The Grooming Gangs Inquiry Won’t Be Rushed

Amid outrage at the increasing chaos engulfing the government, a minister cautioned that Labour will not hurry to establish a significant new investigation into the grooming gangs crisis.

Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said finding the right chairperson for the investigation is a ‘crucial appointment to get right’, after it emerged it could take months.

In response to strong pressure, Sir Keir Starmer agreed to conduct a comprehensive nationwide investigation into group-based child sex abuse in June.

However, after four months, no one has been appointed by the Home Office to head the investigation.

Jim Gamble, a former police officer, and Annie Hudson, a former senior social worker, both withdrew from consideration for the position of chair, leaving no further contenders.

The sense of chaos has been compounded by the departure of five women from the victims liaison panel – four of whom say they would be prepared to return if safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resigns.

However, five of those still on the advisory panel have said they would only stay if Ms Phillips remained in post. There were originally about 30 survivors on the panel.

Mr Thomas-Symonds told Times Radio: ‘What we are seeking to make sure is that you have a chair who has the confidence of all the victims, and it is an absolutely crucial appointment to get right, and the experience of previous inquiries has shown the difficulty of rushing to choose someone who then doesn’t command that confidence.’

He added: ‘We are acutely conscious of how long victims have waited for justice, but the chair appointment is absolutely crucial to making sure that the inquiry commands confidence.’

He said he had confidence in Ms Phillips as a ‘powerful advocate’ in politics and before becoming an MP.

Four women on the panel – Ellie-Ann Reynolds, Fiona Goddard, Elizabeth Harper, and a woman signed only as ‘Jessica’ – resigned this week and sent a letter outlining the requirements that must be met for them to return.

Those include Ms Phillips standing down, for the inquiry to be ‘laser-focused’ on grooming gangs, and for its chair to be a former or sitting judge.

They criticised Ms Phillips for labelling some of their claims about the scope of the inquiry being widened ‘untrue’, and said they had provided evidence to the contrary.

According to the source, the government will now get back in touch with survivors to hear their worries and get their input on who should be in charge of the investigation.

Baroness Louise Casey, who was called in to assist with the investigation, will collaborate closely with the government to identify a fresh pool of potential chair candidates.

Mr Gamble said he had pulled out of the appointment process because of a ‘lack of confidence’ in him among some survivors because of his police background.

He also hit out at politicians ‘playing games’ with the inquiry and said victims had been ‘disrespected and misinformed’.

The five backing Ms Phillips said in a letter to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that her retaining her role is one of the conditions for their continued participation.

They wrote that the minister has ‘remained impartial’ and ‘we want her to remain in position for the duration of the process for consistency’.

They said they had asked for the scope to be larger than grooming gangs because some survivors would be excluded for not fitting the ‘generalised stereotype’ of what that includes.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he ‘of course’ has faith in Ms Phillips, as other ministers also rallied around her.

‘Won’t be rushed.’ Are they having a laugh, but when Starmer became Prime Minister, it didn’t take him too long to muster his cabinet together, but they are certainly keen to let migrants and the rape of our women happen, yet everyone is turning a blind eye to it.

If it’s not a rat you can smell, it’s the overwhelming stink of corruption coming from our government.

Labour must be coerced into starting this investigation. They obviously don’t want it, or else they would have done it by now, and they appear to be doing all in their power to prevent it, proving once again that our government are a national disgrace.

They said they won’t be rushed – I’ve seen snails on Valium that move faster. It’s one massive cover-up, and Starmer knows it.

The Death Of An Essex Man Was Preventable

The death of a 20-year-old described as a “beautiful soul” was directly contributed to by the non-availability of an in-patient bed in a Mental Health Assessment Unit, a report has concluded.

Jack Peatling spent six days at home awaiting a bed before taking his own life on June 5, 2023.

A prevention of future deaths report says he had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and had made previous attempts at taking his own life and repeated self-harm, including two previous serious attempts on May 29, 2023.

Following a formal assessment at Basildon Hospital the next day, Jack’s admission to a Mental Health Assessment Unit was documented as urgent and necessary for the proper evaluation, management and treatment of his anxiety and depression and his impulsive suicide attempts.

With the agreement of Jack and his mother, the assessment determined that, in the context of his continuous very high level risk, with high levels of impulsivity, Jack could not be safely managed in the community.

Over the next six days, the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) were unable to identify the needed in-patient bed anywhere in Essex.

Evidence established that the need for such beds outstripped supply and that this had been and remained a chronic problem, locally and nationally.

As it was acknowledged by the professionals involved that his risk of suicide could not be safely managed in the community, it was ruled that Jack’s demise was “avoidable” and “had an in-patient bed been made available, he would probably not have died”.

Essex coroner Sean Horstead has stated to the Department of Health and Social Security, warning that a lack of bed space could lead to further tragedies.

In response, a Government spokesman said the Department of Health and Social Care has instructed the NHS to prioritise improving the availability of mental health beds.

Jack’s case was included in a Lampard Inquiry submission in September 2024. The Lampard Inquiry is investigating deaths at NHS-run inpatient units in Essex between 2000 and 2023.

His father, Jamie, told the hearing: “Jack had so much to offer this world, and he died. We do not have the words to describe the loss of Jack on our family. Jack completed our world and built on that. He was the most beautiful soul and yet so troubled. The gap, grief and guilt that we feel as a family is indescribable.

“He was our world, and without him the sun has gone down, and our hearts are broken. We are left feeling as though we were responsible for not fighting harder for him to get the support he needed and wanted.

“He was so brave.”

Describing the problems with Jack’s care, Jamie added that the family thought a corner had been turned when they were told he needed to be admitted immediately, and Jack agreed.

“The following days, with daily visits, were unbearable,” he explained.

“Every day, Jack became more anxious, every day Jack would say that he was struggling more with increased anxiety, every day Jack would say that he would likely kill himself, and every day being told that there was no bed available.

“We were told that Jack was high priority, and despite this high priority, nothing changed. The mental health team agreed he needed to be admitted immediately, noting that his impulsive behaviour increased his risk, but there were no beds, and he was not admitted.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our deepest sympathies are with Jack’s family and friends. We’ve instructed the NHS to prioritise improving the availability of mental health beds, and we are investing £75 million this year to reduce inappropriate out-of-area placements so that patients can receive care closer to home.

“To reduce the number of mental health inpatients and ensure people are getting appropriate care, we are working to provide the mental health support they need in the community, including by recruiting 8,500 more mental health workers and investing £26 million in new mental health crisis centres.”

This is clearly not true, though, because back in September 2017, a 20-year-old died at Chelmsford Mental Health Unit – he hung himself.

Investigations were then expanded with officers confirming that they were looking at 25 deaths, and MPs called for a public inquiry after concerns were raised at patients’ inquests.

After Matthew Leahy was discovered hanging at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, Essex, detectives began looking into the deaths of seven people in the care of North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The investigation was then expanded to investigate the deaths of up to 25 people at nine additional mental health units run by the trust since 2000.

Norman Lamb and Priti Patel, who served as several of the families’ local MPs, pushed Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to launch a public investigation.

The Care Quality Commission report found that there was room for improvement, and that there were too many areas at the Linden Centre where patients could hang themselves.

Matthew Leahy was not allowed any visitors, not even his own family, not for the first seven days, because they considered it an adjustment.

Mental health patients require the support of their family, or even a close friend if they don’t have family. They don’t need to be stressed out any more than is needed, but sadly, their idea of treatment is to medicate and leave them like vegetables. This is not the 18th century anymore, and admittedly, they know more about mental health than they used to, but it’s really all a guessing game. Unfortunately, this poor soul died a week after being admitted.

Some have called the Linden Ward ‘the sleepy ward’ because all the patients are bored, and most of the patients were left drifting.

It was said that some of the staff were good with the patients, but the majority didn’t have a lot going on in terms of treatment.

Some of the patients are even bullied out of the hospital because there just isn’t enough room, so there’s a lot of pressure to get these patients out.

This doesn’t surprise me. The psychiatrists and nurses in the UK are now so poor in attitude and skills that they are just an embarrassment. Not that the psychiatrists do much, but the nurses should at least make some kind of effort. Unfortunately, now they are just lazy or have the wrong motivation, ie they are there for the money and not to work.

I’m not saying that they are all bad; there are some good ones, but they are very few and far between.

Then there was the neglect caused by repeated failures to assess a woman going through a mental health crisis, which contributed to her death by suicide at Pitsea Station in Basildon after being struck by a train while she was suffering a decline in her mental health.

There were indeed mistakes made that contributed to her death. She had been released from a long-term mental hospital to a care home on April 11, 2023.

EPUT’s mental health services were informed by Mrs Steedman on April 15 that she wanted to end her life by ‘jumping in front of a train’. Her mental health continued to worsen in May, and this was escalated to mental health services on or about May 8, but they failed to reply.

By May 10, Mrs Steedman was in a mental health crisis, but mental health services again failed to attend and conduct an assessment of her. Mental health services failed to complete a mental health assessment on May 11. The next morning, she redirected a taxi to Pitsea railway station, where she killed herself.

On April 27, the care home alerted the mental health team and the council’s social care team that there was a chance Mrs Steedman could divert a taxi to leave carers’ supervision. However, this crisis was not escalated, and no risk assessment was conducted.

Sadly, mental health is not an exact science, but there should be more facilities and more suitable training. However, unless we go back to bedlam, locking people away forever, we can’t stop people from taking their own lives, but there does need to be more that we can do, and that we must do for these people.

Jamie Harding, aged 31, took his own life. The Essex Coroner, who investigated the death of Jamie, cautioned that until steps were taken by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), there was an ongoing danger that more mental health patients could perish.

Jamie took his own life in June 2022, hours after being released from Basildon Hospital, where he had attended A&E, asking to be admitted for his own safety.

The inquest found the assessment carried out on him in A&E was “inadequate”, and that there was also a string of “significant and repeated failures” in the care and treatment provided to Jamie in the six months before his death.

The Coroner found that the string of failures and missed opportunities by EPUT amounted to “neglect”, and this directly contributed to Jamie’s death.

Jamie’s mother, Carolyn Claydon, said: “Losing Jamie was devastating. We miss him every day and are still traumatised by how badly he was let down by those who should have been providing him with the treatment he desperately needed, and who should have kept him safe.”

But nothing changes; the mental health system is broken and failing.

There are close to 551,000 people in England with more severe mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

I understand that people might fall through the cracks from time to time, but that is just not good enough – we need to do better, much better!

Council U-Turn On Fine For Coffee Poured In Drain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It was quite a shock,” she said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dublin Erupts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At least one garda was affected by pepper spray.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biden Completes Round Of Radiation Therapy For Cancer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘He literally destroys everything GOOD,’ she wrote. 

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

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

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

The discovery came after he reported urinary symptoms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manhunt Underway For Stolen Louvre Napoleonic Jewels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Piers Morgan For Prime Minister – Or Maybe Not

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not looking such a cushy position now, is it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Punch-ups Before Lessons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘They always target the vulnerable kids.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘And that can quickly become dangerous.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Veterans’ Digital ID Cards Announced

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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