Council Plans ‘Cruel’ Tourist Tax

A council has been criticised for cruel plans to introduce a ‘tourist tax’ that could see expectant mothers charged when they have to journey to hospital from remote areas to give birth.

Patients in northern Scotland must travel hundreds of miles for hospital care.

Pregnant mothers living in Caithness, where local services have been drastically trimmed, have to travel to Inverness to give birth at Raigmore Hospital – more than 100 miles from the main Caithness towns of Wick and Thurso.

They will also be affected by the Highland Council’s proposal to introduce a levy on overnight visitors from autumn next year. 

The hope is that the plan will raise £10 million a year for the local authority, but health campaigners say it is common for heavily pregnant women to travel 100 miles south in the days leading up to their due date.

Hotel stays prior to hospital appointments will incur additional costs.

However, cruise ship passengers and those exploring the Highlands in motorhomes will be exempt.

The Caithness Health Action Team (CHAT) has sent a report on the breach of their right to healthcare to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in Geneva.

Iain Gregory, of the Caithness Health Action Team, told The Telegraph it is an ‘incredible lack of humanity’ for pregnant mothers to face such a levy.

He said: ‘A woman who is forced to undergo this journey, and who wishes to stay in a hotel or B&B for a day or so before her confinement, will be taxed along with her unborn baby.

‘It will also apply to the thousands of other Caithness residents who require to travel south for medical treatment.’

The move comes after a report by the Scottish Human Rights Commission discovered that mothers in Caithness and Sutherland felt ‘unsafe’ and ‘terrified’ about going to Raigmore to have their babies.

CHAT says that other patients from Caithness are also denied their rights to ‘accessible and adequate facilities’.

Its proposal states that access to the NHS for people living in Caithness ‘has been substantially curtailed over recent years with maternity care suffering particularly badly’.

It adds: ‘Citizens face disenfranchisement, and are unable to enjoy their basic human rights in relation to medical care.’

The consultant-led maternity unit at Caithness General Hospital was downgraded in 2016 to a midwife-led facility and the vast preponderance of local women now give birth in Inverness.

CHAT vice-chairman Mr Gregory said: ‘CHAT has been convinced for some time that the present situation facing mums-to-be, and indeed many other patients who are required to undergo the 200-mile-plus round trip to Raigmore, at all times of the day and night, sometimes in seriously dangerous weather conditions, and often in pain and distress, simply had to amount to a breach of their human rights.’

The campaigners hope the CESCR will respond to its report and put pressure on the Scottish Government and NHS Highland to improve local services.

The changes it wants include having Caithness’ midwife maternity unit led by a consultant to allow more women to give birth there.

It is anticipated that the UN will take up the issue in the upcoming year.

The CESCR is a UN body that monitors how countries enforce human rights such as the right to the best standard of health.

Governments who are signed up to it, including those in the UK, are supposed to follow any recommendations it makes.

Mr Gregory added: ‘CHAT has been campaigning for many years now, yet we still await action.

‘We hope now that we may, at last, ensure that our case is recognised and upheld and that the state, who are ultimately responsible, will be called upon to act.’

A spokesman for NHS Highland said: ‘We appreciate the unique challenges that are faced by people in remote, rural and island areas and in providing safe and effective services as close to home as possible.

‘There are regular consultant clinics in Caithness and we have successfully increased the midwifery team there.

‘We are currently looking at developing some specialist nursing roles for Caithness to add resilience to the service.’

I can see why foreign tourists should be required to pay, but they should also get insurance to cover any medical expenses they may incur while travelling, but locals should not be required to do so!

Nobody from abroad should be allowed free treatment on the NHS, regardless of who they are and where they come from. That’s why it’s called insurance, not an assurance that they will get everything for free.

Yet thousands arrive on our shores and we give them free treatment, among other things.

Very few things in this life are free, and generally when it is offered for free, usually someone else is paying for it – in this case the taxpayer!

Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he’s fed. 
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his fuel, Find other ways to tax his (censored).

Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the soil in which he lays
Put these words Upon his tomb, ‘Taxes drove me to my doom…’
When he’s gone, Do not relax, It’s time to apply the inheritance tax.

The Rebuilding Year Is 2025, Says Keir Starmer

So, it was the season of good cheer, loving each other and just making merry. Everybody was happy and laughing and then Sir Keir Starmer came along with his New Year transmission with all his assurances that he would transform Britain for the better, despite the threat posed by his political rivals and an opportunity to capitalise on his dwindling popularity.

However, Sir Keir’s track record is arguably more troubled with the voters who view him as untrustworthy, dislikable, wimpy and indecisive.

Nevertheless, there is a tiny majority of Brits who believe he should remain as Prime Minister, but the opposition cautioned that voters should ‘watch this space’ because the Conservative Party could be re-energised.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage lurks in the wings, hoping to use May’s council elections to flex Reform UK’s increasing strength after the party declared to have surpassed the Tories in terms of membership numbers.

Sir Keir’s message, shared on social media and filmed at Downing Street, said: ‘I know there is still so much more to do and that, for many people, it’s hard to think about the future when you spend all of your time fighting to get through the week.

‘So, I want to be clear: until you can look forward and believe in the promise and the prosperity of Britain again, then this Government will fight for you.

‘A fight for change that will define this year, next year and, indeed, every waking hour of this Government.’

He said the Government had a ‘clear plan for change’, including building 1.5 million new homes, cutting waiting lists and reducing immigration.

Sir Keir added: ‘That is what we will be focusing on. A year of rebuilding, but also rediscovering the great nation that we are.

‘A nation that gets things done. No matter how hard or tough the circumstances.’

Of course, our government only tell us what we want to hear. You know what they say, ‘Action speaks louder than words!’ And it’s almost as if he doesn’t comprehend what he’s done. He’s upset a lot of people, but he believes that doing so will allow the country to thrive, but the budget was anything but prosperous.

Our Prime Minister and his little helpers are completely tone-deaf, and the harm they are causing is inexcusable. Even if he does pick up the pace and does some good, people never forget what damage he is doing now.

I wonder how many people believe that Sir Keir will either quit or get the boot before 2026? I personally wouldn’t vote Labour if my life depended on them, but I also wouldn’t vote Conservative either.

Labour has no idea how to govern a nation. That’s what you call delusional—oh, I forgot they were deluded in the first place! It’s like assigning a cleaning service to a patient in critical care who insists they can perform the job when they obviously can’t!

We are slaves to our government (masters). Thousands of years ago our masters would beat us to make us work, now they just give us certain privileges, but they can take them away just as quickly if we do not do as we are told or perform as we should.

Once we realise that we are the slaves of this world and that we will always be slaves to our governments, then we might realise how our governments work in regard to its worker ants.

Imagine an animal being worked to the bone, the only difference is animals if they are beaten only sense pain or death in the moment. Humans have learnt to fight back, but by doing that our government have the power to take away our rights and they do!

A Woman Disappeared In 1972, Finally Solved

A woman who disappeared in 1972 has finally been discovered after it took police 52 years to release a photograph of her.

Sheila Fox mysteriously disappeared from Coventry city centre when she was only 16 amid suspicions she may have been in a relationship with an older man.

West Midlands Police said at the time that she had been living with her parents and kept an ‘open mind’ with respect to her whereabouts.

They had hoped for a long time that Ms Fox had just moved away and kept it a secret.

However, no evidence was discovered for decades, and the sole reason for the abrupt shift in circumstances was the filing of a re-appeal last week.

Ms Fox was ultimately located after all this time, thanks to a single photo that the police dredged out.

Officials confirmed that Ms Fox, now 68, had been found and spoken to in another part of the country. 

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘We are delighted to announce the conclusion of one of West Midlands Police’s longest-running missing person investigations.

‘We recently published a renewed appeal to help find Sheila Fox, who went missing from Coventry in 1972.

‘A single photo of Sheila from around the time of her disappearance was found by officers investigating and published on our website and social media.

‘Within hours of the appeal, members of the public got in touch with information which led the team to her.

‘Sheila was confirmed to be safe and well and living in another part of the country, finally resolving one of the longest-running missing person cases we have investigated’.

Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw, from the force’s Cold Case Investigation Team, added: ‘We’re absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades.

‘We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila.

‘We are a small team of officers and I’d like to recognise the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public.

‘Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them.’

Teenagers flee their homes for a variety of reasons, and this woman’s actions were one of them. People just didn’t talk about things like they do today, but it’s fantastic that she’s safe and I hope she’s had a happy life. There may have been a lot of reasons, but we can’t guess about something we don’t know.

Children and teenagers don’t just run away from a happy home. However, there was no indication of abuse or ill-treatment, so all of the public knowledge leads to the conclusion that she ran away with perhaps her boyfriend, but of course, this is again all speculation.

This lady had no contact with her family for 52 years. No contact indicates something wasn’t quite right. Either she had a reason or she was in a situation where she wasn’t able to go back – either way it doesn’t sound good.

It was either not good or not normal, whatever ‘normal’ is. Whatever the explanation I do hope that the gutter press leaves her alone.

Even though it does seem that this woman left of her own free will. Over the years of the police searching, did she not apply for a passport, need a birth certificate, get married, even open a bank account or anything else in this time?

Were government agencies not sharing data, and were the police exploring all this time, or did they not try that hard in the first place?

Better Lives Attract Britons To Australia

Britons are flocking to Australia in enormous numbers to earn an income while enjoying the famously laid-back Aussie lifestyle.

Almost 50,000 Brits arrived Down Under on working holiday visas this year out of more than 200,000 applicants overall, a new record high. 

The spike in ‘Poms’ heading Down Under has been boosted by a loosening of visa rules which increased the cut-off age for UK applicants from 30 to 35, permitted three-year stays and axed the requirement to carry out 88 days of farm work.

The prospect of more pay and other perks, such as improved work-life balance and sunny weather, draw British people to Australia, despite the country’s generally higher cost of living.

Among those taking advantage is content creator Kody Egan, who moved to Australia in August with her partner, Joseph Horrocks.

The couple, who are both 27 and formerly lived in Atherton, Greater Manchester, now live in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Despite only intending to remain in Australia for a short time, they now want to make a new life there. 

‘We wanted a new challenge and to try something new after coming for a month of travelling the year before,’ Ms Egan told MailOnline. 

‘We saved up and made the plunge – mostly to experience more of an outdoor lifestyle including the beach, surfing, hiking and all the amazing nature.

‘It’s a big change and we’d recommend doing what we did and come for a holiday first. We had no intention of living here at first, but wanted to after experiencing the people and the lifestyle! We’re so grateful for the Aussies, they’re great.’ 

Life in Aus doesn’t come cheap, with the average person paying A$2,715 (£1,344) per month on rent compared to £1223 in the UK. 

Groceries are also more costly, with researchers at Edith Cowan University pricing a trolley of supermarket goods at £160 ($324) compared to £140 in the UK.

However, wages are more elevated in the ‘Lucky Country’, averaging $100,000 (£49,480) compared to £37,430 in Britain. 

Despite loving the Aussie lifestyle, Ms Egan – who runs a YouTube account Eat Venture Vlogs – cautioned that the price of housing was a problem.

‘Like in the UK, there’s a housing crisis here, so rentals are really expensive – as are living costs in general. So it’s important to factor that in when budgeting for a move,’ she explained.

‘Coming over to live and work is very different from the holiday but we really are enjoying the experience. We’re big nature lovers so seeing all the new species of plants, birds etc has been incredible.

‘We started our YouTube vlog so our family and friends could see what we got up to daily as some of them really missed us when we left, but we’ve since reached a much bigger audience and the vlog is growing every day.’ 

Emily Brady, a 25-year-old nurse, headed Down Under last December with her 29-year-old partner Harry Bridges, a motor mechanic. 

They quickly found well-paying jobs in Kalgoorlie, a mining city 370 miles east of Perth in Western Australia. 

Ms Brady, who formerly worked on a paediatric oncology ward in Wales, now makes up to three times more than she did in the UK.

‘While I loved the job, it was very underfunded, very short-staffed and you could work as many hours as you wanted but you weren’t really given any recognition for that,’ she told The Times.

‘And I felt like it was just always an uphill battle. It was really exhausting. So I wanted to try nursing over in Australia where it was meant to be one of the best places in the world for nursing.’

The nurse said she particularly valued the better working conditions in Australia, adding that she and her partner now plan to stay and have children in the country. 

While numerous newcomers have adjusted well to life Down Under, others have been less upbeat.

Earlier this year, Londoner Owen Willis took to social media to say he was ‘de-influencing’ fellow Brits by sharing his experience of living away from home. 

‘Australia isn’t going to solve all your problems,’ he said in a video. ‘I’m not saying the UK is perfect but my idea of Australia in my head was this utopian paradise.’ 

Mr Willis, who said he lived in Australia in 2022 before returning to the UK, claimed ‘casual racism’ was a problem in the country. 

‘I lived in so many places in Australia I feel like I have a round enough view to categorise the whole country as a racist country,’ he said.

The TikToker claimed that racism was less of an issue in major cities like Sydney and Melbourne but claimed that in Queensland he was ‘shocked by what people would say to me’.

His views produced a backlash from Australians, who branded him a ‘whingeing Pom’ – a popular nickname for Brits who criticise the country. 

There were 213,400 people on working holidaymaker visas in Australia at the end of November – 72,300 more than before COVID. 

Out of these, 47,000 were Brits, alongside 23,700 from France, 21,8000 from Ireland, 14,800 from Japan, 13,400 from Taiwan, 13,200 from Italy and 12,700 from South Korea. 

Immigration has become a politically sensitive issue as Australia continues to suffer a housing crisis with the continued high number of international students also putting pressure on rents in Australia’s major cities.

The ruling Labour Party had aimed for a net overseas migration intake of 395,000 during the last financial year, down from a record 528,000 previously. 

Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Immigration, estimated that 450,000 to 475,000 people were likely to have moved to Australia in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, government estimates this month showed 340,000 migrants arriving in Australia over the financial year 2024-25 – significantly higher than the 260,000 projection. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed higher-than-expected immigration on too few people departing Australia permanently.

‘It has peaked, it’s coming down, it’s coming down slower than was anticipated in the Budget really for one main reason and that’s because there’s been fewer departures,’ he said.

‘The Treasury has been more or less bang on when it comes to arrivals, but departures have been slower.

‘People are hanging around for longer and that’s meant that the number is coming down more slowly and you see that updated.’

Australia is not better, it just appears better because it has a nicer vista, but if you take off those rose-tinted glasses…

People are fleeing the UK because our country is slipping into the dust of foreign ideology at speed, but we have to be here to change it – running away is just spinelessness and disgraceful.

UK government and its arrivals of boat people – it will be like Bangladesh in a few years. Oh, I forgot, it already looks like Bangladesh!

Everybody who whines about it should contain their snivelling and do something about it!

I’m not convinced Australia is a better country to live in, but I guess we can all be miserable in a warmer climate instead of a cold one.

The UK is on death row – everything is failing – policing, housing, health, education, defence, transport, environment, population, energy, fuel and food costs – oh, and don’t forget life expectations et cetera.

Our children can no longer afford their own home whilst most migrants are gifted homes, and record energy costs with record taxes for a declining quality of life. I’m not surprised people are fleeing the UK for a better life.

It is true that some adults are managing to purchase their own homes, but most have to privately rent and are living in one-bedroom flats with more than one child. Numerous people don’t believe what is going on, well, think again – your carer will be along soon to tuck you in! And I’ll have some of what you’re smoking.

There was also the recent piece of news where a recently emigrated Brit in Australia had to return to the UK because he suffered a stroke and couldn’t afford his rehabilitation in Australia, so he’s had to return to the UK to access our NHS. Life wasn’t too kind to him out in Oz.

And when will Starmer and Reeves accept that they’re in power? They have a responsibility, but our economy is flat-lining because of their incompetence. Tax and spend; that’s their motto.

It’s all about dilution and destruction. Our rulers do not care. They want us to vanish and make room for the new!

If our government were to deport everyone who came here from outside of Europe and the West, our country would become brilliant and our housing situation would likely end, or at least be much better than it is now, with much of the brutality and criminality gone.

There Has Been An Outcry Over Moves To Weigh Passengers On Flights

It is seen as the future of green air travel.

As millions put Christmas behind them and begin looking for summer sunshine, airlines are looking to ask flyers to step on the scales before stepping on board.

The first study into the controversial idea has shown that more than half of tourists are against it.

But perhaps unsurprisingly, the well-off and regular flyers are behind charging heavier people more.

Markus Schuckert, professor of hospitality management at the University of New Hampshire, said: ‘This topic has been widely discussed for decades, but there’s surprisingly little research on it.

‘Some airlines have tried or considered weight-based policies, but the main roadblock remains ethical concerns which make it difficult to even discuss.

‘But if we aim to make air travel more sustainable, we should have an open discussion.

‘That’s really the point of research—to put everything on the table for consideration.’

Researchers on the study, published this month in the journal Transportation Research, asked 1,000 travellers about weighing their baggage and themselves to help lower emissions and found more than half of travellers were not enthusiastic about hopping on the scales to trim the amount of jet fuel used.

However, several were receptive to the concept provided it aligned with their personal interest in reducing emissions.

Participants in the research were offered the option of a basic policy in which the cost was the same for all passengers.

The second option was a threshold policy where passengers exceeding a certain weight pay additional fees and then a tariff where each passenger’s airfare is based on their combined body and baggage weight.

The standard policy was the most accepted approach and almost 60 per cent of those asked had serious concerns about weight-based policies saying it was unfair and risked discrimination and singling people out.

Those who liked the weight-based program were young people aged 18 to 35, 20 percent more than travellers over 66.

Regular flyers and high earners were 25 percent more likely to support weight-based policies than those in lower income brackets or who didn’t travel as much.

Finnair, a Finnish airline, caused controversy earlier this year when it implemented a voluntary passenger weighing system and was accused of fat shaming.

Travellers at Helsinki airport were invited to step on the scales along with their bags to help ‘optimise Finnair’s current aircraft balance calculations’.

Satu Munnukka, head of ground processes for Finnair, said: ‘We weigh volunteer customers together with their carry-on baggage.

In the measurement, we do not ask for personal data, but the total weight of the customer and carry-on baggage, the customer’s age, gender and travel class are recorded in the database.

‘No information is collected that would allow participants to be identified.’

Southwest Airlines in America permits overweight passengers an additional seat free of charge.

It’s not always the person’s fault if they are overweight. They could be on medication that bloats them or even hormones – overweight doesn’t always mean everyone overeats.

There are numerous overweight people these days for one reason or another, it makes no difference which reason it is. Have airlines not thought of making double seats for those who are pregnant or overweight and charging a little more money so they can accommodate without people whining that they’re sitting next to a fat person?

For the safety of the passengers, crew, and attendants, body weight should be considered since planes do have a maximum weight restriction.

However, being overweight is not the only thing that can make a flight pure torture. There are the noisy passengers and crying children as well. If you decide to fly and want comfort, then go first class – you get what you pay for.

The Boy In The Bubble

This is the moment a boy was discovered inside a bubble drifting in the Brazilian sea.

Video footage showed a person on a boat strapping a rope around the bubble and dragging it to the shore at Lázaro Beach in Ubatuba, São Paulo, where the child, who is about eight years old, was reunited with his parents.

Rafael do Prado told Metropoles news outlet that the child was in the bubble playing on the beach when its cable snapped and got dragged further out to sea.

He was riding his boat with his children when he spotted the big plastic orb and was curious to know if anyone was in it when he navigated towards it and saw the boy inside.

He spoke to the youngster and kept him calm while he waited for his friend, Welington Junior, to arrive in a speedboat that was better equipped to handle the rescue mission.

‘I was worried about whether he was able to breathe or not because the buoy is dangerous,’ Prado recalled.

‘There is a certain amount of time that you can breathe inside it. I calmed him down, and that was when my daughter started filming.’

‘I was afraid it would deflate with him inside,’ Junior said.

‘We put a rope through the bubble and dragged it as fast as we could, because we couldn’t go too fast, or we could hurt the boy.’

Beachgoers were cautioned by the Maritime Firefighters Group about the risks of using floatable gadgets, such as bubbles, at the beach when they are more suited for pools.

‘This type of toy is new to us on the beaches,’ captain Karoline Magalhães said.

‘It comes from swimming pools and now we are starting to have certain types of problems because this ball is easily dragged by the wind.’

The fire department official added that the bubble the boy was found in provides ‘a false sense of security.’

‘For every three deaths at sea, a drowning process begins with floating objects,’ Magalhães said.

‘Whether it’s a surfboard, an inflatable mattress, or these buoys, floating objects at sea are not safe.’

It’s a terrible idea to use an inflatable bubble. The youngster would have been submerged in a plastic straitjacket if it had ripped or opened in any way, and how could it have been fun for the youngster to be put inside a plastic bubble, tethered by a cable, being carried along the beach – what were his parents thinking?

Is this a new babysitting tool for parents so that they can be even less involved with their children and more immersed in their phones? And where were his parents in this debacle? They obviously weren’t watching him, and they definitely weren’t in a coma. Frankly, animals take better care of their young. Whatever happened to playing on the beach with a bucket and spade?

This child was clearly not in the middle of the ocean, but whatever the depth of water, it can be particularly perilous for a child of his age.

What crackpot designed these plastic balls, and what powers permitted them to be sold? And then there are the crackpot parents who allow their children to use them, and it goes on!

God knows why the youngster was inside this ball in the first place – maybe his parents thought he was a hamster.

Maybe this is a new way to travel now! Don’t give the migrants any ideas.

Britain’s Shopping Centres Are Boarded Up And Crime-Ridden

Shoppers have claimed that Britain’s abandoned ghost shopping centres would be improved ‘by a zombie apocalypse’.

Residents of Dartford, a commuter town in Kent, claim that since the construction of the expansive Bluewater Shopping Centre in 1999, the town has declined.

Now they say it is in need of life support economically, socially and from a construction point of view.

Complaints have ranged from its crime problems to tearaway youths as well as a deeper issue from its lack of aspiration.

Locals have claimed that Temple Hill Square and the High Street, both once teeming with energy, shoppers and retail giants, are now filled with corner shops, a chippy and a cafe.

Miserable-looking flats and maisonettes also overlook the square, while the town centre has numerous shops sitting empty.

One local, a fan of the area, describes the square as ‘brutalist architecture’, while another says it is a ‘hellhole’.

Much outrage is directed at what the 240-acre Bluewater – the fifth largest shopping centre in the country – has done to the area and how local politicians and planners have responded.

Michael Preston, 56, said standards in the area had slipped in recent years.

The decorator said: ‘It is just hell. I’m sure there’s rougher areas but it is so depressing. It is appalling.

‘A zombie apocalypse would do the area a favour. It would cheer the place up. It really is that bad. It’s just grey and miserable. I want to move.

‘There’s always stabbings or crime and anti-social behaviour. I have lived here my entire life and it used to be lovely. Now it’s grim.

‘It’s so sad. It was heaving in the 1990s and 2000s. Now it’s empty. You can hear a pin drop across the square and in the town.’

‘Dartford has been home for so long but I just can’t take it anymore. I used to be proud but it has been neglected.’

Dave Willis, 54, said: ‘It’s not what it used to be. It used to be thriving. People would come from all over Kent to come and shop. Now even locals do not bother.

‘It’s empty. It’s just corner shops and nothing really works around here in terms of the shops.

‘The Argos went and that was a massive loss. Nothing has been able to keep up with Bluewater. It’s really bad.’

Retired builder Eddie Hemsley, 66, has lived in Dartford most of his life and said Bluewater had ‘ruined’ the town.

He said: ‘Nobody cares about us. The council has just abandoned us. Bluewater came in and sucked the life out of this town.

Nowadays, Turkish barbers, tattoo parlours, and nail parlours can be found in most places. Older people rely on local stores to shop, especially if they are elderly or disabled. However, real shopping has shifted to adjacent retail parks where parking is always crowded and occasionally free.

However, this is not happening just in Dartford, it’s happening up and down the country.

The same has occurred in Basildon, Essex. The abundance of shops and once great market stalls have now gone into deep decline, and shops are now being knocked down to build four tower blocks, no doubt for the London overflow, but no additional doctors, schools and the hospital are buckling at the knees.

Many shopping centres in towns across the UK are like this. If the area is more moneyed, then it has a better possibility of surviving. If a town is deprived, it will usually end up with boarded-up shops, and the area will rapidly decline, and crime will rise.

Retailers won’t even set up shop in places where there is increased criminality, it’s a vicious circle.

Asylum Seekers Costing Taxpayers £160,000 A Year Now Live In £575,000 Luxury Homes

A family accused of masquerading as Afghans to illegally claim asylum in the UK are living in a £575,000 luxury home in an exclusive Home Counties commuter town having cost the taxpayer £160,000 over the past year, MailOnline revealed.

Gurbakhsh Singh, 72, his wife Ardet Kaur, 68, their son Guljeet Singh, 43, and his wife Kawaljeet Kaur, 37, all appeared on bail at Croydon Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Just before Christmas last year, the Singh Kaurs reportedly claimed to be from the Taliban-led nation when they landed at Heathrow Airport.

But they have been accused of twice having failed to obtain visas to come to Britain as Indian nationals earlier in 2023.

Earlier this month, they made their first court appearance. Both Punjabi and Dari translators were available to them during the hearing.

Until recently they were living at Wembley’s Holiday Inn in north London, which has been fully booked by the Home Office for asylum seekers and is now not accepting any customers.

However, as a requirement of their bail, they have all been ordered to stay at the new house in Hemel Hempstead where they are already living together.

The 1,136 sq ft property, which has four bedrooms, an open plan ground floor and with ‘luxurious’ fitted kitchen with top-end appliances, was put up for sale for £575,000 in March 2023. It was sold in 2022 for £467,000, according to the Land Registry.

It has plush deep-pile carpets, new wooden floors and a 341 sq ft loft room with views of Hertfordshire.

The modern property, within half a mile of excellent schools and close to Hemel Hempstead’s amenities and railway station, also profits from a recently landscaped garden to the rear and two parking spaces.

MailOnline asked the Government to comment on the case – and the expense to the taxpayer of accommodating them in a hotel and now their new property for the past 12 months.

A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that the cost of housing an asylum keeper went from £17,000 per person in 2019/20 to £41,000 in 2023/24.

Based on these figures, the family of four at the centre of the case would cost £ 164,000 a year to house since they arrived a year ago.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘It would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation’.

But added: ‘Where there are concerns of abuse of the asylum system, we ensure that these are thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken.’

These people should be deported, not supported.

Our own homeless people are dying on the streets in the meantime.

It’s the same old thing. While our own are allowed to deteriorate, Keir Starmer must cease granting these individuals preferential treatment.

These people just keep on taking, and our government just keeps on giving but not their own. They should be removed immediately.

These people are fraudsters, and please don’t say racist or human rights. They have committed a crime, end of.

Hundreds of migrants arrive every day, but we can only take so much before we blow.

This is so bad. No wonder this country is on its knees.

Everyone born outside of this nation must go. Now is the moment to rise up because enough is enough. Since this is a problem that will not go away and our Prime Minister and his administration are clueless, I would be more than happy to take a stand as an older woman.

After Moving To Australia, A Brit Faces Returning Home

A British man who moved to Australia just weeks ago faces being forced to return to the UK after he suffered a catastrophic stroke.

Liam Rudd, 30, and his 28-year-old girlfriend Stella Slinger Thompson were looking forward to starting a new life on the Gold Coast. 

However, their shared ‘dream’ of living Down Under quickly spun into a nightmare after Mr Rudd suffered a stroke in the shower on Sunday, November 11. 

This left him paralysed on the bathroom floor where Ms Slinger Thompson discovered him. 

After being rushed to the hospital, Mr Rudd had two rounds of emergency surgery to remove blood clots in his brain and soon afterwards he was put in an induced coma.

He had been just days away from starting a new job as a fleet mechanic. 

Despite a gofundme page raising thousands to support his recovery, the couple are being forced to cut their time short and return to the UK because the cost of rehabilitation in Australia is too costly.

Although the cause of the stroke has not been determined, doctors believe it may have been caused by a benign tumour called a fibroelastoma that may develop on the heart valves.

The British national is optimistic that he will eventually be able to return to Australia, even though his recuperation may take up to a year and a half.

The Brit, who will be moving back to Guildford, Surrey, said: ‘It was a huge shock. I don’t remember too much from the lead-up. I didn’t feel any symptoms coming on.

‘I just remember having the stroke and being paralysed on the floor and scrambling and trying to pull myself up but being unable to.

‘I was due to start a new job as a fleet mechanic for a fleet engineering company. I love work so I was disappointed. But at the same time, there was nothing I could do to change anything so you have to embrace it.

‘My plan is to go back to the UK to undergo intensive rehabilitation and then come back to Australia anyway. That’s still an open opportunity.

‘I’m very fortunate. My employer’s been very understanding. I don’t think the opportunity is lost.

‘The doctors expect a full recovery but it’s a long road ahead and will take an incredible amount of work to get to. You have to keep the mind strong.’

Ms Slinger Thompson, who works as an advertising producer and is from Brighton, East Sussex, was due to meet her boyfriend for lunch with friends on Sunday 11 November and became concerned when he wasn’t answering his phone.

Thinking he had suffered a concussion, she summoned an ambulance after discovering him lying on the bathroom floor.

She said: ‘It was insane. Even now I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it. This is a living nightmare.

‘He was late picking me up. Usually, he is a bit late so I didn’t think much of it. But I was calling him for over an hour. I would call then it would ring and it would pick up and decline.

‘I thought ‘this is odd’. Then finally after an hour, he picked up. He wasn’t making any sense. All I could make out was him saying ‘help’. So I rushed round and also called three of his friends.

‘We arrived and found him on the bathroom floor. He’d had a shower clearly and fainted or hit his head. He was tapping his head and tapping the floor to communicate to us that he’d fallen.

‘I called the ambulance. They gave me a note to put him in a recovery position. Because he’d been throwing up, we all at the time thought he had a really bad concussion. We didn’t realise at that point what it was.’

Doctors discovered that Mr Rudd had suffered a stroke and required emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain after he became unresponsive on his left side and arrived at the hospital.

However, during surgery, doctors discovered a second blood clot that was too ‘high risk’ to work on immediately and he had to have a second surgery the following day.

Ms Slinger Thompson said: ‘Once we got to the hospital they rushed him into a surgery where they do an incision in the groin to retrieve any kind of blood clot.

‘It usually should take an hour but it took eight hours because they found another blood clot that was too high risk to operate on. The first blood clot they operated on and tried to retrieve as much as they could.

‘They called his mum and dad and explained it. Then they did the six-hour emergency surgery. They cut his skull to relieve any pressure in his brain. They felt like it went well. It was all about trying to save his life.

‘The second surgery was a pretty sleepless night. It’s been pretty bleak.

‘From then he was in a coma. They started to take him off sedation three days later. He slowly came out of the coma and came off all the tubes.’

The mechanic is now being seen five times a day by doctors in a stroke ward and his partner visits him every day.

The UK and Australia have a reciprocal arrangement that covers Mr Rudd’s emergency medical costs, but it does not pay for his rehabilitation because he is not an Australian citizen and does not have sponsorship.

She said: ‘He’s in the stroke ward currently but as soon as he’s moved to the rehab ward that’s when the costs will start coming.

‘Because he’s not a citizen or got a sponsorship yet, from the rehab stage it would become very costly and a financial burden to the point where it’s £8,000 a week.

‘They’ve advised that the best-case scenario is for us to go to the UK and get the rehab he needs back home where it is free because of the amazing NHS.

‘We don’t know what’s going to happen. He could be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Who knows at this stage? It’s a lot of living in limbo and trying to stay positive but not really knowing anything.’

Ms Slinger Thompson has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds so they can both travel business class to get Liam safely back home and begin the intensive rehabilitation process. So far it has risen over £31,000. 

She said: ‘[The support has] been overwhelming. When we first launched it within 12 hours it was on £12,000. He, for the first time, got emotional and actually cried because he was so overwhelmed by the love and support he’s had.

‘[Doctors] said in the meeting that he needs to fly business class. They need someone with him so I’m going to come back home as well.’

The girlfriend admitted Mr Rudd has ‘always wanted’ to live in Australia and it became their shared ‘dream’ and she hopes he will be able to return in the future.

She said: ‘It’s so unlucky. He moved out here and was about to start a new job. He’s always wanted to go to Australia since the first day I met him. He’s always talked about it.

‘We were like ‘Right, let’s save up money and go out to Australia. Coming here we’ve made such a good group of friends. He was so excited about this new job and the offer of sponsorship.

‘Staying here full time was the ultimate dream for him, and for us. It’s been unfortunate. We hope we can get him well enough to come back out here and continue his dream.’

Mr Rudd’s mother, Mandy Mayhew, an estate agent who lives in Hayling Island, Hampshire, flew out to Australia for two weeks to be with her son once she heard the news.

She said: ‘I’ve never cried so much in my life. It was such a shock to everyone. They don’t know how it happened. They don’t know why it happened. He is super fit and he eats really clean.

‘He’s a real warrior. From what we thought would be the first outcome which would be he was brain dead on his right-hand side and completely paralysed on the left-hand side to how he is now is extraordinary four weeks later. A long way to go but obviously extraordinary.

‘How cruel is that? Apart from doing a degree which is hard and an engineering degree is very hard, he’s also been fixing people’s cars. He burns the candle at 100 ends. He spreads himself very thin. I said ‘That made you stop didn’t it’.

‘He bl**dy does not want to come back but realises he has to. I don’t know what his future plans and dreams are. I really hope he goes back to where he wants to be.’

To be fair he will be extremely lucky if he can get a visa to return to Australia with his medical history now, and numerous ex-pats see their way back to the UK to use the NHS when they require medical care.

The grass is always greener until something happens, but this guy hardly planned on having a stroke. He should have still taken out health insurance in case he got sick.

It was an unfortunate beginning in a new country, but he was young and intended to work and integrate – tragic, but now he should prioritise his health.

This is tragic – a great life in a new country is now ruined. I hope he recuperates quickly – be kind people out there!

There Have Been A Number Of Basic Failures At A Hospital, According To The Coroner

A mother who died from massive post-birth haemorrhage was ‘failed’ by NHS staff who gave her a biscuit thinking she was dehydrated, a report has discovered. 

Laura-Jane Seaman, 36, died at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, in December 2022, two days after the birth of her son. 

The care support worker was ‘begging staff to help her’ and pleading that she didn’t want to die but medics from a ‘range of disciplines’ failed to listen.

This was despite her frantic warnings that she could feel the bleeding, felt lightheaded, and that her limbs had gone numb, as well as the fact that it was recognised she was at high risk of postpartum haemorrhage, or excessive postpartum bleeding.

Medical staff put Ms Seaman’s symptoms down to dehydration and after losing consciousness she was simply given a ginger biscuit for her to eat.

Ms Seaman ended up suffering two cardiac arrests when her condition worsened and was taken into emergency surgery, but tragically passed away on December 23.

Prevention of Future Deaths report has since discovered there were ‘multiple missed opportunities to escalate and treat’ Ms Seaman in the lead-up to her demise. 

Coroner Sonia Hayes said the mother-of-five’s ‘maternal collapse’ was classified as a faint and she was treated for possible dehydration and given medication that had ‘only a transient effect’.

Ms Seaman had a normal vaginal delivery on December 21, 2022. She breastfed her son and there were plans to send her home before her condition started to decline.

It was later established the internal bleeding had gone on for hours before she had emergency surgery and was admitted to intensive care, where she died.

The report said that Ms Seaman ‘died as a consequence of basic failures by healthcare professionals to recognise and escalate her loss of consciousness as a maternal collapse’. 

It added that staff’s ‘inability to obtain vital signs’ was ‘incorrectly attributed to malfunctioning equipment rather than obvious clinical deterioration’ had they utilised the correct procedures. 

‘Laura-Jane suffered a splenic capsular tear on the labour ward that caused an intraperitoneal bleed that continued undetected in the absence of any examination of her abdomen,’ the report said. 

It said that ‘vital signs that were obtained were severely deranged’ for a period of two and a half hours, adding that ‘the consequential risk to her life that was obvious’.

Coroner Hayes wrote that had action been taken ‘with multi-disciplinary consultant-led review’ this would have resulted in care and treatment that would have saved Ms Seaman’s life. 

The report concluded that her ‘death was avoidable and was contributed to by neglect’. 

In her ruling earlier this year, Ms Hayes said healthcare professionals were responsible for multiple ‘gross failures’ over Ms Seaman’s death and would not have died if these had not occurred.

Notes on Ms. Seaman’s health were marked on paper, which prevented concerns from being escalated quickly, and hindered her treatment.

Concluding the inquest in August, Ms Hayes found there was a failure to trigger a major haemorrhage protocol and a lack of intervention by a multi-disciplinary consultant.

Staff’s inability to obtain vital signs after Ms Seaman fell unconscious ‘was incorrectly attributed to malfunctioning equipment’.

The coroner added there should have been a mandatory escalation before Ms Seaman died and warned she would be writing a prevention of future deaths report.

Suzanne White, head of clinical negligence at law firm Leigh Day, who represented the family, said: ‘She had a high-risk pregnancy, which should have been consultant-led, and observations were not appropriately undertaken which would have indicated how quickly Laura-Jane was deteriorating.

‘The coroner’s experts made it clear whilst giving evidence that Laura-Jane would have survived had the most basic level of care been given to her.’

Maternity services at the hospital were rated as ‘requires improvement’ in the most recent Care Quality Commission inspection.

A spokesman for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Our focus has been on improving training in recognising the early signs of deterioration and escalation routes in our maternity services to prevent this from happening again.’

This was an awful and unnecessary tragedy. It really makes you terrified of falling unwell and having to put yourself at the mercy of the NHS and in recent years they don’t appear to care or listen.

Has anyone been prosecuted for this crime because it is a crime? They failed their duty of care. Hospitals are very frightening these days – you go in, but you don’t come out.

Did they not think to locate other equipment to utilise after determining that the equipment was defective? It appears that hospitals, which are meant to be the safest places to give birth, are unable to recognise a woman who is dying.

A watch with a second hand, a stethoscope and a mercury sphygmomanometer is all that was needed. They’ve been in existence for over 100 years, but no doubt the staff relied upon a new-fangled electric machine because it takes far too much time and effort to do it the old-fashioned way.

And why would you give a patient a ginger biscuit for dehydration? Water perhaps!

This was a wrongful death and they should face professional and criminal charges.

Remember when you clapped during COVID-19 for medics like this? Not clapping now, are you?

After spending billions, the NHS has still failed to fulfil its responsibility of care, which is disgusting.

A spokesman for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust said, ‘Our focus has been on improving training in recognising the early signs of deterioration and escalation routes in our maternity service to prevent this from happening again.’

This is fundamental medicine. Recognising when a patient is deteriorating and going into hypovolemic shock is one of the first things medical professionals learn. I am pretty sure that what happened here was a basic failure to adequately complete a history and physical examination, and a failure to do the basics like check the pulse and manually measure the blood pressure.

Those who failed this woman should be struck off whatever register they are on.

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