Investigation launched into alleged Oasis ticket scam
Individuals allegedly paid £350 each to be smuggled in through a disabled entrance, using duplicated tickets and receiving VIP wristbands from security.
During the Wembley shows, six people were arrested for suspected unauthorised entry, and 24 were ejected from the venue.
Wembley Stadium confirmed they are investigating the allegations and will refer evidence to the police if substantiated.
The incidents occurred during Oasis's five sold-out Wembley performances, part of their 2025 reunion tour, which also saw high hotel prices in Edinburgh due to clashes with the Fringe festival.
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Times
6 minutes ago
- Times
Biddy Baxter obituary: the brains behind Blue Peter
For the best part of 26 years Biddy Baxter was the guiding force behind the children's television programme, Blue Peter, stamping her formidable authority on a series that drew audiences of 12 million with its pet animals, charity appeals and ability to come up with ingenious new uses for discarded toilet rolls. Baxter's Blue Peter was high-minded. She was a firm admirer of the BBC's first director-general, John Reith, and thought broadcasting should have a strong element of education and moral purpose. The show taught children about the Great Fire of London, Florence Nightingale and Scott of the Antarctic, while encouraging them to think of others less fortunate. The Blue Peter appeals became legendary. In one of the early ones, children were asked to send in silver paper to buy a guide dog for the blind. Seven and a half tons arrived. Another featured milk bottle tops. Baxter insisted that the children donated rubbish, not money. A bring and buy sale for refugee children in Cambodia raised £7.7 million and inspired the BBC to start the annual Children in Need appeal. Baxter was a disciplinarian and could be frightening. One of the presenters said she 'came to dread the click of high heels on the metal staircase' as Baxter descended from the gallery to the studio floor. Baxter's retort was that running a live programme twice a week, with items changing almost up to transmission, meant that she had to be tough. This extended to her superiors, against whom she fiercely defended her patch, using what she called a form of Chinese water torture to get her way. However, her reputation for sacking presenters for unacceptable behaviour owed more to tabloid embroidery than fact. Michael Sundin was reported to have lost his job because he was gay. Baxter said it was because he was unpopular. When the unmarried Janet Ellis was revealed to be having a baby she was condemned by the Mothers' Union and the press whipped up a storm. But Baxter supported Ellis and the decision to leave the programme was Ellis's own. The programme had some notable scoops. Baxter was particularly proud of an interview with Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank, in which for the first time in public he showed some of the original pages from his daughter's diary. Simon Groom was one of the first British reporters to get into Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot and Princess Anne took part in a safari in Kenya with the Blue Peter stalwart, Valerie Singleton. There was fun as well, some of it unscripted. The best remembered episode in the show's entire history, and frequently repeated, concerned a young elephant called Lulu. She had a minder called Smithy, 'a tiny, rotund gentleman. He came with this absolutely horrendous stick with a sharp metal spike like a spear. I said I'm, sorry Mr Smithy but you just can't have that'. Without Smithy to keep her in check, however, Lulu stepped on presenter John Noakes' foot, urinated, and emptied her bowels over the studio. Unusually, for what was usually a live show, the item was recorded. Baxter decided to keep the cameras rolling: 'The defecation', she said, 'was too compelling.' In time Blue Peter was criticised for being too middle-class and comfortable but Baxter would have none of it. She retorted that nobody was compelled to watch and middle-class children alone would never have accounted for the large viewing figures. Moreover, young children, at which the programme was aimed, needed something secure in their lives. Ironically for someone who made a successful career in children's broadcasting, and seemed instinctively to understand what children wanted, Baxter had no children of her own. She insisted it was not a handicap, recalling that some of her best teachers at school had been spinsters. An only child, she was born Joan Maureen Baxter in Leicester in 1933. Her father ran a sportswear company and played rugby for Leicester, while her mother was a talented amateur pianist whose life was blighted by premature deafness. Joan found war exciting, rather than frightening, and showed early sings of tenacity when she organised a raffle for a doll she owned. She attended Wyggeston Girls' Grammar School in the town, where she was hopeless in maths but shone in English, and she also joined the Little Theatre, a venue for amateur dramatic productions. Such was her height that in one production she was cast as Britannia, complete with trident, helmet, breastplate and union flag shirt. She was not however allowed to wear her spectacles, and narrowly avoided falling off stage. Baxter went on to the all-women St Mary's College at Durham University, where she studied social sciences. Graduating in 1955 she decided to reject both of the main careers then open to educated women, secretary or teacher. She spotted an advertisement for a BBC radio studio manager but was told by the university appointments officer that nobody from Durham had ever gone to the BBC. In what she called 'a fit of pique' she applied for the job and got it, joining the corporation as a 22-year-old in October 1955. Being a studio manager turned out to be less glamorous than it sounded, consisting of chores such as balancing microphones and creating sound effects. She was determined to be a producer and got her chance three years later, working on programmes such as Listen With Mother and Junior Schools English. In 1961 she moved into television for the first time, after successfully applying for an attachment to the children's department, where she worked with the naturalist Johnny Morris and the ventriloquist Ray Allan. When the attachment ended she was about to go back to radio when she was offered the job of producing Blue Peter. Contrary to a wide popular perception, Baxter did not create Blue Peter, which had been running for four years when she took it over. It originally went out for 15 minutes once a week, with an emphasis on model trains for boys and dolls for girls. By 1962 John Hunter Blair, who had run the programme from the start, was too ill to continue and Baxter, still in her twenties, got her chance over more senior candidates. She soon made Blue Peter her own. She decided it must have a logo and commissioned the galleon design from a young artist, Tony Hart. In 1963 the Blue Peter badge was born, awarded to children who sent in letters, poems and stories. Baxter was determined to involve the viewers and make it their programme. The first special Christmas stamps, issued in 1966, were based on designs by two six-year-old winners of a Blue Peter competition. Another way of encouraging children to do things for themselves was showing how discarded toilet rolls, squeezy bottles and yoghurt pots could, with a bit of imagination and liberal use of sticky-backed plastic, be turned into something useful, such as a pen holder or desk tidy. The phrase, 'here's one I made earlier', entered the language. Realising that many children, particularly those living in tower blocks, were unable to have pets Baxter decided that Blue Peter should feature animals. One of the early ones was a puppy called Petra. The dog died a few days after one brief appearance and was replaced by a lookalike. Nobody seemed to notice and the substitution was only revealed years later. As Blue Peter expanded to 25 minutes and was broadcast twice a week, the original two presenters became three, with John Noakes joining Singleton and Christopher Trace. The eternally cheery Noakes became a star in his own right, celebrated for potentially dangerous stunts such as climbing Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square or becoming the first civilian to do a five-mile high freefall parachute jump with the RAF. Probably Blue Peter's best presenter, Noakes left amid some acrimony in 1978 after a 12-year stint. He was allowed to keep one of the show's pets, a border collie called Shep with whom he had bonded, and intended to use him in television commercials. Baxter was dead-set against the idea. 'I think it would have been immoral' she said. 'How can you have a Blue Peter presenter on commercial television advertising dog food so children think 'I must buy this'?' The show received some 7,000 letters a week, a postbag which required the BBC take on extra help, and each got an individual reply. When Baxter was a child she wrote to Enid Blyton and was delighted to get an answer. She wrote again and was dismayed to receive the same answer. To ensure this would not happen on Blue Peter she had every letter logged. Baxter left Blue Peter in 1988. There were reports of a falling-out with the new head of children's television, though she said her departure was because her husband John Hosier had been offered a job in Hong Kong. She was presented with a gold version of the famous badge. She returned to the BBC as a freelance consultant, serving two Directors-General, Michael Checkland and John Birt. She left the corporation in 2000. Shortly before his death from cancer that year, her husband asked her to set up a charity to support aspiring musicians. In 2003 she set up the John Hosier Music Trust, a cause which she described as 'terribly rewarding. It will be much better when I die. The trust will benefit from my will.' In 2018 she said, somewhat baselessly: 'I have two great failings in life — laziness and procrastination. I'm longing to do absolutely nothing.' Joan Maureen 'Biddy' Baxter MBE, television producer, was born on May 25, 1933. She died on August 10, 2025, aged 92
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
P&O cruise evacuated after man claims he had an ‘explosive device'
A P&O cruise ship was forced to evacuate after reports of a man 'claiming to be in possession of an explosive device.' Police were called at around 11.46am on Saturday, 9 August, to the Mayflower Cruise Ferry terminal in Southampton, Hampshire Police told People. Police erected a cordon around the 291m-long Ventura cruise ship to allow for specialist officers to search a lorry at the location. A man was later arrested on suspicion of communicating false information and a public order offence, ITV News reported. After searches concluded and no devices were found, Hampshire Police said: 'We are satisfied that there is no risk to the public and the cordon will now be lifted." One passenger, Andy Palmer, said he was already onboard the ship when he saw one man being arrested. He told the Mirror that he had just boarded Ventura and was enjoying "some lunch and a drink" when he saw below "a guy being dragged out of his car by six armed policemen". Mr Palmer said passengers were told to go to their muster points, with staff also "turning people away" from the vessel, while "a couple of thousand" were waiting to embark. The passenger said that there were people 'panicking' in a Facebook group set up for the cruise, which is due to make stops in Portugal, the Canary Islands and mainland Spain on a 14-day round trip. Before setting sail, Mr Palmer said it was 'all a bit of a worry for people that have come a long way and paid a lot of money." However, the incident ultimately did not hinder Ventura from departing from Southampton on Saturday. The over 3,000-capacity cruise is due to arrive in Funchal, Madeira on Wednesday. A P&O Cruises spokesperson confirmed that passengers were evacuated from Ventura. 'Due to a police incident and in an abundance of caution, we made the decision to evacuate Ventura and the passenger terminal on Saturday, August 9th,' they told The Independent. 'The incident was quickly resolved and normal embarkation operations resumed. 'The safety of our guests, crew and port staff is our highest priority and we are grateful for the co-operation of the authorities, as well as everyone's patience whilst the precautionary measures were in place. 'Ventura is continuing its itinerary as planned,' they added. A spokesperson for Associated British Ports, who run the Southampton terminal, said in a statement to The Independent: 'We are aware of a security incident that occurred at the Port on Saturday, 9 August. 'Police attended the scene and have since stood down. 'Normal operations at the Port have resumed. We will support any ongoing enquiries by the relevant authorities."
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Palestine Action supporters ‘will feel full force of law', justice minister says
Supporters of the banned group Palestine Action will 'feel the full force of the law', a justice minister said, as police work to secure charges following hundreds of arrests at a demonstration in London over the weekend. The protest was held at Parliament Square on Saturday, organised by Defend Our Juries, with the Metropolitan Police warning it would detain anyone expressing support for Palestine Action. The force confirmed on Sunday that 522 people were held for displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, out of the total 532 arrests made during the policing operation. Over the coming weeks, officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command will work to put together case files and secure charges against those arrested, the force added. Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones told BBC Breakfast on Monday: 'I want to thank the police for their bravery and their courage in carrying out their diligent duties in the line of public protection, and I want to state that the right to peacefully protest in this country is a cornerstone of our democracy, and of course, we respect that. 'But with regards to Palestine Action, they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions have not been peaceful. 'They have violently carried out criminal damage to RAF aircraft. 'We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons, which we can't disclose because of national security. 'But they are a prescribed terrorist organisation and anyone showing support for that terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law.' The Met said they were aware of online photos and footage suggesting some people returned to Parliament Square after being released on bail, adding it would be 'entirely unrealistic' for officers to recognise these individuals. One of the bail conditions was not to attend future demonstrations related to Palestine Action, police said. 'Given the numbers of people arrested (on Saturday) it would have been entirely unrealistic for officers to recognise individuals who returned to the area,' a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said. 'Their focus was rightly on those continuing to commit offences who were still to be arrested. 'We are as confident as we can be that none of those who returned to Parliament Square re-joined the protesters who were holding placards.' Securing a charge for an offence under the Terrorism Act will, in some instances, require approval by both the Crown Prosecution Service and Attorney General Lord Hermer, police said. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to a breakdown published by the Met on Sunday. Detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area. Those whose details could be confirmed were released on bail to appear at a police station at a future date. There were a further 10 arrests, six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act conditions, one arrest for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence, the force said. Last week, the Met confirmed the first three charges in England and Wales for offences against Section 13 of the Terrorism Act relating to Palestine Action. The three people charged were arrested at a protest in Parliament Square on July 5. 'A further 26 case files relating to arrests on the same day are due to be submitted to the CPS imminently, with more to follow in relation to later protests,' a spokesperson for the Met added.
