Iran’s missiles Cannot Be Stopped By UK Defences

If Iran launched a rocket strike on the UK akin to the one that was tried on Diego Garcia this weekend, Britain would have to rely on American missile defence systems stationed in Europe.

The warning came after Tehran released two ballistic missiles on Friday night towards the base in the Indian Ocean, which is jointly operated by the US and the UK.

The island lies 2,360 miles from Iran, well beyond the 1,240 miles which was thought to be the outer limit of the regime’s reach. 

It potentially puts Paris, 2,609 miles away, and even London – 2,750 miles – within Iran’s range if, as some strategists fear, the country uses its Simorgh space launch technology to extend its missile range. RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is just 1,000 miles from Tehran. 

Additionally, Israel issued a warning that Europe may be attacked by Iran’s new missile.

IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, in a video released on Saturday night. said: ‘Iran launched a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000km towards an American target on the island of Diego Garcia.

‘The missiles were not intended to hit Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe. Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range.’ The IDF later added that London is also in range. 

Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore, said: ‘Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up, and they come down really fast. If you’ve got a space programme, you’ve got a ballistic missile programme.’ 

In a ballistic attack, defence experts say Britain would be forced to rely on American SM-3 defence systems stationed across Eastern Europe, or the Patriot missiles used by the Germans, to intercept rockets.

Diego Garcia was the target of an attempted strike when Sir Keir Starmer gave the US authorisation to attack the Strait of Hormuz using British bases to defend ships from Iranian strikes.

Neither of the missiles fired at Diego Garcia hit their target, with one thought to have been shot down by a US warship’s SM-3 interceptor and the other failing in flight.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of covering up the attempted aggression on Diego Garcia, saying the Prime Minister needed to ‘come clean’ over the details of the launch.

Government sources established that the attack occurred before an official statement later said it had allowed the US military to launch strikes on Iran from the island base to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This came as:

The US used ‘bunker buster’ bombs in a reported attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. The munition was designed to be dropped from B-2 stealth bombers to destroy targets up to 200ft underground.

The American military claimed that Tehran’s ability to threaten ships passing through the Straits of Hormuz had been ‘degraded.’

The UAE released a joint statement from 22 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Bahrain and Australia, demanding that Tehran reopen the Straits of Hormuz to shipping.

Prices of vegetables in supermarkets could rise within weeks as the war in Iran makes the cost of fertiliser and energy soar.

Holidaymakers were scrambling to secure flights and switch destinations to dodge the threat of spiralling fares and disruption caused by the war.

Motorists could face a 1970s-style 50mph speed limit in an endeavour to save fuel under emergency plans.

Sir Keir promised Cyprus that the British airbase on the island would not be used by the Americans to strike Iran.

The Prime Minister spoke to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and pledged that RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in his agreement with Mr Trump on the use of British bases in the war. 

This comes after Mr Christodoulides warned last week that when the war ends, he will demand negotiations about the fate of Britain’s ‘colonial’ military bases on the island.

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former Commander-in-Chief of British forces, said on Saturday that Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.

General Sir Richard, who headed the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said it was previously thought that ‘Iran’s missiles had a range of only 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) and Diego Garcia is 3,800 kilometres [2,360 miles] away from Iran’.

He was responding to questions over whether Mr Trump was right to say Britain had done ‘too little and too late’ or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

Meanwhile, vegetable prices could rise within weeks as the cost of fertiliser and energy surges, said National Farmers Union president Tom Bradshaw.

He said Britain no longer had the ability to make fertiliser domestically and was ‘absolutely at the mercy of world markets’.

One important source of fertiliser ingredients is the Middle East. The majority of these cross the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed, causing prices to skyrocket as farmers scramble to buy scarce supplies as the spring planting season approaches.

Prices of imported goods are likely to rise immediately because of higher transport costs, said Mr Bradshaw, adding that increases for other foods would begin to appear in the coming weeks.

He added: ‘For vegetables grown in heated greenhouses, such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, it will be over the next month to six weeks that we will see those cost increases coming through to the retailer.’

It’s been 80 years since the end of the last war, and the UK has literally learnt nothing. Instead of moving forward, we have gone backwards. This is what happens when our government neglects the defence of the realm.

The problem is our government puts financing and sending our troops into wars that don’t concern us. We appear to be hellbent on protecting other nations before protecting our own, and conflict is then propelled forward with a costly failure and considerable innocent lives lost.

Our UK government doesn’t care about its people, but somehow the people believe that they do; it’s probably all that propaganda, but what’s even more worrying is that most people believe it because we have been brainwashed.

People are whining about welfare and benefits, but if our country does go to war, it will certainly impact our economy, and then those who moan will be moaning even more when they lose their jobs.

Money and votes are the only things that matter to our government.

We have been giving away billions of money to other countries for decades, but what do we get in return? Nothing.

Our government tell us that there’s no money in the pot, but obviously there is if they are cheerfully giving it to other countries, or are they just robbing it from the taxpayer to pay for genocide, which is totally illegal, I might add.

In Britain, Robots Are Wiping Out A Generation Of First Jobs

The rise of robots is wiping out entry-level jobs, the Bank of England has warned, as figures revealed youth unemployment at an 11-year high.

A regular business survey executed by the Bank said the use of artificial intelligence and automation was enabling firms to grow without any extra workers.

In some cases, it indicates that fewer ‘early career’ or graduate positions are created.

Labour has also made it much more costly to take on workers after hiking employer National Insurance and reporting steep increases in the minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds, plus a raft of new workers’ rights.

On Thursday, the Bank said many organisations ‘report automation and AI-enabled productivity gains are allowing them to meet demand without additional hiring.’

In such cases, the time taken to carry out ‘highly automatable’ tasks has dropped by about 70 per cent, firms estimate.

‘For some large professional services firms, this is contributing to reduced demand for early-career recruitment, including graduates, driven both by cost pressures and a lower volume of routine entry-level work,’ the report said.

Meanwhile, younger people are shunning trades, manufacturing and farming jobs, it added, leading to an ageing workforce and concerns about who will replace them.

It came as the Office for National Statistics said unemployment remained at 5.2 per cent in the three months to January, the highest since the pandemic.

The jobless rate for 18 to 24-year-olds bounced from 14 per cent to 14.5 per cent, the highest since the three months to January 2015, representing 598,000 people. 

James Cockett, senior economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the jobs market has become ‘increasingly challenging for young people’.

‘This is ahead of the significant uplift to the youth minimum wage rates, coming into effect in just two weeks’ time.’

The minimum wage for those aged 18 to 20 will jump by 8.5 per cent next month to £10.85 per hour. Professor Len Shackleton of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank cast doubt on a scheme to offer £3,000 to take on young people.

‘It would be much better if the Government reversed some of the job-destroying measures it has introduced in the last 18 months,’ he said.

Meanwhile, ministers have halted steps to drive up the minimum wage for under-21s any further.

In a letter to the Low Pay Commission, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said in light of ‘concerns regarding the youth labour market’, the priority is ‘the employment prospects of young people’ over further rises in pay.

The AI tide is far higher and far closer than most people are inclined to accept. Soon, your job and all that it offers will be a thing of the past, and ultimately, your career will just be swept away from under you.

If this is what’s called progress, then I would rather not have it. The problem is, these people are always trying to fix things that don’t need to be fixed. If it works well the way it is, leave it well alone.

And these companies, watch their profits decline once AI takes over. Greed will be their destruction.

Everything is vanishing, the analogue telephone. Now we have mobile phones and automated answering services – even telephone boxes are fading. Almost every company that you phone is automated with AI – press 1 or this, press 2 for that, press 3 if you want someone to kiss your arse.

The ridiculous thing is, our governments believe that they’ll be able to tax robots!

Fortunately, AI hasn’t made its presence felt in the UK yet, but mark my words, it will sooner than later, and the reason for this is that they start work on time, don’t take lunch breaks, don’t take a myriad days off sick, and don’t whinge and whine all the time.

There Is A Massive Project Underway In The UK To Build A New Town

A huge new town is set to be built – featuring 20,000 homes as well as hotels, shops and schools as part of efforts to tackle Britain’s housing problem. 

The Barking Riverside project in east London has been given the green light, including 4,000 new properties earmarked for affordable housing, with 50,000 people potentially housed across the new development.

Among the features of the master plan are two public parks, three additional schools, a new health facility, commercial space, enhanced walking and cycling routes, and riverfront access.

Official figures in January showed that just 47,600 new homes have been built in the capital since Labour came to power in July 2024, out of 309,600 across England.

The capital’s figure was far short of the target of 88,000 new homes a year set by the Government to meet its objective of 1.5 million across the country by 2029.

Supporters of the recently approved scheme – including one of London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s deputies, Tom Copley – say it will provide not only much-needed new homes, but also schools, health centres, public parks and community spaces.

The latest proposals almost double the earlier granted allocation of 10,800 new homes across the 443-acre site.

Barking and Dagenham Council has officially approved the changes for outline planning.

Barking Riverside is a joint venture between London mayor, Sir Sadiq and housing association L&Q.  

More than £170 million in grant and loan funding has been handed over in the past five years by the government agency Homes England.

The Labour government has updated planning rules, suggesting local objections should not stand in the way of houses on brownfield sites.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also been vehement in his criticism of ‘nimbys’ and ‘blockers’ – describing himself as a ‘yimby’, meaning ‘yes in my backyard’.

In its planning policy framework, Labour said brownfield schemes ‘should be approved unless substantial harm would be caused’.

Mr Copley, deputy mayor for housing and residential development, said of the newly approved plans: ‘Barking Riverside is one of the most significant and exciting housing developments not just in London but anywhere in the UK.

‘It is a fantastic example of a major brownfield regeneration, supported by City Hall and partners, which is delivering for the local community in this vibrant part of east London.

‘I welcome the news that the Barking Riverside story is set to enter its next phase, ensuring thousands of more high-quality and affordable homes for Londoners in the coming years as we continue to build a better and fairer capital for everyone.’

BRL managing director Leigh Johnson said: ‘This successful planning consent marks a genuine step change for Barking Riverside and for the role it can play in supporting local people.

‘The 4,000 affordable homes being delivered represent an opportunity for households to come off the housing waiting list and for local families to take their first step on the property ladder.’

L&Q’s group chief executive, Fiona Fletcher-Smith, said: ‘Delivering well-designed affordable homes and community infrastructure at scale at Barking Riverside represents our long-term plans to tackle the housing crisis in London.

‘We believe it could be a blueprint for brownfield development across the country.

‘This milestone reflects the ambition of the partnerships involved, from L&Q and the Mayor of London to the many others contributing to the success of the project.’

A London Overground station and an Uber Boat pier opened at the site in 2022.

They continue to build new homes and towns, but there will never be enough doctors, nurses, dentists, and schools. We don’t need more homes; we need fewer boat people.

It will all look very nice when it’s built, but I would imagine it will be a no-go area in about 5 years, if not before, with graffiti and vandalism all over the place, and what about when the river floods?

The sewers are massively struggling already, and the Thames is seeing more floaters – what will it smell like in the summer?

These flats might look lovely from the outside, but ultimately, all they will become is a dull block of flats and will become tenement slums, and they are building them on a flood plain – savvy move, maybe not!

Of course, nearby there will be the biggest mosque, and the ribbon will be cut by Starmer, and it seems like Labour is happy to stomp all over environmental protection and planning regulations in their rush to build, but where are the experienced workers going to come from to actually build the infrastructure?

Looking at the map, it’s essentially an extension of the Thames View estate, with a party frock, and how many homes will go to British people? – In this area, I would say none.

It Would Have Been Better If Brexit Hadn’t Happened, Admits Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves admitted that she wishes Brexit had never happened as she began her new drive to bring the UK closer to the European Union again.

The Chancellor said she voted Remain a decade ago and would do so again, and regrets the fact that her side did not win.

She claimed she did not want another referendum, saying it would be divisive.

However, critics claim her new policy of making much of the economy follow strict Brussels rules again will bring Britain back into the EU by the back door.

Ms Reeves, who visited Spain on Wednesday as her charm offensive with European leaders got underway, said in an interview with The Economist: ‘I believe that closer alignment, better trade relations with the EU is in our national interest.’

She again mentioned disputed research which claims Britain’s departure from the EU caused an 8 per cent ‘hit’ to GDP and went on: ‘At a time when we are looking for stronger growth, improvements in living standards, lower prices in the shops, it would be foolish to just carry on as we are in terms of our relationship with the EU.’

Ms Reeves said ‘good progress’ has already been made under Labour’s reset of relations with Brussels, including agreements on food standards and energy trading, as well as the UK rejoining the Erasmus student exchange programme.

She will now consider sectors of the economy – likely to include chemicals, the car industry and financial services – where the UK could once more align with EU regulations in order to gain more access to the single market.

As she first announced in a major address on Tuesday, she believes divergence from Brussels rules should be the ‘exception, not the norm’.

‘Alignment means being able to trade more freely with our biggest trading partners and our nearest neighbours and our closest allies,’ she told The Economist.

‘I have fired the starting gun on where we want to go next, and that is closer alignment.’

Told that many voters want the Government to go further and rejoin the EU, she replied: ‘We voted as a country to leave almost ten years ago. I voted Remain, I campaigned for Remain, if we went back ten years in time, I would vote exactly the same way again.

‘But we have to move on. And that period in June 2016 was an incredibly divisive time for our country.

‘People might like to turn back the clock and might like their answer to have been different, but I do think re-running a referendum would not be in our national interest, I think it would be divisive.’

Pressed on the matter, she said: ‘If we could go back in time, I would have voted again to Remain, I wish we had voted to Remain.

‘But we can’t go back in time, we are in the world as it is, not the world as we might like it to be.’

Brexit was more of a failure than a victory, and tons of people who voted not to remain have voiced disappointment.

We might wish that it never happened, but I also wish that Labour, Starmer, Rayner and Reeves had never happened, and we must remember that the government is not our friend.

When we voted for Brexit to remain or not to remain, our government at the time never expected it to go the way that it did, and it has caused a catastrophe for the UK, and it has caused enormous and profound damage to the UK economy, and because of this Britain has ended up with mass immigration instead of the promise to take control.

‘NHS hospital secretly sedated me and wouldn’t let me leave my bed for a week’

A dementia patient who went to the hospital after a fall has told how he was secretly sedated and prevented from getting out of bed for a week.

Andy Woodhead, 69, has told his account as part of the first-ever national review of an NHS “culture of containment” where dementia patients are prevented from leaving their beds, sometimes for weeks. Retired lawyer Andy was diagnosed with vascular dementia 11 years ago, but lives independently at home with his partner in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.

Describing his hospital admission last summer, Andy told the Mirror: “I had fallen outside the house. I actually passed out, so I couldn’t break my fall, so I actually went down onto my head and face, and it was a mess.

“I was taken in on a stretcher, then they put me on to a bed and put the sides up. I wasn’t allowed out of bed for the whole week that I was in the hospital. I was only allowed to use disposable bottles for urine. There was no TV, nothing. All I could do was watch people walking past my cubicle.”

While initially in A&E, he says an “out of control” drunk woman came into his cubicle and had to be restrained by staff who wrestled with her on the floor. Andy was then admitted to an acute ward and says he “slept the whole time I was there”.

Andy said, “They kept bringing me my medication in the little white plastic containers. I said, ‘this is more medication than I normally take. What are you giving me?’ The nurse said, ‘Oh, I’ll go and find out, and I’ll come back to you.” But they never did. I only had one meal in all the days that I was there. I told them I hadn’t eaten today, and they just said: ‘That’s because you’re sleeping all the time’. They weren’t very nice about it.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m diabetic, I have to eat.’ So they agreed to go and find me a sandwich, but I was made to feel like it was my fault because I was asleep. Looking back, I was clearly being sedated. My visitors came to see me, and I slept through most of the visits. It was all a bit of a blur, really.”

The landmark review by the University of West London looked at how dementia patients are cared for during an urgent or unplanned hospital admission, such as after a fall or when suffering a sudden illness or injury.

Such admissions of dementia patients make up between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of all acute hospital admissions. The 18-month study observed nine acute wards across six NHS hospital trusts selected to be representative of the country as a whole. A total of 168 patients and medical staff members agreed to participate in over 1,000 detailed interviews.

The report said that if dementia patients try to leave the bed forcibly or push a member of staff, they can be labelled “aggressive in their medical notes. This can lead to social care packages being withdrawn, meaning they may never be able to return to living independently at home or resume their care home residence.

Andy said he could understand why agitated patients confined to their beds throughout their hospital stay could become aggressive and try to leave. He said, “I didn’t understand why I was being confined to bed. If patients feel like they’ve been kidnapped or they’re being imprisoned because of the way in which they’re being subtly restrained, I can fully appreciate that it adds to their agitation, which could make them ‘aggressive’.

Andy is a Dementia UK Ambassador and goes into hospitals to teach staff how to handle dementia patients, working tirelessly to challenge the myths and stigma surrounding the condition. He insists NHS staff are generally doing their best in difficult circumstances. He said, “There’s a fine line between safety and restraint. I call it subtle restraint. I mean, clearly, they don’t want me falling out of bed.

“But if you have dementia, lack of social interaction is likely to make the condition worsen. It is vital. Without it, people can become non-verbal. They become afraid and extremely lonely because they feel like they’re a nuisance.

When I teach medical people about handling people with dementia, I say ‘talk to them’. They often say ‘we haven’t got time to talk to them’ and I say ‘well, if you talk to them, you’ll have more time because they’ll be better patients’. They’ll know you and feel safe and secure.”

Andy, who has just become a grandfather, added: “It was amazing meeting my granddaughter. I cried. It brought back memories of when my son was born. I never thought I would live to see a grandchild. I thought my dementia would have progressed so much that either I wouldn’t know who she was, or I would have died by now.

“It is possible to live well with dementia. There are so many myths about the speed of its progression. There are over 100 different types of dementia. It can be a journey that’s 20 years long or three years long. When I got my diagnosis, I just thought I would be unable to function normally within about six months. Nobody ever explained anything.”

Failing NHS England has put patients at risk at nearly every level for years, presently bombarding the NHS with cheaper, lower-qualified staff with online digital patient fobbing off systems, and triage systems rejecting or delaying patient referrals, et cetera, while NHS England leaders continue to get far too much money, plus pension salaries.

Sadly, inadequate treatment of dementia patients is extremely common, both in the home and in hospitals.

Someone I know had a fall and ended up in the hospital. She was there for a week or so. They said that they needed the bed space, and they needed to send her to a care home, which she did not want, but her care package had not been arranged yet, and they just shuffled her off to the care home regardless of what she wanted. Luckily, her daughter, who does not live nearby, managed to sort things out and got her home literally just before Christmas.

All of this is quite heartless, and it frequently causes someone to feel terrified and alone. It’s just one big fit-up, and I’m sure they’ll want to fit me up for saying it.

This is why a lot of elderly people who enter the hospital never leave.

I have seen this first-hand. Overburdened wards with not enough staff. An elderly lady with dementia and only one leg came to my ward (I was also a patient). She kept trying to get out of the bed, they catheterised her, sedated her so she couldn’t move, and at one point I was asked if I could keep an eye on her and press my buzzer if she tried to move, and sleepy elderly relatives in a hospital bed can be effortlessly explained away with them saying that it is lack of stimuli, so nobody would know if they were being medicated to almost fatal levels.

A Stranger Stabbed An Elderly Woman With Scissors

Officers were summoned to reports of a woman being attacked with scissors outside a private property in Chatham at 2.07 pm on Saturday.

Paramedics found the woman, in her 80s, with ‘injuries consistent with stab wounds’, Kent Police said.

The woman was taken to a London hospital for further treatment. Her injuries are not thought to be life-changing or threatening.

A man was also reportedly assaulted by the suspect, who was unfamiliar to the victims.

The alleged attacker was found and arrested at 2.31 pm.

Orlando Foster, 25, has been charged with wounding with intent, causing actual bodily harm and making threats with a bladed weapon in public.

The British national, of Jeffery Street, Gillingham, was remanded in custody until his first appearance at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 16 March.

Officers believe the alleged attack was an isolated incident.

I like the way they always say ‘alleged’. It either happened or it didn’t! And don’t you just love the way it’s described as a ‘British national’ as opposed to an actual nationality.

Meningitis Outbreak Threatens London

Health officials are attempting to prevent the meningitis outbreak from spreading beyond Kent after confirming the strain, which has killed two students and left 11 gravely sick, is group B.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said some cases of meningitis have been confirmed as MenB, and it will confirm other cases ‘when we have the full results’.

MenB is the UK’s most common cause of meningococcal meningitis, but regular vaccination against the strain for babies and young children only started in 2015.

This means the current generation of teenagers and students are not protected, and were instead offered vaccinations against other strains when they were aged 13 or 14.

Experts speculate that young people exchanging vapes at a nightclub may have accelerated the spread of the disease across schools and the University of Kent in Canterbury.

Two girls who were said to have attended Club Chemistry and were sharing vapes were reported to have developed suspected cases of meningitis.

While many of the university’s students come from Kent, thousands more are from London and may have mixed at parties before going to see their families on Mother’s Day. Some will also likely be travelling home for the Easter holidays later this month.

There have already been reports of a suspected case in London involving a 24-year-old woman who had been admitted to hospital, according to her brother Josh Risby, who said she was not a student in Canterbury and had not been to the nightclub.

Mr Risby, 26, who was in Canterbury to receive antibiotics, told Kent Online: ‘The slight concern for us is that I’m not a student here, my girlfriend’s not a student here, my sister’s not a student here, and she’s come down potentially with meningitis.

‘So where’s that come from? So we called 111 and said to them, “You know, this is what’s happened, what do you advise?” And they sent us up here to come and get the antibiotic basically. My sister’s up in London most of the time, living in London, working up there. I don’t have any contact with anybody at the university.’

It comes as health officials work to curb the deadly meningitis outbreak, tracing and treating thousands of potential contacts as reports of suspected cases spread.

The emergency response has seen 2,000 students receive preventative antibiotics in Canterbury after the invasive strain of the disease swept through the city.

Get your teenagers immunised right now, since meningitis is a terrible disease that may cause deafness and death.

If you have flu-like symptoms, a blistering headache and are unable to bend your neck, you must go to the hospital immediately.

Sadly, the Meningitis jab is only given to babies, so by the time they go to university, it has worn off, and they would need another booster to top it up.

The cost of the meningitis jab in the UK varies by provider:

Superdrug: £330 for a full MenB vaccination course (two to three doses). 
Boots: £220 for the MenB vaccination. 
Asda: £179.76 for the MenB vaccine. 
Private pharmacies: Prices can start from £55 for the MenACWY jab
These prices reflect the cost of the vaccine, which is essential for protection against meningitis.

However, the MenACWY vaccine is given to teenagers in the UK. It’s generally offered to teenagers in school when they are 13 or 14, and it’s also available to those up to the age of 25 who have missed the vaccination. The vaccine protects against four strains of meningococcal bacteria, which are common causes of meningitis.

And if it spreads from sharing vapes, then surely it spreads from kissing too, which is more likely in a venue packed with students.

Without showing any symptoms, a person might have the virus in their throat or nose and unknowingly transfer it to others.

We may never know how it started, but I’m sure that it wasn’t done on purpose.

Grenfell Tower’s Haunting Wall That Held Trapped Victims’ Handprints Is Destroyed – Despite Families’ Plea

A wall that showed the handprints of Grenfell Tower victims who were trapped in the building as the fire raged has been destroyed.

Families of the 72 people who died in the 2017 fire in North Kensington, west London, made the unsettling discovery of the wall, between the 12th and 14th floors, during pre-demolition visits to the building in July last year.

A powerful photo of the stairwell shows the area totally blackened with smoke – and marked with prints of all different sizes.

The victims’ families had urged the Government to keep these parts of the building from being demolished. 

But they were preparing to take Housing Secretary Steve Reed to court over the demolition after claims that Angela Rayner promised the wall would not be destroyed when she ran the department. 

Relatives have said the Government went back on its promise.

The fierce fire ripped through the 24-storey social housing block in North Kensington, west London, on June 14, 2017, killing 72 people.

The tragedy sparked national outrage, as highly flammable exterior cladding was found to have caused the rapid spread of flames from an electrical fault.

The Grenfell Inquiry began in earnest in September 2017, with the final report issued in February 2025, before demolition began that September.

Another part of the tower has also been destroyed, on the stairwell between the 17th and 18th floor, where the words Allahu Akbar – which means ‘God is Greater’ – were written.  

An official said no sections above the ninth floor could be kept, citing concerns about the sensitivity of the upper levels and the lives lost.

Both the handprints and the inscription are located above this level.

The Arabic writing has already been destroyed – but grieving families are now fighting to preserve the handprints.

Damel Carayol, who lost members of his family in the fire, told The Telegraph: ‘The obvious thing is that these inscriptions and handprints are relics, reminiscent of hieroglyphics and remains from traumatic historical happenings.

‘The meanings and symbolisms of whoever made them would have been their last hopeful messages to the living world, as they felt for sure that their time had come. And these messages to us speak for everyone whose lives were taken at Grenfell.’

He added that the ‘disregard’ for the victims and their families was ‘inhumane’.

I’m not sure why anybody would want to preserve this – it feels rather macabre and creepy, but different people mourn in different ways.

It’s also time to rebuild because homes are desperately needed, so new homes should be built, but please, not another tower block for this to happen again – that would be a tragedy waiting to happen. What’s more, there should be a memorial nearby so that people don’t forget the disaster that did happen – it’s the least thing they could do for the people who died that day.

I wouldn’t say it’s ghoulish to keep a memory, far from it, because if it were thought of as ghoulish, then perhaps the Tower of London should be ripped down or Hampton Court Palace, although some might say that’s a ridiculous comparison.

A Boss Ordered To Pay Irish Bookkeeper £23,000

A boss who went viral after being ordered to pay more than £23,500 for repeatedly calling an Irish worker a ‘potato’ says he believed it was ‘workplace banter’ but admits he got it ‘badly wrong’.

Mick Atkins, 56, says he has been unable to sleep as his construction firm’s 24-hour hotline was bombarded with calls after a tribunal ruled he racially harassed bookkeeper Bernadette Hayes, and he has even been sent death threats.

He was ordered to pay Ms Hayes, who was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, thousands in compensation after a tribunal ruled he had called her a ‘potato’, ‘Paddy’ and ‘pikey’.

Ms Hayes said the remarks left her feeling ‘small, insecure, violated and extremely anxious’, adding that she came to dread going into work at building contractor West Leeds Civils.

Now Mr Atkins says he wants to publicly apologise for what he had thought was harmless ‘playful banter’ and admitted the case had been a ‘hard lesson to learn’.

He said: ‘I genuinely thought it was workplace banter. I can see now I got that badly wrong.

‘What I thought was messing about was clearly not taken that way, and I am sorry for the distress it caused Bernie.

‘These were comments which I thought were just back-and-forth playful banter with someone I had worked with for two years and whom I considered to be a friend.’

Mr Atkins, a father-of-three from Bradford, West Yorkshire, said he had since been subjected to abusive messages and threats online.

He said: ‘I’ve been getting calls day and night from withheld numbers. I’ve had to delete my social media.

‘One woman screamed down the phone that I should hang my head in shame. Another asked me, “What are you playing at?”

‘There was one Irish guy who said, “Me and the boys are over next week – we’re going to pay you a visit.”

‘They’ve got hold of the company’s 24-hour phone number and have been ringing every ten minutes.

‘Some of the messages have been vile. I’ve had people calling me all sorts, and there have been threats made. It’s frightening, to be honest.

‘This is the first time in my life that I’m thinking of just wrapping up and calling it a day.

‘It’s been awful. I accept that I shouldn’t have said those things, but I don’t feel that I deserve to get death threats.

‘Even my daughter has been getting stick.

‘I know people may say that’s nothing compared to what Bernie went through, and maybe that’s fair, but it has made me take a hard look at myself.’

The tribunal heard Ms Hayes began working for the civil engineering contractor in 2021 as an office and finance manager.

This was undoubtedly innocuous repartee, but we are not allowed harmless joshing anymore – it’s all doom and gloom, although I must admit I would have been insulted being called a ‘pikey’, but clearly it was only meant in fun.

I myself would have been sentenced to death back in the day with my banter and wit. Now, if you want to have a little banter with the boys, you have to do it from home, not out in the public eye, because someone out there will undoubtedly say that you’ve insulted them and take you to court.

Banter is part of socialising, but socialising is a thing of the past now with all this woke stuff, and now all people see are pound signs and a chance to make some money.

But we must pause to take into account someone’s emotions. Before making any type of joke, I always consider my surroundings since, let’s be honest, not everyone has a sense of humour, and it can occasionally make the recipient feel unhappy or uneasy. What may be hilarious to one person may not be humorous to another.

There Has Been An Outbreak Of Meningitis

A meningitis outbreak said to be linked to a nightclub has killed two young people and left 11 others seriously ill.

The victims, who have not been named, are believed to be aged between 17 and 21.

One was identified as a sixth-form student at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in neighbouring Faversham, while the other was verified as a student at the University of Kent.

Most hospitalised patients are of the same age and are thought to be students at the school.

A friend of two people fighting the deadly infection – one of whom is in a coma – has told the Daily Mail they began to exhibit symptoms after going to Club Chemistry in Canterbury on Friday, March 6. 

With a capacity of 1,600 and three floors, student-favourite Club Chemistry is probably a hotbed for the deadly infection.

The woman revealed that her friends had attended the venue as part of a birthday celebration, but within days of the night out, several members of the group began to feel increasingly unwell.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘My pal went out for her birthday with her partner and a few friends. The plan was to go clubbing and have a nice time, as teenagers do.

‘She simply wanted a nice evening with her friends for her birthday, but after attending Club Chemistry, came out really ill in the coming days, which ended with some in hospital.’

The woman said her friend experienced meningitis symptoms such as paleness, sickness and tiredness before attending A&E this weekend, where a lumbar puncture procedure confirmed she had contracted meningitis.

She added another man who had gone to Club Chemistry is currently in a coma because of the infection, while one more was displaying symptoms.

It comes as more than 30,000 students and staff have been alerted by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), alerting them to remain vigilant against symptoms.

The UKHSA said it was arranging antibiotics for some students in the Canterbury area following the outbreak.

On Sunday, the university urged anyone who believes they have come into contact with those who have contracted meningitis and have not been contacted by the UKHSA to attend the Senate university building between 9 am and 4 pm on Monday.

Experts described the number and severity of cases as ‘very rare’ and ‘extremely concerning’.

Trevor Reid of charity Meningitis Now said: ‘This is not the type of level of cases we have heard of for many, many years.

‘It is very rare that we would see anything like this, and we are extremely concerned.’

Sadly, outbreaks of meningitis among university students are extremely common, and more literature about this on boards around the universities should be present with signs and symptoms.

Meningitis symptoms in students can include sudden high fever, stiff neck, severe headaches, nausea or vomiting, and confusion, and it requires immediate medical attention. It can also manifest sensitivity to light, drowsiness or trouble waking and sometimes a skin rash. By rolling a glass over the rash, if it doesn’t fade, then the odds are it is meningitis, and prompt medical attention is required.

When at the hospital, do not take no for an answer because meningitis is fatal if not treated accordingly.

This story should have been a frontline headliner.

If there is any possible chance that a person has meningitis, it needs to be contained extremely quickly and should be taken extremely seriously, not brushed aside, because meningitis can be contagious, depending on the cause, whether it is bacterial or viral. Viral forms are usually contagious.

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