Council U-Turn On Fine For Coffee Poured In Drain

A south-west London council has changed its judgment to fine a woman £150 for pouring the remains of her coffee down a gully.

Burcu Yesilyurt, who lives in Kew, said she thought she was acting responsibly when she poured a small amount from her reusable cup down the drain – rather than risk spilling it on the bus she was about to catch to work.

She was stopped by three enforcement officers at the bus stop near Richmond station and given a fine under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes it an offence to deposit or dispose of waste in a way likely to contaminate land or water, including pouring liquids into street drains.

Richmond-Upon-Thames Council has now said it had withdrawn the fine as it was “likely” that Ms Yesilyurt’s appeal would have been successful.

The council also said the contravention was “minor” and Ms Yesilyurt had “agreed not to repeat it”.

Before the council withdrew the fine, Ms Yesilyurt told BBC News she had noticed her bus approaching, and just poured away “just a tiny little bit”.

“As soon as I turned around, I noticed three men, enforcement officers, chasing me, and they stopped me immediately.”

Ms Yesilyurt said she thought they were going to speak with her about an issue with the bus, and had no idea pouring liquid into a road gully was illegal.

She said the encounter was quite intimidating and she was left feeling “shaky” as she went into work.

“It was quite a shock,” she said.

Ms Yesilyurt added she had asked the enforcement officers if there were any signs or information warning people of the law, but received no response.

A Richmond Council spokesperson said the body-worn footage of the incident had been reviewed and the council was satisfied the enforcement officers acted appropriately.

Ms Yesilyurt said that when she asked the officers what she was supposed to have done with her remaining coffee, she was told to pour it into a nearby bin.

She said she had been trying to act responsibly and avoid littering.

“It feels quite unfair. I think the fine is extreme. It’s not proportionate,” she added.

On Wednesday, an email was sent from the council at 15:00 BST to Ms Yesilyurt, and seen by the BBC, said: “I can advise that on review the Fixed Penalty Notice has been cancelled.

“Please accept my apologies for any upset or inconvenience this has caused you,” it read.

Following the cancellation of the FPN, Ms Yesilyurt told BBC News: “I’m quite happy the council recognised the sensitivity of this situation and they’ve reconsidered.”

She said that since BBC News first published the story early on Wednesday, the reaction has been “huge” and that she was glad the issue has been highlighted.

“I’ve not met anyone who knows it’s a criminal offence,” Ms Yesilyurt added.

Ms Yesilyurt has called for the law to be made clearer with signs near bins and bus stops.

The council spokesperson said: “Fixed Penalty Notices clearly outline that there is an appeal process available to anyone who wishes to challenge them.

“It is likely that, had this case progressed through that route, the notice would have been rescinded because it is a minor contravention which the recipient agreed not to repeat.”

These enforcement officers should head down to Thames Water and see what fines they can dish out for the amount of raw sewage Thames Water allegedly dump each day.

This lady made the foolish mistake of not being a millionaire CEO or a billionaire investor. They are responsible for pollution but get off scot-free because any fines the company gets are paid by their customers.

This fine was completely absurd. People drop their paper cups by accident all the time. It spills out and ultimately makes it to the drain – do they get a fine? It’s not like she was tossing a plastic cup down the drain – these people need to give their heads a little wobble.

Dublin Erupts

Hundreds of rioters flocked to the streets to protest an alleged sexual assault committed by an asylum seeker, causing Dublin to erupt in violence for the second consecutive night.

Hundreds of protesters assembled near the entrance of the CityWest hotel, in Saggart, which accommodates asylum seekers in an area on the west side of the capital.

A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named due to rules that apply to all sexual assault cases in the Republic of Ireland, emerged in court on Tuesday charged over the alleged incident.

Between 7 pm and 8 pm on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters again faced off with around 40 uniformed gardai.

At least 23 arrests were made amid the serious disorder, and the Irish police service, An Garda Siochana, pledged a ‘robust response’ if violence continued. 

The uniformed officers were replaced with the Public Order Unit, whose members held plastic shields and extra body protection, after officers in the original cordon were pummeled with debris, stones and fireworks.

Some of those continued to throw masonry, flares, glass bottles and wooden planks at An Garda Siochana members.

There was also vandalism in the area around the Saggart Luas tram stop, which runs parallel to the road where the protesters were located.

The public order gardai moved forward with shields, pushing the crowd away from the hotel.

A police helicopter provided air support, and there were mounted garda and dog units present.

At least one garda was affected by pepper spray.

Those involved in the disorder also tried to block garda vehicles from entering the area with steel barriers.

It is the third night of demonstrations at Citywest following an apparent sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl in the area of the hotel in the early hours of Monday morning. 

The protest on Monday night went off without any major problems, but Tuesday’s violence wounded a female garda member. After being treated for a foot injury, she was later released from the hospital.

A garda vehicle was also set on fire during the turmoil earlier in the week.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who visited the scene in the aftermath of the violence, told reporters on Wednesday he is ‘determined’ that further people will be ‘brought before the courts to face justice’.

He said the disorder was not a peaceful protest and added: ‘This was violence with the intent to damage the Citywest building and intimidate those within.’

A girl in the area was allegedly sexually assaulted early on Monday morning, which sparked the demonstration outside the hotel.

Irish Premier Micheal Martin condemned the scenes of brutality, stating there could be ‘no justification’ for attacks on gardai.

Demonstrators were hurling projectiles, yelling anti-immigration chants, and flying Irish flags.

On Tuesday, there were further efforts to use scrambler motorcycles and horse-drawn sulky carts to charge the garda queue, and lasers were fired at a police aircraft in the sky.

What I would like to know is, why was a 10-year-old girl in the area of the said hotel in the early hours of Monday morning? She should have been tucked up safely in bed, where I would suspect most 10-year-olds would be at such an early hour.

However, rape is rape, especially of a child, and this is appalling, but you can mark my words, demonstrations will become more enraged until these people are expelled, along with the rest of them.

The time when we say ‘they’re not all like that’ is over because we have to now treat all illegal immigrants as a threat, because there are far too many coming to our shores.

The fuse has been ignited in this country. How long till it hits the barrel?

The trouble is, we have a government that prefers to debate transgender rights, rather than the rights of the local communities that are not being protected from this plague.

Biden Completes Round Of Radiation Therapy For Cancer

Joe Biden concluded a round of radiation treatment for his prostate cancer on Monday, his daughter disclosed in a touching tribute to the former president.

The 82-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May, months after he left office and was replaced by Donald Trump.

‘Ringing the bell! Thank you to the incredible doctors, nurses and staff at Penn Medicine,’ she wrote alongside a video of Biden celebrating.

‘We are so grateful! Dad has been so damn brave throughout his treatment.’

Among the other photos she posted were two of Biden standing with his family and another of him with his physician.

A spokesperson for Biden told ABC it was unclear if he would require any further treatment. 

After her string of touching posts dedicated to her father, she shifted to share a photo of demolitions underway at the White House for Trump’s new ballroom.

‘He literally destroys everything GOOD,’ she wrote. 

Biden left office in January, six months after he dropped his bid for reelection following a catastrophic debate against Trump amid concerns about his age, health and mental sharpness. 

His vice president, Kamala Harris, succeeded him but ultimately lost the electoral college and the public vote by a wide margin.

In May, Biden’s post-presidential office announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. 

The discovery came after he reported urinary symptoms.

At the time, many questioned whether Biden had been running the country while facing cancer, continuing the questioning throughout his term about what the public knew of the president’s decline.

Leading oncologist and former Biden COVID advisor Dr Zeke Emanuel told Morning Joe in May that Biden ‘did not develop [prostate cancer] in the last 100, 200 days.’ 

‘He had it while he was president,’ Emanuel insisted. 

‘He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.’

A Gleason score is used to assess the aggressiveness of prostate cancers.

The scores vary from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively.

Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

Emanuel questioned how such an advanced form of the disease had gone under the radar until now and spread to the former president’s bones. 

‘He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,’ said the doctor, who was named to a 16-person COVID advisory board handpicked by Biden himself.

Biden officials had outlined the severity of the diagnosis in their statement – something Emanuel pointed to as a sign that Biden’s condition has been swept under the rug.

‘I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence that when he got his health status and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate-specific antigen,’ he said. ‘Now, it is true that a lot of people recommend not doing a prostate-specific antigen after 70.

‘But President Biden’s been in public life a very long time,’ Emanuel argued, as theories continue to swirl about the timing of the diagnosis.

‘He was Vice President and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it. 

‘And maybe President Biden decided he didn’t want the test. Many men do decide they don’t want [it], but this is also aggressive.’

As Emanuel noted, prostate cancer is a condition that, although fatal, generally advances slowly and is frequently discovered early on through PSA blood testing, which is why he and others continue to question the timing of Biden’s diagnosis.

Urinary problems and bone pain are common warning signals in cases as advanced as Biden’s, in addition to elevated PSA levels.

As Emanuel mentioned, presidents generally undergo routine and thorough annual physicals, which would typically include PSA testing.

Doctors declared Biden ‘fit to serve’ as recently as February of last year, indicating that if he did undergo the PSA test at the time, the late-stage metastatic cancer made most of its progress within 15 months.

There is still no evidence to support the claims that Biden and his staff were aware of the illness but decided to keep it a secret.

Officials, in their statement, said the diagnosis came a week after the discovery of the small nodule on Biden’s prostate.

It also cites ‘increasing urinary symptoms’ from the former president that transpired before the discovery, which was made public days after the Democrat appeared on The View.

Last month, Biden had surgery to remove skin cancer lesions from his forehead.

He is also working on his memoir for his time in office, which he reportedly sold to Hachette Book Group for about $10 million in July.

He said at an event earlier that month that he was ‘working my tail off’ to get the memoir finished, indicating it would mainly focus on his four years in office.

In fact, I’m curious about who was in charge of the country throughout Biden’s presidency. When Biden was the vegetable in chief, most likely no one was in charge of the country.

Clearly, Biden was not competent, and much of his presidency was run behind the scenes, but statistically, he wasn’t a bad president; he could have been worse.

I do have compassion for the elderly, though, and they probably knew about his illness. Still, they brushed it under the carpet just so that Joe would be allowed to stay, and they used him as a puppet figurehead until the end, and it did end because people are expendable.

Manhunt Underway For Stolen Louvre Napoleonic Jewels

Paris has launched a massive manhunt after brazen thieves carried out a jaw-dropping daylight heist on the Louvre, stealing nine of the museum’s most priceless treasures, including a £100 million crown, in just seven minutes.

The gang of several ‘highly organised criminals’ arrived outside the world’s most visited museum at about 9.30 am local time on Sunday. At the same time, thousands of tourists enjoyed a day out at the attraction.

Masked and wielding angle grinders, the gang parked up their scooters outside the Apollo Gallery (Galerie d’Apollon), home to jewels belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte, his wife Josephine and a string of subsequent Emperors and Empresses.

They then extended a freight elevator, resembling a giant ladder, from the back of a flat-bed truck and propped it up against the wall of the gallery, which King Louis XIV opened in the 17th Century.

The targeted wing of the Louvre, on the River Seine side of the museum, was undergoing building work when the gang struck. Employees had formerly opposed understaffing at the museum in June.

After scurrying to the top of the ladder, they used an angle grinder to penetrate through the museum’s exterior window, before ascending into the Salle 705 exhibition room.

In a whirlwind seven-minute heist, they prised open two display cases and crammed away nine pieces of the 23-item Napoleon and Josephine Bonaparte collection, Le Parisien reports.

The treasures included the Eugénie Crown, embellished with thousands of diamonds and emeralds and worn by Napoleon III’s empress consort Eugénie, which was later discovered tossed below a window of the Louvre and broken into pieces.

The gang is also thought to have stolen a priceless necklace and brooch from Salle 705.

By 9.40 am, they were out of the Louvre, disappearing into the Paris morning on their scooters just as police began to arrive.

When they got there, officers discovered the huge elevator was left up against the museum’s historic stone walls.

Additional images showed what seemed to be an angle grinder on the front seat of a truck, parked outside the Louvre and surrounded by police tape. 

On a busy day in the French capital, thousands of terrified tourists were stuck inside the famous structure during a hasty evacuation before being led out onto the streets.

Forensics teams were later spotted outside the Louvre, examining the elevator and the truck on which it stood. 

The historic Eugénie Crown, presented to the empress consort in 1855, was sold at auction in 1988 for $13.5 million (£10 million) before being donated to the Louvre four years later. It is now worth tens of millions of dollars, expert Josie Goodbody told the Daily Mail.

Salle 705 also boasts Eugenie’s diamond bodice bow, although it is not yet known if this was taken.

It is home to the Regent diamond, viewed by many as the most beautiful in the world, which was strangely not stolen, according to Le Parisien. 

After being crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804, Napoleon and Josephine amassed one of the most remarkable jewellery collections ever known.

Many of the pieces were robbed from royalty during the French Revolution, while others were taken from around the country’s sweeping Empire, which grew rapidly under the emperor’s rule.

The Louvre, with its iconic pyramid entrance, also features Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th-century masterpiece Mona Lisa.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed an investigation had been launched into ‘theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime’ by an organised gang.

The Banditism Repression Brigade of the Judicial Police (BRB) is leading the enquiry, along with the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property.

Mr Nuñez said: ‘It was necessary to close the Louvre to visitors, primarily to preserve traces and clues so that investigators could work calmly. The evacuation of the public took place without incident.’

He added: ‘We can’t prevent everything. There is great vulnerability in French museums.

‘Everything is being done to ensure we find the perpetrators as quickly as possible, and I’m hopeful.’

The busy Quai François-Mitterand, which extends along the Louvre’s buildings, was closed off to traffic until about 4 pm on Sunday.

The Élysée Palace said that President Emmanuel Macron was being ‘informed of the situation in real time’.

Those stealing historical art pieces or jewellery usually work for dealers who will be unable to sell the priceless items on the black market.

Instead, the treasures will be kept hidden and enjoyed by the master criminal who authorised the raid.

Rachida Dati, France’s Culture Minister, said: ‘I am on site alongside the museum staff and the police.’

She confirmed a criminal enquiry had been launched, and that detectives were liaising with museum staff.

According to Ms Dati, nobody was hurt during the raids, while a Louvre spokesman confirmed the museum was shut ‘for exceptional reasons’.

On June 16, staff at the Louvre staged a protest over the museum’s lack of staff and overcrowding.

Thousands of people lined up outside the museum as a result of the protest, which postponed the tourist attraction’s opening until the afternoon.

High-end art heists are not uncommon in Paris, including at the Louvre, which opened in 1793 after acting as a palace since the late 12th Century.

The most notorious was in 1911 when the Mona Lisa was taken, causing a global outcry.

An employee of the most well-known art museum in the world, Vincenzo Peruggia, spent the night hiding in a cupboard to steal the artwork.

It was recovered two years later when he attempted to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence, Italy.

Before Sunday’s daring heist, the last theft at the Louvre took place in 1998 when Le Chemin de Sevres (The Sevres Road), by 19th-century artist Camille Corot, was plucked off the wall without anyone seeing. It remains missing to this day. 

Authorities have often promised to increase security at several galleries located across the city, yet the most recent raid still occurred.

Axe-wielding thieves targeted an exhibition of small objects at the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris on November 20, 2024.

Seven extremely valuable snuffboxes, including two that were loaned by the British Crown, were among their loot.

The daytime raid led to an insurance payout of more than £3 million to the Royal Collection Trust.

In 2017, three art thieves were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for stealing five masterpieces worth nearly £100 million from the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

A burglary in May 2010 saw works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse vanish from the same gallery. 

This is extremely irresponsible of the Louvre, but then Paris and France have been in decline for some time now, and now these priceless and irreplaceable pieces may never be recovered.

So, not one person in the entire crowd, or security saw anything unusual about people arriving in face masks, a truck with an elevated ladder, nor somebody cutting open the roof of the Napoleon wing, plus the alarms were not activated. The Louvre is highly protected; you can’t even get past the front door without a full inspection and a metal detector. Inside job perhaps?

No doubt they will be out of the country, heading to the Middle East, because they do love our precious gems.

Only in France will they riot over the price of a baguette, but then leave £100 million of gems guarded by a bloke on his lunch break. Mind you, have you seen the price of those baguettes? Sacré Bleu.

It seems like the entire thing was extremely well planned – better get Inspector Jacques Clouseau on the case, and this is why you should never leave your louvre windows open.

If the wing was under construction like they said, whoever was working on it would have been accompanied there by security, and then they would have been given a pass, so you have to admire them, whoever they were – nobody got injured in the process of this heist. No doubt, soon they will be making this into a movie.

This should never have happened. The Louvre should have had far better security to deal with any possible theft like this. It’s not like they don’t make enough money every year to afford the best. Security may as well have left the door open for them.

If I were to hazard a guess, this heist was something that was extremely well planned, and whoever did it was hired by someone who wanted these particular objects with very deep pockets.

Piers Morgan For Prime Minister – Or Maybe Not

It started as a joke, but after a fiery ministerial grilling on Good Morning Britain, someone on Twitter suggested that Piers Morgan would make a good Prime Minister – the jury might still be out on that one, but the tagline ‘PM for PM’ has a good ring to it; however, that doesn’t mean he would make a good Prime Minister.

The following morning, the entire front page of the Daily Star newspaper was embellished with that slogan, prompting bookies to slash odds on Piers Morgan becoming the leader of this country from 500-1 to 20-1.

What started as a bit of fun has now become a serious bandwagon, with more and more people clamouring for Piers to take over the reins at No 10 and restore some sort of order to our embattled country.

He said that the campaign got him thinking that if he ever did throw his hat into the political arena and made it to the highest office in the land, what would he do?

Well, he might not be the worst Prime Minister. Surely he’s got to do a bit better than all the other PMs. So, what would he do differently?

As I read through his manifesto, I thought to myself, ‘He’s not bad at all.’ And then as I got further down, it just became all so absurd.

He is right, though, Britain is in turmoil, and it does need mending, but not with a needle and cotton – great big rolls of gaffer tape.

Piers, you are never going to repair what others have done to the country. You can blame COVID all you like, but this country was broken way before the COVID outbreak, and now it has to be repaired, which is never going to happen overnight; it will take years and years of tender loving care – it’s like recovery after having surgery, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.

What we actually need to do is make sure that things don’t get any worse.

It would be fine getting rid of some of the cabinet, but you have to make sure they are better than the ones before. I love the idea of Marcus Rashford being Education Secretary. He would be a person who would be doing it because he wants to and not because of the money, and on that note, make all your cabinet take a pay cut, including yourself, because then that shows the public goodwill on your part, and when I say a cut, I mean half.

I also like the idea of Dr Hilary Jones becoming Health Secretary. I’m not so sure he would want the responsibility that comes with the job, but at least he would have more smarts when overseeing the nation’s health care.

Also, everything that your cabinet does should go through the Prime Minister first and then King Charles. I know they are just the monarchy, but they should be given more responsibility. The House of Lords needs to be abolished because all they do is sit around napping most of the day, so there is actually no need for them to be there.

Cabinet to voice their opinions is fine as long as the final solution is down to the Prime Minister, then we only have one person to blame… You!

Not looking such a cushy position now, is it?

Cabinet ministers should not be permitted to speak on TV. It’s not a media circus; otherwise, we would have acrobats and trapeze artists instead of ministers. I guess we could always put them in a frilly frock and a red nose.

Twitter, Facebook and any social media platform should be closed down permanently, then there would not be any trolling of any kind.

Anybody who does not work in the Royal Family should be stripped of their royal titles. If you’re not in it, you don’t win it.

And then there is false advertising: ‘ Red Bull ‘gives you wings.’ I’ve never seen anybody with a Red Bull in their hand flying about – false advertising.

Sport is sport, whether you are transgender or not. If they want to compete, then they should be allowed to compete. The only reason people keep going on about it is because people are ignorant of what they don’t know – including you, Piers Morgan. You say that you’re not, but the fact that you even had to mention it makes you so.

Tackle the shocking obesity crisis – are you having a laugh? Give children a proper school meal – you know, meat and two veg every day, and they might not be so ravenous when they leave school and rush to the corner shop to stuff their faces. Oh, and bring back proper dinner ladies who cared about the children they were feeding.

And this is where you got truly ridiculous – ditch the Video Assistant Referee from football. How on earth is that going to benefit our country?

Climate change is inevitable; it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. Our sun will burn out in 5 billion or so years, by then nobody is going to give a flying …

Making Greta Thunberg the Environmental Secretary isn’t going to make one bit of difference unless she’s going to get on her flying saucer and fly to the sun to make it further away.

Whatever pandemic we have next, people will still die, but life will go on, well, for about 5 billion years or so.

Piers said that in his first budget, he would double the pay of every single person presently working in the NHS, but he fails to say where he will get the money from.

This was the most ridiculous one. He will ban joggers from all high streets. I’m not sure how this will help Britain. What is it? You don’t like them – every other person wears them. What Piers should have said is ban every head covering so we can see a person’s face so that Artificial Intelligence can see them and if they are getting up to any skulduggery.

I could go on and on, but it became so ludicrous that I wouldn’t want to bore the populace with it all.

Police Question A Jewish Lawyer Over Wearing A Star Of David Necklace

A Jewish lawyer was questioned by police after wearing a Star of David necklace, which officers claimed ‘antagonised’ pro-Palestine supporters during a demonstration.

Officers questioned the man at Hammersmith Police Station in west London over the silver 2cm Judaic symbol after he was arrested for alleged Public Order breaches on August 29.

At one point, the questioning detective says officers noted in their statements that they believed the ‘presence’ of the Star of David could cause ‘offence’ to those who had gathered at the protest.

The lawyer, a man in his 40s, was arrested outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington, where a pro-Palestine march had descended that evening.

However, the Metropolitan Police say he had allegedly ‘gone beyond observing to provoking’ pro-Palestinian supporters and was arrested on suspicion of violating conditions that had been put in place to keep opposing protest groups apart.

The man was then reportedly detained for almost 10 hours at the station before being released at about 4.30 am the following day.

The Met say their investigation into the incident is continuing. Still, the lawyer – who has chosen to remain anonymous over fears for his safety – has accused the police of trying to ‘criminalise the wearing of a Star of David’.

Talking to The Telegraph, who obtained the police interview footage, the man furiously labelled the police questioning as ‘outrageous’, saying that the force ‘crossed the line’ to mention his wearing of the Judaic symbol.

He said: ‘They [the police] are trying to criminalise the wearing of a Star of David. They said I was antagonising and agitating pro-Palestine protesters with my Star of David. In an environment of anti-Semitism, I will not be cowed by this. I will carry on wearing it.’

In a statement, police said the man was not arrested for wearing the necklace, but that he had allegedly ‘continuously approached the area’ allocated to the pro-Palestinian protestors on the evening, which in turn provoked a reaction.

Footage of the police interview shows the detective asking the man what necklace he was wearing, subsequently adding that officers in their statements thought that the Star of David being on display was ‘antagonising’ the situation further.

The man’s defence labelled the officer’s statements as ‘ignorant’ and said he had a ‘great deal of concern’ with the line of questioning.

The detective said he did not want to offend by asking the question, adding that it was not a question about the man wearing the Star of David generally, but in a ‘very niche environment where tensions are high’. 

He then said that he did not want ‘this to become a political debate in an interview’.

The arrested lawyer says he has witnessed dozens of instances of alleged criminal behaviour while observing pro-Palestine protests, during which he claims to have been labelled a ‘baby killer’.

He said that those chants going unpunished, while he is questioned over his wearing of the Star of David, is ‘one of the clearest examples of two-tier policing you will ever see’, and denies any wrongdoing on the night he was arrested.

The protest at the embassy in August was also observed by Gill Levy, who served with the Met Police for 20 years, and set up the Society of Independent Legal Observers with the arrested lawyer and a third man, a Jewish KC.

Mr Levy told the newspaper he was ‘distraught’ by his acquaintance’s arrest, adding:  ‘When I was an officer, I was always thinking about the reputation of the police, and how I could ensure what I was doing did not expose the organisation to risk. 

‘This arrest beggars belief. I am part of this Jewish tribe, but I am also part of the police tribe, and for them to have let me down like this is heartbreaking.’

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘The claim that this man was arrested for wearing a Star of David necklace is not true. He was arrested for allegedly repeatedly breaching Public Order Act conditions that were in place to keep opposing protest groups apart.

‘The conditions required protesters from the pro-Israel group, Stop the Hate, to remain in one area while protesters from the pro-Palestinian group, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), were required to remain in a separate area.

‘The man told officers he was acting as a legal observer, but his actions are alleged to have gone beyond observing to provoking and, as such, actively participating as a protester.

‘Over the course of an hour, the man is alleged to have continuously approached the area allocated to IJAN, getting very close to protesters to film them and in doing so provoking a reaction. 

‘Officers had to intervene on at least four occasions to ask the man to return to the Stop the Hate area as required by the conditions.

‘When he failed to do so after multiple warnings, he was arrested. He was subsequently released on bail, and the investigation continues.’

This is so hard for me to understand, and what is really going on in 2025 – the fact is that this echoes the beginning of the Holocaust, and people need to wake up. It also emphasises the dangers of denial, misinformation and the need for education and action against hatred.

Is this 2025 or Nazi Germany 1930s? Seen recently in a shop window in Flensburg, Germany, ‘Jews are banned here.’

The isolation and dehumanisation of Jews in the manner of the Nazis, which predated the Holocaust, is again being replicated.

It’s clearly apparent on our streets. Now, all hate is personal.

It all began with Jews being spat upon on the street and vile remarks being shouted in the park. These remarks shocked, denigrated, and alienated people; worse, they sparked the horrifying slaughter of six million Jews.

People don’t just wake up one morning and decide that they are going to participate in mass murder. Hate speech, propaganda, antisemitism, and racism were the roots that culminated in genocide, and now, in 2025, it’s again happening right under our noses. People never learn, and they so easily forget.

Punch-ups Before Lessons

Without a doubt, the situation in our schools has gotten really bad.

Teachers are leaving the profession en masse, as they battle impossible workloads, toxic work environments, a ‘broken’ Special Educational Needs System, and surges in pupil brutality.

Earlier this year, the Teachers’ Union estimated there were 30,000 violent incidents involving a student attacking a teacher with a weapon in a 12-month period.

Children as young as four have been discovered in possession of knives, while some schools have installed metal detectors, or ‘knife arches’, in a bid to curb attacks.

In the meantime, walkouts about subpar working conditions and low pay have occurred nationwide, and teachers have experienced intimidation from upper management.

The Daily Mail interviewed a teacher who described what a typical day at their secondary school actually entails to learn more about the ongoing difficulties that schools around the United Kingdom face.

That teacher said that as they walk through the school entrance, they think of the £200 in their bank account and their ever-increasing student debt, and they stop momentarily to remind themselves why they do this job.

‘Let’s hope I get out of here on time for once,’ they mutter under their breath as they prepare for another day of chaos.

The thing is, teaching is only half the job these days.

Most of a teacher’s time and energy is taken up by filling out perpetual admin, uploading notes of each second of the day onto digital logs, and endeavouring to impose draconian ‘classroom management techniques’ which create an emotionally-stunted, robot generation.

Children are now being groomed into county line gangs. Fights are breaking out at least once a week, and expelled pupils from other schools are preying near the grounds in COVID face masks, the new unofficial balaclava, and most days, schools are just about holding on.

‘And now to add to it.’ The teacher said, ‘We’ve caught pupils, some of whom were before the summer golden, top set students, carrying knives on them ‘for protection’.

‘They are stealing blades from home, hiding them in the bushes in nearby parks, and even using them to rob people at knifepoint.

‘As I walk into the staffroom, I can’t help but think, if we just focused on getting these troubled children engaged in their lessons and show them they can have a chance in life, they wouldn’t so easily end up in the wrong circles.

‘A lot of them come from broken families and impoverished communities with little to no way of guidance apart from school.’

There are altercations before class, even before the teacher gets to the playground – hearing fierce screams by the students’ entrances.

The teacher knows immediately it’s not the typical squealing from overexcited youngsters back from the weekend. A fight has broken out already.

A teenager that they know is in a gang is fighting with a pupil with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Without pausing to think, because the teacher doesn’t have that indulgence, the teacher runs over to stop them.

There is no other way in this moment to de-escalate the situation other than to restrain the pupil, who is now aggressively fighting the boy with mild autism, who is also fighting back.

He has become increasingly violent and erratic, at which point the teacher has to take hold of him using force.

‘There have been so many instances like this that could get me fired, but there is no way I am going to stand back and let pupils launch themselves at each other.

‘And if that requires physically restraining them and risking my job, then so be it.

‘The boy who is in a gang is a bright kid, full of potential. I know from the classes I’ve taught him, but he was recruited by a county lines gang just months ago. We carry out after-school patrols every evening to stop the grooming, but there’s only so much we can do, and some, unfortunately, do fall through the cracks.

‘The same gang that recruited him staged a robbery, or so we understand, so they could then tell him he owed them money. To make up for it, he has to steal phones and move drugs for them.

‘They always target the vulnerable kids.

‘Anyway, now he’s been humiliated by the pupil in front of the school, we know it won’t be let go so easily. He and his gang will be waiting for him on the way home, which will add to our after-school patrol job.

‘Students are shouted at to disperse to their next lessons as the fight has now been stopped, and the kids are taken indoors.

‘Of course, the problem is, while the fight may have ended, everything now goes up on TikTok straight away. 

‘One pupil, usually one of the quiet and ‘well-behaved’ ones, will have filmed it and it will probably go viral by lunch.

‘In fact, faceless TikTok accounts, mainly started up by the shy girls in the school, were caught last year posting content on who they would like to see fight next and who they want to see beaten up – and boys being boys, they go ahead and set up these fights to impress the girls.

‘They even uploaded vile and abusive posts about teachers in the assumption we wouldn’t be able to track them down.

‘But after looking at comments by hundreds of pupils, we were able to narrow it down to the kids who were taught by all the mentioned teachers. All we had to do was tell each of them we knew who it was, and the truth started spilling.

‘We were shocked to find one of the girls running the pages would never be caught misbehaving in school and had a golden record of zero detentions. 

‘Anyway, now we’re in lessons, there are a few hours of peace.

‘I love watching even the pupils we know are in gangs turn into nerdy kids when they become engaged in their lessons.

‘Some teachers seem to think it’s all about rigidly sticking to the guides provided to us from the powers that be, but I want my students to care about their work, to relate it to their lives, the society they live in.

‘And it means they actually do their work. I have students who are scoring top grades in my class coming to me in tears because they’ve been sent to detention for not sitting or nodding the right way.

‘Now it gets to lunch, we have to make sure all the year groups are kept apart in the playground.

‘But it is also the time to call up the parents of the pupils who were involved in the fight.

‘The boy who is affiliated with the gang should have been permanently expelled months ago, but endless red tape means that there are two categories of children who are virtually impossible to expel: pupils with SEND, and pupils who are classed as vulnerable and involved with social services.

‘If we expel him, there is the risk he will be completely taken in by the gang.

‘The boy with SEND is not without fault either, but again, the system makes it extremely difficult to discipline him. 

‘It is like these kids are void of responsibility, exactly the opposite of what we want to teach them.

‘There has been an explosion in kids with SEND since I first began teaching. A SEND overdose.

‘When I entered the profession about 15 years ago, there were about 15 teaching assistants (TAs) in the school I was teaching in, and hardly any pupils with special needs.

‘But over the last decade, and even more so after COVID, the number of kids with SEND has shot up exponentially.

‘Now, parents deliberately look to get their kids a SEND diagnosis, what we call an EHCP (Education Health and Care Plan), so that they are hard to expel.

‘Yet there are only half a dozen TAs, the least I have ever seen, and the strain is unbearable.

‘I think to myself as I make that call to the boys’ parents, ‘our state schools are being killed off.

‘To no surprise, the gang-affiliated boy’s parents were reluctant to acknowledge any fault on their son’s behalf, preferring instead to blame other children entirely for his ‘reaction’. Any conversation about taking responsibility for his behaviour fell on deaf ears.

‘This is nothing new. We are constantly battling parents who have even tried to sue us for discrimination for trying to discipline their kids.

‘Now that’s my lunch wasted, I’d better hurry up and get to the canteen to pick up whatever remains.

This is the state of our schools, even in the canteen – portion sizes have more than halved from when this teacher was at school, which he confesses was numerous years ago.

The teacher said that as they edge their way toward the end of the day, their hardest, and arguably most important job begins.

‘We call it chicken shop duty. But really, it’s manning all areas where kids congregate after school.

‘A few of us put on high-vis vests every evening and go to the chicken shops, the parks, the bus stops.

‘It has now become one of the most important things we can do. It is when the gangs recruit the kids, and it is when troublesome students who have been expelled from other schools turn up.

‘In the olden days, kids would turn up in uniform from other schools and fight. Inter-school fights. They were a big thing, horrible, violent.

‘That has gone now, but it has been replaced with permanently excluded kids from other schools turning up in tracksuits and face masks.

‘COVID face masks are being used by them as unofficial balaclavas to hide their identity.

‘And they come to these spots where students gather and try to influence them.

‘We try to move them on, but the problem with moving them on is that they often carry blades on them.

‘These are kids in county lines, these are kids in pupil referral units, essentially they are kids who are not in school.

‘And that can quickly become dangerous.’

What we need is to bring back rigid discipline in all schools, and our government needs to support teachers. This is all down to no punishment and ‘woke’ foolery.

It’s about time parents put down their phones and parented their children, and our government need to bring back the cane, it worked well when I was at school.

Some youngsters need a slap sometimes. My mother only had to give me ‘the look’ and I would shake because I knew that if I didn’t reel my neck in, I knew what was next.

This is what you get when you treat small children like little adults and set no boundaries.

Policing is non-existent, particularly when it comes to gangs of yobs on the street. Our police are more interested in arresting those who say what they believe in. It’s not the Metropolitan Police, it’s the metropolitan police of woke.

I went to school back in the 1970s. Back then, the odd fight would break out, but both parties were normally hauled into the head’s office, and we were severely dealt with, normally with the cane. Then the parents were notified, and when you got home, they would dole out their own punishment.

The issue is that children have been given far too many rights, and then we have the lazy parenting, and it’s been going on for decades, and what do we have now? Feral children, and what’s more, they know their rights. If you touch me, I’ll call social services or the police, so now, not only are parents lazy, they are scared of the repercussions.

Veterans’ Digital ID Cards Announced

Veterans are to be offered new digital cards in the first scheme of its kind, which could act as a ‘case study’ ahead of a proposed government rollout of mandatory online IDs for every UK citizen.

Starting today, veterans can use a government app to download a digital copy of their HM Armed Forces Veteran Card.

The new digital format is designed to give ex-military members fast and secure proof of service to enable them to access specialist support when registering with a GP, applying for housing support, or to confirm service for veteran discounts and concessions.

It is optional for all veterans and is being rolled out alongside the pre-existing physical card, which was first launched in 2018.

Some 1.8 million people in the UK are eligible for the scheme, with personnel only having to have served for one day in the forces to apply. About 300,000 veterans presently have an HM Armed Forces card.

Ian Murray, minister for digital government, said that the rollout of digital cards for veterans could demonstrate to the public how the credentials work and put to bed some of their fears over security.

The Labour MP for Edinburgh South said: ‘(It’s) probably a demonstration to the public by default, in that sense, on the basis that this is the first use case for having a digital credential on your smartphone, and that digital credential is the first sort of verifiable one that government have now launched.

‘So using a closed group like the 300,000 veterans [who already have a veterans card] is a really good case study to show that it does work.

‘And it will be very beneficial, it shows the technology works, that shows that we can prove and dispense with some of those legitimate concerns around privacy and security and those kinds of issues.’ 

But he said that the main purpose of the veteran card is to help former members of the armed forces access Government services and benefits.

‘The launch of this card is about making the lives of veterans easier, to access government services and the benefits of that card, rather than being about demonstrating the much wider issues that you talk about… in terms of digital ID,’ he said.

In time for Remembrance Day next month, the digital veteran card—the first online identification document ever issued by the British government—will go into effect.

Available through the government’s new Gov.uk one login app, the card will be immediately downloadable upon approval, saving veterans from having to wait weeks for a physical document to be manufactured and dispatched.

They will then be able to use it to demonstrate they are eligible for targeted support systems, such as mental and physical health schemes.

Mr Murray has reassured veterans that the card, which includes personal data including name, date of birth and the branch of the armed forces they have served in, is secure.

He told the Mail that safety and data protection were ‘at the heart’ of the scheme, pointing out that physical cards can be misplaced, stolen or defaced.

‘Having it on [a veteran’s] smartphone in this way means that they’ve got instant access to it, they can get it much quicker, and they can use it for verification purposes for anything they want to access,’ he said.

‘Of course, there’s a read across to digital ID, and it’s about that safety and security, but the key thing in terms of having that on your phone is you go through the UK One login app. 

‘There’s no data that transfers hands. What then happens, the app asks the MOD – who holds the data – is this person a veteran, and all that comes back is yes or no.’

The card will not be available to be added to an individual device’s wallet; instead, it needs to be accessed via the app after inputting a passcode or using face or fingerprint ID.

Individuals’ use of the card will not be tracked, and no new database to hold veterans’ personal data is being created.

The move marks a significant step in delivering the government’s ‘Blueprint for Modern Digital Government and Plan for Change’, aimed at making public services easier, speedier, and more convenient.

On what would be considered a victory for the scheme, Mr Murray said he hoped more of the UK’s veteran community would sign up for either a physical or digital card.

‘There are 1.8 million veterans in the UK, and this government really values veterans and wants to make their post-armed forces lives as easy as possible,’ he told the Mail.

‘You can have both, but it’s not a compulsory system. I would really like to just get those 1.3 million people who don’t have a veteran’s card much easier access to it. 

‘Some veterans don’t know they can have it, they don’t know the value of it, and they don’t know it’s available to them. So hopefully this will mean that more veterans will know they can have this card.’

The announcement comes after criticism of the government’s proposed mandatory digital ID cards, which it hopes to introduce to crack down on migrants working illegally in Britain.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made the announcement last month, insisting the cards would mean anyone without the right to work in the UK would not be able to find employment.

He said they would also make it easier for the public to access services they are entitled to and reduce benefit fraud and mistakes in welfare schemes. 

The cards are expected to be required for ‘right to work’ checks by the end of this Parliament in 2029.

However, privacy and security issues have been brought up, with some experts questioning whether the cards would offer a new avenue for hackers.

Mr Murray told the Mail that having a digital ID card will not be compulsory: ‘The key thing here, in terms of the whole digital ID policy from government, is that there’ll be no compulsion for you to either have a card, a digital ID. There’ll be no compulsion to show your digital ID.

‘The only use case that’ll be mandatory is what’s currently mandatory, for your ability to prove that you’ve got the right to work in the UK.’

The Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, and the Conservatives have all said that they oppose the implementation of ID card requirements.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: ‘Our veterans have given everything by serving for their country, and it is only right that we give them all the support they need.

‘As we deliver national renewal, we are modernising our public services so they work around people’s lives and keep pace with the digital world we live in.

‘The digital veterans’ card will help remove barriers, reduce red tape and make it easier for people to access the public services they need.’

Minister for Veterans and People, Louise Sandher-Jones, said: ‘Our veterans have given so much in service to our country, and we must ensure they can easily access the support and recognition they are entitled to and deserve.

‘This digital Veteran Card removes barriers and puts convenience back in their hands – whether they’re registering with a new GP, seeking housing support, or simply getting a discount at their local museum.

‘With 1.8 million veterans across the UK now able to benefit from this innovation, we’re making good on our commitment to modernise services for our veteran community.’

What I would like to know is who owns the technology and the app? Who will profit because no one wants this, and there’s no burning need for it, but Starmer is hell bent on pushing it through forcefully.

People have protested in London about migration, our government haven’t taken a blind bit of notice. Nearly three million people have protested about ID cards, again, not a blind bit of notice – what sort of government is this?

I vehemently disagree with the concept of ID cards, particularly for veterans of the armed forces.

The government dragged their heels for years, then some cards were issued, which did nothing other than give discounted coffees and similar.

This is just a vanity project and a waste of taxpayers’ money, and an attempt to monitor everyone. Our government tell us that it will help us access things more easily. However, we still won’t be able to get a doctor’s appointment, and hospitals will still have very long waiting lists, and can you imagine how veterans feel when they sit in their doctors’ waiting room that is full of potentially hostile individuals who would want to do them harm?

We need to keep saying NO to this absurd ID card because it might seem like a good idea right now, but perhaps people won’t think it’s such a good idea when this ID card can determine what you can spend out of your own bank account.

Keir Starmer, did you not see three million people telling you it was an unacceptable idea, which most people don’t want, especially the cost to the taxpayer? I’m sure His Majesty’s forces are wondering why they fought for you and other governments before you. Does Starmer not realise he’s making himself into a monster? Nobody wants him as Prime Minister anymore – it’s time to bail out and resign with some dignity intact.

Secrets Sent To China By Spies

The government published bombshell evidence in the aborted China spy case, demonstrating how a parliamentary aide allegedly passed on secrets to Beijing within hours.

Detailed details on MPs, China-related government policies and the ‘inner workings of the British political system’ were said to be passed on by parliamentary researcher Chris Cash, 30, to his teacher friend Chris Berry, 33, who produced reports for Beijing.

In just 13 hours, Mr Berry was able to produce reports for his Chinese handler, known only as Alex, after receiving parliamentary information from Mr Cash, it was alleged.

Information concerning former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and Liz Truss, as well as former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair Alicia Kearns MP, was reportedly among the information that was shared.

On June 1, 2022, a message entitled ‘Didn’t hear it from me’ was passed to Beijing, asserting that a vote of no confidence in then Prime Minister Boris Johnson would be initiated in the next few days.

Mr Berry allegedly received a tasking from ‘Alex’ through an encrypted messaging application the next day relating to Mr Johnson stepping down and the implications if Tom Tugendhat were to become prime minister.

Months later, information was passed to China that Mr Tugendhat would almost certainly get a cabinet position from Mr Sunak in exchange for his ‘support on foreign policy matters’, it was said.

Mr Cash allegedly sent a voice note on an encrypted messaging app telling Mr Berry that this information was ‘very off the record’ and that he definitely should not tell his ‘Zhejiang interlocutor’.

On another occasion, Mr Cash is said to have told Mr Berry that Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt was likely to pull out of the leadership race and back Mr Tugendhat.

Mr Cash apparently told Mr Berry that this was ‘v v confidential (defo don’t share with your new employer)’.

The information was described as highly beneficial for the Chinese intelligence services, who questioned Mr Berry about each appointment to establish the impact on the government’s China policies.

In his witness statement, Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins said the information would provide China’s advanced details of whom they need not focus intelligence resources on.’

He added: ‘This pre-emptive knowledge may have given the Chinese state an understanding of the likely outcome of the democratic process to choose the leader of the governing political party as well as allowing them to assess to what extent that outcome would affect the UK’s position on China.’

Mr Berry is said to have met with a senior Chinese Communist leader in Hangzhou in July 2022, to the excitement of Mr Cash, who told him: ‘You’re in spy territory now’.

Mr Berry was also accused of producing a report for Beijing stating that a ban on importing products from Xinjiang would likely not come into force until 2023.

Mr Cash allegedly told Mr Berry that, despite public statements to the contrary, the government was not planning to take measures which could harm the prospect of doing business with China.

Mr Cash also allegedly disclosed ‘non-public details’ about the Government, forcing a Chinese-owned firm to sell its 86 per cent stake in the Newport Wafer Fab semiconductor plant in South Wales.

Mr Berry is said to have offered Mr Cash payment in December 2022 if he could provide a report on the ‘level of communication between the UK and US on matters relating to Xinjiang, as well as what specific measures the US and UK would take’.

The files also contained information on the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s view on sanctions in respect of the import of products from Xinjiang.

Mr Berry also allegedly told Beijing there was very little interest in pursuing a government-led investigation into Huawei’s role in fixing Russian internet services.

Reviewing the evidence against the pair, Mr Colllins said: ‘From reviewing the exhibits provided to me by SO15 (counter terrorism police), I can see that Mr Berry was tasked by ‘Alex’ to obtain information and analysis about the inner workings of the British political system.

‘Specifically, Mr Berry was tasked to obtain information about topics which were directly or indirectly useful to the Chinese state.’

Mr Collins assessed that the material was highly valuable to China, adding: ‘It is highly unlikely that one of the most senior officials in China would meet with Mr Berry unless the Chinese state considered him to be someone who could obtain valuable information. The short amount of time that Mr Berry was given to provide the requested information and analysis indicates to me that it may have been used to inform real-time decision making.’

In a series of witness statements from February to August this year, Mr Collins said China was ‘the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security’, but his evidence fell short of declaring an enemy, which led to the espionage case collapsing in September.

Mr Collins would only say that a ‘wide range of UK government and commercial targets’ had been attacked by ‘advanced persistent threat’ (APT) groups, which had been attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security.

Both suspects had denied charges under the Official Secrets Act, which were dropped on September 15.

Last night, Mr Cash said: ‘I wish to reiterate that I am completely innocent. Not just because the case against me was dropped, but because at no point did I ever intentionally assist Chinese intelligence.

‘As I said to the police when I was arrested, such a suggestion is against everything I stand for. I have, for a long time, been concerned by the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the United Kingdom and, prior to these false allegations, was working to inform parliamentarians and the public about those risks.

‘I have been placed in an impossible position. I have not had the daylight of a public trial to show my innocence, and I should not have to take part in a trial by media.’

The deadline on plans for a new Chinese ‘super embassy’ in London is looming. They should not be permitted to build an embassy in London; it should be declined post haste – no delays, just declined because nothing good will come from having such a close relationship with China.

And why has this all been concealed for so long? This is a clear case of passing information to another person, which is treason. It doesn’t matter if it’s harmless or a threat; it’s passing government information to another person.

Cosying up to dictators does not end well, and this is beyond belief. We cannot have our safety jeopardised, and there must be a swift national inquiry, but we won’t hold our breath for that to happen.

It appears that we have communist sympathisers in our government. Is our government deluded or as thick as mince? This definitely stinks, and Starmer needs to resign, no excuses.

Our schools and universities have become a hotbed of communist and far-left indoctrination and ideology, and I really don’t know how they’ve got away with it, but this is what they’re teaching our children these days. It’s complete and utter madness.

Most people know that nothing good will come from this spying scandal, as our useless government will cover it up, and the cherry on the top will be to grant China its new London embassy, so that it’s even easier to spy on us.

How Diverse Is YOUR Street?

Extremely detailed maps lay bare the demographic make-up of every neighbourhood in England and Wales.

Using figures gathered directly from the 2021 Census, the Daily Mail’s interactive graphics show how many residents identified as White British at that time.

The tool, which requires you to enter your postcode, also reveals the countries from which your neighbours were born and how many couldn’t speak English.

Results are broken down into 7,265 ‘MSOAs’ – pockets of the country home to about 8,000 people.

White Brits were an ethnic minority in 1,000 neighbourhoods, including in parts of Oxford and Milton Keynes. 

In one district of Southall, west London, just 2.1 per cent of people identified as white: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British – with one white Briton for every 31 Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

At the other end of the table came Brotton in Redcar and Cleveland, where 98.3 per cent of residents were white British. Only 92 of 5,400 residents were of another ethnicity.

Divided into even smaller geographical sections called ‘LSOAs’, the Census showed just three white Brits lived in one suburb of Leicester between Highfields and Spinney Hill, merely a mile from the city centre.

Another zone of Leicester topped the nationwide table for having the most foreign–born residents. Some 28 per cent of people in Belgrave South were born abroad. Just behind came a neighbourhood minutes from Wembley Stadium (29.6 per cent).

In Caerphilly, outside Merthyr Tydfil, 98 per cent of residents were born in Britain.

In terms of English speakers, Spinney Hill Road – another MSOA in Leicester – came top. In 2021, 26.5 per cent of people over the age of three whose main language wasn’t English couldn’t speak it well or at all.

For comparison, everyone’s primary language was English, or they could speak it well in one neighbourhood nestled along the Dorset coast and another in Cumbria.

Furthermore, when broken down into LSOAs (there are 35,000–plus in England and Wales), 43 per cent of residents in a location east of Leicester’s city centre spoke little to no English.

Made up of just a dozen streets and 1,670 people, the pocket of North Evington is home to two mosques, a Hindu temple, an infant school and a cinema. It is part of an enclave of 34 districts stretching through Leicester’s North Evington, Belgrave and nearby suburbs, where at least a fifth of the people cannot speak English.

Robert Jenrick’s comments this week have reignited an age-old question – what does multiculturalism actually look like?

On a visit to Handsworth, Birmingham, known for its diverse community, the shadow justice secretary was secretly recorded branding the place a ‘slum’ and complaining of ‘not seeing another white face’.

He stated that it was ‘one of the worst-integrated places’ he’d ever seen, where residents were living ‘parallel lives’.

The claims, which he has since doubled down on, have sparked debate, with some saying the remark is ‘racist’ while others have rallied behind him.

Regardless of the outcome, it has unintentionally raised some important issues in British society.

Has integration worked? Can you still be and feel ‘British’ if you were not born in the UK? If you do not speak the language fluently? If you are not ‘white’?

While Jenrick’s remarks may have been made about Handsworth specifically, there is no place where these questions remain more prevalent than in the melting pot of the UK: Leicester.

Leicester was named one of the UK’s first ‘super-diverse’ cities in 2022 after it was found that more than half its residents were from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Unquestionably, opinions on how effectively communities have blended were divided when the Daily Mail visited the city’s most varied areas this week.

The former textiles capital, which has a lengthy history of welcoming those emigrating from across the world, is 43.4 per cent Asian and 40.9 per cent white, according to the 2021 census.

Additionally, the demographics are much more lopsided in some areas of the city.

In Highfields, one of the most diverse spots in the country, 1,626 out of 1,865 residents were found to be of Indian background, compared with 61 of Pakistani heritage and 48 of Bangladeshi background.

Only three people identified as ‘white British’ – apparently making it the neighbourhood in the UK with the lowest number of white British residents. However, during the visit, the Daily Mail discovered significantly more than three white Britons.

While the inner-city region hosts mosques, churches and temples, it is a predominantly Muslim region.

And on the well-known Narborough Road, which is lined with cuisines from around the world, residents say there is ‘no majority ethnicity’.

The stretch was named the ‘most diverse street in the UK’ in a London School of Economics study, with shops and restaurants from 23 different countries.

On either side of an Indian restaurant is a Romanian shop and a Turkish restaurant, and by the corner is a Lebanese takeaway. Opposite the street is an African restaurant, and at the end of the stretch is a temple sat beside a Pentecostal church.

Cherian Koippuram, 50, moved to Leicester with his family in 2018, having first lived in Swindon after migrating from Kerala, South India.

He runs a unique South Indian and Caribbean fusion restaurant on the vibrant Narborough Road, which is packed to the brim with cuisines across several continents.

Speaking to this publication, he told of how he is proud of how multicultural the area is and says his children have grown up embracing both their Keralan and British backgrounds.

The father-of-three said: ‘It is very multicultural here, there is a Polish shop down to the left, there are lots of Turkish restaurants, African, Indian, lots of different cuisines.

‘Everyone gets along very well here. Narborough Road is known as the food street, so it is full of all cultures. 

‘Everyone loves food, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, so it brings everyone together. We get all kinds of people come here, and all kinds of people live here.

‘There is a Hindu temple here, a Christian church up the road. Within a two-minute walk, you get a Muslim masjid, a Christian church, and a Hindu temple.

‘I wouldn’t say there is any one prominent community here; there is a big mix. We are Christian, but we have a lot of friends who are Muslim, so we make sure all our food is halal.’

Asked about how integrated the different communities are, he said: ‘My children are very proud of the area because of how mixed it is.

‘My son was saying at his school, there is a great respect for each other’s cultures, he is very proud of it.

‘Everyone shares their cultures with each other, they have a culture day where they can come into school in their cultural clothes.

‘He has never been to Egypt, Dubai, other parts of the world, but he knows so much about it. I’m so proud of that.

‘It’s just like in Kerala for me, there is no area where you will find just one people. Everywhere in Kerala, there will be a church, a mosque, a temple. It’s the same here, just the language is different.

‘My kids grow up both British and Indian.

‘They start to absorb our culture from us as they grow up. So now my daughter didn’t used to speak Malayalam, but now she does.

‘They are proud of being Indian and proud of being British.’

When they first took over, Cherian’s restaurant was Caribbean, but when more Keralans moved to Leicester over time, he decided to combine the two cuisines.

‘When we opened, it was a Jamaican place. We had a Jamaican chef, but he has since passed away. We keep the Caribbean food as it was to carry on his legacy, and his friends still come to eat here.

‘The only thing I would say is that the council don’t look after this road. It’s a food place that attracts many visitors, so they should put more effort into it. But they invest very little resources.

‘There should be more cleaning and more police in the area.’

According to the 2021 Census, only 57 per cent of Leicester’s residents were born in England, down from 65 per cent in 2011.

But while many of the street’s shop owners do not originate from England, and many do not speak fluent English, they have built their own lives and businesses in the city, sitting side by side with those of different ethnicities.

Further up Narborough Road, seemingly out of place, sandwiched in the thick of international restaurants, is an old book shop.

Here, 90-year-old Ian Smalley, who has run the shop for 40 years and lives in the flat above, sits waiting to serve the few residents who still browse there.

‘It’s definitely very diverse, but I wouldn’t say it’s integrated as such.

‘Once upon a time, back in the 80s, it was two cultures here, the ancient white culture and the incoming Indian culture. 

‘The Indian Hindu community had come from Africa, having been kicked out by Idi Amin. The two groups got along very well.

‘Back in the day, we would all get together as a community and run a big Diwali festival. But now we haven’t got the mechanism to pull together that sort of thing.

‘Now it’s split between so many different cultures, so there is no central culture or leadership, as it were. 

‘Now we are all very separate, we used to be very integrated, there was more of a sense of community.

‘People did work together and socialise together, but now they tend not to because the communities have become self-sufficient. You don’t get the idea that there’s much collaboration; by and large, we are separating. There isn’t so much community spirit.

‘If you are here a long time, you do see things. 

‘You certainly don’t see the integration anymore. We all live peacefully together, everyone is nice and friendly to each other, but we’re not integrated.

‘I have wondered why, but I don’t know. Now there’s so many different cultures, so it is just harder.

‘Everybody sticks together, the Albanians are all in the Albanian cafe, the Moldovans are all in the Moldovan restaurant.

‘But it’s not a problem, everyone is still friendly and gets along.’

Asked whether there is much of a white population in the area, Smalley, who migrated from Canada in the 80s, said: ‘There are not many of them left.

‘There used to be a large white community. But they have all died or moved away.

‘It’s natural, people move away, go to other places. People trade up; if they can move to a more affluent area, they will.

‘But we love that it is so multicultural. Our only complaint is that many people can’t speak English, but that’s not their fault. If you move here from another country, you can’t expect them to just know the language.’

Asked whether there is still an element of being ‘British’ in the area, he said: ‘No, you couldn’t say it’s very British.

‘You would have to look hard here to find an English flag or anything like that.

‘You couldn’t really say it is British, but they probably cheer for the English football team, and that’s the test, isn’t it.

‘It’s properly international here.’

A glance at the quaint bookstore shows the remains of a society, he says, that was once integrated.

There are depictions of Hindu gods on the walls, which he says are a ‘hangover from the past’, set next to a large poppy.

‘By and large, the Narborough Road people are not really English-speaking people, in terms of reading. They do get by with their English, but they don’t really come to buy books.

‘But bookshops are dying everywhere, it’s not just here.’

Omar Jaber, Arabic, 37, lives behind the bustling Narborough Road, and says the street is one of the most integrated places he knows.

He said: ‘I’ve lived in a lot of areas around the country and there is nowhere like Narborough Road.

‘We get a diverse range of people. I grew up here, so I’m used to it, but I know from people that visit this area that they always notice that there’s a wide variety of places that offer different food and cuisines.

‘And people definitely respect what other people are doing and their cultures.

‘There are a lot of different cultures, but we are still English; there is a sense of being British.

‘It is fully integrated and extremely diverse, probably the most diverse area in Leicester. You will find every ethnicity going.

And if you go to any of the restaurants on a Saturday night, you will get people from all parts of the world dining.’

Westcotes councillor Sarah Russell, which covers Narborough Road, says integration is thriving in her ward.

She said: ‘It is really exciting to live in an area with lots and lots of different communities. Everyone works hard, but they also keep an eye out for one another.

‘My kids always used to say you could eat around the world on Narborough Road.

‘And that opportunity to share in each other’s celebrations, each other’s food, each other’s culture, means they were able to celebrate alongside their friends at school and celebrate being different and being the same.’

Over in Highfields, thought to be home to one of the most diverse communities in the country, one woman told us how she has lived in the area for more than 20 years but feels it is ‘segregated’.

Emma, not her actual name, told of how she feels unsafe as one of few white women in the area.

She has lived in the area for almost 25 years but says it has ‘gone downhill’ over the past decade and feels the area has become ‘segregated’.

She said: ‘It’s absolutely awful living around here. It’s abhorrent. They think it’s culturally diverse, but it’s not. It’s not.

‘I’m all for cultural diversity, but it’s got to the point where if you’re just a white woman, you can’t walk down the street without sexual harassment.

‘I’ve lived here about 25 years, and I’d say the last ten years it’s really gone downhill.

‘There was a time, like for example, 20 years ago, when it was really diverse, lots of different cultures, and everyone would really socialise together.

‘But now it’s just become everyone is in their own cultural group. It should be integrated.

‘As a white woman, there is nowhere here I can go socially. I tried getting a cup of coffee from the cafe there, and I just get pushed out of the way by every man that came in because I am a woman.

‘They don’t want to integrate; they like to be in their own little groups.

‘Some people can be friendly, there are some neighbours on my street who do look out for each other, but that’s becoming less and less and less.

‘If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I’d say yeah, you know it’s a bit scruffy, but it’s alright.

‘But now, it’s very rare you’ll see me walking anywhere. I’ll normally get in my car and drive.

‘I feel like I can’t even walk to work because I’m going to be harassed.

‘I walked to the gym about 6.30 am one morning, and some man said to me in his high-vis “morning”, so I said “morning”, then he goes “oh come in my house, come have sex, my house”. I was just minding my own business walking down the road.

‘That is a regular occurrence. And it’s always certain groups of men, non-English. I don’t want to say a certain race because you can’t tell 100 per cent looking at them, and I don’t like to judge people on their religion or race.

‘But it’s certain groups of men here, and they are never English, that behave like that.

‘I would do anything to leave, but I can’t afford to.’

The woman told the Daily Mail that while the white community in the area has become smaller over the years, her problem lies more with the ‘segregation’ between the different communities.

She said: ‘There are less white people now, it’s less and less, they are moving away. Not just white people, though, people of Caribbean background have become less and less as well.

‘It’s like the schools as well, if you hang around here after school time, you can spot how many English parents come to pick their children up. And I don’t just mean English as in white people, I mean if you listen to how many people are actually talking English.

‘But I don’t care about the number of white people. I don’t care about the colour of people’s skin. It’s how they behave, how they treat people.

‘If you go slightly out, there are areas that are like another world. It’s still very multicultural, but everyone gets along, there is no segregation of different groups.

‘Here, it is very much segregated. It’s the way you are kind of ostracised.

‘If you’re here at 2 pm on a Friday, there’s a mosque down there, they look down their nose like “what is that woman doing out uncovered?”. It’s that kind of thing. I respect other people’s religious views, but that’s their views; it doesn’t have to be mine.’

She said that there is a big drug and prostitution issue in the area, but admitted this was a problem across all communities in the area.

Aysha, 50, has lived in Highfields for 30 years and feels, unlike Emma, that the community is well integrated.

‘There are definitely more Asians in this area, but people have an open mind.

‘My neighbours on either side are Hindu, and we’ve never had any issues.

‘I used to live a few roads down on Haddon Street, and my neighbours were Persian. So yes, it is very mixed.

‘It’s like one big family here.

‘It’s an example of somewhere that multiculturalism has worked well. We don’t just live in our own communities.

‘There aren’t many white families here, compared to when I moved here. The people that used to live here, I think they have passed away, and the kids tend to move out.

‘I think it’s just if you’ve lived here, then you don’t want to move, but the younger people, like my boys who were born here, if they had a choice, they’d move away.

‘I would say it is still British. Everyone still speaks English.

‘A lot of the children don’t know their mother tongue. I’ve got two boys and they hardly speak my language, they only speak English.’

Another local echoed her views: ‘I would say it’s quite integrated, it’s very multicultural.

‘We have all kinds of neighbours of all backgrounds on our street; white, black, Indian, Pakistani…

‘You’ve got mosques, churches, temples, synagogues. I run this fabric shop and get all sorts of customers.

‘There are not many white people, to be honest, but it’s always been like that. I think they prefer to live in a more quiet area, and Highfields is quite busy.’

Naina Par, 55, has lived in Leicester all her life. 

She said: ‘Apart from the drugs and that kind of thing, it’s a safe place.

‘I’m Hindu and this is a Muslim area, but there is never any trouble.

‘Leicester is like that, you’ve got some areas that are Pakistani, this area is mainly Indian Gujarati. Then you have newcomers from Bangladesh.

‘But there is no divide, I’ve never had any grief.

‘You are more likely to have trouble with the drug gangs.

‘Leicester is full of small communities, pockets of different cultures.

‘We’re Indian and we came from Africa to the UK and to Leicester to start up a business in the leather industry.

‘There are only small pockets of white communities. Most white families have moved out. This happened through the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, but I can’t say I know why.’

Speaking outside a local shop, one white Christian man said: ‘Well, you can see for yourself.

‘It feels like people here make an effort to emphasise and show where they are from or what religion they are. 

‘All the women are covered up, and I just saw a group of tiny kids go by, all with their religious hats on. So they make a point of it.

‘I guess it’s human nature that you congregate with people similar to you, who can speak your language, but it takes away the need for integration.

‘There becomes less of a reason to integrate, and everyone begins living in their separate communities.’

Dawood Patel, 78, has lived in the area for over 50 years and disagrees.

He said: ‘It’s very good here, everyone gets along and everyone talks to each other. It doesn’t matter Christian, Muslim or Hindu.

‘I’ve lived here since 1973. I came from India, but this is my home.

‘Everyone can speak in their own languages, everyone can speak Hindi.

‘There used to be white people here everywhere, but now not really. Before houses here used to be £400, now it is going for £300,000. So they are moving away, they are going abroad.

‘But I think it is a very good place to live.’

At the local family-run pharmacy on Eggington Street, Sandeep Shah, 56, told the Daily Mail: ‘It is fairly integrated here, but people also have their strong cultural backgrounds they hold on to.

‘People who are able to speak English are able to mingle more easily and understand more cultural differences. They tend to be more willing to accept other cultures and learn.

‘But everyone here respects each other’s ethnicities and religions.

‘They just also have their own strong values, so the adaptability eventually goes down.

His son Rushabh Shah, 30, added: ‘It is as integrated as you can get. 

‘We get native British people, Indians, Bangladeshi, Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans, West Indians, Arabic people, and they all get along.

‘A lot of people don’t speak English, so it helps when our staff can speak different languages like Hindi and Gujarati.

‘In general, in terms of socialising, some people do struggle sometimes because there is a language barrier.  

‘But there is still a lot of intermingling in the communities and everybody knows everyone.’

There are undoubtedly some streets and occasionally even places where no white faces are present, and as for social housing, there is no room for homeless veterans who once had priority.

This isn’t diversity – it’s dangerous!

7 July 2005: 52 murdered in Islamist bomb attacks
22 May 2013: Murder of Lee Rigby by 2 Islamist terrorists
16 June 2016: Murder of Jo Cox MP by a white nationalist terrorist
22 May 2017: 22 people were murdered in an Islamist bomb attack
3 June 2017: 8 people murdered in an Islamist London Bridge van attack
19 June 2017: 1 murdered in a far-right terrorist van attack
29 June 2019: 2 murdered in an Islamist stabbing near London Bridge
20 June 2020: 3 murdered in an Islamist stabbing in Reading
15 October 2021: Murder of David Amess MP by an Islamist
2 October 2025: 2 Jewish worshippers killed by an Islamist

And that is just the UK.

Our nation’s takeover has been ongoing for a very long time and is likely irreversible or unstoppable at this point. Sadly, I no longer recognise England, but what can we do about it?

At this rate, white British England will become extinct.

We have been invaded in plain sight, yet our government does remarkably little about it.

This is what they mean when they say ‘diverse’ – what they really mean is ‘no whites.’

Londoners who were born there, it’s part of their soul. The pollution, the explosion of life in the sixties, and now it’s heartbreaking to see the once great boroughs like Bermonsey, Peckham, Hackney, and other areas vanish and transform into the land of vacant commercial premises and fried chicken shops, et cetera.

The great housing developments built by the Guinness foundation, Peabody and the London Guilds that were built for worker families of London are now filled with strangers from foreign lands, and I weep for our once great city and its banter – it’s a disgrace, even a tragedy, and it should have never happened.

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