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Britain cannot afford to keep Rachel Reeves any longer

Britain cannot afford to keep Rachel Reeves any longer

Telegraph2 days ago
How bad does Britain's economic performance have to be before Sir Keir Starmer fires Rachel Reeves from the Treasury? Ever since she sat crying on the Treasury Bench three weeks ago the data have become worse. She ought to be crying a lot more.
The Government's Labour Force Survey shows that the number of payrolled employees has fallen by 178,000 in the last year, and by 41,000 in the last month alone, since the Chancellor's higher National Insurance contributions for employers took effect.
How many more unemployed must be created before the Government admits that higher taxes drive formerly productive people out of the workforce, creating more claimants on an already tottering welfare state? Vacancies in the last quarter also fell, by 56,000, with openings decreasing in 14 of the 18 industrial sectors denominated by the Government.
The UK economy contracted in May for the second consecutive month, by 0.1 per cent after falling 0.3 per cent in April. The fall was mainly caused by lower industrial output and less work in the construction sector. Inflation rose to 3.6 per cent. The Chancellor seems to have no conception of the link between the supply of money and the rise in inflation; the Government's failure to keep its promise to cut the welfare bill – which the Prime Minister himself described as a 'moral' question – will further increase borrowing, the cost of debt and prices. Labour governments always do this, and appear unable to snap out of it.
And if the effect of taxing people more heavily to create jobs is proving disastrous, the effect of taxing the very rich, who can with ease leave and pay their taxes elsewhere, is to drive down the tax take and force yet higher borrowing. On what appears to be a point of principle, Labour will not reduce the tax burden on those who create jobs and wealth. As a result, there are fewer jobs, and fewer people to tax. As a result the choice of whom to tax will narrow, until Labour's 'working people' – who usually cannot afford to flee abroad – end up paying more and more, as the Government avoids the obvious course of cutting its extravagant public spending programmes on what the Victorians called 'the undeserving poor'.
The word is that Sir Keir will hold a reshuffle after the summer recess, which starts this week. He has implied that Ms Reeves's job is safe; but if she cannot, or will not, implement policies that help create wealth rather than destroy it, she simply becomes a dead weight dragging down an already deeply unpopular administration. Also, the more articles such as this, suggesting she is not up to her exceptionally demanding job, appear in the media, the more Sir Keir will dig in his heels and seek to avoid sacking her, uttering the old mantra that he will not allow his administration to be chosen by political commentators.
Even someone with so few natural political instincts as he possesses must realise that he, and the country, cannot go on like this. You cannot on the one hand pontificate about growth and then take every possible measure to eliminate it, by driving people out work, companies out of business and the rich out of the country. Ms Reeves seems to find all of those things entirely acceptable. Eventually reality will force Sir Keir to conclude that there will have to be changes, both of personnel and of policy, or the money will run out. What he must try to decide is what constitutes the point of no return for his inept Chancellor.
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Taser trial for prison staff to tackle violence behind bars
Taser trial for prison staff to tackle violence behind bars

BBC News

time28 minutes ago

  • BBC News

Taser trial for prison staff to tackle violence behind bars

Specially trained staff in male prisons in England and Wales will be issued with Tasers as part of a new trial to clamp down on pilot comes as new figures obtained by the BBC show more than £20m has been paid out in damages over five years to staff and prisoners who have been say they will look at whether the electric stun guns should be more widely used after the trial this Prison Officers' Association (POA) said the cost of the "intolerable" levels of violence was an issue the government needed to tackle with a sense of urgency and the use of Tasers was long overdue. Speaking after watching a demonstration of the technology at a training facility in Oxfordshire, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would not allow jails to be controlled by fear or disorder."We're already rolling out protective body armour and by trialling Tasers we're making sure staff have the tools they need to keep themselves safe." Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the POA, said: "Prisons have been overcrowded for decades, which leads to a lack of activity spaces for prisoners leading to boredom, drug abuse and violence."Staff must be equipped with the personal protective equipment they need to quell violence and prevent life-changing injuries."The Tasers will be issued to a specialist national unit, which will respond to complex and serious incidents in men's prisons where there is a risk to safety, including hostage situations and riots. Severe PTSD after attack The intervention follows an attack on three prison officers in April at HMP Frankland in County officer Claire Lewis, who is still affected by severe PTSD after being stabbed by a prisoner 15 years ago, is welcoming the Taser roll-out in limited said: "Tasers are a great piece of kit, however, only in an environment whereby it's a planned extraction or if there's an assault on a wing." Ms Lewis, who also worked at HMP Frankland, is campaigning for all officers to have stab-proof vests. "If I'd have got a vest on when I was attacked, I would not have received the serious injury I did to my back - it narrowly missed my spinal cord." The latest Ministry of Justice figures showed the number of staff assaulted in adult prisons across England and Wales hit a new peak last 2020 and 2024 there were 334 compensation claims for prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, 232 prisoner-on-staff cases and 104 claims of staff assaulting inmates, according to a BBC freedom of information - not her real name - a former prison worker in south-east England, said: "They used to use snooker balls in socks, now they use full cans of drinks in socks to attack each other,"They make knives out of tuna cans. I did see an officer get kettled, which means hot water thrown over him."The Prison Service says it is also ramping up the number of full lockdown searches in high-security jails to stop more of the contraband which fuels violence behind month anti-drone measures such as new netting and reinforced windows were announced. President of the Prison Governors' Association Tom Wheatley backed the Taser trial for specialist officers, but not a wider roll-out to staff."If they were issued to all officers on a daily basis, it could carry additional risk," he said."Certainly not issued more generally, because they form a threat item, so if somebody managed to get a Taser off a member of staff, that would be a real concern to us."

Justice Secretary ‘determined to keep prison staff safe' as Tasers trial starts
Justice Secretary ‘determined to keep prison staff safe' as Tasers trial starts

South Wales Guardian

timean hour ago

  • South Wales Guardian

Justice Secretary ‘determined to keep prison staff safe' as Tasers trial starts

Specialist officers from the Operational Response and Resilience Unit based in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and Doncaster, South Yorkshire, will be the first to become equipped with Tasers from Monday, as part of Government plans to clamp down on record levels of violence against prison staff. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood attended the base in Kidlington last Thursday, when officers demonstrated how they would use Tasers on violent inmates in scenarios where there is a significant threat to safety – such as hostage situations or riots. The trial will run until enough data has been collected to determine if Tasers should be more widely used, according the Ministry of Justice – but Ms Mahmood said she hoped to have updates in the autumn. 'I inherited a situation with completely unacceptable levels of violence,' she told reporters at the Kidlington base last week. 'I'm not willing to tolerate that. 'I'm determined to do everything I can to keep prison staff safe. 'They have been asking for Tasers to be allowed to be used in our prison estate for years and years and years, and I'm very pleased to have been able to greenlight this trial.' She said the roll-out of Tasers for local prison staff teams across the UK will be examined as part of the trial, adding: 'I think it's right that we start looking at the trial through the prism of our national capabilities. 'Of course I will consider what the trial shows, but from my perspective this is very much the beginning.' It comes after rates of assaults on prison staff reached record levels last year, rising by 13% in the 12 months up to December 2024, according to Government data. There were also 10,496 assaults on staff in the 12 months to September 2024 – a 23% increase from the previous 12 months and a new peak. In April this year, Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi targeted prison staff at HMP Frankland with boiling oil and homemade weapons in a planned ambush. Four prison officers were injured at the jail in Brasside, County Durham, with three taken to hospital. 'The incident of Frankland has really forced the pace on further roll-out of these measures,' Ms Mahmood said. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana also allegedly attacked a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh in May by pouring boiling water over them. Union bosses called for officers to be given stab vests and protective equipment, with Ms Mahmood announcing in June officers would be told to wear body armour at close supervision centres, separation centres and segregation units in the highest categories of prisons in England and Wales. Last week, officers based in Kidlington demonstrated their emergency response protocols through two scenarios: one in which inmates take a member of staff as hostage, and another in which three inmates assault a fourth prisoner in the yard. In the hostage situation, officers showed how the use of loud pyrotechnics can help startle and distract violent inmates before officers are able to immobilise them by tackling them to the ground and putting them in handcuffs. In the yard attack scenario, officers deployed Tasers and gave verbal warnings before firing. The targets – fellow officers who played the role of violent inmates – wore thick protective suits so as to not feel the effects of the Taser. The trial will use the Taser 7 model, which generates 50,000 volts when fired, with the voltage dropping to 1,500 volts on contact with the skin to incapacitate the target. The T7 model is also a two-shot weapon, enabling officers to shoot a second time in the event they miss their target the first time. The Tasers will be worn by officers on their tactical vest in a secure holster, making the weapon visible to inmates as a deterrent, officers told Ms Mahmood last week. The device also collects data – such as how long it was armed for, how long it was discharged for, who discharged it, and any malfunction that arises – which will contribute to the trial, officers told the Justice Secretary. 'Tasers have been used for many years by the police, but a custodial setting is different to usage in other scenarios,' Ms Mahmood said. 'These are exactly the lessons that the trial will be looking to use, and it is one of the reasons why you can't just look at the usage of Tasers by the police and assume that the read across the prisons will be exactly the same. 'We will have to make sure that we guard against all of those potential incidents as much as is humanly possible … so that we can make sure we've got the strongest possible protocols in place and that, when they're discharged, they do what they're meant to do, which is prevent a threat to life and keep my staff safe.' Officers already have access to batons and Pava spray, a synthetic form of pepper spray, in men's prisons in the public sector. The Ministry of Justice announced in April Pava spray is due to be made available 'in limited circumstances' to a select number of specialist staff at the three public sector young offender institutions – including YOI Werrington, Wetherby and Feltham A. The Taser trial is part of a £40 million package announced last month to boost security across the prison estate, including £10 million specifically for anti-drone measures such as new netting and reinforced windows, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said on Monday. 'Officers will be subject to robust accountability measures, each deployment of a taser will be reviewed,' a spokesperson for the MoJ added. The Prison Officers' Association (POA) said it welcomed the move, but added the Government needed to address the roots of violence in jail. 'The POA will always support any initiative that will help protect our members,' a spokesperson for the trade union said. 'However, as welcome as this initiative is we need to address the reasons why prison officers need Tasers in the first place. 'Violence in our prisons is out of control and apathetic prison managers would rather put the prison regime before the safety of their staff. 'We urgently need action to address overcrowding, understaffing, drugs and the other root causes of prison violence.'

Schoolboy, 17, investigated on suspicion of using AI to make deepfake nudes of his female classmates
Schoolboy, 17, investigated on suspicion of using AI to make deepfake nudes of his female classmates

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Schoolboy, 17, investigated on suspicion of using AI to make deepfake nudes of his female classmates

A 17-year-old schoolboy in Spain is under investigation after allegedly using artificial intelligence to create deepfake nude images of his female classmates, which he is suspected of selling online. The investigation began after 16 young women, all students at an educational institute in Valencia, southeastern Spain, reported disturbing incidents of AI-generated sexual images of themselves circulating on social media. The images showed the minors naked and were allegedly being sold to others. The first complaint was lodged in December, when a teenage girl informed police that an account had been created under her name, with AI-generated videos and images depicting her in a compromising position. 'Photos of various people, all of them minors, appeared on this account. All these photos had been modified from the originals, which had been manipulated so that the people in them appeared completely naked,' the Spanish Civil Guard said in a statement. The suspect, a 17-year-old boy, is now facing investigation for the alleged corruption of minors. Authorities are continuing to gather evidence to determine whether he is responsible for creating and distributing the explicit images. This alarming case comes at a time when AI-driven sexual exploitation is on the rise, particularly among minors. Spain is no stranger to this phenomenon. In 2023, a similar case in Extremadura saw 15 minors investigated for using AI to create explicit images of their female schoolmates. The offenders were later sentenced to probation. The deepfake issue is not confined to Spain. Celebrities around the world, including pop stars like Taylor Swift and politicians like US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have fallen victim to AI-generated pornography. In the UK, more than 250 British celebrities were targeted by a Channel 4 investigation that exposed how their faces were superimposed onto explicit videos using AI. Although the Spanish government pledged in March 2023 to introduce laws to criminalise the creation of AI-generated sexual content without consent, the bill has yet to be passed by parliament. Currently, cases like these often fall into legal limbo, with existing laws not explicitly addressing the issue of AI-manipulated imagery. In the UK, however, the Online Safety Act 2023 has criminalised the sharing of explicit deepfake content without consent. Offenders who create or share such material maliciously now face criminal charges, with the possibility of imprisonment and unlimited fines. 'It is unacceptable that one in three women have been victims of online abuse. This demeaning and disgusting form of chauvinism must not become normalised,' said Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones. 'We are bearing down on violence against women – whatever form it takes.' Baroness Jones, the UK's Technology Minister, also condemned the rise in intimate image abuse, saying: 'The rise of intimate image abuse is a horrifying trend that exploits victims and perpetuates a toxic online culture. 'These acts are not just cowardly, they are deeply damaging, particularly for women and girls who are disproportionately targeted.' The rapid development of AI technology has made it easier than ever for perpetrators to create and distribute explicit images without the knowledge or consent of the victims. With new cases emerging, there are growing calls for stricter legislation worldwide to keep pace with this emerging threat. Tech companies are also under increasing pressure to remove deepfake content from their platforms and take stronger measures to prevent its creation and distribution.

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