HALF A MILLION TELL DAVID CAMERON THEY OPPOSE GAY MARRIAGE

DAVID Cameron was yesterday presented with a 500,000-name petition opposing plans to legalise gay marriage.

Amid growing opposition to the move, campaigners from the Coalition For Marriage delivered the petition to 10 Downing Street. It follows warnings from senior clergy that the historic tie between the Church of England and the state could be broken if the law is changed.

Mike Judge, spokesman for C4M, said: “Marriage is incredibly important. Its definition predates the Government and the Christian church and I don’t think it’s for politicians to redefine it.

“If they were to hold a referendum, I’m confident the British people would say we are happy with marriage as it is.” Coalition ministers pledged to change the law to allow same-sex marriages by the next election in 2015.

A growing number of Tory MPs oppose the plan. Some clergy fear vicars could be forced to conduct gay weddings against their will.

RUPERT MURDOCH TRIED TO MAKE ME CHANGE POLICY, SAYS SIR JOHN MAJOR

SIR John Major launched a bitter attack on News International yesterday, revealing how Rupert Murdoch warned him to switch policy on Europe or the Tories would lose the support of his newspapers.

Appearing at the Leveson inquiry into press ethics, the former prime minister recalled a dinner with the media mogul and his daughter Elisabeth in February 1997 – months before Labour won a landslide election victory with The Sun’s backing.

Sir John told the inquiry: “Mr Murdoch said he really didn’t like our European policies. This was no surprise to me…he wished me to change our European policies.

“If we couldn’t change our European policies, his papers could not and would not support the Conservative Government.”

Sir John said he believed what Mr Murdoch was “edging towards was a referendum on leaving the European Union”.

His account appeared to contradict Mr Murdoch’s evidence to the inquiry when he said: “I’ve never asked a Prime Minister for anything.”

It was the second time in two days that Mr Murdoch had been accused of lying, after Gordon Brown said he had never told the media baron he was “declaring war” on News International.

Sir John admitted he struggled in the shadow of his predecessor Margaret Thatcher who was admired by Mr Murdoch, and said that he suffered “hostile” coverage after becoming prime minister in 1990.

Mrs Thatcher, admired “buccaneering businessmen” who were prepared to take risks and they admired her, he said. Sir John also suggested that Tony Blair was more Right-wing than him, so he was not surprised that The Sun switched its backing to Labour before the 1997 election.

He said: “I remember joking once that I had gone swimming in the River Thames and left my clothes on the bank, and when I got back Mr Blair was wearing them.

“I don’t think it was very surprising that they (The Sun) decided to support Labour.”

THE TELETUBBY OLYMPICS

A SNEAK preview of the opening ceremony for the London Olympics yesterday revealed a set looking more akin to Teletubbyland than a £27million sports spectacular.

A billion people around the world will tune in on July 27 to see Britain represented by a rather bizarre rural-idyll, complete with real animals and even a cricket match. All it seems to need are Tinky Winky, Dipsy and Laa-Laa from the TV series.

The 10,000 volunteers, cast and crew have been rehearsing day and night to make sure the event goes off as planned. The set, which will transform the stadium in Stratford, east London, was unveiled by Danny Boyle, artistic director.

Boyle, the filmmaker behind Trainspotting and the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, insisted it evoked the “green and pleasant land” of William Blake’s poem Jerusalem, an emblem of Englishness.

He added the ceremony would be a “reflection of part of our heritage” as well as a look to the future.

The audience of 62,000 in the stadium will see farmers tilling soil while animals graze. These include horses, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, sheep and sheep dogs.

In addition to the cricket match, there will be picnicking families and a hill modelled on Glastonbury Tor in south-west England. Below the hill, spectators will fill a “mosh pit”, evoking the Glastonbury rock festival and other music events.

There are clouds that can produce real rain – while the meadow is surrounded by a parade ground for the 10,500 athletes taking part.

Boyle has nicknamed it the M25, but let’s hope that does not turn out to be too true to life.

HALF DODGE JOB SCHEME

NEARLY half of unemployed people got out of a compulsory work scheme by signing off benefits or failing to turn up, figures revealed yesterday.

Of the first 3,000 referred to the Mandatory Work Activity scheme, 29 per cent signed off jobseekers’ allowance in the 21 weeks after their first referral. A further 17 per cent did not start their placement

Ministers think this suggests many claimants have secret jobs. The figures came as Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced a crackdown on claimants who sign off benefit to dodge work placements then sign back on.

CHILD SEX ABUSE ‘A MASSIVE PROBLEM’

THOUSANDS of children are being sexually exploited across the country, the Deputy Children’s Commissioner has told MPs.

Sue Berelowitz said girls as young as 11 are being forced into horrendous sex acts.

She revealed that in parts of London they are made to perform sex acts on rows of boys for up to two hours.

Ms Berelowitz told the Commons home affairs committee her in-depth study of the problem suggested there “isn’t a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited”.

And she shocked MPs with a graphic description of some of the crimes she had encountered in her research for a report due out in September.

She said that thousands, not hundreds, of children in England were being abused and that “it was common” for girls lured out by predators on internet chat rooms to be gang-raped by groups of boys.

She was “extremely concerned” about the role being played by the internet in enabling and fuelling abuse.

Young people were acting out scenes they saw in online pornography and organising abuse via social networking sites and messaging systems, she said.

One police force showed her a list of 1,000 girls, aged 12 to 14, who had become “friends” on Facebook with a man in his forties who was masquerading as a boy.

Ms Berelowitz said the recent sex-grooming case in Rochdale, in which mainly Pakistani men targeted white girls, was just one part of a wider picture of exploitation involving victims and abusers of all races and cultures.

“I regret to say that there are parts of every single community – white, Pakistani, Afghan, Gypsy and Romany travellers, you name it – who are seeing children as easy access in terms of sexual exploitation.

“And in terms of victims we are seeing the same sort of profile,” she said.

HOLIDAYMAKER KILLED IN 40FT CLIFF PLUNGE

A RAMBLER died and his wife was fighting for her life last night after they plunged off steep cliffs.

The couple fell 40ft from a path on to the concrete roof of a wartime German bunker.

Peter Scurr, 69, was found dead at the scene by police and paramedics.

His wife Lorraine, 65, a retired nurse, was found nearby with serious injuries.

It is believed she clung on to tree branches before losing her grip and falling.

The couple from Southampton, both keen volunteers for Guide Dogs, had been holidaying on the Channel Island of Jersey and were enjoying a stroll along the scenic Railway Walk between St Aubin and Corbiere.

The area was quickly cordoned off while Jersey Fire and Rescue, police and paramedics attended the scene. A spokesman for Jersey General Hospital said Mrs Scurr was flown to Southampton General Hospital for specialist treatment. She is on a life support machine.

Jersey police say officers are treating the death as a tragic accident and will now prepare a file for the coroner.

There was no one at the couple’s £220,000 semi-detached, three-bedroom house last night and neighbours were too distraught to talk.

Southampton Guide Dogs mobility team manager Tim Stafford said: “We’re very sorry to learn of the sad death of Mr Scurr. He was a dedicated volunteer puppy walker, fundraiser and speaker. He was a great ambassador for Guide Dogs and will be missed by all who knew him. Our thoughts are with his family.”

Mrs Scurr also helped at St Patrick’s Church, in Southampton.

Father Claron Conde said: “Lorraine is a very generous woman and very active, nothing is too much trouble for her. They loved to go walking and were always out enjoying the countryside.

EURO 2012: RUBBER BULLETS FLY AS SOCCER HOOLIGANS FIGHT PITCHED BATTLES

VIOLENCE erupted at Euro 2012 last night as football hooligans fought pitched battles in the streets of Warsaw.

Trouble flared ahead of joint-host Poland’s crunch match with Russia at the city’s National Stadium.

The bloodshed began after thousands of Russian fans began a “provocative” march through the Polish capital to mark their homeland’s national day.

Witnesses said the Russians fought back after they were ambushed by a gang of Polish hooligans.

Riot police raced to the scene with squads of officers firing rubber bullets as dozens of rival supporters beat and kicked each other.

Several people were seen lying injured and bleeding on the ground,

Last night police said 100 people had been arrested and 10 injured ­– one of them seriously.

Security forces had braced themselves for a showdown over concerns of a confrontation which has already been dubbed the Battle of Warsaw.

Poland’s Conservative opposition had condemned the Russian fans’ march as a provocation but it was still given the go-ahead by the authorities.

More than 6,000 officers were drafted in amid fears that centuries of bad blood and conflict between the nations would trigger violence.

Poland suffered more than four decades of repression during the Cold War after the Soviet Union’s forces frustrated the country’s hopes of independence at the end of the Second World War.

Last night’s match was scheduled on Russia Day – a national holiday marking the end of the Soviet Union, which has been celebrated since 1992.

The Russians said the march was not political and was aimed at supporting their team.