Times letters: ‘Working class' internships for civil service
It was wrong then and is even more so now, as society has moved on. In my professional career I have recruited graduates, interns, placement students and apprentices for more than 30 years. I have always selected the best people for the job, regardless of perceived 'class' or any other characteristic such as ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation. That should be the case in every walk of life. Diversity has been proven to produce more successful teams, and should emerge naturally from a genuinely open recruitment process. Our government can do better than taking us back to the 1980s.
Richard Petty
East Molesey, Surrey
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Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
American Bar Association considers ending diversity requirements for board seats
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The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Dame Stella Rimington obituary
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Soon after she retired, she was embroiled in a furious row with her former Whitehall colleagues over her decision to write her memoirs. 'It was quite upsetting,' she said, 'because suddenly you go from being an insider to being an outsider and that's quite a shock.' But, she added: 'I've never been one to retreat at the first whiff of gunshot.' Her most controversial role as she rose up the ranks of MI5 was responsibility for countering 'subversion'. She was active during the miners' strike during the mid-1980s, and justified spying on the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on the grounds that Margaret Thatcher regarded it as 'the enemy within'. She said: 'If the strike is led by people who say they are trying to bring down the government, our role [is] to assess [them].' 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Rimington admitted MI5 checked files on prospective MPs to see if 'there is anything in there of importance ... so the prime minister can take it into account when he forms his government'. She insisted that individuals on whom MI5 had files should not be allowed to see them. She later acknowledged that during the cold war MI5 was 'overenthusiastic', opening files on people who were not 'actively threatening the state'. She also went as far as to accuse successive governments of wanting to 'live in a police state', introducing more and more anti-terrorism laws, including plans to hold terror suspects for 42 hours without charge. Such laws, she said, combined with 'war on terror' rhetoric, played into the hands of those they intended to deter. She described the response to the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001 as a 'huge overreaction'. Looking back, she said: 'I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life and this was, as far as I was concerned, another one.' Asked what impact the 2003 invasion of Iraq had on the terrorist threat, she replied: 'Well, I think all one can do is look at what those people who've been arrested or have left suicide videos say about their motivation. And most of them, as far as I'm aware, say that the war in Iraq played a significant part in persuading them that this is the right course of action to take.' She was born Stella Whitehouse in south London; her father was a draughtsman, her mother a midwife and nurse. Her father had fought at Passchendaele in the first world war. 'He was never able to relax after that, a very uneasy soul, difficult to get close to,' she recalled. He worked in the steel industry in Barrow and then in the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire borders. 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BBC News
24 minutes ago
- BBC News
Farage calls on police to share immigration status of charged suspects
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Ahmad Mulakhil has been charged with two counts of rape, while Mohammad Kabir has been accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under Mulakhil, 23, appeared before magistrates in Coventry on 28 July, while Mr Kabir, also 23, appeared in court on were remanded in of Warwickshire County Council George Finch told the same news conference on Monday morning that he was "begging" for information to be released following the who at 19 became the youngest council leader in the UK and represents Reform UK, said he had contacted the chief executive of the council, Monica Fogarty, saying he wished to speak to Warwickshire Police "to urge" them to release the immigration status about the first man charged."I was begging for this to be released, screaming, phoning, asking [for the information] to be released", he the charging of the second suspect, Finch said he wrote a letter addressed to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Warwickshire Police's Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith calling for the immediate release of the two suspects' published the letter on his social media accounts on Sunday, in which he said Ms Fogarty had told him that Mr Kabir was an asylum seeker living in a house of multiple occupancy (HMO). Speaking on Monday, Finch said he would be working to "fight against" houses of multiple occupancy that "have been put up to house illegal immigrants".He also claimed Reform UK needed to "change things" and are "the last line of defence against the blob, the cover-ups of the councils".When asked if police should release the ethnicity of people charged with offences, the prime minister's official spokesman said the police and courts were operationally independent but the principle was to be "as transparent as possible"."We've always said and continue to say that transparency is important," he said."That is our position. For police up to central government, we should always be as transparent as possible when it comes to cases."He added: "This is clearly a deeply upsetting and distressing case which the public are right to feel shocked and angry about."In relation to this case, the individuals have been charged and we are now in a live investigation."In a statement, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: "It is essential to state that policing decisions - such as whether to release details about a suspect - must follow national guidance and legal requirements."He added that he would not speculate on the personal circumstances of those involved while court proceedings were BBC has contacted Warwickshire County Council for comment.
