Author Dame Pat Barker thought honours letter was income tax bill
She added: 'One of the things that, in spite of everything, I like about the British honour system is the way it records people who do very low profile, working for free, long hours, weeks, months, years, for something that they genuinely believe in and usually unpaid, and for the benefit of other people, and they are the bedrock of the honour system, and they actually are the reason why it is so respected, and knights and dames are just cherries on the top of that cake.
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The Age
12 minutes ago
- The Age
Starmer to tackle grooming gangs after sex exploitation case shakes UK
London: The conviction of seven men for the sexual exploitation of two teenage girls in northern England has prompted British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to announce a national inquiry into grooming gangs – a sharp policy shift after months of political pressure and growing public scrutiny. The verdict, delivered on Friday at a Manchester court, revealed that the men – aged between 41 and 67 – groomed the girls, who were just 13 at the time, and subjected them to prolonged abuse between 2001 and 2006. The case, which occurred in Rochdale, reignited a scandal that has plagued numerous British towns for more than a decade and is now seen as the trigger for a comprehensive national response. Speaking ahead of the G7 summit in Canada, Starmer said he had accepted a recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey, who recently completed a months-long audit into child sexual exploitation in England. Casey's findings are reportedly expected to assert that the grooming gang issue is explicitly tied to men of Pakistani origin, claiming that white British girls who were targeted were 'institutionally ignored' because of racism concerns. 'I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation,' Starmer told reporters. 'That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.' The inquiry will be statutory, giving it the legal authority to compel witnesses to testify – a key demand from victims and campaigners. While Starmer did not commit to a timeline, he said details would be set out 'in an orderly way'. The announcement marks a significant reversal for Starmer, who had repeatedly rejected calls for a new national inquiry, arguing that the focus should remain on implementing the 200 recommendations of earlier reviews. Instead, the government had backed local investigations in five towns, including Oldham and Telford. Pressure for a national response had been building for months. While political opponents – including the Conservative Party and Reform UK – consistently criticised the government's handling of the issue, international attention intensified in January after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his platform on X to highlight concerns over institutional inaction. Musk's posts brought renewed attention to a previous decision to deny Oldham Council's request for a national inquiry, fuelling wider public debate.
Sydney Morning Herald
12 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Starmer to tackle grooming gangs after sex exploitation case shakes UK
London: The conviction of seven men for the sexual exploitation of two teenage girls in northern England has prompted British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to announce a national inquiry into grooming gangs – a sharp policy shift after months of political pressure and growing public scrutiny. The verdict, delivered on Friday at a Manchester court, revealed that the men – aged between 41 and 67 – groomed the girls, who were just 13 at the time, and subjected them to prolonged abuse between 2001 and 2006. The case, which occurred in Rochdale, reignited a scandal that has plagued numerous British towns for more than a decade and is now seen as the trigger for a comprehensive national response. Speaking ahead of the G7 summit in Canada, Starmer said he had accepted a recommendation of Baroness Louise Casey, who recently completed a months-long audit into child sexual exploitation in England. Casey's findings are reportedly expected to assert that the grooming gang issue is explicitly tied to men of Pakistani origin, claiming that white British girls who were targeted were 'institutionally ignored' because of racism concerns. 'I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation,' Starmer told reporters. 'That is the right thing to do on the basis of what she has put in her audit.' The inquiry will be statutory, giving it the legal authority to compel witnesses to testify – a key demand from victims and campaigners. While Starmer did not commit to a timeline, he said details would be set out 'in an orderly way'. The announcement marks a significant reversal for Starmer, who had repeatedly rejected calls for a new national inquiry, arguing that the focus should remain on implementing the 200 recommendations of earlier reviews. Instead, the government had backed local investigations in five towns, including Oldham and Telford. Pressure for a national response had been building for months. While political opponents – including the Conservative Party and Reform UK – consistently criticised the government's handling of the issue, international attention intensified in January after tech billionaire Elon Musk used his platform on X to highlight concerns over institutional inaction. Musk's posts brought renewed attention to a previous decision to deny Oldham Council's request for a national inquiry, fuelling wider public debate.
Kuwait Times
28 minutes ago
- Kuwait Times
India plane crash kills 260
Amir sends condolences • Jet smashes into doctors' hostel • One passenger survives AHMEDABAD, India: At least 260 people were killed when an Air India plane bound for London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, authorities said, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. The dead included people on the ground as the aircraft – headed for Gatwick Airport, south of the British capital – smashed into a medical college hostel during lunch hour. HH the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Thursday sent a cable to Indian President Droupadi Murmu, offering sincere condolences and solace over the victims of the Air India crash. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent similar cables to Murmu. Kuwait's ministry of foreign affairs voiced sympathy and solidarity with India over the crash. In a press release, the ministry expressed sincere condolences and solace to the victims' families, the leadership, government and people of India over this painful tragedy. At least one passenger is known to have survived, police said, and the man told Indian media how he had heard a loud noise shortly after take-off. 'Approximately 260 have died. This includes some students as the plane crashed on the building where they were staying,' Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer, told Reuters. She said police found one survivor who was in seat 11A, next to an emergency exit, adding that there could be more survivors in hospital. 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,' 40-year-old Ramesh Viswashkumar told the Hindustan Times, which showed a boarding pass for seat 11A in that name online. 'It all happened so quickly,' he told the paper from his hospital bed. 'When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,' he said. 'Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.' He said that his brother, Ajay, was seated in a different row on the plane. 'He was travelling with me and I can't find him anymore. Please help me find him,' he said. Ahmedabad police chief G S Malik said the bodies recovered could include both passengers and people killed on the ground. The dead included Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat state, of which Ahmedabad is the main city. Relatives had been asked to give DNA samples to identify the dead, state health secretary Dhananjay Dwivedi told reporters. Parts of the plane's body were scattered around the smoldering building into which it crashed. The tail of the plane was stuck on top of the building. The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian. 'One half of the plane crashed into the residential building where doctors lived with their families,' said Krishna, a doctor who did not give his full name. 'The nose and front wheel landed on the canteen building where students were having lunch,' he said. Krishna said he saw 'about 15 to 20 burnt bodies', while he and his colleagues rescued around 15 students. Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service. It was the first crash for the Dreamliner, which began flying commercially in 2011, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said. AHMEDABAD: Firefighters work at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport on June 12, 2025. (Right) The tail of the plane is pictured at the medical college hostel it crashed into. - AFP photos Thursday's crash occurred just after the plane took off. TV channels showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge fireball could be seen rising into the sky from beyond the houses. 'My sister-in-law was going to London. Within an hour, I got news that the plane had crashed,' Poonam Patel, a relative of one of the passengers, told news agency ANI at the government hospital in Ahmedabad. Ramila, the mother of a student at the medical college, told ANI her son had gone to the hostel for his lunch break when the plane crashed. 'My son is safe, and I have spoken to him. He jumped from the second floor, so he suffered some injuries,' she said. According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1:39 pm (0809 GMT). It gave a Mayday call, signaling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft. Boeing said it was in contact with Air India and working to gather more information. Boeing shares fell 5 percent as the crash posed a major setback for the planemaker as its new CEO looks to rebuild trust following a series of safety and production challenges. Aircraft engine-maker GE Aerospace said that it would put a team together to go to India and analyze cockpit data, India's CNBC TV18 reported. The US National Transportation Safety Board said it would lead a team of US investigators travelling to India to help in the investigation. Britain was working with Indian authorities to urgently establish the facts around the crash and to provide support to those involved, the country's foreign office said. 'The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. 'It is heartbreaking beyond words.' Gujarat is Modi's home state. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said images emerging of the crash were 'devastating', while King Charles III said he was 'desperately shocked'. Ahmedabad Airport, which suspended all flight operations after the crash, said it was operational again but with limited flights. The airport is operated by India's Adani Group conglomerate. The last fatal plane crash in India, the world's third largest aviation market and its fastest growing, was in 2020 and involved Air India Express, the airline's low-cost arm. The airline's Boeing-737 overshot a 'table-top' runway in southern India, skidded and plunged into a valley, crashing nose-first into the ground and killing 21 people. The formerly state-owned Air India was taken over by Indian conglomerate Tata Group in 2022, and merged with Vistara - a joint venture between the group and Singapore Airlines – in 2024. India has suffered other fatal air crashes, including a 1996 disaster when two jets collided mid-air over New Delhi, killing nearly 350 people. In 2010, an Air India Express jet crashed and burst into flames at Mangalore airport in southwest India, killing 158 of the 166 passengers and crew on board. – Agencies
