BetVictor is set to launch a new series of advertisements, which will feature spend over £500,000, to promote the fact that nothing should get in the way of a customer’s desire to place a bet.

The campaign for the online bookmaker includes three new adverts - entitled Train, Pogo and Baggage – which will be launched on BT Sports.

Karl Riley, marketing director for BetVictor, commented: “We have shot the next stage in the ‘Maurice and Victor’ construct and the theme continues to explore Maurice’s pursuit of Victor. Train will be the first advert in the campaign to air and will coincide with the start of the football season to emphasise how BetVictor offers some of the best online odds for football.”

The campaign, directed by Russell Bates, who directed Zoolander, is set to roll out on 9 August.

British broadcaster, TV critic and Times columnist Caitlin Moran has weighed in on the ‘can’t do' reaction to suggestions on how Twitter can effectively deal with abuse on the network, backing a 24-hour mass walk out on Sunday 4 August.

Six days into the ongoing story surrounding Caroline Criado-Perez, who facilitated a campaign to get at least one British woman included in the redesign of British banknotes, and received threats of rape on Twitter for it, Moran claims that suggesting victims of hateful messages simply block abusers and “get on with their lives” is not a good enough solution.

In the case of Criado-Perez, who was receiving up to 50 rape threats an hour on Twitter, Moran writes: “Consider the logistics of this [block button]. If a woman is getting fifty of these messages an hour, blocking all the abusers becomes something of a thankless, full-time job.

“By the time a woman has finished defending herself for her abusers, and actually gets around to doing what she came on Twitter to do – to talk, to communicate – she’s already exhausted. And, also, a little more angry, paranoid, defensive and, frankly, rattled than the non-abused people her Tweets appear next to. There’s nothing quite like being repeatedly told you’re violatable and worthless to send you to bed anxious and unhappy.”

Despite various suggestions of how to deal with the issue appearing online and no real “definitive answer” Moran dismisses those who claimed nothing could be done due to “freedom of speech” commenting: “Anyone who says “Hey, guys – what about freedom of speech!” hasn’t the faintest idea what “freedom of speech” actually means.” Adding that Article 10 of the European Convention freedom of expression outlaws “obscenity, sedition, glorifying terrorism, incitement of racial hatred, sending articles which are indecent or grossly offensive with an intent to cause anxiety or distress, and threatening, abusive or insulting words like to cause harassment, alarm or distress” already.

Criticising the ‘can’t do’ attitude many have expressed in respect to handling Twitter abuse, Moran remarks “Dude, everyone in the Western world lives an existence wholly defined by constant change…What someone who says “Things cannot change” means, more often that not, is “I do not want things to change.”

“There is a neat squaring of the circle when you notice that, on this issue, those who say “Things cannot change” are, in the overwhelming majority, men – and that the people they are trying to shut down who are saying, repeatedly, “Things must change,” are women.”

Adding: “Shame on anyone whose argument basically boils down to saying that “The thing about the internet is, it’s a place where hundreds of anonymous men can threaten to rape women – and that is how it will always be.”

“That is in an odd, dark denial of the fundamental decency of human nature and the law. It is illegal to act in this manner on the internet, and the social networking sites on which it happens need to be reminded of that unambiguously. As Andy Trotter said on Monday, of internet platform providers, such as Twitter, “You can’t just set them up, and then walk away.”

In her conclusion Moran gives her backing to “he mooted 24-hour walk-out on 4th of August, because not only is it a symbolic act of solidarity – which are my favourite kinds of symbolic acts – but because it will also focus minds at Twitter to come up with their own solution to the abuses of their private company.”

Commenting that though Twitter may be in vogue just now she reminds the powers that be at the platform “it only takes a couple of months for it to become the new Friends Reunited, MySpace, the new Bebo.”

Virgin Media Business has announced the appointment of Peter Kelly as managing director, effective from 16 September.

Kelly, who joins after five years at Vodafone, said: “I am delighted to join Virgin Media Business and be part of Virgin Media’s group executive committee. The company has already made huge strides forward in establishing itself as the main challenger to BT in business telecoms. I’m looking forward to taking the business on the next part of its journey, with growth and innovation at the forefront of my focus.”

He will report directly to Tom Mockridge, chief executive officer of Virgin Media, and will be part of the group executive committee.

Mockridge said: “Peter’s a very welcome addition to our executive team as Virgin Media Business has an important part to play in the growth of Virgin Media. Despite the economic challenges currently facing our public sector and private enterprise customers, the business-to-business market offers big long term opportunities for us. Peter is the right person to have on board to accelerate Virgin Media Business’s growth and challenge the incumbents in this market.”

Tony Grace, interim managing director at Virgin Media Business, will continue in his role until Peter joins in September, at which point he will return to his previous role as chief operating officer of the business division.

Britain as a brand is seen as more trendy, dynamic, stylish and innovative a year on from the Olympic Games by other countries, research from Landor Associates has found.

The study, using Landor’s BrandAsset Valuator (BAV), found that the image of Britain overseas has changed notably over the last decade, but the Olympics marked a considerable shift towards a more positive image.

The US now sees Britain as trendy; while Australia suggests we have become more visionary.

Peter Knapp, global creative officer at Landor, said: “Danny Boyle’s brilliant opening ceremony at last year’s London Olympics perfectly encapsulated the modern, multi-cultural nation we’ve become. However Landor’s research shows that Britain means different things to different people in different parts of the world. Brands looking to do business in other markets should not assume that Britain has an identikit image and should think carefully about how different foreign audiences perceive us.

“Overall, the Olympics have had a hugely positive impact on the image of Britain. The question now is whether the country is willing and able to maintain that positive perception.”

However, the Olympics failed to improve Britain’s image as an innovative country and, in four of the five markets Landor researched, the country continues to be seen as arrogant.

Arena, the media planning and buying agency, has announced the appointment of Jon Wilks to the new role of editorial director and Suzie Rafla to spearhead the search team at the agency.

Formerly editorial director at Time Out Tokyo, Wilks is an experienced journalist and blogger, and will look to drive editorial initiatives for clients.

He said: “Every brand worth its salt knows that the onus is on them to become publishers, and subsequently there’s a tsunami of bad content heading our way. I’m delighted that Arena has taken this responsible step towards installing a level of quality control, and I’m looking forward to stepping into the flood and seeing what can be done.”

Rafla joins Arena from Razorfish, where she was associate search director, and in her new role will be developing search strategy and planning across the agency.

Rafla said: “I’m really excited to be joining Arena at such a pivotal time for search marketing. With the industry becoming far more audience-centric with enhanced campaigns, there are huge opportunities for innovation. The increased ability to reach the right consumer at the right time with the right message offers the potential to drive significant improvements in performance. Arena is ideally positioned to lead in this space with its behavioural economics product at the heart of the planning process, so I’m very much looking forward to getting started to help drive real value from this for our clients.”

Arena clients include Domino’s Pizza, Three Mobile, Betfair and Blinkbox.

Queens Park Rangers (QPR) is the most social team in the Football League, research from RadiumOne has found, with more than double the audience of Facebook and Twitter followers when compared to all teams in the three leagues.

QPR is also one of only seven teams to have an official presence on all five platforms. The other six are Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Nottingham Forest and League One’s Brentford and Port Vale.

The research found that Reading, Wigan Athletic, Bolton and Nottingham Forest all made the top five most social clubs.

Abeed Janmohammed, commercial director at RadiumOne said: “Teams are doing more than ever to engage with their fans. Getting a clear insight into the digital and social behaviour of their fan bases will provide new areas of growth for teams and also ensures that they can provide content that is relevant at the right time. Put simply, better social engagement brings better fan experience, which means more commercial opportunity.”

RadiumOne analysed the standings of all 72 teams in the Football League across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google+, ahead of the opening match this Saturday.

Staff at the Independent have voted to strike over compulsory redundancies at the titles.

The NUJ ballot closed on Friday with 65.5 per cent of members in favour of striking and 79.5 per cent voting for action short of a strike.

The Independent announced plans last month to make 27 jobs redundant.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “Industrial action is a last resort and it's shameful that Independent management are unwilling to properly engage with their staff and are refusing sensible proposals that could easily avert a dispute.

“To refuse to extend the consultation process and refuse to conciliate at ACAS is unreasonable and unnecessary. Less machismo and more common sense would be a much more productive way forward.”

The union is calling for an extension on consultation and the implementation of a voluntary redundancy trawl.

“There's a lot of talk about the vision for the future,” Stanistreet added. “It's looking like one in which there simply isn't the resources to produce hard hitting quality journalism in print and online; where experience and commitment is disregarded; and where the workforce is paid bargain basement salaries and is fearful and compliant.

“This doesn't represent the founding principles of the Independent and it doesn't square with what readers expect of these titles.”

Following the redundancies, the title plans to create new jobs in its online team and at the company’s TV station, London Live.

One of the UK’s leading criminal defence advocates has accused the UK Home Office of “trumpeting an unsubtle and worrying campaign” to target those suspected of immigration offences.

The Home Office Twitter feed has described suspects as “offenders” over the last 24 hours, and has been criticised for creating the risk of prejudicing future legal proceedings and risking contempt of court.

John Scott QC, who appeared last month in Channel 4’s groundbreaking documentary, ’The Murder Trial’, said that if the Home Office cannot distinguish between suspicion and guilt. “we should shut the place down until they have all been for basic re-education.”

“Lawyers are often accused, sometimes rightly, of debating the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin, but this is very different and it is a distinction which is fundamental to any proper system of justice,” he told The Drum.

“Of course a suspect may become an offender, but traditionally this occurs only after guilt has been admitted or established in court.”

Last night the UK Home Office issued a series of tweets under the hashtag #immigrationoffenders narrating how many people had been “arrested in raids across the UK today.”

The tweets linked to a report on its website which again described the suspects as offenders.

“More than 130 immigration offenders have been arrested across the country as part of a day of high profile Home Office activity to tackle illegal working,” it said.

Scott said the “rush to judgement” risked damaging the presumption of innocence and could prejudice proceedings against those arrested.

“When Claude Raines said” round up the usual suspects” in Casablanca it was mean to convey a cynical and perhaps half-hearted attempt to cover for Rick. Little did we know that 71 years later an even less subtle cry would come from the UK Home Office,” he said.

“If those in charge there don’t know the difference between offenders and suspects we should shut the place down until they have all been for basic re-education.

“Why the Ministerial rush to judgment? In the past 25 years almost all of the changes in our justice system have removed rights from suspects and accused persons. With a little patience many, perhaps even most, of those arrested as “immigration offenders” will be convicted and sentenced. I may have become rather old-fashioned, but I still prefer to see things happen in that order.”

At the time of publication, none of the 139 arrested have been charged with any offences.

Peta is planning to use the relaxation of parody rules, set to be introduced later this year, to create a spoof version of Fortnum & Mason's website as the campaign group looks to shame the retailer for selling foie gras.

The group will create a mock-up of the retailer’s website, with the words Force-Fed & Murdered instead of its name, as it aims to promote the practice.

A spokesperson from Peta told the Guardian: "Peta received expert advice from the legal firm Nabarro who have advised that a parody website in the same font style, arrangement and colour as that used for Fortnum & Mason is likely to be fair game for parody … when the law changes in October. Our developers are currently working on the logo.”

In the US, where laws are already looser, Peta has already created a KFC parody: Kentucky Fried Cruelty.

Twitter today outlined new measures to keep its users safe after a week in which it has been heavily criticised for the way it handled serious allegations of abuse on the site.

The social network has rewritten its rules and promised to make it easier for users to report threatening tweets in the wake of the vicious abuse suffered by Caroline Criado-Perez and others at the hands of so-called 'trolls' on the site.

The in-tweet report button already available on Twitter's iPhone app will be made available on Android and Twitter.com from next month.

And the site has pledged to work with the UK Safer Internet Centre to promote its resources and explore new ways to keep users safe.

In a joint statement Twitter's UK general manager Tony Wang and senior director for trust and safety Del Harvey insisted they were listening to users' 'feedback' and would take steps to combat abuse.

They wrote: "It comes down to this: people deserve to feel safe on Twitter.

"We have updated the Twitter Rules to clarify that we do not tolerate abusive behaviour. We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter Rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable.

"We are committed to making Twitter a safe place for our users. We are adding additional staff to the teams that handle abuse reports and are exploring new ways of using technology to improve everyone’s experience on Twitter. We’re here, and we’re listening to you."

Update

Tony Wang has now taken to Twitter to "personally apologise" to the women who experienced abuse on the site.

He tweeted: "I personally apologise to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through.

"The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter."

Twitter's statement in full.

Publicis CEO Maurice Levy expects his company's merger with Omnicom to be completed at the beginning of next year and insists the biggest advertising deal in history will not be knocked off course by regulators or client conflicts.

In an interview with the French edition of the Huffington Post, Levy fronted up to some of the biggest issues facing the so-called 'merger of equals' that will create the world's biggest advertising company - including the suggestion that it will damage industry competition.

Asked whether there was any danger the merger could break down, Levy said: "No. Our lawyers are confident that all clearances will be obtained. I expect our competitors to put some obstructions in our way. Our competitors are energetically lobbying analysts, clients and journalists. But if you look at our stock market valuation, you can see it's doing fine: The marketplace believes in us."

On whether the deal would be sealed before the end of this year, he replied: "More likely beginning of next year".

One of the most intriguing aspects of the deal, raised by the Bank of America among others, is the potential for client conflicts - the biggest conflict potentially arising from Coca-Cola's advertising contract being tied up in Publicis and Pepsi's in Omnicom.

Levy deflected the issue to some degree by referencing the client list of rival WPP, but did admit that the companies need to find "solutions" to the problem.

He said: "This question has been raised by our competitors. But at WPP, for example, their clients within the same group include Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and part of Estée Lauder [Editor's note: all are multinational corporations that produce hygiene-related consumer products].

"The fact that we serve clients who operate in the same market segment is part of normal life for our agencies. We do not plan to consolidate our networks. Clients will continue to have the same number of agencies to choose from and to be served by their current agencies. The potential for conflicts is hardly a revelation, and it's up to us to find solutions. We're working on it."

Levy also insisted that the two companies' corporate cultures were not so different that they cannot meld together.

"There are some differences in terms of corporate culture. They are American, we are French. They're attached to their roots, and so are we, but today, already, 48 percent of our revenue stems from the United States."

You can read the full interview here.

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia and a technology advisor to David Cameron, has publicly lambasted the prime minister's "ridiculous idea" to impose porn filter's on the UK's internet service providers.

Cameron last unveiled plans that will mean internet users in the UK will have to 'opt-in' to receive adult content. If the account holder does not change the setting, adult material will be blocked by default.

Wales told Channel 4 News that Cameron's idea would be doomed to fail.

"When Cameron uses the example of paedophiles who are addicted to internet porn – all that these plans would do is require them to opt in," he said. "It's an absolutely ridiculous idea that won't work."

Moving on to the issues surrounding the allegations that the US National Security Agency is spying on citizens through internet firms, Wales said "billions had been wasted shopping on ordinary people's data in a fruitless search for terrorists".

He added: "We should be devoting a significant proportion of that to dealing with the real criminal issues online, stealing credit card numbers, hacking into sites … that is going to take an investment in real, solid police work."

The man who masterminded Barack Obama's successful re-election campaign has been enlisted by the Conservatives to work the same magic for David Cameron.

Jim Messina, a former deputy chief of staff at the White House and president Obama's campaign manager last year, has been hired by the Tories as a campaign strategy manager ahead of the next general election.

Messina is credited in political circles with meshing sophisticated campaigning techniques with smart use of social media to win Obama a second term in office.

He will not lead the Conservatives' campaign, instead acting in more of an advisory capacity, but his appointment is being considered as a coup for the party.

The Conservatives have already hired Australian strategist Lynton Crosby to spearhead their next campaign.

Men's magazines such as Zoo, Nuts and Front are to tone down their covers in order to stay on the shelves of Tesco.

The supermarket giant has persuaded publishers to produce "more modest" covers and says it will now only sell so-called lads' mags to over 18s.

Tesco spokesman said: "We have had in depth conversations with our customers about this issue and we're putting new measures in place based on what they have told us they want.

"We've listened carefully to the concerns raised by the campaign groups but our priority is to make sure we meet our customers' needs and expectations.

"To do that we have secured agreement from the publishers of Zoo, Nuts and Front that their magazine covers will be more modest from now on and the publishers of Bizarre will now supply the magazine in a bag.

"We are restricting the sale of these magazines to people over the age of 18 to reassure parents who do not want their children to be able to purchase these titles.

"And we will ensure these titles are always placed on the back tier of the magazine shelves so that the cover is obscured with only the title visible."

Feminist campaign group Lose the Lads' Mags has been lobbying retailers to drop magazines that contain sexually explicit covers.

Earlier this week the Co-op said lads' mags would need to be concealed by modesty bags to stay on its shelves.

Writing for The Drum, the Professional Publishers Association CEO Barry McIlheney urged publishers not to be cowed by "censorship via retail".

It is one of the most enduring images of the First World War - the poster that urged millions of men to risk their lives and go to battle.

But it has now emerged that the iconic image of Lord Kitchener commanding 'Your country needs you' was never actually used for recruitment purposes.

James Taylor, scouring reams of official documents and war time posters for a new book, found Kitchener absent from the archives.

Instead he says that the image was not an official poster and was in fact first used on the cover of London Opinion magazine, designed by graphic artist Alfred Leete.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "The image's influence now is absolutely out of all kilter with the reality of its initial impact.

"It has taken on a new kind of life. It is such a good image and, saying that, it was later seized upon."

The high street cosmetics chain Lush has emerged as the main financial backer of the anti-fracking campaign Frack Off.

The Telegraph reports that Lush has given £20,000 in charitable donations to the protest group.

It says the company’s donations have helped Frack Off to lay on buses to transport demonstrators from all over the country to proposed fracking sites.

Hilary Jones, Lush's ethics director, told the Telegraph: "We are the single largest backer of Frack Off. We have been concerned about fracking for some time. We tend to be ahead of the curve and we have had fracking on our radar for a while.

"Last year Frack Off received £20,000. Instead of asking for money this year Frack Off were given the chance to put their case in specially designed window displays in all our British stores and Frack Off leaflets were given to our customers. The country needs to know what's going on."

Teaching spelling and grammar in schools has become "a bit unnecessary" because children can correct errors on their mobile phones, a top academic has claimed.

Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, said the basic linguistic skills taught in schools were "no longer essential" and it was a "mistaken notion" to assume that 'text-speak' was an incorrect use of language.

He told the Times Educational Supplement, said: "...they are skills that were very essential maybe 100 years ago but they are not right now.

"Firstly, my phone corrects my spelling so I don’t really need to think about it and, secondly, because I often skip grammar and write in a cryptic way."

Joe Walsh, from the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the paper spelling and grammar were "just as relevant today as they were 100 years ago".

Mary Beard has reported that she too has been sent a bomb threat via Twitter.

The classicist and TV presenter's revelation comes shortly after the UK boss of the social networking site apologised to women who have experienced abuse on the site.

Prof Beard, who has also faced abusive messages on Twitter, confirmed to the BBC that she had reported the bomb threat to the police. Earlier in the year Prof Beard discussed the abuse she received after appearing on Question Time, and just this week she revealed a Twitter troll had apologised to her after sending an offensive message which she had re-tweeted to her followers.

Speaking on Radio 5 live, Prof Beard said: "I think it is scary and it has got to stop. To be honest I didn't actually intellectually feel I was in danger but I thought I was being harassed and I thought I was being harassed in a particularly unpleasant way."

Today (Sunday 4 August) sees a number of Twitter users, including TV presenter and Times columnist Caitlin Moran, boycotting the site for 24 hours.

Ofcom research has revealed that many Brits see no need to upgrade to 4G.

Just under a quarter (22 per cent) of smartphone users claimed that they had no intention of signing up to 4G services as they remained unsure of the benefits of 4G and had been put off by the jargon.

Almost two-thirds of smartphone users said they were unsure about upgrading, adding they were unlikely to do so this year.

Jessica Ekholm from technology analyst house Gartner commented: "4G is new and doesn't mean much to consumers. Any technology is intangible - people ask: 'What does it mean to me?' At the moment it's acronym soup. It needs to go viral. It needs people's friends and family to say '4G is fantastic'."

Ofcom's 2013 Communications Market Report uncovered that the binding nature of mobile contacts had left those willing to sign up to the new service unable to, with three in 10 keen to upgrade to 4G but couldn't due to being tied into an existing contract.

The report comes as O2 announces it is to launch 4G service in August, challenging current 4G operator EE. Vodafone and 3 are expected to launch 4G later in the year.

Despite the slow start, Matthew Howett of independent consultancy firm Ovum, remarked: "Eventually we will all be using 4G. It's like moving from dial-up to broadband."

EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is believed to be planning to launch a budget food chain by the end of the year.

Taking on the likes of Aldi and Lidl, a site for the pilot 'easyFoodstore' is close to being secured with Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup also setting up the web domain easyFoodstore.com, which states the new venture is 'Coming Soon'.

An application to turn easyFoodstore into a trademark has also been filed by the easyGroup.

The Telegraph has approached the easyGroup for an official comment, which it has declined to give at this time. However, it is thought the location of the pilot store is due to be announced shortly.