Latest news with #KevinMaguire
Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
KEVIN MAGUIRE: 'Brexit was a giant con by plastic patriots – we need a plan to get back in EU'
The Mirror's Kevin Maguire argues the only way for Britain to return to its former prosperity is with a plan to return to the EU after Brexit proved to be a giant con that only leaves us poorer and weaker Brexit is a self-inflicted assault on the UK economy that will prove more than twice as expensive as abolishing slavery in the British Empire. Ending the shameful, terrible, cruel bondage of Africa's kidnapped men, women and children branded and clapped in irons to sweat on plantations in the West Indies and Americas was undoubtedly a noble cause. Disastrously wrenching our country out of the European Union was a cranky obsession of relatively few plastic patriots who hoodwinked a minor majority subsequently regretting the giant con. I'd also wager a disturbing number of Brextremist agitators, had they been shouting their mouths off at the end of the 18th and start of the 19th centuries, would've argued we couldn't afford to free slaves earning a fortune for their owners. READ MORE: Brexit is a 'complete disaster' and referendum 'should have been repeated' Mercifully the moral Britons won back then and on holiday in Spain I read in Adam Hochchild's ultimately inspiring Bury The Chains, the history of Britain's struggle to axe slavery, that scholars estimate stopping the trade then ceasing slavery itself cost the nation 1.8% of national income over more than half a century. The bill for Brexit will be 4% in less than half that time, calculates the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the extremists who masterminded the 2016 referendum heist are unable to claim any superiority. Highlighting any Brexit benefits is nigh on impossible, which is why the likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch like to talk about almost anything else and shouldn't be trusted on issues such as migration. How many refugees, asylum seekers and migrants crossed the Channel in small boats before that referendum, a period when the UK could trigger the EU Dublin convention return arrangement? Zilch or virtually none. The 40,000 or so annually arriving in small boats is, in one of those startling coincidences, around the number of seized slaves yearly transported in British ships to their dreadful fate across the Atlantic. Before anybody, including Keir Starmer, shouts about trade deals, those between Labour and the EU, India and US are mere pennies for lost pound - as were Tory agreements with Australia and New Zealand. Even the 10% Trump tax on exports to the US isn't worth much more than his 15% tariff slapped on the EU when we trade twice as much with Europe as we do Donaldland. Regular exchange rate fluctuations can wipe it out easily. Deceiving Brexitremists pretended turning our backs on our EU neighbours was freedom. The freedom to be poorer and weaker? No thanks. Brexit remains the elephant in the room, deliberately ignored by the Prime Minister and others. If we want Britain to be more prosperous and stronger on the global stage then we need a plan to be back in the EU. At the moment, they're not even making the argument. More than one way to skin a Fat Cat Rachel Reeves is justified in stressing hers was a dreadful economic inheritance when more than three-quarters, £111billion - which is 77% - of this financial year's projected £143bn UK government borrowing covers interest on past debts - much of them Tory. Labour's Methodists want higher taxes on bookies and Marxists on banks (son of the manse and fairness champion Gordon Brown advocates both) to fund key public services and avoid breaking election promises to most workers and families. The Chancellor of the Exchequer could do much worse than dust off advice from the likes of out-of-the-box thinkers like Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires, including 10 reforms to raise £60billion by, among other changes, limiting pension tax relief handouts for higher earners to those of average earners and stop the South's richest paying less council tax than typical Northerners. Just because Reeves is against a wealth tax on the few with more than £10million doesn't mean she can't help ordinary folk. There's more than one way to skin a Fat Cat. Let's hear 'up the workers!' in classrooms The massacre of seven people during a seafarers' strike 200 years ago in Sunderland was unknown to me, and I'm from South Shields up the road. Bicentennial commemoration lead organiser David Scott was right: we should never let these events be 'lost from the history books' because we stand on the shoulders of giants - everyday men and women who challenged grave injustices. The seven murdered by soldiers on North Sands, now Sunderland Uni's St Peter's campus, were resisting pay cuts (Hello P&O Ferries in Dover) and the slain included Mary Wilson, 76, in a crowd of more than 100, including women and kids, on the beach. People's history, our history, is what establishment lackeys fear most in prioritising the teaching in schools of the supposed greatness of oppressive warlord kings and queens... Let's hear more 'up the workers!' in classrooms. Labour voters entitled to feel cheated Labour Deputy PM Angela Rayner's landmark Renters' Rights Bill coming into force next year bans, among other scams, landlords ending tenancies to sell properties then relisting them charging more, so now very ex-Housing Minister Rushamara Ali should've been sacked instead of allowed to resign. Because the greedy extra £700 a month grab by the rentier class shamed MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney once again overshadows the great things a UK Labour government is doing and Rayner, as well as Starmer, down to every Labour member and voter, is entitled to feel cheated. She wasn't a distraction, as the self-serving MP claims. I'm afraid she was guilty as charged of grotesque hypocrisy. Going up Deporting most convicted foreign criminals immediately and barring re-entry into the UK is penny-wise Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood acting tough when it costs an average £54,000 a year to lock 'em up with 12% of inmates in stuffed jails from abroad. Going down STUPID, nasty and inflammatory MP Rupert Lowe mistaking a charity rowing crew for migrants in a boat off the ex-Reformer's Great Yarmouth constituency in Norfolk confirmed these dangerous Hard Right reactionaries speak first, think later when spreading their poison. Speaker's Corner 'I have to say that I really have become a good friend, and David has become a good friend of mine.' Ugh! Pass the sick bag when fishy JD Vance slavering over David Lammy, and the UK Foreign Secretary drooling over the US Vice President, turns the stomach. Vance is as vile as Trump with added menace and brains. I hope Lammy's anti-tetanus jab is up to date.
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Prison staff expose 'shambles' of early release scheme as they back new plan
Officers working in jails and those who monitor the release of inmates back Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood 's plans to bring in a Texas-style behaviour model Almost three in five prison and probation staff (59%) are in favour of releasing prisoners early for good behaviour, polling shows. Officers working in jails and those who monitor the release of inmates back Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood 's plans to bring in a Texas-style behaviour model. It comes as the polling also revealed some 80% of officers were against both the Tories' and Labour 's emergency early release schemes, which saw thousands urgently freed to create more jail space. Some 87% of staff said the plans derailed day-to-day activity and 80% said work-related stress had increased since the schemes' introduction. One staff member told the survey the release plans had been a 'shambles', adding: 'It was too rushed. It did not allow sufficient time or resources for prisoners to be released safely. People were not being tagged or monitored. The whole thing was a shambles.' It comes after The Mirror's Kevin Maguire wrote: 'Labour must find engaging story for the UK - or face election wipeout'. Another said staff members are having to take stress leave as the workload is unmanageable. 'I started this role motivated and ready to do my job but as more and more pressure is placed on us, I feel myself breaking,' they said. 'The job role, currently, is unmanageable, stressful, and ridiculous. Numerous staff members are having to take stress related sick leave, and I feel the organisation as a whole will collapse should this continue.' Another added: 'Workload pressures on probation are immense, and without the appropriate resources to manage all the prison releases, something will go wrong, and the public are at risk of serious harm.' More than 10,000 people were released under the Tories' End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme, which was launched in October 2023. Under the plan, certain prisoners were released up to 70 days early. This was increased from an initial 18-day early release, then from 35 days. The scheme was widely criticised for not giving enough time for probation services to efficiently plan for the release plans of offenders, with just a day's notice given at times. Last September, Ms Mahmood ordered a new scheme to automatically release low-risk prisoners after serving 40% of their sentence - down from 50%. The scheme introduced exclusions for prisoners serving time for serious violent or sex offences. The Labour government, following a major review of the system, is looking to introduce an 'earned progression' model, inspired by prisons in Texas. It would see inmates on standard sentences of up to four years released after serving a third of their time inside if they behave well. Jon Czul, managing director at Skills for Justice, which did the report, said: 'Whilst the measures introduced last September are generally viewed as an upgrade on previous arrangements, the circumstances in which prisons and probation services were expected to implement and deliver the policy has been met with disapproval. 'For understaffed prisons and probation services, the sheer volume of prisoners needing to be processed in such a short timeframe has contributed to the sense that workloads in the sector are increasingly unmanageable.' Ian Lawrence, general secretary of probation service trade union Napo, said: 'Decades of underinvestment in prisons meant that once breaking point came, the burden fell disproportionately on the shoulders of probation services. We cannot keep expecting probation officers to pick up the pieces.' Skills for Justice surveyed 481 respondents in May and June 2025. Prison Officers' Association, Prison Governors' Association, Napo, Probation Institute and Community Union supported the survey data collection. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'This Government inherited prisons days from collapse and had no choice but to take decisive action to stop jails overflowing – an event that would have been cataclysmic for frontline staff. 'To ensure we never run out of prison places again, we are building 14,000 prison places and reforming sentencing so our jails reduce reoffending, cut crime, and keep victims safe.'
Daily Mirror
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Government internships to be restricted to working-class in major shake-up
New civil service intern scheme will be limited to students from 'lower socio-economic backgrounds' and based on which jobs their parents held when they were 14 Government internships will be restricted to people from working-class backgrounds in a major shake-up next year. The move is designed to recruit more students to the civil service from lower incomes and boost representation. Set to be launched in 2026 the new scheme will replace an existing intern programme that is currently open to all. Research in 2021 showed nearly three in four civil servants were from privileged backgrounds and more likely to hold jobs at centre of power at the Treasury of Foreign Office. The report by the Social Mobility Commission also suggested hidden rules favoured those with the "right accent". It comes after The Mirror's Kevin Maguire wrote: 'Labour must find engaging story for the UK - or face election wipeout'. The Cabinet Office said it will give around 200 undergraduates the chance to work for a government department for two months. It will be limited to students from "lower socio-economic backgrounds" and based on which jobs their parents held when they were 14. Cabinet Office chief Pat McFadden said: 'We need to get more working class young people into the Civil Service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country. Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve." He added: 'I want to open up opportunities for students from all backgrounds, and in every corner of the UK, so they can take a leading role at the heart of government as we re-wire the state and deliver the Plan for Change.' Changes are expected to take effect from summer 2026 and will give young people experience writing briefings, planning events, conducting policy research and shadowing civil servants, according to the broadcaster. It could help students win a place on the civil service fast stream programme - the top graduate programme for working in government. Currently just 11.6% of successful applicants to the scheme are students from lower income backgrounds, according to the most recent data. After winning the General Election last year, Keir Starmer said he was "proud" to have the most ever Cabinet ministers from comprehensive schools. 'I'm really proud of the fact that my cabinet reflects the aspiration that I believe lies at the heart of our country,' he said. "I'm proud of the fact that we have people around that Cabinet table who didn't have the easiest of starts in life. To see them sitting in the cabinet this morning was a proud moment for me.'
Daily Mirror
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
KEVIN MAGUIRE: 'Labour must find engaging story for the UK - or face election wipeout'
Kevin Maguire says No. 10 needs a rethink over failure to tell an engaging story, and fast, or Keir Starmer's Government faces being dead in the water at the next election Imagine if we had a UK Government reviving an ailing NHS, raising the minimum wage well above inflation, introducing breakfast clubs and giving free school meals to 500,000 more poorer kids. One that was devising much improved new job rights, planning a huge house-building drive, bringing a fragmented rail industry back into public ownership, overseeing a green energy revolution to safeguard supplies and prices while investing heavily to guarantee steel production in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot. Ministers committed to opening centres in every local authority to give all kids a better start in life and, finally, negotiate and implement concrete plans to deter and deal with small boat crossings where Rwanda failed expensively and disastrously. A Cabinet consigning dinosaur Tory hereditary peers to the dustbin of history and a Prime Minister resetting relations with the rest of Europe to boost trade and avoid long passport queues. You'd not be an excessively enthusiastic Pollyanna should you recognise that we have that UK Government but you'd also not be alone if you'd need to be Miss Marple to detect it. Because winter fuel, disability cuts and the 'Island of Strangers' rows mean that Government is a strange land to millions of voters, including those who put their X next to Labour a year ago. As MPs pack their buckets and spades this week, Downing Street must think hard about the missing vision thing over the Summer. The Government's fatal lack of a compelling, vibrant story is becoming an obsession of mine. The awful own goals, too. And the can't do rather than a can do approach to issues such as the pernicious two-child poverty cap. Labour isn't as good as it could be yet nor is it anyway as near as bad as Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch and the great disillusioned pretend or believe. But unless Starmer and Co start telling an engaging story, the writing will be on the wall sooner rather than later for a General Election that might be up to four years in the future. Donald Trump feels MAGA's bite Revolutions devour their children and you'd need a heart of stone not to enjoy his MAGA movement eating Donald Trump alive over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The demented US President, who once hailed the now dead paedophile a 'terrific guy' and 'a lot of fun to be with', is taking as much flak as Prince Andrew. Claiming there was nothing to see then, when abusing supporters failed to stem criticism, demanding the Justice Department release a 'client list' his puppet minister Pam Bondi claimed was on her desk before declaring it never existed won't cauterise this bleeding wound. Because conspiracy theorist Trump, a liar who questioned whether Barack Obama was born in the USA and entitled to be President, is suddenly at the heart of one of the juiciest conspiracy theories of them all. Flying to meet Starmer this week and visit his Turnberry golf course in Scotland ahead of September's state visit, Trump could always ask for a secret chat with the disgraced Duke of York to swap notes. Diane Abbott's suspension a mistake Foolishly suspending Diane Abbott and four more Labour MPs is bullying Keir Starmer putting rocket boosters under Jeremy Corbyn's proposed Left-wing rival party. The venerable first Black woman elected to the House of Commons U-turning on an apology for offending many Jewish people by downplaying anti-Semitism deserved criticism but loss of the whip? Equally backbench rebels Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Rachael Maskell invited a stiff talking to from his enforcers yet surely not banishment. The battered Prime Minister whacking MPs who were on the right side of the argument over caring for the disabled won't reinforce his authority, It'll be weakened, perhaps fatally. The five plus another five on the Westminster naughty step all want to remain Labour yet Corbyn and co-conspirator Zara Sultana are eyeing possible recruits when Starmer's pulling up guy ropes down one side of what needs to be a big tent to win. 'Tycoon King' and his Highgrove row Labour's new job rights can't come quick enough for feudal lord Charlie Windsor's gardeners after an exodus from Highgrove. No wonder the peasants are revolting when a tycoon King worth an estimated £640million reportedly pays only the legal minimum wage, currently just £12.21 an hour, and is high-handed. The feather-bedded hereditary monarch's role in issuing marching orders to a probationary gardener, insisting 'don't put that man in front of me again' after the poor soul made a factual error about a flower, sounds nauseating. Issuing instructions during daily walkouts and sending memos written in thick red ink portray pompous Chas as the boss from hell. Charlie's exploited gardeners need to join a trade union and create a right royal stink. Going up He'll never have an easier mission when it was the Tories who ran a secret Afghan migration route and gagged Parliament and the media after that huge data loss on their watch but Labour John Healey was a commendably cool Defence Secretary. Going down All at sea Nigel Farage exposed Reform's muddled posturing by claiming England's sinking water firms 'need private-sector innovation' when it is commercial companies putting up bills and dumping sewage. Total renationalisation is the only answer. Speaker's corner 'We haven't forgotten you. We have failed you.' Leicester South Independent MP Shockat Adam at a meeting in Parliament summed up Britain's hand-wringing after a young Palestinian, Abubaker Abed, criticised UK arms supplies to Israel during the ongoing slaughter and war crimes in Gaza. Shame on us.
Daily Mirror
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Prince Harry could be forgiven but he'd have to do four things'
Following Prince Harry's 'distressed' and 'broken' appearance in a bombshell BBC interview, a new documentary delves into whether he can ever be forgiven and if he'd be prepared to take the necessary steps A new Channel 5 documentary examines whether Prince Harry will ever be forgiven by the Royal family, while revealing exactly what he needs to do to win back the hearts of a nation - but are these things he'd even consider? Once upon a time, Prince Harry was one of the most popular members of the Royal family, but fast forward to today, and it's a whole different story. But could the fairytale have a happy ending? Mirror journalist Kevin Maguire certainly thinks so.. In an interview with Channel 5 documentary makers for tonight's Harry: Can He Ever Be Forgiven?, the Mirror's Associate Editor says he needs to do four things. 'As a journalist, it would potentially be a fantastic good news story if Harry came back and reconciled with his brother, reconciled with his father, retook up public duties and recovered the popularity he had and then lost. That would be a great tale of redemption, it would be absolutely fantastic," he says. And he's not the only reporter to believe Harry could come back and win back the nation's hearts. Broadcaster Emily Andrews reflected: 'I'd like to see Harry back. If I'm being honest "I think it would be good for him, it would be good for the UK. If he came back and did some really good public service, I think we'd all be reminded what a great bloke he is and how much we do really like him.' Some people think that in order for Harry to be forgiven by his family and win back public affection, he would need to make up with the press. But with so much bad blood on either side, a truce with the press seems a long way off. Politician and journalist Ann Widdecombe says he'd have to do one thing to mend his relationship with the media. "I think the only way Harry and the press would have a warm relationship again is if he actually finds something useful to do. If he finds a direction to his life that commands respect, that could cause the press and Harry to reconcile." And Royal commentator and the Countess of Sandwich, Julie Montagu, says the rift can be healed if Harry wants to reconcile. 'The public wants to forgive, but it needs to start with Harry," she explains. "Number one, stop any time of interview where you're mentioning any member of your family - end of story. "And then number two, if you really want to make that reconciliation, whether that's private or public, start that. Once that reconciliation begins, then the public can be made aware of that.' Meanwhile, Psychotherapist and author Emma Reed Turrell said Harry has lost his identity. 'I think Harry is up against a universal challenge, which is one of identity. Who am I? Who was I? Who am I becoming? Who am I allowed to be? What will be acceptable? 'We can all relate to that - when people leave any kind of institution, there is a huge transition that happens for someone as they re-enter the atmosphere and look for purpose again and look for identity.'
