European leaders slicing away at national budgets are keen to persuade voters that healthcare is sacrosanct, but they will struggle to escape the truth that cutting spending elsewhere also eventually costs lives.

If a government's first priority is to protect the lives of its people, then ringfencing health spending while cutting other budgets and trying to drive down the cost of medicines -- policies being pursued in Europe -- seem sensible options.

Britain will hold a referendum in May on its biggest electoral reform in decades in a vote that will test its coalition administration, a government source said on Friday.

Voting reform was one of the biggest stumbling blocks in creating Britain's first coalition government in 65 years after an inconclusive election in May ended 13 years of Labour rule.

Charities have reclaimed more than £1bn in a year in Gift Aid from the taxman for the first time, figures show.

There was £1.007bn reclaimed in 2009-10 by charities as a result of people agreeing to give Gift Aid, provisional figures from HM Revenue and Customs show.