Asylum seekers
Telegraph
Asylum seekers who have waited more than a year for a decision can now work to help ease the care home recruitment crisis under a rule change sanctioned by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary.
Up to 32,000 asylum seekers who have been waiting more than 12 months are eligible for jobs as care workers after they were added to the Government’s shortage occupation list. They are only permitted to work if they are in a shortage profession and have spent more than a year waiting.
Industry chiefs and government advisers said the asylum seekers could play a vital part in plugging gaps in the hard-pressed care sector where there are an estimated 140,000 vacancies, accounting for 10 per cent of the workforce.
Although the Government’s rule change is ostensibly designed to enable the sector to recruit foreign workers, many of the vacant care jobs are not eligible for the necessary visas because they fall below the minimum salary allowed of £20,480.
Asylum seekers do not require visas as they are already in the UK and, unlike other shortage occupations like butchers, welders and laboratory technicians, care workers do not require specialist training.
Fisheries
Express
BORIS Johnson’s Government has been accused of reneging on its commitment to Britain’s fishermen after it was revealed no fewer than nine massive super trawlers have been granted licences to operate in UK waters.
Jayne Adye, director of the pro-Brexit campaign group Get Britain Out, was speaking after the Africa and the Zeeland, two of the largest fishing vessels in the world, were spotted just 15 miles off the Cornwall coast on several days this week. Ms Adye said: “Both are registered in the Netherlands, and for some obscure reason, have been given licences to fish in UK waters. They are both well over 100 meters long and use nets which can be the size of six football pitches.”
She added: “Such large vessels indiscriminately catch huge numbers of fish at one time, whatever their species and size, with no regard for the damage this must do to the fish stocks of this country as well as the general biodiversity of UK waters.
EU
Express
BRUSSELS is poised to withhold over €100million (£83.6million) of funding from Poland after the bloc’s court began fining it over a recent ruling which set it apart from the rest of the EU.
At the beginning of October, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some parts of EU treaties are incompatible with the Polish constitution, challenging European integration. The EU reacted by fining it one million euros for every day that the ruling was not overturned.
In December, it initiated legal action against the country.
The European Parliament has also commenced legal action against the EU Commission, in an attempt to see it implement harsher sanctions.
Telegraph
The European Union’s power over its member states was dealt a fresh blow on Friday night after Romania became the latest country to rule that EU treaties do not override national laws.
In a blow to the EU legal order, Romania’s constitutional court disputed a second European Court of Justice ruling that said judges in Romania should put EU law above domestic legislation.
“National constitutional courts ruling that EU law does not have supremacy over domestic laws is a development of very serious concern for the European Union,” said Professor Gavin Barrett, an EU law expert at University College Dublin.
Express
ROMANIA has dealt the European Union a fresh blow on Friday night as it became the latest country to rule that EU treaties do not override national laws.
The Romanian constitutional court disputed a European Court of Justice ruling which decreed that judges in Romania should put EU law above domestic legislation. It comes as the EU is engaged in a battle with Poland over Warsaw’s defiance of the supremacy of EU law.
Professor Gavin Barrett an expert in EU law at University College Dublin said that the EU could not function effectively without the supremacy of its laws being accepted.
He told The Telegraph: “Much of the power of the European Union derives from EU law operating uniformly and effectively right across the territory of all 27 Member States.
“Take that away and each Member State turns into a separate legal zone where the rules on say, the Single Market, and criminal justice cooperation differ from one place to the next.
Guardian
A vice-president of the European parliament is facing questions after it was revealed he had spent nearly €690,000 (£576,000) on lavish office renovations.
Rainer Wieland, a Christian Democrat MEP from Germany, spent €486,011 on a state-of-the-art office and €134,774 “showroom” next door, both built from scratch on the 15th floor of the European parliament in Brussels, according to a leaked report seen by the Guardian.
The “showroom” – that Wieland said was a meeting room that can be used by anyone in the parliament – is equipped with top-range IT equipment, including €42,722 transcription tools and a €26,482 videoconferencing system.
The final bill could be even higher if the MEP goes ahead with plans for a €49,864 mobile studio.
Wieland oversees the internal management of the European parliament’s buildings and was testing a new office set-up he called an “idea laboratory” to see what features could be extended to all 705 members.
Covid
Telegraph
Boris Johnson is set to lift Plan B Covid restrictions as he plots a leadership fightback in the wake of mounting allegations of lockdown-breaching parties.
Covid passports and work from home guidance are widely expected inside Whitehall to be lifted from Jan 26 for England, with an announcement as soon as this week, though some rules on face masks may remain.
Scientists appear to have provided evidence that offers support for the change, as modelling included in new Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) documents suggests that restrictions would make little difference to hospital admissions.
“There frankly doesn’t seem to be any other expectation at the moment,” a government source close to Covid policy said about ending Plan B restrictions on Jan 26.
Mail
Daily UK Covid cases dropped below 100,000 for the first time in weeks today as infections fell for the ninth day in a row — but SAGE modellers are already warning of an ‘exit wave’ this summer.
Another 99,652 positive tests were logged in the last 24 hours, according to Government dashboard data, marking a 44 per cent fall on the figure last week. Covid cases are now falling in every region of England and all four home nations in another sign that the Omicron wave is on its way out.
Daily hospitalisations have also remained flat with 2,423 new admissions on January 10, the latest date with data, down by less than a per cent on the previous week.
Sources say ministers intend to scrap Covid passports and widespread WFH guidance in England when Plan B restrictions are reviewed at the end of the month, with the promising numbers making the curbs ‘hard to justify’.
However, deaths — which are the biggest lagging indicator — are creeping up. Another 270 were registered today in a 17 per cent rise compared to last Friday. But rising immunity means there are five times fewer fatalities now compared to the second wave last January, helped by the intrinsically milder Omicron variant.
Times
Covid cases are falling in all parts of the UK, suggesting that the worst of the Omicron wave could be behind us.
In each of the four nations, recorded cases appear to have peaked, as well as in every region of England.
In the northeast of England, the last part of the UK that appeared to still have rising numbers, the seven-day average was trending downwards.
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the figures were “reassuring”. He added: “I think we will see hospitalisations start falling more quickly in the next week or so. The issue is when we get back to normal.” He said modelling suggested we could reach low numbers of infections by mid-February.
Mirror
Covid cases across the UK have increased by 99,652 in the last 24 hours – marking a huge 44% decrease over past seven days.
A further 270 deaths have also been recorded in the last 24 hours – up on last week.
Last Friday Covid cases rose by 178,250 with a further 229 deaths.
As case numbers have continued to decline after a festive peak, death rates seem set on rising as the data paints a mixed picture during the Omicron wave.
With big companies increasingly cutting sick pay for the unvaccinated and hospital trusts up and down the country declaring critical incidents, a number of rules Brits have grown accustomed to could begin to change.
This could include isolation periods, passes to large events and Covid testing as well.
ITV News
The number of reported daily Covid-19 cases across the UK has dropped below 100,000 for the first time in almost a month.
According to the latest figures by the Department of Health, 99,652 positive Covid tests were returned in the past 24 hours.
The last time daily reported cases dipped below 100,000 was on December 21 2021 when 90,629 positive tests were recorded.
Friday’s figures represent an almost 30% drop in positive cases in the past seven days.
The UK Health Security Agency said nation’s R number has also lowered slightly and now stands at between 1.1 to 1.5 – down from last week’s estimate of 1.2 to 1.5.
This means that on average, every 10 people infected with Covid will pass it on to between 11 and 15 other people.
Telegraph
People who have previously had Covid or been vaccinated have T-cells in their system that work well against omicron, a new study suggests.
T-cells are a form of immunity that are longer-lasting than antibodies, and although they do not stop infection, they prevent the virus from causing severe disease and death.
“We report here that SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific … T-cells induced by prior infection or [Pfizer] vaccination provide extensive immune coverage against [omicron],” the researchers, led by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, write in their study, published in Nature Medicine.
There are two forms of T-cells, called CD4+ and CD8+, which are better known as T-helper and T-killer cells, respectively. The former help other cells tackle the virus, whereas the latter directly kill human cells which have been breached by the pathogen.
In a person who had previously caught Covid, 84 per cent of their T-helper cells worked against omicron and 70 per cent of their T-killer cells did the same.
Vaccine
Guardian
Booster jabs distributed in England for the pre-Christmas vaccination push are to be thrown away because of a lack of demand, a leaked NHS memo reveals.
It is not known exactly how many vaccines will be discarded but it is likely to be “hundreds of thousands”, sources told the Health Service Journal (HSJ), which obtained the memo.
The memo, sent on Thursday from NHS England’s vaccination team to officials managing the 3,000 vaccination sites around the country, said some stocks would reach their expiry dates without being used. It urges them to try to use them up until the last minute before they have to be thrown away.
It said: “There is a quantity of vaccine in the system, which was released in December to support the booster campaign, that will potentially reach its expiry date within the next couple of weeks before it can be fully used. All sites must ensure they make every effort to use this … and prioritise it for all vaccination events coming up until expiry, as per our previous communications.”
NHS
Sun
NHS surgery waiting lists have risen to an all-time high of six million people as A&Es face their worst ever delays.
Four in 10 people waited longer than four hours to be seen in major emergency departments in December.
Ambulances were called to a record 82,361 life-or-death situations – category 1 calls – equal to one every 33 seconds.
It comes as hospital staff sicknesses from Covid have quadrupled to 46,000 per day, from just 13,000 a month ago.
Medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Omicron has increased the number of people in hospital with Covid at the same time as drastically reducing the number of staff who are able to work.
“Despite this, once again, NHS staff pulled out all the stops to keep services going for patients.
Russia
Mail
War in Ukraine is ‘inevitable’ with a Russian invasion just days away, it was claimed last night.
It came after President Vladimir Putin amassed tens of thousands of troops on the border, with intelligence sources suggesting he may launch a disguised attack on his own forces to justify going into Ukraine.
Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee, said: ‘I am afraid an invasion by Russian forces is inevitable and imminent and we have allowed this to happen.
‘We had the opportunity to place sufficient military hardware and personnel in Ukraine to make President Putin think twice about invading but we failed to do so.
‘Only President Putin knows what he is going to do next but next week would seem pivotal.
‘He has negotiated himself into a corner and after Nato refused to bow to his threats seemingly only one option remains.’
BBC News
Russia is plotting to stage acts of provocation to create a pretext to invade Ukraine, a US official has said.
A Pentagon spokesman said Russian operatives were planning a “false-flag” operation, to allow Moscow to accuse Ukraine of preparing an attack. Russia has dismissed the claims.
It comes after a week of US-Russian talks aimed at defusing tensions.
Ukraine on Friday accused Russia of being behind a cyber-attack on dozens of official websites.
Before the sites went offline, a message appeared warning Ukrainians to “prepare for the worst”. Access to most of the sites was restored within hours.
The US and Nato condemned the attack and have offered support to Ukraine. Russia has not commented on the hack.
Education
Telegraph
The Department for Education has become embroiled in a “dumbing down” row after asking GCSE foreign language students to learn fewer words than the average five-year-old.
Officials have announced reforms to the content of French, Spanish and German GCSEs, aimed at boosting the take-up of the subjects by making them appear “more accessible and attractive” to students.
The reformed qualifications stipulate that pupils will need to learn 1,200 words for a foundation tier GCSE or 1,700 words for the higher tier qualification.
But headteachers have criticised the move, saying this “largely overlook[s] the widespread concerns of many language experts”.
The Association of School and College Leaders said that pupils needed to have a “basic threshold” of at least 2,000 words after five years of learning a language “to feel like they are making progress in the target language and to be able to use it independently”.
Guardian
The government is to push ahead with changes to languages teaching in schools that will result in pupils in England memorising lists of 1,700 words to pass GCSEs in Spanish, French or German.
The decision by the Department for Education (DfE) comes despite opposition from language associations, teaching unions and headteachers at state and independent schools, as well as concerns it could cause an exodus of languages teachers from the profession.
Simon Hyde, the general secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of independent schools, said his members feared the narrow focus on grammar and vocabulary would put pupils off studying modern foreign languages (MFL).
“This model will not give students the confidence in their language, both at examination level and as a life skill, to take forward into further studies, careers and personal endeavours,” Hyde said.
Times
Sweeping reforms to modern language GCSEs have been unveiled by the government but head teachers said they would alienate learners rather than encourage uptake.
They described as “pure fantasy” the Department for Education’s claim that more pupils would want to take French, German and Spanish because of the overhaul.
The changes will require teenagers to memorise a list of up to 1,700 common words and are being brought in with the intention of making the subjects more accessible.
Modern languages have been in long-term decline since 2003, when they were dropped as compulsory subjects at GCSE.
Chinese spy
Mirror
Downing Street said it is “deeply concerning” mum-of-two Lee, 58, was able to target MPs in an attempt to make British policy more favourable to Beijing
Our source told the Daily Mirror: “It is naive of senior figures not only apparently to fall for this dubious association but to claim she has not had any effect.
“Do we know for example, absolutely for sure, if anybody was influenced into not objecting earlier to the Huawei 5G proposals in Britain?
“Or that someone who may have otherwise been vocal against China’s human rights abuses may have held back? It is hard to prove either way.
“There could be a number of these agents of influence, perhaps a dozen in the UK, and obviously they will be rattled by this exposure of Christine Lee.
“This disruption of her activities must have come after a very long investigation into her and MI5 must have so much evidence that she cannot fight it.”
Telegraph
MI5 shut down the operations of a Chinese spy because they believed she was targeting a new generation of future British leaders after concluding her main Westminster contact was “yesterday’s man”.
Christine Ching Kui Lee, outed by MI5 as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, was feared to be “grooming” prospective parliamentary candidates in order to give Beijing leverage in British politics.
Her law firm, Christine Lee & Co, had given more than £425,000 to the private office of Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP and a member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
However, MI5’s “K” branch, in charge of hostile states’ counter-intelligence, became concerned that Ms Lee, 59, had started seeking out a new generation of would-be MPs.
Low uptake of boosters: I think the wheels might just be starting to come off the Establishment’s Covid narrative, plus we might soon see some action in the Reiner Fuellmilch campaign: is it too much to hope that he might achieve some convictions? If so, we must be ready for the next phase in this war. The fiscal bubble is going to explode with a huge pop, resulting in worldwide pandemonium as people won’t get the necessities of life ; the globalists want to control that pandemonium by achieving total central control: their plan for this is well thought- out. We on the other hand know we don’t want this total centralised control; but have we an alternative plan for getting through the crisis without society being destroyed altogether? In principle we would need to sort problems out ourselves without the State’s “help” which always makes things worse. And we would need a workable currency (bitcoin/ precious metals/bartering?) Plus if the top criminals are convicted, justice must be done at the end of a rope !!!!!! This being necessary to ensure that they don’t pop up again later !!!!!!
I think we all knew that the utterly weak and useless prime minister we are presently lumbered with would back down in his governments dispute with the French and issue an increased number of fishing licences to French vessels at the expense of the British fleet, and that is just has been done. If the culture of breaking lockdown restrictions within 10, Downing Street wasn’t bad enough whilst the rest of us were adhering to the rules that he imposed at break neck speed, he has again proved that he does not believe in Britain and its road to full independence free of the European Union. And I dare say he will also sanction a very watered down approach to the Northern Ireland protocol. Weak, weak, weak is my assessment of this dangerous fool, and we need to be rid of him fast. As if things couldn’t get any worse, Johnson announces today in a bid to resurrect his failing premiership an initiative called ‘Operation Save Big Dog’ What utter numpty thought of that name I wonder, and I can’t believe that this is happening within Great Britain, the country which with America and Russia saved Europe from Nazism. Every time Johnson opens his mouth he makes this country of ours a total laughing stock in the world. We want a patriotic prime minister who acts in the best interests of the citizens of this coluntry at the helm, not the pathetic excuse that occupies 10, Downing Street at the moment. Come on you Conservative MP’s get those letters in to thw 1922 Back Bench Committee toot sweet, there’s no time to lose.
Asylum seekers:
Since it is nearly impossible to get here without first having passed through a country regarded as safe then all these people have broken the rules and are illegal immigrants. We cannot be expected to support the ever growing number of such people. Australia stopped them by turning them back; we should do the same. Our country already has far too many practising alien religions and customs to our disadvantage. We might contrast their treatment to that applied to native Brits wanting to bring their legitimate foreign spouse here; time consuming, difficult and expensive.
Asylum seekers as carers: Good idea but sometimes those from different cultures have different standards of honesty, and the elderly needing care can be very vulnerable.
First of all, thanks Debbie for these news reviews. I don’t watch MSN or buy papers anymore so its a very useful overview.
Lots here to raise the blood pressure. Strikes me that the Polish government is more OUT of the EU than our own dear UK government. Poland puts national law before international law or pleasing the EU. Poland is not sacking workers and replacing them with dingy people. Care homes and the NHS staffed with foreign workers? Did not vote for that. Our politicians are sticking with open borders and global interests. The point being we need a Leave supporting government not the same old deceitful fake brexit politicians. Everything that ‘Leave’ campaigned on- sovereignty, economics, controlled borders, British jobs, fishing etc you name it- the full English breakfast- all inverted and spinned. We won a referendum vote to leave and they concocted a pretend exit. What we need now is a government like Poland.
‘We need a Leave supporting government’ I think you will by now have come to the conclusioin that it will never happen from any establishment party. The Man From Whitehall and thus establishment parties are of the mindset that they only need a decade more of continued immigration at the same rate to push the indigenous white Briton into being a minority. The Brazilianisation of Britain will be complete and thus electorally speaking no establishment party will need to concern itself with centre Right views. How ironic it is that it has been the job of the Tories to rub their own supporters nose in diversity for what will be going on 15 years by the time of the next election. Those voting Tory deserve having their noses rubbed in it but I don’t.
Jake……agreed, but who is going to supply it. Not, the not very conservative Conservative Party, not the Labour Party, not the Liberal Democrats, and not the Green Party. So that just leaves Reform UK which are on 4% at the latest opinion poll, UKIP, Heritage Party, Reclaim and the SDP, all of which register 0.5% or thereabouts. The best bet by far is for Nigel Farage to take over the leadership of Reform UK and develop a broad coalition of parties on the right of centre.
The dead cat on the table!!! And its a Russian one, or is it Chinese?
Patel and the Tories have fully lived up to my expectations.
I thought the recruitment crisis in the care industry was in no small part caused by low pay driven down by open door migration from Europe in the early noughties.
The latest crisis in care homes was caused by continued low pay and mandatory vaccination along with unreliable virus testing regime leading to absences from work.
Basically the Tories are as committed to mass immigration as Labour Lib Dem and Greens.
Mass uncontrolled immigration will continue apace under the Tory party no matter who leads them.
Am I missing something here, asylum seekers are generally here illegally and therefore should be removed not permitted to take jobs which will give them all the benefits they need to stay permanently without any identification. What a farce. If course they won’t be looking after anybody important so when bad things happen it won’t matter will it?
I agree! What a load of loony, moronic people we now have in Westminster. The old folk will need to watch their money and belongings as the migrant scum have very low morals
Solve two problems :– Asylum Seekers to Care Worker.= Political answer to two intractible problems. Only politicians would see this as a solution. An occasion where political idiocy occasionally could work for the public. Certainly its a good answer..
TG Spokes…………a good answer, you’ve got to be jesting man. I want these Asylum seekers especially those who have entered the country illegally sent packing, not offered jobs. Johnson was always fond of amnesty’s for illegal immigrants, and this fits that category very well.
Morning Colin. By ‘ good answer ‘, , it’ll get a laugh, and probably provide an excuse to go on to another subjest, and can be used again and again for all sorts of proofs of anything. Also it’s unlikely to cause a lot of damage and only get taken up long term by 3 actual immigrants… And anyway immigration is , with many layers of nonsense discussed,,.is one of those subjects that can go on far into the night, with many layers of nonsense made.