The Prime Minister has been informed and has asked to be apprised of the situation

“The Prime Minister has been informed and has asked to be apprised of the situation.”The car was taken away by police to a Ministry of Defence car park opposite Downing Street, to be examined by a forensic expert.The impact damaged the bolt connecting the gates to the ground and snapped one of the support braces. Car skid marks were last night apparent in front of the gates. It is not yet clear whether the driver simply lost control of the vehicle or deliberately tried to smash the gate.The injured tourist, whose identity has not been confirmed, was taken to hospital with a leg injury. A man was being questioned by police last night after a car crashed into the security gates of Downing Street, injuring a female tourist.
The red Vauxhall Astra collided with the wrought iron gates that protect the Prime Minister’s residence at 12.30pm yesterday. Police confirmed that the driver was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and taken to Charing Cross police station in central London for questioning. A man was being questioned by police last night after a car crashed into the security gates of Downing Street, injuring a female tourist. I have no confidence in them.”Pensioners are dying at the rate of more than 10 a week.

John Prescott should do the decent thing and tell the bus pension trustees that the delay is far too long.”Carolyn Saunders, pensions partner at Taylor Joynson Garrett, which acts for the pension trustees, said they faced a difficult job.”The fund is a pension scheme, not a disaster fund or a chunk of damages, and getting the money back so long after the original fund was distributed is most unusual,” said Ms Saunders.”Many pensioners find it difficult to understand why the trustees cannot just write a cheque, although we have tried to explain.”. It’s a disgrace.”Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, has taken up the bus pensioners’ cause. He says that funds should also be made available to the families of the workers who have already died.”The Government’s shoddy behaviour is quite unacceptable,” he said “The trustees’ track record has been a disgrace. The trustees have not yet managed to provide another cheque correctly signed.”There should have been a criminal prosecution,” he said. “The lawyers are making money every day from this case while the trustees make excuses about not paying out.”A third of the pensioners are already over 70 but the trustees are now saying they may have to accept annuities instead of the full payment.

In opposition, Labour said it would return the money with interest – which more than doubled the original sum.MPs last night accused the Government of reneging on its promise and demanded that the pensioners receive an immediate lump sum.Mr Wheeler has had a series of strokes and suffers from memory loss and fatigue, and many of his former colleagues are also in poor health. Others have died without ever seeing the money owed to them.Mr Wheeler, who initiated the legal battle, was denied his £15,000 because the cheque bore the wrong signature. As a result, the case went to the High Court and was decided in favour of the pensioners. But while the lawyers involved have received fees totalling £2m, their clients have not received a penny .The dispute began when the Treasury, under the Tories, removed £168m as a surplus from the National Bus Company pension fund. The Pensions Ombudsman ruled in 1996 that the money had to be repaid, but Sir George Young, former secretary of state for transport, refused to abide by the ruling. A cheque arrived in the post, he took it to the bank, it bounced.
Mr Wheeler is just one of the 40,000 pensioners still waiting to receive compensation for pensions that have not been paid since the privatisation of the National Bus Company 13 years ago – despite a promise from Tony Blair, when in opposition, that the money would be paid in full.Last June, after a long legal battle, the pensioners were awarded £360m compensation.