything we've seen in the past. We are not going to be able to support it like we have in the past.' Tradition: Sailors stand on the deck of the USS Iwo Jima as it passes by the Statue of Liberty to kick off Fleet Week in New York in 2011 Celebration: Sailors line the mast of the tall ship ARC Gloria, training ship and official flagship of the Colombian Navy, as it passes the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor while arriving for the 25th annual Fleet Week last year The annual celebration, in which recently deployed ships dock at major cities for a week, usually draws hundre

One of the country’s most senior doctors who raised the alarm over high death rates at a children’s cardiac unit is ‘considering his position’ after being asked to resign by the NHS medical director. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh has called for Prof Sir Roger Boyle,  the former heart tsar, to step  down over his claims that he  would still not want his daughter  to receive treatment at Leeds General Infirmary – even though  it has reopened following a Government review. The call for his resignation came despite Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisting that a new ‘friends and family test’ is a crucial way to determine whether services are safe to use. Prof Boyle, director of the National Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research (NICOR), which oversees NHS mortality data, argued on Friday that the death rates at Leeds were still ‘on the edge of acceptability’ and that he would not send his children there. ‘I would go somewhere else,’ Prof Boyle said. ‘I would go to Newcastl

A golfer in Long Island has been charged after he yelled racial slurs at two other players and attacked one with a golf club on Tuesday. Grant Smith, who is white, had his meltdown on the White Course at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. According to reports, he approached two black men, 66 and 65, and demanded that he be allowed to play through. Enlarge   Grant Smith has been charged after he yelled racial slurs at two other players and attacked one with a golf club on Tuesday Smith, 48, allegedly kept shouting at the men, telling them they didn't have any golf etiquette. ‘I said, “if you were courteous, I would have allowed you to go through, but after this, no,'" one told NBC4 , asking that his name be withheld.   More... Record-breaking 14-year-old golfer's Masters dream continues after harsh slow play penalty nearly dashed his hopes Tiger Woods told to 'man up' and quit Masters after 'admitting' to illegal

Rescuers scrambled late Saturday to find a missing snowshoer after a pair of spring avalanches struck separate groups in the mountains east of Seattle, the authorities said. Three people were initially reported missing, but officials said late Saturday that only one man is now unaccounted for following the twin avalanches. One avalanche, at Granite Mountain, carried three snowshoers more than 1,200 feet, said Sgt. Katie Larson of the King County Sheriff's Office. Slide: A man with King County Search and Rescue runs toward scene of avalanche at exit 47 along I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass "One of the climbers tells me that they had no warning," she told KOMO-TV. "The avalanche, at this point, from what he's describing, is 30 feet wide, eight feet deep and about a quarter-mile long." Two men emerged from the snow, but their friend, described as a 60-year-old man, was still missing Saturday evening. Northwest Weather and Avalanche program

Authorities investigating the death of a Texas district attorney arrested a former justice of the peace and charged him on Saturday with making a 'terroristic threat' after searching his home. Eric Williams, 46, was admitted to the Kaufman County Jail early Saturday morning, jail records show. Bond was set at $1 million for the terroristic threat charge and at $1 million each for two charges of insufficient bond. Officials have not named Williams as a suspect in the March 30 shooting deaths of District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, or in the late January death of assistant DA Mark Hasse, who was fatally shot as he was leaving work in Kaufman, about 30 miles southeast of Dallas. But federal and local authorities searched Williams' home Friday as part of an investigation into the McLellands' deaths. The district attorney's office prosecuted Williams, and he was convicted in March 2012 of burglary of a building and theft by