Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 5 Mar 2015

1. HARRISON FORD HURT IN PLANE CRASH

Harrison Ford is seriously injured in hospital after the vintage WW2 training plane he was piloting crashed into a Californian golf course. The Star Wars actor suffered lacerations to his head and possible fractures but is expected to make a full recovery. The crash happened shortly after takeoff from Santa Monica.

2. POPULATION RISES BY 565,000 IN ENGLAND

A major analysis by the University of Oxford suggests the population of England has risen by more than half a million since 2011 due to immigration. It is thought the migrant population of every local authority area in the country is up. Around two thirds of the people who have arrived came from EU nations.

3. DRIVERS TO GET 10-MINUTE PARKING GRACE

Drivers in England will be allowed to overstay their time in street bays and council-run car parks by ten minutes before being fined. New guidance bans councils from “using parking to generate profit”. Eric Pickles said the coalition was “ending the war on drivers who simply want to go about their daily business”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

4. OSBORNE: WE’LL SELL RBS ‘QUICK AS WE CAN’

The government will sell its 79% stake in RBS “as quickly as we can” after the election, if re-elected, says George Osborne. The chancellor says he wants to “get moving” and re-cover the money the taxpayer invested to keep the bank afloat. RBS is still making losses - a total of £43bn since its bail-out.

5. PLANE SKIDS OFF RUNWAY IN NEW YORK

Dramatic pictures show a Delta Airlines jet which skidded off the runway at LaGuardia airport in New York on landing in snow, crashed through a fence and came to rest just feet from the sea. The 132 people on board were evacuated without serious injury. A major winter storm last night hit the area.

6. UN: GENDER PAY GAP COULD LAST 70 YEARS

The UN has warned that, at the current rate of change, the gap between average pay for men and women will not close for another 70 years. Women across the world earn an average of 77% of the amount men are paid, 45 years after the UK introduced equal pay legislation. The gap has barely shifted in two decades.

7. SENIOR MPS: RECRUIT SPIES ON MUMSNET

The Intelligence and Security Committee has called for the UK’s intelligence agencies to recruit more middle-aged women and mothers - and suggested trawling Mumsnet and other websites for spooks. The committee said middle-aged women were an “untapped recruitment pool” for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

8. ALONSO FORGOT 20 YEARS AFTER CRASH

F1 driver Fernando Alonso forgot everything after 1995 and believed he was still racing karts when concussed, his doctors have revealed. The Spaniard crashed in testing and will sit out the Australian Grand Prix despite recovering. “I’m Fernando, I’m in karts and want to become a Formla 1 driver,” he told them.

9. BOY OF 11 MISSES PIC FOR 50 SHADES OUTFIT

A boy of 11 was excluded from a class photo on World Book Day, when children are encouraged to dress as a character from a favourite book, because he was in costume as Christian Grey, the S&M-loving millionaire hero of 50 Shades of Grey. Liam Scholes of Sale, Manchester, had an eye mask and cable ties.

10. BRIEFING: WHO WILL WIN THE ELECTION

The election campaign is well underway, and it looks set to be the tightest campaign for decades. Here are the polls, the predictions and the most likely scenarios that will unfold over the next two months – and determine who governs us for the next five years.

Election results live 2015: David Cameron wins UK general election