This week's UK news: 5 May 2016
j0314269
5 May 2016


Leicester wins the Premier League, Dyson re-invents the hairdryer, justice for dead football fans and Princess Charlotte's first birthday.

Every week, we summarise the UK news to help you understand what is happening in Britain, and what people are talking about.

Dyson launches new hairdryer

The UK engineering company Dyson is known for making existing products in a new way. It started with vacuum cleaners, replacing the old dust bag with clear plastic, and making them look very modern. It created fans which don't blow paper round the room. It transformed hand dryers into a gadget you put your hands into and slowly pull them out.

This week it showed its newest gadget - the hair dryer. 

Dyson has spent GBP 50 million investigating hair. More than a hundred engineers have tested the technology on over a thousand miles of human hair, creating 600 possible dryers. Now it has launched the dryer, and it claims the motor is eight times faster than usual hairdryer motors, half the weight, and doesn't get too hot. 

The hairdryer costs GBP 299. 

 

Premier League surprise

You've all heard about the giant UK Premier League clubs: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool. But until this season you probably hadn't heard of Leicester City. 

Yet this week, Leicester won the Premier League - just one year after joining it from the league below. The team cost less than GBP 30m, which is seven times less than many Premier League teams. The the manager, Italian Claudio Ranieri, was a surprise choice, and has become famous for saying "Dilly ding, dilly dong" during training and taking the team out for pizza if they win.

Leicester became the winners when Tottenham lost their game at the weekend. There have already been big celebrations in the city, but a huge party is planned after the team's final match at the weekend.

 

Justice after 27 years

This is a less happy football story. At a big football match between Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday in 1989, 96 fans were crushed to death. At the time, the blame was put on the fans. Police said they had pushed into the stadium without tickets.

But the families of the dead, and survivors who had seen what really happened, kept on fighting for the truth. This week, an inquest (an inquiry into deaths) decided that the fans had been unlawfully killed because of the failings of the police officer in charge of the match. The families are delighted that the truth has finally been told. 

 

Princess Charlotte celebrates first birthday

There were lots of pictures of baby Princess Charlotte in the papers this week, because it is her first birthday. The photos were taken by her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge.

The Duchess was also in the news because she was the cover model for this month's Vogue magazine. It was a special edition of the magazine to celebrate its 100th birthday. Some of the pictures will be shown in London's National Portrait Gallery. 

It is the first time that the Duchess has appeared in the magazine, but her mother-in-law, Princess Diana, did so four times.


previous entry << >> next entry