Brent Council Triumphs Again: Needs Up, Support Down, Logic Missing

A North London man complained that his council “wrongly removed” weekend care support from his severely disabled and non-verbal brother. The man had already had to move back into the family home to look after his autistic brother to prevent him from being put in a care home.

Following an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO), Brent Council has been ordered to apologise for its failings in the matter and pay the man – referred to in the LGO report as Mr X – £1,000 for the “avoidable distress” caused.

Mr X described the “huge strain” it had put on him caring for his brother – referred to in the report as Mr Y – due to his “extensive care needs” and it being unsafe for other members of the family to provide care. Mr Y has autism with motor and sensory difficulties, meaning he can be a threat to himself and to others, according to the LGO.

Mr Y lives at home with his family, where he is supported by a care package and an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Mr X told the Ombudsman that he had to return to live with his family to help care for his brother; otherwise, there was a chance of him having to be put in a care home. Mr X has since had the full-time responsibility for Mr Y, which he said has put “a significant strain on him and his family”, according to the report.

A jointly funded health and social care package from the Children’s Services Disability Team supported Mr Y in the community, consisting of 81 hours of care per week – which included three nights and on Sundays. In May 2024, Mr Y’s care package was reviewed after Mr X explained to the social worker that he needed to return to work full time and the family were requesting more care hours.

At the review, Brent Council said that it was looking at a day centre for Mr Y; however, the centre later said it could not meet his needs. In early July, the social worker again visited Mr X and supported an increase in the care hours to 111 hours a week because of his intention to work full time, the LGO report adds.

Later that month, the council’s 18 Plus Panel considered the care package and determined that it should be increased. However, the Sunday hours were reduced from 10 hours of one-to-one support and three hours of two-to-one support, as well as a reduction in the weekly two-to-one support. Mr X “was worried about this” and received no decision letter explaining the panel’s decision.

Mr X submitted a formal complaint about the reduction in care hours, claiming they were “just sprung on him” and he was given no rationale for the decision. A stage two complaints report was completed in January, 2025, which upheld “most of his complaints” and set out a number of recommendations, according to the LGO.

Brent Council accepted the recommendations of the review, which included that it should, as soon as possible, undertake a thorough risk assessment and review the support plan – with an emphasis on Positive Behaviour Support, risk assessments and any training needs.

However, in August 2025, Mr X complained to the Ombudsman that the council had not implemented the suggested actions. He also wanted to be compensated for the loss of the 10 hours of support since July, 2024, at a cost of £20 an hour, on the basis that it was “removed without proper consideration or rationale”.

Following the review, a new care plan was scheduled to start in mid-March, 2026, but Mr X told the Ombudsman that the council had still failed to increase the care hours since July 2024. Instead, the council had “rearranged the existing hours while reducing the one-to-one support during these times” – meaning it was a reallocation rather than an increase in the hours.

The council said that the plan would be reviewed in mid-May of this year, but Mr X claims this “still has not happened”.

The Ombudsman stated: “The failure to provide a decision letter, after the 18 Plus Panel meeting of July 2024, has meant that Mr X cannot understand the rationale for the reduction in the 2:1 Sunday support, particularly when the social worker was recommending an increase in hours. Since making his complaint, Mr X remains none the wiser about the rationale for the 18 Plus Panel’s decision of July 2024.

“I find the delay in reviewing the case and having an interim plan amounts to fault and this has compounded the faults identified in the earlier statutory investigation. This additional fault would also have compounded the injustice to Mr Y, Mr X and his family and has required Mr X to complain to the Ombudsman to ensure the council carried out the action it had agreed to.”

A Brent Council spokesperson said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s findings and apologise to the family for the shortcomings identified in this case. We recognise the impact this had on them and remain committed to learning from the issues raised.

“We have already taken steps to address the Ombudsman’s recommendations and are reviewing our processes to help ensure families receive the support they are entitled to in a timely and effective way.”

Many said it was “disgraceful” that Brent cut hours when the social worker recommended more, calling it another example of councils “balancing budgets on the backs of disabled people”, and people voiced deep compassion for the brother who had to give up work, saying the situation was “heartbreaking” and “unfair beyond words”.

Many widened the debate, saying this is “happening everywhere”, with councils “cutting first, assessing later”.

Some said the LGO was “the only body holding councils to account”, though others felt the £1,000 compensation was “insultingly small”.

People are saying it’s wicked to trim care for a non‑verbal autistic man who needs two‑to‑one support, pointing out that this is what happens when councils are broke and disabled people pay the price, that social workers do their job only for panels to override them to save money, and that £1,000 doesn’t even begin to cover the stress this family endured.

Public sentiment echoes outrage at Brent Council for disregarding its own social worker, sympathy for the family forced into crisis, profound mistrust of indistinct care‑panel judgments, a feeling of despair about chronic underfunding, and frustration that Ombudsman rulings seldom lead to significant structural transformation, all merging into a panorama of a system people no longer feel can protect the most vulnerable.

Bedroom Bandits, Billion‑Pound Chaos — And Busted By A Takeaway

Two teenagers who became Britain’s biggest cyber hackers are facing jail for a £29 million attack on the London transport network after being caught out by a takeaway order.

Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers took down Transport for London (TfL) in a four-day cyber attack that threatened to cause £56 billion of ‘catastrophic damage’.

Jubair even spoke of ‘nuking’ access to the system, but TfL managed to ‘pull the plug’ on the network to stop the duo.

Now it can be revealed how the pair became Britain’s worst hackers, ransoming companies around the world for tens of millions of pounds, continuing to wreak havoc even behind bars.

The prolific pair were members of the notorious Scattered Spider network, which has been tied to attacks on Jaguar Land Rover costing an estimated £1.9 billion, a £300 million hack of M&S, and attacks on Harrods and the Co-op causing losses of £206 million.

Even as Flowers, 18, was behind bars, he used a smuggled phone to try to hack into the Crown Prosecution Service, the Ministry of Justice, various Government domains and even the prison he was being held in.

Meanwhile, Jubair, now 20, is estimated to have handled £200 million in cryptocurrency from ransoming businesses since he became a hacker at the age of 13, US prosecutors believe.

Ultimately it was the spending of that cash that was to prove his undoing after Jubair splashed out, not on fast cars or jewellery, but on food takeaways.

He bought gift vouchers for a food delivery service using a cryptocurrency wallet containing £27 million he and his fellow hackers had allegedly taken in ransom payments from major US companies.

The mistake led the FBI right to his door by tracing the takeaways, discovering that one of the most dangerous cyber hackers in Britain was a 17-year-old autistic loner living with his parents in a high-rise block next to a Met Police call handling centre in Tower Hamlets, East London.

Yesterday, Jubair’s lawyer Paul Keleher, KC, told Woolwich Crown Court that his client was a ‘modern-day Oliver Twist’, groomed by criminals to hack companies from the age of 13.

In a cautionary tale of an ‘online upbringing’, Jubair was given a smartphone at the age of four, and he got his first laptop at six from his father, who was a care worker, and from his mother, who worked with children who have special needs.

By the age of nine, Jubair was writing computer programmes. At 13, he had graduated to hacking after being recruited on gaming platforms such as Roblox. By 15, he had managed to infiltrate the City of London Police systems.

Mr Keleher said his client later graduated to becoming the ‘Artful Dodger’, recruiting other young hackers and teaching them tricks.

He revelled in his growing reputation online after being ridiculed and isolated at school.

His bedroom in a 22-storey tower block became the unlikely headquarters of a millionaire cyber criminal while Jubair was still at school.

He started off with SIM-swapping – when an individual’s mobile phone number is redirected to a hacker, allowing authentication codes to be sent straight to criminals.

In 2021, Jubair amassed 700 victims using this technique in an attack on BT/EE.

By the age of 15, he was part of a teenage hacking group described by prosecutors as ‘online bandits’, claiming tech giants such as Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, T-Mobile and Uber among their victims, stealing data and source code, including the unreleased Grand Theft Auto 6 from Rockstar.

Despite being under police investigation, Jubair was more nervous about his parents finding out, according to messages sent to other hackers.

But in the event, he was arrested in his school uniform. In 2023, he was convicted of 22 offences including blackmail, fraud and stalking, receiving an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.

But Jubair continued to target major corporations. US prosecutors have linked him and his associates to at least $115 million (£86 million) in ransom payments, including from a major hack of Las Vegas casinos.

Court documents allege that Jubair even hacked the US federal court system by contacting the help desk, impersonating a judge to ask for a password reset, then gaining entry to the judge’s email account.

In September 2024, Jubair vowed to ‘f*** the railways’ and ‘nuk[e] access’ after compromising the account of a single employee to hack into Transport for London’s systems.

Although buses and tubes were kept running, the breach disrupted TfL services for months, affected the personal data of millions of people and left all 28,000 TfL employees needing to reset their passwords in person.

The booking system for the Dial-a-Ride buses used by those with disabilities was shut down, and data on live Tube times for apps such as TfL Go and Citymapper was taken offline.

Jubair and Flowers hunted celebrity TfL users, but the duo were unable to get into credit card details.

When police pounced just hours later, they caught Flowers in the act of hacking two US healthcare companies from his bedroom in Walsall, West Midlands, where he lived with his grandmother.

Even in a prison cell, he continued to profit from his crimes, receiving £450,000 in Bitcoin, which he intended to ‘wash’ for clean cryptocurrency to pay drug debts from smoking cannabis behind bars.

Flowers boasted to other hackers that he would be out of prison soon: ‘Bro, I’ll get 2 ish years for TfL. Would have done a year by trial. Go home straight away. Right now it’s a section 3za [offence] which is 14 years max [in] prison, but cuz I was youth I won’t get as long as.’

He added: ‘Bro, I’ve been studying law on the side since I got arrested. Studying the judges I might get.’

Perhaps as the pair are sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court, they may discover the judge is less understanding.

As Mr Justice Turner stated: ‘There’s no Fagin in this case, it’s a Fagin-less crime.’

Perhaps they could get them to work with cyber security to instruct them on what to do to prevent this.

Just think, if they used their intelligence legally, they could run our treasury department, and we’d be sorted.

Parents don’t seem to have a clue what their kids are doing, but provide the money and equipment to let them do it.

I’ve got to confess, it’s kind of impressive. A Bedroom cyber‑brats blitz TfL for £29 million — then blow their masterplan with a takeaway blunder worthy of a sitcom.

The thing that truly bothers me is that our government believe it’s completely safe to put all of our money and sensitive and confidential data into computerised and cloud databases.

One of them will probably pass the bar and go on to become a top judge, just as a sideline so he can fight his own case. Another ‘catch me if you can’ chap.

They’re clearly excessively intelligent. Pity they didn’t use their genius to do something else that wasn’t criminal.

Being that intelligent means they must have been extremely bored at school – idle hands… devil’s work!

One day we will wake up to find no money in our Bank Accounts, not stolen, just wiped. With no history, except our printed bank statements; well, for those who still get them, most don’t.

Technology will be the destruction of civilisation.

Highly intelligent people seldom fit in with the rest of society. Some are groomed, some do it for the pleasure of it, and instead of leaving them by the wayside, their minds need to be challenged.

Indeed, they have committed a crime, and that needs to be penalised in some way. I’m not sure jail time is the way to go, but they should never be allowed any electronic devices again, and they should be tagged continuously.

Hey! Some people might not agree with me. I can please people some of the time; I can’t please them all the time.

Chancellor Chaos: Burnham’s First Big Wobble

Andy Burnham’s government-in-waiting has descended into chaos as he dithers over whether to appoint Ed Miliband or Shabana Mahmood as Chancellor.

Reports that Mr Miliband’s ambition to take over at the Treasury is about to be dashed have sparked a fierce briefing war at Westminster.

Ms Mahmood has emerged as favourite for the position, with one ally of Mr Burnham declaring she is ‘nailed down as Chancellor’.

But others close to the incoming PM insisted that, with just days to go until he enters Downing Street on Monday, he has still not made up his mind about an appointment that will set the tone for his government.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is also still pushing for the position, with friends highlighting her experience as a Treasury minister in the last Labour government.

Mr Miliband has long been the favourite for the job and has been working with Mr Burnham on his economic plans for government for months.

But the possibility of his taking charge at the Treasury has sparked a ferocious backlash that has united business, trade unions and Blairite Labour MPs.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the powerful Unite union, warned Mr Burnham last month that Mr Miliband’s obsession with Net Zero would be a ‘noose around the neck’ of job creation.

A Bloomberg survey of investors on Wednesday found that just 5 per cent support the idea of appointing the former Labour leader as Chancellor. Ms Mahmood fared only slightly better, with 11 per cent support. Former health secretary Wes Streeting was the frontrunner with the backing of more than 30 per cent of investors, but has fallen out of favour.

But ditching Mr Miliband now could trigger a massive row with Left-wing MPs who are pushing Mr Burnham to deliver a significant change of direction.

There was speculation that Mr Miliband could be made foreign secretary as a consolation prize. But denying him the Treasury would risk angering a key ally who played a significant role in forcing out his former friend Keir Starmer.

One Labour MP sympathetic to Mr Miliband said he was the only minister with the experience needed to push through radical changes at the Treasury.

‘Ed has shown he can get things done in government and he has the experience to take on the Treasury, which is the biggest obstacle to delivering real change,’ the source said. ‘If Andy bottles it now he is going to end up running a continuity Starmer government where the Treasury is basically still in charge. That is a recipe for certain failure.’

Tory frontbencher Ben Obese-Jecty said Mr Burnham’s dithering was already damaging the country.

He told the Mail: ‘With only a few days until he takes over as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham’s paralysis over who will be his Chancellor amid infighting in his inner circle shows how unprepared he is for Government.

‘After the disaster of the Starmer administration, Burnham’s rush to seize power whilst avoiding scrutiny, without a plan or an economic vision, shows he is on the cusp of filling his Cabinet with last-minute panic appointments.

‘The next stage of this ill-thought-out coup already appears to be in trouble.’

A spokesman for Mr Burnham said ‘no decisions’ have been made about the make-up of his new cabinet.

But an ally of the new PM told the Financial Times: ‘Shabana is nailed down as chancellor. That’s definitely happening.’

Ms Mahmood has been keen to remain at the Home Office and moving her would create a vacancy that would be difficult to fill. She has limited economic knowledge, having served as a junior member of Labour’s Treasury team in opposition. Appointing a member of the Labour Right to the role would also risk a backlash from Left-wing MPs.

By contrast, Ms Cooper has considerable experience, serving as chief secretary to the Treasury in the last Labour government.

Mr Miliband was an adviser to Gordon Brown in the Treasury for years.

Treasury officials are preparing to brief Mr Burnham and his new chancellor on the dire state of the public finances when he takes charge next week. The Resolution Foundation think tank last night warned that the new PM and chancellor are ‘not starting from a position of fiscal strength’, with the Iran war cutting the government’s fiscal headroom by nearly £15 billion.

Mr Burnham indicated he is preparing to impose tax rises, saying people might be asked to pay ‘a little more’.

Kemi Badenoch said: ‘We are heading for another summer of chaos with Labour obsessing about who they can tax to pay for more benefits. It doesn’t matter who is in charge, the problem is the Labour Party.’

How have we ended up with this utter disaster of a government?

Sunak, Boris, and Cameron were all covert failures. The current state of affairs was created by promoting economic conservatism while permitting liberal immigration laws. They keep in their circles behind the gates and don’t really interact with regular people in regular places, so it doesn’t affect them, and now we are footing the bill.

People wanted “change”, but they never asked what it entailed, even though many of us who have actually seen previous Labour Governments in action knew precisely what would happen and tried to tell them.

Milliband is more hated than Starmer. If Burnham appoints Milliband to any government position, then it will be the same rot as before, and Labour MPs will turn on Burnham before the next election to protect their own skins, and the next few years will be a lot rougher than the past two years.

Andy Burnham will be the new captain, re-shuffling the deck chairs, but the Titanic is still sinking.

Milliband would bring chaos; keep him well away from the cabinet.

Motive Identified. Classification Updated

Counter-terror officers are now investigating the suspected murder of former minister Ann Widdecombe as “new information and evidence have come to light”, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) South East said.

A murder inquiry was started after Widdecombe was discovered dead at her home on Thursday.

Police believe she was attacked at around 12.30 pm on Wednesday – nearly 24 hours before her body was discovered with “serious injuries”.

CTP said in a statement today: “A 28-year-old white British man from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Saturday 11 July.

“New information and evidence have come to light during what has been a dynamic and complex investigation and as a result, Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) is now leading the investigation.

“The man in custody has since been re-arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

The Speaker of the House of Commons has paid tribute to the “courageous” and “principled” former MP and minister Ann Widdecombe, who died last week in “tragic, deeply troubling circumstances”.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle told MPs: “Ann was a formidable politician, a prominent figure in public life. She was a member of Parliament for Maidstone for 27 years, holding a number of ministerial posts in the 90s, and was fierce and enjoyed robust political debate.”

“Whether you agreed with her or not, she was principled, spoke her mind and was true to her beliefs, which were informed by a Christian faith.”

He went on to say that she was a “close friend” of Tory MP Sir David Amess, who was murdered in 2021, and said they were both “animal lovers”.

MPs were urged by the Speaker to refrain from saying anything in the chamber that would jeopardise a criminal prosecution in the future.

Concluding his tribute, Hoyle recalled spending “a lot of time” sharing pizza at a Lambeth restaurant with Widdecombe, describing her as “a friend in many ways”.

“Politically we may not agree, but she was without doubt a courageous, principled politician, and all our thoughts are with her family and her friends.”

Former police officer, Martin Gallagher, explained why counter-terror police are now investigating the death of Ann Widdecombe, with officers having earlier said that terrorism was not suspected as a motive.

He said the police would not have had evidence of such a motive at the outset of the investigation, but following this announcement, Gallagher said: “I would surmise from this that the police have now established evidence of some form of motive which has now brought about the involvement of the counter terrorism police.

“The motive will have been found, obviously, during the searches and such that the police are conducting or through interviews with the suspect.

“So it might not have been immediately apparent.”

He added that he would “refrain from any criticism of the police” because when they find out new information, they act on it, which is “the nature of policing”.

The former top police officer also said that the police were very clear in their original statements that there was no evidence of a terror-related or political motive “at this time”.

Asked how the investigation will now change as counter-terror police take over, Gallagher said there will be a “significant increase in resources”, particularly specialist expertise, as well as a change in command structure and a “whole new prism of information that’s going to need to be provided to the public”.

When counterterrorism intervenes, it can only indicate that the violence they have discovered is not typical, and perhaps if they’ve reclassified it, the motive wasn’t personal. It was operational.

CT police are leading after the death of a former minister? That is no longer a murder investigation. That is an evaluation of the threat, and they don’t hand cases to CT unless the evidence speaks louder than speculation.

Marble Arch Motel: Check In With A Cardboard Box, Check Out With A Tourist’s Wallet

Once again, a group of migrants from Eastern Europe are accused of terrorising Mayfair through professional begging, stealing, and pickpocketing.

At the intersection of Park Lane and Oxford Street – in the shadow of Marble Arch – a dozen people lounge on litter-strewn benches, surrounded by shopping trollies piled with bulging bin bags.

Some smoke and roam, while others gulp from big bottles of Peroni, their tummies bulging from under their t-shirts.

While they may appear idle, some of these people are said to form a well-oiled gang of Romanian criminals.

When approached by the Daily Mail, they voluntarily confessed to having ‘no documents to work’ – and claim they have a ‘hard’ life with support from nobody but themselves.

However, Oxford Street employees, who have gotten to know the returning characters well, claim that the gang comes in from Romania every year, with some of them targeting London’s busiest tourist season.

During the summer and right before Winter Wonderland arrives in Hyde Park, their numbers increase. Many return home with their gains in between these times.

Several encampments have emerged on Park Lane over the past couple of years, forcing Transport for London (TfL) and Westminster City Council to spend thousands to clear them out – yet still the same faces return.

Instead of sleeping in tents for the time being, they spend every night under the cover of M&S’s main Oxford Street shop, from which several have been banned for stealing large quantities of steak and vodka.

Each morning, they transport their belongings along the road and set up in the shade of a huge London Plane tree.

Their work revolves around a street begging racket, complete with shift schedules and managers, according to a barista at Pret a Manger over the road.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘What you have to understand is that these are professionals. They each know their role, whether that’s as a beggar, a pickpocket, or a shoplifter.

‘There is usually a lady stationed outside here on the pavement. She will sit there for a few hours begging for money before another one turns up.

‘They hand over the cardboard, and she takes her place. It is shift work, very well organised.

‘Some of the gang have been around for years, since before the days of the Park Lane camp, and so he has, in a strange way, gotten to know them.

‘They will come in each morning very early to get a coffee, sometimes be a bit cheeky and try to get one for free, but they don’t steal from here anymore. Other places get ransacked,’ he said.

After the tourist season, some people even stop over to say goodbye before packing up and heading off.

He said: ‘They will come in here and say, “Bye bye, I’m going on holiday. I’ll be back in a couple of months.”

The barista observed as the group made a camp ‘like a little village’ with a dozen tents outside the Hilton Hotel down Park Lane.

Last year, it was revealed that TfL had forked out £37,000 for bailiffs and lawyers to clear out the encampment across two summers.

The Pret employee, who didn’t want to be named, is adamant that the same group is now assembled by Marble Arch, having assumed a new base after being turfed out.

They plod back along Oxford Street to spread their duvets over the covered walkway outside M&S after a tiring day of deceit.

A security guard told us the entire group is banned from the store after stealing hundreds of pounds worth of meat, alcohol and clothes.

He said: ‘They have caused us lots of problems over the years. We had to stop them coming in because they would steal – lots of stuff, very expensive.

‘If they were just stealing because they were hungry, they would take sandwiches – but they take meat, lots of steak. And alcohol – spirits like vodka, especially.

‘We often have standoffs; I have to tell them, “You’re not coming in.” After a while they get the message, but they have been violent in the past.

‘M&S has chosen to be empathetic by letting them sleep there – the company could easily hire overnight security to clear them out. And this is how they choose to respond.

‘I have noticed more of them sleeping here in the past three or four weeks; there are about 20 here each night.’

Sainsbury’s is one of the gang’s favoured targets, and employees there have several stories of altercations.

A manager says: ‘There are three or four different groups in the area we have problems with, but the Marble Arch lot are the worst.

‘Just yesterday, one of them stole over £100 of Ferrero Rocher from us. Chocolate is something they steal the most, or they also take the magazines. And I don’t think they take them because they like reading.

‘We’ve got the new Facewatch system – facial recognition technology that monitors the door. It is good because it sends an alert to our store phone when a troublemaker comes in.’

A security guard says: ‘They sometimes follow customers around inside the shop and try to pick their pockets. If someone bends down to look at an item, then they might be able to slip their phone from their trousers.’

Some local employees are more understanding.

An attendant at Selfridges food hall, across the road from the M&S where the group sleeps, said: ‘I sometimes give them food at the end of the day if it is going to waste.

‘I’ll just put a few pieces in a paper bag and give it to them as I walk past.’

Cllr David Harvey, Westminster City Council’s cabinet member for housing, told the Daily Mail the authority was ‘actively responding to the situation’, adding that it faces ‘unique pressures’ caused by rough sleepers from ‘across the UK and overseas’.

‘Public spaces cannot become places for long-term encampments, nor can we accept behaviour that causes distress to residents, businesses and visitors,’ he said.

‘Where people refuse repeated offers of support, or where anti-social behaviour and public safety concerns arise, we will take appropriate enforcement action alongside our partners. 

‘While we will continue to help those who are vulnerable, we are determined to keep Westminster’s streets, parks and public spaces safe, accessible and welcoming for everyone.’

A TfL spokesman said: ‘No one should be faced with sleeping rough on London’s streets. This is a busy part of the TfL road network that is not a safe place for people to sleep rough.

‘People who have previously been sleeping rough at this site have been made aware that returning to the site is not an option and that they will be removed.

‘We continue to work with Westminster City Council whose outreach teams can connect people to the support available to them and continue to monitor the area.’

This makes me extremely sad, which politicians pretend to understand, but when I wander the streets of London I see what’s happening with my own eyes. I’m not being melodramatic; I’m describing a real social unravelling that numerous people feel but are too afraid to say aloud for fear of being labelled, ignored, or told they’re imagining it.

We are an extremely small country, and we just don’t have the space for these illegals.

The UK doesn’t intend to “let them in”. What’s happening is a combination of legal obligations, systemic failure, and political avoidance, which creates the impression that people can just come and stay without consequence.

Under international law — specifically the 1951 Refugee Convention and European human rights frameworks — if someone reaches UK territory and declares asylum, the government must process that claim.

They are unable to lawfully refuse admission at the border or force the boat back, and this is why small boats are such a pressure point.

That’s not “letting them in” by choice — it’s the legal structure the UK signed decades ago.

The asylum system has been running with:

  • huge backlogs
  • too few caseworkers
  • slow processing
  • limited removal capacity

This means people remain in the UK for years, even if their claim is weak or eventually rejected, so the delay creates the appearance of “open doors”, even though the system is simply clogged.

Wimbledon Served Sunshine — The Internet Served Outrage

Yesterday’s Wimbledon visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales provoked criticism as onlookers noticed a contentious feature of their oldest son, Prince George’s, clothing.

The 12-year-old joined his parents and little sister, Princess Charlotte, in the Royal Box on Sunday (12 July) evening to witness Italy’s Jannik Sinner’s impressive three-set triumph over German player Alexander Zverev in the Men’s Singles Final.

But not every sports fan was thrilled to see the youngster sitting on Centre Court, especially given his outfit.

Given the extreme heat in London yesterday, some have criticised George’s outfit for being excessively constrictive. He wore a clean, pale blue shirt, a thick navy blazer, and a matching striped tie.

On the last day of the grand slam, temperatures reached a staggering 29C, but while Kate and Charlotte were able to use small sun hats to keep cool, George appeared uncomfortably hot in the direct sunlight.

“Imagine not letting your child wear a T-shirt in this weather,” one X user hit out after noticing. “Or at least a short-sleeved shirt with no jacket and tie.

“Seems ridiculous in this day and age.”

Another wrote: “Dressed him up like a ventriloquist’s doll.”

“Prince George looks hot in that full suit at Wimbledon,” a third continued. “I respect that the English are formal and keep tradition, but feel bad for the kid.

“Could they not have let him wear a polo shirt or something?”

A fourth also asked: “Why did the poor little fella have to wear a jacket and tie?”

Several spectators rushed to defend Kate and William, however, pointing out that George had simply been abiding by the strict rules that come with sitting inside the royal box.

Wimbledon’s official website states on this: “Protocol – dress is smart, suits/jacket and tie, etc. Ladies are asked not to wear hats, as they tend to obscure the vision of those seated behind them.”

Emphasising these regulations, one social media user wrote: “Get with the programme. It’s Wimbledon. It’s the men’s final. It’s the royal box. There is a strict dress code.”

Another added: “Imagine raising the future King of England to respect the rules of the royal box at Wimbledon and to understand his future role.”

A third continued: “There is a dress code in the Royal Box at Wimbledon! And he’s the future king!!!”

The Royal Box’s strict dress code is not the only strict rule in the 149-year-old tournament…

Wimbledon’s strangest rules

From the length of the grass to the temperature of the tennis balls, Wimbledon has stringent rules and regulations. Violations of these restrictions can result in fines of thousands of pounds.

Curfew

While at other grand slams, play continues late into the night, at Wimbledon there’s a strict 11 pm curfew.

This means tennis buffs sometimes have to go to bed on a cliffhanger.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal’s 2018 semi-final clash was suspended after the third set. Meanwhile, Andy Murray was especially annoyed when he was in the lead against Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2023, but went on to lose when the game was paused overnight and restarted the following morning.

Timed toilet breaks

Players are limited to one toilet break for matches up to three sets, and two if it goes on for longer.

They may only leave during a set change, and they must return within three minutes or risk gifting their opponent a point.

The longest ever Wimbledon match lasted a whopping 11 hours over three days, so players better get their nervous wees in before the match.

Temper tantrums

Players can be fined up to £36,900 for smashing their rackets. Djokovic is believed to have smashed over 60 of them over the course of his career.

The same maximum penalties may also be imposed for using foul language.

Countdown to serve

As soon as the ball goes out of play, the serving player has just 25 seconds to hit their serve, or the umpire can call a violation which could potentially grant a point to their opponent.

Fines for not trying hard enough

Players must prove they’re giving their all to win the match. Australian player Bernard Tomic was fined an eye-watering £45,000 after he was accused of not putting in enough effort to beat French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, losing after just 58 minutes.

Age limits

Players have to be at least 14 to compete, which means youth sensations like Coco Gauff were originally banned from taking part.

Spectators, meanwhile, have to be accompanied by a guardian if they’re under 16. Under-fives aren’t permitted at all onto show courts.

This meant Serena Williams’ two-year-old daughter Adira River couldn’t watch her mum’s comeback at this year’s grand slam, while not all of Andy Murray’s four children could watch his final doubles appearance in 2024.

The grass and the balls

Everything at Wimbledon is just so. The grass is cut to 8mm, which is apparently best suited for modern tennis play and for the grass to survive.

Meanwhile, the tennis balls are kept in a fridge to maintain a constant temperature of 20°C. A consistent temperature is important because it apparently affects the way the balls bounce.

Tennis whites

It was originally just female players who were required to wear all-white on the court. According to Tennis Fashions: Over 125 Years of Costume Change, the rule was introduced because it was ‘quite unthinkable that a lady should be seen to perspire’.

Eventually, males were also subject to the regulation.

A single trim of colour is allowed around the neckline and sleeve cuffs, but this must be no thicker than 1cm.

In 2022, an exception was made so women could wear dark undershorts to feel more comfortable if they were on their period.

Misdiagnosed As “Mad” — The Truth Was A Monster

A young woman who was misdiagnosed as being severely mentally unwell for one year has said it took GPs, medical professionals and opticians months to find out what was actually wrong with her.

Sarah-Jane Doherty, 24, from Doncaster in Yorkshire, first noticed she was sick in July 2025 when she found herself being extremely fatigued, to the point where she could not stand up for long periods of time.

Other manifestations included depressive episodes, psychosis, hallucinations, manic episodes, and problems with her mood being up and down, which led professionals to believe she was showing symptoms of bipolar disorder. The 24-year-old was put under the care of secondary mental health services and placed on antipsychotic medication.

Sarah-Jane said: “They said that they would put me on an antipsychotic, and my symptoms still weren’t resolving. In fact, some of them are getting worse.

“They said that they thought that my hallucinations were mood congruent, so they were associated with my mood, which was why they weren’t responding to typical antipsychotic treatment. I think when that was said to me, I was a bit deflated.”

During this time, Sarah-Jane also had problems with her vision, including seeing floaters and noticing she was squinting at her computer screen – despite having her glasses on. After seeing her optician, Sarah-Jane said they urged her to get new glasses due to rapid vision decline and the presence of floaters.

But on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Sarah-Jane was taken to A&E after experiencing an excruciating headache that left her in so much pain after 60 seconds that she was crying on her bed. She was also having the feeling of electric shocks running down her left arm.

She said: “I went from not having a headache at all to crying because I was in that much pain. And I rang my mum, and my mum came down straight away, and I was just absolutely inconsolable.

“I couldn’t put my head up, just lying face down on my bed because nothing was helping. I took co-codamol, which eventually relieved it, and then I carried on getting ready and went out with my friends.”

From then on, Sarah continued to feel ill for several days before going to urgent treatment at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, and being taken through to A&E for a CT scan on her head.

After the CT scan brought up what doctors initially believed was a bleed on her brain, Sarah was taken for an MRI scan and placed onto a ward. The next morning, Sarah-Jane’s life changed forever after being told she had a brain tumour around the size of a golf ball.

She said: “They told me in a bay of four people by myself that I had a brain tumour, and that they think it is a glioma. I was just distraught; I was absolutely hysterical.

“I rang my mum straight away, and she came into the hospital. She rang my dad, and he came home from work to see me. I feel a bit like I’m in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, like it just doesn’t feel like it’s actually me.

“I was upset, I was stressed thinking, ‘what if it’s not removable?’ I didn’t know what grade it was. What if it’s spread somewhere else in my body? And I just had so many what-ifs in my mind that I just kept crying.”

Sarah-Jane went through several other tests, including a lumbar puncture and a full body CT, before being referred to Royal Hallamshire Hospital under the neurosurgery department, where she was diagnosed with a suspected Grade 2 Glioma.

She was also told that the antipsychotic medication she was taking was hiding a number of her major symptoms, such as the electric shocks she was feeling down her left side, which would have presented as seizures if she was not on the tablets.

“They gave me loads of leaflets, and there’s a massive list of complications, which is just so scary. I’m just praying that none of them occurs, but it’s brain surgery, so it obviously is risky in itself.

“They said, hopefully they can get it all, but they won’t know for sure whether it’s grade two or a grade three until they take a biopsy when they remove it.

“And if it does turn out to be grade three and it’s gone further, then it’s most likely radio and chemotherapy, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. My family’s heartbroken; they’re distraught, but they’re staying strong as well as they can be.

“We’re just trying to spend a lot of time together as a family, but it brought us even closer, if that makes sense. My dad keeps crying, my mum keeps crying.

“I hear them cry when I’m not in rooms because they’re trying not to; they’re trying to be brave for me in front of me. My sister lives in London, she’s come home to stay with me.”

After learning about her brain tumour, Sarah-Jane began sharing her experiences on TikTok in an effort to support others going through similar circumstances and to increase awareness of her symptoms so others wouldn’t overlook them.

She said: “I didn’t know anybody my age who’d had a brain tumour. I posted and then obviously a lot of people started viewing it, and it’s kind of inspired me to keep posting because I’ve got a lot of comments from people going through similar things who didn’t know who to talk to about it.

“It’s not normal to feel ill all the time, and we put this aside and blame things like work for not wanting to go to the doctors, but you’re the most important thing, and it’s important to put yourself first.

“Push for a second opinion if there is any chance that you think something is wrong. You have the right to a second opinion; if somebody is experiencing new symptoms, it can’t be put down to your mental health.”

One of the most dangerous blind spots in frontline medicine today isn’t that GPs don’t care; it’s that the system teaches them to treat the presenting symptom, not investigate the underlying cause, unless something is blatantly abnormal.

Headache? Treat the headache. Hallucinations? Treat the hallucinations. This is efficient for common ailments but disastrous for rare or atypical ones, and with 7‑minute appointments (and shrinking), GPs are forced into “pattern matching” rather than full clinical reasoning.

Once a GP thinks “this is anxiety” or “this is psychosis,” every forthcoming symptom gets interpreted through that lens, and you seldom see the same doctor twice, so nobody builds a proper case history.

When someone develops hallucinations, confusion, paranoia, or personality changes out of nowhere, the first question should be:

“What physical process is affecting the brain?”

Not:

  • “Is this schizophrenia?”
  • “Is this stress?”
  • “Is this trauma?”

Because sudden‑onset psychosis is a hallmark of:

B12 deficiency

Autoimmune encephalitis

Thyroid storms

Epilepsy

Brain tumours

Dementia and Alzheimer’s

Infections

Metabolic disorders

Every single one of these can be detected with:

  • blood tests
  • neurological examination
  • MRI or CT scan

But many patients never get those tests.

The system becomes dangerous when physical illness is mistaken for mental illness, and this distinction matters. Because the danger isn’t the individuals — it’s the diagnostic shortcuts, the time pressure, the biases, and the absence of proper medical investigation that lead to fatal mistakes.

Cut The Benefits, Cut The Life

A mother of a disabled woman who died by suicide when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) incorrectly stopped her benefits has demanded an investigation. Housebound Jodey Whiting died in 2017.

Her death came just two weeks after her Employment Support Allowance (ESA) was denied because she was considered fit for work. But Ms Whiting, from Stockton, lived in chronic physical pain and had her benefits wrongly stopped.

Mum Joy Dove has now met with Labour Party cabinet member Sir Stephen Timms, who is conducting and co-chairing the so-called Timms Review, which is exploring changes to Personal Independence Payment assessments and eligibility.

“Jodey was always just a name and a number to them – she was just one of millions and that must stop,” Joy said. She said: “Only a full public inquiry would get to the truth, for all the people that have been failed.”

“The way the DWP treated my daughter was brutal and disgraceful,” she said. “I’ll keep fighting to get justice for Jodey and all the other families who have lost loved ones.”

Bridget Dolan KC, the coroner’s counsel, said: “She wrote about not being able to pay her bills and having no food.

“In some she wrote about feeling breathless and having back pain and trying to pay her bills and being in debt.”

Another note stated: “I have had enough.” One note ended with the words: “Debt, debt, debt.”

At the inquest, Helga Swidenbank, a director at the DWP responsible for accessibility and disability services, said the department should have recognised that Whiting had “good cause” not to attend a health assessment, given her illnesses and mental health concerns.

In a statement, the DWP said: “The Department has acknowledged the findings of the Coroner, apologised to Jodey’s family for the failings in her case, and made significant improvements.”

I am shocked and hollowed with disbelief because this is a system that kills its own.

This lady didn’t fail the DWP; the DWP failed her, and her blood is on their paperwork.

A lot of people on PIP/benefits have paid decades into the system from working hard and unfortunately get hit with illnesses/disabilities.

They have a right to it! God forbid any of you ever find yourself in a situation where you have no control over your health.

Nobody chooses to be sick or incapacitated by long-term illness, and people who are born with impairments and have never been able to work to support the system clearly deserve it as well.

Nobody wants to live with a disability or poor health! Indeed, there are many who take advantage of others and make claims when there is nothing wrong with them. It is necessary to target these individuals! Individuals who have paid into the system, those who continue to do so, and those with severe disabilities who would not have been able to are all eligible and have submitted numerous medical records, letters from consultants, and healthcare providers.

Everyone who is born or develops a disability should have equal access to financial, emotional, and physical support.

Anyone who needs it should have it regardless; it shouldn’t be seen as something a person has “earned.” The majority of claimants would give it up in a second in return for good health and a pain-free life.

DWP. They come from a distant world, and it’s certainly not ours. Basically, they are working in a heartless system, and many are power-grabbing and just as hungry as the system they work in.

It’s extremely sad for this lady who has died because of the DWP’s inhumane decisions and mistakes, because for people struggling to survive emotionally, physically or mentally, it can be the last straw.

It’s time for us to start caring as human beings because no one should die as a result of bureaucracy or technological errors.

Strict Rules, Soaked Dignity — Hackney’s Apology Comes Bone‑Dry

The leaders of an East London academy where vulnerable pupils were found to have potentially been harmed by its disciplinary culture have declined to apologise to children affected.

A safeguarding review into Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy (MVPA) in Hackney, praised for its excellent academic results, concluded in December 2025 that the school’s culture of “punishment no matter what” had been “particularly harmful” for a substantial minority of vulnerable students.

The report, commissioned by the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership and authored by Sir Alan Wood, looked at 342 reports from parents, pupils and staff describing a climate of fear, institutionalised shouting, a lack of reasonable adjustments for SEND children, and techniques designed to humiliate pupils. Sir Alan called on the school to end the practice of isolating children in corridors – known as ‘desking’ – and teachers screaming into pupils’ faces.

Sir Alan urged the school to differentiate between “acceptable voice raising” to gain attention, and “unacceptable shouting” used to humiliate individual pupils. It concluded: “Academic excellence that traumatises some pupils is not true excellence.”

On Wednesday (July 8), figures from MVPA and its multi-academy trust, Mossbourne Federation, claimed that their behaviour policy was “fit for purpose,” but that it was the culture and “implementation” that needed changing. As they faced a grilling by councillors for the first time since the report’s publication, senior figures from the trust said they had made “enormous progress”, but they would not “throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

Since MVPA is an academy, Hackney Council has limited enforcement power over the school, which is presently controlled by the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE was originally scheduled to attend the meeting but pulled out. During the tense meeting, two cabinet members accused the trust of “gender discrimination” by requiring pupils to make up extra time if they take toilet breaks during class.

A dossier of complaints which led to the damning review – usually reserved for cases of serious harm to children – included five reports from parents that pupils with no previous incontinence problems were soiling themselves or menstruating through their uniforms, either because they were banned from going to the toilet or were too afraid to ask.

MVPA’s Principal, Matthew Toothe, said the school was “unwaveringly caring” as he rejected the toilet policy as “restrictive”, claiming that an alternative approach would fail those children who missed learning time. Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Early Intervention, and Cllr Laura-Louise Fairley, Deputy Cabinet Member for SEND, said this discriminated against menstruating children.

Councillors challenged the leadership’s broader response to the report’s findings, arguing they had yet to see proof of change. Cllr Fairley reported that a Year 6 child who had attended a Mossbourne school on a transition day was sanctioned for not bringing a pen. She called on the senior leaders to say sorry to pupils identified by Sir Alan’s review.

Toby Campbell-Gray, Chair of the Mossbourne Federation, said the trust was focused on acting on the recommendations, but despite pressure from councillors, he refused outright to apologise for suffering experienced by schoolchildren.

“We’re not going to get into apology politics for lots of reasons,” he said, as he implied that certain practices could remain. This included desking, which he said could be “restorative” for pupils, including those who sometimes were asking to be removed from the class.

Peter Hughes, CEO of the Mossbourne Federation, said the school’s code of conduct had now been updated to make clear that “no child is belittled or (made) to feel less than”.

Independent Children’s Safeguarding Commissioner Jim Gamble, who led the report in December 2024, has been critical of the trust’s response both leading up to the review and post-publication. In January, Mr Gamble conveyed his shock that nobody from the senior leadership had yet resigned over the report’s findings. He has also called into question the £400,000 the Federation spent on legal fees, including on its own parallel KC-led inquiry – the equivalent of nearly £500 per pupil.

When asked by Labour backbencher, Cllr Daniel Rea, whether this was an “appropriate” use of public funds, Mr Campbell-Gray said the trust would have “preferred to have spent less” and admitted this decision may have been a mistake, adding: “It is what it is”.

Mr Campbell-Gray took over as Mossbourne Federation Chair in March, following the resignation of Henry Colthurst.

Though Mr Gamble said he was pleased by the new chair’s “fresh perspective”, by the meeting’s end he became visibly frustrated with the leadership’s refusal to apologise to children who had “suffered in a place where they should have felt safe”.

“When an apology is warranted, it should be delivered. That candour is what differentiates those who can reflect and learn from those who simply will defend and continue to defend because they can,” he said.

Turning to the DfE, Mr Gamble did not mince words, claiming that “the so-called regulator” had failed to hold the school to account by sanctioning the leadership. “Leadership sets the tone for the culture, and governance should oversee and challenge when that culture has clearly gone wrong,” he said.

“Made to wet themselves? In LONDON? In 2026? What century are Mossbourne living in?”

Strict? This isn’t strict. This is cruelty dressed up as discipline, and if leaders can’t apologise to children, then they shouldn’t be anywhere near them.

Envision defending a policy that leaves kids soaked in urine. Absolutely medieval.

Sanitation is an acknowledged human right. The UK accepts this and has obligations to progressively realise it.

There is no standalone “right to sanitation”, but failures in sanitation provision can still be challenged under broader rights (e.g., dignity, health, discrimination).

Although the UK acknowledges sanitation as a fundamental human right through international obligations, the Human Rights Act does not specifically identify it.

Murder On The Moor

Following the announcement of Ann Widdecombe’s passing on Friday, police have released an important update.

On Friday morning, Good Morning Britain hosts Kate Garraway and Ranvir Singh interrupted the broadcast after Ann’s representative confirmed she had died at the age of 78.

Ann was discovered dead at her Dartmoor house, and later on Friday, Devon & Cornwall Police officers announced they are looking into her death.

The Sun claims that after suffering a severe head injury, Ann was discovered drenched in blood at her Devon house.

In the latest update, as reported by the BBC, a 26-year-old man has been arrested in connection with Ann’s death, Devon & Cornwall Police confirmed. The force said a white British male is in custody.

They added that the incident is not being treated as terrorism and there is “no information” to suggest it was politically motivated.

In a statement earlier on Friday, Detective Chief Inspector Ilona Rosson said: “This is an extremely tragic incident, and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this difficult time.

“Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. We are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened and to locate the person responsible, who we believe to be a white male.

“I would appeal to anyone who may have information about this incident, however insignificant it may seem, to come forward and speak with us.

“We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the vicinity of Haytor Vale, Haytor, or anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage which could assist with our investigation.

“We have an increased uniformed police presence in the area to both support the investigation and provide reassurance to residents. Anyone with concerns can speak with our officers at the scene.

“We will release further information when we are able to do so. In the meantime, I would ask people not to speculate about what might have happened, particularly on social media. This is not only potentially harmful to our investigation but also deeply distressing for family and friends of Ann Widdecombe.”

Following the news of the investigation, Ann’s niece Fiona Martin, 52, told The Telegraph: “It’s still very raw, and the family are still processing it. I can’t say any more at this stage.”

It comes after Good Morning Britain broke into its scheduled programme to tell viewers that the former Conservative minister had died. A statement was given by her agent on behalf of her family.

Speaking live on GMB, Kate said: “We haven’t heard about a long illness, have we? So I think it took everybody a little bit by surprise. I think she was even still doing various broadcasting things up until recently.”

Ranvir added: “She lived a full life, you can certainly say that. Sad news there that Ann Widdecombe has passed away.”

Whatever people thought of her politics, this is grim. Murder? On Dartmoor? This is unreal, and this will get messy extremely quickly because people will twist it into politics even though the police said there’s no motive like that.

People are now alarmed since Haytor is small, and nothing like that ever occurs there.

It doesn’t feel real at all. The nation seems to have awoken to a criminal drama.

This isn’t just news — it’s a bomb going off in the middle of the country.

The timeline is the part that freezes you. An assault at midday, a body undiscovered until morning. That’s not drama — that’s forensic horror, but strip away the politics, and you’re left with a stark fact: a human being was violently attacked and left alone, and it’s chilling in its simplicity.

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