Front pages here.
Asylum seekers
Mail
Church of England bishops have blamed the Government for boosting the profits of people traffickers – by creating a ‘boom market’ in illegal Channel crossings, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In an astonishing criticism of Ministers’ efforts to cut illegal immigration, the bishops claim ‘the increasing securitisation makes the routes by sea riskier, and the profits for traffickers correspondingly higher’.
In a briefing paper for MPs, they also said that the Government’s fight against human trafficking is failing at ‘a fundamental of recognising human dignity’.
The clergymen said: ‘Fees to traffickers and smugglers are not simply paid upfront, but often include conditional labour and entrapment and exploitation in the UK to work off the debt incurred from being trafficked. In this way, far from creating deterrence, the UK’s approach is creating a boom market for criminal enterprises.’
The Mission and Public Affairs Council of the Church of England also claims that the Government has made it ‘extremely easy for gangs to take advantage of vulnerable people by offering them the only apparent route to the UK’, in their submission to the Home Affairs Select Committee, which is investigating human trafficking.
Express
Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been handed to organisations fighting plans to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda.
New analysis shows the Government gave nearly £1.5billion to groups opposing its efforts to end the small boat crossings.
It comes as ministers vowed to fight a Court of Appeal ruling that the Rwanda policy is unlawful.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said on Saturday night: “Despite this judgement, our commitment to stopping the boats is as strong as ever.”
On Saturday night it emerged the Church of England has also attacked the Government’s immigration policies, by accusing Ministers of creating a “boom market” for people smugglers.
Mail
Hundreds of people have gathered outside a hotel in Norwich which has been hosting migrants to counter the demonstrations of a anti-refugee protest, just months after similar riots in Merseyside.
Around 50 members of East Anglian Patriots organised the demonstration against the Best Western Brook Hotel in Barnard to protest the temporary housing of migrants at the hotel.
The rally began in Roys car park, in Bowthorpe, with the aim of marching towards the hotel, where organisers declared to those gathered they were ‘not far right’ but ‘not far wrong’, adding they will ‘go to every city in the UK to stomp the migrants’.
According to protestors, people, who described themselves as ‘patriots’ came from as far as Ipswich and Colchester to demonstrate, playing Winston Churchill speeches and singing God Save The King as they marched on the hotel.
Cancel culture
Telegraph
Urgent calls to change financial regulations are growing as more people find themselves the victim of banking “cancel culture”, due to their political and social beliefs.
Reverend Richard Fothergill, a customer of Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) for 17 years, had his account closed days after writing to the bank to complain about its public messaging during Pride month.
“I wrote to them on their feedback portal making two points: one was ‘is this really a good use of your time, you’re not here for social engineering’ and [secondly] said I have serious ethical problems with the transsexual element, and the implications of broadcasting that to young children”.
In a letter he received last week, he said he was told his relationship with YBS had “irrevocably broken down” and that the company holds a “zero tolerance approach to discrimination”.
“They didn’t justify it – they said ‘your comments will not stand’. I think its fairly sinister and we’re in very dangerous water when banks can pick and choose who they’re going to do business with based on prejudicial whims”.
A spokesman for YBS said the company never closes savings accounts based on different opinions or beliefs, adding an account was only ever closed if a customer is “rude, abusive, violent or discriminates in any way”.
Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, said the withdrawal of banking services from people for purely political reasons is “a new and sinister form of cancel culture”.
Mail
Nigel Farage fears MI5 could be behind the closure of his bank accounts, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The former Ukip leader has said he may be forced to leave Britain after he was told by his bank that his personal and business accounts will be shut down this summer.
Sources close to Mr Farage, 59, believe MI5 may have intervened after Labour MP Chris Bryant wrongly alleged in the House of Commons that he received more than half a million pounds from pro-Kremlin broadcaster Russia Today in 2018. The claim has been categorically denied by Mr Farage.
Friends of Mr Farage also believe he may also have been targeted because of his friendship with former President Donald Trump.
Thrift tax
Express
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “shattering dreams” by hitting savers with a “thrift tax” that will boost Treasury coffers by billions.
It will put the amount going to the Chancellor on course to multiply fivefold since the start of the decade.
People who have put aside savings are expected to pay out £7.6billion as a result of frozen thresholds and the increase in interest rates.
Tax on savings interest raised just £1.4billion in 2020-21.
But more than 1.2 million people are now expected to pay tax for the first time on money they have put away.
Basic rate taxpayers can only earn up to £1,000 in interest before having to pay tax. Higher earners have a limit of just £500.
This means homeowners who face forking out hundreds more each month in mortgage payments may also be hit with an unexpected tax bill on their savings.
4-day week
BBC News
The local government minister has formally requested a council ends its trial of a four-day week “immediately” over concerns about “value for money”.
South Cambridgeshire District Council’s trial was due to run until 2024, but in a letter, Lee Rowley said such an approach could breach its legal duties.
The Liberal Democrat-led council is the first in the UK to trial the system.
Defending the scheme, leader Bridget Smith said it had helped address a reliance on expensive agency staff.
She said an assessment showed that “performance was maintained” and added that she was “surprised” to receive the letter and wanted to meet “with ministers to discuss this matter”.
The authority started the pilot in January for the 450 desk-based staff at its office in Cambourne.
It was recently extended until next March.
Mr Rowley wrote to Ms Smith with a formal request for the council to “end your experiment immediately”.
Guardian
A minister has ordered a Cambridgeshire council to end its “experiment” with a four-day working week.
South Cambridgeshire district council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April but it has been overruled.
The Liberal Democrat-led council was the first local authority in the UK to undertake such a trial. The council had declared the trial a success, saying the impact on recruitment and the health and wellbeing of staff had been “overwhelmingly positive”.
The local government minister, Lee Rowley, wrote to the council leader, Bridget Smith, to “ask that you end your experiment immediately” and said he had concerns about the “value for money” for local taxpayers.
Mail
A local Cambridgeshire council is seeking a meeting with ministers after being ordered to end its experiment with a four-day week.
South Cambridgeshire District Council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April, however ministers have ordered officials to end it now.
It was first local authority in the UK to undertake such a trial.
In a letter to minister Lee Rowley, Liberal Democrat council leader Bridget Smith defended the scheme and said it had helped address its reliance on expensive agency staff.
Mr Rowley wrote to Ms Smith to ‘ask that you end your experiment immediately’ and say he had concerns about the ‘value for money’ for local taxpayers.
In reply, Ms Smith said she was ‘surprised’ to receive the letter and asked for ‘a meeting with ministers to discuss this matter’.
Independent
Ministers have ordered a local council to end its experiment with a four-day week.
South Cambridgeshire District Council had announced plans to extend its trial until next April but ministers have ordered officials to end it now.
It was first local authority in the UK to undertake such a trial.
Local government minister Lee Rowley wrote to Liberal Democrat council leader Bridget Smith to “ask that you end your experiment immediately” and say he had concerns about the “value for money” for local taxpayers.
There has been growing interest in four-day week experiments in the UK and globally, with some businesses praising the shift to a shorter working week.
But Mr Rowley, in a letter dated June 30, said such a model is inappropriate for local authorities.
Education
Observer
Heads of schools are likely to join teachers in striking in the new academic year, according to the union that represents them – a move that is likely to lead to far more school closures on strike days in England from September.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has told the Observer that although its strike ballot does not close until the end of July, it is “confident” that it will get past the threshold required for action, based on internal polling.
Schools in England face further disruption this week, with teachers belonging to the National Education Union (NEU) walking out again on Wednesday and Friday, and many schools closing fully or partially.
The NAHT said headteachers, who are struggling to deal with a shortage of teachers and support staff and the prospect of serious deficits next year, are “hurt and angry” that the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has repeatedly accused striking teachers of failing to put children’s interests first.
BBC News
A Labour government would give £2,400 to teachers in the very early stages of their career in England to try to stop them leaving the profession.
The party says it would also make it compulsory for new teachers to have a formal teaching qualification or be working towards one – a requirement scrapped by the coalition in 2012.
Nearly one in five teachers who qualified in 2020 have since quit, according to government figures.
The pay boost would cost £50m a year.
The plans to improve retention rates, announced by Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson on Sunday, would see new incentive payments awarded once teachers had completed a training programme known as the Early Career Framework, which covers their first two years in the classroom.
Mail
Classroom asbestos has reportedly killed 10,000 pupils and teachers in schools in the last four decades.
Figures produced by the Joint Union Asbestos Committee estimate a staggering number of deaths have been caused by the toxic material between 1980 and 2017.
Materials that contain asbestos release fibres into the air when they are disturbed or damaged when buildings start to deteriorate. When inhaled these fibres can cause serious diseases.
Although the use of asbestos was banned in 1999, but there are concerns that 21,500 schools may still contain it.
Police
Express
The Met Police force has been accused of sabotaging an investigation into a sixth suspect in the Stephen Lawrence murder case.
Duwayne Brooks OBE was there when five or six people attacked and killed his best friend Stephen in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993. And he says he could have identified the sixth suspect in a line-up if he was given the opportunity.
Mr Brooks told a national newspaper he would have picked out the now-dead Matthew White in a lineup. White was revealed as the sixth suspect in the murder in an investigation by the BBC a month ago.
“If they had put him in an ID parade in front of me at the time I would have picked him out 100%,” Mr Brooks said.
“There’s no doubt and I’m extremely confident other people at the bus stop would have picked him out and this case would have been solved then.”
White was first arrested over the murder in March 2000 and again in December 2013 but, on both occasions, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advised there was no realistic prospect of conviction for any offence, the Metropolitan Police said.
Mail
Scotland Yard has been accused of ‘sabotage’ after they allegedly allowed the sixth man in the killing of Stephen Lawrence to evade justice.
Duwayne Brooks, Stephen’s friend who was with him when the 18-year-old was murdered, said he could have identified Matthew White – who was named as a suspect last week – had police put him in a line-up.
‘If they had put him in an ID parade in front of me at the time I would have pick him out 100 per cent,’ Duwayne told the Mirror.
He added he is ‘extremely confident’ other people at the bus stop would have picked White out, too, saying the case would have already been solved then.
Duwayne claimed he took part in several ID parades, but White was never put before him after being placed in the witness bracket rather than the suspect one.
French riots
Mail
France burnt for a fifth night as rioters rampaged through major cities, torching cars and trashing buildings – prompting the drastic deployment of French special forces in an attempt to stop the mayhem from escalating.
Up to 7,000 police were deployed into Paris overnight – joining a nationwide force of 45,000 officers – as the civil unrest continued to deepen following the killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk on Tuesday.
The latest violent clashes broke out just hours after hundreds of people attended the open-coffin funeral of Nahel, whose alleged ‘execution’ by police during a traffic stop sparked this week’s carnage, which has seen 2,400 people arrested nationwide.
Columns of riot police, armed with shields and helmets and supported by armoured vehicles, were seen storming protesters in the southern city of Marseille, where mobs were blasted with tear gas.
Telegraph
France dispatched its elite GIGN commandos to reinforce beleaguered police as the country endured a fifth night of violence over the killing of Nahel Merzouk.
Some 45,000 police officers and Gendarmes were mobilised on Saturday evening after hundreds of people gathered to bury the 17-year-old police shooting victim in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Arrests during a fifth night of rioting had risen to 719, the interior ministry said on Sunday morning. Hours earlier the ministry had given a provisional figure of 486 arrests, saying violence seemed to be lessening compared with the previous night when about 1300 people were taken into custody.
Rioting first broke out over the death of Merzouk on Tuesday.
Mirror
The funeral of the teenager shot dead by police has taken place as a further 1,300 were arrested and riots continued across France.
Thousands of mourners gathered to lay Nahel Merzouk, 17, to rest in Nanterre.
One mourner, Marie, 60, said she had lived in the Paris suburb for 50 years and there had always been problems with the police.
“This absolutely needs to stop. The government is completely disconnected from our reality,” she said.
His death during a traffic stop in Nanterre on Tuesday sparked four days of rioting.
Independent
Nearly 500 people were arrested across France on a fifth night of unrest since a teenager was shot dead by police.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin claimed that the level of violence appeared to have declined compared to previous nights, as 45,000 police were deployed overnight.
“A calmer night thanks to the resolute action of the security forces,” Mr Darmanin tweeted today.
Earlier in the day, emotional mourners paid tribute at the funeral of the 17-year-old who had been killed by a police officer in France, sparking riots across the country.
Groups of people have reportedly tried to loot shops on the Canebiere, one of Marseille’s main shopping streets.
ITV News
A funeral service for a 17-year-old boy fatally shot in France has been held as more than 2,800 people are arrested in riots sparked by his death.
The teenager, Nahel M, was buried on Saturday, with hundreds of mourners from France’s Islamic community gathering to form a procession from a mosque in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.
He was killed by a gunshot and died at the scene during a traffic stop in Nanterre on Tuesday, and a police officer has been detained on suspicion of manslaughter, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
The incident has prompted widespread outrage across the entire country – shops, public buildings, parked cars have been torched and smashed, and fiery clashes have now occurred in Brussels, Marseille, and Lyon.
Express
France has reportedly unleashed elite special forces commandos as the country is rocked by a fifth night of violence, riots and looting
It comes after President Emmanuel Macron scrapped an official trip to Germany amid widespread protests, sparked by the fatal shooting of teenager Nahel Merzouk by police. News of the cancellation came as hundreds of people turned out for the burial of the 17-year-old.
Since the outbreak of violence sparked by the killing of the teen, at least 2,400 people have been arrested. French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said 30% of those detained were minors, some as young as 13.
Now elite GIGN commandos have reportedly been sent in to help reinforce police – who, on Friday night, said they were “at war with vermin”. An elite police tactical unit, the GIGN – Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie national – have been likened to the UK’s elite military special forces unit, the SAS.
Russia
Mirror
Unhinged warmonger Vladimir Putin is planning on exploding Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, as he gave the order for Russians to evacuate the area.
Enemy troops have held the Zaporizhzhia plant since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, arriving around a month after the war began.
Last month Yevgeny Balitsky, governor of the partially-occupied province, ordered civilians from 18 settlements to leave the area – including Enerhodar, where most of the power station’s staff live.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, warned today a “serious threat” remains in place at the plant, fuelling fears of a nuclear emergency which would dwarf Chernobyl’s 1986 disaster.
He told a news conference: “ Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station that could cause an emission of dangerous substances in the air.
Something wrong with the comments system still. Replies to particular comments no longer possible.
You really know we are living in a lunatic asylum, or should I say the MP’s who sit in the House of Commons when we are told that taxpayers money in the form of our taxes are being paid to charities and various other organisations who champion the plight and rights of migrants who come into our country illegally. We are also reminded that the government are doing their best to put an end to this problem, but surely it is they who are giving our taxes to fund their cause. They must know that this situation cannot be the faulty of Labour or the Liberal Democrats because they are not in power and have no control over our finances. And all this utter crap is happening under a supposed Conservative government. In truth the government led by Sunak and his predecessors don’t know the meaning of the word ‘conservative’ and have hoodwinked not only the electorate as a whole, but their own members as well. This government is totally bereft of principle and need to be toppled at the earliest opportunity before they cause any further damage to this country. They are an utter disgrace and I want rid of them forever.
Crowd fund for the policemen has reached €534,948.
Richard Tice says the riots stem from deprivation and racism. He hasn’t a clue but repeat left wing tropes. In face, in the so called ghettoes class sizes are half of what they are on other areas because the state spends up to tens time the amount on them that it spends in middle class areas. Such is the deprivation and racism. In truth they are parasitic societies hostile to the West.
Reform UK haven’t a hope in hell under his leadership, and are miles behind in the opinion polls for the forthcoming Mid Bedfordshire by election. Nuff said……
Asbestos.
I was once responsible for removing asbestos in hospitals.
Spent millions and there was plenty more.
Any pre1980s building is likely to have asbestos somewhere. Even your home.
HA……..any other bad news you want to give us? Hold on a minute, Boris ain’t coming back because he resigned as an MP. Hooray for that…
4 Day Skivers:
“The local government minister has formally requested a council”
What sort of a response is that? In a real world they would have been told to stop it immediately with the promise of immediate dismissal for those refusing.
At the request of the French Interior Minister Elon Musk’s Twitter brought in restrictions of (allegedly) 600 tweets a day. In reality, it was a cover for filtering out real time news of riots and looting as many people found the restriction only operated on certain news reporting citizens. As the Who sang: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
It’s very hard to know where to start with the deliberate destruction of our world by a relatively handful of people. From criminals who are glorified to political activists being cancelled. It doesn’t matter what you think of Farage, and yes I do understand parliamentary privilege, as no evidence was substantiated and in view of the consequences, I am pretty sure a good lawyer/barrister would be able to make mincemeat of that sleaz***** who disgraced the House along with his co-conspiritors. If something isn’t done about this it could happen to you. An example must be made to send a warning and this is a perfect opportunity. MPs must realise they are not untouchable.
The teaching profession is a joke. Brainwashing at its best.