Preparing For Life Outside Prison

Prisoners who are close to being released are being allowed to host dinner parties in an experiment that has lasted years but has only just been exposed.

Four ‘lifers’ are living in a ‘hostel’ where they reportedly cook for governors with meal kits from Hello Fresh and Gusto – a claim the Ministry of Justice has denied.

It is supposed to be a ‘stepping stone’ for prisoners serving life or IPP sentences who are considered to pose a considerable threat of serious harm to the public.

The prisoners, who go shopping at the jail store. have 24-hour access to a kitchen and shower and have rooms with a wardrobe and mattress, must behave well or face being returned to the normal wing of the unnamed Category C prison in England.

The experiment was established when the previous government tightened rules stopping most ‘lifers’ from finishing their sentences in open prisons over fears they could escape.

The move was exposed at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Forensic Psychology in Cardiff, Wales.

Prison and probation psychologist Katy Burgess is evaluating the experiment.

One of the inmates told Ms Burgess it was ‘a bit weird because you’re in jail, so you know you should not be walking around the prison, really, at lunchtime,’ prison outlet Inside Time reported.

Another prisoner said: ‘Not having to be escorted or unlocked – it just makes you feel a bit more normal, human, less controlled.’

Ms Burgess added: ‘Some staff thought it was a little bit of a step too far in a closed prison and didn’t quite understand the benefit it may bring.’

A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘This small pilot aims to cut reoffending by better preparing certain prisoners for their eventual resettlement in the community.

‘It’s completely wrong to suggest offenders in the unit can access external food services.’

Gusto refused to comment. 

MailOnline has reached out to HelloFresh for comment. 

If these prisoners are a grave risk, why are they being readied for release?

It appears we have nut cases running in this country. There’s no money to build more prisons, and prisoners are going to be let out early due to lack of funds, and now prisoners in jail are going shopping to host a dinner party. It’s hilarious, if not absurd. Who’s even going to be invited to these dinner parties?

Life should mean life, but life is now a word used to make our government and judiciary feel better about themselves, but it in no way mirrors the punishment.

Once again we are being lied to by proficient liars known as politicians, and also those who laughingly call themselves and each other ‘right honourable.’

Rehabilitation doesn’t always work, so why continue the farce? Prisons should be prisons, hard work, but now they are like hotels, and they don’t deter the criminals.

We don’t really have rehabilitation for prisoners though, because the previous government couldn’t afford it, or so they say! They just tend to throw the released prisoner into a hostel or B&B who have no life skills and there are no alternative options for them, so of course, they go back to what they know.

Neither Labour nor the Tories represent their citizens, they just represent their pockets!

And what about the victims, where is their support? These victims spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders for fear it will happen again.

I do identify that prisoners who are going to be released need some fundamental skills, particularly life skills and education so that when they’re released they have something to look forward to, like employment, and less probability of them reaffending.

Katie Price Must Give Up Five Cars, Including Her Pink Range Rover

A judge issued an arrest warrant for Katie Price when she failed to appear in court, and she was ordered to give up her pink Range Rover along with five other vehicles.

The 46-year-old former glamour model purportedly flew overseas and did not show up for her £760,000 bankruptcy court appearance.

The six cars include a Volkswagen Beetle, a Nissan Elgrand, a Range Rover Vogue (black), a Suzuki Vitara, an Infiniti FX50, and another Range Rover (pink).

Derragh O’Connell, on behalf of the trustees, said he was ‘seeking effectively the delivery of some six vehicles.

‘Trustees specifically seek an order requiring Ms Price to identify the current location of each of those vehicles.

‘The second application deals with again the trustee’s request for a warrant to authorise trustees and agents to seize vehicles and relevant log books and relevant car keys for those vehicles.’

Price is thought to have travelled to Turkey for another round of cosmetic surgery, despite ‘very clear warnings’ that she needed to attend court.

A jet-setting Price appeared to share a snap of herself on a plane munching a sandwich just hours before her looming court hearing. 

Posting on Instagram, the debt-riddled beauty model shared a picture of her snack, adding: ‘Crisp sandwich is the best.’

It’s believed Price – whose £2 million ‘mucky mansion’ was recently repossessed – was joined on the jaunt by pal Lou Anderson.

Mr O’Connell said that the court had received ‘inconsistent and contradictory’ information from Ms Price about her alleged ownership of the vehicles.

‘If she doesn’t comply, I’ll be seeking to have certain orders made as a consequence of that penal notice’, he said.

Ms Price’s ex-husband Alex Reid – former MMA fighter and Celebrity Big Brother star – attended the hearing and was invited to address the court as one of Ms Price’s creditors.

He stood up to read a pre-prepared statement into the microphone in which he announced that he was a ‘creditor and ex-husband of Katie Price’ who was ‘not just owed money, but owed peace of mind.’

Holding a two-litre bottle of Lipton’s Green Iced Tea, Mr Reid said: ‘She has failed to pay small businesses, some of which have been forced to close due to losses.

‘I myself have suffered not only financial loss but the wellbeing of my own family and mental health.

‘(She) showed explicit footage, private footage to a live television audience – forcing me to take her to court in 2019 for revenge porn.

‘When I went to court in 2019 and was clearly going to win, Price herself went bankrupt literally the day before.

‘This isn’t the action of a woman who is remorseful or wants to pay her debts to society.’

This is a woman who claims she can’t pay for her disabled son’s care but has enough money for more and more cosmetic surgeries. She needs to get her priorities right.

If we look at Katie’s eldest son, Harvey, who is 21 years old and can apply for his own benefit package, but because he’s disabled Katie would likely have his money paid into her account because she is classed as his caretaker, so where is all his cash going?

Harvey has Prader-Willi Syndrome and autism, and would not be able to look after himself. He would need carers for the rest of his life. Katie adores her son, but she needs to consider him, not squander away her cash on pointless procedures on her body. Having your hair done by the hairdresser, eyebrows, nails and lashes well nobody is saying she can’t have those done, but she’s living above her lifestyle. It’s okay to grow old gracefully. Nothing wrong with a bit of grey hair. Did anybody tell her, she’s not really a celebrity anymore?

What Taxes Will Rachel Reeves Hike In The Budget?

Fears are mounting about looming tax hikes for Brits after Rachel Reeves raided pensioners and warned of pain to come in the Budget.

The Chancellor has been defending her remarkable political gamble after declaring the Tories had left a £22 billion black hole in the finances.

She used the accusation as cover to virtually tear up Labour’s election platform—stripping winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners, ditching the long-awaited social care cap and shelving major road projects.

Pundits pointed out that almost half of the alleged funding gap was down to Ms Reeves choosing to ‘cave in’ to union demands for public sector pay increases, with an eye-watering 22 percent over two years for striking junior doctors and 5 percent for many other workers.

Nevertheless, the Treasury review showed that even after the emergency action, Ms Reeves, there is still a £16.4 billion gulf in the books.

Keir Starmer has ruled out modifications to the main income tax rates, national insurance, and VAT. 

The Labour manifesto dedicated itself to scrapping non-dom status, adding VAT to private school costs and raising stamp duty on buyers from abroad. 

However, that was offset by additional spending, with the party calculating they would bring in £2.5 billion by 2028.

Another opportunity to bring in money could be inheritance tax. The Treasury’s ‘ready reckoner’ suggests that improving the headline IHT rate from 40 percent to 45 per cent could bring in an additional £1 billion.

She could come under pressure to clobber more than 30 million drivers to help fill the void, potentially by allowing the 5p fuel duty cut to expire next March.

The reduction was introduced in March 2022 by then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak to reduce the cost-of-living burden on families amid skyrocketing oil costs.

Though costs at the petrol pumps have since dropped greatly. Ms Reeves could look at restoring the link between duty and inflation in the coming years.

The previous Tory government froze the Fuel Duty Escalator for 14 years, meaning the levy stayed at 57.95p a litre between 2011 and 2022 and has been 52.95p since the 5p cut.

Research indicates the subsequent freezes have been worth at least £80 billion to motorists collectively.

Reversing the 5p cut and allowing the Escalator to increase with inflation would add around £100 to the annual fuel bill of the average motorist, of which there are about 33 million in the UK. 

Hopefully, Labour will be able to fill that black hole, and then we should be able to get back on track. We might have to suffer for a while but once Labour fills that void they can hopefully bring back the things they would have axed for the time being. It was the Tories who created this situation, and it’s going to be a rough ride for a while.

It will look like less Robin Hood and more Robbing Reeves, but they have a difficult job, and it’s not going to be easy. However, targeting pensioners is not the way to go about it. Target the rich instead, they can afford it!

Many pensioners suffer during the freezing winter months and have to choose whether to heat or eat and they need both!

It does make one think about spending money, particularly on the fun things in life. Which, of course, you are entitled to do. It’s money that you earn, but later on in life, you’re not going to be looked after. If you’re over 50 years old, can’t work and are not of childbearing years, the state doesn’t give a damn about you because you’re not profitable anymore, and of course, it’s all about making money.

The thing that bugs me, and presumably everyone else is that most politicians don’t do what they say they’re going to do, so why do politicians break their promises?

Not all politicians are bad people or chronic fibbers, but they are good old-fashioned bullshitters.

I don’t think that politicians lie on purpose. I believe that they mostly articulate with the best of intentions. They believe what they say when they say it, but then things go amiss.

They want to deliver what they promise, but they fail to deliver, and not always their fault, and that is what makes the public disillusioned. The absence of delivery and the lack of ability to deliver on their promises.

Sadly, some people vote tribally, but some people do read party manifestos like myself and make informed decisions founded on what the party put out in their manifesto. Have you noticed that politicians also like to use the word ‘pledge’ instead of ‘promise.’

When people hear the word ‘promise’ they really do believe that politicians will fulfil the duties that they promised, but when they say ‘pledge’ it doesn’t sound the same, and let’s face it, if they started saying ‘I promise’ and didn’t deliver, they would look so much worse.

Elections are usually descended into an auction of undeliverable or utopian promises, and it’s extremely tempting for politicians to play the auction of bullshit. Some know they’re talking bullshit and see it as a means to an end, some don’t and suffer the electoral consequences.

Is it the voter’s fault? Maybe it’s the media’s fault. Perhaps voters should be more pragmatic in their expectations and not believe what politicians promise them, I don’t. Either way, it’s all bullshit!

CELINE DION AND RENE ANGELIL: WAS IT LOVE?

Rene Angelil met Celine Dion when she was 12 years old. He was hooked on her singing abilities and he instantly signed her.

The following year, he mortgaged his home to finance Celine’s first album, and the album turned out to be triumphant.

Celine was born in Quebec, Canada, so she didn’t understand the English language because Quebec is a French-speaking part of Canada, but René ensured that she took English language classes until she became skilled in the language. He needed her to sing in English to be able to break into the US market.

René’s efforts paid off and she was signed by Epic Records. Her first English album debuted in 1993.

René doubled as her manager and husband, and they got married in 1994. Their relationship turned romantic when she was 19 years old; René was 26 years older than Celine Dion.

Celine Dion stayed devoted to Rene even when she became extremely successful, and she didn’t let hypergamy get in the way of her relationship with Rene. She even cancelled her concert several times when René was battling cancer.

René was diagnosed with cancer three times, but he eventually succumbed to the disease and passed away in 2016. They were married for 22 years.

Celine never once turned her back on her husband in all those 22 years. He was a man who took a gamble on her, and she remained with him even after she became successful.

Celine Marie Claudette Dion (Celine Dion), often referred to as the ‘Queen of Power Ballads’, is noted for her strong and technically skilled vocals.

She was discovered by René Angelil and emerged as a teen star in her home country with a string of French language albums during the 1980s.

She was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne.

She suffered several accidents as a young child, including an incident at five years old when she was hit by an automobile as her father and brother Clement looked on. She was hospitalised briefly with a concussion.

From an early age, she had dreamed of being a performer, and she said that she didn’t miss having lost her youth. She said she had one dream: she wanted to be a singer, and she got her dream.

Celine Dion first met René Angelil, her future husband and manager, in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38, after her brother, Michel Dondalinger Dion, had sent him a demonstration recording of “Ce n’était qu’un rêve,” a song she, her mother Therese, and her brother Jacques Dion had together written. Over the following years, René guided her to fame.

After the dissolution of René’s marriage in about 1985, he and Celine took a break from each other professionally, and he spent a significant part of the year in Las Vegas, while Celine was learning English and taking dance and vocal lessons in Montreal.

Upon his return, René avoided being alone with Celine for too long, but she was falling in love with him and would keep a photograph of René under her pillow for fear that her mother, who always shared a room with her, would see it.

Less and less could she conceal the fact that she was falling in love with René. She had all the signs, and she was in love with a man that she couldn’t love and who didn’t want her to love him.

Celine’s mother would travel everywhere with her until she was 19 years old but she was initially wary of her growing fixation with a much older and twice divorced René. Celine was insistent, telling her mother that she was not a child anymore, that it was a free country, and that no one had the right to stop her from loving whoever she wanted to.

Celine and Rene’s professional relationship finally turned romantic after Celine’s win at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1988, when she was 20. The romance was known to only family and friends for five years, though Celine almost revealed it in a tearful 1992 interview with journalist Lise Payette.

In May 2000, Celine had two small operations at a fertility clinic in New York to improve her chances of conceiving, after choosing to use in vitro fertilisation because of years of failed endeavours to conceive. Their first son, Rene-Charles Angelil, was born on 25 January 2001. Celine suffered a miscarriage in 2009. In May 2010, she revealed that she was 14 weeks pregnant with twins after a sixth treatment of in vitro fertilisation. On Saturday, 23 October 2010, at 11:11 and 11:12 am respectively, she gave birth to fraternal twins by Caesarean section.

On 14 January 2016, Rene passed away at the age of 73 years old from throat cancer.

His funeral was held on 22 January 2016, in Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, where he and Celine married 21 years earlier.

Following Rene’s death, Celine became the sole owner and president of her management and production companies, including CDA Productions and Les Productions Feelings.

There have been numerous speculations on Rene and Celine’s relationship. Some say that he groomed her, some say not. Some might say that the circumstances were odd, but people fall in love, it doesn’t always mean that they were groomed.

It was an unusual situation. She was isolated from boys her own age and Rene became the centre of her universe, and I do believe that they loved each other very much. He might have seen her as an investment in the beginning, but I believe that ultimately, the love conquered all.

No one really knows what goes on in someone else’s relationship, but the marriage between Celine Dion and Rene Angelil has presented its fair share of questions over the years, however, Celine has remained devoted to Rene even years after his demise. This level of commitment expresses how deeply Celine must have loved her husband. Nonetheless, the couple’s life together has been marked by controversy from the beginning.

Their union’s murky beginnings have generated grooming accusations, mainly due to the age difference between Rene and Celine, and it’s difficult for many people to believe that someone as young as Celine could feel a genuine connection to the more experienced Rene.

Hey, I’ve known couples to marry, the man much older that have gone to have extremely successful marriages, with no grooming, unless you’re a horse of course!

Whatever the reason, it is none of our business, unless you’re a nosey so-and-so, which many people are. Celine Dion was successful, which is the one thing that she wanted, she wanted to be a singer. She fulfilled that dream, had three wonderful children, and was married for a extremely long to one man. That’s more than I can say for some people!

SAFE SLEEPING PODS FOR THE HOMELESS

These are Safe Sleeping Pods for the Homeless in Ulm, Germany. These are for folks without a roof over their heads who can now find shelter in newly installed sleeping pods around the metropolis.

These aren’t just any pods; they’re called Ulmer Nests, made of wood and steel to protect against the cold, wind, and humidity.

Each pod fits up to two people and is designed without cameras for privacy. Instead, motion sensors warn social workers when the pods are in use, ensuring they’re cleaned and ready for the next person and that anyone using them gets the support they need.

What’s even cooler? These nests are fitted with solar panels and a radio network, so occupants can communicate without needing a mobile phone.

These pods aren’t meant to replace conventional housing but act as an emergency last resort to evade the risks of sleeping outdoors. This is such an innovative and compassionate step forward and it’s a shame our government in the UK did not think of something like this. Of course not; that would take brains!

The team behind the pods has said that they are still in the early stages of testing and that there will be a lot of work to improve the capsules and how they function. However, the response to the pods in Ulm has been very positive so far.

Sadly, because they are made out of wood, some nasty people might come along and set them on fire. The UK would definitely have to find an alternative material other than wood, and they would be vandalised faster than they could pitch them, perhaps even encouraging more illegal immigrants.

Apparently, in Ulm, Germany, people are better behaved than in the UK.

It’s a remarkably smart idea, but I worry that they will be abused, and in the UK, maybe not Germany, they would end up as drug-taking pods covered in urine. But to be honest, if I were homeless, I’d rather sleep in one of these pods than sleep out in the cold, and I’m right behind it. Hopefully, it will work.

Numerous individuals who are homeless have drug and drink habits, so I can’t imagine the state afterwards, but I am guessing that Germany has a plan. Maybe a manned pod force, which, in effect, will give the unemployed employment.

I am assuming that these pods will be maintained, again giving the unemployed a job, but there will be numerous other people who will just diss the idea; have they any other ideas? In Germany, they give them somewhere warm; in the UK, they just let them sleep on the streets!

Southend Hospital: Claims Patients ‘Dumped On Wards’

A nurse has described chaos at Southend Hospital as staff are “left in tears” after leaving patients in “the middle of wards” with “no privacy or dignity” due to a shortage of beds.

The Southend Hospital worker, who asked to remain nameless, has claimed staff feel “powerless and distressed” after seeing patients “dumped on wards” despite no beds being available.

According to the nurse, patients are sent to “non-existent bed spaces” and placed in the centre of a ward in a chair or bed.

She claimed this means the patient is still recorded as being admitted “in a bed,” but “in reality, they are exposed with no privacy.”

In response, the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust has said that in times of high demand, patients can be transferred from the emergency department to a ward where a patient is due to be discharged.

The nurse described one incident where a colleague was “crying because she was so upset at having to dump her patient in the middle of a ward without a bed space.”

She said, “They are left exposed with no privacy in the centre of a ward.

“All the staff are disgusted as it is not safe. But we feel powerless to do anything about it.

“Patients also get distressed over it when they are dumped just in the middle of other beds in a ward. Some are embarrassed and it is upsetting for nurses too.

“I know they don’t have enough beds, but they can’t treat people like this.”

The trust stated the procedure is part of the trust’s full capacity protocol, used by all trusts across the country, allowing hospitals to regulate patient flow during busy periods.

Dena Marshall, interim managing director for Southend Hospital, added: “At times of high demand, patients can be safely moved from a busy Emergency Department (ED) to a ward where a patient is due to be discharged as an extra patient.

“This allows us to continue to offload ambulances and start our patients’ treatment sooner than otherwise would be possible.

“Extra patients receive the same high-quality care as any other patient on the ward, including medication, observations, and food. They are moved into a bed as soon as another patient is discharged.”

This is the price we pay for decades of superiority and ignorance. Up until fairly recently, we in this country still believed that we had the world’s best health service, but in fact, we now have the worst. If we whine too much, our government will privatise it! Hopefully, our new Prime Minister will work this chaos out, but in all fairness, it will be difficult for Keir Starmer to undo 24 years of Tory mess—it’s going to take a long time.

It said that the staff were in tears. What about the patients who are in tears? These hospitals are hell holes because the Conservatives wouldn’t put money into the care of patients, and as for the elderly, they would rather have them die than spend money making them well.

Southend Hospital used to be such a good hospital back in the day, but that was before the Conservatives got control.

Labour Set To Overhaul Planning Laws To Build The ‘Biggest Wave Of Social And Affordable Housing In A Generation’

Labour will overhaul planning rules to build the ‘biggest wave of social and affordable housing in a generation’, the Deputy Prime Minister has said.

Angela Rayner, who is also the Housing Secretary, said delivering the homes at scale is her ‘No 1 priority’ after accusing the previous government of giving up on building.

Echoing the Chancellor’s warnings around the public finances, Ms Rayner said ministers had discovered a their ‘frankly scandalous legacy’ lurking ‘under each stone we lift’.

The Deputy Prime Minister told the Observer: ‘We simply do not have enough homes.

‘In the death throes of the clapped-out Conservative government, they gave up on governing and compounded their housing failure. In the first three months of this year, work started on 41 per cent fewer homes compared to the same period in 2023.’

She is anticipated to announce the changes before MPs go on summer recess. 

These will include bringing back mandatory housing targets that were discarded by the previous Government and introducing ‘golden rules’ to ensure development works for local people and protects nature.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to build 1.5million homes over the next parliament, including on green belt land if required. 

This will involve increasing mandatory housing targets by 50 per cent, meaning thousands more homes will need to be constructed in most places.

The move will probably be welcomed by the new Labour Growth Group, made up of 54 MPs, who have urged the leadership to ‘back the builders and not the blockers’ and ‘make tough choices’ over building homes.

‘A failure to act will not be forgiven by the public,’ they wrote. ‘Britain has a housing crisis and a huge infrastructure deficit – without strong and immediate action, this will only worsen.’

Earlier this month Conservative leader Rishi Sunak said Labour’s proposals will ‘damage public consent for more housing in the long-term’.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said last night: ‘Labour was given a clear mandate at the election to get Britain building again and kickstart economic growth.

‘We are determined to grasp the nettle of planning reform so we can build the homes and infrastructure our country needs.’

What Labour seem to overlook is that we have numerous derelict homes that are empty and in need of overhaul. Instead of leaving them standing to become more derelict, why don’t they salvage those while building more housing?

Councils leave houses and flats empty for a lengthy time before going in to make them good. Councils that do this should be fined for every week that a home is left abandoned. They should be fined the rental amount of that building that has been left empty until the Council decides to get off their posterior and make that building good for someone to move into.

Now they’re building hundreds of blocks of flats, stack and pack structures that you can’t swing a cat around. It will be the end of housing estates – it’s indeed the end of community living. No one knows each other anymore, and we are all strangers in our own neighbourhood, and we all know who the new homes will be given to.

This will be Labour’s race to concrete over what’s left, but do we have a choice if we want and need more housing? Immigration is at its highest, but let’s face it, we import food, so why not import human beings? And before anyone says that I’m a racist, I AM NOT! If we had the space to invite migrants to our country, then that would be fine, but we are a small country with limited room – actually no room now!

Surprise Twist After Adopted Woman, 24, Tracks Down Her Birth Parents

A woman has disclosed how she tracked down her birth parents and discovered she was half black—almost 24 years after being adopted.

Sydney Parkhurst was put up for adoption as a child after her mother, Inga Coleman, was unable to raise her. 

The Florida-based 24-year-old had always known her birth mother couldn’t raise her, however, she did not know her birth parents’ names, ages or locations.

However, that all changed in 2020 when her half-sister on her mum’s side, Kayla Hensley, 32, reached out and told her the sad news that her mum had passed away in 2018. 

Following the heartbreaking news, Sydney decided to go on a quest to find out everything she could about her birth parents and submitted a DNA test to Ancestry.com. 

It was then that she eventually reconnected with her father more than two decades later during a ‘surreal’ reunion. 

Sydney started looking for her birth parents in 2018 when she submitted a sample to 23andMe. 

After submitting another test to Ancestry.com, she got a message from her first cousin on her dad’s side, ChanDreas Barkley, 31, who put her in touch with her father, Lenton Mitchell, 53, who works in paving.

Her dad texted her to say he wished he met her sooner and the pair saw each other for the first time on June 23, 2024, in Cartersville, Georgia.

They described their reunion as ‘surreal.’ Because she had no information about her dad, she didn’t realise she was biracial until after the hunt for her birth family.

Sydney, a multimedia designer, said: ‘I always knew that I was adopted. 

‘I am not sure on the details why; all I know is that my birth mom couldn’t keep me and she didn’t give the hospital a lot of details about who my father was.

‘I grew up in Rhode Island, and I didn’t look like anyone else in that community.

‘I struggled a lot with fitting in at school and I didn’t know I was half black until I took a DNA test in my senior year.’

Sydney was born on March 10, 2000, in Rome, Georgia, and was put up for adoption at birth.

One month later, she was taken in by Kimberly Parkhurst, 64, and her husband, David, 61.

Her adoptive parents moved 1,000 miles away from Atlanta, Georgia, to Barrington, Rhode Island, where Sydney grew up.

Sydney said: ‘Rhode Island doesn’t have a lot of diversity and my parents are both white. Growing up, I felt like an outsider.

‘I struggled fitting in but I was good at sports and that is what I used to fit in.

‘It was still super hard for me, as I had nobody who looked like me.’

Sydney said she had a great childhood and she was ‘blessed’ with her adoptive parents, but she was nervous, telling them she wanted to find her birth mum and dad.

She revealed: ‘I didn’t want to look ungrateful for everything they have done for me. I would search on random websites and try to find whatever I could. I always had that question and I always wanted to know who my birth parents were.’

In 2018, during her high school senior year, Sydney took a DNA test and submitted the results to the website 23andMe.

‘My half-sister reached out to me in April 2020 and said we might be half-siblings,’ she said.

‘I met my half-sister on my mum’s side in January 2021, who told me my mum had passed away two years earlier.

‘I then knew it would be a stretch to find my birth father, as my mum left no information about him.’

Sydney then took another DNA test and posted it on Ancestry.com, where she was messaged by her first cousin on her dad’s side.

She said: ‘I thought I needed to find my dad in case he had passed away.

‘I found my first cousin and she was able to piece together which one of her uncles was my dad.

‘She asked her uncles if they knew the name of my birth mother and he said yes.’

Sydney then got a text message from her dad, Lenton, who said he wished they had met sooner.

He said, ‘I am glad you reached out trying to find me, if I had known about you, we would have met sooner.

‘I love you and I’m glad to have a new daughter that I did not know about. If you have any questions, you can call me.’

Sydney said the message came as a ‘surprise’ as she had prepared herself for him not wanting to know her or being dead like her mom.

She said: ‘I waited a couple of days to reply and I said it was crazy and good to hear from him.

‘It took me a whole year to process what had happened.’

In May 2024, her half-brother, Tony Mitchell, 31, reached out and said Sydney should go to Georgia to surprise her dad.

She drove down to Cartersville and met her cousins and aunties on June 22, the day before the surprise meal to meet her dad.

She said, ‘We had planned brunch; the family said he is hard to get hold of at times so I wasn’t expecting him to turn up.

‘We went to a restaurant where I met some of my other aunties and my grandma.

‘All of a sudden, he walks through the door.’

The 24-year-old was overjoyed that she got to spend quality time with her family. 

She said, ‘It was really cool to meet the family and see the qualities I share with them. They are all short, as am I, and they all seem super genuine. They were all so welcoming and friendly.

‘My dad was a lot more emotional than I thought he would be. He was quiet and reserved; he kept on looking at me and saying I looked so much like my birth mom.

‘He was very excited to meet me and said he was sad he didn’t have a relationship with me early on.’

Meanwhile, her dad revealed that he was ‘nervous’ to meet his daughter.

Lenton said, ‘When I met Sydney, I was excited and nervous at the same time.

‘When I saw her, I was glad that I was finally able to meet her. I would have loved to have met her sooner.’

There are a lot of people who are wary of tests like these, but if it weren’t for them, numerous people would not be able to find their birth parents. Sadly, sometimes it takes a lot of detective work and sleepless nights, even after doing the test.

She must have known that she was biracial just by looking in the mirror, and the hair is a dead giveaway, but she is adorable, and I am happy she managed to bond with her birth family. These situations can be problematic, but it seems they’re all genuinely happy and extremely welcoming.

Adoptive children frequently suffer from identity issues because they don’t know who they are, but it appears everyone else does. She’s a very lucky young woman, because not all reveals go this well.

Labour Supports £88 Billion Proposal To Resolve Problem Over River Pollution

Labour pledges to end the ‘national scandal’ of ‘stinking filth in our waterways’ by throwing the government’s weight behind an £88 billion investment in water firms.

On the weekend that marks the start of the peak holiday season, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the second biggest private sector investment of the Parliament—behind energy—would be devoted to cleaning up the nation’s water.

Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, he promises to tackle ‘record levels of toxic raw sewage polluting Britain’s once pristine rivers, lakes, and seas’.

The government is supporting plans by the regulator Ofwat for an £88 billion spending package for water utilities between 2025 and 2030, originally financed by the city or through borrowing and then recovered through higher customer bills.

After the outcry over the millions paid to water bosses in bonuses despite multiple sewage spills, Mr Reed says the companies will in effect be placed in ‘special measures’, with water bosses potentially subject to criminal charges and a ban on bonuses when standards have not been met.

He writes: ‘Instead of protecting our waterways, the water companies paid out multi-million-pound bonuses. It was more profitable to let the pollution flow rather than fix the broken pipes, and regulation was too weak to stop them.’

He adds that ‘bosses responsible for repeated illegal sewage dumping will face criminal charges, and I’ll ban the payment of their multi-million-pound bonuses until they clean up their toxic filth’.

Pollution from sewage works, farms, and motorways has dominated the country’s rivers and coastlines, with water companies dumping sewage unchecked at almost 900 spots in protected natural sites in England.

The new Water Bill will also require companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet across the country.

The plans are part of the government’s ‘audit’ of its inheritance from the Conservatives, designed to dodge blame for crises and pave the way eventually for tax rises.

Mr Reed has said tackling the sewage crisis is the number one priority for his department.

Nevertheless, this will not happen overnight. The infrastructure needs improving to stop it from happening, which takes investment. Unfortunately, these companies have decided to inflate profits over investment in these things.

The use of water has increased dramatically because we have more people entering our country, and it’s a strain on our Victorian sewer system that has not been upgraded for years, and the system just can’t cope with the present level. Unfortunately, this problem will not be a quick one to solve.

Most of the water companies are burdened with debt after decades of shareholders taking massive dividends instead of investing in modernization, and worst of all, they’re taking out loans, leaving the taxpayer to repay them.

The more inhabited our country gets, the more our rivers and seas will become unattainable. More people, more waste.

The simple truth is that our government is going to make the water companies spend £88 billion and because they know the city will not finance it, they’re going to bankroll it.

Shareholders will still get paid, and we, the people, will pay for it through even more increased bills, and that will not help anyone other than the water companies. It should be out of their pockets, not ours.

So, this is more money from a hidden, abysmal crater that Labour has discovered hiding under a gooseberry bush!

The taxpayer will effectively be bailing out the water companies while their CEOs and shareholders receive increased bonuses and dividends, and I’m sure that the shareholders will be laughing all the way to the bank on the news of government funding.

A Father’s Letter Begging The Surgeon To Cancel Surgery

A distraught father begged in vain for a leading plastic surgeon not to remove his 20-year-old daughter’s breasts in a transgender operation, telling him in an excoriating letter that he was about to destroy her life.

The father told consultant Mohsen El Gammal that his daughter suffered from depression and, as a way through ongoing mental health problems, had previously turned to self-harm and then starving herself before embracing the ‘trans cult’.

In the heartbreaking letter, he tells Mr El Gammal, who boasts of carrying out 1,000 such operations, ‘Ultimately, my daughter is a depressive. 

‘She sought the highs that came from cutting herself, from starving herself, from being taken for a boy, from taking testosterone, and now from having her breasts removed.

‘She needs to learn that life is not one long adrenaline buzz. That happiness is a more moderate feeling, comes from within and derives from finding a place and purpose in life. 

‘You are fueling her problem. Not helping to resolve it.

‘Please do not remove my daughter’s breasts. 

‘You will, in one day—a day you will quickly forget—ruin her life forever.

‘You will take from her the opportunity to breastfeed her child; you will take from her the opportunity to have a normal, wide-ranging pool of people from whom to choose her partner in life; you will irreparably harm her.’

The father, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his daughter’s privacy, released the letter to The Mail on Sunday to highlight his powerlessness to protect her. 

He says he has never received acknowledgement of the letter, sent in May to the private Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea, west London.

Last month, his daughter underwent a double mastectomy.

The father told Mr El Gammal, ‘She is 20 years old.

‘Which of us knew at 20 what we would know or think at 30?

‘Which of us understood ourselves in the way we do at 60? 

‘Which of us did not do things we almost immediately regretted, never mind things which we look on in disbelief but a few years later?

‘How can you possibly believe that she is truly able to give informed consent to what you are going to do to her? 

‘She cannot see round the corner, never mind beyond the horizon.

‘You know this and yet are prepared to rely on a piece of paper on which she signs away her future well-being.

‘If you do choose to operate, perhaps you will take the time while she is anaesthetized to look at the extensive scarring on her arms and legs.

‘These are the scars of the self-harming craze she participated in during her mid-teens. 

‘This was before she got into starving herself. All this before she started participating in the trans cult.

‘Perhaps you will reflect on the mere two appointments with a GP that were necessary for her to get a private prescription for testosterone.

‘Perhaps you will reflect on the professional capture within the therapy industry, which leads every therapist she has spoken to to affirm her decision as real rather than question its reality.’

He added that ‘instead of attempting to reconcile the confusion of the mind with the body, the futile attempt is made to reconcile the body to the confused mind’.

He told the surgeon: ‘When you go home after you have destroyed my daughter’s life and well-being, long after you have forgotten her name and her operation, long after you have spent the money you were paid for this butchery, long after you have retired, she and those who love her will have to live with the consequences of your actions.

‘But I hope you will still be alive when this malpractice is revealed for what it is: the enabling by the medical profession of pseudo-science in the same way as surgeons in 1930s Germany, the USA and elsewhere sterilised the ‘feeble-minded’ in the name of eugenics.’

Following concerns about the quality of care expressed by whistleblower personnel, NHS England is planning a review of adult gender clinics; however, there is no indication that the study would include private clinics.

Comments and remarks may well offend many. However, if the father’s report of his daughter having a depressive illness is true, then this is a very sad story. However, people with mental health issues can be very adept at hiding their mental issues because of the stigma that’s associated with the condition.

Her surgery should have been delayed until after a more thorough mental health evaluation by a mental health specialist; only then should a decision have been made. There is always a chance that a patient may not be in their right mind or functioning at their best.

Mental health issues and other illnesses are what drive this industry. It’s all about making money, and the oath that medical students take is worth nothing to them.

In the UK, the Hippocratic Oath is not in place. A variation of the Hippocratic Oath is spoken at graduation by most UK medical schools, and some even require it at the beginning of the student’s studies. However, once a doctor, the recitation of this oath becomes meaningless.

A number of these adolescents require professional counselling due to severe mental health issues. If it turns out that they would benefit from the surgery, that is great, but skipping out on counselling before and even after the procedure is something they can come to regret later or even right away. They might even go so far as to accuse the person who carried out the surgery; as a result, their mental state would deteriorate to the point where they might experience a psychotic episode and end up killing or gravely hurting someone, primarily the person they are accusing.

Hopefully, someday, these surgeons will face the full force of the legal system. Even though they may feel unstoppable and at ease right now, they are not keeping their word to “Do No Harm.”

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