Appeal for witnesses after men injured in crash in Bideford
The force said anyone with information about the collision or dashcam footage should contact them.
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The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Will Labour's new migrant controls stop the boats… or encourage Nigel Farage?
Maybe everyone can agree on one thing: if stopping the boats was easy, it would have been done by now. Whether the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, ever deluded herself otherwise, a year of only limited progress in the government's mission to 'smash the gangs' must have brought home to her just how intractable irregular migration is. The numbers of those crossing the Channel are as high as ever – partly because of the warm weather and calm waters, but also because the criminals who run these people-smuggling businesses are also smart and innovative. When Keir Starmer said he would bring the same legal powers and resources to the criminal gangs as had been applied to terrorism and drugs, he seemed to have forgotten that those wars are also far from over – let alone won. Will more of the same work? Cooper must hope so. She's promising another £100m for the National Crime Agency to recruit more officers, and there'll be enhanced 'detection technology' to defeat the people traffickers. Making those distasteful online 'ads' for smuggling services is to be a specific criminal offence. Less convincingly, the government proposes to financially penalise universities where too many foreign students fail to complete their courses because they use their study visas as the first stage in an asylum application. How the university applications officers are supposed to vet all their student applicants in this way is far from clear – quite aside from the fact that the right to claim asylum is absolute and universal under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This, by the way, is why no migrant seeking refugee status can be labelled 'illegal', even though that is what was laid down in domestic law by the previous administration. So Cooper is in this for the long haul, making slow, incremental progress both at home and in cooperation with other concerned nations near and far, patiently waiting for the forces of law and order to push their investigations and prosecutions forward. Any single measure, inevitably, tends to get dismissed as hopelessly inadequate. How, it is asked, can the German authorities stop the trade in dinghies and marine engines? How will a crackdown on TikTok videos stop anyone trying to make the journey? Will the treaty with the French, agreed last month, ever be scaled up to make a real difference? Even if one gang is broken up, surely there will be more ready to take their trade? Such scepticism is entirely justified, but it is no reason to give up. Cooper's political pitch has to be that only painstakingly slow, hard work – constantly bearing down on the gangs, working through the vast asylum claim backlog, and getting other countries to take or take back the failed asylum seekers – can succeed. This dedicated effort has to be contrasted with the deceptively easy solutions promised by Reform UK. Nigel Farage, in other words, does not have the answers and would not solve the problem. Just the same as Brexit, in fact, when he also made extravagant claims about how it would solve our economic problems, and then blamed everyone else when it left the nation impoverished. Now he's blaming the migrants rather than Brussels, and his policies – little more than slogans – should be treated with extreme caution. Leaving the ECHR, for example – which he used to call 'Brexit 2.0' before Brexit 1.0 turned out to be a flop – wouldn't change a thing over in Calais. Yes, it would make claiming asylum impossible, and it would, perhaps in some cases, speed deportation and reduce spurious human rights claims by criminals. But it wouldn't stop anyone – refugee or economic migrant – from seeking a better life in the UK, and doing whatever it takes and paying any price (including loss of their own life) in the process. A policy of 'detain, deport', as so lazily tossed out by the radical right, only works if migrants continue to give themselves up. If they cannot do that, because the ECHR right to claim asylum is abolished, then they will not be willing to approach Border Force so that they can indeed be detained and then removed (somehow – again, never entirely clear to where). Instead, we will have irregular crossings turning into irregular, uncurated landings along the south coast of England. And even if the English Channel was somehow made small-boat proof, other methods would be found, such as further abuse of the visa system. Getting sent to Rwanda, say, only acts as a deterrent if you get caught in the first place. But pushing refugees and economic migrants into the grey economy and slum accommodation run by gangs really would turn them into the criminals they do not wish to be. It's not that the remedies offered by Farage, Rupert Lowe, various fascists and some Conservatives are cruel and morally shameful, which they are, but that they are impractical and costly. They're inured to personal abuse. In the words of Lowe: 'You can call me 'far-right', you can call me 'racist' – I just do not care. Detain these men, and deport these men – every single one of them.' Except it wouldn't work, for the reasons explained. Even getting the Royal Navy to attack the boats wouldn't succeed, because there are too many dinghies and too few Navy vessels (and the Navy has other things to do). The Farage/Lowe way of controlling migration is to sloganise and strike a pose, never to make a practical proposal. Labour's way is to get it done slowly but surely – grinding hard graft, with some respect for humanity, compassion for the most vulnerable, and dealing swiftly with any criminality. It just needs to be seen to be working, and it ain't easy.
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Stepmother admits ‘massive regret' for taking 11-year-old son to violent post-Southport riot
A stepmother who took her 11-year-old son to a post-Southport riot, where she shouted at police protecting asylum seekers, has says she has 'massive regret' over her actions. Amy Hodgkinson-Hedgecox, 38, joined the protest outside a Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth, Staffordshire, after initially intending to take the boy to a skate park, a court heard. During the unrest on 4 August last year, the hotel was damaged and petrol was poured inside and set alight. In November, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox reacted angrily when she given a 27-month prison sentence at Stafford Crown Court after pleading guilty to violent disorder. But following her release on licence, the mother-of-two has now spoken of her remorse, describing herself as an 'idiot' and 'stupid' after getting 'caught up in the moment'. She was one of 544 people sentenced for offences linked to the nationwide unrest that broke out after the murder of three children at a dance class in Southport. The tragedy triggered a wave of misinformation, including inaccurate claims the killer was an asylum seeker. Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox , who now wears an electronic tag as part of a night-time curfew, said she joined the protest after seeing posts on social media that claimed asylum seekers had been filming children at a park close to the hotel. She now acknowledges the claims may have been untrue. The former factory worker, who lives in Tamworth, said: "I did swear. I was just shouting to the police, like, how would you like it if your child has been videoed by them? There's a level where you should be sticking up for us as well as them.' "I was frustrated, I was really frustrated.' Hodgkinson-Hedgecox said she did feel concerned for the people inside the hotel when she saw a petrol bomb being lit. She said: "When they started smashing the windows, they were throwing fireworks through the holes and they were going bang in the building, I thought, something bad's going to happen here. "As soon as I seen the lighter go on that petrol bomb I thought, oh my God, this building's going to go down. I was really concerned for [the people inside]. I thought, wow, this is gonna go up in flames, gonna kill them all.' Looking back on her actions, she said: "I accept that I was wrong for being there. I should never have been there. And I accept I should have never took a child with me either. Massive regret, huge regret. It's bad parenting." She also said: "I have no answer for it other than I'm an idiot, stupid, got caught up in the moment.' While in prison, Hodgkinson-Hedgecox said she accepted £1,000 from far-right group Patriotic Alternative. It was offered to provide financial support for families of those convicted. She told the BBC she regretted taking the cash. Last week, a police watchdog chief warned there was 'every possibility' that similar violence to the Southport riots could reoccur. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services Sir Andy Cooke said the 'tools that amplified hatred last summer remain largely unchanged and unregulated'. He said: 'Online misinformation continues to spread. Community tensions persist.' He called on police forces to modernise their understanding of how disorder develops and spreads in the digital age.
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Lucy Letby seen partying at wedding whilst on bail for baby murders
Newly released images show Lucy Letby smiling and dancing at a friend's wedding whilst she was on bail for the suspected murder of eight babies. The photos were shared by her childhood friend, Dawn Howe, in the ITV documentary 'Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt?', which premiered on Sunday. Howe revealed that Letby, who is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences, had to obtain special police permission to attend the wedding. The images depict the 35-year-old former nurse dressed in a red top and grey skirt at the event. Watch the video in full above.
