Viv is having a day off today, so you’ve got me.
The front pages can be found here
Illegal migrants
Telegraph
Thousands of migrants who enter the UK illegally will be electronically tagged as a way to “detain” them before they are deported under plans being considered by ministers.
The migrants would be GPS tracked in real time and required to report via text or in person to immigration officers multiple times a day. Any attempt to remove the tag and abscond would result in any right to bail or to remain in the UK being automatically withdrawn.
Ministers have been forced to consider new measures as they fear they could soon run out of spaces in immigration detention centres and asylum accommodation in seeking to put Rishi Sunak’s new “stop the boats” law into effect.
The Illegal Migration Act which received royal assent on July 20 gives ministers powers to detain any migrant who arrives in the UK illegally after that date for at least 28 days before deporting them to a safe third country such as Rwanda or their home nation.
However, there are only 2,500 spaces in detention centres and the Rwanda flights are grounded until at least the new year as a result of a legal challenge. A further 2,000 places are planned but the first will only become available next year.
Ministers have commissioned two disused RAF bases at Wethersfield in Essex and Scampton in Lincolnshire and the Bibby barge in Portland, Dorset, to house Channel migrants and asylum seekers, but these are only earmarked so far to take about 4,200 people.
Mail
Migrants who arrive over the English Channel in small boats could be forced to wear electronic tags under Home Office proposals.
The idea, first mooted more than a year ago, has resurfaced as Rishi Sunak attempts to get a handle on immigration and stop people illegally gaining entry to the UK.
The migrants would be GPS tracked in real time and required to report via text message or in person to immigration officers multiple times a day, the Telegraph reported.
Any attempt to remove the tag and abscond would result in any right to bail or to remain in the UK being automatically withdrawn.
ITV News
The Government’s plan to accommodate asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge could face a legal challenge as firefighters accused ministers of a “callous disregard” for the safety of those onboard.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has sent a “pre-action protocol letter” to Home Secretary Suella Braverman outlining its concerns over safety aboard the vessel moored in Dorset’s Portland Port.
The union previously branded the giant barge, initially designed for about 200 people but modified to house 500 migrants, a “potential death trap”.
The first asylum seekers placed on board Bibby Stockholm earlier this month were removed days later after tests revealed Legionella – the bacteria which can cause the potentially fatal Legionnaires’ disease.
The FBU is demanding a response to its legal letter by Thursday.
General secretary Matt Wrack said: “The Fire Brigades Union is the professional voice of firefighters, and we have a duty to make our voices heard on matters of fire safety, especially when politicians let our members and the wider public down. We have been sounding the alarm about the Bibby Stockholm for weeks.
BBC News
Government plans to accommodate asylum seekers on a barge on England’s south coast face a possible legal challenge over fire safety.
Lawyers for the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman raising issues including overcrowding and fire exit access on board the Bibby Stockholm.
The government has been given until Thursday to respond.
The Home Office says the wellbeing of asylum seekers is a priority.
The Bibby Stockholm is a three-story barge, currently berthed in Portland Port, Dorset, which is intended to hold around 500 men while they await the outcome of their asylum applications.
The first people were moved onto it at the start of this month, although they were later removed when the Legionella bacteria, which can cause serious illness, was detected.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the FBU, said the union had moved towards a legal challenge after spending weeks trying to raise concerns with the government.
Police
Telegraph
Police must investigate every theft, the Home Secretary has said as she warns that ignoring shoplifting and stolen cars, bikes or phones is “completely unacceptable”.
Writing exclusively in The Telegraph, Suella Braverman outlines new guidelines for all forces which compel officers to pursue every offence where there is a “reasonable line of enquiry”.
Saying no crime is too trivial to investigate, she urges forces to improve their performance dramatically in dealing with theft, shoplifting and criminal damage.
The success rates for solving burglaries and theft have fallen so low in large parts of the country that the offences have effectively been decriminalised, investigations by The Telegraph have shown.
Mrs Braverman has now secured an agreement from all 43 police forces in England and Wales to follow up on any evidence where there is a reasonable chance of catching the criminal, whether from CCTV footage, doorbell videos, GPS trackers or witness accounts.
The guidance is to be issued to forces by the College of Policing, setting out the evidence and “reasonable” leads detectives and officers will be expected to follow. The police watchdog will assess performance against the rules with the ultimate sanction of placing forces in “special measures” if they fail.
ITV News
Police forces have committed to follow all “reasonable lines of enquiry” in an effort to improve investigations and drive down crime rates.
The standards setting body published guidance for officers in England and Wales to consider all potential evidence – such as footage from CCTV, doorbells and dashcams, as well as phone tracking – if it could lead to a suspect or stolen property.
The public will therefore know what they can expect from police when they report a crime such as burglary or theft, according to the College of Policing.
It said this will make the service more consistent across regions and solve more crimes.
BBC News
Police must investigate every theft and follow all reasonable leads to catch offenders, the home secretary has said.
Suella Braverman said it was “completely unacceptable” that criminals are often “effectively free to break certain laws”.
She wants officers to use evidence from smart doorbells and dashcams to solve more lower-level crimes.
But there are concerns the approach may take resources away from high-harm crimes such as rape and sexual assault.
And Labour branded it a “staggering admission of 13 years of Tory failure on policing and crime”.
Express
Police officers are being told they should now investigate “every reasonable lead”‘ to drive down crime rates.
It comes as Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned forces that “there is no such thing as trivial crime” – and said that ignoring offences like shoplifting and stolen cars, bikes or phones was “completely unacceptable”.
The College of Policing has now published new guidance for officers in England and Wales, telling them to consider all potential evidence – such as footage from CCTV, doorbells and dashcams, as well as phone tracking – if it could lead to a suspect or stolen property.
Independent
Police forces have committed to follow all “reasonable lines of enquiry” in an effort to improve investigations and drive down crime rates.
The standards setting body published guidance for officers in England and Wales to consider all potential evidence – such as footage from CCTV, doorbells and dashcams, as well as phone tracking – if it could lead to a suspect or stolen property.
The public will therefore know what they can expect from police when they report a crime such as burglary or theft, according to the College of Policing.
It said this will make the service more consistent across regions and solve more crimes.
While the pledge applies to all crimes, home secretary Suella Braverman implored officers to act on leads for phone or car theft, shoplifting and criminal damage.
She said it was “unacceptable” such crimes have been treated as “less important”.
Mail
Police will investigate every crime if there is a ‘reasonable lead’, officers have agreed in a landmark policy.
After years of ignoring lower-level offences, forces have committed to pursue any case where there is a chance of catching the perpetrator.
Welcoming the move, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said last night: ‘I’ve heard too many accounts from victims where police simply haven’t acted on helpful leads because crimes such as phone and car thefts are seen as less important – that’s unacceptable. It has damaged people’s confidence in policing.
‘The police’s commitment today is a huge step forward towards delivering the victim-focused, common-sense policing the public deserve.’
In an extraordinary historic agreement by all forces in England and Wales, officers have been told there is no crime too minor to be solved. Police will be forced to act if there is ‘tangible evidence’ such as footage from CCTV, vehicle dashcams or phone tracking.
Sun
MET Police warrant cards at the centre of a huge data breach had been replaced as part of a security drive, The Sun can reveal.
The force spent £467,587 on the cards and civilian passes, a Freedom of Information request revealed, after security breaches at police buildings.
Forgery of old-style police IDs by villains for use in robberies and to dupe people into paying Covid fines was also behind the move.
The disclosure comes after hackers stole details from the cards produced for the 47,000 cops and civilian staff in the London force.
Cyber crooks took the photo, name, rank, vetting status, payroll number and security details from a microchip on the IDs.
A source said: “The cards were supposed to make all buildings and sites impregnable.
“But bosses, in their wisdom, outsourced production and the unthinkable happened.
“Questions must be asked why such a sensitive task was given to an external firm with clearly vulnerable IT systems.”
NHS
Mail
Dozens of hospitals have signed up to be graded by trans rights charities who tell them to stop using the terms ‘mother’ and ‘woman’.
Angry MPs have called for ministers to step in after 77 trusts joined the NHS Rainbow Badge Scheme, which rewards them for dropping ‘gendered language’ from policies, forms and signs.
The trusts gain points for referring to maternity patients as ‘clients’ and calling cervical screening clinics ‘colposcopy’ instead of women’s health.
A former Cabinet minister last night accused the NHS of being ‘willing to erase women so they can please radical ideologically-driven campaign groups’.
The scheme is commissioned by NHS England but run by vocal trans rights lobbying groups including Stonewall and the LGBT Foundation, who carry out the grading.
They also tell hospitals to introduce gender-neutral toilets and get medics to ask patients their pronouns, leading to fears that the lobby groups are dictating NHS policy.
Staff who just want to treat patients and so speak out against the NHS’s focus on gender identity are branded homophobic and transphobic, while facing ‘tougher consequences’ from bosses.
Telegraph
THE NHS is to roll out extra checks for those under 40 with type 2 diabetes, with cases in younger people now rising faster than among those past middle age.
Historically the disease has been seen as a condition of older people, with nine in ten cases linked to excess weight.
But rising obesity levels across the population have seen an “alarming” rise in cases among those aged between 18 and 39, with increases outpacing those of older generations.
Today NHS officials will announce that 140,000 such patients will be offered “more intensive and targeted care” under a new £14.5 million national programme to help them lose weight, improve blood sugar control and cut heart risks.
Some will be offered the chance to take part in a 12-week NHS soup and shakes diet which has been found to reverse type 2 diabetes in a third of cases. Two-thirds of those who managed to lose a stone and a half successfully put the disease in remission.
ULEZ
Express
A caravan covered in ULEZ protest slogans has been chained outside Sadiq Khan’s house.
The vehicle was spotted by locals near the Mayor of London’s home in Tooting, London on Sunday morning. It is decorated with warnings including ‘ULEZ will be your Poll Tax Mr Khan’ and claims ‘ULEZ is a cash grab’.
The van also features a picture of the mayor accompanied by a speech bubble stating ‘Pay me £12.50 and you can pollute for 24 hours’. It comes as the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is due to expand to all London boroughs, including Tooting, on August 29 (Tuesday).
One local, who spotted the caravan, said the expansion of the scheme has sparked anger among people in the area. The resident said: “I saw the van this morning driving up towards the common. I burst out laughing I had to get a picture of it.
“The mayor has lived here for years and it’s never bothered anyone. But all of a sudden these cameras have appeared so now people are really angry.
“No one wants these new zones and they’re really going to impact people. ‘If you can afford the fines or a new car you can crack on, but if you can’t you have to spend thousands.”
Sun
LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan’s hated ultra-low emission zone was in chaos last night following a landmark legal verdict.
Scaffolder Noel Willcox — hit with £11,500 in penalties — won a ruling that key signs for its sister scheme are not lawful.
And he believes his win paves the way for others to fight charges when Khan’s Ulez expands to cover the whole of Greater London tomorrow.
It comes as a study showed 75 per cent of motorists win their appeals over charges for clean-air zones outside the capital.
Noel, 48, ran up his huge bill from a company truck heading to and from a depot in Harefield, North West London
Under the Low Emission Zone (Lez), polluting vans and HGVs must pay up to £300 a day or face big fines.
Noel refused to pay and an appeal tribunal ruled in his favour, saying Transport for London’s Lez signs are not “authorised and lawful”.
Telegraph
A “heavy-handed” expansion of the controversial ultra low emissions zone (Ulez) will be “disastrous”, small businesses have warned.
On the eve of the rollout of the extension to London’s Ulez zone, the Federation of Small Businesses, said that the scheme must treat drivers fairly before issuing penalties for breaching the scheme.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London has said Tuesday will be a “landmark day” as Ulez expands across the capital.
Mr Khan insists the expansion will “improve air quality” and prevent 4,000 premature deaths from pollution, despite criticism his claims are based on “awed” or “selective” scientific data.
The zone will be expanded from eight to all 32 London boroughs from midnight on Tuesday, with the drivers of vehicles that fail to meet certain emissions standards facing a £12.50 daily charge. Those who fail to pay and are caught face a £180 penalty, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.
Councils
Guardian
At least 26 councils in some of Britain’s most deprived areas are at risk of effective bankruptcy within the next two years, according to a leading local government group, which says many authorities simply have “nothing left”.
Britain’s local government network has been shaken by a string of financial collapses in the past two years, starting with Slough and followed by Croydon, Thurrock and most recently Woking, which announced a deficit of £1.2bn in June after a risky investment spree.
The quartet could be only the tip of the iceberg, according to a survey of 47 councils in northern England, the Midlands and on the south coast, which revealed mounting anxiety that rising costs will blow irreparable holes in budgets that fund crucial local services.
Five members of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) – a collective of 47 urban councils – said they were in such dire financial straits that they were considering issuing a notice of their inability to balance their annual budget for 2023-24.
A further nine Sigoma members said they may have to in effect declare bankruptcy next year. The group called on the government to provide additional funding to local authorities struggling to manage.
Mail
A third of councils in some of the poorest areas of the country are considering declaring effective bankruptcy this year or next, it has emerged.
A survey of 47 local authorities in the North, the Midlands and on the South Coast revealed the severe strain on finances meant five are currently in the process of deciding whether to issue notice of their inability to balance their annual budget in 2023-24.
An additional nine councils which are members of the Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities (Sigoma) said they may have to declare bankruptcy next year.
Sigoma said this was the first time many member councils were considering issuing a section 114 notice, which freezes all non-essential spending.
The growing possibility of drastic action is said to be driven by the depletion of cash reserves available to cover gaps in budgets.
Coral reefs
Express
Coral reefs may not be as vulnerable to climate change as previously thought – and appear to be adapting to warmer seas – a new study suggests. But scientists say their research shows that carbon emissions must still be reduced.
Reefs in one part of the Pacific Ocean have likely adjusted to higher ocean temperatures, which could reduce the future bleaching impacts of global warming, say scientists. The Newcastle University-led study focused on the Pacific Island nation of Palau and has revealed that historic increases in the thermal tolerance of coral reefs are possible.
Researchers say their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, illustrate how the capacity could reduce future bleaching impacts if global carbon emissions are cut down. Drawing on decades of field observations, the Newcastle team modelled many possible future coral bleaching trajectories for Palauan reefs, each with a different simulated rate of thermal tolerance enhancement.
They found that if coral thermal tolerance continues to rise throughout the 21st Century at the most-likely historic rate, “significant” reductions in bleaching impacts are possible. The results affirm the scientific consensus that the severity of future coral bleaching depends on carbon emissions reductions.
I know I have said this several times now that I have tired of GB News, but I had to switch off Nigel Farage this evening when he posed the question that Nadine Dorris’ resignation letter to the prime minister was in bad taste. No it wasn’t, what she said had to be said pure and simple. Sunak heads up a bloody awful government that has achieved bugger all, and he has a load of ministers under him who are utterly incompetent. Everything they touch ends in failure because they lack the backbone and conviction to do the right thing. Has Farage gone soft or what, dear oh dear. Is there no hope……….
Home Secretary at it again – getting tough on crime! Yawn, yawn and more yawns!
Jake…….and more yawns from me as well. This supposed Conservative government are like a stuck record only it has been stuck for a few years now, and nobody seems to be able to reset the stylus. In short they need to be gone as soon as possible as they are beyond dire. Bereft of ideas, ideals, common sense, political backbone, conviction. They are finished and it will be good riddance when it finally comes……..
Every crime must be investigated. Fat chance! This will no doubt be interpreted as go after the ulez heroes – hound them to the end of the Earth.
Meanwhile, ignore Parkistani grooming gangs, ignore the dregs of the World / illegal immigrants, ignore Muslin terrorists, ignore Rumanian organised crime, and all the rest.
Triple dog yawn Musky.
Lord Biscotte, are you at the wacky races too?
Marvellous response from the Nevada rangers to climate change activists.
Watch the whole video but police arrive at 3 mins 30 seconds.
The cries out of the protestors are heart warming.
https://freedomnews.tv/2023/08/27/burning-man-festival-road-shut-down-attendees-fight-protesters-and-rangers-ram-blockade-and-point-gun-at-activists-head-nevada/
Woking – 2021 pop 103,900 souls. Council overspend to 1,200 million pounds in debt. That is 9,200 pounds Sterling in hock for every man woman and child.
Solution? Higher council tax of course.
Electronic tags on migrants.
A crafty way of wedging in electronic tags, or the like, for all of us.
Similar to when Blair tried to justify his (failed that time round in 2004) ID cards: the public fooled into believing that they would stop illegal immigration.
Same old.
TPTB have absolutely no intention of stopping this invasion, and always “going to stop it” theatre.
Mary, the courts have imposed the wearing of electronic tags for criminals released on bail for years, so it is definitely not a new thing. And of course some of those criminals who are monitored by private security firms on behalf of the Home Office forcibly remove them from their ankles so that their movements cannot monitored, and the same will apply for illegal migrants. It is just another unworkable policy dreamt up by a government which has totally lost the plot. The obvious solution stares them in the face, but they will not leave the ECHR because that would take common sense, guts, political conviction and backbone, qualities of which are in very very short supply to the point of being non existent.
More stupidity from that other power-crazed alien Sad Khan:
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/sadiq-khan-ulez-london-pollution-latest
Just another money grab with no justification. At least it might persuade Londoners to apply some common sense when choosing who to vote for or are the natives already outnumbered by the invader?
Illegal migrants
About time too but let’s wait and see what else emerges to frustrate deportation of the illegals. We also need action to remove the many thousands already here and being accommodated at taxpayers’ expense.