Strike By The Metropolitan Police On New Year’s Eve

Metropolitan Police call centre staff will strike on New Year’s Eve, causing ‘delays to emergency call-outs’ in a dispute over pay.

Trade union Unite said 175 of its members were expected to walk out on one of the busiest days of the year, in a 25-hour-long protest.

The group admitted Londoners will have ‘concerns’ – but insisted there is ‘no choice’.

Protesters include members of the office staff who service and dispatch vehicles, such as police cars and motorbikes, as well as employees who record crime reports and technicians.

The walkout, due to start at 6 am, follows complaints from staff that they have not received a pay increase from the Met for this financial year.

Unite regional officer Keith Henderson said: ‘We know Londoners will be concerned to hear of strikes on New Year’s Eve, but our members at the Met feel they have no choice but to strike in their fight for a fair pay rise.’

It follows the news that resident doctors will also strike this week – putting patients at risk of ‘dying’ – despite a last-ditch endeavour by the Government to avoid bringing hospitals to a standstill.

Health secretary Wes Streeting criticised the announcement as ‘self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous’, warning of ‘fatal harm’.

Unite anticipates its Met call centre strike action will be ‘very disruptive’, causing ‘delays to emergency call-outs’.

Members say the Met has paid a 4.2 per cent pay rise to police officers and all other forces in the UK – but not to them.

Last year, policing New Year’s Eve cost the Met almost £2.3 million, according to the union.

Meanwhile, Mr Streeting has anticipated this week’s resident doctors’ strike will be ‘most painful for the NHS’.

He said: ‘The BMA has chosen Christmas strikes to inflict damage on the NHS at the moment of maximum danger, refusing to postpone them to January to help patients and other NHS staff cope over Christmas.

‘There is no need for these strikes to go ahead this week, and it reveals the BMA’s shocking disregard for patient safety and for other NHS staff.

‘These strikes are self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous.

‘The government’s offer would have halved competition for jobs and put more money in resident doctors’ pockets, but the BMA has again rejected it because it doesn’t meet their ask of a further 26 per cent pay rise.

‘Resident doctors have already had a 28.9 per cent pay rise—there is no justification for striking just because this fantasy demand has not been met.

‘I am appealing to ordinary resident doctors to go to work this week.’

Watch this space, next it will be Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves going on strike because it’s becoming a free-for-all under Labour.

The unfortunate reality is that there is no money – our government has spent it all, as they prefer to give it away on vanity projects, and I won’t even mention pensions!

Whether you believe in strike action or not, I believe that we can all agree that working people should receive a pay rise in line with inflation.

Anyone who’s paid by the taxpayer should not be allowed to strike!

Whatever their grievance, going on strike on such an important day merely demonstrates the unions’ lack of concern for public safety and services, and striking equates to blackmail.

THIS IS THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT!

Nick Reiner Charged With Parents’ Deaths

Famed director Rob Reiner admitted that he was ‘scared’ for his son Nick, who was reportedly causing a scene at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party over the weekend, asking people if they were famous.

Hours after the party, Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele, 70, were found dead inside their Los Angeles mansion.

Los Angeles police have since confirmed that their son, Nick, 32, is ‘responsible’ for their deaths, and he will now remain in jail without bail.

Although officials did not release any additional facts about the killings, a police source who spoke to the Associated Press believes the couple suffered brutal stab wounds and were found with their throats slit on Sunday night.

At the time of Nick’s arrest, his sister Romy, 28, who found their parents’ bodies, told investigators her brother ‘should be a suspect’ because he was ‘dangerous.’ 

In a 2018 podcast appearance, Nick once revealed that he destroyed the family’s guest home, where he was living while high on meth. ‘It’s not much of a story. I got totally spun out on uppers—I think it was Coke and something else—and I was up for days on end,’ he revealed, before adding that he ‘punched’ various appliances around the guest house. 

But President Donald Trump claimed Reiner and Singer’s murders were the result of what he called ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ in a post on Truth Social on Monday. 

Rob Reiner had told the other attendees at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party that he and his wife, Michele, were ‘scared for Nick and scared that his mental state was deteriorating,’ a longtime friend told the New York Post.

‘Nick was supposedly off drugs,’ but then speculation emerged that he was ‘not so much off them,’ the neighbour said, noting that when Nick was at his lowest point, he was ‘badly addicted to a combo of opiates and heroin.’

Another friend of the family said, ‘I know [Rob and Michele] wanted him to get help, go to rehab, but he wanted to get help while at home – he did not want to get treatment at a facility.’

The 32-year-old has been booked on felony murder and was initially being held in the Los Angeles jail on $4 million bail.

His bond has now been revoked, according to jail records.

Police announced on social media that the case against Nick will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration on Tuesday.

Donald Trump needs to take his post down on Truth Social. It’s beneath even him.

He’s a terrible piece of work. Trump wants to gain points after the poor man and his wife were slaughtered. The man has no class and is a total fraud, and I can never understand who would want to stand by him and what he does. Perhaps they have been completely brainwashed? Although, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to cause any divide where Trump is concerned, this is only my view of him.

Nick Reiner is a drug addict, and his parents likely spent millions on his 17 attempts at sobriety – some people are just beyond help, and Trump being Trump – no compassion, no finesse and no brains.

Hollywood Murder Probe

Police are looking into what appears to be a double homicide after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were discovered dead in their Los Angeles home.

Police confirmed on Sunday night that the bodies of a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman discovered inside the couple’s $13.5 million Brentwood mansion were those of Reiner and his wife.

Law enforcement sources said the couple’s bodies appeared to have suffered knife wounds.

Their daughter Romy, who lives just across the street, stumbled upon a grim scene inside the sprawling six-bedroom estate, People reports.

Earlier this month, Romy revealed she was thankful for ‘family and health’.

A Reiner family spokesman confirmed the deaths, saying: ‘It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,’ they said. ‘We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.’

Los Angeles Police Department detectives say the deaths are being investigated as homicides, and a heavy police presence was at the home on Sunday evening. 

A neighbour told ABC7 that Larry David and Billy Crystal—who starred in Reiner’s rom-com classic When Harry Met Sally—visited the crime scene separately, and Crystal allegedly ‘looked like he was about to cry’ before he left.

Reiner and his wife reportedly lived in the home, and property records obtained by the Daily Mail indicate that they are the owners.

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Reiner and the LAPD for comment.

In a press conference, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said a suspect in the murders had not yet been identified. He added that no one had yet been interviewed as a suspect and that no one was in custody.

‘We’re going to try to speak to every family member that we can to get to the facts of this investigation,’ Hamilton continued.

He noted that the bodies were still in the home, as police were waiting on a warrant to reenter the home and begin their investigation after determining that there was no further threat.

Hamilton added that the home was in the exact same state that it had been after police first arrived to find the bodies. 

Since the LA County Coroner will make the official announcement, the LAPD declined to identify the bodies.

LAFD paramedics were dispatched to the mansion on Chadbourne Avenue at 3.38 pm.

Just minutes after arriving, LAFD members on the scene reportedly called LAPD officers to the scene in an ‘ambulance death investigation’.

In a statement, LA Mayor Karen Bass said she was ‘heartbroken’ by the Reiners’ deaths, calling them ‘a devastating loss for our city and our country’.

‘Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,’ Bass said.

In September, Reiner released Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the sequel to his iconic 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, which he co-wrote, directed and appeared in.

Reiner followed his father, the comic actor and filmmaker Carl Reiner — who died in 2020 at 98—into Hollywood, where he became known as an actor, director and a tenacious advocate of liberal politics.

Rob Reiner first emerged as an actor and is best known for his role as Michael ‘Meathead’ Stivic on All In The Family.

He won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for five Golden Globes during his time on the series from 1971 to 1978. 

Reiner helped reinvent his career in the 1980s with his forward-looking comedy This Is Spinal Tap, which would go on to inspire numerous mockumentaries. 

He became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand directors for the next two decades due to classics and box office hits such as Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995) and The Bucket List (2007). 

Despite concentrating his efforts on directing, Reiner continued to act in his later years, including a role as the father of Leonardo DiCaprio’s lead character in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013), as well as later roles in his own film And So It Goes (2014), the Adam Sandler–starring comedy Sandy Wexler (2017) and, most recently, his Spinal Tap sequel. 

Reiner’s 1989 film When Harry Met Sally is widely regarded as one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

It was on the set of that film that Reiner met his future wife, the photographer Michele Singer. The two were married in 1989 and went on to welcome three children: Jake, Nick and Romy.

Reiner was once married to the late actress and filmmaker Penny Marshall, and he adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner. Marshall died in 2018 at 75. 

Reiner’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, has previously talked about his struggles with drug addiction and episodes of homelessness. 

In 2016, Rob directed the film Being Charlie, a semi-autobiographical drama written by Nick that he said was inspired by his numerous rehab visits, the first of which was around the time he turned 15. 

‘I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas,’ Nick recalled while speaking about the film in a 2016 interview with People. ‘I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun.’

Nick, who said he had gone to rehab 17 more times as of 2016, also claimed to have lived on the streets after he refused to go back to a rehab program.

In 2016, when he was 22, he said that his last rehab stint had been three years earlier.

He said at the time of Being Charlie’s release that he hoped to stay off drugs so that he would never be homeless again.

‘When I was out there, I could’ve died. It’s all luck. You roll the dice, and you hope you make it,’ he told People.

In an interview with the BUILD series while promoting Being Charlie in 2016, Nick said that he ‘didn’t bond’ well with his father, who sat by his side during the interview, when he was younger.

‘It really clicked for me because we didn’t bond a lot as a kid,’ Nick said. ‘He really liked baseball, I liked basketball, and he could watch that with my brother—baseball—but I just, when I saw [Rob Reiner direct Being Charlie], it was something that I’m interested in.

‘I was like, “Wow, he really knows a lot,” and it made me feel closer to him,’ Nick said at the time.

Romy, Reiner’s daughter, posted a life update and adorable photos of herself and her father earlier this month.

‘Thankful for family, health, and followers of any age. Not thankful for the president and the state of our country,’ she wrote on Instagram.

Her obvious swipe at Trump echoed Reiner’s own political views. The staunch Democrat had railed against a Trump presidency and frequently supported liberal candidates.

Democrats honouring Reiner on Sunday night included former president Barack Obama, former presidential contender Kamala Harris, and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

‘Jen and I are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner,’ Newsom wrote.

He went on to describe the world-renowned director as ‘the big-hearted genius behind so many of the classic stories we love, with products as wide ranging as The Princess Bride to A Few Good Men.

‘His boundless empathy made his stories timeless, teaching generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others – and encouraging us to dream bigger.’

Newsom praised his continued advocacy for ‘children and civil rights,’ spotlighting some of the causes he was most passionate about.

‘From taking on Big Tobacco, fighting for marriage equality to serving as a powerful voice in early education, he made California a better place through his good works.’

He said Reiner ‘will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity.’

Obama said his ‘achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen.

‘But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.

‘Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for their values they championed and the countless people they inspired. We send our deepest condolences to all who loved them.’

Actor-filmmaker Ben Stiller, who has been on record calling Reiner a major influence in his career, called the deaths ‘a huge loss’. 

He added, ‘Rob Reiner was one of my favourite directors. He made some of the most formative movies for my generation. He came out from behind a huge comedic shadow of the great Carl Reiner, and being a TV actor to being a great director who made an incredible run of movies.’

Stiller said he felt that ‘Spinal Tap is one of the best comedies ever made – and the list goes on.’

He ended by saying of Reiner, ‘He was a kind, caring person who was really, really funny. I didn’t know him well but was always a fan, and I feel a real sadness for those who did, and his family.’

Corey Feldman, who appeared in 1986’s Stand By Me, directed by Reiner, voiced his sadness at the death of the filmmaker.

Stand By Me’s John Cusack said, ‘Shocked by the death of Rob Reiner – a great man.’ 

The actor and Monty Python member Eric Idle announced that he had spoken to Reiner the night before his body was discovered. 

‘Rob Reiner was a lovely man. I spoke to him last night for over an hour,’ Idle shared on X. ‘I always enjoyed his company.

He recalled having met Reiner at his father Carl Reiner’s home in 1975.

‘He was telling me about filming at Stonehenge and his thoughts for the future,’ he wrote. ‘This is so awful. I shall miss him. A clever, talented and very thoughtful man. So awful.’

Many individuals in the US and Australia have had a difficult weekend thus far, and I’m sure that many prayers will be offered for the deceased.

Rob Reiner was Jewish, which makes you wonder if this was political, and Jewishness virtually created Hollywood. It’s Hannukkah, and every Jewish person should be on red alert.

No matter our political views, Rob and his wife did not deserve this. He gave the world a lot of amazing entertainment over the years.

Sadly, Rob Reiner and his wife had stab wounds, which are generally thought to be personal. So, perhaps it was done by somebody they knew.

There has now been an update that the late director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle allegedly had their throats cut after a frenzied argument with a family member boiled over.

As police look into the sad double murder, Nick, the couple’s son, is reportedly a person of interest.

TMZ reported that the pair’s daughter told cops a family member “should be a suspect” because they’re “dangerous”.

The LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division is currently looking into what caused the alleged altercation.

According to several people who have met with the family, investigators will talk to son Nick about the horrifying stabbing.

Nick, who reportedly lives in LA, has seldom been seen publicly since he opened up about his struggles with drug addiction in 2016.

Toffee Crisp And Blue Riband BANNED From Calling Themselves Chocolate

Chocolate makers Nestlé have been stopped from calling two favoured bars chocolate – forced into a change of descriptions following recipe overhauls.

Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband products are now officially described as ‘encased’ in a ‘milk chocolate flavour coating’ – having previously been ‘covered in milk chocolate’.

This action comes after cocoa, the primary ingredient in chocolate, was reduced in many other confections and replaced with more vegetable oil.

Club and Penguin bars are now being labelled ‘chocolate flavoured’ – a watered-down description, with palm oil and shea oil increasingly filling in.

Price-cutting measures have been blamed, amid the rising cost of living, as well as failed harvests in key supplier nations such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast, reducing supplies and pushing up wholesale prices.

Other mainstream snacks affected include white chocolate digestives and mini rolls, as shown in a Daily Mail graphic illustrating the variations between various goodies.

British regulations deem that any product described as milk chocolate must have at least 20 per cent cocoa solids and 20 per cent milk solids -though these are less stringent than European Union equivalents.

With more of a less expensive vegetable fat used in place of cocoa, Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband bars have now dropped below those home-based levels.

Nestlé said the new ‘reformulations’ to Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband bars were due to ‘higher input costs’, though it insisted they were ‘carefully developed and sensory tested’ and no other products would be similarly affected.

Both items are now being promoted as having ‘chocolate flavoured coating’ rather than the previous description, ‘milk chocolate’, the Grocer reported.

A Nestlé spokesman said: ‘We’d like to assure shoppers that these changes have been carefully developed and sensory tested with taste and quality remaining a top priority.

‘Like every manufacturer, we’ve seen significant increases in the cost of cocoa over the past years, making it much more expensive to manufacture our products.’

They added that the firm’s aims were ‘to be more efficient and absorb increasing costs where possible’ – but it was ‘sometimes necessary to adjust the recipes of some of our products’. 

The firm’s online description of Toffee Crisp now calls it a ‘bar of delicious soft caramel and crispy cereal pieces, all encased in a smooth milk chocolate flavour coating’. 

Nestlé’s site also encourages potential buyers: ‘Delight your senses with our Blue Riband biscuit bar, consisting of four layers of crisp wafer and creamy praline covered in smooth milk chocolate flavour coating.’

In recent analysis of authentic chocolate content, Mars-owned Galaxy Minstrels top the charts with 75 per cent, according to officially listed ingredient rundowns, followed by the same firm’s Maltesers at 73 per cent. 

Nestlé’s Smarties place next on 65 per cent, ahead of Club orange bars, which have 49 per cent of chocolate content, Tesco listings show.

Yet there are subtle descriptions involved, with the top three classified as ‘milk chocolate’ – while Clubs are labelled as having ‘chocolate flavoured coating’.

Others shown, which opt for similar labels, include Penguin bars at 29 per cent, which have a ‘chocolate flavoured coating’.

Others listed include McVitie’s White Digestives (35 per cent) and with ‘white chocolate flavour coating’, while Wagon Wheels (24 per cent) are believed to have been ‘chocolate flavoured coating’ for some time.

Both Club and Penguin bars are made by McVitie’s, whose parent firm, Pladis, confirmed they now contain more palm oil and shea oil than cocoa solids in coatings.

Other items now described by the same producer as ‘chocolate flavoured’ include Mini BN and BN Mini Rolls.

And the changing circumstances have also forced an overhaul of the long-running Club advertising catchphrase, previously ‘If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club’ but now ‘If you like a lot of biscuit in your break, join our Club’.

They said that they had made some modifications, essentially translated as ‘we have found another way to mug you off and boost our profits.’ However, this is capitalism for you!

Not to mention the shrinkage—all chocolates used to be much larger than they are now.

The tip here is, if the taste changes and you don’t like it, quit buying it. After all, it’s hardly a staple food, and if you allow something to pull the wool over your eyes more than once, it’s not on the company, it’s on you!

Some GCSE And A-Level Exams Could Be Taken On Laptops By 2030

GCSE and A-level exams could be taken on laptops as early as 2030, after students complained of writing fatigue because their hand muscles ‘aren’t strong enough’.

Exams watchdog, Ofqual, is launching a three-month public consultation about the intro of on-screen assessments as teachers say students who habitually use keyboards have ‘lost handwriting stamina’.

Under the recommendations, exam boards will not be able to put forward on-screen exams in subjects taken by more than 100,000 pupils in a year.

This means some GCSE exams in smaller-entry subjects, including some languages and in any A-level exams except maths, could move onto screens from around 2030.

Speaking to the Guardian, Ofqual chief regulator Sir Ian Bauckham said: ‘You do hear people say: “I don’t handwrite very much so my handwriting is poor” or “I feel I can’t hold the pen for long enough” or “My hand muscles are not strong enough.”

Under the proposals, Ofqual will ask four exam boards to put forward two new specifications, each to include an on-screen assessment component rather than the traditional pen and paper. 

So if accepted, a total of eight new GCSE, AS or A-level exams with at least one component assessed digitally could be in place by as early as 2030.

Since schools are required to supply the infrastructure for the proposed changes, questions have been raised regarding the fairness of the new proposals, given the disparities in the technology capabilities of schools across the nation.

While the regulator will prohibit students from using their own personal phones, laptops, or tablets, concerns about cybersecurity risks and the possibility of technical failure have also been voiced.

‘If any more on-screen assessment is going to happen, it needs to be done in a way which is managed and in the interests of students, commands public confidence and is deliverable, importantly, for schools and colleges,’ said Sir Bauckham.

‘Letting pupils use their own devices would be unfair.

‘You’d have some that had state-of-the-art, fancy Apple Macs, and you’d have some that would have very slow, potentially vulnerable devices,’ he added.

A-level and GCSE maths, as well as GCSE English language, literature, combined science, biology, chemistry, physics, history, geography, religious studies, French, Spanish, and business, are currently ineligible for on-screen exams.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: ‘Technology is at the forefront of this Government’s mission to spread opportunity and modernise our education system.

‘We know interest in on-screen exams is growing, and aligning assessment with an increasingly digital world could bring valuable benefits, including for children with SEND.

‘But it’s also important that any shift is phased, controlled and above all, fair. We will continue to work closely with Ofqual and the wider sector to make sure we protect the high standards and integrity of our exam system and retain the confidence of schools, families and employers.’

Exam boards can submit their potential qualifications after the consultation for on-screen exams closes on March 5.

If approved, the new specifications would ideally be in schools three years before the first exams happen, meaning the first exams could take place in 2030.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘We’re really pleased that Ofqual is exploring the potential for on-screen assessment in the future, as there are several possible benefits to utilising digital technology for exams.

‘This would represent a significant change, with many practical issues, and a measured approach is the right way to proceed.’

Exam boards have previously tried to introduce on-screen assessments, but to no avail.

What on earth are these kids going to do if they’re required to do a job which requires some form of manual labour?

It does, however, make you giggle. These children have no problem holding a cell phone for extended periods of time, yet they struggle to write with a pen, and there won’t be much manual labour being executed by humans in the end; it will all be done by AI. All there will be are a load of influencers or people on benefits. They don’t seem to have enough mental motivation to enable them to work.

Not only that, if these kids are not permitted to do their exams on their own laptops, it would mean that funds would have to go into purchasing new laptops for pupils; it would cost millions of pounds to do this, which I’m guessing the taxpayer will have to fork out for.

Antisemitic Images Allegedly Shown By Primal Scream In London

Primal Scream has faced criticism for reportedly displaying antisemitic imagery while performing in London.

The rock band, whose frontman Bobby Gillespie has long been an outspoken criticiser of Israel, displayed images of a Jewish Star of David merged with a Swastika – the symbol of the Nazis, who exterminated 6 million Jewish people during the holocaust.

The Jewish charity Community Security Trust said it had reported the band to police for antisemitism, while The Roundhouse music venue told The Daily Mail it would be launching an investigation.

The images came on screen during the already controversial song ‘Swastika Eyes’, which was written in 1999 about American foreign policy.

As the band played the song, footage of a devastated Gaza was displayed on screen. Then images of a Star of David – made up of two triangles and representing the Jewish people for centuries – were shown, incorporated with a Swastika.

Pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other Israeli politicians, Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer then appeared with the Star of David/Swastika image twirling in their eyes. The segment concluded with the words, ‘Our Government is complicit in genocide.’

One 47-year-old Jewish fan of the band, who requested not to be named, said he had to leave the concert temporarily as the images so chilled him.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I knew it would be a political concert and that there would likely to be something on Gaza because Bobby Gillespie is sympathetic towards the Palestinians, so I was already a bit nervous.

‘But when I saw this image – pure racism – I felt sick.

‘Obviously, there are a million conversations about what is and what isn’t antisemitism, and I know some people get frustrated because they feel they can’t show any sympathy with Palestinians without being called antisemitic.

‘But using the Jewish star, not even in Israel’s colours, with a Swastika, isn’t even vaguely a grey area. It is pure antisemitism.

‘I just thought about my grandparents, who were both Holocaust survivors, and what they would think about me paying money to see a band that would do this. There are a lot of things they could say about the war which would be powerful, but this belittles any argument they might have.

‘When I saw the image, I had to go out of the concert hall for a bit. It killed the whole gig for me. I have been a fan of their music for a long time – no longer.’

Equating Jews and the Nazis, who wiped out two-thirds of Europe’s Jews, is antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, which is used by the UK government.

Any political beliefs should be kept out of entertainment venues, and if they are shown for any reason. They should carry a mandatory prison policy, and it just goes to show how many ordinary people support terrorism.

We should not be supporting this kind of thing because that’s when wars carry on and never stop.

I’m not a Primal Scream buff, and never have been. It’s not my style of music, but they apparently have a political agenda, particularly when they’re showing racist imagery.

In addition to being extremely mind-controlling and inciting hatred, they are failing to present a positive image to children whose minds are like sponges.

If Israel and Palestine want to fight a war that neither will ever win, let them, but it’s not everyone else’s fight – everybody else should keep out of it, and as for Primal Scream, we really shouldn’t give them the attention they crave.

Police Chief Constable Will Retire From Her £150,000 Job

One of Britain’s top women police officers will ‘retire’ from her £150,000-a-year job – before returning to it a day later to protect her pension.

Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, head of the North Wales force, will retire before rejoining after the 24-hour break.

Ms Blakeman, 56, who is chairman of the British Association of Women in Policing, is set to hang up her uniform on January 15 before she is rehired by the same force on the morning of January 17. 

The move, due to be endorsed by the Police and Crime Panel, comes after she completed three decades in policing, the period of service after which many officers were usually expected to retire.

It means she will bypass an unusual feature where certain older police pension schemes decline in value for every year that an officer serves continuously past 30 years.

The oddity has led to the establishment of a national Retire and Rehire scheme, which allows forces to retain skilled staff.

The pause in service on January 16 means her pension will be frozen at its maximum amount. Deputy Chief Constable Nigel Harrison will become acting chief constable for the day.

Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales Andy Dunbobbin supported the recommendation, subject to the approval of the Police and Crime Panel next week.

‘I have agreed to put forward Chief Constable Blakeman’s request to enter into the national Retire and Rehire Scheme,’ he said. ‘The widely used scheme is in accordance with updated guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and the College of Policing.

‘It is important to emphasise that this will come at no cost to the taxpayer and there will be no break in leadership at the head of North Wales Police.

‘Chief Constable Blakeman and I, alongside all the Chief Officers of North Wales Police, remain as committed as ever to ensuring that our region is the safest and most secure place in the United Kingdom.’

In 2023, Ms Blakeman was the first woman appointed to the top job at North Wales Police in the force’s 48-year history.

The King’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service has been given to her.

Last month, Northumbria Police Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine retired briefly before being reinstated, and West Midlands Police Chief Constable Craig Guildford similarly retired for a month under the same scheme last year.

They take from the public purse when most of us can’t afford a pension, and those who can are deprived of it. What’s wrong with the country that treats its people so differently and couldn’t care less?

If you are fortunate enough to work in the public sector, you are assured a job for life and a lucrative pension, while the rest of us are lucky to even get our pension, which, I might add, we paid into, but are now being told it’s a benefit. It’s not a benefit, we paid into it, it’s our money, and our government have effectively stolen it – give it back.

A person’s resignation is final; they shouldn’t be hired again for the same position, but of course, it’s the gravy train again – all aboard, choo choo!

Man, 86, Is Fined £250 For Littering

A pensioner was hit with a £250 fine by overeager litter wardens for spitting out a leaf that blew into his mouth. 

Roy Marsh, 86, was slapped with the ridiculous ticket after the incident while out walking in a seaside town.

The pensioner said he was accosted by two council enforcement officers after pausing for a rest near some reeds on a windy day in Skegness, Lincolnshire, earlier this year.

‘As I was sitting there, a gale blew a big reed into my mouth. I spat it out and just as I got up to walk away, two guys (enforcement officers) came up to me,’ he said.

Mr Marsh was told by one of the officers at the South Parade Car Park in the town that he had been seen spitting on the floor. He claimed he told the officer he was being a ‘silly boy’.

‘It was all unnecessary and all out of proportion.’ Mr Marsh added.

A penalty of £250 was given after the incident in February, which was subsequently lowered on appeal to £150, which Mr Marsh, who lives in the town, paid.

‘It was something that could have happened to anyone,’ he said. ‘It’s left me anxious about going out.’

Mr and Mrs Marsh told how the enforcement officers yelled after him: ‘Hey, you, we’ve got reason to believe you’ve been spitting.’

Mr Marsh, a father-of-one and grandfather of two, said: ‘I was shocked when they approached me. I don’t know where they appeared from.

‘I’ve been back down there filming today for the local TV news, and it was windy again – a leaf smacked me right in the face while we were walking, so it could have happened again today.’

Mr Marsh said the issue resurfaced after he was spoken to again several weeks later while walking around the boating lake. He explained that he had taken a tissue from his pocket and tucked it into his glove, but had not dropped anything. 

Mr Marsh used to run a bus and taxi company with his 76-year-old wife before their retirement.

Mrs Marsh said: ‘Roy didn’t spit – how many 86-year-olds do you know who go around spitting? It’s a dirty habit.

‘This really upset him. We’ve watched these officers approach many older people since. It’s like they are bullies.’

The leaf incident came to light after Mr Marsh’s daughter posted about it on Facebook last month – and attracted dozens of comments reporting similarly over-zealous behaviour by enforcement officials.

Jane Fitzpatrick said she was ‘disgusted’ at learning about the incident from Mr Marsh and his wife, Anne.

Ms Fitzpatrick wrote: ‘Recently, Dad, who has walking difficulties but does his best to walk every day around the boating lake, inhaled a small leaf that made him choke. Dad has severe asthma and a heart condition; he managed to cough up the leaf and spit it out. (just the leaf).’

She said her parents now ‘regularly watch these officers’ and have seen them approach older people ‘many times’, even when something falls out of their pocket accidentally.

She accused enforcement officers of ‘unreasonably harassing and terrorising older people’.

Councillor Adrian Findley said he contacted the council after receiving a number of complaints about similar ‘heavy-handed’ incidents in the seaside resort.

Mr Findley, who represents Reform on Lincolnshire County Council, said he had been approached by other ‘angry residents’ who had recounted similar experiences.

He told the BBC: ‘They (enforcement officers) are taking it too far. If I came here on holiday and was given a £250 fine, I wouldn’t want to risk coming back.

‘There needs to be discretion about how they (enforcement officers) issue fines. We can’t expect elderly people to chase crisp packets down the road if it’s windy.

‘If it looks like a genuine accident, then give people the opportunity to apologise and pick it up.’

East Lindsey District Council said enforcement teams, who work on behalf of the authority, would ‘only approach individuals who have been seen committing environmental crime offences’.

The council said it closely monitored enforcement actions and patrols were ‘not targeted at any specific demographic’ and are ‘not discriminatory’.

Well, evidently, they are if they are targeting elderly people.

The best thing to do with these enforcement officers is to simply walk away – they can only fine you if you give them your name and address. Frankly, this is tantamount to legal extortion.

I see migrants spitting on the floor all the time, but do they get fined? Perhaps not!

These enforcement officers have no legal powers. Just tell them to call the police if they want to continue the conversation, and if they lay their hands on you, you can then have them arrested.

I bet they wouldn’t approach a violent-looking thug for littering, no, of course not, they’re little mini Hitlers who go for the frail and weak.

Makes you laugh, really. Bin men go out on strike for weeks at a time, and yet we get fined for dropping a teeny bit of litter – they clearly want us to do their job for them.

Without a tiny bit of litter, there would be no litter pickers, which would suite our government down to the ground because then they don’t get paid and would be out of work, but our government would still expect them to find a job, but what job, you just took it away from them, and then our government moan people are not working, oh do behave!

Students Fighting On Buses And Roaming Freely In Corridors Leads To Teacher Walkouts

Teachers have gone on strike over ‘intimidating’ schoolboys who fight on buses and ‘freely roam the corridors’ when they should be in isolation.

Staff at Haydon Bridge High School in Northumberland moaned they had given ‘chance after chance’ but to no avail – as the ‘persistent disruption’ continues.

Protesters are now set to stage a mass strike on December 16, 17 and 18, meaning the majority of pupils will be unable to attend lessons on those days.

Previous strikes, scheduled on November 19 and 25, had been called off amid discussions to find a solution; however, this came to nothing as teacher union representatives claimed there was no progress by the school ‘in the last few weeks’ to crack down on bad behaviour.

It comes as student misdemeanours at the school are said to often go unpunished, so pupils no longer fear the consequences of their disruptive actions. 

Engineering teacher Matthew Ainsley added that punishments such as putting students in isolation are not working because they aren’t enforced.

‘Instead, pupils are allowed to roam freely through the corridors,’ he claimed.

‘We have had fights, and recently, we have had gangs of male students who won’t do what female staff ask of them. 

‘Some of the female teachers have experienced groups gathering around them to argue a point when they are simply asked to stop playing football or go into the classroom.

‘It is intimidating for the teachers.

‘You get fights, mostly in the yard, which can be challenging for staff to break up.

‘There was a fight on the bus, which was quite nasty. A member of staff had to go on the bus and break that up.

‘Staff are often unsupported when students are removed from lessons, and asked to take them back again.’

Sean Kelly, branch secretary for the National Education Union (NEU), added: ‘A lot of this comes from dreadful pupil behaviour around the school. Not just the low-level disruption that goes on, but also violent incidents.

‘We think there’s a culture of misogyny within the school where female teachers, particularly, are being targeted by gangs, which is totally unacceptable and needs to be tackled. 

‘We keep getting reports of assaults taking place in school, fights taking place.’

Punishments include being put in isolation, or ‘restart’, where students are forced to reflect on poor behaviour with the head teacher and their peers.

The school’s most recent OFSTED report, from September, said there was ‘persistent disruptive behaviour of a minority of pupils that is leading to high levels of suspensions.’ 

The school has just over 400 pupils aged between 11 and 18, but the headcount is on the decline, as parents are pulling their children from the school.

Some staff have also left due to the continued problems.

Simon Kennedy, regional organiser for NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, added: ‘It boils down to a lack of management of behaviour in schools.

‘It is difficult being a teacher, but it’s about having a system in place to ensure pupils are punished, and they know the consequences.

However, what are the repercussions and the penalty? Because, from where I sit, misbehaviour in schools is no longer punishable.

The UK government took away corporal punishment in schools through the Education Act (1986), which was introduced in response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 1982.

This ruling said that corporal punishment in schools was not permissible without parental backing.

The Act sought to shield kids from the psychological effects and the harm of physical punishment.

The ban was implemented in 1987 for state-run schools and for private schools where some government funding was involved.

The ban was later extended to private schools in England and Wales in 1998, in Scotland in 2000, and in Northern Ireland in 2003.

So, the act was to protect kids from harm; what about teachers? Well, our government is certainly reaping what they sowed – but when it boils down to it, they all sit in their glass houses, and they just don’t care.

Our government took a generation of children and made them into monsters because there is no punishment in schools or in the home – welcome to the jungle!

I wonder who else could see this coming, well, just about anybody with an ounce of common sense. Remove discipline, remove control.

Bring back corporal punishment, bring back reform schools for spoiled rotten children, that would be their reset. Bring back the cane, although I don’t believe that would be of any use now. Our children are too out of control for that. Boot camp because our children have become misogynistic little ogres!

Childhood Records To Be Wiped By David Lammy

Childhood criminal records could be wiped under plans being evaluated by David Lammy.

To prevent individuals from being affected by minor crimes in the future, the Justice Secretary is considering streamlining the current system.

It comes after evidence revealed that people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s still had transgressions of street fighting and bike thefts in their youth, disclosed to employers.

It is not known whether the move would affect more serious crimes such as drug dealing or harassment.

Mr Lammy told The Telegraph: ‘We will consider opportunities to simplify the criminal records regime to ensure it is clear and proportionate, particularly in relation to childhood offences.’

He previously called for childhood convictions to be wiped after a period of time unless they were the most serious offences.

In a 2017 review of criminal justice for David Cameron, Mr Lammy recommended a US-style approach, which would permit people to apply to a judge to seal their criminal records if they can demonstrate that they have been rehabilitated.

Mr Lammy was commissioned by the Conservative government to investigate how members of the black, Asian and other minority communities are treated by the criminal justice system, while he was a backbench Labour MP.

Under his recommendation, if a decision by a judge or a parole board went the applicant’s way, the criminal record would still exist, but the person would not need to disclose it, and employers would be unable to see it.

The convictions would not be wiped from the record or quashed, but the purpose is to give people a second chance. 

The recommendations could hit a roadblock over a definition of ‘serious offences’, as the Deputy Prime Minister would have to determine whether crimes such as dealing drugs or racial abuse could be wiped after a period of time.

Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, previously said judges should have the power to wipe criminal records of people who had ‘done their time’ for silly crimes committed as a child.

Last year, a 13-year-old girl confessed to threatening violent behaviour after she booted a glass door at an asylum hotel.

The offence will remain on her record for life and will be disclosed if she works in a job with children.

Recent figures from a freedom of information request showed that about 160,000 people had their childhood offences disclosed to prospective employers.

They included people in their 50s who still had violations of robbing a bicycle or boarding a train without a ticket from their childhood, on their record for checks by employers. 

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘We want to help children who have committed crime to stop reoffending and turn their lives around.

‘That is why the Government is actively exploring opportunities to simplify the criminal records system, while always putting public safety first.’

I’m not quite sure why David Lammy is doing this because many convicted offenders, their convictions become spent after a certain amount of time, although it does depend on the conviction:

In the UK, the time it takes for a conviction to become spent varies based on the type of sentence:

Prison sentences of less than 12 months: these become spent 12 months after the sentence ends.

Prison sentences between 12 months and 4 years: these become spent 4 years after the sentence ends.

Prison sentences over 4 years: these do not become spent.

All cautions and convictions eventually become spent, except for prison sentences of over 30 months.

This is just additional proof that Labour are soft on criminality and David Lammy is a complete clown.

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