Latest news with #TomSharpe
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Shop crime is now so bad Sainsbury's staff have to work in glass and metal CAGE to protect them and their goods
Sainsbury's staff are now serving customers from inside cages with metal grating because shoplifting is so bad. The prison-like security measure - dubbed 'an indictment of British social decay' - is now in place at Nine Elms, London. Cages are believed to have been introduced to protect staff and their goods - which include vape bars, tobacco and alcohol. It comes as figures from April revealed shoplifting in Britain had soared to its highest level in history, with the number passing half a million for the first time ever last year. Shoppers have taken to social media to express their concern at the change, which is thought to have been introduced within the last couple of weeks. Tom Sharpe said: 'I can't understand why this is being accepted. It certainly shouldn't be. Is there anyone arguing for law and order?' Another person claimed the glass encasement was 'not as bad as the Tesco ones'. Tesco introduced its own screens 'to protect shop workers' in September 2023 but Sainsbury's new security measure marks the first time metal caging is thought to have been deployed. Another person commented: 'I see they've gone with a cage roof after that vid of someone climbing over the Tesco ones' In October last year MailOnline reported how a brazen Tesco thief with scant regard for the law climbed through the roof so he could steal cash from behind the till as staff stood and watched. Someone commented on Sainsbury's new choice of protection: 'I think they've gone with a cage roof after that video of someone climbing over the Tesco ones.' The use of screens in supermarkets first became mainstream during the Coronavirus crisis in 2020 as workers began to do their job behind plastic shields. But despite the threat of the virus subsiding, screens between customers and supermarket staff have since become commonplace. Last month, Sainsbury's introduced another major change in its stores in the form of cameras on self-checkout machines that record customers packing items. Shoppers bagging a product they did not scan - or did not scan properly - are now shown footage with the message 'Looks like that last item didn't scan. Please check you scanned it correctly before continuing'. The preventative measure followed in the footsteps over other major chains as well as a rise in shoplifting figures which saw police log 516,971 incidents last year - up from 429,873 in 2023. It was met with mixed reactions from customers, with one claiming they were presented with the warning message because a packet of basil they were trying to purchase was 'too light'. Another said: 'Thanks to Sainsbury's, I can now re-live and learn from my packing mistakes. 'I can almost hear [Sky pundit] Jamie Carragher lamenting my positioning.' No suspects were identified for over half of the shoplifting incidents reported last year and just one in five resulted in a charge. Tom Ironside, Director of Business and Regulation at the British Retail Consortium, said theft is costing supermarket firms £2billion a year. Sainsbury's has been approached for comment on its new cages.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Canoeist wins 125-mile race for third year in row
A man who canoed 125 miles (201km) without stopping says he is "ecstatic" to have won the annual event for a third year in a row. Tom Sharpe and his canoe partner Anoushka Freeman finished the Devizes to Westminster race in 17 hours and 17 minutes. They set off from the Wiltshire town on Saturday at about 18:00 BST and finished in London at about 11:00 BST on Sunday, overcoming "very difficult conditions". "[The] strong winds didn't stop the whole race. It was in your face the whole time. It's quite energy-zapping and obviously it slows you down," Mr Sharpe told BBC Radio Wiltshire. This year's annual Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race saw more than 300 people take part and ended on Monday. More news stories for Wiltshire Listen to the latest news for Wiltshire The event first took place in 1948, with paddlers making their way to London over the Easter weekend. Competitors come from all over the world, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States. Reacting to their win, Mr Sharpe said: "[I'm] a little tired, I've got a slight croaky voice. But pretty ecstatic to win again." The event organiser Paul Fielden told BBC Radio Wiltshire lower water, particularly in the River Thames, made it so hard for paddlers that 50% withdrew as they failed to reach Teddington Lock on time. Mr Sharpe, who is based in Richmond-upon-Thames, said the second half of the race from Reading to Westminster was "harder than usual" as there was "no water to push us down". To train, he says he paddles 62 miles (100km) and runs 31 miles (50km) every week between January and April. Mr Fielden said Mr Sharpe and Ms Freeman - whose win was her second in a row - beat their closest rivals by four minutes in a "fantastic race". "We had a 50% failure rate this year, lots of paddlers pulled out because of the conditions best described as brutal," he said. "It's a tough race in the best of years, this year was exceptionally tough." The event is divided into different races: the senior doubles (non-stop), the stage races which are paddled over four days, and the junior doubles which involves eight hours paddling and an overnight camp. Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Junior teams set off on three-day canoe race Non-stop canoe race celebrates 75th anniversary Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indefinite Leave to Remain is wrecking the UK
What is the British disease? In the 1970s it was the stagflation that crippled the economy and seemed to defy treatment, in the 1980s, football hooliganism. In the 1600s it was sweating sickness. In his comic masterpiece Porterhouse Blue, Tom Sharpe had the odious Sir Godber Evans identify it as nostalgia. If only. The British disease today is something even more potentially destructive of civil society than these ailments. In 2025, the British disease is naivety. It is visible in the insane Chagos 'deal': viewing non-binding guidance from a dubious overseas court as grounds for surrendering billions to another country can only be explained by either wilful self-hatred or catastrophic naivety. In this Government's case it's probably both. Few policies are more symptomatic of this malady than UK policy on indefinite leave to remain (ILR). In an object lesson in his claim to be the most thoughtless man in Britain, Boris Johnson liberalised the rules on migration, opening up the country as never before. As a result, annual net migration rose to a high of above 900,000; an unprecedented figure for which there was no democratic consent. He even removed requirements for firms to advertise jobs domestically before recruiting abroad. Under our current immigration rules, almost all migrants on work and family visas will qualify for ILR status in just five years; meaning they and their dependants will also become eligible for a range of additional benefits; social housing, healthcare, state pension etc. Their children automatically become citizens, too, if they are born in Britain. Few countries can boast such a clear absence of any social contract to qualify for entitlements. Few places are so naive. If left unchecked, combined with the 'Boriswave', ILR will prove a ticking time-bomb on the public finances. In an alarming briefing paper, Karl Williams of the Centre for Policy Studies places the lifetime net fiscal cost to the state of leaving ILR unchanged at £234 billion; equivalent to £8,200 for every UK household, spread across several decades. It equates to almost five times the defence budget, more than double education. This is not to suggest that migrants working in the care sector aren't performing vital work; and I mean no shade on the individuals concerned, who are merely reacting to incentives established by foolish politicians. But the long-term financial consequences are more than our indebted country can bear. Already, more people have come as dependants on the health and social care visa than through the visa itself (another Boris decision). The NHS hardly asks tough questions about entitlement as it is: my local GPs' office has a sign telling patients not to worry, their immigration status won't affect their eligibility. There are already more people registered at surgeries than there are legally registered people in England; this is before you add the extra million who might receive ILR over the next parliament. As few as five years of poorly paid work in exchange for a lifetime of costs is, quite simply, a terrible deal for the taxpayer. We must tighten our policy on ILR. This could simply mean extending the eligibility period or setting benchmarks for integration like language proficiency, marriage status, engagement in civic life and so on. Penalties should be tightened up, too. ILR eligibility is rarely removed even in extreme cases. Even being a terrorist or explicitly lying may not be enough. This should broaden to include criminals and anyone expressing support for proscribed terror groups, and also to those who fall below median earnings. We would soon find ourselves attracting mostly migrants able to support themselves and their families for a significant length of time. There could, correspondingly, be carve-outs in line with public opinion; people do not feel the same way about English-speaking migrants from culturally compatible countries who will be net contributors. As ever, we have alighted on the worst of all possible worlds: an immigration system that makes it extremely difficult to come here if you could make a contribution, but all too easy if you are going to be a drain on the state. Despite the 'original sin' of the Boriswave, nowadays it is mostly Conservative backbenchers like Nick Timothy and Katie Lam who champion ILR reform in Parliament. Kemi Badenoch recently changed her party's policy. Labour has yet to discuss the idea at all; indeed Yvette Cooper's Home Office often gives short shrift to MPs trying to access basic data on welfare, migration and visa overstays. Yet for many voters, the Boriswave will prove impossible to forgive; so the political opportunity for Labour is obvious. From a Left-wing perspective, the cost implications of unreformed ILR will fall on the poorest through increased competition for social housing, NHS waiting lists, even universal credit. Government might be forced to cut welfare across the board to meet ILR-associated costs. The obvious panic in the PM's voice as he accused Reform UK of 'dangerous Right-wing politics', suggests he is at least beginning to grasp the threat. Curing the latest iteration of the British disease will take time. It cannot be achieved overnight. But fixing indefinite leave to remain would be a simple step on that road to recovery. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Indefinite Leave to Remain is wrecking the UK
What is the British disease? In the 1970s it was the stagflation that crippled the economy and seemed to defy treatment, in the 1980s, football hooliganism. In the 1600s it was sweating sickness. In his comic masterpiece Porterhouse Blue, Tom Sharpe had the odious Sir Godber Evans identify it as nostalgia. If only. The British disease today is something even more potentially destructive of civil society than these ailments. In 2025, the British disease is naivety. It is visible in the insane Chagos 'deal': viewing non-binding guidance from a dubious overseas court as grounds for surrendering billions to another country can only be explained by either wilful self-hatred or catastrophic naivety. In this Government's case it's probably both. Few policies are more symptomatic of this malady than UK policy on indefinite leave to remain (ILR). In an object lesson in his claim to be the most thoughtless man in Britain, Boris Johnson liberalised the rules on migration, opening up the country as never before. As a result, annual net migration rose to a high of above 900,000; an unprecedented figure for which there was no democratic consent. He even removed requirements for firms to advertise jobs domestically before recruiting abroad. Under our current immigration rules, almost all migrants on work and family visas will qualify for ILR status in just five years; meaning they and their dependants will also become eligible for a range of additional benefits; social housing, healthcare, state pension etc. Their children automatically become citizens, too, if they are born in Britain. Few countries can boast such a clear absence of any social contract to qualify for entitlements. Few places are so naive. If left unchecked, combined with the 'Boriswave', ILR will prove a ticking time-bomb on the public finances. In an alarming briefing paper, Karl Williams of the Centre for Policy Studies places the lifetime net fiscal cost to the state of leaving ILR unchanged at £234 billion; equivalent to £8,200 for every UK household, spread across several decades. It equates to almost five times the defence budget, more than double education. This is not to suggest that migrants working in the care sector aren't performing vital work; and I mean no shade on the individuals concerned, who are merely reacting to incentives established by foolish politicians. But the long-term financial consequences are more than our indebted country can bear. Already, more people have come as dependants on the health and social care visa than through the visa itself (another Boris decision). The NHS hardly asks tough questions about entitlement as it is: my local GPs' office has a sign telling patients not to worry, their immigration status won't affect their eligibility. There are already more people registered at surgeries than there are legally registered people in England; this is before you add the extra million who might receive ILR over the next parliament. As few as five years of poorly paid work in exchange for a lifetime of costs is, quite simply, a terrible deal for the taxpayer. We must tighten our policy on ILR. This could simply mean extending the eligibility period or setting benchmarks for integration like language proficiency, marriage status, engagement in civic life and so on. Penalties should be tightened up, too. ILR eligibility is rarely removed even in extreme cases. Even being a terrorist or explicitly lying may not be enough. This should broaden to include criminals and anyone expressing support for proscribed terror groups, and also to those who fall below median earnings. We would soon find ourselves attracting mostly migrants able to support themselves and their families for a significant length of time. There could, correspondingly, be carve-outs in line with public opinion; people do not feel the same way about English-speaking migrants from culturally compatible countries who will be net contributors. As ever, we have alighted on the worst of all possible worlds: an immigration system that makes it extremely difficult to come here if you could make a contribution, but all too easy if you are going to be a drain on the state. Despite the 'original sin' of the Boriswave, nowadays it is mostly Conservative backbenchers like Nick Timothy and Katie Lam who champion ILR reform in Parliament. Kemi Badenoch recently changed her party's policy. Labour has yet to discuss the idea at all; indeed Yvette Cooper's Home Office often gives short shrift to MPs trying to access basic data on welfare, migration and visa overstays. Yet for many voters, the Boriswave will prove impossible to forgive; so the political opportunity for Labour is obvious. From a Left-wing perspective, the cost implications of unreformed ILR will fall on the poorest through increased competition for social housing, NHS waiting lists, even universal credit. Government might be forced to cut welfare across the board to meet ILR-associated costs. The obvious panic in the PM's voice as he accused Reform UK of 'dangerous Right-wing politics', suggests he is at least beginning to grasp the threat. Curing the latest iteration of the British disease will take time. It cannot be achieved overnight. But fixing indefinite leave to remain would be a simple step on that road to recovery.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Russian spy ship in Britain's waters preparing ground for war
Sailing off the south coast of England, the Russian trawler known as the Yantar carried its usual array of hi-tech equipment. In photographs released by the Ministry of Defence, a large radar dome can be seen behind two masts bristling with antennae. Officially, these allow the 108 metre-long craft to monitor ocean currents, befitting a vessel the Kremlin maintains is part of its oceanographic research fleet. But it was the ship's more nefarious purposes that prompted a rare display of British naval power on Jan 20, when the Yantar was confronted by a British warship, HMS Somerset, and patrol vessel HMS Tyne. Humdrum though it may appear, the Yantar is known to carry two submersibles that can dive down up to 6,000 metres, allowing their crew to map, monitor and potentially sever the undersea cables that transmit data around the world. 'Let me be clear, this is a spy ship,' said John Healey, the Defence Secretary, as he revealed the Royal Navy operation last week. And while the encounter looked peaceful from above, analysts and former navy officers told The Telegraph that Britain is likely to be already engaged in direct conflict with Russia's 'dark fleet', deep underwater and out of sight. In the images released by the MoD, a third ship looms over the Yantar, RFA Proteus. The £65 million auxiliary ship, completed in 2019, also possesses submersibles – only these have the kind of claws needed to sever the cables connecting Yantar to its mischief-making deep-sea craft. 'I reckon by now the Yantar will be missing some of its equipment,' said Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy officer. 'If it isn't, it should be.' The details of underwater battles typically remain shrouded in secrecy for decades, observed only by passing sea life as they take place. The last British submarine known to have severed a cable was HMS Conqueror in 1982. Fresh from firing the torpedoes that sank Argentina's Belgrano in the Falklands War, it cut an acoustic array trailed by a Soviet trawler. 'Thank goodness it was one of our submarines' to have performed the daring operation, said a jubilant Margaret Thatcher. Similar efforts are likely under way today, said Dr Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute think tank. 'I would be surprised if… efforts to outcompete each other just short of the threat of war by both Russian submariners and Western ones are not occurring.' The Yantar is an openly provocative target. For almost a decade, the 60-crewed ship has trailed undersea cables around the world, its position revealed through the pings it sends to the Automatic Identification System, a global maritime tracking network. From Guantanamo Bay to the North Sea, it is suspected of mapping out Nato's critical underwater infrastructure to prepare for eventual conflict. The global internet network relies on around 500 undersea cables, with 60 or so running through Britain. The most important of these travel across the Atlantic and carry critical financial data between Wall Street and the City. In a worst-case scenario, the Yantar could be dropping charges on those cables to be detonated in the event of war, said Mr Sharpe. Matt Western, the chairman of the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, told The Telegraph that the consequences of an attack would be 'grim', hitting 'communications, essential services relying on the internet, the finance sector, payments systems, supply chains and so on'. Russia's dark fleet is already suspected of four sabotage operations in the Baltic since November, severing cables connecting Estonia to Latvia, Sweden to Lithuania and Norway to Finland and Germany. To knock out the UK's internet connection, dozens of cables would have to be severed simultaneously. Some analysts speculate that, besides threatening such a strike, the Yantar's probing missions could serve another purpose. 'I think they probably want to go after critical military cables and discriminate those from the wider network,' Mr Kaushal said. The location and purpose of such cables is classified, but when bad weather severed one off the US coast in 2007, it grounded the army's Iraqi drone fleet for a week. In his statement to Parliament last week, Mr Healey revealed a British submarine had surfaced near the Yantar during a sortie it made into British waters in November. The nuclear-class Astute submarine could have lurked underneath the Yantar for 'days', Mr Sharpe suggested, potentially getting close enough to take photographs of its hull and 'map the underwater fittings'. In revealing itself to the Russian craft, the submarine provided a clear show of force to the Kremlin, but the breaching carries risks. Moscow will now be able to monitor any sensor data the Yantar collected in the hours before, listening for any tell-tale acoustic signals left by the not-quite silent boat. In the Russian military, Gugi is the agency responsible for deep-sea espionage, reporting directly to the ministry of defence rather than the navy. Its officers were 'very capable', Mr Sharpe said, informed by decades of experience over the Cold War. The Soviet Union built up the world's second-largest fishing fleet in the early 1970s and converted dozens of trawlers into spy ships, taking advantage of their hardiness and large amounts of hangar space. When a US navy destroyer approached a Soviet vessel lurking off the coast of Virginia in 1964, the ship's captain reported that the small craft 'spun on a dime'. 'They may have looked like godforsaken pieces of junk, but they were manned by talented crew'. Four years earlier, Harold Macmillan, Britain's prime minister, warned that the presence of fishing trawlers near a weapons testing range at Aberporth, Wales, was bringing the Soviet Union 'perilously close to a showdown with the West'. That Russia is able to deploy much the same tactics decades on from the Cold War stems from the protections afforded to civilian vessels under international laws around freedom of navigation. 'If you want to protect against it,' you may have to compromise fundamental principles like the ability of civilian ships to sail – and collect intelligence – through international waters, said Katja Bego, senior research fellow at Chatham House. That could have knock-on effects on international shipping through the Red Sea or the tense waters in the western Pacific. Russia, which denies any spying, has already threatened to deploy warships to 'protect' its civilian fleet. In part, this is a riposte to the West's increasing naval muscle. In December, Finnish commandos boarded the Eagle S, the trawler suspected of severing the Estlink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland. They found the ship 'bristling' with spy equipment that allowed it to monitor Nato ships and aircraft, Lloyds List reported. Could British commandos be called upon to board the Yantar, if its brazen snooping continues? 'Other countries have boarded and detained vessels suspected of sabotage,' Mr Western said, days after announcing an inquiry into Britain's undersea defences. 'The committee's inquiry will take a close look at what powers and capabilities the UK has, and how well they are being used.' Lawyers should already be working on establishing the legal basis for a boarding operation, Mr Sharpe added. There would be little point in the SBS speeding out of Poole only to have to turn back half-way. As ever, the risk of conflict spirals in a direct confrontation. No Royal Navy sailor will forget the fate of commander Lionel Crabb, who was deployed to examine the underwater hull of the Ordzhenikidze, a Soviet cruiser that docked in Portsmouth in 1956. His body, missing its head, was found floating in the waters nearby. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
