Latest news with #CovidLockdown
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'Utterly breathtaking' - community spirited woman's royal invite
A right royal day out was enjoyed by a Horwich woman who started a vital community support network during the 2020 Covid lockdown. Denise Silcock, from Lend a Hand in Horwich, was invited to a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace. Denise said: "The weather was glorious the sun was shining so brightly it lit up the golden statue at the front of the Palace, as myself and my husband Vic, headed towards the iconic gates to join a most colourful queue. (Image: Denise Silcock) "After security checks we stepped into the palace grounds, it felt very surreal. "Walking through the archway entrance to the Royal Garden my heart literally missed a beat, it was the most amazing sight and utterly breathtaking." Read more: Read more: Read more: She added: "Five years ago when I started Lend a Hand in Horwich and surrounding areas Community Support during Lockdown in March 2020, I could have never dreamt I would actually be stood in the garden at Buckingham Palace listening our national anthem played and seeing Prince William and Princess Kate there to host the event on behalf of the HM King Charles III." (Image: Denise Silcock) Other members of royalty present included, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. All the royals walked through the crowds of people who have made a positive contribution to their communities. (Image: Denise Silcock) Denise added: "I'm extremely honoured and very proud to have been part of such a marvellous event and given such a wonderful invitation to the Royal Garden Party. "I am honestly so thrilled it's absolutely unbelievable and I'm so immensely lucky to be invited It's truly incredible and to be in the company of Prince William and Princess Kate, who were both spectacular, is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience I know I will never forget."
News.com.au
17-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘No excuse to be treated like that': Mother calls for apology for son who died years after covid arrest
EXCLUSIVE The mother of a deceased man who was four years ago thrown to the ground by a police officer during Melbourne's Covid lockdown has called for an apology from the officer involved. In a disturbing incident which would go on to make national headlines, Melbourne man Daniel Peterson-English was filmed being tackled to the ground at Flinders Street Station by acting sergeant Beau Barrett after he was arrested on September 22, 2021. The footage, which circulated widely on social media around the world at the time, showed then-Acting Sergeant Barrett walking up behind Mr Peterson-English before throwing him to the ground, causing his head to hit the hard floor. Sergeant Barrett was suspended and charged with recklessly causing injury and assault over the incident, which occurred on the same day an anti-lockdown protest was held in the city's CBD. However the case was later dismissed. The Court was told at the time that Peterson-English had taunted officer multiple times, and had heard about the circumstances of the day including escalating crowds. As first reported by Mr Peterson-English, who had suffered from mental health and other health complications before his arrest, died earlier this year on March 15. His cause of death has not been confirmed and a coroner's report will be released next month. There is no suggestion that it occurred as a result of the tackle. Before his death, Mr Peterson-English told his mother he wanted Sergeant Barrett to personally apologise for the 'horrendous' incident, which left her son with facial injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, the Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard. 'He (Daniel) said to me many times, 'I just want an apology from him',' Margaret English told 'That's what is needed,' she added. 'I'd like to see an apology.' Ms English, a retired nurse of 40 years, said it was an 'important' gesture and she was 'shocked' to learn the officer had returned to operational duties following an internal investigation. 'I couldn't believe that, that could happen,' she said. 'If a nurse had done that, they would be deregistered. 'There would have been severe consequences if Daniel had done it to a member of the police force. If he had come up from behind … and grabbed someone and ended up smashing their head (on the ground).' Ms English said Sergeant Barrett's temporary suspension 'wasn't good enough'. 'It just wasn't enough,' she said. In a statement to Victoria Police said: 'The internal discipline board has finalised an investigation into an incident at Flinders Street railway station on 22 September, 2021'. 'A senior constable from north-west metro has undergone further training and has returned to operational duties following the incident that occurred while they were on-duty.' 'Disturbing' incident In the distressing footage of Mr Peterson-English's arrest, the 32-year-old's head could be heard hitting the hard floor and a pair of headphones was knocked off. According to a caption written by the woman who initially posted the video, Mr Peterson-English was knocked unconscious and there was 'blood and urine everywhere'. 'This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police,' the caption read. 'You can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles.' The woman later told the man was unconscious 'for a while' and when he woke up was calling for his mother. 'We are all very disturbed by this and I've been inundated with people worldwide wanting to know if this man is all right,' she said. Before he was tackled to the ground, Mr Peterson-English was arrested, fined for not wearing a mask, and released, The Age reported. He then returned to the area where he was tackled to the ground. Mr Peterson-English's lawyer, Kim Bainbridge said the incident was followed by a 'severe psychiatric reaction'. 'He had pre-existing mental health issues which have been exacerbated by the trauma that he suffered at the hands of this police officer,' Mr Bainbridge said in 2022. There is no suggestion the police officer was aware of the mental health issues. 'Broke my heart' Ms English was upset to hear her son – who she said had a mask exemption the day of his arrest – was calling out for her when he woke. That day, Ms English was at work and her phone was away in her locker at the hospital when she received 'confused messages' from her son. 'It broke my heart (hearing he called for me) because I wasn't there,' she said. 'The guilt I felt because I wasn't there and I was at work. I couldn't answer the phone … there's still a lot of guilt on my part.' Her son told her he had travelled from their Melbourne home, where he lived in a bungalow in the backyard, to the CBD not to attend the anti-lockdown protest but rather to visit Melbourne's homeless, whom he considered friends and would give food and money to when he saw them. After the attack, Ms English came home and found her son visibly distressed, along with his NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) carer. 'He was angry … he was mulling and no one could really understand what had happened, we couldn't get much sense out of him,' she said. It wasn't until she saw the 'awful' footage of her son's arrest that she learnt the true extent of what happened that day. 'I was really shocked that someone … I mean, they (police) are here to protect us. It was horrendous,' she said. 'There's no reason, no excuse for any human being to be treated like that.' She said her son's headphones, which were knocked to the floor and broken, were given to Mr Peterson-English by his late father, who passed away a few years earlier. Ms English was so shaken by the incident she quit nursing the same day, leaving behind her four-decade-long career. 'I never went back after that day, never. I needed to be there for my son.' 'Sling tackle' after 'taunt' In 2022, Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard Mr Peterson-English had attended an anti-lockdown rally in the city on the day of his arrest, but had found himself displaced from protesters and began to 'taunt' officers at the station. Witness Jacob Wright, a Victoria Police protective services officer, told the court Mr Peterson-English was 'swearing and rambling' as he filmed officers inside the station. Zachery McLeod, another officer present, described Mr Peterson-English's behaviour as 'heightened', and said he was constantly shouting anti-police rhetoric. In footage played to the court, Mr Peterson-English could be heard calling police 'dogs', 'pigs' and using swear words. Acting Senior Sergeant Luke Billing said he watched the arrest unfold, describing how Sergeant Barrett allegedly used a 'seat belt take-down', which police are trained to use. He said Mr Peterson-English slipped during the manoeuvre, and landed on his head. Senior Sergeant Matthew Hargreaves, a Victoria Police expert from the Centre of Operational Safety who reviewed the footage, alleged Sergeant Barrett used a 'sling tackle' during the arrest. 'We consider it to be dangerous, a process that should be avoided,' he said. 'The technique doesn't demonstrate due care to minimise risk of injury.' The case was thrown out in 2023, with Magistrate Rob Stary finding a jury could not conclude whether Sergeant Barrett had acted unlawfully. 'It may be that the arrest was executed in a way that is not in strict accordance with the manual, but whether it could be said to be unlawful and whether it could be said to be done without any regard to the probable consequences and criminal intent, in my view a jury properly instructed could not convict A/SGT Barrett of those offences,' he told the court. Mr Stary said Mr Peterson-English had disregarded repeated requests from the officers to leave the station. 'Mr Peterson-English acts in a manner that is entirely provocative,' Mr Stary said at the time. Victoria Police reached a confidential settlement with Mr Peterson-English. A Sydney lawyer and filmmaker who featured Mr Peterson-English's arrest in his documentary, believes Mr Peterson-English was subject to a gag order as part of his settlement. Mr Peterson-English's death Before Mr Peterson-English's death, Ms English said her son was living with mental health issues, in part from his father's passing seven years ago, and had been admitted to psychiatric hospitals on more than one occasion. He also suffered from cardiac and liver issues, among other health complications. 'There were times where he would talk to himself, and he would yell and carry on, and he'd be wandering the streets at times, suffering from psychosis,' she said. 'Sometimes people thought he was abusing them, but he was just talking to himself and yelling and ranting and raving. He was very unwell at times.' Calling out Melbourne's 'broken mental health system', she said it was a 'battle' to get her son the assistance he needed. But she praised the efforts of local police, who would return her son home when he was lost, as well as paramedics who helped when he was experiencing physical issues such as chest pain. In the months leading up to his death, Ms English said her son had become depressed, had trouble sleeping and eating, and had become visibly thinner. In March, Ms English knocked on the door of her son's bungalow but he didn't answer. Worried, but thinking he may have been sleeping or had headphones on, she used a spare key to let herself in with his NDIS worker. 'We found him and we tried to resuscitate him. I immediately yelled to the NDIS worker to ring for the paramedics and I tried to resuscitate him,' she recalled. 'Then we swapped places. He took over doing the CPR, and I took over talking … But we couldn't (save him), he passed,' she said as her voice broke. 'As a mother to lose a child who was only 32 years old, I'd rather have my legs and my arms amputated,' she added through tears. Ms English, who celebrated her first Mother's Day without her son last weekend, is hoping the coroner's report will provide much-needed answers. In the meantime, she takes some comfort knowing her son has joined his late father, late grandmother and beloved pet cat – all of whom passed away seven years ago. She described her son as a 'very intelligent' and 'very kind' person. 'I had beautiful school reports, and they would say, he would look after the little ones. When he was a senior student, he'd look after the ones who were being bullied.' 'We were very close and when he was only young, coming home from school, he would just pick flowers on the way home (for me).' Her son would also write messages for her. In one, which she had come across on Wednesday, he wrote: 'Always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.' It's why she is trying to follow the path of forgiveness and would like to see an apology from the police officer involved in her son's arrest, rather than any other further disciplinary action taken against him. 'I'm someone who believes in forgiveness. I just think forgiveness is really important. This has been hard … but an apology is needed and is important.' contacted Victoria Police to respond to Ms English's request for an apology. However they did not wish to provide a statement.
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour has spent 10 years trying to sabotage Brexit. Now it is finally getting its way
It was October 2020. Britain was descending into another Covid lockdown, and my talks with the EU were getting bogged down too. I was about to do a video call with Michel Barnier, their chief negotiator, and we were furious at an incredible statement just put out by EU leaders telling Britain to make the 'necessary moves' to reach an agreement in line with the EU's position. The EU seemed determined to hold us in their grip. Barnier came on the screen. From my office overlooking Downing Street, and with my team around me, I told him that if this was the EU view, then there was nothing to discuss, and there was no point in him coming to London for the next round of talks, or indeed any talks in future. Barnier was staggered. I had to repeat the message several times before it sank in. We briefed out: 'Get ready for no deal.' Within a week, the EU had turned round 180 degrees. Barnier read out a form of words in the European Parliament which our team had written for him and agreed with Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. The EU was open to compromise after all. It would work intensively to find solutions. The talks were back on, the work intensified, and a deal was reached. Toughness works. On Monday, that same von der Leyen will meet Sir Keir Starmer to sign off Britain's 'reset' with the EU. Sadly, there is little evidence of similar robustness on the British side this time round. All will be sweetness and light. Von der Leyen will repeat some of her gushing words about Sir Keir from Time magazine last month. She can afford to. For the truth will be that Britain will have conceded a lot and got very little back for it. How we got here It can be hard to work out what's at stake. Let's begin by looking back. Most of Britain's politicians were stunned by the referendum result. But once Theresa May effectively lost the 2017 election, they saw they could hope at least to keep Britain closely aligned to EU laws and politics – close to nurse for fear of something worse. Meanwhile, Brexiteers rapidly also united around the view that Brexit did not make sense unless it was done properly. There was no point in leaving the EU if we allowed them to carry on setting our laws. We, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, had to be out of everything – customs, trade, budget, the EU court and laws – if we were to do things our way. Brexit, since then, has been about where to settle on this spectrum. At one end lies EU control: a nation bound by Brussels's rules, with no say in their creation – a vassal state. At the other is freedom and independence: a Britain that sets its own laws on its own terms. This has been the battleground. So far, there have been three battles over this terrain. The 'reset' is the fourth. The first was during the May government. She tried to exit formally but stay in many of the EU's rules. Her poor deal on Northern Ireland left the province under EU trading rules come what may, and her 'Chequers plan' shows she always intended the same would happen to the rest of the UK too. It kept us very close to EU control. That's why, when the deal was signed, one of the EU negotiating team was caught on a BBC camera saying, 'We've got our first colony'. Rightly, that deal collapsed in Parliament, and the second battle began. The Tory party turned to Boris Johnson and to me as his negotiator. Labour, led on Brexit issues by Starmer, saw the chance to reverse the referendum result entirely. The Brexit roulette wheel was set to 'winner takes all'. As so often happened, they underestimated Boris. We reworked the smoking rubble of May's deal, got the country out of the EU, and then negotiated a free trade agreement. Parliament's ban on a no-deal exit meant we had to accept most of her dreadful Northern Ireland agreement, though always provisionally. With that exception, we re-established British freedom and independence. Then came battle number three. The Northern Ireland arrangements soon collapsed, as we feared they might, under aggressive handling by the EU. Boris and Liz Truss decided to sweep away the whole Northern Ireland Protocol, whether the EU liked it or not. If this had happened, the Brexit job would have been done for good. But both lost their jobs first. Rishi Sunak lost his nerve instead and bought a quiet life, first by accepting the Northern Ireland deal, cosmetically renaming it the Windsor Framework, and then by leaving most inherited EU laws on our national statute book. This locked Britain into an increasingly difficult position. Every time we try to diverge from EU laws, we open a gap between one part of the country and another. It's easier just to follow what the EU does, and so we are slowly back on the road to EU control. We always knew this was the risk if we couldn't get rid of the Protocol. I vividly remember being told by one of Barnier's team that if we annoyed the EU, 'You won't be able to move a single kilo of butter into Northern Ireland unless we say so'. That threat remains, and now the EU has the upper hand. It's against this background that the Labour Government has now begun the fourth battle. They can't rejoin for now, but they can take us, step by step, farther back towards alignment and control – to Chequers or worse. This 'reset' will be the first such step. If they get away with it, more will follow. That's where we stand. For a time, Boris and I blew open the establishment consensus that Britain couldn't survive on its own. We thought we had achieved escape velocity. But now the EU tractor beam is pulling us back. Guilty men (and women) In this the EU is helped by a British establishment that never gave up. Overwhelmingly they hated Brexit. Their national strategy, based around a special relationship with the Americans and closer integration with the Europeans, was destroyed in a few months in 2016. But they were determined to make Brexit as difficult as possible and wait for better days. So, sadly, many politicians, of all parties, put their loyalty to the EU above their loyalty to Britain. Starmer and friends would regularly jet over to Brussels to tell Barnier how best to resist British demands. Starmer wanted to overturn the biggest vote for anything in our history by demanding a second referendum. They undermined Britain in the Brexit crisis, and now they are doing the same again. Too many senior civil servants took the same view and didn't think we could manage on our own. I remember one, still prominent today, telling Boris and me he could find ways to help us 'manage' our manifesto commitment to leave the EU's customs union. Whitehall's technocrats are frightened of freedom and happy to trade it for the familiarity of EU control. So, too, is big business. Entrepreneurs, new businesses, new industries, like the idea of deregulating and opening to the world. Big businesses are more sceptical. They want an easy life. That's the context for Boris's famous comment 'F--- business'. It wasn't about wealth creation. It was about organisations such as the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and its members favouring their own corporate needs over wider British economic and political interests. Reliably on cue, the CBI came out on Friday to support the concessions in the 'reset'. And finally, the Remainer activists have not given up. The cabal of retired bureaucrats, most of my former colleagues in the diplomatic service, the think-tankers who reliably ventriloquise the Brussels world view into our politics, all keep telling us that Brexit is a disaster, that the world is a dangerous place, and that the only safe thing to do is run to mummy in Brussels. Their sole critique of the Labour Government is that they are not 'ambitious' enough on the reset, too frightened of public opinion, too slow to bring us back into compliance. They have high hopes that the next few years will make British freedom and independence definitively impossible. How does the reset fit in? With all this energy behind them, Labour clearly thought the 'reset' would be straightforward. They naively assumed that the EU would grant them all kinds of concessions just because they had opposed Brexit in the first place. But the EU doesn't do negotiations like that. For British negotiators, positive atmospherics are an end in themselves. For the EU, they are a tool like anything else, a way of lulling their opposite numbers into making concessions. Labour seemed to believe its own propaganda about the 2020 trade agreement. Echoing the Remain campaign groups, they told themselves that it was a bad deal that could be easily improved, rather than what it really was: the biggest, broadest and deepest free trade agreement done anywhere in the world. So they are finding they are having to give things away to produce a reset worth the name, and are falling into the same traps as May and Sunak as they do so. They are beginning by accepting the EU's preconditions. It's a classic EU tactic: 'We won't talk unless you commit to X first.' In this case, X is abandoning the full control of our fishing grounds that was due to come, after a long transition, in 2026. Labour should have said no. But they won't walk away – so they had to say yes. Second, they are negotiating on the EU's terms. Take one example. Labour says it wants to improve food and animal trade with the EU. There are two ways of doing this. One is called 'equivalence': both sides agree their rules have broadly the same effect, for example as regards food safety, and therefore drop trade restrictions. Fine by me. We tried it in 2020, the EU refused, we ended the discussions. The other way is the EU's way: drop trade barriers only if the other side applies EU rules and EU laws, ultimately enforced by the EU's courts, not just for selling into the EU, but in Britain too. Labour briefly tried the first and were brushed off, as they should have expected. Instead of then saying, 'Fine, we'll stick with what we have,' they accepted the EU's approach and are getting ready to abandon control of our own entire agricultural and food system. Expect them to get some meaningless cosmetic concessions, but the reality will be clear: we will be operating under EU laws with essentially no say. Forget about agricultural innovation. Forget about cheaper high-quality food from elsewhere. We will be in the single market for agrifood, just as Northern Ireland already is. Labour will be doing the same in other areas. They will be applying EU law on energy pricing, certainly via the Emissions Trading Scheme, and probably beyond this too. It's a drift back into the single market for energy. They will be accepting EU rules on carbon border adjustment measures – AKA tariffs, a clear customs measure. Labour's pledge to stay out of the single market and customs union is fraying at the edges. And making such substantive concessions in return for just warm words is not negotiation, it's capitulation. If I were in charge: a winning strategy What would I do differently if I were still calling the shots? Of course I don't see a reset as necessary in the first place. The trade agreement is working perfectly well. Britain is growing faster than France, Germany and the Eurozone. Our trade is performing well and we have a services trade boom. This year, we have joined the CPTPP, the big Pacific trade agreement, and have signed deals with the Indians and Americans. If international opinion looks askance at Britain, it's much more to do with the catastrophically bad management of the economy by Labour since last summer than anything to do with Brexit. But if we had to do a reset? My starting point would be to be clear what the EU wants and put them under pressure. That's what we did in that grim autumn of 2020, and it was the EU which cracked, not us. Von der Leyen wanted a deal and Barnier did not. That's why, at the crucial moments, she was sending me her car to get into the Commission's basement car park and into the building via her private lift. Then we could have talks without Barnier knowing we were there – and she could make concessions without him realising. This time, too, Britain has cards to play. It is the EU that wants a defence agreement, not us. It is the EU that wants a youth mobility scheme so it can export its unemployed young people to our labour market. We certainly shouldn't be paying to get them. If we were to give any ground in this area – and, as I say, I don't think it is necessary – it should be to get something we actually want. Something like an end to checks on goods going to Northern Ireland. Or an equivalence deal on food exports. Better services trade access. A French commitment to take back arrivals here on small boats. Better practical access at borders: use of e-gates, an end to the 90-day limit on travel to the EU. And under no circumstances would we give up control to the EU, its laws, and its courts: whether on fish, on trade, on migration, on energy pricing and net zero, not on anything. If that limited the scope of the deal, so be it. Starmer has done the exact reverse. There is no attempt to balance advantage and concession. Like some dodgy used car salesman who just wants to get something off the forecourt, he's said to the EU: 'Take this defence agreement off my hands. You're doing me a favour, so I'll make it worth your while. I'll throw in British fishing grounds, open our borders to EU young people, and I'll join the single market for agriculture and energy too.' It seems to make no sense – except in one way. Labour just wants to be closer to the EU. Starmer, Lammy, Reeves – the whole gang – would rejoin in a shot if they thought they could do it. For now, they aim to get closer, step by step. They don't really mind if the terms are bad for Britain. That's really not the point. The point is to move closer to Brussels. If that means a hopelessly unbalanced reset, then so much the worse for Britain. So look carefully on Monday when this deal is unveiled. Labour are selling you a lemon. They will try to tell you a concession is an advantage and a loss of control is a benefit. They will try to present all opposition as obsessional determination to re-fight the Brexit wars. In truth it is Labour which is reopening the Brexit wars. They aren't interested in a stable relationship with the EU from outside. Their next step will be to say, 'We are already aligning on one thing; why not another?' Then after that it will be, 'Why are we applying all these EU laws without any say? Wouldn't it be better to rejoin? ' It may take years. But the slide down the slippery slope is under way. Not in our name It is up to the Leave movement to expose this and to stop them going any farther down this road. Those Conservatives in proper touch with the party's traditions of standing up for the nation; Reform members who despair at not seeing Brexit done right; Labour members inheriting the proud tradition of Attlee, Bevin, Gaitskell and Shore, need to make clear this reset is 'not in our name'. Conservatives and Reform were right to come together in Parliament on Tuesday and underline that a future government would take back any powers handed over this week. More than that will, of course, be needed – sweeping away the Windsor Framework (which the Tory Party currently supports), leaving the ECHR, leaving the Refugee Convention. The direction of travel must be made clear and, next time, the destination must be reached. We must not give up on the free Britain Boris and I fought for. The Right's path is clear: harness the public's anger, channel it into a bold pro-sovereignty agenda, and deliver the Brexit Boris and I started. We may be in the tractor beam, but we still have rocket fuel in the tank. When this rotten Government and its shabby concessions are swept away, we must be ready: to take back control properly, get out of the EU's orbit, and build a Britain that's not a resentful protectorate, but a friendly neighbour: free, prosperous and proud.
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Eddington review - Ari Aster's tedious Covid western masks drama and mutes his stars
Ari Aster now worryingly creates a losing streak with this bafflingly dull movie, a laborious and weirdly self-important satire which makes a heavy, flavourless meal of some uninteresting and unoriginal thoughts – on the Covid lockdown, online conspiracy theories, social polarisation, Black Lives Matter, liberal-white privilege and guns. The movie looks good, courtesy of Darius Khondji's cinematography, but has nothing new or dramatically vital to say, and moreover manages the extraordinary achievement of making Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix look like boring actors. This is by virtue of its moderate script and by the unvarying stolid pace over its hefty running time which might have suited a 12-episode streamer. Eddington is a fictional small town in New Mexico in the US, bordering Native American territory; we join the story as the Covid lockdown begins (though Trump is oddly unmentioned in all the news programmes and viral TikToks everyone's watching) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) and Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) are at loggerheads – interestingly taking opposite sides to their counterparts in Spielberg's Jaws on the personal liberty issue. Here, the mayor insists on restrictive mask-wearing and Sheriff Cross refuses to wear his and is resentful of the mayor supporting construction plans for a giant new 'online server farm' – gobbling up resources and symbolically sowing discord via the internet – and this complicates existing tensions. The mayor once had emotional history with Cross's wife Louise (Emma Stone) who now suffers from hysteria and depression and whose mother Dawn (Deirdre O'Connell), now uncomfortably 'bubbled up' with them in the family home, is a querulous conspiracy theorist and social media addict – although the problem of how to make these particular things funny or interesting is one the film never solves. Garcia's insufferable teen son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka) is dating social justice warrior Sarah (Amélie Hoeferle) who is cartoonishly convulsed with guilt at her white privilege and at having dumped Michael (Micheal Ward) because he is now a cop, working for Sheriff Cross, and a gun enthusiast – though he is a person of colour. The atmosphere of feverish resentment and wholesale offence-taking worsens with the George Floyd outrage and Louise and her mom take an interest in charismatic cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler) who has recovered memories of child abuse and encourages his followers to do the same. So Sheriff Cross fights back against everything by running for mayor himself and winds up encouraging the townsfolk to get their guns ready for the coming showdown. This idea of a mano a mano political contest between these two grizzled alpha males promises some comedy – and the film does deliver one actual laugh with Mayor Garcia's outrageously sugary TV ad, recounting his tough emotional courage raising his boy as a single dad. And there is some divertingly acid, nasty satire on the odious attitudes on show in the sheriff's department. One cop says sagely that blacks hate Hispanics because they are 'fake minorities who are taking their coupons'. And when Native American cop Butterfly Jimenez (William Belleau) intervenes in an investigation, a white cop sneeringly asks if he shouldn't be looking into an 'alcoholic domestic dispute at one of your casinos'. But it all feels secondhand – and a scene showing a fractious town meeting on zoom is weirdly like the legendary online council meeting in Handforth, Cheshire. There is no accumulation of drama or tension or intellectual revelation and the setpiece shootout is ultimately valueless. What exactly is it saying that we didn't know already? The wait for Aster to recover his directorial form goes on. Eddington premiered at the Cannes film festival. Global release dates are to be confirmed
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Daily Mail
It was the infamous Covid incident at one of Australia's busiest train stations that shocked the nation. Now the disturbing truth has emerged about what happened next...
A man has tragically died nearly four years after a police officer threw him to the ground during a protest against Melbourne 's Covid lockdowns. In an incident that sparked international headlines, Daniel Peterson-English was manhandled by a cop at a demonstration at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station in September 2021. A police sergeant, Beau Barrett, was charged with recklessly causing injury and assault over the incident but the case was later dismissed. Footage from the time showed Mr Peterson-English's head hitting the floor while his headphones were knocked off. A woman who posted the video at the time said: 'This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police.' 'You can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles,' she said. 'We are all very disturbed by this and I've been inundated with people worldwide wanting to know if this man is all right. 'We understand the paramedics looked at him but not sure what happened after that.' On the day he was smashed to the ground, Mr Peterson-English was arrested and fined for not wearing a face mask. The tackle occurred after he returned to the protest, according to The Age, and he didn't go to the hospital after the incident. In 2022, the Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard Mr Peterson-English began to 'taunt' officers at the station. In footage played to the court, Mr Peterson-English was heard calling police 'dogs' and 'pigs'. The case was thrown out in 2023, after Magistrate Rob Stary said a jury could not find whether Mr Barrett acted unlawfully. In a recent online documentary, Mr Peterson-English's mother Margaret confirmed her son has passed away on March 15. She did not disclose his cause of death. Margaret said her 32-year-old son was a 'fragile young man totally abused by the state'. Mark Tarrant, a Sydney-based lawyer and filmmaker who made a film called 'Covid Safe – Domestic Violence By The State', which featured Mr Peterson-English, described him as 'kind hearted'. 'Margaret's very much down about what's happened to her son, and it's not easy for Margaret,' Mr Tarrant said. Mr Peterson-English's lawyer Kim Bainbridge claimed the heavy tackle his client suffered was followed by a 'severe psychiatric reaction'. 'He had pre-existing mental health issues which have been exacerbated by the trauma that he suffered at the hands of this police officer,' he said in 2022. Mr Peterson-English told Melbourne Magistrates' Court he lived with post-traumatic stress disorder. Victorian Libertarian MP David Limbrick said Mr Peterson-English didn't deserve his treatment on the day he was put to the ground. 'Nobody deserved to be treated like he was at Flinders Street Station,' he told 'I think it is really important we reflect on this dark period in our history and how people were treated as second-class citizens. This should never happen again.' A coroner's report into Mr Peterson-English's death will be released in June.
