Illegal migrants
Mail
Four in ten migrants crossing the Channel in small boats are from peaceful Albania where there has not been a war for 25 years, a secret military intelligence report leaked to The Mail on Sunday reveals.
The explosive document – marked ‘Official Sensitive’ – shows that almost three times as many migrants arriving on the UK’s shores from France come from the Balkans country compared with anywhere else. It is the first time that an official report has exposed how the largest proportion of those making illegal crossings appear to be economic migrants abusing Britain’s generous asylum system.
The report, exclusively revealed today by The Mail on Sunday, follows a surveillance operation by the Royal Navy and defence intelligence experts of nine criminal gangs believed to be masterminding the majority of crossings. It reveals:
A total of 1,075 Albanians crossed the Channel in small boats organised by the gangs during a six-week period this summer – almost 40 per cent of those identified as making the perilous crossing
The gangs are buying huge inflatable boats online from Chinese factories and transporting them to northern France;
Two of the gangs – codenamed Dragon and Lotus – are customising the boats by asking Chinese firms to make them bigger so more migrants can be squeezed on board;
Conservative leadership
Independent
The new prime minister will need to at least double the amount of cost of living support available – from £15bn to £30bn – in order to protect Britain’s most vulnerable households this winter, experts have told The Independent.
The warning from anti-poverty campaigners came as the Conservative leadership frontrunner Liz Truss declared that she will not offer “handouts” to those hit by unprecedented rises in energy prices, favouring instead tax cuts which experts warn will disproportionately benefit the rich.
Her comments earned a rebuke from leadership rival Rishi Sunak, who said it was “simply wrong” to rule out an increase in direct support to households at a time when the energy price cap could leap from £1,971 now to as much as £3,700 in the spring.
Sara Ogilvie, director of policy at Child Poverty Action Group, told The Independent that the prospect of steep price rises on essentials like food and power were “terrifying” for millions of families who had already cut expenditure to the bone after a decade of benefit freezes and low pay.
Times
Rishi Sunak has pledged to introduce another multibillion-pound package to help ease the cost of living crisis, saying the country faces a stark choice between “clear-eyed realism and starry-eyed boosterism”.
The former chancellor said it was “wrong” of his leadership rival Liz Truss to rule out further direct support for households this winter when nightmare forecasts suggest the price cap on energy bills could reach £4,400 in January.
The crisis has emerged as the new dividing line in the Conservative Party leadership race since the foreign secretary insisted tax cuts, not “handouts”, would help those facing a squeeze on their finances this winter.
Telegraph
Liz Truss will rush through tax cuts up to six months earlier than planned, The Telegraph can disclose, with the Foreign Secretary pledging to “look at what more can be done” to tackle the rising cost of living.
Until now, the Tory leadership contender had been planning to reverse the National Insurance rise from April – in line with usual Treasury rules – after formally announcing the move in an emergency budget in September.
But her team have now established that she can scrap the increase immediately, meaning the change can be implemented within days of the budget and start increasing the pay received by workers from November.
Writing for The Telegraph, Ms Truss confirmed that she would use the budget to “immediately tackle the cost of living crisis by cutting taxes, reversing the rise on National Insurance and suspending the green levy on energy bills”.
A campaign source added: “Based on the advice we have had, we are now confident that we can immediately do the tax cut.”
BBC News
Liz Truss would seek to immediately reverse the rise in National Insurance contributions if she were to become prime minister, her campaign team says.
Ms Truss has already promised an emergency budget to stop the increase brought in by Rishi Sunak – her Tory leadership rival – when chancellor.
Her team thought the plan could not be implemented until April 2023, but now believe it would be within weeks.
Mr Sunak says he would give more direct help to those hardest hit by inflation.
The pair are vying for support from Conservative party members to be elected the next party leader, and prime minister.
Voting has started and the result is due to be announced on 5 September.
As well as her pledge to cut National Insurance contributions, Ms Truss – the foreign secretary – intends to cut taxes and suspend the green levy on energy bills.
ITV News
Liz Truss has said she would help people with the cost-of-living crisis by lowering taxes, not giving “handouts”.
The Tory leadership hopeful was asked whether she would offer more help with spiralling fuel bills this winter if she becomes the next prime minister.
The Foreign Secretary told the Financial Times she would of course “look at what more can be done” but said she would do things in a “Conservative way”.
Ms Truss rejected the idea of giving “handouts”, promising to implement tax cuts instead.
She told the publication: “Of course, I will look at what more can be done. But the way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.”
Sun
LIZ Truss blamed Rishi Sunak for putting Britain on the road to recession yesterday as the gloves came off in the Tory leadership race.
The Foreign Secretary said the policies that have led to current troubles were put in place when her rival was Chancellor.
Yet Mr Sunak’s allies said Ms Truss’s tax-cutting plans would only make matters worse.
Tory voters appear to side with the race favourite, with a poll revealing 48 per cent support her, against 22 per cent for her opponent.
Ms Truss fired yesterday’s first shots by tearing into Mr Sunak’s legacy as a high-tax Chancellor.
She attacked the “abacus economics” of the Treasury under his stewardship — and vowed to reverse the National Insurance rates increase her rival introduced.
Express
RISHI SUNAK has pledged to introduce a new package to help penny-pinching Brits deal with the cost of living crisis.
The ex-Chancellor warned it was “wrong” of his Tory leadership challenger Liz Truss to rule out providing further direct support in the winter. Experts estimate Brits could face an energy price cap hike to £4,400 in January, up from around £1,277 at the beginning of 2022.
According to the Times, energy consultancy Auxilione predicted the price cap could reach £3,687 in October in its provisional forecast.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss have locked horns over how best to alleviate the pressure of the cost of living crisis, with the Richmond MP vowing to bring inflation under control and the Foreign Secretary standing on a low-tax platform.
Evening Standard
Britain’s new Prime Minister will have to find “many more billions” to support struggling households, economists warned on Friday, as soaring inflation threatens to plunge the country into its worst economic crisis in decades.
Paul Johnson, director of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, issued the warning a day after the Bank of England forecast that Britain is set to slide into a 15-month recession with inflation climbing to 13 per cent later this year and unemployment also set to rise.
But as a war of words broke out between the two Tory leadership contenders over how to handle the crisis, Mr Johnson suggested that rising energy bills — which analysts say could jump to nearly £3,400 a year in October — could force the candidates to do more to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
The IFS chief told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he was mystified why the contest between frontrunner Liz Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak had so far focused on tax cuts.
Guardian
Boris Johnson and the Tory leadership candidates should agree an immediate emergency budget tackling the spiralling cost of living, Gordon Brown has said, or risk “condemning millions of vulnerable and blameless children and pensioners to a winter of dire poverty”.
The intervention by the former prime minister comes as new figures seen by the Observer show that more than 4 million households are on course to spend a quarter of their net income on energy.
“The reality is grim and undeniable: a financial timebomb will explode for families in October as a second round of fuel price rises in six months sends shock waves through every household and pushes millions over the edge,” Brown writes in Sunday’s Observer.
“The more the Conservative leadership election heats up, the more the remaining candidates have resorted to claiming the moral high ground. Raising debt is ‘immoral’, Rishi Sunak is saying. ‘High taxes are immoral,’ retorts Liz Truss. But there is nothing moral about indifferent leaders condemning millions of vulnerable and blameless children and pensioners to a winter of dire poverty.”
Telegraph
Teenagers should study core subjects including maths and English beyond GCSE as part of a new “British Baccalaureate”, Rishi Sunak has said.
Setting out his education policies, the Conservative leadership contender criticised the current A-level curriculum as overly narrow, saying it fails to prepare young people for future economic opportunities.
The former chancellor pointed to other countries in Europe and Asia where students have to study maths until the age of 18.
Mr Sunak also vowed to create a ‘Russell Group’ of technical colleges to provide young people with a prestigious alternative to university if he becomes Prime Minister.
Setting out his education policies, the Conservative leadership contender also said he would increase the use of AI in schools and continue a crackdown on poor value universities courses.
The Russell Group was established in 1994 and now covers 24 universities – including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London – with a reputation for demanding top grades and carrying out cutting-edge research.
Social care
Mail
Elderly care home residents who pay their own way face typical annual bills of £50,000 after their fees jumped by more than a fifth this year, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday shows.
Self-funders, who represent a third of residents, were already paying far more than local authorities do for state-funded residents at the same properties.
Anyone needing care who has assets such as savings or a house worth more than £23,250 must use them to pay their fees. Councils pay for those without assets.
Council bosses use their position as the main customer for most care homes to drive down their bills. So those who pay for themselves have bigger bills.
Amid soaring energy and fuel bills, care homes are also passing on their increased costs to private payers. This means that fees for private residents are up by 22 per cent this year, but fees paid by local authorities have risen by 8 per cent to £33,644 a year.
Average weekly fees for private, often middle-class customers have climbed £173 to £949 in 12 months, while for councils they are up £596 to £647, analysis of figures from the care consultancy LaingBuisson shows.
NHS
Telegraph
A cyber attack on the NHS 111 system is thought to have been carried out by a gang of cyber criminals looking for ransom payments.
The Telegraph understands the hackers who targeted Advanced, which supplies software to 85 per cent of NHS 111 services, were part of an organised criminal group looking to shut down the crucial system rather than a hostile state as had been feared.
There has been a sharp rise in ransomware attacks on companies, in which gangs embed malware into IT systems and subsequently demand a ransom for the return of stolen information or for access to a decryption key.
The attack on Advanced left NHS staff across the country forced to use pens and paper, while the public were told to expect delays when calling the hotline.
NHS sources warned that the shutdown could drive patients to overstretched accident and emergency departments over the weekend.
Advanced’s Adastra system allows call handlers to send out ambulances, as well as booking out-of-hours emergency prescriptions for patients and urgent appointments.
Over 1,000 care homes using the company’s Caresys software have also been affected, alongside mental health services in the NHS using its record management system.
BBC News
A software outage affecting the NHS 111 service was caused by a cyber-attack, it has been confirmed.
Advanced, a firm providing digital services for NHS 111, said the attack was spotted at 07:00 BST on Thursday.
The attack targeted the system used to refer patients for care, including ambulances being dispatched, out-of-hours appointment bookings and emergency prescriptions.
But the NHS said disruption was minimal.
The National Crime Agency said it was “aware of a cyber incident” and was working with Advanced.
“A security issue was identified yesterday, which resulted in loss of service,” said Advanced boss Simon Short.
“We can confirm that the incident is related to a cyber-attack and as a precaution, we immediately isolated all our health and care environments.”
He said the issue had been contained “to a small number of servers”.
Advanced has indicated the issue might not be fully resolved until next week.
Family doctors in London were warned by NHS England they could see an increased number of patients sent to them by NHS 111 due to the “significant technical issue”, industry magazine Pulse reported.
It said a letter to GPs in the capital stated the problem was affecting the electronic referral process for patients.
Cost of living
Mail
The worst squeeze on living standards for 40 years was laid bare today after it was revealed that 46million people in Britain are worse off because of rising bills with 11million already forced to raid savings and 7million taking out loans when the crisis is likely to get even worse by Christmas.
As the Bank of England warned of a year-long recession by the end of the year, average energy bills are set to hit £4,000-a-year and petrol prices now at record levels, half the population is already desperately trying to cut the costs of running their households.
A new Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey has revealed how the ‘terrifying’ crisis has already taken its toll on the majority of households. Its main finding was that nine in 10 adults have seen that their cost of living increase – equal to around 46million people.
And 28million Britons revealed that they are already spending less in shops and online, 24million are cutting back on electricity and gas use and 16million are spending less on food and likely to be skipping meals. A survey has also found that 11million are already plundering savings to get by and 7million have taken out loans to cope with the dramatic rise in inflation.
Cutting electricity and gas use at home was more common than average among those who were earning between £10,000 and £15,000 per year.
Water
Times
An official target has been set for every person to cut daily water consumption by a quarter by 2050, from 145 litres to 110 litres a day.
The figure was set out by Defra in guidance to Ofwat, the water regulator. A saving of about 30 litres is the equivalent of three dishwasher cycles on eco mode, or six flushes of a modern lavatory.
The government will also “encourage” local authorities to adopt a tighter building standard of 110 litres a person per day in new homes, and intends to consult on mandatory water efficiency labels on domestic and business products.
House prices
Express
HOUSE PRICES have started to tumble amid recession fears and higher interest rates – they could fall significantly in the next year, warn experts.
As the Bank of England (BoE) raised interest rates for the sixth time in a row from 1.25 percent to 1.75 percent, there were fears a booming housing market would begin to witness a downturn. Industry forecasts have warned that home prices could fall by as much as 10 percent in the next year.
BoE raised the rates again to help to tackle runaway inflation, which has been forecasted to pass 13 percent. However, with the hikes, millions of home owners will now be paying more on their mortgages.
The interest rate hike is the fastest rise since 1995, and there are fears that rates could continue to go up.
Last month, housing prices fell around £365, or 0.1 percent, on average. Although it’s a small fall, it could signal that the market has reached a tipping point, according to industry experts.
Pharmacies
Mail
Almost 650 pharmacies have vanished from high streets across England in the past six years.
Overall, one in 18 has shut since 2016, but in the worst-hit places more than a fifth have gone, leaving ‘chemist deserts’ where people struggle to access vital services.
Last night chemists said a mix of sky-high business rates, poor financial recognition for their role and the ‘Amazonification’ of medicine supplies had conspired to bring many down.
And they warned the trend would only continue unless Ministers acknowledged their plight and took steps to save them.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, which represents many family-run businesses, said: ‘In the past six years, almost 650 pharmacies in England have closed their doors for good, and more are set to follow.
Most have disappeared because of the increasing financial burden placed upon them. The attitude of our health service towards pharmacies is “something for nothing”. They’re asked to do more and more, for no commensurate reward.’
Wasps
Sun
BRITS are being warned to brace for an invasion of sugar-crazed wasps set to swarm the end of summer.
This year’s wasp season could be one of the worst in recent memory due to the scorching summer heatwave.
The insect’s typical late-summer surge is expected to be back with a bang this year thanks to soaring temperatures and toasty conditions.
Numbers of the detested stingers fluctuate year on year as the weather can dictate their survival through the springtime.
Wasps tend to build their nests during the spring in trees, attics – and even underground.
Bad weather and heavy storms can ruin their hard work and limit the insect’s chance of surviving into the warmer months ahead.
Oh dear. I musn’t flush my loo so often or drink so much water.
Err . . . . How are they going to enforce that ??
From memory the “British Baccalaureate” (good British word) was to be introduced, to fall in line with the actual “French Baccalaureate”, a la continent.
It was all part of greater integration with the common market (CM) countries.
Rather than trash ‘le bac’ and sort out O levels, A levels, Highers, and the like, seems the powers that be are still under the thumb of the CM.
It can go on the very long list of things still to be sorted out after the surrender Treaty aka Brexit was signed.
Wothps- here it is the best year for plums ‘since records began’.
Need to start getting the traps sorted if we are to get to to eat any plums this year.
I am hearing all sorts of stupidity from all quarters about the proposed tax cuts. Inflation is Rising prices. Most political analysts have actually worked that it is all down to energy costs which is needed for evertthing and there fore actually IS the Inflation. Tax cuts ( And all the other multifarious hidden taxes ) therefore TAX CUTS on ENERGY INSTANTLY REDUCES PRICES ( I repeat instanrly reduces pricesinstantly reduce prices and inflation.
Therefore. cut energy taxes to instantly cut inflation.
Lefties will instantly wail and beat breasts, and say idiotically ” It benefits the well off more than the poor.”. This is possibly true . But all they are saying is :- what ? just ignorance… So what. The price is the same for both. Do you want two prices on the pumps ? Crazy people.
I believe Rishy may be a nice bloke, but Truss is educated. So Rishi is dangerous. He clearly is following a line that only a Civil Servant would want, for the benefit of a greedy Civil Service. Can nobody grasp this. It’s the MPs job to rein in the Service ( and they have failed for generations ) and ultimately the Queens. I hope Williams education was up to scratch.
As the MSM extracts above point out there are many who are feeling the cost of living squeeze, some pretty badly too – is it bad enough yet for those who puport to align themselves with a centre Right worldview to join centre Right challenger parties yet?
Well, anyone who has taken note of my past articles in I.D. should be significantly better off. All this was easily predictable. Not mentioned above, there may be power cuts, so get thought out what you would do.
If you’re poor in the UK, it’s your own fault, (idleness, absent fathers and bunking off school.)
A lot of our cash is going on hotel bills for thousands of migrants, no sign of the government doing anything about that.
My own local authority is proposing to give scrounging migrants free council houses. I ‘spect they’ll get “benefits” too, cash, NHS, schools etc.
HarryAgain…….thank you, oh great one. You are our saviour and should be given a knighthood for services rendered to the readers of Independence Daily. I am sure Biscotte will second this. When the new prime minister is elected they should elevate you to the Minister for Wikipedia Information…
HEA- I feel sorry for your dog.
IILLEGAL MIGRANTS
Who actually runs this country? Certainly not the elected Government when it comes to illegal immigration. It’s becoming like “Hotel California”, anyone can check in but none can leave, thanks to “our friends and partners” in France, the ECHR and the legal system. Our Navy, Border Farce and RNLI are all aiding and abetting the people smugglers, who are paid thousands by the “poor” economic migrants. Meanwhile the “Invasion of the Country Snatchers” continues and escalates relentlessly. While we struggle to eat or heat we also have to pay for thousands of unwanted guests. Just a suggestion, each day load the arrivals on landing craft and return them to the French beaches overnight. The French say they won’t take them back, so equally we should say we won’t take them in. It doesn’t have to be one way traffic. It may upset some people, but it’s a matter of survival. Enough is enough.
Enough is enough! I agree, but what are people going to do about it? What are you going to do about it Ken?
‘Who runs the country’ you asked and a good question, and I don’t think the government knows either. Useless Johnson is still at the helm apparently, but he doesn’t know his a*s* from his elbow, and has proven himself to be an old fashioned windbag of no substance whatsoever. Both Sunak and Truss are promising this, that and and the other if they get the top job, but everyone knows when it comes down to it that they will get cold feet and go back on their promises. Forgetting their election promises and manifesto pledges, its what politicians do best, and I am not confident at all that either of them will make much of a difference, least of all the English Channel migrant problem. Its as if the problem doesn’t exist at all, preferring instead to stick their heads in the sand and pretend its not happening and constantly talk about tax instead. The Conservative Party in its present form as a neo Green Party is finished, and we are now in need of an alternative right of centre option to vote for. The problem is, where is that going to come from as I am close to giving up on Farage to do the right thing.
Pity about the waps, out here in the sticks where we live, bees and wasps are in decreasing numbers again this year along with butterflies, flies , crane flies moths , birds, rabbits, hares and muntjacs. Mind you we do have the biggest rats you have ever seen and in increasing numbers. Country side smells have been replace by the ‘stink’ of raw sewage which apparently has nothing to do with failing infrastructure struggling to cope with the effects of thousands upon thousand of new homes built locally to cater for city flight as people vote with their feet and live the big surburban areas. And don’t even mention the bird choppers, acres and acres of ‘solar farms’ and best of all the damage caused by HS2. It’s a ggod thing we can import all that cheap food and so that we don’t have to worry about water shortages, sewage disposal and farming in general , particularly livestock. No doubt our millenial generation will enjoy eating cold insects and will look back at a time when they actually saw a wasp to swat.
Plant some buddleia in your garden Norman and as if by magic you will see lots of butterflies dancing around on them.
Got several large blue and white, the butterfly population is on the wane unlike other species that seem to be multiplying by the day.
JB- are you saying butterflies is another name for whosps?
I have budliha and I have plums (3) and blasted whosps at no cost. Wanna buy some (dead, but them’s the breaks)
Wasps: So even insects are being conscripted as allies by the purveyors of the “Global Warming” nonsense. Thankfully it does seem that real data and common sense are beginning to gain a foothold but it will take a great deal more to open the minds of the believers.