内容摘要：Virtually everyone agrees that Britain's armed forces are depleted. Troop numbers are down, morale is weak, and some ageing equipment is in a poor state. And all this comes at a time of greater geopolitical uncertainty, as the threat from Russia looms large across Europe.

Virtually everyone agrees that Britain's armed forces are depleted. Troop numbers are down, morale is weak, and some ageing equipment is in a poor state. And all this comes at a time of greater geopolitical uncertainty, as the threat from Russia looms large across Europe.

The recommendation of an above-inflation pay rise for teachers is likely to be because of ongoing concerns about staff recruitment and retention in schools.These have been raised in previous pay recommendations.

(IFS) show that, despite the 5.5% average cash pay rise teachers received in 2024-25, the average pay of most teachers in that year - when adjusted for inflation - was still lower than than it was back in 2010.In the case of the most experienced teachers, pay was 9% lower than it was 15 years ago in real terms.Official government data also shows widening gaps between the recruitment figures for teachers in specific subjects and their recruitment targets.

Just 17% of the target for secondary school physics teacher recruitment was achieved in 2023-24, down from 42% in 2019-20.Overall teacher recruitment was 62% of the target, down from 87% in 2019-20

We do not know what all the individual pay recommendations from the review bodies will be, but Verify has done some calculations that give a rough sense of the potential impact.

Overall UK public sector pay in 2023-24 was £272bn,"This is probably one of the hardest Premier Leagues I have ever played in - not in terms of players, but in terms of myself," Van Gerwen admitted.

His cause was not helped when missing the ninth event of the season in Berlin with a shoulder injury sustained while trying to put a shirt on.Humphries reached the semi-finals in Sheffield with a 6-4 win over Rob Cross before a 6-2 defeat of Chris Dobey, who earlier came from 4-0 down to beat Price 6-5.

Luke Littler 6-3 Luke HumphriesLuke Littler 6-4 Nathan Aspinall