Prince William’s Heartbreaking Tears Of Compassion

It was a Royal tradition meticulously observed for decades – members of the Firm should always preserve a ‘stiff upper lip’ and avoid any public displays of emotion.

Yet Prince William, who tragically lost his dear mother, Princess Diana, at just 15 years old, has made a conscious decision to break away from this archaic mould.

His deliberate embrace of emotion has now been showcased by new, heartbreaking footage of the future King brought to tears as he spoke to a grieving mother whose husband took his own life just days after their one-year-old son passed away. 

In a profoundly moving conversation to observe World Mental Health Day, the Prince of Wales’s voice broke, and he squeezed his eyes shut as Rhian Mannings told him how she desperately wished her late husband, Paul, had spoken to her about how he was feeling.

‘I think that’s what the hardest thing is… we would have been OK,’ she said.

William’s disdain for the Royal stoicism, however, is not unusual. Instead, it has a striking resemblance to the compassion of his late mother and has also been accepted by several other Royals in their hour of greatest need.

Typically referred to as the ‘People’s Princess’, Diana became loved globally for her extraordinary ability to connect with people and her heartwarming kindness.

When the Princess of Wales visited Ashworth Hospice in Liverpool in 1992, she became overcome with emotion, with powerful shots showing her fighting back tears as she left the building.

However, while she was no doubt moved by her visit, the events surrounding that day were subsequently suggested to have had a profound impact on her outward tears.

The visit came just days after Andrew Morton’s incendiary book, Diana: Her True Story, was published to the world, in which Diana herself described her mental health struggles and indeed the breakdown of her marriage to King Charles.

Last year, former Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter, who worked for the Royal Family from 1998 to 2000, revealed that Diana had experienced acute anxiety surrounding the press coverage of the book, which sold more than five million copies that year.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he recalled: ‘Diana called me at 5 am asking what she should do, and I told her it couldn’t be undone now.’

He also advised the Princess to keep a low profile ahead of her visit to Ashworth Hospice, adding: ‘[I told her to] just to keep schtum, not answer her phone, and I would accompany her on her next engagement two days later to keep people at bay.’

Then, in December of the following year, Diana was photographed arriving for a gala concert at The Equinox in Leicester Square, appearing distraught once more.

The late Princess declared her retirement from formal responsibilities a month later. The breakup of her marriage to King Charles was to be the culmination of a year that was extremely emotional.

Now, more than 40 years on, Diana’s son seems to have echoed his dear mother’s human touch and understanding spirit.

When a young Prince William, accompanied by his 12-year-old brother Harry, walked behind their mother’s coffin following her tragic death, the grieving young boys never surrendered to their emotions publicly and seemed remarkably composed.

In an interview conducted in 2023, Prince Harry announced that both he and William were unable to display any emotion when they met the expansive sea of mourners who had assembled at Kensington Palace to commemorate Diana.

In a clip from ITV’s Harry: The Interview, he told presenter Tom Bradby: ‘Everyone thought and felt like they knew our mum, and the two closest people to her, the two most loved people by her, were unable to show any emotion in that moment’.

But when William spoke to grieving Ms Mannings about her late husband, Paul, at her home in Cardiff in an interview broadcast this week, his feelings were laid bare as the Prince struggled to conceal his anguish during their devastating discussion.

At one point, Ms Mannings, who lost her husband to suicide just five days after their one-year-old son George passed away, gently asked the Royal: ‘Are you OK?’

Nodding his head and holding her hand, the Prince responded: ‘I’m sorry. It’s just it’s hard to ask these questions that I… ‘

‘No, it’s fine. It’s just you’ve got children,’ Mrs Mannings told him gently.

‘I know, I know… It is…’ the royal trailed off.

‘It’s hard… And you’ve experienced loss yourself,’ she reassured him.

‘It’s ok,’ William responded.

‘Life can throw you these awful curve balls, but by talking about it, you know, having hope, you can continue,’ she added.

William, who by now has managed to pull himself together, agreed, saying: ‘The best way to prevent suicide is to talk about it. Talk about it early, talk about it with your loved ones, those you trust, your friends. So thank you for talking about it.’

Like father, like son, King Charles has also appeared to have become less fearful about showcasing his real emotions publicly in recent years. 

An extremely striking image displayed a visibly emotional King Charles watching from the Royal Box after his horse, named ‘Desert Hero’, bred by the late Queen, won the King George V Stakes at the Royal Ascot in 2023. 

The King appeared to brush away a tear as he watched his first win as monarch – and the first without his beloved mother. He also appeared to find it hard to control his emotions as he collected the trophy, knocking it over as Camilla looked on. 

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said that the win had been a ‘deeply emotional experience’ for Charles because it was ‘an event which his mother loved so much’. 

Then, this summer, King Charles was again moved to tears by the powerful first-hand testimony of VJ veterans as they spoke at a service of remembrance to honour 80 years since the end of the Second World War.

Charles and Camilla seemed to be visibly emotional after Captain Yavar Abbas went ‘briefly off-script’ to salute ‘my brave King’ for attending despite ongoing cancer treatment.

The 104-year-old said that he himself had been ‘rid of it for 25 years and counting’, before reading an excerpt from his war diary, which he penned while serving in the 11th Sikh regiment of the British Indian Army.

Although Camilla’s eyes were red with tears, the guests applauded his remarks.

Certainly, while the ‘stiff upper lip’ mentality has traditionally been adopted by the royals in the face of personal loss, the King has been a lot more open in sharing his emotions, particularly following the death of his mother, body language expert Judi James previously told The Mail.

‘The Queen led the country through the war, where stoicism and emotional resilience might have been vital for survival,’ Judi told FEMAIL.

‘Charles has inherited a country coming out of an epidemic and also a country much more in touch with the subject of mental health, meaning emotional displays might create empathy with his public.’ 

Clearly, Queen Camilla also seems to have embraced a departure from the traditional stoicism generally favoured historically.

She was observed crying last year as a D-Day veteran courageously described the tragedy of losing his best friend on the Normandy beaches.

Charles and Camilla joined the Prince of Wales, leading UK politicians and veterans at a major event in Portsmouth, where the King gave his first public address since being diagnosed with cancer.

He told the crowd: ‘The stories of courage, resilience and solidarity we have heard today and throughout our lives cannot fail to move us, to inspire us and to remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation.’

The first time the late Queen Elizabeth II cried in public was on December 11, 1997, in Portsmouth, when her beloved HMY Britannia was decommissioned.

For royal observers, who had grown so used to her stern demeanour, it was a startling sight.

Dressed in an all-red ensemble, a photo from the event shows Her Majesty brushing a tear from her cheek as she said goodbye to her luxury yacht when the costs of the ageing vehicle became too great to maintain.

The Monarch had been the target of intense public criticism only a month earlier for keeping a tight-lipped stance after the passing of Princess Diana, her former daughter-in-law.

While the Queen seldom put a foot wrong during her 70-year reign, her response to Diana’s demise the week before was one of the rare episodes most experts now view as a mistake.

Later, Tony Blair took credit for convincing the Queen to come back to London and honour the princess in public, meeting the public’s demand.

Historian Dominic Sandbrook said of Blair’s intervention: ‘He understood this, the new sentimentalism that this wasn’t a sort of stiff-upper-lip 1950s country anymore.

‘That was the sort of ritual display of empathy, which he was very good at, and the Queen wasn’t very good at, that was an important part of our political culture that’s becoming.’

In keeping with a shift towards more displays of public compassion, the late Queen also showed deep sadness on Remembrance Sunday in 2002.

Tears were seen gathering on the Monarch’s cheeks when she visited the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

Sat alongside the then Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen was overwhelmed by emotion during the service, where she and other members of the Royal Family paid their respects to those who had fallen in the service of war efforts.

The 2002 event was poignant for the royal as she took on her late mother’s role at the ceremony, held in memory of Britain’s war heroes.

Her Majesty was also seen brushing away a tear almost two decades later during the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in 2019.

Public displays of emotion are also not an unfamiliar concept to Kate, Princess of Wales, who in 2023 was captured becoming extremely teary while watching Tunisia’s Jabeur take on the Czech Republic’s Markéta Vondrousova for the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon.

Throughout the match, the royal, who is a huge tennis fan and also patron of the All England Club, cheered, applauded and grinned as the Czech player became the first-ever unseeded Grand Slam champion.

Kate also seemed to empathise with Jabeur, who was openly crying after losing the match – her second Wimbledon final loss in a row.

And the princess, too, wiped tears from her eyes as she watched the conclusion of the match from the Royal Box.

When Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, passed away early at Windsor Castle in April 2021, aged 99, his funeral service had to be scaled down due to coronavirus restrictions. 

Of the 30 mourners who gathered to commemorate the late Philip at St George’s Chapel, there was one extremely touching moment captured in the pews – his beloved granddaughter, Princess Beatrice, was seen fighting back tears.

Looked up to as the patriarch of his family, Prince Philip became a mentor for younger royals who continued to turn to him over the years and was said to have shared a close bond with all of his grandchildren.

Beatrice was so overcome with sorrow in a heartbreaking moment that was recorded during the memorial service that she had to conceal her teary face with the order of service. This gave her a quick opportunity to gather herself away from the cameras.

Following the death of Prince Philip, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, broke down in tears as she opened up about his sad demise during an emotional BBC interview.

Becoming extremely tearful when discussing her dear father-in-law, the Duchess said that the late Duke of Edinburgh’s passing had left a ‘giant-sized hole in our lives’ during an interview with Naga Munchetty at St James’s Palace in June of the same year.

In 2014, the Duchess cried when she returned to Frimley Park Hospital and reunited with the midwife who saved her life during her terrifying delivery to Lady Louise in 2003.

The Duchess, then 38, had suffered an acute placental abruption and was reportedly just 15 minutes away from dying in the emergency room, with her husband Edward unable to attend because he was in Mauritius for an official visit.

However, she managed to give birth to Louise, who weighed just 4lb 9oz, after an emergency C-section, but she had to be moved away from Sophie almost immediately for specialist care.

Complications from her early birth left Lady Louise with esotropia – a condition which means that both eyes do not look in the same direction – and reportedly ‘completely reshaped’ her mother’s personality.

The Duchess wept as she met the Head of Midwifery, Ms Price, who was attending the delivery of both her children.

She said: ‘I want to say well done to everyone for your fundraising and for all the work you do to help thousands of families – your service is the difference between life and death.’

When the late Queen tragically passed away aged 96 in September 2022, the world watched with bated breath to see how the Royal Family would publicly react to the death of the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Following the State funeral at Westminster Abbey, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, was seen to be extremely upset at the Committal Service in Windsor. She even had a trail of tears visible on her cheek, and as thousands of mourners lay flowers outside of Balmoral Castle to pay their respects and commemorate the late Queen, Zara Tindall also seemed visibly emotional as she tearfully surveyed the sea of tributes.

Likewise, for Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, maintaining a traditional Royal face of endurance proved almost impossible during the funeral of his wife of 64 years, the Duchess of Kent, held at Westminster Cathedral last month.

While the 89-year-old put on a dignified and sombre display as he strode behind the coffin, one special picture poignantly caught the anguish on the Duke’s face as he watched his wife’s coffin being carried away by pallbearers. 

After the image of the Duke circulated online, it was followed by an extraordinary outpouring of empathy, as people sent their most profound condolences to the Royal Family while expressing how sorrowful the image made them feel. 

It seems that gone are the days of the Royals driving an emotional space between the people and the Royal Family, as they instead strive to showcase that emotions can and should be assumed. 

Indeed, as Prince William himself once stressed, while the British stiff upper lip can be ‘great’ and sometimes required ‘when times are really hard’, a balance, as was so poignantly demonstrated by the late Princess Diana. 

‘We’ve got to relax a little bit and be able to talk about our emotions because we’re not robots, ‘ the future King said during a frank discussion caught in a BBC documentary, A Royal Team Talk: Tackling Mental Health.

He is a compassionate man who makes an excellent husband, parent, and future king.

Princess Diana described how the young Prince William would comfort her by pushing tissues under the bathroom door and saying, ‘It will be alright, mummy, it will be alright. I’ll look after you,’ when she cried after arguments with Prince Charles.

This anecdote emphasises the close bond she shared with her son and the complicated emotional burden she bore.

A strong monarch protects and empowers his subjects because he knows that leading them to a future of harmony and prosperity will be his greatest legacy, not controlling them. When the time comes, William will be a great king.

They’re Watching You!

Britain is said to have the most closely watched nation in the world when it comes to closed-circuit television systems.

In 2013, it was estimated that four to six million CCTV cameras were filming the nation, and in London, the public can expect to be caught up to 300 times a day on camera.

We are being told that this is for our own protection, that it’s used to keep watch on possible terrorist activity, and for public criminality too, as footage is frequently used as evidence in court, but questions need to be answered about this technology and who controls the captured data.

I believe people should be concerned. There’s definitely a lot of monitoring going on.

Surveillance technology hit the headlines when it was revealed that a security firm in a development in London’s Kings Cross was using facial recognition technology (FRT) on CCTV camera footage of the public.

The cameras, said the security firm Argent, use a number of detection and tracking techniques, including facial recognition, but also have sophisticated systems in place to safeguard the privacy of the general public. This is a serious and widespread concern over the legality of these programs and what is done with the data gathered.

It’s now been said that this technology is potentially going to be used by the Barbican Centre and in a central London shopping district, too.

Our right to privacy is violated by the intrusive nature of facial recognition technologies. It has the potential to drastically change our public areas by requiring us to keep an eye on who we are with and where we go, therefore threatening our right to free speech.

Facial recognition represents an inherent threat to our rights and has no business on our streets.

Digital manipulation and deepfakes, which include editing photos and videos to depict something that never happened, are now another problem. Now the camera can deceive us, and we have seen the technology is there to manipulate, as with Nancy Pelosi’s doctored speech that was tweeted by Donald Trump, so could it be used on CCTV footage as well?

There is undoubtedly the technology to accomplish this, and as artificial intelligence advances, it will get easier and easier. It might become a problem in a short period of time, in my opinion.

As we know, with social media, technology advances faster than laws or regulations, and perhaps we are right to be paranoid about what the lenses trained on our civil liberties actually mean. Unlike social media, however, there’s no way of switching them off.

Hardly a week goes by without a new warning about the possible horrors of facial recognition, deep fakes or fake news.

It’s often said that the camera never lies, but that’s not true – anything can be faked, and now we have the continued growth of the use of video surveillance systems across public and private sectors, and it’s now becoming acceptable in society.

We now see smart doorbells, wireless cameras and closed-circuit television (CCTV), which now continues to evolve into more complex artificial intelligence (AI) which collects our data.

How the technology is used also continues to evolve. This includes connected databases utilising Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) or the use of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) in public spaces.

They frequently process a lot of people’s personal information for security, crime prevention, or other specific uses like digital advertising. Some of these applications, nevertheless, may be quite invasive, particularly if processing occurs without the subject’s awareness.

We are one step closer to 1984, or maybe we are past that. Joseph Stalin would have been impressed.

They know where your car is at any given moment; now they want to know where you are and what you’re doing. Some will say that if you’re not doing anything wrong, what’s the problem? But in a state where you get banged up for a tweet, who knows what is right or wrong these days?

If you didn’t see this coming, then you weren’t paying attention!

This is why our government are importing criminals by the thousands because once insecurity and violence reach critical mass, they will impose these draconian measures they planned all along.

People demonstrated this during the pandemic, and they were ready to give their freedom for safety, and it will happen again.

And those saying it’s okay because they won’t break the law, forget how easy it is for our government to enforce unjust laws, and just because it’s the law does not make it right.

What are you going to do when you can’t leave your house without leave? Or travel more than 10 miles from your address? Or use your car. Eat that steak you really fancy, buy whatever you want, withdraw more than £100, watch that video because it uses too much electricity. I could go on!

Tory Towers Over Kemi Badenoch

Britain’s tallest Tory became the unlikely star of this year’s Conservative Party Conference – even meeting leader Kemi Badenoch after her barnstorming address.

Standing at 7ft 2in, James McAlpine towered over the 5ft 4in Tory leader as she thanked him for being ‘our tallest member’ at the conference in Manchester today.

The 22-year-old Oxford Brookes University student drew extra attention from fellow attendees thanks to his significant stature and even sat near the front for Ms Badenoch’s closing speech.

Mr McAlpine, who has been a Conservative member for four years but was attending his first party conference, said he thought the Tory leader’s speech was ‘fantastic’.

‘She’s got my full support. She’s fantastic, she’s in touch with the young Conservatives, and she’s a brilliant leader,’ he told the Mail.

‘And with the removing of stamp duty, I just think that’s fantastic. Because it’s going to help absolutely everybody, whether you’re buying your first home, buying a new family home and also for the older generations as well who are looking to move somewhere smaller.’

Before pursuing a career in politics, Mr McAlpine, who is earning a BA in business management, wishes to obtain practical experience working in finance in the city.

He said he ‘would love to be’ a Conservative councillor and eventually an MP, adding: ‘I’m not going to say leader just yet.’

If his dreams are realised, Mr McAlpine – whose mother is 6ft 5in and his late father was 6ft 9in – would break the Guinness World Record for the tallest politician.

The present world record holder is US Republican Jon Godfread, who stands at just over 6ft 10in, while the tallest Tory is former MP Daniel Kawczynski, who is 6ft 9in.

Mr McAlpine said he has a ‘love-hate’ relationship with the attention he receives due to his height, but believes it gives him a ‘platform’ to speak up for what he believes in.

‘I don’t adore it, but I also I don’t hate it,’ he said. ‘Because I think it’s given me a voice and I’m able to speak up and represent the Conservative Party.’

Asked whether he receives attention at university from other students for his political views, Mr McAlpine said: ‘It’s mostly been my about my height, never really my political views.

‘But I think when I go back tomorrow, things might change.’

The proud ‘Tory boy’ is a huge horse racing fan and has also become a social media celebrity after partying his way around high society events such as the Cheltenham Festival, where his interviews have lured millions of views.

He said: ‘Labour just want to ban anything that people enjoy doing, starting with the tax on farming, horse racing and the cost of shotgun licencing going up.’

Hopefully, this won’t just be another Tory with his head in the clouds. However, I think there might be high hopes for this fellow, pardon the pun.

And he could always pursue a career in basketball if he doesn’t succeed in politics. He really doesn’t need a platform; he’s already got one, and he certainly looks like he’s on his way up.

However, on a more sober note, being tall, everything must seem so small to him and pose challenges at times, but no doubt he rises above it.

POLICE OFFICER FOUND GUILTY

A British Transport Police (BTP) officer who grabbed a teenage fare dodger by the throat and put her in a headlock has been found guilty of assault by beating. 

CCTV footage shows Adrian Young, 48, violently restraining the 15-year-old girl by holding her in a headlock for 30 seconds. 

In September of last year, PC Young was shown on camera pulling the girl back through the ticket barrier, gripping her throat, and throwing her against a machine at Camden Road Underground station.

Afterwards, he handcuffed and arrested the girl before de-arresting her at the scene. 

A member of the public who witnessed the attack made a complaint, and the incident was referred to the IOPC. 

The Crown Prosecution Service received a file of evidence from the IOPC, and today at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, PC Young was found guilty.

He will be sentenced on November 13.

At the end of the IOPC investigation, it found he should also face a gross misconduct hearing for allegedly breaching the police standards of professional behaviour.

To further the disciplinary process, they will collaborate with BTP.

Assistant Chief Constable Sean O’Callaghan said: ‘I’d like to be absolutely clear that the actions of PC Young during this incident were appalling, demonstrating a completely unnecessary and unacceptable use of force against a child, which has seen him be convicted of assault today.

‘Police officers are rightly expected to maintain control of any situation, and by not doing so, PC Young has undermined public confidence in BTP and the high standards we hold our officers to every day.

‘We thank the IOPC for their investigation and will be looking to progress with internal disciplinary proceedings as soon as possible.’

IOPC Director Emily Barry said: ‘All police officers are trained to use force that is necessary, proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances. On this occasion, there was no lawful reason for the force used by PC Young, which could have resulted in serious injuries, particularly as he was dealing with a child who was considerably smaller than him.

‘The incident was witnessed by several members of the public who expressed concerns at the scene about the officer’s actions, with one of the witnesses making a complaint to BTP that ultimately led to us carrying out an independent investigation.

‘This shows that the public can have confidence in the police complaints system and that the IOPC will hold officers to account for their actions, with PC Young now convicted of a criminal offence.’

Police morale must be at an all-time low, and it appears that the lunatics are taking over the asylum.

The young girl was fare dodging, not robbing the Bank of England. It wasn’t the heist of the century.

In the UK, police personnel are typically not allowed to employ headlocks because they must be used in extreme circumstances that are appropriate for the threat being faced.

The use of force must be reasonable, and officers are trained to avoid ‘chokeholds’ or ‘stangle-holds’ because they are dangerous.

If used, it must be minimal, temporary, and monitored carefully to ensure the person’s airway and breathing are not obstructed.

There is a whole spectrum between ‘strangle a child’ and ‘appropriate force’. This was not ‘appropriate force.’

Labour Accused Of Developing A Surveillance State

Children as young as 13 could be forced to have digital ID cards under ‘sinister’ strategies to expand the role of the state in people’s lives.

A petition against digital ID signed by nearly three million people has been ignored by ministers who promised to press ahead with imposing them before the election.

In a formal response, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said the government would introduce ID cards for everyone aged 16 and over by the time of the next election.

And, in a significant extension of the scheme, the department said ministers will now consult on bringing in so-called ‘Brit Cards’ for children as young as 13.

The response also indicates that the scheme will extend far beyond the original proposal to tackle illegal working, with ID cards potentially required to access an expansive range of public services.

It states that digital ID will eventually become people’s ‘boarding pass to government’.

Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said digital ID was ‘fast becoming a digital permit required to live our everyday lives’.

She added: ‘Starmer has sold his Orwellian digital ID scheme to the public on the lie that it will only be used to stop illegal working, but now the truth, buried in the small print, is becoming clear.

‘We now know that digital IDs could be the backbone of a surveillance state and used for everything from tax and pensions to banking and education.

‘The prospects of enrolling even children into this sprawling biometric system is sinister, unjustified and prompts the chilling question of just what he thinks the ID will be used for in the future.

‘No one voted for this, and millions of people who have signed the petition against it are simply being ignored.’

Conservative MP Greg Smith warned that the scale of the government’s plans had ‘sinister implications for the future’.

‘Digital ID opens up a Pandora’s Box for big state, intrusive government,’ he said. ‘This raises big questions about what they might be used for in the future. Why on earth are they suggesting children need them? Could they be told to produce them to go to school?

‘We risk ending up with a situation where the law-abiding majority face more state interference in their lives while the illegal migrants, who this is supposedly aimed at, carry on ignoring the rules as they do at the moment.’

Sir Keir Starmer defended the plan, saying the government could not ‘shirk’ from tackling illegal immigration.

Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai, the Prime Minister said: ‘On digital ID, let me be really clear – we have made a commitment to do whatever we can to stop people arriving illegally in the UK. One of the issues is the ability people have to work in our economy illegally. We have to do something about that – we can’t shirk that. We had a strong manifesto commitment to deal with it.

‘The vast majority of people in the UK wants it gripped and we need to therefore take the measures necessary to grip it.’

Sir Keir said digital ID would also trigger ‘great benefits’ for the public in speeding up access to public services.

A public petition stating ‘Do not introduce digital ID cards’ has now been signed by more than 2.8 million people and will be discussed by MPs in the forthcoming weeks.

The government’s response states that the system will be introduced before the next election, with people required to produce their digital ID when they take a new job to demonstrate they have the right to work in this country.

It implies that the document will probably be required in the future to access a variety of government services, such as filing taxes and receiving benefits.

‘People in the UK already know and trust digital credentials held in their phone wallets to use in their everyday lives, from paying for things to storing boarding passes,’ the response states. ‘The new system will be built on similar technology and be your boarding pass to government.’

The response, however, maintains that the police cannot require anyone to present a digital ID card and that not having one will not be a crime.

This is going to happen whether we like it or not. Once digital IDs are introduced, it might be implemented slowly, but then it will become more stringent, where if you don’t have an ID card to produce, you will be excluded from society.

Everything our government does is a scamdemic. It’s like a trial run to see what the sheep will put up with.

Even on our computers, when we go onto some web pages. You are asked by a robot to verify that you are human! And we just go along with it like bleating sheep.

What people don’t realise is that all this data already exists in the background and has done ever since digitisation occurred with the spread of computers. We should have probably put our foot down then, but people just didn’t realise until it was too late.

At the moment, data exists, but cannot be used to restrict your normal life or hinder basic human rights. With digital ID, we will have no rights based upon whatever fashionable algorithm there is that week, because what will be acceptable one week will not be the following week. Not only that, your data can and will be easily hacked.

This is all extremely creepy, and it’s so obvious what they’re attempting to achieve. What has become of this once great country? It is so sad, especially as some still seem to be so oblivious to it, particularly the younger generation with no life experience, who are getting their information from TikTok, et cetera.

Digital IDs are just a dystopian way of controlling your life, and it will be the cage that you live in!

Fuel Pump Error: Morrisons Must Pay

A supermarket chain is facing demands for payouts to be given to motorists after a fuel pump mix-up left them with potential repair bills of up to £3,000. 

Many drivers have experienced serious issues at the Morrisons petrol station in Tiverton, Devon, after inadvertently filling up their vehicles with the incorrect fuel.

After numerous motorists had filled up, it was discovered that the petrol pump was dispensing diesel – and vice versa.

As a result, motorists left the service station completely oblivious that they had the wrong fuel in their engines, which led to some experiencing breakdowns soon afterwards.

Many drivers are now responsible for paying for costly repairs.

Among them, forklift driver Graham Stevens was given a repair bill of £2,800 after he filled the tank in his Vauxhall Insignia estate with unleaded petrol, instead of diesel.

He told BBC News: ‘I put in £50 of what I thought was diesel. I live just a minute away, so I didn’t notice anything wrong at first. But when I set off for work early the next morning, the car started spluttering and eventually died.’

He was then told that the fuel injectors in the car’s engine were blocked due to contamination from the petrol after his visit there on September 26.

Motor Fuel Group (MFG), which owns the petrol station, admitted to Graham that the mistake was their fault.

However, Graham said he was told not to contact them again and has yet to hear from their insurance company, despite promises from MFG.

Graham said he cannot afford the repairs needed.

Now the supermarket chain is facing demands to compensate the motorists who have been affected. 

Taking to Facebook, one person wrote: ‘Customers should be compensated for their error.’ 

Another commented the incident was ‘shocking’, adding: ‘I wonder how much it will cost them to put right!’ 

Another wrote: ‘Give the supermarket the bill. They will have to pay.’

And another said: ‘Drivers not facing any bill. Morrisons are.’

But on a local Facebook page, numerous people pointed out that MFG now owns the station and not Morrisons.

More motorists took to the same Facebook group to share their experiences after filling up at the petrol station.

One mother said both her car and her daughter’s car were affected.

Susan Trudgill wrote: ‘Both my Daughter and my car broke down, have had to hire a rental and just got 1 car back from garage repairs costing £108. Plus rental £220, still one car to go. Not happy.’

Another wrote: ‘Happened to my car, had to abandon it at the side of a road, and it cannot start up. Filled up a whole tank pretty much…’ 

One driver claimed it is not the first time the mix-up has happened at the garage.

They said: ‘Happened to me October last year. I put 30 quids’ worth of diesel in and got home, and my car was running rough. Took it to the garage and was told there was petrol in the tank.. It cost me over 3k to fix.’

Morrisons and MFG have been approached for comment.

The company should have the appropriate insurance to cover this, and if they don’t, they will likely go into liquidation.

Motor Fuel Group (MFG) owns the former Morrisons petrol stations after a £2.5 billion deal was finalised in April 2024.

Morrisons has a minority 20 per cent stake in MFG, and both companies have a strategic partnership, meaning you can still see the Morrisons brand at many of the sites.

The deal also included more than 400 associated sites for developing ultra-rapid EV charging infrastructure.

There is no question about it. MFG own the petrol station, it was their error, so they need to compensate these people that have been affected without hesitation – they messed up, so just pay up!

Multiple checks are done at petrol stations when fuel is delivered by tankers. Clearly, in this case, they failed miserably, and the drivers should bear no responsibility.

It was MFG’s responsibility to ensure the pumps were dispensing the correct fuel, and as a consumer, you have the right to the product you paid for; otherwise, this is a clear misrepresentation from the seller.

This is a consumer rights issue. Goods sold must be of merchantable quality and as described, and the vendor is responsible if they’re not and cause loss for the consumer.

In this case, diesel was sold as petrol and vice versa, so not as described, and it did cause damage because it was not of merchantable quality, and as such, those affected should be compensated by the vendor.

Jamie Oliver To Fix ‘Broken’ SEND System

Without sounding condescending. For those who have no idea what SEND stands for, it stands for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. It refers to children and young people who have a learning difficulty or a disability that needs special educational aid to learn and progress.

This term encompasses a wide range of needs, including difficulties with communication, cognition, social and emotional skills, and physical or sensory impairments, and signifies the requirement for extra help and provisions within the education setting.

Jamie Oliver is urging parents, educators, and anybody else involved in a child’s education and the SEND system to literally stand up for kids with special needs.

He has now partnered with the British Dyslexia Association and several well-known individuals, such as Kelly Hoppen, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Davina McCall. They will start the UK’s first-ever voice petition together.

Jamie wants every parent’s voice to be heard, and he said, ‘An education system that only works for some kids and not everyone is broken.’

But it encompasses all types of unique needs, not only dyslexia, but the picture is bleak because there is a clear picture of the poor state of support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Financially, the SEND system is at breaking point, and the number of children and young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has increased from 240,183 in 2015 to 575,973 in 2023/24, an expansion of 140 per cent over 10 years. 

Almost a third of parents (30%) have had to use the legal system to get their children the right provision, and over half of children (58%) have had to take time out of school because their needs were not being met.

Of these children 36% spent between a month and a year out of school, while 7% had spent more than a year out of school.

This is not new to me. My son is Autistic, and I spent years trying to get him into a school with Specific Learning Needs, but my council would not pay for it.

Now, I’m not a stupid person, but I was made to feel inadequate as a mother. In the end, I employed a solicitor to fight my son’s corner. They even at one point believed that it would be a good idea to take my son into care because it would be more affordable than educating him in the place that I wanted him to go to.

I was told that I had inadequate parenting skills, taking into account that I already had three older children. It’s an extremely long story that I would love to go into, but it would take far too long.

Once I got myself a solicitor, we went from you can’t have anything to which school would you like.

I wasn’t going away. All I kept saying to them was that my son deserved to go to a school for special needs because he deserved an education like any other child did.

Numerous parents go through what I went through. Sitting up at night crying, and just completely drained all the time, but I was determined to fight the fight, whatever it took.

I watched the programme with Kellie Bright last night. To be fair, it was extremely good, and it brought tears to my eyes because it made me remember what I had to go through. Sadly, it didn’t cover everything that families have to go through.

I was made to look stupid as a mother. I was told I had to attend parenting classes, and while I was there, I was made to look foolish all the time with their patronising words, but I was not going to be browbeaten by egomaniacal and condescending wannabes who believed they knew better than me about my child.

I eventually contacted the Son-Rise Program in America. I phoned them, they phoned me, and they really helped me help my son. They were absolutely great. In fact, I don’t know where I would be without them.

With their help, I eventually managed to get eye contact with him, which I couldn’t do before. This was great progress, and just that alone made me smile.

It’s not easy being the parent of an Autistic child, or any special needs child, but believe me, it does have its ups and downs as well, but eventually I started to see more ups than downs.

I learnt that going against my son was not helping, and I needed that link, which needed to be extremely loving and respectful. I did say respectful, not compliant, which is what most schools do.

Before my son got into boarding school, he did go to special needs classes, which were absolutely useless. At the first sign of trouble, they would send him home and tell education that I took him out of school of my own free will.

In the end, I just taught him at home. Do you remember those Ladybird books from years ago? They were great and loads of flash cards because I figured that teaching him needed to be repetitive, but also fun. We would start at 9 am and finish at 3 pm with 15-minute breaks with milk and cookies, because the brain of a special needs child can only take so much in at a time.

Yes, there would be meltdowns; I would be crazy to believe there would not be any, but a time-out was the way. I would just let him calm down in his room, and then he would come back on his own accord, and if not, we would just start again the following day. Nothing was set in stone, but it worked.

What I’m trying to say is that nothing is impossible when done in the right way and in the correct setting.

The problem is with other people who have no concept of what special needs mean. Not only that, but people who have no idea judge unrelentingly.

We assume that the child is not normal, but I always used to say, ‘How do you know it’s not normal? Perhaps it is, perhaps before we crawled out of the muck we were like this, and how we have become is just a mutation.’ Now, in our society, we are expected to be a certain way. Always be yourself, not what others demand of you.

Nine Areas To Be Affected By DWP Change

Job Centre staff will be stationed in GP surgeries and physiotherapy clinics in an effort to get sick patients off benefits and back to work.

The careers advisors will encourage unemployed patients to return to the workforce and assist them in finding suitable work.

Beginning early next year, the NHS and the government will test the program in regions where there is a high rate of economic inactivity as a result of poor health.

It will then be rolled out nationwide if it is proven to promote wellbeing and tackle the nation’s sick note culture.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said last night: ‘By tackling a rise in health-related economic inactivity and by helping people stay in work or get back to work, the NHS can be a key driver for economic growth in England.’

One in ten people of working age – equal to 3.9 million adults – now receive health-related benefits in England and Wales.

This is up 38 per cent from 2.8 million people in just four years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Over this period, real-terms spending on incapacity or disability handouts has increased by a third, from £36 billion to £48 billion and is predicted to hit £63 billion by 2028.

Backed by £45 million from the autumn Budget, the trial will see the NHS create ‘Health and Growth Accelerators’ in South Yorkshire, North East and North Cumbria, and West Yorkshire.

The three sectors will try to increase people’s health alongside combating the problems that most impair people’s capacity to work, including heart disease, diabetes, back pain and poor mental health.

By assisting patients in managing their conditions and encouraging them to alter their lifestyles, staff will step up efforts to avoid the illnesses that cause people to miss work.

The accelerators, which were revealed at the NHS England board meeting last week, will also investigate the usage of websites and phone apps to assist with musculoskeletal pain and mental health therapy sessions.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has previously promised to improve the health service so it is more effective at getting sick people back to work.

Speaking at an Institute for Public Policy Research event in September, he highlighted how a drop in productivity due to ill health ‘has cost our economy £25 billion since 2018’ and how 900,000 more people are off work than would have been on pre-pandemic trends.

‘That’s more people than Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda employ put together,’ Mr Streeting said.

‘Fail to act and by the end of this parliament, 4.3 million people could be off work sick. Millions of people left behind, the welfare bill will balloon, and growth will be hampered.’

Alongside the accelerators, NHS England is working with the Office for National Statistics to assess the economic benefits of several health interventions, including talking therapies, bariatric surgery, treatment for endometriosis, and the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Programme.

In order to support the government’s and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s work on labour market consequences, the analysis will look at how waiting times, employment rates, and earnings are affected.

A pilot scheme in the North East and North Cumbria, led by the integrated care board and the Department for Work and Pensions, has already helped nearly 2,000 people back to work through one-to-one support in County Durham and the Tees Valley.

Samantha Allen, chief executive at North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said, ‘Our GPs often see patients who want to be at work, but need practical, non-medical help as well as what a doctor can offer.

‘Having a job, a steady income and feeling useful make a big difference to people’s health – and so far almost one-third of patients seeing an advisor have successfully got back to working life.’

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘We know that in general, working can be beneficial for our patients’ health, so ensuring they get the support they need to get back to work, when it is safe for them to do so, is a good thing.

‘However, it’s important we don’t push patients into work or back to work before they’re ready, as this could have a detrimental impact on their health.’

Parth Patel, associate director at the IPPR, said: ‘Most of those who are unwell would like to get back to work if they could be better supported to do so.

‘This pilot brings together local health and employment services in a way recommended by our commission report, backed by evidence, to help raise health, wellbeing and growth across the nation.’

Seeing as it’s impossible to get a doctor’s appointment, numerous patients won’t attend the doctor’s surgery in person. Most is done by eConsult now, and generally a doctor will ring you and diagnose you over the phone, including sick notes.

This change will hardly halt Parkinson’s Disease or MS.

If they even have the gall to say that epilepsy isn’t a disability, that would just make me so furious. Medication doesn’t always work, and it’s the most challenging to control.

How might the Job Centre advisor determine which patients are on extended sick leave so they could provide them with advice? Without access to patients’ medical information, they wouldn’t be aware, which is against the law and unethical.

What is our government saying? That these advisers, many of whom are narcissistic, have more medical knowledge than their doctors, who can read MRIs and X-ray reports.

I’m sure there are a lot of con artists out there, but there are loads that are not.

I had a friend who is epileptic and was sent on a job by the Jobcentre in a kitchen, with knives no less, and he had a fit while he was there, but of course these advisers know best – of course, they are above God!

Capital May Become ‘Childless’ As Spiralling Costs, Poor Housing, And School Closures Drive Families Out

London could become a ‘childless city’ as pupil numbers fall, schools close and families move out due to spiralling costs of transport and housing, teachers claim.

It is also claimed that declining birth rates and new-build apartments taking the place of family homes are contributing to the decline, which began before Brexit and COVID but has since quickened.

National Association of Head Teachers vice-president Dave Woods told The Times there was ‘almost one thing on top of another’ contributing to the plunge in pupils.

He said: ‘It’s a phrase that is talked about in meetings – about London becoming a childless city. You’ve got high housing, high transport prices, a cost of living crisis.’

Mr Woods, headteacher of Beaconsfield Primary School in Southall, added that family homes were being replaced by smaller apartments in his area of West London.

He said the ‘continuous downward spiral’ in numbers began before Brexit, and many families who moved to the UK from Eastern Europe left permanently during COVID. 

Families moving out of London and other cities to get more space for the same price have been a hot topic in online forums like Mumsnet in recent years.

Frankie Graddon, who writes a popular Substack column under the name Mumish, said that her social media feeds were ‘full of updates from work peers and friends of friends with young kids who have switched city living for The Good Life’.

It comes after the Education Policy Institute (EPI) revealed that nine of the ten local authorities seeing the biggest drops in primary school pupil numbers are in London.

The capital is expected to continue to see bigger falls than the rest of the country for the next five years, and researchers said strategies were required to adapt funding and provision to cope with falling numbers, which threaten the viability of schools.

There are set to be 400,000 fewer students at schools in England by 2030 than today, and primary pupil numbers have already dropped by 150,000 since 2019.

The EPI said Westminster saw a nearly 16 per cent fall in primary pupil numbers from 2020/21 to 2024/25 – but claimed London’s steeper decline cannot be explained by falling birth rates alone.

In Southwark, figures have dropped by more than 12 per cent in five years, and the number of primary schools has fallen by six.

In order, the ten local authority areas with the largest falls in primary pupil numbers over the last five years are Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, Hackney, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Merton, Wandsworth, and Redcar and Cleveland.

Schools are financed on a per-pupil basis, which means falling registrations are a major problem, as big declines are associated with school closures.

An increasing number of students are leaving London, researchers found. About 17 per cent of primary pupils in reception in 2012/13 had left the city by Year 6, increasing to 20 per cent for students who began reception in 2017/18.

While declining birth rates play a critical role, London primary pupils are most likely to either move within the city or depart the state education system, findings indicate. 

The South East and East of England have the biggest student influxes from London, according to local authorities.

Over the next five years, Islington, Lambeth and Southwark are expected to experience the biggest declines in student numbers from 14 per cent to 20 per cent.

A population bulge in England has been moving into secondary schools, but the Department for Education said in July that it expected pupil numbers to peak in 2026/27.

Earlier this year, a former education secretary called for school funding to no longer be considered on a per-pupil basis due to declining enrollment.

Conservative MP Damian Hinds said the decline in the number of children in schools meant the per-pupil basis was no longer a good reflection of whether funding was increasing or decreasing.

A Department for Education spokesperson told the Daily Mail today: ‘We recognise the pressures caused by demographic changes which some schools in inner London are facing.

‘Our system is designed to give schools more certainty over funding levels so they can plan ahead. Per-pupil funding for schools is currently at record levels, increasing to £69.5 billion by 2028-29.

‘As part of our wider work to give children the best start in life, we have awarded 300 primary schools £37 million to repurpose their spare space, with schools now providing over 5,000 new childcare places, as part of our school-based nurseries roll out.’

White people can’t afford to have children, but migrants don’t appear to have a problem breeding like rabbits – I wonder why?

London won’t become childless, but it will definitely become ‘white childless’ because the Muslim community is outbreeding us, but that is their master plan, and it’s not just about spiralling prices. London resembles a third-world country in some places. Who wants to bring their children up in filth and with the danger of being stabbed if they go out with their friends?

Sadiq Khan has created an absolute cesspit of a capital, and that remains the biggest reason people want to get out of our once great capital.

Welcome to Khan’s London, where it’s all going to plan, and quicker than he could have ever imagined, but it won’t matter to him when London is filled with the right kind of Londoners!

Dame Jilly Cooper Dies At Age 88

Renowned novelist Jilly Cooper has passed away at the age of 88 after a fall, her family has revealed. 

The ‘Queen of the bonkbuster’ writer was famed for her raunchy romance books, selling more than 12 million books in her career.

Her children, Felix and Emily, said her death on Sunday morning has come as a ‘complete shock’. 

They said in a statement: ‘Mum was the shining light in all of our lives.

‘Her love for all of her family and friends knew no bounds. Her unexpected death has come as a complete shock.

‘We are so proud of everything she achieved in her life and can’t begin to imagine life without her infectious smile and laughter all around us.’

Dame Jilly Cooper’s agent Felicity Blunt gave a similarly warm tribute, saying the author was ‘sharply observant and utter fun’.

The Rutshire Chronicles, which featured the showjumping lothario Rupert Campbell-Black, is the author’s most well-known work.

The portrayal of the polo-playing elite’s bedroom activities was a tremendous hit, captivating millions of readers seeking naughty bedtime reading.

Rivals, the first and possibly most famous book in the series, was published in 1985.

It made the BBC list of 100 important English language books in the love, sex and romance selection alongside Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. 

It was recently adapted for television by Disney+. 

In August, Dame Jilly hosted a party for the cast at her Gloucestershire home, demonstrating her continued busy life in her senior years.

Also among the attendees was friend Andrew-Parker Bowles, the ex-husband of Queen Camilla.

The ‘famously naughty’ former Army officer is said to have been the inspiration for Campbell-Black. 

The novelist lost her husband, Leo Cooper, to Parkinson’s disease in 2013. 

Even when his condition deteriorated, the author, who had known him since she was nine years old, refused to place him in a care facility.

In her latter years, Dame Jilly said that she only kept writing novels to cover her husband’s medical expenses.

Her agent, Ms Blunt, said in reaction to her death: ‘The privilege of my career has been working with a woman who has defined culture, writing and conversation since she was first published over fifty years ago.

‘Jilly will undoubtedly be best remembered for her chart-topping series The Rutshire Chronicles and its havoc-making and handsome show-jumping hero Rupert Campbell-Black.

‘You wouldn’t expect books categorised as bonkbusters to have so emphatically stood the test of time, but Jilly wrote with acuity and insight about all things – class, sex, marriage, rivalry, grief and fertility.

‘Her plots were both intricate and gutsy, spiked with sharp observations and wicked humour.

She frequently looked to her own life for inspiration, and her critiques of society’s numerous rules and biases had an Austenesque quality.

‘But if you tried to pay her this compliment, or any compliment, she would brush it aside. 

‘She wrote, she said, simply “to add to the sum of human happiness”. In this regard, as a writer, she was and remains unbeatable.’

She added: ‘Emotionally intelligent, fantastically generous, sharply observant and utter fun, Jilly Cooper will be deeply missed by all at Curtis Brown and on the set of Rivals.

‘I have lost a friend, an ally, a confidante and a mentor. But I know she will live forever in the words she put on the page and on the screen.’

Born in Hornchurch, Essex, in 1937, Dame Jilly grew up in Yorkshire and attended the private Godolphin School in Salisbury.

Her father was a brigadier, and her family moved to London in the 1950s, where she became a reporter on The Middlesex Independent when she was 20.

She has said she moved to public relations and was sacked from 22 jobs before ending up in book publishing.

Her work has been adapted at various points, including an ITV series of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous with Coronation Street star Stephen Billington and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, while Marcus Gilbert starred in a Riders series during the 1990s.

She won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019 and was made a dame for her services to literature and charity in 2024.

In November, Dame Jilly is scheduled to release a new book through Transworld.

How To Survive Christmas is defined as ‘an irreverent and witty guide to surviving the festive season.’

Her publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said: ‘Working with Jilly Cooper over the past thirty years has been one of the great privileges and joys of my publishing life.

‘Beyond her genius as a novelist, she was always a personal heroine of mine for so many other reasons. For her kindness and friendship, for her humour and irrepressible enthusiasm, for her curiosity, for her courage, and for her profound love of animals.

‘Jilly may have worn her influence lightly, but she was a true trailblazer.

‘As a journalist, she went where others feared to tread, and as a novelist, she did likewise.

‘With a winning combination of glorious storytelling, wicked social commentary and deft, lacerating characterisation, she dissected the behaviour, bad mostly, of the English upper middle classes with the sharpest of scalpels.

‘It is no exaggeration to say that Riders, her first Rutshire chronicle, changed the course of popular fiction forever.

‘Ribald, rollicking and the very definition of good fun, it, and the 10 Rutshire novels which followed it, were to inspire a generation of women, writers and otherwise, to tell it how it was, whilst giving us a cast of characters who would define a generation and beyond.’

He added: ‘A publishing world without a new Jilly Cooper novel on the horizon is a drabber, less gorgeous place and we shall mourn the loss of a ground-breaking talent and a true friend.’

Dame Jilly’s funeral will be private in line with her wishes, according to her agent.

A public service of thanksgiving will be held in the coming months in Southwark Cathedral to celebrate her life, with a separate announcement made in due course.

This is sad news for all of those who loved her books; she will be deeply missed.

First Jane Goodall, Patricia Routledge and now Jilly Cooper – they will be having a huge party upstairs.

What a life she lived, though – she was a true icon, and people will mourn the fact that there will be no more books to come.

She was saucy and charming and an absolute scream, but she was never rude, and I believe that’s why generations utterly loved her.

She addressed many sensitive subjects, but she also did it in a humorous manner and without sugarcoating the facts.

Her books were tremendous fun, and she also appeared entertaining to be with – the kind of person that you would want to be placed next to at a dinner party.

A further outpouring of sympathy for recently deceased writers, singers, and performers seems to have occurred. It must serve as a memorial to a generation that created truly innovative and high-calibre work, which is unlikely to be seen again.

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