Will Labour's uniform cap hit pupil performance?
It is the perennial question of British politics: who is next in the ministerial sack race? For a while, it seemed, the answer was Bridget Phillipson – the minister waging a one-woman-war on the Tories' school reforms. But today, the Times suggests that the Education Secretary has been told her job is safe, citing private text messages from Keir Starmer. That means she can press on with her Schools Bill which includes, among other measures, plans to limit the number of branded uniforms items schools can insist on.
This cap is being hailed as a way of keeping costs down – but Mr S wants to know if it will affect pupil performance. After all, as the Bill's own impact assessment proudly boasts:
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South Wales Argus
28 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Madeleine McCann: Fresh searches to start in Portugal today
Madeleine disappeared 18 years ago at the age of three while on a family holiday in the resort of Praia da Luz. She had been sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings while her parents went out to dinner. According to The Sun, the new searches will involve radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground and will focus on trenches near where the McCann family was staying at the resort. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'We are aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. 'The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary.' Around 30 German police officers, including forensic experts, will be starting the search on Tuesday, with Portuguese police also on the ground, according to reports. On Monday, Portuguese police reportedly closed off dirt roads in the area where searches will be taking place while tents have been set up in the nearby Atalaia area, near a cottage once lived in by Christian Brueckner, who German prosecutors say is the prime suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz in 2005, has denied any involvement. German authorities said they are receiving support from Portuguese law enforcement while the Portuguese police said that searches will be carried out between June 2 and 6 in the municipality of Lagos, in accordance with a European investigation order. Any evidence seized by the Policia Judiciaria will be passed to the German federal police. They last carried out searches in the country in 2023 near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir. It had previously been searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there. British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014. Last month, Madeleine's family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as 'beautiful and unique' before her 22nd birthday, and expressing their determination to keep searching. A statement from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and the family said: 'The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to 'leave no stone unturned' is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this.' In April, ministers approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance.
Daily Mirror
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Brit model in hellhole jail after 'being caught smuggling £200,000 of drugs'
An Onlyfans model from Nottinghamshire is now stuck in a Spanish jail. Clara Wilson was charged with a drug running offence after she arrived in Barcelona in January An Onlyfans model is stuck in a hellish jail after she was caught allegedly smuggling drugs worth up to £200,000 into Spain. Clara Wilson, 36, was charged with a drug running offence after more than 34 kilos of cannabis were found in her suitcase at Barcelona's El Prat airport. From Huthwaite, Notts, Clara was held as she departed a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on January 20. She is believed to have travelled from Barcelona from Bangkok with stopovers in India and Qatar. Clara is now remanded to a prison close to Barcelona after her arrest. No trial date has been set yet. An indictment shows public prosecutors have already demanded a four-year prison sentence and huge fine payment totalling £758,000 if she is convicted. The three-page indictment states: 'The accused woman was intercepted by the Civil Guard around 9pm on January 20 at Barcelona's El Prat airport after getting off a Qatar Airways flight. 'In two suitcases she had previously checked in, police found 60 vacuum-packed packages containing a green-coloured substance that tested positive for marihuana. The substance weighed 34,074 grams. A subsequent analysis by the National Toxicology Institute of a 55 gram sample of the substance confirmed it as cannabis.' Public prosecutors added in the document: 'The drugs were transported by the accused with the intention of selling it to third parties on the black market where its value would have been [£180,000].' Clara, one of the latest in a string of young women to end up in prisons around the world after being accused of drug trafficking, has also been warned an extra six months would be slapped on top of the four years in jail she could get if she fails to pay her fines. The time Wilson has already spent in custody would be taken off the prison sentence she receives if convicted. It is not yet clear how she intends pleading and whether she will try to strike a pre-trial plea bargain deal in the hope of getting more lenient treatment. Under Spanish law the British model can be held for up to two years in prison before she has to be bailed, but well-placed sources said they expected her to be tried later this year. It comes as Brits Bella May Culley, 18, Charlotte May Lee, 21, and Isabella Daggett, 21, are all facing lengthy prison sentences in harsh overseas prisons if they are convicted of drug smuggling. Bella, 18, was the first hit the headlines following her arrest in Georgia. She flew into the former Soviet state from Thailand on May 11. She faces a lengthy spell behind bars if found guilty — which could be life if she receives a severe sentence. Little is still known about how she came to be caught at Tblisi Airport after her family reported her missing in Thailand. Charlotte arrived in Sri Lanka again from Thailand on may 12, allegedly with a stash of cannabis in her luggage valued at £1.2million which she denied knowing anything about. She has been in custody since she was arrested at Bandaranaike Airport. Isabella Daggett, 21, is another alleged drug mule who is being held in a hellhole Dubai prison where she has not been able to shower or change clothes. Her case has been highlighted by her family after she was arrested in March, just five weeks after moving to the United Arab Emirates for work. She was working for a businessman doing internet recruiting for construction sites in the UK and he offered to send her to the Middle East for a similar role. But police in Dubai allegedly arrested her along with another man not long after she arrived in Dubai. Her family insist she was taken by police simply for being 'in the wrong place at the wrong time' and has never used drugs. And she has not taken a shower or even changed her clothes in months after being banged up in a prison in March, her family claims. Her grandmother Heather Smith told the DailyMail:"She was arrested with a lad, who was not her boyfriend, with whom she was staying because things had fallen through with another house. She didn't really like him that much. He may be guilty of something, but she isn't. We told Bella before she went to Dubai, 'you know the rules in Dubai, play by the rules, don't flaunt this, don't do that' All three women deny the charges against them.
Western Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Kneecap announce ‘biggest headline show outside of Ireland' at London arena
The concert comes after the group remained on the line-up for Glastonbury Festival, when it was confirmed on Tuesday, despite calls from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and a number of other politicians to remove them. Kneecap were taken out of the line-up at Scotland's TRNSMT festival last week after safety concerns were raised by police, while last month the group played to thousands at London's Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park. The Belfast trio have scheduled a replacement gig for the cancelled festival show at Glasgow's O2 Academy in July. The group's London concert will take place on September 18, with tickets going on pre-sale on the group's WhatsApp channel at 10am, before a general sale on Friday. In a post announcing the gig, Kneecap said: 'The belly of the beast – let's go.' It comes after Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam O'Hanna by the Metropolitan Police with a terror offence last month over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig in November last year. Counter-terrorism police previously investigated Kneecap after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah'. The group apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been 'exploited and weaponised', and also said they have 'never supported' Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK. In response to the charge, the group said in a social media statement: '14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us. 'We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction. 'We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an 'anti-terror law' against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn't have a jury. What's the objective? 'To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out. 'Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification. 'The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.' Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh outside the 100 Club in Oxford Street (PA) Ahead of their Wide Awake set, Kneecap released their latest song The Recap, which opens with a sample of a news report about the counter-terrorism police investigation into the group, and mocks Ms Badenoch's attempts to block arts funding they were awarded, and the Conservative Party's election loss. In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music. Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language, and their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and 3Cag.
