Crews tackle fire in derelict Netherton pub, The Crown Inn
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BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Alex Eastwood's family hopes kickboxers death won't be 'in vain'
The family of a 15-year-old champion kickboxer who died after a bout have said while his death has left them "broken", they hoped it wouldn't be "in vain". Alex Eastwood, from Fazakerley, Liverpool, collapsed after the third and final two-minute round of a "light contact" kickboxing match against a 17-year-old opponent in Wigan in June 2024. He was taken to hospital but had suffered a serious head injury and died three days father Stephen Eastwood and step-mother Nikita vowed to make the sport safer after it came to light he had been competing in an unsanctioned fight. His father Stephen Eastwood said: "As a family, we're still broken. I don't think that will ever go away. "We're just trying to do thing right and make change for the people involved in that sport." Mr Eastwood said they were hopeful that a recent meeting with Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy, who is also the MP for Wigan, would result in changes being made. He said: "She was quite positive that something will happen to prevent this from happening again. "So as a parent, his death isn't in vain - there's a lasting legacy for Alex and to protect other people in the sport." 'Massive regret' A recent inquest into Alex's death found there was no minimum standard of medical aid or proper risk assessments done at events like the one that resulted in his death. Coroner Michael Pemberton said neither Alex, nor his parents, appreciated the dangers of the "chaotic and somewhat disjointed" approach to children involved in combat Eastwood said Alex was "massively failed" by the lack of safety protocols in the organisations he competed and trained with. "He was just doing his dream, doing what he wanted and pursuing his career," she said. "There was nothing to keep that dream fulfilled and sustained within the safety that should have been there for him."She said assuming that there were safety protocols in place was "a massive regret" she had. Mrs Eastwood said: "I encourage other parents to ask the questions - what is my child going into here?" Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
We must speak up for old British values before they are destroyed by our elites
Rose Docherty is a woman of few words. You'd never have heard of the 75-year-old if it wasn't for what she didn't say. She's the activist who staged a silent protest outside the abortion clinic in Glasgow last February, holding a sign reading: 'Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want'. Hers was a simple offer of conversation, made without a sound. You know what happened next. The septuagenarian was arrested under Scotland's 'buffer zone' laws, which prevent anybody engaging in harassment or intimidation in the vicinity of abortion facilities, or influencing a woman's decision to use them. Are there parallel laws protecting women from being pressured into terminating their unborn babies? Surely that would be a more sinister scenario, one that would fall more obviously under the purview of the police. There are not. Scotland's police are on the lookout for anybody offering support to women who may be doubting their decision, not those encouraging them to go ahead with it. The message is clear. There is no mistaking where the state, and the culture it grimly cultivates, now stands on the question of ending unborn life. We see it reflected in the legalisation of euthanasia. We see it in the depravity of full-term abortions. Welcome to modern Britain, where convenient death is prized higher than life. This past week, however, Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service changed tack and decided that the case would be dropped. This was announced quietly and without fanfare, presumably in the hope that the matter would slip conveniently under the rug. So much so understandable. After all, the silent woman of Glasgow had drawn Britain's creeping authoritarianism to the attention of the world when her case caught the eye of Donald Trump. That can't have been comfortable for Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. In May this year, the president sent a White House delegation to meet Ms Docherty and other pro-life campaigners. Afterwards, she told the press that it was 'heartening that others around the world, including the US government, have realised this injustice and voiced their support'. A few months earlier, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, vice-president JD Vance lambasted Scotland's buffer zone laws, under which Ms Docherty had been arrested. Without these American interventions, she may still be facing conviction today. This episode draws together a number of intertwining concerns. Firstly, there is the question of freedom of speech in a Britain where citizens may be visited by the police on suspicion of a 'non-crime hate incident', and 30 arrests are made every day for offensive posts on social media. After she was detained, Ms Docherty was apparently told that she could avoid prosecution on condition that she acknowledged her actions were unlawful, accepted a warning and did not repeat them. She declined, insisting that she had not broken the law and that she was protected by her fundamental rights to free speech. 'I simply stood there, available to speak with love and compassion,' she pointed out. So much, surely, should be obvious. The fact that it took Donald 'grab 'em by the p---y' Trump, who even to his supporters is hardly the paragon of purity, to bring Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to its senses is an embarrassing sign of how far we have drifted from our morals. The second, deeper concern is the disdain for religious faith and traditional values which is so relentlessly advanced by our rulers. Ms Docherty embodied an older Britain that the elites have sought to tamp down for decades. It is the Britain of faith, flag and family; of a belief in borders, a love of tradition, an affection for our history and pride in our armed forces; of hard work, fair play and modest patriotism. Ever since the end of the Cold War, those at the top of society have smeared such a sensibility as the root of fascism. Whether voting for Brexit, flying the George cross or demonstrating against migrant hotels, ordinary people who refuse to respect the new taboos are immediately defamed as quasi-Nazis. What values have been imposed in their place? Moral relativism; multiculturalism; diversity; secularism; appeasement; sybaritic complacency; Israelophobia. To this we can now add an enthusiasm for death for the elderly and the unborn. This suffocating ideology, which Sir Roger Scruton described as the cult of 'down with us', seems to be imposed upon every corner of society. In some quarters it is no longer permissible, for instance, to say 'merry Christmas' or 'happy Easter', but only 'happy holidays'. No such restrictions are applied to 'Ramadan Kareem' or 'Eid Mubarak'. In the United States, so sick had people become of this dogma that they considered the outlandish proposition of Donald Trump – the obnoxiousness, the braggadocio, the allegations of racism and financial irregularities, the misogynistic audio tapes, the claims of Russian collusion, the lack of political experience and total disregard of the norms of professional society – and decided he was worth a go. Anything, they felt, would be better than this. Will it really take Trump to save Britain from itself? Maybe. But there is a better source of hope: Rose Doherty, who takes her place alongside Lucy Connolly as a martyr to old Britain, and the thousands like her who comprise the silent majority. We must be silent no longer.
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Hopes fence will stop 'illegal encampments' in Sittingbourne park
Fencing will be installed around a recreation ground in Kent to help prevent "illegal encampments", a council has Borough Council is putting "knee rail" fencing around Milton Regis recreation ground, near Sittingbourne, because vehicles have driven on to the area three times this council says removing the encampments, cleaning up after them and carrying out any repairs costs local taxpayers thousands of pounds each 1,476ft (450m) of wooden fencing will be roughly 1.6ft (50cm) high and will be paid for through funding set aside for open space improvements, the council said. Part of the recreation ground already has fencing around its edge. The new fencing will cover the Wooster, chair of the council's environmental services and climate change committee, said: "So far this year, Milton Rec has seen three illegal encampments and residents have expressed their concerns on how it impacts their use of the recreation ground."Each incident also costs local council taxpayers thousands of pounds to remove, along with the costs of cleaning the site, waste removal and carrying out repairs."We need to follow a number of legal steps – welfare checks, legal notices and, when necessary, court applications - which takes up valuable resources."We want to prevent further incidents and have been trying to find ways to retain the original use of the park."Ms Wooster said the fencing would stop vehicles getting into the park without losing the "formal but open feel" of the the area.
