Woman, 82, dies in hospital after head-on Perthshire crash
Sgt John McDiarmid said: "Our inquiries into this collision are ongoing and I am appealing to anyone who was in the area around the time of the crash to get in touch."
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Telegraph
6 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Turnberry turned into ‘American prison' for Trump's arrival
Turnberry resort has been transformed into an 'American prison', complete with high fencing and 'sniper towers', for Donald Trump's visit. The US president touched down in Scotland on Friday evening for a few days of golf at his resort in Ayrshire ahead of a trip to Aberdeen next week. Campaign groups have vowed to welcome Mr Trump with a 'festival of resistance', aiming to make their voice heard on issues from climate change to the plight of Palestinians. Gavin Scott, an independent councillor for Girvan and South Carrick, said police had gone above and beyond to deter potential disruption. He told The Telegraph: 'A local resident likened the high fencing and sniper tower surrounding the golf course to an American prison, finding the view quite disturbing and intimidating with a large armed police presence.' Trump Turnberry has become a lightning rod for protest groups targeting the president this year. Palestine Action daubed the resort's white buildings in red paint in March and Greenpeace created a sand portrait of Mr Trump on the beach by the course beside a message reading: 'Time to fight the billionaire takeover'. Earlier this week, protesters sabotaged a sign at Mr Trump's golf course in Aberdeenshire with a placard that claimed the luxury resort was 'twinned with Epstein Island'. The stunt was staged by the political campaign group Everyone Hates Elon as the US president faces renewed scrutiny over his past links to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who died in 2024. On Monday, White House communications director Stephen Cheung said Trump once kicked Epstein out of his club for being a 'creep' and called allegations about him 'recycled, old fake news'. Mr Trump's visit to the UK will include hosting Sir Keir Starmer for dinner before travelling to the 'oil capital of Europe' Aberdeen for 'lunches' and opening the new golf course at his resort at Menie. Mr Trump told reporters at the White House that 'Turnberry is rated the number one golf course in the world'. 'I'm going to see it for the first time in years,' he said, adding: 'It's the best resort in the world, I think. It's one of the greatest courses.' Mr Scott said there had been murmurs of discontent around the villages over 'who's footing the bill' for the extra security. 'To ask Police Scotland or our own government to pay for an already undermanned police force is quite ridiculous and grossly unfair,' he said. Cllr Alec Clark, deputy leader of South Ayrshire Council, said there would always be 'associated costs for any world leaders visit'. 'This is a democracy and people are entitled to make their feelings known,' he told The Telegraph. Emma Bond, Asst Chief Constable, encouraged protest groups to discuss their plans with police. She said: 'As you can imagine, it is a large-scale, complex operation, but actually that's something that Police Scotland is immensely experienced at doing.' The policing plan involves local, national and specialist officers from Police Scotland as well as other forces. She said: 'The key very much is to make sure the president of the United States can come, enjoy a peaceful and safe visit to Scotland and ensure Police Scotland is able to maintain delivery of services to the rest of the community within Scotland over the period of his visit.' Despite the protests, Mr Scott said most residents were supportive of Mr Trump. 'The feeling on the ground here in Girvan and surrounding villages is mainly of excitement and quite happy about President Trump's visit,' he said, pointing out that Mr Trump had refurbished the hotel and tended to the world famous course. 'Something tells me he is using his round to help persuade the R&A to return 'The Open' to Turnberry, we all wish him well on that one, what an achievement that would be!' The Ailsa course at Turnberry, sporting views of the granite craig in the Firth of Clyde and across to the Isle of Arran and the Mull of Kintyre, has hosted the Open championship four times. The course last hosted the British golf tournament in 2009 and Mr Trump is thought to be eyeing up one of the next free slots from 2028 onwards. 'No friend of Scotland' Campaign groups will gather by the William Wallace Statue at Union Terrace in Aberdeen, as well as outside the US consulate in Edinburgh on Saturday. Speaking ahead of the protests, Alena Ivanova, a campaigner with the Stop Trump Coalition said: 'Donald Trump may shake hands with our leaders, but he's no friend of Scotland. 'We, the people of Scotland, see the damage he has done – to democracy and working people in the US, to the global efforts to tackle the climate crisis, to the very principles of justice and humanity.' She added: 'As he dreams of rivieras built on the bones of Palestinians, we demand an end to the genocide. 'Trump is not welcome because he represents all that Scottish people reject.' Liz Murray, head of Scottish campaigns at Global Justice Now who are a part of the Stop Trump Coalition added: 'Trump is bullying his way around the world, slapping tariffs on countries, or threatening to – and that includes us here. 'He's using these threats to impose the interests of his oligarch friends on us – and in particular the Big Tech barons who have his ear – when actually governments should be taxing them and reining in their power. 'It's vital that both Keir Starmer and John Swinney stand up to him – because if they give him an inch on this or anything else he'll take a mile.'
Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BBC under fire for making six-part podcast series about notorious crime queen 'Big Mags' Haney
The BBC has been criticised after it emerged it is to air a six-part podcast on notorious drug dealer 'Big Mags' Haney. The convicted dealer ran a brutal heroin empire for years while posing as a community hero. Haney, who died in 2013, aged 70, first came to the media's attention when she led a campaign to remove a paedophile from the notorious Raploch estate in Stirling. But she was eventually jailed for her role in a £250,000-a-year drugs operation from her home on the estate. And now the BBC has been criticised after announcing a six-part podcast charting the rise and fall of the crime queen. In The Ballad of Big Mags, journalist Myles Bonnar will explore the life of the clan figurehead, who even appeared on daytime TV show Kilroy to discuss keeping children safe. Mr Bonnar said: 'Mags Haney's rise to prominence and her dramatic fall after revelations of her criminal activities, was a story which played out in the media over years. 'The series not only examines her contradictory life but also wider issues of mob justice, community dynamics, poverty, and the creation of the so-called media personality. 'Many people only partially know the story of this controversial figure and this series will give a full account of how she rose to fame and became a source of fascination to the media and public before her criminal life was exposed.' But Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservative shadow business, economy, tourism and culture secretary, said: 'Eyebrows will be raised at the BBC's decision to give airtime to a woman who used her celebrity status to cover up a major heroin operation. 'Many taxpayers will question why their license fee is going towards platforming this controversial figure, particularly at a time when BBC budgets are squeezed.' Haney first grabbed the headlines as a self-styled anti-paedophile campaigner while running the heroin empire in the 1990s. She claimed she 'just wanted to help folk' in the community, she was eventually exposed as the leader of a notorious crime clan dubbed the 'family from hell'. Behind her matriarch public image, the grandmother used her own children and grandchildren to sell around £24,000-worth of heroin from her council flat each month. She was jailed for 12 years in 2003 after being convicted of running a large-scale heroin dealing operation in Stirling. Annemarie Ward, CEO of drugs charity FAVOR UK, added: 'The media's fixation with gangland nostalgia might make for gripping listening, but it rarely tells the truth about the lives destroyed by this kind of chaos. 'Recovery communities across Scotland are still cleaning up the devastation. We don't need another folk anti-hero: we need truth, justice, and a bit of respect for the people trying to build a different future.' A spokesperson for BBC Scotland said: 'The podcast series takes a detailed look at a story which was in the public spotlight for a significant period and was covered by many media outlets, including newspapers. 'Contributors include journalists, police, and members of the community, who give new insights into how Mags Haney positioned herself as a protector of the Raploch estate while concealing her criminal activities. 'The series is also about wider issues such as mob justice, community dynamics, poverty, and how the media operated in that era.' The six part series will be available on BBC Sounds from Friday 8 August.
Times
34 minutes ago
- Times
Donald Trump can show Keir Starmer how to stop the boats
When Keir Starmer meets Donald Trump in Scotland on Monday, they will have an obvious topic of discussion: how to control illegal border crossings. Both came to power on a wave of public anger over asylum seekers. Both vowed to take back control but the results couldn't be more different. Britain's small-boat arrivals have hit record highs, with migrant hotels full and protests spreading. In the US, illegal crossings from Mexico have collapsed and are 97 per cent below their Biden-era peak. As Trump likes to say: 'Promises made, promises kept'. It helps explain why, in spite of tariff chaos and the Epstein drama, Trump's approval rating remains one of the highest among the leaders of major countries. Starmer's, by contrast, has fallen with Liz Truss-style speed to a level from which no prime minister has ever recovered. He will find much to disagree with in Trump's approach to border control. But he'll also find lessons: in what works, what doesn't and what voters expect. It's hard to understand Trump's re-election without grasping the depth of feeling about illegal immigration under Joe Biden. 'The border is closed; the border is secure,' declared Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's homeland security chief, in 2021. An unprecedented 2.2 million illegal arrivals the next year proved him wrong. 'There is no word to describe this except 'invasion',' said the governor of Montana, a state 800 miles from the southern border but already feeling the ramifications. Authorities were overwhelmed. Those apprehended, children included, were often kept in appalling conditions. Then came the deaths: 53 found suffocated in a people-smuggling truck in Texas. Then the crime: theft, assaults, fentanyl and meth-smuggling — each example used by Trump's supporters as a parable of national collapse. By the start of last year, 78 per cent of Americans agreed that the border situation was in crisis or, at least, a major problem. Cue Trump. He declared a national emergency on day one, deploying thousands of troops to the Mexican border. Then came the shock and awe. Some 10,000 refugees who had been approved for settlement in the US had the offer rescinded, their entry denied and their flight tickets rendered worthless. Police were told to detain everyone, rather than release people who would then start their asylum case. It caused outrage — but, to Trump, helpful outrage. It sent out a message: best not try your luck. The results were almost instant and spectacular. Monthly figures for border 'encounters' collapsed to the lowest level since the 1960s. Had Trump left it there, all might have been well. But ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, started to go after those who had been in the US for years, using what critics regard as stormtrooper-style tactics. Masked officers raided workplaces; flash grenades were used against Californian protesters. Under Biden ICE had, in effect, been told to stand down. Trump sent ICE to war. The recent clashes in Los Angeles offer a taste of this new normal. I was in Washington recently and saw a side to ICE that's rarely glimpsed from this side of the Atlantic: its speed, its success and its sense of a moral mission. 'The American people deserve a federal government that chooses to put them first,' I was told. 'We go after the worst of the worst: gang members, murderers and rapists.' But it's also going after law-abiding Venezuelans who have suddenly been recategorised as illegal. With almost 1,000 arrests every day, it's proving a bit much even for Trump's supporters. The prime minister will be appalled at this. But what should really haunt him is a phrase that was doing the rounds in Washington under Biden: 'If liberals won't control borders, fascists will.' It's hyperbolic: Trump, for all his flaws, is no fascist. But the warning very much applies here. If centrists can't restore order, populists will be put in power to do it instead. Starmer's current methods are failing as badly as Biden's. His 'smash the gangs' strategy is going nowhere; his deals with the French have no effect. Small-boat arrivals have risen by 50 per cent so far this year; far-right protesters will be outside a migrant hotel in Epping this weekend. Nigel Farage, safely ahead in the polls, is doing his own ICE-man-cometh routine, saying that he'd send even British prisoners to El Salvador. The small-boats debacle is a daily outrage, an ever-renewing symbol of government failure. To see young men couriered over and checked into hotels and served hot meals will obviously anger those struggling to put food on the table. The situation could be designed to cause outrage, erode confidence in the government and drive voters towards the angry right. But even now, Starmer has plenty of time to act. What if he were to cut a deal to send every small-boat arrival not to an Essex hotel but straight to Rwanda or Kosovo, where they would have to stay even if their claim was upheld? If all 1,000 arrivals were deported on a Monday, then all 700 on a Tuesday, how many might still arrive on the Friday? We'd likely see a US-style collapse in numbers. It need not be a rerun of Tory policy as Starmer could also bring in a one-out, two-in policy. For every small-boat deportee he could fly in two vetted asylum seekers from the (many) UK-funded refugee camps, with a bias towards women and children. It would be a question of how, not whether, Britain discharges its moral duty to the world's dispossessed: using our rules, not those of the gangs. He could use his legal background to write a new framework, replacing the 1951 Refugee Convention which has descended into a people traffickers' charter. Yes, deportation is cruel. But far less so than today's system of criminal gangs, deaths in transit and, perhaps worse, the collapse of public support for the asylum system. Trump embodies a simple point: when borders get out of control, voters will press the Godzilla button and call in the big beasts. Labour has always seen immigration as a question of values: compassion, duty, international solidarity. It still can be, but only if control is restored. Without it, the issue becomes a test not of moral character but of basic competence. On that score, Labour is failing spectacularly. For years, the left has warned that populists thrive when institutions fail. The asylum system, in its current state, is just such a failure: chaotic, cruel and politically toxic. Fix it, and Starmer could offer Britain an alternative to Farageism. Fail, and the electorate may soon conclude that only Reform UK is serious about solving the problem. Starmer can still avoid this fate. He just needs to stop acting as the clerk of a broken system and, instead, become the author of a new one.
