UK demand for asparagus soars by 540% over a decade

Tesco asparagus buyer: 'Asparagus, particularly the home-grown variety, has become one of the UK’s trendiest vegetables.' Photograph: Jupiterimages/Getty Images

It was once considered a slightly "posh" culinary delicacy whose arrival in the shops still symbolises the start of the British spring. But as consumer demand for British-grown asparagus has rocketed over the last decade, producers have nearly trebled the amount they grow.

In 10 years UK demand for the vegetable has soared by 540% according to Kantar data produced for the British Asparagus Association.

During that time the amount grown by UK farmers has soared from 788 hectares in 2005 to 2,178 hectares this year – a leap of 176%. The UK's largest supermarket, Tesco, reports that demand is growing at 20% year on year.

Tesco asparagus buyer Adam Morris said: "Asparagus, particularly the home-grown variety, has become one of the UK's trendiest vegetables. A lot of that is down to seasonality and the short-lived British season which only lasts for roughly eight weeks from mid-April to mid-June."

"In the past British growers were reluctant to give over field space to such a niche product but now there is a great clamour for the home grown variety as experts say it is the best in the world because of our perfect, mild climate."

Airmile-laden products from Peru – still the world's largest exporter of asparagus – have traditionally bolstered British supermarket shelves because of the unpredictability of British weather.

At Marks & Spencer sales of British asparagus last week were up by 48% compared with the previous year. The retailer was the first in the UK to stock asparagus at the beginning of March and the first to sell 100% UK stock in mid April. A spokeswoman said: "This has paid off with the sales as it seems as soon as British comes in our customers rush to buy it."

Waitrose has this year been selling British-grown asparagus four weeks earlier than usual because of the good weather, with sales up 28% week on week.

Last year Tesco trialled white asparagus which proved popular with shoppers, and this year it has doubled the amount it has on its shelves. White asparagus is a highly-prized gourmet food that until last year was only imported from the continent but is now being grown in commercial quantities for the first time by Britain's largest asparagus growers, Cobrey Farms who are based in the Wye Valley, Herefordshire.

White asparagus has traditionally been the preserve of foodies, featuring in the recipes of celebrity chefs and on the menus of top Michelin starred restaurants such as Gordon Ramsey's Foxtrot Oscar.

Headteachers debate changes to long summer break

Delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers annual meeting opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The long summer school holiday has been derided as a relic from an agricultural age and the bane of working parents – and now headteachers want to research the impact of ditching it in favour of shorter but more frequent breaks through the school year.

The result could bring relief to parents paying peak-season holiday prices during July and August, the subject of controversy since the government's recent ruling blocked pupils taking family holidays during term-time.

At its annual meeting in Birmingham, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) considered adopting a policy of dividing the school year into more terms, but delegates opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision.

The union – which mainly represents primary and special needs school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – debated an election-year manifesto for 2015 including a call for "more frequent, shorter holidays (adding up to the same overall number), staggered across the country on a regional basis to reduce the holiday price premium".

The move was also seen as cutting stress for teachers, by giving them more breaks between terms, while ending the problem of the long summer gap interrupting pupils' progress.

Academies, voluntary-aided and free schools in England already have powers to vary the school year, although few choose to make radical changes because of the disruption to parents and teachers with children in other schools.

One of the few is the David Young Community Academy in Leeds, with aschool year of seven terms, each around five weeks long, and holidays of two to four weeks. The first term starts in early June, and the seventh finishes in late May.

From September this year the Department for Education extends the same powers to all state schools, although local authorities can already vary the timing of holidays and terms. Maintained schools will still be required to be open for a minimum of 190 days a year.

NAHT delegrates heard that varying holidays and terms between regions would help tackle the summer holiday price premium and spread out travel pressures.

The union also called for research into the impact of changing school admission policies to give priority to children from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals and the pupil premium.

Russell Hobby, the NAHT's general secretary gave an impassioned speech to delegates in Birmingham, saying "the dice are stacked against those who serve the most challenging communities. If we are honest with ourselves, there are also ways to allow selection to creep in unnoticed."

Offering disadvantaged children priority in applications "at a stroke … would limit the house price barrier to good schools and secure more firmly the comprehensive principle of education".

Last week a group of selective state grammar schools in England announced they would give priority to children eligible for free school meals as a "tie-breaker" when oversubscribed.

UK home construction industry upbeat amid property boom

Housebuilders have benefited from the government's Help to Buy, which is aimed at first-time buyers. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

UK house building is enjoying its longest run of growth since before the financial crisis in a further sign of Britain's booming property market.

Housing construction grew for a 15th month in April, the longest period of continuous growth since 2006/07 according to the Markit/CIPS construction PMI.

Activity in the broader construction sector, which also includes commercial property and civil engineering, grew for the 12th month in a row but at the slowest pace in six months according to the PMI, with the headline index slipping to 60.8 from 62.5 – anything above 50 signals expansion. The figures suggest growth in the sector – which accounts for about 6% of the economy – remains robust.

The figures came in below economists forecasts of 62, but Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg, said the survey showed the construction sector was still "red hot".

Confidence among construction businesses remained elevated, according to the survey, while employment in the sector rose for an 11th month. The Office for National Statistics said in a separate report on Friday that job vacancies in the construction industry in particular had risen recently, with firms seeking to recruit more staff to meet growing demand. It said the number of vacancies jumped from 14,000 in the three months ending November 2013, to 20,000 in the first quarter of 2014.

Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said: "Construction growth has started to moderate from the rapid pace seen over the winter, but strong rises in new work and payroll numbers provide ample optimism that output will expand strongly over the course of 2014."

House building grew at the fastest rate of all three sub sectors included in the PMI, although it was slightly slower than the rate of growth in March.

It follows a warning from Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of England's deputy governor for financial stability, that Britain's housing market could be heading for a fresh crash. He said it would be dangerous to ignore the momentum apparent in the property market across the country.

"This is a movie that has been seen more than once in the UK," he said

Green politicians launch legal challenge over GCHQ surveillance

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Two politicians have launched a legal action to challenge the government's ability to spy on parliamentarians.

The pair allege that GCHQ is violating a long-established rule that bans intelligence agencies from eavesdropping on MPs and peers. They say their communications are likely to have been intercepted by GCHQ, which gathers and stores data on millions of people "on a blanket basis".

The claim by Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, and Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, the Green party's two representatives in parliament, adds to a growing number of legal challenges over the large-scale harvesting of emails, phone calls and other internet traffic by GCHQ.

Their complaint focuses on a rule introduced by 1966 by the then prime minister, Harold Wilson, instructing Britain's intelligence agencies not to tap the telephones of MPs and peers unless there is a national emergency.

A government minister acknowledged last July that this explicit ban, still in force and known as the Wilson doctrine, also applied to electronicsurveillance.

Lucas and Jones say: "The Wilson doctrine is a fundamental doctrine of public policy. It not only protects the rights and privileges of elected politicians, but it also protects the privacy of their communications with their constituents, who may very well be complaining or whistleblowing about the very government departments and agencies and other agents of the state who try to carry out surveillance on them."

They say there is a strong likelihood that GCHQ spies "have intercepted and are intercepting [their] communications as members of the Houses of Parliament".

They highlight a secret GCHQ programme codenamed Tempora, whose existence was disclosed by the Guardian last June. Confidential documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ had secretly gained access to the network of fibre-optic cables that carries the world's phone calls and internet traffic.

The spy centre has been scooping up huge quantities of communications between innocent people as well as targeted suspects, according to the documents. The sensitive information, shared with the NSA, included recordings of phone calls, the content of email messages, and entries on Facebook.

Lucas and Jones say the Tempora programme is unlawful as they had a "legitimate expectation" that their communications were protected under the Wilson doctrine.

With the help of the human rights law firm Leigh Day, they have lodged a claim with the investigatory powers tribunal, the secretive court that hears complaints about Britain's intelligence agencies. They want a declaration that the interception of their communications has been prohibited.

Lucas said: "I am deeply concerned that GCHQ may have spied on members of parliament. Every day, MPs deal with very personal issues that their constituents raise with them. By spying on MPs, GCHQ has been spying on us all, as everyone may at some time need the help of their MP.

"There are good reasons why GCHQ are prohibited from spying on MPs – this matter goes to the heart of our democracy. If people cannot trust that their conversations with their MP are private, then important issues will not be raised in parliament and receive the scrutiny that they deserve."

GCHQ says it has a longstanding policy of never commenting on intelligence matters, but insists that all of its activities are necessary, proportionate and in accordance with UK law, governed by rigorous oversight.

Other complaints about the spy centre's mass surveillance have been initiated by pressure groups including Privacy International and Liberty.

Gerry Adams freed without charge after questioning over McConville case

Gerry Adams at a press conference at Balmoral Hotel with Martin McGuinness. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Gerry Adams has been released without charge from a Northern Irelandpolice station but a file on him will be sent to the public prosecution service, it has emerged.

The Sinn Féin president was released at 5.45pm on Sunday from the serious crimes suite at Antrim police station.

He was being questioned about the murder in 1972 of widow Jean McConville. He has denied both any involvement in the killing, and membership of the IRA.

Armoured vehicles and a large phalanx of police officers in riot gear carrying shields moved out of the police station shortly after 7pm. They were deployed to clear dozens of loyalists from the front of the police base who had sat on the road.

But it transpired that the security operation was a decoy to divert the loyalists from the back of the station where Adams and his entourage left by car.

Earlier, the fallout from the row over his arrest produced an angry exchange within the power-sharing executive at Stormont with the first minister, Peter Robinson, accusing Sinn Féin of trying to blackmail the police.

Peter Robinson said he hoped the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) would not bend to "republican bullyboy tactics".

Robinson said: "The protest action taken by Sinn Féin is unacceptable in any democratic country operating under the rule of law. The publicly conveyed threat to the PSNI delivered by the highest levels of Sinn Féin that they will reassess their attitude to policing if Gerry Adams is charged is a despicable, thuggish attempt to blackmail the PSNI.

"The threat now means that ordinary, decent citizens will conclude that the PSNI and the PPS [Public Prosecution Service] have succumbed to a crude and overt political threat if Adams is not charged. The PSNI must not be the subject of republican bullyboy tactics."

The first minister's remarks are a measure of the acrimony between the two main parties in the regional devolved government, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin, over Adams's detention.

Sinn Féin junior minister and former IRA Old Bailey bomber Gerry Kelly was allowed into Antrim police station to visit Adams on Sunday afternoon.

Kelly said Adams believed his detention was politically motivated and that it had been "mishandled."

Kelly said his party leader was "worried about the damage that it may be doing to the image of policing as well. This is quite a serious situation."

Kelly said that Adams told him that the police also quizzed Adams about books he wrote over the last 40 years and showed him photographs from the Troubles.

The Sinn Féin minister's visit was highly unusual because normally only a doctor or lawyer can visit a suspect in a police station in Northern Ireland.

Separately, a group of Ulster loyalists arrived near Antrim police station where Adams has spent a fifth day being questioned by detectives.

They erected a union flag on a lamp post and carried a placard claiming their right to fly the flag.

The deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, earlier claimed sinister forces within the police were behind the arrest and were trying to "settle old scores", and said his party would review their support for policing if Adams was charged.

A rally of up to 600 people turned up in west Belfast on Saturday to observe the unveiling of a mural along Falls Road in honour of Adams. The demonstration took place a short distance away from the site of the Divis Flats complex, from where Jean McConville was dragged away 42 years ago and never seen again by her children.

Jean McConville's eldest daughter has vowed to take civil action against the Sinn Féin leader. Helen McKendry said she had been approached by a high-powered legal firm offering their services to pursue Adams through the civil courts. She said the action will be modelled on the case taken by families of the Omagh bomb victims against four named in Belfast high court as leaders of the Real IRA at the time of the 1998 massacre.

Ann Maguire stabbing: man charged over malicious communications

Tributes for Ann Maguire outside Corpus Christi Catholic college in Leeds. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA

Police have arrested one man and charged another in connection with "malicious communications" following the fatal stabbing of Ann Maguire, a 61-year-old teacher at Corpus Christi Catholic college in Leeds.

Jake Newsome, 21, from the Harehills area in Leeds, was charged and released on bail. He is due to appear in court on Wednesday. A man aged 42, who was arrested in Port Talbot, south Wales, remains in custody.

It is unclear what was the nature of the communications and in what medium they appeared. The Crown Prosecution Service defines malicious communications as "the sending to another of any article which is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient."

Maguire, who taught Spanish and was described as an "inspirational" teacher, was attacked in front of her pupils and died of multiple stab wounds last week. A teenager who cannot be named appeared via videolink before Leeds crown court on Friday charged with her murder.

During the court proceedings the prosecuting barrister, Paul Greaney QC, asked the judge to warn members of the public as well as the mediathat the boy had a right to a fair trial.

The judge, Geoffrey Marson QC, reiterated Greaney's point, saying that bloggers and users of social media sites were "just as much bound by these rules as the press".

"The consequences for individuals, I want to emphasise, can be serious if there's a breach," he said.

Under English law, any child involved in court proceedings is entitled to anonymity. Normally, that means media cannot name their school or college.

The case was adjourned until 11 July for a plea and case management hearing. A date for the start of the murder trial was set for 3 November. Prayers were said at dozens of churches for Maguire's family and the pupils she taught in her 40 years at the school. The Catholic diocese of Leeds wrote to about 90 churches asking them to hold the special prayers during mass.

Monsignor John Wilson, administrator of the diocese, wrote to all Catholic churches in West Yorkshire, which have a combined congregation of about 32,000. His letter praised the "great spiritual and pastoral" support offered to students at Maguire's school.

"It goes without saying, but please would you pray especially for Ann, her family and the college and local community. It is in the strength of prayer that we stand united in faith," he said.

On Saturday, delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers conference in Birmingham held a minute's silence in memory of Maguire and offered their condolences to her family

Economics students call for shakeup of the way their subject is taught

Students want courses to include analysis of the financial crash that so many economists failed to see coming. Photograph: Eddie Mulholland/REX

Economics students from 19 countries have joined forces to call for an overhaul of the way their subject is taught, saying the dominance of narrow free-market theories at top universities harms the world's ability to confront challenges such as financial stability and climate change.

In the first global protest against mainstream economic teaching, the International Student Initiative for Pluralist Economics (ISIPE) argues in a letter to the Guardian that economics courses are failing wider society when they ignore evidence from other disciplines.

The students, who have formed 41 protest groups in universities from Britain and the US to Brazil and Russia, say research and teaching in economics departments is too narrowly focused and more effort should be made to broaden the curriculum. They want courses to include analysis of the financial crash that so many economists failed to see coming, and say the discipline has become divorced from the real world.

"The lack of intellectual diversity does not only restrain education and research. It limits our ability to contend with the multidimensional challenges of the 21st century – from financial stability to food security and climate change," they say in their manifesto.

"The real world should be brought back into the classroom, as well as debate and a pluralism of theories and methods. This will help renew the discipline and ultimately create a space in which solutions to society's problems can be generated."

The move follows a series of protests in the UK led by students in Manchester, Cambridge and London against academics who have been accused of acting as cheerleaders for the market-financial models that helped push the global financial system into the crisis.

Economics undergraduates at the University of Manchester, who formed the Post-Crash Economics Society, recently issued their own manifesto for reform with the endorsement of the Bank of England's incoming chief economist, Andy Haldane. Haldane, who is currently director of financial stability, said economists had forgotten the links between their subject and other social science disciplines, which can give a broader and more accurate picture of how an economy works.

He said: "The crisis has laid bare the latent inadequacies of economic models. These models have failed to make sense of the sorts of extreme macro-economic events, such as crises, recessions and depressions, which matter most to society."

In the decade before the 2008 crash, many economists dismissed warnings that property and stock markets were overvalued. US central bank boss Alan Greenspan was a leading figure who argued that markets were correctly pricing shares, property and exotic derivatives in line with economic models of behaviour. It was only when the US sub-prime mortgage market unravelled that regulators, policymakers and banks realised a collective failure to spot the bubble had wrecked their economies.

In his bestselling book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the economist Thomas Piketty attacks mainstream economic teaching, accusing academics of believing mathematical models without looking at growing evidence that undermines the conclusions. Piketty's look back over the last 200 years of economic development in search of lessons for the next 100 years is currently the best selling book on Amazon in the US.

He says academics have ignored evidence of growing inequality and its influence on GDP growth since the 1970s.

"For too long economists have neglected the distribution of wealth, partly because of the profession's undue enthusiasm for simplistic mathematical models based on so-called representative agents," he says.

The student manifesto calls on university economics departments to hire lecturers with a broader outlook and introduce a wider selection of texts. It also asks that lecturers endorse collaborations between social sciences and humanities departments or "establish special departments that could oversee interdisciplinary programmes blending economics and other fields".

The manifesto says: "Change will be difficult – it always is. But it is already happening. Students across the world have already started creating change step by step. We have founded university groups and built networks both nationally and internationally. Change must come from many places. So now we invite you – students, economists, and non-economists – to join us and create the critical mass needed for change."