The Guardian reports that personal information about more than 33,000 Afghans seeking relocation to the UK after the Taliban takeover was released in error by a defence official, with the Ministry of Defence trying for nearly two years to cover up the leak and its consequences. They add that fears that the individuals named would be at risk from reprisals from the Taliban led the previous government to set up a secret relocation scheme, the Afghan Response Route (ARR), involving 20,000 people at a cost in the order of £2bn. But the most astonishing thing about this whole story are ...
St Peter's Free Church is running its annual, free Holiday Bible Club again this summer. The club is for children from P1-S2 and runs every morning from Monday 28th July to Friday 1st August. An optional lunch is also available. The sign-up form is available at http://tiny.cc/Club-2025
It's almost 10 years since I was given a late-night cup of tea in this imposing village hall. It's Godmersham and Crundale Village Hall, and if you go to the gallery on its website you will see what an impressive space it is. I was there because my train had been derailed - I may have blogged about it once or twice at the time. Looking for media reports about the accident today, I found one on Kent Online I had not seen before:Residents and Southeastern employees have been commended for their actions after a train derailed near the village ...
Tue 15th
19:21
Reform council leader pleads for government to soften new visa regime for care workers - Welcome to ...
The Reform UK leader of Kent County Council has written to the home secretary expressing "grave concerns" about government proposals to reduce health and social care visas. In the letter, which was also signed by the council's cabinet member for social care Diane Morton, she said: "Across the contracts for the council's adult social care and health services there are approximately 150 providers we are aware of who have sponsorship licences which is equal to 20-25% of our social care workforce being from overseas. "There are a number of displaced social care workers who may have lost their jobs, or ...
It is something of a cliche to argue that Britain is running out of money, living beyond its means, wandering through a fiscal fool's paradise – but no less true for that. The trend of old-age payments will make it even worse (read The Economist). It was the great unspoken theme of the last election – well, unspoken except for every damned think tanker with a spreadsheet, who could in half a minute explain that Jeremy Hunt's departing NICs cuts were unaffordable, and Rachel Reeves' incoming promise not to raise the major taxes just as unrealistic. And things have gotten ...
KTLA, a Los Angeles television station, wins Headline of the Day: A man who ran for Ventura County sheriff will stand trial for allegedly trying to register four cats to vote. Bruce Boyer, a Chatsworth resident, is accused of trying to register four cats to vote ahead of the 2024 election. He pleaded not guilty to those charges earlier this year. As detailed by the Ventura County Star, Boyer allegedly tried to enroll Cool T. Cat, Estrea D. Tigre, Fritz T. Cat and Sylvester T. Cat as voters. My own view is that cats are certainly intelligent enough to vote, ...
Tue 15th
11:42"Let's get him out before he poisons all the fishes": Robert Jenrick in the River Teme at Leintwardi...
What the hell is Robert Jenrick doing in the River Teme at Leintwardine? Readers of this blog will remember that Malcolm Saville's 11th Lone Pine Club adventure, The Secret of the Gorge, opens in this Herefordshire village, though most of the action takes place a couple of miles downstream in the Downton Gorge. Seeing this photo of Jenrick, I was reminded in particular of this encounter with the villainous Simon Blandish in chapter 7: Macbeth advanced and so did the Lone Piners, for they already sensed what was going to happen. Macbeth made another little sortie and again Blandish swore ...
This was the first UK number 1 to feature a sitar (played by Brian Jones) and an influence on the emerging genre of psychedelic rock. And I've always loved it.
The Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza has produced a totally damming Report on Child Poverty in the UK. The report is based on listening to children about their experiences of poverty - not just statistics but what it feels like - the sense of shame of being poor, a great awareness of their families financial situation, the challenges of keeping homes warm and of living in temporary accommodation. What struck me in particular was children hiding the family's financial circumstances and feeling embarrassed about it and being bullied and shamed by other children for being poor. The commentary by ...
One of the brightest stars on the Lib Dem front bench, Josh Babarinde, has been talking to Nick Robinson on this week's Political Thinking podcast. He described his ultimately successful tenacious pursuit of Labour ministers to get them to bring in a specific category of offence for domestic abuse. He saw the need for this when Labour released many prisoners early to make room in our crumbling and inadequate prison system. He was furious that Labour could not make good on its promise not to release domestic abuse perpetrators early because they couldn't identify them all. He talks about his ...
Just a reminder that our Tuesday surgeries today do not take place as it is during the school summer holidays. However, we can be contacted at any time on Dundee 459378 or by email at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk - many thanks! Please note that our street surgeries on a Thursday will take place as normal.
One of the fundamental tenets of Reform's policy platform is to cut immigration, no matter what the damage to the UK economy or the health service. Despite the impact on social care, they even want to deport all foreign-born care workers. As the Guardian says, while Reform does not have a definitive national position on this issue, the general approach set out by Farage and his fellow MPs has been to push repeatedly for a significant fall in overall migration and curbs to work visas: In May, Farage said care staff were not skilled and overseas care workers should only ...