Keir Starmer Strikes A Friendly Tone But Hints At Tax Raids And Softer Prisons

Keir Starmer warned of ‘tough decisions’ looming and tried to stop people from calling him ‘PM’ today as he kicked off his Red Revolution.

At his first press conference in Downing Street, the Labour leader said questioners could call him ‘Keir’ as he acknowledged that his government will be ‘judged on actions, not on words’.

He said the government will need to make ‘tough decisions and take them early’ – saying that there would be ‘raw honesty’ about what needs to be done, although he denied that meant tax hikes.

Instead, he stressed that crime could be a crucial area after it emerged his new prisons minister had suggested two-thirds of people in jail should not be there. Sir Keir said there were ‘too many prisoners, not enough prisons’.

Sir Keir also confirmed that the Rwanda policy pursued by Rishi Sunak was ‘dead and buried’, despite claims it was affecting Channel boats. 

Asked if he was getting used to being referred to as ‘Prime Minister’, Sir Keir chuckled and said: ‘I’m very happy to be called Keir or Prime Minister.’ 

The comments came after jubilant senior ministers met in No10  for the first time after his dramatic landslide triumph.

Flanked by deputy PM Angela Rayner, Sir Keir warned his team they have a ‘huge amount of work to do’.

After it became evident how enormous his triumph was—despite Labour gaining fewer votes than under Jeremy Corbyn in 2017—the prime minister named the Cabinet last night.

Yvette Cooper is the Home Secretary, and Rachel Reeves is the first female Chancellor of the United Kingdom.

Sir Keir spoke to a host of foreign leaders last night, including reaffirming the ‘Special Relationship’ with Joe Biden and telling EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen he wanted ‘close cooperation’. 

Meanwhile, incoming Health Secretary Wes Streeting has already opened talks with the BMA over the junior doctors’ strikes, sparking fears he could offer big concessions to their demands for 35 per cent pay hikes.

And new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has pledged to nationalise Britain’s railways ‘as soon as possible’.

As the United Kingdom adjusts to a drastically altered political landscape:

Sir Keir is promising to go on tour around the four UK nations in the coming days saying he will not be ‘tribal’ and wants to work with devolved administrations; 

Furious Tory manoeuvring is underway as a leadership contest looms, with calls for the party to shift to the Right;

Nigel Farage is set to do a walkabout in Essex with another of the five Reform MPs;

Asked if he would be willing to raise taxes to fund public services, the PM said ‘We’re going to have to take the tough decisions and take them early’.

Sir Keir said he would approach the challenges with a ‘raw honesty’ but insisted that was ‘not a sort of prelude to saying there’s some tax decision that we didn’t speak about before’.

‘In relation to the tough decisions, we’re going to have to take them and take them early. And we will do that with a raw honesty,’ he said.

‘But that is not a sort of prelude to saying there’s some tax decision that we didn’t speak about before that we’re going to announce now.

‘It’s about the tough decisions to fix the problem and being honest about what they are.’

On Channel boats, Sir Keir said: ‘The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started. It’s never been a deterrent.

‘Look at the numbers that have come over in the first six and a bit months of this year, they are record numbers, that is the problem that we are inheriting.

‘It has never acted as a deterrent, almost the opposite, because everybody has worked out, particularly the gangs that run this, that the chance of ever going to Rwanda was so slim, less than 1%, that it was never a deterrent.

‘The chances were of not going and not being processed and staying here, therefore, in paid for accommodation for a very, very long time.

‘It’s had the complete opposite effect and I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent.’

Shortly before the press conference, Sir Keir told Cabinet: ‘Look colleagues, it is absolutely fantastic to welcome you to the Cabinet, our first meeting.

‘And it was the honour and privilege of my life to be invited by the King, His Majesty the King yesterday to form a government and to form the Labour Government of 2024.

‘And now we hold our first Cabinet meeting. So I welcome you to it.

‘We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work.’

Sir Keir made a raft of appointments last night as he swapped places with defeated Rishi Sunak and basked in the blow of Labour’s historic landslide.

All this is not going to be a short haul, it’s going to be long and drawn out, and if they do push through as promised, allowing all 16-year-olds to vote, it’s going to be even longer – happy days.

Labour will soon be selling 12-year-olds chocolates in exchange for their votes, and now that Labour is in, they will push through reforms which ensure they retain power for a very long time.

The judicial system has to be updated, and the jail system is flawed. There are far too many prisoners who qualify for the Probation Service yet are instead incarcerated. Labour needs to invest more in the Probation Service because of its extremely low funding.

Prisons are at bursting point, and then the police have to make fewer arrests, but I’m not shocked by this. We need harsher prison sentences for serious crimes and fewer for those which are misdemeanours.

Sir Keir Starmer, I understand the concept of taxing everyone, but we are being taxed multiple times and then some. Then there is the cost of living crisis. Honestly, tax – fair enough, but don’t take the proverbial Jimmy (Riddle).

Labour’s First Day In Power

More than 5,000 days have passed since Labour was last in Government. But Keir Starmer wasted no time in laying down the first tentative steps towards change yesterday as he selected his cabinet and assured voters he would begin to rebuild trust with a ‘country-first, party-second’ brand of politics.

As outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left Number 10, Sir Keir arrived with an invitation from the King to form a new government. He thanked Mr Sunak for his ‘dedication and hard work’, and commended his ‘achievement as the first British Asian Prime Minister of our country’. 

The focus soon turned to the need for change, a ‘renewal and a return of politics to public service’. Sir Keir insisted he would prove to voters that politics ‘can be a force for good’ but acknowledged it would ‘take a while’ to ‘change’ the country. ‘But I have no doubt that the work of change begins immediately,’ the 61-year-old said.

Indeed, by Friday evening, reports emerged that the Tory flagship ‘Rwanda scheme’ was effectively ”dead’—consistent with Labour’s promises to scrap it if elected. Britain is still expected to pay various fees associated with the treaty but reserves the right to leave with three months’ notice. Kigali is expected to comment as early as Saturday.

The appointments of ministers came next. The first female chancellor of the UK was Rachel Reeves. Additionally, David Lammy became Foreign Secretary and Yvette Cooper laterally moved into the position of Home Secretary.

Despite having previously shadowed the position, veteran Labour MP Emily Thornberry was passed over when Sir Keir named Richard Hermer KC as Attorney General.

The new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, fulfilled a promise made in June to reach out to junior doctors ‘on day one’, setting in motion a path for negotiations over pay and conditions with the aim of getting the NHS back on its feet. Mr Streeting was ready to admit ‘the NHS is broken’ and admitted change would not come immediately – but was optimistic about Labour’s ability to oversee substantial reform.

As the new cabinet began laying the groundwork for the party’s vision of change, Sir Keir spoke with world leaders, who congratulated his appointment as the 58th Prime Minister. French President Emmanuel Macron revealed he had already spoken to the Labour leader on Thursday night in a congratulatory message on Twitter/X.

Reiterating his government’s support for Kyiv’s struggle against Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Sir Keir spoke over the phone with US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenky in a matter of hours.

Following Labour’s overwhelming victory in the general election on Thursday night, Sir Keir made his historic first address as the 58th Prime Minister. He and his wife, Lady Victoria, then vanished inside Number 10 to be greeted by Downing Street personnel.

Soon after, smiling faces emerged from the building as the Prime Minister appointed his top team of ministers. 

Rachel Reeves became Britain’s first female Chancellor, while David Lammy was appointed the new Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper the new Home Secretary, and Wes Streeting the new Health Secretary.

All of them enjoyed introductory tours of their new Whitehall departments as they met with officials. But they were also immediately challenged by the myriad of crises they will have to battle over the coming weeks and months.

Union bosses this evening demanded Mr Streeting come forward with a ‘credible’ offer to end the junior doctors’ dispute on pay, as they eye a 35 per cent wage hike.

Mr Streeting faces major challenges overhauling the NHS with the junior doctors’ pay dispute still haunting the service and technological inefficiency a recurring complaint from insiders – but experts say his previous comments indicate he may be the man for the job.

Mr Lammy vowed to support an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza after witnessing an election backlash in some parts of the country over Labour’s stance on the Middle East conflict.

In a speech to Treasury staff, Ms Reeves promised to boost Britain’s economic growth as her ‘central mission’.

And Ms Cooper pledged to set up a new ‘Border Security Command’ to tackle the Channel migrant crisis, as she prepares to scrap the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme.

Labour insiders told The Telegraph on Friday the plan was effectively ‘dead’ – but Ms Cooper assured one of the first duties of government was to ‘keep our borders secure’ through the security forces. 

‘If Rishi Sunak thought Rwanda would work, he wouldn’t have called an election,’ the source told the newspaper. ‘It was a con. By calling an election, Sunak was acknowledging that fact.’

Sir Keir made two eye-catching ministerial appointments this evening as he drafted in Sir Patrick Vallance, who was the Government’s chief scientific adviser during the Covid crisis, as a science minister.

Additionally, he appointed James Timpson, the CEO of his father’s Timpson’s shoe repair enterprise, to the position of minister of parole, probation, and prisons. The new PM has bestowed peerages upon him and Sir Patrick.

However, Emily Thornberry had no position in Sir Keir’s new administration.

She was passed over for the job of Attorney General in favour of Richard Hermer KC, who was also granted a peerage, despite her having served as the opposition’s shadow AG.

It comes after Ms Thornberry embarrassed Sir Keir by acknowledging that Labour’s proposal to tax private school tuition may result in larger class sizes in the public sector during the general election campaign.

Sir Keir made his Cabinet appointments after earlier stepping through the entrance to No10 as the new Labour premier with a vow to ‘immediately’ begin work to ‘rebuild Britain’ after winning a huge majority.

Following his first speech to the country as the new premier, the Labour leader was greeted with applause by the personnel inside the renowned black door as he entered with his wife Victoria.

The 61-year-old acknowledged ‘weariness at the heart of the nation’ after his so-called ‘loveless landslide’ in the general election, which saw Labour win more than 400 seats having received barely one in three votes across the UK.

Among their demands to Mr Streeting, the British Medical Association said the junior doctors’ dispute ‘must be brought to an end via a credible Government offer’.

They offered the Health Secretary hope of a possible resolution as they conceded that ‘pay restoration doesn’t have to be in one go’.

Labour cannot afford the BMA’s demand for a 35 per cent wage increase for junior doctors, Mr Streeting has already warned.

The Health Secretary later announced he had spoken to BMA bosses and ‘talks to end their industrial action will begin next week’. 

In a statement shared on Friday, the British Medical Association trade union for doctors opened the door to future negotiations, showing promising signs.

Professor Philip Banfield, BMA chair of the council, said in a statement that he had offered Mr Streeting to ‘work together to get the NHS back on its feet’ with the aim of resolving disputes, writing down waiting lists and improving the service for both staff and patients.

‘We have heard your commitment to pay restoration as a journey and put our faith in your intentions to work together towards a resolution,’ Professor Banfield said in an optimistic letter.’

Labour won a lot of seats in the general election in Britain, but they also lost several old bastions to independent candidates running on pro-Gaza platforms.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow minister, was shocked to lose his seat in Leicester South, which he had previously won with a majority of more than 22,000 votes.

Speaking to broadcasters after being appointed as Foreign Secretary, Mr Lammy said: ‘All of us recognise the agony of communities who have seen the scenes coming out of Israel and Gaza.

‘But the job now is to get to work with tireless diplomacy to support an immediate ceasefire and move towards getting those hostages out.’

Ms Reeves, a self-confessed ‘geek’ and schoolgirl chess champion, is one of Sir Keir’s closest allies and will be the first woman to lead the Treasury in its 1,000-year history. 

The new Chancellor told her new department’s staff that the Labour Government would work ‘hand in glove with business’ as she vowed its ‘central mission’ would be to boost economic growth.

In a swipe at her Tory predecessors, Ms Reeves also pledged to change the ‘uncertainty’ and lack of ‘clarity of political purpose’ Treasury staff had previously had to endure.

Ms Cooper also blasted the Conservatives’ record as she spoke outside the Home Office, saying: ‘We know there are a lot of challenges ahead and after 14 years there is some difficult legacy that we will inherit, and we know that that will mean hard graft and not gimmicks ahead in order to tackle that.’

She added that setting up a ‘new Border Security Command to go after the criminal boat gangs’ would be among her ‘first steps’ as Home Secretary.

Angela Rayner was the first arrival in Downing Street before being named Deputy Prime Minister.

She was also appointed Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary as she was handed a portfolio focused on her party’s planned housebuilding blitz.

Ms Rayner was later followed into Downing Street by Mr Lammy, Ms Cooper and John Healey. They were duly appointed Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary, respectively.

Sir Keir made an almost wholesale transfer of the shadow team he had in opposition into his Cabinet following Labour’s massive general election victory.

Ed Miliband returned to ministerial office as Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary. Mr Streeting was chosen as Health Secretary, Shabana Mahmood became Justice Secretary, and Bridget Phillipson was designated Education Secretary.

The former Labour leader is set to oversee his party’s promise to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid by 2030.

Sir Keir also appointed Liz Kendall as the Secretary for Work and Pensions, Jonathan Reynolds as the Secretary for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle as the Secretary for Science, Innovation, and Technology, and Louise Haigh as the Secretary for Transport.

Sir Keir moved to replace the post vacated by Thangam Debbonaire, who had shadowed the portfolio in opposition but was not re-elected to the House of Commons, by appointing Lisa Nandy as Culture Secretary.

Jo Stevens was designated Welsh Secretary, Hilary Benn was named Northern Ireland Secretary, Ian Murray was named Scottish Secretary, and Steve Reed was made Environment Secretary.

Speaking after she was appointed Chancellor, Ms Reeves posted on X: ‘Economic growth was the Labour Party’s mission. It is now a national mission. Let’s get to work.’

She added: ‘To every young girl and woman reading this, let today show that there should be no limit to your ambitions.’

In her first address to Treasury staff, Ms Reeves vowed to change the ‘uncertainty’ and lack of ‘clarity of political purpose’ from her Tory predecessors.

She told them: ‘I know that a lot has been asked of you in the last few years – and I know, when the chips are down, staff at the Treasury have risen to the occasion, from furlough to energy price support.

‘I have often disagreed with the political choices that have been taken in this building. But I have never been in any doubt about the talent, the dedication and the professionalism that Treasury staff have displayed.

‘I know too that at times it must have been frustrating for you, working under a weight of uncertainty, changes in direction, and without clarity of political purpose. As Chancellor, I am determined to change that.’

Mr Lammy, an ardent Remainer who once compared Tory Brexiteers to Nazis, described being appointed as Foreign Secretary as ‘the honour of my life’.

He added: ‘The world faces huge challenges, but we will navigate them with the UK’s enormous strengths.

‘We will reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home.’

Speaking to reporters later, Mr Lammy said he wants to see an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza.

‘All of us recognise the agony of communities who have seen the scenes coming out of Israel and Gaza,’ he told broadcasters.

‘But the job now is to get to work with tireless diplomacy to support an immediate ceasefire and move towards getting those hostages out.’

A throng of ecstatic Labour members had previously applauded Sir Keir’s entry into Downing Street following his official installation by King Charles as the 58th Prime Minister of Britain.

He and Victoria received a rapturous welcome after returning from the Palace where he had an audience with His Majesty around noon, shortly after Rishi Sunak exited having tendered his resignation. 

Sir Keir said he wanted to ‘change the country’ but warned it would ‘take a while’, saying he wanted to restore the values of ‘service’ to politics. He admitted that many people did not believe he would improve the country.

‘My government will fight every day until you believe again,’ he said. 

At Buckingham Palace, the couple were welcomed by the King and Queen’s principal private secretary Sir Clive Alderton, along with Charles’s equerry Royal Navy Commander William Thornton.

They left 20 minutes later to head to Downing Street after Sir Keir was appointed to the job.

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: ‘The King received in Audience The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer MP today and requested him to form a new Administration. 

‘Sir Keir accepted His Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.’ 

This is great news for Sir Keir Starmer, but it’s early days yet, and we have no idea what he will be up to behind the scenes. Let’s hope doesn’t continue to allow thousands more people into our country with full access to the NHS, all free, yet we natives have to pay for it.

British individuals are unable to find a dentist in their local region; some have to go further, and even then, there is no availability. People are having to pay a fortune to go to the dentist because they can’t get on the NHS register or have to wait months before being accepted, and now many dentists won’t even consider the NHS, not even for young children. These children’s teeth are rotten before they should be, and our government doesn’t care.

We simply don’t have the infrastructure to support the number of people coming into our country – it’s not fair on us and it’s not fair on them. They could put billions into the NHS but it wouldn’t make any difference, not if immigration is not controlled.

Labour is already pandering to the Islamists in Gaza through Lammy and Mahmood. This isn’t the way to build up the trust of the people, far from it, and they will probably continue to allow thousands in because they see them as future Labour voters, and they probably have no intention of repairing the damage to the NHS. Saying that Starmer will fix this is probably further from the truth – Mickey Mouse might do though!

Meet Keir Starmer’s Wife Victoria

Extremely quiet Sir Keir Starmer’s wife came out of hiding to join the spotlight today as they celebrated Labour’s historic election victory with an impassioned kiss.

Lady Victoria closed her eyes and relished a clinch with Sir Keir during his address at a victory rally in central London this morning, just hours before she began a new life in Downing Street.

The public display of affection was a rare step for Sir Keir’s ‘reluctant First Lady’ – a woman so ‘sassy’ and straight-talking that the first thing she said after meeting him was: ‘Who the f*** does he think he is?’

However, after Labour’s resounding victory and smashing of the Conservatives, Lady Victoria Starmer can no longer dodge the spotlight and today she and her husband entered No 10.

‘Lady Vic’, as she is known fondly in party circles, has been missing from the election campaign completely.

But later she waved with her husband, although the couple’s two teenage children, said to be ‘completely freaked out’ by the idea of being in the public eye, were not paraded.

Moving into Downing Street comes just weeks after their 16-year-old son took his GCSEs. The couple have also shielded their 13-year-old daughter from the limelight – never naming either children or naming them in public.

Sir Keir Starmer and his wife got married 17 years ago, but he said that his wife has her own life, which she protects vigorously.

Lady Vic’s father was an economic lecturer who moved to the UK from Poland before the Second World War. Her father is Jewish and her mother, who died in 2020, was a community doctor who converted to the faith.

Far from the working class background, which her husband likes to talk about, she went to the exclusive private Channing School in Highgate – one of London’s most exclusive areas.

She graduated from Cardiff University with degrees in sociology and law, and she served as the student union president there from 1995 to 1996.

Around four years later, Britain’s First Couple met – but had an almighty row when they met that ended with a shower of expletives from Mrs Starmer who then told him to get lost. 

She slammed down the phone after yelling: ‘Who the f*** does he think he is?’ Keir heard it all but by 2007 they were married.

What sparked the cascade of swears? Her future husband asking if she was ‘100 per cent sure’ her work was correct. 

Sir Keir later told Vogue: ‘It was absolutely classic Vic. Very sassy, very down to earth, no nonsense from anyone, including from me’.

Undeterred, he asked her down the pub to make up for his blunder. She gave him a second chance and fast forward to today they have been married for 17 years. 

If Sir Keir Starmer’s wife has any influence, then it should be by sacking all NHS managers who earn over 100k per annum because they’re not in operating theatres helping the sick and poorly. They are just managers (pen pushers), and their share of the money that they earn should be going towards the sick and poorly. It’s about public health, not monetary reward. You either do the job because you have made it your vocation to help sick people, otherwise don’t do it at all!

There is no vocation in what people do now. Especially doctors and nurses and the managerial staff that run these hospitals. They should bow their heads in shame because they’re dealing with human lives, and some of them need to engage their brains because one day this could be your child, your husband, your sibling, or even your mother who needs attention from these wannabe doctors and nurses, they wannabe doctors and nurses, but they also wannabe on the strike line as well.

Sir Keir Starmer will probably be no different to any other politician who has become Prime Minister. Of course, I challenge him to prove me wrong, I really do! Nothing more would please me, and if he does, I will be the first person to say ‘I was wrong!’ So, Sir Keir Starmer, I will be keeping my beady little eye on you, and I really do hope that you prove me wrong.

RISHI SUNAK: ‘I Gave This Job My All’

Rishi Sunak bade an emotional final goodbye to Downing Street today after leading the Tories to their worst-ever election result – with Keir Starmer waiting in the wings to take over. 

Flanked by his emotional wife Akshata Murty, the outgoing Prime Minister delivered his parting statement as he prepared to head for Buckingham Palace to formally tender his resignation to the King and bring an end to 14 years of Conservative government.

The weather held off – in contrast to when he called the election back in May – as he said he was ‘sorry’ and had ‘heard the anger’ of the country and the ‘clear message’ delivered via the ballot box. 

‘I have given this job my all. But you have sent a clear message, and yours is the only judgement that matters,’ he said. 

‘This is a difficult day, but I leave this job honoured to have been Prime Minister of the best country in the world.’

Mr Sunak said he would resign as Tory leader once a replacement had been chosen. He also paid tribute to Sir Keir as a public servant, wishing him and his family well in their new duties.

After his short speech, the couple – not accompanied by their daughters and with Akshata carrying an umbrella – walked hand-in-hand to a waiting car and were driven away to see the King. 

A statement from Buckingham Palace a short time later said: ‘The Right Honourable Rishi Sunak MP had an audience of The King this morning and tendered his resignation as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, which His Majesty was graciously pleased to accept.’

Sir Keir is basking in a massive general election win following a brutal night for the Conservatives – but Labour’s victory is being dubbed a ‘loveless landslide’ and a ‘super meh-jority’.

With nearly all constituencies having declared their results, Labour was found to have won barely one in three votes across the UK.

Polling experts highlighted how Labour’s vote share of 33.8 per cent is likely to be less than any of Sir Tony Blair’s general election victories in 1997, 2001 or 2005.

It is even less than the 40 per cent vote share hard-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn secured in 2017 and lower than the 36.1 per cent David Cameron got for the Conservatives in 2010 when that year’s election ended in a hung parliament.

Rishi Sunak talks about the ‘anger’ of the public and the ‘clear message’ of the ballot. Some people will be relieved that the Conservatives are out of power now, many will not, who knows what goes on in people’s heads these days, but it doesn’t matter because whoever is in power, they all give you false promises, and many people don’t even listen to them anymore.

We are just here to pay the bills so that those in power can squander it and line their own pockets – occasionally they might throw us a few breadcrumbs, but that’s about it!

None of them cares about us, and their weasel words are just from a script, nothing more. A new party is moving into No 10 Downing Street. The mask might have changed, but the face behind it remains the same.

The entry of Labour into power is not a change of administration; rather, it is a change of middle management, and nothing will change.

Some would say that Rishi Sunak inherited a lot of problems from the fallout from Party Gate (the Liz Truss mess), but we could also say the same for old Boris Johnson with the pandemic (if you can’t take the heat, then stay out of the fire!)

‘French Excalibur’ Vanishes

The French ‘Excalibur’ has vanished from a rock it had been wedged in for the past 1,300 years.

The famed Durandal sword is presumed to have been stolen from the southern village Rocamadour, despite it being wedged and chained to the stone 32 feet off the ground. 

The cliffside community is devastated over losing its popular tourist attraction; according to Mayor Dominique Lenfant, the residents feel as though they have lost a piece of who they are.

Police have opened an inquiry, but given the magical sword’s unusual and high position buried in the cliff wall close to the sanctuary, they are puzzled as to how it was removed.

Mayor Lenfant said the town was devastated, according to The Telegraph. 

‘We’re going to miss Durandal. It’s been part of Rocamadour for centuries, and there’s not a guide who doesn’t point it out when he visits,’ she told La Dépêche, a French newspaper. 

‘Rocamadour feels it’s been stripped of a part of itself, but even if it’s a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are entwined.’ 

Legend has it that the sword was the sharpest blade in existence, so sharp that it could cut through rocks with a single blow and could not be broken.

A myth says it was first given to Emperor Charlemagne by an angel before it was wielded by his nephew Roland, a legendary knight.

Durandal is mentioned in the 11th-century poem The Song of Roland. In the epic, it tells of the sword’s magical powers and says it contained one tooth of St Peter, the blood of St Basil, and the hair of St Denis.  

In an attempt to prevent the sword from falling into the hands of the Saracen army he had bravely battled, Roland is reported to have attempted to shatter it on a rock before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

But he ended up throwing it into a valley, where it miraculously flew for miles and ended up getting embedded into Rocamadour’s cliff.

It seems that statues, swords, buildings, countries, and cultures were once beautiful, but now they’ve become cesspits, but that’s modernisation for you, now covered in cement, traffic, litter, and huge buildings that now cover our once beautiful green, and then they call it ‘going green’.

People don’t seem to care that our historical sites are gradually disappearing in favour of turning them into a complex of apartments.

Aside from the tragic loss of an ancient relic, it may be that it is now quite easy to remove after hundreds of years of weathering, water ingress, and such because sometimes quite precious things are protected less adequately by the state.

These historical landmarks are no longer there, demonstrating the general downfall of our civilisation. People no longer honour their past or their forefathers. Of course, there have always been stupid people who don’t respect what they can’t understand, but in the 21st century, you would think that we would have fewer stupid people, but we seem to have more.

When someone takes something that many others have enjoyed for their own gain, it is a sign of the selfishness of our times.

The sword, or a replica of it, of which nobody is really sure, was presumed to have been stolen from Rocamadour, France, as of July 2024, with no known culprit.

Mom Sparks Fury

A mother has sparked fury online when she asked the public to ‘normalize’ charging other parents for their children’s playdates.

In a video on TikTok, she explained in a video that her daughter recently had a friend over to their house – and when the playdate was finished she asked the other girl’s mom to Venmo her $15.

She cited expenses such as chalk and ‘wear and tear’ on the couch, as well as the price of her child using supplies in the bathroom three times.

Since it was first uploaded in early June, the video has received more than 3.5 million views. Many people have openly disagreed with her idea, claiming that it would simply prevent her daughter from having playdates in the future.

But the mum, who posts under the handle @shay.nanigans87 and whose profile identifies her as a ‘rage baiter’ and ‘child support hunter’ – insists it is just a way for families to even out the costs of their get-togethers.

‘Can we normalize sending the other family money for playdates?’ she asks in the video with a straight face.

She continues by describing how she approached the mother of her daughter’s friend for money, showing screenshots of her exchange with the other mother.

In the first message she writes: ‘Thanks for letting Jamie play today, please help out with your share of the expenses for the playdate totalling $15 via Venmo! Let’s do it again soon!’

‘Because I can’t keep doing these playdates if it’s so expensive,’ the TikTok mother explains in her video. 

But the other mother, identified in the video only as ‘Melissa,’ seemed taken aback by the request, asking: ‘Expenses?’

At that point, the mum explains that her daughter used ‘supplies and food while she was here and this way we can do this more often without a monetary obligation on just one party.’

When Melissa asked which expenses she was referring to, the TikToker noted that her daughter had applesauce and fruit, had three juice boxes, played with chalk, used the bathroom three times and sat on the couch – which she said caused ‘wear and tear.’

Ultimately, the frugal mum said Melissa paid her the $15 she requested, and she thanked her.

‘I just received the money, thank you so much,’ she wrote in a message.

‘Hopefully, this will make it easier for us to do these playdates more in the future.’

But many online believed her actions will have the opposite effect – and will wind up alienating her daughter from her classmates.

When you invite someone’s child over for a play date, you assume the cost of what those children do, and it’s common courtesy to do so. What the mother did will only guarantee that the child will never be able to have friends come over again, and will probably most likely get shunned by the other children at school. Parents talk to other kids’ parents and she has outed herself by posting this, the other parents would have because parents talk to other parents.

Clearly, this woman was never taught how to behave politely or with grace. Unless, of course, one is operating a hotel, which she was not, hospitality is always free. You don’t charge for services provided when a youngster stays at your house.

It’s shameful that this woman even charged the mother for her toilet trips! I bet she was running behind the child with a calculator as well.

This seems to be the normal Gen Z entitlement. Don’t they realise that you host them, and then they host your children so it all balances out?

I would not have given this woman anything unless, of course, we had already agreed upon it.

When my children had their friends over, I used to treat them as my guests. Coming to my home was a special treat for their friends. I would make them welcome and my home when they were there was like their home. I would feed them and make sure they were comfortable if they were having a sleepover, and if my children wanted a sleepover with their friends I made sure I could afford it before they arrived, otherwise, I would tell my children not this week.

The mother should have charged her back for the cost of her child’s entertainment and providing friendship to her child, that way they would have been even and then they could have just called it quits.

Yeezy Sued Over ‘Forced Labour,’ And Employees Were Called ‘New Slaves’

Kanye West is being sued for engaging in ‘forced labour and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment’ after his employees were allegedly called ‘new slaves’.

Both Ye and his former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in a U.S. District Court and was viewed by TMZ.

The two are accused of forcing their workers, some of whom were juveniles, to work excessive hours while being made fun of with racist slurs and bogus promises.

Ye’s wife, Bianca Censori, also allegedly sent porn videos to staff that were accessible to minors. 

The complainants were hired by Ye to work on his YZYVSN streaming service app, designed to rival Tidal, Spotify, and Apple Music, to promote his Vultures and Vultures 2 albums.

The complaints date back to this spring when Ye started working on YZYVSN. 

A worldwide development group, many of whose members were minors, some as young as 14, and including numerous black individuals, was purportedly employed by him and Milo.

Subsequently, they reportedly promoted a discriminatory work climate and kept making exaggerated claims regarding salary and working hours.

The development group was allegedly promised $120,000 by Milo provided they finished the app, accepted the working conditions, and didn’t voice any complaints.

Ye, however, is said to have then demanded that every employee sign an NDA and threatened to terminate the children if they refused.

They also allegedly required minors to sign ‘volunteer’ agreements. 

Ye’s white bosses are said to have started using racist and derogatory language after that to incite animosity among the staff.

According to reports, they harassed team members because of their country of origin, age, gender, race, and sexual orientation.

Some of them were called ‘slaves’ while others were referred to as ‘new slaves’. 

They were also reportedly forced to work through the night without pay or sleep.  

When Ye announced he was launching an adult film business his wife Bianca then allegedly sent a worker a link with hardcore pornography in it which was accessible to the minors working on the project. 

In the lawsuit, Bianca is not listed as a defendant.

According to reports, the team completed one of the applications and delivered it to Ye on May 1.

However, they claim that he failed to pay them, which prompted them to sue, seeking damages for emotional anguish, unpaid overtime, and unpaid salaries.

I don’t know how Kayne West has continued to get away with what he’s done for so long.

He seems to be a merciless sick guy, and his wife is another sick person who he parades about as if there are no repercussions. It doesn’t matter that he is being sued because he wants attention and power.

Another day, another lawsuit for Kanye, and his wife looks empty, vacant and soulless they both do!

You would think that he and his wife would know that racist or inappropriate sexual conduct is way too taboo in this day and age, but I don’t think that either one of them cares, they’re not exactly known as sane people.

This man parades himself around, parading himself like he’s some demi god, but he seems to think that he’s a legend in his mind. He is a complete narcissist, but if you dig deeper than that it’s much worse, and he believes that he’s above the law, yet no one stops him with his perverse actions that are acted out in public.

This is not surprising for a man like this. Everything about this man and his wife is disgusting. What a way to treat people, and why would anyone go near him? He’s just revolting and has no respect for anyone.

The Longest Journey

After putting her three tiny children into a six-year-old Hillman Minx saloon, a Berkshire housewife who had never travelled overseas set out on a 4,000-mile journey to Baghdad on June 30, 1954.

She encountered a colourful cast of individuals in the weeks that followed, including a former U-boat captain and a group of adolescent striptease performers. She also narrowly avoided death when she skidded off a bridge and fell ten feet into a ditch.

I am aware of all of this because my mother, Mary Tisdall, who was thirty-one at the time, wrote a 22,000-word memoir and nearly a hundred handwritten letters to my father, Billy, an RAF sergeant stationed in Iraq, detailing the poignant and dramatic highlights of her trip.

Their intense love for one another is still evident in every letter and word, even after seventy years.

‘My desire for you is terrific at times,’ Billy penned to his ‘bravest of princesses’ from his bed in an air force base in the desert city of Habbaniya.

In response, Mary — living in the tranquillity of RAF White Waltham, just outside Maidenhead in Berkshire — signed off with ‘all my love always and always and always’ followed by a long line of kisses.

Ten months after Billy had left for his foreign posting, they could bear the separation no longer and she resolved to undertake her intrepid odyssey.

Over six weeks, the couple hatched a secret plan to reunite, which they called ‘Operation Magic Carpet’.

Fortuitously, Mary’s brother Alan was employed by the Automobile Association in London, and it was he who provided her with a comprehensive 72-page itinerary.

Its incredible intricacy was hand-typed. The exact distance covered on the European portion of the journey, from Dunkirk to Istanbul, is 2,163¾ miles.

It also came complete with suggested stops for sightseeing — at cathedrals, castles and mosques — while en route, as if the family were embarking on an educational, three-week grand tour rather than a rather hair-raising expedition to the time-worn sands of Mesopotamia.

Before setting off, Mary dashed up to London to get visas for Syria and Iraq for her and her children, Roger, Susan and Bridget, respectively aged seven, five and two. (I arrived three years later.)

To assist finance the venture, little Roger’s Post Office savings account was emptied and vaccinations and dental exams were hurriedly scheduled.

‘Do I need a tent for crossing the desert?’ Mary asked in one letter to her husband.

‘No, the sand is too soft and there are too many insects,’ Billy wrote back. ‘Instead, you’ll have to join a convoy of RAF trucks and sleep in your vehicle, as the chaps do.’

Fired up by her mission, Mary informed Billy that if he dared stop her now ‘there would be a great big row much worse than any atom bomb!’

With that, she booked a Pickfords van to put all their worldly goods into storage and the family headed to Dover in the car that was affectionately known as ‘Miranda’ to board the night ferry to France.

‘Everything is so different and fascinating,’ Mary wrote to Billy, as Mary sped through West Germany still rebuilding after World War II.

She found it strange to encounter helpful and likeable people ‘who all my life I had been taught to dislike’.

At a hotel in the city of Aachen, one fellow guest who struck up a conversation over breakfast turned out to be a former U-boat commander.

‘When he fondly took Bridget on his knee and played with her teddy bear, I found it hard to picture him in his previous grim role,’ Mary mused. 

‘How is it a man can be so kind yet so cruel?’

Mary later found out that the German owner of the hotel had been captured at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940 and had spent four long years as a prisoner-of-war in Bournemouth and Edinburgh.

Rather than harbouring resentment, he declared his appreciation for the English, including our cuisine, and kindly provided his unexpected guests with sandwiches to help them get through the remaining portion of their journey.

‘If only people were to travel more,’ Mary reflected, ‘surely it would be a step towards a greater understanding and world peace?’

Things took a lurid twist when Mary visited one evening to a café where a musical troupe, fronted by a compère ‘with a permanent smile’, was performing for customers.

Its other members included a ‘fat, debauched pianist’, an impersonator who had a ‘horrid’ habit of waving his fingerless hand at the audience, and two teenage striptease artistes’ — one of whom had a nasty scar on her forehead.

‘They started playing a gambling game in which the loser had to buy a round of brandy and the winners drink it all in one gulp,’ Mary recalled.

‘It was fun to watch, but I was full of pity for these two young girls whose lives were being used up so quickly.’

It was when they reached Stuttgart that Billy’s superiors finally learned of Mary’s intended arrival. He was informed in no uncertain terms by his commanding officer that, if his wife turned up at the base, she would be sent straight back to England ‘within 14 days at your expense’.

‘The man is a woman-hater,’ Billy raged.

One aspect of this journey that surprises modern eyes is Mary’s willingness to put her children to bed in a foreign hotel room and then go out at night.

Keen for new experiences, she writes how she went dancing with Josef, a travelling confectionery salesman and dined with Werner, a German engineer en route to Zagreb in then-Yugoslavia.

‘I am a curiosity here,’ she reported to Billy, ‘one Englishwoman with three children going to Iraq.’

Mary provided a ride to a scrawny 19-year-old escapee from communist East Germany when they approached Belgrade, despite being advised not to drive at night or pick up strangers.

Hans had been living on his wits for the last three years and had picked up several different languages in the course of his travels, which came in very useful as they travelled through Yugoslavia, then a desperately poor country.

It was here, near Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia), that Mary’s trip took a fateful turn. Literally. 

Mary skidded and veered off a narrow bridge into a ditch.

‘I remember tumbling and tumbling in the back seat,’ Susan recalls, ‘and Mummy having blood all over her face.’

Additionally seriously injured was Bridget, who was seated in the front on Hans’s lap (back then, seat belts weren’t used).

Fortunately for Roger, his greatest calamity (as he subsequently wrote to Billy with great sadness) was that in the mayhem he lost a treasured toy crane that he had been given for his birthday.

The Tisdalls, shaken but alive, received prompt assistance from the nearby people. Subsequently, a magical carriage filled with twenty-five French vacationers, a few of them nuns, appeared over the hill.

They agreed to take the family and their luggage back to Skopje, but they didn’t appear to understand quite how badly hurt they were. The tour group duly stuck to their sightseeing itinerary, stopping at historic buildings and scenic viewpoints to take photographs as they went along, while ‘les Anglais’, bruised and bleeding, sat at the back of the coach in tears.

It was later discovered that two-year-old Bridget had a broken leg, while Mary required stitches to her face.

Back in Skopje, Mary went straight to the British Consul to ask for assistance. William Maxwell, ‘a real Scottish gentleman’, and his wife, Olive, were ‘kind beyond words’, taking the battered quartet into their home and letting them stay for the next four weeks.

To complete the drive to Baghdad, the Hillman was delivered to a mechanic for repairs while Mary and her children recovered. Maxwell strongly discouraged this, pointing out the bad condition of the roads ahead, Mary’s tendency to break down, and the fact that they would have to travel two hundred miles of deserted desert to enter Iraq.

He suggested that Billy be transferred to Yugoslavia to assist with driving, but the RAF would not approve of this plan. Then, in a surprising turn of events, Mary’s extraordinary journey was discovered by Air Marshal Sir Claude Pelly, the Chief of Staff of the Middle East Air Force.

He was so impressed by her plucky attempt to reach her husband, which — he declared — ‘shows a spirit only too rare these days’ that he made a decisive intervention.

He immediately sent a signal describing her as ‘like a breath of fresh mountain air coming over the hot desert’, and an instruction to ‘see that Sgt Tisdall is reunited with his family’.

Billy was quickly posted to RAF Amman, in Jordan, where the family would be allowed to stay in local accommodation before progressing to married quarters.

Billy turned 36 on August 6, 1954, and Mary and the three kids were finally reunited with him in Jerusalem following two days of delays and rerouted flights via Istanbul and Beirut.

‘The end of your journey is in my arms,’ Billy had written to Mary the month before, and now, at long last, the magic carpet had landed.

What an absolutely beautiful story this is, and what courage and strength this young mother had – this would make a wonderful film.

What a story, what an adventure and the children were no doubt too young to remember it clearly but they were there.

Despite the terrible accident—which might have been far worse—this was an amazing trip and a wonderful experience for the kids. She was undoubtedly committed to finding her true love.

It was a pleasure to read such a beautiful story of strength and love amid all the negativity that surrounds us these days. What amazing memories to cherish. Luckily, common sense won out and they were permitted to be together.

I would love to know more about this amazing woman, and the rest of her life, and the comments that people were kind to her, people she had hated before, I found interesting.

This is the best story I have read this week, considering it’s only Monday, things must be looking up!

Janet Yellen’s Response Is Unbelievable

While America struggles, grocery costs have risen under Joe Biden, and Yellen, who is worth $20 million, said she goes to the grocery store every week, and she claims she doesn’t feel any sticker shock due to inflation.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen surprised an interviewer when asked if she has felt ‘sticker shock’ at the grocery store due to inflation.

Before the election, a thriving economy may increase people’s faith in Biden’s leadership; nevertheless, the problem of ongoing inflation might undo it.

Under Biden, the cost of a normal trip to the grocery store often shocks Americans, resulting in double-digit percentage increases in grocery costs.

Yellen – who is worth about $20 million – said she goes to the grocery store ‘every week’ and isn’t shocked by the prices.

‘It’s sticker shock, isn’t it? Just when you look at shipping costs, those have come down, global food commodity prices have also come down but food prices still remain high,’ said Yahoo! Finance reporter Jennifer Schonberger.

Without even letting her finish the question, Yellen bluntly responded: ‘No.’

‘I think largely it reflects cost increases, including labour cost increases that grocery firms have experienced, although there may be some increases in margins,’ Yellen added.

Yellen added that she expects inflation to come down and says that it will ‘go back to the Fed’s two per cent target’ by early next year.

Since the cost of living has increased significantly in the years after the epidemic due to high mortgage rates and persistently high costs for food and other needs, the Biden administration has announced new initiatives to expand access to affordable housing.

Yellen touted the additional investments during her visit to Minneapolis on Monday.

The investments include providing $100 million through a new fund to support affordable housing financing over the next three years, boosting the Federal Financing Banks’ financing of affordable housing and other measures.

She blamed the continued slow decrease in inflation on housing costs, rather than the administration’s policies. 

In the run-up to the 2024 election, voters’ top concerns continue to be the economy and inflation.

The annual rate of inflation fell slightly to 3.3 per cent in May – down from the month prior.

This is down from a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022, but still above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. 

Trump consistently talks about inflation during his presidential campaign. 

With $20 million in Yellen’s bank account, she doesn’t need to pay attention to prices, she just grabs what she needs, throws it in the cart and pays with her card, and this is why she doesn’t have ‘sticker shock.’

This woman is completely and totally out of touch with average Americans. She came from a family of Polish immigrants, who came to America with absolutely nothing. We are what we come from and she should remember that. People are in poverty, but she is not!

Does she actually know how much a carton of milk is? How much does she think she pays? She really has no idea what planet she’s on.

If you want bread for under $2, there are options of course. It might not be whole wheat or 12-grain bread from Bob’s House Of Nutrition, but it’s cheap as chips. However, people don’t want to be feeding their children junk or substitutions.

Most of these people were not born rich, and some of them came from backgrounds where they struggled, but one person who certainly cannot relate is Donald Trump. He has never experienced any type of money issues. He was born rich from his father and he continues to be so. I’ll tell you who he relates to and it’s not you or me, it’s ME ME ME!

A Scorcher Of 31C Today In The UK

In many regions of the UK, temperatures are expected to soar to 31 degrees Celsius today when thousands of festivalgoers go to Glastonbury.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued yellow heat health alerts across most of England, while NHS leaders have said the service is expecting ‘major disruption’.

Although it is expected to be extremely hot in certain areas of the nation today, a heatwave with intense heat is expected to pass quickly as cooler weather is expected to arrive on Thursday.

The UK saw the warmest weather of the year yesterday, with temperatures reportedly reaching 29.4C at Herstmonceux, near Eastbourne, in East Sussex.

That made it hotter than Torremolinos on  Spain’s Costa Blanca where temperatures reached 29C (84.92 F) or Kos in Greece with the same temperature.

Campers were pictured arriving at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset this morning in a bid to secure a prime camping spot. 

Global superstars including pop singer Dua Lipa, British rock band Coldplay, and American soul artist Sza will headline this year’s festival. Canadian country music icon Shania Twain will take the coveted legend spot.

Andrea Bishop, a Met Office spokesman, said it will continue to be ‘very warm’ across much of the country over the next few days, though conditions in the West and the South West will be ‘nearer average temperatures’ in the low 20s.

She added: ‘Wednesday is a very warm day for many and we’re going to have top temperatures of 31C.

‘We then transition to fresher conditions looking very likely through Thursday as a weakening band of cloud and showery rain runs east, south-east, across the country through the day.

‘Although it could still be very warm ahead of this, for example in the east or southeast of England.’

The present heatwave, according to NHS administrators, is already taxing the system, and tomorrow’s junior doctors’ strike will make matters worse.

Junior physicians from the British Medical Association (BMA) in England are planning their eleventh strike as a severe wage conflict continues.

NHS England’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: ‘This new round of strike action will again hit the NHS very hard, with almost all routine care likely to be affected, and services put under significant pressure.

‘While the warmer weather can lead to additional pressure on services at a time when demand for services is already high.

‘As ever, we are working to ensure urgent and emergency care is prioritised for patients, but there is no doubt that it becomes harder each time to bring routine services back on track following strikes, and the cumulative effect for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole is enormous.

‘People should continue to use 999 in life-threatening emergencies and NHS 111 – on the NHS app, online, or by phone – for other health concerns.

‘GP services and pharmacies are also available for patients and can be accessed in the normal way, and patients who haven’t been contacted or informed that their planned appointment has been postponed are also urged to attend as normal.’

Asked about the impact of the weather, BMA chairman of the council, Professor Philip Banfield, said: ‘In any heatwave warning, if you end up going to emergency departments because of heat, you will be treated as you would on any normal day, you don’t suddenly end up bringing in lots of doctors.

Every time it gets a little hot, be careful, the NHS can’t cope. Every time it’s cold, the NHS can’t cope. It’s summer and yes it will be hot on some days and the NHS can’t cope with anything. Just remember to put on your sun cream, don’t sit out in the sun too long and folks have a lovely day.

There is no longer an NHS. Now it ought to be known as the International Health Service, albeit naturally only Britons foot the bill.

It’s been years and years that we were ‘all in it together’, unless, of course, you’re a multi-millionaire old Etonian who has trashed our world-beating NHS, and our NHS now doesn’t need any excuse for poor service.

This is what we Brits call summer, and seems to have finally arrived. It’s just summer, enough with the hysteria.

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