Illegal immigrants 

Express
PRITI PATEL has urged French authorities to do more to stem the flow of migrants crossing the English Channel.
The Home Secretary held crunch talks with her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin this afternoon and sources say Ms Patel warned him “the British public expect to see results”. Earlier this year, the UK and France announced an agreement to more than double the number of police patrolling French beaches as part of a £54 million deal. 
The discussion on Wednesday took place during a G7 interior ministers’ meeting at Lancaster House and came just days after Ms Patel is said to have told MPs she is prepared to withhold millions of pounds unless an improvement is made.
Following the meeting, a government source said: “The Home Secretary was clear with the French interior minister that the British public expect to see results.”
According to the Home Office, 785 migrants arrived in the UK on Monday after making the journey from France in small boats, with several young children and a baby among them. 

Similar stories may be read in the Mail, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Times, Evening Standard, BBC News, Breitbart 

Metropolitan Police 

Mail
A landmark panel of victims of police corruption, incompetence and malpractice today call for the head of Cressida Dick.
In a bombshell open letter to Boris Johnson, they said the disaster-prone Met commissioner should not be handed a two-year contract extension as expected.
Led by Stephen Lawrence’s trailblazing mother, Baroness Lawrence, and Lady Brittan, widow of Tory home secretary Leon Brittan, the signatories all give Dame Cressida a resounding vote of no confidence.
They also demand an overhaul of the Met’s senior team, ‘urgent and long overdue’ reform of the police complaints system and a shake-up of the ‘unfit for purpose’ Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The group call for an ‘urgent’ meeting with the Prime Minister and Home Secretary Priti Patel to ‘ensure that meaningful reform is delivered within a reasonable timeframe’.
They say: ‘We share a collective concern that the leadership of the Metropolitan Police Service will continue to act as though they are above the law and that the general public do not have a viable means of recourse.’
The group of seven influential figures includes the son of D-Day hero Lord Bramall, BBC broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, the brother of axe murder victim Daniel Morgan, Edward Heath’s biographer Michael McManus and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. 

Other media running the story include Evening Standard, Sun, Independent, GB News 

Scotland 

Express
NICOLA STURGEON’s independence plan took a massive hit last night as a new poll showed the majority of Scots reject her timetable for a referendum.
The First Minister used her Programme for Government statement on Tuesday to re-pledge her desire to have a second vote on leaving the UK by the end of 2023. Ms Sturgeon argued “at this juncture in history, it is essential that we consider the kind of country we want to be, and how best to secure it”.
Putting independence at the heart of her government, she ordered work to once again begin of a “detailed prospectus” outlining the case for going it alone.
But a Survation poll found only 38 percent of voters believe there should be another referendum within two years.
In another damning blow to the SNP’s independence dreams, the survey also found support for remaining in the UK stood at 57 percent, with 43 percent backing independence.
The findings are in stark contrast to last December when support for quitting the UK was supported by a record high of 58 percent of Scots. 

Breitbart also carries the story. 

Morning Star
SCOTTISH LABOUR councillors announced their intention to radically transform public transport in Glasgow and the west of Scotland by creating a new publicly controlled bus service today.
The party unveiled plans to ensure that public transport is run in the interest of the people ahead of next year’s local elections.
Labour councillors elected in Strathclyde — which covers around a third of Scotland’s population — have pledged to end more than 35 years of deregulation and privatisation of bus services.
The leaders of local authority Labour groups in Strathclyde have agreed the statement of intent, vowing to work together to achieve a modern publicly controlled bus network.
Bus passenger numbers in Scotland are currently at a record low and the extent of the country’s network is also in decline.
Labour councillors have claimed that it is impossible for the bus network in its present form to deliver the sustainable, integrated services communities deserve.
Councillor Alan Moir, who is vice chair of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, said: “We believe that greater public control of public transport is essential if we are to halt the decline in bus services and meet our net zero ambitions.
“There can be no doubt there is a clear demand across local governments in the west for public control of bus services.” 

Social care 

Telegraph
Boris Johnson has hinted that people will need to take out insurance to avoid selling their houses so they can afford care home fees.
During a heated exchange during Prime Minister’s Questions with Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Johnson refused to answer questions regarding whether or not people would be forced to sell their homes to fund care home stays.
Experts have already warned that the “misleading” new £86,000 social care cap announced this week will fail to cover all care costs, meaning many people will still be paying £200,000-£400,000 to pay for their care, and have to sell their homes to fund it.
However, now the Prime Minister has suggested for the first time that the insurance market would step in and help people avoid selling their homes.
The Prime Minister was pressed by the Labour leader over how his plan could meet the Conservative’s election pledge that nobody should be forced to sell their house to pay for care.
Sir Keir said during Prime Minister’s Questions: “Someone with £186,000, if you include the value of their home – that is not untypical across the country in all of your constituencies – facing large costs because they have to go into care, will have to pay £86,000 under his plan. 

Details appear in the Sun, Independent, Times, Order-order 

HGV test 

Mail
The Government is set to announce plans to introduce a shorter HGV test for drivers in a bid to solve the supply chain crisis, it has been reported.
Industry sources have said the Government wants to fast-track tests for new drivers to plug the spiralling vacancies in the haulier industry.
Britain is currently facing a 100,000 shortfall of HGV drivers, which industry bosses have partly blamed on changes to migration rules post-Brexit and EU employees returning home due to the pandemic.
The crisis, which has also been made worse by Covid-related delays to testing new drivers, has seen supermarket shelves across the country go empty as companies struggle to restock their products.
Brands including Ikea, Coca Cola, McDonalds and Wetherspoons have all been affected by ongoing HGV driver shortages.
Now, according to the BBC, ‘the penny has finally dropped’ in meetings between the Government, hauliers and suppliers regarding the problem getting worse and plans are underway to address it.
An industry insider told the corporation: ‘The government seem to finally understand the scale of the problem. For the first time they looked rattled.’
It is understood the plans will evolve around the combination of tests for Class C rigid lorries and Class E articulated lorries.  

The Independent and Times also run the story. 

Union Flag 

Express 
A COUNCIL has overwhelmingly rejected a patriotic motion which would make schools “reassert pride” in the UK.
Conservative Councillor Dave Arnott called on Oldham Council to pass his “For Queen and Country” during a meeting this evening. It discussed potentially installing a picture of Queen Elizabeth II in “a prominent place” in every school in the Oldham area, flying the national flag of Great Britain and ensureing that every pupil knew the national anthem and the country’s history.
Unfortunately it fell flat on its face with 34 councillors voting against it and only 10 for it. There were seven abstentions.
Speaking at the meeting before the vote, the councillor and former soldier said: “We believe that there is nothing wrong with patriotism or flying our national flag.
“It is one of the many things that binds our society together.”
He went on to describe the UK as a “unique bastion” of freedom and we should be “proud” of our history in education, art, science, engineering and in “exporting democracy” across the world. 

NHS 

Mail
The NHS will hire dozens of new executives on salaries of up to £270,000 – to make sure the new £36billion health and social care tax is spent wisely.
The revelation fuelled growing fears about where the extra cash raised by Boris Johnson‘s reforms will be going.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid promised yesterday to be ‘watchful for any waste and wokery’ over the £12billion a year raised by a 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance.
But critics slammed the creation of 42 chief executives of integrated care boards in England, whose job will be to ‘deliver joined-up services’ across the NHS and social care.
Online job adverts reveal each executive will be paid an average of £223,261. 
Seven jobs are advertised with salaries of £270,000, which is 80 per cent more than the Prime Minister earns. According to the job adverts, successful candidates will need to be ‘politically astute’ and ‘actively champion diversity, inclusion, and equality of opportunity for all’.
Jake Berry, head of the Northern Research Group of Tories, said: ‘Throwing other people’s money down a bottomless pit doesn’t become a good idea if you put the NHS logo next to it.’
Another Conservative MP told the Daily Telegraph: ‘People on low salaries will have difficulty understanding why they are having to pay significantly more tax partly to pay mega salaries for these new posts.’
It comes amid warnings from economists that the NHS could swallow up most of the extra £12billion a year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) cast doubt on the Government’s pledge to use a new levy to both tackle the NHS backlog and fix social care. 

Read more in the Telegraph, Times 

GB News
Consultation has begun on plans to mandate Covid-19 and flu vaccinations for frontline health and care staff, the Government has announced.
The six-week consultation process will take views on whether vaccine requirements should apply for health and wider social care workers – those in contact with patients and people receiving care.
It would mean only those who are fully vaccinated, unless medically exempt, could be deployed to deliver health and care services.
The Government previously said all staff in registered care homes in England must be vaccinated against Covid-19 from November 11, unless medically exempt.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) Social Care Working Group has already advised the overlap between the sectors makes a strong scientific case for there to be similar approaches to vaccination.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the consultation would focus on the proposals, their scope, and any potential impact mandating vaccines could have on staffing and safety such as reducing staff sickness absence.
The process will also seek views on whether flu vaccines should be a requirement for health and care workers.
Findings will then help inform decision-making around how the mandate could be implemented and who could be exempt. 

Carbon capture 

Guardian
The world’s largest plant designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into rock started has running, the companies behind the project said on Wednesday.
The plant, named Orca after the Icelandic word “orka” meaning “energy”, consists of four units, each made up of two metal boxes that look like shipping containers.
Constructed by Switzerland’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix, when operating at capacity the plant will draw 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air every year, according to the companies.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the emissions from about 870 cars. The plant cost between US$10 and 15m to build, Bloomberg reported.
To collect the carbon dioxide, the plant uses fans to draw air into a collector, which has a filter material inside.
Once the filter material is filled with CO2, the collector is closed and the temperature is raised to release the CO2 from the material, after which the highly concentrated gas can be collected.
The CO2 is then mixed with the water before being injected at a depth of 1,000 metres into the nearby basalt rock where it is mineralised.
Proponents of so-called carbon capture and storage believe these technologies can become a major tool in the fight against climate change.
Critics however argue that the technology is still prohibitively expensive and might take decades to operate at scale. 

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