Brexit

Mirror
Brexit rivals, civic leaders and religious figureheads today urge Britain to reunite and reconnect as the country marches into a new decade. As the UK prepares to leave the European Union in just 30 days, the Leave and Remain campaign chiefs call on the nation to finally begin the healing process – a plea echoed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his New Year message. Three-and-a-half years since voters split by 52% to 48% to quit the EU, Matthew Elliott and Will Straw urge Britain to “leave behind a decade of division and begin our decade of reconnection”. Mr Elliott was chief executive of Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, while Mr Straw was his direct counterpart as executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe. They hope factions, friends and families separated by the passionate arguments surrounding the EU debate can now put aside their differences.

Sun
LEADERS across faiths, culture, sport and business are calling on the UK to begin healing our divided society. The representatives of some of the country’s biggest organisations want a “decade of reconnection” after years of bitter Brexit rows. In an open letter, they observe “our country feels more fragmented than any of us would like” and say it falls to all of us to do something about it. The leaders say we should start by reaching out to one person we do not know or from whom we have drifted apart. Their letter adds: “While our politics and media have become more polarised we, as people, have not. There is much that we share with each other.” The clarion call has been backed by Sir Hugh Robertson, of the British Olympic Association, Glastonbury festival boss Emily Eavis, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn from the CBI and Matt Hyde, of The Scout Association.

Times
Britons are becoming more optimistic about the economy as Brexit uncertainty lifts, with one in five expecting to be richer by the end of the year. Boris Johnson is setting out today a prospectus for “a decade of prosperity and opportunity” as polling for The Times finds that two thirds of voters expect to end this year at least as well off as they are now. In a new year message, the prime minister claims that Britain’s certain departure from the European Union on January 31 will allow people to “turn the page on the division, rancour and uncertainty” of the Brexit debate and look forward to “a fantastic year and a remarkable decade”.

Mail
Boris Johnson today urges Britain to ‘turn the page’ on its Brexit divisions and make the 2020s a decade of ‘prosperity and opportunity’. In his New Year message, the PM urges politicians and public alike to move on from the ‘division, rancour and uncertainty which has dominated public life and held us back for far too long’. Mr Johnson also declares that he will make the NHS his ‘top priority’ after Britain has left the EU at the end of this month. MPs will return to parliament next week to press ahead with the legislation needed to take Britain out of the EU.

Migration

Times
Three boatloads of migrants found in the Channel were brought ashore yesterday, bringing the number of people who arrived in the UK last month by boat to more than 250. Forty-three migrants, including eight said to be children, were intercepted by the Border Force off Kent and brought to Dover. A fourth boat containing migrants was intercepted by the French authorities and taken back to France, where those on board were detained. Overall more than 1,700 migrants made it across the Channel last year, including 251 in December. In the whole of 2018, 297 arrived in Britain by crossing one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

EU

Mail
The European Parliament sends a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars hundreds of miles every month… with hardly any passengers in them. The convoy of 105 vehicles makes the 560-mile round trip from Brussels to the French city of Strasbourg, despite most MEPs choosing to fly or go by train. This is so MEPs have a limo on standby should they wish to attend functions or go on trips around town. Last month the EU passed a motion declaring a ‘climate emergency’ in a bid to force its institutions to do more to tackle climate change. But the disclosure renewed criticism of the so-called ‘travelling circus’, which sees around 4,000 Brussels officials and politicians decamp to Strasbourg for one week every month. Brexit Party MEP Alexandra Phillips said: ‘This shows that the EU’s virtue signalling on tackling climate change is nothing more than hot air. ‘It’s an absolute disgrace that hardworking British taxpayers are footing the bill for this extravagant nonsense. Brexit can’t come soon enough.’

Foreign aid

Mail
Super-sized mice are being eradicated from an uninhabited island in the Atlantic Ocean – using more than £1.5million of the UK’s foreign aid budget, it has been revealed. Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure to control the Government’s spending overseas – more than £14.5billion in 2018 – after he pledged to keep David Cameron‘s commitment to use 0.7 per cent of national income helping other countries. But yesterday the Daily Mail revealed how the UK sent aid to China and India worth £151million in 2018, even though both are rich enough to mount missions to the Moon. While the Prime Minister is understood to be considering the abolition of the Department for International Development (Dfid), which manages the foreign aid budget, critics have warned that other Whitehall departments, such as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), are actually more wasteful with the money as they do not target it at those most in need.

Express
BORIS JOHNSON is being urged to overhaul Britain’s £14.6bn foreign aid programme after it emerged tens of millions were being pumped into the massive economies of China and India which are both wealthy enough to run their own nuclear and space operations. Both China and India boast economies significantly bigger than Britain’s causing many to question why UK tax-payers’ money is sent to the Governments in Beijing and New Delhi. China’s is the second most powerful financial nation on the planet with an economy with an economy almost four times bigger than the UK economy. Beijing’s military spending is also almost four times higher than Britain’s defence budget. India became the fourth biggest economic power in the world in 2019, nudging the UK into fifth place. It also sent a lander to the Moon this year.

NHS

Mail
Health bosses yesterday announced plans to cut the number of hospital admissions due to migraines and headaches by 16,500 each year. Greater use of illness diaries to help self-manage conditions and faster access to specialist advice for family doctors are among measures proposed to ease pressure on frontline services. NHS England will also issue a toolkit to help local health groups understand the scale of the problem in their area and plan long-term care and treatment. The number of emergency admissions for headaches and migraines has risen 14 per cent over the past five years from 95,548 in 2014/15 to 108,711 in 2018/19. Hugh McCaughley, NHS director for improvement, said: ‘Headaches and migraines can place a heavy burden on sufferers, the NHS and wider economy.

Crime

Telegraph
More than 500 children a day are becoming victims of thefts and muggings but the crimes are not being reported to police amid fears of reprisals, new figures suggest. The number of children being robbed of their mobile phones has risen since 2017 after successive years of decline with increasingly valuable smartphones and cuts in police officers being blamed. However, just one one in eight children aged 10 to 15 (13 per cent) report the thefts to police, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Criminologists attributed their reluctance to fears of revenge attacks if they reported thieves and a belief that police are too stretched to investigate such high-volume “low-level” crimes. They blamed the thefts on the surge in smartphones as children sought to remain connected to social media and the pressures on policing with 21,000 officer posts cut since 2010. Only seven per cent of robbery cases result in a suspect being charged compared with 21 percent four years ago.

Mail
Children as young as seven are being caught with weapons in classrooms but are too young to be prosecuted. Data from one of Britain’s largest police forces reveals primary school pupils are taking knives into class. Campaigners say the age of those caught with blades is increasingly falling because children fear violence from other pupils at school or during their commute.  Yet the authorities have few powers to act because anyone under ten cannot be charged with a crime. Figures from Kent Police, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Press Association, show that between April 2017 and December 2019, 109 children were investigated for possessing, or threatening with, an offensive weapon or blade. Two of those children, aged seven and nine, were prevented from being prosecuted because of their age.

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