BORIS JOHNSON: In the week Labour announced plans to release rapists and killers early, there's one prisoner who poses no threat... FREE LUCY CONOLLY NOW
If this goes on much longer, I really think the great moderate mass of the British public will finally explode with irritation.
This is not meant to be communist Albania. This is not Ceausescu's Romania.
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The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Kemi Badenoch to call for end to energy windfall tax and oil licence ban
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is poised to advocate for the end of the windfall tax on oil and gas firms and the ban on new licences in a major speech Initially established by the prior Conservative administration but extended upon Labour's ascent to power, the energy profits levy was intended to finance initiatives aimed at reducing household expenses. However, the policy has faced criticism from within the industry. Addressing the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh on Friday, Ms Badenoch is anticipated to champion the oil and gas sector, accusing the UK Government of "killing" it. She is expected to assert that "renewing our party and our country means standing up for our oil and gas industry". She will add: 'When the oil and gas windfall tax, the energy profits levy, was brought in, the oil price was near a historic high, at the exact time as energy bills for the British people were sky-rocketing. 'But there is no longer a windfall to tax. It has long gone. And the longer this regressive tax on one of our most successful industries remains, the more damaging it becomes. 'Labour have extended and increased this tax. They are killing this industry.' If the measure remains in place to 2030 as intended, Mrs Badenoch will say 'there will be no industry left to tax'. She will add: 'So, today, I say enough. Labour must remove the energy profits levy. Labour must speed up the process of replacing it with a system that rewards success and incentivises investment. 'Because we shouldn't have this energy profits levy at all. 'We must scrap the ban on new licences. 'We must overturn the ban on supporting oil and gas technology exports. 'And we must champion our own industry. 'We must let this great British, great Scottish industry thrive, grow and create jobs – ensuring our energy security for generations to come, driving growth and making this country richer in the process.' Mrs Badenoch will address her first Scottish party conference as leader on Friday while her counterpart north of the border Russell Findlay will deliver his inaugural address on Saturday. Responding to Mrs Badenoch, Simon Francis of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said her comments were 'out of touch', adding: 'Even with the windfall tax in place, the energy industry made over £115 billion in profits in 2024 alone. 'Meanwhile, average household energy bills remain hundreds and hundreds of pounds higher than they were before the energy crisis started. 'While the Government is right to be consulting on reform of the windfall tax, maintaining a profits levy could help fund home upgrades and a social tariff which would bring down energy bills for the most vulnerable in society.' SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: 'The Tories wrecked our economy, presided over soaring household bills and ripped Scotland from the EU against our will. 'And now they're lurching further to the right as they haemorrhage votes to Nigel Farage. 'This weekend will be an important reminder of how Westminster has failed Scotland. Only the SNP is offering hope and a brighter future as an independent nation.' Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: 'While the Tories and SNP let energy workers down by failing to plan for the future, Scottish Labour is committed to taking action towards reaching net zero, creating jobs and cutting energy bills. 'The Tories are on the side of oil and gas giants rather than working Scots, but Scottish Labour will work with the UK Government and use devolved powers to deliver a just transition for the industry. 'With Kemi Badenoch desperately attempting to rally the few remaining Scottish Tories, it seems like it won't be long until they can fit all of their MSPs in a single taxi.'
Daily Mail
42 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
RIOTS AND REBELS by Nick Rennison: Why the English LOVE revolting
RIOTS AND REBELS by Nick Rennison (Oldcastle Books £16.99, 210pp) Throughout history, angry men and women have taken to the streets to express their displeasure about everything from theatre tickets (too expensive) to prayer books (no longer in Latin) by way of brothels (shouldn't be allowed). That's not forgetting the wonderfully named Plug Plot riots (1842), the Brown Dog riots (1907) and the Rebecca riots (1839-43). In this highly accessible book, Nick Rennison walks us through the history of popular protest from the 14th century to the present day. In the process some common themes emerge. Not only do protesters usually not get the thing they are campaigning for – a longer lunchbreak, the abolition of the monarchy, cheaper potatoes – they also have a high chance of ending up mangled or dead. One of the earliest examples of how things can escalate was Kett's Rebellion of 1549, which was fought by East Anglian peasants against the local gentry who were enclosing their common land. During a tense stand-off, a boy dropped his trousers and mooned at the soldiers, whereupon he was despatched with a single bullet. In one way the lad was lucky. The punishments meted out to rebels and rioters were generally designed to inflict the maximum pain. Nor was rank any protection. In 1660, Major-General Thomas Harrison was hung, drawn and quartered for his part in the execution of Charles I 11 years earlier. The grisly procedure involved Harrison being hanged almost to the point of death, before being castrated and then having his bowels cut out of his body and paraded in front of him. Only at the beheading stage did the torture end. After death, Harrison's body was cut into quarters and displayed to the crowd as a warning about what awaited anyone tempted to commit high treason. Incredibly, the old soldier seems to have borne his fate with equanimity. According to the diarist Samuel Pepys who witnessed the horrible spectacle, the condemned prisoner looked 'as cheerful as any man could in that condition'. A HUNDRED and fifty years later, the appetite for revenge showed little sign of abating. During the anti-Catholic Gordon riots of 1780, thousands of citizens were brought to boiling point by a wild rumour that hordes of Jesuit priests were hiding in tunnels beneath London, awaiting instructions from the Pope to blow up the banks of the Thames and flood the city. Taking to the streets, the protesters set buildings on fire, pelted bishops with filth and even roughed up the Lord Chief Justice. In the confusion, hundreds of citizens were trampled underfoot, while others were later condemned to death for public disorder. (As an extra bit of unfairness, the hotheaded leader of the riots, Lord George Gordon, was acquitted of any wrongdoing.) Just because the forces of law and order usually won in the long run, it didn't mean that there weren't some close calls along the way. Rennison reveals that even rocksteady Victorian England teetered on the edge of full-scale insurrection. In 1842, men disguised as women and calling themselves 'Rebecca's Daughters' roamed South Wales smashing tollgates in protest at the way that poor farming communities were forced to pay to use local roads. That same year, the Chartists gathered in their thousands to demand a radical overhaul of the status quo, including giving the vote to every man in England. A political revolution, in other words. In the circumstances you can see why Queen Adelaide, Victoria's aunt, was convinced that England would go the way of France, and that 'her fate is to be that of Marie Antoinette'. She wasn't the only person to misread the situation. In 1855, Karl Marx witnessed a riot in Hyde Park held in protest at the proposed ban on Sunday trading. He declared excitedly he was not 'exaggerating in saying that the English Revolution began yesterday in Hyde Park'. He was, of course, exaggerating. Throughout this engaging book, Rennison keeps a sharp eye out for themes and patterns that repeat across the centuries. For instance, the riots against Margaret Thatcher's poll tax in 1990 centred on the unfairness of everyone paying the same, regardless of income. Six hundred years earlier a similar grievance ignited the Peasants' Revolt when King Richard II imposed a levy of one shilling on poor and rich alike. Perhaps the most obvious hangover from the past, though, concerns the Just Stop Oil protesters who glued themselves to Constable's Hay Wain in 2022. The choice of painting was no accident. John Constable's 200-yearold masterpiece shows a rural landscape in his native Suffolk in which a hay wagon is being pulled through a tranquil millpond. By targeting this image, the protesters made the point that climate change and fossil fuels threaten to destroy this natural idyll. Indeed, before gluing themselves to the frame, the Just Stop Oilers attached their own version of The Hay Wain, depicting an 'apocalyptic vision of the future' complete with a broken washing machine in the hay cart. This incident achieved maximum publicity around the world, which was exactly what had been intended. Still, it was hardly original. Riots and Rebels is available now from the Mail Bookshop OVER a hundred years earlier, the suffragette Mary Richardson had chosen another National Gallery treasure to deface. In 1914, she slashed the priceless Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver. In Velazquez's 17th-century masterpiece, a luscious nude female figure reclines languorously on a chaise longue while admiring her reflection in a mirror held by Cupid. Richardson and her suffragette colleagues saw The Rokeby Venus as a symbol of the objectification and subjugation of women. Specifically, Richardson wanted to draw attention to the way that suffragette hunger-strikers, of whom she had been one, were systematically brutalised by prison doctors. During force-feeding sessions, a tube was shoved down the women's gullet and into their stomach, resulting in physical and mental trauma that could last a lifetime. How different from Velazquez's Venus, whose naked body was the object of veneration – and titillation – for the men who poured into the National Gallery to gawp at her sensuous curves and gleaming skin. Apart from anything else, the goddess of love seemed entirely unconcerned with bothering her pretty head as to whether or not she had the vote.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Dem forcibly removed & handcuffed at LA protests news conference as he tried to confront Trump official over ICE arrests
A CALIFORNIA Democrat has been thrown out of an LA protests news conference and handcuffed in a dramatic scene as he tried to confront Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Wild video shows the moment cops shoved Sen. Alex Padilla out of the room and forced him to the ground. 7 7 7 7 7 7 "I have questions for the secretary," Padilla could be heard saying in the stunning footage. "Because a fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that are rotating on your ..." he said before being cut off and pushed out of the room. Padilla was shoved into a nearby hallway and told to put his hands behind his back before being handcuffed. His office said he's no longer detained. Noem was asked about the outburst during the live news conference and she said Padilla did not ask for a meeting with her. 'I think everybody in America would agree that that was inappropriate,' she said. Padilla's office claimed he was just trying to ask the secretary a question. California Governor Gavin Newsom was quick to capitalize on the drama, writing, "If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you." President Donald Trump and Newsom have engaged in a war of words since Trump intervened and sent federal troops to the protests in downtown Los Angeles against Newsom's wishes. Newsom attacked Trump's mental fitness - echoing the harsh criticism former President Joe Biden faced about his ability to lead as he finished his time in the White House. Newsom's attacks come after Trump claimed he spoke to Newsom on the phone earlier this week - but the governor insisted they last spoke to each other on Friday. "It honestly starts to disturb me on another level - maybe he actually believes he said those things and he's not all there," Newsom said on Thursday's episode of the New York Times' political podcast The Daily. He told Fox station KTTV, "He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable of even a train of thought. He's lost it." Trump has repeatedly blasted his West Coast rival as "incompetent" and blamed him for "third world lawlessness" in the protests. In response to Newsom daring border czar Tom Homan to arrest him, Trump said on Monday he 'would do it if I were Tom.' The president has now deployed 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marine Corps to Los Angeles to try and restore peace. While the troops aren't allowed to arrest citizens, they can temporarily detain them until cops arrive to arrest them. ICE has been accused of having a heavy-handed approach to Trump's immigration policy including wrongly detaining US citizens. The Trump administration has made it clear that despite the nationwide protests, they will continue to rid the US of illegal immigrant offenders. Following California's lead, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced he was deploying over 7,000 troops across the state after protests turned tense in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio over the weekend. Trump has now vowed to crack down on the growing demonstrations with more force than ever. The president is believed to be readying ICE tactical units to storm New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, and northern Virginia, MSNBC reports. Most demonstrations against Trump's deportation program have remained largely peaceful. But speaking at the 250th anniversary of the US Army on Tuesday, Trump said, "The mob in Los Angeles will not deter us." 7 9th Jun 2025, 07:14 By Georgie English What is the US National Guard? THE US National Guard is a reserve military force made up of part-time service members who typically hold civilian jobs but can be activated for federal or state duty. Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia has its own National Guard, which can be mobilized by the state governor or the President. Can the President call the National Guard for local matters? Yes, but with limits. Normally, governors deploy their state's National Guard to handle local emergencies like natural disasters, protests, or civil unrest. The President can federalize the National Guard under specific laws, such as the Insurrection Act. This allows them to respond to domestic unrest if it's deemed beyond the capacity of local or state authorities. When federalized, National Guard troops operate under presidential command rather than the governor's. While it's unusual, a president can deploy the National Guard into a state without a governor's consent if certain legal thresholds are met. These typically involve threats to federal property, national security, or widespread breakdowns in public order. However, such actions are often politically and legally controversial. By Trump vs California Despite the carnage flooding the streets, California's government has said they have the situation under control. Governor Gavin Newsom even accused Trump of "inflaming tensions" by deploying the National Guard. The pair have a long history of heated disputes over policy. Newsom formerly requested Trump remove the guard members, which he called a "serious breach of state sovereignty". Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass added the arrival of troops is a "dangerous escalation". She said: "We do not want to play in to the [Trump] administration's hands." "What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos provoked by the administration." Trump fired back at California's government as he called them "incompetent". Newsom and Trump reportedly spoke for 40 minutes by phone on Saturday, though details of their conversation have not been disclosed. The deployment of troops marks the first time in six decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
