Ramp Refused To Be Lowered For Mum And Disabled Son

The mother of a disabled toddler captured the moment a bus driver left her at a bus stop when she couldn’t get her son on board.

Charles, 2, was born with numerous problems and needs a ventilator, oxygen cylinder, suction machine and feeding pump 16 hours a day, all kept under his specialist chair.

However, his mum, who did not wish to be named, says she has been denied access to buses on multiple occasions.

She said: ‘Charles has to fight for every day of his life. Once I manage to get us out the door, I just need for things to go smoothly. That’s not too much to ask.’

Most recently, she asked the driver of the 197 in Croydon to lower the ramp for a day out with her son.

Despite the weight of Charles’s equipment, he refused, instructing her to move the chair up the step by herself.

The mum said: ‘It’s awful and feels so humiliating when this happens. When I got to the soft play, I was crying.

‘Buses are Charles’s absolute obsession. Once this has happened, I just want to go home, but I can’t. I have to keep going for him.’

She said similar incidents have happened multiple times, including another that she caught on camera.

The footage was taken when she headed home from a soft play session. The driver got off the bus and offered to help carry the pushchair, but because it is a specialist chair, his mum feared it would be damaged while being lifted.

She said: ‘They just don’t care. All they have to do is press a button.

Around a third of disabled people say they have experienced issues with bus ramps, according to Transport for All.

Meg Barnett, a public affairs officer at the charity, told Metro: ‘We should all be treated with respect by staff on public transport, but 41 percent of disabled people have faced negative attitudes or behaviour from bus drivers.

‘These incidents reflect discrimination taking place on our public transport every day. It is unacceptable.

‘Transport for London (TfL) must improve training for bus drivers, working with disabled people to ensure their drivers fulfil their legal obligations and treat all passengers with equal respect.’

TfL said it is investigating.

Buses spokesperson Rosie Trew said: ‘Any unreasonable refusal to deploy the on-bus ramp is completely unacceptable and we are very sorry for the distress this has caused.

‘We are working with the bus operator to fully investigate the incidents and continue to urge anyone who experiences issues like these to report them immediately.’

Disabled children and their caregivers need all the support they can get, and that is the bottom line, not this ‘you don’t look quite disabled enough’, or that you can lift that wheelchair’ or you can walk or get out of the wheelchair’, and people that say or think this cannot imagine having any physical limitations.

Not only is this mistreatment of so-called public transport appalling, but it is disgusting for another human being even to do this.

I frequently have buses pass me since I am handicapped and use a wheelchair; these buses have an electronic ramp. They stare at me when I extend my hand and either continue driving by or stop to inform me that I am unable to board.

I don’t understand how bus drivers dare to make this choice!

The government should instruct all public transport companies they make a policy for all their workers that all disabled people, adults and children who request assistance must be supported and treated with respect, or they will be sacked.

Sadly, in the UK, the bus system is generally privatised.

Wheelchair users have priority over a pram or buggy by law.

If a wheelchair user requires entry to a bus, the buggy user is required to give up that space by either getting off the bus or folding the buggy.

While a wheelchair user has a legal right to board a bus under the Disability Act, getting a buggy aboard a bus is a privilege provided by the bus operator rather than a right.

What on earth is wrong with people? This poor little child deserves the same kindness and respect as anyone else – this was a total disgrace.

It appears that the bus driver has the last say over who is let on the bus, but it doesn’t imply they have the right to discriminate either.

The driver could clearly see that this child had a disability; you can see it as clear as day. I do hope that the driver of this bus never becomes disabled, but he should watch out for Karma.

The driver wanted to be bigoted even though he could see the youngster had equipment on the chair. I don’t understand why anybody should have to share their life story to demonstrate their necessity for a ramp.

Uneconomic Repairs At Bidborough Ridge Force Tenants Out

Tenants have been informed by a housing organisation that they must vacate their residences due to the premises’ irreparable state.

Eight families living in a two-storey block of flats in Bidborough Ridge, Bidborough, near Tunbridge Wells, have been told by Town and Country Housing they will have to move – although no date has yet been set.

Sarah Ramsden, 59, is one of the 17 tenants distressed at the news.

She said: “I’ve lived here 15 years. I am disabled and can’t do stairs. I moved here to be near my daughter, who lives in the same block and helps me.

“It’s heart-wrenching. I’ve spent years getting the garden nice and the flat just right, only to be told we have to move.”

Mrs Ramsden suffers from numerous medical complaints, including osteoporosis, arthritis and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Three times in the last year, she has required her daughter to call for an ambulance on her behalf.

She fears she and her daughter won’t be rehoused in the same place despite Town and Country’s assurance that they will find new housing, and she worries about where that might be.

She said: “The neighbours here are nice and it’s a pleasant place to live.

“The place I lived before – Walnut Way in High Brooms – was horrendous. The kids were forever slamming balls up against my front door and swearing at me.

“I’m terrified of going back to somewhere like that.”

The Town and Country flats at Bidborough Ridge are something of an outlier in the village. Sitting next to Bidborough Village Hall, they comprise the only social housing in a street consisting mainly of large detached private homes.

She said: “Some of the tenants here think that is why Town and Country want to demolish our homes – to sell the land and make a profit. They say the plot’s probably worth £3 million or £4 million.”

But she conceded: “All the flats here have a problem with black mould.

“I keep the mould in my flat under control by wiping it with bleach and keeping the windows and curtains open, but some of the other flats are worse.”

She said Town and Country had tried to address the issue when, two years ago, it replaced many of the flats’ windows, to little effect, and now it has decided the block needs a new roof.

In a letter to residents dated April 30, the association said the flats also needed upgrades to make sure they met new regulations around fire safety and carbon emissions.

Mrs Ramsden said: “Funny enough, a few weeks ago, they did come in and put fire-resistant doors on the cupboards in the hallway – but not on our flats.”

Town and Country told tenants it appreciated “this news can be upsetting” but said they would each benefit from an £8,100 Home Loss payment and be eligible for a disturbance allowance to cover such costs as reconnecting to utility supplies in their new properties.

Mrs Ramsden said: “The cost is likely to be a lot more than that. I imagine we will all need new curtains, new carpets and perhaps our furniture will not fit the new place.”

Her daughter is worried about bigger issues.

Mrs Ramsden said: “Danielle has three children aged 15, nine and five.

“They all go to local schools and have their friends and clubs in Bidborough.

“But there are no other Town and Country properties in Bidborough, so she’s afraid they will end up moving schools, which will be disturbing, especially for my eldest granddaughter, Willow, who’s just preparing for her GCSEs.”

A Town and Country Housing spokesman said: “As a not-for-profit organisation providing more than 13,000 homes, we need to make sure we are making sensible financial decisions and that our homes meet environmental and sustainability legislation.

“Bidborough Ridge needs extensive work to improve its energy efficiency levels, including a new roof and windows. This work would involve considerable cost and disruption, which is why we are working with residents to find them new Town and Country homes.”

“Our specialist team will be providing full support throughout, and residents will receive the statutory Home Loss payment of £8,100, providing they have lived in their current home for at least 12 months before the move date.

“They will also be eligible for a Disturbance Payment. This is to help with costs such as removal fees and disconnections, and reconnections of services, and is calculated on a case-by-case basis.

“There is no fixed deadline that residents need to move out by, but once empty, we will look to sell the property.

“All money raised will be used to further support Town and Country Housing homes and residents.”

Town and Country told residents that although the timescale for their move was “flexible,” it would “like to start as soon as possible”.

Mrs Ramsden said: “We’ve been given no choice. It seems they can do what they want to us.”

The point here should be, ‘why have Town and Country Housing allowed all their properties to go into disrepair?

On their website, Town and Country Housing state that they provide more than 13,000 affordable homes to local authority areas across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, and that over the years they have invested heavily in their homes, and continue to do so as part of the Peabody Group – well clearly that’s not true.

It also states that their residents are their number one priority so that they can help people flourish, and that they do that by providing great homes and servces, by making a positive difference to the communities they serve, so that they can provide an inclusive and inspiring place to work – evidently not true either.

These tenants should be aware of their rights and alternatives because housing stock is very small, so where are they going to put all these people? They will be entitled to compensation, but even so, that does not cover the stress that it will cause them to move.

Some children will have to relocate to other areas and that will be a stress for parents who’s children are about to take their GCSE’s and that is just not fair to these children who are our future.

Families will be divided and sent to live in different areas where they will not be able to access their family, and they will feel isolated and alone. These properties will either be demolished or given to migrants.

Housing associations get financing from the UK government, mostly through initiatives like the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme and the Affordable Homes Programme.

These initiatives promote the construction of inexpensive housing, such as shared-ownership and social rent dwellings, by providing grant money and low-interest loans, so why are their premises in an ‘irreparable state’?

According to reports and research, the UK government does not supply adequate funding for housing associations to meet the demand for affordable housing, and studies have suggested that a substantial increase in grant funding is required, with some estimating an extra £14 billion per year.

Additionally, despite the fact that there is a strong demand for social rent houses, as noted by Crisis and the National Housing Federation, the quantity of these homes being constructed is constrained by a shortage of funds.

Countdown To Murder

A new TV documentary about the murder of two sisters has pieced together their final hours and their mother’s suffering after they died in the ‘worst of circumstances’.

Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were stabbed while celebrating the latter’s birthday at Fryent Country Park in Wembley, North West London, in June 2020.

Their killer, Danyal Hussein, was imprisoned at the Old Bailey in October 2021, aged 19, for a minimum of 35 years for savagely killing them as part of a Satanic blood pact.

They were found murdered by Ms Smallman’s boyfriend, but, in a sickening twist, the bereaved family encountered a double impact when it emerged two police officers had taken selfies with their dead bodies and shared them in two WhatsApp groups.

Metropolitan Police constables Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were then imprisoned for two years and nine months in December 2021 after admitting wrongdoing in public office.

Now, a new Sky series ‘Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park’ is set to air on Sunday at 9 pm and has unravelled the story behind their killings and the police wrongdoing.

A trailer features two short clips of their mother, Mina Smallman, speaking, as she is first heard saying: ‘Bibaa and Nicole, my girls, they planned a picnic together.’

In reference to the officers sharing photographs of the sisters, she adds: ‘I’ve lost two of my daughters in the worst of circumstances. What on earth could be worse?’

The former teacher and priest has previously said that a police call handler never got back to her after she reported her daughters as missing. She has also claimed that she thought a search was not initially launched by police because of their ethnicity.

Along with the opinions of the homicide detectives working on the case, the documentary also features interviews with the tiny circle of friends and relatives who are at the heart of the hunt for the sisters.

Quotes in the trailer also included ‘no one could have expected what was going to happen’; ‘the police haven’t turned up’; ‘you should never be the person to find the one you love dead when you’ve reported them missing’; and ‘it was harrowing’.

The programme looks at how a bunch of friends had assembled in the park as pandemic lockdown rules started to relax, as they celebrated Ms Henry’s birthday.

As night fell, several of the group slowly made their way home, but the two sisters remained in the park and continued to dance into the night. They never came home.

In the early hours of June 6, 2020, Hussein had stalked his victims. He later stabbed Ms Henry eight times, before he slashed Ms Smallman 28 times as she fought back.

He then dragged them into bushes where they lay undiscovered for 36 hours.

On the evening of June 6, the sisters’ anxious loved ones reported them missing, but officers were not deployed to the park until the following day.

The remains were discovered by Adam Stone, Ms. Smallman’s boyfriend, before their arrival.

Officers then searched and identified the DNA of an unidentified male from blood on the knife, bodies and surrounding location.

Then on June 30, a DNA familial link was made to Hussein’s father, who had a past caution. 

Within an hour-and-a-half, Hussein was identified on CCTV purchasing knives in Asda and returning home after the killings.

Police later discovered a handwritten pledge to a demonic entity called ‘King Lucifuge Rofocale’ to kill six women every six months, which was marked in blood. 

But in a startling turn of events, two police officers had taken pictures of the women’s bodies and posted them on WhatsApp.

The Old Bailey was informed that the responsibility of safeguarding the scene fell to Jaffer and Lewis, neither of whom was wearing forensic gear.

While at the scene, Jaffer took four photos of the bodies in situ and Lewis took two, and superimposed his face on a third to create a ‘selfie-style’ picture.

According to the court, Hussein was able to present the ficticious defence that the damning DNA evidence could have been tainted because of the officers’ actions.

The Old Bailey was also told that Hussein had embarked on a ‘campaign of vengeance’ against random women in a failed bid to win the Mega Millions Super Jackpot lottery prize of £321 million.

Hussein researched the far-right and Norse mythology online before the murders, and he talked to others about demons and love potions.

Hussein refused to testify during his trial, arguing that he had nothing to do with the murders or the pact’s composition.

However, he was convicted of two murder charges and knife possession.

Former Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick issued a public apology in 2021 on behalf of the force to the family.

This is absurd; he should have been sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of release.

The problem is that, although we are all aware of how jail terms ought to operate in the UK, they frequently don’t.

The judge ought to have given Danyal Hussein a life sentence since he is just too dangerous to ever be freed.

These police officers’ sharing of selfies, which is completely reprehensible, ruined the dignity of these young girls even after they passed away, and yet these police officers are allegedly protecting our streets, which is utterly disgraceful.

Frankly, what kind of people does the position of a police officer entice?

It seems there are many morally corrupt men and women walking around with warrant cards. I mean, just look at the utterly appalling breaches of trust we have come to learn about, let alone the ones that have been covered up by the Met.

The misuse of power by individuals in positions of authority is a severe issue that is only worsening.

Since today’s police forces, particularly the Met, are falling short of the public’s expectations on several levels, we must devise a whole new strategy to safeguard our citizens and uphold the law.

The police force’s decision-makers appear to lack any common sense, and because they are the most dangerous, they need to be watching out for those who use their badge to gain power.

They are low life scum, and are behaving like animals, although we shouldn’t speak badly of animals.

Evil is a part of our society now, and this was a sickening crime. Danyal Hussein should never be freed from prison because his actual motivation was hatred of women. He said that he wanted to kill two women every six months, so why was this not highlighted in the media at the time? Because the increase in misogyny is now being overlooked in our society.

This is the Met police again delivering the quality of service we’ve come to accept but also despise. This is the quality of waste we accept – I guess we should just be thankful that these police officers didn’t go on a killing binge themselves so that they could keep the selfies rolling in. Hopefully, their punishment will teach them a valuable lesson, or maybe not.

However, we shouldn’t tarnish the entire police force – the vast majority are decent, although I wouldn’t want their jobs, but it does make you wonder why the public has lost all respect for the police, particularly the Metropolitan police, and these police officers are the dregs of our society.

Take A Look At The Mess We’re In Right Now!

A lot of people owe Jeremy Corbyn an apology, and I, for one, would like to see the day when he’s vindicated because an apology is long overdue.

This country desperately needs investment in training, education, transport and the NHS to move forward, but instead, what we got was Cameron, Brexit, May and Bozo Boris, and there has been wasted opportunities and wasted billions.

Unfortunately, the sheeple are once again being duped by Farage’s fascist party and the right-wing media, and we are in this mess because most citizens are voting over and over again for the same incompetent, inefficient, woke, crooked uni party – always voting for the same bunch anticipating a different outcome.

I disagree with him on a few things, but overall, I would have voted for him as a leader. He’s better than anything we have been offered in decades.

I truly do hope that Jeremy gets vindicated. Only then will our crooked government will have fallen on their own sword of shame, particularly those who stabbed him in the front as well as his back. He would have been the best prime minister we never had.

This country desperately needed change and this man offered it, but the people said ‘no thanks’ because the media told them he was someone to be fearful of, and the rest is history, but then Turkeys will always vote for Christmas in the UK.

The people went out of their way to make up and say things about him, and they will always lack the courage to acknowledge they were wrong.

Keir Starmer must go, and the press always try to slaughter, it’s almost like Animal Farm. If it grunts like a pig, if it snorts like a pig, then it is a pig!

How A Firing Squad Botched An Execution

According to his attorneys, state marksmen botched the execution of a South Carolina police killer who decided to die by firing squad last month, forcing him to endure a torturous, drawn-out death.

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was put to death on April 11 for killing an off-duty police officer in 2004.

Mahdi chose the firing squad mode of execution over lethal injection or electrocution, according to his lawyers, because he thought it would be the least painful and fastest of the three possibilities.

However, an independent postmortem has indicated Mahdi’s execution did not go according to plan and that the convicted killer endured pain well beyond the ‘10-to-15-second’ window that was expected.

In documents filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, Mahdi’s attorneys claim that the state’s three marksmen shot their client lower than expected, missing his heart and striking him just above the abdomen, piercing his liver and pancreas.

According to the AP, Mahdi screamed and flexed his arms as the rounds were fired. It took four minutes before he was declared dead, but for at least a minute after that, he was still breathing and moaning.

‘The autopsy confirms what I saw and heard,’ David Weiss, an attorney for Mikal Mahdi, told DailyMail.com in a written statement. 

‘Mikal suffered an excruciating death. We don’t know what went wrong, but nothing about his execution was humane.

‘The implications are horrifying for anyone facing the same choice as Mikal. South Carolina’s refusal to acknowledge their failures with executions cannot continue.’

Mahdi’s death marked the second time a death row inmate has been executed by firing squad this year in South Carolina.

The postmortem ordered by his lawyers discovered that Mahdi suffered only two distinct gunshot wounds to his torso, even though there were three gunmen, each possessing a live round.

His attorneys believe the execution was bungled because either the volunteer prison workers missed, or the target over Mahdi’s chest to mark the location of his heart wasn’t correctly positioned.

South Carolina’s Corrections Department had earlier conducted its own postmortem on Mahdi and suggested all three bullets had struck him, with two of them entering his body at the same location and following the same path.

That has occurred before during target practice, Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shane said to AP on Thursday.

Mahdi’s legal team claimed the autopsy provided by the state was ‘incredibly sparse, with far fewer details and photographs than normally issued.’

They also claim that there isn’t enough evidence to support the Corrections Department’s claim that two bullets entered the same spot.

‘The shooters missed the intended target area and the evidence indicates that he was struck by only two bullets, not the prescribed three,’ said Dr. Jonathan Arden, the pathologist hired by Mahdi’s team.

Arden said it likely took Mahdi 30-60 seconds to lose consciousness, two to four times longer than predicted by experts hired by the state.

During that time, Mahdi probably endured intense pain as his lungs attempted to expand against shattered ribs and a broken sternum, while also experiencing “air hunger” – a desperate, suffocating feeling – as his damaged lungs failed to pull in enough oxygen, according to Dr. Arden.

‘Mr. Mahdi elected the firing squad, and this Court sanctioned it, based on the assumption that SCDC could be entrusted to carry out its straightforward steps: locating the heart; placing a target over it; and hitting that target,’ Mahdi’s attorneys wrote in a letter to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

‘That confidence was clearly misplaced.’

In a report summarising his findings, Arden said the state’s official autopsy did not include X-rays, which would have allowed for the results to be independently verified.

Arden also said that only one photo was taken of Mahdi’s body, and no close-ups of the wounds; and his clothing was not examined to determine where the target was placed and how it aligned with the damage the bullets caused to his shirt.

‘I noticed where the target was placed on Mikal’s torso, and I remember thinking to myself, “I’m certainly not an expert in human anatomy, but it appears to me that target looks low,”’ said Mahdi’s attorney, David Weiss.

Dr. Arden said that in his 40-year career, he has never heard of two bullets entering the same spot on a human body before.

The postmortem found damage in only one of the four chambers of Mahdi’s heart – the right ventricle.

However, his pancreas and liver were severely damaged, indicating that the marksmen’s aim was too low.

In contrast, in the execution of Brad Sigmon, who was killed by firing squad in South Carolina in March – the first to be carried out in the US for 15 years – his autopsy showed three distinct bullet wounds and his heart was ‘obliterated’, Arden said.

Sigmon’s postmortem also included X-rays, multiple photographs, and an examination of his clothing.

Without X-rays or other internal scans, the state’s two-bullet-through-one-hole claim cannot be substantiated, Arden added.

Attorney Weiss said the alleged errors in Mahdi’s execution pose a major problem.

‘I think that raises incredibly difficult questions about the type of training and oversight that is going into this process,’ Weiss told AP.

‘It was obvious to me, as a lay person, upon reading his autopsy report, that something went wrong here.

‘We should want to figure out what it was that went wrong when you’ve got state government carrying out the most serious, most grave possible type of function.’

Mahdi’s body has since been cremated, preventing any additional tests.

The 42-year-old confessed to killing Public Safety officer James Myers in 2004, shooting him at least eight times before burning his body.

Myers’ charred remains were found by his wife in a shed in their backyard, which had been the backdrop to their wedding just over a year before.

In addition, Mahdi admitted to killing a convenience store employee three days before killing Myers.

He was arrested in Florida while driving Myers’ unmarked police pickup truck.

His lawyers had petitioned Governor Henry McMaster for a pardon, but the Republican leader of South Carolina had never given clemency before.

‘Mr. Mahdi’s life is a tragic story of a child abandoned at every step’, his lawyers said in a statement.

When Mahdi was four years old, his mother fled her abusive husband, and the boy was raised by his volatile, mentally ill father, they said.

‘Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement,’ his lawyers said.

‘Now 42, Mikal is deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry, and abused youth who committed the capital crimes.’

Just hours before his execution, Mahdi’s last appeal was denied.

On the evening of April 11, his sentence was executed in the Columbia prison’s execution chamber in front of less than a dozen witnesses who were seated behind bulletproof glass.

Mahdi had a hood over his head, a white square with a red bull’s-eye over his heart, and he was shackled to a chair.

He made no final statement before his death and evaded eye contact with the gathered onlookers.

At his trial in 2004, prosecutor David Pascoe called Mahdi the ‘epitome of evil.’

‘His heart and mind are full of hate and malice,’ Pascoe said.

I don’t feel for this man, he was evil, but execution, death by lethal injection or other means, is supposed to be done humanely, although I don’t think that killing another human being is humane – what right have we got to take another life? It makes us just as barbaric as the person who perpetrated the crime – we have no right to take another life just because they took a life, you know what they say, ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.’

There is ongoing debate and legal interpretation on whether lethal injection or other methods of killing qualify as cruel and unusual punishment.

Although first portrayed as a more compassionate method of execution, it has come under fire and been called harsh and out of the ordinary.

Naturally, the main issues are that there is no guarantee of unconsciousness in every situation and that untrained personnel may perform procedures incorrectly. There have also been cases where people have received paralytic injections and remained conscious during cardiac arrest, which has been compared to torture. However, proponents of lethal injection have maintained that there are no less cruel or reasonable alternatives.

Migrants Will Soon Need To Speak Fluent English

Migrants coming to live and work in Britain will be expected to speak much better English under a bold new crackdown from Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

Ministers will demand that overseas workers meet a significantly higher standard of English before being granted a UK visa in a sweeping overhaul of the immigration system, which will be unveiled in a white paper next week.

Right now, all that is required of migrants is a rudimentary command of the language, which is the same as a GCSE. Currently, nevertheless, this is seen as being much too low to permit appropriate absorption into British society.

According to the revised suggestions, applicants will need to be able to write eloquently and talk fluently on complicated topics, raising the bar to a far higher level that is comparable to the A-level norm.

The move comes as Labour faces mounting pressure to tackle Britain’s record net migration, which hit 728,000 last year. 

The government also wants to get more than 9 million people who are presently out of work in the UK back into employment.

Sources say that under the new plans, migrants will be told in no uncertain terms: if you want to come to Britain, you must contribute, and that means learning the language and embracing British values.

It is understood that successful asylum seekers will also need to meet the higher English criterion before they can apply for permanent settlement – usually after five years.

The forthcoming immigration blueprint will also set out more stringent checks on English knowledge and is expected to include efforts to guarantee new arrivals are aligned with ‘British values’ such as democracy, religious tolerance and respect for the law. But ministers are still working on how this will be tested in practice.

Presently, questions about UK values only appear in the ‘Life in the UK’ test, which migrants take after living in the country for several years.

In a further move to cut the country’s dependency on overseas workers, British employers will be told to prioritise training home-grown talent. 

Industries facing labour shortages, including engineering, tech and construction, will be ordered to boost apprenticeship numbers or risk losing access to foreign staff.

Specific workforce plans, supervised by the appropriate departments, will be provided to each industry to increase recruitment and skill levels in the UK.

It is also anticipated that the Prime Minister would openly acknowledge that the Brexit-era points-based immigration system has fallen short of expectations.

A senior government insider told The Times that the plans will ‘take tighter control to deliver a system that is controlled, selective and fair’.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, have already rejected the measures as being too little, too late.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp hit out at Labour’s approach, branding it ‘cosmetic tinkering’ that won’t stop immigration from spiralling.

‘Labour will once again be tinkering with the system via another cosmetic announcement, which will make very little practical difference. 

‘If they were serious about getting immigration down they would back the Conservative proposals which we will be pressing in the Commons on Monday: an annual binding vote in parliament to set a migration cap, repealing the Human Rights Act from immigration matters to end absurd claims in UK courts, and raising the migrant salary threshold across the board.’  

It comes as spending watchdogs warn that asylum accommodation, including hotels, will cost the taxpayer £15 billion over 10 years.

The overall bill is more than triple the Home Office’s initial estimate, data from the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed.

Contracts were originally predicted to cost £4.5 billion over a decade from 2019 but are now anticipated to run to £15.3 billion over the same period, after the Channel crisis exploded.

It means that on average, the taxpayer will spend £4,191,780 a day on housing asylum seekers over the life of the contracts.

A separate breakdown from the NAO showed that overall costs in 2024-25 were £1.67 billion.

That amounted to £4,567,123 a day on average, or £3,172 a minute.

Asylum hotels ‘may be more profitable’ for companies holding the contracts than other types of housing, the government’s official auditors said.

The Home Office granted the contracts to three suppliers – Clearsprings Ready Homes, Mears Group and Serco – which operate two or three UK regions each.

It’s okay for Keir Starmer to say that migrants who come to live and work in England are expected to speak English better, but what about the migrants who are coming over illegally and who are all slipping through the cracks?

And of course, this will be another Starmer ‘promise’ that will be binned as time passes.

To be honest, what Sir Keir should do is turn all the boats around – I mean, how challenging can it be? We’re not responsible for the world’s needy and greedy and who bring all their crime gangs with them.

Perhaps he’s gone from smashing the gangs to this? More empty promises. He is a man with no plan!

We shouldn’t believe Keir Starmer since he has lied to us in the past and will do it again, and you do realise that even Reform aren’t going to get rid of illegal immigrants.

Migrants use interpreters, and it costs an absolute fortune, and we use thousands of them every day for benefit claims, registering with a new GP and hospital appointments. It’s outrageous!

STRANGER DANGER

There appears to be a number of teenagers who have gone missing in the UK recently. However, there are various reasons why these teenagers have gone missing. One of these reasons is trafficking by gangs, usually for prostitution, which is growing in the UK and other major destinations.

One of the issues that is growing the fastest is child trafficking.

Trafficking of prostitutes into the UK is a common occurrence, but how long until these foreigners start trafficking our British children? Or is this happening already?

The market for migrant sex and domestic workers appears to be quite profitable, and it’s a global crime that trades in people and exploits them for profit.

There are now lots of migrant gangs in the UK – smuggling, prostitution and money laundering.

Smuggling gangs come across by sea to our shores, and they have no moral compass, so how long will it be before they stop bringing them over and use our teenagers instead?

Prostitution rings that traffic women from all over the world into the UK are run by members of deadly organised crime groups.

Whether by a small boat or concealed in the back of a lorry, these gangs are driven by money, rather than a moral obligation to assist those escaping war zones or persecution.

These victims are usually transported to the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation after being recruited in countries such as Romania.

The organised crime groups operate as an escort service agency in London, where they advertise sexual services provided by their victims.

When the escort service accepts a booking, members of the criminal group will bring a woman to a client and collect at least half of the payment.

The victims become financially dependent on the traffickers as a result of having to pay for their transportation, housing, and advertising, in addition to having to give over the majority of their earnings.

Criminal abduction is the reason behind the most frequently reported missing person incidents.

We need to start treating these smuggling gangs like terrorists before they start stealing our children and making them into prostitutes for profit. While criminal abduction is a grave concern and can lead to missing person cases, it’s not the most common reason for people going missing. However, it’s still a grave concern and should not be brushed under the carpet.

There has been a tremendous rise in the number of children snatched in Britain, with tons of children being taken by strangers, which is every parent’s worst nightmare.

I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like for these parents – they never get to see their child again – it is devastating and beyond horrendous. Our children are precious to us, and Keir Starmer needs to act now! The puff of hot air that continually comes out of his mouth is just for the media to see and nothing more. It chills me to my bones.

Cuts To PIP Update As Officials Respond To Calls To Exclude Those Who ‘Cannot Work’

Calls for people with disabilities who ‘cannot work’ to be excluded from any benefits cuts have been given a major update after an official response from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Millions of people on benefits are living in fear of changes set to come in November 2026.

Eligibility requirements would be tightened to concentrate personal independence payments (PIP) on those with higher needs, meaning many presently receiving them will miss out as the government attempts to shave £5 billion off the benefits budget.

The Office of Budget Responsibility has examined the changes and said the main savings would come from tightening the PIP eligibility, cutting payments for about 800,000 claimants, and slashing health-related Universal Credit for three million families.

A tightening of eligibility for the main disability benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and a cut to the health element of Universal Credit (UC) have prompted stark warnings and calls for a rethink.

Changes to PIP are expected to account for the largest proportion of savings, with the Resolution Foundation think tank estimating this could see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people in England and Wales losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 per year by the end of the decade.

A petition on the parliament website has skyrocketed to over 10,000 signatures – calling for the government to ‘protect disabled people who cannot work from planned cuts to benefits.’

It says: “We want the Government to halt all planned benefit cuts for disabled people unable to work. Instead of reducing benefits, we want them to rise in line with inflation. We want support, not hardship and deprivation, for those who cannot work.

“We feel that disabled people who cannot work should not have their benefits cut. Acquired Disabilities can end careers, and we feel that those who previously contributed to tax deserve support.

“We also believe that people born Disabled need steady support without cuts. We feel the pandemic widened the gap between current financial support and the extra cost of living for Disabled people; these proposed cuts will worsen this.

“We think forcing people to work will strain the fragile NHS and that Disabled people should not be punished for being unable to work.” Now the DWP has replied as the petition crossed the 10,000 threshold.

It said: “Our welfare system is broken, costing almost a third as much as it does to run the NHS in England while leaving people for years on benefits with no offer of support, no hope of a future in work and no opportunity to improve their standard of living.

“Working-age adults who are in work are three times less likely to be in poverty than those out of work. We need to act to end the inequality that sees disabled people and people with health conditions trapped out of jobs, despite many wanting to work, and ensure our welfare system is there for people who need it, now and long into the future.”

“The proposed changes to Universal Credit rates mean that we will not be increasing all benefits in line with inflation as requested in the e-petition. We are, however, increasing the standard allowance of UC for both new and existing claims.

“Other benefits, including PIP, will be increased at least in line with inflation which is the statutory minimum. The changes will not come into force immediately – the changes to Universal Credit rates and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility will be implemented from 2026, subject to parliamentary approval.

“It is important that Members of Parliament have the opportunity to consider and debate all changes before they are implemented.”

It said the proposals are a green paper and as such as still being considered before implementation. If people want to put in their views they can do so by clicking here. If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.

What about disabled people who are able to work, they still need to claim PIP because they need help getting to work with a disability, so there are the travel costs, then there is the specialist aids, like electric wheelchairs – if they go wrong, they need to be repaired. Then there are the dietry costs because some people need to be on a special diet and the list goes on and on.

And don’t forget ‘white people’ who want to work will go to the bottom of the list for work now!

Perhaps if Keir Starmer blocked migrants from coming into the UK, that would shave a significant amount of money. Send them back from whence they came, but the problem is, they breed! However, breeding a child from a migrant family does not automatically make that child a British Citizen, so send them all back!

ROLL UP, ROLL UP!

I’ve never actually been a lover of Katie Hopkins, up until now! However, after seeing this video today, I became a great admirer, and I now believe that we need more people like Katie running our country because she says it how it is.

The situation in the UK is alarming, yet the migrants will undoubtedly continue to arrive and soon outnumber us.

We wake up each day and hope that our government will wake up, but the thing is, they’re already awake – folks it’s all part of the agenda.

At the moment the UK is the most horrible, cruel and hostile place to be!

So, this is where the taxpayers’ 6.6 billion is going and this is where the ‘black hole’ is, and these migrants are coming over to our country illegally, violating our laws and then being rewarded for doing so.

However, I have a solution to this! Why don’t we all leave the country, then we can come back as illegals or asylum seekers and get all the benefits they get.

Keep up the good work Katie – you’re one of the few left who’s not scared to speak their mind, and the reality of the situation the UK is now in.

They shouldn’t be permitted to set foot in England by our government. It’s as simple as that.

We appear to have newly built houses and flats. We thought they were for us, but no they are being used for refugees – unimaginable, but it’s happening in a street near you! And here in the UK, we have the disabled and ageing communities that are counting every penny, wondering if they can afford to turn the heating on if it gets cold – not forgetting that the elderly feel the cold more!

Now the British people of the UK have to work until they drop and they will never see their pension. Getting your pension now is a thing of the past because by the time you reach 70 years old, you’ll probably be dead and buried and our government will be rubbing their sweaty grubby palms and licking their lips, and if natural selection has anything to do with it, probably their balls as well.

If you’re a working-class person who has scrimped and saved to buy their own house, please don’t think it was ever yours. First of all, you got the bank to loan you the money, which you paid for over 25 years, by that time all your children have left home and you’re still working like a slave. Then you have to sell the house because you’re now elderly and need to go into a care home, which then pays for your food and lodgings in that care home. Folks, you never owned your home, it was just rented to you from the bank, and then it was sold to pay for more rent – it’s an illusion!

What I’m trying to say is that even if we pay throughout our lives, there are migrants who haven’t paid at all, and that’s wrong!

My Brother Emailed His GP surgery, But They Didn’t Respond

After emailing a general practitioner’s office asking patients not to call, a woman whose brother passed away has warned that more deaths could occur if immediate adjustments are not made.

Allan Hamilton, 51, struggled to breathe when he emailed The Pike Practice on November 14. He had been told not to call his GP on previous visits.

But staff at surgery took three days to respond to the teacher, who was found dead at his home in Mossley, Greater Manchester, two days later on November 19.

A post-mortem found he had died of acute pneumonia and ischemic heart disease. Senior coroner Alison Mutch said that if Mr Hamilton’s email had been answered, he would not have died.

The practice said it was ‘deeply saddened’ by Mr Hamilton’s death and has opened an ‘internal review to understand the exact circumstance’ of how his email was missed.

Mr Hamilton’s sister Vicki Doyle, 56, is calling for more robust systems to be put in place across GP surgeries. She said: ‘We are not talking about a missed appointment here, we are talking about someone’s life’.

In the subject of his email, Mr Hamilton warned he was suffering from ‘Breathlessness and shallow breathing,’ which Vicki, believes should have raised red flags and led to his case being triaged.

Ms Doyle continued: ‘It is just so difficult to get an appointment with the doctors now it is almost as if you have to fight for a doctor’s appointment and that to me is not right.

‘It is like the power is being taken away from the ordinary individual. A lot of people won’t fight especially a different generation who will just say: ‘It is alright, I will ring back later.’

Coroner Mutch added in a stark warning: ‘The inquest heard evidence that there was a risk of a similar situation arising if GP practices do not have clear and robust triage and audit processes in place.’

Andy Scaife, chief executive of SP Health which runs The Pike Practice said: ‘We are currently conducting a thorough internal review to understand the exact circumstance, which will include a review of the factual accuracy of certain aspects of the report.’

According to the inquest, Mr Hamilton passed away from lobar pneumonia, an acute form of pneumonia.

During his postmortem doctors also discovered, he was suffering from ischaemic heart disease.

According to his sister, Mr Hamilton would not have passed away if he had been seen in person so that his underlying cardiac issue could have been identified and eventually addressed.

During COVID, online doctor appointments, or “e-consultations,” gained popularity. However, there are worries that the technologies used to schedule these sessions may not function properly.

And many fear the elderly will struggle to use the technology needed to book.

Ms Doyle who works for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and previously worked in sales at the Daily Mail added: ‘More and more people are moving to the online side of things.

‘I am fine with online but if the system keeps breaking and someone is not well, or it is an older person who cannot use it, that is going to cause problems.’

Mr Hamilton had a varied life, first serving as a policy advisor for the government, then going into teaching, and then landing a job providing care for people who had just left the hospital.

Paying tribute, Ms Doyle said: ‘He was a hugely intelligent person, the most intelligent person I have ever met. He was massive on his culture, he loved going to different countries and visiting different cities.

‘He loved his job absolutely loved it. He was a really strong individual and I am pretty sure he would have fought through the illnesses.

‘Allan and I travelled our lives side by side for most of it, even when we were miles apart, he was never far away from me in thought. 

‘He relished adventure and simply observing everyday activities with a large mug of black filtered coffee. 

‘He had a high moral compass, probably the highest moral compass I have ever come across and he would talk passionately about the ‘unjust’ in this world. 

‘We shared a special bond and he introduced me to golf and we enjoyed going to various Opens and the Ryder Cup or local competitions to watch the experts.’

For a week, Mr. Hamilton experienced flu-like symptoms, which began to subside until they reappeared and made breathing difficult.

When the online consultation method failed, he decided to email his doctors.

Nevertheless, despite his succinct summary of his symptoms, he did not obtain a reply until 2.10 pm on Friday.

After not hearing from her brother for a few days, Ms Doyle became concerned after learning via Facebook that he had missed an evening gathering with friends on Friday.

‘I went across to his house but could not raise him and spoke to the neighbour who thought his car had moved,’ Vicki said.

‘I left my number with the neighbour just in case, and they contacted me and said they realised the car had not moved and it was a mistake.

‘So, I contacted the police on the Sunday, and he was deceased when they found him.’

Both their parents were originally from Scotland, and Ms Doyle said her brother was very proud of his ancestry, wearing a kilt at any given opportunity.

Although Mr. Hamilton was unmarried at the time of his passing, his friends and family held him in high regard.

Mr Scaife, added: ‘We are deeply saddened at the death of one of our patients. Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with Mr Hamilton’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.

‘We understand that, due to the Coroner’s report, there are concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate case. We are currently conducting a thorough internal review to understand the exact circumstance, which will include a review of the factual accuracy of certain aspects of the report.

‘We are in the process of preparing a full report which will detail our own findings and correct any factual inaccuracies. This will be shared with the Coroner in due course.’

It’s difficult to communicate with GPs since COVID and these surgeries must be held accountable.

I’m not sure why this gentleman did not call for an ambulance, although I’m guessing by the time the ambulance would have got there he would have been dead anyway – pneumonia can take hold extremely quickly.

E-consultations were good during COVID and they’re okay for minor illnesses like a boil on your bum, but when it comes to more severe issues and you are elderly. You put in the consultation and then have to remain by the phone, and heaven forbid you were to miss the call!

If you’re elderly and live alone and have to wait for a call, you can’t even go to the loo during the call window. If you have an elderly parent who is feeling genuinely unwell, they just won’t have the energy to fight for the appointment and will fall through the cracks.

This is all extremely sad and I feel sorry for families that have to go through this misery. I also feel that with GP surgeries you are made to feel like you’re an annoyance, along with all this online booking and triage because they’re just not that interested in you at all.

It’s also amazing how often GP surgeries and hospital staff still don’t communicate properly with each other.

The frequency of improper communication between hospital workers and general practitioner offices is likewise astounding.

After seeing a consultant, the GP doesn’t appear to notice the letter that the consultant sent. No one gets in touch with you despite your blood test. In Health Surgeries, there is also no systems process chasing to ensure that everything is operating as planned.

This man’s email, which outlined his symptoms in detail, took the surgery three days to respond to. Since when is email a suitable method for a general practitioner’s office to handle urgent cases?

Men are notoriously bad at going to the doctors and making a fuss about their symptoms, and this man was obviously reaching out for help. If this was the only form of contact his surgery had after they told their patients not to call the surgery, then they should have been continuously monitoring their emails, but of course, we wouldn’t want to inconvenience them, would we?

To be honest, navigating an automated phone system to schedule an appointment or even obtain test results is like attempting to speak with the dead.

If you do manage to get through they tell you to call the next day, but by the time you do get through all the appointments have gone, but you called at 8.30 am and they’re all gone – the fairies must have come and taken them in the night, or better still, you try to get through and after twenty minutes the line goes dead – surely in this day of technology, you would think that they would have more satisfactory methods.

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