Pay To Dispose Of It

All single-use items, not just plastic, could face charges under a new Government drive to stop Britain’s throw away culture.

A plan to give ministers new powers to bill consumers for using products that can’t be reused or recycled are set to be announced by the Government today.

This could see the 10p carrier bag charge replicated across a raft of other products including coffee stirrers and cutlery.

The campaign is being spearheaded by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Labour’s Shadow Environment Minister, who passed an amendment to the government’s Environment Bill.

The proposed legislation already makes it easier for ministers to bill consumers for single-use plastics but she wants this to be extended to all single-use products, and it’s said that this change to the Environment Bill will mean they can put an end to here today, gone tomorrow throwaway culture and move towards sustainable alternatives.

The number of single-use plastic carriers issued by the stores has been cut by more than 95 per cent since supermarkets started having to charge more for them.

The charge rose to 10p from 5p on May 21 and now applies to every retailer, from giant supermarket chains to corner shops, small clothes boutiques, butchers, greengrocers and airport duty-free shops.

Before the 5p tax applied only to retailers with more than 250 workers but it’s resulted in the average person in England buying just four bags a year from the big store chains, an enormous decline from 140 bags each in 2014.

Charges for all single-use products would work in the same way as the carrier bag tax, which sees retailers forced to bill customers more with any money raised going to good causes.

However, the detail of the scheme is set to be announced.

Ruth Chambers of the Greener UK coalition said that they welcome this change which is more effective for tackling the single-use culture and that while it was necessary to tackle single-use plastics, some alternatives to plastic disposable items had a greater carbon footprint or introduced other environmental impacts, so what was needed was a shift to reusable and refillable items.

More and more we are living in a nanny state, or should I say a nasty state, and why is that if you purchase something in a plastic bottle or container, you’re being charged for it and not the manufacturer who could easily switch to an environmentally friendly packaging? This just reeks of yet more taxes and costs on already hard up ordinary people – this has nothing to do with money being raised for good causes – the good causes are just the government’s coffers.

They could very easily introduce the plastic bottle recycling machines they have in Scandinavia where you feed your bottles in and get cash or a token to spend in the supermarket, but of course, this is all an excuse to raise taxes so the government can make money from the contracts, just like they did with the pandemic.

And it seems that at the end of the day we will have no choice, the consumer will foot the bill anyhow because we’re just being harvested.

Perhaps we could go back to the days when you bought everything separately because not everyone wants a pack of four or six, that way they could be put into paper bags and you could have as many as you wanted, so perhaps the powers that be could look to the old days where we had very little waste.

No Gun License Without A Mental Health Checkup

Priti Patel will announce a major tightening of gun laws under which shooting enthusiasts must get a doctor’s report to get a weapons licence.

Under a catamaran of new requirements, police will also be told to carry out checks of applicants’ social media accounts.

The Home Secretary’s crackdown comes in the wake of the Plymouth shootings in August that left five dead, including a three-year-old, prompting questions over the killer’s legitimately held gun licence.

Killer Jake Davison had posted a string of hate-fuelled online rants inspired by the misogynistic incel or involuntary celibate movement, but his posts, which should have been treated as blazing red flags, seem to have been missed by Devon and Cornwall Police.

After the mass shooting, Shaun Sawyer, the force’s chief constable, said his police didn’t look at social media accounts when someone applied for a gun licence because it would be an invasion of privacy.

The force suspended a shotgun licence held by Jake Davison after he was implicated in an alleged crime, but it was returned to the 22-year-old just weeks before he launched his attack with a pump-action shotgun, in which he also shot his mother, before killing himself.

The new measures mean all 566,000 holders of firearms or shotgun documents in England and Wales will face further security checks.

From next month a medical report will be needed to purchase or renew a licence, including aspects of the applicant’s mental health. It will also have to disclose whether the appellant has any history of substance abuse or a neurological condition, and social media checks will be made an explicit part of the application process for the first time.

Police will be asked to look at online posts to ensure individuals who want to own a shotgun or rifle haven’t openly expressed sympathy with the incel movement, Islamism or far-right groups.

The requirements will be in force for new applicants and for existing holders who are seeking to renew their licences, and for the first time, they will be compulsory for individual police forces, which run gun licencing, to follow after concerns that implementation has been sketchy up until now.

Police will also be expected to look at applicants’ financial records and check for existing police records with domestic violence or public protection units.

This is just common sense in this wretched country. Why on earth would you give a gun licence for firearms, without a mental health check anyhow? Although most people are sensible, some people are not sensible enough!

And let’s face it, most people can be identified as having a mental health problem these days, which means almost everyone will not be permitted a licence, unless you’re one of the Royal Family, because of course, they’re the sanest of all!

But of course, this law will have consequences, like everything we do does. So now, if someone has a mental health issue and is a gun owner, they will have to get a mental health check to renew their licence, or will they just stay away from the doctors, get sicker and then do something stupid which could have been prevented by having proper treatment because depression, which is a mental health problem is experienced by numerous people and with proper treatment is controllable.

You will be able to apply for a gun license, but just how will doctors with no behavioural health or sociology training accomplish the questioning? And who will this be reported to? And how will this new medical information be protected from disclosure?

Outside The White House, Alyssa Milano Is Arrested

Alyssa Milano was one of more than 20 demonstrators arrested outside the White House on Tuesday afternoon as they demanded the federal government protect voting rights.

Photos from the demonstration, organised by the progressive group People for the America Way shows the 48-year-old actress leading a march to the White House before being arrested by US Park Police for refusing to clear the area.

She held up her arm in protest as she was escorted away, and shared regular Twitter updates on being taken into custody. Although it was unclear if Alyssa Milano herself was posting the updates, or if someone else was sharing social media posts on her behalf, and no updates have been given on whether she remains in jail, or if she’s been released.

The activist actress later confirmed her arrest on Twitter, writing that she was just arrested for demanding the Biden Administration and the Senate use their mandate to protect voting rights.

‘Stand with me and @PeopleFor and tell the Senate and White House that voting rights shouldn’t depend on where you live #DontMuteOurVote.’

According to the Deadline, she was one of more than 20 activists arrested at the demonstration, after a US Park Police officer warned them that they risked arrest under a Washington DC misdemeanour law that prohibits crowding or obstructing streets or sidewalks.

The demonstration came one day before the Senate was set to decide whether to move forward with the Freedom to Vote Act, which would make it easier to register to vote, establishing a 15-day minimum early voting window, making Election Day a federal holiday.

It would also require that states provide same-day voter registration at all polling stations by 2024, and make a variety of cards and documents valid for in-person voting identification.

The push for the legislation comes after Senate Democrats blocked the For the People Act in June, and are once again threatening to filibuster the bill.

Ben Jealous, the current president of the progressive group said in a message on Twitter before he, too, was arrested that they came back to the White House to deliver a clear message to President Biden, that they need actions that match the urgency of his words on voting rights, and time was running out.

And he said that the Freedom to Vote Act had to pass now if they were going back to protect voting rights in the next election for them all, for black voters and brown voters, for women, for younger voters, voters with disabilities and working people of all backgrounds.

Someone needs to tell Alyssa Milano that women got voting rights in 1920, perhaps she’s a tad confused. Maybe she should have used her magic charm on them. Oh, but she’s such a rebel, and I can’t wait to hear about her endless complaining of poor treatment on social media now and for the rest of her life.

She’s a nobody with a failed acting career desperately striving for relevance by morphing into an activist, with nothing else to do with her unfulfilling life.

Every legal American citizen has the right to vote, so I fail to understand what they’re so enraged about, but if you make it where the votes can’t be traced, like mail-in voting and no ID requirements, then they’re stealing the votes of actual citizens, and that’s the dilemma.

People have been using mail-in voting for years, and it’s a great option for seniors and others who have difficulty getting out of the home, but of course, you can’t actually see your signature on the ballot itself, and there’s no other way to prove that the ballot was yours.

Glasgow Bin Collectors Plan Week-Long Strike

A bin strike threatens to turn Glasgow into an enormous rubbish dump during the COP26 climate change summit.

About 1,500 refuse and cleaning staff are planning a week-long strike from November 1, at the start of the international gathering.

The GMB union has given the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) until Monday to table an improved pay proposal.

Rail workers have also voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action during COP26 amid a pay row with ScotRail.

Concerns are mounting that the city will be paralysed by transport turmoil and blighted by uncollected waste at a time when it will be at the focus of global awareness.

One local authority insider said that they could be in a position where the city is turned into an enormous rubbish dump, just as it’s on show to the world.

GMB bosses have refused an £850 a year pay raise for workers getting up to £25,000 and are asking for a £2,000 increase.

Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said that if strike action is to be circumvented, then a significantly improved offer must be brought forward to give their key workers proper value.

Glasgow City Council asked the union to review its actions, and a spokesperson said that these were national, rather than local pay negotiations and it was difficult to understand why this step had been taken while those negotiations remained ongoing.

And it was said that COP26 would undoubtedly be a busy and challenging time for the city and its inhabitants, and they urged them to think again about the timing of this.

Perhaps it will show the world what a huge problem waste and overconsumption is, with fast fashion being an enormous problem and landfilling a global one.

Scotland is a lovely place, but when it comes to waste, it’s a mess, and now the council will be attempting to hide the squalor ahead of the arrival of the world’s wealthy elites coming to preach about climate change, and they will literally be trying to paint over the filthy eyesores to try and make it more palatable to the fat cats. Meanwhile, one mile away Joe Average is wondering how he will pay his heating bill this winter.

But here we go again with the unions holding the country to ransom and trying to grab more money whilst the country is vulnerable and this is reminiscent of the 70s and 80s but then we had a leader with some bottle to fight them, now we have Boris Johnson who appears to be floundering about trying to look great and to please everyone, with his latest brainwave about going green.

And where is the first minister of Scotland? Keeping her head down, no doubt, or is this Westminster’s fault? But when the meeting is on she will no doubt want her share of the good news.

Bin men have had to tackle huge rats, and that’s not just SNP politicians, never mind the four-legged ones, and nothing appears to be working in Scotland, and it seems that every public service has been broken.

And where is Nicola Sturgeon when Scotland needs her? Oh, I forgot, she’s only interested in independence and not the problems of real life. And where is her pride in her city? When this would be a great opportunity to show off Glasgow to the world, but no, she just wants to waste it, no pun intended.

What a horrifying portrait of Scotland this paints. Here we are on the brink of a worldwide event and this nation is immersed in filth, rubbish and seemingly infested with rats. This didn’t appear overnight and the SNP must take the blame because Glasgow, was once a dear green place, and now it’s just a slum and Scotland deserves better.

A Bus Driver Punches A Stunned Motorist

This is the shocking moment a London bus driver swings a punch at another driver in a road rage argument after the man’s car door is ripped off its hinges.

In the video shared last Wednesday, the motorist confronts the motorist of the No 56 bus, which runs between Whipps Cross and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, after the bus tore the door off his parked van on the busy road.

However, when the driver approaches him, the bus driver appears to furiously launch a punch at him, and the woman recording the incident could be heard saying: ‘Look what he’s just done – the bus driver.’

A man in a grey hoodie, who appeared to be the owner of the damaged van, boards the bus to brave the bus driver.

At this point, the bus driver gets out of his booth on the bus and swings a punch at the man, pushing him backwards and off the bus.

Bystanders who witnessed the incident raced to the man’s defence and scolded the No 59 bus driver for allegedly colliding with the van and ripping off its door.

One man can be observed pointing at the bus driver and furiously yelling: ‘You! I saw what happened. You’re f****d.’

The bus driver tries to justify taking the man’s car door off its hinges shouting that he told him three times to move.

A frenzied road argument ensues between the bus driver and the other motorist as the incident brings the traffic on the road to a halt, as other motorists waiting to use the road could be heard sounding their horns to encourage the drivers to move on.

Transport for London has been contacted for comment.

The driver is at fault for opening his door in front of the bus. However, that didn’t entitle the bus driver to strike the driver. It’s irrelevant whose fault it was, you just don’t go around hitting people.

After all, in the good words of Michael Caine “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”

And the bus driver was clearly an aggressive and violent guy, and even though the bus driver was perfectly entitled to make sure his passengers were safe, he didn’t have to do that by punching the guy off the bus.

Perhaps London Transport needs to do more to protect their bus drivers because they do get a lot of abuse and threatening behaviour that they have to deal with, which shouldn’t have to be tolerated, but sad to say that it’s a reality now.

Buses are covered in cameras, so I’m sure who was to blame for the door and the violent behaviour will be evident once the footage has been viewed.

Buses are covered in cameras, so I’m sure that whoever was to blame for the door and the violent behaviour will be visible once the footage has been viewed.

You can’t judge an event unless you’ve seen the entire thing, not in the last few seconds anyhow. Did the van driver throw the door open in the path of the bus? Or did he leave it open, and if so, why? Was the van driver initially being aggressive or did the bus driver strike the first blow without provocation? We don’t know.

All they had to do was exchange their details, job done. What is wrong with people? Has everyone been contaminated with a rage virus? And it’s getting more violent on the streets every day.

In His Budget, Rishi Sunak Might Cut The VAT On Household Energy Bills

It was claimed that Rishi Sunak could cut VAT on household energy bills in the Budget to reduce the cost of the living crisis.

The Chancellor is thought to be contemplating decreasing the 5 per cent rate even though he’s very little room for manoeuvre in the financial package on October 27.

As well as removing some pressure on struggling families, the move could enable Boris Johnson to hail a Brexit benefit, as VAT rates are set centrally within the EU.

With speculation beginning to mount in the run-up to the Budget, Rishi Sunak is also said to be keen to push ahead with an online sales tax after shelving plans for an overhaul of business rates.

Energy bills have been rising after wholesale prices for natural gas spiked, forcing a slew of smaller suppliers to collapse.

The government’s cap on prices for households has already increased and is set for another eye-watering increase in April.

Tory MPs have been urging Rishi Sunak to act on the burden, which comes alongside a variety of other inflationary stresses, with warnings many people will face choosing between eating and heating this winter.

During the Brexit referendum campaign in 2016 Vote Leave promised that fuel bills would be cheaper for everyone, pointing out that EU rules meant VAT on domestic energy had to be at least 5 per cent.

Government officials briefed on the Budget preparations told a newspaper outlet that decreasing the level was on the board but no definitive decisions had been taken.

One Treasury official said that it would tick two boxes, and it would remind people of the benefits of Brexit and show that they’re listening to people.

However, Rishi Sunak has been adamant that the government must rein in spending and the move would cost the Exchequer about £1.5 billion a year.

It would also be politically difficult ahead of the COP26 summit, where Boris Johnson is urging world leaders to up the pace towards Net-Zero.

Paul Johnson, director of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said reducing VAT would raise the effective subsidy they provide for burning gas.

He added that it would also cost over £1.5 billion a year, with most of the benefit increasing to higher-income households.

Meanwhile, a newspaper outlet said Treasury officials have intensified work on a new online sales tax intended to help level the playing field between firms like Amazon and high street retailers.

Society is all back to front because people are working five or six days a week, just to survive, while the minority live like kings and queens, and the reality is, nothing can be done without money, and they’re still printing one and a half billion a day, yet we still appear to have a serious problem.

That’s you and me and ninety per cent of the country, the other ten per cent, which is about five million people are mostly tax avoiders and this doesn’t affect them.

We need to upskill our children because good skills means more money, it’s pretty simple really and education is the solution to good salaries.

A few years ago business owners were doing moderately well, along with their nice vehicles and over fifty thousand a year salary, but in the last few years, they’ve been hammered in every way with taxes and red tape.

Rishi Sunak wants more of your money, of course, he does, and he intends for it to be built back better by billionaires.

Brighton’s Green Council Angers Residents

A Green council is under fire from residents who’ve been forced to stay in their homes because of the dreadful smell caused by the 13-day bin strike.

Householders in Brighton complained that towering quantities of waste from overflowing rubbish bins had become an attraction for rodents and a serious threat to health.

Talks between the Green led city council and the GMB union fell Friday night when a union representative accused the council of prolonging the agony of residents.

The crisis affected 120,000 households and came after dozens of refuse workers from the union walked out two weeks ago as part of industrial action over pay and working conditions.

Heaps of uncollected bin sacks, spanning 10 feet high in some parts of Brighton and Hove, have formed in numerous streets, spilling waste onto pavements and roads across the seaside city.

Rats, foxes and seagulls have been ripping open the discarded bags, leaving decaying refuse scattered around the fashionable Georgian streets, and drinks cartons, rotting food waste and nappy sacks have all been spilt out.

One Brighton local said that they’ve had to keep all the windows closed because just opening them during the day, it’s awful, really awful.

Another added that heaps of waste was increasing every day and the smell was shocking, and the danger to public health was very worrying as vermin were everywhere.

Refuse workers have been in a lengthy dispute with the council over imposing changes to daily duties and the elimination of drivers from long-standing rounds without warning.

The GMB said that changes in driver duties, crew variations and changes in collections has had a damaging impact on the well-being of HGV drivers, and a council spokesperson said the pandemic and a deficit of HGV drivers had created pressure and it was felt fitting to make crew changes or move a member of staff from one round or crew to another.

For health reasons perhaps people should throw some petrol over the rubbish and stand well back before we become rat-infested and end up with the plague again, then they might send someone in, but I doubt it, and while they’re at it they should put the Green party on top of it, then we could have a pyre full of greens.

In this day and age, this is disgusting and unacceptable, we don’t live in the 18th century anymore and things should have progressed not regressed, and now they should just bring in the army to get rid of the waste before people start to become seriously sick because these rat-infested heaps must be pumping a massive amount of methane into the air.

And then Boris Johnson goes on about going green, yeah, Boris, that sounds like a great plan.

The United Kingdom has become a rubbish dump with litter everywhere, and nothing is being done about it, and if the greens have their way, it will soon be the stench of dead bodies if the power is cut this winter, but this is what happens when you vote green, and all other cities should take note because this is what you’ll get. As Kermit the frog once said, it’s not easy being green!

First ‘Human-Like’ Robot Nurse For The Elderly

A revolutionary new robot nurse designed to look and act like a human being, and capable of solving complex problems, was one of the star guests at a conference on Alternative Intelligence in California.

And one of the scientists behind the pioneering technology said the nursing assistant machine, called Grace, designed to provide help and companionship to elderly people, will even be able to discuss the weather with them.

Grace will make her second public appearance at the 14th Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, alongside Dr Ben Goertzel, the founder of AI research company SingularityNET.

She’s described by the company as the little sister of Sophia, a social humanoid robot developed by Hong King based Hanson Robotics and activated in 2016.

Janet Adams, Chief Operating Officer at SingularityNET, told a newspaper outlet that Grace’s hardware is based on the same Hanson Robotics platform as Sophia, but Janet Adams said that their AI software is very different.

Sophia was a character designed to carry out a broad variety of complex interactions, whereas Grace was specifically centred on healthcare, serving in her first role as a nursing assistant and social companion for senior adults.

Janet Adams said Grace’s relatively specialised focus has enabled them to take a different approach to her software, which includes some more complex AI tools that have been more straightforward to get working in the narrower realm.

She said that Grace’s software leverages the OpenCog AI systems in more advanced ways than Sophia’s occasional use of the OpenCog, and leverages some subtle interoperation between OpenCog and a variety of neural vision and language models.

By using alternative software architecture, Grace is capable of using various sorts of thought and perception to Sophia, and Janet Adams explained that both are rapidly evolving systems.

She added that the plan was to upgrade Grace to the new OpenCog Hyperon system in late 2022 or early 2023, which should be a significant step toward general intelligence, and the details of the in-development Hyperon system and how it will work in Grace’s context would be described in Dr Goertzel’s talk on October 16 at the AGI event.

She said, in the meantime, SingularityNET and Hanson Robotics were launching a project called SophiaDAO, which was modifying the software underlying Grace for Sophia, as part of SophiaDAO’s initiative to use Sophia to run a wide variety of AI systems. So in 2022, they might see some versions of Sophia running Grace like software.

The robot Grace reminds me very much of the daughter of Data in Star Trek, and she looks like a human and talks like a human, but there might be numerous people who won’t like her because she’s white.

They have managed to develop a super expensive robot that can talk to old people, but how does that help with nursing an elderly person? Will it be able to pick them up or phone an ambulance after a fall? Will Grace be able to help them in and out of bed, or chair or cook for them?

And they might want to rethink the big doe eyes on Grace because they look rather spooky, and God knows what the gender police will make of it, and will you get into trouble for calling it a dummy?

To be fair it’s still a long way from cleaning an elderly person’s backside, although they’ve come a long way since the Goblin Teasmade, and for those who did have a Goblin Teasmade, they never really did live up to the expectations that they should have – will these robots be the same?

MPs Must Keep Meeting Voters, Says Priti Patel

Priti Patel today insisted MPs must keep meeting voters as she hinted that police would guard weekly surgeries, and refused to rule out ending anonymity on social media to curb threats.

The Home Secretary said it would be unacceptable for the murder of Tory veteran David Amess to sever the link between an elected representative and their democratic function, responsibility and commitment to the people who elected them.

She confirmed that security had already been ramped up since the fatal attack with politicians reminded to share their locations with police, and the government are looking at ensuring that every MP gets officers on guard at their surgeries, a move supported by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

Priti Patel also said the government were also looking at whether there needed to be more action to prevent threats and abuse from being posted anonymously online.

However, Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, a close friend of Sir David Amess, lashed out at the police for disregarding threats.

He told the Times Radio that he’s had four or five incidents where he’d had to report things to the police and that quite often they literally didn’t do anything, or the onus was on him to give continual statements which lead to nowhere.

Southend West MP David Amess was meeting constituents at a church in Leigh on Sea, Essex when he was stabbed to death on Friday afternoon.

Police continue to question a 25-year-old British man of Somalian origin last night who have been granted permission to detain him until Friday.

Speaking to Sky New’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme this morning, Priti Patel said numerous MPs would be reflecting upon their constituency interactions and safety this weekend, but she insisted MPs needed to continue to do their democratic duty by engaging with voters.

She said that she’s been a member of parliament for just over ten years and that they were part of that fabric, the DNA of society, their democracy, freedom and the opportunity for people to mesh with them, but that what she would say is that a lot has changed.

Priti Patel said the murder of Jo Cox was an intensive period for MPs when it came to thinking about their safety, adding that they have all changed their ways of working because of growing concerns and threats in society.

The police would be better employed by getting out on the streets and protecting all of us. Sadly we normal people don’t count because we’re just peasants, and only the elite look after the elite.

But perhaps this should have happened after Jo Cox was murdered? Maybe it should have happened years ago because as much as the political class is disliked by numerous sectors of the public, they’re still human beings, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers and a major part of the UK democracy. This is a terrible tragedy that’s occurred here and we should certainly have learned the lessons from Jo Cox’s murder.

Of course, this is going to be costly and probably won’t even dent the root of the problem and perhaps MPs should hold their surgeries over the internet.

It’s terrible what’s happened to David Amess, but security for all MPs?

Two women a week are killed by their partners, where is their protection? Where is the protection for all people? And MPs and no more important than the public, and why should the taxpayer pay for their security when Joe Public are not being protected?

The JFS Head Resigns After Parents Complain About ‘Army Camp’ Discipline

The interim headmaster was called in to turn around a beleaguered JFS but has left after less than half a term in charge, amid parental unrest over tough new disciplinary measures which one mother compared to an army camp.

Martin Tissot, chief executive of a Catholic multi-academy trust, had been expected to be leading the JFS for a year, but parents were told that he had passed that trust to deputy head Paul Ramsey, who joined the school at the start of the term, and Anna Joseph, would be acting heads until a permanent leader was appointed.

Andrew Moss, chairman of the JFS, gave no reason for Martin Tissot’s departure but said they had been fortunate to receive his support, and that his involvement had always been intended as an interim measure.

The last permanent head, Rachel Fink, left at the end of May, a few weeks before the publication of an Ofsted report that highlighted failings in safeguarding and tackling bad behaviour.

Measures to improve behaviour had been introduced under ex Ofsted head Sir Michael Wilshaw, who was drafted in as interim executive principal of the JFS in June.

But in a letter to parents before the start of term Martin Tissot tried to stamp his authority on the school, excluding the use of lockers by students because some had been used inappropriately, and insisting that ties should be worn correctly, with top buttons fastened.

In an anonymous Facebook post circulating, a person purporting to be a JFS mother compared the school to an army camp and said that her children no longer wanted to attend, and another told the Jewish Chronicle that many agreed.

One even complained of a sledgehammer approach to discipline.

A senior figure at the school acknowledged that they were trying to build a new vision and that a new dawn could never happen overnight. Mr Tissot was approached for comment but he did not reply.

The Jews Free School (JFS) was the largest and most thriving Jewish Secondary school. It was founded in 1732 as the Talmud Torah of the Great Synagogue of London, helping orphans of the community.

In 1822, the school was relocated to Bell Lane in the heart of the East End where, throughout the 19th century, it absorbed thousands of immigrant children, and at one time the JFS had 4,000 children on roll and was the largest school in the world.

In the interwar years, children frequently came straight from the Kindertransport to the JFS, and during World War II, students were evacuated to East Anglia and Cornwall and the school was destroyed by enemy action. It reopened in 1958 in Camden Town where its position was central for the London Jewish population of the late 1950s.

Maintaining its tradition of mirroring the demography of the community, JFS left Camden Town in 2002 and relocated itself to the state of the art facilities closer to the heart of North West London.

The school enthuses its pupils with a passion for their Jewish heritage and provides an opportunity for Jewish growth in an open setting, and it caters for all aspects of the Jewish community, where it has developed many cross-curricular links with a diversity of departments including Geography, English, Science, Business, Music and Art in a sense of Jewish and Israeli culture and pride throughout the formal curriculum.

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