PETER HITCHENS: The private school pupils refused NHS care show we're becoming a People's Republic by stealth - ruled by blank-eyed bureaucrats
We are becoming a People's Republic by stealth. The warnings are increasingly urgent, but is anyone listening?
Last weekend The Mail on Sunday reported a deeply disturbing fact. An NHS bureaucrat had refused therapy to a young boy, saying, 'We are unable to see this child as we do not provide a service to school-age children who attend an independent school. We are only commissioned to provide a service to the mainstream schools.'
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The Independent
32 minutes ago
- The Independent
Blow for Starmer as five EU countries oppose ‘one in, one out' migrant deal with France
Five EU countries have criticised a proposed 'one in, one out' migration deal between France and Britain, saying it could see asylum seekers returned to their shores instead. Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron are working on an agreement that would reportedly see Britain return small boat migrants to France in exchange for asylum seekers with families ties in the UK. The precise terms of the deal are still being worked out but Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus have already sounded the alarm on the proposed plans. The Financial Times reported that the five nations have sent a letter to the European Commission objecting to the 'one in one out' policy. The letter reads: 'We take note - with a degree of surprise - of the reported intention of France to sign a bilateral readmission arrangement. If confirmed, such an initiative raises serious concerns for us, both procedurally and in terms of potential implications for other member states, particularly those of first entry'. The five nations have objected to the UK and France working on a deal separately to a whole EU-UK reset deal. Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus are often the first European countries that migrants who travel by irregular routes arrive at. They are reportedly concerned that France could use existing EU rules, which allow asylum seekers to be returned to the first country of entry, to pass on asylum seekers accepted from Britain. The letter continued: 'We believe it is essential to clarify whether the agreement may produce any direct or indirect consequences for other member states'. Mr Macron is due to visit London in early July and the UK-France deal was due to be unveiled at the summit.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Lord Hermer's denial of two-tier justice is a disgrace
This week, Lord Hermer was asked by the BBC about two-tier justice, the idea that the British state treats ethnic minorities more favourably than the white working class. This perception, so corrosive to faith in the rule of law, has become widespread since the crackdown on the Southport unrest last summer. Never one to read the public or political mood, Starmer's lawyer ally simply issued a blunt and contemptuous denial. Such claims are 'frankly disgusting', he said, and indeed 'offensive' to police, prosecutors and courts. He added that instead of criticising the British justice system, politicians 'need to get behind it, not seek to undermine it'. (Perhaps he should have a word with the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who earlier this year had to intervene to block sentencing guidelines which she herself labelled 'two-tier'.) It's a woefully tone-deaf performance, suggesting that Hermer doesn't even understand why the Government's response to the Southport unrest gave rise to charges of unfairness. He argued that people were wrong to compare the policing of London Gaza marches, often awash with anti-Semitism but 'not producing violence', with the Southport unrest, since this saw attacks against police officers. No one would say violent rioters shouldn't be treated robustly. But what Hermer ignores is the way the state dealt fiercely with white, working-class Southport rioters in a way it never does with more favoured groups. Just weeks before, when rioters in ultra-diverse Harehills, Leeds, overturned a police car and set a bus on fire, the police reportedly ran away. Meanwhile, days into the Southport unrest, when armed Muslim mobs formed supposedly in order to protect their local communities, the police let them have free rein. In Birmingham on August 5, the result was a pub being attacked, with a man outside it suffering a lacerated liver, amid other disorder. Even more than this double-standard though, it is the punitive crackdown on online speech that has caused there were many who found themselves charged and remanded in custody for social media posts, the most high-profile is Lucy Connolly, imprisoned for 31 months for a single nasty tweet (which she later deleted) on the night of the Southport murders. As the Telegraph disclosed earlier this month, Lord Hermer personally approved the prosecution of Mrs Connolly for stirring up racial hatred, despite having the constitutional power not to. Hermer has also declined to seek to review lenient sentences for gang grooming offenders – but in his political judgement, it was in the public interest for Connolly to face up to seven years in prison over one nasty tweet. Former Attorney General Suella Braverman says she would not have consented to the charge. 'We don't have a two-tiered justice system', insists Hermer. We have an 'independent justice system'. But can anyone really look at the state response to Southport and claim it 'independent' from politics? Sir Keir Starmer politicised the justice system the moment he claimed all of those involved were 'far-Right thugs', who had come from out of town to cause chaos. In reality, subsequent analysis of the arrest data along with a recent report by the police inspectorate have poured cold water on those claims. Politicians were also swiftly claiming that online speech was a principal cause, with Hermer himself crowing that 'you cannot hide behind your keyboard'. This narrative was no less dubious – no one needed to be told by social media to be angry about the horrific murders of three children. Yet both became reasons for the police, the CPS and the courts to throw the book at people like Connolly over tweets. '[T]heir intention was always to hammer me', as Lucy told the Telegraph earlier this year. Lucy's two-tier treatment continues to this day. First, she was denied release on temporary license to care for her daughter and sick husband. This is a privilege which even murderers are sometimes granted, and which has been granted to others at Lucy's prison. Now she says she's being cruelly mistreated in prison. Does Hermer seriously think it's 'disgusting' to see this as unfair? Hermer can deny two-tier justice all he likes, but the more the public hears about cases like Connolly, the more the charge rings true. A recent YouGov poll found public confidence in the judicial system at an all-time low, with the proportion expressing 'no confidence at all' rising four per cent since last June. Berating people who feel these concerns will not make them go away.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Portland incinerator: Campaigners welcome Court of Appeal hearing
Campaigners have said they are "delighted" after being granted permission to take their case against the decision to build an incinerator near Dorset's Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site to the Court of April, the High Court dismissed an appeal for a statutory review into Powerfuel Portland's £150m waste incinerator planning application was given the go-ahead by the government last September, despite initially being refused by Dorset Stop Portland Waste Incinerator (SPWI) group has argued the incinerator would cause air pollution and damage the local tourism industry. The incinerator is expected to be able to process up to 202,000 tonnes of household, commercial and skip waste a year, creating enough energy to power about 30,000 site for the incinerator is on land owned by Portland Port, which previously said the plant was "vital to this port's future" by allowing it to offer shore power to docked cruise applied for permission for a Court of Appeal hearing after the High Court failed to grant a statutory review of the campaign group has said the Secretary of State's decision "does not satisfy" Dorset Council's Waste Plan and did not properly apply local planning policy, which requires any waste incineration to be in the most appropriate Debbie Tulett said: "I am absolutely delighted that our argument that the Dorset Waste Plan has not been complied with has finally been recognised and I have been vindicated for pushing this point all the way to the Court of Appeal." Opponents of the scheme include Olympic champion Ellie Aldridge, who said "no-one will want to train" at the nearby National Sailing Academy if an incinerator was Council leader Nick Ireland has also previously said the incinerator would be "throwing out nitrous dioxide, sulphur dioxide, arsenic, nickel, chromium" into the atmosphere and harm the area's tourism Environment Agency granted Powerfuel Portland an environmental permit for the incinerator in February after concluding it had met all of its necessary waste management company has said the facility would not burn hazardous or clinical waste. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
