Rats Move In And Rubbish Piles Up, Causing An Emergency Cobra Meeting

Ministers are under pressure to call an emergency Cobra meeting and send in private waste firms to break a bin strike that has left rubbish piling up in Birmingham’s streets.

The Tories are demanding action from Communities Secretary Angela Rayner over the deepening industrial confrontation that has left extensive parts of England’s second city looking like bomb sites.

Rubbish has been stacking up in the streets of Birmingham after members of the Unite union started their all-out strike. 

But talks on Thursday aimed at resolving the long-running walkout this week failed to break the deadlocked wage dispute with the bankrupt formerly Labour-run city council.

The city is becoming more and more afflicted by big rats who eat the contents of bags, and tonnes of rubbish have gone uncollected.

The Conservatives have written to Ms Rayner, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, calling on her to take action to resolve the walkout.

Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart and Shadow Communities Secretary Kevin Hollinrake urged the government to address the disagreement by holding a high-level Cobra meeting in their letter.

This would ‘ensure that there is a coordinated response between national and local government, and involving those professionals from across public health, civil contingencies and emergency services,’ they said.

The two senior Tories also called on the Government to ‘send in private sector rubbish collectors to bust the local authority refuse service strikes’.

‘Waste collection is a fundamental service that residents expect councils to deliver,’ they wrote.

‘While it is shocking for residents to witness rubbish accumulating in their streets, it comes as no surprise to those who have scrutinised Labour’s governance of Birmingham since 2012. 

‘Labour’s persistent failure to manage the city effectively has resulted in higher council tax, economic mismanagement, and now even the collapse of basic services, putting residents at risk.’

Almost 400 council bin employees in Birmingham started indefinite strike action last week as part of a row over jobs and pay.

The union has declared any possibility of a breakthrough was being ‘hobbled’ by commissioners who were drafted in to assist with the council’s finances. 

They were sent in by the Government after the local authority effectively declared bankruptcy.

The Conservatives said the commissioners should be ordered to ‘cut the pay of local councillors and redistribute the funding to local services such as contracting external refuse collection agencies’.

The Conservatives also accused Labour of not having intervened because of its association with Unite. 

Its general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The council’s public statements about wanting to end this dispute are directly at odds with its sluggish approach to negotiations.

‘The lack of clear answers during talks, and the long periods between meetings make it seem like the council can’t call its own shots.

‘Are the council’s decision-making abilities being hobbled by unelected commissioners?

‘If that’s the case, the council needs to be honest with its workers and the public and tell them exactly what decisions it can and cannot make without the commissioners’ permission.’

Speaking in the House of Commons last week, environment minister Mary Creagh said resolving the strikes is ‘a matter to the council’.

Both sides in the dispute ‘need to get round the table and sort this out for the benefit of the people of Birmingham’, the minister added.

It didn’t take long for Labour to turn the UK back into how it was in the 70s. For all those who missed it, welcome back to 1974.

But don’t fret folks, the brainiac Angela Rayner is on the case. Don’t worry, she’ll sort it all out!

That was sarcasm by the way because these days sarcasm is all we’ve got, but we haven’t seen nothing yet. This is just the beginning, and I do feel for my children and their children because they will inherit this mess.

The thing is if you invite the third world, you become the third world!

I am disgusted and astounded by what I see. It’s like living in New Delhi. It is appalling, there are vermin everywhere – next, there will be disease. Quite frankly, I could weep for this country, and Angela Rayner can just about work out how to put her own rubbish out, let alone fix any other problem.

Sack the lot of them, they don’t deserve employment, and Rayner can go as well. She’s completely out of depth to be an MP.

GOP Rep: NBC Hides Evidence Of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Assassination Of JFK

According to a Republican lawmaker, NBC is retaining a film that demonstrates that Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill President John F. Kennedy.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla, made the audacious declarations while appearing on Fox News alongside host Jesse Watters on Friday night. 

Luna had been talking about the recent release of over 80,000 pages of new material by the National Archive about JFK’s assassination. 

Luna had been asked by Watters if she thought all the documents related to Kennedy’s death had been circulated.

She replied: ‘We’re in the process of tracking down two specific documents. I would like to tell the American people, NBC has a video that has never been seen before.

‘It allegedly shows Oswald near the vehicle when the assassination took place, which means he couldn’t have been the shooter. We are tracking down all this information.’

Watters responded: ‘You’re saying that NBC has been keeping this tape of Oswald under wraps?’

Luna continued: ‘Correct. Director Stone told us that he was shown this tape, and he this could blow open the entire JFK investigation.’

She added: ‘He said that NBC has been very much so guarding this tape, I believe that that tape belongs to the American people.

‘I would encourage everyone to ask NBC to release that tape, it’s open that the American people know the truth as to what happened with John F. Kennedy.’

DailyMail.com has approached NBC for comment.

JFK was killed on November 22, 1963, on a visit to Dallas, when his motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown and bullets rang out.

The police arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, believing that he had placed himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.

Oswald was killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby during a jail transfer, sparking a conspiracy theory that he was offed to stop him from talking to investigators.

Ruby subsequently informed the FBI that he had his .38 Colt Cobra revolver in his right pocket during the press conference.

Newsreel footage from WFAA-TV (Dallas) and NBC shows that Ruby impersonated a newspaper reporter during a press conference held by District Attorney Henry Wade at Dallas Police Headquarters that night.

A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Johnson established to investigate, concluded that Oswald operated unaided.

The outcome hasn’t done anything to suppress an entire web of alternative theories over the decades.

The redactions that had baffled historians for years and fuelled conspiracy theories were removed from several of the freshly disclosed papers.

The US National Archives and Records Administration posted to its website approximately 2,200 files containing the documents. 

They contained typewritten reports and handwritten notes spanning decades, including details of a top CIA agent who declared the deep state was answerable,  Oswald being a ‘poor shot’ and that the Secret Service had been alerted Kennedy would be killed in August, three months before the murder.

The rollout of the files shocked Trump’s national security team, who spent 24 hours racing to assess security threats ahead of publication.

The vast preponderance of the National Archives’ collection of over 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artefacts connected to the assassination have previously been released.

Before the latest release, researchers had estimated that 3,000 to 3,500 files were still unreleased, either completely or partially. 

Just last month the FBI said it had uncovered approximately 2,400 new records linked to the assassination.

One of the most prevalent theories asserts there was a second gunman who shot at JFK from a now-iconic ‘grassy knoll’ to the right of his car as it passed by.

There has never been any concrete evidence shown to support such an assertion.

The fact that Lee Harvey Oswald did not shoot JFK is obvious to anyone with half a brain.

I’ve always suspected that there was government involvement, but I do wonder how anybody or any media company could sit on this video for that long. As they say, ‘Loose lips sink ships.’

Hillary invented the Russian hoax – bought and paid for – manufactured dossier, so nothing shocks me about the JFK material being a bit off.

Lee Harvey Oswald also said he was a scapegoat. The look on his face when he heard he was being charged was genuine stupefaction.

Why did Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald? What was his reason? Did he have a reason or was he paid to do so?

After the shooting, Ruby said that he did it to ‘prevent a further tragedy,’ and that ‘Somebody had to do it.’

However, does anybody care? They’re all dead now! And to be fair, if there was any such video, it would have long been destroyed, especially if there was any CIA involvement.

Videos weren’t invented in 1963, they would have been newsreel footage.

It appears that Lee Harvey Oswald was spotted at the Book Depository building’s entrance, and not where they said he was believed to have been. However, that was seriously investigated, and the gentleman in the doorway was Billy Nolan Lovelady, a fellow worker who resembled Oswald. It was from a distance and an extremely blurry picture.

It’s now been 61 years since JFK was assassinated and Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. Most who were involved in the case are most likely dead or extremely old. We should just let them both rest in peace.

However, was justice done? Well, after all this time, I suspect that we will never find out. If it were a set-up, those people would have escaped the law, and I hope they managed to sleep soundly in their beds at night.

Live Facial Recognition Cameras On Croydon Lampposts

London’s first fixed live facial recognition cameras will be set up in Croydon. Activist groups have criticised the move as a “dystopian nightmare.”

While the new cameras will mark the police’s first permanent fixtures, vans equipped with the same technology have previously been used in Croydon town centre. The move to introduce these for good has sparked objection from campaign group Big Brother Watch, who say they are “alarmed by the reports.”

The cameras are set to be installed across Croydon, in a pilot scheme, on existing lampposts and buildings. These will only be switched on when officers are using the technology in the area, say the Metropolitan Police Service. There are also presently no plans to expand to other parts of London.

To function, live facial recognition cameras scan faces and compare them to a database of criminals. Before determining if more action is required, an officer may approach someone who has been identified by the camera to confirm their identity and involvement in any offences.

According to authorities, a person’s biometric data will be instantly and permanently erased if they are not found to be a match. Even with this guarantee, individuals are still worried about their privacy as LFR technology is introduced.

Rebecca Vincent, Interim Director of Big Brother Watch said: “We are alarmed by reports that the Metropolitan Police Service is installing an unprecedented permanent network of fixed live facial recognition cameras across Croydon town centre, which marks a worrying escalation in the use of LFR with no oversight or legislative basis.

“This comes on the back of a failed trial in Cardiff, where anyone who entered the city centre was subjected to mass surveillance through a network of temporary LFR cameras, as police scanned more than 160,000 faces during a Six Nations game, but made zero arrests.

“It’s time to stop this steady slide into a dystopian nightmare, and halt all use of LFR technology across the UK until legislative safeguards are introduced”.

Police have assured that LFR has led to the arrest of people who would not typically be identified. Last year there were over 500 detentions made using the technology.

Mayor of Croydon, Jason Perry, previously reassured residents in the Croydon region that most people had no reason to be concerned about the LFR vans. He said: “If you’re a law-abiding citizen going about your day, you’ve got nothing to worry about. The reality is that the system is picking up people on wanted lists.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service said: “The Met is committed to making London safer, using data and technology to identify offenders that pose a risk to our communities.

“Last year we made over 500 arrests using LFR – removing dangerous individuals who were suspected of serious offences, including strangulation, stalking, domestic abuse and rape.

“We continue to engage with our communities to build understanding about how this technology works, providing reassurances that there are rigorous checks and balances in place to protect people’s rights and privacy.”

And so it starts. People will ask, “What’s the problem if you have nothing to hide?” It will be one day, and by then it will be too late.

I read this stuff and all I can think about in the UK is ‘1984.’ Although some people might rather have the cameras than without.

What I would like to know is who surveils the ones that surveil you? What are the safeguards? Who will be authorised to access it? Who makes sure there’s no abuse of power? How do you find out if you’re part of a data base? How accurate is the tech? And why haven’t the public been asked it they want this?

Is this not discriminatory? As head coverings are worn by a lot of people, along with baseball caps et cetera, or will there be exceptions based on religious beliefs?

This is only the beginning of the disease that is destroying our freedoms and privacy, and it will spread.

Free School Meals Axed By Rachel Reeves

Parents could be charged additional lunch costs for their children as Rachel Reeves reportedly intends to axe universal free school meals for infants.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is said to have suggested the change as part of a £500 million cut to education to be included in the Chancellor’s austerity plan on Wednesday when she will deliver a spring spending statement designed to save billions of pounds.

However, Department for Education officials angrily refuted the accusations, which were widely reported in Monday’s newspapers.

They suggest continuing divisions and rows within the Government with just days to go before the Chancellor’s announcement. The Treasury strives to impose cuts of up to 11 percent across Whitehall departments’ budgets.

Presently, approximately 1.8 million children in reception classes and Years 1 and 2 receive free school meals. These are available for all children to ensure every young child has a healthy start to the day.

The reported plan is to introduce means-testing for these age groups, as already exists for more senior children. For most children in these year groups, it would mean their parents now have to pay for their school lunch.

It has also been said that the Education Secretary offered to axe funding for free period products in schools, as well as dance, music and PE schemes.

In addition, schools will be told to give teachers pay raises – but will not be given the funding to pay for them, according to reports. Instead, they will be expected to find the cash by making “efficiencies”.

In actuality, this might imply that some are compelled to cut back on employees.

This week, criticism mounted on the Chancellor when she acknowledged taking complimentary tickets to watch Sabrina Carpenter perform live.

She admitted she and a family member went to a concert “a couple of weeks ago” with tickets that “weren’t tickets that you were able to buy”.

Speaking over the weekend, she claimed she had accepted the tickets for security reasons. Ms Reeves said: “I went with a member of my family to see a concert a couple of weeks ago.

“I do now have security, which means it’s not as easy as it would have been in the past to just sit in a concert, although that would probably be a lot easier for everyone concerned.

“So, look, I took those tickets to go with a member of my family. I thought that was the right thing to do from a security perspective.”

The Chancellor later added: “These weren’t tickets that you could pay for, so there wasn’t a price for those tickets.

“Obviously, I’ll declare the value of them but they weren’t tickets that you were able to buy.”

Facing questions about clothing donations last year, Ms Reeves told the BBC that while she accepted the gifts in opposition, it was not something she “planned to do as a government minister”.

Schools are often required to give staff pay increases, but not given the money to pay for these raises which then have to come out of existing budgets.

The problem is that schools negotiate their budgets with governors a year in advance, so it is not a good idea to expect them to find money in the middle of the year just because the central government says they must. Nor does it support effective child education policy.

It’s funny how pay raises for MPs can be afforded, but nothing else for anyone else. It just demonstrates the hatred they have for us common folk.

Maths Teacher Asked Muslim Student If She Had A Bomb Under Her Hijab

A maths teacher has not been excluded from the classroom after asking a Muslim student if she had a bomb under her hijab, a tribunal heard.

Mark Holland made a series of improper comments including calling a student a ‘dumb blonde’ and telling a female student she ‘could do better’ in reference to her boyfriend.

However, a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel determined that banning Mr Holland from teaching would ‘not be proportionate or in the public interest.’ 

Between March and December 2022, the secondary school teacher made several improper remarks to students at Great Academy Ashton in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside. 

Other comments include telling a teenager ‘Bet you have loads of boyfriends with your looks’ and dubbing another ‘The Liar.’ 

He worked at the school for nearly five years but in September 2023 was forced to leave after a disciplinary hearing.

The panel said his comments towards the Muslim student, who he called ‘The Nun’ were ‘not racially motivated but were likely to be religiously insensitive’.

They said his conduct ‘fell short of the standards of behaviour expected of a teacher, but ruled that it ‘did not meet the threshold for serious misconduct.’ 

He ‘willingly apologised’ for the allegations against him and said he would ‘adjust the manner in which he engaged pupils.’

Mr Holland claimed to have ‘misjudged the content of the conversations as an easy way to build a rapport with pupils’.

In a written ruling the TRA said Mr Holland’s conduct was ‘not consistent with behaving as an appropriate role model to students.’

Decision maker Sarah Buxcey wrote: ‘I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest. 

‘I consider that the publication of the findings made would be sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that were not acceptable and that the publication would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.’

The hijab is prohibited in many nations, but it is accepted in the UK, which explains why there are so many issues here.

I think all school-age children should wear the same uniform, but some of the people who have moved here think it’s okay to break the law. This has to stop before our nation devolves into chaos like the nations from which they have fled, otherwise, we are heading to become a third-world country in some respects, although we might already be there!

I always wonder why they come over to the UK but still insist on dressing and abiding by laws as they do in their oppressed countries. If it’s so good back home, then goodbye! Our government should start with the prohibition of full face coverings that make them look like walking Daleks. They are in England for goodness sake, not some godforsaken war-torn country.

It is completely inappropriate and not banter to tell a student that he bets she has a lot of boyfriends because of her appearance. This was a basic lack of respect and judgment. He should focus on being a grown-up and teacher because that’s what he’s supposed to be, not someone attempting to build a rapport by humiliating his students. He probably believed he was being humorous – being one of the lads.

Marijuana Raid By Bungling Police

An elderly couple who like to keep the heating on at home were left ‘shaking in fear’ when police burst into their home searching for a cannabis farm – after a thermal camera on a helicopter mistakenly identified it as a drugs den.

Pensioners Barry and Mavis Lovelock were finishing their breakfast when the ‘terrifying’ raid occurred.

Nine officers stormed in because a helicopter camera had wrongly recognised their toasty terrace home as a possible cannabis farm.

But after charging upstairs looking for cannabis plants and the powerful lamps used to grow them, the sheepish officers came back down empty-handed after quickly concluding their tip-off had been ‘not fully accurate’. 

The heat signature on the couple’s roof had instead been caused by their two gas fires, which they keep on around the clock in the chillier months.

Leicestershire Police has now apologised. They said another raid on a separate property in the street in Newfoundpool, Leicester, had found a large cannabis farm, with 79 plants being taken.

Mrs Lovelock said the ‘awful’ incident, which took place on March 15 at the property the couple had lived in since 1978, had left her in tears.

She said: ‘They told us the camera on the helicopter had noticed our roof glowing white but that was just because we have the heating on all of the time.

‘People of our age feel the cold so we need the heating on.

‘We have two new gas fires downstairs and the gas engineer told us they will warm the whole house and they do. We keep the doors open and the heat circulates. We have electric wall heaters too, but we only need to put the electric heater on in the back bedroom.’

She said the couple had just finished their breakfast when she noticed a group of police officers outside as her husband, a retired water board worker, went to make another cup of tea.

Mrs Lovelock said that police then ‘hit the door’, prompting Mr Lovelock to shout: ‘Hang on mate’, before somebody shouted ‘Stand clear’ from the street outside.

She added: ‘They just rammed the door in. It was awful. They knocked the gate at the back in as well.

‘It was terrifying and I said to them, “What the devil do you think you’re doing? There’s two pensioners here”.’ 

The couple, who celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary last year, were shown a warrant with their house number on it.

Mrs Lovelock, a former hospital worker, added: ‘They got in and two of them ran upstairs, but they only went to the top of the stairs and ran back down.

‘I think there were about nine of them altogether, maybe more.

‘This could have been avoided. The warrant was dated from February 18 so they had plenty of time to make the proper checks, but they don’t appear to have done so.

‘I’m 78 and my husband’s 80 and he suffers with Parkinson’s. Nobody comes and goes.’

Leicestershire Police has since said it would reimburse the couple for any damage caused during the raid, the Lovelocks said.

They have been asked to get quotes for the cost of replacing their front door and back gate, they added.

The couple have two sons, Paul, 46, and Austin, 48.

Mr Lovelock said: ‘Mavis has been left really shook up, and struggling to sleep.

‘After most of the officers left, and they were only here for four or five minutes, two stayed behind and were apologetic. One female PC was quite upset.

‘A rapid response repair came round and fixed the front door, but told us not to use it until it’s been properly replaced.’

He said he had ‘confidence in the police, but it has gone downhill a bit after this’, adding: ‘They said they checked everything, but it doesn’t sound like they did.

‘The actual cannabis farm was three doors down.’

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police said that officers executed two warrants at properties in Leicester, which were carried out based on information received that related to the production of cannabis.

They would not elaborate on where the intelligence came from for ‘operational reasons’, but forces are known to use thermal imaging drones or heat-seeking cameras on police helicopters to determine residential cannabis farms through their tell-tale heat signatures in the roof space.

The spokesman added: ‘Due diligence was completed prior to the enforcement taking place.

‘However, the force acknowledges that the information was not fully accurate and no plants were found inside.

‘Officers have spoken to the residents living at that address regarding the incident to apologise, provide reassurance and explain why the lawfully executed warrant took place.

‘At the other property, 79 cannabis plants were seized. No one was arrested and an investigation is continuing.’

This is more wasted taxpayer’s money spent on the police and their ongoing enforcement of a cannabis prohibition law that has failed miserably for decades.

And why should this couple have to get their own quotes? The police should be getting somebody in to do the job that same day for goodness sake.

They broke it, they fix it – damn cheek expecting an elderly couple to fix their mess.

The actual cannabis farm was three doors down – nobody can claim due diligence for this one!

I think that the police owe this couple a lot of compensation for their evident blunder, and that wasn’t a joke. Police and intelligence don’t go together.

For one cannabis farm they find there are presumably a hundred they don’t – they hardly scratch the surface. I’d rather they ignored cannabis farms and focused on criminalities that they now totally ignore and couldn’t care less about.

The Labour Party Seems To Be Insatiable When It Comes To Having A Good Time

It has been alleged that Angela Rayner attempted to add a private safari to a formal government trip to Africa.

The Deputy Prime Minister is said to have asked if she could add the personal trip to the itinerary for a visit to Ethiopia in February.

Questions have already been raised about why the DPM, who is also the Secretary of State for Housing, needed to go to East Africa while spearheading plans to ‘get Britain building’ in the UK.

Flights for the DPM and her entourage cost an estimated £20,000, the Guido Fawkes website reported.

While there, she met Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and visited schools and a health centre, a visit she said was to ‘demonstrate the UK’s ‘commitment to the region and promote ambitions for partnerships and mutual economic growth’.

But her endeavour to fit in a safari to see some of Ethiopia’s wildlife – which includes increasingly rare lions, plus crocodiles, baboons, hippos and hyenas, was shot down by civil servants.

A source told the Times: ‘She was told that’s not how these things worked.’ 

Ms Rayner’s office did not repudiate that she made the request, saying: ‘The itinerary was agreed in advance and this was not part of it’.

A spokesman added: ‘The deputy prime minister carried out diplomatic business and humanitarian engagements to demonstrate the UK’s commitment to the region and promote ambitions for partnerships and mutual economic growth.’

But shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘You’d think she’d have enough on her plate dealing with the realities of setting a totally unrealistic target of building 1.5million homes, abolishing every district and county council in England and trying to save the high street from the disastrous impact of massive tax hikes and new employment red tape.’

It came amid a new row over government freebies.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she accepted free tickets to see Sabrina Carpenter live because it was ‘the right thing to do from a security perspective’.

The Chancellor said she and a family member went to a concert ‘a couple of weeks ago’ with tickets that ‘weren’t tickets that you were able to buy’.

Ms Reeves promised to disclose the amount of her tickets when asked about the Espresso singer’s performance on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.

Following a controversy around MPs receiving freebies and a revision to the Ministerial Code that included new guidelines on when gifts and hospitality are appropriate, her visit to London’s O2 Arena was first covered in the newspaper earlier this month.

Sir Keir Starmer last year acquired several gifts from prominent Labour donor Lord Alli, including ‘multiple pairs of glasses’ to the value of £2,485, ‘work clothing’ worth £16,200 and accommodation worth £20,437.28.

The Prime Minister later paid back more than £6,000 worth of gifts which he obtained after entering Number 10 last year, including four Taylor Swift tickets from record label Universal Music Group totalling £2,800, two from the Football Association for £598, and four to Doncaster races from Arena Racing Corporation at £1,939.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander gave the Chancellor less than full-hearted support this morning.

Touring broadcast studios this morning, Ms Alexander said she did not have ‘anything further to add’ to Ms Reeve’s explanation that she needed the perk for ‘security’ reasons.

Asked on Times Radio if the freebie ‘felt right’, Ms Alexander said: ‘I haven’t taken any tickets to be honest since I was elected back in June as a new member of parliament and going straight into the Ministry of Justice and then coming straight into the Department for Transport.

‘I actually sadly haven’t been to see any concerts at all over the last nine months, partly because I’ve been very very busy.’ 

Pressed on whether she would ever take tickets, Ms Alexander said: ‘I have never, as a member of parliament, I have never accepted tickets to any concerts or anything like that.’

So, why was she there in the first place? I have no idea why she was sent there in an official capacity when our own country is in such a mess. It’s probably all about trying to boost her image.

This is unbelievable – while our government are slowly taxing us more and more, the MPs and cabinet members are going on expense-paid trips that have no relation to their work and lie about it.

Have these MPs got no shame? Always with their hands out for whatever they can get for free, while our poverty-stricken, pensioners and disabled have to come with the begging bowl – ‘Please sir, can I have more!’

Council Barricades Divide Rich And Poor

A Green Party council has been accused of carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing on steroids’ by installing ‘racist and classist barricades’ under the cloak of darkness with police protection.

Green-run Bristol City Council claims the blockades in Barton Hill, east Bristol, are anti-traffic and pollution measures but Somali and white working-class residents fear it’s a ploy to keep them away from the gaze of their posh neighbours.

Even supporters of the scheme have admitted the council is blockading the area off – which they say could lead to ‘riots’, turning the roads into a warzone. Other locals said the area was being turned into a ‘segregated ghetto’ that their posh white neighbours could avoid. 

Barton Hill is one of the most disadvantaged regions of the UK. According to The Quartet Community Foundation, an organisation enabling donations to charities across the west of England, more than a third of people living in the region are under the age of 16.  Of those children, 55 percent are living in deprivation below the breadline.

The area is also one of the most ethnically diverse in the city, with a large Somali immigrant community and 55 percent of all residents being non-white. A fifth of homes have no one with English as a first language living there.

Speaking to MailOnline, people living in Barton Hill said they were horrified to wake up at 3 am on March 13 to council workers nailing down barricades while dozens of police officers stood guard. Some of the police were armed with Tasers.

Shopkeeper Naveen Challagundla, 26, has worked in Barton Hill for two years but now fears for his job after the ‘race wall’ was installed. He said: ‘It’s like a prison. There’s no difference between pollution here and [in richer areas], but here it’s closed. We will lose all that business.’

Disabled resident Melissa Topping, 55, has lived in Barton Hill for 11 years. She broke down in tears as she said: ‘It’s going to get to the stage of guerrilla warfare. It’s ethnic cleansing on steroids.

‘The physical [road]blocks are so scary. What if we need the fire brigade? They are blocking us in. We have eight tower blocks.

‘Lots of the [Somalis] work five or six different jobs a day. They need to get out. It’s seriously affecting their livelihoods.’

Bristol City Council has pledged to cut personal car usage by 44 percent in the next five years to meet its climate targets.

It said ‘liveable neighbourhood’ schemes like the EBLN were ‘key’ and would ‘re-design streets so that they are people friendly’.

Bristol City Council says the EBLN is a six-month trial after which it will ‘re-engage the community for feedback’.

It said: ‘Proposals for a permanent scheme layout will be consulted on after six to nine months of the scheme being in place. 

‘Local considerations may mean that a Liveable Neighbourhood warrants more time and adjustments before considering if it should be made permanent.’

Locals who spoke to MailOnline suggested that whatever happens, the council will not have the money to dismantle the scheme and agreed the barricades were ‘racist and classist’.

And although the Green-run council said the measures will improve air quality across a 450-acre area, people living in Barton Hill said the traffic will simply be forced around their homes instead. 

Locals also said that despite the measures trying to push people to give up cars in favour of public transport, buses only come once every half an hour if they show up at all.

Melissa added: ‘The council did the consultation here because an English online-only [consultation] would not be read.

‘It’s nuts. What’s the negative impact if this doesn’t go ahead?

‘We would like cleaner, safer streets. But they are not supporting any of the businesses at all. We have got nothing here.

‘They close all of this area. Why not another? The businesses are not going to be here in six months.

When she heard council workers installing the barriers, she went out on the road with her neighbours – and were met with dozens of cops from police riot vans lining the streets.

She claimed the police weren’t from Bristol.

Melissa added that far-right groups who are against traffic measures were also trying to infiltrate the area, bringing even more tension to the streets.

Her friend, charity worker Lisa Whitehouse, added: ‘They are ghettoising it. They are segregating them. 

‘[The council] doesn’t fund us. If it wasn’t for the lottery we would be f***ed.’

Not all residents, though, oppose the plan.

Father-of-one builder Terry Wilson, 47, lives in Redfield within the EBLN. Like many of his neighbours in the area where homes market for an average of £327,000, he backs the scheme.

Yet even he admitted the council had constructed it in a way that could lead to brutality on the streets of Bristol.

He said: ‘Some of it is good. It’s safer for bikers. They are doing this under the umbrella of pollution.

‘Most of the locals here are for it. A lot of people who aren’t in flats, who own their own houses, are very happy. House prices are going to go up.

 ‘It’s not for the poorer people. There’s massive construction – a huge development. Some of that has been swaying what’s happening here.

 ‘They put this [barrier] in stealthily overnight at 3 am.

‘They are trapping people to make them get the bus, but there aren’t many buses.

 ‘The Somali community think it’s a conspiracy against them. They have been protesting en masse.

‘It’s going to really kick off down there. 

‘They are getting ready to push them in. It’s all thought out. The high-rise flats are being pushed into one area.

‘Once the other measures are put in place, that’s where we are going to see riots.

‘It’s just bonkers. If they had listened to people we would have a better situation.’

For father-of-one Mark Gottshalk, 39, a cooling systems commissioning engineer, said ‘Enough is enough.’

He issued a rallying call to his neighbours, saying, ‘We need to come together and get our roads back.’

Mark said the new measures would mean driving his elderly father to hospital would take an extra 40 minutes.

He added: ‘I wish it never happened. [We have been] squashed in together. It’s beyond me. They are going to make it permanent.’

Barton Hill taxi driver Abdiweli, 45, said he was furious at the ‘race wall’.

He said: ‘I don’t understand why they are doing it. We need to open. We need to be fair. Why are they closing this area?’

Meanwhile, Zeravan Sadik, 40, who has run the kebab shop Alibaba’s Grill for five years, said the new barrier opposite the takeaway would put his store in the ground.

He said: ‘I’m going to close the business. We can’t do delivery. We are going to lose lots of customers. Nobody is happy.’

Another local said the council’s measures were ‘racist and classist barricades’.

Local greenkeeper Chris Southie, 34, added: ‘What are they trying to achieve? Everyone pro the scheme has the same answer – emissions.

‘But all you have done is move it to someone else’s. It’s disgusting.’

Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Clare Moody has said she is ‘investigating’ the police presence during the installation of the ‘race walls’. 

Councillor Ed Plowden, Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Committee, said: ‘We want residents in east Bristol to benefit from safer, greener and quieter streets while maintaining access to their homes, businesses and local services.

‘We recognise there are mixed opinions about the trial, and we fully support the right to protest, and the right for people to campaign for the change in the area. Trialling these measures for 6 months is the best way to gather the information needed to make an informed decision on the permanent solutions to improve air quality, increase walking and cycling, boost footfall for local shops, and make roads safer for all in the area.

‘Because some people have been putting themselves and our contractors at risk by placing themselves in the way of heavy machinery and large items being installed, such as the planters, works were planned for early morning. This was to reduce the risk of harm to all involved, which was the safest way to install the measures while supporting people’s right to peaceful protest. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the early start of the works, including to residents currently observing Ramadan. We will be returning to complete the remaining work at a later date.

‘Everyone can still drive to their properties within the trial area but they may need to go by a different route. Walking, wheeling and cycling access remains as it was. We have tested routes for all sized vehicles, including our waste vehicles.

‘This trial has been extensively consulted on over three years and has been co-designed with members of the community. It was planned and developed under the previous administration and has now, in the main, been delivered by the council. We will be asking for feedback about the trial and reviewing monitoring data, before making any decisions about the long-term proposals for East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood.’

A Bristol City Council spokesman added: ‘In January, Bristol City Council attempted to install a traffic management system in the Barton Hill area of the city, however, the works were disruptive and police were required to attend.

‘The local authority gave us advanced notice it was planning to recommence the works on March 13, and we decided to stand up a policing operation, with the first officers attending at 4 am, by which time the work had already begun. A total of 28 police officers were involved.

‘The policing operation had the objectives of ensuring peaceful protest could be facilitated and to prevent a breach of the peace. A small protest did take place and officers engaged with protestors to ensure the safety of everyone concerned.

‘Neighbourhood officers remained in the area throughout the day to engage with the public and answer any questions they may have.

‘We understand the strength of community feeling around this scheme and would encourage anyone with concerns about our policing to please speak to us. We received two complaints about the operation, but neither relates to the conduct of any of the officers involved.

‘Complaints about the behaviour or conduct of officers can be made through our website and will be assessed by the Professional Standards Department. Any allegations of this nature would be treated incredibly seriously and we’d encourage anyone to report them to us so they can be investigated.’

A request for a response from Avon and Somerset Police was not answered.

These are the things we should look forward to. Gated communities are on the way for the wealthy which will house everything they need – the remainder will be left in total deprivation, and don’t think you will be immune, you won’t!

One may wonder why there are so many Somalis living there. To protect themselves and their families, they are escaping war as a result of the severe civil turmoil that has occurred in their nation. In any event, that was the plan, but after this incident, I’m not sure that will be the case.

This is purely ethnic cleansing. Give Google a little look and then all we have to say is ‘Heil Hitler.’ And it looks like apartheid has gained approval in Green Bristol.

But let’s face it, the UK is becoming an Islamic state, and if they can put a barricade up in Bristol, why can’t they put one across the English channel?

Netflix’s Adolescence: Musk Spreads False Information

Elon Musk has come under fire once again for ‘amplifying’ misinformation, this time around Netflix drama Adolescence.

The smash hit drama, starring Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty, landed on the platform last week and has accumulated over 24 million views.

Divided into four one-take episodes, the series follows 13-year-old Jamie, who rising star Owen Cooper plays in his first-ever acting job, as he is accused of killing a female classmate, Katie (Emilia Holliday).

Jamie’s parents (portrayed by Christine Tremarco and Graham) are then forced to face the shocking incident as officers investigate the impact of his radicalisation and incel culture affecting young boys.

Adolescence has been praised worldwide for its extremely real—albeit terrifying—depiction of misogyny and how little many parents know about the ideologies their children are exposed to online.

However, as discourse rages on about how true-to-life the drama is, X owner Musk has been heavily criticised for permitting mistruths about its story to spread.

Taking to the platform this weekend, @stillgray shared a picture from episode 1, writing: ‘Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real-life cases such as the Southport murderer.

‘So guess what. They race-swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it that he was radicalized online by the red pill movement.

‘Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.’

The user, real name Ian Miles Cheong, boasts 1.2 million followers and his post has been viewed almost five million times.

Responding to it, Musk, who has an astronomical following of 220 million, voiced his surprise, writing simply: ‘Wow’.

Both have since been called out and enlightened on the actual influence behind Adolescence, with @Shayan86 explaining: ‘Adolescence is not based on the Southport attack or a single case. It was already in production and being filmed before Southport happened.’

Indeed, the Southport tragedy happened on July 29 last year, as 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana attacked children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, killing three girls and seriously injuring 10 others. Adolescence was filmed over six months between March and September.

‘The amount of viral nonsense that is posted as news on this app, often amplified by Elon Musk, is mind-boggling’, the X user added.

Echoing their thoughts, @Sensanetional said the prevalence of misinformation was ‘concerning’ and @priestleyl branded X a ‘hell site’.

As for what motivated Jack Thorne and Liverpudlian actor Graham to write Adolescence, the Boiling Point star has talked candidly about why he felt it was important to make.

In various interviews, Graham has explained that while the miniseries is not directly founded on one particular case, he drew inspiration from a series of shocking knife-related crimes.

‘Where it came from, for me, is there was an incident in Liverpool, a young girl, and she was stabbed to death by a young boy. I just thought, “Why?”,’ Graham began to Radio Times magazine.

‘Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop. And there was this thing up North, where that young girl, Brianna Ghey, was lured into the park by two teenagers, and they stabbed her.

‘I just thought, “What’s going on? What is this that’s happening?”‘

The This is England star added at a Netflix event earlier this year that the idea was ’10 years’ in the making.

‘We’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads up and down the country,’ Graham began.

‘And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out were young boys—and they are young boys, you know? They’re not men—were killing young girls.

‘When I mentioned it to Phil [Barantini, director], it just really hit me hard.’

Graham also told Tudum that he wanted the show to ‘shine a spotlight’ on the alarming behaviour of these boys, who had been radicalised in online forums by the beliefs of figures like Andrew Tate.

‘One of our aims was to ask, “What is happening to our young men these days and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?”,’ Graham continued. ‘And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.’

The makers of Adolescence also wanted to show Jamie’s family life as secure and caring, which only served to emphasise how dangerous the internet can be for youngsters in their bedrooms at night.

‘When these things are on the news, your judgement instantly goes to blaming the family, you blame the mum and dad,’ Graham shared in January.

‘We’re all guilty of it because that’s the easy common denominator. I just thought, “What if that’s not the case at all?”‘

Regarding Elon Musk, is anyone paying any attention to his writings these days? He is a very pitiful person who, instead of sowing discord and hatred, could be accomplishing so much more with his influence.

Is there anything Musk won’t butt in on! He simply leaps in, circulating his own opinion without sound research.

The series was great, in my opinion, and it emphasises how important it is for parents to know what their children are exposed to online.

Anyone with half a brain can see this amazing programme has nothing to do with Southport, or indeed ethnicity, and in various discussions, Graham demonstrated that while the miniseries was not directly founded on one particular case, he drew inspiration from a series of shocking knife-related crimes.

A Fatal Mistake Was Made By A Hospital

When Bonnie’s parents observed a strange bulge on her left arm at the age of five, they took her to the hospital.

She was sent home with her arm in a sling after the doctors informed them that it was only a sprain.

Two months later, Bonnie’s parents were given the sad news that it was actually an aggressive cancer and they had just months left with their little princess.

In the time since she had first gone to the hospital in December – just days after celebrating her fifth birthday – the cancer had spread to her lungs through her bloodstream and the tumour in her arm was restricting blood flow and releasing toxins that damage the kidneys.

Specialists said the young child would have to have her arm amputated to stop further damage before then being started on palliative chemotherapy.

The cancer, Rhabdoid Sarcoma, is said to be exceedingly rare but aggressive, only affecting approximately eight children a year.

Speaking to MailOnline, step-mother Caroline Spence said: ‘It’s been horrific. It’s been really tough.

 ‘A lot has happened in a small space of time, it’s hard to process.

‘It’s really upsetting having to watch her with her little one arm, trying to do everyday tasks that we take for granted.

‘We’re just trying to navigate giving her the best time we have left with her. We want the entire time to be really special for her.

‘Her arm was amputated on March 3 and she started chemo on March 5, so two days later. So it’s been a lot for Bonnie.

‘It’s a really aggressive chemo because the tumour is so aggressive. 

‘They’re giving her chemo to hopefully give her a bit more time with us, but there is no cure.

‘If her body responds to the chemo, then we’ve been told we have six to 12 months, 12 months as the absolute max.

‘If it doesn’t respond to it, then they say they’ll stop it and she’ll have a month or two after.

‘We’ve been trying to protect our other two children from it all, who are eight and two.

‘My eight-year-old Jennifer is aware Bonnie is ill but doesn’t know she is terminal.’

Bonnie, who loves music and is constantly eager to play outside, is presently being looked for in Newcastle by her father, Iain Spence, and her stepmother, Caroline, with frequent visits from her mother, Zoey.

This kind of cancer is so horrible, and if these doctors sent her home without performing an X-ray or CT scan, they should be put to shame, and they should be sacked and never allowed to practice medicine again.

This little girl was misdiagnosed, but due to the parent’s persistence, she received the correct diagnosis – not everyone would have returned to the hospital after already being diagnosed by a seemingly all-knowing doctor.

This poor little girl was failed again by the NHS – they ignore people’s concerns time and time again and it is appalling.

Will the doctor who sent her home without doing the necessary blood tests be fired and accused of negligence? I really doubt it. Honestly, I’m not a doctor and even I know that doesn’t look like a sprain.

What kind of doctor ignores this type of lump as a sprain? Just who are we employing in our hospitals? I realise there is little funding in the NHS but this is unacceptable and negligent medical practice.

I’m curious to know what CEOs in the healthcare sector think about this.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started