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Daily Mail
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Moment Brits get revenge on 'selfish' Zante holidaymakers for reserving sunbeds - by 'hiding' their towels and flinging them up trees
British summer workers got revenge on 'selfish' Zante holidaymakers who reserved their sunbeds by 'hiding' their towels and flinging them up trees. Waitress Millie Newsham, 20, was on her way back to her hotel room at 6am after a night out with friends last week when they noticed towels had been placed on sunbeds to reserve them. Footage shows the group dragging towels off the loungers, chucking and scattering them around the poolside. The Brits can be seen flinging the towels onto railings and a tree. Millie, from Blackpool, has been in Zante since mid-June and is working there for the summer but says her friends have become increasingly frustrated at tourists who try to claim their spot on the poolside. The British waitress said reserving sunbeds was 'selfish' and not the done thing on the Greek party island. 'We live at the hotel because we're working here and a load of tourists are staying here now. 'They came and put their towels by the pool. 'Nobody does it. You just don't because we're in Zante. 'We've all had a little bit to drink and then we started hiding their towels around the hotel and everything. 'I don't think that you should reserve sunbeds because obviously here nobody gets up until about three in the afternoon so there's literally no point. 'It's quite selfish because half of these people they're not even getting up. Then the people that are getting up then don't have a lounger. It's so annoying. 'It's so annoying. Obviously this is our home right now. 'We've scared them off. They haven't done it since.' She said she has heard people around her hotel speaking about her video, which has since gone viral on social media. Millie said: 'I've heard people talking about the TikTok. 'A couple of girls I was sat next to at the pool, I've never spoken to them and they were like, 'I've seen this TikTok, it was at this hotel and people were moving the towels.' 'I was just laughing. I wasn't expecting it to go viral. Every time I go on there's like another thousand likes on it. 'Some people were agreeing with it. Some people think you shouldn't touch other people's stuff but it's a towel. The clip left TikTok users divided in the comments, with some understanding the frustration and others defending reserving a sunbed. One user said: 'They want to have their cake and eat it - if you're not prepared to wake up earlier, do not expect to get a sunbed if you have to have a more budget holiday, it's first come first serve.' Another commented: 'Why don't you just sit on one with no towel?' 'No way are people defending the odd balls that claim sun beds', a third said. Sunbed wars have been raging across Europe over recent years - a trend that sees tourists compete for prime sunbathing spots at hotel pools and on beaches, often armed with towels and blankets to 'reserve' their place before returning hours later. The peak season practice has spiralled in popular hotspots frequented by Brits, such as Spain, Greece and Turkey, with staff at hotels clamping down on 'sunbed hoggers' by hiring bouncers and introducing parking ticket-style systems.
The Sun
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Builders are being undercut by illegal migrant labour – Brits who pay taxes and play by rules feel shafted
ON Question Time last week, Labour's clueless Treasury minister Darren Jones made an extraordinary claim. He told the BBC's top debate show that 'the majority of people in these boats are children, babies and women' when they cross the Channel. This is simply not true. 2 2 The Government's own website states: 'Seventy per cent of people detected arriving irregularly have been adult males aged 18 and over.' And — thanks to the exclusive Sun on Sunday investigation published here — we now know what many of them get up to once they arrive. The British people are being taken for fools again. We already know that our borders are in chaos. But, thanks to successive Labour and Tory governments, those arriving then go on to work illegally on the £260billion black market economy. And all the while we pay for their accommodation. Today it's highlighted in Barking but make no mistake, this scandal is playing out in towns and cities right across the country. Nearly 40,000 boat migrants have arrived since Labour came to power — and numbers are up 40 per cent on this time last year. How many of these already work on the black market without paying tax? Labour has long championed the mantra of British jobs for British workers. But brickies and builders are being undercut by illegal labour. Britain is in social and economic decline. The social contract is stretched to its limits. People that pay their taxes and play by the rules increasingly feel shafted. Yes, these migrants may be victims of exploitation — but they are also part of the criminal economy. Unscrupulous bosses are laughing all the way to the bank while British workers get priced out again. I was the first to highlight the impending invasion of young, undocumented males. Most of the media ignored me. But we can now see I was right. Immigration is out of control. The situation in the Channel is a security emergency. If we cannot stop this in Barking, how on earth will we control the borders in Dover? Keir Starmer's soft touch is laughable. He promised to smash the gangs — but all he has smashed are illegal immigration records. The only way to deal with this problem is to say everyone that comes to Britain illegally will be deported — and actually mean it.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
UK employees work from home more than most global rivals, study finds
UK workers continue to work from home more than nearly any of their global counterparts more than five years after the pandemic first disrupted traditional office life, a study has found. UK employees now average 1.8 days a week of remote working, above the international average of 1.3 days, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), a worldwide poll of more than 16,000 full-time, university-educated workers across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa that began in July 2021. Hybrid working patterns – in which the week is split between the office and another remote location such as home – have become established as the dominant model in advanced economies for staff who are able to carry out their roles remotely. This is particularly true in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, according to the most recent G-SWA, which was conducted between November 2024 and February 2025. Conversely, such arrangements are rare in east Asia, where office-centric culture prevails, and most full-time workers in Japan and South Korea still commute daily to the office. The popularity of home working in the UK has previously been attributed to the cost and length of commuting, particularly in London and south-east England. 'This isn't just a post-pandemic hangover – British workers have clearly decided they're not going back to the old ways. Remote work has moved from being an emergency response to becoming a defining feature of the UK labour market,' said Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, a G-SWA co-founder and associate professor at King's College London. 'This shift is forcing businesses, policymakers, and city planners to reimagine everything from office space to transport to regional growth,' added Aksoy, who is also an associate research director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Despite the introduction of strict return-to-office mandates at a handful of large companies, including the retail company Amazon and the asset management firm BlackRock, home working levels have stabilised in the UK since 2023, in what the researchers called a 'labour market equilibrium'. Men and women work from home at similar rates in every leading region of the world, the study found, although the desire for home working is strongest among women with children. Parents surveyed said they were more likely to adopt hybrid work, while those without children prefer either fully office-based or fully remote working models. Younger respondents showed a stronger preference for working from the office, as a way to get noticed by senior colleagues, or to learn informally from their peers. 'Hybrid work is no longer the exception, it's the expectation,' Aksoy said, adding that the research had not found any strong evidence that remote work came at the cost of productivity for organisations. This could not, however, be said for fully remote roles. 'Its impact on productivity varies dramatically depending on the type of job and how it's managed,' Aksoy said. 'In many cases, fully remote roles are concentrated in call centres or data entry, jobs that are already under pressure from automation and AI.' Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The findings came as a separate poll from King's College found less than half (42%) of workers would comply with an employer's requirement for them to return to the office full-time, compared with 54% in early 2022. Women and parents were most likely to resist strict return mandates, researchers at the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's and its business school found. By late 2024, 55% of women said they would seek a new job if required to return to the office full-time. Researchers have previously suggested that some companies have issued strict return-to-office mandates as a way to shed excess staff hired under fully remote arrangements during the pandemic.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
DAN HODGES: The biggest problem is that we have a PM who doesn't want to stop the boats...
The words were suitably muscular: 'The Tories lost control of our borders and let net migration soar to record levels, undercutting hardworking Brits,' the Prime Minister tweeted yesterday morning. 'I won't stand for it,' he continued. 'I promised to restore control and cut migration, and I'm delivering with tough new measures. British workers – I've got your back.' But they were just that. Words. Everyone knows the Tories betrayed the British people over their pledge to slash legal migration and 'stop the boats '. It's why they were so unceremoniously booted out of office less than 12 months ago. Yet they know something else, too. Keir Starmer 's own pledge to 'deliver' on migration is equally empty. There is nothing in Labour 's proposed White Paper that is remotely 'tough' or has the slightest chance of turning the tide of humanity crossing our borders legally and illegally. Some tinkering over the time-limit for non-graduate work visas. A small reduction in the number of students staying in the UK after they have finished their courses. More lip-service to the idea of migrants having a better understanding of English. A bit of tweaking of Article B of the Human Rights Act. After some initial success in targeting the small boats and increasing the number of deportations, normal service under Labour has been resumed. Actually, exceeded. So far this year, more than 11,000 people have crossed the Channel to Britain's shores, a 40 per cent increase from the same time last year. Yet again, the voters are being treated to the spectacle of a Prime Minister promising to 'take back control' of the borders. And yet again, those words are destined to die on his lips. Meanwhile, more and more desperate people will die beneath the cold waters of the Channel. And the social fabric of the nation will continue to be rent asunder as another establishment politician's promise turns to dust. If Starmer genuinely ' had the back' of Britain's workers, he would be taking serious, radical action. An offshoring scheme for processing. Withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights that even ministers privately concede has hamstrung their efforts to get on top of the migration crisis. An economic strategy that doesn't rely on the failed model of globalisation that has seen hundreds of thousands of those workers thrown to the wolves. Instead, the people of Britain must brace themselves for another stab in the back. Within government, there has been an intense debate about how to respond to growing public fury over immigration and the accompanying populist backlash that has seen Nigel Farage surge into a double-digit lead in the polls. Ministers, including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, have been pushing for bolder action. But Keir Starmer has rejected their entreaties. Partly this is because of complacency. No 10 is expecting a significant fall in the legal migration figures once the measures implemented by outgoing Tory Home Secretary James Cleverly feed through into the system. 'Downing Street thinks that fall will be enough to diffuse the issue,' one minister told me. 'They don't think they need to go that much further.' Then, there are the interventions from Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who believes every issue in government should be subordinated to her increasingly desperate attempts to stimulate growth. 'Rachel is terrified of the impact tougher measures will have on the economy,' a colleague reported. Yet there is another reason why Keir Starmer is incapable of getting to grips with immigration – and it is a significant one. He just doesn't want to. The Prime Minister might appear deaf and blind to the mounting anger of the British people, but he is not completely dumb. He knows full well the extent to which his failure to exert real control is fuelling the Reform insurgency. But he simply cannot bring himself to issue the harsh instructions needed to bring order to the migration chaos. There is no deep mystery to who Keir Starmer is or what he believes. Despite the efforts of his aides to construct another – more electorally viable – persona, he really is just a middle-class, liberal, human-rights lawyer from North London. Stopping the boats requires action that to him is anathema. Smashing the gangs, even if it were operationally viable, is self-evidently not going to be enough. What's needed is someone with the political vision, will and empathy to instinctively grasp the concern of working people over the ongoing migrant influx. Someone who is prepared to introduce immigration policies that are not liberal, but are – on the contrary – overtly illiberal. Someone prepared to confront with passion and energy the human-rights industry that is itself profiting from the trafficking in human misery. Keir Starmer is not that man. And everyone knows it. By pretending the Government's new White Paper is the answer to the immigration crisis, the Prime Minister is taking the British people for fools. And in the process, he is trying to fool himself.
Sky News
11-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Government to announce new English language and British citizenship requirements for migrants
Migrants will have to live in the UK for a decade before they can apply for citizenship under plans to reduce reliance on foreign workers. The change from five to 10 years will come with exceptions for people who make a "high contribution" to the economy or society, who will able to be fast-tracked for permanent settlement rights. It comes on top of new English language requirements across every visa route, which will extend to adult dependents for the first time. The measures will be announced by Sir Keir Starmer on Monday ahead of the Immigration White Paper, which will set out further reforms to bring net migration down. At a press conference later, the prime minister will say: "This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right. "And when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language. "Lower net migration, higher skills and backing British workers - that is what this White Paper will deliver." Net migration - the difference between the number of people immigrating and emigrating to a country - soared when the UK left the EU in January 2020. It reached 903,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling to 728,000 in mid-2024. But that is still well above its pre-Brexit high of 329,000 in the year up to June 2015. The government is under pressure to tackle legal migration, as well as illegal immigration, amid Reform UK's surge in the polls. 9:47 However, experts have questioned whether some of the changes announced by Sir Keir today will have much of an impact, at least in the short term. Currently, migrants have to live in the UK for five years to get indefinite leave to remain, or "settled status" if they are from the EU. They can then use this to apply for British citizenship, usually 12 months after settlement. There were 162,000 grants of settlement in 2024, up 35% from 2023, and 270,000 grants of citizenship in 2024, up nearly a third on the previous year. 'Contributions-based' citizenship model The new "contributions-based model" means people must spend a decade in the UK before applying to stay, unless they can show a "real and lasting contribution to the economy and society". The Home Office said this will include "high-skilled" and 'high-contributing' individuals like nurses, doctors, engineers and AI leaders. The details are still being fleshed out and will be put to consultation later this year rather than in the white paper, Sky News understands. However, the thinking is that those who pay higher taxes or who work in a priority sector will be eligible to be fast-tracked. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is also keen for discounts to apply to those who make an "outstanding contribution" to society, such as community leaders, it is understood. English language requirements The government also plans to raise English language requirements across every immigration route, so foreign workers speak a higher standard of English. For the first time, this will also extend to all adult dependents by requiring them to demonstrate a basic understanding of English, which the government says will help people integrate and find employment. Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, told Sky News that extending the amount of time people need to be in the UK to get permanent settlement rights is unlikely to significantly affect migration levels, as there is "no evidence" this affects their decision about whether to migrate. Any impact would be seen in five to ten years, "when people get to that point of the visa journey", she said, adding that the main effect of this policy would be to "bring in more visa-fee revenue to the Home Office" and "to make it harder for migrants to settle in". She said that language requirements "are more likely to have an impact on the number of visas granted", as more than half of skilled worker visas over the past couple of years have gone to dependents. "However, there's no data on how many of them would have passed a language test so it is hard to say how big," Dr Sumption added. The home office has not put a figure on what sort of reduction these policies could achieve, with Ms Cooper to give more details in parliament on Monday afternoon. 16:59 On Sunday, she told Sky News's Trevor Phillips that plans to close the care worker visa route and change the skilled visa threshold to require a graduate qualification would cut the number of overseas workers by about 50,000 this year. However, she refused to put a target on the overall levels of net migration the government is aiming for, saying that approach "failed" under the Conservatives. The Tories have admitted making mistakes in office, but are still calling for a binding immigration cap and want to repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration issues. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Labour has "overseen the worst ever start to a year for illegal immigrants crossing the channel" adding: "The idea that Starmer is tough on immigration is a joke."
