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RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The Epping migrant fiasco has revealed a troubling truth about our country. I have warned about this for years... now it can no longer be denied

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The Epping migrant fiasco has revealed a troubling truth about our country. I have warned about this for years... now it can no longer be denied

Daily Mail​6 days ago
Watching Essex Police escorting Far Left troublemakers to a confrontation with local residents protesting against a hotel in Epping being converted into an asylum hostel for single men should surprise nobody. These days it's par for the course.
More than 20 years ago I dubbed the police 'the paramilitary wing of New Labour'.
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Met Police set to increase use of facial recognition technology amid force restructure
Met Police set to increase use of facial recognition technology amid force restructure

The Independent

time21 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Met Police set to increase use of facial recognition technology amid force restructure

Britain's biggest police force is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition. The move by the Metropolitan Police comes as it restructures to cover the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff amid budget shortages and will see up to10 deployments of the technology a week. As part of the latest details of its restructure, the Met announced that live facial recognition will now be used up to 10 times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days. Earlier this month the Met revealed that it had made 1,000 arrests using live facial recognition to date, of which 773 had led to charge or caution. Part of the overhaul will also see officers moved to bulk up the force's public order crime team, as the Met said it has faced increased demand linked to protest-related crimes in the past two years. The squad will go from 48 to 63 officers due to a rise in the number of protests, particularly related to Israel and Palestine, as well as environmental issues. Force chief Sir Mark Rowley said: 'The numbers of protests have grown over the last couple of years. 'We don't have any powers that are there to reduce the number of protests, to cancel them. 'Laws are very permissive and encouraging of protests, which is entirely understandable, and I've got no objection to that, but what we've seen, unfortunately, is a proportion of those create crime and offences.' The facial recognition plans, however, have come under scrutiny. Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: 'It's incredibly concerning to see an expansion of facial recognition, especially at a time when there is a complete lack of regulation governing its use. 'Any tech which has the potential to infringe on our rights in the way scanning and identifying millions of people does needs to have robust safeguards around its use, including ensuring that proper independent oversight is in place. 'The government must legislate now to regulate this technology, protect people's rights, and make sure that the law on facial recognition does not get outpaced by the use.' Sir Mark insisted that the technology is responsibly used. 'We're only using it to look for serious offenders like wanted offenders and registered sex offenders. 'We routinely put it out there and capture multiple serious offenders in one go, many of whom have committed serious offences against women or children, or people who are wanted for armed robbery. 'It's a fantastic piece of technology. It's very responsibly used, and that's why most of the public support it.' Officers are also being moved to neighbourhood teams to deal with street crime including phone thefts, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting, with 80 moved to the team that covers the West End, a rise of 50 per cent. Last month, retailers warned that flagship high streets such as Oxford Street in the West End were at risk without urgent national action on crime. While shoplifting hit a record high in 2024 with the number of offences surpassing 500,000 for the first time, High Streets UK, a group that represents 5,000 businesses, called for wider action to deal with all types of crime affecting high streets. 'The West End generates £50 billion for the UK economy,' Sir Mark said. 'It's an enormous wealth generator. It's important we police and protect that well. 'And we think there's more we can do on our own and working with them.' This will include patrolling the streets, 'taking on the pickpockets', and officers tackling gangs plotting to rob shops, he said. Another 90 officers are moving to neighbourhood teams that cover six hotspots for robbery and theft – Brixton, Kingston, Ealing, Finsbury Park, Southwark and Spitalfields. The Met is Britain's largest police force, which as of February had 33,201 officers, 11,319 staff, 1,460 police community support officers and 1,127 specials. Sir Mark warned in April that the force is facing a £260 million budget shortfall, with cuts removing the Royal Parks police and dedicated schools officers as a result.

Times Radio weekly audience up by almost a third
Times Radio weekly audience up by almost a third

Times

time22 minutes ago

  • Times

Times Radio weekly audience up by almost a third

Times Radio is the fastest-growing talk station in the UK, figures show. The station drew an average weekly audience of 616,000 listeners over the three months to June, up 29 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest set of Rajar statistics. The station also had listeners for 4.9 million hours, up 15 per cent year-on-year. Times Radio bosses said public interest in the Trump administration was behind the spike in listeners, as well as new recruits such as Jo Coburn, a former Politics Live presenter for BBC2, adding to previous arrivals from the broadcaster, including John Pienaar, Jane Garvey and Fi Glover. Tim Levell, Times Radio's programme director, said in May that the station had started the year strongly with the launch of The Times at One, featuring a rotating cast of presenters including Coburn, Andrew Neil, Trevor Phillips, Daniel Finkelstein and Stephen Sackur. Mid-morning shows from Hugo Rifkind and Rod Liddle also came in for praise. 'Both are very popular columnists who have brought real intelligence and an informed take on the world to those slots,' Levell said. He said a growing focus on global affairs had underpinned the station's ability to capitalise on the 'compelling' news events of the past year, including the fallout from President Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs. 'Listeners are gripped by what is going on around the world,' he said. Times Radio's YouTube channel broke the 1 billion-view barrier earlier this year. BBC Radio 2, meanwhile, has lost nearly half a million listeners since Scott Mills replaced Zoe Ball as the host of its flagship breakfast show. The breakfast show had an average audience of 6.22 million in the three months to June, the lowest figure since the Covid-19 pandemic. Radio 2's weekly audience has now fallen by nearly two million in three years, down from an average of 14.53 million listeners in April-June 2022 to the latest figure of 12.62 million. BBC Radio 3's breakfast programme has also lost a fifth of its listeners, after Tom McKinney replaced Petroc Trelawny in April. The audience for Radio 4's Today programme is down from 5.7 million in the previous three months but up from 5.47 million year-on-year. GB News's radio service averaged 547,000 listeners in the latest quarter, down 2 per cent on the previous three months but up 6 per cent year-on-year. Talk, formerly Talk Radio, had an average of 487,000 listeners, up 0.4 per cent on the quarter but down 29 per cent on the year. Year-on-year figures are regarded as more significant than quarterly ones, because of seasonal swings in listener figures. Rajar introduced its current method of measuring listeners in the autumn of 2021 after a break during the pandemic.

Government denies reallocating £1m of NI peace funding
Government denies reallocating £1m of NI peace funding

BBC News

time22 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Government denies reallocating £1m of NI peace funding

The UK government has denied reallocating £1m of funding from a cross-border peace project to a new scheme aimed at strengthening connections between Northern Ireland and Great for the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) was withdrawn, with the government saying there was a "challenging fiscal position".It emerged after the government in June announced funding of up to £1m to help groups build connections between NI and government said the two initiatives were "entirely separate" and it "remains supportive of the IFI's aims of promoting peace and reconciliation". The IFI was set up by the UK and Irish governments in 1986 and supports work in Northern Ireland and border counties in the Republic of UK government was due to contribute £4m between 2021 and 2025 in four a spokesman said it "decided not to continue" with a planned £1m contribution in 2024-25."This government inherited a very challenging fiscal position, and needed to take difficult but necessary decisions to place the public finances on a sustainable footing," he said. In June, the government launched a funding scheme worth up to £1m aimed at "strengthening east-west connections".The Connect Fund was announced after a meeting of the East-West council was set up in a deal between the previous Conservative government and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that saw it return to Stormont after a two-year boycott over post-Brexit trade O'Toole, leader of the opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said the funding decisions were "deeply concerning".The Social Democratic and Labour Party assembly member claimed the "north-south and cross-community" aspects of such funding were being "abandoned".He described the Connect Fund as being "borne out of a clandestine, bilateral deal cooked up between the last Tory government and the DUP". The government rejected the concerns and said the decision to introduce the new funding scheme was in response to sectoral needs."The UK government did not reallocate money from the IFI to the East-West Council," a spokesperson said."These are two entirely separate entities."The government remains supportive of the IFI's aims of promoting peace and reconciliation."A DUP spokesperson said the party welcomed "recent funding announcements".The Irish government said it contributed €4m (£3.45m) to the IFI in 2025.A spokesperson for its Department of Foreign Affairs said: "We are aware that the UK government indicated they were not in a position to make the final £1m instalment of funding in 2024."We look forward to continuing to work with the UK in support of the IFI and hope that the UK will consider further funding to the IFI when its new strategy for 2026-2030 is launched at the end of this year."In a statement, the IFI said it had received financial support from a range of donors including the UK, Irish and US governments, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.A spokesperson for the IFI said it was "grateful for the long-standing support from the UK government and the financial assistance provided in supporting our delivery of the IFI's current strategy"."We look forward to continuing to work with the UK government and our partners in delivering critical peace and reconciliation initiatives in Northern Ireland and the southern border counties," the spokesperson added.

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