When the first state pension was paid, there was widespread celebration. David Lloyd George, Charles Booth and the other founding fathers were certain that their reforms would end poverty in old age.

Violence has for the first time overtaken shoplifting as the most common crime by women, according to annual statistics released yesterday.

Charred remains from at least five children have been discovered in the cellars of a former children’s home in Jersey, but a murder inquiry is unlikely due to difficulties in dating the remains, police said.