I did a quick follow up on that 2008 malaria prediction:
The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS.
I checked this out in the original report, which is here. Remarkably, the authors put the malaria story thus:
Reappraisal of the evidence suggests that outbreaks of malaria in the UK are likely to remain rare, though Health Authorities need to remain alert to the possibility of outbreaks of malaria in other European countries and to the possibility that more effective vectors (different species of mosquito) may arrive in the UK.
Oh blimey, I said to myself, it's the PR people on the loose again, so I looked up the press release, which put the story as follows:
While malaria outbreaks in Britain are likely to remain rare and easily controlled, health authorities need to remain alert to the possibility of larger outbreaks in continental Europe and the emergence of more deadly European strains of mosquitoes in wetland areas of Britain .
How this story developed into one about the UK being hit by regular malaria outbreaks is therefore one that only the author of the Telegraph piece - political correspondent Rosa Prince - can answer.