Another month may kill assisted dying bill
So far, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has not reached double figures in parliamentary hours. It was put forward not by the prime minister — although, in giving it time, he said he was 'pleased to keep a promise to Esther Rantzen'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
a few seconds ago
- The Independent
If stopping the boats were simple, it would have happened by now
Given the unusually fine weather – coupled with the world's many conflicts, and regions of endemic poverty – it should not come as a great surprise that yet another small boats record has been broken. New Home Office figures show that, since Labour came to power after the general election, more than 50,000 migrants have arrived in the UK via the English Channel. A few weeks ago, the numbers of refugees and economic migrants arriving via the English Channel reached a record rate for the time of year – 25,000 by the end of July, and, thus, the fastest flow since 2018, when such movements were first monitored. The new headline figure is different, and even more 'political'. At this rate, 2025 will set a new record for a calendar year. The political reaction has been predictable. Labour says it is 'unacceptable', while the Tories accuse the government of having 'surrendered our borders'. A little over a year ago, it was the Conservative government admitting the flows were unacceptable, and the Labour opposition laying the charge that the Sunak government had surrendered our borders. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage and Reform UK continue to pretend that solving this complex and intractable problem is simply a matter of willpower and a willingness to break international law and start a naval conflict with France. To borrow a recently fashionable phrase, the Reformists are the least serious people in British politics since… well, they persuaded the nation that Brexit was a good idea. Of course, in some ways, taking the Guinness Book of Records approach to the immigration statistics is playing the old immigration numbers game in an even more unhelpful way. The numbers may be large by recent trends, but they are rarely placed in context. Even a figure of 50,000-plus would, for example, only represent about 4 to 5 per cent of the total of gross, entirely lawful immigration into the UK on work and study visas. Not all will be able to make a successful claim for asylum. If any commit a criminal offence, they are liable to be deported – and much more rapidly under the latest proposals from the home secretary, Yvette Cooper. Contrary to some lurid and confused headlines, asylum seekers are neither responsible for most sexual offences in Britain, nor the same as those predators of Pakistani heritage who inflicted their appalling crimes on young girls for most of the last two decades. They were not responsible for the Southport murders; and they are mostly quite anxious to go to work, even if it is illegal for them to do so. The economic case for migration also stands. Despite an uptick in unemployment, there is a labour shortage in many parts of the UK, and it is almost as bad as it has ever been since Brexit in agriculture and the hospitality, health, social care and leisure sectors. A policy of 'net zero' migration, as advocated by Reform UK, would cause chaos in care homes, on farms and elsewhere, and inflict grievous damage to the economy. Those who want to reduce regular, lawful, documented and visa-based migration, such as Mr Farage, need to come up with some better ideas about how the demographically challenged and ageing British nation can undergo the renaissance they so cynically promise. Ministers have a duty to take on the myths and legends of irregular migration. But they are also under an obligation to 'stop the boats', something all parties actually agree about: this trade in human misery is dangerous and, indeed, unacceptable. Politically, Labour may have given the impression before the last general election, analogous to the way it approached economic policy, that fixing the problem of irregular migration would be easier than it has turned out to be. That is not to decry its efforts. Sir Keir Starmer was perfectly sincere in his belief, based on past experience as director of public prosecutions, that the criminal gangs engaged in human trafficking are susceptible to the same methods as gangs involved in terrorism and drug peddling. He was also right to rebuild cooperation with European neighbours, as with the 'one in, one out' deal with France and changes in German law to make obtaining and running the boats more difficult. Yvette Cooper seems fully aware of the need to stop using so-called 'migrant hotels', and to clear the huge backlog of cases left behind by the Sunak administration – people supposedly destined for Rwanda who were never going to get there because the Rwanda scheme was so small. Without condoning the ugly violence and vicious Islamophobia that disfigures too many local demonstrations, it is plain that the public is impatient with the lack of tangible progress. It is unfortunately not yet clear that Labour is making the requisite moves to 'smash the gangs' and 'turn the page and restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly'. The best thing that Sir Keir and Ms Cooper can do in these circumstances is to level with the electorate and explain why this intractable challenge will have to take time, and that they will do whatever is necessary to get the numbers radically lower. If stopping the boats were as easy as some claim, it would have happened by now. Nonetheless, the government needs to provide more evidence of progress, if only to counter the propaganda and misinformation so widespread on social media. In short, the public would like to hear about record-low numbers of small boat arrivals.
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
Knife crime and other offences fall in London, says Sir Sadiq Khan
Sir Sadiq Khan has admitted there is a "long way to go" when it comes to fighting crime in London, despite figures suggesting a potential drop in some serious mayor says new City Hall data shows knife crime dropped by 19% between April and June this year compared with the same period last year, while the number of residential burglaries, personal thefts and personal robberies also some offences, such as possession of weapons, rape and drug trafficking, all increased in that recorded crime has increased by 31.5 % in the Metropolitan Police area of London in the last 10 years, with violent crime increasing by 40%, according to official crime data. The data from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime - which is not yet publicly available - appears to show annual falls in:Theft from a person from 25,272 to 21,937 (13%)Robbery of personal property from 7,106 to 6,209 (13%)Residential burglary from 7,974 to 7,144 (10%)The mayor of London said: "The latest figures show robbery, theft, residential burglary and knife crime are down in London, but there's still a long way to go before I'm satisfied."Backed with record funding from City Hall, the Met is putting high-visibility policing at the heart of fighting crime." 'Crime is up' According to the Office for National Statistics, many crimes recorded against people increased between the years ending June 2015 and March 2025, including violence against the person (40%), possession of offensive weapons (23%), sexual offences (75%) and theft from the person (207%).Reform UK Assembly Member Alex Wilson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service : "If Sadiq Khan thinks London is getting more safe, he needs to get out more. "The idea he points to incremental changes in just a few categories is ridiculous.""The long-term trends under Sadiq Khan are clear: knife crime is up, theft is up, shoplifting is up, fare evasion is up, phone thefts at the highest ever seen, and just 2% of burglaries in outer London result in a charge or analysis of the figures comes soon after the Metropolitan Police laid out proposals to close almost half of police station front counters in London - a move critics said would have a "devastating" impact on Met's commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has said despite funding increases, the forces faces a £260m shortfall and will have to reduce its he said the force was becoming "more capable" and was focused on "driving down crime on issues that matter most to Londoners".The Mayor of London has pledged a policing blitz on London's 20 most blighted town centres for shoplifting, robbery, knife crime and antisocial behaviour this summer.
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Labour's feelgood economy: it's not for everyone – especially the poorest
When Sir Keir Starmer told reporters last week that his government's upcoming budget would 'build on what we've done' by focusing on 'living standards' and 'making sure that people feel better off', it was clear that he was trying to shift the political narrative from soulless statistics to lived experience. But if the prime minister is serious, he should look at the latest forecast from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). The thinktank warns that while some households may indeed 'feel better off', many – particularly the poorest – will not. NIESR says real disposable income for the bottom tenth of households will fall this year. Living standards for the poorest fifth of Britain are well below their pre-pandemic level. This analysis rather deflates Treasury ministers' claims that real wages under Labour had risen more in 10 months than they had in the 10 previous years of Conservative government. This political attack line might be arithmetically sound, but to make it stick requires a generous statistical interpretation. What ministers have done is go back to the post-2010 austerity years, when real wages slumped after the financial crisis. Critics on social media have warned against cherrypicking time periods. They say real pay climbed gradually between 2015 and 2019 in the UK, but dropped again during the twin inflation shocks of Covid and the Ukraine war, before rebounding sharply after 2023. Ministers are scoring political points – but these are cheap given that there have been, so far, no significant changes in industrial policy, collective bargaining or public spending. In fact, real wage gains under Labour have been modest. Average weekly earnings in real terms were £523 last July and £527 this June – an increase of less than 1%. Hardly a new dawn for workers. More troubling is the distribution – which is masked by the use of average figures. Strong wage growth, says NIESR, has been concentrated in the tech and public sectors, where low‑paid workers are underrepresented. Above-inflation increases in minimum wage haven't compensated for reductions in working hours. No surprise then that the thinktank's data shows that middle- and upper-income households are seeing improvements in living standards, while the poorest are falling further behind. For these households, costs such as food and rent are rising faster than incomes. They won't feel better off – because they aren't. The upshot is that real personal disposable income rose by 4.1% in 2024-25, but the gains went almost entirely to better-off households. Today's unemployment figures show four-fifths of recent job losses concentrated in retail and hospitality – sectors that employ large numbers of low-paid workers. Clearly, for low-income families, the cost of living crisis has not abated. NIESR warns ministers to act – or risk letting the poorest slide into destitution. The country's problem lies in its imbalances. For many Britons, the modest post-pandemic recovery in real incomes has come about largely because inflation fell. But productivity growth remains anaemic, and the underlying economic model – which is financialised, service-heavy and regionally lopsided – is widening inequalities. If the next budget fails to offer anything more than supply-side tweaks or fiscal restraint in the name of credibility, Sir Keir will find that 'building on what we've done' is not enough. For the poorest Britons, what's been done so far doesn't look much like progress at all.
