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Kemi Badenoch has criticised Robert Jenrick, her rival for the Tory leadership, for focusing too much on policy. Yesterday Jenrick said it was “disrespectful” for her not to have policies. Today, in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Political Thinking podcast, Badenoch said Jenrick’s approach was flawed. She explained:
He doesn’t know where he’s going to be standing in four years time. So he uses the word disrespectful. I would not use a word like that about any of the candidates who have have stood …
If this was a general election, yes, it would be wrong to be standing with no policies. This is not a general election. And if you’re going to solve a problem, you need to make sure that you know what the question you’re being asked is. He thinks the question that is being asked is, what are the right policies to win a general election? I think the question being asked, is why should we trust the Conservative party?
England, including three sixth form colleges backed by Eton, while they review each school’s potential demand and value for money, Richard Adams reports.
Conservatives and Labour are equally at fault.
Ukraine, and no figure has been proposed for how many that could be allowed to come
On aid restrictions ministers have already acknowledged that Israel is restricting aid in an unacceptable way especially this month, but have not yet said ministers believe Israel is implementing what is in effect a campaign to starve Palestinians out of Northern Gaza as part of a so-called “General’s plan” that has been endorsed by the extreme right in Israel.
The families called for a British personnel presence at border crossings to ensure agile inspection processes and monitor and ensure that aid flows unrestricted into Gaza. Britain has repeatedly been denied a diplomatic presence on the aid crossing points, but has supplied £1m in emergency aid for medical evacuees in Egypt.
Israel insists aid has increased since a US warning more than a week ago that arms supplies would be blocked unless 300 aid trucks entered Gaza a day.
One of the family members reflected on the meeting, saying:
It is hard to talk about this collective trauma, but political leaders must hear our testimonies directly, so they understand the real-life impact of their policies.
Bringing 15 children to the UK is a tiny ask compared to the 34,000 injured, and that’s before even mentioning 16,000 killed and 21,000 missing. But we sadly know all too well how much difference one life saved could have been for us.
This would just be a tiny drop in the ocean, but it could be the start of something more.
All we can hope is that they have not just heard what we have said, but have listened.
The group is organised as the British Palestinian Families Network, an informal network set up by British Palestinians with family trapped in Gaza.
Israel don’t go to the Israeli Defence Forces, as she sought to clarify the significance of the government’s decision in September to suspend only 30 of the 300 arms exports licences to Israel.
Speaking in the Commons, she also described the amount of aid reaching Gaza in October as unacceptable, and likely to be the lowest amount for a single month since the conflict began. But she did not set out any specific measures apart from diplomatic pressure to ensure a change.
In what the minister saw as a clarification, she told MPs:
Following the 2 September decision there are currently no extant UK export licences for items to Israel that we assess might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of UK humanitarian law.
She said the only one exception is UK supplied components for F35s joint strike fighter program. She added:
Most licences for exports to Israel are absolutely not for the Israeli Defence Forces and I am pleased to put that on the record.
She added later there had been misconceptions about the arms exports that have not been suspended.
At the time of the September statement the Foreign Office said:
There are a number of export licences which we have assessed are not for military use in the current conflict in Gaza and therefore do not require suspension. These include items that are not being used by the IDF in the current conflict (such as trainer aircraft or other naval equipment), and other, non-military items. Export licences cover a range of products including things such as food-testing chemicals, telecoms and data equipment.
The Foreign Office has so far refused to publish a list of the suspended and non-suspended arms export licences, or their customers.
a statement welcoming the sentencing review announced today. Andrea Coomber, its chief executive, said:
The trend of imposing ever longer sentences has brought the criminal justice system to the brink. An independent review presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver a more humane and effective response to crime and a lasting solution to the capacity crisis in prisons.
Labour, the Green party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the SDLP, and Alliance, as well as independent MPs.
The full list of signatories is: Adrian Ramsay, Apsana Begum, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Ben Lake, Brian Leishman, Carla Denyer, Cat Smith, Claire Hanna, Clive Lewis, Colum Eastwood, Diane Abbott, Ellie Chowns, Ian Byrne, Ian Lavery, Jeremy Corbyn, Lord (John) Hendy, John McDonnell, Jon Trickett, Kim Johnson, Liz Saville-Roberts, Nadia Whittome, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Olivia Blake, Lord Sikka, Rachel Gilmour, Richard Burgon, Siân Berry, Sorcha Eastwood, Steve Witherden and Zarah Sultana.
on social media.
The Probation Institute welcomes the Sentencing Review to be led by David Gauke. Please make sure this review is genuinely about sentencing not just about prisons and focusses significantly on Probation and building resources in the community to support rehabilitation.
David Gauke was justice secretary, and he told MPs that Gauke was “a decent, honorable, able and thoughtful man” whom he regarded as a friend. Argar said that he would not pre-judge Gauke’s sentencing review, but would take a view when it was published.
In his response he largely focused instead on problems with the early release scheme already implemented by the government.
2.15am) amount to another version of early release. He has posted these on social media.
NEW Justice Secretary @ShabanaMahmood confirms major expansion of tagging scheme Home Detention Curfew.
Prisoners will be freed up to 12 months before scheduled release date – currently it’s 6 months
So, an offender jailed for 4 years could spend just 1 year behind bars.
No hiding it: HDC is a form of early release.
Number of HDC prisoners is almost 4,000 – nearly double the total a year ago…
@ShabanaMahmood also confirmed plan to relax ‘recall’ rules so fewer recalled prisoners are kept in jail…
These are separate measures to Gauke revew
Labour would solve the overcrowding crisis for about a year. But “after the summer of disorder, the next crisis could be just nine months away”, she said.
She said she had already given magistrates new sentencing powers, to reduce the pressure on remand prisons where overcrowding is most accute.
But she said she needed to go further.
She said she would be increasing the maximum period offenders can spend on home detention curfew from six months to 12 months.
She also said she would be review the risk-assessed recall review process, so that when offenders get returned to jail after a breach of their parole conditions, it will be more straightforward to clear them for release again.
UPDATE: Mahmood said:
The second measure that we will introduce will address the soaring recall population, which has doubled from 6,000 to 12,000 in just six years.
Risk-assessed recall review is a power of the secretary of state to re-release unlicensed those who pose a low list to the public, avoiding the long waits that they often face for a parole board hearing. In recent years, its use has fallen to as low as 92 times in 2022.
Later this month, I intend to review the ris- assessed recall review process so that lower risk cases can be considered for re-release after they have been recalled to prison for two to three months, where their further detention is no longer necessary to protect the public.
And I should note that this will only change the cases that can be considered for release, with the final decision still in the hands of experienced probation officers and managers.
Source: theguardian.com
